What I have to say is about the things that can’t be said. Deep inside, it’s the same thing everyone is looking for, be it through science, art, religion or something else. We’re all trying to find a way to express that part of human consciousness that can’t be said—sure, it can be done, but it can’t be talked about without grasping vainly at straws. But when we as beings are able to say those things that evade words, then we will have evolved.
I had a conversation recently, with an old friend, wherein I described my passion for linguistics. I was gesturing wildly, trying to demonstrate the scope of what is generally seen as a nit-picking and unbalanced field in the search to quantify existence. “What I think is really exciting,” I said, “besides the actual mechanics of the field, is that when you study language production and distribution, you spend just as much time studying what people choose NOT to say, as you do studying what they eventually do say.
“There’s phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics, the main branches of linguistics, but there’s something else, too. Another field that overlaps linguistics, anthropology and sociology, but that won’t be claimed totally by any of them—that’s pragmatics.
“Pragmatics looks at the intentions, the goals, and the millions of subjective factors that influence the way people choose to communicate their ideas to one another. No one will claim it because there’s too much information. It’s like a chaos theory for language—everything affects everything else, infinitely. But that’s what makes it so exciting, the impossibility of it!” By this point I had my coffee in hand, swinging it around dangerously as I spoke. “Pragmatics is how the things that can’t be said come through in the things we do say.”
“That’s exactly what theatre is doing. That’s what I look for when I read a script, not what it says, but what it leaves unsaid, and why.” My companion spoke calmly, almost awestruck. It was that moment that it first occurred to me that maybe everything led to this. We’re all just pointing, by whatever means possible to that bigger, far subtler thing that defies and defines us.
6.30.2007
party like a rockstar
dudes, come on. this blog is supposed to be us keepin in touch. i wanna know what all u nyc-ers are doin'! and u too mr.cali and miss vancouver! pictures, pictures pictures. yes?
so now i'm totally stealing some pictures from various ppl's albums. if u mind lemme know, ill take em off.
i met soem pretty cool people in chicago this week. kinda hipster-y. next time i hang with them i'll bring my polaroid cam so you can see em. they had a music jam session at this place called the foxhole, and it was trippy... lotsa cigs, joints, beer, chill people, amazing music. i played the tambourine. i'm learnin' to DJ soon, so watch out.
and those are all my pairs of new shoes. i've been getting a pair a day for the past week.
and then here's some pics from the party that started it all and from my film:
(courtesy of tristian)
must download song of the moment:
so now i'm totally stealing some pictures from various ppl's albums. if u mind lemme know, ill take em off.
i met soem pretty cool people in chicago this week. kinda hipster-y. next time i hang with them i'll bring my polaroid cam so you can see em. they had a music jam session at this place called the foxhole, and it was trippy... lotsa cigs, joints, beer, chill people, amazing music. i played the tambourine. i'm learnin' to DJ soon, so watch out.
and those are all my pairs of new shoes. i've been getting a pair a day for the past week.
and then here's some pics from the party that started it all and from my film:
(courtesy of tristian)
must download song of the moment:
5:55by Charlotte Gainsbourg
6.20.2007
sunrises, movie sets, internet and celebrities, and notches on the bedpost
so i lied. to preface this, i may have slightly lied about what this blog was gonna be. the first entry may have made us seem purdy and shallow, and the header may say we're vacant, but vacant or not, i guess the lot of us has quite a bit of rants and opinions buried in there, aside from partying hard.
last week i had a fondue party in my backyard. since everyone was working, we didn't really get together til about 10:30, and the party didn't really end until 10 am. at about 4 am, after much dipping and huge amounts of food later, most people went home, but matt, abby and i talked in my hammock and at about 5:45 decided to go to the beach and watch the sun rise over the lake. it was gorgeous. then we had some breakfast at clarke's and watched little kids playing on the playground before going to school, feeling like creepy pervs that sit around on the playground watching kids (but we were there first!) it was an interesting sort of nite. i've always wanted to watch the sunrise. i love doing things i've wanted to do. especially when they just happen, unplanned. sarah and i had a long, semi-tipsy conversation about this after one of our parties this year... what makes people happy (or at least us) isn't doing extraordinary or exciting or glamorous things, it's doing the things that you've always wanted to do. or doing the things you've always secretly wanted or dreamed of doing and didn't think you would get away with, or want on a permanent basis.
lately i've done a couple of things that my heart hasn't really been into a 150%, and i've realized, it's not really worth it unless you want it so bad it hurts. getting something you want may not always be the greatest thing for you, but you always feel good about it, you always learn something about yourself. doing things you semi-want makes you (ok, me) feel guilty and confused.
i've been thinking about this person back in manhattan, and the sort of strange series of events we've kinda been through, and bad timing and all this stuff, and i didn't think it was really worth my time to try before. but i realized, thinking back on it, maybe it is. i realized a lot of ecounters i've had are pretty unusual, and i've been pretty lucky after all. and when i come back to new york after florence, i think i'm gonna call this person up before i do anything else, and get together and try to start from the beginning and get to know him. if all else fails, i get some insight into another human being, right?
now on to topics other than my personal life...
lately, having little to do other than read (check out paranoid park by blake nelson) and listen to harry potter audiobooks on my iPod and buy new albums, i've been surfing the net, looking at my favorite popstars. i remember back in the day (like, 8th grade) when i used to be obsessed with certain celebrities, and i'd try to find interviews with them on the internet, it was so difficult. there was hardly any material out there. a few fansites, that was about it. now, there's heaps of scans of magazines, youtube videos from the record companies, and the artists themselves. there's myspace, where you can send them messages which they actually read, blogs where they actually write (not just their tourdates but actual day-to-day crap going on in their lives too).
celebrity seems to be becoming... less shrouded, much more accessible. the exchange of information, not facts, but images, videos, songs is so much easier and FUN. i can go on myspace and listen to a band's songs before i decide to buy their album. i can read about what the press says about them in magazines and i can read about what they say about the press on their blog, and i can make my own version of the events. hopefully, society will use this new access to celebrities to realize that they're just like them. their lives aren't always glam and mysterious. just hectic and fake, a lot of the time.
check it out yourself, if you don't believe me:
www.myspace.com/katyrose - katy rose is about 20 and has one album out and did music for the film thirteen. her second album is coming out soon. she actually answered a message i sent her. on the site you can see her pictures of her and her friends and family hanging out, listen to her songs, and watch videos she posts and read her blog.
katy's room
she takes pictures in the mirror (this is myspace after all, lol)
www.myspace.com/lilyallen- lily allen is also like 21-ish, she's british and gets tipsy and wears pretty dresses and sneakers and doesn't take herself too seriously. like her songs show, she has a great sense of humor and is just fun. on the site you can listen to practically half her album and see private pictures of her and watch some videos she puts up and read her blog, where she talks about being insecure and feeling fat, among other things, like a lot of girls our age.
just like us... she drinks (on the streets of nyc)..........................she sleeps
she cries and probably takes pictures on a macbook
http://www.charlottechurch.com/ - charlotte has been one of my favorite singers since i was like 13 or 14, maybe even younger. she used to sing a lot of classical music, but then made the transition to pop (which is uh.... interesting) and apparently she had a tv show in britain. (she's welsh and has an adorable accent and says "lush" a lot). there are youtube video clips of her show (tons of them, not just two or three) and her blog, including a video blog. you can watch her cooking food for her boyfriend and talking about her dogs and her pregnancy.
hopefully with this media revolution people will realize it's not really about image, and all the pretty photoshopped pictures in magazines. that celebrities (and human beings) are more than just a frozen moment or a quote or a pretty face. after all, more important than their fame is the things they do and they've done. the songs they sing or the movies they're in, not what they do on friday nights is what's really important.
right?
oh and ps, while you're at it, let me do some shameless self-promotion and tell you to watch a film i made about some pretty kick as rockstars/celebrities. see if you can pick them out!
last week i had a fondue party in my backyard. since everyone was working, we didn't really get together til about 10:30, and the party didn't really end until 10 am. at about 4 am, after much dipping and huge amounts of food later, most people went home, but matt, abby and i talked in my hammock and at about 5:45 decided to go to the beach and watch the sun rise over the lake. it was gorgeous. then we had some breakfast at clarke's and watched little kids playing on the playground before going to school, feeling like creepy pervs that sit around on the playground watching kids (but we were there first!) it was an interesting sort of nite. i've always wanted to watch the sunrise. i love doing things i've wanted to do. especially when they just happen, unplanned. sarah and i had a long, semi-tipsy conversation about this after one of our parties this year... what makes people happy (or at least us) isn't doing extraordinary or exciting or glamorous things, it's doing the things that you've always wanted to do. or doing the things you've always secretly wanted or dreamed of doing and didn't think you would get away with, or want on a permanent basis.
lately i've done a couple of things that my heart hasn't really been into a 150%, and i've realized, it's not really worth it unless you want it so bad it hurts. getting something you want may not always be the greatest thing for you, but you always feel good about it, you always learn something about yourself. doing things you semi-want makes you (ok, me) feel guilty and confused.
i've been thinking about this person back in manhattan, and the sort of strange series of events we've kinda been through, and bad timing and all this stuff, and i didn't think it was really worth my time to try before. but i realized, thinking back on it, maybe it is. i realized a lot of ecounters i've had are pretty unusual, and i've been pretty lucky after all. and when i come back to new york after florence, i think i'm gonna call this person up before i do anything else, and get together and try to start from the beginning and get to know him. if all else fails, i get some insight into another human being, right?
now on to topics other than my personal life...
lately, having little to do other than read (check out paranoid park by blake nelson) and listen to harry potter audiobooks on my iPod and buy new albums, i've been surfing the net, looking at my favorite popstars. i remember back in the day (like, 8th grade) when i used to be obsessed with certain celebrities, and i'd try to find interviews with them on the internet, it was so difficult. there was hardly any material out there. a few fansites, that was about it. now, there's heaps of scans of magazines, youtube videos from the record companies, and the artists themselves. there's myspace, where you can send them messages which they actually read, blogs where they actually write (not just their tourdates but actual day-to-day crap going on in their lives too).
celebrity seems to be becoming... less shrouded, much more accessible. the exchange of information, not facts, but images, videos, songs is so much easier and FUN. i can go on myspace and listen to a band's songs before i decide to buy their album. i can read about what the press says about them in magazines and i can read about what they say about the press on their blog, and i can make my own version of the events. hopefully, society will use this new access to celebrities to realize that they're just like them. their lives aren't always glam and mysterious. just hectic and fake, a lot of the time.
check it out yourself, if you don't believe me:
www.myspace.com/katyrose - katy rose is about 20 and has one album out and did music for the film thirteen. her second album is coming out soon. she actually answered a message i sent her. on the site you can see her pictures of her and her friends and family hanging out, listen to her songs, and watch videos she posts and read her blog.
katy's room
she takes pictures in the mirror (this is myspace after all, lol)
www.myspace.com/lilyallen- lily allen is also like 21-ish, she's british and gets tipsy and wears pretty dresses and sneakers and doesn't take herself too seriously. like her songs show, she has a great sense of humor and is just fun. on the site you can listen to practically half her album and see private pictures of her and watch some videos she puts up and read her blog, where she talks about being insecure and feeling fat, among other things, like a lot of girls our age.
just like us... she drinks (on the streets of nyc)..........................she sleeps
she cries and probably takes pictures on a macbook
http://www.charlottechurch.com/ - charlotte has been one of my favorite singers since i was like 13 or 14, maybe even younger. she used to sing a lot of classical music, but then made the transition to pop (which is uh.... interesting) and apparently she had a tv show in britain. (she's welsh and has an adorable accent and says "lush" a lot). there are youtube video clips of her show (tons of them, not just two or three) and her blog, including a video blog. you can watch her cooking food for her boyfriend and talking about her dogs and her pregnancy.
hopefully with this media revolution people will realize it's not really about image, and all the pretty photoshopped pictures in magazines. that celebrities (and human beings) are more than just a frozen moment or a quote or a pretty face. after all, more important than their fame is the things they do and they've done. the songs they sing or the movies they're in, not what they do on friday nights is what's really important.
right?
oh and ps, while you're at it, let me do some shameless self-promotion and tell you to watch a film i made about some pretty kick as rockstars/celebrities. see if you can pick them out!
6.15.2007
Linguistic Liberation, Part One
FYI: this is an older piece of writing I am reposting here, to be followed up with a few of my more recent musing on the role of language in contemporary culture.
----
So I was in Forever 21 with Adriana today, only the second time I have ever been in such a store. I enjoy trying on the clothes, just to make sure I shouldn't shift my whole fashion-paradigm because I look really damn good in what's in right now (I don't). This was at the Union Square store, by the Whole Foods. It's a two story deal, and the entire western wall on the first and part of the second floors are painted orange with white lettering.
The subject of said lettering is the "right" and "wrong" way to pronounce, spell or otherwise maim some commonly misused/spelled etc., words and phrases in modern English. Examples include, "jewlery - jewelry," "carpool tunnel syndrome - carpal tunnel syndrome," "idn't - isn't" and "irregardless - regardless." This whole montage is titled, in larger letters, "Don't Say - Say"
Being a enthusiastic Linguistics person, I am all for saying things in a comprehensible way that predictably follows the grammar of a given language. However, I am also aware of the unavoidable and largely positive amounts of language change constantly occurring with any spoken vernacular language. I have noticed lately that there seems to be a backlash against this kind of language evolution, first from the older generation that cannot understand our pwnage or our l0lzors, but increasingly from the hipster-ironic pop culture scene, attacking idioms and phrases that are technically not a part of formal English, but have been in common use for several generations, making them a linguistically valid part of a vernacular grammar of English.
I could easily blame the self-destructive nature of the hipster, who becomes increasingly less hip as he/she embraces his/her hipsterdom, I could blame the fuddy-duddies at the top of the corporate ladders who are attempting to simplify our language enough that the president might seem poetic by the time he leaves office, or I could blame the MAN, always trying to oppress the beauty and expression of the masses by telling us we don't know shit about speaking good.
Wherever the blame lies, I find the whole idea terribly hegemonic (but maybe I've been in college too long). I am by no means saying that we all just ought to make up thousands of new words every day because we can, and because our personal expression is so limited by the languages we already speak, but I am saying that as long as persons allow themselves to believe that the way they speak is improper, inappropriate and incapable of being considered a 'real' language, then any attempts at larger human rights issues will prove fruitless, because the people who lack rights the most, also lack the right (ability) to speak about it in a public forum.
It's true that, realistically, some group will always look down on some other group because of the way they speak. However, it truly becomes a human rights problem when the subordinated group allows this discrimination to happen, and begins to believe that, in fact, they do speak a lesser language/dialect, and act according to this (false) assumption.
That's what upset me so much about the wall in Forever 21-- a hub of popular youth culture (admittedly controlled by some outside force) is promoting a hegemonic view of language use, and presenting it in such a way that young people, who are in fact the diminished party, are encouraged to become participants in their own linguistic stagnation.
I may be taking it a little too far, but in the realm of human rights, the overwhelming power of language often gets glossed over or ignored
----
So I was in Forever 21 with Adriana today, only the second time I have ever been in such a store. I enjoy trying on the clothes, just to make sure I shouldn't shift my whole fashion-paradigm because I look really damn good in what's in right now (I don't). This was at the Union Square store, by the Whole Foods. It's a two story deal, and the entire western wall on the first and part of the second floors are painted orange with white lettering.
The subject of said lettering is the "right" and "wrong" way to pronounce, spell or otherwise maim some commonly misused/spelled etc., words and phrases in modern English. Examples include, "jewlery - jewelry," "carpool tunnel syndrome - carpal tunnel syndrome," "idn't - isn't" and "irregardless - regardless." This whole montage is titled, in larger letters, "Don't Say - Say"
Being a enthusiastic Linguistics person, I am all for saying things in a comprehensible way that predictably follows the grammar of a given language. However, I am also aware of the unavoidable and largely positive amounts of language change constantly occurring with any spoken vernacular language. I have noticed lately that there seems to be a backlash against this kind of language evolution, first from the older generation that cannot understand our pwnage or our l0lzors, but increasingly from the hipster-ironic pop culture scene, attacking idioms and phrases that are technically not a part of formal English, but have been in common use for several generations, making them a linguistically valid part of a vernacular grammar of English.
I could easily blame the self-destructive nature of the hipster, who becomes increasingly less hip as he/she embraces his/her hipsterdom, I could blame the fuddy-duddies at the top of the corporate ladders who are attempting to simplify our language enough that the president might seem poetic by the time he leaves office, or I could blame the MAN, always trying to oppress the beauty and expression of the masses by telling us we don't know shit about speaking good.
Wherever the blame lies, I find the whole idea terribly hegemonic (but maybe I've been in college too long). I am by no means saying that we all just ought to make up thousands of new words every day because we can, and because our personal expression is so limited by the languages we already speak, but I am saying that as long as persons allow themselves to believe that the way they speak is improper, inappropriate and incapable of being considered a 'real' language, then any attempts at larger human rights issues will prove fruitless, because the people who lack rights the most, also lack the right (ability) to speak about it in a public forum.
It's true that, realistically, some group will always look down on some other group because of the way they speak. However, it truly becomes a human rights problem when the subordinated group allows this discrimination to happen, and begins to believe that, in fact, they do speak a lesser language/dialect, and act according to this (false) assumption.
That's what upset me so much about the wall in Forever 21-- a hub of popular youth culture (admittedly controlled by some outside force) is promoting a hegemonic view of language use, and presenting it in such a way that young people, who are in fact the diminished party, are encouraged to become participants in their own linguistic stagnation.
I may be taking it a little too far, but in the realm of human rights, the overwhelming power of language often gets glossed over or ignored
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