catfight

So much to cover in so little time. I have a 12-15 page paper due tomorrow afternoon, which, in theory at least, I could be adding to right now, before I head to work for the rest of the day. I have the first eleven pages, though, and tomorrow morning to finish it so I feel justified in spending a little time on my blog. Seriously, this may be the first time in the history of me that I haven't totally procastinated on writing a paper. I'm pretty excited about it, actually. It's about "postfeminism" (see, I told you I'd write about the occasional post-ism here), employing gender-bending Judith Butler as mediator in a catfight, of sorts, between Libby Lumpkin and Amelia Jones, all over Jones' controversial 1996 exhibition, "Sexual Politics," at UCLA's Hammer Museum. Or something like that...

Anyway, here's what life's been like over the past week and a half, bullet style:

*did not spend nearly enough time in the studio and no, I have no updates on flipbook research

*on Wednesday I spent an hour trying to find the "nearest" Container Store in Chestnut Hill, a mere nine miles, but really, a WORLD away, all for this project, due in my Print Media Seminars class the next day (I tend to get carried away with the presentation of things so that's what this "holiday card" assignment ended up being all about). This is the image I went with:


This is the image Neal liked, sort of a staged studio-style photograph of Santa:


*got caught up on ANTM and was downright shocked to learn that Kim had been booted the week before. What the?!...

*on Thursday, after a full day of class, I made the trek across the river to attempt to squeeze into Harvard's Carpenter Center for Visual Arts to hear Maya Lin talk. I got there as early as I could, stood in a line that wrapped around the inside lobby and well outside and got within about fifteen people of being let in. Oh well...from there I continued in my Cambridge/Somerville journey to Tufts to see the first round of MFA thesis exhibitions. Lots o' talent and some really lovely and well executed stuff, but (and I won't name any names or anything) only one artist really stood out for me as being interested in something other than or in addition to a dialogue with art history in some way. Navigating your way through the long, long history of painting, for example, and being all wrapped up in theory is interesting and, one might argue, necessary, to a certain extent, but in the end, work that's just about that kinda leaves me cold. But what do I know, I'm just a first year...

*Since Friday, I've alternated working with writing my paper, taking brief breaks here and there to watch entertaining but, in the end, mediocre films like Monster-in-Law, The Upside of Anger, and Harry Potter (oh relax, I'm just kidding). Actually, I really liked The Upside of Anger - the part when she's driving and the grandpa character motions for her to slow down, for the second time, and she flips him off and tells him to get over himself. Loved it...

I guess that's about it. Seemed like there was more. I have a four-day stretch of work beginning this afternoon/evening (the real kicker is we're open until 10 through Christmas - and I'm closing three of the four shifts this week...sigh). After I hand in my paper tomorrow I'll be officially done with classes for the semester, one-quarter of the way through my MFA instruction. Crazy...