bitterest of them all

It's final exam time.

Status report on essay: draft I (version I) complete.
Status report on research paper: draft I (version I) in progress.

Current status: Listening to folksy, melancholy tunes from the Blue Horse album by The Be Good Tanyas, and processing thoughts. Yes, I'm thinking. How scandalous.

So, the question is, why have I returned to listening to such sombre music while thinking? Could it be perhaps that due to my continued focus on rather depressing topics such as globalization, propaganda, and coercion that my level of bitterness has increased to the danger warning of bitterest of them all?

It is typical in most homes featuring a little country kitchen decor to have a cutesy wood cow with MOO'd-o-Meter painted on it, where the charming country housewife can hang the udder on the corresponding rating of her MOO'd. I am not a big fan of country kitchen decor, so obviously I do not have a MOO'd-o-Meter. Instead of relying on a wooden cow to communicate my mood... I am reliant on the power of my non-verbal communication. My brother, kind landlord that he is, must judge my mood by listening to the rate at which I am furiously typing on my laptop... as well as take into account if I have the studio headphones on... as well as judge from my angry posture and expressions if I am merely bitter or the bitterest of them all... This is why I am listening to frazey, trish, and sam (see website for bio)... and letting their slow-paced old tyme combos back me away from the bitterness threshold.

And just to give you a taste of what I've been working with for the past few days in relation to my globalization paper.

In a war of movement, the entire legitimacy of hegemony is contested by an ideological attack not only on the major agencies and structures of order, but also on the complex forms of civil societal common sense that hold the order together. Indeed, it is a manoeuvre against common sense that provides the most strategic part of this form of counter-hegemonic activity. The intricate dynamics of hegemonic common sesne within civil society menat that for a war of movement to achieve any level of success, a tactical and sophisticated frontal assault would be required (Gramsci, 1971).

I won't spoil the surprise and reveal how it relates to my topic. No, that would be too big of a shock.


(about an hour later) Back to my bitterness and music therapy... Here is an excerpt from the lyrics of Sarah Harmer's Uniform Grey. I would like to send them as a dear jerk letter, but since I can't do that, I'll post them instead.

oh, you don't do what I want you to
but I haven't been
through all you've been through
And we could use that
as an excuse
If that's what you choose

I'm working through some issues tonight. It's amazing what writing a couple of papers will bring to the surface.