Some Thoughts on Homophobia and Hip Hop

Recently, President Obama announced that he now supports the right of gay couples to marry. Many right-wing and conservative pundits are leaping to call President Obama a flip-flopper and claim that this is calculated move designed to pay lip-service to his liberal base.  While it may be true that the *timing* of this announcement was partly politically motivated, the president's presentation of his rationale, i.e. that he has changed his mind due to experiences he's had and things he's learned, rather than trying to claim that this is what he believed all-along, should be enough to indicate to people that this was a thoughtful informed reconsideration.

Shortly thereafter, Pitchfork posted a story proclaiming that Jay-Z, in response to President Obama's recent statement in support of the rights of consenting adults to marry, no matter what sex they may be, has come out (not that sort of coming out) in support of gay marriage too.  Rather than taking Obama's approach and explaining how and why his views have changed
Jay-Z proclaimed, "I've always thought it as something that was still, um, holding the country back."  It's great that Jay-Z is throwing in his support; however, his early lyrics clearly indicate either fear, hatred, or both of homosexuals. Certainly, while not as bad as Nas on this count, he didn't hesitate to use it as an insult in his lyrics.

While many rappers use the words "gay" and "fag" constantly on their tracks and some are clearly writing out of hate, I think a large part of it isn't because of homophobia or a particular misanthropy, but laziness, because those words easily fit into their rhymes/rhythm.  But even then it perpetuates the cycle of intolerance.  Meanwhile, other rappers attempts to distance themselves from the connotations of the words have failed.  In particular, Bun B, appearing on a Mac Miller mixtape (who's repertoire includes the lyrics, "I fill these dancing gays with some hand grenades"), rapped in reference to Shepard Fairey's announcement that he would no longer be producing his art on property without permission:

And what is a graffiti artist if he don't tag?
No homophobia, but he's a fag.

This may seem like a re-definition of "fag."  You may even be impressed that Bun B managed to incorporate a 5-syllable word into his lyrics.  However, the word is still fraught with meaning that he draw attention to, and, while the two often go hand-in-hand, just because he's not homophobic, or scared of homosexuals, the lyrics don't do much to convince that Bun B doesn't hate or feel disgust when he thinks of homosexuals.

Fortunately, there are more than a handful of rappers who are bucking the trend.  Two artists in particular, who I've been listening to lately (and who have toured together), have found a good alternative.

Big K.R.I.T. and Curren$y have never (that I’ve heard or can find) used "fag" or "gay" in their lyrics; instead they use "lame[s]". In using “lame[s]”, they’ve found a one syllable words that work just as well to convey their distaste with the people whose actions they disagree or aren’t impressed with, and they’ve done so without bringing sexual orientation into it.  I think this is a pretty savvy and thoughtful choice and I wish other rappers would consider a similar change in lexicon.

Immutable Laws of the Universe

Just as the checkout aisle I choose will always be the slowest available option, no matter how few people are ahead of me in the line,

if I am waiting for a train headed north, at least two trains will head south before the northbound train arrives (and vice versa).

Differing Opinions on John Storer

*Architect Sketch of John Storer House

Sometimes, I like to go surfing. I'm somewhat lacking in balance and live on the East Coast, so I of course mean wikisurfing. Oh, the times I've had; the pub-quiz trivia knowledge I've gained! Sometimes though, I stumble across discrepancies, especially when it comes to tangential people in history.

John Storer had his home, of Frank Lloyd Wright's textile-block-house era, built for him in 1923. There's precious little information offered about him on Wikipedia. One spot is in the Millard House entry, while another is in the John Storer House entry. In both articles he is described as a "doctor," yet in one he's described as "homeopathic" and in the other he is described as "failed." The former entry cites Ruth Ryan, a former Celebrity Homes Columnist," but does not provide an active link to the article. Meanwhile the latter does: Hugh Eakin's article is a riot of adjectives; tempestuous, obsessed, untested, free-spirited, and motley, all make appearances in the first two paragraphs of the article, along with rhetorical questions and broad cinematic pronouncements; I can't help but distrust it: there are just too many adjectives to wrangle with.

So my question is, who's right? Or are they both right/wrong? Was he a successful homeopathic doctor, but not a "real" doctor, and thus a failure? Or did he turn to homeopathic medicine after failing to make it as a conventional doctor? Or something completely different?

Searching for "John Storer" and "Frank Lloyd Wright" together on Google returned 9,370 results, but it took till page three to find a substantive article here.

The article is from a series Young calls "Biographies of Homeopaths" (I will, for the purpose of inquiry accept "homeopathy" as medicine), and further down the page she also writes that John Storer was a professor and Dean of The Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago. Hey, professor and Dean (just like my Mom!), that doesn't sound much like "failed" to me. And if like me, you think the failure Eakin refers to may be the mere practice of "homeopathic" medicine, then this article, cited by Young, becomes especially helpful in gauging if not the legitimacy of homeopathic medicine, at least the status of homeopathic medicine in Chicago around the time The Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago was founded.

With a little historical perspective, and with Dr. John Storer's titles, I hope that's not what Eakin is referring to. And anyway, let's remember that at the time (or even sometime after) Dr. Storer moved into his house in 1923, Heroin Cough Drops, Benzedrine Asthma Inhalers, and Lobotomies for Depression were all accepted medical practice.

So, if "homeopathy" isn't what Eakin was referring to at all, what could he be basing his adjective choice on? Another answer emerges when you read deeper into Young's article, as she suggests that Dr. Storer went bankrupt because of the cost of the home. Here the linked source is within a book, Frank Lloyd Wright's California Houses by Carla Lind, which states in the sidebar on the right that Dr. Storer died bankrupt in 1927. The 6 reviews of Carla Lind's books on Amazon are somewhat inconclusive. A few say the books are great, and a few say they're thin and slight on information. That sort of statement makes me doubt that they include a work cited, and I'm not about to buy the book just to find out, which means that without some extra work I can't confirm the possibly sad fate of Dr. Storer.

Regardless, while "failed doctor" adds the flair of desperation to the "motley" bunch that Eakin assembled, and while in assessing his lot at the end of life it's possible that Dr. Storer considered himself a failure, it just doesn't seem like a fair phrase because it implies that Dr. Storer failed "as a doctor," and ultimately, unless other evidence can be presented to contrary, misrepresents the man...

Anyway, if anyone has more information about Dr. John Storer, do let me know.

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Differing Opinions of Dr. John Storer

Found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storer_House_(Los_Angeles,_California)

The Storer House was built in 1923 for Dr. John Storer, a homeopathic physician.

Source: Ruth Ryon (2001-02-03). "Home of the Week: Restoration Has All the Wright Detail". Los Angeles Times.

About Ruth Ryon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Ryon


Found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millard_House

As The New York Times later said of the California houses built by Wright in the 1920s: "It didn’t help that he was obsessed at the time with an untested and (supposedly) low-cost method of concrete-block construction. What kind of rich person, many wondered, would want to live in such a house? Aside from the free-spirited oil heiress Aline Barnsdall, with whom he fought constantly, his motley clients included a jewelry salesman, a rare-book dealing widow and a failed doctor."

Source: Hugh Eakin (2005-08-14). "Fixer-Uppers That Need Love and Concrete". The New York Times.

About Hugh Eakin: http://www.nybooks.com/contributors/hugh-eakin/

Call For Submissions: Cartographie Curieux

Greetings Friends, Acquaintances, One-Night Stands, Frenemies, Editors, Classmates, Professors, Colleagues, and everyone else,

We are pleased to present a call for submissions from our new Web Journal: Cartographie Curieux. Cartographie Curieux is interested in the curious geographies that everyone must navigate as they travel through life. We are obsessed with finding ourselves and we are looking for some good maps to get us there. We think you may be (or know) one of the talented cartographers we are looking for: please send us submissions of any kind: poetry, fiction, nonfiction, interviews, and of course, images which engage with the idea of maps. Surprise us!

Check Out Our Nascent Website: ttp://www.cartographiecurieux.com

And LIKE us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CartographieCurieux

We review and publish submissions on a rolling basis and plan to publish our first work in April of 2012. Some maps we’d love to publish:

Fantasy, blueprints, schema, diagram, to buried treasure, to nowhere, home, the backyard, offices, alleys, migration patterns of Canadian Geese, birds-eye view, the body, heaven, hell, daytrips, the mind, maps best viewed with red-blue 3D glasses, your career, well-intentioned but inaccurate, our career, fog density patterns in San Francisco, dungeons and dragons, territories, a backpack, macro and micro economies, the ocean floor, the highest points in Iowa, cotton candy trade-routes, maps that require a QR Code reader, “Family Circus” style misadventures, sculptural, ideas, the internet, the blogosphere, outlines, maps that employ erasure, sunken cities, invisible cities, as-yet-unbored subway lines, bird houses, carpet stains, concentrations of all-you-can-eat buffets in Ohio, and geographies we can’t imagine without your help…

Send All Submissions here:

submissions @ cartographiecurieux.com

Thanks in advance for your support; we hope your work finds its way to us soon.

Best,

Ori Fienberg
Michael Allen Potter

P.S. And LIKE us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CartographieCurieux

5 Months of Notepads

Last night, at the Prudential Center's Barnes and Noble, my Mom, apparently not remembering this post asked me again why I don't use Moleskine notepads.

The simple reason is that they just don't meet my needs, as I outlined in the previous blog post. This picture, which includes a handful of the notepads I've been filling over the past few months, illustrates another reason that I didn't think of before: variety. Moleskines are classy, but they're also fairly staid. I think they make a few in pastel colors, or other "designer" editions (with corresponding designer prices). There's something highly pleasing to me about having different notepads with different colors and designs; it reminds of the pleasurable chaos of ideas coming into being. I just can't imagine being as happy going through a homogenous stack...

U:35 Reading, Tuesday 3/6, Marliave

I will be reading along with Ron Spalletta and Emily O'Neill Tuesday night at the Marliave.

Of course, Tuesday has already passed, so I sort of drophttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifped the ball as far as pre-event self-promotion, but here's a little post-event self and series promotion.

Daniel E. Pritchard, Editor of Critical Flame started the U:35 Poetry "a Reading Series of Apostate Youth" after overhearing a group of older poets proclaiming that really, the true writing of poetry doesn't begin till poets are at least 35 years old.

The series is held bimonthly, upstairs at Marliave, which is a cozy venue, and serves up some tasty bar food.

The reading was a grand success and I look forward to attending more in the future.

Editor's Choice. . .

I'm please to announce that my submission for the Mid-American Review's 2011 Fineline Contest "for Prose Poems, Short Shorts and Anything In Between" was selected as a Finalist, and ultimately will be published as an "Editor's Choice" in the spring issue, available at the 2012 AWP Conference.

The name of the piece is "Sidekicks" and it features detective work, bartenders, mechanical bulls, and real bulls.

Over the past few years I've been a Finalist for several writing contests, but never a winner, and I think this was a very near breakthrough. Maybe "Editor's Choice" was a breakthrough.

What do you think, can I call myself an award-winning poet now?