Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

When we show up, we win.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / For A Good Time In Cambridge: Coco Fusco, Junot Diaz, Ian Condry Edition

For A Good Time In Cambridge: Coco Fusco, Junot Diaz, Ian Condry Edition

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Hey, all — or at least all of you in reasonable range of Cambridge, MA (Our Faire City).  Day after tomorrow, Thursday, October 24, will see writer, performer and curator Coco Fusco talking at MIT, in an evening moderated by my colleagues, novelist Junot Diaz and Cool Japan majordomo Ian Condry.

The event begins at 5 and 7 p.m in MIT’s Media Lab rm 633. Details and map here.

Fusco’s title, “A Performance Approach to Primate Politics” leads to the meat of her talk — which investigates what “Planet of the Apes” (the original) was really talking about.

Apes_in_a_persimmon-tree

Smart people taking on the world at an angle.  Should be fun.

Image: Mori Sosen, Apes in a Persimmon Tree, before 1821

Reader Interactions

24Comments

  1. 1.

    Elizabelle

    Smart people taking on the world at an angle. Should be fun.

    Sounds like more fun than the recent shutdown.

    Although the schaudenfreude has been a pleasant sensation.

  3. 3.

    Violet

    Persimmon tree, huh? I’ve tried a couple of persimmons and they must not have been ripe. They did that thing where immediately it seems like all the moisture in your mouth has been sucked away. The taste was okay, but I couldn’t take the feeling of eating them.

  5. 5.

    Yatsuno

    I just wanna say the name Coco Fusco is really nifty.

    Other side of the republic. Unfortunately cannot attend.

  6. 6.

    BGinCHI

    Coco Fusco sounds like a desert or a cocktail. Or both.

    Sounds like a great event, Tom. I’m guessing her thesis involves something to do with Donna Haraway.

  9. 9.

    Yatsuno

    @Violet: American persimmons are much more astringent than the Japanese variety. In Asia they are a beloved fruit that don’t need to be as ripe to be enjoyed. If you have an Asian grocery store you might want to check those out, I think they’re in season now.

  11. 11.

    gogol's wife

    And the MIT Media Lab is a cool building! I was at a conference there in June. I was hoping to run into Tom, but didn’t wear my Tunch sweatshirt to identify myself.

  12. 12.

    aimai

    @Violet: I hate persimmons. They look so gorgeous–the color is one of my favorites, and they seem so exotic and so glamorous. But they are either too chalky/bitter or too sweet and cloying. I’ve never had one that I liked. I think not everyone does like them–I mean, I don’t think its because I’ve never had a good one.

  14. 14.

    Atticus Dogsbody

    Those are monkeys (macaques) not apes. Someone needs to call up the spirit of Mori Sosen and explain the difference.

  15. 15.

    Fuzzy

    It would be rough making it to Fenway for the World Series afterwords. Might miss the first Inning. No way.

  17. 17.

    Trollhattan

    @Yatsuno:

    The ones commonly grown in California–hachiya and fuyu–seem to both be Asian-derived. The Fuyu is non-astringent and and be eaten less than frog-soft while the astringent.hachiya has to be dead ripe. It’s best for cooking. We have a hachiya tree and most years the squirrels and rats clean it out when the fruit is still green. Don’t know how they can stand the taste.

  18. 18.

    Heliopause

    what “Planet of the Apes” (the original) was really talking about.

    You mean the movie I presume. Do you really need a presentation in an academic setting to answer that question? The social satire/commentary is laid on with a shovel in that one.

  20. 20.

    handsmile

    Coco Fusco is very smart indeed. I’ve heard her speak on several occasions and have attended a number of her performances and multi-media art installations.

    Tom Levenson: you might wish to ask Ian Condry if he has any thoughts on this story/alleged phenomenon that has been among the “Most Viewed” articles on the Guardian’s website for the past several days: “Why have young people in Japan stopped having sex?”

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/20/young-people-japan-stopped-having-sex

    I trust it has nothing to do with anime (with or without soul) or Japanese hip-hop.

  22. 22.

    Katherine

    @Violet: a persimmon has to be so soft when ripe and ready to eat that you think you might not want to eat it after all / so help me god / heh

Comments are closed.