NETWORKS

 D sent me this foto from a bus-stand in nyc today.
YouTube video Here. very cute indeed but my response to it was also very negative- as i think it is really critical to start to address the issue of commercializing certain resources of the planet such as water. Evian has long and well been branded (and does indeed have an amazing quality-I would be curious to understand the local politics at the town of Evian itself) Its been an open secret that Fiji water has created complicated and oppressive conditions there

 

Someone recently posted this image- which I found sexy and curious on FB. Its from a guy at the "Ozora festival" somewhere in Eastern Europe (Hungary?Croatia)- I didnt look as closely as I could have - I seem to notice that the crowd was predominantly white european-white western and hetero with a certain access to travel, fashion and money to get themselves there and pay the cost of entry- it reminds me of the BurningManFestival that happens annually in the united states which extorts a great deal of money from its visitors (*a consequence of passing along the costs of the local government extorting as much money as they can from the organizers). These social alternative "networks" are of some value and most certainly are beeing looked at closely by social scientists, staticians, governments, philosophers and now myself. The faeries perhaps make up part of this phenomena- It is not a new phenomena but is facilitated to a great degree by the technilogical networks that accommodate and help these informal networks sustain a life of their own. Some are predominantly "fun" (perhaps like Ozora and BurningMan and for some/many also the Radical-Faeries) with an utopian ideological vision of some sort with varying degrees of superficiality or/and clarity. I am concerned about how they may also function as a diversion from the reality we must contend with. Ozora looks like it ghas emerged from a global circuit  network of Raves with the use of music and drugs for an escapist trip for those privileged enough to engage in an intense experience of 21century cultural-tribalism.

 Several friends and I were , from our respective distances watching BuckAngel on his/her Cam Chat recently- He's really hot in a variety of aspects but it freaked me out a bit when he started to so aggressively explore/play etc his Pussy and clit with a "pump". Both friends were similarly  put-off by the display, though we all remain fascinated. The phenomena of being united  for this transient expernience through the social network was worth noting for me. I begin to understand more and more how the phenomena of "flash-mobs" have been able to materialize with a number of strangers with the same intent to experiment or protest or have an experience devoid of any agenda whatsoever- The global naked bikeruns are a good example of a phenomena that would not have had the same success 20years ago (though it is notable that the mid 1960s had a string of very successful instances of sub-cultural swells, which remain, and will always remain, the inspiration for todays on and off "people" networks.

 I believe that as we enter a period of natural disasters (sunamis, earthquakes, draughts, floods) and manmade disatsers (systemic terrorism based on religion and/or economic ideologies, overt and covert) we will need the social networks (real ones not merely virtual) to survive and move on.

 Gore Vidal has been letting us know for a long time (from his privileged perch) of what is going on. He's been marginalized as a wacky aging phaggot though he's been rather articulate about his analysis. It wont be long until he passes away given his current age and health issues- then he will be marginalized even more (He is related to the Bouvier-Kennedys as well as the Gore American families). Yesterday I attended a lecture by scholar visiting here in Berlin's NGBK (16.8.2011: 19.00: THE PHILOSOPHY OF FINANCE Brian Holmes, cultural critic and social theorist, lives in Chicago. Lecture in English http://brianholmes.wordpress.com) It was a rather informal lecture with the kind of information which i found very difficult to consume - though i understood it more intuitively with the bits and pieces of information i understand well. It is clear that we are going through a period of intense change- more than most of us can easily grasp. (Thankyou RH for the apropos "Its Gonna Hurt" Foto. It's true. )

(from http://www.kevincyr.net/index.php?/ongoing/home-in-the-weeds/ ) via (http://www.nachhaltigkeits-guerilla.de/category/theorie/)

i am very skeptical of the practical possibilities of these following utopian visons
http://www.thevenusproject.com/ (from https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/The_Venus_Project  ) all via a brief mentioning by holmes about the  last episodes of the Zeitgeistfilms (https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Zeitgeist:_Addendum)