[-empyre-] "out the blue"

[naxsmash]

Well on that blue note, i"m going to put out the patio lights, let in  
the cats, clear the dishes, and channel Lennon.

Thanks everyone for participating in our  somewhat less/more than  
Platonic symposium- on queer relational...

Simon, Johanne, Lessa, David, Nick, Kip, Marc, Tara, Tim. Saul,   
Julian, Christiane, Judith, Robert, Reggie, Renate, Davin, Micha,  
Virginia, Brad, and Esquizo-trans

See you in Sept.


Out the blue you came to me
And blew away life's misery
Out the blue life's energy
Out the blue you came to me

=John Lennon


peace,

c


naxsmash
naxsmash at mac.com


christina mcphee

http://christinamcphee.net
http://naxsmash.net





On Jul 31, 2009, at 6:47 PM, Robert Summers wrote:

> I have been thinking about whether or not to post this to the empyre
> listserve, share it at the proverbial sumposium, and then reading an
> advanced copy of David Halprine's, et al.'s new anthology titled _Gay
> Shame_, esp. Ellis Hanson's essay on queer pedagogy, made me decide
> with a resounding decision.  Yes, I shall post it!
>
> I was standing in front of my mom's house -- I've been staying at her
> Laguna Beach house for a while, another story -- and I was drinking an
> iced tea and smoking a cigarette.  Walking up the street was a young
> boy (17? 18? 20? 21?): he was 21 -- I would later find out.
>
> He asked me if I was drinking a beer and if he could "bum" a
> cigarette.  I told him I was drink tea, and I gave him a cigarette --
> even lit it for him.
>
> We talked for a bit: he was walking over to his friend's to "smoke a
> bowl."  I laughed.
>
> We talked some more: there was a subtext, which I was clueless about  
> till later.
>
> It was a random meeting: "out of the blue."  Walking the streets of
> residential Laguna is not the place one would expect such an
> encounter, a relationship -- no matter how brief, or how temporary.
>
> He asked if I lived here.  I told him no. I am just visiting my mom.
>
> He asked if he could come in out of the sun: a hot day for Laguna.   
> Sure.
>
> I finally knew what this talk was "really" about.
>
> We had sex.  In the words of Ellis Hanson, "the only good sex is the
> type you are ashamed about afterwards."  Indeed, I was joyfully in
> shame.  He was shameless.  Shame and shameless: separated by a suffix.
>
> Soon enough, after our other encounter, I walked him out, he "bummed"
> another cigarette (I though of Genet's Un Chant Amour).
>
> I walked to the curb and lit up a(nother) cigarette (myself: a
> metaphor for one of this actions that took place 40? 50? behind me.
>
> I saw him walk down the street: to (really) "smoke a bowl" with his  
> friend?
>
> I realized this was "queer relational". This was one art of living.
> This was queer: perhaps, peculiar is a better word.
>
> I never saw him again, and I doubt I ever will.  But this does not
> mean it was not a valuable experience: it was.  And, this does not
> mean that there was not a relationality (queer to be sure) that took
> place, which left me in a different place -- as well as leaving me
> otherwise.
>
> I guess what I am writing now (here, now) is what I wrote about Miwon
> Kwon and John Ricco and queer relational a few days ago, but this took
> place on a grassy lawn and then a wooden floor not the pages of books,
> which is not to say those types relations are not just as valuable and
> engaging and dangerous.
>
> Shamelessly,
> Robert
>
> Robert Summers, PhD/ABD
> Lecturer
> Art History and Visual Culture
> Otis College of Art and Design
> e: rsummers at otis.edu
> w: http://ospace.otis.edu/robtsum/Welcome
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre