Popcorn Venus

Don't you think that's a cool title for this entry? Doesn't matter. I didn't make it up.

Now we are getting to the stuff I know - popular media. Well, the late 50s (before I was born) to probably the last decade. I've been a little busy lately. But what is funny (probably just to me) is that although I was there when rap first hit the scene, I know little about the artists making it today. So, when the assignment was to create a rap from the theory, I texted Chelsea (my middle daughter) and asked her to recommend some artists (my other two kids - Ashley and Wesley - know less about rap than I do). She suggested Steriogram (never heard of), Common, and Missy Elliot (knew them but only a couple of pieces from each). Also, Karen sent us "Rap Poetry 101," a chapter from a book she found, which helped a lot. (Thanks, Karen!)

Here's my rap. It's called Popcorn Venus. The reference is to Gaunlett's text, not Dr. Venus Opal Reese, although I didn't catch the possible mistake someone might make until after presenting it in class. Please don't hold that against me when you are giving out final grades, Dr. Reese.

Verse 1

The beginning was deed; Mother gave me

Dad’s culture said my name, the power to be.

Plastic words from my toolbox tell the past

Adding screen gems makes the image last.

Make room for daddy with career, wife, and kids

And when it came to Beave, Ward always had dibs.

Hitchcock presented while They made laundry dandy

And “Vitameatavegamin” taste just like candy.

Hook

I don’t fit your view of Venus? So what?

Ms. Popcorn’s here to instruct.

The truth ain’t out there; it’s here in me

To produce the dance of reflexivity.

Can’t blame media making final product,

But I’m not done ’cuz I’m a construct,

A metaphor, and just like she

Man ain’t one universal entity.

Verse 2

Though Angela always foot the cost,

Everyone knows that Tony was boss.

While Holly was having breakfast at Tiffany’s,

Florence moved up with George and Wheezie.

And Mary left Dick to be a Twin City’s transplant

Just to work for Lou, Oh, I’m sorry, Mr. Grant.

Badass Hazel cleaned in the body of yo momma

While Capt’n Nelson dreamed of Jeannie in her bottle.

[Hook]

Verse 3

The 6 million dollar man and bionic woman

Each got legs and an arm from their government.

But he got an eye to preserve his gaze –

She got an ear to hear the world his way.

James T’s sex pot Lieutenant Uhura

Joined the boys club and added spice and color.

Daniel Craig’s Bond, awe sooky sooky…

That’s jumpin’ ahead, we’ll go to nymphs of Charlie

Those angel girls did some righteous ass-kickin’

While many were home with lips alickin.

And believe it or not, just like you

Back in the day I sported a Farrah-do.

[Hook]

Verse 4

Cosmo, Ms. Martha? And oh, a magazine?

Elle, the essence of good housekeeping

This was like looking though a yearbook

Seeing all the old roles that we took

In dramas, discussions and documentaries

What to do, how to act. Who to be.

But that’s fluid ’cuz after my birth

I’s pretty bottom, de Milo, heaven on earth.

Media can’t keep up ’cuz it’s stagnant

And they grab every cent they can get

To get to the true me is a tall border

I’ll always be made to fit the social order.

[Hook x2]

Creative? Fuckin-A! Fit the assignment? No. Damnitalltohell! I think the hook works well in regards to the actual assignment. But of course, I was using both texts. Actually, it's all there, but not, because of the way that I did it. The persona, "Ms. Venus Popcorn" is women in the media. Although it is an absolute (which we are supposed to avoid), the last line spoken by the persona is absolutely true. The images we are given in the media fit the social order, one that changes which is why the images change. My "stagnant" caused controversy here, also. I used it to mean sluggish, which is a definition (look it up). But the social order recognizes first that it means not moving/changing. It's back to the old what I meant by the words, and what someone else hears when listening to the words. 

See, this is why I like creating my own shit and not trying to translate someone else's because when it's mine, you either get it or you don't, and I'm okay with that. Sometimes, I will sit while what ever piece of mine is being critiqued and I want to scream, It's right there, people! But here, my job is to make sure that you get it without me having to re-explain it. Dan (my husband) pointed out, after he had to sit through another of my rants (I sit through more of his than he does of mine, although he's beginning to catch up), that I needed to remember my audience. I'm with a different group of people who probably wont get me at first. You'd think I'd know that by now, seeing as how I've been teaching. I don't know how Dr. Reese puts up with us, me especially, since I seem to be the hard-headedest in the class. We'll all probably have to have a big party when I finally get it right the first time, which I have every intention of doing. But really. Come on. Where's the fun in getting it right all the time?

When I did the upgrade (spoken word this time), I decided to use only the B&G text. Everyone else's lines from Gauntlett were in my head, as were the lines I had already written. Plus, the Gauntlett text was dealing with popular media, and let's face it, up until very recently, I was all over that. So, to be able to pull myself out a bit and focus just on the theory, I decided to use only the B&G text. For class, I called it "The Politics of Language" (Who recognized the nod to Re-Flex? I know; I'm dating myself.), but I think I'm going to work on that title. Oh, and I've changed the last line since I presented it.

Wittgenstein spoke his mind when he coined the line that

in the beginning [of time] was the deed.

Language is its consignment, refinement

It makes rather than finds, language expands the mind

with signs lending form but removing that pure state of being.

And words, words, words –

the jewels, the tools to cope and control,

solving problems rather than seeking truth

for ourselves and the world –

signify the I with thinking.

I-dentity. Not a universal entity but

subjected to subjectivity

as we emotionally identify

re-describing what it means to be in an endless process of supplementarity.

Identity is a becoming,

a culturally shifting continually sketching of a work in progress,

an essence of the self expressed,

political in nature – though I digress.

While our stories perform that which they purport to portray,

and new configurations of the vernacular

retrospectively relay results of a better day,

the plasticity of identity displays the ability to parley in a variety of ways.

Although Butler conceives of sex as performative, always derivative

metonymy attempts to control the symbolic and overcome lack,

but as the conscious idea denotes, metaphor connotes

and stacks the racks with unconscious meanings.

Reflexivity is the agency of recognizing these alterior realities.

But we mustn’t forget that when we question our representation,

when we decline the traditional line, when we give voice to,

the power to lay claim to the name and to make a particular picture stick

we are dealing with cultural politics.

Just thought of something: Is it possible I am doing this screwing up on purpose so that I can 1) be forced to write thereby giving me more material to submit places or 2) come back and blow everyone's mind with the final project? 

Silly rabbit. Tricks are for kids. I plan to blow their minds anyway.

Quote (for life that's been hanging in my studio for years, and now hangs above my desk in the apartment and) for the day: Where there is fear, there is no creativity. Unknown