| Vita | Profile | |
| Insurgence:
Ongoing Development and Preparation of Program.
[Weekly Community Radio Show: Thursday Evening, 10 p.m. to midnight,
Central Time,
WHYS-LP, 96.3 FM, Eau Claire with D.J. Sean Murphy] I usually spend approximately 15 hours a
a week
minimum (a bare minimum that is) preparing (including listening,
reviewing, reading, researching, writing, and rehearsing--at times also
pre-recording) for each week's show. I am also working on a major technical
writing project in preparing a book of official by-laws and associated
policy documents for WHYS. Investigations in Progressive
Music of Protest, Struggle Resistance, Rebellion, Revolt, and
Transformation [For Bibliography]. I'm currently rethinking what might
be possible here. This is based on my radio show and a sabbatical
project where I began to develop familiarity with work in the fields of
critical theory of popular music, music as cultural studies, and music
as protest and resistance. I'd like to make this a useful
resource for organizers, activists, and the general public, available
via the web. Right now I'm leaning toward focusing it, as an
initial contribution, that might inspire others to do similar work in
other areas, on gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer
varieties of progressive music of protest, struggle, resistance,
rebellion, revolt, and transformation. On homohop or queer hip hop. Additional Work with Music as Cultural Studies. It is possible I will work on some other projects in this area, developing out of my work on the aforementioned radio show and bibliography and my teaching of courses in this area, including 'Critical Studies in Contemporary Popular Music Cultures' and 'Music, Protest, and Resistance'. I'm developing a particular interest in theorizing how music outside of and beyond lyrics, and outside of and beyond the vocalization of lyrics, works as a (principal) means and medium for expression and communication of politically progressive values, interests, and ends. I'm interested in theorizing precise dimensions of context and reception, as well as the psychology and politics (even the physics) of musical sound that can, and does, work in this way--with case studies to illustrate my conclusions. Music Composition. I aim to
create an extended piece of experimental
electronic music myself, with a genially satirical focus on micro-absurdities (and maybe even
some macro-absurdities) of everyday life,
including bizarre snippets from everyday (including overheard,
sampled, and reworked) conversations (and monologues).
|
Co-Writing two
Feature-Length Fictional Screenplays, one with James Boland, and the
other with John Nicksic. [Screenplays] The first. Faceless Fascism, focuses on fascism and resistance
in contemporary America, specifically a contemporary Midwestern city
much like Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Influences include 'V for
Vendetta', 'Dogville',
'Manderlay', 'Punishment Park',
'Bent', 'Children of Men', 'Pan's Labyrinth', 'The Devil's Backbone',
'Dogville', 'Urbania', 'Land and Freedom' and 'The Wind that Skakes the
Barley'
among others. We've drawn upon 'It Can't Happen
Here',
'The Plot Against America', 'The Fifth Sacred Thing', 'Incident at
Vichy', and 'Hothouse' among other literary sources. And
we're
indebted to a great deal of scholarly work in the history of theory of
fascism and 'neo-fascism', including Lawrence W. Britt's '14 Early
Warning Signs of Incipient Fascism' and Bertram Gross' conception
of
'Friendly' as opposed to 'Classic' Fascism. And helping to
theorize the concept and practice of 'everyday fascism'. We've
completed drafting and are in the process of revising and editing. The second, Queer Tides, focuses on hostility directed versus alternative and non-traditional loving and familial relations taking place on a contemporary Midwestern university campus, much like the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Influences include 'Brick', 'Elephant', 'Mysterious Skin', 'City of Hope', 'Half Nelson', and 'Paranoid Park' among others. We are also drawing on a variety of sociological, cultural studies, and queer studies work concerned with alternative and non-traditional loving and familial relations. We have not yet completed drafting but will do so and then revise and edit. Both Faceless Fascism and Queer Tides we aim eventually to publish, even self-publish as necessary, in screenplay form, to develop as graphic novels, and ultimately, if possible, to produce as films. Another Screenplay. I'm planning a darkly fantastical-satirical work, which all I am willing to share about it right here and now is that it will involve a central role for Leprechauns, and I'm interested in investing it with elements reminiscent of Pinter, Orton, and Lynch (among others). Experimental Creative Writing. I'm planning a 'noir-ization' of a fantastical character's struggles--chronicled across linked yet distinct short episodes--to survive, and fend for itself, immersed in an atmosphere of overwhelming, pervasive, and irremediable anxiety and dread. This could well serve as the inspiration for a graphic novel. Pedagogical. I would like eventually to write two articles, 1. about conceptions, strategies and tactics for encouraging self-reflexivity, and 2. about conceptions, strategies and tactics for in fusing the creative with the critical . |
|
| Scottish Noir. [Up to Three Possible Articles] I am considering this in three parts--before Rebus, the Rebus series, and After/Beyond Rebus. I am strongly interested in considering intersections of noir content, form, style, preoccupation, and obsession with Scottish literary, cultural, historical, social, and political traditions. | Explorations
in Queer Cinema/Queer Readings of Cinema. I'm working on an article concerned with queer cinema and the film
'Urbania' for an anthology on queer
cinema. Several other
projects in this and related areas may be possible in the future.
I'm particularly interested in the politics of love
in films focusing on gay male romance, on gay noir, and on gay/queer
films that directly as well as critically engage the problematics of
continued as well as new forms of gay/queer social marginality,
especially in Continental European films. |
|
| Fear and Frenzy, Repression and Resistance, State Terrorism, Sexual Conflict, and Class Struggle: Film Noir and the (Post)Modern American Political Imaginary. [Prospective Future Book] This is a long-term project; I've maintained enormous interest in film noir for a long time, and taught, written, and presented on it repeatedly throughout my academic career to date. Eventually I may finally have the time to do this--likely after I retire from full-time teaching and move on to my 'next career'. | Vulnerable Masculinity, Compassionate Heroism, Love and the Noir: A Critical Inquiry into the Ethical Contradictions of the Ordinary and the Extraordinary in the (Everyday) Life of the Gay Detective. [Prospective Future Book] Again a long-term passionate interest that I continually pursue and renew, which eventually I may have the time to give due justice to in terms of time and energy and sustained focus- likely, as with my prospective film noir book, only after I retire from full-time teaching and embark on my 'next career'. |
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