I’m excited about the two courses that have started. The readings are really interesting and it’s a pity that I’ve only done them halfheartedly.
Instead I’ve spent a lot of time making my way through Watanabe’s shota essay. The first part was about shota’s history and definition. The second part dealt with the mentality of female shota fans and was based on an interview with an editor of a commercial shota magazine. It didn’t go into depth. The third and last part though is super interesting, as it deals with male shota fans, and the interviewed creators do not “come from loli”, as many male shota fans apparently do. Watanabe is surprised by what they say, but me, I nod my head as it all fits into my findings so far. I have a meagre three pages to go, but that means at least half a day so I couldn’t finish it this week.
The anime race has continued, it was a real nineties week (and late eighties).
Wataru (1988) and Granzort (1989) remind a lot of each other, since they were made by the same studio (Sunrise) and director (Iuchi Shuji). Wataru has rollerskates and Daiichi a skateboard. Wataru was seminal, but Granzort has the best music – I think I watched so many Granzort episodes simply because of that.
I will drop all the rest, except for Evangelion (1995), which is famous but which I hadn’t watched before, and Super Bikkuriman (1992), made to promote a candy bar but surprisingly charming.
Immersing myself in these animes to the extent that I dream about them is a way for me to try to understand shota on another level. I am convinced that there is knowledge that doesn’t come from texts, but which finds its way into you in more mysterious ways, and you need to open up for that possibility in order for it to happen. I feel … embodied!
On Thursday I went with S to a queer block of Interfilm, Berlin’s short film festival. Varying quality, but we both thought João Cândido Zacharias’s The Last Romantics stood out from all the rest by just being brilliant.
On Friday I had dinner with A and partied with my classmates at Filmkunstbar Fitzcarraldo and the punk bar across the street that was evicted 162 days ago according to the digital counter above the bar.
Saturday was 9 November 2019, so I biked with S to Brandenburger Tor for the Mauerfall 30 celebrations – we arrived just in time for the fireworks.
I booked flights for Christmas.
Readings
Artistic Practice in Transcultural Contexts
Unit 1: Situating Contemporary Art in Anthropology
- Foster, H. 1995. “The artist as ethnographer?” In The traffic in culture: refiguring art and anthropology, ed. G. Marcus and F. Myers, 302–09. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Upcoming presentation
- Ivy, Marilyn. 2010. “The Art of Cute Little Things: Nara Yoshitomo’s Parapolitics.” Mechademia: Second Arc 5 (Fanthropologies): 3–29.
Images, Race and Representation
Unit 3: The White ‘other’
- Dyer, Richard. 1997. “The matter of whiteness.” In White: Essays on Race and Culture. London: Routledge. (Read p. 1–6.)
Other
Anime
- 1988: Mashin Eiyuuden Wataru. E4–6.
- 1989: Madou King Granzort. E5–7. (Ep. 5 raw)
- 1990: Yuusha Exkaiser. E1. Sweet.
- 1991: Zettai Muteki Raijin-Oh. E3. Started liking it, now that I have placed Hyuuga Jin on Watanabe’s shotameter.
- 1992: Super Bikkuriman. E3. (raw)
- 1993: Nintama Rantarou. S1 E1 (Indonesian subs, youtube). I don’t see the relation to shota, except as an example of megane-ko.
- 1994: Yuusha Keisatsu J-Decker. E2.
- 1995: Neon Genesis Evangelion. E5–7. Fantastic!
- 1995: Romeo no Aoi Sora (Romeo’s Blue Skies). E1. Too perfect.
- 1996: Bakusou Kyoudai Let’s & Go!! E1. Too childish.
- 1997: Yuusha-Ou GaoGaiGar. E1.
- 1998: Grander Musashi RV. E1. A sports fishing anime! I wasn’t hooked though.
Articles
- CNN: AU faces backlash after terminating ambassador’s appointment
- Politico Magazine: Trump Pick Monica Crowley Plagiarized Parts of Her Ph.D. Dissertation (2017)
- Wired: The Future Face of High-Speed Rail in the Northeast Corridor
- Siegessäule November 2019:
Book chapter
- Eddo-Lodge, Reni. 2017. Why I’m Not Talking to White People About Race.
- 3: “What is White Privilege?”, pp. 60–77.
Film
- All Rites Reversed:
- British born Chinese
- Black snow
35th International Short Film Festival Berlin 2019
- SP 05: Queer Fever:
- Lolo (Leandro Goddinho / Paulo Menezes // Germany, Brazil // 2019 // 13:40 min)
- Eli – Ein Portrait (Lumen Nguyen // Germany // 2018 // 06:40 min)
- Os últimos românticos (The Last Romantics. João Cândido Zacharias // Brazil // 2019 // 12:00 min)
- Lila shel ahava (Night of Love. Omri Loukas // Germany, Israel // 2019 // 24:50 min)
- Les lèvres gercées (Kelsi Phung / Fabien Corre // France // 2018 // 04:20 min)
- Zapatos de tacón cubano (Cuban Heal Shoes. Julio Mas Alcaraz // Spain // 2019 // 17:00 min)
- Revolvo (Francy Fabritz // Germany // 2019 // 08:00 min)
Podcast
Sveriges Radio Europapodden: 140: “Många uppskattar inte sin frihet”
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