Dinner with Duberman,

Class this morning was pretty awesome. My art history discussion section met in Case to do a hypothetical Fred-Wilson-esque reconstruction for the space. Finally, an art history lesson for artists! I was actually good at this. Too bad we won't get to construct anything. We also don't get to use Case for our term papers -- we have to do a space in the library, or Gannett, or on other place, I forget where. Nowhere quite as cool, in any case. (Haha, a bad pun.)

Then -- fliers for Center. Then -- Center shift. Then -- picked up package at post office. Mom sent me oznei haman! And a whole bunch of Valentine's Day chocolate. (In my family, we buy candy when it's dirt cheap, see.) Shared with Greta, then off to photography to be ripped to shreds.

Y'know, people say how mean Linke is, but I really didn't think so. He's just the expert at what he teaches, he has his standards, and he tells you straight up when you don't meet 'em. It's really rather refreshing. I just hope I can get the hang of this before I fail his class.

I ran home to put the oznei haman in the fridge and possibly change into a nicer shirt 'cause the e-board was all going out to dinner with Martin Duberman. I just wore a polo, though, 'cause I didn't wanna make my housemate (who was wearing a T-shirt) look like a total scrub. Not that it really mattered anyway!

Mason was there and basically talked to "Marty" about books the whole time. He was so cute! Alex and I got stuck by the heaters and that was very unpleasant, but the food was phenomenal. The Ripe Tomato, where the chef loves garlic -- Ballston Spa -- remember this. I drew Elaine with crayons on the paper table cloth and she got real self-conscious. It was just a cartoon, sheesh. On the way back, Alex ran her car into the median. Apparently everyone runs into that median, but it scared me shitless.

Anyhow, I couldn't go to the Duberman lecture at all, because the last approved event for Art History was tonight. The artist is the new (the first) resident artist at the Tang Teaching Museum. Umm she basically talked about all the artists who've influenced her, and it was kind of like being in art history class, because she gave us

their names
date of birth, of death where applicable
where they'd studied, and who with if applicable
themes in their work
her favorite series they'd done and
how they had influenced her work.

Interspersed with these, she showed us her stuff. Some of it grosses me out, like the scuplture featured on fliers around campus: it looks like a dentist's chair made of flesh, or covered with flesh, which is buttoned onto the chair but sags out in places . . . ugggh. Some of it was very, very interesting and inspiring. Duh, I need to paint on some black T-shirts with bleach. I took lots of notes I could write from at this point, so I could tell you all the cool stuff she talked about, but I don't particularly feel like it.

Then, I literally ran back to Gannett to hear the last couple of questions Duberman answered. One was a woman asking, "Are there limits to fluidity and permissability?" Adult-youth relationships, for example. Couldn't Duberman draw a line of morality there? Where should taboos be kept in place, if they are so variable from culture to culture?

Well, Marty is of the opinion (explained at length and with good humor) that it depends on the individual, and why don't we allow people to become sexual at puberty? Also, adults abuse one another; is it so very different? And younger partners can have a ton of power over older partners who're infatuated with them.

I can't remember other questions at the moment, because it's 2:23 am and I'm tired. What I recall were certain fragments that stuck out to me, like:

"You talked about a great umbrella movement" (from an audience member -- I'd been wondering about his position on that whole '60s trend of All-Encompassing Activism, and there I got it)

"Frankly, it doesn't interest me" (answer to: what do you think of the movement for gay marriage?)

"My splinter group, Queers for Economic Justice" (what we should focus on instead of stuff like marriage and assimiliation -- oh, he had a whole shpiel about how we shouldn't pretend to be just like straight people and give up our unique strengths gained from a different experience which has formed a distinct subculture. Also how straight -- liberals? left-wingers? I forget what term he used -- don't get why rich queers would help poor queers, and something about queers not getting on board with the left because they're busy assimilating and how he wants a strong joint movement.)

And after THAT I think someone asked, "What do you think about the HRC?" Ummm HA HA HA.

"I've met too many young people who think the way I do to give up hope" (said Marty . . . and I think: gee, I wonder if they're anarchists)

"I self-identify as on the left. The far . . . far left. Not Trotskyist, or Marxist, thought certainly I have sympathies in that directions, but" (I think to myself: Marty, do you know you're an anarchist? Is it just dangerous to say that out loud? Is Trotsky really less scary than anarchy?)

"It could be a movement against heterosexism, against [something] authority" (said as part of an answer to Phred's question about, "If sexuality is fluid, is it worthwhile to construct a movement around these stable identities?")

I wanted to raise my hand and ask what Duberman thought of the [barely extant] contemporary anarchist movement, but I hesitated 'cause I'd missed the lecture, and what if he'd already addressed it? So after the applause I skipped down the stairs and asked Simon.

"Hey, Simon, did he mention anything about anarchists?"

"Anarchists? Umm no. I don't think so -- weren't you here?!"

"No. I just got here at the end, I had to go to a required event for an art history class."

I walked around to the podium, where Marty Duberman was talking to a middle-aged couple about -- get this -- Summerhill, the school, and how big it'd been in the 1960s. Simon tried to talk to me but I told him to hush, because I was blatantly eavesdropping.

Thenn Marty finally told them, "Yes, I self-identify as an anarchist." I was so delighted I whipped 'round to point at Simon and say, "There! I told you so!"

When the couple had left, I told Marty, "Well, I was going to ask you what you think of -- not that there's much of one, but -- the contemporary anarchist movement."

"Oh, well, I'm not aware that there is one. But I do think of myself as an anarchist, much more than a socialist."

"Yes," I said, hesitating and not sure how to frame this. "I got that from your speaking," I said.

[I got that from your speaking? Ha! "I got that from your speaking" is such an incredibly Landmark-ian thing to say. How about, "Yeah, I picked that up from some of the things you said earlier"?]

He said something like, "Oh," and tried to translate this weird statement, and pretty much understood what I was saying. Then he recommended I read Summerhill by A.S. Neill. I said I was familiar with the book but had never read it, and he told me it was the best thing he'd ever read (or something equally dramatic!) and that I should definitely read it. I said, "Okay!" Maybe I'll move it to the top of my reading list. I told him I was very interested in unschooling and free schools, and I thought more parents would become interested in alternatives as public schools emphasize standardized testing.

"Yes, they're just turning out little robots," groused Marty.

I went and sat down with Simon again, and Marty comes up to me and kind of bends at the waist with his hands on his knees to look at me. "I also wrote a novel called Haymarket," he said. "I think you'd really like reading about Lucy Parsons. I mean, she was a real historical figure, Lucy Parsons."

No, really? Of course she is. I wonder: does the novel really focus on Lucy Parsons? Is he telling me this because I look like a fiesty young woman or something? Why would I enjoy reading about her, particularly?

I smile, "Yeah. Sure, I'll check it out. Thanks."

Apparently, despite being so radical that I could tell he was an anarchist within ten minutes of listening to him, Duberman was a hit with the Pride Alliance leadership, and some feel his ideas will help "heal rifts within the club". Cool. Maybe I'll watch the lecture on tape sometime. All in all, 'Dubes' seems like a totally kickass dude, and I'd love to kick it with him, like just have some tea and discuss politics and shit.

Tomorrow our GLBT-themed/gender-neutral-housing 'Stonewall House' floor proposal goes before the theme housing committee! I'm excited but nervous about this.