the legendary mandarasaurus profile picture

the legendary mandarasaurus

life after rationality

About Me


i like nothing better than getting into trouble, except maybe having an adventure. these desires must be tempered, however, because otherwise they'd destroy me.
other interests:
1
conversing. sleeping. relating. interacting. traveling. exploring. eating. cooking. reading. writing. 'rithmetic. dancing. surviving. exercising. exorcising.
2
deep thoughts. people watching. running away. becoming intoxicated.
3
listening to music. iced tea drinking.
4
being alone in public.
5
playing many musical instruments badly. playing some instruments fairly well.
7
being with friends in private or public.
11
packing more punch into 24 hours than anyone else you know.
(collin loves me more than you will ever know) [collin wrote that]
My score on The Bem Sex Role Inventory Test :
Androgynous
(You scored 83 masculinity and 63 femininity!)
You scored high on both masculinity and femininity. You have a strong personality exhibiting characteristics of both traditional sex roles.
Link: The Bem Sex Role Inventory Test ( OkCupid Free Online Dating )

My Interests

summary: an unlikely combination of clean living, dirty thinking, and bad habits.
life and leisure: my friends, community, everyday people, doing/having done everything at least once, stalking the neighbors' cats, all things indie culture (publishing, business, aesthetics, film, music, etc.) but I hate conformist indie kids, travel, language, people (at least the few interesting ones), music (live or otherwise), getting in touch with my masculine side or at least not putting up with obligatory girly bullshit any more than I want to, sarcasm, clever bars, travel, reading, secret homebody escapades, sleeping is one of the best things to do, design, color, photography, contemporary art (and galleries) esp. graphic design and printmaking, the fucking east coast, the fucking west coast, avoiding the fucking midwest, forests, mountains, large bodies of water, spicy vegan sushi, cooking, tasty meats (I'm now allergic to most vegetarian food), desserts.
work: book publishing, my research, the sociology of materialism/consumerism/consumer culture/work, theory, philosophy, but also learning from people/experience/popular media (esp. print), sustainability, progressive economic policy, business ethics, ethics, getting your life story, interviewing (but not transcribing!), psychology and the genesis of insanity, regular conference attendance (read: intellectual drinking), agonizing over the false dichotomy of theory and practice (theory's just one practice), analyzing and problematizing everyday life until it drives me nuts ;)

things I dislike intensely: Mr. Bush, allergens, suburbanization, crass commercialism, organized religion, mass apathy, the homogenization of society, drama (yours is ok and even amusing, though), waking up in the morning.

I'd like to meet:

more resisters and dodgers of corporate culture.
oh, and someone to give me an interpretive lapdance.

Music:

Instead of listing specific bands, I think I'll just describe my tates in general.

I like far more music than I can afford. This is a constant source of discontent. Every retail price album I buy has to be a negotiation against the other 18 I've been waiting for.

live shows, so long as the band is engaging enough that I can enjoy it. sometimes, I know a band well and I hate their show. Sometimes I don't know anything about a band and I enjoy their show

indie music.
international music.
clever singer-songwriters, of whom there are far too many to list

bands that aren't hollow and meaningless, including bands with good politics, and excluding bands that are too ironic for their own good

WXYC and WKNC, the UNC and NCSU stations, broadcast live on the internet. They're fucking awesome, and I won't apologize for preferring them over KCOU

also:
the sound of something cooking in olive oil
the voice of anyone I love
silence that's quieter than silence
an anticipated squeak of a door
and high heels on hardwood floors

random music playlist... reveals just how sadly indie my tastes are. and the fact that I'm getting old.

here are more or less all of the karaoke songs i've done (or ingratiated my way onto), in very vague chronological order:

all placebo... basically for my own use. but you should listen to them to. it's the only band i know of with one bi, one straight, and one gay member, and this is reflected in the music.

This next playlist is all 90s rock alterna schlock. you can pretend you never listened to any of this, and if you're older than me, maybe you didn't, but for many this will be like a horrible blast from the past. the songs are ordered vaguely in terms of social acceptability... the ones at the top you might admit you like. the farther down you get, though, the more likely it is that you will only play the song while you're on the can for fear of tomato-chucking youngsters and hipsters .

..

Movies:

independent, foreign, documentary, experimental, and lost/reincarnated.

I'm not going to be any more helpful to the marketers surfing this website than that.

Television:

I don't watch TV, but if I did, the daily show, six feet under (before it started to suck), austin city limits, and... I don't know what else is on TV anymore.
for old times' sake, this is radiohead's "just" video: .. width="425" height="350">.. ..>

Books:

NONFICTION. and now some fiction, esp. contemporary fiction. east asian and eastern european fiction. historical (non) fiction. 20th century poetry. tanka.

Heroes:

my fellow grammar activists; you, if you can spell; thorstein veblen

My Blog

dreamy!

for the first time in a week (i.e. the week since I broke up with alex, for those not in the know), i had dreams that i remember.  this morning i was having a badass superhero mandar dream when i...
Posted by the legendary mandarasaurus on Thu, 07 Aug 2008 08:34:00 PST

in consumer culture, you are what you own/do/make

just saw a disturbing commercial for Macy’s. It had Mariah Carey pimping out her new fragrance, promoting her favorite pumps, etc. Santana played back up for her consumption narrative. Donald...
Posted by the legendary mandarasaurus on Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:54:00 PST

i love boobs.

Last night at trivia, "boobs" was a category.  Heather and I totally owned it, and we got 8/10 in that round.  Props to Shoe and Jeremy for winning the soul music category!
Posted by the legendary mandarasaurus on Tue, 05 Feb 2008 07:19:00 PST

nerd pageant

i don't usually like triviabut i have to admiti enjoyed it last week at the nightlight, mostly because one of the catagories was 20th century dictators.
Posted by the legendary mandarasaurus on Sat, 26 Jan 2008 11:59:00 PST

the most important function of gender?

I think the most important function of gender in the American, capitalist society is market segmentation. Just think about the places where you're asked to confess your sex. Sure, it's occasionally ...
Posted by the legendary mandarasaurus on Tue, 08 Jan 2008 09:05:00 PST

consumer culture theory part II

what should i write my paper on?  i can do anything "consumer culture."
Posted by the legendary mandarasaurus on Wed, 29 Aug 2007 10:59:00 PST

consumer culture theory

i am taking graduate level consumer culture theory this semester and loving it!!!that means i'm a big nerd.i'm auditing it because i can't cough up the extra $3600 to get course credit for it.  s...
Posted by the legendary mandarasaurus on Wed, 29 Aug 2007 10:58:00 PST

arguing against naive neoliberal capitalists on health care

so... i go back and forth on academia vs. ... something else.  like becoming a nurse practitioner.  it'd be practical.  i'd be helping people every day. then i encounter ...
Posted by the legendary mandarasaurus on Thu, 26 Jul 2007 03:21:00 PST

NPRrrrrrrrrrrrr

you're only old when you start liking the music on NPR.
Posted by the legendary mandarasaurus on Fri, 06 Jul 2007 04:44:00 PST

re: Paris

"Let's not make a judicial football of this woman"a LA county sheriff, on the transfer of paris hilton from the county ladies' jail to the city jail for mentally ill inmates.  i thought jail was ...
Posted by the legendary mandarasaurus on Mon, 11 Jun 2007 08:07:00 PST