Drag, doof doof and totalitarianism
It's been a fun weekend. The first one in quite a long while actually. Yesterday we had the amazing Mexican Eggs at Martini's in St Peters (one of our favourite cafes in Sydney)... then we had gelati from Bar Italia back in Leichhardt... then we had yummy organic coffee (I live in one of Sydney's coffee heavens, it's kinda bad as I hadn't drunk it at all for a long time) and sat around and talked and stuff.
Went out last night to a guy from uni's 21st and farewell... he is going to China to produce a film which stars the divine Johnathon Rhys Myers. Lucky fellow. He could coach my soccer team any day.
It was a nice night, nice to vent and relax. We ended up at a cafe on Oxford Street watching the craziness (which wa wackier than usual due to many Halloween costumes and a few fights) pass us by and being served coffee by a fabulous tranny who was bitching to us about how annoying men are. We hear you sister girlfriend, ah ha. Ah Sydney... one of my friends had a cousin here from Brisbane who had her eyes wide open and was taking it all in and it made me remember how insane it actually is to be served coffee by a man dressed as a woman... it's good to remember how I used to feel about this city when I first got here- awed and shocked.
We then went to have a few drinks at the Judgo for old times sake and dealt with their rude service and the crazy druggos around the place. Then we went home and had a hilarious old cab driver who was talking about the boys driving along Paramatta Road with their "doof doof" music playing.
"Whaddya think it will do," he said. "You have nice car and big speaker, driving up and down fast doof doof doof music playing, four boys in car, hanging out window..." he then turned his Taxis Combined baseball cap sideways. "Hat on like this looking stupid, doof doof music," he continued, fixing his hat. "Do you think you will drive up to the girls with your doof doof and say something rude and they will just get in the car with four boys? They won't, the girls will think its stupid. Idiots."
We were in stitches and told him he was so right. We then moved on to another much loved subject of Sydney cab drivers... how crap other cab drivers are who don't know where things are. Older ones especially love to berrate young ones and love to hear stories of hopeless cab experiences. Our friendly driver also reminded us that daylight savings started, so we hastily changed our watches right then and there.
Today I am sitting in the library writing my case study on totalitarianism in the Stalinist Soviet Union. Arendt is pretty interesting actually, but I'm just in the piecing it together stage.
I'll leave you with a thought from Arendt's seminal "Totalitarianism in Power".
“For the totalitarian ruler is confronted with a dual task which at first appears contradictory to the point of absurdity; he must establish the fictitious world of the movement as a tangible working reality of everyday life, and he must, on the other hand, prevent this new world from developing a new stability; for a stabalization of its laws and institutions would surely liquidate the movement itself and with it the hope for eventual world conquest. The totalitarian ruler must, at any price, prevent normalization from reaching the point where a new way of life could develop…”
and another gem...
"Even a single individual can only be absolutely and reliably dominated under global totalitarian conditions."
Hmm. Food for thought. Tonight Heather is coming around and to watch Idol and the Arias with Mel and myself so our pop culture critiquing will be at its finest this eve. But now, I really should do some more work considering I have enjoyed the weekend away.
Went out last night to a guy from uni's 21st and farewell... he is going to China to produce a film which stars the divine Johnathon Rhys Myers. Lucky fellow. He could coach my soccer team any day.
It was a nice night, nice to vent and relax. We ended up at a cafe on Oxford Street watching the craziness (which wa wackier than usual due to many Halloween costumes and a few fights) pass us by and being served coffee by a fabulous tranny who was bitching to us about how annoying men are. We hear you sister girlfriend, ah ha. Ah Sydney... one of my friends had a cousin here from Brisbane who had her eyes wide open and was taking it all in and it made me remember how insane it actually is to be served coffee by a man dressed as a woman... it's good to remember how I used to feel about this city when I first got here- awed and shocked.
We then went to have a few drinks at the Judgo for old times sake and dealt with their rude service and the crazy druggos around the place. Then we went home and had a hilarious old cab driver who was talking about the boys driving along Paramatta Road with their "doof doof" music playing.
"Whaddya think it will do," he said. "You have nice car and big speaker, driving up and down fast doof doof doof music playing, four boys in car, hanging out window..." he then turned his Taxis Combined baseball cap sideways. "Hat on like this looking stupid, doof doof music," he continued, fixing his hat. "Do you think you will drive up to the girls with your doof doof and say something rude and they will just get in the car with four boys? They won't, the girls will think its stupid. Idiots."
We were in stitches and told him he was so right. We then moved on to another much loved subject of Sydney cab drivers... how crap other cab drivers are who don't know where things are. Older ones especially love to berrate young ones and love to hear stories of hopeless cab experiences. Our friendly driver also reminded us that daylight savings started, so we hastily changed our watches right then and there.
Today I am sitting in the library writing my case study on totalitarianism in the Stalinist Soviet Union. Arendt is pretty interesting actually, but I'm just in the piecing it together stage.
I'll leave you with a thought from Arendt's seminal "Totalitarianism in Power".
“For the totalitarian ruler is confronted with a dual task which at first appears contradictory to the point of absurdity; he must establish the fictitious world of the movement as a tangible working reality of everyday life, and he must, on the other hand, prevent this new world from developing a new stability; for a stabalization of its laws and institutions would surely liquidate the movement itself and with it the hope for eventual world conquest. The totalitarian ruler must, at any price, prevent normalization from reaching the point where a new way of life could develop…”
and another gem...
"Even a single individual can only be absolutely and reliably dominated under global totalitarian conditions."
Hmm. Food for thought. Tonight Heather is coming around and to watch Idol and the Arias with Mel and myself so our pop culture critiquing will be at its finest this eve. But now, I really should do some more work considering I have enjoyed the weekend away.
posted by Ashlee at 3:33:00 pm
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