This is where you stick random tidbits of information about yourself.
The Jim Neighbors Masculinity Project
Friday, September 13, 2002
I didn't expect to take most of the summer *and* winter off from communicating with you, oh Great Leader, pop culture. Such are the perils of living the life of the international jet set and traipsing past the international dateline. For the past few months, I have been setting up camp (with as much Liza Minelli paraphanalia as necessery, though that may be a bit too Camp 1977, if you know what I mean..) in the spiritual home of Getting Away From It All, New Zealand. May I just say that we are way the fuck away from the metropolitan Way Fucking Away area? We are so far away that UFO's don't bother showing up. New Zealand is as isolated as a National Man-Love Boy Love Association information booth at a Judas Priest concert. As some of you Heavy Metal Scholars may point out, however, things are usually a little more complicated than they first appear in sex *and* geography. You're never as far away from anything as you might think you are, says Mr. Freud.
Still, part of me is very happy to be so physically far away from the rest of the world. Jean-Paul Sartre once said that hell is other people (he also said "pass the salt" and "my feet hurt" numerous times, but these utterences were less celebrated) and viewing history and contemporary events in the clear, cold air of today, I tend to agree. The World Dickhead Index is not coincidentally composed mostly of men who are feverently religious. Praise be to the Agnostics! When was the last Agnostic Crusade? Ever hear of an Agnostic pogrom of jews? Have agnostics ever occupied the West Bank, or blew themselves up for their confusion? Hell no! (I should say a-not-entirely-sure-about-the-existence-of-Hell no!) I love many things about my new home: New Zealand has the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen, pleasant people, clean and crisp air, wonderous and unique scenery and most of all, a resolutely non-religious population. Grasshopper, when people insist that God is On Our Side there is always a small (and not so small) hell just around the corner.
7:21 PM
