Thursday, December 27, 2007

As Far as Cute Movies Go, Juno is Boss





Juno (the tiniest pregnant girl I could ever imagine and Ellen Page) has a loving family and friends. Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera) loves to run in sweatbands and be funny (both intentionally and not). Mark and Vanessa (Bateman and Garner) want Juno and Bleeker's baby. Its cute when its sad and perfect when its happy, see it with a friend, with a soda and see it this winter.

Elbert Ventura from Reverse Shot didnt like it. here;s why. he hates hipsters even less than he hates almost-hipsters. its not this year's Little Miss Sunshine

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Encounter #19: "Sensual Seduction"


New ish from Snoop Dogg. Dig that irony. Or something. Ya heard? Can't wait for the remixes. --RWK [via Cam]

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Encounter #18:
Killing Your Family Never Seemed So Easy: Before the Devil Knows You're Dead






What I mean to say is that killing your family is ugly. And this is a boring movie that makes the murderous acts feel somehow justified. Brothers Hank and Andy, father Charles (Ethan Hawke, Philip Seymour and Albert Finney) are all good actors, and act well in this. Marisa Tomei is naked most of her time on screen (she has the body of 22 yr old, in a good way). Opening scene? P.S.H and Tomei fucking doggy-style in a Rio hotel room with full body mirrors surrounding. I cant say this movie didn't show promise.

regretfully negative >>cb

Friday, November 30, 2007

Encounter Bill Clinton?


Because im an odd creature of pop-culture i read all the magazines on the stand at my local liquor store. _GQ_ is one of them (Kanye is on the cover). It is the Men of the Year issue featuring Kanye, Weezy, Casey Affleck, Seth Rogen, other good looking or talented (or both) dudes ... and Bill Clinton. I read the article, it made me cry. _GQ online_ only provides an interview that is not even good. read it if you like. But go buy this month's issue and enjoy.
http://men.style.com/gq/features/full?id=content_6198

Note: this recommendation comes from a guy who knows nothing about politics, world affairs, Bill Clinton, Africa, AIDS, etc... I dont say this with pride, just to display that the article is not only working on the level of what it discusses, but how (seemingly) perfect it portrays the more than fascinating former President Clinton.

>>cb

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Jay discusses his inability to retire and does his best K. West impersonation on stage

He really is far more clever than most rappers on late night shows. I guess thats quite apparent given he has a three minute sit-down with Dave before his performance. Look at the way his sleeves are rolled up, his little backwards shoulder thrust, Jay knows Kanye sells (and it seems Hype thinks that, too. check Lupe's new video)





Here's Lupe's _Superstar_ video:


>>cb

Thursday, November 8, 2007

David Sides Makes it Rain on us Ho's

D.S. understands this track far better than Scotty Storch (whats new?)



Excuse me... Weezy is always gorgeous, even when all he has is the hook.



tha Carter III out in dec.
here is the complete David Sides collection.

>>cb

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Cary Grant, Archie Leach, idol, symbol, wild and crazy guy.

badass, too

Everyone wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant. I have spent the greater part of my life fluctuating between Archie Leach and Cary Grant, unsure of each, suspecting each, pretending to be someone I wanted to be, and, finally, I became that person. Or he became me.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Encounter #16
Community #5
Futbol #3


Thiery Henry, circa Copa 06, por Nike futbol. I think I'm going to stop using the word "genius" and instead start using the word "magician." That work for you, too? --RWK

Encounter #15
Futbol #2


--RWK

Encounter #14
Community #4
Futbol #1


From >>cb.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Encounter #13: "This is going to be weird."

Fresh from LA, ready for SF tonight, Justice were on Jimmy Kimmel of all late night shows with this ensemble of icons. Apparently Datarock will be on Kimmel tonight. Weird. (I would touch her boob on live TV, too, if I was dating her.) --RWK

Encounter #12: "There's no such thing as magic."

Lou Holtz Pep Talk, ESPN:







"I wake up at night screaming cuz I can't figure it out." --RWK

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Encounter #11: Real Talk

"What they eat don't make us shit!" Kels is too good, on the "real"... --RWK

Monday, October 1, 2007

Dumb it down. Hell yeah!

New Lupe / Old DP



Talk about some RHETORIC. --RWK

Sunday, September 2, 2007

Saturday, September 1, 2007

Encounter #9: Shake Ya Ass



You better believe I used to adore this song. I immediately thought of it after watching that 50 video below in Cuy's post. "I'm buyin if you got nice curves" is a maxim to live by, I guess. The ethos of The Neptunes is astonishing. Why aren't they still popular. Are they? Do they even make beats for anybody besides Clipse at this point? I don't even know. I'm out of the loop. --RWK

Encounter #8: 50 and Kan

9/1 today, 10 days till the albums drop and we see who will or will not be rappin anymore.
pay no attention to the Kanye video, just listen. I have been predicting (to my associates) a guaranteed Kanye victory in this heated 9/11 battle, but AYO Technology kills it. Tim and Jt cant be fucked with right now. 50 could have rapped about the inet and ipods as the new "technologies" and it would have still been dope. But he stayed true and stuck to what he knows- bitches. Good boy Curtis.

As for Kan- he nabbed T-Pain, the instant hit maker, and made a hit. The song debuted at the end of Entourage last weekend, and not surprisingly, its hot, like Vinnie Chase (but the song isnt empty and without talent).
The track opens with T-Pain's electronic voice singing: "Im a gunna get on this TV momma, Im a Im a, Im a put this shit down"

and he do.









JT: You got me saying... AYO, Im tired of using technology, why dont you sit on top of me.?!


NOTE: I only cited JT and T-Pain, for this is the age of the hook in rap, something both Kanye and Tim know (and well knew when producing these tracks). The rappin is standard, mumblin 50 and the cocky Kan, but both tracks hit the spot, Im saying.

oh and one further note: listen carefully at about 1:20 into Kanye's Good Life. whats that? was that? um. wait, wait a second, was that a 50 reference? yup. I think it was.

>>CB


Monday, August 20, 2007

Encounter #7



A dial tone. Michael Cera is pretty adorable. But Jonah Hill is actually even better in the movie. More on that later, in other webspaces. Also, I forgot how Conan will only ham it up, always, and still be funny. That is, not ingratiating. Dude is on point. Bring on the laughs. --RWK

Sunday, August 19, 2007

HIS eyes are closed under there



"I get hotter by the tic- 'fore i sizzle to death/ I jus tell the clock to give me a sec/ I'm in the middle of the wall where my enemies at/ I runnin like Eric, Eric Bieniemy back, huh, ha"
thanks weezy >> cb

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

In the dark of the night,



and you're all I can see, you sure look like a star to me.
"L'il Star" - Cee-lo and Kelis (Linus Loves remix)
[Thank you Palms Out. Hope you don't mind.]--RWK

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Late night discussion board post. 103B was big. Sublimity is not rest / like a wave it will crest / and fall / into itself, but forward.


Repeated here:

Sublimity is not rest
like a wave it will crest
and fall
into itself, but forward.

Elucidated here:

Derr says there is violence implied in any of our subscriptions to the practice of language. Or he writes that. (I'm not even going to cite him.) When we use language we agree to arrogate to the rules that govern the language, and enforce its consequences -- which fall, sometimes, with violent force upon the individual. So one might read my questions of violence as redundant, right? Undoubtedly proscriptive, right? Or is there still doubt? What is this skepticism that nags me?

Perhaps that's what is at stake in the subliming of logic: to abstract oneself from consequences (as of the law, as of violence).

Do any of you watch John From Cincinnati? Or Deadwood? David Milch created both and acts/acted as head writer for both series. David Milch is a philanthropist. That is, he loves human beings. (He spreads his wealth, too, but that's besides the point of invoking the word's "original" definition. But then, there we are, again, questioning what a specific word means in a specific situation, or context, and how I can make it mean that in said situation, or context.) Milch writes fabulous dialogue. He understands iterability, and language as a social enterprise. If you haven't seen either show I really recommend you watch them. And they're great for different reasons so it's impossible to pick a favorite. But I will say that John starts yet slower, or it takes a little longer to, uh, "get" (at first glance).

Let's take John From Cincinnati. The eponymous character is named John. He says he comes from Cincinnati. His last name is Monad. John Monad says he is form Cincinnati. He points at the sky when he says, "Cincinnati." There's some things John knows and there's some things John doesn't know: "Some things I know and some things I don't." He takes others words and uses them through his mouth, for his own purposes. Exact phrases. When John's new friend, Butchie, tells John it's annoying when he says, "Some things I know and some things I don't," Butchie proffers, "Say, 'I don't know, Butchie,' instead." From then on in the show, when in doubt, John says, "I don't know Butchie instead." And it works. Sometimes, though, it costs John some blood. He gets in a van with some "vatos" (as it were) and after he repeats their words back to them they think it an insult and they stab him in the stomach, repeatedly. He lives, as he always does, but for a second you can see that some contexts are not as welcome as others and iterability can fail communication. The consequences of that failure is death. But, being a Monad, to say a being of time and space, he lives on, as he always does. An episode later he delivers a speech to the entire cast, but none of the characters seem to hear him, nor see him, nor register how his speech affects them. It simply does by being out there, by performing without being heard, without a "proper" context. I'm still grappling with it, and all it means. But it takes a certain amount of visual literacy as well as literary literacy so that's what's complicating things, beyond just the words heard by me, by you, by the true audience of the show, and of John, which now includes you, if you've made it this far in the post:
If my words are yours, can you hear my Father? Can Bill know my Father, keeping his eye on me? Can I bone Kai and Butchie know my Father instead? My Father's shy doing his business. Kai helps my Father dump out. Bill takes a shot. Shaunie is much improved. Joe is a Doubting Thomas. Joe will save Not-Aleman. Joe will bring his buddies home. This is how Freddy relaxes. Cup-o'joe, and Winchell's variety dozen. Mitch catches a good wave. Mitch wipes out. Mitch wipes out Cissy. Cissy shows Butchie how to do that. Cissy wipes Butchie out. Butchie hurts Barry's head. Mister Rollins comes in Barry's face. My Father runs the Mega-Millions. Fur is big. Mud is big. The stick is big. The word is big. Fire is huge. The wheel is huge. The line and circle are big. On the wall, the line and circle are huge. On the wall, the man at the wall makes a man from the circle and line. The man at the wall makes a Word on the wall from the circle and line. The Word on the wall hears my Father. The zeroes and ones make the Word in Cass's camera. In the Word on the wall that hears my-Father-in-Cass's-camera, the good one Mitch catches doesn't wipe Cissy out. In the-Word-that-hears-my-Father, Cissy shows Butchie something else. In-my-Father's-Word, Cissy shows Butchie in Shaun. In-my-Father's-Word, Tina raises Shaun at lunch. In Cass's-camera, Butchie lays the court out for Barry, and Mister Rollins watches, and he doesn't come on Barry's face. In Cass's-camera, Butchie knows Kai kept the faith. In-my-Father's-Word, the Wave lifts them up. In Cass's camera, Bill doesn't bump his head on the stairs. In Cass's-camera, as long as he's being stupid, Bill gives Lois a kiss. In His-Word-in-Cass's-camera, the Internet is big. Nine-Eleven is big, but not every towel-head is eradicated. In His-Word, We are coming Nine-Eleven-Fourteen. In my-Father's-Word, Bill sees how Freddy relaxes. In Cass's-camera, Ramon wants to know who's hungry, in the courtyard and Room Forty-Five. In my-Father's-Word-to-come-in-Cass's-camera, Doctor Smith calls Ocean Properties. In Cass's-camera-to-come, my Father stares Not Aleman down, and Freddy sees Bill much-improved. You will not note my-Father's-Word, nor remember Cass's-camera, but you will not forget what we did here.
I'll just let that sit for a second while you re-read it, whomever "you" are, my fictive (perlocutionary) locutor. "You" read it a second time?

Shit is big, right?

It means more when you've heard each of the phrases from somewhere else in the show but it still gives me shivers to simply read its rhythms there. And you know what Milch does in the season finale that just aired tonight? He has John say everything in the speech again, directly to another character. And the character reads him perfectly. Or so it would seem. (In this regard, Luke Perry's Linc Stark is almost analogous to Ian McShane's Al Swearengen of Deadwood, but I've not the time; I mean, look at this shit!)

So maybe all I have to ask is this, again: "Shit is big, right?" Mull it over: "Take a second. Mattera fact -- take four, B -- and think before you fuck little skateboard P." Which is, of course, followed by: "When the pimps in the crib, ma, drop it like it's hot -- drop it like it's hot. When the pigs try to get at you, park it likes it hot -- park it likes it hot. And if a Nga get a attitude, pop it like it's hot, pop it like it's hot. I got the rolly on my arm and I'm pourin Champ-Dom and I roll the best weed cuz I got it goin on."

LeChaim, shug booty. I know one of you made some sense of this shit.

I'm off to Tahlequah, Oklahoma in a mere 10 hours where weather.com tells me it will be 99 degrees Fahrenheit when I land -- in Tulsa, but who cares? -- : SHIT WILL BE HOT. Luckily, there will be a river or three to jump into. As long as there's a river, I'm good. Cuz, really, fuck a lake! There could be monsters waiting in the silt, ready to snap my foot off and keep chewing up my leg from the bloody ankle all the way to my tender inner thigh. All I fear in rivers are the rocks:

We saw sun on your rocks, in the white
churn across lips and tumbling runs
down past that hole on the left
you----yeah, that big fucker, that one
ready to chomp your rig, lover, the one
we're trying to avoid--placed
too close but far enough for a thrill.
----The cam straps are tight; hold on

--RWK


Friday, July 27, 2007

Encounter #6



You are going down, brother. --RWK

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Encounter #5



Anybody can take a reservation. --RWK

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Encounter #4


Ricky Gervais meets Garry Shandling. --RWK

Sunday, July 1, 2007

Encounter #3


Drawing as speaking. Cocksucker as the best noun ever. "Yeah, I'm glad I taught you that fucking word." --RWK

Community #3
Deadwood's first season, elsewheres.

Looking out for each other
Over at Vinyl Is Heavy I wrote up some initial reactions to Deadwood's first season. I'm thinking we will try to continue the DeCal in Spring 2008, replacing Seinfeld with Deadwood for the semester. I wrote this in an email to Cuyler earlier today:
by starting with 'seinfeld' we can show these people as completely divorced from the community, living with their heads up their asses in new york city. in continuing with 'deadwood' we can show a set of people who are building a community literally one plank at a time, each highly motivated by individual needs. the idea of community in 'deadwood' is the proactive rewrite of the non-community in 'seinfeld'. except, it hates laws, even if it thinks them necessary. it says, you build your own covenant one plank, one word, one body, one bloodletting, one beating, one fucking, one day at a time -- and it's bound to change, as ever. nobody is resolutely good or bad or right or wrong. the ostensible hero of the show is the angriest man ever who tries his damnedest to reject the law, until he sees how he thinks he can make it right, in his own way. the real hero of the show is a fucking cold-blooded knife-man saloon keep who runs whores and sells booze and murders and deals out murder in every show, every day. he's despicable but he's also heroic: he's always shifting terms. it's not really selfish, either. you gotta watch the show. i can't wait to see where it goes.

Here's the link to the essay. Final note: Brad Dourif is the best. --RWK

healing

Saturday, June 30, 2007

Community #2

It's okay to laugh. I promise. You wouldn't think so, given this is a video about child abuse and finding Jesus Christ through jump-roping. And I don't want any of you to think I take such topics lightly. It's just ... well, look at the video. I want to promise you that you will laugh, and maybe cry, but, as I understand it, this is a touchy subject. The real lesson to be learned here is this: in crossing the Pacific Ocean, always hide your gold under your tongue -- yup, in your mouth -- and that way the pirates cannot rob you. If you didn't laugh, tell us why, please. --RWK

Encounter #2

I really have nothing to offer in explanation at this point. But I think this should be the first item discussed in the course. I think it's an Aussie advertisement for a TGIF-style family restaurant, but it's also an Aussie advertisement for busy working moms. Oh, my bad, busy moms working as strippers. Right. Right? Right. View and discuss. --RWK

Encounter #1



Same idea as the "Community" series, except more positive. These are models of excellent encounters. This first one is a Looney Tune called Rabbit Seasoning. You may have seen it before. If not, please enjoy: it's pure dope. (Also, this idea was stolen from the model of Tom Supten's excellent blog, if charlie parker was a gunslinger there'd be a whole lot of dead copycats, which, as you can see, kills me. Just like this amazing, delectable encounter I simply cannot believe I'm now privy to here, at least, in a glimpsed capture. Guess I'll just have to see The Magus (1968)) --RWK

Community #1



As we hope to investigate the idea of communities, we will offer a series of models that show what it is we find so scary and silly and problematic about how the idea of community (and responsibility within the community) is perceived. This is our first example, the trailer for Robocop 3 (1993), a movie I barely remember but get the sense of as completely misreading what made the first Robocop good: at bottom it did not trust the community. --RWK

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Mostly ridiculous but... looks like Carter III isn't droppin' in '07


I guess confronting the problem of arguably talented and clever rappers putting out terrible videos is quite the task. Maybe all the "Kanye shouldnt rap" rap is off slightly. I mean his "Throws some D's" remix is great, the video is better and he didnt have to steal a 10 year old Daft song. The attempt at making fun of itself is still hopeless because no matter how moral The Game wants to be and how much of a slut Kanye jokes to be, they still cant get away from the mirror. Check it out.



Plus, Kanye's D's

I dont think Fincher is comin back to music unless 3000 convinces him to. And Gondry should stick with Chapelle. Maybe Gore Verbinski ??? It could work. --CB

Kanye is not Stronger than Daft Punk, Madonna, or even Diddy, and especially not Kels.



I first heard about the possibility of this over at Palms Out. It's as annoying in reality as it was in theory. Not only is he "sampling" Daft Punk but he's "sampling" one of their biggest hits (from years past) and barely changing it. The production is cool, sure, but I'd rather listen to "Gold digger" to be honest.

And now this video? How many ideas are you trying to cram into this piece of shit? Just the other day a friend of mine asked, "What ever happened to the concept video?" Well, this is it. I mean, I'm not against appropriating old art for new art (d'uh) but I'm against lazy theft. Even a Madonna video like "Express Yourself" (dir. David Fincher, see below) made sense in its marriage of performance and storyline: everything worked together. Here, it's just one idea stumbling into another, which I think is why the song is so annoying, too. Kanye heard some hot new French electro shit and decided to thieve that for his next big thang. That's all well and cool as long as it's actually positioned as a remix, or it's using some new artist like the ever-accumulating avalanche that is Justice. At this level, "Stronger" is no better than everybody's least favorite tribute song, "I'll Be Missing You". But then, at least that video was kind of amusing in its fish eyed late-90s candy visuals. And, well, it was about Biggie. What is Kanye's song about? How he's the best, yet again. Get over yourself and actually make me believe it but actually making a song I like. Or, stop being so earnest about how much you love yourself. Take a lesson from these guys:


She was hot, and David Fincher's visual style is kind of great despite being because it's mostly ingratiating and ostentatious and plain silly.


I miss Biggie, too. And 112, kinda.


So unsexy it's unbelievably awesome.


Here's a Diplo remix of Kanye's song that is undoubtedly sloppy, as usual, and better than Kanye's because, well, Kanye isn't allowed an appearance: mofo's muted. --RWK

Kanye West - Stronger (Diplo's Work Is Never Over remix)

5 A community

see the blurb is perfect. the titles, while yes we find them hilarious, we may be demanding a bit much from a, yes curious, but more than often stoned de-cal searcher. we may need to agree on a title for suckin em in, then a quick change.

actually, i take that back. the last one is just right!!!!! what community? that may have to be the first episode shown anyway. Its the rental car one. With the definition of a "reservation." Elaine's 60ish boyfriend has a stroke when she is about to break up with him. George starts parking cars on Jerry's street while the regular is on vacation. Kramer gets a small part in a Woody Allen film which he of course blows. maybe a perfect introduction. classic Elaine. --CB

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Test names for a DeCal

Jew
ENCOUNTER POLITICS: Shorties got no spatial recognition capabilities.

ENCOUNTER POLITICS: Throw some cheese on that bitch!

ENCOUNTER POLITICS: Apartment 5A with Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer

ENCOUNTER POLITICS: Raincoats and bros and stopping short.

ENCOUNTER POLITICS: Jon Voight? Damn, 28's!

ENCOUNTER POLITICS: What community?


We love Seinfeld. We are planning on teaching a DeCal on the subject. We know this subject well. We understand it, how it operates, what it says, why it's funny, why it's, um, true. We hope you do too, but if you don't, that's okay: we can learn you. We are into learning. We are into laughing. We are into current hip hop. We are into Seinfeld. We are into movies. We are into blogging. We are into discussion. We are not into communities. --RWK

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

ENCOUNTER POLITICS

ENCOUNTER POLITICS

Characters of the Dialogue


Ryland . . . Cuyler



SCENE: Ryland and Cuyler meet at a urinal in McCone Hall.

Ryland. Is that your rough draft, Cuyler? Where you goin' after this?
Cuyler. I'm not sure. I was going to start the essay on Phaedrus but this girl I was talking to told me I should hit Memorial Glade. She says its great this time of day and I could really use some fresh air, son of Ballenger.
Ry. Yes, she is right. And it is nice, but rather public. Is there a nicer place? Maybe somewhere we can discuss your thoughts, and your thoughts on the essay?
Cuy. I'm sure there is.
Ry. Well, lead on then and keep an eye out for a place to sit.
Cuy. Ah, do you see that bench there, under the tree, across the stream, past the statue of the football player, next to beige building, overlooking the field?
Ry. Yes?
Cuy. It has a nice breeze, the sound of creek is comforting.... and it is rather private.
Ry. It sounds like the right place. And nice.
Cuy. You know Ryland, it was this very spot, where the creek runs pure and clear, that a young girl and I played beside.
Ry. Did you win?
Cuy. Well, I came in first.
Ry. We should erect an alter to your brief triumph! A much better altar than the bronzed and chiseled man we passed. An altar for all minor triumphs and all ecstatic losses. An altar for all.
Cuy. But what about my essay?
Ry. Wasn't that the draft? The one you were holding earlier?
Cuy. It was, in fact, rolled up and hidden, here.
Ry. Please, show me. We won't need to talk with it out.

THE DRAFT OF CUYLER
The Phaedrus, by Plato, uses irony to great effect. By using irony, the text makes a protean standard. The protean standard is always changing and always the same. Each encounter is negotiated through kairos. Kairos is making the right choice which is always different.

Moreover, this technique is used repeatedly throughout the text. The Phaedrus' position is one that is always moving. Yet this movement is always there, stagnant in a sense. The movement is restricted within the irony of Socrates.

Perhaps we can look to Seinfeld. Jerry is an ironic comic, or the modern day Socrates. Moreover, he is kairos. He is in constant negotiation with uncomfortable situations in which he must, as Spike Lee puts it, "Do the Right Thing." The right thing is kairos, and Socrates is always trying to achieve that. It is this very "right thing" that makes a protean standard.

Well Ryland, what do you think? Does it read well?
Ry. This is only a draft right? Or is it an outline? What is it?
Cuy. Are you making fun of it, Ryland?!
Ry. No, I'm just curious! You have peaked my interest. You have some nice insights and seem delighted with them, delighted to share them. And I am delighted to receive them.
Cuy. My insights? Do you mean my essay? Do you mean my essay was insightful? And original? And correct?
Ry. If I were to say "correct" I would be lying. But not. If I were to say "original" I would be lying. And not. My problem lies not in how I heard it but how it went, how it insisted, how unavoidable you made it.
Cuy. What have you heard more correct than this? And where have you heard it?
Ry. At the moment I cannot tell you, but if you come closer, the ideas may come. I will turn, I will face the creek and the field, and I will try to speak on it. But only with these aids will the ideas, perhaps, flow, or, as it may be, pour out of me.
Cuy. Splendidly said, my excellent friend. Please don't stop but continue.

RYLAND'S FIRST DRAFT
Now imagine the field in front of us, across the creek and behind that chain-link fence.There are boys there, playing, enjoying the sun, and the game. We call it a football field in reference to pigskin yet they play the true football, what we call soccer, which is played foot to ball and ball to foot. Is it not true this football has no set plays? Does it not follow that each player must negotiate his space of play upon the field? Is it not all play?

The football player dribbles not up, not down, but across the field, always changing course, always choosing, in the moment, the right way to go. In this moment the right choice is heroic in its negotiation of the encounter and knowing when to do the right thing at the right time. But the right choice is never the same choice: each encounter demands its own choice, its own right-ness. This is kairos.

Pheadrus is all kairos, as you say, Cuyler. It is a play of encounters. Each line in the dialogue holds a choice. Like the striker eluding the sweeper and firing on the keeper, Socrates must make the right choice, the right move, so he may score. The goal is always there, on the field of play, but its the striker's pliably powerful posture and liquid movements across the field of play that defines the goal. It's the way he goes, it's the way Socrates goes, it's the way you go that makes a protean standard and actualizes the goal.

Well Cuyler, what do you think? Am I not a player?
Cuy. You are quite so. You understand the field and your words are accurate.
Ry. Have I satisfied your aims then? Have I spoken correctly on the topic? Have I brought more originality?
Cuy. You certainly have, Ryland, and for that I thank you. It was a delight to take in your words and ideas.

Ry. But they were not my ideas, they were but a revision of yours. They were yours, through my mouth, from you and to you. And in this revision I have failed.
Cuy. How so?

Ry. I have ignored a large portion of your argument. Which, if not insightful, was delightful to my ears. I should like to revise your words further. To make them my own.
Cuy. What did you overlook? It seems you defined kairos and the protean standard well enough.

Ry. While I may have defined kairos, I haven't done justice to the protean standard. I offered more of an aside, rather than a whole and complete sense of the phrase. Plus, Cuyler, I have forgotten Jerry! To say nothing of George, Elaine and, most missed, Kramer. And what, my good friend, could be more awful? More sinful?
Cuy. Ah, I guess you have neglected issues of importance. Please, Ryland, don't let me hold you back, proceed, proceed!

A SECOND DRAFT
Coffeen would have us encounter Phaedrus as a pedagogy between text and reader, shifting the burden of kairos from Socrates to the readers themselves. We readers must reckon not simply Socrates' apparent instruction of Phaedrus, the cutie, but how the text, Phaedrus, as a whole, instructs us, the readers. Where we wronged -- where you wronged through me and where I wronged -- is that kairos is not the striker, the player on the field, but the field, and the game, itself. The game itself is its own text as Plato's Phaedrus is its own text and the moment wherein we read the text is the moment of kairos. This is where Kramer slides through the door.

In revising your draft I failed to remember Seinfeld. Your notion of Jerry as a modern day Socrates was insightful. Yet, only slightly. While Jerry is renowned for his ironic stance, his ability to pester, as is Socrates, he still plays by the rules. He uses the same terms to talk about why the terms fail. Kramer, however, habitually shifts the terms. He doesn't play by the same rules as Jerry, nor the same as Socrates. Wouldn't a more true sense of kairos be found in only that which moves itself, by its own rules? Jerry and Socrates, or the player, derive their rules from the game, which exists without them; Kramer exists as a game. Kramer's sliding entrance into the field of Jerry's apartment habitually disrupts the game he intrudes upon, shifting it into his own game. Therefore, Kramer defines a protean standard.

To sense a protean standard we can turn to Lohren Green's introduction to his abridged Poetical Dictionary and a crucial phrase Coffeen returns to often in lecture. Green relies on a protean standard for his definitions, one that shifts according to the word. He attends to the encounter that is each word just as Kramer attends to each encounter that defines his life. Kramer is, as Coffeen would say, simultaneously constituent and constitutive in the encounter. His presence changes the encounter and defines the encounter. It's this dual attention and presence that we can call a protean standard. The protean standard, then, defines the encounter, and the text, rendering them inseparable.

Phaedrus the text is defined by this sense of protean standard and kairos. Kairos is the encounter, and the navigation of the encounter, which, in turn, defines the protean standard, which, in turn, defines the text.

Cuyler extends fist, awaits pound; Ryland pounds Cuyler.

Cuy. LeChaim.
Ry. Word.
Cuy. Well I think you have adequately revised my draft. And for that I thank you and I praise you like I should.
Ry. Maybe so, yet I haven't satisfied my appetite for the sense is incomplete.
Cuy. No, no, no buddy. Wait a minute. What you said of sense of text as protean standard and kairos as the encounter was uniform, accurate, clear, concise and simple. You're an excellent performer and quite the character.
Ry. But of course, here too (even especially here) there's room for error. For as you said, Cuyler, I am a character as Jerry is a character as Socrates is a character, and even as Kramer is a character. Following the logic of the second draft we must realize we must never trust the characters. We must listen to them, we must read them, however it is not they who will instruct us, it is their play.
Cuy. So you're saying, Ryland, the characters' performances must be attended to, but it is the play we must encounter. The play is the actual text, Phaedrus, is what we must interact with.
Ry. Correct. As such it is not Kramer who exists as the game, nor is it Jerry, but Seinfeld the show is the text we must encounter. The play and politics of an encounter, then, are defined by a radically particular protean standard, constituent and constitutive presence, decisive kairos, maneuvering the field, disrupting the rules, pestering, reading, sensing, shifting the terms, in attendance to character, Cuyler, Jerry, Phaedrus, Kramer, Socrates, Ryland, Seinfeld, Phaedrus.
Cuy. Word
Ry. LeChaim.