Lessons from 2010
It wasn’t an easy year for me, but there were many thing I learned. I hope I remember them moving forward. Hence this blog posting.
ABOUT ART
The celebration of effort frequently results in a celebration of mediocrity.
Authenticity is not excellence.
It is possible for something to be completely over.
Experience is not a substitute for relevance.
It is entirely possible to have an art career while being talentless and stupid. Just cry whenever you get called out, people will mistake your cowardice for passion.
Racism in the arts still runs rampant.
Calling exoticism “diversity” doesn’t change its sting.
It is possible to live a contemporary life with artistic sensibilities that are stuck in Shakespearean times.
If you’re an artist and you need to ask what artistic excellence looks like, you’re either an idiot, a hack or stalling for time.
Quoting those who come before does not make your work better.
“if you try to create art to communicate your politics, you bleed out the complexities of human life” – Nina Arsenault (see how that works?)
ABOUT ACTIVISM
The right to fight in a war is less important than the need to fight war.
We’re not just like them.
Queerness is not in itself a reason for being.
Separatism has never worked for the real advancement of any movement.
Young people are frequently retarded by youth workers.
Contrary to popular belief, crying is not the same as logical discourse, it gets you further.
There are people who build entire careers on their own shame.
Every married gay person is actively participating in the oppression of me and my kind.
Any person who says they don’t believe in gender has gender mistaken for a religion.
“Poised” is another word for “closeted”
The narrative of outness without consequences is ultimately harmful.
ABOUT DRAG
Concept is often a smokescreen for shaky confidence.
God gave my face contours. Like Hir, they too can be imaginary.
People want to give me dollars. Not taking them isn’t artistic, it’s being an asshole.
The only measure of the quality of my work in a club is tip dollars. All other measures don’t matter.
Mine are the aesthetics of insecurity.
Your judgment is pathetic.
Gender matters.
ABOUT LIVING
Poverty is not romantic.
First people, then money, then things. But things are fun.
If you don’t leave your house, life isn’t that expensive.
It is possible to be both totally real and totally insincere.
Running on your second wind will bite you in the ass.
I don’t have it in me to console others when I share my own problems.
I am not fashionable.
Thorn of Plenty 
I love everything in this post.