The Art of Being Alone
By Phoebe Zheng
a journal entry from me to you

#dc comics#dc#batman#dc universe#bruce wayne#tim drake#batfam#batfamily#dick grayson#dc fanart




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The Art of Being Alone
By Phoebe Zheng
a journal entry from me to you

Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
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Hanging out with madison moore, co-host of the Beyonce Liner Notes panel at USC Roski's Live Artists Live Sings of Freedom event yesterday.
I Pinned You From Across the Zoom
By Tori Frank
When you have them pinned, thatâs how you know itâs real. The anonymous owners of @usc.missedconnections on Instagram discussed zoom romance and the seductive mystery of having an admirer behind the screen.
Imagine Gossip Girl, but make it all horny college students deprived of casual touch. That is the drama of @usc.missedconnections. If you donât avidly stalk their account, you either have an unheard of self-confidence that doesnât require any external validation, you deleted your Instagram in a fit of quarantine frenzy, or you havenât heard of them yet, and youâre very curious about the previously stated analogy.
See the bio of the @usc.missedconnections page: âHave a message for the person whose zoom you always pin or saw from 6 ft away? Anonymously send your missed connection below!â Below sits the google form where all the virtual action happens: the flirts, the cat calls, the compliments, and the subtle roasts. It really is a good time, somewhat making up for the lack of classroom banter that would normally occur.
I sat down with the students who began the account, and we chatted about the new sensation that is dominating everyoneâs feed.
Tori: My roommates and I have been following your page pretty actively, as I think a lot of people have been recently.
@usc.missedconnections just surpassed 3000 followers in the few months since their origin on September 30th, 2020
T: Itâs definitely very entertaining, especially with Zoom making everything a little bit more boring and separated. Itâs been really fun to follow @usc.missedconnections and see whatâs the tea! To begin, how did you come up with the idea of creating this account?
Connector 1: I was between USC and another school out on the East coast. Some good friends that I went out and visited there showed me the [Instagram] page at that school, and I was like, âHey that's a cool idea, that looks like a lot of fun.â I texted _(Connector 2)_. I was like, âHey hereâs some dumb idea, weâll get 50 people, weâll get 2 responses a day. It will be kind of fun to just post them,â and we just grew from there.
T: So how many posts do you guys get a day now?
Connector 2: Itâs actually ticked up a lot in what, the past like 2 weeks-ish? For a long time we had a solid 100 just in the bank, and then we slowly [opened them], but it's been 200 plus starting just recently, which is weird. We started posting more frequently to catch up.
Connector 1: Yeah I presume we get about 30-ish on average a day.
Are you intrigued yet? About 30 lucky students across the online campus are being called out for some reason another, be it their sexy voice, their mustache, their wall decorations, or the way they eat their oranges. And on the flip side, about 30 people a day are shooting their anonymous shot through the account. With anonymity of course comes a certain audacity to get real freaky over the submission form. I wondered how freaky it could get.
T: Do you post all of the ones that come, or is there some sort of filtering process?
Connector 1: Weâve had a couple instances where people have been mentioned or certain organizations that have been mentioned have requested for us to take the post down, so weâve always just respected that if weâre ever asked to take the post down for whatever reason.
Connector 2: I periodically will go through, and Iâll be like, âThis oneâs weird, I don't think we need to post that,â and then I'll delete it.
_(connector 1)_ idk if you know that I do that, but umâŚ
Connector 1: Oh probably. I mean, Iâve deleted one before.
Connector 2: Yeah, when Iâm doing them sometimes Iâll be like âthis is a little weird how can we phrase this in a way that's not exactly⌠yeah.
T: Yeah, whatâs like the line? Because I think a lot of the time some of the things can be kind of⌠creepy⌠I mean the whole thing is likeâŚ
Connector 1:Â (cuts in, chuckling)Â Kinda creepyÂ
T: (agreeing) Kinda creepy, right!
There have been submissions such as:
âTo ____, Did you know if you rearrange the letters of Coronavirus you get âcarnivorousâ? Which makes sense because I want to spend the next 14 days of quarantine eating youâ
and
â____ in BUAD 497, my only motivation for coming to class is being able to pin your video and look at your beautiful face for two hoursâ
Connector 1: Itâs interesting, um, when we first started it, we talked, and the thing we were worried most about was like cyber bullying, and I personally haven't seen many posts. You get the offhand sarcastic comments, um, which are pretty funny sometimes, but I donât know if we... we don't really have a set filter. If we feel like somethingâs over the bar, then weâll kinda edit it out. Of course a lot of the time too if weâre iffy on something weâll text the other person and be like âhey what do you think of thisâ so, it's no distinct line, but our goal is never to make anyone uncomfortable.
T: Yeah, I think generally it's been pretty positive, a lot of affirming things. Even sometimes not romantic, like just positive comments which is pretty cool, and it's good to see that that's been going on.Â
Aw so sweet, fellow Trojans getting along so well. But this is a juicy topic. Playing the role as the reporter, I had to get the inside scoop.
T: Do you ever get messages about yourself?
Connector 1: Iâve had 2
Connecter 2: Yeah heâs had 2, I havenât had any and Iâm mad about it. I want one
Connector 1: I gave you one
Connector 2: You gave me one but I knew it was from you so it didnât mean anything.
T: So youâre not only the owners of the account. Youâre sort of participating in the game as well.
Connector 1: Oh, itâs always a blast when like youâre reading through and you know the person who it's getting written about and youâre just waiting. Yeah, thatâs like my favorite part of it, and also the guessing games sometimes are a lot of fun too.
Connector 2: For a long time people were scared to tag people that it was about in the comments, but now thereâs no hesitation. People will just tag everyone, which I think is really fun.
Its also fun that we donât give the full last name because then its kinda funny when you get a really generic âSam Bâ or âLucy Jâ and 6 different Lucyâs get tagged and half the time we know who it really is because we saw the last name and then edited it out.
T: Why donât you include the full name?
Connector 2: I think itâs more fun. (shyly shrugs) Itâs about keeping the mystery, you know? Who could it possibly be about?Â
Connector 1: We do get a lot of requests though because of that, where people are like, âHey, is this me? Can you tell me who sent this in?â and we're like âI don't know.â
Connector 2: Yeah people DM us every day asking for things, and also sometimes people don't understand that we have a forum in our bio and they send it in thru DM, their missed connections, which sort of ruins the anonymity and its sort of embarrassing for them bc we have to be like, âplease submit it in our bio,â and they have to be like âoh god now they knowâ
T: Itâs almost like a masquerade.Â
Again, I am imagining Jenny Humphrey wearing her golden mask at the Constance Billard School for Girls Masquerade Ball, prancing around Nate Archibald without him having the faintest idea of who he will be kissing. Maybe this is a little different, but the spirit is there!
T: Looking through your posts of course, a lot of them are, âOh, I have your screen pinned, I watch you all the time in classâ Do you guys do that? Do you think that that's like, Zoom behavior now, or is that still cringe?
Connector 2: Idk if Iâd pin for a whole class, but Iâve been known to take a look, and based on all the things weâve gotten sent it I guess people do. If youâre in a lecture thats boring, fair enough. I can't fault you for that. Itâs so weird right now, so who knows?
Connector 1: I think it's really fun also, like, people get really creative too. A lot of them are really general but we just posted one today that had a Kanye reference. We get poetry sometimes. I love the poets. Itâs a lot of fun for us and I think other people get to read the more fun posts then, like âhey I saw youâ, when saying âhey I saw youâ does make it, I guess, easier to match, but itâs less exciting for everybody else
T: To match... going off of that, have you heard of any success stores?
Connector 2: I have not but I desperately want to know. I think if people get married we legally have to officiate the wedding. Weâll go public to officiate the wedding. Weâll break anonymity for that.
T: Do a little daft punk moment
Connector 1: Yeah exactly. The [ones] behind the mask.
T: Do you think you want to continue it next year or post COVID in general?
Connector 1: Yeah, I mean I want to.
They talked about potential future: color schemes, contemplating a purple theme or the classic USC colors. I can tell that the account is only growing from here. Itâs not like there is any shortage of desperate college students!
T: Thatâs exciting. Iâm excited to see where the account goes!
Connector 1: Us too
T: Iâm also looking forward to hopefully getting a post about myself. I have not yet. I know you guys are hiding it
Connector 1: Oh yeah, well with the 200 post back log Iâm sure itâll come out soon...
Fiona Appleâs Beautiful Disarray
By Lily Riccio
I first discovered Fiona Apple about 2 years ago when I heard her 1996 hit song, Criminal. On the surface, her music seemed to be filled with overwhelming rage as her deep voice competed with idiosyncratic ballads, but after listening to her for some time, I began to appreciate her extraordinary view of the world. Amidst a snarl of prose carried by her baritone vocals, Apple delivers sensitive observations through symphonies of eccentric sound. These observations are uniquely self-aware and retrospective, ranging from insecurity and heartbreak to rage and eventual self-acceptance. Each line suggests intent, placed carefully among multilayers of noiseâ a rush of piano keys, a clang of an unidentifiable drum, or an unexpected choral interlude. This experimentation creates a collection of beautifully disheveled songs which are each unforgettable in their own right. To me, her unparalleled lyrical writing is best introduced through the following 4 songs:
EVERY SINGLE NIGHT (2012): In her characteristically poetic way, Apple tackles the overwhelming nature of anxiety. She illustrates this through sound, beginning with a delicate melody and then rising into a swell of desperate shouts.
WEREWOLF (2012): Perhaps Fiona Apple at her finest, âWerewolfâ speaks of an all-consuming relationship, ultimately built on denial and repressed rage.
WALTZ, BETTER THAN FINE (2005): Through an uncharacteristic melody of playful piano chords, Apple muses on being content with doing absolutely nothing.
FETCH THE BOLT CUTTERS (2020): Heightened by a symphony of clanging, Apple celebrates breaking free from a self-made prison. This latest track resembles closure, serving as an antithesis from her previous songs.
The Good, the Drag, and the Ugly
By Ambika Nuggihalli
âWhy donât you start by telling me how you got into drag?âÂ
âThis is a weird story. Lots and twists and turns. Not really. I was born in Chicago proper, specifically in what is essentially the West Hollywood of Chicago. Itâs called Boystown,â Ren begins.Â
Iâm interviewing Ren Ye, a junior at USC. Ren grew up in one of the largest midwestern LGBTQ communities during the legalization of same-sex marriage and the commercialization of LGBTQ identity.
âI lived in an apartment on top of the queerest Target in Chicago,â they tell me.
âThere are queer Targets?â I ask.
âWell, itâs âcause itâs right next to Boystown! Itâs the only Target near there. By default thereâs always just a rainbow section.â Renâs apartment above Chicagoâs Queerest Target was a different story. âMy parents are pretty homophobic, which is ironic, because they chose to live half a block away from dyke central. I donât know what they were trying to instill in their kids,â they joke.
Ren didnât let their parents stop them from growing up alongside 30-year-old drag queens and sneaking out with their best friend Henry.Â
âI would do my makeup with Henry in the room and then immediately have to scrub it off. Or if we were going out and meeting our friends half a block away, weâd have to take our makeup in our backpacks, say, âWeâre going to a cafe to study,â go to Target, and do our makeup downstairs. It was honestly really fun. Somehow I think of it as a teenage movie where we had to sneak away from the parents. Itâs a queer thing to dramatize things into almost a theater play experience.âÂ
âItâs the inner theater kid in you,â I offer. Thereâs a long silence before Ren, ever the drama queen, utters back just one word:
âDie.âÂ
We laugh to ourselves. Suddenly, we remember this is supposed to be an interview. Ren looks sheepish. I say,
âYou mentioned the commercialization of gay people and drag. Talk to me about that.âÂ
âThis is my can. Iâm opening it up. There are worms in there.â Ren makes a noise to show me just how many worms. It sounds like a lot of them. âI identify as a⌠I donât even know what the right word for it is. But the for-now, kind of problematic term for it is âAFAB queenâ (assigned female at birth queen) or âBio queenâ (biologically female queen). I like to consider myself just a drag queen, but a lot of gay men and people from the outside looking in like to categorize what drag is,â Ren explains. âThereâs been another resurgence of categorizing people within queer spaces in the hopes that there will be some marketable identity out of it. That sounds very theoretical. Do you know what I mean?â
âI understand.âÂ
âBitches like, keep trying to monetize us! Like, hop off my dick,â Ren rephrases. âDrag is an art form created by queer people to express something that wasnât in the binary,â they lament. âNow that itâs in the binary, what do we have?â
âDo you find there are also divisions in drag as a person of color?â I ask.
âStorytime! My stage name is Lil Baby Bokchoy, and that came from my drag mom back in the day being piss drunk coming up to me like, âYour name,â and I was like, âWhat?â and she was like, âLittle. Baby. Bok. Choy.â and I was like, âWhat??â And she was like, âThatâs your name now!â and I like it. I think itâs a cute name.âÂ
Ren exchanges a smile for a grimace. âBut once, I had a straight man come up to me and ask me, âWhatâs your name?â and I was like, âLil Baby Bokchoy,â and he was like, âI would like to eat you up, like⌠I love Chinese food.ââÂ
What was cute and familial when spoken by a fellow Asian drag queen became fetishizing, even degrading in that manâs mouth. âI was so mad. I was so mad,â Ren frowns.Â
They continue, âBeing Asian within drag, itâs hard. If you come from a first-generation or very traditional background, most Asian practices donât necessarily (a) support queer culture or (b) the arts. And itâs harder for people of color to get their own spots. Luckily, thereâs also performance spots that specifically target the API community. Thereâs Miss Shu Mai--â âYes! I follow her on Instagram!â I interrupt impolitely. Ren doesnât seem to mind. âYES! I want her to be my drag mom so bad,âÂ
âExplain to me the whole drag mom thing.â
âDrag parents arenât necessarily the age of your mom or your dad or anything like that. My drag mom, sheâs 21. Iâm 20. When I met her, I was 15 and she was 16. Sheâs a trans woman, she was kicked out of her house at a younger age. It wasnât that sad of a story. She got up on her feet, sheâs doing amazing things right now.
âShe saw the struggle I was in and was like, let me help you. So I stayed with her for a while. Sheâs amazing. She used to do drag. She doesnât really do drag anymore. A lot of trans women have problems with drag because of the categorizations within it now. It used to not be like this. Itâs only within these last couple years trans people have had visceral responses to the drag community. It used to be a lot to do with race, but now it has a lot to do with gender. Iâm not saying it has a lot to do with RuPaulâs Drag Race, buuuuuuuuuut⌠Yeah.â
Iâm about to delve into the image of drag created by media like RuPaulâs Drag Race; an image that overwhelmingly depicts white cisgender gay men at the expense of other identities--especially transgender women of color--when Ren sees someone familiar in the cafe, Claire.
âI call Claire one of my sisters,â Ren says. âI hang out with her outside of drag. She helps me style my wigs because I donât know how to style my wigs for SHIT,â
âYour wigs?âÂ
âWigs. I have three wigs in the back of my closest. Fire hazard. Three of them clumped in a corner.â
âThat hurts me, as someone whoâŚâ my voice drops and I look around the cafe, hoping no one else I know is in here. âI used to do cosplay,â I cough. Any effort I made to keep the rest of Cafe 84 from knowing about my middle school hobby is wasted as Ren practically screams,Â
âYOU DID COSPLAY??â They jump out of their seat. âYou never told me!!â âBecause I don't do it anymore,â I choke, cheeks pink.
âSo youâre a weeb.â
âNot anymore! Ex. Rehabilitated.âÂ
âYouâre a weeb!â
âNo I am not! I havenât seen an anime in 5 years!â
âThe fact that you know and youâve counted how long itâs been means that you have a problem. Itâs like when cigarette smokers are really into how long theyâve been off for because they keep thinking every day how long itâs been.â It is around now I realize I will be walking out at the end of this interview without any semblance of my dignity.Â
âThe point is. I know the wig struggle,â I assert weakly. I am grateful that Ren takes pity on me and lets me change the subject.
âI hate that in order to get volume...â they start, but halfway through, we finish the sentence in unison:Â
â...you have to tease the wig!âÂ
âAnd it kills the wig! It kills it!â I feel my scalp tingle.Â
âThe glue has killed the wig. Everything has killed the wig. The last thing it has to kill is me,â they say, before slumping back into their chair with a smile. In my mind, I paint one last picture of an electric green wig strangling Ren in their sleep. It wouldnât be the worst thing they have had to put up with in drag, not by a long shot.

Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
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Thanks to Dean Muhl, Penelope, and Farnaz, our youth members were able to have a great experience at @uscroski ceramics lab today! đŠđżâđ¨đ¨đžâđ¨đŠđ˝âđ¨đ¨đżâđ¨đŠđžâđ¨đ¨đ˝âđ¨ #BeMACnificent #usc #uscroski #art #fineart #ceramics #sclupture #futuretrojan #trojanfamily #nonprofit #volunteer (at USC Roski School of Art and Design)
Moments | My 1st Solo Art Exhibition If you get a signed artwork, you may want to keep it! đ¸đ¨đžâđ¨ #USC #uscroski #art #design #fineart #contemporaryart #abstractart #photography #videoart (at USC Roski School of Art and Design)
I've been silently working towards my Solo Exhibition at the @uscroski Lindhurst Gallery. It's my 1st solo installation and I can't wait for the opening in September. This work is called Fade to WHITE & it was shown in a Group Exhibition at the USC Fisher Museum of Art this past May. #fineart #contemporaryart #multimediaartist #usc #uscroski (at University of Southern California)