• Introductions: everyone says names/pronouns, what year they are, major, and a little about their interests [A]
  • Why did we decide to teach a class about cursed content? What will class be like?
    • Assignments
    • Guest Speakers
    • Discussions
    • Tool lessons
    • Tiny lectures
  • Code of Conduct, Trigger Warnings [C]
  • Let's watch some of Cats. [CA]
    • Bustopher Jones' (James Corden) song: [CW: fatphobia] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WH_0aXoiL4
    • Bombalurina's (Taylor Swift) song, featuring Macavity nudity: [CW: nudity? PG rating] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQ-uzCC3hjQ
    • Jennyanydots (Rebel Wilson) with rat children: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr_n-79Q50Q
    • Readings:
      • The Improbable Insanity of "Cats"
        • Based on T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, a collection of tone poems about cats. Though. “Eliot’s fondness for doggerel and light verse, in particular, was intertwined with a racist notion of blackness as a gateway to cultural disruption and linguistic play.”
        • What the heck is a jellicle cat? ‘“Pollicle dogs” and “jellicle cats” are Eliot’s glosses on the way posh British people said “poor little dogs” and “dear little cats.”’
        • The first production was a mess: Lloyd Webber had to take out a second mortgage to finance the production, the musical director quit during rehearsals, the lead (Judy Dench!) tore her achilles heel a week before previews.
        • And yet, the show printed money.
        • “What an absolute nightmare, I thought, as all the other cats came out of the wings, ready to send Grizabella to her death. Here was a stage full of brilliant actors writhing around in cat wigs and face paint, singing psychotic Andrew Lloyd Webber songs with T. S. Eliot blackface lyrics. What a ridiculous hallucination this was, what an indestructible pleasure, what an unforeseeable gift.”
      • 'Cats' Movie: Which Body Part is Most Disturbing?
  • Class discussion: What is cursed? Let's get started by talking about the assumptions, insights, and questions we are all bringing to the subject. Lead into us talking about the goals for the class. [CA]
    • What is your first encounter with the idea of cursed?
    • What is a singular favorite piece of cursed media that you came into contact with?
    • Free association: When you think of cursed, what comes to mind? Don't overthink it.
  • Mood board [CA]
    • Cassie: https://www.are.na/cassie-tarakajian/blessed-blursed-cursed-moodboard
    • Mark Leckey - The Universal Addressability of Dumb Things (a cursed collection as an art show)
  • Assignment 1: [A] Make your own cursed mood board. It can be a series of images, a video, text, 3D animation, whatever makes the most sense to you. We encourage your to walk around your neighborhood and take pictures, to notice the cursed/blursed/blessed things that are all around you. We also encourage you to notice what's around you in virtual spaces and on the Internet. You are welcome to present yours in the following class.