I am currently reading Eileen Myles’ Inferno. It’s a piece of literature that digs deep deep deep into this idea of being a perpetual outsider, even in a subculture populated by misfits who are secretly trying to fit in. This morning, I read Maura Johnston’s treatise on how being an outsider has made her a sharper critic, even if it means she’s had to work harder as a result. Yesterday, Allison Bland at The Awl wrote about how being an outsider has cost her jobs but how that’s made her a strong person overall.

I am a loud advocate of small presses like Birds of Lace and Dancing Girl Press. I am a huge fan of Amanda Palmer because she has helped push the RIAA to the brink of extinction. To this day, I still champion Jerri Blank as an icon for those of us who are/were too ______ for ______ scene; we were so _______ for those scenes that we went ahead and made our own scenes. So I’m going to go ahead and declare 2012 the year of the outsider.

We’re heading into a year where the status quo no longer makes sense; the elephant-asshole political oligarchy is defunct; people see through Lady Gaga’s attempt to dress up as an outsider even while singing anthems of the status quo; Kat Stoeffel’s Observer profile of Julia Allison v2.0 already appears dated upon being pushed live.

There is probably a handful of people who can still tolerate these ideas, but for the rest of us, these have become markers of a new age of antiquity. Like, can’t we talk about people who are circumventing the status quo to do brilliant and bold things? What about people who are fighting tooth-and-nail to achieve the status quo? Enough of New Yorkers with money who are in the art scene, what about the people whose sweat and tears provides that art?

I think this is why a lot of us are enchanted by Occupy. A lot of us are outsiders. We’re disenfranchised, disrespected, and dissed. But only now are we reconciling how pointlessly exclusive the “status quo” has become. Basically, we love human interest pieces about the one-armed gay hustler because he overcomes something. 2012 is will be the year that we all become one-armed gay hustlers because all the outsiders are will gather momentum to overcome something.

Occupy, to many of us, is about a bunch of one-armed gay hustlers rising up and getting their fair share of the world.

There is this horrible high school mentality that continues to pervade every creative industry in New York. I think it mostly exists to help people figure out who they should follow because some people can’t figure this out for themselves. When you reject these lists and you reject the authority of people who are putting these lists together, you become an outsider. They can’t figure you out and so! you are on their shit-list; you become an outsider. You become a one-armed gay hustler. Hey, at least you can tell the in-clique that Tennessee Williams wrote a play about you, not them.

Frankly, half the crap I write would be terrible if not for the fact that I everyday when I go to town, I’m an outsider twice over. There’s a great deal of character-building that happens as a result of just walking into everyday situations—poetry readings, job interviews, cruisey happy hours—as an outsider.

But, I think the market is warming to a new age of outsiders. The prophecy is already there. 2012 will be the year of the outsider. Vogue is already rumored to be featuring a fashion outsider on its cover. A socially acceptable website for recovering addicts continues to pick up steam. Meanwhile, down in the Financial District, Occupy may have gone quiet, but is far from losing its momentum.

In 2012, I will probably put some eyeliner and rouge on my novel and start hustling it out to publishers and agents, too. Outsider art as the belle of the ball.

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   holidays, right? Feel free

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