Sliding through the last week of the semester

Immersed in Milton and Burke, trying to exert myself in a way that produces some sort of semi-scholarly work, I am locking in for quite a week. My blog diversions have been a way of coming up for air. So, speaking of fresh breaths of that invisible, life-giving chemical:

Check this dude out: Jerry Douglas

I have been listening to a lot of Alison Krauss & Union Station lately (a lovely accent to my almost constant diet of Sufjan Stevens, Iron & Wine, James Taylor and the Shins of late). Douglas is, as you might have already seen, the acoustic slide guitarist for Alison’s band and the guy is amazing. I have been listening to the albums lately and couldn’t put my finger on what gave that unique twinge to the amazing slide soloing going on. When I saw them play on last Friday night’s Austin City Limits, I saw Douglas in action for the first time and was utterly floored. I am a guy who has severely dissed the twang of the electric slide heard in most country music, but this is a whole new thing (and I can stand the former much more these days too). Anyway, I hope you enjoy seeing this guy in action. If you like what you see and haven’t listened to much Alison Krauss, I recommend theses two songs to start you out:

This is from Austin City Limits It shows the bluegrassiness at its best.

Goodbye is All We Have

And if you can find it, Restless is a great song too

NESsy: Our underwater ally

On Only Anything's second album SpaceCapers, Jon Thwaits busted out a cover of a tune from the NES video game Mega Man 3--that was 1994. In 2006 it has become an industry.
You can find Asian prodigies on the net working out the Mario theme on the piano or a guitar, high school bands rocking the "Mike Tyson's Punch Out" theme, and I just stumbled on this today.

Phoenix has the Minibosses. I can barely believe the close harmonies these dueling guitarists pull off (sorry about the swears in that last link, just leave the volume down until the dudes start rockin' Castlevania). I guess Jon and I should have followed that muse.
The Advantage from San Diego are pretty cool too.

What does this all say about my generation's music sensibilities?

I'm sorry, this post just keeps growing (and this is totally unrelated)--but I can't help but love this
(You'll love it too if you are into Ben Folds singing old Wham! songs with Rufus Wainwright)

revisted

The previous post has been hanging ominously at that top of this blog for a few weeks now. I have thought about writing something else just so the announcement of stupidity is subordinated by something else. But I can't help but continue to muse, unhappily on the topic. I do this for a few reasons. The first of which has to do with that feeling again being present today as I sat at the back of my grammar class. How can I feel so lost after sitting in the same class for 3 months with people around me who really seem to have caught on? What makes me different from them? So I can feel sorry for myself about this for a while, and I do.

But then I have to think about it from another perspective: How many students will I teach in the future who will be feeling this same way? Are we a majority or a minority? I think that (due to the same people always speaking up in class) that we have to be at least a small majority. I guess what I am saying is that as long as I don't let the "feeling of stupid" keep me from pressing ahead (which it, sadly, has done at times), then I have to remember the feeling—those of us on the cusp of knowledge, indeed, those of us who feel the chasm, are those who are the most humble and therefore the most teachable.

the feeling of stupid

Part of the paradox of learning is realizing how much you really don't know. It is a scary, empty, cold and echoing emotion- the realization of one's ignorance.

there comes a call...

There comes a call for renewal. For reexamination; for action inducing introspection; for being stronger and taking courage. Over the weekend I felt that call . There comes a time to end equivocation. A time for the beginning of being firm in one’s mind . So I am beginning (v) at the beginning (n) beginning (adv?) now.

My goal is to write everyday (like he suggests)
My goal is to walk everyday
My goal is to read everyday
My goal is to trust everyday
My goal is to play everyday
My goal is to exercise…everything (mind, spirit, body, heart) everyday.

Part of becoming what I am hoping to become requires courage. I remember on my mission thinking the exact same thing—realizing that the success that I was waiting for depended largely on how I spent my time (self discipline) but had even more to do with my own belief in my personal capacity to be successful. Once I made it to that place, I had success. Strange, the arithmetic growth.

As such, this site is going to change again. It can’t just be a place of discussion on one topic. It must be a place for the discussion and exposition of all the various things that I am thinking about. I can’t sit down and write every day about how hard getting into graduate school is going to be—and I want to sit down and write every day. Not that I can publish everything that I want to write here... but at least there is the motivation of that potential.

See you tomorrow.