New Music...Cycling Trivialities

Three great new albums came out on Tuesday:

Iron and Wine, "The Shepherd's Dog"
Jose Gonzalez, "In our Nature"
Stars, "In Our Bedroom After the War"

Nearly every song of each new album is streaming on their respective Myspace pages (which I have linked above). I wish I had more time to write a nice review for each of them. It is going to have to suffice to say that the Iron and Wine is my favorite, if least commercial. Sam Beam obviously has more going for him than superb beard growing abilities. The Gonzalez is much like his first album, "Veneer"--same sweet nylon string guitar, same calming vocal tones, new melodies. The Stars album is the one that I think that may be the easiest to consume by a new audience: Very poppy, very dance-around-in-your-kitcheny. There are two vocalists, a man and a woman. The man's voice sounds like a less sanctimonious Morrissey, the woman's...hmm... like clean, unpasteurized goodness. So check it out.

A side note here, if you are not into buying music and you have a current school email address, may I suggest Ruckus as a way to (legally) stay up on most of the new stuff that is coming out?

A few other musical side notes (hehe, bad pun):

I went to this amazing show the other night. Andrew Bird--you gotta check this guy out. He used to play violin for that great old 90s band Squirrel Nut Zippers and he has "gotta little something new" going now. His two solo-solo albums: "The Mysterious Production of Eggs" and "Armchair Apocrypha" are really really great. But seeing him live just really blew it out of the water for me. It would take me an hour to write up a description of how he runs his show, so let me just say that with the aid of carefully cued delay petals, he is able to perform as a band--even though he is just one guy on a stage. It is amazing. Not only is he a classically trained violinist, he plays guitar, is am amazing vocalist, and (get this) a world class whistler. You heard me right: the man whistles like nobody I have ever heard.

Finally, I thought it would be fun the other day to listen to Stevie Wonder's "At the Close of A Century" four disc anthology all in one sitting. So I did. 5 hours straight Stevie...and man oh man. He is the best. I didn't just sit there and listen, mind you--I did other stuff. I taught my class, went to my seminars, etc. But the old Ipod stayed on the Stevie dial and ne'er did it deviate. (Come to think of it, I actually did the same thing except with the Foo Fighters--who also had a new album come out last Tuesday--a few weeks ago. That was fun too.)

I have thought it might be fun to approach some of my favorite artists this way--listen to whole catalogs at a time(even though the 5 hours of Stevie is hardly his whole catalog).

Imagine listening to the whole Cure catalog in one sitting, or the whole Beatles catalog (or Dave Matthews Band if you are M&B). It would be really fun, if you have the patience for that kind of thing, to pay attention to the trajectory of the music styles...especially in regards to when the music kind of flattens out and stops changing as much (as it almost always does). This may give way to interesting questions. Why, for example, did Stevie write his last big hit in the 80s? Why can't Sir Paul write another Blackbird or Yesterday? What happens?

Those questions left for you to ponder, it's amazing to me that modern technology even allows the multi-album marathon. As first uttered by the Reverend MC Hammer: Sweetness (is my weakness).

Update: New Radiohead next week! Guess what artist marathon is next on my list?

Mamma, if that's moving up, then I'm...

Moving out. Well--maybe just setting up duel residences. Don't worry, Mamma--I'm talking about blog residences. I think that it in the end it is only somewhat (rather than completely) presumptuous of me to move over into two spaces--lest, as one reader puts it--I subject myself (literally and figuratively) to being seen in my swim shorts by folks who didn't sign up for that kind of show (thanks, Audrey).

Throwing up some generic boundaries, which are (as we are learning in that class I mentioned) not very thick and allow for some modulation, will allow, I hope, for a bit more pointed kinds of topics and discussions on both blog spaces. Here is how it will break down as far as I see it at the moment:

My new blog, Stone's Soup (and if you have never read the fable "Stone Soup," you should go to the library and check it out--it usually appears as a picture book and there are at least 10 versions), will be a place where I talk about the issues that, arguably, I care about most: family, friendships, faith, flowers, fiddles, and fish sticks (Okay--got a little carried away with the alliteration there). The Guide will stay basically the same, sans long vacation monologues and other topics where it is likely that there may be swim trunks sightings (again, both literally and figuratively).

So your question may be, "which should I read?" And I guess that is the beauty. You can read both, but at least now you will be more prepared for what you're going to get.

In search for a genre: a blog in crisis

There has been relative radio silence from the Guide (I’m taking to referring to my blog in the third person) in the last few weeks. Understand that it is not from lack of things to say. Rather, it may be attributed to the relative plethora ("Effe, would you say that he has a plethora of piñatas?") of things to say, share and talk about, but the absolute lack of time to say and share them. So for this, dear readers, I apologize.

We are entering the second month of school out here at the UIUC and me and the Academians (yes, I just made that term up) are up to some serious no good. Well, okay—there is actually much good to be said about what is happening here. Which leads me to the first (and only) topic for this evening’s humble post:

I am taking this cool (if mindblowing) class in Genre Theory. In it we have been reading theory about why and how genre is a (sometimes) useful way of classifying and organizing text, action, speech, etc. It’s got me thinking about the genre of this here blog. It’s feeling kind of random for me. Part of the reason that I am feeling this way is that I don’t really have a clear idea of its readership, yet I know that it is no longer just a vacuum blog with no audience whatsoever (it used to be that way). I’ve been teaching my students that composition, to be effective, should have a clear idea of the intended audience. Some blogs do a really good job of this kind of “audience awareness.” Tina and her friends have a nice blog circle going. Michelle, too, seems very aware of and secure in her blog genre. Other bloggers, while not necessarily doing the blog-as-a-way-to-keep-in-touch, organize their blogs around some sort of central theme or rhetorical purpose (I’m thinking of you in particular here, Brandon). I like the idea of blogging within a genre—it seems to give a certain pointedness and purpose to the prose. Blogs that fit within a certain genre somehow communicate more clearly. Maybe it’s because the reader doesn’t have to peruse through the writing to decide if a post has something that they will be interested in. They already know that it will—previous “generic” experience has already proven this to them (and for those of you only used to seeing the word "generic" in a retail situation, work with me here).

This isn’t to say that bloggers like Michelle and Tina only blog about one topic (although they may). Michelle, as most of the readers of this blog will know, blogs about a variety of topics, from Zane wrangling, to gardening, to (most recently) sewing and textile design (which she may not think that I take notice of or think is cool—but I dooo (read that last part like Nacho Libre)). But there is something unifying about the prose that exists there. Perhaps it is Michelle’s personality, wit, writing style (most likely a combination of each of these) that makes the blog compelling to read. Whatever the reason that we read it, it retains certain generic elements that provide readers with expectations for what a new post will contain before we ever click on it. Would you agree (and thanks for letting me use you as an example Shell). A lot of folks’ blogs that I read and admire in the wide world of the academe have similar unifying generic undertones in their blogs. Many of them (actually all of them) are liberal arts professors or grad students, so a common theme in their blog writing is, um, writing (what they are working on, what they hope to do future work about, how their projects are coming along, dissertation progress, etc.). Many of them have other (often related) interests which see some light from time to time—and usually these interests are totally awesome and hilarious (I am thinking specifically of Spencer’s “Found Friday” series.) But usually (I may even go for that “always” change again), those interests outside of what may be considered academic, are interesting in that they serve to give clues toward their personalities—perhaps (and especially when we don’t know them as well), to make more “human” connections with them. That's always nice.

Anyway—that is a lot to say to get to my point which is basically this: I don’t feel like my blog really has a very unified genre that it fits within…and I kinda wish that it did. It is attempting, at once, to be a family, friend, academic, music, food, faith, book review, art, & random funny stuff blog. It has no real sense of audience, I think. If we took a poll, I think we would find that the majority of my readership is family—there are a few of my closest friends sprinkled in there (though I think that you might be the only one reading, Mat), and perhaps one person in the academic world reads (thanks Spencer). If I have left you out, don’t be offended—only let it add to my continued struggle for some sort of understanding of who I am writing for.

Part of me wants to say that I am writing mostly for myself. But I think that isn’t really true. We write, usually, not just because we have something to say but because we have something to share—and that would require (by necessity) an audience. I do maintain an offline journal that I am trying to be better about writing in for the writing that may fit into the former genre. That solves part of the problem, I guess. I’m also thinking about the future of this blog space. Over the next few years, there is the potential of this blog being read by more of my peers within the academy. Especially if I publicize it as a space where I am talking about academic things. This, in many ways, puts pressure on what topics I should or shouldn’t entertain. Maybe it shouldn’t—but it will. Anyone who blogs is aware of the sensitivity that a real audience requires. Who, for example, has ever posted something—maybe even a sentence—and then deleted it? Who has ever deleted a comment? Self censorship seems like a kind of sad state to be in. But I really think that it is a reality for all writers to at least some extent.

Maybe faithful readers of the Guide will say, "No, Jon. Just leave it be. You don’t post that often anyway." And maybe you’re right. But I can’t help the thought that my mom is just not going to care about the Andrew Bird concert that I went to Friday night that I want to blog about. My brother Nick (and perhaps many others) probably didn’t get this far down on this particular semi-academic sounding post (if you did, Nick, way to be man. Way to be.). And there are other, potential future academic colleagues of mine who may have a passing interest in my home life, but potentially not in long descriptions of family vacations (like the series that appeared here over the summer). Taking the idea of “faithful” readers in a different direction, my interest in and pursuit of faith is something that surely puts me outside of the academic blog norm.

So there you have it: a blog in genre crisis. I am considering several alternatives—though the most obvious (multiple blog spaces) just doesn’t seem to fit at the moment. There are other ways to manage the variety of topics that I mention above--tagging is one obvious way. But even that doesn't solve the tension that I feel when I write about all the things that are of interest to me for a (maybe too) diverse audience. Never fear, I will continue as commenced until I figure this out. Until then, dear readers of the Guide, endure.

Update: After talking it over with Tina, I think I may move to two blog spaces (though that still sounds a bit presumptuous to me). Details to follow.

If you like Apes and Phil Collins as much as I think you do...

In the Air Tonight

From the 1967 film 1999 A.D.

*As seen at metaspencer

relieving the pressure

So, I took down poor Miss South Carolina's botched response. Is it fair to say that something like that could happen to any of us? Perhaps not to that extreme, but my intentions of putting her up weren't so much to poke fun as they were to attempt some kind of tele-empathy session. Is it any wonder that we fear public speaking more than we fear death?

Anyway, I finished up the first full week of classes (the first week that I speak of below was really only 3 days). Things are going well, I think. Though the pacing/routine hasn't yet solidified. Once that gets in place I think that I will start to feel more productive.

We've been in Champaign a month now. I have to admit that the fun "newness" has begun to fade. Which is good, I guess, because in it's wake is the feeling of familiarity and home. We know how to get around town now pretty well. We have a few favorite treat shops. Campus also has begun to be more familiar as well. I have done some exploring, begun studying in the same places (so far, the best reading place I have found is in the reference section of our Main Library--nice soft chairs, computers nearby for hourly email check/fix).

I think that the "newness" feeling may return once the weather begins to cool down significantly. It's been 20 years since I lived in a place where it snows. I don't even know what it is like to have to function productively in cold weather. My only exposure to cold weather since our move from Logan has been in vacation visits to my parents in Wyoming and Utah. And how did I handle the cold weather while there? By staying indoors and watching many movies. I remember the one time that I attempted driving while there was snow on the roads. It was during an attempt to start the trek home to Arizona from Utah. When our car slid off the road down the street from my parents' house, we drove back, got out of the car, and stayed for three more days.