Thursday, January 31, 2008

Writing With Video

Lots of action over at my Writing With Video blog. This class--I must say--is super fun.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

blog explosion

I wonder if we will look back in 20 years and think, remember blogs? What a ridiculous fad. Maybe. Though I bet that blogging will, instead, evolve. Stay tuned for that, I guess.

Instead, we have our hands a venerable blog explosion. Which is my way of saying that in the course of one week, I have gone from writing on one blogspace (I discontinued the breakoff of this blog a month or so ago, in case a few of you have links or feeds from it), to--count them--four blogs. I know: holy cow.

This is the first. The original. Woot.

The second you can find here, and is the blog I am required to keep for my writing with video class.

The third is a collaboration. I am one of 16 bloggers. It is the blog for my class. My students will be looking for "text in its natural habitat" taking pictures, posting links... it should be fun. I hope.

The fourth is unlinkable, but is in connection with my New Media theory class. It's on a secure site, and is, I'm afraid, the most boring of the three. Feel free to keep an eye on the others if you'd like.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

MLK break-down

Several Things:

First: Schools back on, these are my classes:
New Media Theory: this one should be really good, but already the reading load is freaking me out a bit. I had 200 pages in this class alone this week. That is about twice as much as my seminars last semester.
Classical Rhetoric: Aristotle, Socrates, Plato. You know. All those old, white, dead guys with togas.
Writing Studies II: the continuation of my "introduction to the field," this class is more focused on methodology whereas last semester was more of a historical survey.
Writing With Video: This is a last minute addition. Due to low enrollment, this class is only meeting one day a week instead of two making it doable for me. Four classes sounds like a lot, right? Well, since classical rhet is really more of a lecture class than a seminar (check that--IS a lecture class), I am going to switch it to an audit--go to class, listen to lecture, do little else. WWV should be really fun (if very time consuming) and will qualify me to teach the class in the future, which may or may not be totally awesomes. What is totally awesomes is that as part of the enrollment for the class, they check out a MacBook to each student for the whole semester. Oh, heck yes. I will hopefully be buying one at the end of the year, but this will tide me over until that glorious moment arrives.

Second: Finally saw Helvetica. I was really engaged by it. The rhetoric of typography is something that I hadn't given much thought to, but should! I look forward to future studies here.

Didn't manage to see The King of Kong: a fistful of quarters yet, but I'm on the waiting list at the library.

Third: I was able to do quite a lot of recording over the break. The "Hummingbird" demo is finally done and up on my myspace, and "Transparent" only needs a few more vocal overdubs (I'd also like Jon T. to play some piano on it for me, so some long distance collaboration is going to need to happen). Recording music is really fun for me, but I am a hopeless amateur at it. My vocal mic is super low quality, I have no sonic mixing abilities, and the songs suffer because of it. But, at least I am getting them recorded, right?

Hummingbird is really a favorite of mine, but it never comes off right when I try to record it. As I have mentioned elsewhere, imagine Gladys Knight singing it with a gospel choir in the background. I'll post more about Transparent when it is ready for listening.

I guess that's it for now. Give this a watch if you are so inclined:

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

of course...

I've had a great break. I read, relaxed, watched some good movies, played Lego Star Wars with my boy, started up an exercise/diet regimen... all while fending off the assaults on my immune system fired continuously at me by my nearly-always-sick kids.
So, of course, on this the last week before school starts back up, the week I had planned to do the majority of my teaching prep, the only time during this break that I can't be resting, the last of those defenses fail and I get a horrible cough.

Of course.

Sunday, January 06, 2008

Election Addition (open season)

I approach this post with a bit of trepidation, mostly because I feel like a bit of a novice trying to get some chops in a room full of well-seasoned players. But chopping I am.

Tina and I finished watching the New Hampshire debate this evening. Something about this election has really got our attention, and I think that can be said about many younger voters in our country (though we are very quickly approaching a time where we can no longer be considered a part of that group). It is an exiting race for many reasons--and we're into it (and not, I might add, necessarily in agreement).

I point to this post to establish my own current political status and/or standing. I am not willing anymore to be attached easily with a certain party or politically blanketed organization. I am frustrated by what I see as the political band-wagoning that occurs around the hot-button moral issues that divide the parties. I think that its nearly impossible to be aligned with all of the issues within a given party, and am generally turned off when I encounter voters who think that it is that simple. Granted, there was a reason that parties were organized—and I imagine, as I get my chops, the reasons for those party convergences will become more clear to me, but generally speaking, I have a tough time seeing the connection between (for example) a desire to keep taxes low and the right to life—they’re both “conservative” though. I’m just trying to figure out how.

Not only have I not decided who I am going to vote for in the primaries (though I know I have to vote in the primary of the party I am currently registered under), I have not decided yet whether “party” will have anything whatsoever to do with who I vote for in November where it’s open season, as it were. I feel a bit uneasy being aligned with any party, actually. Maybe this is the result of the apathy that is so common among us under-30s. But, even as my apathy begins to slide away (and my 30th birthday quickly approaches), I am not yet convinced that either team represents enough of my budding sense of personal "views." I'm glad, really, that I have remained unsure--it feels more honest to me than to have jumped on any bandwagon, despite what is on my current voter-card.

Truth is, I just loved watching the same-party members debate. I thought it was profoundly interesting to see members of the same team hash out the huge differences of principle and policy that exist within that team. I think that in watching those debates, we can get a glimpse of the complexities that underpin the issues that we might normally consider simple. The issues are not simple. So I am having some fun being the audience of these candidates’ rhetoric. My request is simple: Persuade me. I’m open.