A little something nice to start the summer (linktastic edition)

If you know me, you know I love the Cure. I was 14 when Andy and I first started sneaking tapes from his older brother's room and dubbing copies. It started with songs like "Boys Don't Cry" and Plastic Passion but I soon became literally infatuated with the their then, most recent release Wish (1992). It is still my favorite album--and I suppose that makes me unique as a fan. Most site their 89 album Disintegration as their best, and I agree that it is an amazing album, but Wish just captures my adolescence so perfectly. The songs were easy to play on guitar; I was only just learning. The guitarist Porl Thompson had a unique sound that I fawned over and tried to imitate--found most prominently on cuts like "From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea" and "Cut." And the tunes were, for the most part (and despite the "gloom and doom" persona that Robert's hair and make-up may have incited from casual observers of the posters on my wall [parents]), the band was at least 50% pop. The pop tracks were fun to sing and the intense songs were the perfect foil for my mild brand of teenage angst. Both songs were fun to play. In many ways, Only Anything (the greatest teenage band ever to have not gotten big in Tucson circa 93-97) was born of The Cure.

In 96 the Cure released Wild Mood Swings which became an album full of songs that Tina and I now consider the soundtrack of our early courtship (especially "Mint Car" and "Jupiter Crash"). 2000 saw the release of Bloodflowers and later in 2003 they released an eponymous album. Both didn't connect with me as much as their previous work had--which is likely due to changing tastes. Still, a day rarely goes by that I don't hear a Cure song or two.

A new album is due in September--their 13th studio album (Next year is the band's 30th year together so there are other exciting things rumored to be on the release horizon), but they are going to release a new single every month until then on the 13th of that month--kinda cool.

This first single "The Only One" is great. It reminds me of one of the reasons that I started liking the band to begin with--the pop love. Check out Porl's head tattoos! Woah!

big, gigantic sigh of relief

The semester is all but over. I have 14 papers to read and grade, and that should take me a few hours tomorrow, but beyond that, my own coursework has been signed, sealed, and delivered.

There have been several bloggable items occur in the last month since last postage. Starting from the top:

I said goodbye to the White Macbook that I was able to use as part of my affiliation with Writing with Video. It wasn't as teary as I had expected, though, since I purchased a last-gen, mega-marked down ($499 off the regular price) black Macbook several weeks ago. It is so, super sweet. This is the very first laptop that I have ever bought and I spend evenings polishing it with a diaper. Many thanks to friend Mat for giving me access to Grandma Powerbook for so many years... she has now passed, but made me look super retro in my first year in the hood here.

I had a great experience in that Writing with Video class previously posted about and am finding all sorts of ways that New Media works into some of my more general academic interests. If you'd like to see the 4 projects that preceded the final project, please feel free to visit my blog from that class (see sidebar link). They are all there.

Related to those New Media interests, I submitted an abstract as part of a panel for next year's CCCC's (Conference on College Composition and Communication). It is my very first attempt to participate in a large-scale conference. My co-panelists are all advanced students in the program and I feel totally lucky to be included. Our panel (in a very small nutshell) is focused on how internet communities are poised to influence "real world" democratic processes. We still have to get accepted, but if we do (and here is the most exciting part), the conference is next March in San Francisco!

Hmm..let's see, what else...Oh--the most important thing

There are two sweet women who deserve more words from me than I could sit here and write. When I was a child, I called the first Mom and the other, my own children call by the same name. It's a popular name: I just happen to know and love two of the best.

the sparrow

Here is a first look at my final writing with video project.




(the sparrow)

a boy on his own with the birds

seriously?

Let's see if the boys can restore some faith. I can't help but doubt it.

remix and parody

Or is it plagiarism? Whatever it is, I think it is pretty darn funny:





What do you think? Is this in bad taste?

Bon Iver and moments of clarity

Haven't had much time to blog lately. Things are busy. I did get to go to a wonderful show this evening and felt a stirring of desire for a reawakening of musical creativity in my life (that always happens when I see an inspiring performance).

Justin Vernon is Bon Iver--the guy is just fresh and real and as down-to-earth as you could ever hope. You can still sense that passion in his voice--a voice that says "I still believe in the words that I am singing." The falsetto--and the way in which he keeps it going--boggles the hopelessly baritone mind.

Enjoy "Lump Sum" if you have a few minutes.




I'll be spending time with my family over the next week or so. I look forward to it. Being around your people has a way of re-rooting you--helping you to realize what is most important. They are good people and I look forward to traveling, tributes to a now resting Bee, long chats and strolls, and just generally clearing the ol' noggin for the home stretch.

junkie's lament

Well, I'm sitting here after one day feeling like a junkie. Seriously! One day away from the my little hoarded repository of info, and I've got the proverbial shakes. I guess you could call me undisciplined; I would agree--it's public enemy #1 around these parts. But, today--even away from the 'feeds wasn't any better as far as distractions go. I was still unable to concentrate for long periods of time--as I mentioned to my brother, distraction has worked its way into my workflow. It's part of the process.

So, I may alter the fast parameters a bit or abandon the experiment all together. Maybe I'll just stay off it for the day, and soak my tired feet in it come nighttimes. Though, today wasn't a day that being away from the internet was that useful or helpful--well, I guess that it was good to be away from the constant flow of information that has little or nothing to do with me--I should just delete those feeds, I suppose. Trying to avoid it was only a testament to how much I use it.

Listen to that justification, folks. I thought that I could live without it, I guess no, no no.

Tonight I have to grade some papers, don't want to go, go, go.

(oh, and for those keeping score--24 hours = 300 unread feeds).

Fasting and Feasting

In order to maximize productivity, and in the name of curbing some of my distractions (oh all right--my biggest distraction) , I am going to try an experiment next week. Starting this evening, I am going to seriously restrict my internet usage for one week. By restrict, I mean that I am not going to use it for anything except work (which would entail email and using the library for research). Even with my email, I am going to designate "email check" times--maybe three times a day near meal times. I am one of those people who keeps his email inbox totally free of unread items, which means that I am constantly checking it. It's pretty ridiculous, actually.

The biggest "sacrifice" will be leaving my Google Reader RSS feed aggregator alone for the whole week. I rarely surf the internet anymore, preferring to have my interests sucked nicely into a common place via rss feeds. But I have A LOT of subscriptions and get hundreds of updates every day. I probably spend at LEAST an hour throughout the day cruising through them. Next Saturday, when I break the fast, I'll post some stats on how many unread items I have. My guess? I think it will be well over 1000.

What am I going to do instead? Read. I have several books I need to read in addition to the articles assigned as part of my regular week's work. A friend of mine (in my cohort in the program) and I were talking about the difficulty of diving into scholarship in the field without much theoretical training to support the jump. We were both Lit majors and started the program without MAs, so swimming through professional scholarship can be a bit rough, especially when those scholars base their arguments or use as examples prominent, complicated critical theory. For example, in my current study of Visual Rhetoric, many of the articles that I am reading site semiotics, structuralism and post structuralism as important theoretical concepts for their analysis. But if I have never done much study of those theories (and considering that even the theory that I have done some study of is very abstract--as theory tends to be--and therefore difficult to completely grasp), it makes reading the article very difficult. I suppose this is the case for a lot of new graduate students, so rather than complain anymore, I am going to take on the problem on my own. In the future, I am going to have "theory Saturdays" where I spend at least an hour on the weekend away from the assigned texts of that week and focus on one or two of the theorists mentioned in the readings. Summer will also be a good time to get my theory on...feasting on knowledge.

But since it's crunch time, I just need to read as much as I can all the time, thus the timely fast. Fasting from food, as I know from past experience, always gives me a feeling of (hunger) cleansing clarity in my corporeal constitution, so I am hoping this will do the same for my mind, man. Groovy.

good (and bad) distractions

I know, I know. I never finished my Jr. college treatise. I'll come back around to it eventually. It remains an important topic to explore (and one that people seem to have some interesting things to say about), but I've lost my original steam, so I better move on rather than remain in the between-lands.

We've reached that point in the semester where the panic starts--that place where I have filled my shelves with potential sources for my end-of-the semester writing projects, but have, as of yet, not been able to comprehend, glean, or even crack open most of them. Basically, I have a month until the end of the semester--which seems like a long time, but it will sneak by so quickly and soon I will be holed up in my basement working it. Grumpily.

First paper, due April, 28th. I'll be writing on blogging (again) and rhetorical communities. I have one good source on the subject--and hope that it flowers a few times. Grief.

Second paper, due date is flexible, but I am shooting for May 4th (one week later). This one is tougher to define--I am still working on the precise subject of my paper. I am trying to survey the histories of visual studies--both visual culture and visual rhetoric and so I can somehow draw a line between their connection. I haven't yet put a finger on good reason--a "so what?"--for the project, other than I want to know more about it. And that's not gonna cut it for 15-20 pages. I need a reason. A lens. Something specific to ground my study and give me something to look for... instead of just the hundreds and hundreds of scary pages of peruse! panicpanicpanicpanic

To remain sane, I have my share of distractions. Which (as part of a vicious cycle) often end up taking up more of my time than they should, reducing sanity further rather than helping to maintain it.

One thing I did this week was make a list of bands the I like that are coming out with new albums this summer:

The Cure (May 6?--this one is unconfirmed)
Death Cab for Cutie (May 13)
Jason Mraz (May 20)
My Morning Jacket (June 10)
Coldplay (June 17)
My Brightest Diamond (June 17)
Weezer (June)

Some of those I am more excited about than others--but still: sweet.

I get to see two really great shows in the second week of April: Bon Iver and Ben Folds. Tina even gets to accompany me to see BF since my parents will be with us when he comes (yay for family visits!).

I love this blog that I happened upon today. But you already knew that I think Andrew Bird is the bees knees. This is some of the "composition study" that I think needs more attention in my field. There have gotta be some interesting questions to wander through connecting the creative/invention processes of all kinds of composition--the layers at play are made up of similar stuffs, even if the details are different. Blast you disciplinary boundaries. Just you try and stop my illegal immigration.

I suppose that is the end of my post, though it is just the beginning of my distractions.

Happy St. Paddy's (Oh boy, oh boy, oh Danny)

reminsce

Reminiscing is something I used to be so good at. I have posted before, I think, about my vanishing ability to be nostalgic. It's one of those things... getting older... blah blah blah (is anyone sensing the irony here in these first few lines?).

Music has a way of cutting through that accumulated layer of callus. I had a moment the other day when a random song I hadn't heard in a while brought things back. Back to my days at community college circa '97. The song was off that dog's Retreat From the Sun--an album I don't listen to that much anymore. It brought back that fearless, carefree, lust-for-life, love-for-girlfriend, who-cares-about-school feeling that only 19-year-olds can feel.

The remembrance of that attitude helps contextualize and screen the memories that I am about to shuffle through. The most important thing for me then wasn't education, it wasn't school, it was music, it was my not-yet-then-but-three-years-later-to-be wife. So my thoughts here are of the 10-years-ago-looking back variety (and, apparently the super-long-hyphenated adjective variety too).

Let's do it this way. What is good about community college:

It's affordable for a large majority of...

You know what? I don't have this in me right now. Tina and I are watching "Dan in Real Life" and it is much too silly and sweet to be slogging through the virtues/verisimilitudes of the modern Jr. college.

How about a survey of songs that make you remember...anyone?

Visual and Abstract Thinking

I came across this a few days ago but didn't have a chance to watch it until just now. It is awesome! Kermit is so...so totally far out, man. C... had some vintage Sesame Street up a few weeks ago, and this is so vintage it predates my experience. Until now!



If you liked that there are a few other videos up here with the same theme. Those "Old School" Sesame Street DVDs may just be must haves for this household of Muppet enthusiasts.

p.s. My little "history of" series will continue soon.

segway (from 29-30)...updated

I have had a great time reading and thinking about the variety of responses that my post a few days ago received. My post, admittedly, was haphazard—I wasn’t expecting to strike a chord. But, I must say, I am delighted that I did.

Let me recap and respond to a few of the points that were brought up by my respondents:

• There are several students out there like Nick: Students revved up about their particular choice, bummed out about the requireds that seem to waste time and money, and in a situation (like Audrey mentions) where the final few years—years that are meant to be spent focusing on a specialization—are tripped up by tying up loose ends. Sometimes, due to the separate stories that students often get from the variety of well-intentioned advisors, students end up spending the last semester of their senior year (or a semester post-senior year, as I did) tying up those loose ends. I kind of digressed there. Back to students revved up about their major and using Nick as a case in point, I happen to know that he didn’t know what he wanted to do right off the bat. Correct me if I am wrong, yo, but weren’t you first going to do construction management, electrical engineering, and then you decided on media arts? There seems to be something useful about having some room to try something out, try again, and try yet again. General ed courses give students room and time to breathe a bit here—without penalizing them too much for initial wrong choices. Often (but not always), those classes may just fit in and count for some of the general ed classes required.
• Anonymous makes some great points about the citizenship building that general ed courses potentially offer students. The part of her response that I keep coming back to is where she mentions that future moment where the benefits of that general education kick in—the good communication skills, the math chops, the “broad understanding of how society works.” I like the idea of this future moment—it is nebulous though. Am I more effective public speaker because of the (very practical) Speech Comm Associates degree that I got from Pima? Probably—but I can’t remember a lick of the algebra or science classes that I took.
• Both Audrey and Tina found their interests through the general ed classes that they had to take—but both argue (or would argue since Tina didn’t mention it but I know it to be the case) that it is good/effective teaching that plays a big part in that selection. I know this is true. In a future post in this series, I will talk a little bit more about what good teachers and mentors can do for undergrads (but also talk about why I think it--especially the mentoring--doesn’t happen that often).

• I failed to mention Mat's post, which I think is an important one. Mat is a smart and successful guy who chose not to go to college--and there are a lot of guys like him out there. What Mat didn't mention was his numerous technological certifications: expensive, time-consuming stamps of approval from Mircosoft and other companies basically saying to the world "This dude knows his stuff." What is interesting to me about his post is that he still feels a bit stymied in regards to his job options--that a degree prevents him from a certain type of job currently filled by former frat boys (hopefully, no longer drunk). Mat's a smart guy. He's every bit as qualified for those jobs. Every bit, that is, except for that bit of cultural capital we call a diploma. So that's tough. As he also mentions, going to college is largely about "learning to learn," but that doesn't mean that those who don't go aren't learners. They just don't have the piece of paper designating them as such. There is more here... I'll try to come back to this "outsider" perspective in a subsequent post.
  

I want to spend a little time talking about my experience at the community college. I wonder how many of us “academics” start out there. For reasons both understood and elusive, the association with community education gets downplayed a bit on resumes and CVs. To use a Ben Folds allusion (ooh—elusive allusions), they sometimes seem to be the academic equivalent of a “red-neck past.” As I alluded to (third time’s a charm), I “graduated”—or took an Associates degree from one. I received two diplomas from Pima, actually: one with a concentration in Speech Communication and the other in Liberal Arts (ha! Talk about nebulous!). I have mixed feelings about the experience, as there are definite negatives and positives to staring in that route.

But, alas, I’ll go there in my next post. It’s late.

Thanks again for the responses, folks. Please, please keep it up!

How far away is Tennessee?

I’m exited to get on with the next educational history episode. I had no idea that it would prompt an actual response or two (something that this blog has a hard time doing). I’ll get to that in the next 48 hours or so…

Until then, consider this question: what do the following (favorite) bands, June, and 6 hours have to do with each other?

Pearl Jam
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss Featuring T Bone Burnett
My Morning Jacket
Death Cab for Cutie
Sigur Ros
Ben Folds
The Bluegrass Allstars Feat. Luke Bulla, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas (!!), Bela Fleck,
Iron & Wine
Broken Social Scene
Rilo Kiley
Aimee Mann
Jose Gonzalez

(less favorite, but still cool)
Metallica
Kanye West
Jack Johnson
The Allman Brothers Band
The Raconteurs
Willie Nelson
B.B. King
Ozomatli
Tegan & Sara
!!!
Jakob Dylan
Vampire Weekend

(plus dozens more...)

Bonnaroo. Which is apparently only about 6 hours south of here. I would love love love to go… I mean My Morning Jacket, Death Cab, Ben Folds, Iron and Wine, Jose Gonzalez and BSS all in one place? With Jerry Douglas to boot? And the chance to see two contemporary legends: Peal Jam and Metallica...AHHH!!! but tickets are like $250, plus camping/lodging expenses and food over the four days—a bit more than just petty cash. Especially if I am going to be buying one of these at roughly the same time…

I never went to Coachella when it was about the same distance away either.

Getting older stinks.

Blast.

What do you know?

I've been pondering this question lately. Knowledge, unlike physical stuff, accumulates without taking up any space--and is, therefore, easy to forget about. I would like to believe, that is, that it is just forgotten about and not actually lost. But I know that is a dream.

As I approach my semi-significant birthday (or that year in which I have to accept, once and for all, that I am an adult :(), I can't help but think back to how I have spent my 20s. What have I been doing? By and large, the answer is easy: I have been sitting in class. So I thought it would be fun if, over the next week or so, I reminisced a bit about my educational history. With ten years of class sitting behind me, I should know a lot of stuff, right? I wish. Really, knowledge accumulation is on my mind lately because I am feeling that tinge of conscience that says: You should be pretty good at this by now... so what's the problem?

In 1997 (I know this is a bit more than 10 years ago, but this is where it starts) I enrolled at Pima Community College in Tucson. That first semester in school, I don't recall exactly what my plan was--or if I even had one. I just knew that I needed to take some general courses and so I enrolled in some general courses. I took Writing 101, Western Civ 101, and Sociology 101. My writing instructor was a very quiet woman--and though I did well in the class, I wasn't particularly inspired--certainly I didn't think: "I think this is what I would like to do as a part of my own career." Western Civ was taken as a part of a history or liberal arts requirement. The class was simple. All I remember of the instructor was that he was he looked like Ed Rooney from Ferris Bueller's Day Off and said the word "modernity" a lot. I enrolled in sociology because my dad's BA and MS (MA?) were in Sociology and I kind of considered myself a chip off that block, so maybe I would be into it. My instructor was a part-time teacher, full-time biker, often wore leather to class (oh--and don't forget the Harley doo-rag) and had a long bushy beard. I remember that when he spoke, I thought that the stuff he said was smart. His biker-ness gave him a certain down to earth approach to teaching that I liked.

But I remember nothing knowledge-wise from that first semester. I would wager that I forgot it all the moment that the final test was done. Granted, my mind was on other things. Second semester wasn't much different. Writing 102 also failed to make much of an imprint on me, I took Western Civ 102 from the same instructor for the easy A and also took an intro to guitar class so that I could get some practical knowledge to go along with the self-taught stuff. Again, nothing really stuck. I read Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" for the first of what would be dozens of times and wrote a final paper comparing my favorite Bradbury novels, Something Wicked this Way Comes and Dandelion Wine.

This first year is significant for a number of reasons, though. First--it represents one of the sad truths about post-secondary education: most of it doesn't sink in, is taken just to pass, and is quickly discarded. At least it was for me, but I have a hunch that I am not alone. Granted, I was at a community college. My instructors were likely underpaid adjunct faculty. None of them were really trained to inspire or guide students in one particular direction or another. Student apathy mixed with good ol' 18-year-old ignorance and garnished, perhaps, with consumer culture ideologies makes education another thing to be purchased, used, and then discarded. Knowledge gathering is barely on the radar and therefore is rarely, at first (if ever), a priority. It is ironic that I am now on the other side of the desk, so to speak. I teach students with similar ideologies. Most are in my 103 an 104 classes just to pass-- to check it off--and why shouldn't they? Why should I expect them to be any different than I was? Because this is a major university and that was just a community college? I don't like that argument. But still, in a culture where education is consumed instead of accumulated and guarded, introduction classes are the most disposable of all, are they not? And while I now realize the importance of the knowledge to be gained in the introductory course--indeed, I am a practitioner of it, my students likely don't/won't/can't.

So part of me wants to blame this consumerism ideology on my difficulty with accumulating or "laying up in store" the knowledge that I desire and now need to be successful in my field. I know it is more complicated than that... but its got me wondering about how I might subvert the tendency as I approach my own students and teaching. Can they be taught to care more about what they know? I don't know.

Stay tuned for the next chapter: "Two Associates Degrees, or How to Waste your Time Expensively with Little to Nothing to Show for It"

Out of town guests...

...are fun.

.docx why dost thou torment me

bane? Yes. Apparently it is a better, more stable, smaller file... but good grief.

Get this: A .docx file saved with Microsoft Office '07 will NOT open in Mac Office '08.

I can't think of anything more frustrating when it comes to collecting papers from my students.

(I know--.doc will work pretty much universally, but why have .docx on both versions of the software if it doesn't work universally? Apparently, there will be some sort of conversion available later, but in the meantime-- all I can say is blec.)

Blec.

the future of compostion

If you have 6 minutes, take it to watch this cool presentation from Rutgers. It really lays plain some of the reasons that it is exciting to be a part of the English field at this very unique time in history.

How had I not heard anything about this...?

I'm losing touch. (click the title)

apply this...

There are very few things I like less than filling out job applications. I find the process mind-numbing--an exercise in the kind of rhetorical cookery detested by Plato: "Hire me! Look how awesome I am at saying good things about myself and searching for many precious minutes for archaic contact information for my references which you will likely only glance at and not really actually use."

I am filling out applications for summer work. Someone save me.

a hunerd

July 30, 2005.  That was the day of my very first blog post.  I had a weblog that I kept prior to moving in at "blogger," circa 2002-2003 (a wretched thing if any of you remember it--back when blogging was neeeeeew)--which makes me a blogger for over 5 years. 

This is a blog celebrating this blog's 100th blog post.  blog blog blog.

It's taken almost three years to get 100 posts up.  That's way under one post a week.  I just read a much more prolific blogger's post who was on his 100oth in about the same time (I don't even know the guy other than that he is in my field. I read his blog so I can figure out what it is people in my field do. I will spare you a link).

This entry represents blogging at its finest. When the blog has become the topic of the blog itself.  ick. 

just to be clear...

I had a great discussion with my students today about the video I posted yesterday. We were talking about what persuades us (or hasn't yet persuaded us) to vote. This question of "effect" is one that kind of puzzles rhetoricians. Do people really act as a result of persuasive rhetoric, or is rhetoric just one of many influences that eventually causes action. We (my class and I) looked at a bunch of posters on this site, talked a little about Mtv ads, watched that video and--in the end--came to some interesting realizations.

One of those realizations--or maybe admittances--was that young people (my students are 18 and 19) don't vote. One student said that he didn't vote because he didn't really know a lot about the candidates and didn't want to just vote to vote. It felt irresponsible. So the posters weren't really that persuasive. Another student said that he liked the posters but that it really took something spoken before he was moved in any particular direction. That made me think of the video I posted yesterday.

I didn't know if I would have time to show it because I had other stuff to cover--so I held off on it until the end of class. We did have about 5 minutes after my planned lesson on library research, so we watched the video.

I didn't know who a lot of the celebrities were in the video, but I knew they would, so I asked them to write down the names of people they knew. When the video was over, I asked them whether or not they felt the video was persuasive. They did. I asked them why-- The student who said he liked oral persuasion said "I don't know why I am persuaded, but I am! I've got goose bumps!" "And we believe what our goose bumps tell us, don't we!" I shot back. "Yes!" he said. Ha, ha--I had lured them into my trap.

Then we started talking about all the celebrities in the video and why their influence helped the message be persuasive. We didn't have a lot of time, but it was here that I revealed my purpose in showing them this video that really doesn't have any clear mention of Obama's politics or views on the issue other than that he wants change and "Yes we can" get it. We talked about ethos (credibility), pathos (emotional appeal), and logos (logical appeal) and how the video was almost completely based on pathos--the least stable of all of the appeals. It was a great teaching moment where I was able to talk about being weary of rhetoric that appeals only to the emotions (which most visual rhetoric is aimed at--at least initially). We mentioned how sad it would be if they voted for a candidate based on the feeling their TV ad gave them without doing any research (ah ha! Research!) about what that candidate really believes--where they might find some drastic personal incongruities.

If I would have had more time, I could have spoken a little about using that kind of rhetoric as a springboard to investigation. If they like a certain candidate based on his or her ads on TV, start doing that research. Start doing some soul searching.

So, my own recent decision to align myself with the Democratic party (instead of flailing as an independent) and support Obama does not come lightly and without much thought (or without some help from an understanding, very conservative, friend). And I am still doing work to figure out my exact stance on the complex issues our Nation faces. But that I am thus working is a marked change from my past apathetic political life. And at least I know now which way I lean. I hope that doesn't alienate me from my friends and family who are persuaded differently. Being a religious democrat (like being a religious academic), is often incorrectly spun--as outlined in this great speech--as a paradox or conflict of interest. I just don't think that is the case.

I'm persuaded...

I've been there. It's...

Heaven.

10 legends and a comedian...

yes, that is Steve Martin jamming that banjo. How many other legends can you name?

clever...

Jedi Ginsu Knife Commercial - Watch a funny movie here

Improv Everywhere...

This is one of the coolest things I have seen in a while. Check out the YouTube page for other work from this extremely creative group.

Writing With Video

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

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.

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:

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.

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.

Everyone’s a critic, Best music of 2007

I’m still not very hip. Many of the critics' favorites of the year are albums that I can’t get my pop-minded head into yet (I’m thinking of LCD Soundsystem, Of Montreal, Animal Collective, Okkervil River, among others). I’ve tried—maybe I’ll have caught up by next year.

This is the top 5 breakdown of albums that I listened to very frequently over the course of the past year (four bands tie for 5th place, as each had a good solid month, at least, of being the main event):

5. Jose Gonzalez: In Our Nature- This is more of the same from Gonzalez, but I liked the last album Veneer so much that it wasn’t a disappointment to have another album full of short, haunting, nylon-string guitar ballads. This album also scores high on the “your-mom-wouldn’t-object” meter.
Arcade Fire: Neon Bible- I recently watched these guys perform via Austin City Limits. Talk about chaos! Arcade Fire may have gotten too big to have the “indie cred” that they had after their first album, but this record has some really great tunes on it. If your mom likes Bruce Springsteen, she may like this album. (just saw this: cool?)
Feist: the Reminder- Feist had an amazing year. Apparently, getting on an Ipod commercial is about the equivalent of being one of Oprah’s favorite things. Your mom may already own this album.
The Shins: Wincing the Night Away- This was the major album of our California road trip over the summer. The Shins are one of the only bands that Tina really likes on this list, so they got a lot of love on Highway 1. There are a couple of really sweet tunes on this, my favorite of the three Shins albums. There is also a high possibility that your mom may like the Shins.
4. Iron and Wine: The Shepherd’s Dog- this one scores high on the sweet-o-meter but low on the your-mom-o-meter. I can’t think of anything else to say, so why don’t you just see for yourself.
3. Wilco: Sky Blue Sky- If the first half of the year belonged to My Morning Jacket, the second half was all about the Wilco. I have had Wilco on my Ipod for at least a few years, but never really “got” it. Then, while watching their hour-long Austin City Limits show (ACL is my gateway to cool, in case you haven’t noticed) I was BLOWN AWAY by what was happening on stage. It was exactly as I was describing in my post about the Jimmy Eat World show, except the opposite. These guys were creating something intensely personal and incredibly new on stage. The current lead guitarist of Wilco, Nels Cline, is—well—you’ll have to watch him in action to see what I mean. Your mom will not think that Jeff Tweedy is cute unless he is clean shaven (even then it's a stretch).
2. Andrew Bird: Armchair Apocrypha- Andrew Bird is my new favorite. I have been raving about him for months on the blog already, so no need to do that anymore. Please, please—if this guy plays your town—go and see him. You will not be disappointed. (it makes me kind of proud that I have been listening to AB via Squirrel Nut Zippers for years—though his solo stuff is so much different—and so much better—than his fiddle work with the SNZ). Your mom will be excited that, at least for somebody’s kid, those violin lessons paid off. There is something else Bird is known for; can you guess it?
1. Radiohead: In Rainbows- see this post for some Radiohead love. I love, love, love this tune and this tune and this tune especially. This gets my vote for second best Radiohead album ever (just beneath Kid A). Too bad for yooz who didn’t get the album free from the bad while you could, you can always buy it on o1.01.08 when it comes out for realsies. Your mom won’t understand when you tell her that Radiohead is our generation’s Beatles—maybe you don’t understand yet either. You will.

Honorable mention goes to these two bands that I am starting to dig, but haven’t spent a lot of time with yet. One may bloom into a longer term relationship, whilst the other is bound to remain a fling.

The National: Boxer
Band of Horses: Cease to Begin (this one is my favorite of the two.)


And albums that just keep hanging on for me from 2006:

• John Mayer: Continuum- I just love that JM is a blues guitarist disguised as a pop star. His guitar playing and song writing is of the kind that I would imagine myself to inhabit if I were actually a talented guitar player or songwriter. I mention Continuum here because I’m still listening to it and it is still getting better.
• James Morrison: Undiscovered- this is kind of a cheat because I didn’t get this album till that stop at Amoeba mentioned here, and didn’t technically listen to James Morrison till 2007, but I couldn’t put him on my list above because his album came out last year. I feel a bit funny about this one for some reason, but I don’t know why. Like the other JM, this JM writes a killer song, has a killer voice and I would love to be able to write a ballad as catchy as this song here.
• My Brightest Diamond: Bring Me the Workhorse: see my love for Shara Warden here and get excited about the next album to be released in 2008 sometime. I love great female vocalists.

Speaking of, here is some great local, female vocaled music worth checking out:
Awake and Alert: Devil In A Lambskin Suit (Mesa, AZ) (if you watch the video on this site, you’ll see yours truly sitting on screen-right during the set-up montage. Watch for my flip-flopped feet.)
Headlights: Kill them with Kindness (Champaign-Urbana, IL)


Also scheduled for 2008, a double Cure album. Here’s to hoping it’s good. And here’s to hoping you have yourself a merry little Christmas and a happy new year.

If you have had a great time surfing my favorite tunes and wish you could have some more, please listen to this great podcast where most of the bands I mentioned also get mentioned, but with some really great commentary and clips.

Feel free to comment with your favorites from last year as well--though they need not be "new in 2007." What are you all listening to? What am I missing out on?

breakin' (the electric booger-loo)

The first few days of break have been fun, if chaotic. Tina's twist has made for busy dad.

We did have fun today building this snowman.

Things in the queue:

• Blog my "best music of 2007" list (i know you've been waiting)
• Record some music... my "hummingbird" and "transparent, see?" (or sometimes titled as the response to that question: "transparent, si!") are in serious need of tape so I can move on and write some new tunes or something (gotta get some music recording software for this as I lost my old program in a hard drive crash over summer time). Once they are done, I will hook y'all up with some linkage.
  
• Watch two documentaries among other "catch-up" movie watching: "king of kong" and "helvetica"
• read some non-requireds, including the latest addition of our department's arty zine (or "arts and literary journal") 9th letter that has been sitting on my shelf since August.
• Play with photoshop and learn some really basic design techniques (gonna have to check out a book or something).
• figure out spring schedule
• start reading my textbook that I am teaching next semester
• roll up to Chicago to retrieve fab sis-in-law. Hoping for some cool lessons from her.
  

happies to report:

• quit the caffeine cold turkey a few days before I started writing final papers and stuff. Thought that 7 Zeros a day was just too much. I jonze after the cokage though and have been trying to fight it off with diet root beer and Illinois's favorite non-sugared carbonated beverage La Croix. Used to make me gag, now--not as much.
• made cool new header for this blog by ripping off some cool design and searching the last hour for cool fonts
• finally finished The Devil in the White City--the book that I started at the end of the summer--it stinks to only have read one fun book in 3 months. 'twas good, though I liked the world's fair stuff more than the murderer profile business. We are going to one of the few remaining buildings from said fair which currently is the home of this xzibit (not this one)
  
• Am more and more amazed each day (especially being home now 24/7) at the feat that is being a mother and the amazing one that my wife is (especially since she has been off her feet). Tina should wear a cowboy hat and shaps because what she does with the kids is nothing short of wrangling a herd (and a very cute herd at that) of cattle.
  
• have decided that writing in complete sentences is for the birds
• got back major paper that I spent nearly every waking moment last week writing with high marks and compliments (as well as compelling critique--which is so great... when there are equal portions of both).
  

we'll talk soon.

Thanks everybody!

my paper is in revision status at the moment...but I'll be done tomorrow morning for sure!
I appreciate those who responded to my questions--especially those of you who I don't know! Wow!
So, with vacation right around the corner, be expecting some fun posts from me in the near future!
It's close to midnight and I am feeling very exclamatory!
My blog still thinks its in Arizona! See below post time!

What blogging is like for me... (a reader survey)

Writing...we're all doing more of it, aren't we fellow bloggers? I am now halfway done (ok, maybe 3/8ths) done with the writing I need to accomplish by late next week. This past week's writing was tortuous. Really, really hard--the kind of hard where it takes halves of hours to write single sentences.

That kind of writing is difficult to get through. It becomes not fun. It threatens to engulf your sanity... and it really did engulf mine. Brain power was lost to the extent that I lost my PDA one day and only a few days later lost my wallet. These are costly tragedies for another post. (Wallet search swallowed up nearly a whole work day yesterday to no avail--PDA search will resume on Sunday when I return to the scene of the crime-of-memory).

As I start the writing for my last project, which is also my first serious seminar paper proper and I am hoping to have a different experience. I want to have some fun with this business because the subject is right for it (see below), the professor is open to fun-serious approaches to topi, and I really can't endure another week of brain wringing. I mean, it was my PDA and wallet last week, next week by this time I could very well be leaving the house without any pants on.

My writing project on the plate for the next 7 days, is really an extension of what I was trying to muddle through in this post a few months ago. Which means that it is about the very thing that I am doing right now: Blogging (specifically, genres of personal writing on the web)--and here's where you can help, dear readers!

I am interested in examining the following questions and your takes on them would be very (very!) useful:

1. Do you imagine your blogging to have an underlying theme?
2. What is it about blogging that is attractive to you? What makes it worth your while? What "work" does it get done? In essence, why do you blog?
3. How much do you worry about your posts--what you write, what not to write, who you might offend, etc. and connected to this question--do you think much about how others may perceive you via your blog? (this may be especially true when you think about people who you may not have ever met who read your blog and get a sense of the "you" presented there.)
4. How often do you read blogs of people you have never met? What attracts you to those blogs, for which there is no real "communication" factor involved?
5. Finally, do you use any kind of rss feed reader to view your blogs (do you even know what that is?--if not please indicate)? If not, do you use tool bar bookmarks--or just links from the blogs you read to the other blogs you read?

Sorry. I know that is a lot. Feel free to answer only those that you want--but the information that you doll out will be very useful to me so, if you have the time, put some thought into it!

UPDATE! Found the wallet this evening in the one place that we hadn't looked because...well you'll see why. I went in to Jonas's room to get him a belt, and saw something dark in the crib. Who knows how it got in there--just glad that it was and not in the hands of some, dark, dishonest stranger .

end of the semester anxieties...

...I've got 'em bad. They come in waves of thoughts like "I have absolutely no idea what I am talking about so how can I possibly write a paper about this subject?" Of all the things about school--serious school--this is the one thing I hope to get better at--not freaking out when faced with doing the real work of the academy. This is the business that makes for intellectual growth--it shouldn't surprise me that it's actually really difficult laborious work. I will get better at it. I must get better at it.

On a lighter note: shh, don't tell Tina, but I really like the chilly weather. I like the brisk walks, the warm clothes, the beenie caps. When chilly becomes bitter cold, I may change my story. And I don't like how my desk downstairs is right next to the patio, floor to ceiling windows and door. My fingers get so cold, I have to put on my cool new fingerless gloves (with attached mitten coverings). It is an undisputed fact that typing with mittens on is just plain less-effective.

live life live

These past few weeks have been a bit rough. I am moving from read, read, read mode to write, write, write mode (which, ironically, still includes read, read, reading). The kids have been sick, so the late nights spent studying have sometimes got much later. Last week, in fact, I didn’t get to bed earlier than 1am a single night and a few nights it was later than that.

I remember last year at this time as I was scrambling to get all of my information together for my grad applications how overwhelmed I felt—so much was riding on the polish of my writing sample and statements of purpose. I poured over them, revising, reordering, rethinking, and produced (especially in the various SOP texts) documents that I still think about when I think about what the writing process is really about. I guess I didn’t realize that getting into graduate school meant that I was going to be repeating that process at the end of every semester until the end of eternity (ok—maybe just until 2013).

Tina has been gracious enough to allow me to spend some time away from the house doing what has become, really, one of my only true escapes from the stress: live music. I was about to change the grammar of that last sentence, but I think that it is an accurate way of thinking about it: doing live music. Doing includes a participatory function that isn’t just listening, it’s being there.

Watching well-crafted music being performed live is a special experience (watching not-so-well crafted music being performed can be an excruciating experience). There is something really exciting about a musician (or musicians in concert, or together) displaying their unique combination of musical and poetic art for a live audience. These experiences are most exciting when they are precise and sharp—when you know that what you are beholding is the result of hours of practice—but also when you are watching that art being innovated in front of you…when you know that no one else has heard this song the way that you are hearing it at that moment before. Sometimes it is in the artist’s energy and presence on stage (Ben Folds is like this live), sometimes it is in your sense of raw talent being displayed (I felt this way at the Andrew Bird show I went to earlier in the semester), and sometimes, when it is most fun, you can sense it in the way that they are looking at each other and smiling—they know something new is happening too (this is rare at big stadium shows—but happens all the time in small local shows that I have seen, which seems backwards).

That being said, I must report a bit on the Jimmy Eat World show I went to last night. It was held at the huge basketball stadium in campus about 10 minutes from where we live and I got there late on purpose in order to miss the first two not-so-exciting bands. When Jimmy and crew came out to rock, I was in about the third row of heads from the front directly in front of the guitarist Tom Lindon. The band was great—what follows is not a criticism so much as it is an observation. This is maybe my 4th time seeing JEW play. They are always good. This time—and this is really similar to how I felt the last time I saw Weezer play live way back in 2001—it just felt flat. I could sense, especially from the non-lead-singer members of the band, that this was just another night, another crowd, another time through the same old songs. And the songs were played perfectly. I watched Tom play especially since he was standing right in front of me. His parts—if I may be so bold—are not that hard. I realized, in spite of that hidden rock star that lurks somewhere in my subconscience, that If I were him I would probably be bored (gasp!) . Maybe it is because the songs were played so perfectly, so according to formula, that it was flat. There was no jamming, no innovation, no real fun happening on stage: merely performance. They played one "new" version of an old song: Your House, from Bleed American--it might have been the best tune of the night. The other really great moment was during a song that I hadn't heard until last night called Disintegration. I don't have the EP that it appears on, and while the song is long, intense, and complicated, my excitement may have been more about the fact that it was new to me.

Regardless, it was an escape and a welcomed one at that. Here are some bad pictures from my phone:

Dinner and Self-portrait (composition sans writing utensil)

Last week we made sushi. You can see a picture of what I would call a Philadelphia roll instead of a California roll (we used cream cheese because our avocados were not ripe yet) over at Tina's much more interesting and fun blog. I will just mention how pleased I was at the flavor and look forward to doing this again soon (the rice takes some time and patience). Oh, one more thing: I got the recipe/technique 100% from an episode of Good Eats on the ol' Tivo. Love that Alton Brown.

Here is a picture of our dinner this evening: Spaghetti with scallops, sun-dried tomatoes and spinach (in a cream sauce) with roasted yellow & orange bell peppers, mushrooms and carrots:

My Brightest Diamond (aka Shara Warden)

A year or so ago, Sufjan Stevens was on Austin City Limits and I noticed this striking brunette singing back-up for him (as well as playing various instruments). I soon learned that this woman was in fact Shara Warden and she had a band of her own (My Brightest Diamond). After listening to hear album stream numerous times here, I had to buy it and did when we were in Berkeley over the summer break (at Amoeba). On my last weekend in Phoenix, Shara played a solo show that I was able to attend and she blew me away with her vocal, guitar, and over-all creative talent.

So I need to share (this is a good look at what was like in solo mode):



And here is a full band version (I know the same song is in there):



Enjoy.

Coming soon: my first foray into the land of sushi making.

shells with shrimp, sauteed peppers and garlic

I made a decent dinner tonight, and though I didn't manage to get a picture of it (Sorry Mom and Michelle. I was too hungry!). Basically, I wanted to have a noodle dinner we could eat with a spoon and the dish is constructed to that end (and from stuff left in our fridge). Here's what I did:

I cooked a pound of small shell noodles, gave the kids their portions with some sauce from the fridge mixed in and set the rest aside.

We bought some raw shrimp a few weeks ago. I cooked them in just a little bit of olive oil until they had only just just turned pink and set them aside.

I diced three cloves of garlic and set the small pile aside.

We had three halves of bell peppers (red, orange, yellow). I diced them into very small squares and started them sauteing in some butter and olive oil.

While the peppers cooked, I cut the now cooled shrimp in small chunks and then added it to the peppers with a bit more oo.

I added the garlic now and turned down the temperature (cooking with garlic is tricky--it cooks quickly and therefore burns quickly too. I usually add it as late as possible).

In the pot that I cooked the pasta in, I started about 2 cups of whole milk heating up. When it started to steam, I added about a cup of graded parmesan.

After that cooked down just a bit, I poured in the shrimp/pepper/garlic mixture and let it cook some more (oh yeah--I added the shells now too). At this point, I realized that I probably shouldn't have used so much milk--it was taking a long time to thicken up--but it did eventually.

That was it! What was cool about it though was that the sauce had this really nice roasted pepper/shrimp flavor. I don't know if it was the fact that we started with raw shrimp, but they were especially tender. I served it with slices of lime which I added, but Tina didn't.

I was pleased--especially since I was flying by the seat of my pants. You should go for it too.

tree at sunset

Here's a cool photo I took a few weeks back on a park trip with Tina and the kids. In real life there was even more pinholes of light escaping through the trees. One day I will have a camera that will be able to capture that...

Is it really a blog if...

...the dude never posts?

I am sorry folks. Wasn't I just whining about how I seemed to have so much to say that I needed two blogs to contain it? I just typed and then deleted a pledge to post daily as an exercise in both writing and discipline, but let's face it: It probably won't happen. So at least I am being honest with myself about it... or something.

This week it's gotten a bit colder. Tina taught me the proper (or at least fancy) way to wear a scarf. It's been harder to get out of bed--especially after being up half the night with restless kids with runny noses. This morning was the first morning that I full on skipped both parts of my other daily activities pledge (30 min study/30 min exercise) that I started after General Conference. So, with all of these horses on the move, it's hard to know which ones to get get back on after the initial fall.

More posts in the near future: likely.

Potential for anything very thought provoking or worth-your-while in those posts: unlikely.

Keep checking back anyway though.

Everything in its right place

(I have been sitting on this blog for a few days wanting to put more links to cool Radiohead stuff in it. I just haven't had the time. If you check back, there will be more fun stuff to play with.)

Tina and I are watching the first season of Alias on DVD. It’s taking a while, but we like it. We get in one or maybe two episodes a week. I check out the discs from our library’s huge movie holdings. There are literally thousands of hours of media, all free to students—one of the perks, I suppose. The other night, we were watching one and during a swanky, under-double-cover moment that should have been intense and interesting, an old song by Smash Mouth started up. It made the scene funny. Now, I am fairly certain that the scene wouldn’t have been funny if I had seen it in the context of its original air date (2001). I don’t know that there is anything very significant about that story, but it made me think about music, media, and context. I know one example of a movie that was re-scored—the pop soundtrack it was released with was replaced with an orchestral one—in order to alleviate the cheesiness of viewing the movie post-1984 (interestingly, I'm wrong here...you'll see what I mean if you click the link). It’s interesting that sometimes music, even old music, helps maintain the “moment” for viewers—like in something like, say, Say Anything, and sometimes music makes things hopelessly silly.

On a different note (there’s that pesky pun again), if you haven’t downloaded the new Radiohead album (In Rainbows) yet, you should do it right now. Some of you may have heard about how the band released the album all on their own and made it available for a you-name-it price (a move that totally shakes things up in the music business). You can legitimately pay nothing for it; I paid 1 Euro (the equivalent of $2.14). It is really really good. I’m not really that good at deciding if it is the best music they have ever put out. As my buddy Mat said last week, their Kid A might be the best album of all time.

I came to Radiohead late in the game. When I was in high school, Marisa H. made me a copy of their first album. I was mildly interested because of their hit Creep (every 14 year old’s theme song) but wasn’t really moved by any of their songs—later, once Creep had been played out, and the Bends came out, I was much more interested in the louder, more aggressive music that was coming out at the same time. I left on the mission right as Paranoid Android was being debuted on Mtv, and while I sensed that there was something interesting about the band (I only know this because I mention a notice of the release of OK computer in a letter to Tina from Palo Alto), I didn't pay much attention to the music or what the critical mass was saying. But then, Radiosilence.

When I got home, it wasn’t until Amnesiac was released—particularly the enchanting Pyramid Song in the summer of 2001—that my attention was piqued. I remember listening to it in San Diego with Tina on our first anniversary. I quickly learned that I had been missing out on something special.

If you are not a fan, you have too.

I’m a reasonable man, get off my case.

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.