2011.01.29
121 Days Remaining
01. I started composing this post two days ago on Thursday, where I was writing from home, where I would normally not be at this time on a Thursday, because Baskerville College was closed due to snow. We didn't get hammered quite so hard as points south (apparently Wilmington got about a foot, we seem to be somewhere between 8 and 10 inches at the most), but New Aldwych isn't good with handling snow, and neither is Baskerville's campus, and so we were closed. On the 4th day of the semester. Several students wrote to ask me about how this impacted the class topics for Thursday (are we skipping them, pushing them back to Tuesday next week, or adding them to Tuesday's scheduled class - it's the third option, btw). I went out for a walk yesterday and the accumulated snow from the past few storms is hovering around 2 feet on the ground (and that's after having had intermittent warm days and upper-layer melting). The roads are mostly plowed, although none so well as I would like, and I once again shoveled my car out from a mound of snow (this time on the street, rather than attempting to shovel in-between cars in a parking lot).
02. Though I'm not normally the type to pass around items of utter cuteness, I saw this today and thought it was adorable: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBU3BwWpR8Q&feature=player_embedded . It starts off slow, but once the pony starts, it's very cute.
03. Today I've been doing some research and working on various things. It occurred to me that I wish I had a larger and more diversified living space just so I had housework to do, if that makes sense. As it is, here, I get up, have breakfast, and have my computer to work with. I was actually kind of glad to do the snow shoveling yesterday, as I was outside and working for about an hour. I shoveled some of the rest of the street, just because.
04. Anyway, while working today, I played (god bless Netflix) a fairly uninteresting Rick Schroeder-starring version of Journey to the Center of the Earth, which was not bad as such, but contained an egregious number of silly scientific errors (dinosaurs lived over a million years ago, says the geologically and paleontologically trained main character). With that around, I also browsed the rest of Mr. Schroeder's oeuvre, and came across two films from my childhood: Earthling (where he stars as a kid orphaned in the outback who is saved by a terminally-ill man going to die in the ruins of his family's settler homestead) and Champs (where he plays Jon Voight's son). I have fond memories of Earthling, in particular, from repeated viewings on what I assume must have been HBO when I was very young.
04. It got me thinking about the number of very sad films I saw when I was small, or at least films with a strongly sad theme in them: Earthling (which ends with 8-year old R.S. burying his mentor and heading "north" back to civilization), Dot and the Kangaroo (the ending of which actually still makes me cry to think about), Raggedy Ann and Andy (the Camel with the Wrinkled Knees being a bittersweet character), and later on, at the end of Quantum Leap Sam never makes it home. Those are just some random items from the list; there are lots more, but I won't list them all.
05. I don't have a lot more to write at this moment. Just wanted to post something and keep things up to date. Have a good night!
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Sprung Spring Semester
2011.01.25
125 Days Remaining
01. I'm tired as I type this, so today's post will probably not go on for very long. Today was the first day of the Spring Semester at Baskerville College. It started off dark, literally, due to a snowstorm moving through the area. We didn't have much accumulation (I think it got up to 3 inches in some places), and was over around 1pm, but this was the first time I've had to drive in snow while living in New Aldwych. Sadly, several of my neighbors had difficulty, even on paved and completely clear roads (my favorite was the person who wouldn't go above 10 mph on a 35 mph road without any obstructions save the bits of downy-looking, very cold water drifting gently down from the heavens). Once I got to campus (early, mind you, it being the first day) I discovered that plowing was an ongoing project, and it took me 20 minutes to find a parking space. I mention all of that not to gripe, particularly, but to contrast the process of arriving on campus with the actual niceness of the day.
02. I'm teaching only two classes this semester, which is very odd. I have a 3 hour gap between them in the middle of the day, and will have to find ways to entertain myself (actually, I'll be fine - there's a library right there). My first class (1025am-1140am each Tuesday & Thursday) is Medieval Philosophy, which currently has only 8 students enrolled, although a 9th sat in today to see if she'd like it. I'm not particularly looking forward to this class, mostly due to the topic (which is interesting but not energizing, so I leave class tired). That said, the students seemed interested and involved already, and we'll see how that goes. My second class (245-4pm each Tuesday & Thursday) is the Supernatural in American Popular Culture. I love this class, having taught it once before 1.5 years ago. This one has 30 students, and a list of people who wanted to take it but didn't register in time, so even if some drop it, it will very likely fill up. The room is a bit cramped, but bright (very good for a mid-afternoon class, as many students like to take naps at that time of the day, I've noticed), and just from today I could tell the students were very enthusiastic and interested (much eagerness in responding to questions, offering examples, etc.). This was the case even after I told them that the trade off for taking a class that discusses things like vampire erotica, supernatural detectives (from Kolchak the Night Stalker to Hellboy), ghost stories, and the Princess and the Frog is that, "I will work [them] like dogs" with weekly essays and high standards for writing and content, an active participation requirement, and a lot of movie-viewing and book-reading each week. I've already had one student email me excited because the first reading mentioned something from her hometown that she grew up with (the so-called "Dover Demon" from 1977 in Dover, Massachusetts), and I overheard one student comment, as he was leaving class, that he could not wait for this class to start over break. So that all makes me happy. This is my last semester at Baskerville College, and this will be the last class I teach there, I'm very glad it's this one.
03. I had a somewhat surprisingly positive email exchange with my exing-wife yesterday about the divorce procedure, and she updated me about the pets. Everyone is fine, although her cat, Jasper, has apparently gone completely deaf (he no longer hears when she's eating, whereas in the past the sound of food being prepared and/or eaten would bring him running from a sound sleep to beg uproariously for food). When I sent her the divorce document last week I included dog and cat treats for the pets. Mo (the cat we adopted together, my little guy) is fine, skittish and affectionate as ever. Herman, my dog, is fine and was very excited to play in the inch of snow they got last week. She sent me a picture of him, which is basically him sniffing her iPhone camera, so it's very muzzle-prominent. It was the nicest series of emails we've exchanged, tone- and content-wise.
04.a Today on campus, as I walked around between classes through the snowfall, I was struck by how beautiful things, or the world, can be. I'm so very unhappy right now on so many counts, but that's because my perspective is very focused on specific circumstances and constraints in my life. And when I focus outward beyond myself, I am reminded sometimes of a phrase from a Navajo ceremony, which is not (in the ceremony) meant as a description of one's surroundings (it's actually meant as a sort of exhortation for propriety and order), "Beauty behind me, beauty before me." In that spirit, here are some songs that I think are beautiful, though I cannot vouch for the lyrics of the first:
04.b: Neutral Milk Hotel "The King Of Carrot Flowers" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZXtRP3mND0&feature=related is beautiful in part, because it feels to me like it's meaning is...just...over...there...
04.c: Sarah McLachlan "Ice Cream" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAhv0XGv8Pc is one of my three favorite songs
04.d: Midge Ure "Cold, Cold Heart" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2N7FI16K2M is a song I've loved intensely since hearing it on Pierre Robert's radio show on WMMR when I was in high school. I heard it exactly once, remembered the refrain, and finally tracked it down after college. The video is surprisingly enjoyable (desert rocking scenes notwithstanding)
05. And that's about it.
125 Days Remaining
01. I'm tired as I type this, so today's post will probably not go on for very long. Today was the first day of the Spring Semester at Baskerville College. It started off dark, literally, due to a snowstorm moving through the area. We didn't have much accumulation (I think it got up to 3 inches in some places), and was over around 1pm, but this was the first time I've had to drive in snow while living in New Aldwych. Sadly, several of my neighbors had difficulty, even on paved and completely clear roads (my favorite was the person who wouldn't go above 10 mph on a 35 mph road without any obstructions save the bits of downy-looking, very cold water drifting gently down from the heavens). Once I got to campus (early, mind you, it being the first day) I discovered that plowing was an ongoing project, and it took me 20 minutes to find a parking space. I mention all of that not to gripe, particularly, but to contrast the process of arriving on campus with the actual niceness of the day.
02. I'm teaching only two classes this semester, which is very odd. I have a 3 hour gap between them in the middle of the day, and will have to find ways to entertain myself (actually, I'll be fine - there's a library right there). My first class (1025am-1140am each Tuesday & Thursday) is Medieval Philosophy, which currently has only 8 students enrolled, although a 9th sat in today to see if she'd like it. I'm not particularly looking forward to this class, mostly due to the topic (which is interesting but not energizing, so I leave class tired). That said, the students seemed interested and involved already, and we'll see how that goes. My second class (245-4pm each Tuesday & Thursday) is the Supernatural in American Popular Culture. I love this class, having taught it once before 1.5 years ago. This one has 30 students, and a list of people who wanted to take it but didn't register in time, so even if some drop it, it will very likely fill up. The room is a bit cramped, but bright (very good for a mid-afternoon class, as many students like to take naps at that time of the day, I've noticed), and just from today I could tell the students were very enthusiastic and interested (much eagerness in responding to questions, offering examples, etc.). This was the case even after I told them that the trade off for taking a class that discusses things like vampire erotica, supernatural detectives (from Kolchak the Night Stalker to Hellboy), ghost stories, and the Princess and the Frog is that, "I will work [them] like dogs" with weekly essays and high standards for writing and content, an active participation requirement, and a lot of movie-viewing and book-reading each week. I've already had one student email me excited because the first reading mentioned something from her hometown that she grew up with (the so-called "Dover Demon" from 1977 in Dover, Massachusetts), and I overheard one student comment, as he was leaving class, that he could not wait for this class to start over break. So that all makes me happy. This is my last semester at Baskerville College, and this will be the last class I teach there, I'm very glad it's this one.
03. I had a somewhat surprisingly positive email exchange with my exing-wife yesterday about the divorce procedure, and she updated me about the pets. Everyone is fine, although her cat, Jasper, has apparently gone completely deaf (he no longer hears when she's eating, whereas in the past the sound of food being prepared and/or eaten would bring him running from a sound sleep to beg uproariously for food). When I sent her the divorce document last week I included dog and cat treats for the pets. Mo (the cat we adopted together, my little guy) is fine, skittish and affectionate as ever. Herman, my dog, is fine and was very excited to play in the inch of snow they got last week. She sent me a picture of him, which is basically him sniffing her iPhone camera, so it's very muzzle-prominent. It was the nicest series of emails we've exchanged, tone- and content-wise.
04.a Today on campus, as I walked around between classes through the snowfall, I was struck by how beautiful things, or the world, can be. I'm so very unhappy right now on so many counts, but that's because my perspective is very focused on specific circumstances and constraints in my life. And when I focus outward beyond myself, I am reminded sometimes of a phrase from a Navajo ceremony, which is not (in the ceremony) meant as a description of one's surroundings (it's actually meant as a sort of exhortation for propriety and order), "Beauty behind me, beauty before me." In that spirit, here are some songs that I think are beautiful, though I cannot vouch for the lyrics of the first:
04.b: Neutral Milk Hotel "The King Of Carrot Flowers" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZXtRP3mND0&feature=related is beautiful in part, because it feels to me like it's meaning is...just...over...there...
04.c: Sarah McLachlan "Ice Cream" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAhv0XGv8Pc is one of my three favorite songs
04.d: Midge Ure "Cold, Cold Heart" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2N7FI16K2M is a song I've loved intensely since hearing it on Pierre Robert's radio show on WMMR when I was in high school. I heard it exactly once, remembered the refrain, and finally tracked it down after college. The video is surprisingly enjoyable (desert rocking scenes notwithstanding)
05. And that's about it.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Uskglass and Sunlight
2011.01.24
126 Days Remaining
01. First off, happy belated birthday to my sister-in-law (from Saturday) and preemptive happy birthday to my brother-in-law Iunius (tomorrow). Anyway, I received an email from Selena yesterday asking how I have been, since it has been over a week since last I posted and I've been generally reticent, communication-wise. So, first things first: I'm alive.
02. Thursday last week I drove up to Providence to fill out and file the divorce paperwork using the ($66) transcript of the divorce hearing in December. I had to wait until I had money to pay the remaining $26, and that meant after my paycheck on the 15th, followed by MLK, Jr. Day, and appointments on campus. So I drove up and filled out the Findings of Fact and Settlement Terms dictated by the magistrate. I did this by hand, and went to turn it in. Then I discovered that the forms had to be signed by the magistrate who had presided, which was interesting since no one had mentioned that before, and he wasn't scheduled to be in that day. Then someone tracked him down (so very fortuitous) in the building. So he signed the papers, I was given my copies, and then the clerk said, "You know this isn't the final judgment, right?" I said, "No, I didn't." It turns out that I have to wait 3 more months, after which I can (I'm not making this up) fill out all of the same information on another form, get it signed by the magistrate, and then I'll be divorced. So I have one more trip to Providence after 21 April (I know now to call ahead and make sure this is on a day when the magistrate is present in the building), at which point my marriage will be finally ended.
03. After that process I mailed a copy of the interim form to my exing-wife, then went grocery shopping (Providence has three Whole Foods Markets) and then drove home in the falling darkness. I got home and emotionally curled up inside into a ball. Aside from the lack of any clear guidelines made available by the Family Court in Providence, one benefit that I might have had from doing this via a lawyer would have been being able to avoid the repeated personal trips to and from divorce court, which have each time left me feeling raw and scraped inside. And this is without any complicated property or custody settlements that needed negotiating. I think that, given the frequency of divorce in our society, we could really do a better job of organizing it and running the procedure, both for low-conflict divorces like mine and ones with more issues to settle.
04. So that was why I didn't really communicate much over the weekend. I felt shell-shocked, especially by the news that there is one more step to take before this is finally done. Our society really, really, wants people to be married and not to get divorced, as evidenced by the ease with which one can get married ($35 and ten minutes) versus the difficulty with which one can get divorced (over $300 in fees and 8 months).
05. Anyway, onto other topics. I recently downloaded to iTunes the CDs for an audiobook I picked up several months ago, Susanna Clarke's The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories. Clarke's wonderful novel Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is one of my favorite books, and the short stories in LoGA are equally elegant and, to me, captivating. This morning as I sat down to work through my inbox and do final tweaks on my syllabi (first day of classes is tomorrow), I played the final story, "John Uskglass and the Cumbrian Charcoal Burner," which I have never actually read (the book collects previously published stories, with this final one being written for the collection), and was struck again by the loveliness of language well used (and full credit to the narrator/reader, Simon Prebble - Davina Porter narrates other stories in the audiobook). For any in the know, John Uskglass is the name of the character otherwise called the Raven King in Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, and this particular short story purports to be a retelling of a medieval story about said character. It is exceptionally well done, and at points made me laugh out loud as I listened to it.
06. I mention the aesthetic pleasures of reading (or, in this case, listening) in part because I recently saw a review of Stanley Fish's newest book on writing, How To Write A Sentence And How To Read One, wherein Fish argues that American prose has been somewhat handicapped by the preeminence of Strunk and White's Elements of Style and the fame of native authors like Hemingway (both the guidebook and the literary author preferred a type of prose that avoids ornament in favor of short, direct language and phrasing). I'm intrigued to read Fish's book, because apparently he argues not for abandoning Strunk & White, but for teaching them as one type of prose, to be mastered along with others. This intrigues me due to an ongoing thinking I've been doing about purported Ebonics, American dialects and idioms, and the grammar of some types of popular music (which can also influence things like spelling and punctuation). Although I am not a classicist in the technical sense (I read Greek and Latin poorly and god help me if I had to produce new work in either language with any rapidity), I have had to learn a fair amount about language, and have actually engaged in discussions (sometimes arguments) about whether there is such a thing as "proper" English against which any one person's individual speech (their idiolect) should be measured. I have come down increasingly against the formalist position that there is some sort of True English (or any other language) and instead see any one "language" as composed of the various idiolects of everyone who speaks it (thus languages can blend into each other at their margins and are only clearly marked off when two people become unable to converse fluently though they may be able to basically understand one another).
07. This has led me to think about the ways to teach language arts, writing, etc. in the classroom (as a former writing tutor and current teacher who works to improve my students' writing abilities, this is a big deal to me). I wonder whether teaching writing and style as dialects (how would one say "X" in formal business prose? In middle-class everyday speech? In a hip-hop song? My wonder is whether that might be a way to avoid the power conflicts that seem to come about with teaching kids that they should speak a specific way, and instead teach them how to do so in order that they could maneuver effectively in different social settings. I got thinking about this years ago when I was doing some research into how creolization works (cultures often work like languages in interesting ways, so I was doing this work while thinking about how two different cultures can influence one another and create something new between them). The example that struck me most forcefully was from British Guyana, where a single individual (interviewed for the article) switched between Creole, Queen's English, and American English with a great deal of facility in the midst of a single event (a wedding). To upper-class guests she spoke Queen's English, to the linguist American English, and to the guests who were misbehaving, she spoke Creole. Sidney Poitier's character alludes to a similar multi-dialectality in To Sir, With Love, where his character is from British Guyana but trained in the US and teaches in the UK. The character spoke very formal English without a British accent as he negotiated his place as a teacher in British society. I wonder if that sort of approach might make it clearer to students that they are not being asked to replace their speech, but to see language as a tool they can master and use on their own (and, I would hope, to enjoy observing how others use it as well, as I do when I read or hear Susanna Clarke's stories).
08. Belisarius commented a while ago that my blog-voice is very similar to my email-voice, and that they are both very similar to my speaking voice. On the other hand, there is very little profanity in my blog-voice, and far fewer digressions (one assumes because I'm not directly interacting with anyone to draw a new topic into the mix, and because I can structure these posts deliberately, though I usually just list topics). My students and I have discussed teachers' self-presentation and speaking styles; I'm very informal nowadays, though I was much more formal when I started. I don't know for sure why I don't seem to change my voice very much, I think it's a sign of comfort with my normal interlocutors (all of you); I'm very likely to be more polite and formal with strangers, though once I get excited I start talking normally again. Hrm.
09. It's sunny out. We had snow again on Friday, though I haven't had any call to go outside since then. I'm doing laundry this afternoon, though, and will need to go outside to the laundry room to do so. Thankfully the sidewalks are shoveled.
10. And that's about it.
126 Days Remaining
01. First off, happy belated birthday to my sister-in-law (from Saturday) and preemptive happy birthday to my brother-in-law Iunius (tomorrow). Anyway, I received an email from Selena yesterday asking how I have been, since it has been over a week since last I posted and I've been generally reticent, communication-wise. So, first things first: I'm alive.
02. Thursday last week I drove up to Providence to fill out and file the divorce paperwork using the ($66) transcript of the divorce hearing in December. I had to wait until I had money to pay the remaining $26, and that meant after my paycheck on the 15th, followed by MLK, Jr. Day, and appointments on campus. So I drove up and filled out the Findings of Fact and Settlement Terms dictated by the magistrate. I did this by hand, and went to turn it in. Then I discovered that the forms had to be signed by the magistrate who had presided, which was interesting since no one had mentioned that before, and he wasn't scheduled to be in that day. Then someone tracked him down (so very fortuitous) in the building. So he signed the papers, I was given my copies, and then the clerk said, "You know this isn't the final judgment, right?" I said, "No, I didn't." It turns out that I have to wait 3 more months, after which I can (I'm not making this up) fill out all of the same information on another form, get it signed by the magistrate, and then I'll be divorced. So I have one more trip to Providence after 21 April (I know now to call ahead and make sure this is on a day when the magistrate is present in the building), at which point my marriage will be finally ended.
03. After that process I mailed a copy of the interim form to my exing-wife, then went grocery shopping (Providence has three Whole Foods Markets) and then drove home in the falling darkness. I got home and emotionally curled up inside into a ball. Aside from the lack of any clear guidelines made available by the Family Court in Providence, one benefit that I might have had from doing this via a lawyer would have been being able to avoid the repeated personal trips to and from divorce court, which have each time left me feeling raw and scraped inside. And this is without any complicated property or custody settlements that needed negotiating. I think that, given the frequency of divorce in our society, we could really do a better job of organizing it and running the procedure, both for low-conflict divorces like mine and ones with more issues to settle.
04. So that was why I didn't really communicate much over the weekend. I felt shell-shocked, especially by the news that there is one more step to take before this is finally done. Our society really, really, wants people to be married and not to get divorced, as evidenced by the ease with which one can get married ($35 and ten minutes) versus the difficulty with which one can get divorced (over $300 in fees and 8 months).
05. Anyway, onto other topics. I recently downloaded to iTunes the CDs for an audiobook I picked up several months ago, Susanna Clarke's The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories. Clarke's wonderful novel Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is one of my favorite books, and the short stories in LoGA are equally elegant and, to me, captivating. This morning as I sat down to work through my inbox and do final tweaks on my syllabi (first day of classes is tomorrow), I played the final story, "John Uskglass and the Cumbrian Charcoal Burner," which I have never actually read (the book collects previously published stories, with this final one being written for the collection), and was struck again by the loveliness of language well used (and full credit to the narrator/reader, Simon Prebble - Davina Porter narrates other stories in the audiobook). For any in the know, John Uskglass is the name of the character otherwise called the Raven King in Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, and this particular short story purports to be a retelling of a medieval story about said character. It is exceptionally well done, and at points made me laugh out loud as I listened to it.
06. I mention the aesthetic pleasures of reading (or, in this case, listening) in part because I recently saw a review of Stanley Fish's newest book on writing, How To Write A Sentence And How To Read One, wherein Fish argues that American prose has been somewhat handicapped by the preeminence of Strunk and White's Elements of Style and the fame of native authors like Hemingway (both the guidebook and the literary author preferred a type of prose that avoids ornament in favor of short, direct language and phrasing). I'm intrigued to read Fish's book, because apparently he argues not for abandoning Strunk & White, but for teaching them as one type of prose, to be mastered along with others. This intrigues me due to an ongoing thinking I've been doing about purported Ebonics, American dialects and idioms, and the grammar of some types of popular music (which can also influence things like spelling and punctuation). Although I am not a classicist in the technical sense (I read Greek and Latin poorly and god help me if I had to produce new work in either language with any rapidity), I have had to learn a fair amount about language, and have actually engaged in discussions (sometimes arguments) about whether there is such a thing as "proper" English against which any one person's individual speech (their idiolect) should be measured. I have come down increasingly against the formalist position that there is some sort of True English (or any other language) and instead see any one "language" as composed of the various idiolects of everyone who speaks it (thus languages can blend into each other at their margins and are only clearly marked off when two people become unable to converse fluently though they may be able to basically understand one another).
07. This has led me to think about the ways to teach language arts, writing, etc. in the classroom (as a former writing tutor and current teacher who works to improve my students' writing abilities, this is a big deal to me). I wonder whether teaching writing and style as dialects (how would one say "X" in formal business prose? In middle-class everyday speech? In a hip-hop song? My wonder is whether that might be a way to avoid the power conflicts that seem to come about with teaching kids that they should speak a specific way, and instead teach them how to do so in order that they could maneuver effectively in different social settings. I got thinking about this years ago when I was doing some research into how creolization works (cultures often work like languages in interesting ways, so I was doing this work while thinking about how two different cultures can influence one another and create something new between them). The example that struck me most forcefully was from British Guyana, where a single individual (interviewed for the article) switched between Creole, Queen's English, and American English with a great deal of facility in the midst of a single event (a wedding). To upper-class guests she spoke Queen's English, to the linguist American English, and to the guests who were misbehaving, she spoke Creole. Sidney Poitier's character alludes to a similar multi-dialectality in To Sir, With Love, where his character is from British Guyana but trained in the US and teaches in the UK. The character spoke very formal English without a British accent as he negotiated his place as a teacher in British society. I wonder if that sort of approach might make it clearer to students that they are not being asked to replace their speech, but to see language as a tool they can master and use on their own (and, I would hope, to enjoy observing how others use it as well, as I do when I read or hear Susanna Clarke's stories).
08. Belisarius commented a while ago that my blog-voice is very similar to my email-voice, and that they are both very similar to my speaking voice. On the other hand, there is very little profanity in my blog-voice, and far fewer digressions (one assumes because I'm not directly interacting with anyone to draw a new topic into the mix, and because I can structure these posts deliberately, though I usually just list topics). My students and I have discussed teachers' self-presentation and speaking styles; I'm very informal nowadays, though I was much more formal when I started. I don't know for sure why I don't seem to change my voice very much, I think it's a sign of comfort with my normal interlocutors (all of you); I'm very likely to be more polite and formal with strangers, though once I get excited I start talking normally again. Hrm.
09. It's sunny out. We had snow again on Friday, though I haven't had any call to go outside since then. I'm doing laundry this afternoon, though, and will need to go outside to the laundry room to do so. Thankfully the sidewalks are shoveled.
10. And that's about it.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Ed Teach's Sword, Discovered
2011.01.15
135 Days Remaining
01. Today I walked (having decided that I need the exercise) to the grocery store. The walk to the store was only slightly more strenuous than normal (I probably walk there as much as I drive - according to Yahoo Maps it's approximately 2.25 miles each way) due to the ongoing lack of consistent plowing or shoveling along my route, but I have no particular issue with walking carefully on packed snow, or climbing over small disorganized hills of plowed snow. The walk back, on the other hand, was somewhat more difficult, as I purchased more than I had intended upon setting out. I mention that not to complain about my sore arms and hands (carrying those plastic bags any significant by hand is a royal pain), but to mention that as I was walking up a hill along my route, a man pulled up beside me and asked where I was going, offering to drive me. I had the same thing happen (though with a different man) back in October when I was doing the same walk (though there wasn't snow on the ground, and I wasn't carrying so much that time). So that's two people who've spontaneously offered to help me out when seeing me carry heavy loads. I just thought I'd mention this, as evidence that people can be nice for no other reason than to be nice.
02. I enjoy spending money. Not throwing it away on ridiculous things. I like the feeling of paying bills and buying goods or services and saying, "I paid for that." One of the things I can't (or won't because this place feels so temporary) do here is stock my kitchen fully and properly. When I left my ex-wife I kept only a small portion of our foodstuffs, including the spices, flour, etc. So I'm working without anything like a functional base when cooking. Add to that the lack of proper pots and pans, and I feel like a wet-behind-the-ears college graduate, rather than a man in his mid-30s. Today at the grocery store, thinking of my limited cabinet space and restricted functionality, I looked at things I would like to buy, of recipes I don't have the means to cook, and of the cookware I don't currently own. Someday. Tomorrow, anyway, I'm having pancakes, having bought maple syrup today.
03. Lavinia emailed me today to say that her Black Lab puppy, Zeke, was undergoing surgery because apparently he ate some sort of stuffed animal stuffing and was unable to digest it. She indicated that he was apparently coming through surgery okay, but I feel for both her and the dog that this happened. Poor little guy. Speaking of dogs, on my walk today I passed a couple out walking their Corgi, who is so short that it can't see over the shoveled snow. If I wasn't directly behind them, I would have thought they were using one of those silly "invisible dog" rigid leashes. It was very cute.
04. The semester is coming up quickly, and one of the events of the Spring has already started: requests for recommendation letters for next year's semester abroad programs. I don't particularly mind doing the letters, but I sometimes wonder how seriously they're taken. I suspect the letters are just a pro forma part of the application packet.
05. Oh! I forgot to mention yesterday that Iunia lost her first baby tooth two nights ago. My girl is getting bigger all the time. I remember being excited when she got her first baby tooth.
06. YahooNews posted an article from the ongoing excavation of the Queen Anne's Revenge, the flagship of Blackbeard, my all-time most favoritest pirate ever. Apparently a sword was found which, for some reason, the excavators think may have belonged to Thatch himself. A word of explanation: many (though not all) of the pirates in the early 18th century had noms de guerre to prevent the stigmatization of their families, and Blackbeard was no exception. He was actually known by the name Edward T-ch (variously spelled "Thatch," "Teach," "Tach," "Theatch," etc.), but that was probably not his birth name, and then it got even more complicated as his fame spread and he was given the nickname "Blackbeard" (because, interestingly, he had a black beard worn long - onomastically imaginative, the early 18th century press was not). So why is he my most favoritest pirate ever? Because, despite his fearsome reputation, he actually mostly scared the living hell out of people, rather than being a butcher (he was very media-savvy, and cultivated the image of a monstrous murderer, but in fact seems to have preferred not murdering people whenever he could avoid it). His crew was found, during their trial after his death (he commanded several ships, and while everyone with him on his last day died, 16 other crewmen were arrested later elsewhere) to be racially integrated, an interesting example of why the pirates of the Caribbean are worth more study and thinking - there's one school of thinking that pirate ships were more like republics than dictatorships (fictionalized accounts notwithstanding, pirate crews served under what was called "free suffrage" and were not subject to the captain's autocratic whims), and more egalitarian, in racial and socio-economic terms, than anything else in European cultures of the time.
07. Anyway, despite all of his apparent preference for threat over violence to achieve his goals, when the chips were down, Blackbeard went out like nobody's business. From the firsthand accounts, when he was captured and killed on 22 November 1718, he was one of the angriest human beings on the planet, possibly ever. After the entire rest of his crew were dead, it took all of the remaining British soldiers involved to wrestle him down and kill him. The official report noted that he had been shot 5 times (and we're talking pistols and muskets, the latter of which leave grapefruit-sized holes in people) and stabbed/cut at least 20 times. He had to be actively wrestled down after someone came up behind him and slit his throat with a knife. He individually sustained wounds that would have killed several other people if the wounds were distributed one per person. In one later retelling, it only stopped when they actually cut off his head, and he couldn't bite the people holding him down anymore. I mean, JESUS CHRIST. If you're going to go, go hard.
08. Speaking of Blackbeard, he'll be portrayed by Ian McShane in the upcoming fourth Pirates of the Caribbean films, subtitled On Stranger Tides (based on the excellent novel by Tim Powers). I mention McShane because I've been thinking about television the past few days, having spent so much time over the past semester watching old shows on Netflix. Last semester one of my students asked what my favorite TV show was, and I didn't have a ready answer, but I do, in fact, have two shows I would consider my favorites, different though they may be: The Adventures of Pete and Pete and Deadwood (starring Ian McShane, among others). In tone, focus, and them, these shows have nothing in common other than being non-big 3 network productions (AoP&P was done by Nickelodeon, and Deadwood by HBO), but AoP&P depicts a world that I wish were real, and Deadwood just has some of the most psychologically complicated and artful storytelling I've ever seen (including the final episode of the first season, which is actually my single favorite episode of any television ever).
09. I shaved off my beard a few days ago, mostly because I've decided to grow it all out, instead of just the Van Dyke, for the winter months, and it's less of a nuisance to just start it from scratch rather than having a multi-tiered beard for several weeks. But, and I always forget this, it itches in the early stages of growth. Blackbeard, I am not.
10. And that's about it.
135 Days Remaining
01. Today I walked (having decided that I need the exercise) to the grocery store. The walk to the store was only slightly more strenuous than normal (I probably walk there as much as I drive - according to Yahoo Maps it's approximately 2.25 miles each way) due to the ongoing lack of consistent plowing or shoveling along my route, but I have no particular issue with walking carefully on packed snow, or climbing over small disorganized hills of plowed snow. The walk back, on the other hand, was somewhat more difficult, as I purchased more than I had intended upon setting out. I mention that not to complain about my sore arms and hands (carrying those plastic bags any significant by hand is a royal pain), but to mention that as I was walking up a hill along my route, a man pulled up beside me and asked where I was going, offering to drive me. I had the same thing happen (though with a different man) back in October when I was doing the same walk (though there wasn't snow on the ground, and I wasn't carrying so much that time). So that's two people who've spontaneously offered to help me out when seeing me carry heavy loads. I just thought I'd mention this, as evidence that people can be nice for no other reason than to be nice.
02. I enjoy spending money. Not throwing it away on ridiculous things. I like the feeling of paying bills and buying goods or services and saying, "I paid for that." One of the things I can't (or won't because this place feels so temporary) do here is stock my kitchen fully and properly. When I left my ex-wife I kept only a small portion of our foodstuffs, including the spices, flour, etc. So I'm working without anything like a functional base when cooking. Add to that the lack of proper pots and pans, and I feel like a wet-behind-the-ears college graduate, rather than a man in his mid-30s. Today at the grocery store, thinking of my limited cabinet space and restricted functionality, I looked at things I would like to buy, of recipes I don't have the means to cook, and of the cookware I don't currently own. Someday. Tomorrow, anyway, I'm having pancakes, having bought maple syrup today.
03. Lavinia emailed me today to say that her Black Lab puppy, Zeke, was undergoing surgery because apparently he ate some sort of stuffed animal stuffing and was unable to digest it. She indicated that he was apparently coming through surgery okay, but I feel for both her and the dog that this happened. Poor little guy. Speaking of dogs, on my walk today I passed a couple out walking their Corgi, who is so short that it can't see over the shoveled snow. If I wasn't directly behind them, I would have thought they were using one of those silly "invisible dog" rigid leashes. It was very cute.
04. The semester is coming up quickly, and one of the events of the Spring has already started: requests for recommendation letters for next year's semester abroad programs. I don't particularly mind doing the letters, but I sometimes wonder how seriously they're taken. I suspect the letters are just a pro forma part of the application packet.
05. Oh! I forgot to mention yesterday that Iunia lost her first baby tooth two nights ago. My girl is getting bigger all the time. I remember being excited when she got her first baby tooth.
06. YahooNews posted an article from the ongoing excavation of the Queen Anne's Revenge, the flagship of Blackbeard, my all-time most favoritest pirate ever. Apparently a sword was found which, for some reason, the excavators think may have belonged to Thatch himself. A word of explanation: many (though not all) of the pirates in the early 18th century had noms de guerre to prevent the stigmatization of their families, and Blackbeard was no exception. He was actually known by the name Edward T-ch (variously spelled "Thatch," "Teach," "Tach," "Theatch," etc.), but that was probably not his birth name, and then it got even more complicated as his fame spread and he was given the nickname "Blackbeard" (because, interestingly, he had a black beard worn long - onomastically imaginative, the early 18th century press was not). So why is he my most favoritest pirate ever? Because, despite his fearsome reputation, he actually mostly scared the living hell out of people, rather than being a butcher (he was very media-savvy, and cultivated the image of a monstrous murderer, but in fact seems to have preferred not murdering people whenever he could avoid it). His crew was found, during their trial after his death (he commanded several ships, and while everyone with him on his last day died, 16 other crewmen were arrested later elsewhere) to be racially integrated, an interesting example of why the pirates of the Caribbean are worth more study and thinking - there's one school of thinking that pirate ships were more like republics than dictatorships (fictionalized accounts notwithstanding, pirate crews served under what was called "free suffrage" and were not subject to the captain's autocratic whims), and more egalitarian, in racial and socio-economic terms, than anything else in European cultures of the time.
07. Anyway, despite all of his apparent preference for threat over violence to achieve his goals, when the chips were down, Blackbeard went out like nobody's business. From the firsthand accounts, when he was captured and killed on 22 November 1718, he was one of the angriest human beings on the planet, possibly ever. After the entire rest of his crew were dead, it took all of the remaining British soldiers involved to wrestle him down and kill him. The official report noted that he had been shot 5 times (and we're talking pistols and muskets, the latter of which leave grapefruit-sized holes in people) and stabbed/cut at least 20 times. He had to be actively wrestled down after someone came up behind him and slit his throat with a knife. He individually sustained wounds that would have killed several other people if the wounds were distributed one per person. In one later retelling, it only stopped when they actually cut off his head, and he couldn't bite the people holding him down anymore. I mean, JESUS CHRIST. If you're going to go, go hard.
08. Speaking of Blackbeard, he'll be portrayed by Ian McShane in the upcoming fourth Pirates of the Caribbean films, subtitled On Stranger Tides (based on the excellent novel by Tim Powers). I mention McShane because I've been thinking about television the past few days, having spent so much time over the past semester watching old shows on Netflix. Last semester one of my students asked what my favorite TV show was, and I didn't have a ready answer, but I do, in fact, have two shows I would consider my favorites, different though they may be: The Adventures of Pete and Pete and Deadwood (starring Ian McShane, among others). In tone, focus, and them, these shows have nothing in common other than being non-big 3 network productions (AoP&P was done by Nickelodeon, and Deadwood by HBO), but AoP&P depicts a world that I wish were real, and Deadwood just has some of the most psychologically complicated and artful storytelling I've ever seen (including the final episode of the first season, which is actually my single favorite episode of any television ever).
09. I shaved off my beard a few days ago, mostly because I've decided to grow it all out, instead of just the Van Dyke, for the winter months, and it's less of a nuisance to just start it from scratch rather than having a multi-tiered beard for several weeks. But, and I always forget this, it itches in the early stages of growth. Blackbeard, I am not.
10. And that's about it.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Ophiucus, if you please
2011.01.15
136 Days Remaining
01. Here it is, 1230am and I'm still wide awake. My sleep cycle has gone completely farcockt (random etymological note: farcockt is Yiddish for "gone awry" or "messed up") and sometime in the next week I'm going to have to force myself back onto a more civilized schedule that involves sleeping when the sun is down and waking up when it rises. Thank god my bedding here is incredibly uncomfortable, otherwise I'd stay down for all of the hours of daylight. There's no central theme here, just a bunch of random thoughts, ideas, and topics.
02. I got paid today, which is good because I've been living on pasta + sauce and leftover chili for the past week and a half. I love both of those dishes, but prefer my pasta sauce with lots of vegetables in it, and my chili on a less day-by-day basis. I was planning on grocery shopping today, but the temperature barely got to 22 degrees and my car is actually buried in snow in the parking lot. Tomorrow will be warmer, so I elected to not spend hours of sub-freezing temperature today in a thoroughly-shaded parking lot at the end of a wind tunnel digging my car out with my hands. Call me crazy.
03. So instead I walked up to the local Subway franchise and convenience store. This was my first real walk since the major snowfall on Tuesday/Wednesday. The actual amount of snow on the ground varied a lot from one block to the next, but it seems to have been at least a foot everywhere, and closer to two feet in some spots (although that's the far end of the scale: 16-18 inches were the most common measurements I made as I walked). This reminds me of Syracuse winters, although without as much snow. I was somewhat frustrated by the lack of consistent sidewalk shoveling, especially because I timed my walk to coincide with the warmest part of the day (between 2 and 3pm) and saw schoolkids get off buses and have to literally climb over hills of snow or walk in the roads because they couldn't use the sidewalks.
04. Over the past few days I've been watching (ah, Netflix) the SciFi (now Syfy) Channel show Eureka, about a secret government town in Oregon where all the supergeniuses live and make life interesting for the non-genius (lovable everyman) sheriff. I've been sort of astonished by the fact that it is very entertaining, though formulaic (which characteristic is probably enhanced for me because I'm watching the episodes in close succession). The astonishment arises because the Syfy Channel's original movies are appallingly bad, and their "real life" shows like Ghost Hunters and Destination Truth are silly (although I enjoy watching both). Eureka, though, actually has some substance to it, though it's got a fair amount of whimsy, irony, and formula to it. If anything, the weakest parts of its design are shared by many other SciFi or Fantasy genre shows: a) most episodes involve something of a "monster of the week" theme where there is some horrifying disaster/threat that will EXTERMINATE ALL HUMANITY unless the hero can do something, and b) its attention to emotional and psychological character development trends towards the bathetic, which I find annoying (this was one of the things that killed the Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel shows for me - drama for the sake of drama and not for any good internal plot or character reasons). I'm increasingly in alignment with Tolkien on this one, and mistrust open-ended storytelling series, as they fall too easily into regular repetition and bathos. All of that said, the show is generally fun, and I've enjoyed watching it.
05. Five Songs:
05.a for some reason today when the song "Hand Me Down" by Visqueen came up on my iTunes shuffle it caught my particular attention (I think that I particularly like the sound of the chorus). I can't find a formal version on YouTube, but I did find a minimalist, well-miked version. I like the use of the electric cello in this version.
05.b Also in my head recently: Liz Phair's Stratford-on-Guy, again for the chorus (in this case with a particular type of resonant, jangly guitar playing that I have always liked - you can hear its precursors in some Buddy Holly and Bobby Fuller, and a lyric I've never been able to decipher and refuse to look up).
05.c One of my 3 favorite songs is the Talking Heads' "And She Was," because it made a long-ago unhappy time of my life bright for one serene morning.
05.d I love Neko Case (whether as a solo artist or part of the New Pornographers), and this song combines the sort of deep sound I referred to last week or so (about Arcade Fire's "Modern Man") and some of the jangly guitar I'm talking about today: "Animal." I also empathize with the line "I do my best but I'm made of mistakes."
05.e Finally, Dar Williams' "The Ocean." This song is one of the ways I think about what God might be like, when I am inclined to think about such topics.
06. I don't want to talk about Jared Loughner anymore. The facts, as they come out, increasingly triangulate in on mental health issues, rather than partisan rhetoric, as the most salient cause for his actions, with a side of very problematically lax gun control laws and procedures (fun historical fact: Arizona had tougher gun regulations when Wyatt Earp was sheriff of Tombstone in the Wild West than it does now). But both of those issues are effectively off the table in any serious fashion, because involuntary committing of the insane is incredibly complicated (and with good reason - it's easy to abuse) and our national gun control discussion is pretty much DOA with the only two voices (one of which is pretty much a tiny whisper in the wilderness nowadays) urging zero regulation or complete ban (this is the one in the wilderness, btw). Any attempt to suggest that complete lack of regulations isn't a good idea is often (and I'm not talking about conversations among policy wonks or those who think about this seriously - I'm talking about the publicly stated positions of Tea Partiers and NRA-funded spokespersons) seen as a ploy to get towards a total ban. Which I see as equivalent to saying that Stop signs are a step towards banning cars. Those of you who shoot or own guns, I'm curious to hear your take(s) on this: is the Loughner case a good argument for stronger enforcement of existing regulations, for more regulations, or irrelevant to gun control laws in general?
07. I noted with some curiosity the over-hyped storm about the "sudden" announcement that the constellations' arrangement relative to the Earth changes over time, and that this means that (if one is using sidereal astrology) there are now 13 relevant constellations, rather than 12. First of all, astronomers and astrologers (they used to be the same thing, btw) have known about this phenomenon for over 2,000 years (closer to 2,250 years, actually). Second, it doesn't impact the dominant type of astrology in Europe, North or South America (which is tropical, not sidereal). On the upside, if we did use sidereal astrology, I'm one of the people who would be effected, as the "new" 13th sign's birthdate range is from late November to December 17th. Thus, I would now by an Ophiucus, rather than a Sagittarius. This, I think, is kind of neat, as Ophiucus (previously known in the medieval West by its Latin name, Serpentarius) means "serpent-holder." On the other hand, according to tropical astrology, I am exactly the person I should be based on my birthdate. It's uncanny, how much I have the predicted characteristics. And since no one has figured out the import of the Ophiucus birth sign...alas, I'll have to depend on Sagittarius to guide me further. Still, snakes are cool.
08. And now, having fooled around on YouTube looking for links and listening to music, it's 230am. Good night, or good morning.
136 Days Remaining
01. Here it is, 1230am and I'm still wide awake. My sleep cycle has gone completely farcockt (random etymological note: farcockt is Yiddish for "gone awry" or "messed up") and sometime in the next week I'm going to have to force myself back onto a more civilized schedule that involves sleeping when the sun is down and waking up when it rises. Thank god my bedding here is incredibly uncomfortable, otherwise I'd stay down for all of the hours of daylight. There's no central theme here, just a bunch of random thoughts, ideas, and topics.
02. I got paid today, which is good because I've been living on pasta + sauce and leftover chili for the past week and a half. I love both of those dishes, but prefer my pasta sauce with lots of vegetables in it, and my chili on a less day-by-day basis. I was planning on grocery shopping today, but the temperature barely got to 22 degrees and my car is actually buried in snow in the parking lot. Tomorrow will be warmer, so I elected to not spend hours of sub-freezing temperature today in a thoroughly-shaded parking lot at the end of a wind tunnel digging my car out with my hands. Call me crazy.
03. So instead I walked up to the local Subway franchise and convenience store. This was my first real walk since the major snowfall on Tuesday/Wednesday. The actual amount of snow on the ground varied a lot from one block to the next, but it seems to have been at least a foot everywhere, and closer to two feet in some spots (although that's the far end of the scale: 16-18 inches were the most common measurements I made as I walked). This reminds me of Syracuse winters, although without as much snow. I was somewhat frustrated by the lack of consistent sidewalk shoveling, especially because I timed my walk to coincide with the warmest part of the day (between 2 and 3pm) and saw schoolkids get off buses and have to literally climb over hills of snow or walk in the roads because they couldn't use the sidewalks.
04. Over the past few days I've been watching (ah, Netflix) the SciFi (now Syfy) Channel show Eureka, about a secret government town in Oregon where all the supergeniuses live and make life interesting for the non-genius (lovable everyman) sheriff. I've been sort of astonished by the fact that it is very entertaining, though formulaic (which characteristic is probably enhanced for me because I'm watching the episodes in close succession). The astonishment arises because the Syfy Channel's original movies are appallingly bad, and their "real life" shows like Ghost Hunters and Destination Truth are silly (although I enjoy watching both). Eureka, though, actually has some substance to it, though it's got a fair amount of whimsy, irony, and formula to it. If anything, the weakest parts of its design are shared by many other SciFi or Fantasy genre shows: a) most episodes involve something of a "monster of the week" theme where there is some horrifying disaster/threat that will EXTERMINATE ALL HUMANITY unless the hero can do something, and b) its attention to emotional and psychological character development trends towards the bathetic, which I find annoying (this was one of the things that killed the Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel shows for me - drama for the sake of drama and not for any good internal plot or character reasons). I'm increasingly in alignment with Tolkien on this one, and mistrust open-ended storytelling series, as they fall too easily into regular repetition and bathos. All of that said, the show is generally fun, and I've enjoyed watching it.
05. Five Songs:
05.a for some reason today when the song "Hand Me Down" by Visqueen came up on my iTunes shuffle it caught my particular attention (I think that I particularly like the sound of the chorus). I can't find a formal version on YouTube, but I did find a minimalist, well-miked version. I like the use of the electric cello in this version.
05.b Also in my head recently: Liz Phair's Stratford-on-Guy, again for the chorus (in this case with a particular type of resonant, jangly guitar playing that I have always liked - you can hear its precursors in some Buddy Holly and Bobby Fuller, and a lyric I've never been able to decipher and refuse to look up).
05.c One of my 3 favorite songs is the Talking Heads' "And She Was," because it made a long-ago unhappy time of my life bright for one serene morning.
05.d I love Neko Case (whether as a solo artist or part of the New Pornographers), and this song combines the sort of deep sound I referred to last week or so (about Arcade Fire's "Modern Man") and some of the jangly guitar I'm talking about today: "Animal." I also empathize with the line "I do my best but I'm made of mistakes."
05.e Finally, Dar Williams' "The Ocean." This song is one of the ways I think about what God might be like, when I am inclined to think about such topics.
06. I don't want to talk about Jared Loughner anymore. The facts, as they come out, increasingly triangulate in on mental health issues, rather than partisan rhetoric, as the most salient cause for his actions, with a side of very problematically lax gun control laws and procedures (fun historical fact: Arizona had tougher gun regulations when Wyatt Earp was sheriff of Tombstone in the Wild West than it does now). But both of those issues are effectively off the table in any serious fashion, because involuntary committing of the insane is incredibly complicated (and with good reason - it's easy to abuse) and our national gun control discussion is pretty much DOA with the only two voices (one of which is pretty much a tiny whisper in the wilderness nowadays) urging zero regulation or complete ban (this is the one in the wilderness, btw). Any attempt to suggest that complete lack of regulations isn't a good idea is often (and I'm not talking about conversations among policy wonks or those who think about this seriously - I'm talking about the publicly stated positions of Tea Partiers and NRA-funded spokespersons) seen as a ploy to get towards a total ban. Which I see as equivalent to saying that Stop signs are a step towards banning cars. Those of you who shoot or own guns, I'm curious to hear your take(s) on this: is the Loughner case a good argument for stronger enforcement of existing regulations, for more regulations, or irrelevant to gun control laws in general?
07. I noted with some curiosity the over-hyped storm about the "sudden" announcement that the constellations' arrangement relative to the Earth changes over time, and that this means that (if one is using sidereal astrology) there are now 13 relevant constellations, rather than 12. First of all, astronomers and astrologers (they used to be the same thing, btw) have known about this phenomenon for over 2,000 years (closer to 2,250 years, actually). Second, it doesn't impact the dominant type of astrology in Europe, North or South America (which is tropical, not sidereal). On the upside, if we did use sidereal astrology, I'm one of the people who would be effected, as the "new" 13th sign's birthdate range is from late November to December 17th. Thus, I would now by an Ophiucus, rather than a Sagittarius. This, I think, is kind of neat, as Ophiucus (previously known in the medieval West by its Latin name, Serpentarius) means "serpent-holder." On the other hand, according to tropical astrology, I am exactly the person I should be based on my birthdate. It's uncanny, how much I have the predicted characteristics. And since no one has figured out the import of the Ophiucus birth sign...alas, I'll have to depend on Sagittarius to guide me further. Still, snakes are cool.
08. And now, having fooled around on YouTube looking for links and listening to music, it's 230am. Good night, or good morning.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
2011.01.11
140 Days Remaining
01. So, this will be brief, but there are a few interesting things that took place today, and I wanted to jot them down before going to bed.
02. I haven't been sleeping well the past week or so; I'm unable to fall asleep until very, very late, and then have a proportionately later waking time. This is very likely at least in part due to being somewhat depressed, but it also is simply part of a vicious cycle. Last night I moved to break the cycle by going to bed at 1030pm. I was awake until about midnight, but I woke up at 8am feeling rested and ready to go. So of course I stayed in bed a bit longer, enjoying the feeling of being up, and that's when I heard the explosion.
03. A transformer blew out, cutting electric power to a significant portion of New Aldwych, and effectively derailing my day, as I couldn't do much of anything (including get a shower with hot water). I spent the day reading some photocopied essays, I began reading a book given to me by Romulus and Iuno for Christmas, and slowly began to freeze. Around 145pm this afternoon I decided to take a walk to remind my body what cold actually felt like, and thereby maybe make the potentially unheated indoor night less traumatic. So I walked all the way out and to a park on the other side of the inlet that borders the ocean beach park I walk to in the morning sometimes. It felt like a significantly longer walk than to the ocean beach park, and eventually I got to the shore (again, on the other side of the inlet). Two swans were swimming near the beach, and the ocean was full of color (blues, greens, and purples as the waves rushed in), which surprised me given how cloudy the day was.
04. While walking back through the park, I ran into a woman with a very shy but friendly dog named Buddy. I held out my hand for him to sniff, and she said he's very shy, but after smelling me a bit I moved to pet him and he shied away (to my dismay, I think it was an outstretched hand coming down at him, which makes me think he'd been beaten - his current owner found him abandoned and took him in, but he'd been damaged before). She advised that I let him sniff my knees, and he did, after which he let me pet him. He seemed very sweet, and it breaks my heart that he was hurt before, and I'm very glad that someone found him who takes good care of him.
05. One of the essays I read today was by an anthropologist at Columbia University named Michael Taussig, who is brilliant and maybe a little crazy (he's Australian by upbringing, and that may explain some of it - I've heard him described as a gonzo anthropologist). The essay, as is typical for him, was extremely good, it's about the fact that in North and South American Native societies, the ritual experts (shamans, curers, priests, etc.) would often (and in many cases still) engage in a very interesting sort of cat-and-mouse game with each other and their clientele over whether or not their rituals (and the demonstrated effects) were "tricks" or "real." I'm not doing any of this justice, but the essay is brilliant, both for showing how skepticism and belief are not either/or states of mind but are always sort of tugging at each other, and for leaving open the problem of how or whether these rituals work (something that I think is vexed and not nearly as settled as many people would like it to be).
06. The power came back on around 545pm, and there was much rejoicing. After logging on to my computer and reading my email, I checked the weather and discovered that the forecast was simply, "Blizzard" for tonight and all day tomorrow. They're calling for up to 16 inches of snow to fall, Baskerville College closed preemptively, and the city began sending trucks around warning everyone not to park on the street so that the plows can clear things off. No snow just yet, but it seems to be coming.
07. And that's about it.
140 Days Remaining
01. So, this will be brief, but there are a few interesting things that took place today, and I wanted to jot them down before going to bed.
02. I haven't been sleeping well the past week or so; I'm unable to fall asleep until very, very late, and then have a proportionately later waking time. This is very likely at least in part due to being somewhat depressed, but it also is simply part of a vicious cycle. Last night I moved to break the cycle by going to bed at 1030pm. I was awake until about midnight, but I woke up at 8am feeling rested and ready to go. So of course I stayed in bed a bit longer, enjoying the feeling of being up, and that's when I heard the explosion.
03. A transformer blew out, cutting electric power to a significant portion of New Aldwych, and effectively derailing my day, as I couldn't do much of anything (including get a shower with hot water). I spent the day reading some photocopied essays, I began reading a book given to me by Romulus and Iuno for Christmas, and slowly began to freeze. Around 145pm this afternoon I decided to take a walk to remind my body what cold actually felt like, and thereby maybe make the potentially unheated indoor night less traumatic. So I walked all the way out and to a park on the other side of the inlet that borders the ocean beach park I walk to in the morning sometimes. It felt like a significantly longer walk than to the ocean beach park, and eventually I got to the shore (again, on the other side of the inlet). Two swans were swimming near the beach, and the ocean was full of color (blues, greens, and purples as the waves rushed in), which surprised me given how cloudy the day was.
04. While walking back through the park, I ran into a woman with a very shy but friendly dog named Buddy. I held out my hand for him to sniff, and she said he's very shy, but after smelling me a bit I moved to pet him and he shied away (to my dismay, I think it was an outstretched hand coming down at him, which makes me think he'd been beaten - his current owner found him abandoned and took him in, but he'd been damaged before). She advised that I let him sniff my knees, and he did, after which he let me pet him. He seemed very sweet, and it breaks my heart that he was hurt before, and I'm very glad that someone found him who takes good care of him.
05. One of the essays I read today was by an anthropologist at Columbia University named Michael Taussig, who is brilliant and maybe a little crazy (he's Australian by upbringing, and that may explain some of it - I've heard him described as a gonzo anthropologist). The essay, as is typical for him, was extremely good, it's about the fact that in North and South American Native societies, the ritual experts (shamans, curers, priests, etc.) would often (and in many cases still) engage in a very interesting sort of cat-and-mouse game with each other and their clientele over whether or not their rituals (and the demonstrated effects) were "tricks" or "real." I'm not doing any of this justice, but the essay is brilliant, both for showing how skepticism and belief are not either/or states of mind but are always sort of tugging at each other, and for leaving open the problem of how or whether these rituals work (something that I think is vexed and not nearly as settled as many people would like it to be).
06. The power came back on around 545pm, and there was much rejoicing. After logging on to my computer and reading my email, I checked the weather and discovered that the forecast was simply, "Blizzard" for tonight and all day tomorrow. They're calling for up to 16 inches of snow to fall, Baskerville College closed preemptively, and the city began sending trucks around warning everyone not to park on the street so that the plows can clear things off. No snow just yet, but it seems to be coming.
07. And that's about it.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Grim Musings
2011.01.09
142 Days Remaining
01. It snowed throughout the day yesterday, and on into the night. Not a lot of accumulation for all of that, but I enjoyed sitting here last night with all interior lights off and the blinds open on my glass doors, watching the snowfall in the complex's exterior lights' glow. It's windy out today, and the snow was very fine so the various gusts send cascades of infinitesimal bits of snow across my line of sight. Because there are so many I can actually see the patterns of the air's movement. Sometimes I look out the window and have a clear view of the street, and the trees and buildings across it. Other times, I turn around and my view is of the same scene through billows of thousands of white grains of fallen snow.
02.01. In light of the snowfall, and the only recent ending of the 12 Days of Christmas, last night I watched (via Hulu.com) a previously-unknown-to-me film Santa and Pete. It stars James Earl Jones (as the modern time narrator) and Hume Cronyn as Santa Claus. The film was poorly written, poorly acted, and overall silly. But, that said, it was an alleged history of Santa Claus and Black Peter (the dutch companion of Sinterklaas) and their voyage from Holland to the New World. I won't go into the historical problems of it, but the sentiment was sweet (one of the very heavy-handed themes was interracial companionship and harmony) and there were moments when the visuals were really eye-catching.
02.02. On the further, but important to note, downside, the character of Pete had very uncomfortable elements which made me think of American minstrel shows as they've become integrated into the idea of the "good black person" in American popular culture (he's subordinate to a white person, but lovingly so, he's vaguely comical, he's focused on bodily concerns, etc.). This was perhaps even more strongly at the forefront of my mind because the traditional figure on which the movie was drawing, the Dutch Zwarte Piet has become a recurring source of controversy in Holland, as he is represented each Christmas by white people (usually teenage girls, interestingly) in blackface. So the film, where Pete was represented by an adult African American man, was clearly diverging from traditional depictions, but the characterization still reaffirmed (I think) many of the coded racial messages that are part of the Dutch custom (btw, interestingly, this version of Zwarte Piet is actually only first attested in sources in the 19th century, and so most of the narratives I've heard about its origins are wrong - not based upon resistance to Spanish imperialism, etc., though it was designed to reference earlier times).
02.03. It got me thinking, once more, about the history of Santa Claus and the ways that this is very rarely presented well or accurately. This led to some poking about on WWW and in various academic databases, and one of the more interesting discoveries was that St. Charles, Missouri has a very complicated Christmas festival each year, which might be fun to go to someday: http://www.stcharleschristmas.com/index.html.
03. There hasn't been much going on here the past few days. I have been remiss in noting here that my telephonic disarray continues. Upon arriving back up here last weekend I discovered that the cell phone loaned to me by Iuno and Romulus is also incompatible with my SIM card (which I had left in New Aldwych when I came to Delaware for the holidays, because I wasn't being careful). In fact, from what I can see, I'm going to have to buy an old phone off of eBay to replace the one that broke, because I've apparently missed several generations of phone technology over the past three years, and so my cell phone (which remains on my ex-wife's account because it would cost $200 to sever the contract before this coming July) is out-of-date. Specifically, it's SIM card. Sigh. I'm able to make calls using Gmail's phone function, but I can't receive any. If you need to call me, please send me an email with a time you want to be called, and I can call you. The incoming call will say it's from Escondido, CA (which is where I'm not, btw).
04. I recently asked my upcoming Supernatural students about whether they'd like to try out a ghost-hunting experiment on campus, and as the vacation-laden responses have trickled in, one of them has a brother who is best friends with one of the newer Ghost Hunters (from the TV show). So she's going to see if he can arrange some way for me to talk with them, since they do not respond to any email I've sent (and, in fact, don't like talking to academics in general).
05. This next bit is excerpted from an email I sent to Silvanus earlier today, and is complicated enough that for my own sake I'm breaking it up into sections as I revise it. Basically I've seen postings from both Democrats and Tea Partiers that share the assumption that Loughner's attack on Congresswoman Giffords (and assorted bystanders) in AZ were related (or relate-able) to his politics. I've seen responses to those postings arguing that it's absurd to link Loughner's politics and actions, and that any such linking is politically motivated.
06. In attempting to not fall into the either/or perspective, I've turned to historical analysis, and am proceeding by framing this particular event in terms of the Oklahoma City Bombing, the Order (who did a bunch of very bad things in 1983), the Weather Underground, Sacco and Vanzetti, etc. That is, structural comparison with other small group (or individual) actors who act violently towards political and media figures indicates that those actors tend to orient themselves towards the margins of dominant political discourse, but that those margins may be either on the left or the right.
07. Conversely, those margins are most likely to employ not simply violent rhetoric ("we're in it to win it" "this is a struggle for our country's soul" etc) but also, in various ways, to advocate for actual violence, even if they do so only haphazardly. I remember seeing Ted Nugent (whom I like, btw, but often disagree with) remark that if Obama won in 2008, the government would present itself as a "target-rich environment" - this said while holding an assault rifle. Or the various "2nd Amendment solutions" comments voiced by Sharron Angle, etc. come to mind. What I'd like to know is quantifiable data about the amount of threats of physical violence directed towards Democrats since the Tea Party began (and, really, since Obama was elected); I have heard that the Secret Service has had a massive upsurge in credible threats against the President than in previous administrations, and I have heard more about violence directed towards Democratic representatives and senators, but I don't know if that is numerically accurate or impressionistic.
08. On the third hand, I have heard Tea Party leaders saying "of course this is all metaphor" and, using the principle of charity where I accuse someone of lying only when I have good reason to do so, I'll accept that they believed that. As Jack Schafer on Slate.com has pointed out, the vast majority of folks who get mad at the government don't physically attack other people. And yet...most racists in the post-bellum South didn't participate in lynchings, but they stood by and even rhetorically supported that violence, so that when it occurred they weren't protesting. Let me state here that I'm a Free Speech Absolutist: barring the "fire in crowded theaters" and "using known falsehood to materially attack someone" exceptions, I think one can say as much racist, sexist, age-ist, bigoted nastiness as one wants. But I think that it's disingenuous to plead "first amendment" as a way to avoid talking about whether certain speech climates make certain physical actions more or less likely.
09. So I'm left with an interesting interpretive problem: historical comparison suggests that we should not be surprised that Loughner had extremist political views, but I don't know that evidence suggests those views were particularly causative in his murder of six people and injury of others. On the other hand, that does not mean that there isn't a causative dynamic going on, we simply don't have enough evidence to prove it. And, god willing, we never will, because the only way I could see such evidence coming to light would be other assassination attempts by people with similar political views to his. And I'd prefer that not happen.
10. Those are my thoughts for now. Oh, and on an incongruously not-grim note, happy birthday to my sister Agrippina, who turned 33 today.
142 Days Remaining
01. It snowed throughout the day yesterday, and on into the night. Not a lot of accumulation for all of that, but I enjoyed sitting here last night with all interior lights off and the blinds open on my glass doors, watching the snowfall in the complex's exterior lights' glow. It's windy out today, and the snow was very fine so the various gusts send cascades of infinitesimal bits of snow across my line of sight. Because there are so many I can actually see the patterns of the air's movement. Sometimes I look out the window and have a clear view of the street, and the trees and buildings across it. Other times, I turn around and my view is of the same scene through billows of thousands of white grains of fallen snow.
02.01. In light of the snowfall, and the only recent ending of the 12 Days of Christmas, last night I watched (via Hulu.com) a previously-unknown-to-me film Santa and Pete. It stars James Earl Jones (as the modern time narrator) and Hume Cronyn as Santa Claus. The film was poorly written, poorly acted, and overall silly. But, that said, it was an alleged history of Santa Claus and Black Peter (the dutch companion of Sinterklaas) and their voyage from Holland to the New World. I won't go into the historical problems of it, but the sentiment was sweet (one of the very heavy-handed themes was interracial companionship and harmony) and there were moments when the visuals were really eye-catching.
02.02. On the further, but important to note, downside, the character of Pete had very uncomfortable elements which made me think of American minstrel shows as they've become integrated into the idea of the "good black person" in American popular culture (he's subordinate to a white person, but lovingly so, he's vaguely comical, he's focused on bodily concerns, etc.). This was perhaps even more strongly at the forefront of my mind because the traditional figure on which the movie was drawing, the Dutch Zwarte Piet has become a recurring source of controversy in Holland, as he is represented each Christmas by white people (usually teenage girls, interestingly) in blackface. So the film, where Pete was represented by an adult African American man, was clearly diverging from traditional depictions, but the characterization still reaffirmed (I think) many of the coded racial messages that are part of the Dutch custom (btw, interestingly, this version of Zwarte Piet is actually only first attested in sources in the 19th century, and so most of the narratives I've heard about its origins are wrong - not based upon resistance to Spanish imperialism, etc., though it was designed to reference earlier times).
02.03. It got me thinking, once more, about the history of Santa Claus and the ways that this is very rarely presented well or accurately. This led to some poking about on WWW and in various academic databases, and one of the more interesting discoveries was that St. Charles, Missouri has a very complicated Christmas festival each year, which might be fun to go to someday: http://www.stcharleschristmas.com/index.html.
03. There hasn't been much going on here the past few days. I have been remiss in noting here that my telephonic disarray continues. Upon arriving back up here last weekend I discovered that the cell phone loaned to me by Iuno and Romulus is also incompatible with my SIM card (which I had left in New Aldwych when I came to Delaware for the holidays, because I wasn't being careful). In fact, from what I can see, I'm going to have to buy an old phone off of eBay to replace the one that broke, because I've apparently missed several generations of phone technology over the past three years, and so my cell phone (which remains on my ex-wife's account because it would cost $200 to sever the contract before this coming July) is out-of-date. Specifically, it's SIM card. Sigh. I'm able to make calls using Gmail's phone function, but I can't receive any. If you need to call me, please send me an email with a time you want to be called, and I can call you. The incoming call will say it's from Escondido, CA (which is where I'm not, btw).
04. I recently asked my upcoming Supernatural students about whether they'd like to try out a ghost-hunting experiment on campus, and as the vacation-laden responses have trickled in, one of them has a brother who is best friends with one of the newer Ghost Hunters (from the TV show). So she's going to see if he can arrange some way for me to talk with them, since they do not respond to any email I've sent (and, in fact, don't like talking to academics in general).
05. This next bit is excerpted from an email I sent to Silvanus earlier today, and is complicated enough that for my own sake I'm breaking it up into sections as I revise it. Basically I've seen postings from both Democrats and Tea Partiers that share the assumption that Loughner's attack on Congresswoman Giffords (and assorted bystanders) in AZ were related (or relate-able) to his politics. I've seen responses to those postings arguing that it's absurd to link Loughner's politics and actions, and that any such linking is politically motivated.
06. In attempting to not fall into the either/or perspective, I've turned to historical analysis, and am proceeding by framing this particular event in terms of the Oklahoma City Bombing, the Order (who did a bunch of very bad things in 1983), the Weather Underground, Sacco and Vanzetti, etc. That is, structural comparison with other small group (or individual) actors who act violently towards political and media figures indicates that those actors tend to orient themselves towards the margins of dominant political discourse, but that those margins may be either on the left or the right.
07. Conversely, those margins are most likely to employ not simply violent rhetoric ("we're in it to win it" "this is a struggle for our country's soul" etc) but also, in various ways, to advocate for actual violence, even if they do so only haphazardly. I remember seeing Ted Nugent (whom I like, btw, but often disagree with) remark that if Obama won in 2008, the government would present itself as a "target-rich environment" - this said while holding an assault rifle. Or the various "2nd Amendment solutions" comments voiced by Sharron Angle, etc. come to mind. What I'd like to know is quantifiable data about the amount of threats of physical violence directed towards Democrats since the Tea Party began (and, really, since Obama was elected); I have heard that the Secret Service has had a massive upsurge in credible threats against the President than in previous administrations, and I have heard more about violence directed towards Democratic representatives and senators, but I don't know if that is numerically accurate or impressionistic.
08. On the third hand, I have heard Tea Party leaders saying "of course this is all metaphor" and, using the principle of charity where I accuse someone of lying only when I have good reason to do so, I'll accept that they believed that. As Jack Schafer on Slate.com has pointed out, the vast majority of folks who get mad at the government don't physically attack other people. And yet...most racists in the post-bellum South didn't participate in lynchings, but they stood by and even rhetorically supported that violence, so that when it occurred they weren't protesting. Let me state here that I'm a Free Speech Absolutist: barring the "fire in crowded theaters" and "using known falsehood to materially attack someone" exceptions, I think one can say as much racist, sexist, age-ist, bigoted nastiness as one wants. But I think that it's disingenuous to plead "first amendment" as a way to avoid talking about whether certain speech climates make certain physical actions more or less likely.
09. So I'm left with an interesting interpretive problem: historical comparison suggests that we should not be surprised that Loughner had extremist political views, but I don't know that evidence suggests those views were particularly causative in his murder of six people and injury of others. On the other hand, that does not mean that there isn't a causative dynamic going on, we simply don't have enough evidence to prove it. And, god willing, we never will, because the only way I could see such evidence coming to light would be other assassination attempts by people with similar political views to his. And I'd prefer that not happen.
10. Those are my thoughts for now. Oh, and on an incongruously not-grim note, happy birthday to my sister Agrippina, who turned 33 today.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Hudsucker and Telemacher
2011.01.05
146 Days Remaining
01. I have been working at my desk all night (well, intermixed with watching stuff on Netflix), and eventually turned on iTunes and put it on "shuffle." Eh, I like the music I like, and so I've been singing along merrily (how merrily? fairly merrily, I think). Then a song came on, "A Boat Like Gideon Brown" by Great Big Sea, which made me pause. This is one of my ex-wife's favorite songs, and Great Big Sea is one of her favorite bands (to which he introduced me when we were...I guess you could say "courting" via email. It's a good song, very sweet (it's about a father and son, both fishermen in Newfoundland, who are saving up their money to buy the eponymous boat), and one of my favorites as well. Still...it's the little things some days.
02. I was speaking with Belisarius via gmail-chat yesterday and commenting on the problem of loneliness up here. It's very easy to see no one for several days in a row, and to feel not just lonely but isolated. I'm going to campus tomorrow, for most of the day, to do work there but also just to be around people. While there are many types of loneliness, and I felt some others when married, one thing I rarely felt was completely isolated, even if living with my house-mate was often very difficult. As Belisarius and I discussed, one of the real benefits of moving to Wilmington in May will simply be having a social group available, even if on any given day (or sequence of days) I don't see anyone. Here, not having a social group isn't an option, it's just the way things are.
03. I spoke on the telephone this evening with the husband of one of Selena's former co-workers. He is a religion teacher at Wilmington Friends school, and is retiring at the end of this year. My hope was that this would translate into that school being on the lookout for a replacement, but after our conversation (he is very nice and encouraging, and was very helpful) that school seems unlikely. They are following suit with many schools right now, trying to save money by cutting down on electives and any positions that can be combined are being combined. On the other hand, he said I should send my resume and a letter, just in case, and as Selena pointed out, maybe my qualifications will just blow their minds. He also gave me a list of Friends schools in the Delaware Valley that have stronger (and more secure) Religion programs, and so I'll be contacting them in the next week or so. It would be wonderful if I could continue teaching.
04. Lavinia (for those of you who might be keeping track, Lavinia's husband is currently serving in the Navy in Djibouti, has degrees in Marine Science, a little boy, went to college with Octavius and me, and lives in Newark now - if you still don't know who she is, you probably wouldn't even if I used her real name) and her husband had looked into applying to start a Charter School next year, but had to put that plan on hold due to his deployment. I remain, on some level, ambivalent about Charter Schools because on one hand I see them as removing funding from traditional public education (of which I'm a big fan), and their overall success rates are about the same as public schools (which is to say that they vary wildly; though in Charter Schools' case without any clear patterns or discernible causation beyond any particular school). On the other hand, I grant that many people are frustrated with the state of public education in our country (though I sometimes think that's because we don't really understand the data available to us), and I'm all in favor of experimental schools where different educational strategies are tested and worked out. In fact, over the years (going back at least 6 if not 7 now) I've had an occasional, ongoing, conversation with several of you about what a good school would be, and there's a part of me that would really like to go about designing a school from the ground up.
05. A few years ago I watched the Coen Bros' film The Hudsucker Proxy, the plot of which is too complicated for me to summarize here. The climax of the film occurs when Tim Robbins' character (the aforementioned proxy), having reached a comprehensive nadir in his fortunes, attempts to commit suicide by jumping out of a window (through which another character played by Charles Durning had previously committed suicide - it's a dark comedy). As Robbins' character plunges toward the street below, his fall is arrested mysteriously, and he is approached by the (cognitively disjunctive to see) ghost of Charles Durning, dressed as an angel. Through exposition and backstory unimportant here, deceased-Durning offers Robbins (and the film does a much better job of building up the dramatic tension, as Robbins' character hangs in mid-air, "a second chance" (and some perspective). In my favorite movie, Steve Martin's L.A. Story (funny, but not a comedy in any straightforward way - this is where we start to see Martin's non-comedic artistic self shine, I think), his character, Harris K. Telemacher, is assisted in making right his life by a Freeway Sign (which may or may not be speaking for the entire city of L.A.). At the end of that film, Martin's voice over says, "A kiss may not be the truth, but it is what we wish were true."
06. I've been thinking about those two films off and on for the past few days. I am often cynical, and can be very pessimistic (or at least not hopeful), and I realize that this is often a shield because it is easy to feel wounded and defeated. I try, very hard, not to lose my affection for the world and the people in it, and even when they infuriate me or sadden me, to remember that they are also deserving of love, and that we all make mistakes. I suppose what I find compelling in those films is the externalization and making-visible the hope that we all have, or at least that I know I have and which I suspect we all have at one point or another, for a second chance. To the best of my knowledge, most of us aren't visited by Charles Durning's angel, nor are we spoken to by street signs, but I think that many of us desperately, on one level or another, want there to be someone watching out for us in the big sense, someone who can do what none of our friends or other human beings can normally do: give us the chance to make right what has gone wrong and begin again, clean and bright at the morning.
07. Charles Durning's angel tells Tim Robbins' character that despair looks backward, paying attention to what can't be changed. But I sometimes think that despair is what you feel when the past refuses to stay past, and extends into your present and your future, so that you don't feel like you have a future, just a past always enfolding you.
08. Today I wrote to my Supernatural class's students asking them about scheduling a weekly viewing time for the films they'll need to watch, and if there were any of them interested in trying to do a "ghost hunting" experiment in one of campus' haunted buildings (probably the big dining hall where there have been multiple unrelated eyewitness reports, since its construction several years ago, of a young girl who stands near the ice cream machine but who vanishes if you get to close to her - the hall is built on what used to be a neighborhood, so who knows the history of that spot?). I've only had 3 replies thus far (out of 30 students), but it's vacation, so I'm not expecting a wave of responses. Still, the three were all very positive about the class in general (very anticipatory), and that made me feel good. I'd like to go out with a bang when I leave Baskerville College, and this seems like a good class in which to do so.
09. Selena's blog posting today told how, when trying to get Euander to admit to having written on one of Iunia's pictures, Selena said that she was going to have to watch what had happened in her camera (which of course we all know wasn't on). Apparently, the idea of having been observed all this time by the camera got both the kids to confess to pretty much everything they've ever done wrong (my favorite? Iunia confessed to having hidden, and later eaten, some mints that she got one time at the Olive Garden). All I could hear in my head as I read this was Chunk from Goonies, confessing his life's crimes to the Fratellis: "but the worst thing I ever done..."
10. One last note before bed: L.A. Story has one of the best love scenes I've ever encountered, where Steve Martin's and Victoria Tenant's characters are walking down Melrose in LA and go into some sort of botanical garden. The moment they enter the actual garden Enya's song "On Your Shore" (Enya's album Watermark is lovely and dear to me) begins playing, and the two of them are basically in Some Other Place for the remainder of the scene, which only goes on for another 50 seconds or so, but captures...JRR Tolkien would recognize it. They're in the Perilous Realm, at least for those 50 seconds, where statues move, and the wind loves you, and plants grow in your footsteps as you walk, because life begets life.
11. Maybe someday I'll write about why I love Watermark, and why the statues in that scene in LA Story give me chills.
146 Days Remaining
01. I have been working at my desk all night (well, intermixed with watching stuff on Netflix), and eventually turned on iTunes and put it on "shuffle." Eh, I like the music I like, and so I've been singing along merrily (how merrily? fairly merrily, I think). Then a song came on, "A Boat Like Gideon Brown" by Great Big Sea, which made me pause. This is one of my ex-wife's favorite songs, and Great Big Sea is one of her favorite bands (to which he introduced me when we were...I guess you could say "courting" via email. It's a good song, very sweet (it's about a father and son, both fishermen in Newfoundland, who are saving up their money to buy the eponymous boat), and one of my favorites as well. Still...it's the little things some days.
02. I was speaking with Belisarius via gmail-chat yesterday and commenting on the problem of loneliness up here. It's very easy to see no one for several days in a row, and to feel not just lonely but isolated. I'm going to campus tomorrow, for most of the day, to do work there but also just to be around people. While there are many types of loneliness, and I felt some others when married, one thing I rarely felt was completely isolated, even if living with my house-mate was often very difficult. As Belisarius and I discussed, one of the real benefits of moving to Wilmington in May will simply be having a social group available, even if on any given day (or sequence of days) I don't see anyone. Here, not having a social group isn't an option, it's just the way things are.
03. I spoke on the telephone this evening with the husband of one of Selena's former co-workers. He is a religion teacher at Wilmington Friends school, and is retiring at the end of this year. My hope was that this would translate into that school being on the lookout for a replacement, but after our conversation (he is very nice and encouraging, and was very helpful) that school seems unlikely. They are following suit with many schools right now, trying to save money by cutting down on electives and any positions that can be combined are being combined. On the other hand, he said I should send my resume and a letter, just in case, and as Selena pointed out, maybe my qualifications will just blow their minds. He also gave me a list of Friends schools in the Delaware Valley that have stronger (and more secure) Religion programs, and so I'll be contacting them in the next week or so. It would be wonderful if I could continue teaching.
04. Lavinia (for those of you who might be keeping track, Lavinia's husband is currently serving in the Navy in Djibouti, has degrees in Marine Science, a little boy, went to college with Octavius and me, and lives in Newark now - if you still don't know who she is, you probably wouldn't even if I used her real name) and her husband had looked into applying to start a Charter School next year, but had to put that plan on hold due to his deployment. I remain, on some level, ambivalent about Charter Schools because on one hand I see them as removing funding from traditional public education (of which I'm a big fan), and their overall success rates are about the same as public schools (which is to say that they vary wildly; though in Charter Schools' case without any clear patterns or discernible causation beyond any particular school). On the other hand, I grant that many people are frustrated with the state of public education in our country (though I sometimes think that's because we don't really understand the data available to us), and I'm all in favor of experimental schools where different educational strategies are tested and worked out. In fact, over the years (going back at least 6 if not 7 now) I've had an occasional, ongoing, conversation with several of you about what a good school would be, and there's a part of me that would really like to go about designing a school from the ground up.
05. A few years ago I watched the Coen Bros' film The Hudsucker Proxy, the plot of which is too complicated for me to summarize here. The climax of the film occurs when Tim Robbins' character (the aforementioned proxy), having reached a comprehensive nadir in his fortunes, attempts to commit suicide by jumping out of a window (through which another character played by Charles Durning had previously committed suicide - it's a dark comedy). As Robbins' character plunges toward the street below, his fall is arrested mysteriously, and he is approached by the (cognitively disjunctive to see) ghost of Charles Durning, dressed as an angel. Through exposition and backstory unimportant here, deceased-Durning offers Robbins (and the film does a much better job of building up the dramatic tension, as Robbins' character hangs in mid-air, "a second chance" (and some perspective). In my favorite movie, Steve Martin's L.A. Story (funny, but not a comedy in any straightforward way - this is where we start to see Martin's non-comedic artistic self shine, I think), his character, Harris K. Telemacher, is assisted in making right his life by a Freeway Sign (which may or may not be speaking for the entire city of L.A.). At the end of that film, Martin's voice over says, "A kiss may not be the truth, but it is what we wish were true."
06. I've been thinking about those two films off and on for the past few days. I am often cynical, and can be very pessimistic (or at least not hopeful), and I realize that this is often a shield because it is easy to feel wounded and defeated. I try, very hard, not to lose my affection for the world and the people in it, and even when they infuriate me or sadden me, to remember that they are also deserving of love, and that we all make mistakes. I suppose what I find compelling in those films is the externalization and making-visible the hope that we all have, or at least that I know I have and which I suspect we all have at one point or another, for a second chance. To the best of my knowledge, most of us aren't visited by Charles Durning's angel, nor are we spoken to by street signs, but I think that many of us desperately, on one level or another, want there to be someone watching out for us in the big sense, someone who can do what none of our friends or other human beings can normally do: give us the chance to make right what has gone wrong and begin again, clean and bright at the morning.
07. Charles Durning's angel tells Tim Robbins' character that despair looks backward, paying attention to what can't be changed. But I sometimes think that despair is what you feel when the past refuses to stay past, and extends into your present and your future, so that you don't feel like you have a future, just a past always enfolding you.
08. Today I wrote to my Supernatural class's students asking them about scheduling a weekly viewing time for the films they'll need to watch, and if there were any of them interested in trying to do a "ghost hunting" experiment in one of campus' haunted buildings (probably the big dining hall where there have been multiple unrelated eyewitness reports, since its construction several years ago, of a young girl who stands near the ice cream machine but who vanishes if you get to close to her - the hall is built on what used to be a neighborhood, so who knows the history of that spot?). I've only had 3 replies thus far (out of 30 students), but it's vacation, so I'm not expecting a wave of responses. Still, the three were all very positive about the class in general (very anticipatory), and that made me feel good. I'd like to go out with a bang when I leave Baskerville College, and this seems like a good class in which to do so.
09. Selena's blog posting today told how, when trying to get Euander to admit to having written on one of Iunia's pictures, Selena said that she was going to have to watch what had happened in her camera (which of course we all know wasn't on). Apparently, the idea of having been observed all this time by the camera got both the kids to confess to pretty much everything they've ever done wrong (my favorite? Iunia confessed to having hidden, and later eaten, some mints that she got one time at the Olive Garden). All I could hear in my head as I read this was Chunk from Goonies, confessing his life's crimes to the Fratellis: "but the worst thing I ever done..."
10. One last note before bed: L.A. Story has one of the best love scenes I've ever encountered, where Steve Martin's and Victoria Tenant's characters are walking down Melrose in LA and go into some sort of botanical garden. The moment they enter the actual garden Enya's song "On Your Shore" (Enya's album Watermark is lovely and dear to me) begins playing, and the two of them are basically in Some Other Place for the remainder of the scene, which only goes on for another 50 seconds or so, but captures...JRR Tolkien would recognize it. They're in the Perilous Realm, at least for those 50 seconds, where statues move, and the wind loves you, and plants grow in your footsteps as you walk, because life begets life.
11. Maybe someday I'll write about why I love Watermark, and why the statues in that scene in LA Story give me chills.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Mousike
2011.01.02
149 Days Remaining
01. So here we are, in a New Year, and I just finished typing up my 2011 Calendar. For several years now I've made (on Word) a calendar for my own use, with birthdays, anniversaries, (multi-faith) holidays, class schedules, lunar phases, solstices, equinoxes, etc. typed in. As the days go by, I mark time's passing by shading each day. It actually takes a while to do all of this (about 2.5 hours, today), but at the end I feel like I have a decent sense of the year's chronological progression. This year, of course, the certain dates only go through May.
02. Another thought on music; in my previous post I remarked that Arcade Fire's song "Modern Man" falls into a type of music that I find appearing now and again in particular songs. It's a personal genre, if you will. Another song in that type is Wang Chung's "Dance Hall Days," which just came up on my iTunes (one of the virtues of iTunes is the "shuffle" feature, which can surprise me).
03. The video for "Dance Hall Days" demonstrates that in the 80s, even nerdy guys could produce major club hits in the UK and USA. I've occasionally been struck by the slow but steady (if perhaps not completely regular) movement in the entertainment industry to privilege the physically attractive performers, which one would think is somewhat irrelevant for musicians. But the growth of video, I suspect, particularly exacerbated (or perhaps permitted) this development. The various issues people had with Susan Boyle actually proved this by emphasizing her exceptional experience.
04. On the topic of appearance and music, does anyone know if Ke$ha is for real? She was on Dick Clark's Rocking New Year's Eve. I only saw her on the stage with Ryan Seacrest and the various members of the New Kids on the Block and some other boy band. Seacrest was asking people for their resolutions, and her's was "not to be a douchebag." That struck me as a high point of the broadcast, because (vernacular notwithstanding) it's not a bad sentiment. Anyway, Selena commented that Ke$ha is usually high as a kite, and I heard (for the first time, to my knowledge) one of her songs ("Tik Tok") while driving back to New London last night. Curious, I watched two of her videos on YouTube and I can't decide if this is an act or if she's making Tupac's mistake, and living the lifestyle her songs claim. According to an interview I found online, she says it's all an act and not what she does off-camera. After TAing the class on Tupac Shakur, I've been interested in the issue of self/mask in musical performance, especially the extreme instances (gangstas, party girls) where there is clearly a premium put on displaying one's social marginality to the greatest extent possible (short of doing actual porn or killing people on camera).
05. Anyway, onto other matters. One of the things I've commented on in the past is that I often experience my life as a series of lists (primarily as a practical and mnemonic method). Last night and today I went through the lists from the past week and a half: websites, financial transactions, ideas, essays, etc. This is how my life will be re-constructable some day, by me or someone else. By this long chain of information.
06. Some days I just want to scream.
149 Days Remaining
01. So here we are, in a New Year, and I just finished typing up my 2011 Calendar. For several years now I've made (on Word) a calendar for my own use, with birthdays, anniversaries, (multi-faith) holidays, class schedules, lunar phases, solstices, equinoxes, etc. typed in. As the days go by, I mark time's passing by shading each day. It actually takes a while to do all of this (about 2.5 hours, today), but at the end I feel like I have a decent sense of the year's chronological progression. This year, of course, the certain dates only go through May.
02. Another thought on music; in my previous post I remarked that Arcade Fire's song "Modern Man" falls into a type of music that I find appearing now and again in particular songs. It's a personal genre, if you will. Another song in that type is Wang Chung's "Dance Hall Days," which just came up on my iTunes (one of the virtues of iTunes is the "shuffle" feature, which can surprise me).
03. The video for "Dance Hall Days" demonstrates that in the 80s, even nerdy guys could produce major club hits in the UK and USA. I've occasionally been struck by the slow but steady (if perhaps not completely regular) movement in the entertainment industry to privilege the physically attractive performers, which one would think is somewhat irrelevant for musicians. But the growth of video, I suspect, particularly exacerbated (or perhaps permitted) this development. The various issues people had with Susan Boyle actually proved this by emphasizing her exceptional experience.
04. On the topic of appearance and music, does anyone know if Ke$ha is for real? She was on Dick Clark's Rocking New Year's Eve. I only saw her on the stage with Ryan Seacrest and the various members of the New Kids on the Block and some other boy band. Seacrest was asking people for their resolutions, and her's was "not to be a douchebag." That struck me as a high point of the broadcast, because (vernacular notwithstanding) it's not a bad sentiment. Anyway, Selena commented that Ke$ha is usually high as a kite, and I heard (for the first time, to my knowledge) one of her songs ("Tik Tok") while driving back to New London last night. Curious, I watched two of her videos on YouTube and I can't decide if this is an act or if she's making Tupac's mistake, and living the lifestyle her songs claim. According to an interview I found online, she says it's all an act and not what she does off-camera. After TAing the class on Tupac Shakur, I've been interested in the issue of self/mask in musical performance, especially the extreme instances (gangstas, party girls) where there is clearly a premium put on displaying one's social marginality to the greatest extent possible (short of doing actual porn or killing people on camera).
05. Anyway, onto other matters. One of the things I've commented on in the past is that I often experience my life as a series of lists (primarily as a practical and mnemonic method). Last night and today I went through the lists from the past week and a half: websites, financial transactions, ideas, essays, etc. This is how my life will be re-constructable some day, by me or someone else. By this long chain of information.
06. Some days I just want to scream.
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