Death of a Disco Dancer

According to this story, even celebrities were victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami.

Not celebrities!! This truly is a disaster!

I Remember

You can't go anywhere on the internet without finding somebody's Top Albums of 2004 list, so I thought I'd post my list here. Now, I'm not a music critic or anything which means that I haven't heard everything that was released this year, so the following list is perhaps more a list of what I was listening to--for the first time--in 2004. These are in no particular order:

1. Low: A Lifetime of Temporary Relief. I know I just said that this list in no particular order, but as I think back over the year, this is probably my favorite purchase. This is a box set of Low's b-sides and rare tracks from a span of about 10 years. Most of the 50 or so songs were things that I'd never heard before, so it was kind of like getting three new Low albums all at once--overload to be sure. In fact, just yesterday, I discovered about half a dozen songs from this collection that I had passed over when I first listened to this collection about 5 months ago. Perhaps the best item in this collection is the double-sided DVD. One one side, are all of Low's music videos so far. On the other side there are three documentary films, the longest being about an hour long. It's just an extraordinary collection.

2. Joanna Newsom: The Milk-Eyed Mender. I wrote about this album a few weeks ago in this blog. Scroll down and you'll find it. She really is one of those singers that is an acquired taste, and a lot of people, I'm sure, will never acquire it. But if you can get past her awful singing, her beautiful lyrics and music will carry you to sonic bliss.

3. Guided By Voices. No particular album here. Apparently this legendary lo-fi band is no more. I like them; they're not going to ever be my most favorite band of all time, but I like them. Most of their songs have a 70s classic rock sound, something that I've always had a weakness for.

4. Morrissey: You Are the Quarry. It's been 7 years since Morrissey's last album, and I was starting to think he wasn't every going to release another. He's had trouble convincing a record company to pick him up and give him a deal that he can live with. This album, though, is arguably one of the best of his solo career. Much of it harkens back to his days with the Smiths while one also hears some electronic-influenced sound as well. He had about 7 years to work on these songs, and it shows in their quality.

5. Yo La Tengo. No particular album here, either. I'm a big fan of Stereolab, and I've often heard this band mentioned in conjunction with Stereolab, but this year, I gave them a try and liked what I heard. The problem I have with them is that about half of the songs on any given album of theirs are cover songs. Call me prejudiced, but I have a lot more respect for bands that write their own material. Anybody can record a version of someone else's song.

6. Stereolab: Margerine Eclipse. Is this a 2004 entry? I think so. The band's second/back-up singer, Mary Hansen died in a traffic accident a couple years ago, and many of the songs on this album deal with that directly and indirectly. The album is strong, but it sounds strange listening to Laetitia Sadier sing all of the tracks without Mary's voice backing her up.

7. A.C. Newman: Slow Wonder. Newman is the creative force behind the power pop band The New Pornographers. Here, he goes solo but his amazing pop sensibilities remain intact. The song "On The Table" might just be the catchiest song of the year--it's pure pop. While Newman proves he can support an album all by himself, the absence of his fellow Pornographers Neko Case and Dan Bejar are missed here.

8. Tanya Donelly: Tango Whiskey Ghosts. I was disappointed by this one. I'm a HUGE fan of Donelly and love just about everything she sings, but these toned-down country-fied songs all pretty much sound alike. Ever since she got married to bassist Dean Fisher and had a daughter with him, she seems to have lost her edge. Now, she sounds too much like somebody's mom instead of a rock'n'roll guitarist.

Hmm, well, I guess that's it for 2004. 2005 looks like it's going to be a good year. The only confirmed release on the horizon is Low's new album The Great Destroyer, which, it seems, everyone in the world has already heard except for me. Also rumored for release in 2005 is a box set retrospective of Mazzy Star (though I'd rather have a new album from Hope Sandoval), another New Pornographers disc (fingers crossed!) and, apparently, after 12 years of silence, Kate Bush is rumored to have a new album on the way. It's about time!

Words Written Backwards

I got my student evaluations for this past semester back today. Here's what a few people wrote:

"For the subject it teaches, this class was surprising, challenging, and entertaining. Lots of teachers could have done worse than Mr. Depthfunction, but only a few could have done better."

"I didn't like the thought of taking another English course when this semester began, but at this point I find the course to be very beneficial for me. My writing I feel has improved and I'm even more confident with what and how I write. Depthfunction is a good professor and very intelligent in his subject matter."

"Class was very informative and definitely one I am glad I enrolled in. The class was challenging and instilled skills that will be useful in other classes from now on. Mr. Depthfunction was very fair, and offered constructive criticism that I valued very much."

Not all of the evaluations were as glowing as these, of course, but these are the ones I prefer to dwell on.

Flowers in December

Well, today I more or less officially completed writing my dissertation (I have a little more formatting, maybe some proofreading to do, but it's done). I say "more or less" because at my school there really isn't a definite moment when one can say, "I'm done." Once I pass the defense in a couple of months there will come a series of bureaucratic hurdles and fees to be paid. I think the actual completion of the dissertation process comes when one receives a letter from the Dean, or some such thing. It's all very anti-climactic considering that this is supposed to represent the pinnacle of one's education.

Frankly, I am so ready for this process to be over. Actually, I think I was ready about 5 years ago, so it's long overdue. I want to be able to think of myself, not as a "grad student" but as a "Ph.D."

Unreadable Communication

As you can see, I've added a poll to this blog. I guess I'm being awfully presumptuous to assume that there are enough people passing through this blog to justify a poll. But it looked like fun, so what the hell? If you're just visiting, feel free to vote, before you click the "Next blog" button. :-D

Missing Link

Praise be to the blogger.com tech support! I finally got my list of links set up in the sidebar! Check 'em out. More are likely to follow.

You know, maybe I ought to just put all my favorite links over there and set this as my home page. Hmm, I'll think about it.

Barnaby, Hardly Working

The dirty little secret of Academia is how crappily colleges and universities treat their adjunct instructors. Often, adjuncts are brought in to teach the course no one else wants to teach. In the case of my discipline, English, that means freshman composition. "Real" professors who teach English wouldn't want to be caught dead in a composition classroom with a bunch of teenaged freshmen, some of whom can barely read and write to begin with. So it's up to the adjuncts to teach those courses.

But the real abuse of the adjuncts comes not so much from which courses they must teach, but in how very, very little they get paid. I just completed a semester as an adjunct. I taught two classes of freshman comp., 40 students in all. How much did I make? $15,000, you say? $10,000? No, my friends, I made a total of $4,600 ($2,400 per class).

Compare this to the $40,000-$100,000 that a tenured or tenure track professor can earn in a year, and it is clear how badly adjuncts are treated. Usually, a tenure-track professor must teach 3-4 classes per semester. But even if I were to teach 3 classes per semester as an adjunct, I would still only make . . . (let me break out my calculator--remember, I'm only an English major) $14,400 a year! Part of the problem is that adjuncts, no matter how many classes they teach, are always and forever labeled "part-time" employees. I could teach more classes than a tenure-track professor, and I would still be only "part-time." The part-time designation also prevents adjuncts from joining teacher's unions.

I thank God that I don't have a family to support, but many adjuncts do. Obviously, $14,400 is not barely enough for one person to scrape by on, much less someone with a family. Most of my married co-workers (grad students and other adjuncts) are married to men or women who are the real breadwinners in the household, so the low pay does not hurt them as much. But I'm on my own, and while I have some savings in my bank account, and I try to live frugally, $4,600 a semester is just not enough.

Hence, I wouldn't mind finding a job that will pay well (after working as an adjunct for so long, even $30,000 a year would be like winning the lottery) and sticking with that for a year before going back to adjuncting. Why would I want to continue to put up with a job that pays horribly and receives no respect? Because I like teaching. It's just a shame that teachers who are as committed to their profession as most adjuncts are, are treated so badly.

Damn . . .

. . . it's been a while since I posted last.

Anyway, the end of the semester is at hand and I've been real busy, what with grading papers and all, but I thought I'd update the blog before I grade a couple more papers tonight.

It's looking more and more like I won't have an adjuncting job waiting for me in the spring--that usually happens to adjuncts at the school where I teach, so I'm not taking it personally. I've already started job hunting and this morning I went to an interview. I'll know by the end of the week whether I have that job, but the interview was over with pretty quickly, so I'm not optimistic.

One thing that annoys me about searching for a job is how employers rarely notify applicants that they have not gotten the job. I guess it is an uncomfortable thing, disappointing people, but still, I think it is the polite thing to do. When I was looking for a job last summer, I hated the feeling of waiting day after day to hear about a job that I had applied to.

Anyway, it's a little discouraging to think that I may not be teaching again until next fall, but hopefully I can find a job that will pay me a little bit more than I was making as an adjunct.