Depthfunction's Blog

Erase - Rewind

2007-12-28T17:11:00.000-06:00

You know, it was only a couple years ago that I was barely able to come up with ten bands for my end-of-the-year review. This year, I took full advantage of my eMusic subscription and used up all forty downloads every month. Thus I introduced myself to an enormous amount of new music. By my estimate, I downloaded at least an album's worth of material from no less than THIRTY-FIVE different artists this year alone. That is an extraordinary amount of music. In fact, I don't think I ever bought that music in a year before—not even during my teenage and college years when I bought new and used CDs left and right. I can't imagine that I'll be able to top that amount next year, but who knows?

Of course, not everything that I downloaded clicked with me; a lot of downloads ended up in the recycle bin. But I liked most of it, and because I have such a long list this time, I've decided to narrow it down to only the top twelve artists/albums of the year. Once again, my list reflects my obsession with power pop and my near-obsession with post-rock.

Artist: Kristin Hersh
Song: “Winter”

Kristin Hersh's latest album, How To Sing Like a Star might have been my very first music purchase of the new year. All I know for sure is that I remember driving to and from work through the snowy and icy freeways of Missouri in January with Hersh's new album playing in my car. Kristin Hersh is one of the handful of artists whom I always make sure to support monetarily, even though she gives a lot of her music away for free. As long as she keeps recording music, I'll keep buying it.

Artist: Cinnamon
Song: “I Used to be Your Loneliness”

This band has been a bit of mystery to me. From what I've been able to gather, they released two full-length albums back in the late 90s and that was it. I also think they're Swedish. It's hard to know for sure because apparently “Cinnamon” is a popular name for bands. There have been at least three different bands, from different parts of the world, with this name in the last ten years, and none of them have had much success. (They're so obscure that I can't even find a mp3 preview track for my favorite song.) But whoever they are and wherever they're from, I really like their music a lot. They have kind of an early 70s Euro-pop sound—a sound that would spring up again and again in my music choices throughout the year.

Artist: Manda and the Marbles
Song: “Confidential”

And speaking of “retro”, Manda and the Marbles are straight out of the early 1980s. Their style of punk-pop sounds like they should be opening for the Buzzcocks or the Go-Go's. Their latest album was released a couple years ago, so I don't know if they still exist as a band, but I hope they do. This music is certainly a niche-market, but I like it and they do it very well. When I listen to their music I actually feel nostalgic for the 1980s which is crazy since this band is younger than I am.

Artist: The Minders
Song: “Jenny”

In the spring, I was all over the Elephant 6 Collective. I was already a fan of the Apples in Stereo, but last spring I started to listen to some of the other bands that make up the collective. In particular, I really enjoyed the Minders. They're a Beatles-influenced power pop trio that just makes strong, catchy pop songs. Once I discovered this band, some time in March, their music was about all I was listening to for about a month.

Artist: Arcade Fire
Song: “Intervention”

The Arcade Fire's second album, Neon Bible, is probably my pick for best album of the year. No sophomore slump for this band. Win Butler has been tagged the new Bruce Springsteen, and I have to say, that was the very first thing that I thought when I first listened to this album. It's interesting because I didn't get the Springsteen vibe at all on their first album (more Meatloaf than Springsteen, I thought), but here, on songs like “Intervention” or “The Well and the Lighthouse” the resemblance is just uncanny.

Artist: Low
Song: “Dragonfly”

Low's new album, Drums and Guns, was one of the new albums that I was really looking forward to this year. Their previous album, The Great Destroyer, was a little too commerical for my tastes. There are a million indie rock acts out there; Low doesn't need to imitate them. With their new album, Low took a step back towards their lo-fi roots, which is where they belong. They've always done their own thing, and while that hasn't led to great commercial success for them, it has led to great art for all of us.

Artist: El Perro Del Mar
Song: “God Knows”

Just about everything that I might say about this one-woman band (the singer sounds remarkably like Kate Bush; the music makes one think of Motown hits played at half speed; hooray for Swedish bands!) have all already been said by countless other reviewers. El Perro is just starting her career, and I expect great things from her in the future.

Artist: Badly Drawn Boy
Song: “Nothing's Gonna Change Your Mind”

I picked up the latest from Badly Drawn Boy, Born in the UK, not long after it was released, but interestingly, I didn't really listen to the album much at the time. I was busy with my move, I guess, and had a lot of other things going on. It wasn't until later in the fall when I really sat down and listened to the album. It received some mediocre reviews from critics, many of whom concentrated their criticism on the apparently mediocre and not-very-poetic lyrics, but I thought BDB made a solid album, at least as good as his previous work.

Artist: The Essex Green
Song: “The Late Great Cassiopa”

Summer might have been called my season of Sasha Bell, as far as I'm concerned. This summer, I followed her work through three different bands: The Essex Green, The Ladybug Transistor, and Finishing School. All three bands produce basically the same kinds of songs so if you like one, you'll like the others, but I thought The Essex Green was the best of the three. As she does on the other two bands, Sasha Bell lends her voice, and some of her instruments, to a few of the songs as an indie pop session musician.

Artist: The Heavy Blinkers
Song: “Chloe's Christmas”

I notice that quite a lot of the music that I listen to comes from bands that employ both male and female singers. Several of the bands on this list (and even some of the new bands that I listened to that didn't make this list) share this personnel format. The Heavy Blinkers are one of those bands that make great use of different singers. Their music has evolved into a very retro, early 70s-ish, soft rock (see Cinnamon, above). I really like it, and in 2008, I really should seek out this sound, and the bands that excel in it, a little more.

Artist: Panda Bear
Song: "Bros"

Like the Arcade Fire, Panda Bear's album, Person Pitch, has made a lot of end-of-the-year top 10 lists, so one might accuse of me of jumping on the bandwagon with this one, but that isn't the case here. I was late to download it, and even then, I didn't listen to it that much. But I find that I keep returning to it again and again. With its heavy Beach Boys influence, it goes to the core of what I like most about power pop, but it tweaks that formula just enough to sound strange and experimental.

Artist: New Pornographers
Song: “Mutiny, I Promise You”

The new New Pornographers album, Challengers, was one of the most anticipated releases of the year for me, but I was left feeling a little disappointed. It's not a bad album, but it's just a different direction from their first three. Challengers is a little slower, and little more reflective and somber. That would be fine if it were what I had come to expect from the New Pornographers, but when I listen to them, I want to hear manic power pop. It's an interesting phenomenon how bands that start out understanding how to craft perfect pop songs inevitably “lose their way”. I don't know if it's because the creative juices stop flowing, the songwriters “mature” and feel like pop songs are beneath them, or they just get lazy or what. But it always happens, and I guess it's happening to Carl Newman now.

Artist: Fancey
Song: “Whoa”

One of the interesting things about The New Pornographers is that most of the individual members of the band each have one or two other side projects, not all of which necessarily reflect the sound of The New Pornographers. Guitarist Todd Fancey's side project, Fancey, though is similar to the power pop sound of the NPs, but Fancey takes the pop side of power pop to its sugary extreme. With super-happy lyrics like, “Christian eagles of today / You're flying heaven's way / On a miracle crusade / Flying on the wings of faith,” you just know that the lyrics are tongue-in-cheek, but they're so damned earnest that they make you wonder sometimes. Fancey released a second album, Schmancey, this year, and it's even better than the first album.

I thought I'd also make a short list of songs that I really liked this year, but whose artists didn't make my list. These are just some great tracks that can't go unrecognized:
The Go! Team: “Fake ID”
Petra Haden: “Don't Stop Believin'”
Feist: “1 2 3 4”
The Epoxies: “Radiation”
The Polyphonic Spree: “Soldier Girl”
Gore Gore Girls: “I'm Gonna Get You Yet”
Minipop: “Precious”
Magnapop: “Stick To Me”
The Magnetic Fields: “Sweet-Lovin' Man”

My choice for my favorite artist of the year: Damn, this is a tough decision. Seriously, I could make an argument for each of the thirteen artists above, and if you had asked me to make this choice in March or July you would have received different responses, but I think I'm gonna have to go with The Heavy Blinkers. Even though they didn't release a new album this year (but I think they've got one on the way) their music just really clicked with me.

Science of You

2007-12-24T11:19:00.000-06:00

I woke up this morning with teaching on my mind. In particular, I was thinking about science education.

In the past, I've often wondered if the state of science education in the US couldn't be improved by making science more accessible to ordinary, non-science types. When I think of science classes, I think of math because in many cases, solving math problems is all that one does. Thinking back to chemistry and physics classes that I took in high school, that was certainly the case. And it was certainly the case when I took an astronomy class in college.

Math obviously has its place in science, but the excessive math can also squash the layman's interest in science as well. A lot of people (I count myself among them) are interested in, and curious about, science, but we aren't necessarily interested in solving lists of math problems.

When I took astronomy class in college, the professor had a lecture-hall full of students eager to learn about the subject on the first day of the semester, but by the end of the course, we just wanted it to be over with, and the reason is because all we did was solve math problems. Nothing sucks the wonder and the grandeur out of the universe faster or more effectively than math.

What I would have liked to have seen in college--and perhaps some schools do this, but mine did not--is the science equivalent of a music appreciation class or a Shakespeare for non-English majors. Music appreciation is designed to expose students to great works of classical music and to teach them how to listen to such music and what to listen for, but without getting to far into the technical details of music composition. Shakespeare for non-English majors does the same thing: it introduces students to Shakespeare without going too in depth into literary criticism and analysis.

Why can't there be science classes for non-science majors? A physics for non-majors or biology for non-majors. In such classes, professors can introduce and teach the major concepts of these fields without dumping a lot of math into one's laps (solving math problems could be offered for extra credit). And if someone really likes the class and wants to go on to major or minor in, say, physics, then they can take the courses that are designed for majors and that have all of the math.

In America, science really suffers from negative public relations. A lot of people treat science, and scientists, with suspicion. Special courses that present science in an accessible way, designed for people who aren't going to be scientists but who may someday be in positions of authority regarding science (such as on school boards or in state legislatures) would go a long way to restoring science to a place of importance and respect in American society.

Flying High Again

2007-11-22T20:27:00.000-06:00

Every once in a while, TV news organizations come up with a new gimmick which, whether it contributes to the viewers' understanding of the news or not, catches on with just about every other competing news organization. Obvious examples that spring to mind are the use of Google Maps in news reports, or the cliche of the reporter going outside during a hurricane.

This week before Thanksgiving, the big "breaking news" story was that airports would be crowded, there would be delays, and lots of planes would be in the air (shocking, I know!). Apparently, there are a few websites on the Intarweb which allow you to track ALL of the planes in the air in US airspace at the same time. So all week long, the cable news networks kept running stories which used the real-time image of the US with the thousands of little airplanes, each representing a commercial airliner.

The computer generated airplanes superimposed on the map were not to scale. So what we saw was a map of the US with thousands of airplanes the size of Massachusetts flying around. Apparently, viewers observed/complained, that it looked like these planes were all bumping into each other, so the networks found a new computer graphic template which zoomed in on specific parts of the country and gave the still-out-of-proportion airplanes some breathing space. However, now the little, generic-looking airplanes appeared to going in a vertical direction, as though they were little rockets blasting off into space. I suppose that when Christmas Eve rolls around, and news organizations do their NORAD-inspired monitoring of Santa Claus' journey, we'll see this graphic again and watch as Santa's sleigh weaves in between the static airplanes on the map.

But never mind how ridiculous these maps look, what is the point of using them at all? The fact that there are thousands of planes in the air at any given time is NOT news. The fact that Thanksgiving week is a very busy time for travel is NOT news. These maps, and the "news" reports that use them are useless and a waste of time.

Please, stop it.

The Power of Good-Bye

2007-10-11T10:41:00.001-05:00

One of the big stories of the day so far is Madonna's decision to dump her music label (Warner) and sign a deal with an independent promotion and distribution company.

We're beginning to see many big names in music making similar decisions to strike out on their own. Lately, Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead have also decided to take control of their own destinies.

The RIAA frequently makes the argument that they have the artists' best interests in mind. But if that is true, then why are so many artists dissatisfied with the way they are treated by the RIAA's member companies? The truth of the matter is that the RIAA and the big labels are only looking out for the record company executives. The history of the music industry since the mid-20th century has been a history of large corporations abusing the creative talent that they employ and promote.

The big labels are irrelevant in this age of online distribution. The only possible reason why anyone would want to sign with a label would be a big label's ability to market and promote a new band that no one has ever heard of. But if you are a household name like Madonna or Radiohead, or if you have a large cult following like Nine Inch Nails, you don't need that same level of mass promotion--your music is going to sell no matter what. Today, it's easy--and relatively cheap--for a musician to record music independently. The internet allows for a wide variety of distribution models. And as Madonna has learned, you can hire an independent company to organize and promote your concerts and album releases. Artists don't have to follow the old model in which the labels took a huge cut from the profits of music sales. The new opportunities available today allow artists to keep more of the money that their music earns while also allowing them greater artistic freedom to pursue their own projects.

Market Traders

2007-09-30T22:03:00.000-05:00

I found a website this evening that estimates the monetary value of blogs. I've got a couple of blogs so I decided to find out if they are worth anything at all. First, I tried my other blog and found that it is worth $0.00. But then I tried this one, and found that it valued at $564.54 (!!!). That's $564.54 more than I expected. I obviously don't have any advertising on this blog, and, aside from the occasional executive and/or investigator from Capella University, I don't get a whole lot of traffic, so I'm not sure where the "value" of this blog is coming from.

It's an interesting tool, though. If you have a blog, try it yourself.

Everything Looks Beautiful on Video

2007-07-09T09:59:00.000-05:00

Recently, I have had the chance to watch what passes for news on cable TV. I've been away from cable news channels for a few years, and like Rip Van Winkle, I now find myself in a strange new landscape.

I have, over the past few years, been able to see short clips from YouTube, etc., of the travesties of journalism aired by Fox News, but what I didn't realize is to what extent the other channels like CNN and MSNBC have become "Foxified" as well.

The problem is that these networks no longer report the news. Instead, news stories are either sensationalized out of proportion (round-the-clock Paris Hilton coverage) or editorial commentary has replaced objective news reporting. The most extreme example of this is CNN's Headline News channel. Once upon a time, all this channel did, 24/7, was report the news. Now, during the prime time hours, it's all Glenn Beck and Nancy Grace. Instead of an anchor reporting the news, you get these bozos voicing their opinions on a small number--perhaps just one--of news stories. Instead of a just-the-facts broadcast where the viewer is left to make up his or her mind about the meaning and importance of the events of the day, you have these people telling you what to think.

You see this on all the channels now. Cable news is all about personalities: Beck, Grace, Bill O'Reilly, Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity, Keith Olbermann--these people aren't journalists; they're people who know how to rile up their audiences so that their networks will get higher ratings.

The sources of just-the-facts news reporting are dwindling. You can still get it from the traditional networks--ABC, NBC, and CBS, although the editorializing that one finds on cable is fast making inroads to these traditional sources. PBS, with its offerings of the NewsHour and the BBC is probably the best bet for news nowadays, but I foresee a time in the not-too-distant future when "journalism" in the US will consist of nothing but commentary and propaganda.

Night of the Furies

2007-05-02T11:11:00.000-05:00

Last night, Digg.com saw what can best be described as an online riot.

Context: a few months ago, the encryption code for HD-DVDs was cracked, allowing anyone with the code to make copies of HD-DVD content. The company behind HD-DVD technology used the DMCA to try to stifle the dissemination of the code. Interestingly, though, in the DMCA takedown notices, the code itself was mentioned, and since DMCA takedown notices are accessible to the public, the company, AACS, was inadvertently violating their own takedown notice--they needed to take down their own takedown notices.

If there's one thing the internet loves, it's irony, so this story--and the code that the AACS was trying to suppress--received even more attention. In the last few days, the AACS has begun issuing takedown notices to dozens of websites and blogs in a truly futile attempt to put the genie back in the bottle.

Digg was one of these sites. At least one story had been posted that mentioned revealed the code. But Digg didn't just delete the post, they also banned the person who had posted the story--and then when other Diggers started to object, Digg banned them as well.

Very quickly, the outrage among Digg users snowballed until finally, last night, virtually every story and every post made to Digg had to do with this controversy. Thousands of protest posts were submitted that contained the code, and Diggers demanded that Kevin Rose and the Digg staff either stand up for free speech or the riot would effectively shut the website down.

The mayhem even started spreading to other sites, most notably Wikipedia. Any Wikipedia article that was even remotely connected to DVDs, Kevin Rose, or Digg was vandalized with the encryption code. Wikipedia administrators had to lock down dozens of pages in order to prevent the vandalism from spreading.

I was online last night and witnessed the whole thing. It was amazing to watch. I have never seen anything quite like it in the decade or so that I have spent on the world wide web. Like I say, it is best described as a riot. If Digg had been a physical structure, it would certainly have been looted and burned. Since the riot was online, no one got hurt, and Digg is still up today.

At last, late last night, Kevin Rose gave in to the rioters' demands and will no longer attempt to censor the encryption code or stories about it. This, of course, leaves them vulnerable to a lawsuit by the AACS, but it's hard to believe that the AACS is going to be able to go after anybody. At this point, there is no way to stop the code--millions of people have already seen it. And besides, AACS shares a large part of the responsibility for making the code public in the first place.

An Inch and a Mile

2007-04-16T18:00:00.000-05:00

One of the things that I worry will be the result of today's Virginia Tech shootings (besides copy-cat shootings at other schools) will be a new round of freaked-out parents and legislators proposing new security precautions at schools--in the case universities. The Columbine shooting 8 years ago transformed many schools into virtual prisons; I don't want to see the same thing happen to colleges and universities.

One reason is because new security steps would diminish the openness of colleges--which is one of their greatest strengths. Setting up security checkpoints around a campus would create an obstacle that should not exist between the public and the resources of higher education. Secondly, new precautions would be ineffective. Most college campuses are large, sprawling places with multiple points of entry. Building fences and gates would be costly and probably wouldn't work anyway, since the perpetrators of these crimes are often students themselves--people who are already on campus. Third, such precautions would be unnecessary. There may be a few copy-cat shootings in the next few months, but shootings such as today's shooting are so rare, so extraordinary, that any sort of precaution taken by any school would be an over-reaction.

In this case, no new policies of any sort would be the best policy to adopt.

Big Machine

2007-04-12T13:21:00.000-05:00

It's that time of the semester: when my classes are working on their research papers. Since so many students rely so heavily on the internet for research, I always spend at least a day giving them tips on how to find quality websites rather than letting them rely on Google or Wikipedia. One exercise that I have found useful is to give them a list of URLs and ask them to visit those websites and determine whether they would be useful sites for a college-level research paper--a sort of internet scavenger hunt. This semester, I have added a couple of new sites to my list of websites. One of them is Ray Beckerman's blog. Beckerman is the attorney defending a number of clients against the RIAA in some high profile cases. On the one hand, Beckerman's blog is just that--a blog, and blogging inhabits a sort of uncertain space between legitimacy and illegitimacy with respect to blogs' usefulness for college level research. On the other hand, Beckerman is as familiar with the legal issues surrounding the digital music as anyone else, so he is clearly an expert.

Anyway, I posted a link to his blog in my course wiki last week and asked my students to visit it. On Monday, I was surprised to receive a short email from the man himself--Mr. Beckerman--letting me know that he noticed I had linked to him and asking me to let him know how my class goes tonight. I'll send him an email tomorrow morning.

It's pretty cool hearing from "famous" people like that. I've had a couple such contacts in the past. I guess it's another example of how much easier it is to get in touch with people online--people that one wouldn't ordinarily have any contact with otherwise.

Same Time, Same Place

2007-04-06T19:31:00.000-05:00

Since the traffic to this blog has suddenly picked up in the last few weeks, I've installed StatCounter to help me find out just exactly how many people are visiting and where they are coming from. All are welcome, of course (except perhaps for a few certain individuals from Minneapolis--you know who you are!).

Say Anything

2007-04-05T22:39:00.000-05:00

The captured British soldiers were released from Iranian custody today. One of the big stories surrounding their capture has been their videotaped "confessions" in which they supposedly admitted that they had violated Iranian borders. Obviously, such confessions were a result of threats, whether implicit or explicit, from their Iranian captors. Even if they were never harmed physically, just the threat that they might placed on trial and face punishment according to Iranian law might well have been enough to compel them to cooperate in producing what were essentially propaganda videos.

This incident, though, raises interesting questions that we as Americans ought to be asking about the supposed "confessions" that have recently been made by al Qaeda prisoners currently held in Guantanamo Bay. Those prisoners have faced threats of harsh punishments, humiliating situations, and probably even torture. If we are so willing to excuse the "confessions" of the British soldiers, then how can we possibly accept any similar confession made by a prisoner of the US military?

Castles Made of Sand

2007-03-25T10:30:00.000-05:00

We’ve all seen them—the banner ads and pop-up ads for online universities like Capella or the University of Phoenix. They promise college degrees—even advanced degrees like Master’s degrees and Doctorates—in a minimal amount of time. They appeal to adults who work full time or who haven’t had the opportunity, time, or money to attend a traditional college or university. They are tempting, but are such programs really worth it?

I believe they are not. Online universities give the impression that they offer an educational experience equivalent to a traditional, brick-and-mortar college or university, but they do not.

Before I write any further, let me distinguish between those online universities, like Capella, which only exist online, from online programs and degrees offered by many traditional colleges and universities nowadays. A degree or certificate from an online program offered by an accredited, established school can usually be trusted more than a degree from a purely online school. It is those purely online schools that I am referring to here.

I am also not some luddite railing against technology. As a teacher myself, I can’t imagine teaching without technology, and I have been quick to embrace online applications like blogs, wikis, and online word processors. Technology is great and I make use of it in my classrooms whenever reasonable.

So, what is the problem with these online universities? Well, first of all, you need to understand that these “universities” are for-profit businesses, first and foremost. Now, it is true that all institutions of higher education are businesses to some extent—if they weren’t then they wouldn’t be charging tuition. But for an online university, the bottom line is indeed the bottom line. In order to pull in as many students/customers as possible, they set their standards for students low—they will take anyone who is willing to pay. If you contact a representative—or are contacted by one—you often aren’t speaking to a guidance counselor who has your best educational interests at heart, you are speaking to a salesperson who has to meet a quota and bring in as many paying customers as possible, or, like a telemarketer, they are promptly fired.

But isn’t this like a community college? Don’t community colleges also accept anyone with a high school diploma or GED and an open checkbook? Yes, but there is one very important difference between online colleges and community colleges—the community in which they are based. Community colleges are rooted in a particular city or a particular region. It is in their best interests to provide the best education they can to their students because those students will go out into the community and demonstrate the quality and effectiveness of the education they received. Online universities may accept students from across the nation—perhaps even around the world. At the end of the day, a corporation headquartered in one state doesn’t care whether a student in another state can achieve his or her career goals. The corporation has made it money, and there are still 49 other states filled with potential customers.

If you are going to pay money for your own education, then you need to be sure that you are receiving the highest quality of education possible. As someone who has received a Ph.D. from a legitimate institution of higher education, who has been around teachers and professors my entire adult life, and who has been on the job market and understands the reputation and prestige that accompanies various kinds of institutions, I can tell you that online universities are considered the bottom-of-the-barrel with respect to where a professor would hope to teach. I would only consider teaching for an online university only if every other option available to me has been exhausted—and that includes teaching in high school or grade school. The professors that you find at these online universities are definitely not the best of the best.

Many of these online universities accelerate their students’/customers’ education by offering them credit for “life experience.” Certainly, if you are looking for a promotion within a company, or a better job with another company, then one’s previous work experience should definitely play a role, but one of the purposes of higher education is, and should be, to teach you something new. That’s what education is—learning what you didn’t know before. No matter how much real-world experience one has, one can still learn something new and broaden one’s knowledge. This is especially true when it comes to graduate studies. Here, your ideas and knowledge need to be pushed to the next level; you shouldn’t simply be given a pat on the head and told that you already know what you need to know. If that were true, then why are you wasting your time in a classroom—online or otherwise? You should be seeking an education, not an affirmation.

I think it is the availability for Master’s degrees and Doctorates from online universities that I find to be most disturbing. For one thing, no online university, no matter what resources they may have at their disposal, can match the full range of educational resources at hand at a Research I or Research II university. Online universities also aren’t going to be able to offer their students/customers the same range of assistantships and internships that would allow students to practice and put into use—in a real world environment—the lessons they have learned.

I also can’t believe that such advanced degrees, especially in fields like education or psychology, would be worth anything at all on the job market. In such fields, where the job market is already flooded with recent graduates sporting advanced degrees from traditional universities, a student with a degree from an online university would almost certainly get passed over for a student from a traditional school. To some extent, I think online universities depend upon the ignorance of employers about whether a school is online or not. Most universities have names that make them sound like liberal arts colleges, like Brighton University, Kent College, or St. Regis University.

So if you are thinking about going back to school and getting or completing a college education, please do, but let the online university option be your very last option. When it comes to a quality education, there are no short-cuts, no bargains. Like anything else worth pursuing, it takes a commitment of time and effort.

Thinking About Enrolling at Capella University?

2007-03-22T07:00:00.000-05:00

Educate yourself first:

Here
And Here

Hello Capella!

2007-03-21T09:10:00.001-05:00

It's nice to know that SOMEBODY is reading my blog!

CENSORED!!

2007-03-16T16:00:00.000-05:00

I Wanted It, But Now I'm Not So Sure Anymore

2007-02-09T18:18:00.000-06:00

I've always been very interested in the issue of file sharing, at least as far back as the collapse of Napster. It's been fascinating--and very frustrating--to watch this debate evolve. My position is that digital music and the online transfer of music (and movies), whether via the marketplace or through "pirated" means, is inevitable. It's baffling to me to watch the member companies of the RIAA ferociously fighting this movement towards the digital realm.

In the last couple of years, the RIAA companies have insisted upon placing DRM technology in their music when it is sold online. It is a strategy doomed to failure because any and every DRM restriction can be cracked by someone determined to get around it. The buzz this year, though, is that 2007 will mark the end of DRM, and that all music companies will begin to release their catalogues on unrestricted MP3s. Just this week, Steve Jobs posted an open letter advocating the end of DRM restrictions, and there are rumors that EMI is planning to drop its insistence on DRM. Warner and Universal are still holding steady, but I think that once one member company of the RIAA gives up DRM, the rest will quickly follow.

It makes perfect sense that they would. Currently, if they sell music through iTunes, they are selling restricted music that can only be played on iPods. If they agree to start selling MP3s, then their music can play on just about any music player, and they will be able to sell their music through the other online music stores that are popping up. It makes sense that the more outlets for music and the more music players that can play music files will only lead to more sales.

Apple's deal with the RIAA companies is that Apple is forced to enshroud their AAC files in DRM, and that if Apple's DRM is ever cracked, then the companies can withdraw their catalogues from iTunes. But as it currently stands, it seems to me like Apple is holding all the cards--if Apple decided to sell unrestricted music files, would the record companies really be able to withdraw their music. They could, but it would be like committing suicide, given the declining sales of CDs and the growing demand for buying and listening to music online.

Another thorn in the RIAA's side has been Apple's pricing. The greedy record companies want variable pricing which would allow them to charge however much they want for particular tracks. Apple won't let them do that, but without DRM, and with the freedom to sell their music anywhere they want, they would be free to open up their own online stores, or make deals with existing online stores, to sell their music for however much the market will allow.

I hope this year does mark the end of DRM. Once the RIAA embraces the new world we live in and stop fighting the inevitable, the future of the music industry will become much brighter.

Half Blast

2007-01-14T16:35:00.000-06:00

Just sticking it to the RIAA.

The Book Lovers

2007-01-12T22:01:00.000-06:00

Digg had a link to this website which has a list of novels that are more resistant than others to film adaptation. There aren't a lot of surprises in the list; it includes works by Joyce, Proust, Becket and Pynchon. I, of course, would probably add any or all of Stein's novels to the list.

Also not a surprise is the fact that most of the novels on the list are 20th century novels. Much like their artistic counterparts in painting and sculpture, novelists in the 20th century less concerned with representing "reality" than were most of the novelists of the 20th century. In fact, it seems to me like movies--especially mainstream, Hollywood-style movies--share a lot in common with 19th century novels, in terms of narrative creation. They tend to follow a coherent, chronological narrative set in more-or-less realistic and recognizable locations with characters that the reader or audience can relate to on some level. 20th century novels might have some of these characteristics too, but often they are missing at least one of them, and the novels on that website's list are missing most of them, if not all.

This leads me to wonder if film is not a somewhat conservative form of art. To be sure, there are some filmmakers that also eschew the conventions and cliches of popular cinema, and which are more interested in "art" than in "entertainment", but for most of the history of filmmaking, the process of making a movie is obviously so much more expensive than the act of writing a novel, that in order for the filmmaker to continue doing what he or she loves--making movies, there must a return on that investment. Thus, the conventions of storytelling on the big screen must be adhered to.

I suppose the growing ubiquity of video cameras and websites like YouTube will mean that the 21st century might finally see some radical experiments of filmmaking, and this century-old form of art might at last come into its own as "art".

Turn the Radio Off

2006-12-21T14:58:00.001-06:00

Well, I've resumed my blog just in time for my end-of-the-year list of music that I listened to in the previous year. This year I've got a pretty big list. I've always thought that when I stop caring about new music, I will have died just a little bit. This year's list shows that I'm still alive.

This time, I've arranged the list in more-or-less chronological order.

Morrissey – Ringleader of the Tormentors

Song: "The Father Who Must Be Killed"

In 2004, when Morrissey released You Are the Quarry, I suggested that he consider retiring, because he was never going to produce another album in his career that was that good and this was an opportunity to go out on top. His latest effort has so far proved me right. There is one good thing about his refusal to retire, though, and that is that he is now singing Smiths songs at his concerts.

Stereolab - Fab Four Suture

Song: "Whisper Pitch"

Stereolab had an unobtrusive release this year. Technically I guess it’s an ep collection, but I had never heard any of these songs before, and there’s about a dozen of them, so from my perspective it is an album. Again, nothing special, but there are a few really strong songs.

Dressy Bessy – (Everything)

Song: "Baby Six String"

Back in 2001, when I first discovered Stereolab, I was shocked and ashamed that I had never heard of the ‘Lab before, and I set out to download/buy every song of theirs I could find. I had the same experience when I discovered Dressy Bessy last spring. Their music is the purest example of power pop this side of the New Pornographers, and in some ways, their music is actually superior to the NP. Without question, they were my favorite band of 2007, and what’s sad is that I think they are already defunct.

The Apples In Stereo – (Everything)

Song: "Signal in the Sky"

Dressy Bessy is usually spoken of in conjunction with The Apples in Stereo. They’re both cut from the same musical cloth: power pop bands with lots of catchy hooks. For my money, though, Dressy Bessy does this much better, and the lead singer of Dressy Bessy does not have as annoying a voice as the lead singer from The Apples. Still, they are a very good, underrated band.

Voice of Beehive – (Everything)

Song: "Scary Kisses"

I had a rough summer working 40 hours a week at a crappy job. The pay was decent, but the work left me physically exhausted and mentally numb. The next four bands helped me survive the experience. Voice of the Beehive is actually an old girl pop band from the early 90s. They didn’t really go anywhere, and I hadn’t heard of them before until I began searching for whatever power pop I can find. They made some nice, catchy songs, though.

Belle and Sebastian – (Everything)

Song: "Funny Little Frog"

Much like Dressy Bessy, I’m a little ashamed that I have jumped on the B&S bandwagon late, but this time, it was more my fault. I’ve heard of B&S for at least a couple years now, but I never bothered to really listen to their music until this year. They’re very good, but the comparisons to the Smiths, I think, are unjustified.

Sing Sing – (Everything)

Song: "Going Out Tonight"

Born form the fiery ashes of Lush, Sing-Sing’s Emma Anderson explores new audio directions. I’ve known about this band for a while but it wasn’t until I signed on to my eMusic account that I was finally able to hear them.

Pipettes – We Are the Pitpettes

Song: "Your Kisses Are Wasted on Me"

As I browse the end-of-year best-of lists on the internet, everyone seems to have forgotten about the Pipettes. I haven’t forgotten them. Their ironic/nostalgic polka-dot pop was one of my few joys over the summer. The big question with this band will be how long before they start taking themselves seriously (and thus destroy the whole point of the band).

Jenny Lewis – Rabbit Fur Coat

Song: "Rise Up with Fists"

I’m not sure if I should include Jenny Lewis’ album or not because I don’t think I ever got around to picking up all of her songs. I really like her song “Rise Up With Fists,” though, and she has a clever video for it too. This is one of the more overtly political albums of the year—and maybe that’s why I’m torn. Unless your name is Natalie Merchant, I’m not really interested in hearing you sing about politics and social issues.

Mekons – Pussy, King of the Pirates

Song: "My Song at Night"

I actually don’t know much about the Mekons. This album isn’t necessarily indicative of their music because it is a collaboration with novelist Kathy Acker. Recorded shortly before Acker’s death, it features Acker reading passages from her novel Pussy, King of the Pirates accompanied by music and songs inspired by the novel.

Komeda – (Everything)

Song: "Fire"

I stumbled upon a song by this Swedish band by accident and immediately had to download everything they’ve made. They’re not always listenable, but when they are good, they are very good.

Broadcast – (Everything)

Song: "Papercuts"

A fine example of post-rock. Here we have a rather unattractive lead singer performing bland, mellow lyrics accompanied by groovy late-60s lounge music mixed with weird feedback and computer sounds. I like them.

Yo La Tengo – I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass

Song: "Watch Out for Me, Ronnie"

One thing that I learned from this album is that, in the future, I won’t need to download an entire Yo La Tengo album. They have a lot of very good songs, but they also have a lot of crap that isn’t worth playing once or twice.

Love Is All – Nine Times That Same Song

Song: "Aging Had Never Been His Friend"

Love Is All’s debut album is one of my favorite albums of the year. What sets this band apart and really makes them something special is their lead singer who, though she isn’t an especially talented singer, is able to convey a flirty yet confident attitude with her voice, kind of a mix of PJ Harvey and early Harriet Wheeler. And their songs are pure adrenaline.

Sufjan Stevens - Christmas

Song: "Hey Guys! It's Christmas Time!"

In time for the holidays, Stevens released a 5-cd (5!) box set of Christmas songs—some traditional, some original. Usually, when an artist releases a Christmas album it is an indication that their downward slide has already begun, but Stevens recorded these songs over the past few years while at the height of his creative powers. The result is an exceptional and completely un-ironic collection of music. Some critics have wondered whether Stevens’ wholesome naivete is real or just an act. This collection settles that question once and for all.

The Grates – Gravity Won’t Get You High

Song: "19 20 20"

If the White Stripes were fronted by an Aussie chick on a pogo stick who wasn’t at all interested in covering obscure blues songs from the 1940s, they might be inclined to call themselves The Grates. Enough said.

The Go! Team – (everything)

Song: "We Will Not Be Defeated"

The Go! Team’s music sounds like an amateurish mash-up of cheesy 70s showtunes and a recording of some inner-city high school cheerleading practice. It’s just like that, except it’s good.

Joanna Newsom - Ys

Song: "Only Skin"

Newsom’s new album has been receiving a tongue bath from critics, but personally, I wasn’t quite as impressed as everyone else seems to be. Perhaps part of the reason is because I was partly spoiled when I downloaded some live versions of three of the five songs on this album late last year, so half the album was just a retread of what I had heard before. Mostly, though, I think that this album is just too ambitious. A few years from now, when Newsom is at the height of her creative powers, she might be able to pull off a one-woman opera, but right now, it just doesn’t hit the mark.

I might have been inclined to name "Only Skin" as my Song of the Year, but that award must go to Dressy Bessy's "Baby Six String". Dressy Bessy might not have released an album this year, but they were without question my favorite band in 2006.

Disasters, disappointments, and “do not dos”:

Paris Hilton

WTF? Seriously, anyone who bought this album should be shot. This is the best reason why the major record companies are completely full of shit.

Regina Spektor

Yeah, she’s cute and all, but she can’t sing worth a damn. Usually that’s not a big problem for me (*cough*Joanna Newsom*cough*) but this girl really, really cannot sing. She can’t write either. The comparisons to Kate Bush are a deep insult to Kate.

“We’re the new [insert legendary band here]!!!”

It’s one thing for critics to draw comparisons between a band and some other band from the past—how else can one contextualize a band’s sound through the written word alone? But problems occur when the new band in question begins to believe the hype. Thus, Oasis believed they were the new Beatles. Yo La Tengo believe they are the new Velvet Underground. Belle & Sebastian believe they are the new Smiths. The Hold Steady are trying to be the new E-Street Band. Bands can never live up to that kind of hype, and so long as the comparisons persist, their music will always be a disappointment when they could have been judged on their own merits.

Summertime in Winter

2006-12-20T18:04:00.000-06:00

Well, as of today, I am finished with the fall semester in which I taught five classes on four campuses for three colleges. My daily living pretty much consisted exclusively of a routine of preparing to teach, teaching, grading, online tutoring, and driving (lots and lots of driving)--rinse and repeat for 3 and a half months. Now that I'm done, I'm not quite sure what to do with myself. It feels weird knowing that I don't have to grade any papers tonight nor do I have to prepare for a class tomorrow.

I was kind of expecting disaster to occur this semester, but I managed to keep up with all of my grading responsibilities. Grading eats up most of my time. What I did have to sacrifice, though, was my job search. Now that I've got some free time, I should be able to send off a bunch of applications, and I'll be able to keep up with that in the spring.

I'd like to think that I have a lot of time to rest, but the spring semester begins in the middle of January. Luckily, I'll only have three classes next semester, so it won't be nearly as hectic. Also helpful is that the classes that I'm teaching were all classes that I taught last semester, so much of the work that I put into planning assignments and lesson plans won't need to be repeated this next semester. I'll change a few things, as I always do, but most the syllabi will remain the same.

I Touch Myself

2006-09-07T18:23:00.000-05:00

Lately, I've begun Rasterbating (that's with an "R" and not an "M"). I've had so much blank wall space in my apartment for so long, but I've never really known what to do with it. I've considered traditional posters, but I don't want my place to look like some dorm room. I've wanted to something somewhat artsy, but on my budget, my options have been limited. Then, a few days ago, I stumbled upon the Rasterbator web site and I knew that's what I have to do.

I've already created my first rasterbated poster: a poster of Audrey Hepburn (yeah, it's cliche, I know) that I have hung up in my bedroom. The poster looks nice and I'm really happy with it. I'm going to make more such posters, but I haven't settled on what those posters should be of.

The other problem that I have is that the Rasterbating process uses up a lot of printer ink. I've gotten around this so far by simply making use of the printers in the SLU library. It costs 5 cents a page, but that's a hell of a lot cheaper than a new printer cartridge. The Audrey Hepburn poster is a poster of a black-and-white photo. Some of the other poster ideas that I have had would involve color, but I'm not surehow I want to proceed with that.

Here's a picture of my first Rasterbation:

Signal in the Sky

2006-07-30T10:24:00.000-05:00

A couple decades ago, I remember watching an episode of "Star Trek" when one of the characters made the casual remark that television, as a form of entertainment, would/did not last beyond the mid-21st century. At the time when I heard that prediction, I thought it was absurd. What could replace television? Growing up, my parents had a TV in virtually every room of our house--even some of the bathrooms, and there was always a television on. Sure, there were, and have always been, other forms of entertainment, but it seemed like nothing could usurp television completely.

Flash forward to 2006, where the television set in my apartment sits gathering dust. I watch maybe an hour a week at the most. You might expect this to be the part where I snobbily say that I'm not one of those philistines who waste their lives in front of a television set. Actually, though, I watch as much video content as ever before, only I watch it via the internet, not on my television set.

It's not just the YouTube (and other amateur) content that I watch, but the broadcast and cable networks are putting more and more video content online. There is such a wide variety of content online now, which I can watch when I want, that recently, I have mused that if my TV were to die, I probably wouldn't bother to buy another one. Video may be here to stay, but the "television set" and its place in the American home, I think, is moving towards obsolescence. It won't happen right away, since high speed internet access isn't universal in this country, but I think the day will come--perhaps by the middle of this century--when the television set will be a relic of the past.

My Song at Night

2006-07-20T10:33:00.000-05:00

Last night a really bad storm hit St. Louis and knocked down some trees and power lines. I was at work when the storm hit, and the place where I work has its own electric generator, so we were able to carry on in comfort. At the end of the shift, as I drove home through patches of darkness and light, I had to be careful to avoid debris in the street.

When I got home I found the power was out in my neighborhood. Worse than the lack of light, though, was the lack of air conditioning, because that day had been one of the hottest of the year so far. My apartment, even after I opened the windows, was still about 10 degrees warmer than it was outside. I tried to spend a couple of hours outside on the steps of my building--until about 1:30 a.m. Since it was night, the temperature wasn't too bad--not really cool, but not uncomfortably warm either. But, of course, the mosquitos and other bugs were out in force, so eventually I had to go back inside. I tried to sleep, but the heat made it very difficult. At last, at around 4 in the morning, when it seemed like I could hardly take it any more, the power was restored and I could hear every air conditioner in the complex turn on.

This morning, I can see all of the debris outside, twigs and small branches everywhere. A very large branch was snapped off of the tree behind my building.

Dirty Mind

2006-07-16T16:13:00.000-05:00

The Pipettes released their first full-length album the other day. I've been watching this band with some interest ever since I discovered them via Pandora two or three months ago. They're sort of a cross between the Supremes and the Sex Pistols. Indeed, despite their outwardly family-friendly, rated-G appearance, they really have more in common with the spirit of punk rock than with the girl groups of the 50s and 60s.

When I first discovered them, I wasn't sure if I should jump on their bandwagon or not. I didn't want to get caught up in some Spice Girls or early Britney Spears rehash. A visit to their website, however, set me at ease. There, I found that they had a manifesto, of sorts, and I decided that any band that describes their objectives in this way:

Let us continue to expand our temporal and spatial borders in this fashion and let us do so using the tools at hand. Like a bricoleur we shall construct our histories from what we already have around us, what is available to us immediately and what we already know . . . . But we will never be limited by our own boundaries, never hypostatized into a bind from which we cannot move. We must grow and at all times be reaching out, through the personal relations we already have and that we constantly create and develop on a daily basis. Art, according to John Cage, is not a thing made by someone but a process through which everyone involved learns and experiences new things.

is certainly a band that I can support.

Jolene

2006-07-05T12:23:00.000-05:00

In the course of my morning web browsing today I somehow found myself at the website for the Family Research Council. I visited their section on television because I often hear how they are always complaining about indecent content on network television. I expected a bitchfest, but I found they don't complain about very much. One article, though, mentioned "a model riding a mechanical bull in an unnatural manner" which led me to wonder, "Just how would one ride a mechanical bull in a natural manner?" When Early Man first encountered mechanical bulls in the wilderness and got up enough nerve to ride one, was there a manner in which one naturally rode.

But then, of course, I remembered Leviticus 13:26, which reads: "And yea, I say verily unto you that thou shalt not ride the mechanical bull in a way that is an abomination to Him, the Lord thy God." So I guess that settles that.

I suppose the model that the FRC got upset about was riding her bull sort of like how Katie Jane Garside rides hers in her video for "Jolene":

Wrapped Up In Books

2006-06-27T13:06:00.000-05:00

My mp3 player has saved me from countless hours of boredom at my summer job. I spend the better part of my shift listening to NPR, music files, podcasts, and now I've also begun listening to audiobooks. The other day I discovered LibriVox, a public domain assembly of audiobooks with chapters read by volunteers. Since it's public domain, there aren't many books from 1900 forward, so most of the titles don't really interest me, but I've been listening to Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey which is the only Jane Austen title that I'm at all interested in. I'm especially enjoying Austen's commentary on the "tradition of the novel" as she saw it. The novel genre was only about a century old when she started writing and it was already a form ripe for parody.

Best line of the book, so far: "The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid."

The volunteer readers are a mixed bag, though. Some are American, some British, I think one was even Scottish. Some of the Americans tend to read in a snooty, aristocratic voice which is somewhat distracting. One reader, though, was outstanding in the way she was able to create completely unique voices for each of the characters during the dialogue passages. It was very impressive. At first I thought there was more than one person reading, but it was the same woman throughout the chapter. She read two chapters from the book and they were the best chapters so far.

Cemetry Gates

2006-06-25T14:08:00.000-05:00

An itinerate professor posted a satirical article for students titled "How To Cheat Good" which describes several ways in which students make it easy for teachers to catch them in the act of plagiarizing their work. In my own experience, I have witnessed most of the "tips" he describes in one form or another. I've always thought that it's a good thing that most students don't have any clue about how to plagiarize effectively so that they can successfully fool the teacher. This is because, in my experience, those students who intentionally plagiarize tend to fall into one of three general categories:

1) Those who are stupid.

2) Those who are lazy.

3) Those who are stupid and lazy.

They're stupid because they don't seem to realize how easy it is for me to track down the online sources that they plagiarized from (and nowadays, almost all of the plagiarism is done with the help of the internet--I'd be at a total loss if they were to start copying stuff from books in the library). They might be able to get away with plagiarizing from online sources if their teacher were an older individual who isn't quite comfortable or knowledgable about conducting online searches, but in my class, they should know better since I often make use of online and electronic materials in my classes.

They're lazy as a result of their tendency to procrastinate. It's so easy to just put off writing a paper one more day--one more day--one more day--until suddenly it's the 11:30 p.m. the night before the paper is due and the student hasn't done squat for the assignment. One could pull an all-nighter and get it done (and I've known a handful of students who have done this), but it's much easier to just to Google the topic or find the approprate article from Wikipedia and copy and paste from the net into Word. And thus it is very easy for me to track down.

Those who are stupid and lazy just make my life so much easier--and amusing. Once, in a lit class, a girl tried to turn in a paper that was nothing more than a couple of articles about an author cut and pasted from two online encyclopedias. She didn't even bother to change the article headings, so as soon as I read, in the first paragraph, "Williams, William Carlos (1883-1963) - " I had a hunch that something was amiss.

There is, of course, unintentional plagiarism which I often encounter in composition classes. Unintentional plagiarism is a result of the student's inexperience with the act of documenting sources. I expect a degree of unintentional plagiarism from my students, especially early in the semester, but there's a clear difference between someone who doesn't know how to properly cite a website and someone who has copied and pasted two or three whole paragraphs from Wikipedia.

You Don't Know

2006-06-23T11:53:00.000-05:00

Apparently, I've never understood the purpose of music videos. I always thought of them as a form of commercial that advertises a song or an album or a band on television (indeed, weren't they even called "promotional films" at one time or another?). While some bands would compile their videos onto a VHS tape or DVD for sale, most did not. Thus, most music videos that have been produced in the last 30 or so years have not been available to the public for personal ownership. It is only in the last year or so, with the music companies selling copies of videos on iTunes that this approach to music videos has changed. Now, all of a sudden, they are as much of a commodity as the single itself.

I mention this because the RIAA has begun suing people who submit videos to YouTube. Not only are they suing those who post the official music videos, but they are now also suing anyone who uses an RIAA song as background music of a poster's own video creation.

This is just stupid, as most of the RIAA's anti-consumer strategies of late have been. I can't imagine why any band (or even their record companies) would be opposed to what amounts to free advertising. There may be some cases where the use of a song is done in a way that is not flattering to the band, but I think that such situations are rare. Most of the time, the amateur filmmaker has chosen the song because he likes it or because it fits nicely with the visual content of the film.

Since most of the videos on YouTube are posted without any expectation of financial gain (the site itself is hemorraging money and may go out of business in the next few months), what these filmmakers are doing cannot be called piracy. By definition, piracy means that the pirate is selling the pirated material for monetary gain. That is not happening here. Once again, we have the greedy RIAA placing irrational restrictions on what people can do with their music in an attempt to squeeze every last penny from consumers.

Tell Yourself

2006-06-15T13:08:00.001-05:00

From the creators of Ask a Ninja comes Hope Is Emo: A Funny Podcast About a Sad Girl. It' s a satirical look at high school aged "goth" girl and her musings. It's funny because it's true--I've known girls like this in the past. As I watched the episode, I couldn't help but think that Hope (were she real) would likely grow up to be an English major, since that seems to be the career path that most girls like this take.

I went through a "goth" period myself when I was in high school--sort of. And it amazes me how the same basic look and mindset still exists today. Perhaps it has always been around, to some extent, for as long as high school education has been a requirement in this country.

The National Front Disco

2006-05-31T09:21:00.000-05:00

There was a mock citizenship quiz posted here which quizzes one on their knowledge of the government and US history. I took it and passed with a perfect score, so I guess I deserve to be here. Of course, I wonder how many of those clamoring to deport the "illegal immigrants" would be able to pass a test as simple as this one.

You Passed the US Citizenship Test

Congratulations - you got 10 out of 10 correct!

Could You Pass the US Citizenship Test?

If You're Feeling Sinister

2006-05-25T20:08:00.000-05:00

I've been watching reruns of the "V" television series from the 1980s. Back then, I was all over "V" and thought it was the coolest thing on television (hey, I was in fifth grade--give me a break). The show is awfully dated now. The special effects are cheesy, and the dialogue and acting are cringe-worthy, but it's a story idea that had a lot of potential.

I can't really fault the show for its special effects, since this was c. 1985--long before CGI made special effects in science fiction shows somewhat more believable. But what I can't understand is how television show back in the 70s and 80s were just so horribly written. Sure, there are a lot of horribly written shows in the 21st century, but there are a lot of very clever shows too. Clever shows back then were few and far between--or maybe my family was just watching the wrong shows. I don't understand how, with the fewer network selections, and fewer scripted programming back then, how there wasn't a greater concentration of writing talent in the shows that did exist.

Anyway, as I watch the reruns of "V" I rather wish some hotshot producer would do with "V" what Ronald Moore has done with the "Battlestar Galactica" franchise: give it a makeover and help what was a poorly executed show realize its potential. The original "V" developed a complicated analogy between the alien Visitors and Nazi Germany, asking, "If a Nazi-like invasion were to occur today (the 1980s) what would happen? Who would collaborate? Who would resist?" A 21st century version of "V" could be rewritten to comment on current events. In the original series, the heroes were a group of human resistance fighters. Today, though, we might label them terrorists. They bombed alien installations, conducted assassinations and guerrilla warfare (even using weapons of mass destruction), and violently opposed the collaborating human governments. It would be very interesting to watch the heroes in a new series have to struggle to convince other humans to join the resistance movement while they have to combat the "terrorist" label and the propaganda that would be used against them, perhaps even going so far as to imply an analogy between the aliens' occupation of Earth and America's occupation of the Middle East. It could be a very interesting series.

Handle With Care

2006-05-23T15:04:00.000-05:00

Last weekend, I finally bought a new printer. I have been without a printer for at least two years--an inconvenience which has forced me to spend a portion of almost every weekend at the college campus so that I could print things out. At least printing there was free.

I have bad luck with printers. They are such fragile, tempermental things. My last printer just died unexpectedly. I couldn't get it to connect with my previous computer nor with my current computer. The printer I owned before that was nice and compact and served me well until the ink drum exploded one day, spilling ink dust on the carpet.

I got my new printer for under $80, but it's one of those nice all-in-one, print/scan/copy things which should serve me well in the upcoming fall semester--if it doesn't die before then.

Just Being Me

2006-05-14T09:24:00.000-05:00

Uggh. It has been forever since I last posted. An entire semester has passed, in fact. I know I haven't been posting and it has been nagging at me these last few months, but still, I didn't post.

And it's not like I haven't had anything to post about. Sure, things have been rather slow and stable in my life lately, but there have been some interesting events. As usual, I'm just guilty of procrastination. This is always what happens when I try to keep a journal/diary: I stick with it for a while, but then I inevitably drop it. Perhaps this blog thing is losing its appeal to me.

I was thinking about this situation last night and it occurred to me that my "online presence" has also decreased in the last few months. By this I mean that I've been participating less in online communities. TWoP is the best example--I haven't posted there in a long time either, and it used to be that I'd post to TWoP all the time. It seems that the way that I use the internet has shifted in recent months, and I'm more of spectator now than an active participant. Strange.

Rock Candy

2005-12-15T13:51:00.000-06:00

I learned today that Kristin Hersh, one of my favorite singers, is offering her band's (50 Foot Wave) new EP as a free download on her website. Good for her. I've got my copy, now it's time for you to get yours. Check it out.

Clap Your Hands

2005-12-11T16:32:00.000-06:00

Well, it's that time again: the time of the year when everybody and his brother lists their top albums in the year, and not to miss the bandwagon, I've got my list too. I did this last year by simply listing the albums that I had picked up over the past year, but since I'm not some music critic who reviews an album or two every week, and because my purchasing power when it comes to music is limited, my own list turns out to be rather short. I can't easily list my top 10 albums of the year if, say, I've only picked up 9 albums. So I thought I'd do something a bit different this year by discussing my favorite song from each of the new albums that I got this year. There were so many good songs, though, that I might even name some honorable mentions. So, here we go . . .

Artist: The New Pornographers
Song: "The Jessica Numbers"
The New Pornographers already won my vote for the Best Song Ever when they released "The Laws Have Changed" back in 2003. Now, "The Jessica Numbers" has my vote for the best song of the year. I've been playing it constantly since their new album, Twin Cinema, was relased late last summer, and I'm still not tired of it. It's just one of the greatest songs I have ever heard. Hyperbole? I don't think so. I don't think so at all. Although, after listening to the song as many times as I have, I still don't have any idea what the Jessica numbers are. Maybe 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42?
Honorable Mention: "Sing Me Spanish Techno"

Artist: Low
Song: "Death of a Salesman"
Low's album, The Great Destroyer, was the most anticipated album of the year for me. It's a great album, but it is so different from the rest of their work, that it took me a while to warm up to it. Low, unfortunately, has been trapped in a musical genre of their own creation for the last decade or so. Their fans (me included) don't want them to escape, yet it's clear that Alan Sparhawk wants to do something more than just the slow, minimalist songs that have characterized Low up to this point. While I understand that, I also wish Low would stick to the sound that has made them (relatively) famous. No other band sounds like them, and when Low tries to sound like other indie pop bands, they just seem a lot less interesting. I choose "Death of a Salesman" off of this album because songs and stories about unrealized potential always kill me (Jude the Obscure devastated me when I read it back in high school) and this song is one of the saddest things I've ever heard recorded.
Honorable Mention: "Just Stand Back"

Artist: Kate Bush
Song: "Aerial" (Laughter Remix)
It was tough for me choosing the "best" song off of Kate Bush's new album. Either of the honorable mentions below could have been the best song. But I chose this song, or at least the remix of this song, because it's a remix that I myself made, with the help of Audacity. It's a shorter, tighter version the song that closes the second CD of Bush's double album release. It's been a dozen years since Kate Bush released an album, and much like Morrissey's long awaited album last year, it doesn't disappoint at all.
Honorable Mention: (Tie) "Joanni" and "How To Be Invisible"

Artist: Petra Haden
Song: "Armenia City in the Sky"
A totally original, completely plagiarized album, Petra Haden Sings The Who Sell Out is fascinating to listen to, not simply because she sings the first dozen songs from The Who's famous album, but because sings everything from that album--the vocals, the guitars, the drums--everything. It's a weird, wonderful album and has proven to be, for me at least, an introduction to The Who's work. After listening to this album, I had to get the original Who version of The Who Sells Out, just to compare.
Honorable Mention: "Sunrise"

Artist: Queen Adreena
Song: "FM Doll"
Kate Bush wasn't the only artist who re-emerged in my CD player after an extended absence. I learned early this year that Katie-Jane Garside and Crispin Grey, of Daisy Chainsaw, have released a series of albums under the name Queen Adreena since the start of the new millenium. Back in 1992, Daisy Chainsaw rocked my world when they released Eleventeen, which even today earns a place on my list of the all-time great albums. If the creation of art (and music) is one of the things which distinguishes human beings from the rest of the animal kingdom, then Daisy Chainsaw sought to blur the line between animal and human. Garside's vocals were so wild, so unrestrained, so violent and visceral that even today I have nothing to compare it to. I used to describe her as "Kate Bush on PCP." After releasing their debut album, they essentially disppeared, and I had long given up waiting for another album, so imagine my surprise and delight when I discovered that Garside is still singing (uncontrollably).
Honorable Mention: "Pray for Me"

Artist: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Song: "Clap Your Hands"
Lots of glowing reviews of this new band have already been written and posted about the internet, so it's hard to say anything new in praise of their self-produced album. I'll just say this, though: they are, for me, a great example of the "post-rock" sound that I dig so much. All of their songs make use of a wide variety of instruments: guitars, synths, harmonicas, toy pianos, etc., and their songs represent a variety of popular and eccentric genres ("Clap Your Hands", for example, makes use of circus music). The singer sounds like the love-child of David Byrne and Morrissey, but hey, I thought Joanna Newsom was the New Artist of the Year last year, so what do I care about singing?
Honorable Mention: "Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood"

Artist: Badly Drawn Boy
Song: "You Were Right"
Another prime example of "post-rock", I don't think BDB actually released an album this year, but I discovered them several months ago when I downloaded the Revolved album--a mash-up album that combined the Beatles' Revolver with a set of songs by various artists. "Your Bird Was Right" was, and is, my favorite track off of the Revolved album, and with a little research, I tracked down and downloaded "You Were Right". It's a great, catchy, ecstatic song, and it has gotten me interested in the rest of Badly Drawn Boy's work.
Honorable Mention: "Your Bird Was Right" (mash-up with the Beatles)

Artist: The White Stripes
Song: "Blue Orchid"
The White Stripes' latest album, Get Behind Me Satan, seems to be getting left out from everyone's top albums lists that I have seen. Indeed, I just had to go check Amazon to make sure that this was, in fact, released this year. It wasn't as great as Elephant, but then, what is? It's still a solid, and inevitably overlooked album.
Honorable Mention: "As Ugly As I Seem"

Artist: The Free Design
Song: "Kije's Ouija"
Right, so let's just pretend that this is new band, OK? and that their music isn't actually older than I myself am? I forget how I stumbled upon this band, but I did, started downloading it, and fell in love with it. Their music is about as cheesy and rated-G as "rock" music will ever get, but their songs are very catchy, despite the cheese. They were also, apparently, a source of inspiration for Stereolab's late 90s work (Stereolab even has a song called "The Free Design") and indeed, a lot of The Free Design's music sounds a lot like Stereolab, minus the pro-Marxist lyrics, of course.
Honorable Mention: "Kites Are Fun"

Artist: The Go-Go's
Song: "Head Over Heels"
Well, hell, if I can put a band from the 60s on this list, then I'll put a band from the 80s on it too. No, I didn't discover The Go-Go's this year; I'm old enough to remember them before they broke up in the mid-80s, but my recent infatuation with power pop caused me to download a set of their songs, since they are one of the original power pop bands.
Honorable Mention: "Skidmarks on My Heart"

Well, hey! look at that--ten artists after all! They're not all new, but they are what I was listening to in 2005.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

2005-12-10T12:15:00.000-06:00

Maybe I have way too much time on my hands, but it occurred to me this morning that, in Star Wars, the entire rescue of the Princess and the escape from the Death Star might, in part, be an homage to The Wizard of Oz. Consider:

Princess Leia=Dorothy
"We've got to help her!"
Leia is the reason why the other three characters are together in the first place, and it is because of her that they undertake the perilous journey through into the Death Star. Far from being a typical damsel in distress, however, Leia frequently takes charge and has to rescue the others on at least one occasion. That, and she's the only girl in the foursome, so who else could she be?

Luke Skywalker=Scarecrow
"When you came in here, didn't you have a plan for getting out?"
[Indicating Luke] "He's the brains, sweetheart."
Luke is like the Scarecrow not in the sense that he's stupid, but in the sense that he's naive and inexperienced. He's also a Jedi apprentice, a student--if you will. It is he who urges the others to infiltrate and fight through a battle station occupied by hundreds of thousands of soldiers. Wait--maybe he is stupid after all. . .
Plus, there's the fact that he's a farmboy--an obvious scarecrow connection there.

Han Solo=Tin Man
"I wonder if he really cares about anything . . . or anyone."
Through most of the movie, Han proves that he is a true mercenary: lacking compassion for the larger, nobler cause of the Rebellion and would rather look after his own interests. He redeems himself by the end of the movie, of course, and in the next film, it is he who at last wins Leia's heart.

Chewbacca=the Cowardly Lion
"C'mere you big coward! Chewie, c'mere!"
When we are first introduced to Chewie, he seems a big, frightening animal with the strength to kill a person instantly. During and immediately after the garbage compactor scene, though, we see a very different side of Chewie, as he's the first to flee from the dangers inside of it.
Ironically, Chewie doesn't receive a medal at the end of the movie (I always call it "the graduation" because of the music), and, if I recall correctly, the Cowardly Lion is symbolically transformed into a brave lion after receiving a medal at the end of WoO.

So I guess that leaves Darth Vader as the wicked witch. Maybe R2 is Toto. I don't know who Obi Wan would be, though (the Wizard himself?)--I guess that's the point were my analogy breaks down. :)

Burning Bridge

2005-11-10T18:23:00.000-06:00

A recent news story reported that the copy-protection software that Sony-BMG has made a part of its new CD releases allows hackers to take control of the computers that have installed that software. This is just the latest negative reaction to this latest tactic of the Mu$ic Indu$try to treat their customers as criminals. There have already been lawsuits filed against Sony for improperly installing this software onto computers without the computer owners expressed permission. In effect, this software is spyware.

Tactics like this will only hasten customers' departure from the CD format. Why would anyone want to buy a CD when it has the potential to harm one's computer? I won't be buying any more Sony CDs, that's for sure.

King of the Mountain

2005-11-04T21:11:00.000-06:00

Today, I was flipping through the pages of the university newspaper when I saw a list of "10 Songs That You Must Hear Before You Die" (or something like that). There was no author attributed to the list, so I figure it might be a list on the newswire of university newspapers around the country. I only recognzied a couple of the songs on the list, but the idea of such a list intrigued me, and for much of the day today, I've been thinking about which 10 songs I would recommend as songs folks should listen to before they die--songs of such intrinsic power and importance (or a skeptic might say "pretentiousness")--that they are songs that must be heard. After a little bit of thought, and with a grain of salt, here's what I came up with, in not particular order except, perhaps, for the first one:

1. "Soon" by Low: When you just read the lyrics to this song, it doesn't look like much at all--just your average ditty about pain and humiliation. But with Low's trademark low-key sound, the song seems to ascend to great importance. And when the string section kicks in . . . oh my gawd!

2. "Pink Flower" by Daisy Chainsaw: It's like punk married to opera. It's like Satan returning to heaven from hell. It's like everything terrible and everything terrific all rolled into one.

3. "Rocket's Tail" by Kate Bush: Utterly transcendant. A spiritual experience in "size 9 lightening boots".

4. "I Know It's Over" by The Smiths: I suppose several songs by the Smiths and Morrissey could be on this list. But this one stands out for its powerful expression of loneliness and sorrow.

5. "Paris and Rome" by Cranes: I always found something so inspiring and tirumphant about this song, probably in the music more so than the lyrics.

6. "When Poets Dreamed of Angels" by David Sylvian: Poetry of the human condition. When I listen to the song I always forget that the last couple of minutes are just instrumental because I'm still geeking out over the lyrics.

7. "Sanvean" by Dead Can Dance: Who needs words? This song is likely Lisa Gerrards vocal masterpiece. Everything that she has done since seems to be trying to play catch-up with this song.

8. "You Were Right" by Badly Drawn Boy: A lifetime of joy in 5 minutes. One of the catchiest songs I've ever heard. Ecstatic and life-affirming.

9. "Sadie" by Joanna Newsom: Newsom is probably one of the top three female songwriters living right now. Pure poetry.

10. "Neighborhood #1: Tunnels" by The Arcade Fire: Believe the hype surrounding this band's first album. They're a band in touch with their childhood and this song straddles that line between wishing you could grow up and wishing you had never grown up.

So . . . hyperbole much, depthfunction? I guess. Ask me for a new list next week and I might have a new set of songs. But for now, this is the list I would put together--and indeed I have. :P

The Boy Racer

2005-10-08T15:59:00.000-05:00

A few days ago I signed on to the SBC-Yahoo DSL service, whose advertisements are ubiquitous on the internet. I've used dial-up modems to connect to the internet for as long as I've been connecting to the internet. Of course, I've known how slow dial-up is--my computer at work has a broadband connection--but only now has the price for high-speed access come down low enough for me to afford it. I'm only paying a couple bucks more a month for internet speed that is at least 20 times faster than what I can get with dial-up.

I won't say it has "revolutionized" my internet use, but it has enabled me to do a lot of things that I couldn't do in the past. For instance, I can now stream the films from the Prelinger Archive rather than download a poor quality file (which would still take a couple of hours to do at dial-up speeds). I've also been able to download some TV shows about the same time it takes to watch them. I've recently found a bunch of those "ghost hunting" shows that apparently one can find on cable TV nowadays. They are comedy gold, especially one show called "The Girly Ghosthunters" which features 4 squeamish women investigating haunted locales in Canada. That show is the best because the women seem more afraid of spiders and getting cobwebs in their hair than they are afraid of the ghosts they are investigating. I've only seen one episode of "The Girly Ghosthunters," but it has whet my appetite for more.

The only problem with my new DSL connection is that my computer is just barely capable of handling it. I need a new computer anyway, so hopefully it won't be long before my hardware can handle my software.

Another Day

2005-09-25T17:34:00.000-05:00

Well, what do you know! It was one year and one day ago that I began this blog. I have to say, I wasn't sure that my posting would last this long. As I mentioned back when I started this thing, I've never been very good about keeping diaries, but this has been fun so far, so I'll try to keep it going.

I haven't been posting much lately, though, because the new semester has kept me busy. I also have started another blog for the class I teach, and I do most of my blog posting there. I still want to keep this blog as my "personal" blog, though.

In other news, I've been tuning in to the trio of new "Lost"-inspired TV shows: "Threshold," "Surface," and "Invasion." I call them "Lost"-inspired because they are trying to copycat "Lost's" success last year (and its Emmy success this year. But since all three shows have to do with alien invasions of planet Earth--unlike "Lost"--I'm not sure if the comparisons are justified. All three shows range from mediocre to horrible ("Surface") and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see all three shows cancelled by May. "Invasion" probably as the best chance of success, though, simply because it is airing immediately after "Lost", and should be able to retain at least part of the former show's huge audience. I've already given up on "Surface" after its premiere episode, but I'm still willing to give the other two shows a try, for now.

The Bleeding Heart Show

2005-09-02T17:12:00.000-05:00

The death of New Orleans has been must-see TV for me. Not since 9/11 have I been so interested in viewing TV footage and reading news updates online about a particular event.

There is talk of rebuilding the city, but if and when that happens, the city will clearly never be the same again. This is mostly because of the mass evacuations. It would be one thing if people would be allowed to return to the city--and their old jobs and lives--in just a week or two. But simply fixing the levies and draining the flood water will likely take weeks and months. Even then, I'd imagine that a lot of buildings and homes will have to be destroyed. The refugees will need to find work elsewhere, and many of them might decide that it isn't worth it to try to return, and end up putting down roots elsewhere. I suspect that only a fraction of those who fled the city before the hurricane and are being bussed out now will ever return.

Al-Qaeda must be loving this. If they ever manage to detonate a nuclear device in an American city, as is their goal, the pictures from New Orleans should offer them a sneak preview of the damage and chaos they might inflict. Clearly, the US govt., both federal and state, is totally incapable of responding to an enormous catastrophe such as the destruction of a city. Hell, even a "dirty bomb," which would not cause much physical damage but would spark chaos and panic, would likely be too much for the govt. to handle.

Sing Me Spanish Techno

2005-08-31T18:20:00.000-05:00

A few years ago, when Stereolab's Sound Dust album was released, I thought to myself, as I listened to the songs, "Gosh, it must really be fun to sing for that band." The songs were so clever and full of energy in their arrangements that I almost felt envious of Sadier and Hansen (and this reaction from someone who has no interest in all in singing--you'll never find me making a fool of myself on American Idol).

I've been having a similar reaction listening to the New Pornographers latest album, Twin Cinema. They're a band that has always shared the singing responsibilities. On this album, they have four (and maybe five) lead singers, allowing them to experiment with song structures and arrangments that would not be possible if they had only one singer, as most bands do. And because it's the New Pornographers, you know you are in for some peppy power pop. It occurred to me today that it must really be a delight to play in a band like that.

My favorite track off the new NP album is "The Jessica Numbers." I just can't get enough of that song and I play it several times a day. It is sonic ecstacy, not only the singing but the music as well. I wrote in my Amazon review that it is my personal pick for Song of the Year, and I stand by that comment.

Chump Change

2005-08-17T11:21:00.000-05:00

I feel like I dodged a bullet. I took my car in to get the brakes fixed yesterday. I was expecting the worst, in terms of cost, but it turns out I only had to spend $170. I did have to wait about 4 and a half hours for the repairs to be made, but that's a small price to pay, considering. This is why I love Dobbs.

Half-Gifts

2005-08-12T18:25:00.000-05:00

Well, some good news. Yesterday, I was hired to teach a single class over at Maryville, where I taught last semester. Between the Maryville assignment and SLU, that makes three classes for me this semester--more than I've ever taught at one time. It's a lot of work, but it's also more money for me.

As for bad news, I'm going to take my aging car into the shop next week. I've got a brake problem that causes my car to shudder violently when I slow down after driving at high speeds. I've done a little research online, and I think I know what the problem is and how my car needs to be fixed, but it sounds like it's going to be an expensive procedure--anywhere from $350 up to $2000, depending on how bad the brake damage is.

I've decided, as I think about my budget for the rest of the year, that I'll use the entirety of my Maryville paycheck to pay for my car repairs (I also need to change my shocks, which is also very expensive) and to pay down my ballooning credit card debt. My SLU paychecks will go towards rent and all my other usual bills and living expenses. The money from the online tutoring gig that will start in September will go towards paying for a new computer. The 6-year-old computer at which I am typing now is on its last legs I fear. It crashes several times a day now, and I don't know how much longer it will last.

It sucks being poor.

Strange Season

2005-08-05T15:23:00.000-05:00

As the fall semester approaches, I'm hoping to land one more teaching assignment. I'm already set to teach two classes at SLU and I'm scheduled to do some part-time online tutoring for a textbook publisher, but I was hoping I could get one or two more classes to teach. Now that I'm no longer a grad student, I've got enough extra time on my hands that I can afford to teach more than two classes per semester.

But it's been tough finding work, even in a metropolitan area such as St. Louis. I tried applying at the local community colleges, but it's the hardest thing in the world to get employed there. Basically, CCs are loath to hire anyone without CC teaching experience, and yet, one can't get CC teaching experience without getting hired for the first time! I was told, by a CC professor that I talked to, that my education and work experience at private universities is hurting my chances. Apparently, CCs aren't sure that I can handle the quality of students that one typically finds at CCs--an attitude which I find not only insulting to me, but to the students who attend CCs as well.

As for the local four-year universities, I've queried a few of them, including the school that I worked at last spring, but everything is full, as of now. Surely, though, a position or two will open up in the next couple of weeks. But there's a lot of competition, and I should probably be grateful for what I have already.

I Wonder Why the Wonderfalls

2005-07-18T07:55:00.000-05:00

About a week and a half ago, I finally got around to ordering the Wonderfalls TV series DVD. I was among the 15 or so people who watched the show last year before FOX prematurely cancelled it--a cancellation for which I am still deeply bitter because Wonderfalls was such a great show with a lot of potential. FOX only allowed four episodes to air before the axed it, but actually 13 episodes were filmed and "in the can". The DVD set has all 13 episodes plus a few extra items thrown in.

The show stars Caroline Dhavernas as Jaye Tyler. Back when the show aired, I wasn't sure if I liked the actress (though I loved the character) or not--something about her eyes kind of bugged me--but after watching all of the episodes, I have a new respect for her. Caroline has a very expressive face; many of her scenes don't even require dialogue because the audience can tell exactly what the character is feeling just by looking at her face. She's fun to watch and very funny.

Day After Day

2005-07-15T21:27:00.000-05:00

For the last few weeks, I've been temping so as to pay my bills until the new semester starts and I can get back to teaching. I've been working the night shift, something I've done before but not day after day after day like I am now. I've adjusted my routine so that I get my sleep in the mornings and early afternoons. I've found, though, that this night-shift work has warped my sense of time, specifically the passage of days. Like most people, I guess, I've always lived with the idea that I sleep at night and wake and work during the day. Sleeping at night was always the thing that separated one day from another, and so as I imagined time and the recent past, I was always able to recall that Event X happened on "Tuesday" and Event Y happened on "Wednesday." But now, I no longer have that clear separation between "Tuesday" and "Wednesday." Instead of living multiple days, I now have the sensation of living one interminable day that doesn't end. Sleeping in the morning and afternoon feels more like I'm taking a nap, so I undergo the experience of wake, work, nap, wake, work, nap, wake, work, nap, etc. and the day never seems to end.

I need the money, so I guess I'll do this for another few weeks or so--unless I get fired or something. But I'm already counting the days until the fall semester starts and I can go back to a more natural wake/sleep schedule.

I'm Lonely (But I Ain't That Lonely Yet)

2005-07-08T19:49:00.000-05:00

In what may be the final and most convincing proof that I truly am pathetic, the other day I joined Geek2Geek, an online dating site dedicated to--wait for it--geeks. I was a bit wary at first because the look of the site makes one wonder if the whole thing isn't just a parody. But other folks had apparently signed on, so I did too. Perhaps the best part is that it's free to join, unlike certain other online dating sites that charge you $30 a month for the privilege of browsing and contacting their stable of losers.

I dig the brainy chicks, so it made sense that I give the site a chance. But on the flipside, I've been forced to admit that, yes, I'm probably a geek. I guess that wouldn't surprise people who know me, but as they say, the first step is admitting the truth to yourself.

Yeah, I've done the online dating thing in the past, and while I haven't had too much luck with it, I still find it exciting to meet and chat with new people (if only online) that I probably would not otherwise have a chance to meet.

Missing Link

2005-07-05T15:46:00.000-05:00

First, I just wanted to say that I am not suddenly becoming a Star Wars blogging freak. The last two posts have dealt with Star Wars, however, a non-SW related post is supposed to have followed the "Twin Cinema" post. Somehow, though, it got deleted. Oh well.

In that mysteriously deleted post, I mentioned that I am spending part of this summer putting the finishing touches on a novel that I've had laying around for several years. The very first draft of the novel was written back in 1992, when I was still in high school. I revised it, with an eye towards publication, sometime around 1996 or 1997, after my first book was released. But soon, my graduate studies took over my life and my plans for this second book were shelved--until last month when I decided to finish it off and send it out. It will be very interesting to see if it gets any interest from publishers (and if it's soundly rejected, what will they say about it?).

One thing that I've noticed as I've been working on it, is just how much American civilization and pop culture have changed in the 12 or so years since the first draft. For example, in the earlier drafts, some of the characters spend their time listening to Walkmans. I've had to change those scenes to include portable mp3 players now. I've also included more cell phone usage among the characters. I could probably introduce some instant messaging and internet reference as well (even blogging!) but I think that might interfere too much with the dynamics among the characters.

We tend to take the cultural advances that technology as offered us for granted, but a lot sure has changed since 1992.

Hey, Hey Spaceman

2005-07-04T15:06:00.000-05:00

For many years, I had been haunted by a strange memory that I had from when I was about 3 or 4 years old: I could remember sitting in front of the television set one night watching some sort of Star Wars program on television. The only real memory I had of this was that the show apparently featured Boba Fett, and it also had a lot to do with Chewbacca's family. For years I had no idea whether this had really happened, whether it had been a dream, or whether I had just imagined the whole thing.

Then, about a couple of years ago, I found an article from Salon.com describing the Star Wars Holiday Special, and as I read it, everything clicked. This was the show I had seen! The mystery was at last solved. Since then, I discovered that are several web sites devoted to the show. And finally, a couple days ago, I gave in to my curiosity and downloaded the show, watching it for the first time in 27 years.

The special was two hours long, and rather than it being a straight-forward example of science fiction and adventure--which you would expect--it was instead a bizarre hybrid of science fiction and a comedy variety show. The program not only features the original cast of Star Wars, but it also has characters played by Art Carney (!), Harvey Korman (?!), and Bea Arthur (!?!).

The show seemed to be ill-conceived right from the start. On the one hand, it seems suited best for very young children, such as I was when I first saw it, given its slow, Teletubby pace--especially during the scenes with Chewbacca's family. At the same time, there's a lot of sexual innuendo to be found in the "comedy" bits, which would go right over the heads of pre-pubescent kids (and I can't imagine that any adults would be watching it after the first 15 minutes). The comedy bits feel totally out of place (nor are they funny) and only add to the tedium of the show. Indeed, the only thing that seems to fit in a "Star Wars TV special" is a 10-minute Boba Fett cartoon. Why the producers didn't just make an hour-long Star Wars cartoon special is beyond me.

The program just gets worse and worse as it goes on, building to a climax of absurdity, when at the very end, as Princess Leia, Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, C-3PO and R2-D2 have reunite Chewbacca with his family, music starts playing and the camera focuses on Carrie Fisher. At this point, I'm thinking to myself: "Oh no! She isn't really going to . . . ? No! Yes! She is! She's singing! BWAHAHAHAHA!!" Yes, Carrie Fisher ends the show with a song about . . . well, I don't even know what it's about because I can't watch that scene without falling on the floor laughing. She won't be taking home the prize from American Idol: 1978.

Television has been the scene of many atrocities committed in the name of "entertainment" over the years, but surely the Star Wars Holiday Special ranks near the top. Want to see it for yourself? You should be able to find through searching your friendly, neighborhood file-sharing service.

Twin Cinema

2005-06-09T21:31:00.000-05:00

This afternoon I went to the movies to catch the new Star Wars film. I don't go to the theater often, partly because I hate sitting in audiences. Indeed, I waited almost three weeks since the movie's release before I finally went to see it just so I wouldn't have to sit in a crowded theater (and, happily, there were only two other people in the audience: a boy and his mother).

Like I say, it's been a while since I've been to the movies, so I was surprised by the fact that, apparently, commercials--the 30-second spots that you would expect to see on TV--are now a part of the pre-feature lineup. When did that happen? And why?

Anyway, the movie was all right. I had read a lot of reviews of the movie prior to going, and I pretty much agree with the consensus: special effects--great, story of Anakin Skywalker's transformation into Vader--pretty much convincing, dialogue and acting--clunky and at times atrocious. The problem that I had with the dialogue was that there just wasn't any subtlety to it at all. Characters would state the obvious, and then they'd state it again, and again, and again. It was like being hit over the head with a rolled up script. One example: when Vader delivers his line (and Lucas's pot-shot at Bush) "If you're not with me, you're my enemy" I was perfectly willing to let that go. Lucas could have assumed that his audience was intelligent enough to get the satire and understand the point made by it, but then Obi Wan has to make the ridiculous reply, "Only a Sith Lord believes in absolutes" or whatever it is that he says, which absolutely ruins the moment because it is unnecessary and superfluous. So much of the dialogue in the film could have been improved, not so much by rewriting it, but simply by editing it down a bit. Almost every scene had a couple of lines that could have been cut from the movie and would not have been missed.

Oh well. Anyway, it was sad to see it end, just because it is the final movie of the saga. There won't be another.

Bigmouth Strikes Again

2005-05-18T21:10:00.000-05:00

Today, Les Moonves of CBS announced that highly-acclaimed television show Joan of Arcadia has been cancelled after only 2 seasons. I don't watch a lot of scripted programming--JoA, Lost, and 24 are pretty much the only dramas that I regularly tune in for--so I was upset about this. What's really distressing is that there is so much crap and mediocre programming, not to mention the 500 "different" crime procedural dramas which are boring as hell (why do people watch these shows?), that when something new and fresh and unique comes along, the network can't wait to crush it (much like last season's Wonderfalls, whose cancellation I'm still bitter towards FOX about). I didn't seem to me that CBS was ever really interested in JoA to begin with. The show might have been cancelled sooner if it hadn't helped CBS win it's Friday night time slot. The mere fact that this show was on Friday nights, when it's targeted younger demographic is more likely to be away from the television just goes to show how stupid CBS was with how they handled this show. So in spite of a much-publicized letter-writing campaign that JoA fans launched to try to save the show, CBS has cancelled it anyway. "Now I know how Joan of Arc felt."

This was a great show that was able to deal with religious and ethical issues, and it did so in a way that wasn't dogmatic or condescending towards the audience. The acting and writing was first-rate. And in a time when so many people in the world when the name of "God" is called upon as justification for terror, or to start wars, this show gave us a God that was compassionate, loving, and accepting of everyone. It's funny how a show like this would appeal to someone like me, who does not subscribe to any particular religion and has long been skeptical that God--or any god--really exists. But if I knew for certain that there really is a God, and that God really is like the being that was portrayed on this show, then I'd convert in a minute. This was a show that demonstrated what faith, religion, and humanity should really be about.

And as soon as I get a little money together, I'll be purchasing the Season 1 DVD.

The Future Free

2005-05-08T21:26:00.000-05:00

Many years ago, back in 1992 or so, I picked up Daisy Chainsaw's first CD, Eleventeen. It was a great punk album, with driving beats and roaring guitars. But what really set the album apart was lead singer Katie Jane Garside's singing. Actually it wasn't so much singing as frantic screeching and angry screaming into the microphone. It was an awesome album, one of my favorites, and I eagerly awaited a second album from them. A year passed, and then another, and then another, but Daisy Chainsaw never followed up their first effort. Given the chaotic sound of their debut album, I figured the band itself had probably imploded, or maybe they were all mired in rehab or something. Eleventeen's singularity only made me cherish the album more, and every once in a while, in the years that followed, I'd play the album when I was in the mood for something really loud.

I mention this because the other day, while browsing Amazon.com, I came across their second album, which was released just one year ago. And I learned that Garside and guitarist Crispin Grey had previously put out a couple of albums in 2000 and 2002 with a band called Queen Adreena. I've since been listening to several of the songs and it is amazing how, in spite of all the time that has passed, they still sound pretty much the same as they did back in 1992. The second QA album especially could have been released back in 1993 or so--that's how much it sounds like the DC's debut.

It's freaky to think how much time has passed between the first time I listened to Eleventeen and the first time I heard one of their newer songs. Indeed, eleventeen years have passed! Although my need for this brand of psycho-punk has diminished over the years, it's still fun to listen to them again, and to finally see the potential hinted at in 1992 realized today.

Music in Dreamland

2005-04-12T11:29:00.000-05:00

The biggest non-story since Terri Schiavo's death has been the publication of President Bush's iPod playlist. For the most part, the songs he listens to are pretty tame: just a collection of pre-1990s country and classic rock. Honestly, though, who cares?

What's most annoying is how some "journalists"/"columnists" have taken to analyzing the lyrics of some of his songs. Bush has the irritating song "My Sharona" on his iPod which apparently has some risque lyrics. So now people are tyring to read all sorts of things into this. Is Bush a sex fiend? Is he a pervert?! Ugh. If we're going to start making moral judgments about people based on the lyrics of the songs they listen to, then we're all going to be labeled as freaks and perverts.

Beatnik Beach

2005-04-08T20:09:00.000-05:00

The other day I stumbled upon the Prelinger Archives, a public-domain collection of films (mostly school filmstrips) from throughout the 20th century. Most of them are hysterically funny, especially the Coronet series of films. Most of the Coronet films were made in the late 40s and 50s, that era of extreme conformity in American culture. The films feature pre-rock'n'roll teenagers coping with the usual teenage problems: parties, dating, becoming adults, etc. but the issues are so cheesily presented and the problems so neatly wrapped up by the end of the end of each 10-minute film that it is hard to imagine that these films were any help at all to the teenagers who watched them. The acting in these films is atrocious, the actors stiff and amateurish, the dialogue itself sounds like its written by teenagers. They're a hoot to watch. I've been downloading some of the best and I might try to work a couple of them into my teaching next semester. I'm not sure how my students will take to them--whether they'll see the irony in them or not--since teenagers today seem strangely similar to the teens of yesteryear.

There are other interesting films as well. One is a puritanical anti-pornography film from the 1960s funded by criminal financier Charles Keating; the film is 30 minutes long and 25 minutes of it are still shots from smut mags of the time. It's hard to tell whether the film is meant to discourage people from them, or help them develop an interest in "sexual deviancy".

Another neat film is "How to Use the Dial Telephone" from 1927. It instructs viewers on how to dial a number, what the difference is between a busy signal and a ringing signal, and all the other things we take for granted nowadays. It's a trip. It's hard to imagine a time when people really didn't know how to work a telephone and they needed a film like that to help them know what to do.

I must be high

2005-03-23T18:43:00.000-06:00

I'm pissed.

Here's the story: on or about March 12 of this year, a person assaulted one of the management staff of the apartment complex where I live. When he was arrested, he claimed to be me and gave the officers my address as his own.

The first inkling I had of any of this was yesterday when I received a bill in the mail from a local hospital for $1600 for an assortment of drug tests and psych evaluations. The bill itself was addressed to me, but the patient's name was not quite mine (my last name was misspelled). Obviously confused, I called the hospital and told them I had no idea what was this bill was. After comparing my SSN to the patients (apparently they were different), the hospital told me to just disregard the letter (I suspect, though, that this won't be the last time I hear from them).

Then, this afternoon, when I came home from work, I was greeted by an eviction notice taped to my door. Alarmed, I hurried over to the management office and showed them the letter. The secretary and two other witnesses to the original assault all agreed that, in fact, I was NOT the person who was arrested that day. I'm going to have to meet with the apartment complex's lawyer tomorrow to straighten out the eviction order.

I've called the police, of course, because at this point what I'm most concerned with is the possibility that this joker is sitting in jail, still using my name, and thus, I would now have a police record. I called the police, but unless you have an emergency, all you get is a bureaucratic run-around. I tried 3 different numbers but no one could tell me anything. I'll try again tomorrow, but I'm really pissed off tonight.

Candy Everybody Wants

2005-03-15T15:26:00.000-06:00

While there have been a bunch of websites like iTunes that have sprung up over the last couple years offering music files to paying customers, there have also been a number of semi-legal websites offering the same services but charging far less money. One of these is allofmp3.com, which operates out of Russia. The RIAA tried to sue the website and shut it down, but apparently the folks behind allofmp3.com have bribed enough prosecutors and judges that the Russian legal system, for now, has refused to let the RIAA bring a lawsuit against the website.

Like other sites, allofmp3.com offers a few hundred thousand tracks, with a couple dozen new albums being added everyday. What sets them apart is that instead of charging $1 per song, they instead charge just 1 or 2 cents per megabyte, which means that one can download an entire album for less than a $1.50. And rather than limiting a customer to just one or two music formats, the site lets one encode the downloaded files into just about any audio format there is. There are also no licensing restrictions: no restrictions on how you can listen to the file, how you can store it, how many times you can listen to it, etc. The site also offers songs from bands, like the Beatles, which so far have refused to sign licensing agreements with any American sites, including iTunes. Indeed, allofmp3 offers the entire Beatles catalog for download at just 5-10 cents a song.

Sites like this are springing up all across the internet. Since it would be illegal to operate them in the USA, they exist overseas in foreign countries where copyright laws differ from the overly stringent rules in the US. This makes these sites a little bit shady, but for one willing to take a chance, they are a huge bargin.

Your bird can sing

2005-03-04T20:38:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I downloaded CCC's mash-up of the Beatles' Revolver album and various artists. Check it out. It's real good, comparable, in some respects, to last year's famous Grey Album mash-up. CCC took all of the songs on the album and paired them with lyrics and music from a wide variety of other musicians, from Hendrix to The Cure to Madonna and Glenn Miller. Most of the tracks really turned out great. My favorite track is "And Your Bird Was Right". I liked that one so much I even downloaded the original Beatles track, but it just wasn't as good as the mashed version. ;-)

I love mash-ups and wish there were more out there. They're mostly illegal, though, and that's a shame, because I consider them to be a new form of musical art. The Mu$ic Indu$try thinks they're losing money from the dispersal of these tracks and considers those who create mash-ups to be pirates, but--just speaking from my own experience--I think it gets listeners interested in a lot more different kinds of music and musicians than they might have been interested in previously. I've never really been too interested in the Beatles, for example, but the Grey Album and Revolved, have sparked an interest in me. The music companies need to lighten up.

My Life as a Ghost

2005-02-28T15:25:00.000-06:00

I learned today that one one of my students this semester died this past weekend. Although there was an official announcement in my email, I didn't learn about it until one of my students mentioned it in class. I didn't question it, I mean, how would someone fake a death to get out of class? Nevertheless, my first reaction was to deliver some sort of witty or snarky reply:
"So she won't be turning in a paper today?"
"Remember, her absence can only be excused if she has written documentation."
"Whew! That's one less paper to grade!"
"Will she miss Wednesday's class too?"
Fortunately, I bit my tongue and didn't say anything. Instead, I let the rest of the class react to the news for a few minutes. I also let them out of class early (although I planned to do that anyway). This is something that has never happened before. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do about her grade, if anything, but I guess that will explained to me soon.

The award for best snark goes to...

2005-02-28T09:11:00.000-06:00

Last night, during the Academy Awards, Sars and Wing Chun from TWoP were live via Yahoo snarking on the event. Usually I don't watch or really pay much attention at all to such awards shows, but I did last night. Or I didn't. What happened was that I watched maybe the first half hour of the show while letting Sars and Wing Chun's commentary run at the same time. Eventually, though, I turned off the TV and just read the commentary, as that was much more interesting. Here's a sample:
I can't believe the stripper with the heart of gold didn't win Best Supporting Actress. Do we all really love Katharine Hepburn so much that we'll give Cate Blanchette a prize just play her? To me she had a range of A to A and a half, and acted like a scary old crusty grandma who makes you take cod liver oil when you stay over at her house. (If my actual grandma's reading this: love you!)
Very funny. They deserve props for their running commetary. Snarking "live" like that isn't easy.

That's DOCTOR Depthfunction, to you!

2005-02-18T20:58:00.000-06:00

At long, long, long last: today I successfully defended my dissertation. And while I still have a few bureaucratic hurdles and some fees to pay, I have completed the course of study for my doctorate. I am free to refer to myself as Dr. Depthfunction or Depthfunction, Ph.D. Pretty sweet.

I was very nervous facing the questions from my committee after my 30-minute presentation because I didn't know how tough their questions would be. I had a rocky start after the first question posed to me, but after that, I handled most of the rest of the questions pretty well. The whole thing took about 70 minutes.

I'm glad it's over, and I'm glad I've got my Ph.D., but at the same time it's a pretty scary situation. For almost my entire life I've been a student of one kind or another. Tomorrow, that part of my life is finished. There's nothing more for me to learn--or at least nothing that can be recorded on a transcript. It's weird, and doesn't quite seem real. I guess it will take a few days for this realization to sink in.

Point of Disgust

2005-01-30T20:38:00.000-06:00

Two scandals of education that involve me indirectly:

Tonight there was a report on 60 Minutes about the fraudulent activities involved behind the parent company of a number of professional development colleges like ITT, U of Phoenix, and Sanford-Brown. I had actually been contacted a few weeks ago to possibly teach at one such school. I wasn't offered a job, but I think that if a job were offered now, I defintely would not take it. I may be a poor and lowly freelance adjunct, but I can at least say I have my integrity.

Meanwhile, the student government at SLU has been rocked by a corruption-theft-bribery scandal involving a few of the undergraduate senators and an improperly purchased iPod. I was tickled by that breaking news story as I have grown to despise SLU's student government. SLU has invested them with way too much power and responsibility. In the past it has led to ill-conceived and costly programs and proposals; now we are seeing illegal behavior result. At least this means that the student government will likely be preoccupied with the fallout from this scandal to screw anything else up on campus.

Why Should I Love You?

2005-01-12T09:36:00.000-06:00

I like music and computers, so I like to stay abreast of the latest in electronics. The other day, Apple, which has dominated the mp3 player market so far announced two new products: the iPod Shuffle and the iMac Mini.

The Shuffle doesn't look very impressive at all. It has no LCD screen, a built-in rechargable battery, and no other features like FM radio or voice recording. I bought a similar flash drive player about 6 months ago which is far superior to the Shuffle in every way. The only good thing about the Shuffle, as far as I can tell, is that it is inexpensive (flash memory drives are way too expensive).

Far more interesting, I think, is the iMac Mini, not so much for what it is in and of itself, but for the trend that it might spark. The Mini is basically a full computer is a very little box. You supply all the peripherals like the monitor, mouse, keyboard, etc. and just plug them into the machine. This makes the Mini extremely portable, and one can place it in places where one might not expect a desktop computer to go. Best of all, though, it is cheap. Without all of the frills, the Mini is priced at $499-$599.

I'd really like to see other computer makers imitate what Apple has done with the Mini. I'll probably be needing to get new computer in a year or two, and I would probably prefer to get something like the Mini. The Mini could spark a new trend in which computers are far more modular than they are currently.

Death of a Disco Dancer

2004-12-28T16:53:00.000-06:00

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

Not celebrities!! This truly is a disaster!

I Remember

2004-12-25T13:38:00.000-06:00

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

2004-12-15T15:43:00.000-06:00

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

2004-12-13T15:48:00.000-06:00

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

2004-12-09T18:06:00.000-06:00

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

2004-12-07T16:57:00.000-06:00

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

2004-12-06T18:30:00.000-06:00

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 . . .

2004-12-04T20:59:00.000-06:00

. . . 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.

Walk the Vote

2004-11-02T09:49:00.000-06:00

I voted in the Presidential election a couple hours ago. The polling station is only about half a mile from where I live, so I took advantage of the lull in the rain to walk over instead of drive, thus exercising my body as I exercised my right to vote.

There were some pretty long lines, and naturally, I was in the longest, slowest line. My last name starts with L-Z so I had to wait in that line while the A-K line had half the number of voters in it, and was moving so much faster. The polling station was in an elementary school gym, and the most amusing part of the morning was the early morning anouncements. The principal, or whoever the woman was, was an absolutely incompetent speaker. She tried to read a list of names of students who had won some sort of writing contest, but she absolutely butchered each and every kid's name on the list. It was embarrassing - made worse, I suppose, since some of the children's parents might have been in line to vote.

Anyway, I voted John Kerry. I'm not a democrat, and I actually supported Bush in the last election, but Bush and his crew have proven themselves incompetent when it comes to improving the economy and in foreign policy. For me, the final straw was the Abu Ghraib scandal. Bush has repeatedly implied that he is not unwilling to use torture, and I just think that using torture puts us on the same level as the terrorists.

Interestingly, some of my co-workers were surprised that I supported Kerry, but I explained that I'm a single-issue voter in the sense that I am anti-torture.

By all indications, this year will be a repeat of 2000 in that we won't know for a few days at least who has won the election, it is that close. I'm ready to wait patiently for the outcome.

Yesterday, I tried to conduct an "exit poll" with my students, just to confirm the suspicion that I have that most of them are for Bush. Indeed they are, by a margin of 24-5 (with some undecideds and one girl who abstained). They are all worried about a draft and seem to think that Bush will never re-institute the draft, but of the two of them, Kerry and Bush, I think that we are more likely to see Bush, in a second term, bring back the draft. Why wouldn't he? It would solve his personnel problems, and he wouldn't have to worry about the political fallout. Kerry, I suspect, would want to get re-elected in 2008, and so would be disinclined to bring back the draft. But my students seem to think that they can trust what Bush tells them, so there they are.

Inflammatory Writ

2004-10-21T13:43:00.000-05:00

I've been listening to Joanna Newsom's first album and a few of her EP songs almost nonstop lately. In fact, I'm listening to her right now.

Ironically, when I listen to her songs I can't help but think about the kind of singers one usually finds on American Idol: cookie cutter voices lacking almost entirely in emotion of humanity, even though they may be able to hold the "glory notes" for 20 seconds or more. "Yelling", is apprantly the new "singing". But this is also why Newsom's songs are so refreshing; if she were to try out for American Idol, she would not only be cut in the first round, but she would be featured with the other horrible, self-deluded singers who can't carry a tune to save their lives.

Her harshest critics focus on her bizarre, untrained voice for their mockery, and, yeah, she is constantly off-key, out of tune, and she's never met a note that she could hold. Her song "Peach, Plum, Pear" is a nice example: it is a wretched trainwreck of discordant screeching which make one think, "What the hell?" And yet, her raw, untrained voice with its Appalachian-sounding accents are what make her music so hypnotic.

More than that, though, (and here is where she should be distinguished from the William Hungs of the world) she always manages to inject real, honest feeling and humanity into her songs as she sings. She sound like a real person, not some robot. Her song, "Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie" is, despite her voice (or maybe because of it), absolutely beautiful, and one of the finest examples of songwriting that I have heard this year.

The town halo

2004-10-11T19:52:00.000-05:00

Couple of notable deaths recently: Christopher Reeve and Jaques Derrida. The Reeve death, naturally, is getting most of the news coverage since he is a Holloywood celebrity, though perhaps his death was more of a shock, since I guess everyone had hope that maybe someday he could recover from his paralysis.

But Derrida is a figure who, in the long run, will likely have made more of an impact on humanity (even more than Superman!). Derrida is/was one of the pre-eminent philosophers of the 20th century, ranking with Sartre or Wittgenstein. Although a philosopher, his ideas translated best in the realm of literary criticism since the foundation of Derrida's deconstructionist critiques lay in a critique of language as an instrument that contains and transmits knowledge. Derrida was the founder of deconcstruction, a term that is overused in pop culture by a lot of people who don't really understand what it is (or think it is somehow synonymous with "destruction" - it is NOT). Derrida was a prolific author, but his texts are notoriously difficult to read. A few years ago, a documentary film was made with his cooperation (here) which serves as a nice introduction (and historical archive) of a brilliant philosopher.

Hysterical bending

2004-10-03T18:02:00.000-05:00

I've been so busy lately, and it's only going to get worse this month - but I'm still making time to update this blog!

I'm in the midst of trying to finish my dissertation, apply to professorship positions around the country, and send an article manuscript out for publication. The second of those is the most time consuming because I am attempting to craft a unique letter for every job rather than just mail out a bunch of form letters. Of course, I might still get back a bunch of form rejection letters from the schools I apply to, but I'm hoping that some schools will appreciate my attempt to speak to them directly and maybe that will buy me some interview time with the search committees. We'll see. At least in my field of study - modernist lit. - there isn't a lot of jobs to apply to. Actually, that's probably a bad thing.

Everything and nothing

2004-10-01T15:17:00.000-05:00

The first of three presidential debates was last night. I agree with most pundits that Kerry won; it seemed pretty obvious that Kerry had Bush on the defensive most of the night. Kerry was attacking everything about the Bush administration's foreign policy, and Bush seemed to be trying to explain and justify his policies.

So many media and debate "experts" keep making a big deal about the most superficial of things: the candidates' facial expressions, their stance, their overall body language, the tone of their voices, etc. Are American voters really so shallow as to let those things play an important factor in determining how they choose a candidate? I read an article a couple days ago which suggested that maybe the best way to "watch" a debate is to listen to it on the radio (or turn away from the TV) so that one can focus more on what is said than on how the message is delivered. Makes sense to me, but as someone who studies and teaches persuasive writing, I've had enough experience that I don't let such superficial considerations affect me - or at least I'm aware when they do affect me!

Thank you, Mayor Hitler

2004-09-28T13:38:00.000-05:00

I saw a news story today, here, about how the mayor of Flint, Michigan has forbidden city employees from reading - or apparently even subscribing to - the Flint newspaper. The mayor is apparently feuding with the local paper - not the first time politicians and the press haven't gotten along, but I've never heard of a feud being taken to this extreme. Anyway, a few city employees were defying the mayor's decree, and when the mayor found newspaper carrier trying to deliver papers and city hall, he had the carrier arrested when the carrier wouldn't tell the mayor who the papers were for. The mayor sounds like he's either insane or some sort of power-crazed fascist. The newspaper, of course, is playing this up as a First Amendment issue.

Sounds like Michael Moore needs to return to Flint for his next documentary.

You Tore Me Down

2004-09-26T15:15:00.000-05:00

All this month I've been fighting a battle against spyware and adware on my computer. Of course, I have AdAware and SpyBot, along with Norton AntiVirus, but I've still got lingering programs in my computer.

The problem, I think, stems from my Internet Explorer. Even though I don't use it anymore (I've been using Firefox since July), my ISP (BlueLight), every time I log on, automatically launches IE, with all of its security flaws. Usually, I'm quick enough to shut IE down just as it starts to load, but sometimes I'm distracted and the browser successfully launches, and the spyware programs that are hidden from SpyBot go into action. Worse yet, last time I allowed IE to open, two viruses were installed on my computer (but I caught them with Norton).

My operating system is WinME, and I saw some news stories recently that said that Bill Gates is no longer going to make any new security patches for IE & ME users. If a person wants a secure IE, he has to buy WinXP. That bastard.

Right now, I'm toying with the idea of getting a new ISP - one that won't automatically launch IE (or will let me set Firefox as my default browser). I tried emailing BlueLight a few days ago, asking if there was some way I could prevent IE's autolaunch, but the tech support insisted that I had to use IE. Bastards.

2004-09-25T13:00:00.000-05:00

"So what is a 'depthfunction,'" you ask? Well, the short story is that it is my online persona, one that I've been using for a couple of years now. Everybody should create their own persona or avatar, one that reflects, supplements, or even replaces their own meat-and-bones existence in the "real world."

You're most likely to find "depthfunction" at the Television Without Pity website. I think it's the coolest site on the net, a place where smart, snarky folks go to mock or praise (mostly mock) the TV shows that they watch. I'm a big reality TV buff and I've found that talking about the shows with a community of like-minded individuals is the perfect supplement to watching the shows.

The long story about the origin of "depthfunction" is that it is a literary reference by my favorite online poet, Mez. She has her own website (and blog) here. She's really cool and, I think, destined to be canonized (that is, if you still believe in the notion of literary canons). The word "depthfunction" appears in one of her codepoems, and I think she even used it, briefly, as an avatar for herself. She burns through avatars like and mp3 player burns through batteries. She uses a lot of neologisms in her writing which is a sort of combination of English and computer code. When I decided that I needed an avatar, I went to Mez, found "depthfunction" and the rest is history. I like it; it has a lot of connotative possibilities.

Entry Number One of ???

2004-09-24T17:19:00.000-05:00

Sweet. I now have a blog!

But what to write in it??

Years ago, when I was younger, I used to keep a diary - or, more precisely, I tried to keep several diaries. The problem was, I never could stick with it for more than a few months. I hope that doesn't happen here, but who knows?

Anyway, I don't want to think of this as a diary - there will be no "Dear Diary" (or as Lisa Simpson would say, "Dear Log") entries. If I could use this as a sketchpad for my thoughts, a repository of my stray ideas, that would be cool. . .

Well, let's post, and see how this looks.

Depthfunction's Blog

Erase - Rewind

Science of You

Flying High Again

The Power of Good-Bye

Market Traders

Everything Looks Beautiful on Video

Night of the Furies

An Inch and a Mile

Big Machine

Same Time, Same Place

Say Anything

Castles Made of Sand

Thinking About Enrolling at Capella University?

Hello Capella!

CENSORED!!

I Wanted It, But Now I'm Not So Sure Anymore

Half Blast

terrorism

The Book Lovers

Turn the Radio Off

Summertime in Winter

I Touch Myself

Signal in the Sky

My Song at Night

Dirty Mind

Jolene

Wrapped Up In Books

Cemetry Gates

You Don't Know

Tell Yourself

The National Front Disco

If You're Feeling Sinister

Handle With Care

Just Being Me

Rock Candy

Clap Your Hands

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Burning Bridge

King of the Mountain

The Boy Racer

Another Day

The Bleeding Heart Show

Sing Me Spanish Techno

Chump Change

Half-Gifts

Strange Season

I Wonder Why the Wonderfalls

Day After Day

I'm Lonely (But I Ain't That Lonely Yet)

Missing Link

Hey, Hey Spaceman

Twin Cinema

Bigmouth Strikes Again

The Future Free

Music in Dreamland

Beatnik Beach

I must be high

Candy Everybody Wants

Your bird can sing

My Life as a Ghost

The award for best snark goes to...

That's DOCTOR Depthfunction, to you!

Point of Disgust

Why Should I Love You?

Death of a Disco Dancer

I Remember

Words Written Backwards

Flowers in December

Unreadable Communication

Missing Link

Barnaby, Hardly Working

Damn . . .

Walk the Vote

Inflammatory Writ

The town halo

Hysterical bending

Everything and nothing

Thank you, Mayor Hitler

You Tore Me Down