tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34317181998087590882024-03-22T00:35:34.397-04:00Suitcase DownJeremyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01621921754290613142noreply@blogger.comBlogger59125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3431718199808759088.post-8021153591175497762011-04-13T16:24:00.005-04:002011-04-13T16:56:06.623-04:00For Posterity's Sake: An Update to an Old PostAs this post comes nearly two years since my previous one, I've long since assumed that this blog was officially defunct. Maybe it still is. I <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/jeremyjustus5">tweet</a> and facebook and generally publicize my thoughts to the virtual world in 140 characters or fewer. Blogging is dead, anyway, isn't it?<br /><br />But as I trudge through the final pages of my dissertation, I've again been thinking a lot about the writing process. Part of this has involved revising and updating my previously posted <a href="http://suitcasedown.blogspot.com/2008/12/thirteen-theses-for-writer.html">Thirteen Theses for the Writer</a>. For posterity's sake, if no other, the shiny, new, 2011 version is below.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">16 Theses for the Writer</span><br /><br />1) Advanced thought in accessible prose. As often as possible.<br /><br />2) Always write as if a larger audience - one that consists of intelligent non-specialists, especially a multidisciplinary group of people you know personally - will read what you've written. All explanations later deemed unnecessary can be edited out and will have served to bolster your knowledge and credibility.<br /><br />3) Write about subjects that interest you. Truly.<br /><br />4) How you feel <span style="font-style:italic;">about</span> the writing, the subject, the audience, etc. will get embedded in your prose. So will how you feel <span style="font-style:italic;">when</span> writing.<br /><br />5) Beyond emotion, body matters: exercise increases blood flow to the brain, meditation stills the mind and facilitates focus, sleep restores both mind and body while promoting the most creative, human endeavor (dreaming), and so on. But the occasional glass of bourbon helps, too.<br /><br />6) In three versions:<br />6.1) Be who you want to articulate. Then, write.<br />6.2) Ontology first. Composition second.<br />6.3) Compose your <span style="font-style:italic;">self</span> first.<br /><br />7) A writer's mantra:<br />Write.<br />Every day.<br />No matter what.<br />[Note: But you can define "every day" how you like. For me, it means 5 or 6 days a week]<br /><br />8) If possible: Write First.<br />[This does not contradict number 6]<br /><br />9) "Nulla dies sine linea" – Plinius <br /><br />10) "Nulla dies sine linea - but there may well be weeks" – Walter Benjamin<br />But if you find yourself having gone weeks without writing, start writing.<br /><br />11) Embrace a healthy obsession with both your subject material and writing about it.<br /><br />12) Revision is generative. Even destruction, as Marx tells us, is a creative process.<br /><br />13) Keep your scheduled writing time sacrosanct. Protect it from intruders, interlopers, and yourself.<br /><br />14) Writing attracts inspiration; waiting prolongs its absence.<br /><br />15) Rest and relaxation can be as useful for your work as work itself. Moreover, taking a long enough break from work will enable you to return to it as both a reader and a writer. [But if you find yourself having taken too much time off, see number 10]<br /><br />16) No single approach to writing is 100% effective 100% of the time. Switch it up as often as necessary.Jeremyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01621921754290613142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3431718199808759088.post-32045014943209400902009-04-15T10:45:00.003-04:002009-04-15T11:49:24.227-04:00Drone: Three HeartsAnyone who's talked to me about music lately knows that I've been listening to tons of <a href="http://suitcasedown.blogspot.com/2009/01/track-of-week-my-girls-by-animal.html">Animal Collective</a> and field recordings (like Geir Jennsen's <a href="http://suitcasedown.blogspot.com/2009/03/yak-caravan-is-coming.html">field recordings from Tibet</a>). I listen to lots of music (can I call field recordings music?) in general, but just as AC and field recordings might seem strange to most people, after listening long enough, most of what "most people" listen to sounds strange to me.<br /><br />Today, I discovered that <a href="http://wfmu.org/">WFMU</a> publishes a <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=302363752">podcast</a> called "<a href="http://wfmu.org/playlists/DC">Airborne Event Dronecast with Dan Bodah</a>," which they describe as "Your weekly ticket to droneland. Field recordings of waters, machines, subways, drums, frogs, ice, etc, and then those same recordings spindled, folded, or mutilated. Don't worry, that ticket will still get you through the phantom tollbooth."<br /><br />Oh. My. Goodness.<br /><br />I've had a few friends recommend checking out WFMU before, and like most occasions when friends make recommendations, I haven't followed through (even though they're usually right about my tastes, I insist on being a precious snowflake). And like most good things, WFMU is best discovered on one's own. But, man, it's good.<br /><br />I'll admit it: Listening to <a href="http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/30305">25 minutes of beating hearts</a> might seem like a little much. And I understand that there are those who would question the necessity of this type of (re)mediation. In other words, why do I need a radio station podcast to give me the opportunity to just listen? Why don't I just put my ear on D.'s or Mojito's chest and enjoy? Or get a stethoscope, even?<br /><br />Maybe, like my friend and fellow blogger David at <a href="http://advertiginem.blogspot.com/">ad vertiginem</a> has <a href="http://advertiginem.blogspot.com/2009/04/diepod.html">recently suggested</a>, this is further evidence of the "zombification" of the common "diePodder." In other words, maybe it's another example of the ways technology has further distanced us from each other and from the real world.<br /><br />But I don't think so. I'm sure in Alexander Graham Bell's day, people were making similar arguments about the telephone: As in, "no one ever just sits down together for a good chat anymore." And, really, such sentiments are good at the level of intention, but at the level of practice, they just look like neo-Luddism to me. <br /><br />But enough of that. Why not give a listen to those <a href="http://wfmu.org/listen.m3u?show=30305&archive=48385">beating hearts</a> yourself and see what you think? I'm not recommending it. I'm giving you the opportunity to discover it for yourself.Jeremyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01621921754290613142noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3431718199808759088.post-30874795700250368132009-04-15T10:11:00.002-04:002009-04-15T10:14:41.226-04:00DismemberedWhat do you get when <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby">Moby</a> (yes, Moby) meets <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000186/">David Lynch</a>?<br /><br />"Shot in the back of the head."<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><object id="delve_playerf41db15d64b449eaa0064d5529d83f23334260o" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" height="275" width="430"><param name="movie" value="http://assets.delvenetworks.com/player/loader.swf"><param name="wmode" value="window"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="flashvars" value="mediaId=11cd09c60db44da081a5ef5e81040bee&playerForm=88a26316a62d4655a806dda0da4e95ca&autoplayNextClip=true"><embed src="http://assets.delvenetworks.com/player/loader.swf" name="delve_playerf41db15d64b449eaa0064d5529d83f23334260e" wmode="window" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer" flashvars="mediaId=11cd09c60db44da081a5ef5e81040bee&playerForm=88a26316a62d4655a806dda0da4e95ca&autoplayNextClip=true" height="275" width="430"></embed></object><br /></div>Jeremyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01621921754290613142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3431718199808759088.post-40018336749903136032009-04-10T11:13:00.003-04:002009-04-10T11:40:32.568-04:00ToW: A Hawk and a HacksawOn Tuesday, D. and I saw <a href="http://www.andrewbird.net/">Andrew Bird</a> give a stunning performance at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Music Hall (not to be confused...). Equally stunning and, to us, delightfully surprising were the opening act: <a href="http://www.ahawkandahacksaw.co.uk/">A Hawk and a Hacksaw</a> (who take their name from a line in <span style="font-style: italic;">Hamlet</span>: "I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw" (Act II, scene ii). <br /><br />Fronted by former <a href="http://www.neutralmilkhotel.net/">Neutral Milk Hotel</a> drummer Jeremy Barnes on accordion, bass drum, and tambourine; and backed by Heather Trost on violin and other strings as well as a couple folks (whose names I didn't catch) on sundry horns and woodwinds, these guys were amazing. Captivating.<br /><br />I'll admit, some of it - including the this week's track - sounds like it could be the soundtrack for a fast-motion montage in a Guy Richie film (circa-1990's, <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120735/">Lock, Stock</a> style), but not at all to its discredit. I've been listening to them all morning, and I can't get enough.<br /><a href="http://sites.google.com/site/jjustus5/m/04ABlackAndWhiteRainbow.mp3?attredirects=0"><br />A Black and White Rainbow</a>.<br /><br />And while I'm at it, one from Andrew Bird:<br /><br /><a href="http://sites.google.com/site/jjustus5/m/06Nomenclature.mp3?attredirects=0">Nomenclature</a>.<br /><br />Enjoy!Jeremyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01621921754290613142noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3431718199808759088.post-7520944056179634872009-04-05T20:38:00.002-04:002009-04-05T20:45:39.947-04:00Got Poetry?<script language="JavaScript" type="text/JavaScript">function getSharePasskey() { return 'ex=1396497600&en=97308152b7b90114&ei=5124';}</script> <script language="JavaScript" type="text/JavaScript"> function getShareURL() { return encodeURIComponent('http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/books/review/Holt-t.html'); } function getShareHeadline() { return encodeURIComponent('Got Poetry?'); } function getShareDescription() { return encodeURIComponent('Memorizing poetry in this day and age may seem eccentric, not to say masochistic. I recommend it anyway.'); } function getShareKeywords() { return encodeURIComponent('Poetry and Poets,Books and Literature,Memory,Robert Pinsky,Essential Pleasures (Book)'); } function getShareSection() { return encodeURIComponent('books'); } function getShareSectionDisplay() { return encodeURIComponent('Essay'); } function getShareSubSection() { return encodeURIComponent('review'); } function getShareByline() { return encodeURIComponent('By JIM HOLT'); } function getSharePubdate() { return encodeURIComponent('April 5, 2009'); } </script> <div id="toolsRight"><div class="articleTools"><div class="toolsContainer"></div> </div> </div> <nyt_byline version="1.0" type=" "> <div class="byline">"<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/books/review/Holt-t.html?_r=1">Got Poetry</a>," published in the <span style="font-style: italic;">New York Times</span><br />By <a href="http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=JIM%20HOLT&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=JIM%20HOLT&inline=nyt-per" title="More Articles by Jim Holt">JIM HOLT</a></div> </nyt_byline> <div class="timestamp">Published: April 2, 2009 </div> <!--NYT_INLINE_IMAGE_POSITION1 --> <p>A few years ago, I started learning poetry by heart on a daily basis. I’ve now memorized about a hundred poems, some of them quite long — more than 2,000 lines in all, not including limericks and <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/d/bob_dylan/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about Bob Dylan.">Bob Dylan</a> lyrics. I recite them to myself while jogging along the Hudson River, quite loudly if no other joggers are within earshot. I do the same, but more quietly, while walking around Manhattan on errands — just another guy on an invisible cellphone.</p> <a name="secondParagraph"></a> <p>This may seem eccentric, not to say masochistic. If you are a baby boomer like me (or older), your high school English teacher probably forced you to learn some poetry by heart for class recitation. How we howled in protest! What was the point of memorizing <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/william_shakespeare/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about William Shakespeare.">Shakespeare</a>’s “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” sonnet or — in Middle English, no less! — the first 18 lines of “The Canterbury Tales”? Our teacher could never answer this question to our satisfaction; the best she could do was some drivel about our feeling “culturally confident.” But memorize them we did, in big painful chunks, by rote repetition. (There is torture lurking in the very word “rote,” which is conjectured to come from the Latin<span class="italic"> rota</span>, meaning “wheel.”)</p><p>A few lucky types seem to memorize great swaths of poetry without even trying. <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/george_orwell/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about George Orwell.">George Orwell</a> said that when a verse passage “has really rung the bell” — as the early <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/e/t_s_eliot/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about T.S. Eliot.">T. S. Eliot</a> invariably did for him — he could remember 20 or 30 lines after a single reading. Samuel Johnson, according to Boswell, had a similar mnemonic gift. <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/christopher_hitchens/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about Christopher Hitchens.">Christopher Hitchens</a> — who carries around in his head a small anthology of verse, all of which, as his friend <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/ian_mcewan/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about Ian McEwan.">Ian McEwan</a> says, is “instantly neurologically available” — also seems to absorb poems by osmosis. (Or maybe he swots them up late at night after his dinner-party guests have all passed out.) Richard Howard once told me that he eased into the memorization habit as a child, when his parents rewarded him with a dime for each poem he learned.</p><p>For the rest of us, the key to memorizing a poem painlessly is to do it incrementally, in tiny bits. I knock a couple of new lines into my head each morning before breakfast, hooking them onto what I’ve already got. At the moment, I’m 22 lines into Tennyson’s “Ulysses,” with 48 lines to go. It will take me about a month to learn the whole thing at this leisurely pace, but in the end I’ll be the possessor of a nice big piece of poetical real estate, one that I will always be able to revisit and roam about in.</p><p>The process of memorizing a poem is fairly mechanical at first. You cling to the meter and rhyme scheme (if there is one), declaiming the lines in a sort of sing-songy way without worrying too much about what they mean. But then something organic starts to happen. Mere memorization gives way to performance. You begin to feel the tension between the abstract meter of the poem — the “duh DA duh DA duh DA duh DA duh DA” of iambic pentameter, say — and the rhythms arising from the actual sense of the words. (Part of the genius of Yeats or Pope is the way they intensify meaning by bucking against the meter.) It’s a physical feeling, and it’s a deeply pleasurable one. You can get something like it by reading the poem out loud off the page, but the sensation is far more powerful when the words come from within. (The act of reading tends to spoil physical pleasure.) It’s the difference between sight-reading a <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/ludwig_van_beethoven/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about Ludwig Van Beethoven.">Beethoven</a> piano sonata and playing it from memory — doing the latter, you somehow feel you come closer to channeling the composer’s emotions. And with poetry you don’t need a piano.</p><p>That’s my case for learning poetry by heart. It’s all about pleasure. And it’s a cheap pleasure. Between the covers of any decent anthology you have an entire sea to swim in. If you don’t have one left over from your college days, any good bookstore, new or used, will offer an embarrassment of choices for a few bucks — Oxford, Penguin, Norton, etc. Or you might try <span class="bold">ESSENTIAL PLEASURES: A New Anthology of Poems to Read Aloud</span> (Norton, $29.95), edited by the former United States <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/p/poets_laureate/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="More articles about Poets Laureate.">poet laureate</a> <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/robert_pinsky/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about Robert Pinsky.">Robert Pinsky</a>.</p><p>But which poems to memorize? I started with Auden’s “This Lunar Beauty” — a little lyric that Stephen Spender once said was the most beautiful thing in all of Auden. Next I tried Robert Browning’s dramatic monologue “My Last Duchess” — a Nabokov novel compressed into 56 lines. Browning, although not quite a first-rate poet, proved to be especially fun to memorize because of his exotic vocabulary and jaw-breaking diction. For sheer length, the most ambitious poem I’ve tackled is Browning’s “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came” (a favorite, as it happens, of Stephen King). At 204 lines, it takes 10 minutes to get through — just the time it takes me to walk from my apartment to the Chinese laundry.</p><p>By now, my mental treasury of verse pretty much spans everything from Chaucer up to the present. (Tennyson was the last major gap, which I’m just now plugging.) There’s a heavy concentration of Shakespeare, Keats and Yeats (whose symbolic hocus-pocus finally makes some sense to me), plenty of delightful warhorses like “To His Coy Mistress” and “Kubla Khan” and a good bit of light verse (like a long poem about a duck-billed platypus that becomes a brilliant diplomat only to resign in disgrace after laying an egg). Although I’m a little thin on contemporary verse, one of the best poems I’ve learned by heart is <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/richard_wilbur/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about Richard Wilbur.">Richard Wilbur</a>’s “Baroque Wall-Fountain in the Villa Sciarra.” Its delicate rhythms at first proved rebarbative to my memory, but when I finally got it down I was so delighted with it that I wrote Wilbur a fan letter. He wrote back, saying that he always advised his students to memorize poems: “If one is delayed in a bus terminal, or sitting in a foxhole, it’s wonderful to have an inner anthology to say over, yet again, in one’s mind.”</p><p>One should be skeptical, though, of some of the alleged advantages cited by champions of poetry memorization. “I wonder if anyone who has memorized a lot of poetry . . . can fail to write coherent sentences and paragraphs,” Robert Pinsky once said. Well, responded David Bromwich, just take a look at the autobiography of <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/marlon_brando/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about Marlon Brando">Marlon Brando</a>, who memorized heaps of Shakespeare. </p><p>Are there cognitive benefits? I sometimes feel that my mnemonic horsepower is increasing, but that’s probably an illusion. “Memorizing poetry does seem to make people a bit better at memorizing poetry,” Geoffrey Nunberg has observed, “but there’s no evidence that the skill carries over to other tasks.”</p><p>Nor, as I have found, will memorizing poetry make you more popular. Rather the reverse. No one wants to hear you declaim it. Almost no one, anyway. I do have one friend, a Wall Street bond-trader, who can’t get enough of my recitations. He takes me to the Grand Havana Cigar Club, high above Midtown Manhattan, and sits rapt as I intone, “The unpurged images of day recede. . . .” He calls to one of the stunningly pretty waitresses. “Come over here and listen to my friend recite this Yeats poem.” Oh dear.</p><p>The grandest claim for memorizing poetry is made by Clive James, himself a formidable repository of memorized verse. In his book “Cultural Amnesia,” James declares that “the future of the humanities as a common possession depends on the restoration of a simple, single ideal: getting poetry by heart.” A noble sentiment. I just wish that James had given us some reason for thinking it was true.</p><p>I don’t have one myself, but I hope that I have at least dispelled three myths.</p><p> <span class="italic"> Myth No. 1: Poetry is painful to memorize.</span> It is not at all painful. Just do a line or two a day.</p><p> <span class="italic"> Myth No. 2: There isn’t enough room in your memory to store a lot of poetry.</span> Bad analogy. Memory is a muscle, not a quart jar.</p><p> <span class="italic"> Myth No. 3: Everyone needs an iPod.</span> You do not need an iPod. Memorize poetry instead.</p><p>- - -</p><p>The good folks at Norton have, in conjunction with the <span style="font-style: italic;">Essential Pleasures </span>collection, created the <a href="http://poemsoutloud.net/">Poems Out Loud</a> site. Well worth checking it out.<br /></p><nyt_author_id></nyt_author_id>Jeremyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01621921754290613142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3431718199808759088.post-53525596228716879332009-03-27T01:39:00.002-04:002009-03-27T01:46:12.097-04:00A Yak Caravan is ComingGeir Jennsen. Field recordings from Tibet. Listen.<br /><br /><a href="http://sites.google.com/site/jjustus5/m/05.Palung-AYakCaravanIsComing.mp3?attredirects=0">A Yak Caravan is Coming</a><br /><a href="http://sites.google.com/site/jjustus5/m/1111-Camp3-NeighboursonOxygen1.mp3?attredirects=0"><br />Neighbors on Oxygen</a>Jeremyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01621921754290613142noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3431718199808759088.post-34582878588161759072009-03-20T10:39:00.003-04:002009-03-20T11:00:04.123-04:00Track of the Week: "If I Had a Heart" by Fever RayJeez oh pete! '09's shaping up to be a great year for new music from some of my old favorites.<br /><br />Yep, <a href="http://suitcasedown.blogspot.com/2009/03/together-for-life.html">Bob Dylan</a>.<br /><br />But also, Wilco's got <a href="http://pitchfork.com/news/34701-new-wilco-album-coming-in-june/">a new one</a> slated for June.<br /><br />Andrew Bird just released a fine album <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.andrewbird.net/">Noble Beast</a><span style="font-style: italic;">.</span></span><br /><br />In addition to the remastered reissues of <span style="font-style: italic;">Paul's Boutique</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">Check Your Head<span style="font-style: italic;">, </span></span>word on the street is that the <a href="http://www.beastieboys.com/">Beastie Boys</a> have a new one in the works (my prediction: a "punk" album).<br /><br /><a href="http://www.myanimalhome.net/">Animal Collective</a> are relentlessly assaulting us with good stuff: beyond the truly excellent <a href="http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/12518-merriweather-post-pavilion/">Merriweather Post Pavilion</a>, they're re-releasing nearly everything they've recorded on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_metal_mastering">Direct Metal Mastering</a> vinyl (see, for example, the reissue of <a href="http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=163719"><span style="font-style: italic;">Spirit They've Gone, Spirit They've Vanished</span></a>) as well as a long-awaited vinyl-only, live box set from <a href="http://www.catsupplate.com/">Catsup Plate Records</a>.<br /><br />And that says nothing of the newer bands busting out on the scene. <br /><br />Dreijer Andersson may not be new to the scene, but her solo project <a href="http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/12845-fever-ray/">Fever Ray</a> is. I'll admit it, I picked this one up thanks to <a href="http://pitchfork.com/reviews/best/">Pitchfork's "Best New Music"</a> section: So sue me (and, haters, just have a look at their 10 most recent best new albums and disagree with them. I dare ya).<br /><br />"<a href="http://sites.google.com/site/jjustus5/m/01IfIHadaHeart.mp3?attredirects=0">If I Had a Heart</a>" is the haunting opener from Fever Ray's self-titled album.<br /><br />Enjoy!Jeremyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01621921754290613142noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3431718199808759088.post-41926080427257444982009-03-17T21:41:00.003-04:002009-03-17T21:49:33.051-04:00Thru You: The YouTube Mash-Up, ReMix, MegajamDo yourself a favor while you're slacking off at work or procrastinating on that essay, book, project, Spring cleaning, yoga practice, feeding the kids, etc., and <a href="http://thru-you.com/#/videos/1/"><span style="font-style: italic;">check this out</span></a>.<br /><br />Titled <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Thru You: Kutiman mixes YouTube</span> this fascinating project seamlessly mixes together strange little, digital odds and ends into some decent music. Even more, it highlights what's best about collaborative digital environments: together, we can make some cool shit.<br /><br />As explained by the man himself:<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Kz0gYbqOZXQ&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Kz0gYbqOZXQ&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object>Jeremyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01621921754290613142noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3431718199808759088.post-92005718975995079412009-03-16T12:35:00.004-04:002009-03-16T12:39:26.220-04:00Together for LifeFrom <a href="http://pitchfork.com/news/34838-new-dylan-lp-gets-name-date-cover/">Pitchfork</a>:<p></p><blockquote><p>If I were <a href="http://pitchfork.com/artists/1177-bob-dylan/" target="_blank" title="Bob Dylan">Bob Dylan</a>, I would spend my days in sweatpants watching "The Price Is Right", eating fresh strawberries and cream, and maybe getting up to sign off on a few <a href="http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/12330-the-bootleg-series-vol-8-tell-tale-signs-rare-and-unreleased-1986-2006/" target="_blank" title="official bootlegs">official bootlegs</a> every few months.</p> <p>It's a good thing I'm not Bob Dylan. After revising what it means to be a rock star, bringing the idea of rock'n'roll to something close to high art, and becoming <i>the</i> legend among legends, Dylan is still going at age 67. <a href="http://pitchfork.com/news/34766-new-bob-dylan-album-coming-in-april/" target="_blank" title="As previously reported">As previously reported</a>, he's coming out with a new studio album-- his 46th-- called <i>Together Through Life</i>. The LP comes out April 28 via <a href="http://www.columbiarecords.com/">Columbia</a>. That picture of an old-school couple making out in the backseat of a giant car is the sure-to-be-scrutinized cover.<br /><br />The self-produced affair (under Dylan's Jack Frost alias) follows 2006's <i><a href="http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/9361-modern-times/" target="_blank" title="Modern Times">Modern Times</a> </i> and was inspired in part by French director Olivier Dahan's upcoming film <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1193507/" target="_blank"><i>My Own Love Song</i></a> with Renée Zellweger, Forest Whitaker, and Nick Nolte. Dylan wrote the new song "Life Is Hard" for the road trip flick and then <i>Together Through Life</i> "sort of took its own direction," according to <a href="http://www.bobdylan.com/#/conversation" target="_blank" title="an interview with the songwriter now up on his site">an interview with the songwriter now up on his site</a>.</p> <p>In the chat with longtime rock journo Bill Flanagan, Dylan talks about the heavy influence of Chess Records on the new album and how his recent artistic resurgence has changed his creative viewpoint: "If there's an astrologer with a criminal record in one of my songs it's not going to make anybody wonder if the human race is doomed. Images are taken at face value and it kind of freed me up."</p> <p>Dylan invented and then figured out how to break almost every rock stereotype there is, so it's only right that he continues to age with striking grace.<br /><br />Dylan's never-ending tour continues this spring with <a href="http://pitchfork.com/news/tours/103-bob-dylan-tours-europe/" target="_blank" title="a six week trek through Europe">a six week trek through Europe</a>.</p></blockquote><p></p><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggglHDydVhgLVKmN_11-ecGbS_johG06FnRLk75eAUzgrPM3F3i-TtfQ-7NL86t1Y_QCSc6ZhQVxXOvU0gRwCiUvb5ScSska97lAGZtIV5GV-NieUyccZkmeXmvoqlGNBzSxYfs2utr8k/s1600-h/dylancovbig.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggglHDydVhgLVKmN_11-ecGbS_johG06FnRLk75eAUzgrPM3F3i-TtfQ-7NL86t1Y_QCSc6ZhQVxXOvU0gRwCiUvb5ScSska97lAGZtIV5GV-NieUyccZkmeXmvoqlGNBzSxYfs2utr8k/s320/dylancovbig.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5313825675851657762" border="0" /></a><br />I'm giddy.Jeremyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01621921754290613142noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3431718199808759088.post-79256842472709439932009-03-02T13:13:00.001-05:002009-03-02T13:15:02.937-05:00Mojito Weekend<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9pRbOWJxN-N83mwQvhRd7RagETAzcY9Tqrcb0AdRGNdbMeatwyN17ng_f2pBqbnBGCQWcpHsgom-w937jsdm4U-1l8Z_7o78hHSHvqoDXh0Upeo6TVMqUyw-UvDZwMO-0lkqsT5gJNiI/s1600-h/hibernation.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9pRbOWJxN-N83mwQvhRd7RagETAzcY9Tqrcb0AdRGNdbMeatwyN17ng_f2pBqbnBGCQWcpHsgom-w937jsdm4U-1l8Z_7o78hHSHvqoDXh0Upeo6TVMqUyw-UvDZwMO-0lkqsT5gJNiI/s320/hibernation.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308655521867224562" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;">Happy Weekend!</div>Jeremyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01621921754290613142noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3431718199808759088.post-71944552894853620582009-02-27T10:15:00.002-05:002009-02-27T10:59:18.690-05:00Track of the Week: "Trouble Weighs a Ton" by Dan AuerbachThe first track from the Black Keys's frontman Dan Auerbach. This guy can do no wrong, in my opinion. <br /><br />"<a href="http://sites.google.com/site/jjustus5/m/01TroubleWeighsATon.mp3?attredirects=0">Trouble Weighs a Ton</a>"<br /><br />Enjoy!Jeremyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01621921754290613142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3431718199808759088.post-86600473397964512802009-02-24T21:13:00.002-05:002009-02-24T21:21:32.358-05:00The Writer's Technique in Thirteen ThesesIn December, I posted my "<a href="http://suitcasedown.blogspot.com/2008/12/thirteen-theses-for-writer.html">Thirteen Theses for the Writer</a>," which were, in part, a response to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Benjamin">Walter Benjamin's</a> "Post No Bills" (<span style="font-style:italic;">Selected Writings, Volume I</span>). In "Post No Bills," Benjamin includes "The Writer's Technique in Thirteen Theses" along with "The Critic's Technique in Thirteen Theses." Consider this Part One:<br /><br /><blockquote>The Writer’s Technique in Thirteen Theses:<br /><br />I. Anyone intending to embark on a major work should be lenient with himself and, having completed a stint, deny himself nothing that will not prejudice the next.<br /><br />II. Talk about what you have written, by all means, but do not read from it while the work is in progress. Every gratification procured in this way will slacken your tempo. If this regime is followed, the growing desire to communicate will become in the end a motor for completion.<br /><br />III. In your working conditions avoid everyday mediocrity. Semi-relaxation, to a background of insipid sounds, is degrading. On the other hand, accompaniment by an etude of a cacophony of voices can become as significant for work as the perceptible silence of the night. If the latter sharpens the inner ear, the former acts as a touchstone for a diction ample enough to bury even the most wayward sounds.<br /><br />IV. Avoid haphazard writing materials. A pedantic adherence to certain papers, pens, inks is beneficial. No luxury, but an abundance of these utensils is indispensable. <br /><br />V. Let no thought pass incognito, and keep your notebook as strictly as the authorities keep their register of aliens. <br /><br />VI. Keep your pen aloof from inspiration, which it will then attract with magnetic power. The more circumspectly you delay writing down an idea, the more maturely developed it will be on surrendering itself. Speech conquers thought, but writing commands it.<br /><br />VII. Never stop writing because you have run out of ideas. Literary honour requires that one break off only at an appointed moment (a mealtime, a meeting) or at the end of the work.<br /><br />VIII. Fill the lacunae of inspiration by tidily copying out what is already written. Intuition will awaken in the process.<br /><br />IX. Nulla dies sine linea – but there may well be weeks.<br /><br />X. Consider no work perfect over which you have not once sat from evening to broad daylight.<br /><br />XI. Do not write the conclusion of a work in your familiar study. You would not find the necessary courage there.<br /><br />XII. Stages of composition: idea – style – writing. The value of the fair copy is that in producing it you confine attention to calligraphy. The idea kills inspiration, style fetters the idea writing pays off style.<br /><br />XIII. The work is the death mask of its conception.</blockquote><br />I often get stuck at number 1. Good thing this isn't a 12-step program.Jeremyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01621921754290613142noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3431718199808759088.post-32043420558935897702009-02-23T20:43:00.005-05:002009-02-23T21:19:06.076-05:00Chiming in on Best Actor. Also, Aging.First, my apologies for the hiatus. Between the last post and this one, I've scrambled to put together a paper for presentation at <a href="http://modernlanguages.louisville.edu/conference/">The Louisville Conference</a> [truncated version of the cumbersomely long conference title], and I've had little time and energy left over for the blog. The paper - "Autopoietic Meta-Et-Cetera" or "Too Much Information is Never Enough: How to Create and Erase Yourself Using Common Household Tools" - went over very well, thank you.<br /><br />Second, I wasn't going to throw in my two cents on the Mickey Rourke debate, but I've been thinking about using the film as the focus of a future conference presentation, and so I thought I'd throw this out there and see what comes back. <br /><br />What I found interesting was that the Best Actor category also pitted against each other two films that portrayed anxieties regarding aging: <span style="font-style:italic;">The Curious Case of Benjamin Button</span> and <span style="font-style:italic;">The Wrestler</span>. Where the former, a film based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, presented a hopeful protagonist aging in reverse; the latter, written by <a href="http://www.theonion.com/content/index">The Onion</a>'s Robert D. Siegel, gave us a pathetic protagonist facing age, death, nostalgia, and loss. And where <span style="font-style:italic;">Benjamin Button</span> offered a fantastical portrayal whose cinematic effects were matched in superficial beauty only by the good looks of lead man Brad Pitt, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Wrestler</span> offered the stark realism of a washed-up wrestler whose life dovetails both wonderfully and tragically with lead actor Mickey Rourke’s. Ask a movie buff who should have won lead actor, and chances are they will concede that Sean Penn was very good in <span style="font-style:italic;">Milk</span> and that the film deserves all the attention it can get for its sympathetic portrayal of the film's namesake, Harvey Milk; but between Pitt (who, in my opinion, is really a superb supporting actor trapped in a lead actor’s body) and Rourke, I think most of us will agree that Rourke’s “comeback” deserved the Oscar. <br /><br />Rourke’s acting was certainly deserving of the award, and I think there are many who suspect that he deserves it as much for the way he allegorically acts out the narrative arc of his life prior to <span style="font-style:italic;">The Wrestler</span> as he does for his acting; but I think this reaction also speaks to the poignancy of the film/Rourke’s life as a cautionary tale. In short, the moral of both: Don’t fuck up, and if you start fucking up, stop. We find Randy "The Ram" Robinson and Rourke both looking back over a life of fucking up and the ensuing loss that goes along with it. Robinson’s rampant path of self-destruction takes only the briefest pause in the face of a life-threatening heart attack, shortly after which, having failed to patch things up with his daughter (wonderfully played by Evan Rachel Wood), he recklessly abandons himself to complete self-annihilation. <br /><br />So what is it about his recklessness and self-destruction that resonates so well with aging and failure (not that aging and failure are intrinsically linked)? Is the real moral of the film that, if you're a man, and you're alone (i.e. sans family), you're pretty much screwed? I'd like to think director Aronofsky is a little deeper than that. And I think he's deeper than to just be overtly setting Robinson up as the "sacrificial ram" and making our protagonist into someone who suffers so we don't have to. But, still, what IS going on here?Jeremyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01621921754290613142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3431718199808759088.post-9722542833620581342009-02-13T21:23:00.002-05:002009-02-13T21:30:28.509-05:00Track of the Week: "Legal Tender" by Handsome FursThis one comes from the duo comprised of <a href="http://www.subpop.com/artists/wolf_parade">Wolf Parade</a>'s Dan Boeckner and his wife Alexei Perry: <a href="http://www.subpop.com/artists/handsome_furs">Handsome Furs</a>.<br /><br />The other bands involved in the collective that gives us Wolf Parade and Handsome Furs - Frog Eyes, Sunset Rubdown, Swan Lake, et. al. - seem to get more attention than the Handsome Furs, but, in my opinion, the Furs are the best of the bunch.<br /><br />Here's a new one from their forthcoming album <span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://www.subpop.com/releases/handsome_furs/full_lengths/face_control">Face Control</a></span>.<br /><br /><a href="http://sites.google.com/site/jjustus5/m/01LegalTender.mp3?attredirects=0">Legal Tender</a>.<br /><br />Enjoy!Jeremyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01621921754290613142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3431718199808759088.post-11815822813464768752009-02-09T22:24:00.003-05:002009-02-09T22:49:00.939-05:00Cognitive Computing Project Aims to Reverse-Engineer the MindFrom <span style="margin-right: 20px;"><span id="contributor" class="c cs">Priya Ganapati's <a href="http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/02/cognitive-compu.html">recent <span style="font-style: italic;">Wired Blog Network</span> post</a>:<br /></span></span><blockquote>In what could be one of the most ambitious computing projects ever, neuroscientists, computer engineers and psychologists are coming together in a bid to create an entirely new computing architecture that can simulate the brain's abilities for perception, interaction and cognition. All that, while being small enough to fit into a lunch box and consuming extremely small amounts of power.</blockquote>As you might have guessed from the title, the team of neuroscientists et. al are going to come up with this architecture by "reverse-engineering" the brain.<br /><br />Whoa. Like, remember when I was ranting about <a href="http://suitcasedown.blogspot.com/2008/12/singularity.html">The Singularity</a>?<br /><br />I think it's time to start thinking about what kind of robot body you'd like.<br /><br />I'm going for the Adrienne Barbeau-bot.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWaYv15Hg1Y3Tilbhty_HUPJ5otqYnwsyLNNxVRBB-gfp_qda2j2PutSBjFtJtE06ZYbaVG565J3Dhr5P6FeDg8EpjcbA4KbSTryCTS7_2PczHRCfGaLkwRTOOgcv9KCN-60zk26TLhhQ/s1600-h/bbot.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWaYv15Hg1Y3Tilbhty_HUPJ5otqYnwsyLNNxVRBB-gfp_qda2j2PutSBjFtJtE06ZYbaVG565J3Dhr5P6FeDg8EpjcbA4KbSTryCTS7_2PczHRCfGaLkwRTOOgcv9KCN-60zk26TLhhQ/s320/bbot.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5301010187967498850" border="0" /></a>Jeremyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01621921754290613142noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3431718199808759088.post-43041450142607120912009-02-08T13:09:00.002-05:002009-02-08T13:11:44.244-05:00Mojito Weekend<div style="text-align: center;">Mozilla.<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKMJgXaT7zFV9SLvMtGugN02_cDZqaSZ36WLwAVD2zFPCaq9DbkcLW0orry4vLD-9wvyobOB4IkRgDjbMFru7-vrGTlB9XPEyfPqy7dJ_agY5vBxvvey_5Y0iZeq78k_5vMGBillG2Orw/s1600-h/dragon.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 252px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKMJgXaT7zFV9SLvMtGugN02_cDZqaSZ36WLwAVD2zFPCaq9DbkcLW0orry4vLD-9wvyobOB4IkRgDjbMFru7-vrGTlB9XPEyfPqy7dJ_agY5vBxvvey_5Y0iZeq78k_5vMGBillG2Orw/s320/dragon.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5300490566534936226" border="0" /></a><br />Happy Weekend!<br /></div>Jeremyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01621921754290613142noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3431718199808759088.post-5630211536657991432009-02-07T14:55:00.003-05:002009-02-07T15:01:26.389-05:00Track of the Week: "Let's Talk About It" by White DenimThis one comes from White Denim's recent <span style="font-style: italic;">Exposion</span>, available <a href="http://app.topspin.net/new_artist/122/home?account_id=76118&artist_account_id=76118&artist_id=122">here</a> in multiple formats ranging from FLAC files to a "one-year subscription" that comes with the album on both wax and in a million digital bits as well as a 7" single of this week's track.<br /><br />"<a href="http://sites.google.com/site/jjustus5/m/01Let%27stalkaboutit.mp3?attredirects=0">Let's Talk About It</a>"<br /><br />Enjoy!Jeremyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01621921754290613142noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3431718199808759088.post-2521248632624187152009-02-05T21:43:00.003-05:002009-02-05T21:51:29.738-05:00One Art<span style="font-weight: bold;">One Art </span><br />by Elizabeth Bishop<br /><br />The art of losing isn't hard to master;<br />so many things seem filled with the intent<br />to be lost that their loss is no disaster.<br /><br />Lose something every day. Accept the fluster<br />of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.<br />The art of losing isn't hard to master.<br /><br />Then practice losing farther, losing faster:<br />places, and names, and where it was you meant<br />to travel. None of these will bring disaster.<br /><br />I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or<br />next-to-last, of three loved houses went.<br />The art of losing isn't hard to master.<br /><br />I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,<br />some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.<br />I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.<br /><br /><br />--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture<br />I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident<br />the art of losing's not too hard to master<br />though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.<br /><br />~ ~ ~<br /><br />Bishop rewrote this superb villanelle seventeen times before getting it right.<br /><br />For more on the revisions, see Brett Candlish Millier's "<a href="http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/bishop/drafts.htm">The Drafts of 'One Art'</a>."Jeremyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01621921754290613142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3431718199808759088.post-17755877456501461842009-02-02T21:31:00.004-05:002009-02-02T22:12:30.264-05:00GeekDad, the SuperBowl, and the new Dylan?<div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Even just thinking about <span style="font-style: italic;">Wired</span>'s blogging collective of sci-fi loving, <a href="http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2009/02/short-but-hairy.html">mustachioed</a>, game-playing, tech-freaky fathers puts a smile on my face. I love those guys at <a href="http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/">GeekDad</a> so much. From <a href="http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2008/12/a-truly-amazing.html">reviewing Star Wars themed lego</a> creations to raving about the "<a href="http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2009/02/10-science-fict.html">10 Science Fiction TV Series [They] Can't Wait to Watch with Their Kids</a>," these guys make it clear that they unapologetically love being good fathers while completely embracing their geekdom.<br /><br />God Bless 'Em.<br /><br />Most recently, one of them - Ken Denmead - commented on his picks for the <a href="http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2009/02/the-4-worst-sup.html">worst Super Bowl ads</a>. Unsurprisingly, the GoDaddy.com ads were blasted. I'm not a parent (I'm certainly a geek), but even I was a bit put off by the excessive and entirely unnecessary sex appeal of the ads. Moreover, my intelligence was a bit insulted: rather than tell anything about the GoDaddy service, the ads just flashed some flesh under the assumption that sex sells, even when the product may have been a bit ambigiously pitched.<br /><br />Don't get me wrong: I don't need my ads to be blatent endorsements of their represented goods and services. Often, the crew working on an advertisement consists of talented filmmakers, writers, directors, etc. who are trying to break into the film industry, and so they build a resume and forge an artistic identity through branding themselves while helping to endorse brands.<br /><br />Such must be the case for the Dylan/Will.I.Am Pepsi ad (embedded below).<br /><br />I don't typically comment on Dylan's endorsements. They haven't bothered me much, and my sense is that it's far easier to criticize (and to make the obligatory, sarcastic "I guess the times are a-changin'" comment) than to understand or accept. In the 60s, Dylan reportedly said that he'd let his music be used for the endorsement of ladies underwear: at the time, it was almost preposterous to imagine an underwear ad. But, sure enough, in the early aughts, there was Dylan, strumming and singing in a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq7W7icd-Fc">Victoria's Secret ad</a>. Didn't bother me. With the release of his most recent album (<span style="font-style: italic;">Modern Times</span>), Dylan did <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOYZaByT0Uc">an iTunes promo</a> in which he sang one of my favorite tracks from the album ("Someday Baby"). I like the song, the commercial is well done, I dig Apple, I have an iPod...so...whatever.<br /><br />But one thing bothers me about the SuperBowl ad. Wait for it. Let me describe.<br /><br />The commercial - visually beautiful, artfully done, thematically significant - essentially compares popular cultures of previous generations with the pop culture of today's youth, reminding us that "every generation refreshes the world." Overtly, it suggests that Shrek is the new Gumby, that Jack Black is the new John Belushi, that the cell phone slowjam tribute is the new Bic lighter...And that Will.I.Am...I say again, <span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Will . I . Am</span></span> ... is the new Dylan. Look, I even like the mash-up. It's a decent mix, and Dylan notoriously approves of interpretations of his songs (see the Dylan-approved soundtracks for <span style="font-style: italic;">Masked and Anonymous</span> as well as <span style="font-style: italic;">I'm Not There</span>).<br /><br />But, really? The new Dylan?<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/VIbs3sFGdbc&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/VIbs3sFGdbc&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /></div>Jeremyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01621921754290613142noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3431718199808759088.post-63714674767996102612009-01-30T20:14:00.006-05:002009-01-30T20:49:00.346-05:00Track of the Week: 6 Ghosts by Nine Inch NailsI'm not gonna lie: I have tremendous respect for Trent Reznor. At about the same time <a href="http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/07/new-in-rainbows.html">Radiohead were shattering traditional methods of music distribution</a>, Reznor was also digitally releasing some amazing material sans record label (and without asking his fans to qualify their appreciation by coming up with their own price).<br /><br />The guy is intelligent and talented. Don't believe me? Check out <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89493556">NPR's <span style="font-style: italic;">World Cafe</span> interview</a>.<br /><br />This week's track comes from a massive, 36-song instrumental collection called <a href="http://ghosts.nin.com/"><span style="font-style: italic;">Ghosts</span></a>. Reznor made the first of four parts of this collection available for <a href="http://ghosts.nin.com/main/order_options">free download</a>. And it's good.<br /><br /><a href="http://sites.google.com/site/jjustus5/m/1-066GhostsI.mp3?attredirects=0">6 Ghosts</a>.<br /><br />Enjoy (and don't be afraid).Jeremyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01621921754290613142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3431718199808759088.post-57614962378427088192009-01-27T22:18:00.005-05:002009-01-30T20:50:25.584-05:00"What Life Asks of Us": In Defense of a Liberal EducationIn a recent <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/opinion/27brooks.html?em"><span style="font-style: italic;">New York Times</span> opinion piece</a>, David Brooks laments what he sees as the degradation of traditional, vocational codes for behavior (and in Brooks's perspective, identity).<br /><br />In his words:<br /><p> </p><blockquote><p>A few years ago, a faculty committee at Harvard produced a report on the purpose of education. “The aim of a liberal education” the report declared, “is to unsettle presumptions, to defamiliarize the familiar, to reveal what is going on beneath and behind appearances, to disorient young people and to help them to find ways to reorient themselves.”</p> <script type="text/JavaScript" language="JavaScript">if (acm.rc) acm.rc.write();</script> The report implied an entire way of living. Individuals should learn to think for themselves. They should be skeptical of pre-existing arrangements. They should break free from the way they were raised, examine life from the outside and discover their own values.</blockquote>In short, according to Brooks, the results of a liberal education - thinking for yourself, questioning social and behavioral scripts, "breaking free" from "the way you were raised," examining life, discovering your own values - are bad. Very bad. "The rules of a profession or an institution are not like traffic regulations," he says. "They are deeply woven into the identity of the people who practice them." Question these rules and, apparently, your identity will crumble.<br /><br />Brooks concedes that "institutional thinking is eroding" and that "Faith in all institutions, including charities, has declined." Furthermore, he notes that the popular perception is that "Institutions do all the things that are supposed to be bad. They impede personal exploration. They enforce conformity."<br /><br />Brooks, however, apparently eschews personal exploration and embraces institutional conformity. As he puts it, institutionalized rules for behavior, scripts for identity, "often save us from our weaknesses and give meaning to life."<br /><br />I'm speechless. How can there still be room in the Twenty-First Century, in the post-Bush era, in Urban America for the fear of a liberal education?Jeremyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01621921754290613142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3431718199808759088.post-38256786248401542912009-01-26T22:06:00.003-05:002009-01-26T22:32:11.055-05:00Mash-Up!Tonight, I was going to continue something I started earlier today in debate with a close friend: a rant I started regarding the "institutionalization" of the arts through the creation of a Secretary of the Arts (or Culture Czar) position in Washington. For those who don't know, Quincy Jones <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/13/AR2009011303264.html">has suggested</a> he'll ask ("beg" even) for a Secretary of the Arts position during his next talk with Obama. In support of Jones, Jaime Austria, a bass player with the New York City Opera, started an <a href="http://www.petitiononline.com/esnyc/petition.html">online petition</a> (which, at the time of this post, has received well over 207,000 signatures).<br /><br />Rather than rant, I'll just ask this question:<br /><br />If the U.S. government appointed a Secretary of the Arts (and let's hope Obama would be as wise in making this appointment as he was in the appointment of, for example, a Nobel Physicist as Energy Secretary), would, at the end of Obama's presidency, the "<a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C06E4DD153AF936A25751C1A9649C8B63">mash-up</a>" still be the most popular go-to form for artistic expression?Jeremyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01621921754290613142noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3431718199808759088.post-92104094504988504212009-01-25T00:28:00.003-05:002009-01-25T00:30:37.478-05:00Mojito Weekend<div style="text-align: center;">w/Helio<br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsiF_XvuSU0_3t_WWWmNhQbIbipVAT9Hsabst2oO-YTmQPjM-DB8qJFjFsAVEO69CzAZ8aUYoItQVOWblpFwnieUbo3SgQ18MiGL7sTPBBwtxi0ayfrzUdPfgMos7Z6QsXIEWx7WYNftA/s1600-h/bf.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsiF_XvuSU0_3t_WWWmNhQbIbipVAT9Hsabst2oO-YTmQPjM-DB8qJFjFsAVEO69CzAZ8aUYoItQVOWblpFwnieUbo3SgQ18MiGL7sTPBBwtxi0ayfrzUdPfgMos7Z6QsXIEWx7WYNftA/s320/bf.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5295099094621535010" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;">Happy Weekend!</div>Jeremyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01621921754290613142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3431718199808759088.post-24169772186218947042009-01-23T22:34:00.002-05:002009-01-23T22:45:06.187-05:00Track of the Week: "Rolling Sea" by VetiverFrom <a href="http://www.vetiverse.com/">Vetiver</a>'s forthcoming album <a href="http://www.subpop.com/releases/vetiver/full_lengths/tight_knit">Tight Nit</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://sites.google.com/site/jjustus5/m/01RollingSea.mp3?attredirects=0">Rolling Sea</a>.<br /><br />Enjoy!Jeremyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01621921754290613142noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3431718199808759088.post-32155030545846709112009-01-21T21:27:00.004-05:002009-01-21T21:36:44.343-05:00Spoiler CultureI'll admit it: I'm a <span style="font-style:italic;">Lost</span> addict. I'll not try to justify, qualify, or explain my raging fandom. It just is. <br /><br />As it has for other television series with cult followings (ranging from <span style="font-style:italic;">Battlestar Galactica</span> to <span style="font-style:italic;">Survivor</span>), the surrounding spoiler culture is thriving as a new season begins. <a href="http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2009/01/new-lost-season.html">As Wired's Hugh Hart puts it</a>: "To the true believer, spoilers are the sincerest form of flattery."<br /><br />Books, blogs, websites, and even a <a href="http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page">Lostpedia</a> provide venue for believers to obsess and flatter. I'll not take a stab at spoiling anything here (I struggle with both the obsessive urge to know and a romanticized sentiment for enjoying the surprise), other than to say this:<br /><br />I may be taking Wednesdays off for a while...<br /><br />oooh...commercial's over!Jeremyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01621921754290613142noreply@blogger.com0