Historian Tom Sugrue--who writes about social movements, civil rights, race, Detroit, and a host of other subjects--spoke at Wayne State this a.m. Here are some notes from his talk:
CONTEXT
--Obama's white house emphasizes urban policy initiatives more than any administration since Carter's...this could have significant implications for urban centers in the "north"
--Historians often overlook civil rights struggles in the North to focus on the mythic "south," about which it's easier to craft a narrative of progress.
--North had its share of atrocities, eg crow's nests at movie theaters and "negro days" at city pools, and programs like the V.A. and various home loan programs systematically excluded African-Americans
--Public policy aided and abetted these systemic abuses through tax policy, movement of capital out of city centers, etc.
--Urban renewal programs sometimes ravagted black-owned businesses and failed to compensate them when instituting "changes" (which often focused/focus on downtowns, entertainment complexes and the like)
--In Detroit, "Black Bottom" serves as an example
--Mid-century, northern social movements resisted these problematics, often with aid of left-leaning Protestant and Jewish congregations and communities
--By mid-60s, more and more of the resistance shifted to electoral efforts (e.g., munie and state-level government)
SUGRUE'S SCHEMA
--Two distinct strategies developed during this moment: metropolitan planning vs. community control.
--First, METROPOLITAN PLANNING: affinities with civil rights movement, but wanted to foster collaboration between cities and their regions (including suburbs). Fought to open up suburban housing markets and redistribute resources across metro areas. Objective was to disperse minorities, give them access to job markets and the whole marketplace as it shifted out of city center into wider area. This camp found the notion of "community" problematic and too boundary-oriented.
--Second, COMMUNITY CONTROL: They found "community" to be a good thing and valued the local, meaning the "city." Fought to maintain activity in city centers. Nurture and empower black communities from ground up. Rejected the MP's perceived top-down orientation and sense of compromise. looked at "micro" level communities, including poor and working-class. The vernacular presence of minorities, socio-economically disadvantaged. They worried the MP ideology would destroy black community by dispersing it. They preferred to mobilize power--not spread it around.
--These two camps were so polarized that they couldn't meet and draw on mutual strengths.
--HUD, from the start, had a regional ideology and resisted the community control paradigm which had become "orthodoxy" in the world of urban planning.
--Mainstream society distrusted the perceived "militance" of community control, but urban planning discourse community was just the opposite, rejecting compromise.
--Community control's hegemony was aided by connections to left student movements and, ironically conservative prez administrations like Nixon who had deep-seated fear of urban unrest and sought to empower city centers to keep city leaders satisfied.
BACK TO OBAMA
--Sugrue wants current administration to synthesize the best that both camps have to offer.
--Both have vision and consciousness and the potential to affect progressive change
--Disempowered won't benefit from further bickering
--Obama's rhetoric calls for "unity" and "metropolitan" cooperation...yet he's rooted in community organizing tradition, which emphasizes community control.
--Hence Obama's in perfect place to lead such a compromise.
2/27/2009
2/25/2009
2/24/2009
where were you when...
This could just as easily become a Facebook Note, but for some reason I feel compelled to do it here. Will the blog go away? Not yet. Maybe I need an exit strategy, a plan for the blog's final blaze of glory. Die young, leave a good-looking blog? Darby Crash had his five-year plan for The Germs. For years Michael Stipe talked about REM playing a 12/31/99 and then calling it quits (so much for that plan). Or maybe the blog keeps chugging like Mick Jagger. Who knows?
From Parts-n-Pieces comes this exercise. Describe what you were doing when...
1.) Challenger space shuttle explodes (1986): Sitting in sixth-grade science class, St. Anthony School, Youngstown, Ohio. The teachers roll a rickety tv into the big wood-paneled study hall and we watch footage.
2.) Berlin Wall falls down (1989): Tenth grade. I have no recollection except for days or weeks later reading the Time Magazine cover-story in the school library. The lyrics from the Sex Pistols' "Holiday in the Sun" are in my head.
3.) Oklahoma City federal building bombing (1995): Junior year, University of Detroit Mercy. I walk back to dorm after American Lit. Again, the communal tv experience, this time in Reno Hall's first-floor lounge.
4.) OJ Verdict (1995): A few months later, I meet with my supervisor, the Residence Hall Director (I was an R.A. at the time), who listens to the verdict on NPR during our meeting.
5.) Princess Diana dies (1997): I'm spending the summer working two jobs: research assistant in the YSU English Department, and night-shift sauna cleaner at the Youngstown YMCA. But this weekend, I'm at Nicole's house, visiting Detroit. We watch the news on the local Fox affiliate. Clearly the news had planned to lead with a puff piece about a hometown Aretha Franklin concert. They must change plans, resulting in this awkward segueway: "The Princess may be dead, but the Queen of Soul is alive and kicking right here in the motor city." Oh, that Fox news.
6.) Columbine massacre (1999): Los Altos Village apartment complex, Tucson. Working on a seminar paper for Theresa Enos's Classical Rhetoric course, University of Arizona.
7.) JFK Jr. Plane crash (1999): Also in Tucson at the time. Rich Hansberger and I are in my old blue pick-up truck, driving to a meeting at Ed White's house south of the city. I think we're on a committee revising the PhD program's core requirements. Rich and I talk about the Dead Kennedys and how their name seems all the more counter-cultural given the iconic representations of JFK Jr. already circulating in the press.
8.) Bush/Gore crazy election (2000): Various groups of campus radicals (Students Against Sweatshops, our grad student organizing group, etc.) hold a big rally on the mall. Grandma Red comes to Tucson for Thanksgiving. Gore gets ripped off. It's all a haze.
9.) September 11, (2001): Nicole and I are still asleep (we're on Tucson time). My mom calls around 6:30 a.m. We put on the tv. Nicole goes to work at the appellate courthouse amid ramped-up security. I go teach at UA (a couple sections of English 397). We get Thai food that night and talk about worries over anti-Arab violence, reports that the local Air Force base could be the next target. This seems like it happened decades ago, or maybe two days ago.
10.) Space ship Columbia disintegrates (2003): No memories whatsoever.
11.) Hurricane Katrina hits (2005): I'm in California for Hung's bachelor party. Via phone, Hung pleads with his parents (who live on eastside of New Orleans) to go stay with relatives in Baton Rouge. They finally relent. I take the red eye to Detroit. Anna picks me up at the airport and, exhausted, I sleep on her couch as the levies break. When I wake up, The Today Show is broadcasting images of the flooding.
From Parts-n-Pieces comes this exercise. Describe what you were doing when...
1.) Challenger space shuttle explodes (1986): Sitting in sixth-grade science class, St. Anthony School, Youngstown, Ohio. The teachers roll a rickety tv into the big wood-paneled study hall and we watch footage.
2.) Berlin Wall falls down (1989): Tenth grade. I have no recollection except for days or weeks later reading the Time Magazine cover-story in the school library. The lyrics from the Sex Pistols' "Holiday in the Sun" are in my head.
3.) Oklahoma City federal building bombing (1995): Junior year, University of Detroit Mercy. I walk back to dorm after American Lit. Again, the communal tv experience, this time in Reno Hall's first-floor lounge.
4.) OJ Verdict (1995): A few months later, I meet with my supervisor, the Residence Hall Director (I was an R.A. at the time), who listens to the verdict on NPR during our meeting.
5.) Princess Diana dies (1997): I'm spending the summer working two jobs: research assistant in the YSU English Department, and night-shift sauna cleaner at the Youngstown YMCA. But this weekend, I'm at Nicole's house, visiting Detroit. We watch the news on the local Fox affiliate. Clearly the news had planned to lead with a puff piece about a hometown Aretha Franklin concert. They must change plans, resulting in this awkward segueway: "The Princess may be dead, but the Queen of Soul is alive and kicking right here in the motor city." Oh, that Fox news.
6.) Columbine massacre (1999): Los Altos Village apartment complex, Tucson. Working on a seminar paper for Theresa Enos's Classical Rhetoric course, University of Arizona.
7.) JFK Jr. Plane crash (1999): Also in Tucson at the time. Rich Hansberger and I are in my old blue pick-up truck, driving to a meeting at Ed White's house south of the city. I think we're on a committee revising the PhD program's core requirements. Rich and I talk about the Dead Kennedys and how their name seems all the more counter-cultural given the iconic representations of JFK Jr. already circulating in the press.
8.) Bush/Gore crazy election (2000): Various groups of campus radicals (Students Against Sweatshops, our grad student organizing group, etc.) hold a big rally on the mall. Grandma Red comes to Tucson for Thanksgiving. Gore gets ripped off. It's all a haze.
9.) September 11, (2001): Nicole and I are still asleep (we're on Tucson time). My mom calls around 6:30 a.m. We put on the tv. Nicole goes to work at the appellate courthouse amid ramped-up security. I go teach at UA (a couple sections of English 397). We get Thai food that night and talk about worries over anti-Arab violence, reports that the local Air Force base could be the next target. This seems like it happened decades ago, or maybe two days ago.
10.) Space ship Columbia disintegrates (2003): No memories whatsoever.
11.) Hurricane Katrina hits (2005): I'm in California for Hung's bachelor party. Via phone, Hung pleads with his parents (who live on eastside of New Orleans) to go stay with relatives in Baton Rouge. They finally relent. I take the red eye to Detroit. Anna picks me up at the airport and, exhausted, I sleep on her couch as the levies break. When I wake up, The Today Show is broadcasting images of the flooding.
2/23/2009
three cups of tea...a second cup
Funny how books find us at the right moment. I'm working on my 4Cs paper--about critical empathy and service learning--and Three Cups of Tea's themes continue to resonate. The call to listen, even when common ground is absent. Empathy involves shutting up. I think in my presentation I'm going to talk a little about Mortensen's relationship with his mentor in Pakistan, Haaj Ali, who respectfully tells him to shut his mouth and listen to the people he's serving, to shut up, to understand, to consider.
And everytime I start to lose myself in the book's idealism, I think about the irony of the text. Three Cups of Tea unapologetically turns Mortensen into an icon. He is a rugged individual, a hero, a cowboy who doesn't return phone calls or show up on time. This individualism becomes the biggest cultural difference between Mortensen and the villagers he works with in Pakistan. Mortensen looks around at the kids in the village and wants to build his schools more quickly. Hurry up. Slow down, Haaj Ali tells him, look at the mountains. They'll be here long after you and those kids. Mortensen feels dissonance with a culture that values the longview, the collective, moreso than the individual. And yet the text itself is about just that: the individual, the lone hero. That is the book's irony.
The book is problematic in other ways too. Three Cups of Tea makes quick mention of a trend that develops at Mortensen's schools--boys who quickly leave their villages after reaching a particular level of learning. So then are the schools actually serving to de-stabilize these villages? Mortensen and his board decide to focus on levels below a fifth-grade level and also on girls, who are less likely to get an education and flee. Interesting, but here again, the text glosses and obscures the context. I picture Mortensen--the Westerner--pulling strings, carefully controlling how much education is enough and how much is too much. Such is the limit of the genre. Mortensen's story is ultimately a memoir, a limited and limiting narrative, one that leaves questions.
And everytime I start to lose myself in the book's idealism, I think about the irony of the text. Three Cups of Tea unapologetically turns Mortensen into an icon. He is a rugged individual, a hero, a cowboy who doesn't return phone calls or show up on time. This individualism becomes the biggest cultural difference between Mortensen and the villagers he works with in Pakistan. Mortensen looks around at the kids in the village and wants to build his schools more quickly. Hurry up. Slow down, Haaj Ali tells him, look at the mountains. They'll be here long after you and those kids. Mortensen feels dissonance with a culture that values the longview, the collective, moreso than the individual. And yet the text itself is about just that: the individual, the lone hero. That is the book's irony.
The book is problematic in other ways too. Three Cups of Tea makes quick mention of a trend that develops at Mortensen's schools--boys who quickly leave their villages after reaching a particular level of learning. So then are the schools actually serving to de-stabilize these villages? Mortensen and his board decide to focus on levels below a fifth-grade level and also on girls, who are less likely to get an education and flee. Interesting, but here again, the text glosses and obscures the context. I picture Mortensen--the Westerner--pulling strings, carefully controlling how much education is enough and how much is too much. Such is the limit of the genre. Mortensen's story is ultimately a memoir, a limited and limiting narrative, one that leaves questions.
three cups of tea
I just finished Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen and David Oliver Relin, a book I thought I would hate. Mortensen, a former mountainer, gets lost after a failed attempt to climb K2, happens upon a village in remote Pakistan, and ends up devoting himself to building schools throughout Central Asia. Three Cups of Tea tell his story. My suspicion on the book had less to do with the fact that the book is popular and more to do with the book's marketing. Mortensen, a real-life Indiana Jones. Mortensen, the heroic Christian from the West. Mortensen's schools, in the shadow of the Taliban. I feared Mortensen was an x-games-loving character from a Mountain Dew commercial. I unfairly associated the book with another popular non-fiction text about East-West collisions, Reading Lolita in Tehran, whose hero narrative and canonization of Western culture (Iran needs more Norton anthologies!) troubled me.
Three Cups of Tea shows more self-awareness and goes a long way toward problematizing its own narrative. In fact, the ethics of intervention serve as one of the text's central themes. Mortensen knows his intentions are good but he also knows that good intentions aren't enough. Ethically and pragmatically, he must avoid imposing Western ideology. To do so would result in peril for himself and anyone he associates with in the villages of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Indeed the book's middle act contains several conflicts between Mortsensen and various extremists in the region who are critical of his outsider status and the fact that his schools educate girls.
That tension over Mortensen's outsider status provides the book with its title. Anxious over the slow progress of his work, a tribal elder tells him: "Sit down. And shut your mouth...You're making everyone crazy." The elder goes on to explain that to "thrive...you must respect our ways" by sharing three cups of tea, one as strangers, one as friends, and one as family (150). In other words, identification through listening and connecting, not coming in and imposing. "Shut your mouth," the elder says. Listen.
This text speaks to so many teaching scenarios. The teacher as a Western hero, a missionary, an Indiana Jones, having adventures among those not yet washed in all the West (or "the academy") has to offer. "Shut your mouth" and listen. Mortensen goes to these villages with money, with privelege, with resources, with material goods. Still he must listen. What do I know about my students' interests, inclinations, intentions, and values? The text also speaks to the campus-community, service learning relationship. Shut up and listen. I know how to improve practices at your agency. I know what you should do. Shut up and listen. Three Cups of Tea ultimately represents and advocates a critical empathy, a hard-earned identification among West and East, among teachers and learners. I thought I'd hate it. I don't.
Mortensen, Greg, and David Oliver Relin. _Three Cups of Tea_. New York: Penguin, 2006.
Three Cups of Tea shows more self-awareness and goes a long way toward problematizing its own narrative. In fact, the ethics of intervention serve as one of the text's central themes. Mortensen knows his intentions are good but he also knows that good intentions aren't enough. Ethically and pragmatically, he must avoid imposing Western ideology. To do so would result in peril for himself and anyone he associates with in the villages of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Indeed the book's middle act contains several conflicts between Mortsensen and various extremists in the region who are critical of his outsider status and the fact that his schools educate girls.
That tension over Mortensen's outsider status provides the book with its title. Anxious over the slow progress of his work, a tribal elder tells him: "Sit down. And shut your mouth...You're making everyone crazy." The elder goes on to explain that to "thrive...you must respect our ways" by sharing three cups of tea, one as strangers, one as friends, and one as family (150). In other words, identification through listening and connecting, not coming in and imposing. "Shut your mouth," the elder says. Listen.
This text speaks to so many teaching scenarios. The teacher as a Western hero, a missionary, an Indiana Jones, having adventures among those not yet washed in all the West (or "the academy") has to offer. "Shut your mouth" and listen. Mortensen goes to these villages with money, with privelege, with resources, with material goods. Still he must listen. What do I know about my students' interests, inclinations, intentions, and values? The text also speaks to the campus-community, service learning relationship. Shut up and listen. I know how to improve practices at your agency. I know what you should do. Shut up and listen. Three Cups of Tea ultimately represents and advocates a critical empathy, a hard-earned identification among West and East, among teachers and learners. I thought I'd hate it. I don't.
Mortensen, Greg, and David Oliver Relin. _Three Cups of Tea_. New York: Penguin, 2006.
2/19/2009
random notes
I heard this on the radio the morning before yesterday. Members of Cheap Trick, The Smashing Pumpkins, Fountains of Wayne, and Hanson have formed a band. Of course they have. I guess the New Pornographers are no longer the coolest supergroup currently rockin' and rhymin' with Dokken.
Speaking of rockin', the Hamtramck Blowout, an annual fiesta of Detroit music, has announced its lineup. Seems the Dirtbombs and Detroit Cobras will entertain on consecutive nights at the K of C hall. That's two count 'em two bands that deserve to be on your Facebook '25 Albums' list, not to mention just about any self-respecting list of best live acts around.
Finally, a busy couple of weeks on campus and a spaghetti dinner have prevented me from much netflixing. However, I saw Girls Rock, a documentary about a "school or rock" camp for girls. Had high hopes for the piece but didn't think the doc really let viewers come to know the girls the camera follows. Interviews quickly gloss Big Issues (body image et al) without much depth. Another documentary disappoints. Ah well.
What We Do Is Secret struck me, meanwhile, as one of the better rock and roll biopics. Shane West stars as Darby Crash, the self-destructive Germs leader. Great performance. And the film handles Crash's nihilism/media savvy with such adeptness, embodying without glorifying his infamous five-year plan (which starts with forming a band and ends with the proverbial blaze of glory...learning how to play instruments happens somewhere in between). Crash's plan fails for one reason and one reason only (clue: it's got something to do with John Lennon). The great irony is that his death isn't what makes his story a tragedy. Very good film.
Speaking of rockin', the Hamtramck Blowout, an annual fiesta of Detroit music, has announced its lineup. Seems the Dirtbombs and Detroit Cobras will entertain on consecutive nights at the K of C hall. That's two count 'em two bands that deserve to be on your Facebook '25 Albums' list, not to mention just about any self-respecting list of best live acts around.
Finally, a busy couple of weeks on campus and a spaghetti dinner have prevented me from much netflixing. However, I saw Girls Rock, a documentary about a "school or rock" camp for girls. Had high hopes for the piece but didn't think the doc really let viewers come to know the girls the camera follows. Interviews quickly gloss Big Issues (body image et al) without much depth. Another documentary disappoints. Ah well.
What We Do Is Secret struck me, meanwhile, as one of the better rock and roll biopics. Shane West stars as Darby Crash, the self-destructive Germs leader. Great performance. And the film handles Crash's nihilism/media savvy with such adeptness, embodying without glorifying his infamous five-year plan (which starts with forming a band and ends with the proverbial blaze of glory...learning how to play instruments happens somewhere in between). Crash's plan fails for one reason and one reason only (clue: it's got something to do with John Lennon). The great irony is that his death isn't what makes his story a tragedy. Very good film.
2/18/2009
housewares that time forgot, part 1
When we lived in Southwest Ohio, Nicole and I frequented auctions, estate sales, and flea markets. Sometimes we hung out, people-watched, and "made a Saturday of it" without making any purchases. Sometimes we bought old things. Nicole got into 50s linens and fast-food character glasses. I acquired large numbers of records (rule #14 of every southwest Ohio flea market stocking old records: you MUST have at least two copies of Genesis' "Abacab"). We stocked our kitchen with Pyrex and other baby-boom products. Old stuff was cheap in Butler County. In Michigan, people use words like "vintage" and "antique" and prices skyrocket. Been to the Royal Oak Flea Market? Fun to browse, but the prices seem crazy to me.
Which brings me to my blog's new series: Housewares That Time Forgot. Let's return for just a moment to an era before paper towells and hand sanitizer existed and before salmonella and nut allergy entered the national discourse. I picture the kitchens both my grandmothers kept. Coffee percolates on a burner. On a counter sits a cookbook from a church or maybe the Eastern Stars (we'll have a separate entry on the wonders of d-i-y 1950s cookbooks) full of recipes advocating weird uses for mayonaise and jell-o and ground chuck.
My maternal grandma is preparing a roast. In the next room, a stack of Ellery Queen magazines sits on a coffee table. Across town, my paternal grandma slices an eggplant. In the next room, a stack of every issue of Look or Life that featured JFK on the cover.
What item from this world interests me today? The "luncheon set." Once upon a time, the luncheon set was a go-to present for wedding showers. Nicole and I call these sets "party plates" because usually they came in boxes with images of card parties on them. Each box contained perhaps four or six sets of oval or rectangular glass plates and small glass cups, suitable for coffee or punch. Luncheon plates had dividers to keep your macaroni salad from mingling with your green bean casserole. Functional, attractive, perfect for buffets or for standing and walking around whilst eating. Again, "party" plates.
Nicole and I have acquired several dozen sets and often use them when we have a crowd over to the house. I have come to hate paper plates: flimsy, bad for the environment, not at all festive. Luncheon sets are more than a fad of the past. The continue to be as utilitarian as they are aesthetically pleasing. Paper plates say: "I'm so glad you're coming over that I stopped at 7-11 last night." Luncheon sets say: "Let's break bread and then play 500. And by bread, I mean mini-marshmallow salad."
We got some of our sets at estate sales and the like--for a song--but some came from family. My mom's side of the family had a huge crate of party plates that they collectively owned. First cousins would pass the sets to whichever family member needed them. You could bet that whoever hosted the last graduation party or baby shower currently had the sets sitting in her basement or garage. How cool is that? Community property. That practice went out of vogue at some point, so now Nicole and I have the sets. We gladly lend them out.
One more odd thing about "party plates." Some sets have one divided section reserved for...wait for it...an ashtray. That's right. On our hand-me-down sets, for instance, one of the reservoirs includes that little indentation where you can secure a lit cigarette. Back in the day, my Grandpa D. could have kept his non-filtered Chesterfield blazing mere inches from his scoop of calico beans and his black, salted (!) coffee. As health hazards go, living among smoke from Youngstown's steel mills had nothing on ingesting stuff at a family party.
Which brings me to my blog's new series: Housewares That Time Forgot. Let's return for just a moment to an era before paper towells and hand sanitizer existed and before salmonella and nut allergy entered the national discourse. I picture the kitchens both my grandmothers kept. Coffee percolates on a burner. On a counter sits a cookbook from a church or maybe the Eastern Stars (we'll have a separate entry on the wonders of d-i-y 1950s cookbooks) full of recipes advocating weird uses for mayonaise and jell-o and ground chuck.
My maternal grandma is preparing a roast. In the next room, a stack of Ellery Queen magazines sits on a coffee table. Across town, my paternal grandma slices an eggplant. In the next room, a stack of every issue of Look or Life that featured JFK on the cover.
What item from this world interests me today? The "luncheon set." Once upon a time, the luncheon set was a go-to present for wedding showers. Nicole and I call these sets "party plates" because usually they came in boxes with images of card parties on them. Each box contained perhaps four or six sets of oval or rectangular glass plates and small glass cups, suitable for coffee or punch. Luncheon plates had dividers to keep your macaroni salad from mingling with your green bean casserole. Functional, attractive, perfect for buffets or for standing and walking around whilst eating. Again, "party" plates.
Nicole and I have acquired several dozen sets and often use them when we have a crowd over to the house. I have come to hate paper plates: flimsy, bad for the environment, not at all festive. Luncheon sets are more than a fad of the past. The continue to be as utilitarian as they are aesthetically pleasing. Paper plates say: "I'm so glad you're coming over that I stopped at 7-11 last night." Luncheon sets say: "Let's break bread and then play 500. And by bread, I mean mini-marshmallow salad."
We got some of our sets at estate sales and the like--for a song--but some came from family. My mom's side of the family had a huge crate of party plates that they collectively owned. First cousins would pass the sets to whichever family member needed them. You could bet that whoever hosted the last graduation party or baby shower currently had the sets sitting in her basement or garage. How cool is that? Community property. That practice went out of vogue at some point, so now Nicole and I have the sets. We gladly lend them out.
One more odd thing about "party plates." Some sets have one divided section reserved for...wait for it...an ashtray. That's right. On our hand-me-down sets, for instance, one of the reservoirs includes that little indentation where you can secure a lit cigarette. Back in the day, my Grandpa D. could have kept his non-filtered Chesterfield blazing mere inches from his scoop of calico beans and his black, salted (!) coffee. As health hazards go, living among smoke from Youngstown's steel mills had nothing on ingesting stuff at a family party.
2/16/2009
ISP
Our Peace and Justice group became a sponsor of the Iraqi Student Project this past year and we're working at the local level to support a young man studying engineering in the hopes of returning to Iraq to work on reconstruction. ISP brings Iraqi students to the U.S. to study subjects like architecture and civil engineering so they can become leaders in creating a more sustainable society in their homeland.
Unsure of who might show up and how much cash we might raise, we put on a spaghetti dinner to generate funds and raise awareness locally about ISP's mission. Friday night's event was a big success thanks to the hard work of many. We made over $2,000. Equally important, the chance to come together and have fun while paradoxically engaging some hard realities. Iraq is in the midst of a humanitarian crisis and even in Metro Detroit--an area teeming with both immigrants and refugees from Iraq--we often ignore or forget. After years of both a brutal dictatorship and devastating sanctions and bombings, the ongoing war has further crippled infrastructure there.
I can't say how gratifying it was to see members of our church connect with ISP as well as various dinner guests and attendees. A genuine coming-together. Cooking for hundreds of people offers quite a rush. I loved it, and of course couldn't have managed without my family and the labor, moral support, and supplies they offered. I learned a bit about technique (electric roasters are beautiful for making and maintaining the warmth of sauce), amounts (a ten-pound big of ziti yields three aluminum trays of pasta), and timing (when we start serving tray number three, the next batch of pasta better be in the water). I'm ready to start planning for next time.
Unsure of who might show up and how much cash we might raise, we put on a spaghetti dinner to generate funds and raise awareness locally about ISP's mission. Friday night's event was a big success thanks to the hard work of many. We made over $2,000. Equally important, the chance to come together and have fun while paradoxically engaging some hard realities. Iraq is in the midst of a humanitarian crisis and even in Metro Detroit--an area teeming with both immigrants and refugees from Iraq--we often ignore or forget. After years of both a brutal dictatorship and devastating sanctions and bombings, the ongoing war has further crippled infrastructure there.
I can't say how gratifying it was to see members of our church connect with ISP as well as various dinner guests and attendees. A genuine coming-together. Cooking for hundreds of people offers quite a rush. I loved it, and of course couldn't have managed without my family and the labor, moral support, and supplies they offered. I learned a bit about technique (electric roasters are beautiful for making and maintaining the warmth of sauce), amounts (a ten-pound big of ziti yields three aluminum trays of pasta), and timing (when we start serving tray number three, the next batch of pasta better be in the water). I'm ready to start planning for next time.
2/11/2009
enough for all her hungry brood
Nearly (gasp!) two decades ago, my oldest nephews liked a book about baby farm animals. Each time I hear a story about the woman with fourteen kids, a disembodied line from that book flashes through my mind: "enough for all her hungry brood." I can't listen to bad morning radio shows whilst showering and commuting without hearing opinions about this woman's use of in-vitro fertilization to help her have fourteen kids, her reliance on public assistance, her singleness, her history of mental illness, her obsession with motherhood.
The story challenges our collective affinity for simplistic readings of current events. We want issues to fall into black-or-white, partisan categories. The environmentalist suggests that having fourteen kids drains resources (the disposable diapers alone...). The anti-welfare crusader sees this mom as a mythic archetype, the welfare queen. The moralist questions her lack of a husband and her use of fertility technologies. The medial ethicist critiques the fertility clinics who helped her reproduce. The pop culture junkie watches with bemusement as she gets her own series. The feminist questions the assumptions of all the aforementioned critics.
Does a poor, single woman have a fundamental right to as many kids as she wants? Do private companies have the right to provide her with technology to help her make that happen? Does a public spectacle--orchestrated in part by a team of publicists who represent the woman--help (via revenue) or hurt (via embarrassment) the family?
As lines from children's books flash through my mind, so do the faces of the thousands of unwanted kids in southeastern Michigan. My students and I have worked with foster care agencies in Detroit, for instance, who search desperately for good placements for babies, kids, and teens. Stories of violent foster families and unplaced kids sleeping in Department of Human Service building bathrooms fade as quickly as the stories of the octuplet mom inevitably will.
I would never advocate for repressive laws that strip the rights of adults to reproduce at will. I've read (and even taught) too many dystopic novels: Margaret Atwood, et al. But I do wonder how many parents-to-be--whether single or married, rich or poor, virile or sitting in a fertility clinic--even take a moment to think about the unwanted.
We live in a culture where asking an adult (especially if married and "financially secure") who has no kids "Why don't you have kids?" is socially acceptable. But asking a parent or parent-to-be "Why ARE you having kids?" is awkward at best and probably offensive. Personally, the "why don't you have kids?" question doesn't bother me at all. That's not my point. I'm just saying that the normative impulse leans toward reproduction and overlaps with other normative impulses: marry, be straight, have kids.
And then, out of nowhere, a story like the octuplet mom challenges those impulses. "Yes," the collective culture says to her, "we're glad you have kids and are heterosexual, but pay for the kids yourself. Oh yeah, and get married."
The story challenges our collective affinity for simplistic readings of current events. We want issues to fall into black-or-white, partisan categories. The environmentalist suggests that having fourteen kids drains resources (the disposable diapers alone...). The anti-welfare crusader sees this mom as a mythic archetype, the welfare queen. The moralist questions her lack of a husband and her use of fertility technologies. The medial ethicist critiques the fertility clinics who helped her reproduce. The pop culture junkie watches with bemusement as she gets her own series. The feminist questions the assumptions of all the aforementioned critics.
Does a poor, single woman have a fundamental right to as many kids as she wants? Do private companies have the right to provide her with technology to help her make that happen? Does a public spectacle--orchestrated in part by a team of publicists who represent the woman--help (via revenue) or hurt (via embarrassment) the family?
As lines from children's books flash through my mind, so do the faces of the thousands of unwanted kids in southeastern Michigan. My students and I have worked with foster care agencies in Detroit, for instance, who search desperately for good placements for babies, kids, and teens. Stories of violent foster families and unplaced kids sleeping in Department of Human Service building bathrooms fade as quickly as the stories of the octuplet mom inevitably will.
I would never advocate for repressive laws that strip the rights of adults to reproduce at will. I've read (and even taught) too many dystopic novels: Margaret Atwood, et al. But I do wonder how many parents-to-be--whether single or married, rich or poor, virile or sitting in a fertility clinic--even take a moment to think about the unwanted.
We live in a culture where asking an adult (especially if married and "financially secure") who has no kids "Why don't you have kids?" is socially acceptable. But asking a parent or parent-to-be "Why ARE you having kids?" is awkward at best and probably offensive. Personally, the "why don't you have kids?" question doesn't bother me at all. That's not my point. I'm just saying that the normative impulse leans toward reproduction and overlaps with other normative impulses: marry, be straight, have kids.
And then, out of nowhere, a story like the octuplet mom challenges those impulses. "Yes," the collective culture says to her, "we're glad you have kids and are heterosexual, but pay for the kids yourself. Oh yeah, and get married."
2/02/2009
non issues
Andrew Card, could you be less relevant?
Career politician Card, who held numerous white house jobs with the last three Republicans to grace the West Wing, criticizes Barack Obama for allegedly relaxing the White House's dress code. How relaxed is Obama's West Wing? Probably not enough to justify Card's quips about his turning the place into a locker room.
The right can't find anything worse to level at Obama than a critique of his decision to take off his jacket? Remember during the campaign when *speaking well* and *getting into a prestigious law school* topped Obama's list of faults?
In many ways the far right's over-reliance on ineffectual, non sequitur critiques makes me happy. After all, this emphasis on non-issues hasn't distracted most Americans. On the other hand, we all suffer when the public discourse is so vacuous. Come on, let's have serious conversations about the stimulus package.
Career politician Card, who held numerous white house jobs with the last three Republicans to grace the West Wing, criticizes Barack Obama for allegedly relaxing the White House's dress code. How relaxed is Obama's West Wing? Probably not enough to justify Card's quips about his turning the place into a locker room.
The right can't find anything worse to level at Obama than a critique of his decision to take off his jacket? Remember during the campaign when *speaking well* and *getting into a prestigious law school* topped Obama's list of faults?
In many ways the far right's over-reliance on ineffectual, non sequitur critiques makes me happy. After all, this emphasis on non-issues hasn't distracted most Americans. On the other hand, we all suffer when the public discourse is so vacuous. Come on, let's have serious conversations about the stimulus package.
1/30/2009
budgeting
So much information about the economy spins, circulates, swirls, and alarms. In today's NYTimes, news of Exxon's record-high 2008 profits of over $45 billion. Reports, too, of banking industry bigwigs who gave themselves $20 billion in bonuses as Congress authorized the infamous $700 billion bailout. President Obama, to his credit, called those bonuses "shameful." On the national level, a budget deficit. A crisis.
Meanwhile, closer to home, Mayor Cockrel (a fan of Gang of Four and Joy Division) proposes city employees take ten-percent salary cuts so Detroit can avoid laying off 1,000 workers. City workers ask, what will we do? Others--callers to our local NPR station this a.m.--ask, what would you do? If you had the power to make the call, would you take the cut or impose the layoffs on others? The mood in the city and the region rivals the most dystopic, instrumental moments from Joy Division's catalogue and the most radical lyrical moments from Gang of Four's catalogue ("to hell with poverty/we'll get drunk on cheap wine").
And what of Arizona State University and its mandatory unpaid furloughs for virtually all employees? Take off a week or two and deal with the lost wages. Better than layoffs? Better than paycuts? Better than even larger tuition increases? Better for whom? Again, if you had the power to make that call, what would you do?
Such questions (one-hundred salary cuts or one-thousand layoffs?) reduce complex issues to a zero-sum game. Still, we are in crisis mode. What to do. President Obama uses the rhetoric of sacrifice very effectively. His calls for individual sacrifice (skip Starbucks, skip that vacation, accept that unpaid furlough, take that paycut) provide counterpoints to "buy more stuff," Bush's post-9/11 mantra. At what point does personal sacrifice begin to obscure systemic problems? Like, say, those shameful bonuses?
I love the idea of shared problem-solving. Not just the WWII nostalgia (remember when everybody grew victory gardens and only bought butter once a month?), but the genuine, in the moment, potential for collective civic action. Easy for me to say...I don't have kids and work in a sector that's less affected by market down-turns. I want to advocate for that kind of civic action on the part of everybody in a way that doesn't place the burden on the working- and middle-classes and off of the elite. I think President Obama does too. I hope so.
Meanwhile, closer to home, Mayor Cockrel (a fan of Gang of Four and Joy Division) proposes city employees take ten-percent salary cuts so Detroit can avoid laying off 1,000 workers. City workers ask, what will we do? Others--callers to our local NPR station this a.m.--ask, what would you do? If you had the power to make the call, would you take the cut or impose the layoffs on others? The mood in the city and the region rivals the most dystopic, instrumental moments from Joy Division's catalogue and the most radical lyrical moments from Gang of Four's catalogue ("to hell with poverty/we'll get drunk on cheap wine").
And what of Arizona State University and its mandatory unpaid furloughs for virtually all employees? Take off a week or two and deal with the lost wages. Better than layoffs? Better than paycuts? Better than even larger tuition increases? Better for whom? Again, if you had the power to make that call, what would you do?
Such questions (one-hundred salary cuts or one-thousand layoffs?) reduce complex issues to a zero-sum game. Still, we are in crisis mode. What to do. President Obama uses the rhetoric of sacrifice very effectively. His calls for individual sacrifice (skip Starbucks, skip that vacation, accept that unpaid furlough, take that paycut) provide counterpoints to "buy more stuff," Bush's post-9/11 mantra. At what point does personal sacrifice begin to obscure systemic problems? Like, say, those shameful bonuses?
I love the idea of shared problem-solving. Not just the WWII nostalgia (remember when everybody grew victory gardens and only bought butter once a month?), but the genuine, in the moment, potential for collective civic action. Easy for me to say...I don't have kids and work in a sector that's less affected by market down-turns. I want to advocate for that kind of civic action on the part of everybody in a way that doesn't place the burden on the working- and middle-classes and off of the elite. I think President Obama does too. I hope so.
1/27/2009
fumes fumes fumes
...As in, this blog runs on fumes. Bet you--if a "you" even exists anymore--thought the next post on this blog would be the increasingly common "facebook is killing this blog" post. Nah. After nearly five years, this blog still has some life. Such as it is.
Facebook is fascinating for a million reasons that I don't even want to explore. Reveling in mundane things. Giving friends and pseduo-friends and people you barely knew in high school windows into your odd existence. Turning family members onto facebook's joys four years or so after turning them onto blogging. Watching those family members go from "who has time?" and "get a life" attitudes toward FB to "this is cool." If I had more motivation, I'd take a scholarly interest in such things, but I'd rather update my status with crap about what's on cable or on top of my stove.
But the blog still lives too. If for no other reason than to say I'm looking forward to seeing The Dirtbombs in Hamtramck on March 6 and Animal Collective in Royal Oak on May 18. I'll probably make the same point on facebook.
Facebook is fascinating for a million reasons that I don't even want to explore. Reveling in mundane things. Giving friends and pseduo-friends and people you barely knew in high school windows into your odd existence. Turning family members onto facebook's joys four years or so after turning them onto blogging. Watching those family members go from "who has time?" and "get a life" attitudes toward FB to "this is cool." If I had more motivation, I'd take a scholarly interest in such things, but I'd rather update my status with crap about what's on cable or on top of my stove.
But the blog still lives too. If for no other reason than to say I'm looking forward to seeing The Dirtbombs in Hamtramck on March 6 and Animal Collective in Royal Oak on May 18. I'll probably make the same point on facebook.
1/08/2009
don't go away mad, just go away
From CNN.com:
Sarah Palin is credited with making Tina Fey a world-wide star and boosting Katie Couric's ratings at CBS.But in a recent interview with conservative John Ziegler, Palin said both "exploited" her twelve-week candidacy — a fact, she said, that "says a great deal about our society.”
Fey's widely-applauded portrayal of the Alaska governor boosted SNL's ratings, while Couric’s audience grew after a series of interviews during which Palin now-famously faltered.
“I did see that Tina Fey was named entertainer of the year and Katie Couric’s ratings have risen," Palin said in the interview. "I know that a lot of people are capitalizing on, oh I don’t know, perhaps some exploiting that was done via me, my family, my administration — that’s a little bit perplexing, but it also says a great deal about our society.”
The Alaska governor was particularly upset with an SNL skit during which Fey's version of Palin said, "I believe marriage is meant to be a sacred institution between two unwilling teenagers."
The line was a clear reference to Palin's 18-year-old daughter Bristol and her fiancé Levi Johnston. The two announced shortly before the GOP convention that they were expecting a baby and had plans to marry.
"The mama grizzly rises up in me, hearing things like that," she said of a skit. "Here again, cool, fine come attack me. But when you make a suggestion like that that attacks a kid, it kills me."
In the wide-ranging interview, Palin also faulted the McCain campaign for agreeing to a series of sit-downs with Couric after the first one appeared to go so poorly.
“I knew it didn’t go well the first day, and then we gave her a couple of other segments after that," she said. "And my question to the campaign was, after it didn’t go well the first day, why were we going to go back for more…going back for more was not a wise decision either.”
During one of those follow-up interviews, Palin took heat for appearing to be unable to name the newspapers or magazines she reads: "Um of them, any of them that have been in front of me all these years," was the Alaska governor's response.
In the interview with Ziegler, Palin called that answer "too flippant" and suggested the question itself offended her.
“To me the question was more along the lines of, ‘Do you read, what do you guys do up there, what is it that you read?’”
"…Katie, you’re not the center of everybody’s universe," Palin added off-handedly.
Palin, who has long criticized media coverage of her campaign performance, also said she is interested to see if reporters are equally tough on Caroline Kennedy as she pursues the appointment to the likely-vacant Senate seat in New York.
“I’ve been interested to see how Caroline Kennedy will be handled, and if she will be handled with kid gloves or if she will be under such a microscope,” she said.
“It’s going to be interesting to see how that plays out and I think that as we watch that we will perhaps be able to prove that there is a class issue here, also that was such a factor in the scrutiny of my candidacy versus, say, the scrutiny of what her candidacy may be," she also said.
fiesta
We hosted our Peace & Justice group's belated Christmas party last evening. I made one of our favorites, peppery chicken curry, from the best cookbook ever (sadly out of print). Friends brought wheatberry salad, wine, and other goodies. Good times as conversation veered from dogs to the spaghetti dinner we're doing next month to movies to home improvement stories. Our place, far from fancy, lends itself to parties. One of my resolutions: hosting friends and family more often. Between last night and the upcoming inaugural "ball," we're off to a good start.
In somewhat-related realms...what an enjoyable and productive week. Some solid writing (mostly at my favorite Caribou). Check. Syllabi for the term completed. Check. Essays rated for a MALS (liberal studies) program initiative. Check. E-mails caught up. Check. Meeting with new community partner for the service learning class. Check. House cleaned. Check. Made time to see "Doubt." Not sure what to make of Meryl Streep's campy, caricature-driven performance and over-the-top Bronx accent. I appreciated how the movie emphasized the relationship/power struggle between her conservative nun character and the enigmatic young priest played by P.S. Hoffman. If you see the film, notice how the latter, on one hand, has progressive learnings and on the other hand, enjoys the benefits of the church's sexism. Overall, though, the story seemed too impressed with its own cleverness and ambiguity. I left with the sense that the outstanding performances added up to something less than their I continue to champion "Gran Torino" as my favorite awards contender. Still on my list: "Milk," "Frost/Nixon," and "The Wrestler."
Finally...will blogs become dodos? Too soon to tell, but how about Facebook's rapid ascendancy? In (rhetoric and composition) academic circles in particular, Facebook has really taken a bite from blogging activity. I must admit, the Facebook update is a fun, fun genre. I think a combination of texting and facebooking has increased the instances of ellipses in my writing. See, for instance, this post.
In somewhat-related realms...what an enjoyable and productive week. Some solid writing (mostly at my favorite Caribou). Check. Syllabi for the term completed. Check. Essays rated for a MALS (liberal studies) program initiative. Check. E-mails caught up. Check. Meeting with new community partner for the service learning class. Check. House cleaned. Check. Made time to see "Doubt." Not sure what to make of Meryl Streep's campy, caricature-driven performance and over-the-top Bronx accent. I appreciated how the movie emphasized the relationship/power struggle between her conservative nun character and the enigmatic young priest played by P.S. Hoffman. If you see the film, notice how the latter, on one hand, has progressive learnings and on the other hand, enjoys the benefits of the church's sexism. Overall, though, the story seemed too impressed with its own cleverness and ambiguity. I left with the sense that the outstanding performances added up to something less than their I continue to champion "Gran Torino" as my favorite awards contender. Still on my list: "Milk," "Frost/Nixon," and "The Wrestler."
Finally...will blogs become dodos? Too soon to tell, but how about Facebook's rapid ascendancy? In (rhetoric and composition) academic circles in particular, Facebook has really taken a bite from blogging activity. I must admit, the Facebook update is a fun, fun genre. I think a combination of texting and facebooking has increased the instances of ellipses in my writing. See, for instance, this post.
1/05/2009
ballers
Nicole and I are hosting an inauguration ball for our town's democrat club. We'll be clearing all the furniture out of our backroom for maximum dancing. I need to put together a playlist. There are some obvious picks--"Revolution" by The Beatles and "Don't Stop" by Fleetwood Mac--that reflect the theme. There are artists like Jay-Z and Aretha Franklin who ought to be represented due to their support for Barack Obama.
Any suggestions? What songs get people dancing? What songs represent the historic moment?
Any suggestions? What songs get people dancing? What songs represent the historic moment?
1/01/2009
blogging the movies
Recently on netflix...
The Corner. Relentless and outstanding piece of work. The creative team behind The Wire is responsible for this 2000 HBO mini-series and you can certainly see that team developing its signature style: realistic, character-driven, slowly unfolding narratives about drugs in Baltimore. But The Corner values depth over breadth. The Corner doesn't have The Wire's broad scope, instead benefiting from a more tightly focused gaze on two middle-aged heroin addicts and their teen son. Imagine The Wire if the stories all revolved around the day-to-day lives of Bubbles and Johnny Weeks and Michael's mom. Depressing stuff, but powerful too. Grade: A-
Transsiberian. Not my cup of chai. Despite a good performance from Emily Mortimer, this is a suspense film that never made me anxious. Essentially, a troubled American couple finds intrigue on a long and snowy train journey across Russia. The plot had loads of potential and I was really looking forward to what I thought would be part Hitchcock homage and part moody and cold melodrama. The story never struck me as real and, though the characterizations were interesting, I never felt all that invested in the good guys, bad guys, or morally ambiguous guys. This reminded me of a lot of the post-Fargo, mediocre, late 90s films (think "Simple Plan" with Billy Bob Thorton) about everyday folks who get caught up in crime and/or their own moral underworlds. Grade: C-
Step Brothers. Bloody awful. Only the most devoted Will Ferrell fans need apply. Grade: F
Tom Petty: Runnin' Down a Dream. I watched this documentary and "The Waiting" played in my head for about a week. Actually what was in my head was Eddie Vedder's brilliant rendition of the song, backed by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, as heard in one of the many excellent live clips from this doc. Though cool in their own right, those live clips are bested by the film's characterization of Petty himself. The film introduces Petty in his own words as well as the words of his colleagues and peers, admirers, producers, bandmates, and even ex-bandmates. We get a view of Petty as a great songwriter and performer and also as a staunchly individualistic and ambitious (sometimes to a fault) dude. "Runnin' Down A Dream" tells some great stories: Petty fighting with his record label, attorneys, the industry at large. The stories suck us in, but so do Petty's traits. I'm not sure I'd want to be a Heartbreaker. See this great documentary and maybe you'll see what I mean. Further, this is a documentary that manages to make an argument. "Dream" (successfully) makes the case that Petty's music bucks trends but also fits nicely within unexpected genres like, say, first-wave punk. Don't be scared off by the four-hour (!) running time. Even casual music fans (admittedly, I am NOT in that camp) will appreciate the many ways "Dream" transcends "Behind the Music" cliches. Grade: A
Recently at the cinema...
Gran Torino. Loved it. I haven't seen much of this winter's Oscar bait, but so far this is my pick for best film of '08. And not just because it's set and filmed in Detroit. Clint Eastwood, director and star of "Torino," puts a subtle exclamation point on his career. The story is low-key and energizing all at once. Eastwood plays an utterly unlikable racist. See the film and notice that he never really becomes likable. It takes some real narrative restraint to tackle themes like redemption without a feel-good protagonist or a whole lot of comic relief. Imagine "The Shawshank Redemption" if the Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins characters were both pricks. There are so many things that "Gran Torino" doesn't do: tell viewers how to feel or how to think about big things (Race. The City. Catholicism.) or small things (Eastwood's character's parenting skills), fill up the soundtrack with swelling music, provide easy answers, etc. I could go on but I won't. See this. I got home and put all five Dirty Harry movies on my netflix list. Grade: A
Seven Pounds. Speaking of films that take on big themes and moral ambiguities. Here's a film in which Will Smith plays with his own unimpeachable likability (as he did in Hancock) by playing a character who makes some screwed-up choices. Like Eastwood's character in "Gran Torino," the enigmatic Will Smith character is a new kind of vigilante. I won't reveal the film's secrets but I will say that, although the film is emotionally manipulative, it resists facile readings. Are Smith's actions good? Are they bad? Ultimately do his choices benefit the common good? Do they benefit himself? You might hate this movie but if you really stop and think about these questions, you won't be able to come up with easy answers to them. Overall, this is a fair piece of work. Grade: C
Slumdog Millionaire. Thoroughly enjoyable. Definitely not the best film of the year, but I appreciated the original mode of storytelling. In fact, I love the very *idea* of telling somebody's life story by explaining how that person knows the answers to particular trivia questions. And I was captivated by the unflinching representations of poverty. The early acts of the film have an affective quality that's almost indescribable. You'll walk out of the theater remembering many of the images. Hats off to director Danny Boyle. You know those moments in Trainspotting that still take up space in your cranium? Boyle offers a whole bunch of those this go around. Grade: B+
The Corner. Relentless and outstanding piece of work. The creative team behind The Wire is responsible for this 2000 HBO mini-series and you can certainly see that team developing its signature style: realistic, character-driven, slowly unfolding narratives about drugs in Baltimore. But The Corner values depth over breadth. The Corner doesn't have The Wire's broad scope, instead benefiting from a more tightly focused gaze on two middle-aged heroin addicts and their teen son. Imagine The Wire if the stories all revolved around the day-to-day lives of Bubbles and Johnny Weeks and Michael's mom. Depressing stuff, but powerful too. Grade: A-
Transsiberian. Not my cup of chai. Despite a good performance from Emily Mortimer, this is a suspense film that never made me anxious. Essentially, a troubled American couple finds intrigue on a long and snowy train journey across Russia. The plot had loads of potential and I was really looking forward to what I thought would be part Hitchcock homage and part moody and cold melodrama. The story never struck me as real and, though the characterizations were interesting, I never felt all that invested in the good guys, bad guys, or morally ambiguous guys. This reminded me of a lot of the post-Fargo, mediocre, late 90s films (think "Simple Plan" with Billy Bob Thorton) about everyday folks who get caught up in crime and/or their own moral underworlds. Grade: C-
Step Brothers. Bloody awful. Only the most devoted Will Ferrell fans need apply. Grade: F
Tom Petty: Runnin' Down a Dream. I watched this documentary and "The Waiting" played in my head for about a week. Actually what was in my head was Eddie Vedder's brilliant rendition of the song, backed by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, as heard in one of the many excellent live clips from this doc. Though cool in their own right, those live clips are bested by the film's characterization of Petty himself. The film introduces Petty in his own words as well as the words of his colleagues and peers, admirers, producers, bandmates, and even ex-bandmates. We get a view of Petty as a great songwriter and performer and also as a staunchly individualistic and ambitious (sometimes to a fault) dude. "Runnin' Down A Dream" tells some great stories: Petty fighting with his record label, attorneys, the industry at large. The stories suck us in, but so do Petty's traits. I'm not sure I'd want to be a Heartbreaker. See this great documentary and maybe you'll see what I mean. Further, this is a documentary that manages to make an argument. "Dream" (successfully) makes the case that Petty's music bucks trends but also fits nicely within unexpected genres like, say, first-wave punk. Don't be scared off by the four-hour (!) running time. Even casual music fans (admittedly, I am NOT in that camp) will appreciate the many ways "Dream" transcends "Behind the Music" cliches. Grade: A
Recently at the cinema...
Gran Torino. Loved it. I haven't seen much of this winter's Oscar bait, but so far this is my pick for best film of '08. And not just because it's set and filmed in Detroit. Clint Eastwood, director and star of "Torino," puts a subtle exclamation point on his career. The story is low-key and energizing all at once. Eastwood plays an utterly unlikable racist. See the film and notice that he never really becomes likable. It takes some real narrative restraint to tackle themes like redemption without a feel-good protagonist or a whole lot of comic relief. Imagine "The Shawshank Redemption" if the Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins characters were both pricks. There are so many things that "Gran Torino" doesn't do: tell viewers how to feel or how to think about big things (Race. The City. Catholicism.) or small things (Eastwood's character's parenting skills), fill up the soundtrack with swelling music, provide easy answers, etc. I could go on but I won't. See this. I got home and put all five Dirty Harry movies on my netflix list. Grade: A
Seven Pounds. Speaking of films that take on big themes and moral ambiguities. Here's a film in which Will Smith plays with his own unimpeachable likability (as he did in Hancock) by playing a character who makes some screwed-up choices. Like Eastwood's character in "Gran Torino," the enigmatic Will Smith character is a new kind of vigilante. I won't reveal the film's secrets but I will say that, although the film is emotionally manipulative, it resists facile readings. Are Smith's actions good? Are they bad? Ultimately do his choices benefit the common good? Do they benefit himself? You might hate this movie but if you really stop and think about these questions, you won't be able to come up with easy answers to them. Overall, this is a fair piece of work. Grade: C
Slumdog Millionaire. Thoroughly enjoyable. Definitely not the best film of the year, but I appreciated the original mode of storytelling. In fact, I love the very *idea* of telling somebody's life story by explaining how that person knows the answers to particular trivia questions. And I was captivated by the unflinching representations of poverty. The early acts of the film have an affective quality that's almost indescribable. You'll walk out of the theater remembering many of the images. Hats off to director Danny Boyle. You know those moments in Trainspotting that still take up space in your cranium? Boyle offers a whole bunch of those this go around. Grade: B+
12/31/2008
break
The story of break is the story of food. Cooking to relax. Cooking to entertain. Some highlights...
Christmas Eve is all about the fish and seafood. My dad is the main architect of the dinner, but my sister and I helped. A lot of frying--croppies, shrimp, smelt--and I have the burn to prove it. Then there's the squid, which can't be undercooked or overcooked or it becomes inedible. I take no credit for the squid. That was all dad. Ditto the bacala salad. When I was a kid, my grandma served the bacala straight, but my dad's taken to combining the fish with eggplant, artichokes, celery, et al which is a brilliant move.
After the late-night drive, Christmas day. I made turkey with all the trimmings for the wife's side of the family. Even the gravy (I'm notoriously inconsistent with gravy) turned out well. Drippings from the turkey in a pan, I shake up milk and flour in a tupperware and then whisk the mixture into the drippings. Add a dash of salt and pepper, and that's it. Good stuff. Simple mashed potatoes. Simple stuffing (lots of celery and sage). Lots of homemade cookies. All-American meal after the seafood extravaganza of the previous night.
Yesterday, we celebrated Nicole's birthday. I made chili, a big fruit salad with lots of wedges of clementines, and a ricotta cake with cherries on top. That pretty much capped off the cooking frenzy. I'm starting a healthy eating plan a day early, missing the new year's rush.
Christmas Eve is all about the fish and seafood. My dad is the main architect of the dinner, but my sister and I helped. A lot of frying--croppies, shrimp, smelt--and I have the burn to prove it. Then there's the squid, which can't be undercooked or overcooked or it becomes inedible. I take no credit for the squid. That was all dad. Ditto the bacala salad. When I was a kid, my grandma served the bacala straight, but my dad's taken to combining the fish with eggplant, artichokes, celery, et al which is a brilliant move.
After the late-night drive, Christmas day. I made turkey with all the trimmings for the wife's side of the family. Even the gravy (I'm notoriously inconsistent with gravy) turned out well. Drippings from the turkey in a pan, I shake up milk and flour in a tupperware and then whisk the mixture into the drippings. Add a dash of salt and pepper, and that's it. Good stuff. Simple mashed potatoes. Simple stuffing (lots of celery and sage). Lots of homemade cookies. All-American meal after the seafood extravaganza of the previous night.
Yesterday, we celebrated Nicole's birthday. I made chili, a big fruit salad with lots of wedges of clementines, and a ricotta cake with cherries on top. That pretty much capped off the cooking frenzy. I'm starting a healthy eating plan a day early, missing the new year's rush.
12/18/2008
the 2008 mixtape
I love year-end lists. Love 'em, love 'em, love 'em. Best films. Most interesting people. Most incomprehensible things overheard in the UM-Dearborn Arts Sciences and Letters Building. Strangest Gatorade flavors.
In his work on journaling, scholar Tom Romano talks about imagining an audience for his journal writing: himself as an old man, an old man who may or may not remember what it felt like to be 20 years old, or 35, or whatever age. Lists freeze a moment like few other genres can.
As a fairly obsessive music fan, the music lists are by far my favorite. As an old man, maybe forgetful of what my 34th year was like, what will I remember as my favorite music of 2008? Here's the recorded music I most enjoyed...
10. Tie: Hard Lessons, "See and Be Scene" and Estelle/Kanye West, "American Boy"
9. REM, Accelerate album
8. Belle and Sebastian, "I'm Waiting for the Man"
7. Beyonce, "Single Ladies"
6. The Kills, Midnight Boom album
5. SSM, Break Your Arm for Evolution album
4. Dengue Fever, Venus on Earth album
3. TV on the Radio, "Golden Age"
2. Santogold, s/t album
1. The Dirtbombs, We Have You Surrounded album
In his work on journaling, scholar Tom Romano talks about imagining an audience for his journal writing: himself as an old man, an old man who may or may not remember what it felt like to be 20 years old, or 35, or whatever age. Lists freeze a moment like few other genres can.
As a fairly obsessive music fan, the music lists are by far my favorite. As an old man, maybe forgetful of what my 34th year was like, what will I remember as my favorite music of 2008? Here's the recorded music I most enjoyed...
10. Tie: Hard Lessons, "See and Be Scene" and Estelle/Kanye West, "American Boy"
Two great duets. The Hard Lessons let the boy-girl vocal sharing mirror the fact that the guitar and organ share lead duties too. The vocals, which critique hipsterism, are a bit predictable, but that doesn't stop the song from being a great 60s pop throwback anthem. Meanwhile, Estelle (yes, her voice is gorgeous) and Kanye raise the bar for r&b ballads.
9. REM, Accelerate album
Is this the greatest thing REM's recorded? Of course not. But listen without prejudice and find lean, fast rock songs like "Living Well is the Best Revenge" and "Man-Sized Wreath." Who cares if they're old? So am I.
8. Belle and Sebastian, "I'm Waiting for the Man"
From the two-disc BBC Sessions record, this live Velvet Underground cover is, out of nowhere, one of B&S's essential recordings. How can a band that does twee get so gritty?
7. Beyonce, "Single Ladies"
I'm not a big fan of much top 40 music, but Beyonce turns out such hooky, well-written, well-executed singles, you can't help but listen.
6. The Kills, Midnight Boom album
They do dirty blues-rock better than The Black Keys in my opinion. Antagonistic lyrics and an overall aggressive ethos, but without sacrificing melody. Standout track: "Tape Song."
5. SSM, Break Your Arm for Evolution album
Psychedelic synth-rock from Detroit. The weirdest record I heard all year. Best when consumed loudly.
4. Dengue Fever, Venus on Earth album
Dengue Fever gets tagged with the dreaded "dad rock" and "NPR rock" labels all the time and, well, I first heard them on NPR, so I guess the tags have merit. Who cares? DF is a psychedelic-rock band fronted by a Cambodian diva who on some tracks sings gorgeous love songs in her native tongue. Other tunes, sung in English by various band members, take a more traditional rock approach. The opener, "Seeing Hands" is hypnotic. "Sober Driver," a kind of re-telling of Wilco's "Passenger Side," is funny and sad all at once.
3. TV on the Radio, "Golden Age"
What a messy and beautiful collision of funk, Afrobeat, pop, and rock: "It comes like a natural disaster/all blowin' up like a ghetto blaster."
2. Santogold, s/t album
Like TVOTR, genre and race boundaries are a non-issue for Santogold. Take a little ska, a little punk, a little dance, a little electronic...you get the point. A lot of the year's best music seems influenced by the mash-up movement that was so popular a few years back, except now artists are mashing the disparate genres on their own, making later mashes unnecessary.
1. The Dirtbombs, We Have You Surrounded album
Thematically, the tightest record yet from the best band in Detroit. Lyrics about urban unrest and anxiety set to a fast and fun amalgamation of soul and punk rock. The perfect soundtrack for a year when things fell apart in motown.
12/16/2008
Bill O'Reilly Flips Out
Via stereogum.com part 2. Most people have probably seen this already, but it's like a fine wine...
12/09/2008
thanks jerk
Thanks Blagojevich. The country's not in enough of a mess. Obama doesn't already have a hard enough time cleaning up a dozen different spills. He really needed a distraction like this. Of course by all credible accounts, Obama's circle seems to have had absolutely nothing to do with this knucklehead's schemes. But that won't stop the right from doing a guilt-by-association number ("they're all part of the Chicago machine"). At any rate, thank goodness Blagojevich has given the media something to divert people's attention from dumb stuff like the auto industry crisis, the recession, and the legacy of Bush foreign policy.
How stupid was Blagojevich? He apparently didn't think anybody would be paying attention to the appointment of a replacement for that obscure Illinois politician WHO JUST GOT ELECTED PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. Nah, nobody's gonna be watching that process.
How stupid was Blagojevich? He apparently didn't think anybody would be paying attention to the appointment of a replacement for that obscure Illinois politician WHO JUST GOT ELECTED PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. Nah, nobody's gonna be watching that process.
what haven't you read?
This week's AV Club has a nice piece called "Art We've Resisted," in which staffers talk about the music, tv, or film they've never made time to consume. "Resisted" is a telling and appopriate choice of words. When you consume pop culture in Big Gulps (the 48-oz. variety), you're essentially making a choice not to see the buzzworthy film or listen to the record that pitchfork gave a 10.0.
Me? I've never seen Titanic, Top Gun, or the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I've never listened to a Radiohead studio album from beginning to end. I've never read Thomas Pynchon, except for the Crying of Lot 49, which I read for a class (this would have been circa 1995, Postmodernism taught by Prof. Culik).
At my former institution, we once played the "what book haven't you read?" at an English Department party. The highbrow version of the AV Club article, I suppose.
How about you? What haven't you read? What haven't you consumed?
Me? I've never seen Titanic, Top Gun, or the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I've never listened to a Radiohead studio album from beginning to end. I've never read Thomas Pynchon, except for the Crying of Lot 49, which I read for a class (this would have been circa 1995, Postmodernism taught by Prof. Culik).
At my former institution, we once played the "what book haven't you read?" at an English Department party. The highbrow version of the AV Club article, I suppose.
How about you? What haven't you read? What haven't you consumed?
12/05/2008
mini-review: Belle and Sebastian
Like The Smiths, Belle and Sebastian invoke Andy Warhol on most of their record sleeves. Their new release, "BBC Sessions," is no exception. And the young hippychick, shown in black and white lost in a smile, is suggestive of the experience of hearing B&S, who for the most part showcase their optimistic pop inclinations on "Sessions."
The new record consists of two discs, one a collection of several appearances on BBC radio and one a concert taped in Glasgow in 2001. The BBC disc offers mellow versions of some of the best songs from "Tigermilk," "If You're Feeling Sinister," and their late-90s EPs. The standout track is a reading of "Lazy Line Painter Jane" (here called "Lazy Jane" for some reason), a song rightly considered one of the band's finest hours. The "Lazy Jane" version is, well, lazy sounding, but in a good way, as the melody lilts along without a whole lot of effort. Beautiful. Several unreleased songs, all heavy on Isobel Campbell vocals, end the disc, including the bouncy "Magic of a Kind Word," another standout moment. Over and over again, listeners are reminded of what a big sound B&S creates, combining rock guitars with string arrangements, percussions that echo 60s pop-rock, and even the occasional horn or two.
Even more enjoyable, the high-energy live disc. While the BBC tracks are slightly more mellow than the studio versions, the live tracks sound aggressive and fast. Even with the additional strings, the band never sounds orchestral in a wimpy way. In short, the live set rocks. "Me and the Major" benefits from the speed-it-up ethos of the set. So do covers of "I'm Waiting for the Man" and "The Boys Are Back in Town." Do we need another indie band doing an homage to the Velvet Underground? Yes. The band's reading of "I'm Waiting for the Man" is dirty, fuzzy, free of frills, and essential. With the exception of Yo La Tengo, I don't know another act with the breadth of Belle and Sebastian. Both discs of this new release see the band moving from lush and twee to raucous and fun. Recommended for diehards and newbies alike.
12/03/2008
winter blues
Smokey and Hyatt six short weeks ago, enjoying autumn in the backyard. These two really miss those fall temperatures. Hunker down, guys, you won't be lounging in the fresh air for at least three months.
12/02/2008
is Christmas frightening?
So last night Nicole and I put up our Christmas tree whilst enjoying some seasonal music. I should admit up front that aside from Darlene Love's "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" and the Ronettes' version of "Frosty the Snowman," I'm not a big fan of Christmas music. I love Christmas. I love music. Christmas music? Not so much.
Having said that, what's the story with "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year"? Specifically, the line about the Christmas party where people share "scary ghost stories." Who tells ghost stories at a Christmas party?
Also, how about Louis Prima's "Shake Hands with Santa Claus." Not bad for a Christmas song, but what's with the whole verse about bananas? "If you want bananas, I'll give you bananas." I think this line is supposed to be from Santa's perspective, and I guess the implicit point Santa is making is that he can give you anything you want. I'm not sure bananas are the best way to illustrate the breadth of Santa's gift-giving ability. Alternate interpretation: Prima is lapsing into his King Louie persona from The Jungle Book.
Having said that, what's the story with "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year"? Specifically, the line about the Christmas party where people share "scary ghost stories." Who tells ghost stories at a Christmas party?
Also, how about Louis Prima's "Shake Hands with Santa Claus." Not bad for a Christmas song, but what's with the whole verse about bananas? "If you want bananas, I'll give you bananas." I think this line is supposed to be from Santa's perspective, and I guess the implicit point Santa is making is that he can give you anything you want. I'm not sure bananas are the best way to illustrate the breadth of Santa's gift-giving ability. Alternate interpretation: Prima is lapsing into his King Louie persona from The Jungle Book.
12/01/2008
back
Oh how the semester starts to disappear after Thanksgiving. So does free time. Not a good day to be sluggish. I got in a morning workout at the rec center and tried tried tried to catch up on work in my office. Emails. IRB paperwork. Prepping for class. Marking student papers. Generally getting organized. I've just organized the rest of the day's work and I'm heading home before the snow starts to accumulate.
Despite feeling sluggish, nice to be back after a great week in Arizona. The house is still standing. Hyatt and Smokey are still the most neurotic dogs in the motor city. And sadly Michigan is still cold.
As always, our Arizona hosts were awesome and showed us a good time. We did a quick trip to Tucson but mostly stayed in the Tempe-Phoenix area, where we took in the Botanical Gardens (which has a spectacular Chihuly Glass installation right now) and The Heard. Nicole and I ended up spending the better part of a day at the Heard Museum and got a lot out of their exhibit on the awful Indian boarding schools the government set up for kids who they essentially kidnapped in order to "civilize."
No matter how cool Detroit is, there's always a part of me that wonders why we ever left Arizona. Especially this time of year.
Despite feeling sluggish, nice to be back after a great week in Arizona. The house is still standing. Hyatt and Smokey are still the most neurotic dogs in the motor city. And sadly Michigan is still cold.
As always, our Arizona hosts were awesome and showed us a good time. We did a quick trip to Tucson but mostly stayed in the Tempe-Phoenix area, where we took in the Botanical Gardens (which has a spectacular Chihuly Glass installation right now) and The Heard. Nicole and I ended up spending the better part of a day at the Heard Museum and got a lot out of their exhibit on the awful Indian boarding schools the government set up for kids who they essentially kidnapped in order to "civilize."
No matter how cool Detroit is, there's always a part of me that wonders why we ever left Arizona. Especially this time of year.
11/19/2008
democracy is coming...
One of the easiest punchlines in pop culture during the past decade or two has been Axl Rose of Guns 'N Roses fame. Why? Because he's been working on a new G 'N R record since I was in high school. Well, "Chinese Democracy" is finally out. Many fans (those with much patience, I guess) have been looking forward to its release. Me, I've been looking forward to Chuck Klosterman's review of the record moreso than the record itself. First, because I think Klosterman is really funny. Second, because he's made his career cracking wise about Axl Rose's pretentions. Like pretty much Klosterman's whole body of work, his review of "Democracy" doesn't disappoint, in large part because the review is so self aware:
I don't have much interest in listening to "Chinese Democracy." But the review interests me very much. Klosterman's review also has a head-exploding kind of quality to it. It's like if David Sedaris' family released exhaustive, hidden camera footage of Sedaris' youth. Or if O.J. Simpson and the Goldman family all became buddies. All of a sudden, everything changes. I'm using hyperbole here. I mean, Klosterman has other obsessions--KISS comes to mind, not to mention his interest in why Billy Joel doesn't have more critical acclaim, etc. And I genuinely admire the way Klosterman reveres his subject matter and points to its absurdity all at once. He really is one of my favorite writers.
Reviewing Chinese Democracy is not like reviewing music. It's more like reviewing a unicorn. Should I primarily be blown away that it exists at all? Am I supposed to compare it to conventional horses? To a rhinoceros? Does its pre-existing mythology impact its actual value, or must it be examined inside a cultural vacuum, as if this creature is no more (or less) special than the remainder of the animal kingdom? I've been thinking about this record for 15 years; during that span, I've thought about this record more than I've thought about China, and maybe as much as I've thought about the principles of democracy. This is a little like when that grizzly bear finally ate Timothy Treadwell: Intellectually, he always knew it was coming. He had to. His very existence was built around that conclusion. But you still can't psychologically prepare for the bear who eats you alive, particularly if the bear wears cornrows.The AV Club is the perfect venue for Klosterman's review. A venue for snark. Not quite as hipster-snooty as Pitchfork (which AV Club scoops with its review of Chinese Democracy!). A place wear Klosterman can stretch out and say what he wants to say about the record, himself, the whole Axl spectacle. The release of "Democracy" represents a real head-exploding, end-of-an-era, kind of pop culture moment. Nixon and Elvis shaking hands at the White House. A member of Public Enemy getting a reality tv show. But it's also inevitably disappointing. Kind of like if the Beatles would have accepted Lorne Michaels' invitation to reunite on Saturday Night Live in the 70s.
I don't have much interest in listening to "Chinese Democracy." But the review interests me very much. Klosterman's review also has a head-exploding kind of quality to it. It's like if David Sedaris' family released exhaustive, hidden camera footage of Sedaris' youth. Or if O.J. Simpson and the Goldman family all became buddies. All of a sudden, everything changes. I'm using hyperbole here. I mean, Klosterman has other obsessions--KISS comes to mind, not to mention his interest in why Billy Joel doesn't have more critical acclaim, etc. And I genuinely admire the way Klosterman reveres his subject matter and points to its absurdity all at once. He really is one of my favorite writers.
11/18/2008
the big three killed my baby
Local news media here in Detroit have begun to rally with much enthusiasm around the auto industry. But is the job of the media to rally around anything?
Proponents and opponents of particular causes seem to think the press should offer its "support" or "opposition" for those causes. The result is that pundits make odd statements like "The media doesn't support the president." Huh?
I don't kid myself into believing that some idealized version of objectivity can be attained. The media always filters, emphasizes and de-emphasizes, foregrounds and backgrounds, includes and excludes. But that doesn't negate the basic responsibilty of the press: report and inform. Even in a time of war, the press needs to report on what's going on, thereby keeping us informed.
Back to the auto industry. In both op-ed pages and front-page news articles, the local press has not created spaces to question the current moment and consider the complexities and implications of whether the federal government should loan the auto industry $25 billion. It's simply taken for granted that Detroit ought to get these loans.
Those who oppose--or even question--the loans are showing "vitriol" for car companies. They "hate the industry" and "rely on half-truths and lies."
Look, for various reasons I hope that congress acts quickly and makes these loans. Otherwise, the state where I live will likely slip into a massive recession. Otherwise, taxpayers will likely have to pay even more to contend with the unemployment and crime which will result. Let me be clear: I'm in favor of the loans.
But I'm also in favor of reasoned debate. I want to hear multiple points-of-view. I don't think the debate benefits from dismissing opponents of the loan as hateful or uninformed. How do you know that opposition to the loans is necessarily an expression of vitriol? How do you know opposition necessarily results from being misinformed?
I actually think it's better for the auto industry and for workers to make room for multiple perspectives. Let's talk about the business practices that led to the current situation. Let's talk about the American auto industry's lack of committment to hybrids and opposition to environmental regulation. Too many in the local media think the current moment is a moment where we should shut up and "support" the industry. I'm pro-union and pro-Michigan. I'm also pro-information. Don't try to silence the various points-of-view that are floating around out there.
Proponents and opponents of particular causes seem to think the press should offer its "support" or "opposition" for those causes. The result is that pundits make odd statements like "The media doesn't support the president." Huh?
I don't kid myself into believing that some idealized version of objectivity can be attained. The media always filters, emphasizes and de-emphasizes, foregrounds and backgrounds, includes and excludes. But that doesn't negate the basic responsibilty of the press: report and inform. Even in a time of war, the press needs to report on what's going on, thereby keeping us informed.
Back to the auto industry. In both op-ed pages and front-page news articles, the local press has not created spaces to question the current moment and consider the complexities and implications of whether the federal government should loan the auto industry $25 billion. It's simply taken for granted that Detroit ought to get these loans.
Those who oppose--or even question--the loans are showing "vitriol" for car companies. They "hate the industry" and "rely on half-truths and lies."
Look, for various reasons I hope that congress acts quickly and makes these loans. Otherwise, the state where I live will likely slip into a massive recession. Otherwise, taxpayers will likely have to pay even more to contend with the unemployment and crime which will result. Let me be clear: I'm in favor of the loans.
But I'm also in favor of reasoned debate. I want to hear multiple points-of-view. I don't think the debate benefits from dismissing opponents of the loan as hateful or uninformed. How do you know that opposition to the loans is necessarily an expression of vitriol? How do you know opposition necessarily results from being misinformed?
I actually think it's better for the auto industry and for workers to make room for multiple perspectives. Let's talk about the business practices that led to the current situation. Let's talk about the American auto industry's lack of committment to hybrids and opposition to environmental regulation. Too many in the local media think the current moment is a moment where we should shut up and "support" the industry. I'm pro-union and pro-Michigan. I'm also pro-information. Don't try to silence the various points-of-view that are floating around out there.
11/15/2008
opulent to homeless?
So last night Nicole and I slept in a $300 per night hotel room.
A friend of ours had a convention at the MGM Grand, one of Detroit's gigantic new casinos. The organizers blocked too many rooms and they would have remained empty, so our pal put out an e-mail yesterday offering free rooms. Free night at a fancy place? We accepted.
Normally I tend to hate casinos. Not for any moral reason necessarily, they're just depressing. And the glassy-eyed patrons tend to be so focused on the reason they're there--as if it's a business venture--that they don't strike me as very friendly. But Nicole and I did decide to splurge and play $20 on a 'Deal or No Deal' slot machine. We quickly turned our $20 into $35 and quit.
The hotel room. Really something else. Flat-screen tv in the room, and one embedded in the mirror of the bathroom. Fancy sheets. A view of the Ambassador Bridge. The whole deal. Worth $300? I just find it hard to believe anybody in this state (or even visiting this state) has that much money. At any rate, we had a very nice time.
Ironically enough, this a.m. I'm off to the HAND (Homeless Action Network of Detroit) march downtown with a group of my service learning students. They've been hammering away at the research projects they've been doing in consultation with HAND and I'm excited for them to see another view of the organization. Too bad it's looking like freezing rain all day. Bundle up.
A friend of ours had a convention at the MGM Grand, one of Detroit's gigantic new casinos. The organizers blocked too many rooms and they would have remained empty, so our pal put out an e-mail yesterday offering free rooms. Free night at a fancy place? We accepted.
Normally I tend to hate casinos. Not for any moral reason necessarily, they're just depressing. And the glassy-eyed patrons tend to be so focused on the reason they're there--as if it's a business venture--that they don't strike me as very friendly. But Nicole and I did decide to splurge and play $20 on a 'Deal or No Deal' slot machine. We quickly turned our $20 into $35 and quit.
The hotel room. Really something else. Flat-screen tv in the room, and one embedded in the mirror of the bathroom. Fancy sheets. A view of the Ambassador Bridge. The whole deal. Worth $300? I just find it hard to believe anybody in this state (or even visiting this state) has that much money. At any rate, we had a very nice time.
Ironically enough, this a.m. I'm off to the HAND (Homeless Action Network of Detroit) march downtown with a group of my service learning students. They've been hammering away at the research projects they've been doing in consultation with HAND and I'm excited for them to see another view of the organization. Too bad it's looking like freezing rain all day. Bundle up.
11/13/2008
Lessenberry
Ever-incorrigible Detroit-area journalist and critic Jack Lessenberry shared his post-election thoughts with UM-Dearborn. Among other points, he emphasized that the 2010 elections here in Michigan look to be huge in terms of their potential impact on the state. New governor and lieutenant governor, massive turnover in both the state house and state senate, the possibility of a new Michigan Constitution (apparently, every sixteen years, we have the option to re-write the thing!). As always, he offered his wry observations about the right wing. On Sarah Palin, he said, and I'm paraphrasing here: 'She was like steroids. She gave a quick boost. But in the end, she killed him.'
11/12/2008
a thought
Is it just me, or has Sarah Palin given more interviews in the past four days than she did during the whole campaign?
11/11/2008
high standards
For the first few weeks of my comp classes this term, I leaned heavily on political rhetoric. We looked at speeches, representations in the popular press, and pretty much anything and everything associated with the presidential campaign. I used Don Lazere's 'Ground Rules for Polemicists' and some other very useful materials from his Reading and Writing for Civic Literacy text. The 'Ground Rules' challenge students' perceptions of how arguments work and should work. Lazere sets a high bar for the ethics of political rhetoric, for instance, emphasizing the importance of fully and fairly representing opposition perspectives, avoiding ad hominem attacks, and so forth.
Have others out there used Lazere? Any thoughts on this? One challenge is how to reconcile his guidelines with the realities of political discourse. My students have essentially concluded that nobody really follows these ground rules. Not on cable news, certainly, but not on op-ed pages either. I can't say I disagree with their assessments, but one of the things I'm trying to do is to temper their critiques of the current climate with genre realities. For instance, an op-ed piece simply doesn't allow enough space to do all the things Lazere suggests. A couple hundred words, max. It's simply not possible to represent "fully" the mythic "other side."
We've had some good discussions that come down to the notion that something's gotta give. Following any set of ground rules for argumentats limits the possibilities, putting regulations of sorts on Aristotle's definition of rhetoric ("all" the available means of persuasion). If you follow Lazere's rules, you draw on all the ethical means. One downside to using Lazere: students often end up looking for this impossible an untenable "bias free" political rhetoric. Again, I need to do a better job teaching civic genres. I keep writing on student papers things like "but an op-ed is SUPPOSED to advance a particular p-o-v."
Have others out there used Lazere? Any thoughts on this? One challenge is how to reconcile his guidelines with the realities of political discourse. My students have essentially concluded that nobody really follows these ground rules. Not on cable news, certainly, but not on op-ed pages either. I can't say I disagree with their assessments, but one of the things I'm trying to do is to temper their critiques of the current climate with genre realities. For instance, an op-ed piece simply doesn't allow enough space to do all the things Lazere suggests. A couple hundred words, max. It's simply not possible to represent "fully" the mythic "other side."
We've had some good discussions that come down to the notion that something's gotta give. Following any set of ground rules for argumentats limits the possibilities, putting regulations of sorts on Aristotle's definition of rhetoric ("all" the available means of persuasion). If you follow Lazere's rules, you draw on all the ethical means. One downside to using Lazere: students often end up looking for this impossible an untenable "bias free" political rhetoric. Again, I need to do a better job teaching civic genres. I keep writing on student papers things like "but an op-ed is SUPPOSED to advance a particular p-o-v."
11/10/2008
Monday Miscelaneous
--Interesting but too brief op-ed in today's Free Press about muslim community's support of Obama. This might be worth discussing in classes this week. Interesting demographic factoid: only two percent of American muslims (in a ten-state, 600-person poll) voted for McCain.
--Just picked up: The Clash, "Live at Shea Stadium." What a great piece of work. The setlist is a veritable greatest hits. The band's legendary energy, in full effect on "Shea Stadium," is remarkable, given that they're in front of tens of thousands of Who fans standing around in the rain. They transcend the "opening act" label and give every fan who thought she was paying to see The Who's "final" tour her money's worth, and then some.
--A lovely snow this a.m. I hit Coffee Beanery bright and early and got some good work done. Most productive morning in some time, in fact. Maybe the brisk air. Maybe the pretty white stuff covering Woodward.
--Facebook? Way addictive. Not sure whether or not I'm glad about succumbing.
--Just picked up: The Clash, "Live at Shea Stadium." What a great piece of work. The setlist is a veritable greatest hits. The band's legendary energy, in full effect on "Shea Stadium," is remarkable, given that they're in front of tens of thousands of Who fans standing around in the rain. They transcend the "opening act" label and give every fan who thought she was paying to see The Who's "final" tour her money's worth, and then some.
--A lovely snow this a.m. I hit Coffee Beanery bright and early and got some good work done. Most productive morning in some time, in fact. Maybe the brisk air. Maybe the pretty white stuff covering Woodward.
--Facebook? Way addictive. Not sure whether or not I'm glad about succumbing.
whole texts
Students in my service learning sections of comp this term have been writing about Paul Loeb's book The Soul of a Citizen, a book that's critical of the limits of volunteerism but hopeful about the possibility of community. Largely the best work the students have done all term. My sense is that part of the reason why is that we devoted significant amounts of class time to discussing and doing some low-stakes writing about the book. They've been engaging with the text for weeks, and I think the writing reflects that longer-term engagement.
But what interests me as much as the quality of the work the students are producing is the fact that we're using a whole book. The whole text "movement"--if there is such a thing--probably relies too heavily on nostalgic and mythic arguments (e.g., students don't read). And yet I've felt called in recent years in this direction. Part of it is a general dislike for textbooks. Also, I'm just tired, after a decade or so of teaching writing, of "readers." Too many excerpts. Too much canonizing of "essays," a genre so disparate and big umbrella that it's lost meaning.
While I don't buy into the nostalgic elements of the pro-whole text arguments, I do buy into the value of engaging with book-length pieces of non-fiction. Books can create sustained discussions (I know, so can a series of excerpts on a common theme). Books resist the imperative to take small bites of texts and writers.
I'm inclined to keep experimenting with whole texts in just about all of the undergrad classes I teach. So far I've seen benefits in terms of creating a space that's intellectual and discussion-oriented. A piece of non-fiction like Loeb's book models lots of rhetorical devices and presents lots of writing opportunities.
But what interests me as much as the quality of the work the students are producing is the fact that we're using a whole book. The whole text "movement"--if there is such a thing--probably relies too heavily on nostalgic and mythic arguments (e.g., students don't read). And yet I've felt called in recent years in this direction. Part of it is a general dislike for textbooks. Also, I'm just tired, after a decade or so of teaching writing, of "readers." Too many excerpts. Too much canonizing of "essays," a genre so disparate and big umbrella that it's lost meaning.
While I don't buy into the nostalgic elements of the pro-whole text arguments, I do buy into the value of engaging with book-length pieces of non-fiction. Books can create sustained discussions (I know, so can a series of excerpts on a common theme). Books resist the imperative to take small bites of texts and writers.
I'm inclined to keep experimenting with whole texts in just about all of the undergrad classes I teach. So far I've seen benefits in terms of creating a space that's intellectual and discussion-oriented. A piece of non-fiction like Loeb's book models lots of rhetorical devices and presents lots of writing opportunities.
11/09/2008
what's the deal?
I'm very new to the facebook world, but I'm already wondering how they target particular advertisements to particular users. Apparently I'm in need of dissertation and weight-loss help.
11/08/2008
i can tell that we are gonna be friends
Hey, I'm on facebook now. If you are too, then send me a message.
11/06/2008
election night
After teaching on Tuesday, I headed for my local Obama office and did get-out-the-vote canvassing for seven hours. Holy macaroni, my feet were yelling by the time the sun set over Berkley. In 2004, I spent election day coordinating phone banks, so I was indoors. This year, two words: The. Pavement. In addition to trying to convince people to vote their way, campaigns spend months gathering more and better information about voters. Then, on election day, that data gets put to use. We had lists of "likely Obama supporters" and "definite Obama supporters" and did anything we could to get them to the polls. Free rides. Reminders. Incessant knocking on doors. Hey, and I got a free t-shirt out of the deal. Things started to get surreal around 6:00, after the sun went down, and while walking the neighborhoods, you could look in windows and see EVERY television tuned to the news. Sean Hannity. Katie Couric. Those airbrushed faces projected onto the cool Autumn streets.
Polls closed at 8:00. Headed home, took a quick shower, had a quick sandwich, and Nicole and I went to a County Democrat party. Expensive cash bar, kind of boring and stuffy, too loud to hear the televisions. So we headed to a results-watching party in Berkley organized by a judicial candidate who we'd supported actively. His whole crew was there, along with lots of members of our town's democrat club. Clearly the better party. Plus, cheap beer and burgers. Woo-hoo. Several recounts of absebtee ballots resulted in a lot of nail-biting, but in the end, Jamie Wittenberg (a classmate of Nicole's) is our new district judge. Less nail-biting over President-Elect Obama. How good does it feel to type those words? We were all kind of freaking out, in a pensive and cautious way, when they called Pennsylvania so quickly. Then Ohio. Then Florida. As soons as west-coast polls closed, McCain gave his very gracious and thoroughly classy (and already malaligned as wimpy by Limbaugh et al) concession speech.
What's that line that Garrison Keilor always uses about doing good work? That's what kept running through my head, as I thought about the prospects of an optimistic, progressive, ethical leader for our country. Now do good work. And the rest of us: Hold Obama accountable. Hold the democrat-controlled legislature accountable. Insist they keep promises. Insist they maintain the integrity, the optimism, the reform, and the legislative agenda they've preached. Health care. Lower taxes for working and middle classes. Troop withdrawal. Better support for education at all levels. Anybody going to inauguration? At midnight on Tuesday night, I text-messaged by nephew at Georgetown and threatened to crash on his dorm floor if need be!
Polls closed at 8:00. Headed home, took a quick shower, had a quick sandwich, and Nicole and I went to a County Democrat party. Expensive cash bar, kind of boring and stuffy, too loud to hear the televisions. So we headed to a results-watching party in Berkley organized by a judicial candidate who we'd supported actively. His whole crew was there, along with lots of members of our town's democrat club. Clearly the better party. Plus, cheap beer and burgers. Woo-hoo. Several recounts of absebtee ballots resulted in a lot of nail-biting, but in the end, Jamie Wittenberg (a classmate of Nicole's) is our new district judge. Less nail-biting over President-Elect Obama. How good does it feel to type those words? We were all kind of freaking out, in a pensive and cautious way, when they called Pennsylvania so quickly. Then Ohio. Then Florida. As soons as west-coast polls closed, McCain gave his very gracious and thoroughly classy (and already malaligned as wimpy by Limbaugh et al) concession speech.
What's that line that Garrison Keilor always uses about doing good work? That's what kept running through my head, as I thought about the prospects of an optimistic, progressive, ethical leader for our country. Now do good work. And the rest of us: Hold Obama accountable. Hold the democrat-controlled legislature accountable. Insist they keep promises. Insist they maintain the integrity, the optimism, the reform, and the legislative agenda they've preached. Health care. Lower taxes for working and middle classes. Troop withdrawal. Better support for education at all levels. Anybody going to inauguration? At midnight on Tuesday night, I text-messaged by nephew at Georgetown and threatened to crash on his dorm floor if need be!
11/05/2008
freaks and geeks
This term I'm teaching one of my favorite classes, English 327, an advanced writing course for education majors. The class presents a cool opportunity to talk about writing in a variety of contexts including the context of K-12 schools. And while I never teach the class as a methods class, I do try to make assignments flexible enough to encompass concerns and issues related to public education, child development, and the like.
For example, we just read a novel (more or less, a piece of "young-adult lit") called "Twisted," an angsty and interesting narrative about a suburban high school kid who finds himself in a culture of violence, first as a victim of bullying and later, as...well, I don't want to give it away. Read the book. Well worth your time. Students have designed some interesting writing projects connected to the text, some opting for more traditional kinds of textual analysis and others looking at the book critical and popular reception among various audiences.
They've been working pretty hard, so tomorrow we're going to spend half of class watching an episode of "Freaks and Geeks," the canceled-before-its-time show which presents some neat connections to the novel. The show follows two cliques in a circa-1980 suburban Detroit high school: stoners and nerds. Much of the action centers on Lindsay, who decides to leave the world of mathletes and try to become a "freak."
I've never seen anything on tv as well-written. The premise sounds "after school special" but always transcends those cliches, opting instead for one relentlessly awkward representation of adolescence after another: the stoner serenading his girlfriend with Styx's "Lady," the peanut allergy that results in an ER visit, gym class scenes, and the geeks watching a stag film.
The show was clearly headed for cancellation and the last few episodes really expand the thin-line-between-stoner-and-nerd theme begun with Lindsay's clique switch. One of the freaks gets caught with dope and has to join A/V as punishment, subsequently realizing how awesome Dungeons and Dragons is. In the series finale, Lindsay blows off academic camp in Ann Arbor and runs away with deadheads for the summer. A perfectly surreal-yet-banal ending to the series. The school's hippy guidance counselor turns her onto the Grateful Dead, loaning her a copy of "American Beauty" he thinks will speak to her angst. It does. I don't even like the Dead very much, but when she puts on "Box of Rain" in her bedroom, it's a moment of transcendence:
For example, we just read a novel (more or less, a piece of "young-adult lit") called "Twisted," an angsty and interesting narrative about a suburban high school kid who finds himself in a culture of violence, first as a victim of bullying and later, as...well, I don't want to give it away. Read the book. Well worth your time. Students have designed some interesting writing projects connected to the text, some opting for more traditional kinds of textual analysis and others looking at the book critical and popular reception among various audiences.
They've been working pretty hard, so tomorrow we're going to spend half of class watching an episode of "Freaks and Geeks," the canceled-before-its-time show which presents some neat connections to the novel. The show follows two cliques in a circa-1980 suburban Detroit high school: stoners and nerds. Much of the action centers on Lindsay, who decides to leave the world of mathletes and try to become a "freak."
I've never seen anything on tv as well-written. The premise sounds "after school special" but always transcends those cliches, opting instead for one relentlessly awkward representation of adolescence after another: the stoner serenading his girlfriend with Styx's "Lady," the peanut allergy that results in an ER visit, gym class scenes, and the geeks watching a stag film.The show was clearly headed for cancellation and the last few episodes really expand the thin-line-between-stoner-and-nerd theme begun with Lindsay's clique switch. One of the freaks gets caught with dope and has to join A/V as punishment, subsequently realizing how awesome Dungeons and Dragons is. In the series finale, Lindsay blows off academic camp in Ann Arbor and runs away with deadheads for the summer. A perfectly surreal-yet-banal ending to the series. The school's hippy guidance counselor turns her onto the Grateful Dead, loaning her a copy of "American Beauty" he thinks will speak to her angst. It does. I don't even like the Dead very much, but when she puts on "Box of Rain" in her bedroom, it's a moment of transcendence:
Look out any windowAnyway, great book and great show. And those 327 students have earned half a casual class.
any morning, any evening, any day.
Maybe the sun is shining
birds are winging
rain is falling from a heavy sky
what do you want me to do?
11/04/2008
go make history everybody
Nicole and I completed our election day ritual of getting to our polling place before opening time. Angell Elementary School in Berkley, Michigan, about 6:50 a.m. About fifty people lined up, one of whom had passed out. She was on a stretcher, being loaded onto an ambulance when we arrived. Delicious, warm cup of Abuelita ("little granny," a Mexican hot cocoa) in hand, I took my spot and waited about thirty minutes to vote, feeling for the first time since 1996 like I was voting *for* a person instead of just voting *against* another person. I bid farewell to Nicole, my wife/precinct captain, and headed to campus for an abbreviated teaching day. Soon it's off to campaign headquarters for an afternoon of labor (getting out the vote, kicking out the jams, etc.), then an evening of parties. Hopefully celebratory parties. Please, please, please go live history, everybody. You know what my man Howard Zinn said, 'You can't stand still on a moving train.'
10/30/2008
wow
Two items of interest, both from the 'republicans seem to be imploding' file:
First, ABC's Elizabeth Vargas asks Sarah Palin is she has aspirations for 2012. Her response: "I'm not doing this for naught."
Second, and this one deserves to be quoted at length, George Will's column today, the headline of which reads "John the Careless." Will hits hard the missteps of the McCain-Palin campaign, and gets at what he sees as the problematics of both of their attitudes and agendas.
First, ABC's Elizabeth Vargas asks Sarah Palin is she has aspirations for 2012. Her response: "I'm not doing this for naught."
Second, and this one deserves to be quoted at length, George Will's column today, the headline of which reads "John the Careless." Will hits hard the missteps of the McCain-Palin campaign, and gets at what he sees as the problematics of both of their attitudes and agendas.
From the invasion of Iraq to the selection of Sarah Palin, carelessness has characterized recent episodes of faux conservatism. Tuesday's probable repudiation of the Republican Party will punish characteristics displayed in the campaign's closing days.
Some polls show that Palin has become an even heavier weight in John McCain's saddle than his association with George W. Bush. Did McCain, who seems to think that Palin's never having attended a "Georgetown cocktail party" is sufficient qualification for the vice presidency, lift an eyebrow when she said that vice presidents "are in charge of the United States Senate"?
She may have been tailoring her narrative to her audience of third-graders, who do not know that vice presidents have no constitutional function in the Senate other than to cast tie-breaking votes. But does she know that when Lyndon Johnson, transformed by the 1960 election from Senate majority leader into vice president, ventured to the Capitol to attend the Democratic senators' weekly policy luncheon, the new majority leader, Montana's Mike Mansfield, supported by his caucus, barred him because his presence would be a derogation of the Senate's autonomy?
Perhaps Palin's confusion about the office for which she is auditioning comes from listening to its current occupant. Dick Cheney, the foremost practitioner of this administration's constitutional carelessness in aggrandizing executive power, regularly attends the Senate Republicans' Tuesday luncheons. He has said jocularly that he is "a product" of the Senate, which pays his salary, and that he has no "official duties" in the executive branch. His situational constitutionalism has, however, led him to assert, when claiming exemption from a particular executive order, that he is a member of the legislative branch and, when seeking to shield certain of his deliberations from legislative inquiry, to say that he is a member of the executive branch.
Palin may be an inveterate simplifier; McCain has a history of reducing controversies to cartoons. A Republican financial expert recalls attending a dinner with McCain for the purpose of discussing with him domestic and international financial complexities that clearly did not fascinate the senator. As the dinner ended, McCain's question for his briefer was: "So, who is the villain?"
10/29/2008
cooking continues
Last night, after a long day at work, I made a potato and leek gratin, based loosely on a recipe in the NYTimes last week. Another good fall dish. I used a lot more cumin than the recipe suggested, decreased the salt, and subbed skim milk. Not bad. Creamy, rich, and bitey from the leeks and garlic.
Plans have come together for a Halloween party this Friday. My parents, Anna and company, and miscelaneous friends and neighbors. Menu: walking tacos, Brier Hill pizza made by my folks, some baked fish with fresh lime for anybody not wanting to dig on the tacos, and some version of the salad I usually make when my sister comes over (romaine, hearts of palm, walnuts, and tart apples with a yogurt dressing). Agenda: hand out candy; go check out over-the-top, scare-the-local-kiddies yards in our neighborhood; and who knows what else? Should be fun.
Also cooking (not in the kitchen): Tonight is election town hall down on my campus, to be televised locally on public tv. Many of my students are attending, some are participating, and I told them I'd be there. Almost caught up on paper grading. I can't recall feeling so overwhelmed by the paper load in years. What's going on? And on a serious note...shout out to Bill H. from my Peace and Justice group who's giving a kidney to another parishioner at our church this afternoon. Be well!
Plans have come together for a Halloween party this Friday. My parents, Anna and company, and miscelaneous friends and neighbors. Menu: walking tacos, Brier Hill pizza made by my folks, some baked fish with fresh lime for anybody not wanting to dig on the tacos, and some version of the salad I usually make when my sister comes over (romaine, hearts of palm, walnuts, and tart apples with a yogurt dressing). Agenda: hand out candy; go check out over-the-top, scare-the-local-kiddies yards in our neighborhood; and who knows what else? Should be fun.
Also cooking (not in the kitchen): Tonight is election town hall down on my campus, to be televised locally on public tv. Many of my students are attending, some are participating, and I told them I'd be there. Almost caught up on paper grading. I can't recall feeling so overwhelmed by the paper load in years. What's going on? And on a serious note...shout out to Bill H. from my Peace and Justice group who's giving a kidney to another parishioner at our church this afternoon. Be well!
10/28/2008
fall food
Fall is my favorite time of year: moderate weather (ok, it's freezing in Detroit), the opportunity to meet new students, my birthday. Oh yeah, and the food. Local markets start to carry honeycrisp apples. We make the annual trip to our local cider mill.
I've already made what Nicole and I consider the ultimate fall dish: pumpkin pasta. A delicious combination of diced bacon, fresh pumpkin, sage, chicken stock, parmesan cheese, and a little heavy cream, served over rigatoni.
We also had walking tacos. I'm not sure if this is a fall thing or not, but we made them on Sunday and they tasted great. Never had a walking taco? Take a single-serving bag of frito's and put taco fixins (seasoned ground meat, veggies, cheese, sour cream, whatever you like) right into the bag with the chips. Stir and eat with a fork while walking around. Walking taco.
I've already made what Nicole and I consider the ultimate fall dish: pumpkin pasta. A delicious combination of diced bacon, fresh pumpkin, sage, chicken stock, parmesan cheese, and a little heavy cream, served over rigatoni.
We also had walking tacos. I'm not sure if this is a fall thing or not, but we made them on Sunday and they tasted great. Never had a walking taco? Take a single-serving bag of frito's and put taco fixins (seasoned ground meat, veggies, cheese, sour cream, whatever you like) right into the bag with the chips. Stir and eat with a fork while walking around. Walking taco.
10/27/2008
W
A cold fall weekend in Michigan. Get Out The Vote canvassing for Obama on both Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Paper grading. Pouring through a couple more episodes of The Wire Season 1 (for such a non-sentimental piece of work, the show almost choked me up when Keema got shot). Our niece Jenna spent the night on Saturday night. She didn't like Mongolian BBQ at all. What kid doesn't like to choose his/her own raw meat or fish and veggies and then watch college kids make your stir-fry while flipping huge, metal grill sticks and yelling uninteligible things? Seemed like a sure thing, but was a bust. Jenna did seem to like driving around our town to check out the Halloween decorations and going to see High School Musical 3.
I couldn't bring myself to watch HSM3 (and yet I can bring myself to type the abbreviation?) so while Jenna and Nicole dug on the musical I wandered next door at the multiplex and saw 'W,' the Oliver Stone pic about our current prez. W--the film that is--had no discernible point, no consistent vision, no sustained insights into W or his inner circle. W amounted to two hours of actors doing (mostly very good) impressions of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al. More an exercise in mimicry than a narrative or even a character sketch, the film was, in short, pretty bad.
Thandie Newton's performance as Condi Rice was bizarre. She just kind of sat there and quaked a little bit, neverously and robotically glancing around the room. She looked animatronic, like she belonged in the Hall of Presidents at Disney World. Anytime I've seen her on television, Rice has looked confident and stoic, so the portrayal made no sense to me at all.
And I didn't think the film was a hatchet job on Bush either. At least a hatchet job would have had a clearer vision. The representation of W didn't strike me as skewed or distorted. If anything, it struck closely to a well-documented mythology of W that is very familiar to even casual observers of the political process. W. didn't do particularly well in college or in the business world. He drank way too much when he was in his 20s and 30s. He struggled to please his dad. He became an Evangelical Christian and fell in with a social movement bent on moving the GOP away from fiscal convervativism and toward a family values-driven agenda. He surrounded himself with more experienced folks and gave them more power than vice-presidents, cabinet secretaries, and deputy chiefs of staff usually have been given. If you haven't seen the film yet, I just ruined it for you. I left the theater with an overwhelming sense of "no shit, Sherlock."
I also left the theater wondering about the film's target audience. Lefties and Bush bashers? If so, I should have liked the film more. A heavier-handed or more salacious film--one that showed W doing hard drugs or foregrounded the illegalities of pre-emptive war and U.N. violations, for instance--would have had a more affective, rally-the-left-base relationship with its audience. Undecided voters as audience? Maybe, but I don't think anybody stuck in the middle of this presidential election would be swayed by anything in the film. There's little if any polemic. This isn't a Michael Moore film. The best comparison would be The Queen (about Queen Elizabeth II during the week that Princess Diana died), a much, much better film that managed to reveal something in the psyches of its main characters. In addition to containing more internal landscapes than W, The Queen also concerned itself with public figures who had enigmatic characteristics. By virtue of media exposure and scrutiny from the left as well as the superficial nature of his own personality and intellect, there's not much we don't know about W. There's nothing to peel back.
I couldn't bring myself to watch HSM3 (and yet I can bring myself to type the abbreviation?) so while Jenna and Nicole dug on the musical I wandered next door at the multiplex and saw 'W,' the Oliver Stone pic about our current prez. W--the film that is--had no discernible point, no consistent vision, no sustained insights into W or his inner circle. W amounted to two hours of actors doing (mostly very good) impressions of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al. More an exercise in mimicry than a narrative or even a character sketch, the film was, in short, pretty bad.
Thandie Newton's performance as Condi Rice was bizarre. She just kind of sat there and quaked a little bit, neverously and robotically glancing around the room. She looked animatronic, like she belonged in the Hall of Presidents at Disney World. Anytime I've seen her on television, Rice has looked confident and stoic, so the portrayal made no sense to me at all.
And I didn't think the film was a hatchet job on Bush either. At least a hatchet job would have had a clearer vision. The representation of W didn't strike me as skewed or distorted. If anything, it struck closely to a well-documented mythology of W that is very familiar to even casual observers of the political process. W. didn't do particularly well in college or in the business world. He drank way too much when he was in his 20s and 30s. He struggled to please his dad. He became an Evangelical Christian and fell in with a social movement bent on moving the GOP away from fiscal convervativism and toward a family values-driven agenda. He surrounded himself with more experienced folks and gave them more power than vice-presidents, cabinet secretaries, and deputy chiefs of staff usually have been given. If you haven't seen the film yet, I just ruined it for you. I left the theater with an overwhelming sense of "no shit, Sherlock."
I also left the theater wondering about the film's target audience. Lefties and Bush bashers? If so, I should have liked the film more. A heavier-handed or more salacious film--one that showed W doing hard drugs or foregrounded the illegalities of pre-emptive war and U.N. violations, for instance--would have had a more affective, rally-the-left-base relationship with its audience. Undecided voters as audience? Maybe, but I don't think anybody stuck in the middle of this presidential election would be swayed by anything in the film. There's little if any polemic. This isn't a Michael Moore film. The best comparison would be The Queen (about Queen Elizabeth II during the week that Princess Diana died), a much, much better film that managed to reveal something in the psyches of its main characters. In addition to containing more internal landscapes than W, The Queen also concerned itself with public figures who had enigmatic characteristics. By virtue of media exposure and scrutiny from the left as well as the superficial nature of his own personality and intellect, there's not much we don't know about W. There's nothing to peel back.
10/24/2008
more miscelaneous
Lute Olson retires from Arizona. I never heard a bad word about Olson during my years in Tucson. An icon. I wonder how the Wildcats are going to do without him.
'Get out the vote' canvassing on both Saturday and Sunday with our town's democrat club. Not since '96 have I felt like I'm voting for a guy, as opposed to voting *against* the other guy.
Great line from The Wire (I'm almost through season one on dvd): "In this town, there's a thin line between campaign poster and photo array."
My students in the two service-learning, pilot sections of comp start their group projects this weekend, researching and writing neighborhood field reports for the Homeless Action Network of Detroit. Gearing up for the first round of research, the students seemed genuinely excited about doing something real. They're designing GIS maps, conducting interviews with neighborhood merchants, and writing reports that will hopefully help HAND in its census efforts.
Must get back to reading student papers...
'Get out the vote' canvassing on both Saturday and Sunday with our town's democrat club. Not since '96 have I felt like I'm voting for a guy, as opposed to voting *against* the other guy.
Great line from The Wire (I'm almost through season one on dvd): "In this town, there's a thin line between campaign poster and photo array."
My students in the two service-learning, pilot sections of comp start their group projects this weekend, researching and writing neighborhood field reports for the Homeless Action Network of Detroit. Gearing up for the first round of research, the students seemed genuinely excited about doing something real. They're designing GIS maps, conducting interviews with neighborhood merchants, and writing reports that will hopefully help HAND in its census efforts.
Must get back to reading student papers...
10/23/2008
another unfocused post
Nicole got me tickets to see Neil Young (opening act, Wilco) in December. Great birthday present, and I know it's mere coincidence that a) one of Young's signature songs is called "Old Man," and b) the tickets were a gift commemorating the fact that I'm halfway to 70. The only other time I saw Neil Young perform, I was 19 and the drive to the concert resulted in a minor misdemeanor in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. The show itself was great, though, featuring Booker T and the MGs as Young's backing band. I remember the encore: "Rockin in the Free World" and "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay." Good stuff. Here's hoping for a show equal in power. Here's also hoping for a less eventful commute to the show this time around.
Maybe the best birthday present yesterday was being called a good writer. Our writing faculty gave a "strategic vision" talk to our dean and her executive council, outlining our long-term plans, hopes, etc. My piece of the talk: how the field of writing studies developed and evolved over the past few decades. A lot to cover in five minutes, so to conserve time and stay organized I used the old "read the presentation right off the paper" method, eliciting several compliments. Thank you, people who are deciding whether to give me tenure in this next new months.
I can't bring myself to care much about the cost of Sarah Palin's wardrobe. I'm not sure why anyone is outraged about this, unless maybe if you gave money to the RNC and don't think a six-figure wardrobe is a good use of your donation money. Right now I'm wearing a pair of pants I bought for two bucks at a thriftsore, a sweater that I think I got for Christmas one year when I still lived in Arizona (98-02), and a pair of tennis shoes with holes...and I wouldn't know one designer dress from another if my life depended on it. I wouldn't opt to spend any sizable amount of money on clothing, but why do I care if Sarah Palin's "people" do? I'm not paying for it. I think many of her political positions are reprehensible, but her clothing isn't. In fact, the more energy expended on criticizing her clothes, the less energy expended on criticizing her reactionary political beliefs. Come on, ya'll.
Maybe the best birthday present yesterday was being called a good writer. Our writing faculty gave a "strategic vision" talk to our dean and her executive council, outlining our long-term plans, hopes, etc. My piece of the talk: how the field of writing studies developed and evolved over the past few decades. A lot to cover in five minutes, so to conserve time and stay organized I used the old "read the presentation right off the paper" method, eliciting several compliments. Thank you, people who are deciding whether to give me tenure in this next new months.
I can't bring myself to care much about the cost of Sarah Palin's wardrobe. I'm not sure why anyone is outraged about this, unless maybe if you gave money to the RNC and don't think a six-figure wardrobe is a good use of your donation money. Right now I'm wearing a pair of pants I bought for two bucks at a thriftsore, a sweater that I think I got for Christmas one year when I still lived in Arizona (98-02), and a pair of tennis shoes with holes...and I wouldn't know one designer dress from another if my life depended on it. I wouldn't opt to spend any sizable amount of money on clothing, but why do I care if Sarah Palin's "people" do? I'm not paying for it. I think many of her political positions are reprehensible, but her clothing isn't. In fact, the more energy expended on criticizing her clothes, the less energy expended on criticizing her reactionary political beliefs. Come on, ya'll.
10/21/2008
"The Art of Disappearing" by Naomi Shihab Nye
I read this poem, a favorite of mine, to all three of my classes today. I love the line "nod briefly and become a cabbage." Here's Nye reading to Bill Moyers.
10/20/2008
crazy: an unfocused post with the most
Much, much, much happening. I spent part of the morning at the Secretary of State, where Michiganders must go for vehicle registrations, driver's licenses, and the like. Lines aren't as heinously long as they were in the early-90s, I'm told, but the SofS is a concentric circle of you-know-where, to be sure. I need a new driver's license and new license plates by Wednesday, when I turn 35.
On campus, then, for a meeting of the steering committee of the Civic Engagement Project, which means free lunch. Yay. Next, must mark a big fat stack of papers that I should have read over the weekend. Oh, and an article that must be peer-reviewed by Wednesday. Also happening Wednesday: tenure-track members of the composition discipline must give a presentation before the executive council of the dean's office. We're working on a "strategic vision" for the college. I'm responsible for preparing the part of the presentation where we talk about how the discipline of "writing studies" developed and subsequently went through various paradigm shifts. I've got two minutes to tackle that topic. How about that? And, and, and a hundred other things.
Yet despite the busy-ness, I must say something about Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live. First, she was funny, although she mostly sat back and let others make the jokes. Still, what a good sport. Maybe the ultimate goal was for her to seem likable; mission accomplished. The NYT piece (use link above) rightly points out that she probably didn't do much to improve her reputation as a lightweight. Bopping one's head while Amy Pohler raps about shooting moose does not equal gravitas, especially nine hours before a prominent and well-respected republican like Colin Powell endorses your opponent. So you get the GOP ticket joshing around on SNL and you get the democratic ticket dominating the Sunday a.m. news shows. I'll take that weekend. Obama continues looking infintely more presidential and McCain-Palin continue looking desperate.
Curious that Palin's people consented to some of the Alec Baldwin jokes. Baldwin angrily, bitingly calls her "that horrible woman" in the bit where he pretends to think the real Palin is Tiny Fey. Baldwin's bit was almost nostalgic, harkening back to a (probably non-existent) time when SNL represented a less diffuse set of counter-cultural worldviews. "She goes against everything we stand for," Baldwin implored Lorne Michaels, invoking a mythic, post-Watergate "we" that SNL represented for about twenty minutes in the mid-70s (if at all). And the punchline of that bit: "you are way hotter in person." I'm sure her handlers figure the jokes are another way to signify Palin as the anti-feminist, the one who can "have it all" without the "radical" and "angry" rhetoric and agenda.
Driving back to Michigan last night from a weekend in Ohio, Nicole made the observation that Palin's nicely setting herself up for a job hosting a tv show and, sure enough, the NYT piece speculates on that very possibility. That Nicole, she's a smarty. In the (blessed) event of a McCain-Palin loss, Palin certainly is set up to write a book, command a huge speaker's fee on the far-right lecture circuit, and, yes, maybe go into showbiz (maybe a Fox News--an entity that's got absolutely nothing to do with journalism and everything to do with showbiz--talk show with what's-her-name from The View serving as her Ed McMahon?). She has continually looked foolish and shockingly unprepared over the past two months, but she's going to be a very rich woman regardless of what happens on November 4.
Talked to many, many Ohioans over the weekend, the vast majority of whom support McCain-Palin. Mainly due to the "Obama sounds good but how will he pay for it all?" argument. As if indefinite military comittments five-thousand miles away; newly imposed taxes on health care; and social service cuts that will result in greater poverty and greater reliance on ERs for basic services are cheap. I did notice--and this is WAY anecdotal--a generational split, with the 40-and-under crowd seeming to lean Obama. (Thank God for absentee ballots for college students!) I suppose they have more years to benefit from optimism, positive social change, and a belief in common good and more years to feel the negative effects of division and cynicism. You know, McCain's inability to look Obama in the eye or even say his name is increasingly seeming like the epitome of what election '08 represents. Maybe those of us under a certain age feel as if we're the ones who'll foot the bill--in terms of both moral cost and fiscal cost--for years and years of Iraqi occupation. We're the ones who don't want to be what the angry McCain signifies.
On a happier note, another awesome Apple Butter party at my parents' house this weekend. Good food and drink, good company, good hayride, good campfire, and a good game of football. 136 people in their backyard...what a fiesta!
On campus, then, for a meeting of the steering committee of the Civic Engagement Project, which means free lunch. Yay. Next, must mark a big fat stack of papers that I should have read over the weekend. Oh, and an article that must be peer-reviewed by Wednesday. Also happening Wednesday: tenure-track members of the composition discipline must give a presentation before the executive council of the dean's office. We're working on a "strategic vision" for the college. I'm responsible for preparing the part of the presentation where we talk about how the discipline of "writing studies" developed and subsequently went through various paradigm shifts. I've got two minutes to tackle that topic. How about that? And, and, and a hundred other things.
Yet despite the busy-ness, I must say something about Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live. First, she was funny, although she mostly sat back and let others make the jokes. Still, what a good sport. Maybe the ultimate goal was for her to seem likable; mission accomplished. The NYT piece (use link above) rightly points out that she probably didn't do much to improve her reputation as a lightweight. Bopping one's head while Amy Pohler raps about shooting moose does not equal gravitas, especially nine hours before a prominent and well-respected republican like Colin Powell endorses your opponent. So you get the GOP ticket joshing around on SNL and you get the democratic ticket dominating the Sunday a.m. news shows. I'll take that weekend. Obama continues looking infintely more presidential and McCain-Palin continue looking desperate.
Curious that Palin's people consented to some of the Alec Baldwin jokes. Baldwin angrily, bitingly calls her "that horrible woman" in the bit where he pretends to think the real Palin is Tiny Fey. Baldwin's bit was almost nostalgic, harkening back to a (probably non-existent) time when SNL represented a less diffuse set of counter-cultural worldviews. "She goes against everything we stand for," Baldwin implored Lorne Michaels, invoking a mythic, post-Watergate "we" that SNL represented for about twenty minutes in the mid-70s (if at all). And the punchline of that bit: "you are way hotter in person." I'm sure her handlers figure the jokes are another way to signify Palin as the anti-feminist, the one who can "have it all" without the "radical" and "angry" rhetoric and agenda.
Driving back to Michigan last night from a weekend in Ohio, Nicole made the observation that Palin's nicely setting herself up for a job hosting a tv show and, sure enough, the NYT piece speculates on that very possibility. That Nicole, she's a smarty. In the (blessed) event of a McCain-Palin loss, Palin certainly is set up to write a book, command a huge speaker's fee on the far-right lecture circuit, and, yes, maybe go into showbiz (maybe a Fox News--an entity that's got absolutely nothing to do with journalism and everything to do with showbiz--talk show with what's-her-name from The View serving as her Ed McMahon?). She has continually looked foolish and shockingly unprepared over the past two months, but she's going to be a very rich woman regardless of what happens on November 4.
Talked to many, many Ohioans over the weekend, the vast majority of whom support McCain-Palin. Mainly due to the "Obama sounds good but how will he pay for it all?" argument. As if indefinite military comittments five-thousand miles away; newly imposed taxes on health care; and social service cuts that will result in greater poverty and greater reliance on ERs for basic services are cheap. I did notice--and this is WAY anecdotal--a generational split, with the 40-and-under crowd seeming to lean Obama. (Thank God for absentee ballots for college students!) I suppose they have more years to benefit from optimism, positive social change, and a belief in common good and more years to feel the negative effects of division and cynicism. You know, McCain's inability to look Obama in the eye or even say his name is increasingly seeming like the epitome of what election '08 represents. Maybe those of us under a certain age feel as if we're the ones who'll foot the bill--in terms of both moral cost and fiscal cost--for years and years of Iraqi occupation. We're the ones who don't want to be what the angry McCain signifies.
On a happier note, another awesome Apple Butter party at my parents' house this weekend. Good food and drink, good company, good hayride, good campfire, and a good game of football. 136 people in their backyard...what a fiesta!
10/16/2008
debate
Last night my town's democrat club met for our normal monthly gathering and then adjourned to a watering hole I don't like much to watch the debate. Shortly before the debate began, the club's chair posed the question will McCain go negative? No, says I, the negative stuff is backfiring.
I was wrong. McCain, in what seemed even to McCain supporters like desperation, actually tried to stear the conversation away from issues and toward Obama's "associations." Ugh. One of the things that made Obama effective last night was his calm but imperative statements about wanting to get back to talking about, you know, the candidates' platforms. Finally, when neither McCain nor the moderator thought that was a good idea, Obama zinged, "You've made Bill Ayers the centerpiece of your campaign." Bingo. An education professor who both republicans and democrats in Illinois frequently work with due to his expertise on school reform. I'm not on any boards, but I'm on a boatload of committees and action groups and I don't vouch for the beliefs and past actions of all the people with whom I serve.
Other McCain moment of desperation: "I'm not George Bush." Um, okay. That had to make W feel good, when his own party's candidate was so explicit about the need to establish that distance.
McCain, he of the hurt feelings, knows damn well that John Lewis wasn't comparing him to George Wallace when Lewis said that the atmophere at recent Sarah Palin events feels like a Wallace rally. How is that a stretch? People at a political rally yelled "kill him" about an African-American public figure. How is it a stretch, how is it even a personal attack, to say that such a moment is reminiscent of segregationist ideology and much worse? Unlike a lot of lefties, by the way, I don't hold Palin responsible for those comments. I don't know for certain that she heard them. I don't know for certain there's any causation between her campaign rhetoric and the "kill him" chant. If Lewis had said that Palin reminds him of George Wallace, then Palin and McCain would have a substantial beef, albeit a beef with Lewis, not Obama. McCain feigning hurt feelings = moment of desperation number three.
I would have liked to have heard even more logocentric stuff from Obama. He seems to be winning on the issues, so why not talk policy even more? He did a very good job on health care, I thought, although a conservative dude at the watering hole last night resopnded to that moment in the debate by saying "go to Canada then." I don't know if he was talking to Obama, or our democrat club. He didn't like us any more than he liked Obama.
In fact, at one point, this guy said something to our group like "shut the f#@! up so people in the thinking man's [sic] party can listen." Clever. He also threatened to take a woman in our party "outside to the parking lot." Her response: "Let's do it. I'll keep my arms at my side and watch you hit a lady, big man." On the way home, Nicole colorfully commented how her response would have involved a less passive strategy out in the parking lot. That Nicole.
I was wrong. McCain, in what seemed even to McCain supporters like desperation, actually tried to stear the conversation away from issues and toward Obama's "associations." Ugh. One of the things that made Obama effective last night was his calm but imperative statements about wanting to get back to talking about, you know, the candidates' platforms. Finally, when neither McCain nor the moderator thought that was a good idea, Obama zinged, "You've made Bill Ayers the centerpiece of your campaign." Bingo. An education professor who both republicans and democrats in Illinois frequently work with due to his expertise on school reform. I'm not on any boards, but I'm on a boatload of committees and action groups and I don't vouch for the beliefs and past actions of all the people with whom I serve.
Other McCain moment of desperation: "I'm not George Bush." Um, okay. That had to make W feel good, when his own party's candidate was so explicit about the need to establish that distance.
McCain, he of the hurt feelings, knows damn well that John Lewis wasn't comparing him to George Wallace when Lewis said that the atmophere at recent Sarah Palin events feels like a Wallace rally. How is that a stretch? People at a political rally yelled "kill him" about an African-American public figure. How is it a stretch, how is it even a personal attack, to say that such a moment is reminiscent of segregationist ideology and much worse? Unlike a lot of lefties, by the way, I don't hold Palin responsible for those comments. I don't know for certain that she heard them. I don't know for certain there's any causation between her campaign rhetoric and the "kill him" chant. If Lewis had said that Palin reminds him of George Wallace, then Palin and McCain would have a substantial beef, albeit a beef with Lewis, not Obama. McCain feigning hurt feelings = moment of desperation number three.
I would have liked to have heard even more logocentric stuff from Obama. He seems to be winning on the issues, so why not talk policy even more? He did a very good job on health care, I thought, although a conservative dude at the watering hole last night resopnded to that moment in the debate by saying "go to Canada then." I don't know if he was talking to Obama, or our democrat club. He didn't like us any more than he liked Obama.
In fact, at one point, this guy said something to our group like "shut the f#@! up so people in the thinking man's [sic] party can listen." Clever. He also threatened to take a woman in our party "outside to the parking lot." Her response: "Let's do it. I'll keep my arms at my side and watch you hit a lady, big man." On the way home, Nicole colorfully commented how her response would have involved a less passive strategy out in the parking lot. That Nicole.
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