activist time

Okay, you US citizen readers, this is the time to get out and get angry...and to start writing letters and e-mails to your elected representatives.

By now, you've probably heard about the W/GOP plan to grant a gas rebate check to all American consumers (article here). What you may not know is that, attached to that bill, is a provision to open the Alaska wildlife reserve to oil drilling.

Now, everything I've heard about that oil deposit is that it wouldn't actually yield benefits for a large number of years. And there is utterly no hope of getting that oil and keeping the surrounding areas uncontaminated...drilling equipment, trucks, construction, these things all yeild pollution.

So what the GOP plan is essentially doing is offering a bribe to the average citizen in exchange for us looking the other way while they pilliage one of the most pure parts of our nation...for what looks like negligible gains.

If this gets you mad (and I hope it raises that ire), then send e-mails to your senators (here in Ohio, that's Senator George Voinovich and Senator Mike DeWine. I then suggest following those up with e-mails to your representatives and to our president. Let these people know how you feel. While I don't know if it will do any good, it will at least make your conscience feel a little less dirty.

102 movies you have to see--a survey

While killing time between classes, I found a link to a RogerEbert.com piece entitled "102 Movies You Must See Before...," and to my surprise, I've only seen 36 of them. I'm not sure if this is a good number or not, but I feel I should see more...because there are some serious ommissions on my list.

I only picked the movies that I am 100% sure I've seen all the way through and could discuss with any degree of accuracy. I'm proposing a survey...how many of these have you seen? Figure it out and post your results in the comment section. Here's my list:

1. "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968) Stanley Kubrick
   
2. "Alien" (1979) Ridley Scott
   
3. "Annie Hall" (1977) Woody Allen
   
4. Apocalypse Now" (1979) Francis Ford Coppola*
   
5. "Bambi" (1942) Disney
   
6. "The Battleship Potemkin" (1925) Sergei Eisenstein
   
7. "The Big Red One" (1980) Samuel Fuller
   
8. "Blade Runner" (1982) Ridley Scott
   
9. "Carrie" (1975) Brian DePalma
   
10. "Casablanca" (1942) Michael Curtiz
    
11. "Chinatown" (1974) Roman Polanski
    
12. "Citizen Kane" (1941) Orson Welles
    
13. "Dirty Harry" (1971) Don Siegel
    
14. "Do the Right Thing" (1989 Spike Lee
    
15. "Dr. Strangelove" (1964) Stanley Kubrick
    
16. "Duck Soup" (1933) Leo McCarey
    
17. "E.T. -- The Extra-Terrestrial" (1982) Steven Spielberg
    
18. "Easy Rider" (1969) Dennis Hopper
    
19. "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) Irvin Kershner
    
20. "The Exorcist" (1973) William Friedkin
    
21. "Fargo" (1995) Joel & Ethan Coen
    
22. "Fight Club" (1999) David Fincher
    
23. "Frankenstein" (1931) James Whale
    
24. "GoodFellas" (1990) Martin Scorsese
    
25. "The Graduate" (1967) Mike Nichols
    
26. "Jaws" (1975) Steven Spielberg
    
27. "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962) David Lean
    
28. "Mad Max 2" / "The Road Warrior" (1981) George Miller
    
29. "The Maltese Falcon" (1941) John Huston
    
30. "Metropolis" (1926) Fritz Lang
    
31. "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (1975) Terry Jones & Terry
    Gilliam
    
32. "On the Waterfront" (1954) Elia Kazan
    
33. "Pulp Fiction" (1994) Quentin Tarantino
    
34. "Sunset Boulevard" (1950) Billy Wilder
    
35. "Taxi Driver" (1976) Martin Scorsese
    
36. "The Wizard of Oz" (1939) Victor Fleming
    

take that, ideological certainty....

Just when I think I'm relatively good on one of my internal convictions, somthing comes to thwack me around.

Case in point: I write a nice post about gender roles ("women work at home"). Then I go home and attempt to tackle the assembly of one of those "cabinet in a box" deals. Suddenly, my ideological certainty starts taking a pounding.

First off, I have mixed thoughts about ready to assemble furniture. I don't like moving to cheap pressboard surroundings, but I'm broke...so that tends to ameliorate my objections. And it would be sad to admit that I long for the day when I can buy furniture that's actually made of real wood.

The first part of the basic assembly went fine. Then I had to attach the doors to the unit, and the hinges needed to be screwed in. While there was some level of pre-drilling, the holes looked like they were bored using a smallish thumbtack. So I proceed to screw, and not a single hinge screw goes in straight. Every one is at a different cock-eyed angle, and they 90% strip out before I can get them even somewhat tight.

Then I have to hang the doors on the carcass of the unit, which is that much more of a nightmare, because you have to hold them just so. I'm sweating, cursing, very close to throwing things. Luckily, my wife is patient. She has to be, living with me.

The unit got put together, and somehow, it actually doesn't look too bad. Through the travails, however, the major damage was to my ego. I feel terrible, not being able to smoothly assemble a stupid piece of pre-made furniture. I feel horribly inept, and I'm not sure if it's because I'm an academic (and therefore have no practical skills) or if it's because I'm not a "real man."

Yes, I doubt my "machismo" factor at times don't laugh, honest). And it bothers me that this bothers me. I want to be able to assemble stuff, to build stuff, to do something with my hands, but I cannot. And I feel inadequate due to my failures to do these things, even though I think I've never fully bought into the traditional 50s masculine stereotype. Ready to assemble furniture does this to me every time...it always precipitates an ideological catastrophy.

Luckily, my friend Eric could meet me for a mini-pitcher of beer or three ("beer...the cause of and solution to all of life's problems"), and we could discuss jingoistic patriotism, Fox News (the best comedy on television), monuments/architecture and the politics of use/meaning, student housing, and a whole bunch of other deep/important sounding stuff. I eventually wander home and get to fall asleep next to the woman of my dreams. Life is good again.

I still, however, dread the next redecorating decision...I don't know if I can take another shelf unit.

see, this is why wrestling fans need a college education

During the TNA Wrestling pay-per-view on Sunday, one of the characters, Father James Mitchell, used a Nietzsche quote in his promo...and used it accurately!

I love this sport! German philosophy always goes better with chairshots and blood.

initial thoughts on my first visit to a "District"

Washington DC was fun. Much like I always do, I looked upon the trip as more of a vacation than a work outing to a conference. So I only went to my own panel (there was only one other panel I wanted to see, but I overslept) and spent a lot of time socializing.

Cuisines? Peruvian (whole fried fish!), Indian (lamb chops rock), Chinese (in Chinatown, with a massive noodle-twirling chef), and some of the worst bar food I've ever had. We also were next to a good ice cream/sub sandwich/pizza place. One night, one of my friends got a sausage patty pizza. They were honest to goodness sausage patties, bigger than the type you would get at breakfast, and they covered the whole slice. They were tasty if a little heavy.

We stayed at The Highlander Motel ...which made me want to talk in a really bad European accent, swing a sword, and shout "There can be only one!" every few minutes. I wish the "continental breakfast" was a bit more than donuts, and it would've been good if the phones worked, but overall, it wasn't a bad place. It was close to the conference, relatively clean, all my friends were staying there, and someone left a sixpack of Corona in our room's fridge.

We spent a bit more time at our hotel than I could've liked, but none of my friends wanted to go clubbing...for some reason, they prefered watching the Game Show Network...but there was a convenience store nearby, they did have Yuengling (which is a sweet beer), and they did have a regular patron who looked just like Elvis would've, if he were alive and in construction.

DC has a great subway...very Art Deco. I took some photos, and as soon as I get a chance, I'll figure out how to get them online.

More thoughts coming on monuments and museums.

women work at home

My wife brought me home a catalog for The Pampered Chef...they sell good kitchen gear. From what I gather, it largely follows the Tupperware model of home parties and catalogs, all being run by some ordinary person who's been co-opted into being the company's sales force.

They look like they have good stuff...no problem there. My wife even got me a citrus peeler and a plunger measuring cup, both of which will come in handy.

They tend to only have women pictured using the products. This is a little bit more of a problem for me. Lots of men cook, even (according to my brother) a large percentage of construction workers. Does The Pampered Chef not want their business?

It reminds me of when I had a subscription to Cooking Light magazine. I loved the recipes...about 85% of them worked...but I got tired of paying for 100+ pages of women's health advice. It was also a lousy feeling to know that the magazine, rather than looking at me as a customer, kinda treated me as an interloper on women's domain.

The worst thing about The Pampered Chef was that it seemed to only have a women's workforce. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm glad there are options for women who need employment. But why does this style of employment have to focus on gender-specific products? It's another home care product (like Tupperware), or it's beauty (Mary Kay, Avon).

Women get the ability to sell women's products (even when they're not really for only women) to women only. And it strikes me as slightly regressive that they're pushing The Pampered Chef employment as perfect for women because they can still stay at home! There's even a testimonial from a former schoolteacher who became a sales agent...because teaching was apparently too much like a "job" that took her "home." Yes, even though she was doing what's traditionally a woman's job (cough), she still wasn't where she belonged.

Granted, it is better than no women employment opportunities, but this kind of work still reinforces the "housewife" stereotype...and if they gotta work, they should be allowed to have a job which lets them keep their feminine duties up.

I've been of the mind that the main problem with society is that people seem to be bound by rules, regulations, and expectations, and that these are generally based on power hierarchies...in this case, the man works and the woman stays at home. And I've also been of the mindset that society isn't going to change unless we nuke these expectations and fundamentally change the way society operates.

Companies like Mary Kay and The Pampered Chef don't want to change anything. If the world requires that females work, they seem to argue, at least let's let them stay as close to "womanly" duties as possible. And this strikes me as very stupid.

Imagine trying to convince a male construction worker to give up his trade and sell razors and nostril hair trimmers at guy parties...how far would you get with this suggestion? How often would you get beaten up?

back from DC

I have returned from the government wasteland of Washington DC. Expect contacts, e-mails, postings, other weird stuff.

I will have papers coming in from all my students this week, but I'm not sure if that will lead to more posting or less...as I tend to use the blog as a way to procrastinate.

Topics to be covered: monuments, sausage patty pizza, museums, joggers and shoving them into traffic, ethnic food, a few new albums, mass transit, mindless patriotism, commercialism, hotels and people who can't leave them, review essays, academic groupies, words and phrases we need to bring back into use, wrestling and German philosophers, and Elvis (or reasonable facsimilies).

good students

I had a student yesterday tell me the "Paris Hilton Conspiracy Theory of Culture"...I don't remember all the details, but basically, it explained how talentless celebs like Paris are pushed because they make normal folks hate the rich instead of envy them.

I overheard another student say that I was his idol, because I proved that you could get a professional job and still wear sandals.

Students...sometimes, you gotta love them.

Back to the work and non-posting.

random news and notices

The first sign of spring is here...not the birds, not the 50 degree temperatures...but Smoovies reopens for the season! Tonight! For those of you not familiar with Smoovies, I will provide more detail later.

I have decided to use the blog feature on MySpace to document my experiences with...MySpace. Hardly original, I know.

Anyone know how much I need to spend on job-related stuff in order to make doing the itemized deductions worth my while?

Finally, I have a DC conference coming up in about three weeks, so I have to now start writing the damn presentation. I'm not saying that I will be totally incommunicado untill then, but my appearances and posts might be less frequent. If I don't e-mail or call, that is why. I am, however, still available for beer breaks, particularly for Stimmel's or Howards, in case you're in the area.

a calm place to be?

So I'm thinking about applying for a job for next year (I wasn't
planning on moving, but this job posting was written for me) at
Minnesota State University at Moorhead, and their job posting has the
"Facts about the area" section. Moorhead, it appears, is the "Second
Least Stressful Place to Live"...apparently in spite of the bitter cold.

MySpace indeed

So I decided to make the leap and get my very own MySpace page. Why? I dunno...I guess the opportunity to quantify just how big of a loser I am seemed irresistable for a second. I have no idea what to do with it, and as things stand now, I have no friends...so art mirrors life. This is as much a sociological experiment as anything else, so if anything neat happens, I will let you know.

the sioux are coming to save us

from Indanz.com:

Giago: Oglala Sioux president on state abortion law Tuesday, March 21, 2006

"When Governor Mike Rounds signed HB 1215 into law it effectively banned all abortions in the state with the exception that it did allow saving the mother’s life. There were, however, no exceptions for victims of rape or incest. His actions, and the comments of State Senators like Bill Napoli of Rapid City, SD, set of a maelstrom of protests within the state.

Napoli suggested that if it was a case of “simple rape,” there should be no thoughts of ending a pregnancy. Letters by the hundreds appeared in local newspapers, mostly written by women, challenging Napoli’s description of rape as “simple.” He has yet to explain satisfactorily what he meant by “simple rape.”

The President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe on the Pine Ridge Reservation, Cecilia Fire Thunder, was incensed. A former nurse and healthcare giver she was very angry that a state body made up mostly of white males, would make such a stupid law against women.

“To me, it is now a question of sovereignty,” she said to me last week. “I will personally establish a Planned Parenthood clinic on my own land which is within the boundaries of the Pine Ridge Reservation where the State of South Dakota has absolutely no jurisdiction.”

Strong words from a very strong lady. I hope Ms. Fire Thunder challenges Gov. Rounds and the state legislators on this law that is an affront to all independent women."

MySpace?

A number of friends and loyal readers have told me that they now have MySpace pages. So, a query: what exactly will a MySpace page allow me to do which I do not do here? What are the practical/tangilbe benefits, other than the ability to put up a stupid photo of myself?

Teach me, please!

the state of spam names

These just came in today.

Impregnates E. Warships
Aleksandrina Redondo
Wilfred Dorrance
Manish Strope

...and they will only get sillier

best non-obscene graffitti spotted recently

"Jeff Goldblum is watching."

quote of the day...happy holidays!

"If you want to celebrate St Pat's today, eat a raw potato, build a house out of peat and get yourself shot by an Englishman."...Warren Ellis

This is post 150, by the way...

the book reps are getting scary

I just went to check my mail, and one publisher dropped off a sample textbook...but it was in a gift basket, which included gourmet marmalade, cookies, candy, expensive teas, and so forth. Sheesh.

The part of me that is used to being a nobody wants to scream at them, "don't you know who I am? You're wasting your time on someone with no influence or power!" But who am I to turn down swag?

against the grain

We tried a new bread the other day, a multigrain affair, and it was a hit. So, when I went to the grocery store on Monday, I was going to get another loaf.

My wife wrote down "9 grain bread" on the grocery list. In the bread isle, they had 9 grain, 12 grain, and 15 grain. I picked up the nine, because I trust my wife...but I had suspicions.

When I got home, I checked the empty bag from our last loaf, and, indeed, it was a twelve grain. For at least the next week and a half, we are doomed to have less grains than we got used to with our old bread.

I feel slow, sluggish, and a little ripped off. I'm also curious as to which grains they omitted in order to get the final number down to nine. Were they vital grains? Did they have any dynamic physiological properties? Were they, for example, endorphin releasers?

And what about that 15 grain? Is it a better bread? Will the extra grains give me more vitality? Or is it like a fifteen year Scotch, where the higher number of grains equate to added complexity of taste and aroma?

Will other bakeries try to follow suit? Will we, as a result, suffer grain inflation? Will Wonder, in an attempt to gain lost marketshares, come out with a 20 grain bread? Aunt Millie responding with a 30 grain? Will the grain war escalate?

This raises some vital questions. How many grains, for instance, can one concievably fit into a loaf of bread? What is the maximum grain threshold? Will we put our great scientists to work on constructing an omni-grain bread? Do our enemies have more grains than us? Is there a grain gap? A grain drain?

Will this desire to increas the grains in our bread lead to other scientific advancements? Do genetically modified grains count as a different grain? What about different varieties?

Will we further our astronomical searches in order to find extraterrestrial grains? Can we fit so many grains into a bread that it would, in its infinite denseness, collapse into itself, thus ripping the time-space fabric? Would it cause our universe to collapse into a single granule of grain?

Maybe the universe that we're in now is just some prior race's multigrain bread, which itself collapsed into a singularity, which then exploded at the "big (grain) bang." It's possible we could be living on what some prior beings considered to be a mere speck of bulghar wheat.

I think that must be the truth...I feel it in every grain of my existence.

spring break part two, or, stranger in a strange land

While I fully intended to spend all of spring break either sleeping, writing, or reading (okay, also drinking), I got called back into the world of composition, somewhere I wasn't really planning on venturing. I wanted to have a whole week where I didn't think of school at all, where the thought of student writing never crossed my mind. Of course, it didn't work out that way.

The week before break, I got an e-mail from a book representative wanting to know if I was interested in attending a symposium of college composition instructors. Apparently, my boss couldn't make it, my assistant boss couldn't make it, and they somehow worked their way down to me.

It is one of the strangest elements of my life that, now that I have a full-time position, I am continually courted by book representatives. When they heard that I was on a composition textbook subcommittee, they came out of the woodwork. I have had piles of texts sent my way, I have been interviewed at length about my teaching practices, I have had reps offer to take me out to lunch on them.

College textbooks is a major business, particularly when you're getting into the realm of anthologies, which can average around $75 a book. When you throw in the fact that courses like comp are required of every single student, a company can gain a whole lot of income by convincing a department to use their text. So it's not surprising that they try to latch on to every possible lead.

It does, however, feel weird to be the beneficiary of such behavior. It fits into my fully ambiguous feelings toward my class status. On one hand, I'm very much still very low on the totem pole within this university, this department...but these reps treat me like some tyrant who can change their lives with a nod of the head.

So when they asked me to go to this symposium, I expected either a sprawling "time-share sales pitch" or a pleading "how can we make ourselves worthy of you?" day of fawning. Personally, the prospect looked as promising as a root canal...but it was a line on the vita, they were covering all expenses, and they were paying me...which is always a tempting combination, hard to resist...so I went.

The symposium was at a hotel in Livonia MI...which is, as far as I can tell, a land of strip malls, chain restaurants, and subdivisions, sort of a Edward Sissorhands setting, only outside Detroit. The only other thing I know about the area is that the area UPN channel carries these really goofy ads for some big jewelry warehouse, where every single employee gathers for the closing shot and waves in perfect unison.

The perks of the trip were, on whole, not bad. We ate at a really good chain top-end Chinese restaurant, where I had several drinks and a kickin' lamb stir-fry on them. Afterward, we went to the hotel bar, and I got several Irish whiskeys on them. I then went to my relatively nice hotel room. The free hotel breakfast was so-so, but I guess you can't win them all.

The funny thing is that when the symposium started, the book reps made it quite clear that they were not going to try to sell us anything, and they in fact didn't want us to refer to any textbook or product by name...not even if it was theirs. They were, instead, very interested in getting a "state of the art" of comp teaching from us.

So we talked about composition, the struggles we face in teaching it, our approaches, preconceptions we face, and all that. I met some really nice and interesting people, including the heads of several writing programs...so there was in fact networking.

As much as I learned about composition teachers, I realized that I am not one of them...and I do not really think like they do, for the most part. For me, the main value to the symposium was the chance to look inside their heads, see how they think, see how they view the world. I started to try to formulate how I saw these people, how they say themselves...and I realized it was a pretty big project. I'm thinking that my second big academic project might have to be a full cultural study of the world of composition instruction.

It could be a synthesis of my personal experiences/biography and the full cultural study/serious academic endeavor angle...thus, it would combine the "fun" factor of personal writing along with serious inquiry...which would make it a blast to write. It could be a good bridge between school and the mass market...which might actually give me a name in the publishing biz. Of course, it might also make me unemployable in the comp field, but it could bring me admirers from the teaching ranks.

Who knows? I might end up using a lot of space on this blog to further explore this issue. I might recycle many of these posts. I might solicit more personal stories and research tips. I will eventually find a way to use this blog for actual work instead of the avoidance of...

Now I just need to finish my first book...

post-Spring Break wrap-up 1, or, working in the coal mine

One of these days, I need to actually take a break during spring break...y'know, go to somewhere warm, drink too much, generally be hedonistic. However, when you're a "teaching" academic, any break from school is more about catching up than relaxing. While I did get caught up on sleep, I mostly worked.

The major project of spring break was to get my book revision plan done. Way back in late 2003, I submitted a sample chapter of my dissertation to a good university press, who contacted me at that year's American Studies Association conference. They liked it enough to ask for a book proposal.

So, over the next summer, I banged one out and sent it, along with the full diss manuscript, to their editors. They then asked for some changes...y'see, I wrote a proposal which addressed specifically how I would change the diss in light of them actually having read the diss. But they only read the proposal (which I can understand, being time-strapped myself)...so I had to take another stab at the proposal.

The problem was, I got side-tracked by the thrills of adjuncting. When you're teaching five classes in four disciplines at three different institutions, it's very hard to think about anything other than grading and class prep. Summer 2004, I got 1/2way through a draft. Summer 2005, I worked at the zoo. When I did have free time, it was spent mentally recuperating from the workload. I barely had/have time to stay an active thinker, let alone be a scholar...and this continues to be the case even now that I have a job...because I teach and grade so much.

(okay, I often avoid grading...mostly by writing this blog)

Every so often, I get an e-mail from the very kind, very patient editors, wondering if I'm still working on the proposal. I tell them, quite honestly, that I still care about the project and will get it knocked out as soon as I have the time, which is even the truth...but I rarely have time.

So, task one over the break was to actually get the book proposal knocked out. Reading my diss again was a very strange experience...I had to spend an awful lot of time unpacking stupidly dense language, as well as trying to get back into the same theoretical head I occupied while an ABD. It was a difficult read, and that amazed me, because I've always prided myself on not succumming to academic-speak...I guess I was fooling myself just a little.

I realized that most of my problems in the diss came from following a dissertation format. I was spelling out everything in the beginning, going through the analysis, and just dying off. There was no mystery to the writing, and my diss, as it stands, doesn't lead anywhere...which is par for the course, because you can't really treat that type of writing as an act of discovery.

The questions that the university press had mostly related to "what questions are driving this?" Instead, the diss was driven by issues rather than questions, because I couldn't write using the "and we'll work our way to the answers" format, which would've been preferable. Now that I can do that, I can actually justify the purpose/point to my project and communicate that to my reader.

Realizing all this made everything about the dissertation make sense. I know where the thing needs to go in order to be a book. I know how to get there with minimal pain. So, over spring break, I got 90% of the proposal knocked out. I've got some polish, got to add two chapter descriptions, need to make sure I'm not in academic-speak in the proposal, but it's doable. I plan to have the revision plan done by the end of this week, and I can then solicit opinions from a few friends and my kick-ass diss chair.

It has been a strange trip moving from grad student to full-time teacher, but I think I'm starting to turn it back towards "scholar"...and that feels really good.