Sunday, September 18, 2005

getting the blood flowing

I was reading some tips for how to get students' blood flowing during early morning classes, and I guess I find myself in the same situation this morning, needing to do some writing, but feeling a little sluggish and tired. My own tendency with students is to not ask them to write, but to get up, breathe deeply, move around a bit. I guess I will see if sitting down and writing this morning will be sufficient to get my blood flowing, or whether I would be better off to go do something--yoga, recycle, ride the bike, etc. A cup of coffee shouldn't hurt!

Trying to find some time today to write up a proposal for composing with music. I think I have the quesitons more or less figured out, so now the question becomes: what to read? What's the background context. The new essay on "the when and the where" of new media seems like an obvious choice, as does Dickie Selfe's book (track it down), media ecology more generally. What I really need to figure out, I suppose, is composing with music. I have some good material for composing visually, but how should we introduce concepts of rhythm, tone, etc. You can see how much I know about music!

Totally random: Betsy and I were talking about the new BBC poll that reported there is very little confidence in the phrase "govt. for the people, by the people" even among western democracies (except in Scandanavia), and I was complaining that Americans simply continue to reject all the data that "proves" governments that provide services--education, health care, social security--are able to run countries with better standards of living and better distribution of wealth. Then we heard a radio story about "progress," and author quoted John Steinbach as saying "The poor in America see themselves as temporarily embarrassed millionares," or something like that. I need to track it down. This little piece of information might add to my interest in teaching a unit on leadership, responsibility, and money next semester.

Well, let's see if I can move on to some real writing now.

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