I have an essay circulating right now, "Life is not a Game: Richard Ford's Pragmatism," in which I make the argument, through Ford's fiction, that life, indeed, is not a game, although that metaphor is powerful and popular, and, most importantly, that we are easily seduced by that metaphor.
I saw the other night at B&N that Johnny Damon's autobiography is titled something like "having fun in the game of life." And i see that there is a new book out called Poker as Life: 101 Lessons from the World's Greatest Game, a title that connects up my Ford paper with my Poker paper, also circulating at this time. I might do well to beef up the early part of the paper with an emphasis on the cultural uses of this metaphor. I suspect I can find many more without too much work. It seems to me that I heard something about this on the radio the other day--oh wait, it was tonight, perhaps. Garisson Keiler reading Bruce Springsteen's "Glory Days"--an odd sounding rendition to say the least, but right on target. http://www.xs4all.nl/~maroen/engels/lyrics/gloryday.htm
I also started to see james McKean's Home Stand: Growing Up in Sport getting a lot of attention. That memoir definitely looks like a must read. maybe I should put it on an Amazon list or something. Or maybe I should just buy the darn thing. I probably need to read it to help me finish my "mystory" project, which could be titled "Growing Up in Sport."
Friday, September 23, 2005
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.
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.
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
getting rejected
I got a straight out flat rejection of an essay from a journal today, which has only happened to me once, maybe twice before. and quite frankly, i was surprised--I think the essay is pretty strong, and one reviewer seems to have thought it was well written. But I ran into, as far as I could tell, some readers with very different world views who simply would not accept my premises. Powerful lesson on the limits of good writing: the well crafted essay going up against firmly held beliefs will lose out to those beliefs every time. That's why I think I had better keep my submissions going to journals with more open-minded readers.
Getting rejected, however, seems to have lit a fire under me. I spent a couple of hours revising a project that has been accepted, and then I started on a new book chapter tonight. Maybe I thought I would just cruise through the year, getting the now-rejected piece accepted, getting the other piece I sent out last week accepted, appearing productive and smart to friends and colleagues. But boy, when you get a flat out rejection, you realize that you have sunk X amount of time into some sort of whole. All that time and effort might actually result in nothing--only questions like "what have you been doing with your time?"
The rejected piece and the piece I am revising both received some comments that I find especially frustrating as a writer. In both pieces, I explain that I am doing X because of Y, and both pieces had readers say, "no, I don't want you to do that." I am open to the fact that they might be right, but they don't even provide the "y". They just say, "don't do X." And both sets of readers, quite frankly, did not seem to read certain parts of my essay very carefully. Again, I need to remain open minded and accept the fact that maybe the confusion is a writing problem that I can fix, but I sure wish readers would try to read a little more carefully. All these lessons are good ones for me as I am on the verge of collecting some student work.
Getting rejected, however, seems to have lit a fire under me. I spent a couple of hours revising a project that has been accepted, and then I started on a new book chapter tonight. Maybe I thought I would just cruise through the year, getting the now-rejected piece accepted, getting the other piece I sent out last week accepted, appearing productive and smart to friends and colleagues. But boy, when you get a flat out rejection, you realize that you have sunk X amount of time into some sort of whole. All that time and effort might actually result in nothing--only questions like "what have you been doing with your time?"
The rejected piece and the piece I am revising both received some comments that I find especially frustrating as a writer. In both pieces, I explain that I am doing X because of Y, and both pieces had readers say, "no, I don't want you to do that." I am open to the fact that they might be right, but they don't even provide the "y". They just say, "don't do X." And both sets of readers, quite frankly, did not seem to read certain parts of my essay very carefully. Again, I need to remain open minded and accept the fact that maybe the confusion is a writing problem that I can fix, but I sure wish readers would try to read a little more carefully. All these lessons are good ones for me as I am on the verge of collecting some student work.
Saturday, August 20, 2005
things to do
convert my website into a portfolio
get website access for tas
contact tlc about working with powerpoint music video
get irb for semester and beyond
work on fec manual: have sample syllabi ready for adjuncts and others
more on manual: include the first-week material (Activation, Demonstration, Application, Integration), Kolb, Bloom, include lists of further readings (don't waste too much time / space here) include lesson plans, effecitvely written up in terms of goals, ADAI, learning cylce, and expectations of cognitive engagement. Include sample assignments, sample activities: how much is going to be too much? Include maps of 110, 120, 300 level.
Include TA assessment plan, or just treat that as a separate part of program assessment. Need to get around to sharing plan with GTAS.
hmm, I felt like I had more to write, and then it seemed like writing blocked some of my thinking and now I am stuck. I guess I can plan my day tomorrow: prep my week of classes on Monday (ie. print off stuff and assemble as necessary--samples from domains?) prep for vert writing: get the numbers, the flow chart, etc. figured out. look at old docs. Keep some scholarship moving: turn to wireless paper, plan on big T after that, book project for the spring: getting behind again! Oh yeah, student project: formulate four questions, put one GTA in charge of each question, mini-essays of 4 pages as result. Get this one written up.
Need to get out front with 120 readings (White like Me) and EC: some new grad texts.
I think it helps to keep the to-do list fresh!
get website access for tas
contact tlc about working with powerpoint music video
get irb for semester and beyond
work on fec manual: have sample syllabi ready for adjuncts and others
more on manual: include the first-week material (Activation, Demonstration, Application, Integration), Kolb, Bloom, include lists of further readings (don't waste too much time / space here) include lesson plans, effecitvely written up in terms of goals, ADAI, learning cylce, and expectations of cognitive engagement. Include sample assignments, sample activities: how much is going to be too much? Include maps of 110, 120, 300 level.
Include TA assessment plan, or just treat that as a separate part of program assessment. Need to get around to sharing plan with GTAS.
hmm, I felt like I had more to write, and then it seemed like writing blocked some of my thinking and now I am stuck. I guess I can plan my day tomorrow: prep my week of classes on Monday (ie. print off stuff and assemble as necessary--samples from domains?) prep for vert writing: get the numbers, the flow chart, etc. figured out. look at old docs. Keep some scholarship moving: turn to wireless paper, plan on big T after that, book project for the spring: getting behind again! Oh yeah, student project: formulate four questions, put one GTA in charge of each question, mini-essays of 4 pages as result. Get this one written up.
Need to get out front with 120 readings (White like Me) and EC: some new grad texts.
I think it helps to keep the to-do list fresh!
ideas
bring in a wide range of music and ask students to describe music in langauge that fits the genre of music. emphasize this notion of language matching the music. find examples, like the amazon review of Medium is the Massage--hippie talk. try to find a music example as well.
bring in a collection of documents (maybe 5 collections of 10) for day 3: the domains of writing, genre knowledge, basic ability to read and comprehend various documents. I should start / gather one collection as a model, and then ask gtas to each gather a collection, from which we can share resources.
klosterman: start building my rationale for choosing this book for a rhetorical, genre-based program. 1) he is making a lot of arguments. 2) he is working in a genre that a lot of people like to read and write. 3) he uses sources! 4) he addresses various audiences. 5) he is "one of us" writing in the world--he exemplifies the "call to write." 6). he is funny and audacious, but also problematic and disturbing: what could be more complex than that! 7) we don't have to read the whole thing. this is writing that is meant to be relavent, not a monument.
oh, thinking 764 and the second position paper: dig up the Tate-Lindemann exchange, use the Kyburz essay in strategies, Gunner's things fall apart, mabe Geoff Sirc?
bring in a collection of documents (maybe 5 collections of 10) for day 3: the domains of writing, genre knowledge, basic ability to read and comprehend various documents. I should start / gather one collection as a model, and then ask gtas to each gather a collection, from which we can share resources.
klosterman: start building my rationale for choosing this book for a rhetorical, genre-based program. 1) he is making a lot of arguments. 2) he is working in a genre that a lot of people like to read and write. 3) he uses sources! 4) he addresses various audiences. 5) he is "one of us" writing in the world--he exemplifies the "call to write." 6). he is funny and audacious, but also problematic and disturbing: what could be more complex than that! 7) we don't have to read the whole thing. this is writing that is meant to be relavent, not a monument.
oh, thinking 764 and the second position paper: dig up the Tate-Lindemann exchange, use the Kyburz essay in strategies, Gunner's things fall apart, mabe Geoff Sirc?
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
assignment ideas
I think this sequence of courses would work:
1. media deprivation assignment: give up your dominant media, journal and pay attention to the effects, write a "memoir" of the week--the implications, results, effects, etc. a more traditional media memoir would also be good, but I think this one, the everyday, would be better.
2. ppt music video + new literacy commentary. Do the digital immigrants have a clue? analyze some videos?
3. stretch assignment: propose a learning project, do it, make an educational proposal about the role / place of independent, self-direct learning. keeps the journal going.
Very hands-on approach, new literacy focus, might be light on reading but strong on concrete-sequential, pragmatic, sensory.
1. media deprivation assignment: give up your dominant media, journal and pay attention to the effects, write a "memoir" of the week--the implications, results, effects, etc. a more traditional media memoir would also be good, but I think this one, the everyday, would be better.
2. ppt music video + new literacy commentary. Do the digital immigrants have a clue? analyze some videos?
3. stretch assignment: propose a learning project, do it, make an educational proposal about the role / place of independent, self-direct learning. keeps the journal going.
Very hands-on approach, new literacy focus, might be light on reading but strong on concrete-sequential, pragmatic, sensory.
Monday, August 15, 2005
Points to emphasize
1. I am going to ask you to write in different genres, different types of writing, rather than just one or two types of writing all semester with the goal of helping you extend your style, helping you recognize different genres as reader and different conventions for writing. [not concise enough yet]
2. You will be able to draw on personal experience for some assignments, you will need to read and respond to a single text for some of your writing, and you will need to be able to respond to multiple texts in other pieces of writing.
3. You will compile a portfolio of your best work at the end of the semester, giving you a chance to drop one assignment, revise the others, and earn a grade that reflects your abilities.
Okay, those are all boring.
1. We are going to use music as our touchstone because it is easy to work with, of interest to most students, and something you can share.
2. I'll come back later.
all I ended up emphasizing was technology (music video, weblogs, blackboard), and be thoughful, observant, curious. IN TA strategies we generated some interesting ideas, including a list of what students typically think of English, followed by the punch line: in this class we are going to write about and with music, do reviews, media memoirs, and music videos.
The whole "theme song" prompt was a failure across the board: too many students couldn't or wouldn't say anything. Need to revise and rethink. Could also go with "one word" to describe you: a movie character, etc, etc.: maybe more prompts that open things up, but focus on how associations communicate.
2. You will be able to draw on personal experience for some assignments, you will need to read and respond to a single text for some of your writing, and you will need to be able to respond to multiple texts in other pieces of writing.
3. You will compile a portfolio of your best work at the end of the semester, giving you a chance to drop one assignment, revise the others, and earn a grade that reflects your abilities.
Okay, those are all boring.
1. We are going to use music as our touchstone because it is easy to work with, of interest to most students, and something you can share.
2. I'll come back later.
all I ended up emphasizing was technology (music video, weblogs, blackboard), and be thoughful, observant, curious. IN TA strategies we generated some interesting ideas, including a list of what students typically think of English, followed by the punch line: in this class we are going to write about and with music, do reviews, media memoirs, and music videos.
The whole "theme song" prompt was a failure across the board: too many students couldn't or wouldn't say anything. Need to revise and rethink. Could also go with "one word" to describe you: a movie character, etc, etc.: maybe more prompts that open things up, but focus on how associations communicate.
Saturday, August 13, 2005
i've had a productive weekend, if doing a lot of work constitutes a productive weekend. more or less got monday and tuesday figured out, with some finishing touches to add tomorrow. read and sent off review of article--why do I always make those such a high priority? edited my poker paper--need to find the time to make the final changes and then get moving on the next paper. i've been thinking about the Scott McCloud piece a lot lately, so maybe that is the one to go with. tonight I thought--maybe this can be my first Flash essay? I could probably work with Nick to get his photo essay into flash, and flash would probably handle my video. can I really tackle the learning curve, however? seek some expert help? other options seem to be: try saving it in ppt: not likely going to work. set up a nice simple two-panel web page template and treat it like a comic book. I would rather not re-do my big triangle, but perhaps I have to.
i have also been thinking about a wiki book with new media assignments: a kind of writing new media that put the assignments up front and lets the discussion follow. i could contribute my ppt music video, my vcl assignments, the stretch assignment. i would love to get bob c. from georgia to post his wikipedia assignment, betsy's photoshop assignment, and, oh yeah, the call to blog. an old project that died--I could revive it.
oh yeah, I also picked out some christine lavin songs, lyrics, and will add a few tracks to the class soundtrack. feeling pretty good about that. plan to play 30 seconds from each song (X10 = 5 minutes), then ask about the songs they have listened to, what they have taken from them (what they might say about them), which can be followed by listening again to SNAG or other songs as a class, talk about it, going through this process of listening carefully, building an argument in the review. also listed the Metal songs I want to include: maybe I will stop by the office tomorrow? Maybe not?
i have also been thinking about a wiki book with new media assignments: a kind of writing new media that put the assignments up front and lets the discussion follow. i could contribute my ppt music video, my vcl assignments, the stretch assignment. i would love to get bob c. from georgia to post his wikipedia assignment, betsy's photoshop assignment, and, oh yeah, the call to blog. an old project that died--I could revive it.
oh yeah, I also picked out some christine lavin songs, lyrics, and will add a few tracks to the class soundtrack. feeling pretty good about that. plan to play 30 seconds from each song (X10 = 5 minutes), then ask about the songs they have listened to, what they have taken from them (what they might say about them), which can be followed by listening again to SNAG or other songs as a class, talk about it, going through this process of listening carefully, building an argument in the review. also listed the Metal songs I want to include: maybe I will stop by the office tomorrow? Maybe not?
Friday, August 12, 2005
similes, metaphors, quotations
Taking a college writing course is like Tiger Woods retooling his swing: your writing skills might have gotten you this far, but to get to the next level, you need to adjust your approach, consider new strategies, work towards a new and better swing.
"Chester Burnett would have sounded pretty silly singing, 'I am not going down that dirt road by myself' rather than 'I ain't goin' down dirt road by myself.' The former may have been good grammar but it is bad blues."
hartwell's G, G, and Teaching of G says that he and his anti-grammar friends have been accused of being alchemists: making a real problem go away. Johnson is after real magic, the magic of sound; what does Kress say about the way sound bi-passes the intellect?
"Chester Burnett would have sounded pretty silly singing, 'I am not going down that dirt road by myself' rather than 'I ain't goin' down dirt road by myself.' The former may have been good grammar but it is bad blues."
hartwell's G, G, and Teaching of G says that he and his anti-grammar friends have been accused of being alchemists: making a real problem go away. Johnson is after real magic, the magic of sound; what does Kress say about the way sound bi-passes the intellect?
Thursday, August 11, 2005
everything bad is good for you
i finished steven johnson's everything bad is good for you, a nicely argued book that claims "we"--the not so smart, middle-to-lower-segment of the population--are getting smarter because pop culture is getting more complex and demanding. he makes very interesting arguments about the complexity of reality tv coming from its game like elements and coolness--intense viewer involvement (a theory I have shared with many via a mcluhanesque lense--which johnson also uses). he compares shows like the very simple starskey and hutch to the more complex hill street blues to the very complex sopranos: certainly a good formalist analysis of the shows, if lacking viewer data. he makes good arguments that kids immersed in IM, video games, computers, cell phones are not smarter because of the activities they do on those games, but because they are developing the ability and confidence to solve problems and handle a lot of information. I noticed just the other day that when I was asked how to do something on a computer, I had no idea, but I simply started thinking through the likely answers, navigated my way around, and stumbled on the thing we wanted to do. I have noticed that I have, indeed, really developed those skills in the past 10 years. When I first started using computers, I had to call in a technician the first time I ran into a big snag. Now people call me in, and I have no real training with computers. he makes nice qualifications to his arguments, pointing out that he does not think tomb raider will have the cultural staying power of shakespeare, and that the smarter are not getting smarter. he doesn't worry much about the loss of print-based skills, and advocates balanced use of all media.
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
back on the bike
two weeks since I have posted here, although I made a couple of entries on my laptop file. I think about posting regularly, but I have been so busy writing that taking 10 minutes to simple gear up for writing, or push through to write, seemed a distraction or a bad use of time, not a valuable activity. and yet, I would also say that i have been a little more tense, irritable, and difficult the past two weeks--beause I have been busy, for sure, but perhaps because I under-estimated the therapeutic release of writing 10 minutes a day. clearly I will have to be understanding and sympathetic when students have a bit of trouble keeping up with their journals or blogs. i just read an article about an anthropologist who returned to school as an undergrad, taking courses that she hadn't taken as an undergrad, and she found herself struggling to keep up with load, looking for ways to cut corners and stay ahead, including turning in a paper that was a first draft, not an obsessively re-drafted academic essay.
last night some of the gtas were over and were talking about assigning more journals. i think blogging has really brought the activity back to the forefront, and while not for everyone all the time, it sure has good effects most of the time.
I found a copy of "look at your fish" online: I think I will make a list of 10 short essays students can read and respond to as part of 10 mintues a day--if they choose to. Although reading and responding will take closer to 30 ; )
I keep thinking about how to build a list like that with others--time to wiki, i think!
and then I will be sure to come back here more regularly. i do feel a kind of peace has settled over my being. . . .
last night some of the gtas were over and were talking about assigning more journals. i think blogging has really brought the activity back to the forefront, and while not for everyone all the time, it sure has good effects most of the time.
I found a copy of "look at your fish" online: I think I will make a list of 10 short essays students can read and respond to as part of 10 mintues a day--if they choose to. Although reading and responding will take closer to 30 ; )
I keep thinking about how to build a list like that with others--time to wiki, i think!
and then I will be sure to come back here more regularly. i do feel a kind of peace has settled over my being. . . .
Sunday, July 24, 2005
A bunch of notes
I was flipping through the new wired and noticed all sorts of McLuhan-like observations. The U2 tour gets a story with a pull out quote explaining that the show uses infra-red cameras to make the crowd part of the show = rock spectacle as rock happening--no more either or, both/and.
Another article on war bloggers. McLuhan notes in Understanding Media that battlefields contained as many typewrites as weapons, but now, in addition to the communication technologies that kept the war effort functioning effectively, soldiers are now using personal communication technologies to "personalize" the war--extend their experiences, undermine the effort in some cases (one soldier was demoted because of what he wroter), therapy, etc. My brother-in-law called us from his cell phone in Iraq--bringing him and the war directly into our kitchen. I suppose such immediacy brings a mix of comfort and discomfort for most families. No longer is war so easily defined as "over there."
I need to return a book to the library: Amped by David Browne. Didn't get into it, but it looks like a journalistic / media ecology analysis of skateboard scene--the new tribalism swept into the media juggernaut.
And I need to return Donald Norman's Emotional Design: Why we love (or hate) everyday things. Can y'all shout with me "extensions of the self!!" Need to check on his relationship to McLuhan.
Another article on war bloggers. McLuhan notes in Understanding Media that battlefields contained as many typewrites as weapons, but now, in addition to the communication technologies that kept the war effort functioning effectively, soldiers are now using personal communication technologies to "personalize" the war--extend their experiences, undermine the effort in some cases (one soldier was demoted because of what he wroter), therapy, etc. My brother-in-law called us from his cell phone in Iraq--bringing him and the war directly into our kitchen. I suppose such immediacy brings a mix of comfort and discomfort for most families. No longer is war so easily defined as "over there."
I need to return a book to the library: Amped by David Browne. Didn't get into it, but it looks like a journalistic / media ecology analysis of skateboard scene--the new tribalism swept into the media juggernaut.
And I need to return Donald Norman's Emotional Design: Why we love (or hate) everyday things. Can y'all shout with me "extensions of the self!!" Need to check on his relationship to McLuhan.
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
TA Training and goals
I just made a note for the TA Training workshop--I am going to ask the TAs to list 5 goals for the semester. So what are mine?
1. A talkative, engaged class. I know I can't control this one entirely, but last year my 110 was pretty quiet (one student consistently talked), whereas the year before I had good distribution. Work pretty hard on this one.
2. Coach more, instruct less. I feel like my teaching is getting more and more directive, and my comments less supportive and encouraging. I need to get back to coaching.
3. Share more. This relates to #1: my goal is to ask student to produce writing that other students might want to read (reviews, memoirs), and I hope that sharing more leads to a class that knows each other better / well.
4. Meet with students more. I have dropped back to one conference the last few years, but I think 2 might be in order.
5. Discuss more. Another variation on the same thing, I suppose, but as I have gotten more directive and and more specific in my teaching, I have taken away from the discussion element. I still remember a student who said to me my first fall "I like how we sit around and discuss philosophy." I just haven't made much room for that the last few years. I probaby could stand to tell more stories, too--as long as they are good ones!
Oh, and maybe to add a bit of diversity, I want to get more music into the class: a course soundtrack, more playing of and discussing music in class, etc.
1. A talkative, engaged class. I know I can't control this one entirely, but last year my 110 was pretty quiet (one student consistently talked), whereas the year before I had good distribution. Work pretty hard on this one.
2. Coach more, instruct less. I feel like my teaching is getting more and more directive, and my comments less supportive and encouraging. I need to get back to coaching.
3. Share more. This relates to #1: my goal is to ask student to produce writing that other students might want to read (reviews, memoirs), and I hope that sharing more leads to a class that knows each other better / well.
4. Meet with students more. I have dropped back to one conference the last few years, but I think 2 might be in order.
5. Discuss more. Another variation on the same thing, I suppose, but as I have gotten more directive and and more specific in my teaching, I have taken away from the discussion element. I still remember a student who said to me my first fall "I like how we sit around and discuss philosophy." I just haven't made much room for that the last few years. I probaby could stand to tell more stories, too--as long as they are good ones!
Oh, and maybe to add a bit of diversity, I want to get more music into the class: a course soundtrack, more playing of and discussing music in class, etc.
Monday, July 18, 2005
The Biggest Game in Town
Finished A. Alvarez's book over the past few days--an account of 4 weeks in vegas for the 1981 WSOP, with plenty of background on the game and players. Brunson heavily featured, Jack Straus, the more philosophical but less well known Mickey Appleman, who provides the Freudian analysis of poker as sublimation. The virtuallity of the whole experience strongly emphasized: money means nothing, the chips practically mean nothing, being totally involved in anything becomes crucial (if there isn't a bet on something it is of no interest to these players), the "straight world" is almost non-existent, unknownn to these players. One didn't know there was a war in Vietnam, the election of Carter got almost no response from players or from the Vegas paper.
Alvarez mentioned the no clock factor, which I have known about for quite a while, but it made me realize that I should probably take a look at the clock chapter from UM as well as the others I have already re-read.
I also visualized the Understanding Games project as a full length project: a chapter on poker, on extreme sports, on professionalism / amateurism (probably one chapter, not two), probably an early chapter just on games and technology, games as extensions. Maybe I need to think sections, because games and media are obvious of great importance these days. Oh yeah, a chapter on video games, and perhaps a chapter "life is not a game." What seems to be happening to most of these players is that they do make that switch over and lose some significant grounding, although Appleman who isn't married says the married players have a certain grounding in wife and kids. Perhaps a tenuous and strained grounding, a relationship with a co-dependent person. Which is not to say I want to argue against games--perhaps they simply are very prone to overheating. The escape factor, the fantasy factor, is very tempting, dangerous, and not so unreasonable. Religion offers escape, games offer escape, art and creativity offer escape.
Why is it that we need to stay grounded? To not ignore our material conditions? To help others better there material conditions. To not be self-indulgent? Which is perhaps why players want to recruit others to their games. I have noticed a certain evangelical rhetoric emerging among the poker players. Liberation theology? Perhaps a chapter on religion (closely connected to sport and play). Perhaps a chapter on politics--increasingly a specator sport, and as the poker players say, American democracy requires a $10,000 buy-in.
New long range plan: M for C, UG. Guess I had better get that first project moving again!
Alvarez mentioned the no clock factor, which I have known about for quite a while, but it made me realize that I should probably take a look at the clock chapter from UM as well as the others I have already re-read.
I also visualized the Understanding Games project as a full length project: a chapter on poker, on extreme sports, on professionalism / amateurism (probably one chapter, not two), probably an early chapter just on games and technology, games as extensions. Maybe I need to think sections, because games and media are obvious of great importance these days. Oh yeah, a chapter on video games, and perhaps a chapter "life is not a game." What seems to be happening to most of these players is that they do make that switch over and lose some significant grounding, although Appleman who isn't married says the married players have a certain grounding in wife and kids. Perhaps a tenuous and strained grounding, a relationship with a co-dependent person. Which is not to say I want to argue against games--perhaps they simply are very prone to overheating. The escape factor, the fantasy factor, is very tempting, dangerous, and not so unreasonable. Religion offers escape, games offer escape, art and creativity offer escape.
Why is it that we need to stay grounded? To not ignore our material conditions? To help others better there material conditions. To not be self-indulgent? Which is perhaps why players want to recruit others to their games. I have noticed a certain evangelical rhetoric emerging among the poker players. Liberation theology? Perhaps a chapter on religion (closely connected to sport and play). Perhaps a chapter on politics--increasingly a specator sport, and as the poker players say, American democracy requires a $10,000 buy-in.
New long range plan: M for C, UG. Guess I had better get that first project moving again!
Saturday, July 16, 2005
finished FRC
Finished reading Klosterman's first book--looking forward to reading the other two. Got to see some themes popping up that he has since re-worked: guilty pleasures shows up in FRC, as does the notion that some of these stars are so open they can be completed by fans in just about anyway. K. uses that argument for Lenny Kravitz, if I remember correctly, the same argument he used a couple of years later for Britany Spears. Not that re-using the argument is a bad thing. Some stars work that way--what McLuhan might call "low intensity stars," while others are specific and filled out--high intensity, I suppose.
K.'s obsession with cool rose to the surface: clearer all the time. He concludes by accepting that he is not cool, but GNR and other metal bands helped him live a virtual reality in which, by association, he got to experience coolness. Hipsters are not cool. Living by total id, it seems, is cool; living without pretension, living in the quest of pure pleasure (booze, drugs, sex) is cool. Liking what you like is cool (somehow "what you like" is natural--doing what comes naturally). This belief in an id and natural pleasures that are somehow outside of socially constructed values seems core to K.'s views. Yet he throws around deconstruction in a couple of places. If K. is the affective critic of the 21st century, the affective critic is not bound by rigorous or consistent terminology: too much of a print-based value.
Or, to take another angle, if learning to write like television (Ulmer's electracy) is learning to write like K., some of the core strategies seem to be:
--include yourself in the story (K. even explains that rock criticism is always about the rock critic)
--reject intellectualism, or at least the kind of the intellectualism that threatens to make you look stupid
--reject anti-intellectualism by making arguments for the intelligence of anti-intellectual art
--eliminate the theory-practice gap: all practice, reckless use of theory
Not sure this list is really going anywhere. Must go look up affective criticism.
K.'s obsession with cool rose to the surface: clearer all the time. He concludes by accepting that he is not cool, but GNR and other metal bands helped him live a virtual reality in which, by association, he got to experience coolness. Hipsters are not cool. Living by total id, it seems, is cool; living without pretension, living in the quest of pure pleasure (booze, drugs, sex) is cool. Liking what you like is cool (somehow "what you like" is natural--doing what comes naturally). This belief in an id and natural pleasures that are somehow outside of socially constructed values seems core to K.'s views. Yet he throws around deconstruction in a couple of places. If K. is the affective critic of the 21st century, the affective critic is not bound by rigorous or consistent terminology: too much of a print-based value.
Or, to take another angle, if learning to write like television (Ulmer's electracy) is learning to write like K., some of the core strategies seem to be:
--include yourself in the story (K. even explains that rock criticism is always about the rock critic)
--reject intellectualism, or at least the kind of the intellectualism that threatens to make you look stupid
--reject anti-intellectualism by making arguments for the intelligence of anti-intellectual art
--eliminate the theory-practice gap: all practice, reckless use of theory
Not sure this list is really going anywhere. Must go look up affective criticism.
Friday, July 15, 2005
Klosterman II
Still working on course prep, still working on Klosterman. Read his article in Esquire about / with Britney Spears, including his McLuhanesque line that Britney's image is so contradictory and ill defined that everyone and anyone gets to assign her the meaning they most desire: hero to 12 year olds, porn star to their older brother, the reason young women hate themselves to young women, and the slightly creepy line that explains why the guy who hates Chuck thinks he has the mind of a childmolester: dads wish Britney would come to a sleep over with their 12 year old daughter.
But to the point. I read another article about Guilty Pleasures where CK starts out decrying the evils of anti-intellectualism (which surprised me a bit), but he followed it up with his more familiar criticism of feinged intellectualism. He goes on to attack the catch phrase "guilty pleasure" because he thinks guilty pleasure should be reserved for sleeping with your ex-girlfriend's roommate, and it should not be used for things like enjoying the Patrick Swayze movie Road House. Prented intellectualism, he seems to argue, is the result of not enjoying the enjoyable things in life. "It never matters what you like; what matters is why you like it."
He also says that pretend intellectualism leads to anti-populism, which is maybe what he is always arguing for: a ND retrieved populism that does't mean bucking the corporate master in the way good old ND populism did, but it means something like "let me enjoy my pop culture because I take great pleasure in it, and don't try to make me feel like a dumb-ass (i.e. guilty) for liking this pop culture." I am starting to hear in his tone a lot of ND defensiveness--and perhaps that defensiveness plays everywhere because he is usually making an argument for the most popular, the best selling, the most mass of the mass culture. ND is everywhere.
Possible formula: "Liberal" media (hipsters) makes the masses feel stupid, "conservative" media makes the masses nervous about their sins, the "masses" consume but do not produce the mass media. 'Cept CK. Probably wrong again.
Oh, and what would JR do with CK's obsession with coolness?
But to the point. I read another article about Guilty Pleasures where CK starts out decrying the evils of anti-intellectualism (which surprised me a bit), but he followed it up with his more familiar criticism of feinged intellectualism. He goes on to attack the catch phrase "guilty pleasure" because he thinks guilty pleasure should be reserved for sleeping with your ex-girlfriend's roommate, and it should not be used for things like enjoying the Patrick Swayze movie Road House. Prented intellectualism, he seems to argue, is the result of not enjoying the enjoyable things in life. "It never matters what you like; what matters is why you like it."
He also says that pretend intellectualism leads to anti-populism, which is maybe what he is always arguing for: a ND retrieved populism that does't mean bucking the corporate master in the way good old ND populism did, but it means something like "let me enjoy my pop culture because I take great pleasure in it, and don't try to make me feel like a dumb-ass (i.e. guilty) for liking this pop culture." I am starting to hear in his tone a lot of ND defensiveness--and perhaps that defensiveness plays everywhere because he is usually making an argument for the most popular, the best selling, the most mass of the mass culture. ND is everywhere.
Possible formula: "Liberal" media (hipsters) makes the masses feel stupid, "conservative" media makes the masses nervous about their sins, the "masses" consume but do not produce the mass media. 'Cept CK. Probably wrong again.
Oh, and what would JR do with CK's obsession with coolness?
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Klosterman
Pretty immersed in planning 110 right now; thinking about Klosterman as the first "affective" critic of the 21st century. Affect is the hot buzz word in pedagogy right now, but I haven't exactly seen it applied to writing, a style of writing, a kind of writing that is generally dismissed as emotional, sentimental, etc. He has been described as a "fanboy," fans and critics of his write about his enthusiasm, his optimism, David Byrne is quoted on the back cover as saying that Klosterman writes about how hair music feels, how our media saturated lives feel, and that seems to be a pretty ringing endorsement for Klosterman as affective critic. Oh yeah, and the feeling is in the details.
The affective critic would have some sort of relationship to the organic critic, but I will have to figure out what that is.
Sirc's writing strikes me as "affective," I like how it sounds, how it feels. He is hard on the voiceless, bodiless prose of academic writing.
These tensions continue to bump and grind in the way that tensions between professionalism and anti-professionalism or amateurism always bump and grind. The dynamic is give and take, not a matter of drawing lines in the sand. Sirc's affective writing, alt.dis movements, the personal in the academic, have all pushed the line of professionalism back, which then raises the question: if affective writing becomes the dominant prose style in the field, is it still anti-professional? I guess McLuhan would just say figure and ground have reversed, and that a call for professionalism--perhaps in a new form?--will return.
The pragmatic question is: will affective criticism do the work we want it to do? It does seem to be writing that is more like television, more like electracy; oh yeah, K. has written a MyStory. The formula: personal encounter / personal significance, cultural perception, cultural perception re-considered.
The affective critic would have some sort of relationship to the organic critic, but I will have to figure out what that is.
Sirc's writing strikes me as "affective," I like how it sounds, how it feels. He is hard on the voiceless, bodiless prose of academic writing.
These tensions continue to bump and grind in the way that tensions between professionalism and anti-professionalism or amateurism always bump and grind. The dynamic is give and take, not a matter of drawing lines in the sand. Sirc's affective writing, alt.dis movements, the personal in the academic, have all pushed the line of professionalism back, which then raises the question: if affective writing becomes the dominant prose style in the field, is it still anti-professional? I guess McLuhan would just say figure and ground have reversed, and that a call for professionalism--perhaps in a new form?--will return.
The pragmatic question is: will affective criticism do the work we want it to do? It does seem to be writing that is more like television, more like electracy; oh yeah, K. has written a MyStory. The formula: personal encounter / personal significance, cultural perception, cultural perception re-considered.
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Thinking about teaching
I have spent most of the last six weeks working on conference presentations and essays for publication, but for the next two weeks, I plan to focus on prepping my composition class and my TA training class. I was just working on my 10 minute a day assignment, which prompted me to come to my blog and think through all my tasks.
I have the syllabus more or less ready to go, and I am starting to work through the daily plans. Day one and two are in good shape, but #3 was scattered and way too ambitious. I think I have got it worked out. Trying to keep things straightforward is always a challenge, and the first few weeks of a course are always tricky because I always want to immerse my students in information--I need to work on the pacing. Slowing down too much can be the opposite problem--if students are primarily immersed in high-speed electronic culture, the two options are either to "pick up the pace" or convince students that the classroom is a "time to think." I haven't used that distinction before--i should give it a try. I should try to track down that David Brooks one page editorial.
Will have lots of work to do with unit 2: teaching FRC for the first time. The new TAs seem excited about using it, and I had a fun conversation with my neice this weekend who just saw Motley Crue in WPg--front row seats with backstage passes. I think my neice is exactly the same age as Klosterman--I wonder if I am just 3-5 years too old for the metal scene? I know that by 1984 I was listening to the Talking Heads, so I am thinking that I might have been pretty immune to metal by then. I had tried Led Zepplin and a bit of AC/DC, but neither really worked for me. I actually don't mind either of them now--maybe I do see more of the humor and less of the bombasticness (is that a word?).
I have the syllabus more or less ready to go, and I am starting to work through the daily plans. Day one and two are in good shape, but #3 was scattered and way too ambitious. I think I have got it worked out. Trying to keep things straightforward is always a challenge, and the first few weeks of a course are always tricky because I always want to immerse my students in information--I need to work on the pacing. Slowing down too much can be the opposite problem--if students are primarily immersed in high-speed electronic culture, the two options are either to "pick up the pace" or convince students that the classroom is a "time to think." I haven't used that distinction before--i should give it a try. I should try to track down that David Brooks one page editorial.
Will have lots of work to do with unit 2: teaching FRC for the first time. The new TAs seem excited about using it, and I had a fun conversation with my neice this weekend who just saw Motley Crue in WPg--front row seats with backstage passes. I think my neice is exactly the same age as Klosterman--I wonder if I am just 3-5 years too old for the metal scene? I know that by 1984 I was listening to the Talking Heads, so I am thinking that I might have been pretty immune to metal by then. I had tried Led Zepplin and a bit of AC/DC, but neither really worked for me. I actually don't mind either of them now--maybe I do see more of the humor and less of the bombasticness (is that a word?).
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
cybriety
Read and interesting essay by Tony Tremblay--brought Freud and McLuhan together to argue that the Internet, as a new technology, a new extension of the self and specifically the nervous system, is an autoerotic technology. Puts the internet in the historical context of the novel and film--both had similar autoerotics properties when first introduced, then regulated (censored, hence cybriety), and then split in roughly two directions: mainstream art and underground. Interesting history of how the film industry fought censorship in the 1970s in order to take advantage of the sensual / voyeuristic properties of film at a time when the industry suffered. Tremblay suspects that the Internet is and will go throught similar patterns--autoerotic, largely unregulated, gives way to regulated mainstream and underground sites. Tremblay also draws on McLuhan's plea to understand media more effectively, and perhaps to disrupt this historical pattern in ways that productively draw on a better understanding of this emerging technology.
Trying to think about how this article will help me understand online poker. All sorts of social stigma associated with poker, and specificially going to the public poker rooms, is removed from online poker (more or less). The pleasure of the game--simple, fast, engaging, erotic--now penetrates wider spectrum of players, drives the poker train. The issue of regulation is hot--still technically not legal in the US, states like ND have debated whether or not to become the hub of legal online gambling, but the state legislature just turned it down this spring, largely based on moral arguments trumping economic arguments, although some argue that a gambling economy is never a good economy. I guess Tremblay's piece should help us understand the regulation issue somewhat: if we understand what the technology is enabling/enhancing, what it is being obsolesced, what is retrieved, what is reversed, we can atleast have a starting point for regulating (or not) online gambling in effective ways. Sin taxes would be a start, although very anti-American. Re-channeling the intellect and energy that is going into online gambling would be useful, but perhaps not realistic. Not letting it go underground /offshore is perhaps a good first step--the marijuana argument, I guess. Put in the context of American moral conservatism, online poker is going to be an interesting challenging to the religous right.
Trying to think about how this article will help me understand online poker. All sorts of social stigma associated with poker, and specificially going to the public poker rooms, is removed from online poker (more or less). The pleasure of the game--simple, fast, engaging, erotic--now penetrates wider spectrum of players, drives the poker train. The issue of regulation is hot--still technically not legal in the US, states like ND have debated whether or not to become the hub of legal online gambling, but the state legislature just turned it down this spring, largely based on moral arguments trumping economic arguments, although some argue that a gambling economy is never a good economy. I guess Tremblay's piece should help us understand the regulation issue somewhat: if we understand what the technology is enabling/enhancing, what it is being obsolesced, what is retrieved, what is reversed, we can atleast have a starting point for regulating (or not) online gambling in effective ways. Sin taxes would be a start, although very anti-American. Re-channeling the intellect and energy that is going into online gambling would be useful, but perhaps not realistic. Not letting it go underground /offshore is perhaps a good first step--the marijuana argument, I guess. Put in the context of American moral conservatism, online poker is going to be an interesting challenging to the religous right.
Monday, July 04, 2005
school is back in session
Not exactly, but it is July, and I will be changing my work pattern from "all research, all the time," to class prep plus research. I really want to get myself organized for class prep, and what better way to do that than a blog list?
110: where am I at?
My review unit is in pretty good shape--review class preps, gather more materials, perhaps refine some class activities. Informal review: voice, style, insert readers. RS review: voice + analysis; comparison. Formal review: music, lyrics, image. Well, style, style, style anyway. Write some reviews of my own. Get the whole Johnny cash class ironed out a bit--develop the materials, use the web. Do more good exercises. Play around. Get them to work with words.
Finish FRC, figure out everything, write my own memoir, contact Klosterman. Emphasize reading in this unit. From description to analysis, making arguments, the K. way!
New literacy: settle on readings right away. Get the video project instructions set up more clearly. Wow--have I really taught this class before?
Oh yeah, other random notes: start with a 5 factors blank sheet--get students to fill it out on the first or second day. Maybe do so again mid-term, plus start to add additional terms. Make the final exam closed, no notes, fill out sheet again.
A bunch of other things to do:
collect the info on grades for the grade inflation talk.
start working on a website / bb site: map them out, figure them out.
do more to plan the future 110 and 120. Figure out where to start and what to use.
Get back to work on TA Strategies.
Do more with ongoing TA assessment.
That's enough--no sense spoiling a 4th of July holiday!
110: where am I at?
My review unit is in pretty good shape--review class preps, gather more materials, perhaps refine some class activities. Informal review: voice, style, insert readers. RS review: voice + analysis; comparison. Formal review: music, lyrics, image. Well, style, style, style anyway. Write some reviews of my own. Get the whole Johnny cash class ironed out a bit--develop the materials, use the web. Do more good exercises. Play around. Get them to work with words.
Finish FRC, figure out everything, write my own memoir, contact Klosterman. Emphasize reading in this unit. From description to analysis, making arguments, the K. way!
New literacy: settle on readings right away. Get the video project instructions set up more clearly. Wow--have I really taught this class before?
Oh yeah, other random notes: start with a 5 factors blank sheet--get students to fill it out on the first or second day. Maybe do so again mid-term, plus start to add additional terms. Make the final exam closed, no notes, fill out sheet again.
A bunch of other things to do:
collect the info on grades for the grade inflation talk.
start working on a website / bb site: map them out, figure them out.
do more to plan the future 110 and 120. Figure out where to start and what to use.
Get back to work on TA Strategies.
Do more with ongoing TA assessment.
That's enough--no sense spoiling a 4th of July holiday!
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