Crafting Authority

all: morning roundup

2010-04-27T08:58:00.000-05:00

Disturbing new video for M.I.A.'s single "Born Free." So disturbing in fact that I'm not going to link to it. It was taken down from YouTube, I presume because of content. It's a scathing critique of American military action and British anti-redhead sentiment, which seems odd to type but works shockingly well in the video. But it's horrifically violent and decidedly not safe for work, and I really shouldn't have watched it with breakfast.

On a happier, brighter note: Charlie Davies might be able to play for the USMNT in the World Cup. He was in a terrible car accident back in October that we all thought put him out until after South Africa. But apparently he's made excellent progress. Here's the Gray Lady's Q & A.

And Chuck is back!

politics: chickens

2010-04-23T15:02:00.001-05:00

Sue Lowden, GOP political candidate for the Nevada senate race, has suggested that an effective form of payment for health care services would be a barter system. Her example was, like, you know, we could exchange a chicken for an annual check up or something. The good folks over at TPM have been tracking this story, and Josh Marshall has just provided this great link to the Lowden Plan. It takes common medical procedures and calculates how many chickens you'll need. Get breast cancer, no worries, just bring 3494 chickens.

One or two questions though, since Tyson processes 41.4 million chickens per week, are we going to run them out of business now that we'll be diverting chickens from food processing to health care? Do we need to raise more chickens? And what about city dwellers and those pesky no livestock within the city limits ordinances? And, what are those doctors going to end up doing with all that livestock? Sell them on to Tyson at an inflated price? Just thinking this through to its logical conclusion here.

epistemic closure

2010-04-22T08:51:00.000-05:00

So, a mini-battle about epistemic closure has emerged on the conservative side of our political conversation. Essentially, some conservative pundits--most notably Ross Douthat--have been arguing for an increased willingness among conservative thinkers to self correct, to call bad arguments and fallacious statements among their own as well as among liberals. The idea is that conservative thinkers--all thinkers really--need to hone their ideas through rigorous debate between and among others. Epistemic closure occurs when everyone nods and goes along with ridiculous arguments for the sake of supporting an overarching ideological movement.

Taking up the gantlet, as it were, is Jim Manzi at the NRO's the Corner. He essentially fisks Mark Levin's chapter in Liberty and Tyranny on global warming. It's, well, gloriously sharp, witty, and absolutely skewers Levin's misuse of facts and information. Well, not everyone else over at the Corner was too terribly pleased to say the least; wagon circling has ensued. Andrew Sullivan, of course, has all the links.

the victorians in the digital age

2010-04-21T07:21:00.000-05:00

I'm currently working an a talk I'm giving on Thursday called the Victorians in the Digital Age. It's, as the title implies, about the circulation of Victorian periodicals in cyberspace, but it's also tangentially about the ways we re-conceive the Victorians today. It's a massive deep think piece really, and I'm afraid it's utterly geeky in many ways. Taking what I do and explaining it to an audience completely unfamiliar with the whole concept of a Victorian periodical or even a field called periodical studies is a daunting task. Plus, I'm trying to put together a power point presentation that will make the whole thing at least visually relevant.

Since my brain is currently on overload and highly under caffeinated, I won't discuss the larger project yet--more to come.

forms traced by light

2010-04-19T13:11:00.000-05:00

Despite the almost year absence, I have missed this space. So, here I go tentatively restarting this blog. I blame Kate Flint. She's a scholar at Rutgers who I heard speak at BWWC in College Station a few weeks ago. She's, for lack of a better term, the scholarly equivalent of a rock star. Her talk on reading practices and the kinds of book nineteenth-century travelers took with them was fascinating, multi-layered, and far reaching.

We also all discovered that Professor Flint has a blog called forms traced by light. I've now added it to my RSS feed, and I figure if she can maintain a blog, then I should be able to as well. Or at least do so with more continuity and dedication.

film: the ugly truth

2009-07-28T13:44:00.003-05:00

Sigh. I love my best friend; she truly is the best foul weather friend you can have. She has my back all the way, but she like romantic comedies. Now, I do too. I admit I actually own a dvd copy of Return to Me (yes, the film about the heart transplant; it's the old people kvetching about the various merits of Dean Martin versus Sinatra that does it for me). But, I like romantic comedies to be less paint by numbers. (See the old people in Return to Me.) But my best friend will go see anything as long as it has a big enough star and her office will talk about it the next week. This is how I got stuck seeing He's Just Not that in to You (somewhere in there is a touching indie film about Ben Affleck and Jennifer Aniston's characters), and how I also got stuck seeing The Ugly Truth.

Chris Orr of the New Republic pretty much covers all the bases here, but I think he gives the film too little time. I say that because I think he's right about how much more sexist this film is than Knocked Up, a film I still found sexist (really, did Leslie Mann's character have to be a shrill harridan), but also funny. I think this kind of vilification of career women as both inept and stupid, for lack of a better term, for looking for more in a mate is part of a growing trend of romantic comedies aimed at both genders. Katherine Heigl's Abby is a horrific, narcisstic control freak. It's Bridget Jones on acid with a successful career thrown in. Abby's success as a producer--an astute ability to read situations as well as what an audience wants--does not translate into her personal life in any other way except for her being a micromanaging control freak. In other words, because she's successful professional, she can't be successful in a relationship. Apparently, what makes Abby good at her job--an eye for detail--makes her horrible for relationships, which just makes no sense at all. It's like she's too different characters. I'm sure there's a lot of humor to be found in the oftentimes conflicting messages women receive about where to place their priorities; this movie just doesn't provide any of that humor.

At least we've stopped the pummeling of male leads in romantic comedies, a trend that irked me to no end. Why on earth do producers think people want to see a male romantic lead utterly berated, demoralized, and emasculated? I'm looking at you Ben Stiller. I didn't mind the stereotyping of Mike as a boorish male quite so much, in part because we get a little information about why he's so boorish--a string of bad relationships--and we see him as a decent father figure to his nephew. It's faint praise to be sure, and despite the depth Gerard Butler milks out of the character (helped by Craig Ferguson), Mike is almost as flat as Abby. But with no explanation for Abby's split character, it's impossible for Katherine Heigel to do anything with the role except stand there and read lines while in great clothes. The end exchange is the only place the movie can go because there is absolutely no character development, meaning that there is no reason for these two people to wind up together. "I have no goddamn idea" is the only thing the film can offer. Where's a copy of Bringing Up Baby, Roman Holiday, or even Return to Me when you need it?

film: tron and the life cycle

2009-07-24T10:38:00.003-05:00

I'd just totally had a fan girl moment when I saw the above picture of the Tron life cycle on Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood. I forget how much I liked that movie as a kid, which is a little strange, because I totally resisted watching it until my brother made me. And then I feel for Jeff Bridges's gravelly voice and irascible Flynn. I even liked the fact that Flynn didn't get the girl in the end or even really save the day, one of the few moments of the 80s anti-hero that worked for me. (The fact that Chuck Bartowski has a Tron poster helped to make that character for me; well, Zachary Levi doesn't hurt, but I do notice set dressing.)

Apparently, they're making a sequel. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about that. Probably less worried than if someone told me they were making a sequel to the Last Starfighter, one of my all time favorite cheesy scifi films from the 80s. Oh crap, there's another movie night for J and me to add to the Ghostbuster double feature Sat. and the British gangster film triple feature of Layer Cake, Rocknrolla, and In Bruges.

language:soda, coke, or pop

2009-07-10T08:57:00.003-05:00

Living in Texas means you refer to your soft drink of choice as a coke, even if you're drinking Dr Pepper or any other kind of soft drink. And while I knew calling soft drinks pop tended to be a Midwestern idiom, I didn't fully realize how regional the different things you call sugary carbonated beverages happened to be. Here's the map:

http://popvssoda.com:2998/countystats/total-county.html

I think this works from country to country too, judging by the fact that they call Spirte lemonade in the Australian primetime soap, McLeod's Daughters. I've learned more slang from that show.

blog: hello kitty tasers

2009-07-08T13:42:00.004-05:00

The last thing I really need is another blog to read (nevermind the contradiction in writing one), but thanks to Chris Orr at the New Republic, I've discovered Topless Robot. I read the funniest take down of the plot of the new Transformers film, but I was hooked because of the post on the Hello Kitty Taser.

I'm not a violent person, and I would normally not even consider owning a taser....but I kind of want one now.

england: witches apply

2009-07-08T10:10:00.002-05:00

In the annals of strange newsreports via the BBC, Wookey Hole in Somerset is hiring a witch. Yep, a witch. Someone to live in a cave and do witchy things. For 50,000 per year. I'm so in the wrong profession.

tele: Mrs Slocombe

2009-07-02T11:40:00.002-05:00

Mollie Sugden, the incomparable actress who plays Mrs. Slocombe on Are You Being Served? has passed away. BBC obituary is here.

Are You Being Served? was one of my favorite British comedies as a child. My father loved television, and he loved British sit coms. We would watch all the British comedies on PBS on Sunday nights. Mrs. Slocombe's poufy, wildly dyed hair and old fashioned manners made me laugh. She was always spot on absurd and just the little bit irrevently joyful.

film: the hangover

2009-07-01T10:36:00.002-05:00

A cross between a Quentin Tarantino film circa 4 Rooms and a Judd Apatow bromance comedy with the stoner jokes excised, the Hangover wasn't actually as bad as I thought a comedy about a bachelor party gone awry in Las Vegas could have been. No where near as funny as Forgetting Sarah Marshall (that could have something to do with my affection for Jason Segel and the abusrd brillance of the Dracula puppet musical), but it had a certain charm. I liked the fact that although the movie was about a bachelor party (and as the closing credits explicitly shows, strippers and sex were involved), the film itself nearly eschews all mention of marriage being a killer of masculinity. There's one bit of dialogue with Bradely Cooper's character discussing how marriage will kill the groom slowly, but it's played for laughs not for seriousness. (Plus, I have a hard time buying Cooper as a complete reprobate; the first two seasons of Alias pretty much have cemented him as a good guy in my head.) The film never reinforces this motif; in fact, his character seems like a happily married man and father at the end. Ed Helm's character shouldn't marry his obnoxious, controlling girlfriend, but the film doesn't make this a point about marriage in general, just about the girlfirend. I both liked and disliked the fact that Doug (Justin Bartha) ended up stuck on the roof for a day and a half. Smartly (and here the Tarantino comparison comes in) nothing that was shown in the scene of the hotel room, except for the chicken, goes unexplained. This narrative tightness and closure gives the film momentum. The fact that the film spend most of its time tracing the night of debauchery versus actually showing it helps here. There is a lightness to the film that it would lose; the closing credit coda actually reinforces that. The story of the aftermath is much better than the story of how they got there.

politics: gail collins's new niche

2009-06-25T15:16:00.002-05:00

I think Gail Collins might have a new niche in the sphere of political commentary: lambasting loony politicians. Her spot on analysis of the Mark Sanford situation is here. Althougth, she should have added Rick Perry to the loony governor list.

football: nicknames

2009-06-25T14:58:00.002-05:00

So why can't the USA have a cool nickname like Bafana Bafana or the Socceroos. UMNT just doesn't have a single ounce of coolness to it.

And yes, I realize three football posts in one day from somone who has not blogged in over year is both obsessive and overload.

football: the political argument

2009-06-25T13:44:00.003-05:00

Apparently even a soccer match, even an important one, cannot occur without the attendant political commentary from the right and the left. Gary Schmidt's argument that Americans don't follow football seems superious at best. I know he's streching for that old canard that because the socialist nations in Europe and Latin America play soccer, Americans need to abhor the sport, but his point about football not being democratic because it allows dogged teams to prevent other, presumably better teams from scoring is just plain odd. I'll admit the USA didn't attack anywhere near as much as Spain did, but they just plain out defended them.

football: tim howard

2009-06-25T13:25:00.002-05:00

It's no secret that part of the reason I watch international football has markedly less to do with national pride and more to do with, well, the cuteness of the players. I've had a soft spot for footballers ever since that 8 am calculus class with half of my undergraduate soccer team. So, it's not suprising that I find Tim Howard attractive.

I find the whole USMNT dropped dead gorgeous, however, when they manage to pull off wins like they did against Spain yesterday in Bloemfontein, South Africa. (Side bar: I'm really enjoying saying the word Bloemfontein for unknown reasons.) It was remarkable. They shouldn't have won. They had just slinked their way into the semi-finals. As much as I love the USMNT, they weren't the best team on the field last night. They didn't control the ball, they didn't have the finesse of Spain, or the speed. But, none of that mattered. They held the line. The whole team held the line, diving in front of balls, players, and everything else. Tim Howard was a big part of that.

sanford

2009-06-24T15:15:00.002-05:00

When I thought Mark Sanford's disappearance was, well, just a guy ducking out of being governor for a week, it was amusing. It was fun to speculate on just what took this guy to Argentina and how he would go about ditching his security detail. Now that I know it was about an affair, it's gone from being a funny story about politicians run amok to being sordid in the worst possible way. I can't help but feel sorry for all involved and angry about a culture that requires repentant confessions from public figures without really listening to them. Gail Collins had a great column on this when Eliot Spitzer made his confession last summer, and thank you Sanford for not putting your wife on camera with you to share in your public humiliation. Sanford's political career is probably over, and I kind of miss the blase guy I had in my head who said "see you suckahs later" and hopped on a plane to Buenos Aires.

film: the dark knight

2008-07-18T09:58:00.003-05:00

I, like many, saw a midnight showing of Chris Nolan's The Dark Knight. Chris Vognar's assessment that the films is perhaps the "first hybrid of novel and all-out action move" is spot on. I actually told my brother last night that it was like a baggy Victorian novel; Dickens crossed with Wilkie Collins. There came a point where it felt too long--as all Victorian novels do--but then it made complete sense why the narrative included that last arc. The acting is superb, with Christian Bale still beautifully shading the three facets of the character--the Batman, the Bruce Wayne, and Bruce. I found Ledger's performance almost unbearably creepy and disturbing; I frequently had to hide my eyes before his masterful take on anarchy. Eckhart's performance as Harvey Dent is probably going to be overlooked, as self-righteous characters often are, but I think his work here--and the way that Nolan is able to work his theme of heroism vs. stewardship--is the glue that holds the film together. It isn't a film about good vs. evil; heroism vs. anarchy; rather, the Dark Knight is about the reality of living where those categories cannot function. This is the dichotomy that the Joker and Dent work in, but Bruce doesn't operate in this world of absolutes. It helps that I watched Batman Begins again before seeing the Dark Knight, which delineates a lot of this idealistic vs. realistic discourse. Bruce has moral lines he won't cross, but they aren't idealistic ones per se. Not being idealistic, they are harder to see but also harder to break. Dent is an idealist. He reminded me a lot of Sydney Bristow in Alias, actually. Self righteous, cocky. Where Sydney almost always had to eat her idealistic words, however, Dent is instead broken into two. In many ways, Dent becomes what Batman could easily have become: a broken, righteous vigilante. Somehow Bruce, because of his father, because of Rachel, because of Alfred, because of his time spent as a criminal, avoids this trap. He has other demons to face down, but Bruce cannot be self righteous. Neither can Gordon. Neither can anyone else. Dent is so much the white knight that he is absolutely blinded by his own moral absolutes. Consequently, he is much easier to push over the edge than Bruce, who almost, but doesn't quite, break. Such prettiness--both of morality and physicality (Eckhart is at his chiseled best here)--is the perfect mirror for the Joker's deranged, dark nihilism. Then of course, there is Bruce, at the end, committing self sacrifice to save the city that will never comprehend the measure of his gift to them or the pain that goes with it.

politics: throwing around the marxist label and sweater making

2008-07-03T09:02:00.002-05:00

So, I keep hearing the words Marxist and Marxism coming out of the right to describe Obama and pretty much everyone else on the left. The term is usually written in a hyperbolic style meant to strike to fear in the heart: "He's a Marxist, for crying out loud." I have two queries about this phenomonon: 1) Does this term still resonate in the way? and 2) Which Marxisms are we discussing? I mean I don't immediately jump to visions of the Cold War when I hear the word Marxist, just visions of sad hippies and anti-hippies trying to recreate their youth. Admittedly, I work in academia, which supposedly makes me some kind of indocrtinated drone. Nevertheless, no one has told me that I need to subscribe to Marxist political theories. I actually think Karl Marx is a horrible writer; Engles had the better grasp of prose and economics. Of course, I also think Marx needs to be read in context. Both Marx and Engles were writing during the Hungry 40s, or the 1840s, when the plight of the working class was between dying of starvation and well, dying of starvation. Nor were Marx and Engles the only ones to address the condition of England question or to call for a radical rethinking of the system. I prefer Gaskell's stewardship model, actually, but when most people invoke Marx, they aren't considering or aware of this context. Plus, since the nineteenth century, Marxism, as a socio-economic-political theory, has taken many forms. I find Gramsci's theory of hegemony vastly more compelling than others. I like the idea of being complicit in the system because it means you change the system from within in gradual steps. I don't think this is the kind of Marxism that conservative commentators have in mind. I think they want people to see red.

Side note: I'm almost done with my cardigan. Less than half the back to knit and a sleeve. I also think I'm going to undo that baby blanket and use the yarn for something else...like a shawl for me.

great salt lake

2008-07-01T11:26:00.002-05:00

I flew back from a wedding in Oregon yesterday, and we flew over Salt Lake City and the Great Salt Lake. It is perhaps the strangest natural landscape I have ever seen. The lake is two distinct colors because of a railway line running across it changing the algae composition. The northern half is a deep red and the bottom half is a crystalline blue. The water is clear enough to see the topography underneath. From the air, it looks like a prehistoric land or the results of a post-apocolyptical desoltion. Even the land surrounding the lake is surreal in its starkness. It looks like a giant hand carefully placed each strata of sand.

politics: the education ballywick

2008-06-13T07:55:00.002-05:00

David Brooks writes about education in today's NYtimes here. I'm of two minds. One, I do agree that pre-K and after school programs help, but I find the idea that schools are centered around teacher and adult needs suspect. If perhaps, someone, somewhere, would outline what students' needs are, precisely, I'd be much obliged. I'm not even sure what an education system centered around students' needs would look like, except that it seems to serve a jargon short hand for charter schools, vouchers, testing, and getting rid of ineffective teachers. If we're serious about reforming the school system, perhaps a better system of training teachers is in order. If we're serious about reforming the school system, perhaps a better system of mentoring and developing teachers already working is needed. And if we're serious about reforming the school system, perhaps reforming the curriculum to reflect 21st century needs is what should happen. I've long thought that the high school curriculum is too narrow in its focus on presumably preparing every student for college. We've let go of the fine arts and the mechanical arts, both of which often helped keep students in school. At least, the drama and choir programs did so for my father back in the mid-70s.

world: the view from afghanistan

2008-06-08T12:36:00.003-05:00

politics and sports: the end of the primaries and Euro Cup 2008

2008-06-06T09:12:00.002-05:00

In an odd confluence of things that I am interested in, Senator Clinton will give some sort of speech or statement tomorrow to officially pass the torch to Senator Obama. I'm not going to call it a concession speech, primarily because I don't think it is quite the right term. An acknowledgment speech, perhaps? A support speech? At any rate, it's schedule for tomorrow. In effect, Obama's official general election campaign will get its champaign across the bow kick off tomorrow.

Euro Cup 2008 also begins tomorrow. Now, I'm still distraught that England did not make it to the finals. (Damn Steve McClaren.) Nevertheless, I need to have a team to root for. So, I've decided to back Germany, who I still think was robbed by Portugal in the 2006 World Cup. It doesn't hurt that Germany was the team that decimated San Marino in the preliminary rounds. Admittedly San Marino was never going to do particularly well, but losing 21 to 0 is highly unusual in soccer/football. And, yes, I do realize that professing my love for international football makes me a white person according to the Stuff White People Like blog.

On a side note, I've been ruminating on the convergence of politics and sports. One person was discussing how he was trying to make his father a "believer" in Obama. Now, most statements of this sort tend to be viewed through a religious lens. I think a sports one might be the more apt way to see this statement. You believe in your team, even when they are losing. You may go on to support someone else--see my Germany support--but you still have a deep commitment to the losing team.

writing: David Brooks and quiet writing

2008-06-06T07:47:00.003-05:00

I've been a twee fan of David Brooks ever since reading Bobos in Paradise. I didn't even realize he was a conservative columnist until my mentor professor told me. At any rate, he and I have not always been on the same page the last few years, but his last ten columns or so have been really well done, even if I have disagreed. What made Bobos in Paradise work was Brooks's ability to be interested in odd minutiae and the bigger picture. He had a column last year on intelligence and height that was fascinating, for example. Today's look at Lincoln is probably one of the best columns I've read on the necessary temperament for being president. What I liked about it in particular is that he avoided the wrestling with the angels metaphor, which is a good one to be sure, but not entirely apt here. Of course, one of the things I appreciate about Brooks is that he's a smart, quiet prose stylist. I love Maureen Dowd for sheer imagery, but she too often browbeats. As a quiet writer myself, I tend to gravitate towards quiet writers. Hence, my adoration of Elizabeth Gaskell; Wives and Daughters is frequently elegiac. But back to Brooks. Today's column is astute, sweeping, informed, and leaves you with space to ruminate over his last point. Key graf:

"Somehow a leader conversant with his own failings wouldn’t be as affected by the moral self-approval that afflicts most political movements. He’d be detached from his most fervid followers and merciful and understanding toward foes. He’d have a sense of his own smallness in the sweep of events. He or she would contravene Lord Acton’s dictum and grow sadder and wiser with more power.

All this suggests a maxim for us voters: Don’t only look to see which candidate has the most talent. Look for the one most emotionally gripped by his own failings."

I like the idea of being "conversant" with your failings, particularly for a politician.

film: sex and the city and potluck

2008-05-29T12:28:00.003-05:00

I'll probably end up seeing the Sex and the City movie even though I was never a devotee of the show. I liked it, but it never resonated for me the way shows like Gilmore Girls did. I have a more prep bohemian ethos than a designer one. At any rate, my friend SC is and her birthday is this weekend, so we'll more than likely see the show.

Funnily enough, a point made in the Washington Post review about the show spawning gaggles of women imitating the show struck home. We had a potluck birthday last week and two of the girls who only come occasionally really seemed to want to make it more salacious than a potluck event usually is. Potluck, even at a restaurant, is more about being silly and giving than about being fashionable or anything else. Group dynamics in such a large collection of women (roughly 12) who are all at different stages of life is odd at best.

radio:npr's marketplace

2008-05-28T09:40:00.002-05:00

I listen to NPR a lot. It's the only thing on the radio that I can stand when driving into work. Most pop music drives me up the wall (overproduced and sugar coated); I can't stand radio dj's; I hate commercials, particualrly radio commercials; and I really don't want to listen to shock jocks. So, NPR or the ipod is about it. Heck, even NPR during pledge drives are more entertaining than most of what consists of modern radio. (True story: I was having a tense December, and I actually found a NPR pledge drive listener challenge to be the most soothing thing on the planet. Did I mention that I was having a tense December.) Because my teaching scheduled was a little later than it usually is last fall, I began catching the Marketplace report on my drive in and the full half hour show on my drive home. It's the most informative and scariest half hour of radio on the planet. I know more about business than I ever have and, well, it makes me a more informed consumer but a much more paranoid one in today's market. I start thinking about things like how the current high price of energy costs means that food costs go up, and this chain reaction means that healthier choices, which can cost more, are even further out of the range of low income families. This fact, coupled with the new Farm Bill, which subisidizes foods like corn disporportionately to foods like apples, means that unhealthy choices like white bread or corn syrup laced foods are cheaper. Meaning that our current obsesity problem is only going to get worse. Ack. And this freaky thinking is what listening to marketplace report does. Not being an economist, I'm sure I've oversimplified here, and I may be assuming causal relationships where there are none.

corporate america: receptionist

2008-05-22T09:02:00.004-05:00

I usually temp during the summers. I like the change of pace, and teaching even one summer course--if you can get one--really burns you out for the fall. I, at least, need to switch gears. I like temping because I get met lots of people, work in places I would never normal go to, explore downtown (most of my jobs are in downtown Dallas), and not get involved in office politics. The downside is that most of my jobs are receptionist positions. Now, I don't mind answering phones, but I'm not the best at it. And, these jobs tend to be a lot of waiting and hurry up. The job is at its worst when it's a one day gig. You aren't there long enough to really help the receptionist who is out, so all you can do is sit there and wait for the phone to ring and read or surf the internet. It's not bad, but I always hate just sitting there waiting for the phone to ring. The real receptionist has a whole slew of duties that are going undone, but because you are only there for 8 hours, no one expects you to do any of them. I had one job where the receptionist had a whole system of task reminders set up on the computer. It was really nice because it meant that at the very least I knew when to go and clean up in the kitchen and set the coffee pot up for the next day. The best positions were the one at a foundation and as a backup receptionist. The backup job meant I only answered phones during lunch and breaks. Otherwise, I was doing work for HR. I love HR work. The foundation was the best pure receptionist position. I was supposed to be the first person that anyone who walked in the door saw, so I had to look sharp. When guests came, I actually got to be a host, offering coffee or snacks and setting them up in one of the elegant meeting rooms. The phone system was a dream; it was computerized, so I didn't have to muck around with looking up people's extension numbers. I could read during the times when it was quiet. I actually had a lovely day answering phones and reading North and South while it poured buckets outside. However, there was enough going on that I didn't feel like I was just occupying a chair.

reading: blogs I read and why

2008-05-13T11:35:00.002-05:00

The first step in entering the blogosphere is the lurking step. At least it was for me. You begin small; you read one or two blogs on a regular basis. Then you get sucked into other blogs because the writers you like read these other people. Or, in my case, your brother sends you enough links from these other blogs that you end up reading that blog to avoid the email overload. At any rate, your one or two blogs becomes a lot more. Then, you starting posting. And, in my case, you begin your own blog because you want to be part of this strange virtual conversation. It's Burkean, to be sure.

All of this to draw your attention to the updated blog roll on the Crafting Authority page and to say that my blog reading is relatively eclectic. I read a number of political blogs: Andrew Sullivan, Matt Yglesias, TPM, the Plank, and Swampland. I also read a number of television blogs: Michael Ausiello, Matt Rousch, Watch with Kristin, and Zap2it.com. Then there are the odd little blogs. I'm passionately fond of Maxwell Eaton III's blog. He's a children's artist, and I love his daily drawings. During the dissertation process those drawings were a bright spot. I also cannot say enough about Quiet Bubble, which is the blog of an old friend of mine. I've always loved his writing, and I'm esctatic that he's sharing his voice with the blogosphere. There's also my brother's blog, The Oddity Odyssey. Be warned, he's a cranky man, but he always has the coolest tecnology links. I so want to do a kitchen floor of recycled marmoleum.

television: How I Met Your Mother's website funnies

2008-05-13T10:14:00.003-05:00

So, I am a devoted How I Met Your Mother watcher. One of the things I love about the show is the fact that when they mention a website that website actually exists. It makes the show interactive. A listing below:

Websites mentioned last night:

http://www.guyforceshiswifetodressinagarbagebagforthenextthreeyears.com/

A montage of a married couple where the girl is actually wearing a tall kitchen garbage bag. I'm wondering how long she's forcing her husband to wear the awful sunglasses.

http://lilyandmarshallselltheirstuff.com/

A website that auctions off stuff from the show for charity.

Previous Websites:

http://www.tedmosbyisajerk.com/

Spend 20 minutes and listen to the whole song. It's freaking hilarious. Also, she really hates Barney, but Barney was using the "I'm Ted Mosby Architect" line.

Slap bet countdown. There was a countdown clock, but Barney got slapped by Marshall on Thanksgiving. That makes three. There are two more slaps coming Barney's way. CBS so better renew this show.

UPDATE: According to Deadline Hollywood, CBS has renewed HIMYM. Whee!

knitting: my bathroom rug

2008-05-09T10:44:00.003-05:00

My summer goal (I make these things, and for the most part, keep them) is to finish all the projects I have on needles. So, here is one thing I finished, a new bathroom rug.

Rug with/cat

I'm also learning how to use a digital camera. So, these pictures are not necessarily the best. The rug is from the Classic Knits at Home book. Unlike the pattern in the book, I choose to use Lion's Brand cotton ease in grey and stone. I also did it on size 9 needles instead of size 7. I wanted to it have a slightly looser weave, and I have something on my size 7 needles that I didn't want to finish before starting this. At any rate, if anyone wants to duplicate what I've done, they'll need to knit two additional short row panels. It's not long enough, otherwise. Once you get the hang of knitting short rows, which the book explains pretty well, the rugs knits pretty fast. It probably took me two weeks, but I suspect it's a weekend project for someone who doesn't just knit for an hour or two at a time. The only hard part is grafting it together. I'm still not sure if I did that part right.

crafting authority: main purpose

2008-05-09T10:27:00.002-05:00

Well, I did say I was going to post my purposes for this blog at some point.

I envisioned this blog as a space for discussing the things that I've learned outside of the academy. I spend so much of my time reading the work of others and learning about things within the red brick walls of the academy, where theory double speak reigns, that I wanted a space where I could discuss and mediate on the things that we learn for ourselves. Admittedly, some of what I learn is related to my work as an academic. I mean, reading biographies for fun is a decidedly academic thing to do. Not all of my interests are so book bound, however. I'm a tv fanatic; my friend Mouse thinks the way I watch tv is a little scary. I'm picky about shows, but I'm a wholehearted fan when I find one I like. My current obsession is McLeod's Daughters and watching Richard Armitage in Robin Hood. I like learning about politics and the way the news works or doesn't work, as the case may be. I'm in this whole 1970s film mode. I'm a music snob, as C tells me. Ironically enough, I have no problem reading trashy mystery novels or teen vampire fiction; I'm currently a fan of Melissa de la Cruz's vampire series. I taught myself to knit, and I'm an ok sewer. I like painting even though I'm really terrible at it. I love to cook. I'm a hair product junkie, and I'm a good stalker of sales. ($130 Banana Republic dress for $50.) Most of these are things I taught myself. So this blog is, for the most part, about the things we craft authortiy about, the things we find interesting, the things we delve into.

television: Grey's Anatomy's groove

2008-05-09T09:55:00.004-05:00

I resisted watching Grey's Anatomy at first, in part because they used The Postal Service song "Such Great Heights" in their promotional ads. Being a long time fan of the band--I had a bootlegged copy before the cd even came out--I was a little miffed at their music being used to sell a show. At any rate, I did get hooked. I will admit, however, that the show had hit a rough patch since the ferry boat/ Meredith nearly dying incident last season. As a fast paced drama, the show was always in danger of burning too quickly through story lines. A conventional prime time drama would have drug the Meredith/George tension for at least another season, for example. Grey's had dealt with it by the middle of season 2. While the pacing of the show means it goes through some plot points quickly, it also is a slow moving soap opera. It took 2 and half season to progress a year in the time line of the show. The balance between churning through narrative and exploring season long narrative arcs is always a delicate one. I think the problem with the episodes post ferry boat incident was four-fold: 1) Rhimes saw a way forward for Addison's character, but it meant spinning her off into a different show. 2) Rhimes wanted to explore George and Izzy's relationship, which meant moving them forward in some respects, but not in others. Hence, both of them are now stuck in a repetitive low self-esteem loop, that Izzy, at least is working out of. George, I'm not so sure about. I do have to say, I love his loopy interactions with Lexie. It reminds me of how goofy our little interns were at the start of the series. 3) Rhimes had to write Dr. Burke out of the show, causing all sorts of narrative momentum problems since soap operas, by nature, don't do well with wrapping up story lines. 4) Rhimes has problems with season long narrative arcs. She can churn through small plotlines well, but she can struggle at times with the large continuous ones. This inability is why she keeps on breaking up and putting Meredith and Derek back together. (I think a lot of show runners have this problem actually. See Luke and Lorelei from Gilmore Girls.) The best parts of season three were when Derek and Meredith were trying to be a couple. I loved her snoring problem, and the interactions with her stepmother. Here was a woman who was trying to grow up and figure out what being with someone meant, step by little step. It was cute, and good for Derek too because it meant that he had to figure out how to be a partner in a relationship rather than just being with someone. Then, we get the ferry boat incident. Sigh. I hate what sweeps will do to a show. One of the best by products of the writer's strike, from a viewers' perspective, is that it has caused the writers (of all shows) to write the best episodes possible without the stunt stuff usually expected during sweeps.

history: john adams

2008-04-21T09:30:00.003-05:00

I should preface this post with the fact that I am a Victorianist by training and inclination, and I'm a mid to late Victorianist, at that. I am interested in the late eighteenth-century, but my knowledge there is largely self taught.

I watched the first part of the mini-series John Adams; I admit the dissertation got in the way during the last part. The series itself came at one of those odd moments in my own reading where there was a monumental time period overlap. I finished Antonia Fraser's biography on Marie Antoinette over Christmas, and I've been reading Amanda Foreman's biography on Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire. I also read Linda Colley's The Britons, all of which covers roughly the same time period. While I've liked what I've seen of the mini-series, I think Jack Rakove is right in his assessment that John Adams is a more complex character than the series, and particularly David McCullough's biography, presents.

Beyond that, I have a problem/quibble with the misunderstanding of the dynamics behind England's actions towards the colonies. I concede that a declaration of independence was inevitable given the policies of King George III, and more to the point, Lord North, the PM at the time. My problem is with Rakove is his, and it isn't just Rakove here, misunderstanding of representation in Parliament and how MP's were elected to the House of Commons. King George III didn't have the kind of separate power to grant the colonies representation; the power lay with Parliament by the late eighteenth century. Parliament was unprepared and disinclined to increase the franchise in the 1770s. What the colonists were asking for was impossible in the mid-1770s. The government couldn't give the colonies representation without granting more representation to citizens living in Great Britain. There wasn't a major reform of election law until the First Reform Bill of 1832, which did enfranchise most of the middle-classes in Great Britain. It's a small quibble, I admit, but one that irks me nonetheless.

I do highly recommend Colley's book. Besides being a fascinating analysis of how Great Britain became Great Britain, Colley is a wry and humorous writer. I got stuck in an airport for several hours, and I found myself laughing out loud in the waiting area while reading her work.

politics: young folks

2008-04-21T09:14:00.002-05:00

I keep hearing from, admittedly, long-time, savvy political analysts that the younger voters who have come out in droves during this primary season just won't show up in November. Two points. One, if they've bothered to come out during a primary, most of which have arcane rules, then why wouldn't young folks vote in November when the process is infinitely simpler? Two, I work with this section of the electorate. From my experience, they tend to be responsible and civic minded. Perhaps political analysts need some time away from polling data and their fellow pundits. They can craft authority about young folks (and yes, I'm deliberately evoking the song of the same name). It would be more useful than the horse race coverage we're now engaged in.

blogging: josh marshall and sam

2008-04-19T15:11:00.002-05:00

I read Talking Points Memo on a daily basis. One of the perks of being a regular is when he posts pictures of his son Sam . He's absolutely adorable.

politics: debate shenanigans, update

2008-04-18T12:43:00.003-05:00

My theory, I think, is correct.

Zap2it's article on the Wednesday night ratings is here.

American Idol trounced at the 8 o'clock hour, and CBS edged out the debate at that time period too. In other words, people saw the gotcha moments and then turned to other stations by the time the debate got to issues.

politics: debate shenanigans

2008-04-17T10:35:00.002-05:00

I was deliberately avoiding the debate last night. I had spent the day grading papers and discussing the nature of absurd humor in my classes. I'd also watched Death at a Funeral the night before, so I could tell one of my students if it would work for her paper. It does and it's awful. I just didn't want to deal with anything absurd. So, I went by the bookstore on my way home and spent a gift card. Since I was driving from Fort Worth, I managed to get home 45 minutes into the thing. My brother was cleaning and mad. Mad, mad, mad. He was outraged at how Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopolus were conducting the debate. Me, I was trying to find something to watch that wasn't a reality show. Then it hit me, as my brother came and told me around 8 CT that they had finally turned to policy-esque issues, ABC had deliberately front loaded the debate with the "silly" season questions because at 8 the debate was up against American Idol. I haven't found the ratings for last night yet, but I suspect there was a shift to Fox at 8.

politics: process, process, yuck

2008-04-15T10:58:00.003-05:00

The West Wing is one of my favorite shows, particularly seasons 1-3. There's one point where Leo says the one things you don't want the public to see is how you makes laws and sausages. I would add that you don't want the public to see how Democrats nominate a presidential candidate. Yikes. I've been following the race closely, and I've thought all along that we've all needed a degree in political science, a thorough understanding of Hobbes, and night vision goggles and a pick axe to figure out what the heck is going on. Of course, I live in TX which had that weird primary precinct convention system that had political experts openly weeping. At any rate, I'm officially done. I can't stand the navel gazing anymore. It's nauseating at the point. I just want a nominee. There's a point where you just have to accept that the process is done even if you don't get to everything.

tv: lost and static characters

2008-04-14T09:48:00.007-05:00

James Poniewozik's blog, Tuned In, at Time. com, had a discussion thread about Lost last week. Since I was trying to put my diss defense together, I didn't have time to comment, but it has been niggling away at the back of my mind all weekend. Poniewozik asked about the character relationships on the show, since "The character aspects of the show, on the other hand, tend to get short shrift if not out-and-out derided, especially the relationships and pairings among the characters." The comments were thoughtful--I especially liked the Star Wars connection--but I was particularly struck by the amount of distaste for the character of Kate. I've always liked the character, and Evangline Lilly's performance. I do see why people are frustrated with the character, however. Kate is a round, well-developed static character. I think she has the potential to become a dynamic character, but the thing about Lost is that most of the characters are static. I don't mean that they are not well-developed, but these are characters that are not necessarily going to grow and change over time. In fact, I would say growing as a character is a sure fire way to end up dead on the creepy little island our Lost survivors inhabit. Shannon's change being the most notable, but I think Jin's movement into the warm, loving husband is the reason why he doesn't make it off the island. Don't know if he's dead or not, his tombstone notwithstanding, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the Oceanic 6 are the characters who have somehow not done enough growing, which is why they have to go back.

The other issue is Lost's serial pacing. Even though every episode is a dense, textually rich narrative, the overall pace of the show is slow. We've only moved forward a certain number of days. I forget how many, but well under the 100 day mark. The pacing of the show prevents a certain amount of character dynamism as well. The show has to balance this central tension between pacing and characterization.

I think the fact that Kate frustrates speaks to the potential she has to grow, but it is also a byproduct of this slower serial pace. Just as Meredith Grey in Grey's Anatomy has an enormous potential to grow, the show's pace prevents it from happening in a rapid fashion. (It's also a soap opera, which inherently resists dynamic characters.) In Grey's Anatomy's case, however, the show does not always make clear just how slow time moves. It took the show three seasons to cover one year's time in the life of the characters, but I think a viewer could have reasonably thought more time had passed because there are so few markers of that time moving. Again, not enough time for the characters to be dynamic in the ways viewers want or expect. But, Lost always reminds us how long we've been on the island, which helps me at least be less frustrated when Kate makes the same flight / survive mistake over and over again. I know she ends up changing; she cannot take on the responsibility of Aaron without becoming dynamic, but I think we have a ways to go before Kate's ready to grow. I also think Jack's need to go back to the island comes out of him becoming dynamic. He has to save himself before he can go back to saving others in a weird circular way, but that's a different topic.

writing and culture: stuff white people like

2008-04-14T09:33:00.004-05:00

I like the blog stuff white people like. The blog itself kind of fits the mode that it discusses. White people like blogs because they (blogs) are a little elitist and egalitarian. There is a whole argument made by oddityodyssey about how this blog is perpetuating white culture as the dominate culture or actually doing a service by identifying white culture. I do think the blog is narrowly liberal, college educated, and East/West Coast white culture; most of the white people who went to my small town Texas undergraduate would not recognize many of the posts on the blog as part of their experience of white culture. But, as a Dallas girl who actively resists being granola (a conscious decision upon my part) I find I a) do like some of the stuff the blog discusses and b) feel a little uncomfortable about it as I read the blog. I assuming that feeling a little uncomfortable is supposed to be the reaction. At any rate, all of this to say, the people who run the blog are putting out a book.

knitting: forgetting things

2008-04-10T12:31:00.003-05:00

Knitting is something I taught myself. My great grandmother apparently used to earn extra money knitting for Dillards in Little Rock, and family lore has it she refused to give it up after she broke her wrist and the doctor told her she would probably never have full use of her hand again. She would knit, with tears streaming down her face, in defiance of medical science. It apparently worked as a kind of home grown physical therapy because she need regain the full use of the wrist. At any rate, knitting is in my genes. So, I was flummoxed the other day when I sat down to begin a baby hat for a new dad in my department and I had totally forgotten how to do a picot edge. It's a lacey kind of edge, and this pattern calls for a cable cast-on versus a long-tail cast on. I finally re-learned it, but I've never totally forgotten how to do a certain kind of stitch or pattern before. I even taught myself how to do short rows for the world's most complicated baby cardigan (darn Vogue patterns). So, I'm blaming this one on the dissertation.

music and writing: the soundtrack of writing

2008-04-08T13:31:00.003-05:00

I have a meta statement of this blog's purpose brewing, but it's kind of on the back burner until I defend my dissertation on Friday. Yes, I do realize starting a blog while finishing my dissertation is absurd, but the larger idea for the blog just stuck with me. So a small statement of purpose: this blog is about the ways we come to knowledge. How do we make knowledge? How do we go about learning things that we want to learn like how to bake or knit or sail or change out air filters? Basically, I'm interested in the process of self education inside and outside the academy.

At the moment, I'm listening to Handel's Messiah while writing or trying to finish writing my dissertation defense. Obviously, I am also procrastinating. I find Handel both energizing and soothing. I don't normally write to his music, but I tend to think of this PhD process in terms of music. A slight detour before I explain why I think of the process of an English degree in terms of music. I used to sing for my church choir until the dissertation became my life. I'm an alto, which is the part composers either love or hate. I often find myself singing awfully boring percussion kinds of lines. I've decided Gabriel Faure must have been dating an alto because his Requiem has one of the most beautiful alto parts. Handel also tends to write great alto and contra-alto parts. What I love about Handel is the way everything is intertwined in the larger choral parts. The recitatives aren't as complex or as beautiful, particularly the bass parts, for some reason. In the choral sections, the melody bounces between the singers. It's never stationary. Singing Handel is an intense process of concentration. You have to hear all the other parts in order to understand where your part fits, but you also have to be able shut those other parts out so that you can sing your part without muddling it with the others. Back to why music and dissertation writing go together: I find the points in the process where you are tested be it exams or turning in the whole dissertation or defending to be akin to a choral performance. There's performance anxiety, but there's a certain pleasure in knowing you're about to knock an audience's socks off. And there's an even deeper personal pleasure in just the process of singing. When my church choir did Faure's Requiem, the second to last movement is joyous with a beautiful baritone solo. That solo always makes me smile, and being part of the choir singing that piece was uplifting. In academia and I imagine other jobs that require substantially less navel gazing, it's easy to feel disconnected. Thinking of the whole process as joining a larger voice makes it less lonely but also gives the work purpose.