tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68478772024-03-14T01:17:03.125-05:00Why Not Blog?I lurked, shamelessly, on other people's blogs. Now I blog myself.Donnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08200732104876804746noreply@blogger.comBlogger503125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847877.post-39768233155179574512010-03-02T14:55:00.005-06:002010-03-02T15:34:38.679-06:00Living la vida ahoraIt's like the good old days, reading a friend's blog and being inspired to riff off something found there...<br /><br />Via <a href="http://www.earthwidemoth.com/mt/archives/002461.html">Derek</a>, who found <a href="http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/3392">the link</a> at the Blogora, comes <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/04/16/070416fa_fact_colapinto">this 2007<span style="font-style:italic;"> New Yorker</span> article</a> on the language of the Piraha, a "remote Amazonian tribe." The article is, as Jim Aune commented when posting the link, fascinating on many levels.<br /><br />The primary focus is on the challenge that the linguist Dan Everett's interpretation of the language poses to Chomsky's notion of universal grammar. What the Piraha language seems to lack is the very thing that Chomsky and his associates have posited as the key feature of human language: recursion, the embedding of one phrase into another. So, rather than saying the equivalent of "The man who lives downstream fell in the river," they would say something like, "The man lives downstream. He fell in the river." Their expressions are what prescriptive grammarians would call simple sentences. There's no sentence combining here.<br /><br />Going along with this grammatical feature is a kind of radical empiricism. They speak of what they can see or of what someone they know has seen. While all language is abstract, they seem to eschew abstractions that are more than one degree removed from the concrete. Thus, they have no words for colors. Rather, they refer to color by way of simile, but without fixing upon a simile. According to the article, they might describe a red cup as looking like blood, but at another time say that it looks like a certain kind of berry. <br /><br />They have no mythic origin stories, which makes me wonder if they have no particular religion. When missionaries have translated parts of the Bible into their language (a task that is itself apparently extraordinarily difficult), they have no sense of it as "spiritual." After being read the parable of the prodigal son, for instance, a Piraha speaker asked the reader if he knew this man. When the answer was no, the man showed no interest in the story. If it isn't close to firsthand, what's the point? <br /><br />They have no art beyond art that momentarily exists to express something new. When an airplane lands, boys make model planes from balsa wood. But they're soon discarded and forgotten.<br /><br />According to Everett, the linguist, these tendencies away from abstraction are not the result of some sort of cognitive deficiency. If a baby was taken out of the forest and raised in the city, she would be perfectly capable of learning another language and thinking in abstractions. Rather, Everett maintains, the difference is cultural. As a culture, the Piraha simply reject the abstract. <br /><br />One might say they live in the moment. <br /><br />And that's what's so fascinating to me. I don't want to fall into a sentimental fallacy here. I don't mean to romanticize the Piraha a la the "Noble Savage" ideology of the nineteenth century. <br /><br />Rather, I'm fascinated that this kind of radical empiricism is possible, that a culture could create and maintain it for centuries. <br /><br />In the practice of meditation, the intention is to abandon the conceptual, to "be with what is." It seems as if this whole culture is built on that intention. <br /><br />Good, bad. That's not the point. It's just that it's possible. That there they are, a group of people who live in the moment. They don't store more than a few days' worth of flour. Theravada monks are not allowed to store food. It's the same principle, basically. It's a renunciation of conceptualization. Full attention is on the now, not on some abstract notion like the future. <br /><br />So, yeah, fascinating.Donnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08200732104876804746noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847877.post-45562541704946325052009-12-21T14:19:00.017-06:002009-12-21T16:09:52.520-06:00The decade in musicNo, I haven't posted in many months. And lately this blog has become a big spam magnet. Still, I have a certain affection for it. And now that grades are in, I'm ready for a nice reflective bit of writing.<br /><br />And so taking a cue from my friend and yours, <a href="http://in-misery.blogspot.com/">Mr. Comoprozac</a>, the one who keeps blogging, I am setting out to offer a list of my favorite music of the past decade.<br /><br />I make no pretense at offering anything like the "best." I hardly listen to enough music to be able to make any such list. But I have developed a certain connection to many CDs over the years of this new century so far. And if <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/20/opinion/20rich.html?_r=1">Frank Rich is right</a> (and I think he may be), that this had been a decade characterized by bamboozlement, there is at least the music.<br /><br />And so a list of my favorites (which may or may not represent a hierarchy of preferences):<br /><br />10. Krishna Das, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Flow-Grace-Krishna-Das/dp/B000LW9Q98/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1261430614&sr=1-1"><span style="font-style: italic;">Flow of Grace</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span></a>(2007)<br />It's kirtan music, which may not to everyone's taste, but it's wonderful for focusing the mind. I wrote the introduction to my book while listening to it. (And, yes, that is a monkey on the cover. A very special monkey.)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu9XdAZztHFkjnA-i4gnj5mVpBy-cog-TnaqkppliGCltZ812SEMf5Y5HPXtG0HuitcZRyh81xGRnJx4ackEbAzESOL1BkQ7_mvdJIQb22IMJTiYmqLdqdQ66e_A5OM5ZCRNLdJQ/s1600-h/hanuman.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu9XdAZztHFkjnA-i4gnj5mVpBy-cog-TnaqkppliGCltZ812SEMf5Y5HPXtG0HuitcZRyh81xGRnJx4ackEbAzESOL1BkQ7_mvdJIQb22IMJTiYmqLdqdQ66e_A5OM5ZCRNLdJQ/s200/hanuman.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417803744476721522" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />9. Sufjan Stevens, <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.amazon.com/Illinois-Sufjan-Stevens/dp/B0009R1T7M/ref=dp_return_1?ie=UTF8&n=5174&s=music">Illinois</a>. (2005)<br />So much to love about this CD. An instrumental homage to coming "Out of Egypt," as I just had the previous year, along with what <a href="http://sadchimpson.blogspot.com/">another former Southern Illinoisian</a> has called the prettiest song ever written about a serial killer. Mr. Comoprozac puts it right at the <a href="http://in-misery.blogspot.com/2009/12/best-of-oughts-albums-1-10.html">top of his list</a>, and it's hard to blame him.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT28YQ6PVE3FNdhUDmi_5SsGpjQbXcSmFYZIAwz3kLhoIrAC3cr9DFmQOMRVJ5-AeXRsIwz3W4ixix56fF8vGu5CK0ZnMG7tPacmEP5hC07tRiFOGZO_1IGlH823n3F1JQxhgqTQ/s1600-h/illinoise.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT28YQ6PVE3FNdhUDmi_5SsGpjQbXcSmFYZIAwz3kLhoIrAC3cr9DFmQOMRVJ5-AeXRsIwz3W4ixix56fF8vGu5CK0ZnMG7tPacmEP5hC07tRiFOGZO_1IGlH823n3F1JQxhgqTQ/s200/illinoise.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417802932159200914" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />8. Numinous, <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Vipassana-Numinous/dp/B001X3IOFQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1261429201&sr=1-1">Vipassana</a></span> (2009)<br />Be-a-u-tiful. "Vipassana" is a type of meditation, aimed at seeing deeply into things as they are. The title caught my attention. The music kept it.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDNkyP1pQl5mIwNqt_xj1HF-5aMSSEN6uXwBMwnECnV3KR67f9CvR6HlnQdLmdSs5yEnktNsCTRt67YFXdayt3skxb8uGfl7Q1P6nI1MX-kFgvBouQTfjaGIYanlW5J05rOvipmA/s1600-h/Vipassana+cover+%28single+page%29-large.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 199px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDNkyP1pQl5mIwNqt_xj1HF-5aMSSEN6uXwBMwnECnV3KR67f9CvR6HlnQdLmdSs5yEnktNsCTRt67YFXdayt3skxb8uGfl7Q1P6nI1MX-kFgvBouQTfjaGIYanlW5J05rOvipmA/s200/Vipassana+cover+%28single+page%29-large.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417797842078349922" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />7. Kronos Quartet, <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Terry-Riley-Magic-Kronos-Quartet/dp/B0010X5WVS/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1261428759&sr=8-3">Terry Riley: Cusp of Magic</a></span> (2008)<br />C. bought this and played it and I loved it. It's beautiful. That is all.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIM1FFQibO0ocdoBl0yyHJoS1dYUOxrjQoDPlvoEG5N_ASMHKHcE_fYKFhfjU7GYh_vEnRfkreJcGt5K1rhHS7ZTPBJMhFZ8TJxJI9-V2VBgqaD6oIZLWQreLVsC-VPPB2X2-iIg/s1600-h/cusp+of+magic.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 296px; height: 296px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIM1FFQibO0ocdoBl0yyHJoS1dYUOxrjQoDPlvoEG5N_ASMHKHcE_fYKFhfjU7GYh_vEnRfkreJcGt5K1rhHS7ZTPBJMhFZ8TJxJI9-V2VBgqaD6oIZLWQreLVsC-VPPB2X2-iIg/s320/cusp+of+magic.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417799737776505426" border="0" /></a><br />6. Panda Bear, <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Person-Pitch-Panda-Bear/dp/B000NA27TE/ref=pd_ys_iyr91">Person Pitch </a></span>(2007).<br />It might be heresy to say so, but I really enjoy this effort by the Animal Collective member more than the collective's much-lauded <span style="font-style: italic;">Merriweather Post Pavillion</span>.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi7VSkuQ0-gJmkwLrFO9pm5VZyuNZ1Nyrw0YzOFYLIbdqsxTlv0moITXJk-o-DfB5F8Zdm-rR5Bz8jmUg-IsQCSW77v45hABqW8VWI-JpWHcJvsszVggAqbmDAF7tPUEW4ccCpAw/s1600-h/panda+bear.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi7VSkuQ0-gJmkwLrFO9pm5VZyuNZ1Nyrw0YzOFYLIbdqsxTlv0moITXJk-o-DfB5F8Zdm-rR5Bz8jmUg-IsQCSW77v45hABqW8VWI-JpWHcJvsszVggAqbmDAF7tPUEW4ccCpAw/s200/panda+bear.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417793897035401698" border="0" /></a><br /><br />5. Dave Douglas, <span style="font-style: italic;">A Thousand Evenings</span> (2000)<br />It's hard to pick a favorite CD among the many amazing CDs released over the past decade by one of my very favorite jazz artists. He's nothing if not prolific, that one. But I choose this one, with which he opened the century, featuring one of my favorites of his groups, Charms of the Night Sky. I just wish the woman on the cover didn't look so uncomfortable.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDqiLWZSaCDTbnpOAh1TaswDVDJ3E0NXXELPHt0YZsIQUTFuoNSE7mJakjmIERB5pBqjEd7ztno0SD3jih_GDCvFv6i-C7pCU0T-H3v_T1Ckg-5EhZLquhL9H0pW5HakmBlIim5w/s1600-h/a+thousand+evenings.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDqiLWZSaCDTbnpOAh1TaswDVDJ3E0NXXELPHt0YZsIQUTFuoNSE7mJakjmIERB5pBqjEd7ztno0SD3jih_GDCvFv6i-C7pCU0T-H3v_T1Ckg-5EhZLquhL9H0pW5HakmBlIim5w/s200/a+thousand+evenings.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417807731665476098" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />4. Ben Allison,<span style="font-style: italic;"> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Peace-Pipe-Ben-Allison/dp/B00006CY6Q/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1261427836&sr=8-3">Peace Pipe</a></span> (2002)<br />Fresh jazz composing with Mamadou Diabate's kora-playing. This CD was in heavy rotation back in the early years of the decade, when I still was in Carbondale, working out at the Rec Center.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhun2L6xHFQC_a_ULm8lNs_ZncjOHrlU6qDdc-4-g_lJ7Hp92aYmmygrkl7FzLK-MkvpstizO1uH2akXK-ER-DXKHjy9om2wgDerqQcysLt5OrQpM0bO1Mj7WuNFzFyRGJHZaJ9Sw/s1600-h/peace+pipe.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhun2L6xHFQC_a_ULm8lNs_ZncjOHrlU6qDdc-4-g_lJ7Hp92aYmmygrkl7FzLK-MkvpstizO1uH2akXK-ER-DXKHjy9om2wgDerqQcysLt5OrQpM0bO1Mj7WuNFzFyRGJHZaJ9Sw/s200/peace+pipe.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417791924308883794" border="0" /></a><br /><br />3. Marilyn Crispell, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Amaryllis-Marilyn-Crispell/dp/B00005A7CY/ref=ntt_mus_ep_dpi"><span style="font-style: italic;">Amaryllis</span></a> (2001)<br />Glorious. The kind of playing that makes me search for everything I can find by the artist, even if it means sending my credit card information over email to some small music store in New York.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeIDCAkmWwOyko5YDZotyaQysvkVx5cgZIaMXGCs5X73Wq_WOEVE8Lnn4HE407AmtAvr2MLKKjdCUN2SAVZdrrXtJhxStgXcy-QQgbz7UXwB8QGRQRBEuej7yjvEkyWYvSRx_Ntg/s1600-h/crispell.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeIDCAkmWwOyko5YDZotyaQysvkVx5cgZIaMXGCs5X73Wq_WOEVE8Lnn4HE407AmtAvr2MLKKjdCUN2SAVZdrrXtJhxStgXcy-QQgbz7UXwB8QGRQRBEuej7yjvEkyWYvSRx_Ntg/s320/crispell.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417811570271297106" border="0" /></a><br />2. Wayne Shorter, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Footprints-Live-Wayne-Shorter/dp/B0000633JW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1261431015&sr=8-1"><span style="font-style: italic;">Footprints</span> Live!</a> (2002)<br />A legendary jazz composer and saxophonist puts together a quartet of young talent, with wondrous results. Ah, Wayne.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Ow7mqRmtq1oF8Pt89G3ed0fC5Ih6VdQ2cGoFBDJMAGOZmI-fLS-wyvo7IuS3w28P7uSidV7tCZ79qkh8ly313cUiOgCnD8UGC1OaJXarpgNnKbgmxt4SNkuDsMoiSDMAWBxRbw/s1600-h/footprints.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Ow7mqRmtq1oF8Pt89G3ed0fC5Ih6VdQ2cGoFBDJMAGOZmI-fLS-wyvo7IuS3w28P7uSidV7tCZ79qkh8ly313cUiOgCnD8UGC1OaJXarpgNnKbgmxt4SNkuDsMoiSDMAWBxRbw/s200/footprints.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417805899057680914" border="0" /></a><br /><br />1. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fleet-Foxes/dp/B0017R5UAA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1261429153&sr=1-1">Fleet Foxes</a>(2008)<br />I've played this CD so many times I've practically worn it out. Probably the last thing I re-played so obsessively was <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Synchronicity-Police/dp/B00005CCYB/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1261427479&sr=1-4">Synchronicity</a>, which I listed to every afternoon for months on end. (I was young and prone to strong addictions.) The haunting voice of Robin Pecknold together with the unlikely synthesis of something like the Beach Boys and a Baroque sensibility keeps bringing me to tears. That's right. Tears.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk6S764lcMwGXAolPMEBPsYkZ9AmggFHLV6Ac5eOtYtXlQH2-Oau425YLkfun0A1jD9V5tva2NAi01QiRe-YpvL3PE5YJBPDdgJoh1punATGEL3PQdBC9JoGJaMy4XdghKCoP1FQ/s1600-h/fleet+foxes.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk6S764lcMwGXAolPMEBPsYkZ9AmggFHLV6Ac5eOtYtXlQH2-Oau425YLkfun0A1jD9V5tva2NAi01QiRe-YpvL3PE5YJBPDdgJoh1punATGEL3PQdBC9JoGJaMy4XdghKCoP1FQ/s200/fleet+foxes.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417789155180722178" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />I've already got in mind a lot of things that could be included here, but aren't. Including Johnny Cash, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/American-IV-Man-Comes-Around/dp/B00006L7XQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1261433179&sr=8-1"><span style="font-style: italic;">The Man Comes Around</span></a>, with that incredible rendition of "Hurt"; Jolie Holland, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Escondida-Jolie-Holland/dp/B0001L3LHC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1261433223&sr=1-1"><span style="font-style: italic;">Escondida; </span></a>); Tin Hat Trio, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Rodeo-Eroded-Tin-Hat-Trio/dp/B000A28QM2/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1261433310&sr=1-3"><span style="font-style:italic;">The Rodeo Eroded</span></a> and it could go on. But I've been at this long enough. Time to post.Donnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08200732104876804746noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847877.post-51964644424732619972009-04-12T19:55:00.003-05:002009-04-12T20:13:21.404-05:00RIPI haven't been keeping up with the news as well as I might. So it wasn't until today, when I saw the article on the front of the New York Times, "<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/us/12hughes.html?ref=global-home">A New Chapter of Grief in Plath-Hughes Legacy</a>," that I learned of Nicholas Hughes's suicide.<br /><br />He was an academic. He studied fish. Ecologies. He lived in Fairbanks, Alaska. <br /><br />According to the article, he never talked about his parents, Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. His life was quite apart from that legacy. He directed dissertations. He wrote proposals for internal grants. Like one for "<a href="http://www.alaska.edu/uaf/tab/archives/spring03/5hughes.html">Video analysis/editing workstation for graduate students and faculty of the UAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences (SFOS)."</a> He gave <a href="http://www.uaf.edu/news/a_announce/20060224123847.html">talks for his department</a>: "Developing the Theory Needed to Predict the Migratory Routes and Distribution of Salmon at Sea." <br /><br />He was an academic. An ordinary academic. And one suffering from a malady not uncommon among academics: depression. <br /><br />But I would never have learned of his death were it not for his parents. And the sadness from anyone's death seems magnified by the tragedy of his mother's death.<br /><br />And since he never talked of his mother, who died when he was still a baby, it seems something less than appropriate to bring forth a poem from her. And yet it's what I can't get out of my head. And so here it is, a poem I've taught, in my own academic life. Students have commented that she put too much pressure on the little baby. I've always felt the turn toward the baby is one of the most moving tonal shifts I know of. "Nick and the Candlestick."<br /><br />I am a miner. The light burns blue.<br />Waxy stalactites<br />Drip and thicken, tears<br /><br />The earthen womb<br /><br />Exudes from its dead boredom.<br />Black bat airs<br /><br />Wrap me, raggy shawls,<br />Cold homicides.<br />They weld to me like plums.<br /><br />Old cave of calcium<br />Icicles, old echoer.<br />Even the newts are white,<br /><br />Those holy Joes.<br />And the fish, the fish----<br />Christ! They are panes of ice,<br /><br />A vice of knives,<br />A piranha<br />Religion, drinking<br /><br />Its first communion out of my live toes.<br />The candle<br />Gulps and recovers its small altitude,<br /><br />Its yellows hearten.<br />O love, how did you get here?<br />O embryo<br /><br />Remembering, even in sleep,<br />Your crossed position.<br />The blood blooms clean<br /><br />In you, ruby.<br />The pain<br />You wake to is not yours.<br /><br />Love, love,<br />I have hung our cave with roses.<br />With soft rugs----<br /><br />The last of Victoriana.<br />Let the stars<br />Plummet to their dark address,<br /><br />Let the mercuric<br />Atoms that cripple drip<br />Into the terrible well,<br /><br />You are the one<br />Solid the spaces lean on, envious.<br />You are the baby in the barn.<br /><br /><br /><br /> <br /><span class="fullpost"></span>Donnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08200732104876804746noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847877.post-20836544357329520452009-03-27T12:13:00.004-05:002009-03-27T12:59:40.630-05:00The Sleeper teamI have to tell you, my interest in following men's basketball has waned over the past few years. Like I said below, I just couldn't get into following Missouri. Now SIU, that was a team I could get behind. They constantly surprised people. The players weren't a bunch of stars. No one left to join the NBA after playing a year. They were a mid-major team, and they were fun to watch. <br /><br />Then I come to Missouri, a place with a whole lot more money, and a coach who nervously met with the public to defend himself against their disappointment. But things never got better, and when they lost against, as one radio announcer put it, "Big 12 bottom feeders Baylor," well, that was it. He was out of here.<br /><br />So when Missouri hired Mike Anderson, I was kind of hopeful. He came out of a mid-major program, UAB, one that had surprised people. I liked that. But still, I was so jaded from the Quin years, I just didn't pay that much attention. <br /><br />But, wow. Did you see the game last night? Yeah, it got kind of messy for awhile toward the end, but their energy level was something to see. And there was that shot that <a href="http://www.fannation.com/si_blogs/tourney/posts/59501-five-things-we-learned-on-sweet-16-thursday">they're talking about</a>, that was featured on the front of my Yahoo page this morning, that had the most amazing and beautiful arc. (Reminds me of a shot I saw at the SIU Arena back in the day.) <br /><br />And so it seems, while I wasn't paying attention, that Mizzou has transformed itself into exactly the kind of team I like. A team's team. Not a team that forms itself around a star or two. A team that believes in itself, that works together. That surprises people. Back in January, a Sports Illustrated writer called them the <a href="http://www.fannation.com/si_blogs/in_the_paint/posts/44124-the-week-in-hoops?eref=fromSI">"Sleeper Team."</a> <br /><br />Last night's game was pretty spectacular. And I'll be watching on Saturday. Even though I was thinking they can't possible win, that's not what the critics are saying. It should be a good game, no matter the outcome. <br /><span class="fullpost"></span>Donnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08200732104876804746noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847877.post-88957984030189536752009-03-25T11:07:00.003-05:002009-03-25T11:21:52.903-05:00Brits say yes to blogs, ho-hum to historyOr, as <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/7962912.stm">The BBC puts it</a> in their lead-in:<br /><br /><blockquote>Primary school pupils should learn how to blog and use internet sites like Twitter and Wikipedia and spend less time studying history, it is claimed.</blockquote><br /><br />The British primary school curriculum has undergone review, and the resulting recommendations put greater emphasis on information literacy. The report apparently identifies six key areas of learning:<br /><blockquote><br />* understanding English, communication and languages<br />* mathematical understanding<br />* scientific and technological understanding<br />* human, social and environmental understanding<br />* understanding physical health and well-being<br />* understanding the arts and design</blockquote><br /><br />This is for primary school, but it overlaps quite a lot with what folks like the <a href="http://wwwstatic.kern.org/filer/blogWrite44ManilaWebsite/paul/articles/A_Pedagogy_of_Multiliteracies_Designing_Social_Futures.htm">New London group</a> have recommended for higher education, especially greater attention to design and to ecologies. <br /><br />It's also significant to remember that British educational innovations have a history of bleeding into composition studies, most notably the work of <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-professor-james-britton-1428143.html">James Britton </a>and his associates. So perhaps some borrowing might happen again?<br /><br /><br />(via <a href="http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/profile.php?id=677027460&ref=nf">Heidi </a>on Facebook)<br /><span class="fullpost"></span>Donnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08200732104876804746noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847877.post-63181465505693410372009-03-17T09:59:00.002-05:002009-03-17T10:10:52.742-05:00I don't do bracketsBut I do take an interest in the NCAA tournament. <a href="http://in-misery.blogspot.com/">Comoprozac</a> remarked to me last evening that none of my teams made it to the tournament. <br /><br />Au contraire. <br /><br />Let's not forget <a href="http://www.butlersports.com/">Butler</a>. A former student of mine was on the team that went to the Sweet Sixteen a few years back. Sure, I taught there only one year, but I have allegiance.<br /><br />But the biggest surprise (for me, because I wasn't paying attention, I have to admit) is #3 seed Missouri. I haven't been able to generate a lot of love for the Tigers in my nearly 5 years in Columbia, but maybe I can begin to. They won the Big 12 Tournament (beating, bizarrely, my tainted alma mater Baylor)! <br /><br />The biggest disappointment? Well, that would be the Salukis. They appear to have finished 7th in the Missouri Valley. And there's only one MVC team in the tournament. What happen to the good old days of just a few years back, when THREE MVC teams were on the brackets? <br /><br />Things change. Alas. <br /><br />At any rate, I'll be routing for my two teams. And that's really all the bracketing that I do. <br /><span class="fullpost"></span>Donnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08200732104876804746noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847877.post-40220007068676486762009-03-16T14:27:00.002-05:002009-03-16T14:30:03.140-05:00A return? Or a last hurrah?My <a href="http://www.collinvsblog.net/">blogging guru</a> has been posting like a fiend over the last few days.<br /><br />Maybe that will prompt me to begin posting, too.<br /><br />Back in the day, he helped me with words of wisdom like, Imagine you're writing on a post-it note. Or, establish a rhythm. <br /><br />And now he's modeling it once again. <br /><br />So maybe, just maybe. There could be hope for me.Donnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08200732104876804746noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847877.post-90666447733494769352008-10-25T20:13:00.003-05:002008-10-25T20:25:37.730-05:00Autumnally turnedA couple of days ago I wrote an entry in response to a tag. And then there was some malfunction with the blog, and it completely disappeared. I don't feel inclined to recreate it. Instead, I'm offering a poem, because I'm currently undergoing a Rilke revival. Back when I was doing the MFA, Rilke was all the rage. So I bought books of Rilke, and, while I liked them well enough, they seemed heavy and sometimes hard to understand. Now I think I just wasn't ready for Rilke when I was 23. In fact, I ended up selling some of the books, but I kept two: <em>Letters to a Young Poet</em>, a book of prose that has one of my favorite lines in the world, the admonishment to "live the questions," and also a selection of poems edited by Stephen Mitchell. I've been dipping into the poems here and there lately, and finding them all wonderful. Here's one I read today, entitled, appropriate for the season, "Autumn Day":<br /><br /><blockquote>Lord: it is time. The huge summer has gone by.<br />Now overlap the sundials with your shadows, <br />and on the meadows let the wind go free.<br /><br />Command the fruits to swell on tree and vine; <br />grant them a few more warm transparent days,<br />urge them on to fulfillment then, and press<br />the final sweetness into the heavy wine.<br /><br />Whoever has no house now, will never have one.<br />Whoever is alone will stay alone, <br />will sit, read, write long letters through the evening,<br />and wander on the boulevards, up and down, <br />restlessly, while the dry leaves are blowing.</blockquote><br /><br />I love the way the poem moves from a pastoral scene, with the wind on the meadows, and then moves to the <em>flaneur</em>, wandering, restless, among fallen leaves. <br /><br /><span class="fullpost"></span>Donnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08200732104876804746noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847877.post-38612230927854335222008-10-09T15:21:00.002-05:002008-10-09T15:27:52.202-05:00Technology is not oneJBJ over at <a href="http://www.jbj.wordherders.net/2008/10/08/wikis-blogs-and-teaching/">The Salt Box</a> offers a nice little reminder that no one technology is "the" answer. Rather, they're all tools, yeah? Technologies of possibility. Technes. Rhetorical. An excerpt:<br /><br /><blockquote>Anyway, all of this is to say that if you give me a goal, I can tell you why I prefer one form to another. I prefer wikis to blogs for my class notes assignment, for instance, because that assignment focuses on the public, shared work of the class. The collaborative nature of wikis is good for that. In cases where I want students to develop, over the course of a period of time (a month, a semester), a perspective on a topic, or when I want them to roleplay in an interpretative game–well, a blog sounds better for those tasks, since it’s probably going to be organized chronologically. But I cannot tell you, abstractly, why one tool is always better than another.</blockquote><br /><br />Now that Bloglines decided the other day that it was time to clean out my feeds, I'm keeping up a little better with my subscriptions. So now maybe that will feed (yes, riffing off <a href="http://ydog.net/?p=694">yellow dog</a>) my blogging again. Goal: blog more frequently. Tool: RSS feeds. <br /><br /><br /><span class="fullpost"></span>Donnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08200732104876804746noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847877.post-77477107227855938582008-10-05T22:31:00.002-05:002008-10-05T22:43:18.601-05:00There *is* joy in Blogvillefor the mighty Bérubé has come back. <br /><br />(Now I have to remember how to do the accent thing again. I had become habituated to it just before he retired the blog back in 2007.)<br /><br />And, yes, I'm several days beyond the scoop. He resumed last Tuesday, announcing:<br /><blockquote><br />My friends, I suspended my blog retirement so that I could see us through this crisis. </blockquote><br /><br />Ah, yes. Thank goodness. It makes me think that maybe I too can suspend my default retirement.<br /><span class="fullpost"></span>Donnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08200732104876804746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847877.post-83742289034896933002008-09-30T11:56:00.003-05:002008-09-30T12:02:32.791-05:00A call, a box<a href="http://in-misery.blogspot.com">My friend </a>hails me, and so I feel I should slap up something new. <br /><br />I've been blogging this semester, but over at my class site on ning. Yesterday, I asked the folks in my class to read Sirc's "Box Logic" and to make a basic box. I love that article and I love that assignment. So simple, so elegant. I made a box, too, starting with a photograph by <a href="http://shelby-lee-adams.blogspot.com/">Shelby Lee Adams</a>. (That inspiration came from my many conversations with A, who is in the process of writing a mighty fine paper about a documentary on said photographer.) Adams 's photographs have generated controversy among critics who say he is reinforcing stereotypes about Appalachians. He responds that if people would just look at the pictures, without their preconceptions, they might have another kind of experience. So that's kind of what my box is playing with.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI8QhSvqeDA61erTkrVoPFLRiETnSNRVqtH4HKFTp21mH4JUVN_JEpLGldOMG5cF1V0mcETBZ6_PjUxvQeB0LMIANwbbV9uvDyVHLTRNjURJxvnGYc0cPnv88FER-Afp2_sNA8Eg/s1600-h/Under+the+umbrella+of+a+metal+mushroom+2.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI8QhSvqeDA61erTkrVoPFLRiETnSNRVqtH4HKFTp21mH4JUVN_JEpLGldOMG5cF1V0mcETBZ6_PjUxvQeB0LMIANwbbV9uvDyVHLTRNjURJxvnGYc0cPnv88FER-Afp2_sNA8Eg/s320/Under+the+umbrella+of+a+metal+mushroom+2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5251860809890005570" /></a><br /><br /><br /><span class="fullpost"></span>Donnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08200732104876804746noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847877.post-61679197925354067032008-09-05T16:02:00.002-05:002008-09-05T16:05:22.757-05:00TGIJThis blog needs some content.<br /><br />A picture of a baby? <br /><br />Not really content. <br /><br />Too bad. I think it might make you smile.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYbhR58BUc0NeGqgrBl0BQ0hzcnwDZIHtVcWOGqmBuu9TYodn7Zek00dffQBui9nnnOFsHeHdaYt1YHTWZkOR3DABgdA7q80ngllnJge2og8fhq1jHJlJjFZnnLnla420ngVyADg/s1600-h/Jay!.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYbhR58BUc0NeGqgrBl0BQ0hzcnwDZIHtVcWOGqmBuu9TYodn7Zek00dffQBui9nnnOFsHeHdaYt1YHTWZkOR3DABgdA7q80ngllnJge2og8fhq1jHJlJjFZnnLnla420ngVyADg/s320/Jay!.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5242645998406877842" /></a><br /><br />(My great nephew J; pic lifted from his dad's myspace page.)<br /><br /><span class="fullpost"></span>Donnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08200732104876804746noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847877.post-21560022574141586012008-07-30T16:17:00.003-05:002008-07-30T16:49:05.498-05:00In Defense of HippiesOnce again, <a href="http://ydog.net/?p=671">my colleague</a> inspires me.<br /><br />Before ascertaining during his campus visit here last year that he too hated hippies, I had only met one other non-conservative person who claimed to hate hippies. That other person is my good friend and local blogger <a href="http://www.in-misery.blogspot.com/">ComoProzac</a>, who recently suggested my interest in Tapestries was hippie-ish. But after having a conversation with another friend, I find that many people share this aversion toward hippies. <br /><br />I guess I've lived in too many <a href="http://www.hippy.com/havens.htm">hippie havens</a>. I've always thought the presence of hippies signaled the presence of many good things: yoga, natural food co-ops, progressive politics. And hummus. I had never had hummus until I went to the <a href="http://www.thetrojanhorse.com/">Trojan Horse</a> in Bloomington, Indiana (an alleged hippie haven) with my grad school friend Kitsey. Perusing the menu, I asked her, "What's hummus?" (I had never been offered such food in Weatherford, Texas. Not in Waco, either, though they may have it there by now.) "It's hippie food!" she answered. I love hummus. And whenever I eat it, I think of hippies. (Yes, I know it didn't originate with hippies. But I can't help it.)<br /><br />And the Wikipedia <a href="http://www.thetrojanhorse.com/">entry on hippies</a> says that they have philosophical progenitors in such luminaries as Jesus Christ, Hillel the Elder, Buddha, St. Francis of Assisi, Henry David Thoreau, and Gandhi. You know, it's all about counter-culture, finding another way. Peace, brother/sisterhood, understanding and living in harmony. I like those things. <br /><br />But "hippie deodorant"? No, it doesn't work. And maybe some other aspects of hippie culture aren't things we ourselves pursue. But I stick by my assertion that the presence of hippies in a place is a good sign. At least in the midwest. I can't speak for other parts of the country.<br /><br />And now after all this hippie talk, I've got a hankering for hummus. I'm at Uprise (yet again)--I think I'll get some!<br /><br /><span class="fullpost"></span>Donnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08200732104876804746noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847877.post-14804558458264272912008-07-29T12:32:00.003-05:002008-07-29T13:35:17.569-05:00A little something for JulyI still have plans to be a jane come lately to the <a href="http://www.earthwidemoth.com/mt/archives/001896.html">CCCarnival</a>. But, until then, I feel obligated to make at least one post before the month ends. Here are some highlights from July 2008. Lest we forget.<br /><br />1. We closed on the house! Yes, the big purchase I have been alluding to was our house, which we've been renting since we moved to Columbia four years ago. For various reasons, from contract to close was drawn out for three months. It was, as I told one friend, the worst experience of my life. Maybe that was an exaggeration, but it was close. But now we have the title! To our house with purple shutters and an attic painted like the sky. <br /><br />2. By the end of the week, I will have taught a whole class this month. Like the past two summers, I taught Intro to Women's Literature. The students do a lot of blogging and two very simple new media productions. It's a good time. <br /><br />3. C and I went to Carbondale before the session started, back at the very beginning of July. We were there for just one night and didn't get to see everyone we would have liked to see. Our main purpose in visiting was to have dinner with K, who was the chair who hired me. He's leaving to be a chair out west.<br /><br />4. I went on a silent retreat over the weekend. Ah. Grounded again. <br /><br />5. I finally finished the introduction for my book (although I still want to change a couple of small things). <br /><br />6. I ate the best cookie in the world at <a href="http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM3J0N">Uprise</a>. Ginger chocolate chunk. Two of my very favorite flavors, together.<br /><br />7. Which reminds me: I've been spending a lot of time at Uprise. It's a pretty good place to write, despite the really bad design choice of putting electrical outlets UNDER the benches. It means there's no graceful way to plug in one's laptop. None at all.<br /><br />8. I am mourning the <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25914209/">loss of Scrabulous on Facebook</a>. Sure, there are other word games, but no other has the nice leisurely pace of a game of Scrabble between two remote friends.<br /><span class="fullpost"></span><br /><br />9. Hansel, my brown tabby, came down with a urinary tract obstruction. This is one of the things I have always feared, that my cat would get blocked. It's very dangerous--can lead to death within 24-48 hours because of the toxic build-up. We rushed him to the emergency room at the vet hospital at midnight last week. He's back home. (And was he ever happy to get home! Little can match the happiness of a cat back from the hospital. As C. said, being in the hospital must seem like an alien abduction. The probes, the lights, the strange beings. And to suddenly be rescued from that! What joy!)But apparently he's at a high risk for getting obstructed again, especially for the next two weeks. He's currently enjoying an all wet food diet to help keep him hydrated and diluted.<br /><br />10. I am so so tired. Bone tired. Many high stress situations over the last few months. Next week I'm going away. Although it's a curriculum workshop, it includes yoga everyday. So I have some high hopes.Donnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08200732104876804746noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847877.post-46131869181247471512008-06-22T12:29:00.003-05:002008-06-22T12:50:20.822-05:00Well, well, if it isn't JuneAnd even past the summer solstice, no less. I have <a href="http://weaselcoffeelovers.blogspot.com/">good friends</a> who are visiting Vietnam for something like two months! They update their blog more than I have of late. They have pictures even! Take a look.<br /><br />Some things have improved since I last blogged:<br /><br />* I no longer sound like Marge Simpson, for instance. (At least I think I don't.)<br /> <br />* I watched <span style="font-style:italic;">There Will Be Blood</span>, the first movie I managed to sit through in months. That final scene. Hmmm. Still thinking about that. Other than that, I was struck by the ordinariness of greed, hatred, delusion.<br /><br />* I have a car! (Thanks to Jenny!) Now I can drive myself places, just like the old days.<br /><br />* The house is back in a semblance of order. C. has taken to interior design and has made some nice improvements in the arrangement of some things.<br /><br />* I've got a book to finish. Is that an improvement? Sure it is. I actually believe I'll finish it, despite recurrent moments of fear. Maybe after that I'll have other, more interesting thoughts.<br /><br />Until then, I can offer you a picture of one of the happiest parts of my last sad trip to Texas:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/91406274@N00/2600537179/" title="Jay con Tia Donna, April 2008 by donnastrickland, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3266/2600537179_d1a7a06de8_m.jpg" width="240" height="235" alt="Jay con Tia Donna, April 2008" /></a><br /><br />Little Jay, my newest great nephew. With his Tia Donna. ¡Que allegria!<br /><br /><br /><span class="fullpost"></span>Donnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08200732104876804746noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847877.post-33416758908633660702008-05-22T19:45:00.001-05:002008-05-22T20:06:27.107-05:00No Sea-Tac for you!Hmmm. I'm home, listening to music. Various things, here and there. A nice little song from Portishead's latest. A lovely saxophone riff from my man Wayne Shorter on Herbie Hancock's Grammy-winner.<br /><br />I'm sick. I really do sound like Marge Simpson. C is also sick, though so far sounding mostly like himself.<br /><br />But grades are in. That's a good thing.<br /><br />Tomorrow the Rhetoric Society of America Conference begins. After the last RSA, <a href="http://porquoipas.blogspot.com/2006/05/return.html">I declared </a>I would always go to RSA. And I planned to. I'm on the program. But even before so many other things happened, I was beginning to wonder if I could really swing it. For one thing, there's the whole cost of going to Seattle, yeah? And that kind of bucks up against this big purchase C and I are still hoping to make but that has been in process since, well, January. <br /><br />And then there are some things I haven't reported on this humble blog. The wrecking of my beloved blue Escort, for example. It was my first new car, purchased in Milwaukee, at a dealership practically across the street from our apartment there. And I lived on the fashionable eastside! <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglm-U5MZO9pQyEC8QN91AJRfPmPwahgmUaHirtFSf96tf2C7dkF8ieqnomF7crbQKTKsZA0na40xowO3s5rJxOJBH20DtaUzJ3bJJeoYPF9JwfucQWzPP6fPhXk6qVXxwMCQe_rg/s1600-h/north+and+prospect.gif"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglm-U5MZO9pQyEC8QN91AJRfPmPwahgmUaHirtFSf96tf2C7dkF8ieqnomF7crbQKTKsZA0na40xowO3s5rJxOJBH20DtaUzJ3bJJeoYPF9JwfucQWzPP6fPhXk6qVXxwMCQe_rg/s320/north+and+prospect.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5203370912374715154" /></a><br />The dealership is gone now, replaced by Whole Foods. <br /><br />And now my blue Escort is gone, totaled when a teenager in an SUV ran a redlight. Sigh. She cried. I didn't. But it made me sad, all the same.<br /><br />Other things, too. Some things reported here, some things not. It's been maybe one of the most concentrated periods of "major life events" that I've ever experienced. <a href="http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov/MeetingAbstracts/ma?f=102194814.html">Perhaps a hip fracture is next</a>? (Bad taste. Shouldn't joke.) <br /><br />So things have been a wee bit chaotic here. And so I decided no RSA for me. Not this year. It makes me sad. Because I do think it's the greatest conference ever. So if you're there, you better enjoy it. Just think of me, sitting here in my house, talking like Marge Simpson. How much I wish I were you, staring out at Pugent Sound. <br /><br />You'd better enjoy it. Are you enjoying it yet? <br /><br /><span class="fullpost"></span>Donnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08200732104876804746noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847877.post-23731709235247331672008-05-13T15:27:00.003-05:002008-05-13T16:16:45.551-05:00Jazz listsMy soon to be former <a href="http://ydog.net/?p=647">neighbor has a list</a> of jazz greats, of jazz albums he likes, that he can remember without looking at his collection.<br /><br />OK, then. I like jazz. It may not say that over on my sidebar, but I do. I go to jazz concerts whenever I can (and when I like). Last one: Kurt Elling in KC, to celebrate an anniversary in December. But this isn't about concerts, is it? It's about albums. Here's my list of albums I love, that may or may not be "great":<br /><br /><span class="fullpost"><br />1. Miles Davis, <span style="font-style:italic;">Kind of Blue</span>. Yeah, it's on everyone's list. But it's the one that turned me on to jazz and that never gets old. Doo-do-doo-do. I heard a jazz singer in Carbondale, IL do a vocalese version of Freddie the Freeloader. Didn't like that so much. But the original version is what interpellation means. It's calling you.<br /><br />2. John Coltrane, <span style="font-style:italic;">Love Supreme</span>. (I seem to have inadvertently deleted #2-4. I'll have to restore them a little later.)<br /><br />5. Kurt Elling, <span style="font-style:italic;">Live at the Green Mill<br /></span></span>. Kurt Elling is getting a lot of love in this entry. My first exposure to Elling was this CD (bought in Indianapolis during my one year there). His version of "Going to Chicago," with vocalese great Jon Hendricks, is as memorable as songs get.<br /><br />6. Patricia Barber, <span style="font-style:italic;">Modern Cool</span>. Another vocal CD by a Chicago-based musician, also purchased during my one year in Indy. (Or The Nap, as some of my summer students at IU called it.) She does an amazing version of "Light My Fire." Also a be-a-utiful vocal dance on "Constantinople." (And features my favorite contemporary trumpet player, Dave Douglas, on one track.)<br /><br />7. Dave Douglas, <span style="font-style:italic;">Charms of the Night Sky</span>. Oh but I love this CD. I love the mingling of jazz trumpet and Eastern European instruments (accordian, violin). I love the ease, the delight. Mmmm. (He did <span style="font-style:italic;">A Thousand Evenings</span> with the same musicians. Also unforgettable. But those are just two of many, many great discs.)<br /><br />8. Wayne Shorter, <span style="font-style:italic;">Footprints Live! </span>. The greatest living jazz musician and composer, imho. This CD was his accoustic comeback. Astounding music. But let's not forget the old ones: <span style="font-style:italic;">Juju</span>. <span style="font-style:italic;">Night Dreamer</span>. <span style="font-style:italic;">Speak No Evil</span>. Hearing McCoy Tyner play the opening notes of Juju always takes my breath away. <br /><br />9. McCoy Tyner, <span style="font-style:italic;">Quartet</span>. His latest. A Christmas gift last year. A current favorite. No one hits the keys like McCoy. (I've also loved <span style="font-style:italic;">The Real McCoy</span> and <span style="font-style:italic;">Trident</span>.)<br /><br />10. Dave Holland, <span style="font-style:italic;">Prime Directive</span>. Another one that has seen a lot of play. Another (along with Coltrane, Shorter) Miles Davis alum. Another (along with Mingus) bass player. I like the bass. <br /><br />11. Ben Allison, <span style="font-style:italic;">Peace Pipe</span>. A third bass player. He teamed up with Malian kora player Mamadou Diabate to produce sounds that resonate deep in the gut. <br /><br />12. Duke Ellington, <span style="font-style:italic;">Ellington at Newport, 1956</span>. The classic recording of a classic set. "Take the A Train." "Mood Indigo." Good stuff. Good energy.<br /><br />13. Cassandra Wilson, <span style="font-style:italic;">Blue Light Till Dawn</span>. Another vocalist who blurs lines. Her version of "Tupelo Honey" often gets lodged in my brain, and I don't mind at all.Donnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08200732104876804746noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847877.post-7468361395343124042008-05-11T12:54:00.003-05:002008-05-11T13:01:47.674-05:00Help with readingIt's finals week, and as summer quickly approaches, I'm thinking of celebrating in my usual way: reading a novel. <br /><br />But what to read? I'm having a hard time deciding. And then I thought: surely there's an app out there that will tell me. Or will at least suggest something.<br /><br />Behold: <a href="http://www.whatshouldireadnext.com">What should I read next?</a> I'm currently adding titles to see what they recommend. <br /><br />Update: Um, I kind of think its database is kind of limited. I'm not getting great recommendations. I mean, like they're suggesting I read the Complete Works of Shakespeare. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's just not what I had in mind. <br /><span class="fullpost"></span>Donnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08200732104876804746noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847877.post-16481109495500448802008-05-07T14:52:00.003-05:002008-05-07T15:08:05.802-05:00Disaster reliefThe <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/07/myanmar.aidcyclone/?iref=mpstoryview">death toll in Myanmar/Burma may top 100,000</a> and those who are left face long term food shortages (especially given that they were already facing food shortages). I have it from a source I trust that the <a href="http://www.foundationburma.org/">Foundation for the People of Burma</a> has a long history of good work in that area. If you're wondering what to do in the wake of so much suffering, you might consider a donation to FPB.<br /><span class="fullpost"></span>Donnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08200732104876804746noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847877.post-82695604391324269452008-05-05T22:06:00.003-05:002008-05-05T22:11:01.836-05:00Thanks on this disorienting dayI'm grateful to all of you who stopped by and left a comment about my father's passing or have otherwise sent condolences. I used to wonder what a person can possibly say to someone who has lost a significant person. And now I know that it's simple: a kind word. A memory, if you have one. A shared experience, if that's there. But, mostly, it's meant a lot to me to have the loss acknowledged. To know there's support. And so I very much appreciate all of you who have sent those words, those thoughts. <br /><br />And so it's also my birthday today. I usually make a big deal out of it and write some sort of silly post about Kenneth Burke or cats or something. Today, I'm just not feeling it. <br /><br />But I am feeling gratitude. So that's what's here.<br /><span class="fullpost"></span>Donnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08200732104876804746noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847877.post-40936761508174219222008-05-01T23:40:00.003-05:002008-05-02T00:08:32.632-05:00With love<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/91406274@N00/729184965/" title="My father, circa 1945 by donnastrickland, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1326/729184965_e7af2ddf5d.jpg" width="359" height="500" alt="My father, circa 1945" /></a><br /><br />Travis Houston Strickland<br />June 27, 1926-April 27, 2008<br /><br />My father died of a massive heart attack Sunday morning. Although we knew he had heart disease (he had a quadruple bypass six or seven years ago), we were much more concerned lately about the hydrocephalus that was causing memory loss, dizziness, and trouble walking. I talked to him Saturday night. He was starting to sound better. I wasn't prepared at all to get the frantic calls early Sunday morning. Not at all. <br /><br />But rather than dwell on that, I'll just point to what he loved. He loved that he served in the Navy during World War II. He loved Branson, MO, and laughing. Folks loved his easy smile and his friendliness. He loved carving wood figures with a group of friends who called themselves the Wood Chippers. There's a photo of him I'd like to have, sitting in front of a store on the road between Weatherford (where he lived) and Stephenville (where my sisters live). He and his wood chipping buddies are carving for crowds who visit. He has a piece of wood in his hand, and he's smiling. <br /><br />He told my mother he loves her. Those were, I think, his last words. <br /><br />I already miss him so much.Donnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08200732104876804746noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847877.post-14538846224490420512008-04-24T12:31:00.004-05:002008-04-24T12:42:22.113-05:00What kind of example am INot much of one, at this point, I should say. Some things that have been happening in the many days when I haven't blogged, some good, some not so:<br /><br /><span class="fullpost"><br />1. I went to New Orleans for CCCC! I don't care that the beignets are greasy and the coffee diluted with chicory. Cafe du Monde is the oldest coffee stand in the world (or so they say)! And I went there with Jackie (and M and F)!<br /><br />2. I also did yoga while in New Orleans, at <a href="http://www.wildlotusyoga.com/">Wild Lotus Yoga</a>. The teacher, Amanda, offered a lovely synthesis of flow and alignment. <br /><br />3. Before New Orleans, I was in Texas. My dad had neurosurgery. The surgery went fine. The recovery and results are still in question.<br /><br />4. Over the past five months, I've been invited to join three boards (one on campus, two community-based) and one handbook-writing group. It's work I'm very committed to, but it's keeping me busy.<br /><br />5. A sibling was first diagnosed with a mild heart attack, then just heart problems. We're still waiting for something a little more definitive.<br /><br />6. The redbuds are in bloom. It's my favorite time of the year, when the trees are almost fuzzy with buds and the purple blossoms startle here and there.<br /><br />7. C. and I are making a significant purchase. It involves a lot of paperwork. It's making me tired.<br /><br />8. Much rain. It turns the yard into a swamp. It drives my sinuses crazy, the shifts in barometric pressures.<br /><br />9. Three siblings, two parents in Texas. Much stress. I'm here in Missouri. Much stress.<br /><br />10. But, still, much to relax into. Friends. Dinner at R & Z's with Debbie a couple of weeks ago. Dinner tonight. Dinner tomorrow. Dinner next week. All with friends.<br /></span>Donnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08200732104876804746noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847877.post-58525532761994919112008-04-14T15:56:00.001-05:002008-04-14T16:00:15.892-05:00It's April, and so it's timeTo blog some more. And since it's National Poetry Month, it's time for a poem.<br /><br />And I offer you John Berryman, specifically a poem I once enjoyed reciting. In my youth, ennui seemed cool. Not only that, but my mother really did tell me she was never bored. And so she reprimanded me if I dared to say that I was. <br /><br />Dream Song 14<br /><br />Life, friends, is boring. We must not say so.<br />After all, the sky flashes, the great sea yearns,<br />we ourselves flash and yearn,<br />and moreover my mother told me as a boy<br />(repeatingly) "Ever to confess you're bored<br />means you have no<br /><br />Inner Resources." I conclude now I have no<br />inner resources, because I am heavy bored.<br />Peoples bore me,<br />literature bores me, especially great literature,<br />Henry bores me, with his plights & gripes<br />as bad as Achilles,<br /><br />who loves people and valiant art, which bores me.<br />And the tranquil hills, & gin, look like a drag<br />and somehow a dog<br />has taken itself & its tail considerably away<br />into the mountains or sea or sky, leaving<br />behind: me, wag. <br /><br /><br /><br /><span class="fullpost"></span>Donnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08200732104876804746noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847877.post-18172133605590429812008-03-18T15:02:00.003-05:002008-03-18T15:04:34.913-05:00Another oneI've begun a <a href="http://comp.missouri.edu/blogs/cssforrsa/">new blog</a>. Yes, another. This one charts my progress on my RSA presentation. In fact, it will be part of my RSA presentation. <br /><br />The folks in my Writing Web 2.0 class are working on their final projects for the next five weeks. So I'll be working on this RSA presentation alongside them.<br /><span class="fullpost"></span>Donnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08200732104876804746noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6847877.post-88746231140502731692008-03-09T20:56:00.004-05:002008-03-09T21:06:39.750-05:00Wiki writersIn the Web 2.0 class last week, I asked everyone to find something on Wikipedia that they knew a lot about and to edit something on the page. I decided to do this because so many of the folks in the class had been blogging about how they couldn't imagine editing a wiki and didn't really like the idea of wikis because someone might come along and mess up what's written. <br /><br />Luckily, SZ's excellent presentation on Tuesday about her own wiki helped to dispel some aversion toward wikis. But, still, I wanted writing to happen. So we all edited on Thursday. <br /><br />As I was illustrating to the class what I wanted them to do, I had to think quick to try to find an entry I thought I would be able to edit. What popped into my head? Peter Elbow. So I went to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_elbow">his page</a>, which is in fact surprisingly short. I edited it by adding a word to one sentence and then adding an entire sentence that linked to another Wikipedia page. That was my contribution.<br /><br />The most popular pages for the folks in the class were their high school pages. Some of them had to start from scratch, while others were able to add just a sentence or two to already existing pages.<br /><br />A couple of students after class blogged about still not wanting to contribute to wikis.<br /><br />But what struck me about the activity is how much, really, it IS writing. There's the myth of the author, of course. But <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_the_author">didn't the author die</a> in the 60s? Why is that specter continuously haunting acts of writing? What is writing if it's isn't adding a little bit to what's already accumulated? Even when we're writing a whole entry (or paper or book or whatever) ourselves, we have to accumulate. Aggregate. Select. Then create some sentences. Go back and add some words. Write some new sentences.<br /><br />The wiki. It *is* writing. That's what I say.<br /><span class="fullpost"></span>Donnahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08200732104876804746noreply@blogger.com7