Pop Quiz

The following is an excerpt from Jimmy Carter's 1976 DNC Address.

At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could I reach the nation’s ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.

True or false?

Celebrity Look-a-like

Remember my list of celebrity comparisons from way back? A couple days back, someone told me I look like Evel Dick from Big Brother 8. Don't look at me; I didn't come up with the spelling. Oddly enough, this is the 3rd time I've heard this very comparison. During the initial run of Big Brother 9--a show I never watch--my sister commented that I look, and act, like Evel Dick. A few months later, an employee at a Petsmart came up to me and said, "Do you know you look just like Evel Dick? I thought you were really him for a while."

Sure beats that Yanni comparison I received. Frakkin' Yanni? I just don't get it.

Overload

Today is one of those really overwhelming media days that comes along every once in a great while. Battlestar Galactica concludes its run as a series, The Clone Wars ends its first season (and has been surprisingly good), and Dollhouse presents an episode that is being reviewed widely as Joss Whedon's return to form.* All the shows overlap, of course, and that means I had to do a quick reprogram of the DVR to record Clone Wars tomorrow AM. I'll watch it live, but the DVR can only handle two recordings at a time ::shakes fist at Mediacom technology Gods & Goddesses::). I'm dreading the end of BSG; it will not end on a happy note. With the exception of Starbuck, I'm predicting death for most of the major players. At the very least, Adama & Tigh will go down with their ship in a blaze of glory.

To top it all off, Metric released a streaming version of their new album yesterday and I just can't seem to find enough time to listen to it again, and again, and again, and again. I've contacted the Universe about adding two hours to each day but have yet to hear anything back.

*About six episodes too late. Dollhouse ratings haven't been all that stellar, although the series did see a gain last week and sees even more gains when time shifting numbers (DVR) are factored into the occasion. If forced to make a prediction, my guess is that FOX doesn't renew the show for next season. Could someone get the Sci Fi channel, er, SyFy Channel on the phone? Whedon's work never really takes off until the mythology is established, usually about half way through the 1st season. FOX never seems to get this until too late (like when Whedon's shows generate significant $$$$ via DVD sales).

Conversation Realities

T: The sorority Barbies next door just picked up a chihuahua to go with their collective ensemble. And they're partying it up on their back deck....the place is rank with cigarette smoke.

Me: Well, a chihuahua goes with everything.

T: That's what I hear.

Have Fun Storming the Castle

Just a reminder to all you Captain Mal/Caleb/Captain Hummer fans that Nathan Fillion returns to network television tonight with his shiny new series, Castle. Most of the dozen or so reviews I've read this morning seem to be of similar mind: while the acting is reportedly good, the series concept--murder mystery writer becomes police consultant--is worn out. I'm not a huge fan of the murder mystery genre but I'm going to give the series a chance based solely on Nathan Fillion. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised, right?

Gallimaufry

Aging with the President. I was washing my hands in a restroom a couple days back when I looked at myself in the mirror and realized that my hair is now noticeably gray. The fact that I'm going gray is not big news--I've had gray hair sprouting from my lid since my mid 20s. What's different, however, is that the grays are starting to gather in noticeable clumps. In fact, I'm starting to look a little like Mr. Fantastic. And Rogue.

RIP RMN. When I lived in Denver, the Rocky Mountain News was my newspaper of choice. Sad to see it go. Is there any hope for the newspaper industry in the digital age? Maybe.

New music on the horizon. I'm looking forward to checking out new albums by Roxy Epoxy and the Rebound (March 10) and Metric. Roxy Epoxy is kind of a guilty pleasure; I've enjoyed her work since she was with the Epoxies. Metric, on the other hand, is probably my favorite band ever. There's an outside chance that we might be in Toronto, ON this summer when Metric performs a show or two. It would be frakkin amazing to catch them again.

Stumped

As someone who teaches at a smallish liberal arts college, becoming a frequent of the college's Interlibrary Loan office has been absolutely crucial. We just don't have the resources to compete with the larger institutions. So, much of my research is done via ILL. Over the course of almost four years, and some pretty obscure requests, the ILL department has never let me down. I'm afraid there might a good chance that run is about to end.

A few days back I submitted a request for Linda Godfrey's Beast of Bray Road. I discovered the book after a somewhat local newspaper reported an encounter with the Man Bat, a humanoid figure that witnesses described as part man and part bat. Man Bat, duh! I'm not sure why this kind of thing intrigues me, but it does. I'm all about Nessie, Bigfoot, Yeti, Champ, Ogopogo, and the Man Bat. If I've managed to stump ILL--I've yet to hear a peep about my request---I'm prepared to take the plunge and buy the book. Amazon has the text rated at 4.5 stars. How can I go wrong?

Science & Magic

Every other year I teach a class that focuses on spiritual rhetoric. One of the central concepts we explore in the class is "the God problem" or the general bias in academics toward explicitly observable, and readily knowable, phenomena. As scholars, how does one study communication between a God/Goddess/Flying Spaghetti Monster and followers? People claim that they communication with a divine presence on a regular basis, but studying these interactions is generally off limits to academics. Can you imagine the reaction I would receive if I went to a conference and tried to present a paper on my conversations with God, voices present in the natural world, or the living universe? I could no doubt present something on how people communicate about those experiences, but the experiences themselves would be a difficult sell. Or maybe I'm being too hard on my academic colleagues.

During the course of class discussions and reading, we usually run across the work of Dr. Rupert Sheldrake.* Sheldrake, a biochemist published in traditional scientific journals until he started to ask questions that fell outside the traditional boundaries of science. Although his work as been labeled as pseudoscience, I wonder if Sheldrake might be exploring a phenomenon--morphic fields--that is so foreign, so far outside of human scientific experience, that there isn't a way to talk about these ideas presently? Could it be, as Sheldrake asserts, that there are many ways of communicating that have yet to acknowledged (e.g. intuition, telepathy)? If so, how does one go about bringing legitimacy to the study of these phenomena?

*Hat tip to the Alabama Hick--he introduced me to Rupert Sheldrake long before I started teaching this course.

Bingo

An assessment of the recent "bipartisan" behavior of Senate Republicans.

I really don’t understand how bipartisanship is ever going to work when one of the parties is insane. Imagine trying to negotiate an agreement on dinner plans with your date, and you suggest Italian and she states her preference would be a meal of tire rims and anthrax. If you can figure out a way to split the difference there and find a meal you will both enjoy, you can probably figure out how bipartisanship is going to work the next few years.

Spot on. Haven't I been saying the same thing on this blog for years?

A Great Disturbance in the Force

As someone who counts Obi-wan Kenobi among the people I most admire, I find this "What if" depiction of a Dark Obi-wan deeply disturbing. It's a well done conceptual drawing, that's for sure. Given the tragedy Obi-wan experienced throughout his lifetime, what on earth would ever seduce him to the Dark Side? I'm typically not very interested in such alternate universe tales but this picture has piqued my curiosity.

Instant Asthma

It has been unbelievably cold. I'm not talking cold, but cold that stings your face and literally makes your lungs burn within seconds of walking outside. Everyone seems to be coping well enough. With hats pulled down below the ears and scarves pulled up to cover both the neck and nose, eyes are the only indication that humans inhabit shuffling mounds of clothing. I've given up on trying to dress professory and have settled on function over form. For class today I wore blue jeans, a thermal waffle shirt, and my Columbia guaranteed-to-keep-your-toes-toasty-to-25-below-zero (we're at -17 presently; the high today was -5). That's the first time I haven't worn a collared shirt in the classroom in quite some time.

Tomorrow's forecast predicts a balmy high of 7. I am so ready for spring.

Mice Templar

Mice Templar, Vol 1. Cool review of the book here. In what I find to be the most intriguing paragraph of the review, Glass writes:

In essence, Glass and Oeming’s opening arc dares to ask: What would have happened if everything Luke Skywalker had been told about the Jedi by Obi-Wan Kenobi had been hearsay and fabricated half-truths, and that Kenobi was really a fumbling old quack with delusions of grandeur who pretended to have mystical powers? What would Luke, have evolved into? Would he be prepared for what lay ahead of him? What’s more, would he have been a savior or a destroyer?

I purchased this book during the holidays and devoured it in one sitting. This is an excellent comic book series collected in a hardback format. Mice Templar is a must read.

Wee Three Things

Wil Wheaton was having a horribly day, not unlike a day I had last week (leak story to be posted in the near future). So, he did what many of us should probably do when we're heading for a freak out of the nth magnitude: he stopped and listed things that make him happy. And then he posted a challenge to his readers.

I'm going to assume that many of you reading this are dealing with some degree of holiday stress; why not take a minute - just sixty seconds out of the day - and reflect on three things that make you happy?

As per Wil Wheaton's suggestion, I thought I'd take a 60 second break from Finals Week and offer three things that make me happy. While I'm nowhere near a Level Five Freakout--I'm not even all that stressed out--I thought it definitely couldn't hurt. That and the fact that I haven't blogged in ages. Here's the list.

1. STK & TLO, of course. Despite the frustrations of living with a three year old, the home front is always a good place. I even appreciate our special needs dog, Malcolm. He's a handful but there's something soothing about late night walks with him, even when the thermometer dips into the single digits.

2. Reading, reading, and reading. Comic books, fantasy literature, and even the dense school stuff.

3. My job, of course. Home many other people get to sit around and talk about popular culture for a living? Seriously, I'd do this job for free (but I'd just as soon not let that get out to the administration).

Anyone else game?

Mindful Speech

I may use the following as a talking point the next time I discuss communication ethics in Public Address.

Skillful speech not only means that we pay attention to the words we speak and to their tone but also requires that our words reflect compassion and concern for others and that they help and heal, rather than wound and destroy.

-Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, "Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness"

Civic Dullard, er, Duty?

The fact that elected officials scored a pathetic 44% on a "test measuring civic knowledge" is frightening. The people who constitute our civic structure can't even manage a passing grade? We have no hope as a country.

For the record, I scored a 30/33 (90.91%). You can take the test here. Not bad for a guy who took high school civics from a teacher who spent more time drawing up basketball plays than actually teaching civics. In all fairness to that slacker teacher (nice guy--he attended my church and I was friends with his daughter--but a burned out teacher), I gained much of my civics knowledge while studying for my Political Science minor way back when.

Death and My Television

I am, officially, the television kiss of death. If I start watching a show on a regular basis, it's bound to get canceled in the first couple seasons. Case in point: two of my favorite shows this year are Eli Stone and My Own Worst Enemy. Guess which shows got the axe this week?

I'm mystified as to how a sucktackular crapfest like Heroes can stay on the air while a witty and original program like Eli Stone gets blasted [1]. Eli Stone wasn't a perfect show, by any stretch, but it was whimsical and fun. People have no taste. Period. I know I'm a cynic in this regard, and probably an elitist, but if ratings continue to be the only measure for whether a show is a success then we're in for some pretty lean times in terms of quality. For whatever reason, people seem more drawn to the mindless clutter of Dancing with a Washed Up Star or the repetitive programming of CSI: Bismarck. Shall we start a betting pool on the demise of Chuck?

[1] I know I'm risking my geek cred with this comment. I have tried, REALLY HARD, to appreciate Heroes the last two seasons. I've come to the realization that there isn't much to appreciate. The writers have relied on comic book cliches (nobody dies, I'm your father, I've lost my powers/I have them back, the pursuit of power corrupts) to the point that the entire show is one giant cliche. And not a well written cliche, either. Every time Peter Petrelli does that damn cross jaw look, I want to freakin scream.

Slim

Will I ever be able to read/hear a reference to Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass without hearing J's voice saying, "Slim? Slim Whitman?"

I CELEBRATE myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me, as good belongs
to you.

I mean, really, it's been something like 24 years since that happened. Memory is a funny thing. I can barely remember what I had for lunch yesterday but I can remember a mundane, 10 second moment from way back when? It still cracks me up when I think about it.

Breaking the Code

I received an ambiguously worded email from a student earlier today. The email, and I'm paraphrasing here, said something like "Do you have time to meet tomorrow? I'd like to go over a few things." Kind of cryptic, right? Not really. I guarantee this students wants to:

A) complain about a grade

or

B) request extra credit.

Count on it. You can also count on the fact that Option A will not result in a changed grade (unless I've made an error of some kind) and Option B will not result in any additional work for extra credit. Credit is awarded for doing the work the first time around; there are no do overs in college.

Speaking of students, I finally got caught up on all my grading. I fell behind right before fall break which means I've had my nose buried in tests, reflection papers, and think pieces for the better part of three weeks. Thank goodness my head is above water again.

It's a Trap!

Frak! I just got rick roll'd by a Star Trek geek who claimed to have a link to the new ST trailer. I just couldn't stop myself from clicking on the link. Bastard.

Mist

Body impermanent like spring mist;
mind insubstantial like empty sky;
thoughts unestablished like breezes in space.
Think about these three points over and over.

-Adept Godrakpa, "Hermit of Go Cliffs"