With a Little Help from My Friends

Posted on March 9, 2011 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

I have other things that need to get done. Deadlines that have passed. Deadlines that approach. But I’m going to take 30 minutes to write something. This has been brewing for awhile, but I have neither energy nor time to allow it to mature. I’m thinking this will be quick and painful.

The immediate exigence for this post is quite commonplace: another massive, sweeping educational cut. They are everywhere these days. One doesn’t have to read the Chronicle to find them. They have become commonplace in the worst way. Today’s comes from Las Vegas, where UNLV plans to cut 300+ total jobs, over 100 of them faculty positions. Additionally, they’ll lose 77 graduate students. Entire departments will be eliminated in the process.

Yesterday I read an article on gambling in Las Vegas. Apparently, lawmakers there do not think casinos should be held responsible for gambling addictions.

Louisiana approves layoffs for faculty.

In Florida, we face an over 3 billion cut to our state education fund. Additionally, the state is voting to wipe out tenure at the primary and secondary levels–teacher retention will be tied directly to test scores. This is considered good for learning. No wonder why people don’t want to be teachers anymore. And no wonder why, supposedly, students don’t want to learn.

I’m not even going to touch Wisconsin. There’s more going on in Wisconsin than my brain can handle. Friends pass me articles such as this one, by Ed Kilgore entitled “Republicans want Wisconsin to Become Just Like the South,” and a piece of my soul dies. I want to vomit in my mouth. Or break something.

I’m not even planning on going pedagogical here; I wasn’t planning on sending you to watch Sir Ken Robinson’s excellent animated lecture on education in the 21st century. You probably should watch it. But that’s not what this post is about, not today.

Today is more about showing a graph I found while collecting visualizations for my Visual Rhetoric class. This graph has been haunting me for quite some time, since I first saw it last week. I can’t get away from it. I came across it through a friend’s feed on Facebook–part of a series of 11 visualizations exposing income inequality in America over at Mother Jones. All 11 of the visualizations are telling, but one is specific stood out to me:

I never thought I’d say this: but lets go back to 1945. If you make more than a million dollars, then its time to pony up and pay to support the people around you. Sharing is fundamental to existence (seriously, metaphysically, it is–that’s the kind of writing I’m supposed to be doing right now, a review of this book).

On a melodramatic note, I’m reminded of Pastor Martin Niemöller’s famous statement:

First they came for the communists,

and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Maybe I am speaking of Wisconsin after all. Maybe they are speaking not just for teachers–but for Americans–men, women, and especially children everywhere who deserve a quality education, doctor, home, and dinner. More than anything, children deserve a chance. In terms of education, a chance requires attention.

I’m sick of hearing that we can’t afford education. I’m sick of hearing we can’t afford “Obama Care.” We can’t afford not to care. We need to care. And we need to stop putting greed ahead of sharing.

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Help Save the National Writing Project

Posted on March 5, 2011 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

David Beard called attention to the killing of the Striving Readers and National Writing Project over on the Blogora today. I repost an email posted by David:

David Beard,

Federal legislation for Striving Readers and the National Writing Project passed in both the House and Senate and signed by the President zeros out funding for these two important programs. Unless legislators are convinced by an outpouring of outrage, these programs have little chance of being restored.

NCTE members need to call or write their Representative and Senators NOW to explain the importance of funding these programs in the final budget.

  • Striving Readers enables the currently established 44 state literacy teams to apply for federal funds; then each state’s neediest districts can apply to the state for funding for local literacy projects in preschool, elementary, middle, or secondary schools.
  • The National Writing Project provides summer institutes in local communities that reach 65,000 students annually and other professional development activities for 130,000 educators who reach 1.4 million students each year.

Call or write immediately for the most impact. We need thousands of NCTE members to take action.
Restore funding for the Striving Readers Program.
Restore funding for the National Writing Project.

Sincerely,
Millie Davis
Division Director, Communications and Affiliate Services
National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)
1111 W. Kenyon Rd.
Urbana, IL 61801
Phone: 800-369-6283, ext. 3634, or 217-278-3634
Fax: 217-278-3761
E-mail: advocacy@ncte.org
Web: http://www.ncte.org

Join NCTE in Celebrating Literacy Education Advocacy Month!

If you teach in an English department, then you likely know that these are crucial programs we cannot afford to lose.

Please take the time to write your senators and representatives in support of these programs.

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Music / February / 2011

Posted on February 28, 2011 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

Keeping with my new year’s resolution to listen to more (and new) music, here’s what I picked up in February:

  • Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy: I picked this up because I respect any album that gets a perfect 10 from Pitchfork and appears on virtually any informed “Album of the Year” list. It doesn’t hurt that Kanye’s famous critique of George W. Bush ranks high as one of my favorite examples of highjacking kairos. The album lives up to its praise–anyone who has ever appreciated a single hip-hop track will likely appreciate MBDTF‘s care to detail and creativity (“Hell of a Life”‘s electronica-infused Sabbath sample would epitomize these qualities).
  • G. Love – Lemonade: I just grabbed this album last week and I remain a bit undecided. Initially, I was drawn to his brand new Fixin to Die, but, previewing a few tracks, I was a bit turned off by the bluegrass feel. I think I still harbor a subconscious fear that listening to anything remotely related to country music will make me want to drive a pickup and purchase firearms. A few of the iTunes comments praised Lemonade, so I figured I would grab that one instead. Its a very funky album, as opposed to Fixin‘s twang, but its also highly polished, and feels a bit too commercial. Admittedly, its a very fine line–between carefully constructed and commercially manufactured. But something about this album doesn’t feel quite right–it misses Electric Mile‘s spontaneity (something that I suspect the new album might supply, being a collection of covers assembled with and produced by the Avett Brothers).
  • …And you Will Know Us By the Trail of the Dead – Tao of the Dead: Given the amount of electronic music I’ve been listening to lately, I wanted something that rocks. A few searches later, I found this offering. As much a continuous rock opera as a collection of individual tracks, Tao of the Dead delivered what I was looking for (sans large haired guitar solos). I’m quite pleased with the purchase, and will probably dig deeper into their catalogue.

I’ve also picked up a few other oddities this month. First, I downloaded Ramen music’s free debut issue. The project is essentially a peer-reviewed, independent music publishing collaboration; a number of the 12 free tracks are quite impressive–especially Graham O’Brien’s “CFC’s…”. I’m still debating whether to subscribe to the magazine (I give myself a 10$ a week music budget and a yearly subscription to Ramen would cost me almost an entire month’s allowance). I also came across, via Metafilter, the Nerdcore Now project. Take Weezer’s “In the Garage,” remix with some Run-DMC, repeat. This provided some nostalgic amusement, but there’s really no reason to keep going back.

Thanks to the shared iTunes library at work, I listened to quite a bit of Cut Copy and Arcade Fire last month, too. I like the former–its seems perfect for sitting outside or on the beach in nice weather. There’s nothing especially wrong with the latter, though I can’t say I’m in a rush to purchase it either.

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Latour, Gorgias, and Levinas Take 15

Posted on February 9, 2011 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

This article keeps beating me up–every time I think I know what I am doing, it runs away. I believe I am finally whipping it in to shape, but I want to make sure the following paragraphs make sense to someone else beside me. Here’s what I think my thesis is…

Bruno Latour, Gorgias of Leontini, Emmanuel Levinas. At first glance, such a union might seem antithetical. Casting aside Platonic misrepresentations of Gorgias as a swindler and a cheat, how can Levinas’ Humanism, so intense that it fails to recognize animals as having ethical status, be reconciled with Latour’s Actor Network Theory, which refuses to distinguish any hierarchical ontological distinction between a human being and a laboratory beaker? Without dismissing these differences, I reconcile Latour’s challenge to Humanism’s traditional anthropocentrism with Levinas’s humanism of the Other person by highlighting how each shares a strong aversion to the isolated and autonomous Cartesian self operating at the core of much Western philosophy and rhetoric, an aversion shared by Bruce McComiskey and Scott Consigny’s versions of Gorgian sophistry.

The essay first reviews Latour’s challenge to the late 20th century critical tradition, calling instead for a renewed invest in political practice that he terms “concern.” Working in response to Graham Harman’s disavowal of any connection between Latourian politics and ancient sophistry, I will highlight how Latour’s turn toward “concern” shares both metaphysical and practical overlays with Gorgian sophistry (if, unlike Harman, we attend to recent studies of Gorgian sophistry and do not rely on the tired, cliché, and impoverished image of Gorgias offered to us by Plato). Gorgian sophistry offers an ethical defense for agonistic encounter. Finally, I turn to Levinas’ opposing obligations of responsibility (infinite hospitality to the other) and justice (inevitable violence stemming from the infinite obligation to both the other and the neighbor) to construct an ethical disposition requisite for the concerned political-sophistic-agonistic practice advocated by Latour and Gorgias.

Posted in ethics, gorgias, harman, latour, levinas, politics, rhetoric, sophistry, theory | Comments Off on Latour, Gorgias, and Levinas Take 15

Bruno Latour and Metaphysics

Posted on January 31, 2011 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

I don’t remember this passage in Harman’s Prince of Networks, but its a nice one from Latour’s Laboratory Life:

Specific to this laboratory is the particular configurations of apparatus that we have called inscription devices. The central importance of this material arrangement is that none of the phenomena “about which” participants talk could exist without it. Without a bioassay, for example, a substance could not be said to exist. The bioassay is not merely a means of obtaining some independently given entity; the bioassay constitutes the construction of the substance. […] It is not simply that phenomena depend on certain material instrumentation; rather, the phenomena are thoroughly constituted by the material setting of the laboratory. (64)

In the article I’m working on, I connect Latour’s interest in assemblage/emergence to Levinas’s ethical metaphysic. Ethical in the sense that the ethical relation instantiates existence, such that belonging, precedes being. There is no self without relation to the Other/other/others for Levinas. Similarly, as Harman stresses in his explication of Latour, objects exist in for Latour only as far as we can trace their alliances. Metaphysically, I believe the resonances to McComiskey’s Gorgias are quite strong.

With a bit of luck, I’ll have this monstrous article submitted by the end of the week.

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Music / January / 2011

Posted on January 29, 2011 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

In keeping with my New Years resolution, here’s the albums I’ve picked up since my last post:

  • Black Keys’ Rubber Factory – A very solid album, rarely do I find myself skipping a track when this comes up on a shuffle. This band knows what they want to do, retro- blues rock, and they do it well. Given my recent purchases, it is refreshing sometimes to hear a low-fi rock album without a sample, loop, or synthesizer.
  • Vampire Weekend’s Vampire Weekend and Contra – Put simply, I love both of these albums. They’re collections of short, smartly arranged up-tempo songs. Take the Pixies, replace the outsider angst with hipster urbanity and the punk guitars with layered synth, and you have Vampire Weekend. My current favorite band.
  • Joe Cocker’s With a Little Help From My Friends – I think listening to the Black Keys got me on a retro kick, manifesting itself in Cocker’s 1969 album. I felt foolish about 2 seconds after I downloaded the album, seeing as I could probably pick it up for a dollar at any used music store. But, the album is great–there’s some deep tracks here I’d never heard before and really enjoy (like “Sandpaper Cadillac”). So, go ahead Joe, enjoy the royalty and have a glass on me.
  • The Brew’s At Showcase Live (June 16th 2010) – This band came recommended by an ex-student; I downloaded a freebie off of Internet Archive (I pledge to buy an album at some point in the future, karma people). After 4 or 5 listens, I’m pretty sure I’d like the studio material better. The live stuff gets a bit jammy/Phishy for my tastes, although I’m going to tag any band that plays 3 minute solos with a Paul Reed Smith as Phishy. After effects of going to Clark University.
  • Arctic Monkey’s Humbug – I bought this album with a sinking feeling in my stomach. Their last album, Favorite Worst Nightmare, was one of my favorites from grad school. After a quick preview, I pretty much knew this one wouldn’t live up. The liner notes highlight how the Queens of the Stone Age guitarist Josh Homme produced the album–and it shows. Arctic Monkey’s frenetic energy is subdued with a QotSA kind of deep pump. It doesn’t work quite as well for me, but I’ve only listened to the album once. We’ll see.

Alright, so that’s what I picked up this month, along with a few old Kanye singles. The National, Arcade Fire, and Deerhunter all remain on my radar. I’m thinking of picking up Kanye’s latest album next week. Pitchfork gave it a perfect 10.0, and for those that don’t know Pitchfork, that’s about as likely as snow in Florida.

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Harman’s Tool-Being

Posted on January 21, 2011 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

Graham Harman’s Tool-Being (along with several other of his works) is on my radar, although I have no idea when I’ll find time to read it. I came across a review of Harman’s book today at Dark Chemistry, and this excerpt from Harman has my attention:

“In any case, we are left with the following scenario-the world as a duel of tightly interlaced objects that both aggrandize and corrode one another. As Bacon expressed… “For since every body contains in itself many forms of natures united together in a concrete state, the result is that they severally crush, depress, break, and enthrall one another, and thus the individual forms are obscured.” The movement of philosophy is less one of unveiling (which would rely on a sort of as-structure that I have argued does not really exist) than of a sort of reverse engineering. Often, teams of industrial pirates will lock themselves in a motel room, working backward from a competitor’s finished product in an effort to unlock and replicate the code that generates it. In the case of the philosopher, the finished product that must be reverse-engineered is the world as we know it; the motel room is perhaps replaced by a lecture hall or a desert. Behind every apparently simple object or concept is an infinite legion of further objects crushing, depressing, breaking, and enthralling one another. It is these violent underground currents that one should attempt to counter, so as to unlock the infrastructure of any entity or of the world as a whole” (TB: 290).

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Week One, Spring 2011

Posted on January 14, 2011 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

Our first week of classes is coming to a close. My New Media class read Walter Ong’s “Writing is a Technology that Restructures Thought” and will be remediating the essay into (x)html this weekend. I haven’t read that article in a few years (gasp), since I finished the dissertation (which contains a chapter essentially dedicated to Ong); I forgot how darn concise yet incredible that essay is. Written after a nearly 30 years studying the epistemological and ethical impact of writing upon human consciousness and sociology, it is a 14 page tour de force. Stylistically, it is quite quotable, and I think that’s why it will lend itself to the kind of intense condensation that my remediation project demands (reducing the 14 page essay to a series of ten sentences and images).

My visual rhetoric class meets only once a week, and that is a tricky format for an undergraduate technology driven class. Their first project (due next week) asks them to perform a rhetorical analysis of an image (whether an advertisement, an artwork, a book cover, a movie poster, whatever. Nothing revolutionary there. I do ask them, however, to mediate the analysis as either a Prezi, a movie, or a flash presentation. Last semester I did two to three (student choice) of these projects, and they got much better each time. This semester I am only doing one–but there’s a number of other cool projects I want to try. Their first reading is from Presentation Zen Design, and I must say, I really like this book so far. It combines concise instruction harmoniously with a minimalist design scheme, practicing what it preaches.

In terms of research, I spent the first week back working on my book review for TCQ (I’m reviewing
Selber’s collection Rhetoric and Technologies; short, short version–go order a desk copy, its great). I also spent a few hours working on a second book review of Davis’ Inessential Solidarity for JAC. Working on the reviews was a nice way to ease back in to the semester. My rough draft of the Selber review is checking in around 3500 words, the final version needs to be around 1800. So, I’ve got some cutting to do this weekend.

I’m also excited because this week I joined an interdisciplinary project at USF centered in our new School of Global Sustainability–Resilient Tampa Bay. The group seeks to foster connections between academics at USF (from english and communications to civil engineering and the sciences) and community stakeholders from around the Tampa area. My new media class will help design a new website for the group after their 3rd conference this February; my visual rhetoric class will work on designing a complete branding for the group. Should be fun and productive.

Well that’s my first week back. Hope everyone out there is able to get through the snow. I’ve got one last letter of recommendation to compose this afternoon (at least, I hope it is the last one), and about 7 to submit online. Then I might actually take a few hours to (gasp) read a few journal articles.

Posted in davis, davis-review, new-media-class, research, resilient-tampa-bay, rhetoric, rhetoric-and-technology, selber-review, spring-2011, teaching, visual-rhetoric-class | Comments Off on Week One, Spring 2011

Trying to Listen to More Music

Posted on January 9, 2011 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

Meg got me a new iPod for Christmas. I haven’t really bought any new music in probably 5 years (I think the last new album I purchased was Arctic Monkey’s Favorite Worst Nightmare in 2007). So I’m trying to reconnect with music in 2011. My plan is to buy an album a week. I started with an iTunes gift certificate, here’s the albums I have purchased so far:

  • Kings of Leon, Only By the Night – A great album. I was expecting something with a bit more edge to it, so it took a few listens. But its haunting sound grew on me.
  • Crash Kings, Crash Kings – A complete one-hit wonder. “Mountain Man” is a great song, but the rest of the album tries to hard to emulate every other alternative band out there.
  • Mumford and Sons, Sigh No More – I loved the single “Little Lion Man.” The rest of the album is solid, but they certainly picked the right track to release as the first single. The band is at their best with up-tempo tracks.
  • My Chemical Romance, Danger Days – I am an unapologetic My Chemical Romance fan, I love their harmonic-punk style and experimentation (their last album, Black Parade, has a punk-polka). This album is quite different than the two previous albums. I listened to it about 5 times and am not sure what I think about it–its certainly a good album, but I think I’d prefer carefully arranged and mixed punk rock to carefully arranged and mixed electronica.

I just bought the Black Keys’ 2004 album Rubber Factory and a friend provided burns of two Vampire Weekend albums, so I have plenty to listen to this week. Next week, I’m thinking of grabbing The National’s High Violet, but I am open to suggestions.

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M&M Eat

Posted on January 5, 2011 by insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

As I said in the previous post, Meg and I have talked about creating a food blog since we moved to Florida. Call it New Year’s initiative, because I finally made one: M&M Eat.

Happy New Year everyone, good luck with your syllabizing.

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