Things I've Done This Week

It's Thursday. My week is almost done, and what have I done?

1. Read half of Louise Erdrich's first novel, Love Medicine.
2. Wrote and revised a 13 page book proposal.
3. Completed 3, 30 minute workouts.
4. Talked to Mushy on the phone for about an hour.
5. Attended a job talk on the political nature of Me'Shell Ndgeocello's music by Martha Mockus.
6. Went shopping, and out to dinner on Monday.
7. Taught 2 classes.
8. Winterized our backyard deck by covering furniture, and removing anything and everything I don't want snowed in.
9. Cooked vegetarian shepherd's pie.
10. Talked to my mom on the phone.
11. Bought *Broken Social Scene* from I tunes.
12. Read the latest Atlantic Monthly.
13. Read this week's New York.
14. Watched Monday night football.
15. Saw a critical expose of the U.S. handling of Abu Graib on Canadian television.
16. Paid some bills.
17. Drank 2 bottles of wine.
18. Scanned in some pictures on the computer to send to friends.
19. Slept a lot.
20. Had sex once.
21. Wrote a lot of emails.
22. Updated my blog and livejournal more than usual.

All in all, not the most productive or busy week that I've had, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Backyard Bonfires and Eco-Terrorists

what a relaxing weekend. unbelievably, the temperatures were in the low 60's this weekend in upstate new york. it was time to turn down the heater in the house and go outside and build a fire. i don't know what came over us, but we had a million leaves to stuff into bags and load on the curb of our street so that city workers can pick them up at some unknown day and time. apparantly, there are different rules to deal with dead things in one's backyard - leaves go into paper bags, and must be placed on the street by your house. twigs, limbs and other tree parts can be placed without a container on the street by your house. i have no idea why, but that's how it goes around here. anyway, we were so tired of lugging dead vegetation that we decided to build a bonfire in our backyard and burn all of the twigs and tree limbs, as well as a couple of boxes from our summer move.we ended up spending about 5 hours saturday night in front of the fire in our backyard. it was so pleasant, and felt to good to be able to do this in mid-november without gloves, hat or scarves. global warming has its advantages, no? i love spending time in my backyard- it's amazingly beautiful and peaceful. it's like a sanctuary for me, and I love the smells of the trees, green grass, and the sound of the creek, which is so high now that i saw someone kayaking down it a couple of weekends ago. I can't wait until spring when i can plant flowers back there, and perhaps create a rock garden and a place to sit and meditate.

speaking of nature, last night 60 minutes did a piece on earth liberation front, which they labeled as "domestic terrorists." elf is an ecoterrorist group that engages in all sorts of actions designed to throw monkey wrenches into business practices deemed environmentally unsound, or those that abuse animals through testing. they have burned down labs at michigan state university, set loose wild horses in the west, burned car dealerships that sell suv's, and a massive housing project in san diego, which they said contributed to urban sprawl. in all of their actions they leave behind messages and their sig tag - elf - so that people will know this was an act of eco-terrorism, and not some random act of violence. the elf has no centralized authority - they operate like traditional terrorist organizations with cells in different parts of the country, and the identities of individual "members" are concealed. it's fascinating stuff, and makes me think about the purpose and intent of social movements and actors. i'm not necessarily an anti-violence person because i don't think systemic, social change can occur without violence of some kind. in essence, there can be no revolution without a violent overthrow of the current system. anti-violence stances are good in theory, but impossible in practice given what we know about humans and the societies they create. anti-violence, imho, is naive and untenable. having said that, i think there is a place at the table for groups like the elf. whether its civil rights, anti-imperialist, or environmental movements, it's important to have a range of debate and action - we need the radical presence as well as we need the liberal, middle of the road presence to start debates and to work for change.


jb

Ipods and Music Geeks

i'm pleased to report that i'm no longer living without my ipod. 2 monthes ago our 40 g ipod, george, went haywire without warning or provocation. after trying several different trouble-shooting tips, i decided to restore george to factory settings, erasing all of his 6,9000 songs. oh, the horror and that prospect. it turns out that george was so fucked up, he couldn't be restored. after paying about 60 bucks to extend a warranty for 2 years, the good folks at apple sent us a new, 40 gig ipod, which we also named george. the bleak days of being ipod-less are over. life is sweet.

life without music technology is very hard on music geeks like myself. i couldn't count the hours i have spent dowloading, buying and listening to music. i love the new technology and the ways in which music is now acquired, exchanged and used. it's fabulous. i love the whole process of getting an entire cd for free, or dowloading one through i-tunes in a matter of minutes. i love making cds for myself and friends, putting music on my ipod and being moble with my entire music collections. in short, fooling around with popular music is, without a doubt, my greatest joy in life.

it's fascinating to note the differences in music format over the years. i have seen a lot of changes come and go - from the days of 8-tracks, albums, cds, cassettes and now the glorious wonders of digital music. in some ways the new digital ways in which we obtain and enjoy music is a bit superficial. there are so many options at our fingertips, and acquiring music is so easy that sometimes our listening and evaluative experiences are superficial. in the old days, the new album by so and so was a musical event. serious music enthusiasts would gather at someone's home to listen to the new artistic outpouring (now, the artistry has moved out of the experience a bit, and the latest recording by so and so is more or less considered a market product) usually with the intent and seriousness of watching a film or reading a book. now our experiences are so quick and more solitary because of the new technology. when i'm dowloading music i listen to snipets to determine if i like it or not, and if i do, i usually listen to it, alone, through my headphones or in my car on the way to work. of course the new technology also enables us to sample music before we buy - a much-desired advantage over buying 8-tracks, albums etc long ago. then people had to rely on critical reviews and word of mouth to determine whether a particular album or cd was something worth buying.

anyway, there are several new bands/Cds i have gotten lately that i would highly recommend to anyone interested:

my morning jacket - Z
death cab for cutie - transatlanticism or plans
the new pornographers - twin cinema
bright eyes - i'm wide awake, it's morning or digital ash in a digital urn
franz ferdinand - franz ferdinand (the first one) or you could have it so much better (the new one)
blackalicious - blazing arrow

and the new kate bush -ariel - came out yesterday. i have heard one song and it's fabulous. the entire cd is getting rave reviews. can't wait to hear it.

jb