October 15
Frank Zappa, our own Suzy Creamcheese and happy 15 years, Balloon Boy
1978
Cough, cough, cough. If I could only stop sneezing and coughing long enough to get some work done.
Why is it so hard to start my presentation? I even have a plan. The whole thing is only going to be about 10 minutes long, and it isn’t really very important, so what’s the hang-up?
We saw Frank Zappa in Cole Field House last night, for the 5th time in 10 years. A very weird, almost hostile audience, and an extremely odd performance. Still good music, of course, but apparently not appealing to the punkishness of the audience. Little neo-hippies everywhere, too. I felt disjointed, very separate from the undergrads in the audience, like another species.
Comment 2023
The student-written revue is as hostile and weird as the concert. Here is the same review as a jpeg. Let me know which works better.
1979
No, I am slogged down. I am having trouble explaining what I have in mind to my advisor.
I just spent an hour getting dressed. I look OK on the outside, but my mind still isn’t functioning. It’s time to work, she says, hopefully.
This weekend was enjoyable, if too cold for camping, maybe. But we did it anyway. I keep coming back not ready to work, but ready to chuck it all instead. Camping is great, but can ruin my attitude. Now all I want to do is go be a pioneer lady in the woods. The Laura Ingalls in me. My inner Mary Poppins wants to amaze them in the classroom. Now if I only had a tiny bit of ambitious scholar in there SOMEWHERE! It’s a pain to have to push myself to do simple, simple, things. Crap-o-la!
(Ah, Jo; ever so eloquent.)
1983
Today was the deadline to end all deadlines. I had three different projects due today. What a great relief to have them all done and handled in.
It’s a lovely autumn day. Clear and golden and fragrant with autumn smells. We bought a pumpkin this morning and this afternoon I picked the last marigolds, peppers, and butternut squash from the garden. My hands still smell like marigolds.
2003
I am waiting at Union Station for my train to Hartford. The original ticket was 12:25, but now I leave at 3:05, so I am reading and people watching. I also need to locate an ATM and get some lunch. Suzy the beagle died two weeks ago. She went peacefully, in her sleep, after a steep decline. It saved us the painful decision of when to put her down, which was easily the nicest thing she ever did.
Her entrance and exit reveal her super power as a mindreader. She appeared on Christmas Day, shortly after Dad’s death, just as I had been starting to think that a second dog, a buddy for Rex, would be a good thing. I even had a size (small), sex (female) and breed (beagle) in mind, and had played with the name “Suzy”. It seemed to go well with Rex. So when I stepped out of Bob’s van and saw a starving, frightened little she-beagle, I just said , “Suzy?” And she looked up and me and quivered in recognition. It’s a good thing I never told Mom that story, she would have had Suzy arriving in an act of Divine intervention. Suzy was a piece of work, of course: determined, cranky, aggressive, distrustful, and capable of the foulest farts of any dog we have ever owned. But she was, through it all, her own bitch, and nine years just wasn’t enough! It would have been a treat to know Suzy for all of her 16 or so years. If I have a dog in my old age, I want another Suzy.
Comment 2023
Scratch that I want to BE Suzy.
2009
Spring course: Simplicity and Anti-consumption in American Life
It's only October and barely fall, but I am working on my new spring course on Simplicity and Anti-consumption in American Life. Here's my pitch for the spring course:
American Studies scholars have argued that consumer culture has eclipsed civic culture in its importance in American life. This argument maintains that we define ourselves as Americans by what we consume; even the iconic American Dream is often expressed in terms of possessions. In AMST201 and AMS203 or AMST205 you have probably been exposed to texts or conducted research about advertising, marketing, consumer-identity, branding, and other aspects of consumption. In AMST 498C we will examine another strand in this narrative: the efforts, movements and trends that resist or oppose excessive consumption. Sometimes these impulses spring from necessity (the Great Depression, wartime) but often they are rooted in convictions about the moral peril of personal wealth or about environmental sustainability. We will consider historical evidence (Puritan sumptuary laws, Utopian communities, 60s communes) as well as recent trends such as frugality and Voluntary Simplicity.
Update (response to a student query):
Working list of texts -
The Simple Life: Plain Living and High Thinking in American Culture (David Shi) The Machine in the Garden (Leo Marx) (maybe... it's an American Studies classic) The Good Life (Scott Nearing) one of the many recent books on Voluntary Simplicity (or I may offer a choice on this one...) selections from Theory of the Leisure Class (Thorstein Veblen) and Walden (Henry David Thoreau) We'll also be viewing some excellent documentaries (such as Affluenza), blogs and websites (Center for the New American Dream, Adbusters)
2009 (Twitter)
October 15, 2009: the day the media was literally distracted from real news by a shiny object. Can I have my news back now? #balloonboy
Comment 2024
Wow. Balloon Boy. I remember vividly. Was it a slow news day? Nope. Just the 24 hour news industry jumping the shark.
2021
Busy but very pleasant weekend. Fall is finally here! The summer clothes are put away, and it feels so great. Autumn gives me energy.