Lots of work from home

As in: In the Stereo

Loaded up:
• Modest Mouse, Good News for People Who Love Bad News
• Soul Coughing, Ruby Vroom
• The Postal Service, Give Up

Death, disease, and the Irish?

As in: Flotsam , Reading

My favorite passage from How to Lie with Maps by Mark Monmonier:

Similarly, black might connote mourning, death, or heaviness, whereas blue can suggest coldness, depression, aristocracy, or submissive faith. White might suggest cleanliness or sickness, and green can relate to envy, compassion, or the Irish (154).

I don't know why I think that's so funny, but I do.

More How to Lie with Maps

As in: Composition , Hypertext , Media , Reading

I just finished Mark Monmonier's book. It's great. There's one passage that strikes to the core of my being with a glowing, cartographic, nerdly joy. He writes:

...map publishers have been known to deliberately falsify their maps by adding "trap streets." As deterrents to the theft of copyright-protected information, trap streets are usually placed subtly, in out-of-way locations unlikely to confuse or antagonize map users.(51)

It seems to me that the "trap street" is a fantastic opportunity for hypertext writers. While people working for "transparency" and "clarity" certainly wouldn't want trap streets cluttering up their "site maps," I think hypertext authors interesting in the more playful aspects of the web could use "deliberately falsified" elements deliciously.

When trying to write using hypertext to be more socially active or aware, this passage seems particularly apt:

By omitting politically threatening or aesthetically unattractive aspects of geographic reality, and by focusing on the interests of civil engineers, geologists, public administrators, and land developers, our topographic "base maps" are hardly basic to the concerns of public health and safety officials, social workers, and citizens rightfully concerned about the well-being of themselves and others. In this sense, cartographic silences are indeed a form of geographic disinformation(122).

Perhaps an offshoot of adbusters could be mapbusters--people dedicated to the cartographic education and elucidation of social problems often ignored in maps.

Push Butt**

As in: Flotsam

Two amusing things from a local restaurant in Oak Park:
1. They had a handblower with written instructions instead of pictures. The instructions were marred in all three expected ways:

1. Press Butt
2. Rub hands under arm hair
3. Stop atomically
4. Wipe hands on pants

It was sort of a thrill to see these scratchings (including the fourth step, which is added to the machine), since the newer icon-based instructions don't allow for this kind of play (wrong-o, Brendan!). Apparently, I'm not the only person to notice this phenomenon.

2. This particular restaurant offers trivia cards for its patrons to read. At the table behind us, two teenage daughters and their father were eating dinner. The older (probably a sophomore or junior in high school) asked, "In the 1950s, Senator Joseph McCarthy led congressional hearings looking for what?"
There was a pause and then the father said, "Communists."
After another short pause, the younger sister (perhaps eighth grade) said "Red Scare, baby."
I couldn't stop laughing.

Break begins

As in: In the Stereo

Semester break begins today. Whoo.

In rotation this week:
• Tracy Chapman, Tracy Chapman
• Weezer, Maladroit
• The White Stripes, Elephant

How to Lie with Maps

As in: Reading , Thoughts from the "L"

Two passages from Mark Monmonier's book that struck me today. First, a funny one:

A more personal example of creative cartography is Mount Richard, which in the early 1970s suddenly appeard on the continental divide on a county map prepared in Boulder, Colorado. Believed to be the work of Richard Ciacci, a draftsman in the public works department, Mount Richard was not discovered for two years. (5!)

The second passage struck a chord with me:

...using outside contractors for compilation or drafting requires a strong commitment to quality control buttressed by the bureaucrat's inherent fear of embarrassment. (43)

I think this passage strikes me because it highlights the difference between a bureaucrat and a good politician ("good" in the sense of being good at politicking, not in the sense of being good for the people). Both Clinton and W seem to be without any sense of embarrassment. Both know when they need to spin, but neither ever seems ashamed in the way the media and the public think they should be.

Why we're afraid of robots

As in: Science Fiction

One of my favorite SF themes is that "technology is going to kill us," part of what Bukatman suggests is the conservative undercurrent that drives SF. Behold the dangers Dorothy faced:

Brewster Rockit Copyright 2005 Tim Rickard

To continue the theme from previous posts—what do we do with this in class? Is this the rhetoric of Chicken Little? As SF and "real life" get closer and closer, the novels about VR games driving people to murder ride the same airwaves as congressional hearings about videogame violence.

Filmed Theater

As in: Media

For a month or two now, I've been greedily eyeing an ad for One Man Star Wars which I placed on my fridge. When I read Clancy's post about Point Break LIVE!, it reminded me of this play I will not be able to see. I'm fascinated by the remediation of cinema to the stage. We've seen it a lot in the last few years--The Producers and The Graduate both spring to mind as recent adaptations.

For we film scholars, it's particularly interesting given film's early history of being the tagalong to theater's cool older brother. Or, as Bazin put it in "Theater and Cinema—Part One":

The heresy of filmed theater is rooted in an ambivalent complex that cinema has about the theater. It is an inferiority complex in the presence of an older and more literary art, for which the cinema proceeds to overcompensate by the "superiority" of its technique--which in turn is mistaken for an aesthetic superiority. (What is Cinema? Vol 1 87)

Now the ship has turned. Given cinema's huge box office revenues, can we explain theater's turn to cinema as merely monetary? Or could it be that remediation is in full swing? Perhaps the cynic might say that we bread-and-circuses public (close your mouth, dear reader—I embrace the silliness of someone quoting Bazin putting himself in that category) just like seeing stories we already know in new forms?

This post also reminds me of the current relationship between cinema and video games. Despite the early Atari E.T. debacle, video games have been adapting movies for 25 years or so. At present, both media are feeding on one another—successful games might yield a movie, and any action or children's movie with a large budget will certainly yield a spinoff game. Then there are games like Half-Life 2, which work almost like a movie you play.

How can we start to use these remediations? We've seen MOO adaptations of textual spaces, but what else can we do--Flash games? Websites? (Assignment: make a web site adaptation of a favorite movie as a way to motivate a critical conversation about an issue in your community. Use the reader's nostalgia and knowledge of the text to pull them in and discuss the issue.)

One last thing: you may be wondering why I have not seen One Man Star Wars. I spent my theater money for the last few months on tickets to Spamalot!

That's too funny.

As in: Flotsam

Wiener wagon hotbed of sin

Two women who sold hot dogs from this camper in Levittown, L.I., also allegedly used the wiener wagon to perform sex acts.

...Skorgy and Scalia lashed out at reporters who tried to interview them outside the Eighth Precinct stationhouse in Levittown last night.

"Oh, be quiet," Skorgy hollered, kicking at a photographer. When asked about her scheme, she countered, "Your mother sells hot dogs."

Nothing new

As in: In the Stereo

After a couple weeks of mostly new music, I dug out some old favorites.

In the Stereo:
• James, Whiplash
• Dinosaur Jr, Green Mind
• Cannonball Adderly, Sophisticated Swing, disc 2

Not as many

As in: Writing Pedantry

Less does not mean "not as many." Less means "not as much." Fewer means "not as many."

Wrong	Right

Do not write:
I didn't have a stomachache because I ate less M&M's than last Halloween.

Do write:
I didn't have a stomachache because I ate fewer M&M's than last Halloween. I still had a sugar high, though.

Weather

As in: Thoughts from the "L"

There are some days when you're glad you own a really warm, if silly, hat.

The "naked 'this'"

As in: Writing Pedantry

Do not use this as a pronoun. Include the noun to which you are referring.

Do not write:
The answer to "life, the universe, and everything" is 42. This has puzzled scholars and fans of silly novels for years.

Do write:
The answer to "life, the universe, and everything" is 42. This mystery has puzzled scholars and fans of silly novels for years.

Using a "naked 'this'" leaves the reader guessing at your meaning; don't make them guess! (Thanks, Doug!)

Benson

As in: Games

So I started playing Half-Life 2 today and, to my surprise, heard Robert Guillume's voice. Weird! I haven't seen him since Sports Night. It's always strange to hear recognizable voices in odd places--James Coburn selling Dodge trucks, Gene Hackman shilling for Lowe's, and now Benson in my video game. Lord help me if Carrot Top shows up.

Odd mix

As in: In the Stereo

This week, I'm putting three pretty different CDs in the stereo. Makes for some interesting juxtapositions if I put them on shuffle.

In the CD player now:

• Muff Ugga, Hustlin Man Blues


• Sum 41, Chuck


• The Killers

IMO

As in: Writing Pedantry

Don't say "in my opinion." The whole paper is your opinion.

Don't write:
In my opinion, Evil Dead 2 is Sam Raimi's best work.

Write:
Evil Dead 2 is Sam Raimi's best work.

Gender words

As in: Writing Pedantry

"Male" should be an adjective unless you have good reason for it not to be. Use "man" and "woman" when appropriate.

Do not write:
The elevator was full of females and I hadn't showered that morning.

Write:
The elevator was full of women and I hadn't showered that morning!

Using "females" here makes it sound like you're doing animal behavior studies: The four females chased the amorous male over the hill and clubbed him with branches.

"the engines of invention"

As in: Composition , Reading

My favorite bits of what Ulmer says are the bits about "invention." I have since attempted to work the process of invention into all my assignments, regardless of whether I feel they do the work of new media or not. Of course, invention is a fun term in its own right, what with Barthomome's students inventing the university, among others.

I take glee in Jeff's comments on WPA, as well as his blog posts, because they say, very eloquently and much more brazenly, things that resonate with me.

It seems that the New York Times is catching up with the Florida school. Erich Kunhardt's Op-Ed piece from 14 December, "Necessity as the Mother of Tenure?" suggests that universities need to embrace invention as one of their main goals. He writes:

However, "academic entrepreneurship" - the patenting and licensing by universities and their faculty - has not become part of the academic mainstream, and is generally viewed within the Ivory Tower as conflicting with the mission of the university. That mission is now often captured by the phrase: "to teach, and to research." I think a third element should be added: "to invent." There are two compelling reasons for broadening the academic mission. First, the university shapes the thinking and outlook of our future workers, and also offers one of the most stable environments for bright Americans to work on new things and sustain our creative leadership. Second, putting an emphasis on invention would enrich the academic community by adding a new dimension of creative expression. Independent of whether inventing can be taught or not, affirming the creative process as a long-term value in the university will serve to stimulate faculty and students alike. (par 3)

Of course, Kunhardt writes here about patents as the result of invention, which isn't what I'm suggesting we do. Rather, I'm walking in the same direction Ulmer walks when he suggests that "The best way to learn about the potential of websites and the internet for supporting learning in the Arts and Letters disciplines, is to invent a new practice of writing native to hypermedia"(Internet Invention, xiii). Rice makes a similar move in Writing About Cool, inventing a method for writing hypertext through concepts of "cool."

So, if we ignore the passage about "patents," Kunhardt's piece becomes a campaign for web-writing using the logic of invention (heuretics instead of hermeneutics).

Some relevant passages:

...inventing is viewed mainly as technology transfer, not as something with academic value of its own. It is no surprise, then, that few faculty members get involved in inventing, and students are not challenged to attempt it. And any arguments that inventing should be nurtured for its potential contribution to American economic development are quickly dismissed (par 7).

This reminds me of Jeff's recent post about the stubbornness of the composition community in refusing to engage with more inventive pedagogies and thinking. Plus, invention's harder grade.

The quickest way to change this mind-set will be to get administrations and faculties to accept successful inventing as a step toward tenure. After all, in a few decades research went from being a foreign concept in academia to being the most important factor in tenure decisions. However, unlike research, there is no established peer-review process for evaluating inventions, no way to evaluate the academic significance of a new idea beyond its potential economic value (par 8).

Kunhardt's argument moves toward the idea that invention should figure in one's tenure and promotion evaluation, but I'm interested in the idea of peer-reviewed invention. Perhaps the blogosphere could be seen as a peer-review system that works really fast. The rapid spread of ideas becomes the peer-review process. Hmmm.

New CDs!

As in: In the Stereo

I love the holidays. Friends, family, and new music.

In the stereo now:
• Flogging Molly, drunken lullabies
• Green Day, American Idiot
• Live, Secret Samadhi

I got the Live album from a friend's "CD Warehouse rejects" box.