Posted by Daniel Anderson at 08:42 AM
Taged as >> I am now Dan at Thoughtpress | Permalink

I may cross-post here for a bit, and then I'll add a redirect link, but if you have blogrolls or RSS feeds that link here, if you can update them, as they say, that'd be great.

Eventually, I'll transition this space back into something related to the day job. For now, find me at the new site.

Posted by Daniel Anderson at 10:49 PM
Taged as >> thoughtpress thoughtpress thoughtpress | Permalink

Posted by Daniel Anderson at 08:24 AM
Taged as >> funny and sad | Permalink

In fairness, 10 car songs that hit on all cylinders is meant to tie the rise of muscle car culture to some specific instances of popular music, but I've been doing a lot with playlist assignments lately and can't help but sense a missed opportunity. I've been conceptualizing the playlist assignment as somewhere near the textual edge of a print/media continuum that can be helpful for thinking about educational change--instead of walking completely away from print activities and toward media compositions, instructors can traverse the continuum, weaving print and media literacies together as they go.

Playlists, then, work really well, because they require very few non-print steps to implement. HTML is nice, but with a word processor or pencil and pad, you can create the list. But, when you make the list, you also delve into the world of music and sound. Sure, you'll think about song titles. But for the list to really congeal, you'll have tap into the messages and the lyrics. Even better, you need to create patterns of sound based on the musical elements of the songs. Yes, the assignment is easy and composed with print, but selecting and sequencing the songs kicks you into a process of musical analysis and arrangement.

So, I'm not that impressed with some of what's on the list:

Mustang Sally, Wilson Pickett
Little Deuce Coupe, The Beach Boys
Little Red Corvette, Prince
Pink Cadillac, Bruce Springsteen
Hot Rod Lincoln, Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen
409, The Beach Boys
G.T.O., Ronny and the Daytonas
Coupe de Ville, Neil Young
Rocket 88, Ike Turner
Pontiac Blues, Sonny Boy Williamson.

Now, some of these seem like possibilities for a car list, but others just seem to take up too literal a connection between the song and the message that might be woven into the list. I'm not all that familiar with Bruce Springsteen, but I know that any song with the lyrics,

Beyond the Palace hemi-powered drones scream down the boulevard
The girls comb their hair in rearview mirrors
And the boys try to look so hard

probably deserves to jump ahead of "Pink Cadillacs," even if that song has an iconic luxury car in the title. Other observations: no songs by the Beach Boys allowed in the list--no, it's not that I don't like the songs or appreciate the cultural reflections they create; it's just that it's too easy and direct a connection.

Well, it's easy to critique someone else's list, so I should probably offer some ideas of my own. It will take a while to really put together a list, but a couple of candidates that have shuffled across the earscape lately would be,

Neil Young, Unknown Legend
OMC, How Bizarre
The Doors, LA Woman
Citizen Cope, Sun's Gonna Rise
Buck 65, Wicked and Weird.

I'll need to think about this some more. It turns out wikipedia has a heckuva list started. Now to take those raw materials and compose.

Posted by Daniel Anderson at 09:33 AM
Taged as >> the sounds of cars reverberate through the earscape | Permalink

Based on a recent anthropology conversation in which I was educated about the Nuer tribe and their belief that twins are birds, I offer this poem, written sitting on an airplane with the sun streaming in the window

Sunlight Through a Window

Twins are birds,
Or so they say,
In words not yet polluted
By Cartesian sway.
We’re pulled apart
At birth. We stray
From Mother,
Sisterbrother,
Father.
Sun.

The God terms gone.

But still
There’s warmth
That shows
Through windows,
Hitting skin,
Yet heating body
From within.
It warms the core
But shines
From without.
I feel an outside world
So distant its heat
Is light years old,
Yet still brand new.

Both and.

The sun’s in me.
The past is now.
That twins are birds
Makes sense somehow.

Posted by Daniel Anderson at 04:08 PM
Taged as >> cartesian sway melts away | Permalink

Based on personal experience, I have to recognize some grain of truth in this piece reporting on narcissism among Gen Y college students.

The Narcissistic Personality Inventory asks students to react to such statements as: "If I ruled the world, it would be a better place," "I think I am a special person" and "I like to be the center of attention."

The study found that almost two-thirds of recent college students had narcissism scores that were above the average 1982 score. Thirty percent more college students showed elevated narcissism in 2006 than in 1982.

If nothing else, the piece makes me want to think further about the links between the physical and online social activities of today. Read to the end to get to this posting's subject line.

Posted by Daniel Anderson at 08:52 AM
Taged as >> it's all about metube | Permalink