Author: AKMA

My sweetheart has a very intriguing job prospect; I long to blab about it to the world, but I have to wait till everything is signed, sealed, and delivered. Nothing can stop me, though, from beaming with pride and affection.

This article about Jim DeRogatis’s change of heart relative to a recent R.E.M. album underscores my interest in retrospective evaluation of popular culture. As DeRogatis admits, reviews written in the heat of anticipation (positive or negative) are liable to mislead; a glance through the yearly awards lists shows how great the difference is between “what seems like a great album/movie/book right at this moment” and “what has shown its merit by impressing listeners/viewers/readers over and over again.” Maybe next time I’m wrestling with writer’s block I’ll renew the Year in Retrospect series.

I can’t speak for you, but I see in Chad Jordan’s t-shirt design just a little too close a resemblance to Dorothy’s Transylvanian character in Cat and Girl.

Video of Clay Shirky’s presentation of Here Comes Everybody at the Berkman Center, and — well, I don’t buy everything Robert Cringely says in the following column, but these are the kinds of question with which we need to be grappling (Hat tip to Bruce).

Stephen Downes reports on Larry Sanger’s call for “philanthropists to ‘liberate’ educational content by buying it from publishers and posting it for free online.” It’s a very Disseminary idea, but even more so is Stephen’s reaction: “The money would be better spent helping volunteers make their free content better.”

My dad’s in the hospital with some fairly serious lung problems. Margaret’s mom has had a persistent fever. Margaret has had a nasty cough for several days. She caught it from Jennifer, who is feeling a little better, and who went back to Manhattan for a couple of days. Josiah and Laura will arrive for a spring-break visit latter this afternoon. And more!

Friday afternoon’s sermon from Christ Church, New Haven.
 
Continue reading “Good Friday”

Advice for the time that you’re the guest preacher, participating in the footwashing at an Anglo-Catholic parish: Don’t do what I did.
 
That is, somewhere between when Fr. Cobb washed my foot (only one each, here) and when I had to put my shoes back on to take my shift as a footwasher, I lost track of my sock. Since people were already lining up, I just jammed my shoe back on and hoped I would be able to see it when this phase of the service was over. Alas, the last congregant left the bench, I went to wash Fr Cobb’s foot, returned to my place, scanned the floor discreetly from my seat, to no avail.
 
On the other hand, when it’s a very liturgically savvy parish, things like this happen: at the peace, I sidled up to the MC and said, “Did anyone by any chance find a sock?” He inclined his head toward the servers’ seating area, where my sock had been retrieved and deposited. (I put it back on during the offertory, all was well.)

Euan quotes Steve Jobs about excellence, and (quite apart from quibbles over the quality of rival product lines) Steve gets at the heart of my frustration and impatience and ardor for teaching:

We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? So this is what we’ve chosen to do with our life. . . And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it.

I’ve said something along these lines numerous times, but as often as not my interlocutor looked at me as though I were from outer space, or a drama queen, or just foolishly anxious. I admit to a degree of anxiety, especially now, but more to the point, I want the few years that I’m afforded to be worth it, for me and for my family and for my students and for whatever small effect I make during these dwindling days. I’m not a genius, who can make a lightning-like contribution in a moment and coast the rest of their life; I’m a workman who knows there are homes and hospitals and libraries and sanctuaries to be built, and I can’t do it on my own, and I can’t bear to see it done shoddily, discrediting everyone involved.
 
(Seth Godin strikes a related note.)