Greetings '06!
Since our poor, neglected blog has yet to be welcomed into 2006, I figured I would do the honors. I hope the word "break" at least partially describes what you experienced post-final portfolios and pre-Jan 23 (I imagine some stray seminar papers intruded for some of you!). I also hope your classes are off to a good start this semester; I'm sure you're feeling much differently now that we're talking about a second iteration instead of going on stage without a dress rehearsal. Comments or testimony??
My own break was busy (and I'm not even thinking of the survival techniques we needed to adopt to make it through the Christmas season with a 2- and 4-year old!), but it had some great moments, including the penultimate U2 show in the U.S. (I'm not sure there's another band for whom I'd drive to Salt Lake City during the winter!). I also actually engaged in that activity I used to know (pre-kids, pre-teaching career) as "pleasure reading" (is everything I do "pleasure reading," or does the concept no longer exist?!): I finished Zadie Smith's White Teeth, read Richard Powers's 600+ page novel The Time of Our Singing (which is impressive and magisterial as a novel of ideas and notable as a novel by a white author about race in America; most significantly for me, it features some of the most incredible writing about music and music appreciation that I've ever encountered), and I'm now in the middle of David Mitchell's six-stranded, time-sliding, innovative novel Cloud Atlas (which was one of the most talked-about novels around this time last year ... but wish me luck finishing it now that the semester has started!).
I also finally saw those two great documentaries: the stirring March of the Penguins and the haunting Grizzly Man. And you all? Did anyone read anything that's worth recommending? And, oh, before I stoop to poaching from my students, does anyone by any chance have a copy of Iron & Wine's cd "Our Endless Numbered Days" and/or Devendra Banhart's "Cripple Crow" that you wouldn't mind letting me borrow for a night or two??
My own break was busy (and I'm not even thinking of the survival techniques we needed to adopt to make it through the Christmas season with a 2- and 4-year old!), but it had some great moments, including the penultimate U2 show in the U.S. (I'm not sure there's another band for whom I'd drive to Salt Lake City during the winter!). I also actually engaged in that activity I used to know (pre-kids, pre-teaching career) as "pleasure reading" (is everything I do "pleasure reading," or does the concept no longer exist?!): I finished Zadie Smith's White Teeth, read Richard Powers's 600+ page novel The Time of Our Singing (which is impressive and magisterial as a novel of ideas and notable as a novel by a white author about race in America; most significantly for me, it features some of the most incredible writing about music and music appreciation that I've ever encountered), and I'm now in the middle of David Mitchell's six-stranded, time-sliding, innovative novel Cloud Atlas (which was one of the most talked-about novels around this time last year ... but wish me luck finishing it now that the semester has started!).
I also finally saw those two great documentaries: the stirring March of the Penguins and the haunting Grizzly Man. And you all? Did anyone read anything that's worth recommending? And, oh, before I stoop to poaching from my students, does anyone by any chance have a copy of Iron & Wine's cd "Our Endless Numbered Days" and/or Devendra Banhart's "Cripple Crow" that you wouldn't mind letting me borrow for a night or two??
posted by Eric at 1:14 PM
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