February 8, 2010
There's Visual Literacy and there's Legal Literacy. And you'd think a building full of lawyers would be legally literate.
In producing faux openness (look, we're all social media and we post photos!) the White House forgot that "no copyright for pictures produced by federal employees in the line of work" clause, didn't they? And they didn't HAVE to publish on Flickr!
Now they're scrambling - and it probably won't work.
I really should blog about the great Visual Literacy seminar our Library and NITLE put on right before classes started - I've been bogged down! Copyright and such were certainly topics. In fact, I set up a private Tumblr blog just this morning for my Islamic Art & Architecture students. Not only do I want this to be a comfortable class environment (cough cough) but I want it to be unsearchable when we start talking about images of the Prophet Muhammad.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 8:33 AM | Comments (0)
February 7, 2010
Britain's only Chariot Track
Trying to save Colchester's Roman circus.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 1:43 PM | Comments (0)
German pick up phrase a day?
I keep improving shining hours (which if you live in a place as gray as I do is important) - I bought a German-phrase-a-day calendar. Lately it seems to be stuck in a singles bar. Sind Sie verheiratet? Then earlier this week "Sind Sie single?" Yesterday, "Sind Sie in einer Beziehung?"
Today we've broken away from all that and I keep saying to myself (whenever I walk past the end of the kitchen counter, "Keine Sorge, mein Hund beißt nicht."
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 11:44 AM | Comments (2)
February 6, 2010
A new fave - Unhappy Hipsters
Life in high design - Unhappy Hipsters.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 4:30 PM | Comments (0)
Weather, not Climate
I foolishly believed the weather prediction this morning - no snow here! Cold but clear! While I was inside Staples it grayed up, started snowing, and hasn't stopped. Argh!
On the other hand, I bought a nice wire book stand.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 4:12 PM | Comments (0)
February 4, 2010
Vote Medievalist!
Well, a B.A. in philosophy and medieval history from Stanford, at least!
And not a creepy FCINO.
Gotta love the Gender Warfare, too - "Purity, piety, our fiscally conservative leaders, men we admire...."
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 10:22 PM | Comments (0)
Gummy vitamins for adults?
Some generation younger than mine is coming of age - and being advertised to.
Gummy vitamins? You can't swallow a chalky pill?
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 9:24 PM | Comments (0)
Sources and Documents
I had to buy a new copy of J.J. Pollitt's Art of Ancient Greece: Sources and Documents; I have no idea what I've done with mine, the library's is too fragile to xerox out of, and books like this are endlessly useful. I sometimes think of just ordering one of them as the primary textbook along with a history of a period and working through mainly the images (or kinds of images) referred to in the surviving texts. It would be an interesting way to run a course - but ultimately I probably wouldn't like it. We (or I) depend too much on the insights from archaeology, which this kind of textual evidence is not all that helpful at generating.
Here are some other ones I use all the time:
Cyril Mango: The Art of the Byzantine Empire 312-1453: Sources and Documents
Caecilia Davis-Weyer: Early Medieval Art 300-1150: Sources and Documents
Teresa Frisch: Gothic Art, 1140-c. 1450: Sources and Documents
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 6:46 AM | Comments (0)
February 3, 2010
Recruiting for Rome
Last night was the open information session for our Spring 2011 abroad programs. Nick and I and a student who went in 2009 did a quick presentation twice as students cycled through. We talked to about 35 last night - and expect maybe 70 applications eventually. Students turn in applications March 1. We have a month to evaluate, check references, look at transcripts, cross-check disciplinary records with the deans, and make our selection. We make offers on April 1. They pay a deposit by early May. So before the end of the semester we should have our Rome 2011 Crew lined up!
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:25 AM | Comments (1)
January 31, 2010
I think the idea of a permanent majority is over
When you lose Saturday Night Live, you've lost.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 11:11 PM | Comments (0)
January 29, 2010
Presidents of Harvard, Brown, Yale, etc., fly to Switzerland to save the environment
So they're all going to behave sustainably NOW. From now on. Only videoconferences? Because it seems to me that the transportation costs (in dollars and carbon) are pretty unsustainable between Providence, RI, and Davos, Switzerland.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 8:27 AM | Comments (1)
January 28, 2010
Interacting with Modernism
One of the problems of having a big, famous Modern building is there's no way to add to it - you end up making everyone angry that you've messed up the earlier architecture. The S.C. Johnson Company had two buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright - now they have a building by Norman Foster that sits near them and comments on them. Here's a review from the Chicago Tribune with several good photos.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 6:53 AM | Comments (0)
January 27, 2010
Islamic Art in Detroit
The Detroit Institute of Art (one of those museums everyone forgets about - in a formerly great and wealthy city ) is opening a new Islamic Art gallery. Here's a link to the collection - it looks very interesting!
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 8:29 AM | Comments (0)
January 25, 2010
Dynastic meltdown
Beau Biden decides not to run?
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 6:43 PM | Comments (0)
Anthrax?
I keep forgetting they haven't really solved the anthrax case.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:54 AM | Comments (0)
January 23, 2010
Um...just when we thought the endowments and college savings of America were recovering...
...we read things like this. I guess it's going to be another depressing meeting on Tuesday.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 5:12 PM | Comments (1)
January 22, 2010
Jon Stewart and Keith Olberman. Tackiness award goes...to the man paid to be a "journalist."
John a man of your intellect needn't be me - petty, pompous, pusillanimous....poopyhead.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:25 PM | Comments (0)
January 20, 2010
Messianic Hopes Disappointed
No, really, Hah!
What is it with people who actually put their hopes in politicians? You'd think that a social scientist might have shown a touch more skepticism - if you didn't actually know that almost all employed American social scientists were already registered members of only one party and therefore have their hearts broken over and over again by the sad fact that something like a minority of their countryfolk always ever with them.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 9:12 PM | Comments (1)
First Decision!
I just made my first actual decision as department chair - how much to pay a visiting artist who is actually doing a demonstration, not just a critique...! Drunk with power, I return to syllabus preparation.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 10:13 AM | Comments (0)
The first day of the semester we call "Spring"
Lovely morning - blue sky, dusting of snow, a spring in my step - welcome back!
Headline thanks to Prof Althouse.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 10:05 AM | Comments (1)
Solving New York's Budget Crisis - Cage Fighting?
* A $1 increase in the cigarette tax, raising the state tax to $3.75.* A new soda tax that will cost consumers 1-cent per ounce -- a 16-ounce bottle will cost 16 cents more, a 64-ounce bottle 64 cents more.
* The governor also plans to legalize and sanction cage fighting.
* And allow wine to be sold in grocery stores.
* And introduce 50 speed cameras on highways to catch unsuspecting motorists with fines of up to $100.
I'm all in favor of selling wine in grocery stores - and I know Wegmans will jump right on that. Maybe he means that he's going to sanction cage fighting inside the New York State Assembly. THAT I'd pay to watch.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:24 AM | Comments (1)
January 19, 2010
Science Fiction Query
I was talking to a friend tonight....she's interested in music and dissonance - and sound. She has a long-standing interest in science fiction and cyborgs.
So I am remembering a short story that couldn't have been published (given my life and my high school library) after 1975.
The mute-but-not-deaf protagonist works for a service that sweeps for left-behind sound. In this world sound keeps reverberating - and one client is a failed or retired opera (?) singer. And he can here the sounds that he's removing.
Any help?
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 11:14 PM | Comments (3)
A new year is upon us...
Well, a new semester. We start up tomorrow, and just to greet the returning students - fresh snow! It was so warm here last week that everything melted off except in places where snow plows had pushed it into deep piles - everything was muddy, just like March. Not Geneva at its prettiest. But this morning we start with a nice inch of snow. I don't think we'll get much more than 2 or 3, but what do I know? I'm a Southerner!
I've been running around in circles getting this term started - I've already had enough meetings for my taste, and I have 3 more scheduled this week: Budget Advisory Task Force today and then a Review I committee and Library Committee tomorrow. Then Thursday both my classes have their first meetings. I am moderately ready - I think I could print the syllabi now, but I left them to marinate on my desk overnight and we'll see if I still feel happy about them later today.
Much to my horror I found out when I sat down at the computer that the last time I taught these two, Greek and Islamic, we were still mainly using slides. Neither course is just sitting there with usable lectures on the server. Of course i have the slide sheets from previous iterations, but it's a lot more work that I thought I wasn't going to have to do for daily class prep. The good part is that we've acquired a LOT of new images since 2007 in both areas, particularly of Islamic architecture, so I would have been integrating those anyway.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:16 AM | Comments (1)
January 17, 2010
Movie Sale!
So someone pointed me to a dvd sale on Amazon. Since I left 2 box sets with my parents I was feeling movieless. I was thinking about German language help, my eternal britophilia, and FUN. Here's what I bought:
The Queen
Gosford Park
Run Lola Run - sometimes better than Memento at the multiple version thing!
Wings of Desire (The Criterion Collection) - mmmm, Wim Wenders and Bruno Ganz.
Downfall - mmmmm, Bruno Ganz. Yes, this is where all the parodies on youtube have come from.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Single-Disc Edition) well, I didn't think I needed more than a single-disc edition, but it was pretty fun! Blame it on Danyal.
Il Divo - oh, Italia!
Fellini - Satyricon - oh, Italia! Despair about you has been going on for a LONG time!
Purple Rain - hey - I bet my sister and I can still do all the right hand gestures to "I wld die 4 u"
sex, lies, and videotape - Look, now I have my own copy! And it's on DVD, ironic 80s heh heh heh.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:59 PM | Comments (2)
January 15, 2010
Haiti? Donate!
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 6:04 PM | Comments (0)
January 12, 2010
Lies!
I just placed an order with Amazon. The machine suggested a phrase for me to use for one-click purchasing. "Michael's temporal neutrality." Lies! I favor the Middle Ages!
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:37 PM | Comments (2)
Stalin
2nd book finished of 2010
It's been a year for starting books - I had 2 mysteries going at my parents' house and left them both there. But when I got home I decided to finish off my bedroom book - Stalin and His Hangment: the tyrant and those who killed for him, Donald Rayfield. Yeah, yeah - not great reading for the winter, but a friend gave it to me when he was leaving Geneva this fall, and I've been reading a bit here and there.
I'm not all that interested in Stalin, but I've read most of Solzhenitsyn and am fascinated by the systematization of evil in the 20th Century. Is it bureaucracy that lets us pull it off? I think so. I think that Henry VIII was a complete totalitarian, but he couldn't pull it off with the resources he had. Diocletian certainly was, but without modern communications he just couldn't do what he liked.
The portrait of Beria is especially creepy. Not recommended for winter reading - save it for brighter weather.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 10:51 AM | Comments (0)
January 10, 2010
Embrace the Winter!
This will be my first winter in Geneva since 2007 (Rome 2008, then Freiburg 2009). Thursday and Friday were pretty grim - I was starting to feel a little trapped on Thursday and Friday. Luckily yesterday and today have been very sunny and Currier and Ives looking.
I bought snowshoes yesterday and went tromping through the woods and around the cemetery behind Houghton House. I feel very much not cooped up!
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 2:52 PM | Comments (3)
Snow load
Brrrr!
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 12:06 PM | Comments (0)
