Peter Carr Jones

Moved!

2009-04-14T19:16:00.000-07:00

The sun is setting on blog.petercarrjones.com... long live www.petercarrjones.com!

Incidentally, this blog has officially joined the WordPress revolution and moved fully to a new home at the related http://www.petercarrjones.com/

So go there!

Now's the Time!

2009-03-27T09:40:00.001-07:00

I just read posts by Tom Scheidenfelt and Dorothea Salo that basically say "hey! Digital humanists! Stop being 'visionary.' All of the 'tools' for doing fantastic, brand new digital-based scholarly explorations are available in the today, not the 'one day historians will...'"

Free open-source software exist for you to put your research process online, digitize that museum exhibit you created, and publish your results with complete control over design and function. There were hundreds of new tools created in the past year, all archived at the Digital Research Tools Wiki. Tools for whatever you need to accomplish. Most are free and more are on the way.

The days of navalgazing and theorizing about the future are over. It's time to put it into practice today. I for one, have started doing such. The new domain name was a first step. Now I've got to work on part II. This will involve switching over to wordpress, editing my work, mashing up some audio and images, and generally trying to create a useful product. Like any humanities creation, it will involve a lot of work, but technology is no longer the barrier, it's the bridge.

created at TagCrowd.com

Bad News and Good

2009-03-26T11:34:00.001-07:00

John Hope Franklin passed away yesterday at age 94. He was one of the greatest historians the profession has ever produced. Franklin was an extremely prolific scholar, and in spite of conditions that discriminated against his skin color:

"In 1951, while working at the Library of Congress, one of my closest friends, a white historian, came by my study room one Friday afternoon and asked me to lunch with him the following day. I reminded him that since the following day would be a Saturday, the Supreme Court restaurant would be closed, and there was no other place in the vicinity where we could eat together. (This was before the decision in the Thompson restaurant case in April, 1953, which opened Washington restaurants to all well-behaved persons.) My friend pointed out that he knew I spent Saturdays at the Library, and he wondered what I did for food on those days. I told him that I seldom missed a Saturday of research and writing at the Library of Congress, but that my program for that day was a bit different from other days. On Saturdays, I told him, I ate a huge late breakfast at home and then brought a piece of fruit or candy to the Library, which I would eat at the lunch hour. Then, when I could bear the hunger no longer during the afternoon, I would leave and go home to an early dinner. His only remark was that he doubted very much whether, if he were a Negro, he would be a scholar, if it required sacrifices such as this and if life was as inconvenient as it appeared. I assured him that for a Negro scholar searching for truth, the search for food in the city of Washington was one of the minor inconveniences."
-from "The Dilemma of the American Negro Scholar" in Race and History

This passage inspired me in my undergrad days, and Franklin continues to be an inspiration. Beyond publishing some of the most important works in African American history (especially From Slavery to Freedom), Franklin influenced the discipline through his teaching and service. Thousands of scholars labored as research assistants and teaching assistants under Franklin at the University of Chicago, Duke, Howard, Fisk, etc. One of his TAs recently won the Southern Historical Association's newly created John Hope Franklin Lifetime Achievement Award. This was the SHA's current President, Leon Litwack. Franklin also vies with names like C. Vann Woodward, Eric Foner, and Richard Hofstadter for most PhD's advised over his very long career. The huge outpouring of emotion from the history blogosphere only partly reveals Franklin's influence on history and beloved status.

But there is some good news for American History to buffet our grave loss of yesterday.

Senators Lamar Alexander(R-TN), Ted Kennedy(D-MA), and Robert Byrd(D-WV) have introduced a bill "Improving the Teaching and Learning of American History." This bill would:

Authorize 100 summer academies for outstanding students and teachers of U.S. History and align those academies with locations in the national park system
Double authorization (from $100m to $200m) for funding “Teaching American History” programs in local school districts, which today involve 20,000 students as a part of No Child Left Behind
Require states to develop and implement standards for student assessments in U.S. History, although there would be no federal accountability requirement as there is for reading and mathematics
Allow states to compare history and civics test scores of 8th- and 12th-grade students by establishing a 10-state pilot program that would expand the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) Hat Tip: HNN

These are some of the most important Senators for education legislation and can
be considered congressional leaders from the Republican Right, Democratic Left, and Centrist coalition. With such bipartisan senatorial firepower, this bill looks like it has a great chance to pass in this session.

So while the discipline lost one of its most respected members yesterday, today we can look forward to fulfilling Franklin's desire for a greater future through the study of History.

"Real Thugz" Make a Return!

2009-03-20T11:35:00.001-07:00

The Wire is long over, but Sudhir Venkatesh has brought back his sounding board from the streets (as opposed to The Street) to take on the current economic crisis via open letters to Treasury Secretary Geithner. For those that missed it, Venkatesh wrote several great books on his experiences shadowing a drug dealer and gang leader in Chicago's public housing projects. Venkatesh now resides in NYC and has come to know several former members of that city's august underground. He watched the fifth season of The Wire with "The Thugz" as they liked to go by, and reported their reactions in the freakonomics blog. I would often bounce some reactions to these blog posts on my blog.

The first open letter suggests that the problem of the Treasury was not letting the losers lose. Apparently, capitalism is fun because we get to watch economic losers crash and burn in a public forum. By making every bank, good and bad, take TARP money, the treasury broke the first rule of the streets, "losers must die in full view." Maybe a little harsh, but then, so is the streets.

The second open letter is much more interesting. In this letter, the thugz argue that the folks still around now are "the killers" and they are worth keeping around for when the times get good again. Those that are a dime a dozen, have already jumped ship so the bonuses are only going to the most important people to keeping the business afloat.

So this is the Hip Hop Party that Michael Steele keeps trying to reach out to... It's going to be off the hook.

Cross Posted to Bubbles Depo

Beware Ye, All Who Enter

2009-03-14T02:38:00.001-07:00

Maybe it's because of the most desolate of Job markets this year. Maybe it's an influx of recently graduated undergrads to grad school unable to find work. Maybe it's the dreary winter weather. But there's a lot of anger in the humanities right now. Thomas Benton says Just Don't Go.

Even I'm questioning the logic of graduate school these days. As those who graduated in my undergrad cohort begin to get those promotions, buy those houses/cars/not ramen, and earn the fruits their labor, I'm second guessing my labors. I've got a bunch of encyclopedia articles coming out this year. Ho hum. I will submit some journal articles to various places (Jeremy Boggs thinks no one reads them anymore).

The closest I've come to really having that intellectual fire is in reading several "hot" monographs this year. Definitely Hogan and Carson's work on SNCC and Perlstein's Nixonland.

Perhaps I need a new project. My thesis will be turned in soon and then it will have to be on to something else. I'm Roanoke'd out.

Link Aggregator

2009-03-12T12:01:00.001-07:00

Normally I confine my link aggregation activities to witty twitter tweets, but today there's too much going on.

Just in time for an Arrested Development themed party, Will Arnett vs. Jason Bateman.

Carbon Leaf to play 8am concert with some other bands that are not very good.

NYTimes Op-Ed argues that pigs are carrying antibiotic resistant, flesh eating bacteria.

In a you can't be serious moment, the Vatican re-writes history by positing that inventing washing machines was the twentieth century's greatest moment for Woman's liberation. Wasn't there a getting the vote something something amendment? Oh well.
Reuter's lede is also fantastic: "Feminists of the world sit down before you read this."

Finally, in a developing story Seymour Hersh lets slip that there was a secret special ops assassination team that reported to Dick Cheney. This must be caveated that Hersh doesn't actually have solid evidence yet. Count me skeptical but interested.

And Now A Message From Our Sponsors

2009-03-08T19:23:00.000-07:00

For those keeping score at home, this blog has moved from its old domain at http://jazzypete.blogspot.com to a new home at http://blog.petercarrjones.com

In addition, please follow me on Twitter: My primary feed: @petercarrjones
I also tweet "what I eat" @pete_eats (it's mostly when I cook interesting dishes or visit new restaurants) while this sounds quite boring, people still follow it.

If It Doesn't Spread, It's Dead

2009-03-08T18:43:00.001-07:00

Henry Jenkins and several other digital theorists have written an 8 part blog post (II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII) describing viral media spread in the digital world. It's also the first blog post I've seen that was sponsored by MTV (how can I get my blog MTV sponsored?). The topics range widely from the gift economy to distinctions between spreadable and sticky media. It's a very interesting and succinct description of much research done in the past decade.

What is obvious is that the internet changes social interactions, but Jenkins, et al. use many non-digital examples to buttress their arguments. Of these, one of the most interesting is Patricia Turner's study of how and why rumors spread in African American communities. Many of the rumors centered around various companies being owned by the Ku Klux Klan. Turner argues that while the rumors did not have necessarily have a basis in fact, they solidified the social bonds between those who told them. By theorizing the formation of an 'in-group' in urban areas, Jenkins can arrive at similar mechanisms happening in virtual communities. Additionally, there are many other virtual examples which could help explain the formation and development of reality based communities.

Jenkins also uses humorous examples of "viral" ad campaigns, some of which succeeded and some which failed. Ultimately, this is why MTV sponsored this sort of research. As the music industry, broadly defined, struggles to find a method for disseminating music and turning a profit, they need to understand how exactly virtual communities spread media (including music). Ironically, Jenkins could offer insight into such a model eventhough he comes at the problem emphasizing the "gift" and "free" nature of online communities.

All in all, it's a great read to get a handle on what digital scholars have been thinking about and the ideas gaining currency in that field. Keep your eye open for their forthcoming book as well.

The White House Email Saga Continues

2009-02-24T10:18:00.000-08:00

From time to time, I've written on the utter incompetence of the Bush White House to preserve their emails. I railed about how important emails will be to future historians, how they will truly tell the story of the 43rd Presidency better than a Bob Woodward expose, and get past the obfuscations of evil men like Karl Rove and Dick Cheney.

There have been several recent developments in the former administration's attempts to ignore federal legislation regarding preservation of records. I thought I got much of the story here but it continues. Even the Obama administration is defending Bush White House practices by continuing to fight a suit brought by the National Security Archive.

It seems like this story couldn't get any worse, but I didn't understand the heights of ineptitude until I read the entire chronology of White House email failure. The digital environment should improve future scholarship, but as Roy Rosensweig and Daniel Cohen have written, digital history is a double edged sword, great possibilities for analysis, but permanently erasable with one press of the delete key. So we must press the save button right now. Not just to follow federal guidelines, but because generations are counting on us to preserve our past, bit by bit.

Stories Matter and the Anatomy of a Digital Humanities Project

2009-02-22T13:11:00.001-08:00

Stories Matter, a project of the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling at Concordia University, looks like it will produce important changes for the oral history discipline, and these changes might not be fair off. More importantly, the team has been documenting their thoughts in frequent blog posts on the project's front page. These allow insight into the day to day thoughts as members create "free, open source software built for oral historians by oral historians." This tagline belies some of the complexity that such a project entails. Each member is not purely an oral historian. The list includes a database building team with technology and communication backgrounds (and some related humanities/OH experience). The software engineer, Jacques Langlois has no prior humanities experience or training. The other members come from Concordia's Centre and are trained oral historians. With so many different disciplines coming together in this project, the time for high minded philosophical musings on project directions has passed and technical details must be hashed out.

Allison Eades mused on the difficulties of simply coming up with a shared meaning for 'stable version' or 'usable software.' "What counts as usable software? Is it something that you can use to input data without it crashing or does it mean something that I would actually consider using and enjoy using?" These are questions that might seem self evident to those with technical backgrounds- there are clear terms to clarify this issue: alpha, beta, and stable versions with specific meanings to describe a product. For those with a humanities background this is less obvious and the team must create a project that connects across disciplinary boundaries. This means arriving at a place where a "stable version" means the oral historians can use a program's functionality as they envision it, and the engineers have tweaked the code to ensure robust and error free use. Watching these groups slowly converge toward this point is exciting to watch. It's progress in building knowledge and another example to point toward as evidence of a unique "digital humanities" discipline. Thinking back to the creation of Oral History itself, we must remember that it came out of anthropologists and historians bridging disciplinary divides to employ techniques that were mutually beneficial.

Oral History was the technical answer to questions history and anthropology had about "history from below" and folk traditions, respectively. It makes sense that Stories Matter is the technical answer to issues of disseminating and analyzing massive oral history projects in digital formats through open source software. By working in tandem, technology and oral history can create something bigger and more useful than either working alone. It's exciting and I aim to keep following the process via blog updates.

American Grandstand: NYC vs. DC Edition

2009-02-20T23:18:00.001-08:00

It cracks me up to see people paid well into the six figures yell at each other from the two meccas of East Coast Elitism about what "the American people really want to do." Thanks to TPM Fresh Clips for synthesizing this but the longer versions of each rant are both well worth a youtube.
Enjoy:

Rick Santelli vs. Robert Gibbs

Historian Beats Economist to the Punchline

2009-02-20T14:58:00.001-08:00

In today's Times, Paul Krugman argues that this recession is not your father's recession or your grandfather's recession, but your great great grandfather's recession:

The closest 19th-century parallel I can find to the current slump is the recession that followed the Panic of 1873. That recession did eventually end without any government intervention, but it lasted more than five years, and another prolonged recession followed just three years later.

He comes to this conclusion because the root's of our collapse- the housing crisis and no demand for our durable goods like Detroit cars- become the seed of our recovery when demand for these goods reboot these industries. So like 19th century recessions, Krugman maintains that there isn't much we can do but wait.

Smart guy, that Nobel Prize winning Paul Krugman. Interestingly, a railroad historian saw this diagnosis over four months ago. Scott Reynolds Nelson wrote that the Great Depression was a poor historical analogy for our present difficulties, despite the near constant refrain from pundits (including Krugman's own, The Return of Depression Economics). 1929 was about "overlarge factory inventories, a stock-market crash, and Germany's inability to pay back war debts." Nelson explains the Panic of 1873:

Mortgages were easier to obtain than before, and a building boom commenced. Land values seemed to climb and climb; borrowers ravenously assumed more and more credit, using unbuilt or half-built houses as collateral... The crash came in Central Europe in May 1873, as it became clear that the region's assumptions about continual economic growth were too optimistic. Europeans faced what they came to call the American Commercial Invasion. A new industrial superpower had arrived, one whose low costs threatened European trade and a European way of life.

Nelson explains the period further, but it's obvious which depression resembles today's climate. Fortunately we no longer believe that government should sit by and wait out a recession while its citizens starve (we do have the Great Depression to thank for that). But history does not tell us which direction we should take, only those steps we should not. Protectionism, the freezing of credit, and a government oblivious to social unrest led to serious problems for nearly a decade. So the government today must work hard to promote international trade (we won't get out of this alone), get credit flowing, and encourage American output through investments in infrastructure and education. Strange that it took a historian to make this point first.

Real Actual Jazz Content

2009-02-14T10:07:00.001-08:00

Who knew that I would not post any jazz content on a blog named Jazzy Pete. Well, the long wait is over...

I listened to disc two of the incredible Coltrane Classic Quartet on Impulse Box Set this morning. In listening to The Drum Thing, off Coltrane's second best quartet album Crescent (behind A Love Supreme), I thought- man, it would be sweet if someone turned the opening 9 note melody into a fugue with another horn or two picking it up over the same bass pedal point and polyrhythmic drums. Repeat once or twice, maybe some composed elaboration (in a counter point style), then open it to modal solo sections. Back to the head. What can I say, I really liked the whole Third Stream movement even if it sunk like a rock.* I had my old group, the Jenny Nolte Sextet in mind for this, but any old jazz group could work.

Basically, I just miss playing some good straight ahead jazz with others.

*My favorite line about Third Stream came from Michael Zwerin in his psuedo-memoir Close Enough for Jazz in the chapter "Up Third Stream Without a Paddle"- "We played the 'Star-Spangled Banner' Straight and swung Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Perhaps that's why the Third Stream movement failed."

Seed Anything?

2009-02-09T07:06:00.000-08:00

My roommate and all around irreverent dilettante, Tim T. Smith, has just created a new blog concept. Tournament format battles, taken from the world of sports, Tim plans to Seed Anything and chronicle the ensuing madness. His award winning prose once anchored the back page of the Ring Tum Phi, Washington and Lee University's only independent newspaper. Though the blog is in its formative stages, several other contributors are being recruited and many changes will be made to its look. Bookmark it and look out for the next installment. In the meantime, enjoy a cutthroat battle of Presidents born in the Dominion of Virginia.

Heavy Vegan Bean Burritos

2009-02-08T20:26:00.001-08:00

Today I played some pickup with the Heady Vegan Bean Burritos on the Mall. It was incredible fun and playing on the mall was a trip. It's amusing to huck the D on what is America's most sacred democratic ground- hippies take over America's commons. And it was quite the democratic afternoon with thousands taking advantage of the delightful weather on a lazy Sunday. Also, they seriously need to resod that thing... it's a mile-long mud pit with patches of grass and gridded with gravel.

The Burritos are all incredibly nice people, very welcoming of any comers. There were all levels of play represented from, a first time on the field to some college players. The weather was nearly ideal, though a bit windy. When regular play resumes in the spring, this should be a perfect situation. Hopefully we can get some interest to attend a tourny or two in the summer. Still have some goals of getting in better shape, but was able to keep up well enough (def had to rest after running the cup for a few long points).

Considering the early morning golf, eating with Burritos at California Tortilla, having some beers and playing uno at Rocket Bar, and then seeing Judge's gigantic single apartment- a very long and enjoyable day. DC continues to delight.

H.W. Brands on How History Redeemed Harry S Truman

2009-02-03T11:02:00.001-08:00

I've been enjoying Britannica blog's series on 6 lessons for the new President, a lecture by H.W. Brands at the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies. Brands is a very engaging speaker and I enjoy his style of presentation (unsurprisingly, he is a Presidential historian).

H. W. Brands, Lesson 5: Leave Under a Cloud (1 of 9)

I was particularly interested with how he set up Harry S Truman's legacy. Truman left office as a dud with the lowest public opinion, an unpopular war (Korea) in a far away land, and economic problems. Professor Brands argues that this image proceeded through the fifties and "I Like Ike" Eisenhower's terms, and even through the early 1960s. But as South Korea turned into a shining example of capitalism and democracy's superiority to North Korea's communist dictatorship, and as Vietnam rebooted the American public's idea of a truly unpopular, unnecessary war, Truman began to look fairly sage for a failed habberdasher from Missouri. In this way, it was not only historians (having argued the nuclear option at Hiroshima and Nagasaki to death), but history itself which redeemed Truman.

The immediate parallel which springs to mind is of course George W Bush and Iraq. Bush has claimed all along that he will be vindicated, just like Harry S Truman. I still don't see Bush's legacy being Truman-esque, mostly because I think historians will continue to find bad stuff left by Bush/Cheney as documents become de-classified and uncovered. That is... if historians ever get to view White House email. But there is a warning for Obama in this lesson- don't let Afganistan become a failure that overshadows Iraq. Don't let the economy fall further than caused by the sub-prime crisis. Don't appoint a government more corrupt than that run by HaliburtonAbramoffCo.
Bush and his cronies are working overtime to get "historians" on board the "vindicate Bush" train (the Presidential library has linked articles for the "Bush Record" under three categories: "Praise for President's Accomplishment," "More Praise for President's Accomplishments," "Praise Continues for President's Accomplishments"). Yet Obama will need to be pretty terrible to trump Bush in the epic fail metric. (Confidential to BHO: please, please don't make Vietnam look like a frat party in comparison to Afganistan.)

Digital History News - stories from the past, predictions for the future (year)

2009-01-16T08:29:00.001-08:00

Digital Campus "recently" (only listened to it last week due to a malfunctioning Ipod) podcasted their top ten stories from 2008. I thought their list was right on, and thus I will comment on each as if it were my own ("creative" commons blogging). In reverse order, Letterman style:

10. The "Open" - Tom, Mills, and Dan take this to mean campuses and professors embracing podcasts of lectures, and indeed this has exploded. My favorite example is Berkeley Professor and "member of the reality based community," Brad DeLong, who puts all of his classes online. Check out his course on American economic history via podcast. Not quite completely open, but the JAH is back with their "first" podcast (after a hiatus from their earlier "Talking History" series, which was really more of an online radio show on different topics). The new podcast is an interview with the author of an article from December's Journal (the articles were particularly excellent, imo).

9. Wikipedia going mainstream- Concurred with this, not because I think people are going to Wikipedia more this year than last, but because the quality and quantity has noticiably risen. Want more proof? I now aspire to be a Wikipedia entry (disambiguation: Peter Jones (historian and rockstar)).

8. (Un)Conferences - I haven't attended an "unconference" yet (the OHA was not bar-camp style, by the way), but many of the conferences I attended this year were great. The Oral History Association had great panels on digital issues, and the poster session was very informative. I gained the most from a workshop I participated in with Michael Frisch on "exploring digital history."

7. The Kindle - The only digital humanities story endorsed by Oprah. Dan also mentions the decline of physical newspapers, which I mention later in this post.

6. Browser Wars and Google Chrome - This was a signficant story, but maybe not quite deserving of sixth place. I have started using Google Chrome in my G1 (obviously) and I do enjoy it, but Firefox is still my no. 1 on the desktop due to various plug-ins (Zotero and ScribeFire). This perhaps something to watch for 2009.

5. Twitter - David Pogue and I absolutely agree- Twitter is hitting mainstream because commercial organizations are embracing it. Even Following the amhistorymuseum is fun and useful. Newspapers are twittering developing stories instead of liveblogging. Twitter also gained a @petercarrjones feed and @pete_eats on my culinary adventures (Arlington is one of the best ethnic food playgrounds in the country outside of Manhattan).

4. Mini laptops - With the turn towards mobile computing, people are realizing they don't need all the junk attached to their laptops all the time. It's cheaper, lighter, and more efficient to mini-size computing. Mini laptops are the balance point between smart phones with their expensive monthly fees and big, pricy multimedia laptops.

3. Google Books settlement - This is really big news and Dan's recent post criticizes the power Google has over literary culture. Hopefully the government will actually look at this public resource and what it means if Google takes it over.

2. Cloud Computing - Google Mail/Docs/etc. have totally changed my workflow processes. Now that Zotero is in the cloud, I'm psyched about the ease with which I can write notes on my reading with my phone from anywhere.

Drumroll....

1. Mobile Computing - I'm glad this was the top story because I got into the mobile computing world this year and seriously, it's completely worth the additional monthly fee. After a little more time with it, I'll write a review of my G1 and how it's changed my digital history practices and might affect the future digital history landscape.

Historians are notably terrible predicters of just about anything. I've had fairly poor luck with my blog predictions thus far, but I'm going to try to bloviate anyway.

Now my five big stories for 2009
- Mobile Computing - this has changed the internet (web design must accomodate mobile devices now), and in 2009 will only change digital more fundamentally. The Open Handset Alliance and Android will have even bigger footprints next year. The Android market is going to explode in creativity. The G1 has not been an Iphone killer, but Android will be. Tom, Dan, and Mills agree.

-The Open and Transparency - With the first youtube "fireside chats" and change.gov leading the way, Openness will replace closed door governing of the last 8 years. In addition, with the government holding shares in so many industries, Obama can put pressure on business to open up their decision making processes. The Smithsonian just agreed (under pressure) to more open governance procedures and as the leading US museum, I believe we'll see more transparency trickle down to smaller institutions. What these changes might mean, I don't know.

-In the oral history world, I'm looking forward to Stories Matter putting out a beta product sometime this year. Having worked with an old crappy program called Interclipper, I'm fairly certain the practice of Oral History can change for the better when Concordia releases an open source, updated, Interclipper-like program.

-History goes mainstream - This is a story that started in 2008, but in 2009, history is coming out from the disciplinary basement (get back in there Business majors). Doris Kearns Goodwin is just the first beneficiary of a year when Lincoln has a big anniversary and we elect the first African American President. I can now text HISTORY to a number and stuff happens. That definitely hasn't occurred... since I can remember.

-Mass Media has a major crisis - Newspapers in numerous cities have experienced serious financial distress this year with even the Chicago Tribune forced to go bankrupt. McClatchy is on poor footing, the Newspaper of record has made several cutbacks, and with circulations and advertising declining in this economic environment, smaller newspapers don't see a way out. Basically, 2009 will be print media's make or break moment. In 2008, we saw the investment banking model go down the tubes. Now the writing is on the wall for traditional print daily's. Despite being a "blogger" I definitely think our democratic society needs a strong, professional newsmedia. Community blogs like Baltimore Crime and Greater Greater Washington do a fantastic job in their niche but they are no match for professional reporters. As the web ad model is still a few years away from supporting the corporations, what will they do? Will news organizations start charging for digital delivery to your Kindle? Change to non-profit status and be supported by Philanthropy? Government Bailout? Time will tell.

Let's see how these predictions smell in a year.

Wine Updates

2009-01-11T10:51:00.000-08:00

For my own records: A couple of wines I've had recently- good and bad. Note: Prices, vintages, and reviews all come from my memory, a flawed recording device to say the least.

Concha y Toro 2007 Cab Sauv- 9.99
Very smooth and enjoyable. Good with my steak. The berry hints made it seem more California than Chile, a great value.

Trader Joe's French Table Red- 4.99- Very cheap and you can taste it. I was able to finish it, but probably won't go back here again. Almost tasted carbonated- which ruined it.

Chateau La Grange Clinet 2005 - 13.99- This was an instant classic. Slightly more expensive than my normal buy, this definitely made up for it in quality. Big body, complex, and delicious. A great French Claret, cheaply, from a more obscure place as far as Bordeaux wines go. Go get some.

Trader Joe's Coastal California Zin - 5.99- About the same level as the TJ French table red, this was actually less drinkable. Very dry with a strange aftertaste.

Trader Joe's Napa Reserve Cab Sauv- 9.99 This was actually pretty good. Nothing too big to write home about, but a solid 10 dollar red.

I'm convinced that I'll find a good bargain wine at TJ- their chianti was good enough (although not generally a big fan of chianti). I'm going to keep looking through the South America offerings

Reflecting on the First Catholic President in Inaugurating the First African American President

2009-01-09T12:39:00.001-08:00

January 20 is bound to be a cold day, possibly rainy. The most memorable inaugurations usually involve some battle against mother nature. William Henry Harrison's marathon speech, without a coat, might have helped contribute to his death only a few weeks later. John F. Kennedy's was almost cancelled after a major winter storm dropped several inches of snow on the District. But Kennedy's speech was more memorable for its content than its wintery backdrop. Yes, he outlined some proposed policies-

"To our sister republics south of our border, we offer a special pledge: to convert our good words into good deeds, in a new alliance for progress, to assist free men and free government in casting off the chains of poverty."

Always a gamble on making a speech sound dated, promising aid to Latin America's Republics would be rendered ironic when CIA operatives helped overthrow Salvador Allende's democratically elected government. Yet, the rhetoric of the speech was lofty: "And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." Kennedy knew that as the first Roman Catholic to be elected President of the United States, something people thought could never happen after Al Smith's humiliation, he had a special place in the history books. He made his rhetoric, not just lofty, but forward thinking and with an eye at history. The place of history is usually something Presidents ruminate on at the end of their term, but Kennedy thought from day one that-

"All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in
the first one thousand days; nor in the life of this Administration; nor even perhaps in
our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin."

By taking this almost fatalistic position, Kennedy embraced his historic destiny (this statement would be made ironic when he didn't quite make it to 1000 days). Obama's recent rhetoric has also held this forward thinking point of view. In a speech at George Mason University, he immediately acknowledged the historic nature of 2009:

"Throughout America's history, there have been some years that simply rolled into the next without much notice or fanfare. And then there are the years that come along once in a generation, the kind that mark a clean break from a troubled past and set a new course for our nation. This is one of those years."

In addition to recognizing the historic nature of today, he also recognized the crisis he faced and channeled another great President who dealt with crisis, FDR-

"This crisis did not happen solely by some accident of history or normal turn of the business cycle. And we won't get out of it by simply waiting for a better day to come or relying on the worn-out dogmas of the past."

Obama recognizes his historic place. Yes, the first African American President, but that fact could be the 'so what' characteristic that most consider Kennedy's Catholicism in terms his overall legacy. More than this are the possibilities and pitfalls which America will face over the next four years. Barack is known for his rhetorical prowess (when was the last time a political convention keynote will be remembered beyond one election cycle), but even more than this, he knows the responsibilities riding on this innaugeration. The stage is set for a truly historic speech and I only have one question: anyone have an extra ticket?

Books of 2008

2008-12-25T18:27:00.001-08:00

The following is a list of the books I read in 2008... or at least the ones I can remember off the top of my head. In no particular order (probably a couple other library books that I've neglected to add in here):

Dan Ernst - Lawyers Against Labor

Mark Tushnet- Out of Range: Why the Constitution Can't End the Battle Over Guns

Mark Tushnet- I Dissent: Great Opposing Decisions

Mark Tushnet- The NAACP's Legal Strategy Against Segregation

Michael Klarman- From Jim Crow to Civil Rights

Kevin McMahon- Reconsidering Roosevelt on Race

Stephen Teles- The Rise of the conservative Legal Movement

Daniel Walker Howe- What Hath God Wrought

Thomas Sugrue- The Origins of the Urban Crisis

Peniel Joseph- Waiting Till the Midnight Hour

Drew Gilpin Faust- The Republic of Suffering

Robert O. Self- American Babylon: Race and Struggle in Postwar Oakland

Thomas Sugrue, Kevin Kruse- The New Suburban Studies

Brian Dougherity- All Deliberate Speed: Brown v. Board from a state perspective

Alessandro Portelli- The Order Has Been Carried Out

Forrest White- Pride and Prejudice: School Desegregation and Urban Renewal in Norfolk

Barack Obama- The Audacity of Hope

Bill Mullen- Afro-Orientalism

Grif Stockley- Biography of Daisy Bates

Daisy Bates- The Long Shadow of Little Rock

Elizabeth Jacoway- Turn Away Thy Son

Michael Lydon- Ray Charles: Man and Music

Douglas Flamming- Bound for Freedom: Black Los Angeles in Jim Crow America

Matthew Whitaker- Race Work: The Rise of Civil Rights in the Urban West

Quintard Taylor- The Forging of a Black Community- Seattle's Central District

Dan Moos- Outside America: Race, Ethnicity, and the Role of the American West in National Belonging

Elaine Tyler May- Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War

Lizabeth Cohen- Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago

Daniel Roediger- The Wages of Whiteness

Scott Kurashige- The Shifting Grounds of Race: Black and Japanese Americans in the Making of Multiethnic Los Angeles

Mindy Thompson Fullilove- Root Shock: Urban Renewal...

Linwood Holton- Opportunity Time

Penny Von Eschen- Satchmo Blows Up the World

Brenda Gayle Plummer- Window on Freedom

Mary Dudziak- Cold War Civil Rights

Daniel Perlstein- Nixonland

Richard White- The Organic Machine

William Cronon- Second Nature

Patricia Nelson Limerick- Legacy of Conquest

Donald Worster- Dust Bowl

Peter Moskos- Cop in the Hood

Sudhir Venkatesh- Gang Leader for a Day

Rafeal Alvarez- The Wire: Truth Be Told

Charles Payne-I've Got the Light of Freedom

C. Vann Woodward- The Strange Career of Jim Crow

David Rabban- Free Speech in its Forgotten Years

Eric Rauchway- The Great Depression: A Very Short Introduction

Robert Righter- The Battle Over Hetch Hetchy

Barbara Ransby- Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement

Thomas Schoonover- Uncle Sam's War of 1898 and the Origins of Globalization

George J. Sanchez- Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles

George Roeder- The Censored War: American Visual Experience During WWII

Paige Raibmon- Authentic Indians: Episodes of Encounter in the Late 19th Century West

Phillip Deloria- Playing Indian

Jonathan Raban- Bad Land

Nikhil Pal Singh- Black is a Country

Yes, I'm aware that this exercise is the ultimate in blogging stuff no one else cares about, but it's a lot of books, and this list will help me remember them (maybe).

Will We Ever Get the White House's Emails?

2008-12-22T13:15:00.000-08:00

The Post reports on the continued saga of White House Emails. Now we've narrowed down the villain from the White House in general, who used non-governmental emails for governmental business and possibly erased records in 2005, to Dick Cheney, who believes that if his emails are available for historians to read, the terrorists will have already won. Cheney, who is still protected under the kind of executive privilege that does not require him to give up information to prosecutors in leak cases, isn't under that sort of executive privilege required by the Presidential Records Act. But don't think too hard about it, The new Trickey Dick knows which article of the Constitution talks about executive privilege.

Of course, the Bush White House is not the only Presidency to mysteriously lose data. WaPo mentions problems with Reagan, Bush I, and the Clintons. As the National Archival Records Administration demonstrates, Electronic records are very difficult to preserve- especially when the creators don't actively want to preserve them. Even Obama, who so far has a sterling reputation regarding digital transparency, can refuse to release transition emails, even when regarding government business and payed for by taxpayers. The difference is that the Bush II White House has willfully bypassed record keeping procedures and done so on a massive scale. While Clinton has several million electronic messages to be archived, Bush might have as many as 300 million. The dramatic shift towards the digital over the last ten years shows that historical records are changing, and historical methods will have to change as well. With Obama's commitment to moving even more forcefully into the digital age, this will likely accelerate. Beyond the fact that historical methods will need to change, we need to realize that each email is an important, perhaps vital historical source. I applaud the AHA, National Security Archive, and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Government for continuing to push the administration to preserve its records as required by law. With Cheney fighting so strenuously to hide his records, they've got to include some mighty juicy tidbits.

Bailing Out Individuals vs. Bailing Out Corporations

2008-12-11T02:09:00.001-08:00

The NYTimes writes that Sheila Bair, chairwoman of the FDIC has been urging the Treasury and the White House to help out people who are in foreclosure or about to be foreclosed upon. Her programs related to IndyMac have already helped out 7,200, but she wants to expand the programs dramatically. The White House and Treasury Secretary disagree with Bair's program, saying that individuals would simply miss mortgage payments on purpose in order to qualify for government money. Or that renegotiated mortgage agreements would be reforeclosed upon.

Yet this seems to be what has already happened when banks used TARP funds to purchase competitors. Of course oversight is needed whether discussing one mortgage or a multibillion dollar rescue of the largest insurance company in the world. There seems to be a major disconnect in thinking between policy aimed at an individual and policy aimed at corporations with the idea that individuals who made bad decisions should be treated accordingly and can't be trusted to made decisions benefitting them. At the same time, corporations who lost a bet that housing prices would never fail have a get out of jail free card that says even though they've made bad decisions, the government trusts them implicitly to make good ones next time. I'm all for free markets, but this doesn't add up.

Fireside Chats

2008-11-23T10:55:00.001-08:00

Our President now spits wisdom via youtube.

Japan tells its citizens to go on a diet for the good of the country via a strange The Sims related video.

What would FDR say?

First Official Presidential RSS Feed?

2008-11-10T10:53:00.001-08:00

The Washington Post writes that Obama is going to revolutionize how the White House communicates with the country (and world) digitally. Thank God... I'm elated we can go from an administration whose most illustrious uses of technology was in their attempts to keep potentially illegal activities hidden.

The White House has created a great resource in change.gov, the campaign email lists, and the sophisticated web 2.0 technology inherent in Obama's campaign webpage. There's no reason to think this will disappear from the governing process. As a digital historian, I'm salivating over the thought of using the "stories" submitted to change.gov as primary sources on what the election meant to the American public. This set up actually seems very similar to the Hurricane Katrina digital memory bank and the 9/11 digital archive run by George Mason's Center for History and New Media.

Henry Jenkins and other media commenters have long seen the democratic urges and tendencies of the internet. Now we can have this "civic discourse" online in an official capacity. While we probably won't be deciding a referendum concerning cotton tariffs via surveymonkey, having a deeper civic discourse where the people are, online, can help us renew the democracy that makes America strong. As an historian and promoter of civic virtue, I think this is a good thing.

House votes to preserve White House emails

2008-07-10T22:01:00.001-07:00

House votes to preserve White House e-mails - Los Angeles Times

This article made me very happy. 1. Because in a few years historians will have to use digital methods to write any kind of history about the last 15 years. Email has been a major part of daily life and especially in the upper levels of government for over a decade. Future me will thank the 2008 House of Representatives for its foresight. 2. Because the Bush White House has actively destroyed documents and primary sources and we need to ensure this does not happen in future administrations. 3. The Clinton administration is also not off the hook for its limited effort at releasing documents to its Presidential library. Even after Hil is no longer in the race. 4. Because this is about more than history- its about "our constitutional responsibility for oversight." Oversight: a word that the current administration hates and would rather replace with "executive privilege." Right.

So chalk one up today for history.

Tomorrows task: figure out how to search all those emails in a logical manner. Any suggestions welcome.

NIAHDance

2008-07-01T21:19:00.001-07:00

I know, I know... too many posts today, not enough thesis.

The Kiddies do some English Country Dance...

The Bluths are back!

2008-07-01T15:17:00.001-07:00

'Arrested Development' movie is on, says Jeffrey Tambor | Movie Biz, TV Biz | Hollywood Insider | EW.com

I'm super psyched about this news. Granted the winds of the movie biz change frequently, and there isn't a whole lot of confirmation, but any news is good news.

Top 100 Intellectuals

2008-07-01T06:51:00.001-07:00

Foreign Policy: The Top 100 Public Intellectuals—the Final Rankings

I finally checked out the Top 100 Public Intellectuals list from Foreign Policy Magazine. With 500,000! votes counted it was quite a shocker in that the top 10 were all Muslims. I'm not sure how the voting broke down by nation/region (the magazines running it are based in the US and UK respectively), but apparently the top candidate held a publicity campaign on his website and the mass of moderate, educated Muslims pushed several other Muslim intellectuals to the top 10 (You've heard of the Colbert Bump, how about the Fethullah Gulen bump). At first the list was a bit bracing: The Top 10 intellectuals are people I've never heard of?! (Ok, I've known about Muhammad Yunus since his Microcredit Success in 2006).

But I think the list could provide the basis for a solid bridge between East and West. Yunus and several of the others on the list are known for their secular accomplishments and ideas, rather than religious. Gulen supports international cooperation, education, and tolerance. These ideals are a far cry from how many Americans see Islam and its beliefs. Making Gulen the face of Islam in the US, rather than Osama Bin Laden, could go far in bridging some of the divides that have widened since 9/11 and Iraq.

While some of Foreign Policy/Prospect Magazine's editorial staff have downplayed the results because of publicity campaigns run by the Turkish newspapers and Gulen himself, that's just silly neo-colonialism. The world public voted, so these are the top 10 public intellectuals. Deal with it, West.

Finally, I was pleased to see a couple historians on the list. Unfortunately they were mostly at the bottom... well done Bernard Lewis, Drew Gilpin Faust, Ramachandra Guha, and Tony Judt. Sadly only Gilpin Faust represents American Historians, but considering the eastern bent of the voters, Lewis' work on the Middle East puts him in the top 15. But that does not let American Historians off the hook. I think this could be an important call to make our work more relevant to the public. How will we do that? Digital History, baby!

Imagining history a little differently...

2008-06-29T21:07:00.001-07:00

For the past week I've been helping run (aka enforcing the rules/driving) a history program for high schoolers whereby they take 4 credits of class, but really run all over eastern VA looking at historic sites and getting lectures from WM Faculty and Graduate Students. For someone from FL- the thought of wandering through a different ancient landscape while in high school sends my historic imagination meter off the charts.

One of my favorite of their trips was Werowocomoco, the site of Powhatan's (and Pocahontas' (or Matoaka, her actual Indian name)) capital. In case you didn't realize, Powhatan ran one of the most impressive empires in the Mid-Atlantic region stretching from North Carolina to Maryland. Considering that distance was measured by how far one could run in a day and communication based on virtually the same- this was a truly impressive feat. The site has no original features on it, but Dave Brown, a William and Mary Archaeologist/Grad Student, painted a very impressive world dominated by a huge central religious area surrounded by short walls and trenches (he likened it to a picket fence, not keeping anything out, but letting you know which side you're on). Archeology has confirmed the descriptions given by John Smith, of 70 foot buildings, dozens of canoes, and plentiful food items. Trade goods from very far away show the extensive trading network of Powhatan's empire. Some of the kids were disappointed by "walking around in a hot field all day," but I was riveted!

On Saturday we took the kids to an archaeological dig at Fairfield, the site of a large and important plantation from the 17th-19th centuries. Dave Brown also led this trip, though he did less talking and more digging. (Historical) Archeology is a field with which I am not very well acquainted, though I found it incredibly interesting. In many ways it's a similar process to regular history- find stuff, analyze it, put it in the context of its surroundings, and use historical imagination to reconstruct a narrative of the past. Conversely, it's waaay different from what I'm used to doing. I like reading words. The stuff I find and analyze will sometimes make it easy to determine a narrative. Or the oral histories I collect will tell me: "I did it," but with Historical Archeology the clues are more subtle. The discoloration in the dirt means a fencepost was here and likely extended to the treeline, limiting the space a visitor could occupy. And also limiting the visitor's view of slave outbuildings. Such an example would be very different from the slave outbuildings lining the entrance to Monticello on Mulberry Row (the other site I visited this week). We can infer that how slavery was treated by whites made a huge change between the early 18th century and 1770-1826 (Yeah, this is a bit obvious, but that's why I'm not an archaeologist. Also, you practice archeology in the dirt and outside (unless you're in the Jamestown archaearium). I like that part of it. Unfortunately, not a whole lot of archeology going on about the sixties- although I think the Material Culture aspect of the sixties- how space was negotiated in buses, lunch tables, neighborhoods, school buildings, etc. will shed a lot of light on the era. Someone who has a brain for that sort of thing needs to do it, because I definitely can't make the leaps to meaning from shards of glass that the experts like Dave Brown or Susan Kern do with such success.

Email?! How are historians going to deal with it?

2008-06-19T21:54:00.001-07:00

I've been thinking about email a bit lately. Namely- what are historians going to do with it? On the one hand, correspondence figures prominently in scholarship from all eras. Letters can provide an internal view and archive conversations in a way that other primary sources- periodicals, legislation, and cultural production can't. But as we move into a digital age (we've been there for quite some time- the first email dates to 1972), historians will have to deal with a whole new world of information and sources. As Dan Cohen pointed out to me, whoever writes the history of the Clinton era will deal with several million emails. Several MILLION. Fortunately, people like Dan have been thinking about this problem for awhile.

Another problem comes when you put email in that little box- the trash can. We all do it- but are we literally erasing history? Think of all the emails between troops and their families which won't remain. Think of how little we would know about troop life during the Civil War without correspondence (and the amateur historians who rigorously search it out). But this problem extends outside of social history to the political when the Executive Office systematically tries to avoid archiving email and "accidentally deletes" millions of historical documents.

But beyond this frightening issue of irresponsible government- I wonder how law enforcement uses email. In several recent cases- ever since Enron really- email has often provided enough info to indict- but rarely convict. However, as a couple Bear Stearns executives found out today- email is still rigorously scrutinized by law enforcement. I really wonder how they search through it. Do they just run through each one? With the sort of resources law enforcement has- this isn't impossible. But perhaps they could provide a model for sifting through the millions of bits sitting out there- holding their secrets. Perhaps we will use programs that turn email into a more narrative/conversational form- ala google mail. And what about instant messaging/twitter/text messages that have taken over in the past couple years. At least I can sleep at night knowing that Dan, Mills Kelly, and Bill Turkel are working on the problem. Maybe someday I will work on it too.

Pickup - OMG! Ultimate content!

2008-06-07T03:00:00.000-07:00

So I started this blog to write about many things, ultimate being one of them. Welp, that didn't happen. Mostly because I had a very dry ultimate season. Fortunately, this spring/summer has been/looks promising. I played with Two Dead Guys (W&L Ultimate) at a Savage Seven tourny in Charlotte. While delightful at the time, I missed walking without soreness for the next week. While in the burg this summer I've played with some VIMS guys over by Yorktown. Definitely not much ultimate organization/experience, but they're nice people, run hard, and it's usually 2v2 or 4v4 with gigantic fields. So great excercise. WM pickup has also started every Monday and Friday. I've gone twice and it's been some of the better pickup I'd played- not like best skill levels, but close to my skill level and several fun people. Mostly I think I missed playing more than it truly being incredible.

But I also noticed a huge difference between Monday and Friday this week. Many similar players, but a few of the better WMD (William and Mary's college team) were replaced by pretty new players. I'd say just 3 or 4, but the difference in game attitudes was incredible. Where last week was typical good pickup: match across, force flick, vert stack, run hard, throw stuff you wouldn't normally throw. This week was: walk down the field until you reach an unmarked man and stay roughly 20 feet from him, no stack whatsoever, force whichever way-ish, and a lot of throwing errors. That just a change of 1-2 players on a team would make such a difference in how the overall game ran surprised me. By the end we had a little better cadence, people seemed to clump in the middle (instead of running wild), and matchups stayed more regular. But it did frustrate some. Nonetheless, pickup rules and I will definitely make it a constant thing to keep me in shape (now that the rockclimbing wall is closed for the summer... yar!). Maybe I will be in ok shape for Wildwood, should I be able to attend. Probably not.

wine review

2008-05-28T18:12:00.001-07:00

Root One 2006- Cab Sauv- Cauchuga Valley, Chile. $11.99

Very impressed with this good value. A very big body and slightly spicy. I'm not going to talk about "hints of oak" but I enjoyed it quite a bit with my spaghetti. Definitely purchasing this one again.

Seven Deadly Zins- Napa red Zinfidel. $17.99

So delicious. With the price, it's a special treat, but quite special indeed. Pretty big with a lot of complexity owed from combining wine of seven different old vine vineyards(hence the name). Maybe I'll try some of the pricier versions of Napa old vine zin mixes (cardinal zins, Sin Zin), but this one is great enough for me.

Goats Do Roam in Villages 2005- South African. uh 13ish

A play on French "Cotes du Rhone- Villages, which is a wine producing region in France. I guess these are usually Grenaches and the South African version was a bit gamey but certainly drinkable. The non "in villages" version of Goats Do Roam was worse (though cheaper). I remember really liking Goats Do Roam a couple years ago.. so maybe it was a vintage thing. No so impressed this year.

Hobology

2008-05-26T21:20:00.001-07:00

Links!
In the late 90s, someone started a "bad writing contest". In sum, it's quite funny. Mostly because we all knew that Judith Butler is the worst writer ever.
Second link. Hobo Matters. In one of several spoofs on historical documentary that I've recently seen (another must see: Drunk History featuring Jack Black and Michael Cera), John Hodgman tells us about what really happened during the Great Depression:

"From his hover yacht in the Caspian Sea, President Hoover tried to reassure Americans that only foreigners and the mentally feeble would suffer. But the damage was too great. After a decade of high flying prosperity, the US economy finally fell to back to Earth and began tunneling to an awful volcanic core of despair, food riots, cloying folk songs, and lava. By March, a quarter million apple sellers would crowd the streets of Manhattan refusing to sell any other fruit."

The clip is audio over basically one photo and soft accoustic guitar renditions of folk songs to complete the spoof. Well played Mr. Hodgman. For a real history of the Depression, you could probably read Eric Rauchway's book.

Digital History!

2008-03-26T15:44:00.000-07:00

Ok, clearly I will not post here (ever). But I'm very excited about today and it doesn't quite fit into my other blog.

I just attended a lecture by Dan Cohen, the new director of the Center for History and New Media at George Mason. His talk covered "Zotero and the Future of Digital Scholarship." It was very enlightening stuff. For those that don't know, Zotero is an add on for Firefox which allows the user to basically download citation information from books, articles, etc. from websites like Amazon, then take notes, export bibliographies, group sources, and keep that stuff together. Through the web browser. According to Dan, "we did it to make EndNote obsolete." Well, it is now the flagship for a whole variety of web 2.0 esque features. These aren't rolled out yet, but from how he described them, the possibilities are endless. Imagine you want to determine why the Bush administration decided to invade Iraq. You could put the administration's entire email correspondence database into a new zotero database and create networks of how words like oil, civilization, al qaida, and WMDs interacted with words like Iraq, Saddam, Shiite, and Sunni. Well, you actually can't. BUT, theoretically you could when the new Zotero rolls out. They're partnering with the Internet Archive, and will use OCR, and libraries around the world are compatible. My favorite point is that the CHNM has received almost 12 million dollars in grants! As the the person who introduced Dan said, "They gave 12 million to a historian!" Let me tell you, it's not something that happens everyday (or ever). As of now, almost 750,000 people use Zotero.

At the same time, it has a way to go until it really starts to change the field. Just from my own experience, the interface is quite easy to manipulate. However, if the library or Amazon, or google books doesn't input the author, title, publisher data correctly, it comes out incorrect when I export it to word. So I end up spending a lot of time changing the spelling of publishing companies, or partial titles.

All of the new stuff Dan explained also seems very techy. He's throwing around scrapers, semantic computing, data mining, crawlers, java, and interfaces. I'm fairly cognizant of that world (I can write html!), but it would be difficult for me to do what he says Zotero can do right now. As he says, there's a percentage of the population which won't grasp it no matter how easy you make it. I will say, it makes me want to learn more and play around with Zotero more.

Wine, etc.

2008-02-10T20:12:00.001-08:00

A couple bottles of wine I drank the last couple weeks.

Williamsburg Winery - Susan Constant Red: Surprisingly decent. I didn't expect much because somewhere along the way I had something from WW that was poor. Medium body red, berries, silly name (one of John Smith's ships). A bike ride to WW is in order in the spring.

Macon-Villages Domaine de Vercheres 2005- White Burgundy: Was pretty excited about this white- wasn't quite as good as I hoped, pretty crisp, very little oakyness- which I like. But really didn't have anything complex about it. Maybe I drank it too cold. $15

Concha y Toro (Chilean)- Casillero del Diablo Carmenere 2006 reserve- mmm. Very good wine from mis amigos at concha y toro. Full bodied, fruity, chocolate? some blackberry/raspberry? Went very well with my steak. Pretty Cab Sauv-esque.

Ok, was going to write about politics as the "etc." then decided not to. In its stead I present you with UC-Boulder Mamabird Highlight videos. Check the '07 highlight video. Quite nice.

Chess Players and New Blog

2008-02-07T17:52:00.000-08:00

I used to be in the chess club during high school... even was the club president for a stretch. So these two blog entries at February's History Carnivale on American Chess players Bobby Fischer and Paul Morphy caught my eye. Fischer died only weeks ago in Iceland and remained an enigma to the adoring American public. He represented an American cold war victory over the Soviet Union, but later broadcasted his anti-semitic views, renounced his U.S citizenship, rejoiced on 9/11, and generally played the role of anti-imperialist gadfly.

I also have migrated my info on The Wire over to a new blog I like to call Bubbles Depot. So this blog can continue to be dedicated to all things jazzy. However, I imagine that I will post more frequently to the Depot, than here.

NPR Interviews characters from The Wire

2008-02-06T22:11:00.000-08:00

The darling radio network of educated, white, upper-middle class suburbanites (ok, that's me), NPR, has given The Wire a large amount of press during its seasons. I guess some of its producers are big fans and it makes sense with the NPR headquarters located less than an hour away in DC.

-Michael K. Williams plays "Omar" and discusses the character's internal fragility despite his brash actions, the first kiss, and how he got his scar.

-Germaine Crawford plays "Dukie" and talks about giving real children like Dukie a voice in the show. In an online only clip, Crawford talks about his fellow cast members outside of their characters.

-NPR's Fresh Air interviews David Simon and George Pelecanos from 2004.

-An older Fresh Air interview with Ed Burns. And one from 2006.

-Clark Johnson, director of several episodes and "Gus" in the current season.

The interviews can go into great depth... and if you search the NPR site you can find interviews with "Snoop", "Marlo", and others. I can't really think of other shows where so many of the actors and creators have been interviewed. And oddly NPR has chosen some of the more minor characters (I don't know if this has anything to do with availability). They certainly are fans, which is nice to see.

The Wire

2008-02-05T08:50:00.000-08:00

Ok, I'm pretty sure I will probably just turn this blog into an extension of my obsession for David Simon's "The Wire."

My thoughts on the show will come at a later date, but for now enjoy Sudhir Venkatesh's interviews/sessions with actual drug traffickers and what they think about The Wire. Start with The First Episode and move through to the current one.

Here's a quick link to actual Baltimore Crime as well.

That's all for now, but stay tuned as I unleash many more links/info on the "best television show in history."

Things Noted

2008-02-01T19:21:00.001-08:00

-One of the all time best interviews on how to be a saxophone player: Thank You, Skerik.
-What's that in your stomach? Oh it's just a new jaw I'm growing out of fat cells. Science is indeed cool sometimes.
-I was reminded of Wisconsin Hodag and possible Callahan nominee, Brandon "Muffin" Malacek's heroic effort to save a couple duders while searching for links to a few of the top ultimate blogposts ever... namely those by Hector Valdavia. And namely Heartlatch Potbreak in Five Pieces. Including such lines as: "Tents lined the perimeter in what would become, at nightfall, a Bacchanalian Maginot line of fortified debauchery." I mean... Hemingway was good, but he never wrote about Potlatch.

Ok, that's enough noted things for now.

The one where i'm excercising

2008-01-31T21:44:00.000-08:00

This blog ain't gonna write itself. So I'll take the easy route and just list what sort of excercisin' I participated in today.
-rockclimbing- failed pretty miserably on the tough routes. Did the easy one five times. Psyched about lots o new routes being put up over the weekend.
-running- 2 miles.
-2X25 lunges- 8 pound weights. Not gonna break any records.. but sure gonna make me sore tomorrow.

Dinner: Box o Thai coconut curry augmented with ramen.
Lunch: 5 dolla Chinese lunch special continues to amaze in value. How I know? 95% of Williamsburg's construction worker population AND at least 3 cops also patronize Top Chinese. Located on the corner of route 5 and 199.

We have now established about a once monthly blogposting rate. It can only go up from here. Or so I'm told.

2008-01-13T19:21:00.000-08:00

Yeah first post....

Points of blog:
-maybe have an incisive well thought-out post on historical/musical phenomena once in awhile
-discuss the grad students' life
-whatever... frisbee
-learn to write good
-review stuff