May 2013
2 posts
I Actually Like Summer in Indiana...
…which is basically happening right now: hot and humid. I forgot how reckless I feel during Indiana summers. I’m one of those people who feels more possibility when facing open fields than I do facing a city skyline. I am very dedicated to my small-town posturing. I have the urge to drive long distances on country roads with the windows down and music blaring. The new album from...
Gatsby, a Cream Sweater →
duckbeater:
BASICALLY WE LIKED IT!
Evan has feelings:
I think too of the way the characters’ faces are often fuzzy for their nimbédness; I don’t know if this is a product of translating from 3D to 2D, or a consequence of the filming procedures required for this complicated digitization; or someone on the lens-side dicking about; or if the glowing skin of these gorgeous creatures was really...
March 2013
1 post
January 2013
2 posts
My Only Ghost Story, and It's Not a Good One
I’m reading Deborah Blum’s Ghost Hunters, an account of several prominent 19th-century scientists and their obsession with psychical research. It’s not so much about ghosts as it is about mediums and telepathy, but combined with my recent re-reading of Brenda Coultas’s ghost stories in The Marvelous Bones of Time, it’s got me thinking a lot about ghosts.
I’m...
Winter Break, So Far
Down to the last week of winter break. I have mostly wasted it through sleeping, watching movies, and petting my cat Winchester, who has taken up a recent habit of waking up from his naps feeling very affectionate and sitting in my lap, which is not a trait he’s known for. I have barely touched my thesis, which is due in about a month and a half. It’s falling apart, if I’m...
December 2012
2 posts
Ten Resolutions for 2013
Well, 2012 is coming to a close. I can’t say it was a particularly good year. School was fine, and nothing majorly disastrous happened. But personally, it was one of the most unfulfilling years I can remember. I’m hoping for a better 2013. In that spirit, here’s my most pressing resolutions for the new year. Some of these are very personal, but I’m putting them out...
Research Proposal: Can writing centers serve as...
I wrote this research proposal for my Writing Center Theory and Practice class. I hope to turn it into a full-blown project next semester:
Being a first-generation student means crossing boundaries. When I left for college, I did not realize what an impact my first-generation status would have on my life for the next four years (not to mention the impact it would have on my graduate career). ...
November 2012
2 posts
Digitial Humanities, Literary Studies, and Popular...
In my digital humanities graduate seminar, my classmates and I spend a lot of time talking about “the corpus,” in particular a collection of one-thousand-something American novels published between 1851-1875 that my professor uses for his own scholarly work. While discussing the usefulness (and occasional un-usefulness) of topic modeling on Monday, we had a kind of crisis moment in...
October 2012
1 post
Rejected Titles for My Poetry Manifesto
Poetry Is Not a Romance Novel: Language Unserviced by Plot
Poetry Is Not an Episode of Justified: The Barrier between Language and Medium
Poetry Is Not a Penis: Gender and Object
Poetry Is Not a Marriage: The Lack of Compromise between Image and Form
Poetry Is Not a Sufjan Stevens Song: Deconstructing Sentimentality
Poetry Is Not a Backstreet Boy: Demythologizing the Young Male Genius
Poetry...
September 2012
3 posts
The Art of the Kidney Stone
Poets Olivia Cronk and Feng Chen discussed their work today with the poetry MFAs, and at one point, they spoke about “feminine” writing - how they had to defeat their own sexist attitudes toward women and women’s poetry before they could write the work they really wanted to write. Also, Feng Chen spoke about the way illness and problems with the body influences her writing. ...
I am ready for a The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter film...
You already know how excited I am about the upcoming Baz Luhrmann Great Gatsby film. Well, now I am ready to admit that I am also super-excited to see Joe Wright’s new adaptation of Anna Karenina. I’ve been avoiding this thing for awhile but after hearing some of the TIFF buzz about it, I knew I couldn’t ignore it any longer. I love Tolstoy almost as much as I love Fitzgerald,...
On Sunshine
Last week, I watched a 2007 movie directed by Danny Boyle called Sunshine. It’s about a group of scientists on a space ship headed to the sun. The sun is dying and the space ship is carrying a giant nuclear bomb that is meant to reignite the sun and save Earth. Unfortunately, they run into a few problems just as they get close to their end goal. And unfortunately, this movie does the...
August 2012
2 posts
Bad News on the Gatsby Front, Kind Of
A couple months ago, I passionately defended Baz Luhrmann’s upcoming The Great Gatsby. Originally, the movie was supposed to come out on Christmas of this year, but the studio has now decided it would make a good summer movie instead. This means it won’t come out until the summer of 2013. I have mixed feelings about this. I am insanely excited to see this movie, despite knowing I...
Short Reviews of Some CDs Stacked Next to My...
It’s been two months since I’ve done one of these, but lately I’ve been listening to some really good stuff, so I figured I’d give it another good. Here’s some skimpy reviews.
Fiona Apple, The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do. Let me just jump on the bandwagon here and say that this...
July 2012
8 posts
Blog Round-Up: July 13-26, 2012
I manage so many blogs now that I think it will be easier if I link to all of my various goings-on in the blogosphere with a somewhat regular round-up of my posts. I hope you enjoy some of the links to my other work.
On MFA Pop, I handed out free, unwanted advice to incoming MFA students.
At Not Your Mama’s Bookshelf, I’ve been sampling some great YA fiction, superhero fiction, and...
I Watched L.A. Confidential Again
When I was in high school, L.A. Confidential was my favorite movie. I saw it on basic cable one night around Christmas, four or five years after it had originally been released in theaters. I then used my disposable first-job income to buy a copy of the DVD. I wasn’t a normal teenager, obviously. I saw rom-coms at the theater with my friends, I watched broad comedies and hid from horror...
Here Are the Books I Voted for on NPR's "Best-Ever...
I love teen/YA books as much as I love any other genre. They are my crack, the books I am most likely to read over and over again, even now that I’m an “adult.” NPR has asked readers to vote for their ten favorite teen books in a new online poll. Here were the 10 I picked, along with quick reasons why:
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, by Sherman Alexie. ...
Some Thoughts on the Baton Twirling
So, it was mostly chaos yesterday at the AYOP event. Girls in sparkly costumes everywhere. Amazing little portable dressing tents lined up in all the walkways. Team names like Utopia, the Stepperettes, Julie’s Silver Something-or-other. It made me remember our main rivals in the twirling world when I was a member of the now-defunct Sparklettes: Daphne’s Dolls. They won everything. ...
Duck Beater: BOOKED IT: BETH, A FORMER... →
Yes, this evening Evan and I will be witnessing a real one-of-a-kind event. It should be amazing. I am hoping to feel so overcome by the experience that I immediately go out, buy a baton, and attempt to reclaim my title as “Most Improved.” YOLO, etc.
duckbeater:
Ladies and gentlemen, this is a go. We’re meeting for wine at her APT at 4, and then marching over for the Show Twirl events at 6.
...
Blog Round-Up: June 29-July 12, 2012
I manage so many blogs now that I think it will be easier if I link to all of my various goings-on in the blogosphere with a somewhat regular round-up of my posts. I hope you enjoy some of the links to my other work.
Last week on MFA Pop, I posted my ten Desert Island book choices. This week, I looked at ten untrue things in 50 Shades of Grey.
On Not Your Mama’s Bookshelf, I’ve been...
Why I Love the Final Minute of Concerto for...
After my post last week about my love for the Dies Irae theme in classical music, I’ve decided to not let my total ignorance about how music actually works deter me from talking about other classical pieces I love. Today I would like to talk about the last minute of Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra.
I’m a Bartok fan despite not necessarily finding his work to be as emotionally...
Dies Irae: A Love Story (And a Book Proposal)
I have a problem in that I love classical music but am completely ignorant about it. I have no idea how to play an instrument; I can’t read music, despite taking a Fundamentals of Music Theory class in college and acing it (I can’t remember notations and my concept of rhythm is dreadful). All my roommates at DePauw were in the music school. They covered about every area too - I...
June 2012
6 posts
Blog Round-Up: June 22-28, 2012
I manage so many blogs now that I think it will be easier if I link to all of my various goings-on in the blogosphere with a weekly round-up of my posts. I hope you enjoy some of the links to my other work. I realize I’m a few weeks behind on this; it’s been a busy last few weeks and I’ve been out of town a lot. Hopefully I won’t be so slow to update in the future.
...
Trying Not to Cry in the Mirror
Last week I watched a little indie movie on Netflix called True Adolescents. I found the film because I was looking for movies or TV that starred Mark Duplass, who is in not one but TWO movies that have recently come out but will not be playing in the South Bend area anytime soon (those two movies being Safety Not Guaranteed and Your Sister’s Sister). I like Duplass a lot on the FX show...
Mitch Albom, Uncomfortable With the Idea of Women... →
I just finishedFifty Shades of Greylast night (more thoughts to come at a later date), and while I can’t say I liked it, I would defend its right to exist until I’m blue in the face. Women are allowed to have inner sex lives, to have fantasies, to see/read those fantasies play out. Sure, this book didn’t do it for me (the writing itself is so bad that it became distracting from...
Mad Men and Misery Porn
Warning: If you are haven’t seen all ofMad Men’s latest season but plan to do so eventually, then you might not want to read this. There WILL be spoilers.
A couple years ago I read Dan Chaon’s You Remind Me of Me and declared it to be “misery porn.” The book was so relentlessly depressing - I cannot remember a single moment of lightness or the slightest touch of...
Blog Round-Up: May 26 - June 7, 2012
I manage so many blogs now that I think it will be easier if I link to all of my various goings-on in the blogosphere with a weekly round-up of my various posts. I hope you enjoy some of the links to my other work. This post actually covers 2 weeks because I checked out from the internet during a long Memorial Weekend. The same will be happening the next time around, as I am out of town for a...
Short Reviews of Some CDs Stacked Next to My...
It’s been a long time since I’ve done one of these, but here we go with some more tiny reviews of albums I’ve been listening to lately:
Heartless Bastards, Arrow. I’m not sure why, but somehow I had never heard of the Heartless Bastards until randomly picking up their latest album, Arrow, at the library a couple months ago. I am glad I did. I really enjoyed this album a...
May 2012
6 posts
Talkin Sex' at the Circ Desk
So maybe one of the weirdest side effects of this Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon is the way it has forced libraries to deal very publicly with private matters. Most public libraries are all about privacy, with rigid codes in place to protect patrons and employees in equal measure. When I went through orientation for my library job, the importance of privacy was drilled into my head. No big...
Blog Round-Up: May 18-24, 2012
I manage so many blogs now that I think it will be easier if I link to all of my various goings-on in the blogosphere with a weekly round-up of my various posts. I hope you enjoy some of the links to my other work.
For my weekly top ten list on MFA Pop, I named my ten (okay, eleven) favorite TV characters.
On Not Your Mama’s Bookshelf, I reviewed the fun, creepy Wisconsin Death Trip and...
And Now I, an Unlikely Candidate, Shall Defend the...
Well, you guys, it’s finally here. The trailer for Baz Luhrmann’s new version of The Great Gatsby. I have been waiting for this thing to drop since rumors of the film first circulated way back in 2010. You see, The Great Gatsby is my favorite novel and has been for a decade. I absolutely loathe the 1974 Robert Redford film version, and I dislike the 2000 made-for-TV version (starring Paul...
Blog Round-Up: May 11-17, 2012
I manage so many blogs now that I think it will be easier if I link to all of my various goings-on in the blogosphere with a weekly round-up of my various posts. I hope you enjoy some of the links to my other work.
On MFA Pop, I had a lot of fun putting together a list of my top-ten favorite summer driving songs. It’s a weird little list, with Creedence Clearwater Revival sitting right next...
Blog Round-Up: May 4-10, 2012
So I manage so many blogs now that I think it will be easier if I link to all of my various goings-on in the blogosphere with a weekly round-up of my various posts. I hope you enjoy some of the links to my other work.
On my blog about books, Not Your Mama’s Bookshelf, I wrote a short review for Driven, James Sallis’s sequel to Drive. Also, I shared some thoughts about some poetry,...
Hey, Here Are Some Movies I Have Recently Watched
Hey, here are some movies I’ve seen lately. I have some thoughts about them:
Shame: I read enough reviews and articles about this movie to know that watching it was going to be a brutal experience. And that’s exactly what it was. In my last batch of movie mini-reviews, I mentioned loving Hunger. Shamehas the same director (Steve McQueen) and the same star (Michael Fassbender, sigh), and...
April 2012
3 posts
Hey, Here Are Some Movies I Have Recently Watched
Hey, here are some movies I’ve seen lately. I have some thoughts about them:
J. Edgar: This movie is terrible. I honestly cannot remember the last time I was so bored by a film I was watching. I get what this movie’s trying to do, to show J. Edgar Hoover as a more complex figure than legend might make him out to be. But I’m not sure it ever really accomplishes this basic goal. By...
5 Thoughts: Justified 3.13 "Slaughterhouse"
Here it is, folks. My final thoughts about this third season ofJustified. It was fun while it lasted!
1. Aaah! That was great! I was ready to use this week’s post as a way of airing all my grievances about how this season ofJustifiedwas kind of a hot mess. But you know what, this episode might just be my favorite hour of the show so far in its entire three-season run. Not only does it...
Watch Out! That Ice Cream Sundae is a Loaded...
Like many other Mad Men fans, I hate Betty Draper. I’ve tried to love her the way I love Peggy and Joan and Pete (oh, I love Pete Campbell), but I can’t help it. I hate her. It’s not the character as she’s written. It’s that if I knew Betty Draper in real life, say if she were my neighbor, I’d create elaborate fantasies about murdering her. So imagine my...
March 2012
6 posts
5 Thoughts: Justified 3.11 "Measures"
Justified was on this last night. Here’s some thoughts I had about it.
1. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: There are just too many villains with their hands in the pot this season! Quarles, Limehouse, Boyd Crowder, Wynn Duffy, these men’s various lackeys. And now with Dickie Bennett out of jail, we’ve got him stirring up trouble, too. Also,...
Hey, Here Are Some Movies I've Recently Watched
Hey, here are some movies I’ve seen lately. I have some thoughts about them:
Martha Marcy May Marlene: I’ve wanted to see this movie since it got such rave reviews at Sundance in 2011. I finally watched it over my spring break, and I’m really glad I did. Martha deserves all its good reviews. The story of a young woman who returns to her sister after having spent time with a cult in rural...
5 Thoughts: Justified 3.10 "Guy Walks into a Bar"
As almost-always, some thoughts on Tuesday’s latest episode ofJustified.
1. Despite Neal McDonough being fantastic in this episode and despite learning a lot of interesting backstory, I still dislike Quarles as a major villain on this show. I just think his brand of crazy is too cartoonish. As I mentioned last week, Limehouse is far more frightening to me because of what he knows. ...
5 Thoughts: Justified 3.9 "Loose Ends"
A day late and a dollar short (especially since I completely missed last week’s episode recap), but here’s some thoughts on Tuesday’s latest episode ofJustified.
1. More Ava, please! I hadn’t noticed just how little she’ been given to do this season until she got to kick ass last night. As other reviewers of this show have pointed out, Ava is hanging with the bad...
Good Question, AV Club: Is TV a Medium without a... →
If you click on that link above, you’ll find an article from the AV Club that somehow magically showed up today, just after I pondered this very question last night while doing laundry. As a TV obsessive, I have quite a bit of guilt over the fact that I know so little about television history. I know a lot about the history of music, even more about the history of literature. I listen to...
I Went to AWP and All I Got Was Some Songs About...
Post-AWP comedown, and I’m feeling a little deflated, I have to admit. The conference itself was good, although most of my fun came from buying lots of physically-gorgeous poetry books and chilling in the hotel room with my three entertaining/charming AWP roomies. There were a handful of quasi-interesting panels, and the whole thing was run like a perfectly-wound clock. I give those AWP...
February 2012
7 posts
Five Thoughts: Justified 3.7 The Man Behind the...
Again, some thoughts on Justified’s latest episode.
1. Thank you, sweet Jesus, for bringing Tim Gutterson back into the fold. Because Gutterson (as played by Jacob Pitts) is often given so little to do, it makes his dialogue and actions that much more interesting. A lot of us Justified fans have created complicated backstories and personal lives for Gutterson just based on a handful of...
5 Thoughts: Justified 3.6 When the Guns Come Out
Five more thoughts on my favorite show currently airing on television.
1. I’m starting to worry about this season’s structure. In my last review, I mentioned that I have faith in the writers because they’ve demonstrated their strength of pulling together loose ends by the end of seasons past. But this season feels particularly problematic to me. There’s so much going...
A Handful of Reasons I Am Reading So Many Teen...
Lately, I’ve become obsessed with teen novels. Not the vampire kind. The kind that I would have liked when I was a fantasy-avoiding actual teenager. Which is ironic because I barely read young adult novels as an actual teen; I was too busy trying to make a statement by reading Kafka and The New Yorker. Teen Beth was incredibly off-putting. But here I am in graduate school, where I...
5 Thoughts: Justified 3.5 "Thick as Mud"
Here’s five quick thoughts on last night’s latest episode of FX’s Justified, my favorite show currently on TV.
1. Is Dewey Crowe the most loveable “bad guy” on TV? I think so. That poor bastard really had it rough last night, what with thinking his kidneys had been stolen, then committing a series of crimes in order to get them back. Oh, Dewey. So dumb. So wonderful.
2. When...
Short Reviews of Some CDs Stacked Next to My...
Back by not-exactly-popular demand, some more tiny reviews of a handful of CDs I’ve been listening to lately.
Snow Patrol, Fallen Empires. I have some weird feelings about Snow Patrol, in that I really like them despite kind of hating them. I really, really don’t like their most famous song, “Chasing Cars,” but I enjoy Eyes Open, the album it comes from. There’s a song...
5 Thoughts: Justified 3.4 "The Devil You Know"
Here’s five quick thoughts on last night’s latest episode of FX’s Justified, my favorite show currently on TV.
1. This season is just moving right along, isn’t it? Every week, the ante’s been upped, with this week being, in my opinion, the strongest episode so far this season. The villains are beginning to come together, the web of Harlan criminals getting tighter and tighter. ...
