Othello Act V, Scene 2. http://shakespeare.mit.edu/othello/othello.5.2.html

Writing the "script" for my presentation in postmodernism on Wednesday, and I have come across the problem that Brazil is extremely complicated. Especially in that one of the song examples I intended to use to illustrate a "good" protest song -- in that it adhered to the "rules" enforced by song festival audiences and had fairly innocuous and vague ( Read more... )

You know it's serious business when you take out the graph paper to outline your final project for a class...on Brazilian music...

It's just easier for me to work with stuff that connects in a non-linear way (like cultural identity and subject formation) in a physical medium that allows for non-linearity. Hence graph paper.

I was toying with the idea ( Read more... )

Reading for my Foundations of Ethno seminar and need to put the entire contents of my brain somewhere while I sort through them.

Alan Merriam wrote an article in 1977 that attempts to come up with a metaphysical definition of ethnomusicology. Except Merriam isn't a philosopher and doesn't understand any of the theories he's trying to quote. So now ( Read more... )

I got a call from The Boss this morning because a member, apparently, complained about me -- twice -- and he wanted to meet with me about it. So I asked him what the complaints were, just so I could recall the situations. The first was a situation in which I did everything I could and the member was still dissatisfied. The second was something that ( Read more... )

I voted for Obama on Tuesday and, while I don't completely support all that he stands for, I felt he was the best candidate with a chance to win the election. He also has Joe Biden, and I feel much better about Biden presiding over the Senate than I would about Sarah Palin. However, I've been hearing grumbling from the peanut gallery, so to speak, ( Read more... )

This morning over breakfast, my stepfather commented that Michael Vick got some well-deserved jail time for abusing all those dogs. Then he kicked Dusty. He kicked Dusty hard enough to cause injury; it's nothing serious, but the little guy seems to be pretty sore. The worst part is that, when I told my stepfather that he had hurt the dog he said, " ( Read more... )

This douchebag is now a contender for the Asshat of the Year award. I am by no means a particularly religious or even a practicing Catholic -- in fact, I'm quite opposed to the entire establishment of the Church -- but I also don't condone immature, disrespectful acts against symbols of another person's faith. I don't even know where to begin with ( Read more... )

This was in the news today, but I found out when I came home to my mother and stepfather talking about going to the funeral. Randy and my stepfather shared a house with some other guys while in grad school at Carnegie Mellon, and I used to go hang out/ play sports/ play poker with that crowd for a weekend every summer. And Randy was always one of ( Read more... )

I haven't posted unbelievable work stories in a while, but in the last few weeks there have been a few entertaining enough to post:

1. "Trainer Question"
I was working a Saturday morning a while back and had a conversation with one of the other staff about possibly getting certified to be a trainer, since I can pretty much already meet the job ( Read more... )