My 102 class, on the other hand, sucks, and gets suckier every day. I've lost my passion for it, and the material I'm teaching I've taught over 20 times, and I'm too lazy and underpaid to re-do my syllabus in there (tho I could without much effort revamp it the way I revamped 317 Business Writing the last time I taught it--with spectacular and enthusiastic results). Maybe it's time to just stop the madness and allow the adjunct faculty position to fade away, much as I let my Borders contingent status vanish last month, despite increasingly alarmed calls from Kenny Rogers.
It is nice though to get two paychecks every two weeks--and during the semesters my second paycheck is equal to my first, but I only get six of them. This adds up to lots of extra money, however! We're going to Honduras in January for cheap--maybe Xmas/New Year's we'll go to Europe as well.
Had lunch with Julio today at Thai One On, and we got to shoot the shit about art and books and politics, but only for 45 minutes. He gave me a woody by mentioning two CDs he copied while working at the Met of incredibly high-resolution photographs of thousands of paintings from around the world; he's using them to create slideshows for a painting class he's teaching at MICA. Apparently he's got several Petrus Christuses, Hans Memlings, Breughel Is and IIs, Cranach Is and IIs, van Eycks, Rembrandts, Durers, Dirk Bootses, Gerard Davidses, and can make really spectacular prints from these digital files. Oh baby. That's my shit right there!
I've got to get a slow leak in one of my brand new tires fixed--I also want to take the Accord to MAACO and get it fixed up and repainted, and perhaps drop it off to get an engine overhaul as well, and a new CD player installed. I'm tired of driving an ok car that has rust all over it (the fact that Cha bashed it into the side of the garage and broke the antenna off and destroyed one rear quarter panel, after which I smashed the review mirrors, doesn't help the aesthetics much either). For about $1500 I can probably get it in really nice shape and milk another five years out of it--I only drive 15 miles a week on average.
I've got good Netflix for the weekend--I've always wanted to see
I also got
which I watched twice a couple years ago but never bought, and it makes me happy. Porc Heaven told me at a Labor Day thing at the folks' that he was "confused" because he felt aroused after Hedwig gives Tommy Gnosis a helping hand in the bathtub. I didn't see why he should be "confused" by that scene--it's fucking hot!
I love the soundtrack:
I put on some makeup
Pick a new eight-track
I take the wig down off the shelf
Suddenly I'm
Mrs. Beehive, 1963!
'Til I wake up
And turn back
To myself.
The Mick Ronson-inspired Bob Mould guitar work is simply grand, and the inspired '80s metal update of '70s gender-bending prepunk glam is too too rich.
This is funny stuff, but very sophisticated and touching as well.
OH DON'T EVEN.
6 comments:
Hey, been busy lately--doing well?
Those cds from Julio certainly piqued my interest--let me know any updates about those! What's he teaching down there? I think you mentioned it earlier but I forgot--surpised to hear it. That's great he's lecturing alongside the studio content--not many prof. did that there. My favorite did it every class. He would show work by juvenile masters that would leave us shaking our heads. Nothing like seeing a phenomenal rendering by a 10yr old Ingres after a day of work--humbling yet uplifting. Did you check out that Iconoclash link? Or was it too goofy for your taste?
Also if you've read M.S. found in a bottle by Poe what did you think of it? I'm not sure of some things in it. When I got home that night I opened up my book to the exact page.
When you watch Crumb check out the place where he grew up. Milford De, about 15 min. away from where I did--ahh the backwater runs deep on the Delmarva penninsula!
And, the first album I ever got was Husker Du/Warehouse: Songs and Stories. If you like Mould's work then I would say to use some of that extra cash you got and get EVERY Husker Du record made. I think Conniption would back me up on that.
(a side note)I should strike while the iron's hot! Sometimes it seems posts and replies get buried under the deluge. Of course, if you're not posting regularly I get mad and impatient.
Hey--doing well on this end!
Julio's teaching some sort of six-hour class once a week--oil painting. He does lecture about method (apparently the CDs he has contain a variety of x-ray and spectrum analyses of the paintings, and he has his students try to re-create the masterworks using the same materials and techniques).
It's an adjunct gig.
I remember you and Con. playing some Husker Du in the bookstore after close, and I was like Wow! Who's this, and never bought any. Maybe I'll copy some--I have a solo Bob Mould around here somewhere (a promo) that's got good crunchy guitar on it. I remember there was a rockin' steely dan cover on that Husker Du you played--and it was a weird song to pick, like "Doctor Wu" or something.
Haven't read MS in a Bottle since i was 13--should check it out again when I have time to read what I want again.
Crumb was interesting, and kind of sad--the fact that R. is the least fucked up in the family was strange--I was drawn to the weird introvert brother (Chuck) who still lived at home and read books all the time. Reminded me of Brother's Keeper and of the excellent documentary Stone Reader I saw earlier this year.
Re posts late--the email function on the comments thing is supposed to tell me any time someone posts a comment, but it only actually does about 30% of the time. I went back and saw some posts you made later, but only a couple. Oh, well.
"Jesus died for our sins!"
"Ya, so did Hitler!"
I love that movie so much. I watch it monthly.
- Em
It is great--"Give it up Kwang Yi."
I like all the Gnostic symbolism, and references to the Symposium, and the music and the performances are parfait!
I wish MICA had offered a class like that for foundation when I was there. I wish I had money and time--I would love to take that now. Got through that school without ever learning how to stretch a canvas--still don't know. M. Karnes was the best ever for me as a painter but he didn't really teach physical methods at all--but he wasn't teaching a foundation course either.
I can make some Du for you if you want--you want a 'best of' or a few complete LPs? Never really got into Mould's solo or Sugar stuff, I liked Grant Hart's stuff a little more but to be fair I don't own any of it either. That Wu cover was actually by the Minutemen--which were on the same label. They are really great too but I don't like them as much as Du. My personal pref--Minutemen were much more political whereas Du songs were about personal turmoil. A good place to start for them is Double nickel on the Dime. Their sound was more funk/jazz I guess--but I hate to pigeonhole them like that. An awesome band cut down in their prime.
Du are just perfect--singer songwriter duo starting out incredibly fast/harsh growing up into incredible melodies played harsh. Just the right mix of noise and beauty. Really underrated. Pixies? Eh. If Husker reuinites then I'll take notice. They're supremely awesome.
You can see some of Chuck's amazing comics in a book of the Crumb brothers--I can't remember what it's called. They are very odd. Sadly he commited suicide soon after that movie.
Thanks for the Du/Minutemen clarification--I know you played each in the Bookstore (but this is probably '96?).
I prefer a couple LPs to a sampler so I can get a sense of stages and shifts in technique and approach. But whatever. I'm in no rush to hear new music because I have so much goddam stuff I can't keep track. Yesterday I found some jazz I'd forgotten I had: Monk Meets Mulligan, Coltrane and Duke Ellington--good stuff, too.
Stinky Steve played Sugar for me once and I didn't like it. Could've been that it was Stinky Steve, though. Kenny Rogers was always pushing the solo Mould on me, which I resisted, but picked up a surround sound promo at Ann Arbor when I was Music AM and I pull it out like once every three years.
Heard a new John Fogarty track today and it sounded exactly like early 1970's John Fogarty. The guy is just goddamn consistently good.
The movie has R. showing a bunch of C. Crumb's stuff, and making kind of derogatory comments about it, but the drawings appealed to me--sort of like a psychedelic Ritchie Rich!
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