Internal space

Crown him the lord of peace, whose power a scepter sways
From pole to pole, that wars may cease, and all be prayer and praise.

Personhood

In the spirit of balance and not always being intellectual or analytical, here are some dumb nerd things I'm excited about right now:

- Fender Telecasters. I got one a month ago and finally have it set up exactly how I want it. The intonation is perfect, it's a joy to play, and the tonal palette is unbelievable. Teles are so... understated. They will never be obsolete; they were the first, and they will probably be the last. I've played Gibsons exclusively until now, and the qualitative change in feel and sound is indescribable. One's not better than the other, they're apples and oranges, and I like it that way. (Did I mention that Telecasters played a large role in the recording of many Stars of the Lid records? Nerd moment.)

- Cold air. I love the fact that it's now slightly uncomfortable to be outside. I like it when I bike to work and my nose gets runny and my eyes are all squinty with little crow's-feet wrinkles on the outside corners. Cold air feels so clean and wonderful. I think that Philadelphia is most beautiful in mid-Fall and in early Spring. And everybody knows that I love Philadelphia more than anywhere else in the world.

- The prospect of touring with Balboa in mid-December, to celebrate the upcoming release of our split record in the Winter. I miss those dudes and I am really excited to hang out with them all again.

- Having a dear older friend (one of my early musical mentors) get so excited about my decision to go to seminary that she just grabbed me and gave me a huge hug. That was actually very reassuring. When people who know you and your weaknesses have that kind of faith and hope in you, it puts challenges in perspective.

- Being commensurately body-tired after a bike commute and a day at work, instead of just brain-tired with an antsy body.

Art history sucks

So it's official. Art is dead; I'm going to seminary. Thanks to the TRANS conference this weekend for putting the finishing touches on my disillusionment with the art academy. High-powered academics are remarkably insecure, exhibiting a peculiar combination of intellectual hubris and adolescent social politics. It's all about status, which is to say, about perpetuating the illusion that your work actually amounts to something more than word games (cf. Derrida, who was cited repeatedly and excessively at the conference), to allay the creeping suspicion that it was meaningless to begin with.

Or more to the point, "The more the words, the less the meaning, and how does this profit anyone?" (Ecclesiastes).


Still, there were some memorable words from the ever-provocative Nicholas Mirzoeff, for whom I have respect because he actually seems to believe in something:

"Visual culture is dead. It's been dead for 15 years. I don't mean the image is dead, I mean the discourse that we invented to critique art history is dead. It's time to get political."

"It's time finally to REFUSE art history. If you don't believe me, go to the store and get a book called 'Art Since 1900.' Then you'll see."

This or that office

(I'd rather work in this office)

I'll be keeping regular hours for ASAM. 12-5pm or thereabouts, Monday through Thursday, in 166 McNeil. You may feel free to visit. VLST is still in ad hoc mode.

I am enjoying the fact that I can still leave my windows open at night and hear crickets. It's cold enough that the locusts are dead, but the crickets are still singing.

On Mondays I am always awake for twenty straight hours.

It is remarkable how many people are lonely most of the time, and how little they do about it.

:
Clear skies
Breeze
Crickets
Turning leaves
Clean streets
Cities with trees

If you don't shop and you don't drink, there's nothing to do in New York City

Manual vs. abstract labor

This article is phenomenal --- I now understand my anxiety about somehow having graduated college with no real skills, placed in the larger question of "what is meaningful work?" I need to mull this over for a while.