Now we can test our texts and weblogs for masculinity, femininity and gender focus. I have tested three of my blog entries in the Gender Genie. The genie informs me that my writing style is highly masculine. This may help explain why, when I believed I had created a gender neutral weblog, readers thought I … More On the Gender of Texts
The Washington Post recently published an interesting article about the U.S. refusal of foreign aid to help offset the effects of Hurricane Katrina. I quote from the complete text: [W]hile television sets worldwide showed images of New Orleans residents begging to be rescued from rooftops as floodwaters rose, U.S. officials turned down countless offers of … More Our Government, Ourselves
On May Day, 2007, the LAPD assaulted immigration reform demonstrators in McArthur Park. For Cinco de Mayo I am channeling Benito Juárez. Axé.
What has been the great imperative of my life? Geoffrey Philp has tagged me for this meme, invented by himself. It is always flattering to be tagged for a meme, so thank you, Geoffrey! The great imperative of my life was revealed by my reaction to a children’s book called Eva Meets Noriko-San, which my … More Great Imperative Meme
Today I spent seven straight hours teaching four different topics, after getting up very early to finish preparing. At noon I had expected to have lunch and pick something up from Interlibrary Loan in the process. Scheduling was off for technical reasons, and there was no time. I was able to eat because a colleague … More A Rather Internalized Whiteman
I thought encyclopedias were a comparatively modern invention, but there is the Suda: (Σοῦδα or alternatively Suidas Σουΐδας) is a massive 10th century Byzantine Greek historical encyclopædia of the ancient Mediterranean world. It is an encyclopædic lexicon with 30,000 entries, many drawing from ancient sources that have since been lost. The derivation is from the … More Esoterica
Now I am watching this 1940’s propaganda film for the internment camps in which we placed Japanese-Americans. I recommend it, as contains a great deal of information about camp conditions, which are quite gulag-esque despite all attempts at positive spin. It seems that the modern concentration camp was invented in the 1890’s. Spain had them … More Detention Camps
For the next few days, I will be located (when not in class) primarily at the New Orleans Jazzfest and the Festival International de Louisiane. For an approximate idea of what it will be like, I refer everyone to the videos on my entries in songs. In the meantime we will contemplate Velázquez’ Old Woman … More Festival Time
More poetically than I, Anne Waldman asks whether it is illuminating to think of poetry as a career, or in relation to careers. The connection to institutions. To commerce. The origin of the word career in chariot races. I would rather think of trajectories than races. Freeing the work from both competition and from establishmentarian … More Career Poets
These are some earlier notes on Anne Waldman’s Outrider and a few of my reasons for reading it. Continuing, I will excerpt from the second and third pieces in the book, and bold the phrases which most strike me. This reading is turning me slightly Buddhist. The term “OUTRIDER,” says Waldman, was adopted in part … More Anne Waldman
coldhearted scientist وداد 