Revisiting Wisely

You know when you buy an album because you really like the single that was released and then you find out that the rest of the songs aren't as gripping/iconic/wonderful?

Yeah. I feel that way about Wisely's self-titled album, but for whatever reason I'm giving the man (hereafter called Wisely since there doesn't seem to be a wikipedia article about his music- shocking! Does he really exist?) another chance. Plus Covenant would be analyzing his song "Cracked Worldview" all up and down. It helps that I just finished reading two chapters of Andy Crouch's book "Culture Making" and worldviews/mindscapes were discussed.
The world is not changed by analyzing alone; culture must be made. I like how Crouch emphasizes the practical over the theoretical but at the same time gives some theory as background for the more dealing-with-material-stuff measures he encourages.

Also, the lovely "Pam" (her name escapes me...oh...Jenna Fischer! yeah!) on The Office loves Wisely--and (sadly?) this is another reason why I bought this album.

If you have a minute you should look up "Through Any Window" from this album.


Oh, and I start learning to record for WKLT tomorrow! Yay!

DFW. Rest in peace.

“It’s weird to feel like you miss someone you’re not even sure you know” -- Mario Incandenza.


I'm fighting tears as I post this.
A couple of days ago I cried in my boyfriend's car after he'd driven me back from studying at his apartment. He's reading IJ too and so he understood.
He understood that it doesn't make sense to me to miss this author whom I've never met---I've only read one book of his (albeit the "masterpiece"), I feel almost like a fraud for having this sadness in the face of his friends, family, colleagues, and really devoted readers who have so much more cause for sadness than I do.

I still haven't posted the "what I've learned from IJ" piece that I (had been) working on. School interfered and I've been feeling my "infinite summer" moving away from me in that gradual way that waves slowly pull objects out to sea. You see it, you see it, you see it, and suddenly the bobbing object's become a bobbing speck out of sight.
That's what I don't want. I don't want those lessons to drift out of my consciousness.

I remember grieving over the Virginia Tech shootings 2 years ago, again feeling like it was not my place to grieve. My high school had lost an alumna, but I didn't know her. I'd transferred in as a senior that year and had no real emotional root to West Springfield.
Yet it hurt.
I'd written a poem and posted it on the memorial website---it's a magnetic poem.
Here it is:


I think those feelings still resonate with me w/r/t DFW.

Dave, thank you for your writing, your humor, the way you've made me consider my world differently. Thank you for your reminder that "this is water" and for your challenge to a graduating class to live a compassionate life that's extended to an audience far beyond that auditorium. Thank you for sharing your love of words, your struggles, and your kindness. Thank you for helping me forget how alone I really was this summer after the move; thank you for Infinite Jest and the real, beautiful, terrifying, eye-opening joy it was to read--the fact that James O. Incandenza's initals are JOI has never ceased to make me suspicious. Thank you for saturating that book with truth, for making it challenging, for making me think hard, for making me struggle with it. I don't know yet how exactly it will have changed me, but I know it has.

The Spanish medieval poets believed that there were three lives: the mortal, physical existence; the spiritual life of glory or fame; and the life eternal which occurred after death.
That second life of honor is not cut off at death; it last as long as the person is held in the memories of those left behind. One's glory can still burn brightly years and years after they themselves have withered away.
This is only the first anniversary, but I think DFW's second life is in no danger of flickering out.
No indeed.

Wallace-isms

Today in 20th Century History my prof said (in a transition):
"Anyway but so"
which is HIGHLY reminiscent of the "And but so's" from IJ.

It made me smile. At one point in the novel I was wondering if anyone really talks like that, and now I have additional Real Life verification.


Eventually I will publish my (currently unfinished) post about what I learned from my first reading of IJ, but other obligations (ie hundreds of pages of academic texts) have arisen.
Just to let you know I haven't forgotten.

Songs I fell in love with this summer.

Certainly going to play these on some show, sometime in the future:

Carina Round - Backseat
- a Brit with a lovely voice; this song is a departure from her other albums that have more of a Patti Smith feel. The sound of the song is Spektor-esque and the piano+choir is absolutely wonderful.

Arkells - John Lennon
- Canadians. Can't look at Canadians the same way since reading IJ but this song has 1. an infectious chorus, 2. John Lennon references, 3. sweet keyboards. YES.

Electric Owls - Magic Show
- Xylophone+ the use of the word "clairvoyant" in the first verse = love

Queen - Don't Stop Me Now
- Really, I blame the wedding music video on this one. Particularly the /"I'm a tiger"/ segment.

Nada Surf - If You Leave (OMD Cover)
- I love the original song because of Pretty in Pink; I love this song because of the laconic feel.

Fleet Foxes (all of their songs)
- After seeing them in concert, this feeling is completely justified.

Pete Yorn - Lose You, EZ
- So why did it take me this long to get into Pete Yorn? I like sad songs.

The Darkness - I Believe in a Thing Called Love
- And I missed this when it came out back in high school. The lead's falsetto makes me laugh.

The National - like, all of their songs, but especially The Geese of Beverly Road, Start a War, and City Middle
- As another music-lover once wrote, "The National is no secret."

The Flaming Lips - Do You Realize?? and Fight Test
- The first song is now the official rock song of Oklahoma (the Flaming Lips' home state) and the second is simply delicious.

MGMT - Electric Feel
- Ridiculous lyrics+dance music. ("/I said ooo girl/Touch me like an electric eel/")

Michael Jackson - Baby Be Mine
- Glad to have been a fan before he passed away this year, but I hadn't listened to the whole Thriller album (!! awful of me, yes).

Sufjan Stevens - To Be Alone with You
- Haunting, simple, beautiful.


As a side note, I definitely don't claim to be on the cutting edge of music. There's just too much out there to keep up with (for me, anyway). Nevertheless I love sharing the songs that I find or others sharing new/old music with me.
For instance, a friend of mine is now a fan of Death Cab for Cutie and Fleet Foxes (she came with me to the concert) thanks to some rather vigorous encouragement (me and another friend). We were absolutely shocked that she hadn't really listened to DCFC, not so much concerning Fleet Foxes.
But that has been remedied-- hurrah for friends who contribute to your musical education.

Very very close and EXPLODE!

I think I may have hit it-- the name I want to use for my radio show (I just typed "album"; just shows where my brain has been with this whole naming thing).

Eclecticity.

Yeah, that's right. Complete with a tagline similar to selected music+verse, conscientiously high-voltage.

It makes me seriously happy, so I think this may be the one.

I'm very excited to share fun.'s album on the show. Currently listening to "I Wanna Be the One" which seems appropriate considering my quest for a name.
A name is a name and is changeable (a good thing in this case).

I'm still undecided w/r/t renaming this blog; such decisions can be made at a later time.
It feels good (a relief, really) to have this figured out.

Name-calling

I'm having problems with name-calling.
*dun dun DUN*

Namely (haha), what to call my show. Owls on the Answering Machine makes for a wonderful blog name, but I don't know if it will be as effective for a radio show.
I have a massive .txt file in the works with some half-baked ideas (and plain atrocity committed against the English language) but none that have cried out to me "Yes. YES! Take me. I am the One."

In any case, I could always use simply "The Show" as a last resort. It would highly amuse me and lower everyone else's expectations so spectacularly that there would be nothing to worry about.
Hee.

VD12- Final

900 sometime yesterday, FINISHED today sometime before 4 pm.
I've heard it's not unusual to be reeling, staggering after you finish. I flipped the book to the beginning and re-read the "Year of Glad" sections...there's something sinister/mysterious going on. Man. It's so weird to go back to the beginning with "all I know now."

Anyway. Vocab...which feels almost pointless to do now that it's all over.
My infinite summer ended a week before my actual summer.

blesser: Fr. to hurt, offend (www.french.about.com)

topology: Topology (Greek Τοπολογία, from τόπος, “place”, and λόγος, “study”) is a major area of mathematics that has emerged through the development of concepts from geometry and set theory, such as those of space, dimension, shape, transformation and others. (wiki)

phocomelic: the congenital absence or abnormal shortening of arms or legs, often with only short, flipperlike limbs projecting from the body (yourdictionary.com)

achondroplastic: achondroplasia - an inherited skeletal disorder beginning before birth; cartilage is converted to bone resulting in dwarfism (Princeton Word Net)

Zog: i.e., ZOG, for Zionist Occupation Government, the acronym coined by American neo-Nazi Eric Thomson (wallacewiki)

The Turner Diaries: Written by William Luther Pierce III (1933-2002), this is a neo-Nazi novel once called the "blueprint" for the Oklahoma City bombing. (wallacewiki)

sinsemilla: cultivated high potency marijuana (wallacewiki)

strabysmic: strabismus - abnormal alignment of one or both eyes (PWN)

prophylaxis: the prevention of disease (PWN)

hemoptypsis: coughing up blood from the respiratory tract; usually indicates a severe infection of the bronchi or lungs (PWN)

pertussive: pertussis- whooping cough: a disease of the respiratory mucous membrane (PWN)

ghost word: A ghost word is a word that has been published in a dictionary, or has been adopted as genuine, as the result of misinterpretation or a typographical error. (wiki)

shillelagh: a cudgel made of hardwood (usually oak or blackthorn) (PWN)

fillip: A flick; the act of releasing the index finger from the hold of a thumb with a snap; Something that excites or stimulates (wiki)

ICBM: intercontinental ballistic missile: a ballistic missile that is capable of traveling from one continent to another (PWN)

imprimatur: An official license to publish or print something, especially when censorship applies; Any mark of official approval (wiki_=)

catadioptric: A catadioptric optical system is one where lenses and curved mirrors are used to form the Image-forming optical system. Catadioptric systems are commonly used in telescopes and in lightweight, long focal length lenses for cameras, where the term mirror lens is often used for them. (wiki)

sinciput: the front part of the head or skull (including the forehead) (PWN)

étagère: a piece of furniture with open shelves for displaying small ornaments (PWN)

delfts: a style of glazed earthenware; usually white with blue decoration (PWN)

kyphotic: crookback/hunchback- characteristic of or suffering from kyphosis, an abnormality of the vertebral column (PWN)

gerontologic: gerontology- the comprehensive study of aging and the problems of the aged (www.merriam-webster.com)

koans: koan - a paradoxical anecdote or a riddle that has no solution; used in Zen Buddhism to show the inadequacy of logical reasoning (PWN)

antigens: any substance (as a toxin or enzyme) that stimulates an immune response in the body (especially the production of antibodies) (PWN)

piaffer: A dressage movement in which a horse trots in a stationary position while using high lifting of the legs (wiki)

Fourier Transforms: In mathematics, the Fourier transform (often abbreviated FT) is an operation that transforms one complex-valued function of a real variable into another. In such applications as signal processing, the domain of the original function is typically time and is accordingly called the time domain. That of the new function is frequency, and so the Fourier transform is often called the frequency domain representation of the original function. It describes which frequencies are present in the original function. (wiki)

mufti: civilian dress worn by a person who is entitled to wear a military uniform (PWN)

and finally

fuliginous: Pertaining to soot; sooty; dusky, gloomy (wiki)