…is probably my favorite image transformation that you can view here.

This entry is a list of books I gleaned from the catalogs at MLA 2004. Some might help me with my own research, some might be good for teaching, and some just sound interesting.

This one is at the top of my list, at the moment: Regimes of Description: In the Archive of the Eighteenth Century, edited by John Bender and Michael Marrinan (Stanford UP, 2005). The publisher’s blurb reads, “Regimes of Description responds to the perceptionóhowever impreciseóthat forms of knowledge in every sector of contemporary culture are being fundamentally reshaped by the digital revolution.”

Continue reading →

I’ve noticed that various blog award competitions are underway, and I have to admit that I haven’t paid close enough attention to understand how these awards are decided. However, I have been thinking about what kinds of criteria one might use to judge good and bad blogging.

During this conversation, I said that one of the key characteristics of a blog is that it is vulnerable to the textual intervention of others. If what you write online is not, then you’re not really writing a blog. You might be an amusing columnist using blog software, but you’re not a blogger. You might be a talented essayist using blog software, but you’re not a blogger. And while I am on this particular soapbox…

• If you don’t allow comments and trackbacks, then you’re not a very good blogger. (Restating the above point.)
• If you (like me) don’t interact much with the people who leave comments on your site, then you’re not a very good blogger.
• If you (like me) don’t leave a great many comments on other people’s blogs, then you’re not a very good blogger.
• If you don’t rely for rhetorical or stylistic punch now and then on the surprise waiting at the other end of an otherwise innocent looking hyperlink, then you’re not a very good blogger. Hypertext != print.

Being a good writer is not necessarily the same thing as being a good blogger, although the two categories are not mutually exlusive.

Neko Case, “I Wish I Was the Moon Tonight” (mp3, 4M) from Blacklisted

• Look for these albums
  • The Tigers Have Spoken (two mp3s, “If You Knew” and “Train from Kansas City,” available as free downloads from record label.)
  • Blacklisted (RealMedia file: “Things That Scare Me Not“)
  • Furnace Room Lullaby (RealMedia file: “Mood to Burn Bridges“)
  • The Virginian (RealMedia file: “Karoline“)
• Music preview of Blacklisted at Salon.com
• Review of Furnace Room Lullaby at Salon.com
• Official website (no, really)
• Relevant page at the company that represents her (includes upcoming tour dates)
• Allmusic entry
• Here’s an iTunes list of Case music.

MP3 files are posted for evaluation purposes only. Availability is limited: usually 24 hours. Through this site, I’m trying to share and promote good music with others, who will also hopefully continue to support these artists. Everyone is encouraged to purchase music and concert tickets for the artists you feel merit your hard earned dollars. If you hold copyright to one of these songs and would like the file removed, please let me know.

There’s a stack of books by the bed that I’ll be tackling as my late-night reading this semester, starting with…

Whitney Terrell, The Huntsman
Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran
Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex: A Novel
Chang Rae Lee, Aloft
Donna Tartt, The Secret History