Killing Time
So, what have I been up to? Well, let's see. I read a few good books, including:
- Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea by Carl Zimmer
- The Adventure of English: The Biography of A Language by Melvyn Bragg
- Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism by Susan Jacoby
- The Age of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby
- Founding Faith: Providence, Politics, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America by Steven Waldman
- Mistakes Were Made (but not by me) by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson
In that order. I'm currently reading Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin. Next up is The Story of English by Robert McCrum, Robert MacNeil, and William Cran.
Also, I've been downloading a lot of music from Beatport, mostly Electro House. Here are some of my favorite tracks at the moment, in no particular order:
Also, I've been downloading a lot of music from Beatport, mostly Electro House. Here are some of my favorite tracks at the moment, in no particular order:
- "Everything in America" (Luki remix) by Ryan Riback
- "Stars" (JELO remix) by Dylan Rhymes and Blende
- "Explicit" by Montero
- "Cream Royale" by Morfeen
- "Implant" by Speculum
- "Bad Fever" by Alex Dias
- "Substation" (Ahmet Sendil remix) by Nihat Karadeniz
- "Come To Me" by Adam K
- "Hearing Test" by Stafford Brothers
- "Dance Machine" by Digital Freq
- "Stomped" by Redux
- "Gutter Music" by Hatiras
- "It Doesn't Matter" (En Masse remix) by Ninfa
- "Control" (Toygun remix) by Homm and Popoviciu
Eight years of spinning vinyl and I've finally decided to go digital. The 1200s are collecting dust. It's a damn shame. For now I'm using MixMeister to hold me over until I can get my hands on the new VCI-100 by Vestax, bundled with the latest version of Traktor by Native Instruments. That should be enough to get me started.
In other news, I recently applied to a teacher certification program at a nearby state university and was accepted. I'll have more to say about that some other time. I'm off to get some beer.
In other news, I recently applied to a teacher certification program at a nearby state university and was accepted. I'll have more to say about that some other time. I'm off to get some beer.
4 comments:
What was your take on Jacoby's book? The excerpt I read was more like a diatribe against new media and an indictment of "kids these days" than a reasoned critique of American anti-intellecualism, and a few reviews I've read said that the whole book kind of comes off that way.
I assume you mean Age of American Unreason. Parts of it irked me. I'm on my fourth beer and it's a bit late, so I'll have to get back to you on that.
Currently listening to "Rock Me" by Alex Armes. I should have included it on my little chart.
Good to hear from you, by the way.
Likewise.
And yes, I did mean Age of American Unreason. That she had another on the list somehow passed me by entirely.
I haven't read any reviews of Age of American Unreason and I'm guessing the excerpt you read was from the chapter about what she calls the "culture of distraction". That one bugged me the most. Jacoby does indeed come off as something of a Luddite, despite her anticipation of being labeled as such. I'm not going to defend television programs for toddlers or student papers that read like text messages, but in my not-so-humble opinion she's just plain wrong about blogs, email, and the internet in general. She doesn't care much for video games either.
In addition to her complaints about "kids these days" you'll find her pining away for those illusory "good old days".
That said, it has some redeeming qualities. For instance, her criticisms of what she calls "junk thought" are pretty much spot on, and her distinction between anti-intellectualism and anti-rationalism is useful, but I suspect you won't find anything new there.
Also, I wouldn't recommend reading Freethinkers and Age of American Unreason back-to-back. The first hundred pages or so of the latter will have you waiting for Jacoby to say something she hasn't already said. It seems as if whole passages of the former were lifted and reprinted verbatim, though I haven't done a line-by-line comparison. No thanks. I already feel like I've read Freethinkers twice now, and enjoyed reading it the first time more than I did Age of American Unreason. I guess you could say I was a bit disappointed.
How's that for a disjointed mini-review?
Maybe I should have just said that I read some books instead of saying that I read some good books, and left it at that.
Founding Faith by Steven Waldman was alright, but he made a huge mistake right in the middle of it. Get a load of this. He quote-mines Thomas Jefferson. The passage just happens to contain the words "intelligent" and "design". Waldman boldly declares, "Yes, Thomas Jefferson - hero of modern liberals - believed in intelligent design." But a mere two pages before that Waldman criticized a rather different understanding of Jefferson by saying, "This is another case in which today's activists and scholars, by applying the standards and definitions of our time, misunderstand the ideas of a Founding Father." I had to put that book down for awhile.
Post a Comment