Vacation in California

Packing B and M's house, impending flooring.
Church anthem.
Jamming on a borrowed bass (Autumn Leaves sounded pretty good, but as to the rest, I have much work to do).
Falafel Drive-In.
Congreve's The Way of the World.
Life Birds and Parks.
Mountains and Lava Rocks.
Lots of talk about Business Time.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival (The Music Man, Equivocation [Aye! How do you learn all of those lines?], Macbeth, Dead Man's Cell Phone, and Death and the King's Horseman).
Bed and Breakfast, stress on the breakfast.
Star Trek and Woodpecker Movies.
Jen' Garden and Dragonfly (restaurants).
Bend, OR.
The Ellis Motel, whoo!
iPod Funk-competition on the drive home.
Great Friends who are more like Family!!

Way Too Hard

After 12 and a half years, Ivy the Cat (or as Apple branded her - iCat) is no longer with us. She had a progressively worsening heart disease that took the fun out of her and of all of her favorite things. [I hate writing this, just for the record.] It was the hardest decision of our lives, and we are still mighty miserable. She gave us a lot of joy and companionship, and we miss her more than words can express. They say that time heals and that it gets easier. Well, the 'easier' had better hurry up, because this part is terrible.

Historians, Some Quotations, and Disaster Recovery

Haven't blogged in a while... so this is one of those 'catch-up' streams.

At the end of February, I went to THE Ohio State University to attend a conference in honor of my dissertation advisor. It was wonderful seeing so much of the Illinois gang as well as meeting up with the students from the other schools. On the first day, I felt like an alien anthropologist dropped into a village I had studied 20 years before. I spoke the language, knew many of the customs and stories, and, yet, retained a bit of scientific distance. My 'otherness' reappeared every time I was asked 'So, where are you now?,' which, translated from the native language, means 'What university or college do you teach at these days?' I always had to answer 'None. I am in industry,' which, translated, means, 'I never got a teaching position and had to learn how to do something else.'

My distance faded because of two events. One, NGP asked me to read (at his banquet) a poem I composed in 1993, on his move from Illinois to Yale, entitled 'Ode On A Cattle Prod.' It meant a great deal to me that he has kept it and the working cattle prod that came along with the poem. Two, I was invited to resurrect some of my research and try to submit an article for the book that will come out of this conference. At the moment of this second event, all of my old academic desires and inadequacies came flooding back. We shall see if I can write something acceptable.

Moving on, I tend not to gravitate to New Age-y stuff, but Eckhart Tolle said something (in a PBS program I flipped through last weekend) that makes a little sense. 'All we have is the NOW. The past is a story, and the future hasn't happened yet.' Pretty simple, but it struck a chord. Second quotation (or paraphrase by now), on a History channel documentary about Einstein, one of the professors commented that 'The nature of genius is having the will to make all of the mistakes necessary to get to the success.'

Finally, we had our one of the two annual Disaster Recovery tests at the beginning of this week. At this event, we try to rebuild the company's data center from backup tapes and documentation. That accounts for some of the sleepiness I can't seem to shake.

Now, back to work...

El Capitan, Tennis, and Concerns

Epiphone makes an acoustic bass guitar they call 'El Capitan.' I know because El Capitan calls me from my guest room even now, 'Senor Rick, come and play.'

Anyway, we shall see how it goes. I have started to contact some recommended teachers as well as finding some cool bass tutorial web sites.

It is like tennis to me, only later. I was (am) an intellectual-type (read: dork or geek, if you prefer), so I never really gravitated to 'activities', per se. I picked up tennis in junior high despite lack of training, and, eventually, came to enjoy it. Now it is a skill I assume as part of my personality. It is part of who I am.

Can bass become the same? My concern is that it is late in life to start something as complex and... well, as big as playing a musical instrument. But singing bass for years has tuned me to hear bass. I hear the lines under every tune. I remember where I was when I first heard Alanis Morissette's 'You Oughta Know' where Flea kicks in. [Bass geeks know what I am talking about.] I bought Best of Parliament to listen to Bootsy. Seriously.

But, do I have time? This is the concern. Quakers (e.g. Thomas Kelly) have a more nuanced definition of the term 'concern' - something like a calling from God to ponder and skillfully act. Playing the bass is NOT a concern like that, but becoming overloaded with numerous good activities could be. I have experienced ebbs and flows of involvement in the past, first too much and then too little. Back and forth. Adding bass around the same time as I have joined the Board of the local theatre group, contemplated writing a 3-4 person play, and offered to teach church classes again... this all sounds like a recipe for overcommitment and burnout. Ebb and flow.

So, my current strategy is to try to use my time more efficiently and pay attention to my stress levels. When danger is detected, then I will have to start throwing ballast overboard rather than rearranging the deck chairs.

Gotta go. El Capitan and snow shoveling call (not necessarily in that order).

Vitus and Blogging

Watched a Swiss-German film last night, Vitus. Basic story is a young piano prodigy and all-around genius has to find his way. He has the overbearing support of his mother and the loose, supportive freedom of a Yoda-like grandfather. Tempting morsels include: an interest in bats, insider trading in the stock market, a professional flight simulator, possible brain damage, a babysitter who is the love of his life (at the age of 12), a leaky roof, the Rolls-Royce of hearing aids, and tons of excellent Classical piano music. Subtitled. Highly recommended.

The film raises the excellent question of 'why do you do what you do?' In conversations with S this morning, we agreed that this life seems, on some level, to have 'ended up' here without much piloting. I added that the results are so good that it might be counterproductive to take the wheel at this time. What does that say? It begs the question of what you want and what you desire and what you enjoy (back to Zizek and Lacan, to an extent). In the film, Vitus must break away from playing to piano for his mother's reasons and find his own reasons. We all carry baggage from the early years. But what have we settled on enjoying?

For example, if we are to anatomize my history a bit, I started in grad school not because I loved Henrician England or the Renaissance, but because I had a good undergrad teacher and wanted to teach. Grad school allowed me to do that a little, but required me to divert a lot of energy trying to be good at something that I turned out not to be good at, research in a foreign language. Teaching was my oasis, and the archives were my burden. I can say that now. I slogged through because I am also somewhat OCD about completing things.

So, I did not find a history teaching job. Let's not go into the reasons, because it doesn't matter now. Anyway, I gravitated to a job teaching computers, not because I was particularly adept with the things, but because it gave me the chance to teach for 6-8 hours per day, 50 weeks a year, for 10 years. And I grew. And I learned. And I evolved into that shape, the shape of a teaching person.

So, that company ended, and I got a job as a DBA. Being a trained communicator in the IT field helps differentiate you, BTW, so I rose in the pay grades and the titles. I became a manager and am one today. I work. I enjoy it some days, and not other days, but I always take it seriously (perhaps too much on some days).

But, where did the teaching go? In most conversations, I have said that the end of my dissertation process was the cutting of the anchor-line causing me to drift. That may not be true. Rather, the end of my teaching job may more accurately be the beginning of my fade. My ups and downs have become more pronounced since I don't have the teaching outlet for my pent-up teacher-nature.

So, what to do now? Teach at night? Become a certified tennis trainer? Teach a church class or two? Learn something new that I can then teach to others? What would that be? As I come to recognize myself better (blogging is part of that discernment process), perhaps I will better be able to target the next step in my evolution, rather than letting the pilotless boat keep going where it will.

Zizek and The Thin Man

Ten years later, I learned that Lacan's claim to fame is applying Freud to language-constructs as an extension of psychoanalysis. I knew he had a Freud-thing, but this book on Zizek really flipped the switch. I kind of think Lacan is still convoluted and self-indulgent (rather than informative), but he his method does SEEM clearer.

William Powell and Myrna Loy in The Thin Man are fabulous. How can a movie from 1934 (other than It Happened One Night) be so fantastically prescient of the dialogue that we all wish we could have? Highly recommended as a period piece as well as a ground-breaker in the ways of banter and dialogue.

Enchanted, the Ottoman Empire, Anna Faris and Charlie Kaufman

Movies:
Enchanted. I was. Really good to see the Shrek-take on classic stories being brought to live action. Amy Adams presents the perfect balance of smart and starry-eyed. Patrick Dempsey started a bit stiff, but became more likable as the story continued and he softened. Highly recommended. I might even purchase this one to have it at my fingertips.
House Bunny. Wow. After Smiley Face, I wanted to believe that it was the material, and not the actress (Anna Faris). With material and evidence piling up, I am coming to the conclusion that Ms. Faris only has one note, and an agent that helps her pick the absolutely worst screenplays. Do not waste the 1.5 hours on this movie. Sorry. I did. Consider it my effort to protect you.
Adaptation. On the other hand, this is one of the best screenplays alive today, and Nicholas Cage's most nuanced role,... maybe ever. I am a Charlie Kaufman fan anyway, but Adaptation presents a wonderful study of making something out of nothing, something with depth and meaning (as opposed to the Seinfeldian circle back to set the world back to zero). This film and screenplay merits revisiting and rethinking numerous times. And it can stand up to such a focused attention, unlike so much else coming out of Hollywood. Become a Charlie Kaufman fan.
So.
The Ottoman Empire. I am thinking about constructing two church classes. The first would be called something like "Rome and Jerusalem" and consist of 3 sections of 3 classes each - 3 on the history of the Roman Republic and Empire up to the birth of Jesus, 3 on the history of Judea and the Jewish religion up to the birth of Jesus, and the final 3 of the intersection of Roman and Jewish power and religious tensions around the time of Jesus. I know that is a lot of material to fit into 9 weeks, but the high level would be sufficient for the first pass. At this time, we need to set a stage for deeper dives in our church education, so this is a beginning, not a graduate seminar.
The second class would be more related to the Ottoman Empire. I would want to structure something in the arena of post-Jesus Mediterranean World and the Middle East with an eye to the interaction of politics and religion. This class would also be a light touch, a setting of the stage, a presentation of basics to identify the holes in knowledge and the resonances of pertinence. Early Christian community evolution, the Councils, the Eastern and Western Roman Empires, the rise of Islam, the Crusades, the Renaissance and Reformation in the shadow of the Turkish East. I would probably stop with the Reformation. I have already taught that class in some detail a few years ago.
But this sets the stage for some more detailed discussions of Islam and the subtle and delicate (im)balances in the Middle East and Mediterranean World today.
Comments? Recommended books? Topics not to forget?