Morning
Listened to Living with War a couple of times, and started to think it was time to violate my personal ban against large stadium tours. It’s been a long time since I stood in the middle of a lot of voices, and the tour is supposed to hit Minneapolis in July. I wonder what a hundred voices singing “This Land is Your Land” would sound like instead of “America the Beautiful”?
I hate deadlines. There are a bunch of them just now.
Essential
Perhaps due to many suggestions that blogs are essential to a good career, I have found myself unable to write much of anything online. It’s a weird personal tic, I suppose—the moment that someone tells me that something is good for me I don’t want to do it anymore. Especially when it is filled with constraints:
But pick your topics carefully and have a purpose. ''The most interesting blogs are focused and have a certain attitude," says van Allen. ''You need to have a guiding philosophy that you stick to. You cannot one minute pontificate on large issues of the world and the next minute be like, 'My dog died.' "
In that spirit, I find it essential to itemize my day yesterday:
- Attended a committee meeting where I inadvertently committed to producing even more photographs than I had previously agreed to in the service of department publicity
- Taught a class in technical writing, and then ate a burrito
- Wandered along the Mississippi River in search of pictures, but they were hiding from me
- Arrived at a lecture hall on the other campus to see Salman Rushdie speak and spied something on the backside of the building worth investigating—there were a few pictures hiding there
- Laughed uproariously during the lecture, particularly at the mental image of Rushdie in red flare corduroy trousers with a purple shirt, long hair, and a Zappa moustache
- Favorite lines: “Democracy is not a tea party, it is an argument.” and “Realism is not a set of rules, it is a process.”
- Ate nachos and went to see two bands—liked the local trio, Gay Beast but wasn’t crazy about the visitors from Boston, Neptune
- Arrived home in time to see Dolly Parton doing “Me and Bobby McGee” on television
April 20, 2006 1:25 PM | Comments (1)
Leafy
Things are getting leafy
I’ve had more than a small case of spring fever. There are so many things to write out these days, but I can’t seem to sustain a thought. I keep thinking that I’ll try writing in smaller doses, but really I’m thinking in pictures. It’s kind of dangerous now, since I’m supposed to be in the word business.
Breaking the Ice
The ice has pretty much disappeared now
Resting
There was an odd moment during the trek across Wisconsin last week. I’ve been known to photograph restrooms because I find their oddball décor strangely compelling. I was exploring this example, which featured an odd deer hunting motif in carefully detailed porcelain tiles ringing the room at eye level. It was really striking in its position just above the urinal (where you usually find graffiti or advertising billboards) but I couldn’t find a good point of view to photograph it there. I settled for this more complex construction.
Just after I finished taking the photograph, a guy walked in. I think he suspected that something perverse was afoot. In a bizarre coincidence, when I stopped another sixty or so miles down the highway at a rest stop, the same man pulled up beside me. He walked away quickly, as if he thought I was stalking him. Strange.
I remembered all this when I stumbled on this article ranking local restrooms. I’ve only visited one of the landmarks mentioned—the Turf Club. I’ll have to file the rest.
