The last week of my life was consumed with the International Communication Association conference here and a variety of activities related to it. The climax of it all was a massive blowout party at our place on Saturday night. The guestlist was a little erratic. We missed a couple people we wanted to invite (especially …
Category Archives: Text
Abortion Politics in Canada
My neighbor sent me a link to a petition, which I’m passing on to my Canadian readers: Stop Bill C-484. Called the “Unborn Victims of Crime Act,” it allows charges to be laid in certain cases where a fetus dies. While it’s expressed purpose is law-and-order politics, it also opens the legal door for anti-abortion …
Grad Students: Record Your Meetings With Your Profs
I know the headline sound paranoid, but it’s not. Just think about it. You’ve written a chapter of your dissertation, a seminar paper, whatever. You go in and meet with your prof for an hour or more and have a great discussion about it. You take some notes. You’re excited. You get busy. You leave …
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This is exactly what’s wrong with theories of leisure time
Sivacracy links to a speech by Clay Shirky about “cognitive surplus” which epitomizes the problem with how people think about leisure. They think that the best way to understand leisure is through its generation of things that are useful. Indeed, the whole essay uses an economic metaphor “cognitive surplus” to describe what people have when …
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TA Strike Exchange
If my count is right, the McGill TA strike is in its 6th week. When the strike started, the bargaining went on more or less in secret in mediated negotiations. Now, the debate is getting more and more public. Today, McGill Provost Anthony Masi sent AGSEM an open letter. AGSEM responded with an open letter …
And Now a Few Words on Dub and Lawns
An offhand comment in Joel Schalit’s blog entry led me to check out the work of Scientist. “Scientist Rids the World of the Curse of the Vampires” is an amazing album. Black Uhuru was my favorite reggae act back in the day, and actually my first exposure to dub before I knew it was a …
I didn’t know you could do that in Musicology
In all the commotion around here I haven’t had much of a chance to say anything about my trip, which was delightful. My tour of Europe (okay, the UK and the Netherlands) was one of the most intellectually rewarding experiences of my life. Partly, it was the timing. In the last 3 weeks of April …
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