Atheistic Drinks at Lunch on Campus

So I was speaking on the phone with a friend last night who has just moved from Canada to take an academic job in the U.S. So I did to her what all the Canadians did to me when we arrived here. “So? What’s it like? What are the differences? Have you considered starting a blog?” I asked. She mentioned three things that are immediately obvious but that I’d already forgotten:

1. American undergradaute students are much more likely to be religious.

2. You can’t get a drink anywhere on campus.

3. Everyone eats lunch at their desks.

These three items are probably related [cough]PURITANISM[/cough] but let me focus on #2.

Before moving to McGill, I had only even heard of one campus where it would be possible to get a drink. That was the bar at UW-Madison, which was both quirky (ooo! a bar on campus!) and legendary. Now, perhaps as a faculty member I should have been able to get a drink at a faculty club. But if the University of Pittsburgh had a faculty club, I never saw it. And the faculty club at the University of Minnesota, where I once dined with a prof, didn’t seem to have any alcohol.

Of course, at McGill faculty members have the choice of the faculty club and Thomson House, both of which are regularly used following talks. Though I choose Thomson House whenever possible. I’d never even heard of a graduate student union before coming here. It’s a great idea. And though I drink very little, there is some deep comment about the sociability of academic life both here and “back home down south.” I didn’t think of academic life as not sociable in the U.S. until I moved here. . . . Though to be fair, it varies by institution and location. The lunch thing, meanwhile speaks of an orientation toward work in general, which is still very much in me even though I relish the sociability of McGill’s culture. I still tend to view lunch as a meal that interferes with the workday. So I eat it at my desk. Goddamned Protestant Ethic.

“Everything by Rage Against the Machine”

was the title of an essay I never wrote about Clear Channel’s banned songs list after 9/11/2001. That phrase appeared in a list of songs that were not to be played on Clear Channel stations. Rage was the only band to be completely banned. Though I imagine there wasn’t a lot of Jefferson Airplane or Led Zeppelin on the air in those early weeks either.

I don’t quite remember the premise of the essay (beyond the usual decrying of Clear Channel’s control over public discourse in the U.S.) but it was probably something about the fantasies that media institutions held regarding their own affective power in that particular moment. The “new seriousness” that lasted for all of — what — two weeks? I was thrilled when that was over.

“Everything by Rage Against the Machine” was also the title of a bittorrent file I downloaded last night after posting that I liked them better than Audioslave.

One reminds me of the other. Wicked bass sound on the Ghost of Tome Jode, though.

A Few Words on Apple and Fiction

Blogsurfing led me to a post by “HCI User Advocate” about his private hell in switching from Windows to Mac. Then today I learned that you can finally buy microphone attachments for 5th generation iPods. Time for an entry about Apple. When the battery died on my old 3rd generation model, I went ahead and bought a new one because Apple promised decent-quality recording, which would be great for interviewing people. Except that neither Apple nor any third party vendor produced a microphone attachment for 5th generation iPods that would allow you to voice record. Now, well over a year since the “new” video iPods have been out and advertised with recording capability, you can–I’m told–finally record on one.

After switching back and forth I am a dedicated Mac user, mostly for the pleasing interface and for the fact that Macs are less likely to get viruses. You don’t need a lot of tools to be a professor, but a computer is one you can’t live without. But I’ve also been repeatedly burned by the company, and a quick scan of Apple’s own user fora reveals that there are plenty of users who have had similar experiences. Most scandalous is when Apple clearly knows about a defect but officially denies its existence. If that weren’t enough, a recent Greenpeace report ranked Apple pretty low on the scale of environmental performance for computer companies. Granted, the survey was pretty limited, but still.

All this is to say it’s important not to confuse a series of slick advertising campaigns, clever lifestyle marketing and oceans of white plastic with terms like “clean” or “ethical.”

Satisfaction

–A good seminar. I taught a formalist text, old school humanities style. Lots of student participation and good conversation.

–Drink with students after class at Thomson House. I love Thomson House. It’s so much cooler than the faculty club.

–Burrito Nite ][. We tend to make a big batch of something on Sunday so it can be reheated during the week. This week: burrito fixings, and some mole sauce we found in the freezer from July. Instant tastiness.

–Sitting and watching football with two cats sitting on me.

—

The new TV season is coming out and I’m paying attention. A little free time and I might even blog about it.

Carrie noticed in the Sunday NYTimes that there was a new Audioslave album out and always being on the lookout for new opportunities to rock, expressed interest. So I downloaded it. Bland. Very bland. I liked Soundgarden. I liked Rage Against the Machine. Audioslave? I’m bored.

My Soundbite

I’ve already had two calls from reporters today asking about the impact of cellphones, blogging, wikis, etc. on the shooting and the events surrounding it. After supplying the real answer, which elicits a “yeah but” from the reporter, I supply what I imagine are the usual answers for someone in my position, with whatever critical spin is possible. My real answer goes something like this:

The most important technology to consider in assessing what happened yesterday was the gun. Everything else pales in comparison.