“The Historiography of Cyberculture” in Critical Cyberculture Studies eds. David Silver and Adienne Massanari, 17-28. New York: NYU Press, 2006.
Carrie’s dad arrives in a few hours. I’m off to the Music Library for some good, wholesome fun with reference materials. Not enough time. I’m cleaning my office until Carrie comes to pick me up.
What am I talking about? Check this out — a new address: http://superbon.net or http://superbon.org.
I can’t decide which to make the actual address. I think I like .net, but then it’s already sterneworks.org. I so should not be spending time thinking about this.
I mostly did it because Wired told me to. No questions about jumping off bridges, please.
….for a conference called “Technologies of the Diva” next March, “Sex and the Sound Test: A Short History”
Get your mind out of the gutter. I meant secondary sexual characteristics, like pitch of voice. What did you think I was going to discuss?
Also, I wish to share this morning’s surprise. Upon a careful reading of Brian Massumi’s chapter “On the Superiority of the Analog” in Parables of the Virtual, I actually agree with him. Breaktime’s over; I must go write about it.
One of the great perks of being a prof at McGill is something called a P-Card. It is a credit card that bills directly to your research account. It is incredibly useful for buying stuff you need for your research and not having to wait for reimbursement. It’s no good for conference hotels or airline tickets, which is its main drawback (if having a credit card that bills directly to your research money can be said to have any drawbacks whatsoever).
As you can imagine, such a system is susceptible to abuse. There are routine audits (which happen to me every time I use paypal, for instance, which I guess is reasonable on their part) but every so often they eliminate a set of things from the “realm of the possible.” Today, we received one such email, which includes the following list of forbidden sites for P-Card transactions:
ACCESSORY AND APPAREL STORES MISCELLANEOUS
AMUSEMENT PARKS
AUTOMOBILE PARKING LOTS AND GARAGES
BARBER AND BEAUTY SHOPS
BILLIARD AND POOL ESTABLISHMENTS
BOWLING ALLEYS
BRIDGE AND ROAD FEES AND TOLLS
BUYING/SHOPPING CLUBS, SERVICES
CANDY, NUT, CONFECTIONERY STORES
CAR WASHES
CARD, GIFT, NOVELTY, AND SOUVENIR SHOPS
CHILD CARE SERVICES
CHILDREN’S AND INFANTS’ WEAR STORES
CHIROPODISTS, PODIATRISTS
CIGAR STORES AND STANDS
COSMETIC STORES
DEBT, MARRIAGE, PERSONAL COUNSELING SERVICE
DUTY FREE STORES
ELECTRIC RAZOR STORES SALES AND SERVICE
FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS MERCHANDISE AND SERVICES
HEALTH AND BEAUTY SPAS
INSURANCE SALES, UNDERWRITING, AND PREMIUMS
LEATHER GOODS AND LUGGAGE STORES
MARINAS, MARINE SERVICE/SUPPLIES
MOTION PICTURE THEATERS
NURSING AND PERSONAL CARE FACILITIES
PAWN SHOPS
RELIGIOUS GOODS STORES
SHOE STORES
STAMP AND COIN STORES PHILATELIC AND NUMISMATIC
TAX PREPARATION SERVICE
WIRE TRANSFER MONEY ORDERS (WTMOS)
WOMEN’S READY TO WEAR STORES
I guess that I’ll have to front the expenses for my ethnography of debt counselors and my cultural study of carwashes, and that project on the geohermeneutics of candy stores will just have to wait for another time. . . .
Axis of Evil Knievel has been reduced to a “this day in history” blog, but its catalog of horrors is really something to behold. I almost linked to a post last week. Today’s is too much not to share.
I know things have been quiet around here recently. Mostly, I’m hunkering down and working around here while we’re inbetween houseguests. I’ve got a pile of other people’s writing I’m working through today as I passively ponder how best to present the material in the chapter I’m currently revising/developing, which of the 1000 readings I want to include should be cut from my syllabus, and so on and so forth. I’ll think of something clever to post soon.
Wednesday’s conundrum was solved with an ambiguous title for my rountable “presentation”: “Love, Craft and Erudition in Sound Studies” because I’ve been thinking a lot about the stuff Charlie and I are back-and-forthing about in the comments to Wednesday’s post.
Love — because the best work always conveys the author’s passion for the subject matter, and no other motivation produces as strong work
Craft — because there must be some attention to how work is put together beyond slavish (and boring) devotion to “proper” method
Erudition — because I’m tired of reading books where the author didn’t bother to look in the bibliographies of the texts he or she cited, and therefore missed the most important parts of the literature from which s/he drew the argument
Bottom line is that it’s totally uncontroversial (who would disagree with this?) but it’s a start for a panel. I’ll think of something more contentious by March. . . .
I woke up this morning intending to write a little bit and catch up on a pile of things to read on my desk. I accomplished neither thing, instead cleaning out my inbox (which is good as a bunch of things had been waiting) and dealing with an avalanche of administrativa (ditto, though today had a few special treats) — it seems that if you are in admin, the semester is beginning. Or at least it is for me. At least I appear to still be on pace for textual production, though I feel a certain tender precariousness setting in as the university awakens from its slumber. I think that’s a mixed metaphor.
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Anyway, currently occupying my mind, apart from how best to explain compression for lay readers, is the fact that I have to write a short statement for an SCMS roundtable panel proposal on the future of sound studies. Now, I’m all for roundtables. They require less preparation than regular panels and they are usually great oppotunities to have smart people in conversation in a room. But I’m having trouble thinking about what it is I want for the future of sound studies. First, do I think it’s a field? No, not really. Second, do I think it should have a direction? No, because if people did what I told them to, then I’d probably be bored. (Not that there’s a chance of getting people to do what I tell them to.) Hmmmm. This kind of thing is supposed to be easy, right?
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Tonight begins a week of no guests in the apartment, before Carrie’s dad arrives to begin the final wave. It might just be weird to have nobody sleeping in the music room. Right now, we’re off for some good Mexican food with a couple friends in from out of town. . .
