Complaints Department

They’re doing road construction outside my office at school, which means that I’ve had to take several meetings somewhere else or endure the sound of one of those giant hammer things. Well, now they’re ripping up the street right in front of our place, which is not only insanely loud, but when they hit the street just right, our place shakes just a little. Carrie said it started yesterday afternoon and that she couldn’t get any writing done because of it. I would have been impressed had she could.

I think we’ll be spending the day out and about, but I also take this as some kind of sign regarding that vacation I was thinking of taking before the first day of school. . . .

New Text

“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.

Also, I’m back on track with titles

….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.

New Rules

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. . . .

Placeholder

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. . . .