the energy to sustain the academic life.
In the past few days - I have been overly indulgent and completely resigned to social (and liquid) distractions. It's such an easy trap to fall into. My discipline, the moment I handed over (more handed over than handed in) my thesis seemed to vanish and the past week, for all intents and academic purposes, did not exist. I apologize because my blog (which is usually just gossipy day by day stuff anyway) has really been void of meaningful content lately. Well, that's going to change - as sort of a challenge to myself and everyone else - not to let the consuming end-of-the-year push really wear us down too much.
I was watching something on TV over spring break, something I did a lot of during spring break - about the Playboy Mansion, in a tasteful pseudo-documentary way on my favorite channel, A&E. Well, apparently Hugh Heffner is a huge movie buff. In the mansion he has a movie theater and on Friday nights, invites various acquaintances and celebrities and his many girlfriends to screen films. He gives a detailed 30 min lecture before the film, talking about production anecdotes and random factoids. After the group watches the film, they recline on velvet couches, sip cognac, and discuss the film. Granted my version of this ritual might be a little different, but I wouldn't mind being part of a society like this - or a book club for that matter, a variation on the same theme. But I guess I just have realized lately how much energy it really takes to sustain academic life / or at least continually introducing yourself to new ideas and areas of study... it's easy to be complacent, or just watch movies on HBO all the time - that's all I seem to do when I go home for break. I have been thinking about what I want to get out of this summer - I'm trying to build a library of illegally copied Chinese films (with Chinese films, is there really any other way?) and I also want to do a significant amount of reading into aspects of new media / media studies, in preparation for (or in determining if I want to go to) graduate school. In my architecture class, I had the thought yesterday that I also wouldn't mind reading a biography of Louis Kahn and Frank Lloyd Wright. I guess I just know how easy it is to fall into a superficial routine of drinking margaritas in the City - maybe it's time to take the bull by the horns and keep the mind active. It's just a passing thought today, in an isolated moment of good intention. I guess in terms of what the post-college life holds, so much of it will be determined by what I force myself to do... no one (like the sage Tom Moran) will force me to watch a new film and talk about it. And we all know how easy it is to use being busy as an excuse to loaf around and do nothing of value and get caught up in the montony of routines. People who know me well, already know that my passions are intense and fleeting - I go through phases (like the current Chinese Cinema / Architecture phases) where I commit myself to a topic or a kind of music or what have you, for about 6 months and then I move on. I just wonder how that is going to continue when I am not in school. I am sure I'll be prone to whimsy and just as likely to run away from committing to a single
thing , but I am curious how not being in school will effect that. Only time will tell.
Well, I am getting my discipline and scholarly groove back... and content and more worthwhile postings to come, I promise, as much water as my fleeting word holds.
posted by lmjasinski at 2:19 PM
