Burdens of the Academic Soul
Now that I've hooked myself up (temporarily to my office connection) I have a few minutes to reconnect with the vestiges of my old life... for the time being, I can at least explore the health plans, set up my banking, and other things made exponetially easier through the Internet. I've already had a very long two day week and have officially begun the process of becoming a teacher. The first few days show limited promise. Granted I should have expected this - but boy I miss Middlebury. The quality of student (even at the graduate level) is very different here at a giant public university and I really miss the norms of life in either New England or city life that seems to move at a genius pace. I literally have a dozen books on my desk to supposedly make the teaching process easier, but I feel like it could be trimmed down into one very helpful volume instead of 12 heavy and long-winded books. The meetings aren't bad by design, per se, but there is a tendency to include way too many personal anecdotes and opinions. Whoever said "too many cooks spoil the soup" obviously sat through Com Arts 100 training, learning the hard way that "too many grad students spoil the entire day."
I feel like the film niche of Communication Arts is a rebel troupe compared to the other camps of rhetoric, speech, and cultural studies people. Every time I interact with other Com Arts people, I think my decision to go for film (rather than some other discipline) is reinforced. I am also relieved that Eric and I can go through this together... had he not been here and there to complain about everyone else with, I might have bolted for home by now. I am still amazed how talking about mutual distaste for others can be such a bonding opportunity. Thankfully, he shares my love for beer and reality television.
In unrelated news, I'm still searching for the best ice cream cone in town. Soft-serve is hard to find around here and "sprinkles" are an endangered breed. I have however found great quick asian-inspired dishes and tonight had a rocking $5 burrito.
Reflecting back and trying to put most of the teacher-training-misery out my head for the night, I'd say that the weekend was, in a word, wonderful. I felt really at home here. While I was walking home on Saturday, in a stroke of small world fate, Jeremy Holiday and his girlfriend drove past me. A few emails and phone messages later, I was sitting in an outdoor Nepali restaurant catching-up with long-lost colleague and feeling like I was already established in a familiar small town. Jeremy is working on an organic farm (and selling potatoes and onions at the Farmer's Market) just outside of Madison and living in a barn on the premises. It was very insightful to hear about the real politics of organic farming. In order to break even or pull in a marginal profit, Jeremy said that the farmer he works for completely exploits any generally agreed upon (nevermind legal or decent) labor standards. This is especially ironic because those who consume organic veggies tend to be the most pro-union and left of the veggie-minded community. Nevertheless, it was great to see Jeremy and he was tan from a summer in the fields.
After dinner we walked up State Street, eventually ending at a Macaroni-and-Cheese orange colored house that serves as the "Open Source Buddhist" center of Madison and the site of a local cable access show for Buddhist issues. It was generally a weird scene. In a dusty clutter basement make0\-shift studio, I had my beer, nodded like I had an interest or an idea of what was going on, and then I slipped out to see the 9/11 short-film series at the beloved antique Orphem theater. The films were generally unimpressive and each seemed to heighten awareness about past terrorist atrocities that make 9/11 seem very small or un-unique. In some ways though (especially seeing the way a Bosnian, an Israeli, an Egyptian, Chilean-exile...) each addressed the events by relating them to other tragedies it might have left a lasting impression of empathy. Maybe we never know how to appropriately respond unless we can find a parallel from our own lives and histories. By using a story of another attack, it might be the best way to pay tribute. By deflecting attention away from the actual event being memorialized it might make a stronger commentary about humanity, strength, and perserverance. I guess the films were interesting in the way that each addressed the phenomena of people collected (despite circumstance or geography) gathering around the radio or the TV and just glued to the unfolding news. All in all, I am glad to have seen the series, even if they didn't hit my emotional reservoir regarding those events and the way I'll personally and subjectively continue to regard them.
Anyway, it wasn't really my intention to blog the night away, as I do have a fair amount of work and other bureaucracy to deal with, but I just couldn't resist.
posted by lmjasinski at 6:11 PM
