The Road Ahead

In memoriam. July 23, 2007

Posted by Joe in : personal , comments closed

The Dean of the School of Information Studies at my alma mater, Syracuse University, passed away this morning. You can read about it .

I never got to talk to Ray as much as I would have liked to. When you are a visionary (and a hell of a good storyteller), your time is always in demand. Nevertheless, there are some golden moments that stand out for me:

The von Drans took me and some of my classmates out for an elegant dinner at the end of the Spring 2006 semester. While we sat in an elegantly wallpapered room with piped-in cello music, Ray loudly told a story about how codfish was “inedible” and was a good candidate for a cheap weapon. Amidst laughter from our table, he said that frozen codfish would make the perfect bomb. If it didn’t knock our enemies out when it fell on their heads, he said, it would knock them out in a few hours from the smell.
Ray helped to teach the management class that I took in Fall of 2006. Although his wife Gisela was the instructor of record, he often sat in and shared his own insights on managing organizations. During the break, Ray was often in the front of the classroom, carrying on with students and laughing his unmistakable laugh. His lecture on communication differences between men and women had the entire class in stitches as Gisela looked on indulgently.
Liz Liddy, who is now the Interim Dean, once presented Ray with a high-end trash can as an award. Rather than be insulted, Ray carried the trash can around and showed it off–it was a design marvel.

Ray was the person who helped me start on the road to realizing that art and science are in reality not separate disciplines–they are merely lenses through which we all try to understand the universe around us. Ray’s unspoken but ever-present argument was that things–and by extension Life–can be both functional and beautiful. His own field was Information, and even Information can be beautiful; properly considered, it fully embodies what the OED wants it to be: “that quality or combination of qualities which affords keen pleasure to other senses (e.g. that of hearing), or which charms the intellectual or moral faculties, through inherent grace, or fitness to a desired end.”

I wish that the world had more people like him. Thank you, sir, for what you have done for all of us.

Fruit, et al. (2007) state that… July 1, 2007

Posted by Joe in : food, Trader Joe's , comments closed

… “this reproductive appendage, typically laden with seeds or a pit, can be a delight when consumed at peak ripeness in season.”

With that in mind, I made my first visit yesterday to the Raleigh State Farmers’ Market. It was okay. There are three buildings. Two of them have produce or plants for sale, the other has “specialty” shops, that sell things like preserves, meat, fudge, baked goods, etc. The buildings are open air but can be closed. The market is open every day year ’round, which is nice. There was only one place selling organic produce, which wasn’t as nice. It wasn’t local anyway, so whatever, but it certainly was a change from the Madison market. I did buy some pork chorizo from a free-range place, and some conventional peaches, which are ripening away on the countertop as I type.

Oh, and I bought two kinds of dried fruit that I have never had before: dragonfruit and hibiscus flowers. Dragonfruit is very interesting: it’s tart, dark purple, and studded with seeds, like a strawberry. The seeds have a distinct sesame taste, giving this fruit an interesting and unusual taste. The flowers, on the other hand, look interesting, but taste exactly like some other dried fruit that I’ve had–maybe dried mango, but a little less sweet.

“North Carolina isn’t the South. Hint #1 is that the name has ‘North’ in it.” June 22, 2007

Posted by Joe in : food, movies , add a comment

It’s 11:38 PM. Today is my fourth full day of living in Raleigh. The weather was cool enough today that I had my porch door and windows open. I even put some wash out to dry on my clothes rack outside. It was very nice. Later in the afternoon, I went for a walk in the neighborhood surrounding my apartment complex, then I caught a 7:00 showing of Mafioso, an Italian movie from the 60s.

As luck would have it, there is an independent movie theater about ten minutes’ drive from my apartment, and they show all sorts of unusual things. Like many art houses, they have a cult classics series, which they have considerately priced at $5. I am certainly going to go see 2001 later in July, but the jury’s out on whether I’ll go to see Temple of Doom. Why didn’t they go for Raiders of the Lost Ark? I’d be there in a second. The place was okay, that indie house mix of hipster shabbiness mixed with straight-up desperation. The theater I was in had some really amazing (!) carpet on the walls. I hope that they got in on clearance somewhere, otherwise they certainly spent too much on it. It shared a parking lot with a combination KFC/Taco Bell. Overall, the trip to the theatre was a Good Sign of things to come in Raleigh—good movies, close by. Afterwards, I stopped in at a conveniently located Food Lion to buy some corn oil. Remember, ladies and gentlemen, that RR’s beloved EVOO has a low smoke point and, when combined with an overheated cast iron pan, will fill your apartment with acrid white smoke. Hence a more “pure” oil, corn, which is also the oil of choice for central Asian cooking and cast iron seasoning.

Did I mention the biscuit/sausage thing? I’d bring my camera into the grocery store, except that I don’t want to get kicked out of one of the few things that I can find without getting lost. Check this out: down this way, you can buy bricks of loose breakfast sausage. It looks kind of like when you buy butter in a one-pound block rather than in quarters, except it is loose breakfast sausage. There are a few different brands, even, none of which I can remember right now, but I do know that one brand offers Original, Hot, and Extra Sage varieties. Perfect. But so that’s almost as strange as the biscuit thing. In the flour aisle, especially at Food Lion, there are about ten or so different brands of biscuit mixes and just as many brands of self-raising (sic? Self-rising?) flour. I have read about s-r flour, but I had never seen it until I got down here. Oh, and the list goes on: fish breading mixes, hush puppy mixes, ten-gallon buckets of lard. It is a calorie wonderland.

Until then, then.

Speak, memory. June 10, 2007

Posted by Joe in : personal , 2 comments

Today is Sunday, June 10. It is 11:15 PM. I am staying with an old friend in the greater Harrisburg, PA, area.

In the last month, the following things have happened:

I finished library school.
I attended graduation and its associated functions.
I drove to Madison, WI, to visit friends and family. Along the way, I stopped in Pittsburgh and Chicago.
While in Madison, I went on a five day long trip (and I’m almost certain that one or more hyphens belong in there somewhere) to Door County with my parents.
Also while in Madison, I went biking, spent time with friends old and new, visited old colleagues, and reveled in the bittersweet feeling of a community that is moving on without me.
On the way back from Madison to Syracuse, I stopped in Columbus, OH, to visit some relatives, and then in Buffalo, NY to visit some more.
I packed my stuff onto a truck, then cleaned my apartment.
I drove to the same greater Harrisburg area.
The following day, I drove down to Raleigh with a dear friend.
The following day, we ate at Clyde Cooper’s, unloaded my truck, then drove back to that same greater Harrisburg area location.

To make a long story short, I have been busy. Steps 6-10 of that list took place in the month of June. Today is my second day of having some quality down time since graduation.

In other news, I have just read Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. I am working my way through Saramago’s Blindness, which is roughly fifty times better. Thank you to both my father and my friend Jamie (mad props on the wedding!) for the recommendation.

Call the coroner? June 6, 2007

Posted by Joe in : Uncategorized , add a comment

This blog isn’t dead yet.

With the sincerest apologies to both of my loyal readers, I’d like to say this:

No, I haven’t posted here in a long time.
Yes, I will post here.
Don’t expect anything for two more weeks. Then I’ll be there for you.

PS: that song “One Way or Another” has been stuck in my head for weeks. Thank you, Anonymous Companion!

Movies. Music. April 7, 2007

Posted by Joe in : music, movies , 1 comment so far

Several movie-related happenings to report:

I am moving very close to the home of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, which claims that it is the only festival devoted exclusively to documentaries. Be still, my heart.
I will be attending the May 11 screening of the Helvetica documentary film at The Rochester Institute of Technology.
I am going to see Grindhouse tomorrow.
You haven’t gotten me any gifts recently. Why not this or this?

Albums I have been listening to recently:

Coming Soon: The Long Goodbye (club mix)

Ride or Die. March 24, 2007

Posted by Joe in : Coming Soon, bicycling , add a comment

I went for my first bike ride today. It was a little cold, and a little windy, but it reminded me of how much I miss regular bike rides. I got back from a post-ride luncheon just in time for a cold, unpleasant rain to begin falling.

Spring is a funny season. Yesterday it was so nice that I was outside walking from 1 to 6 or so, today I’m thinking fondly of the last time I made chili.

As my friends here are so sick of hearing, it’s 90 degrees in Raleigh today. Soon enough…

Coming Soon: bootlegged copies of my rare 1986 debut LP, Skittles ‘n’ Thangs.

Travels with C——. March 9, 2007

Posted by Joe in : travel , add a comment

I always loved the brief period in literature when the convention was to censor certain names, with the assumption that the novel described real people who would rather not see themselves described in print. Quaint, yes, but a nice touch.

e.g. (with apologies to Edward G—-):

‘Having accidentally broken Lord F———’s favorite marmalade pot, I sought sanctuary in the library.’

I have arrived in the greater Madison area for spring break. I arrived late on Wednesday evening; my luggage arrived late last evening. I look forward to some quality time with my own razor.

I had lunch yesterday with some dear friends of mine, S—- and T—. We went to a restaurant on State St that was absolutely a——–.

Anyway, I hope all of you out there have a nice d– and that you don’t forget to write to m-.

J–

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Zodiac. March 5, 2007

Posted by Joe in : movies, Zodiac , 1 comment so far

I saw Zodiac yesterday. I had come to the mall to purchase some trifling gifts for some dear friends, and, walking back through the mall to my car, I found the prospect of returning home to an evening of homework rather unpalatable.

Instead, I went upstairs and bought a ticket to the next showing. I really love detective movies, and I was not disappointed in the least. I was worried that David Fincher would overindulge his taste for visual flourishes, but he kept it nicely in check. The composition of each frame was wonderfully done. All of the acting was exceptional, but Mark Ruffalo really made it happen. I haven’t enjoyed a movie this much in years.

Half ‘n’ half. February 26, 2007

Posted by Joe in : Coming Soon, education , 2 comments

So it’s like this: this week is the seventh week of the Spring semester. Hard as it is to believe, this week marks the half-way point of my last semester of library skool (n.b. “school” is misspelled in homage to a dear librarian friend of mine).

And I’d like to say that I have learned many things while at library school. I can remember my first semester, coming in to the classroom with what Big Boi would call “big-time attitude,” thinking that because I’d already worked at a large library, there would be precious little that I could learn here.

I was wrong. I think that one of the things that separates the true student from the well-dressed impostor is the concept of school-as-experience. While yes, certainly, I learned many things in library school, the things that I learned here that truly matter, the tacit knowledge that is most difficult to explain and quantify, came from experiences outside of the classroom. I suppose what I am driving at is that school needs to be more than a rote educational process: at its best, school ought to be a normative, socializing process. I think that many people look at the value of a degree as the sum of their coursework. I argue that, instead, education ought to be looked at as a bundle of personal experiences framed by the mechanics of classes and deadlines. Therefore, if you consider yourself not to have been changed by schooling, it is your own personal constraints that have retarded your growth.

Coming Soon: answers to your lingering self-doubt.

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