Recently (3)

Will Be Reading Soon: Errol Morris on reenactments in film and their relationship to the truth of the image.

Seen: Many, many episodes of The Dog Whisperer. I’ve been practicing my calm-assertive energy. Also, nerd alert: BSG returns tonight, and I’m pretty excited. Want to see: Martin Scorsese’s Shine A Light (perhaps a logical book end to Maysles’s Gimme Shelter).

Raving About: Seeing the Claudia Quintet last night at Dazzle; our ladies volleyball team finally working together – we played a great, fast-paced game last night; our family volleyball team getting back together Sunday night; the rage (and so good discussion) William Lane Craig’s “The Absurdity of Life Without God” inspired in one of my intro classes this week; Nathan Gann’s post about a consumption fast.

I am also glad that it is baseball time back in our fair city, although the Rockies really are losing right now. Over the last eight years I’ve come to notice that the city just doesn’t have the same energy when Coors Field is dark – winning or losing.

Spring is my favorite season in Colorado – trees are in bloom (a fact I wouldn’t enjoy so much if I had allergies), grass is greening, herbs are to be planted, the heat is turned off, students start getting really antsy, the smell of sunshine and spring breeze comes into our little house, and we sleep with the window open. Hurrah! 

Ranting About: People who come to see the Claudia Quintet 45 minutes into a one-hour set and talk so loudly their conversation is audible over the music; the waste of time that was reading On Seeing for my book review (although the relief that accompanied finishing that book was almost worth it). The last episode of LOST featuring the return of Michael was less-than-stellar for a variety of reasons, but it went in the direction I had hoped. Eventually I’ll get to writing about this episode.  

Finished: Enormous midterm for Heidegger Seminar; passport application for NAFTA country travel.

Working On: Rough draft of thesis proposal (no small task, that); preparing to be observed while teaching Sartre next week; reviewing and commenting papers for the journals I’m involved with; have I mentioned grading? One other major project is in the works, and I suspect that once it’s resolved I’ll have quite a bit to say about it … but for now, I’ll keep it under my hat.

Now that The Wire is over…

We haven’t watched the final episode yet – we’ll save it for Tuesday night – but last night we decided to tape an episode of 120 Minutes. Yes, 120 Minutes, MTV’s video show from the 90’s. “Tom’s Diner” (you know, with Susanne Vega singing over the beatsy track) came on and we were transfixed. We are lame.

I’ve been reserving some thoughts about television that I hope to write about this week. Nathan Gann has written about two weeks ago’s episode “The Constant” with Desmond that easily is the best thing I’ve seen on the network telly in a LONG TIME.