Jim Morrison Scrapbook

I don't scrapbook generally but if I did, I'd do it Jim Morrison style.

Today I discovered a new Jim Morrison book. It's by Ohio's own James Henke, the curator of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum in Cleveland.

By the way, the museum is a grippingly relevant landmark, but that's another blog.

The Jim Morrison Scrapbook includes new interviews with some of Morrison's friends, family members, and music industry folk. It also features 24 pieces of removable facsimile memorabilia, such as Jim's handwritten lyrics to "L. A. Woman."



graph per B&N

Does Place Matter?

Benjamin and I talk about the 'text' of place as often as the caprice of the weather is observed and felt. Which is daily, of course. The message of ths story is that place, indeed, doth matter!

While technology and the internet allow us to have easy access to many thing in the world and to communicate sans frontiers, the very place in which we find ourselves is hugely important as well.

According to Richard Florida's new upcoming book "Who's Your City," place is not only important, it’s more important than ever. He observes that,

'Globalization is not flattening the world; on the contrary, the world is spiky. Place is becoming more relevant to the global economy and our individual lives. The choice of where to live, therefore, is not an arbitrary one. It is arguably the most important decision we make, as important as choosing a spouse or a career. In fact, place exerts powerful influence over the jobs and careers we have access to, the people meet and our “mating markets” and our ability to lead happy and fulfilled lives.'

The bottom line is that we all face our daily realities in our respective locations and the quotidian cannot be bypassed by technology. And there can only be one or a small few egg places that know how to make your brunch menu just so.

I am looking forward to the book which is scheduled to come out in March of 2008.



graph per Richard Florida's blog

Creative Mind

What makes a creative person creative?









via Richard Florida's blog

Music I'm Currently Enjoying: BritPop and The Kaiser Chiefs

I'm currently listening to the following BritPop bands and their respective 2007 albums.

1) The Klaxons and their "Myths of the Near Future."

2) The Arctic Monkeys' "Favourite Worst Nightmare."

3) Maximo Park's "Our Earthly Pleasures."

4) Dirty Pretty Things' "Waterloo to Anywhere."

However, my most played remains "Yours Truly Angry Mob" by the Kaiser Chiefs. The sound of this Leeds-based band is honest and informed.

And one of the best tracks of their new album is "Everything is Average Nowadays." It has good pace, appropriate bass, and equally impressive lyrics.

For similar sounds refer to the following bands:

Franz Ferdinand
Pull Tiger Tail
The Twang
The Rakes
Eastern Lane
The Futureheads
Bloc Party
The Departure
The Blueskins
The Needles
and
The Motorettes



graph per amazon

Oxford Word Of The Year: Locavore

The New Oxford American Dictionary has announced its 2007 Word of the Year.

That new addition is: locavore.

“Locavore” was coined two years ago by a group of four women in San Francisco who proposed that local residents should try to eat only food grown or produced within a 100-mile radius. Other regional movements have emerged since then, though some groups refer to themselves as “localvores” rather than “locavores.” However it’s spelled, it’s a word to watch.

Runners-up for the 2007 Word of the Year include:

aging in place: the process of growing older while living in one’s own residence, instead of having to move to a new home or community.

cloudware: online applications, such as webmail, powered by massive data storage facilities, also called “cloud servers”

cougar: an older woman who romantically pursues younger men

mumblecore: an independent film movement featuring low-budget production, non-professional actors, and largely improvised dialogue

previvor: a person who has not been diagnosed with a form of cancer but has survived a genetic predisposition for cancer

social graph: the network of one’s friends and connections on social websites such as Facebook and Myspace

upcycling: the transformation of waste materials into something more useful or valuable

as per Oxford University Press

Starbucks Net Rises 35%

Starbucks Corp. posted quarterly profit that rose 35 percent on higher prices. The retailer lowered its sales and earnings forecasts after U.S. customer visits fell, sending the shares down 8 percent.

Starbucks lost customers after a 9-cent-per-cup price increase in late July caused consumers concerned about higher food, fuel and housing expenses to go to McDonald's Corp. or Dunkin' Donuts LLC stores instead.

Hm.

Let's face it, folks. It comes down to Annie's Bottom dollar, right? And nowbody wants to pay higher prices. So, let's hope milk prices drop and prices generally drop a bit so that instead of paying 4 whole dollars for a Venti Macchiato, we could all pay a measly $3.98. Because, $3.98 is just so reasonable for a cup of coffee, as my folks put it.

Decadence, Starbucks customer, is thy name!

Angelina Jolie Writes for the Economist

Angelina Jolie has written an article for the Economist. It came out today. The Economist's annual issue "The World in 2008" features Jolie's take on the situation in Darfur.

Some bloggers have noted that Jolie should stick to acting and forget about her 'UN stuff.'

I couldn't disagree more.

A human being is capable of performing many functions and roles at the same time. One function does not preclude the presence of others. An actor may and can be a politically and socially aware person, just like an academic can find joy in rock concerts and San Diego surf shops at the same time.

Kudos to Jolie for wanting to make a difference and bringing awareness to many things of substance in the world arena.

Here is a quote from her piece which I thought was well penned.

“Accountability is perhaps the only force powerful enough to break the cycle of violence and retribution that marks so many conflicts.”


as per the Economist

Book Review: Goethe

John Armstrong's "Love, Life, Goethe: Lessons of the Imagination from the Great German Poet" is now available.

Goethe is more than just a 'Sturm und Drang' German writer. Much, much more.
His philosophical, cultural, political and literary insights are necessary information not only to higher academics and theorists but any reading-interested individual. He wrote well because he historicized and contextualized well.

Armstrong observes the following at the end of the book about his Goethe project:

"In working on this book I was surprised by how much I liked some of Goethe's works that I feared I would have to read merely from a sense of duty. In particular the plays Egmont and Tasso stuck me as really wonderful. I delayed reading Faust for as long as possible, finally getting round to it during a family winter holiday at a small coastal town..."

And reading Goethe is a life-changing experience. Whether it's the sufferings of Werther, or the torments of Faust and Gretchen, or Egmont's journey, Goethe can touch like very few can and have.

And John Armstrong seems to have done justice to his predilection for context.

Here's to Goethe.


graph per amazon

Norman Mailer Dies at 84

The American writer Norman Mailer died on the 10th of November and this is indeed a literary loss.
Mailer was nothing if not controversial, however the controversy he usually engendered was culturally and literarily relevant.

He married six times, refused not to comment on unpopular topics, and went after interesting political, social, and literary topics obssessively.

Many blogs were written about Mailer this past weekend and I was surprised to read some which depicted him as mediocre and irrelevant. He was anything but.

Today, however, I read a good tribute to him on the Huffington Post by Arianna Huffington.

Huffington, herself one with the literary bug and one who knew Mailer personally, wrote a respectful entry celebrating Mailer's idiosyncracies.

Huffington's winning sentence was: "Mailer was all about possibility -- about asking why things are the way they are and showing, through his writing, there are other ways they could be."

I felt compelled to comment on her piece as well and I just posted the following:

"If we don't take a minute to positively review the life of one who so frequently provided us with text, then we're not being respectful of his literary contribution to us. If nothing else, Mailer was indeed relevant and dialog-inviting and that, especally at the end of one's life, should beg for positive attention.
He was after all, a great American text himself."


graph per huffington post

A Professor of International Law: Slovenia's New President

Danilo Türk, who is currently employed as a professor of International Law and Dean of Student Affairs at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ljubljana, is the new president-elect of Slovenia.

According to unofficial results, he is said to have won the run-off on 11 November 2007 with 70.8% of the votes thus beating the convervative Lojze Peterle.

Definitely blog-worthy, I thought. Not every day that a prof becomes pres.



graph per wikipedia