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May 28, 2006
Bruce is now a bachelor (of arts)
Bruce graduated from Bowdoin yesterday. The commencement was so beautiful I almost couldn't take it. Great weather (perhaps a bit warm), New England small college charm everywhere you looked, and lobsters. Mmmm, lobsters.
Bruce is a little to sorry to leave it all behind, and I can't say I blame him. Four years at Bowdoin seems about as pastoral as on can get considering how many people describe the winters there as "painfully bitter."
Photos at my Flickr account, baby.
[Oooh! Look! Comments are working again. Thanks, Rob.]
Posted by Drew at 03:14 PM
May 25, 2006
And guess where my glasses were
Today I spent ten minutes looking for my shoes before I realized they were on my feet.
Posted by Drew at 08:04 AM | Comments (1)
May 22, 2006
The Bullet Points Strike Back
It's bullet point time! Wooo!!
- I love Spottiswoode and His Enemies. If Tom Waits had a love child with the Squirrel Nut Zippers, this is what he would sound like.
- Nifty obit in the Post today. If you gotta go, at least go having invented something cool. (Although it seems like there's an error in the last line. Didn't Slade Gorton lose in 2000? Someone from Washington state, please look into this.)
- People like this make me glad that there's a hell.
- Went to see the Nats beat the Orioles on Sunday. Sunday afternoons in the cheap seats rule.
- Rob graduated law school on Sunday! Go him!
- Bruce graduates college on Saturday! More on that later!
- Springtime in DC = awesome.
Posted by Drew at 10:05 PM
Drew loves white people.
While reading the paper after work a few days ago, I saw a great article in the Times.
Stephin Merritt, of the Magnetic Fields (whom I love a great deal), has apparently been branded a racist because all his favorite music is by white people.
At first blush, to claim that someone is a racist because he doesn't listen to music by black artists is absurd, but upon closer inspection, I think it's not so clear. Nothing is ever simple.
There was recently an excerpt in the Post (I think) from Covering, a book from a professor at Yale Law. He talks about discrimination based not on first degree characteristics (race, gender, sexual orientation) but on second degree characteristics (no cornrows, don't cry at work, don't make people uncomforable by talking about your partner too much.)
I'm not a person who loves to declare every bit of judgement discrimination, mostly because blacks, women and gays can be just as incompetent as whites, men, and straights. Some people just need to be fired! (Ed. - but not me!) But just today I heard someone on the metro say that he'd never hire someone who says "axe" instead of "ask". He wasn't wearing a white hood, or anything but it's sure a lot easier for me to pass that criterion than for my former students. Sure, pronouncing the word as written makes you sound "more professional" (a point I made to my kids more than once) but who judges professionalism anyway? And on what basis?
There are a lot of codes of behavior we expect people to follow in order to fit into the professional class and, not shockingly, a lot of those are tied to race. I can get hired anywhere I want with a Boston accent without a second thought, but a black accent and, boom, unprofessionalism enters the picture.
Which brings me to Stephin Merritt's music collection and my own. I have a lot of music by white people. A lot. And aside from the jazz, I have very little from black people. (That's not counting the imaginary black drummer from Gorillaz.) Does this mean I think whites are better musicians? Does this make me a racist? Don't I hate black people? Heeellllllllll, no. I'd rather listen to the Shins than Outkast because I like them better, not because I think Andre 3000 is stealing my white women. But I do think that taste speaks to more than just coincidence.
Everyone wants to be color blind, and most of us work really hard to acheive that. But in the cracks and crevices of daily life, it's more than "color blind" that matters. Apparently, we should all be color deaf and color, um, whatever not tasting is called, as well.
Racism is not only an ugly word, it's a pretty useless one as well. Race relations in America are far more confusing than a single word (or a tragically overrated movie) can explain. And as readily as I people can agree to that statement, not a lot of people are thrilled to admit that "race relations in America" is the same as "race relations among Americans" and, um, that means us.
Posted by Drew at 07:17 PM | TrackBack
May 21, 2006
Greatest* Book
There's a nifty little feature in the NY Times Book Review this week. The editors did a poll looking for the "the single best work of American fiction published in the last 25 years." Beloved came out on top, which I'm not really happy about although I can't say exactly why. I've read four of the top five (alas, no Updike for me) which made me feel wonderfully self satisfied.
Whenever I see a list like this, I'm newly surprised at how specific good writing is, or at least modern writing. It seems like the Great Books should deal with really archetypal topics, like Paradise Lost or Our Town. But Beloved tells a unique story about ex-slaves in southern Ohio and Philip Roth (with a whole mess of books getting a few votes each) LOVES to write about the Jews of northern New Jersey. It's interesting to see that the more we accept diversity into our daily lives, the more meticulously we tend to chronicle our own particular histories.
Of course, hearing about a list makes me wonder what I would choose. I loved Underworld and really admired Blood Meridian but I think I'd have trouble putting either at the top of my list. I'm tempted to say Housekeeping, which is possibly the most precise and beautiful book I've ever read, but I did have some trouble pushing though it without, um, dozing off from time to time. LIfe of Pi would probably be my final choice, but it's not by an American. Neither is Cloud Atlas. I think all of those are Great Books, but I don't really feel comfortable choosing one. And for as much as I love The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and Infinite Jest, I think those are both great books, not Great Books.
The really fascinating part, though, is the part they don't tell you: who voted for what. There's a list of judges that is pretty amazing (Harold Bloom, Don DeLillo, Ian McEwan) but apparently there was a confidentiality clause in the voting because one isn't told the particular choices of each judge. That's where the real money is.
Posted by Drew at 10:16 PM
May 14, 2006
Photos!
Today I was supposed to play croquet with the OUCSDC, but the weather was pretty bad, and we were forced to call it off.
I did get to go to see the Dada exhibit at the National Gallery of Art which was kind of fun, and check out Sarah and Rob's new house which was really fun (I'll admit: I'm a little jealous. It's awesome.)
You can join me on these and other adventures by checking my (not really) new Flickr account. I've been uploading with shocking regularity, so feel free to check in and learn about all the fabulous things I do, (or at least take pictures of.)
By the by -- you'll notice comments have been shut down. Apparently geekisp wasn't too thrilled with all the "Hot Granny Sex" comments that someone (Anna) kept leaving. Rob assures me that he's figured out how to filter out her dirty thoughts to you can all go back to boosting my ego.
Posted by Drew at 08:22 PM