1994 was a great year to be 12 years old.
So I stayed on campus and worked for an epic stretch to give myself a four-day weekend— no real ‘reason’, I just wanted some time. Alas, I hit the office at an embarrassingly early hour and I had my next-to-last-ever screening for my six-year-running stretch. Today was long and I felt pretty awful walking back to my car.
Love him though I do, Buddy Guy was likely the last person I expected to encounter today. Alas, I admit that it was a nice day to ‘rediscover’ some of his 70s material buried in my car albums. Sometimes it’s nice to have a friend to help you put things in perspective. Buddy’s always been good at making me feel guilty about feeling sad over my petty ‘first-world-problems’. It works for me, so I can’t complain.
I can’t speak for y’all, but I think I believe Buddy. He’s white persuasive. Anybody unconvinced?
So a few weeks ago, I decided to shave my beard off. I wanted to be sure the same guy was under there. Fortunately, it appears he is. It was a cool experience, but I want it back now. Gimme a few weeks on that one.
Wow, so yeah, it’s been a while. Sorry for disappearing like that. I’m not dead, I still have all of my appendages and I’ll be ‘back’ for a while now. 2012 has been rough, but the great part is that things are *really* looking up. A small handful of ‘this can’t be happening’ moments later, it seems I’m better off than I’ve felt in years.
So I’m *not* sticking with the History Ph.D. route— I’m leaving that behind and taking my course credit elsewhere. There were many reasons, some more direct than others. Suffice it to say, I know that path wasn’t for me. Truthfully, I wanted out of it for a while *prior* to actually leaving. I’m abandoning a broad focus on U.S. historiography for a dedicated focus on mass media research. I’m looking at heading into the Mass Communication Ph.D. program instead (waiting to hear), which seems like a MUCH better fit for my interests and approach.
Beyond issues with the assigned scholarship, my Ph.D. track was in a field that faculty members consistently referred to as a ‘job lottery’— one without a great outlook for improvement in ensuing years (still at an all-time low, I believe). Historiography (as I encountered it, mind you) felt like a malaise of thousands of scholars who couldn’t seem to find a common focus. The harder I tried to connect with it, the more I felt that it was pushing me away.
I don’t feel that I wasted my time at all, as I’ll carry a sense of historical context with me on my new path— such will really help me out, I’m discovering. I can also transfer a considerable deal of my credit over, which works out quite well. Sure, the shift to Mass Communication demands a few semesters of extra coursework— there’s always that— but it’s rewarding work. The new work offers a chance to emphasize what I’ve always *wanted* to embrace— I honestly never thought I’d even get to *try* to turn away from historiography. I’m even keeping the same dissertation focus (planning to, anyway)— the thing is, I think it’ll be a better project in a more receptive department. I think the extra coursework (particularly statistics and media analysis) will help me to develop a project I can be proud of.
Academia hasn’t been the only area to see change in my life this year— hell, one could argue that it’s *less* significant than a few others I’ve experienced. The overall point is that I felt ‘trapped’ in a set of circumstances that prohibited me from feeling good about myself in a variety of ways. I’m sincerely excited about new directions— tremendously so— even if I didn’t exactly *anticipate* them.
If all goes well with USM for the new program (news soon), such means means I’ll likely be staying around the Hattiesburg area for a while longer (couple of years max, I figure). I don’t feel as ‘connected’ to the town as I once did (born and raised here), but things could certainly be worse— I just need to try. I feel like I should make more of an effort to ‘meet people’ and ‘branch out’ (ugh) now that my time’s extended a bit. I haven’t really given this town a ‘fair chance’ in quite a while and my perceptions are likely pretty dated.
So there you have it, folks. I spent the past several years of my life trying to shoehorn myself into an academic discipline I grew to despise. Now that I’m finally done with that (along with a few other recurring issues), I feel like I’m ready to give many things a fresh approach. There aren’t too many ‘closed doors’ for me, presently. Such represents an awesome change, as compared to the stagnancy of my life a year ago.
It’s nice to be back, folks. Again, sorry so lengthy here, but I was gone for a while. I’ll be back around a good bit more, but I figured it was a good idea to offer a brief recap first.
Well, after a *lot* of holiday break catch-up, I’ve finally got my top 10 ready. Posting it has never my *favorite* thing in the world, as I second-guess myself far too much to remain happy with *any* list. I saw a LOT of films this year, a few of them were pretty great. I think this is a list I can stand behind in 2014 if asked to defend it.
1. Drive
2. Take Shelter
3. Moneyball
4. Martha Marcy May Marlene
5. The Tree of Life
6. My Perestroika
7. The Muppets
8. Midnight in Paris
9. We Need to Talk About Kevin
10. Hugo
Super-Duper-Honorable Mentions:
Super 8
Shame
Warrior
Kill List
Carlos
Happy holidays, everyone. Give this a shot, it’s perhaps the best recut trailer I’ve ever seen.
“Now more than ever, we must remember the TRUE meaning of Christmas.”
So I’ll definitely be back after the weekend, folks. It’s been a crazy semester and I’m presently unwinding a bit.
All is well, though— no worries! Things have just been positively epic lately, that’s all. I need to just waste a few days in optimally hedonistic fashion. I really don’t do that enough in life.
So, Fall 2012. I worked my ass off in perpetual committee servitude, agonized over a few aspects of my personal life and worked to actively change them, (hopefully) helped dozens of people with the NOAA interview project, shunned my (admittedly epic/insatiable) media diet to dive headlong into research, read between 150-200 new books, made a few new friends and reunited with a few old ones.
I need a break for just a bit. I’ll be back very soon, I promise.
Song of the Day: “Mirror in the Bathroom”, The English Beat (What is Beat, 1980)
Naturally, I’ll leave you with a snazzy video. It’s a personal favorite.
NOW STREAMING ON NETFLIX: “Street Law” (Enzo Castellari, Italy, 1974)
So I love this idea! I’d like to open a bit of a dialogue on Netflix suggestions. As it’s cheap and widely available, I figure it’s really easy to grab hold of these films. In fact, I’m presently liking the idea of *sticking to* streaming films for a while. This idea seems like a solid way to to ‘dig into’ studio back-catalogs. I’m *all for* underrated gems— some of my very favorite movies are under-appreciated flicks that I stumbled across ‘on accident’.
So I grew up on ‘spaghetti westerns’, right? From “Dollars to “Django”, I was a *big, big* fan of these. As a teenager, I started getting into Italian horror— Argento, Fulci, Bava, etc. Somehow I just *missed* the mid-to-late 70s wave of Italian action/crime cinema, but most of it’s available on Netflix and there are a few real gems.
To start, allow me to suggest the one above, “Street Law”! It’s relatively new to me too, but there’s a very ‘cool’ sheen to this wave of cinema. It’s visceral, sleek, tightly-wound fare. This is honestly the first Franco Nero film I’ve seen *besides* “Django”.
While 70s Italian Action cinema hasn’t exactly changed my life (thusfar), but I’m having a hell of a lot of fun with it and there are a few dozen solid titles of this stuff on Netflix.
Upon visiting my last blog, I find that there’s a bit of stuff I still *really* like (among the dreck there). I think I’ll start porting over some entries after end-of-semester crunch.
Song of the Day “Married with Children”, Oasis (“Definitely Maybe”, 1992)
Today I was forced to significantly alter an intense, multi-tiered, half-decade connection with someone close to me. The circumstances were super-complex and I don’t really want to talk about it in detail (like, ever). Alas, I am sad today. Here’s a sad song, free of contextual relevance, to accompany said mindset.
I do love this fucking song so much.
