Tales From Band Camp

In high school, my friend Melissa put her ample writing talents to use in writing Tales From Band Camp, a series of scenes based on actual events that occurred during our time in band. More often than not, these scenes capture verbatim the sorts of things that went on in our daily band lives. I was extremely lucky to receive a complete version of Tales From Band Camp: Seasons 1 and 2 as a high school graduation gift. Four years later, I still pull out the volume when I'm in need of a little cheering up.

Well, when doing the reading for my library class that ended in Twitter discussion, I was reminded of a particular tale from band camp. This particular reading was talking about humans as users of language, artifacts, and methodologies in which they have been trained. Trained... Does training have to mean the imparting of knowledge from an authority to a novice? Or can training be self-supplied? Will we ever get an answer to such questions?

...

Enjoy.

[Another piece of Melissa's amazing oeuvre was recently performed at a playwright's event at IU. Snaps for Melissa!!]

P.S. Hm... This is weird! It's exactly four years from then! Melissa, are you a psychic?

Despite my Twitter rant, I do like...

...this experiment in converting legit lit to short form. The idea of conveying something as nuanced as Jane Austen's Persuasion within the constraints of something like Twitter is interesting on an intellectual level. Some of the time it's funny; other times it's obvious that Austen cannot be edited down.

Either way, I'm glad that the speed read version can't hold a candle to the real deal.

Literary Quote Month: Day 7

"The whole climate of thought will be different. In fact, there will be no thought, as we understand it now."

-George Orwell, 1984

Today in my library class we got to talking about augmenting technologies. That is to say, we were discussing technologies, in particular online communication technologies, that theoretically help us to be more efficient in our communications. The starting point for our discussion was MySpace; then we moved on to Facebook; then we reverted chronologically a bit to instant messaging platforms before reaching the online communication du jour: Twitter.

Twitter, in all honesty, creeps me out. Why on earth should I care what anyone has to say at all times? Why do I care what everyone else is thinking about? Don't I have enough going on in my own immediate space to keep me perfectly engaged with the world and occupied? Additionally, why would I want for other people to have access to my every thought and musing? I have plenty of privacy issues with Facebook as it is; I'd cancel my account if it wouldn't mean losing touch with people. So why would I want to fully put myself out there with something like Twitter?

I think, too, that the hyper-abbreviation that 140-character limits breeds will ultimately cause our thinking process to stagnate and then recede. If you can only express in 140 characters, eventually you're going to start thinking within those limits as well. Talk about thinking inside the box. To the worst extreme.

In case you need something to smile about...

I can't remember if I shared this before or not, but watch it anyways.

Literary Quote Month: Day 6

"That is to say..."

-Jane Austen, several of her collected works

Many a character in Jane Austen novels uses this phrase as a sort of rhetorical time-buyer; that is to say, they use this phrase when they are trying to say something important that could be misconstrued in a more clear, yet just-as-socially-polite-and-seemingly-neutral, way. If my memory serves me right, only the heroes and heroines use this phrase. Probably because only the heroes and heroines see fit to be intentional and thoughtful with their words. The Mr. Elliots don't bother with clarification because they never think of anyone but themselves.

Literary Quote Month: Day 5

"Many others who did not kneel prayed in their hearts."

-Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop

Not everyone kneels at mass. Not everyone kneels to pray on their own. But hopefully we all still pray.

Amy versus the Outsiders, Part IV

Evidently, there is an upside to it raining all day long. Turns out that wasps don't like to come out of their sneaky little nest in my porch siding unless the weather is pleasant. So, like the brave person I am, I Raid-ed the heck out of that thing. AND I sprayed all around the windows and sliding glass door with the bug barrier stuff, which should hopefully now allow me to open my windows on appropriately-temperatured days without facing an onslaught of many-legged visitors come nightfall.

For now, at least, I'm going to claim victory in my battle with the Outsiders. Ha!