Rowan « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

Rowan

cycling / Rowan / site / Thursday — Comments Off
6
Feb 25

True or false or maybe

I am floating rib deep into grading. I have 60-something quizzes to work through, and of course, there are plenty of other things as well. So let’s just get through this, shall we?

I have updated the art on the front page. It looks a lot like this.

Head on over to kennysmith.org to see the whole thing. If you sit with it for 50 seconds, you’ll see the whole assortment of 10 new photographs that I took on a beautiful spring day in central California last year. We were waiting for a lunch order over this beautiful bit of sand and sea. And I’ve held on to these photos specifically just to get through the interminable second half of winter.

I had a short bike ride this evening. It took me high into the snowcapped mountains. But I want you to look off to the side of this photo. Do you see that road?

That’s the radio tower bonus climb, sure to strike fear in the hearts of every exhausted rider, who has already slogged their way up the Epic KOM, climbing 1,364 feet over 5.9 miles from sea level. That bonus climb is an even sharper three-quarters of a mile, with an average gradient of 12.8 percent, demanding another 492 feet of ascent. I hate it.

But the route didn’t take up to that tower. I just pedaled right by, to my great relief (I don’t always know where a route will take me) and then back down into the tree line, where the green things grow, and the windmills mill.

In total, it was just a 22 mile ride, and pretty slow, even for me. But I did somehow collect four PRs on Strava segments along the away, including on two climbs.

Small wins are huge wins.

And, now, back to getting ready for more work.

memories / Rowan / video / Wednesday — Comments Off
5
Feb 25

Tomato soup in a bread bowl

On this date last year, we stumbled upon a video that The Daily Show had recirculated from, I believe, 2013 or 2014. It’s a classic bit of satirical comedy now, and so much of what TDS and it’s descendants do is on display here. Plus, there’s Jon Stewart’s pronounced cheesy New York accent. It kills me.

I know this was a year ago because, for some one-off joke about ordering a pizza, I made a gif about how he wants a real pizza, with the gestures and the over-enunciation. It still cracks me up.

I mention it here because there’s not much to the day. Ten years ago today I was still trying to catch up from a trip. Five years ago today, in 2020, was just another typical day … we had about five more weeks of those before everything got atypical, of course. Too much time in the television studio. I miss the people involved, the students, but not the rest of everything else that came with those long days and longer nights.

So it’s Jon Stewart thundering away about “an above ground marinara swimming pool for rats.”

Seriously, it’s a tight 10 minutes. Give it a look.

On campus today we talked about media and culture, and that’s the last day we’ll discuss that. It’s interesting, but it doesn’t hold the students all that much, I don’t think. Probably my fault. Next week we’ll start talking about different forms of media. Which, once we get beyond print, I’m sure they’ll start to think to is much more compelling.

Today, though, we talked about how we view other places through what we learn about them in our media exposure. And I mentioned the Super Bowl so I could bring this back up again Monday, when I’ll ask, “What does the world take see in us when they watch one of our largest spectacles?”

Today I asked them, “Does the globalization of media undermine national cultures?”

After that we had an afternoon-long meeting discussing the pressing issues of the day. Some of them about curriculum and university stuff. Some on national matters. Rather than the whole faculty and a formal meeting, it’s just whoever is around. And putting in the face time is good, so I make sure to be around for these more casual sit downs. Plus someone brings snacks. And I got to talk about the difference between administrative and judicial warrants. That’s not something I would have predicted last year, when watching that pizza video.

Here’s the A-block of last night’s episode. Desi Lydic is on the desk this week, and she’s been great there since they started this rotating panel process in 2023. I’d like them to go back to skewering media, since the strength of the show was always being media satire, but since no one else is covering the news, they’re doing more and more of that. It’s better in small doses. But there’s a lot of news these days, and, again, someone has to do it.

Lydic’s first turn at the desk was one of those magical weeks where the content gods smiled upon the show. She had four fantastic episodes, and she made it seem obvious: after 27 years and three hosts, our most prominent satirical news show, finally, at long last, a strong female voice, particularly post-Dobbs. I’m so glad she’s still doing this. If they ever lock in a host she should get an opportunity.

She’s apparently from Louisville. I wonder what her feelings on deep dish pizza are.

Rowan / Tuesday / video — Comments Off
4
Feb 25

The goosen and the geesen

On the way to campus today, we saw Canada geese. They were all sitting in one field, rose up for a bit of video and then settled back down again in the next field. I suppose they’ve got good worms over there.

The people that will plant that field in the coming weeks will benefit from their visit, I’m sure. It’s the circle of life, take the worms, leave something behind. But all that honking.

Probably, this is the flock that flies over our house. It’s charming, but only because they are passing through. If they were in your backyard, just honking away for hours or days on end …

I went to campus with my lovely bride today. She was teaching. I sat in the office. And then she came from a class and we sat there doing office stuff — I pecked away at email and some notes and so on — until it was time for her next class. For my part, I visited with a video production class.

The professor asked me to be a client. He brings in people every term and his students do some video work for them. My colleague knew I am working with a cycling safety group. So I spent the afternoon telling them about some of the relevant laws, what this safety group is trying to do, and discussing how these sorts of messages can be successful. Now they’re going to make some PSA-style or docu-style awareness videos for the group.

Next week I’ll find out what they’re thinking. Today, they asked a lot of good questions. They seem thoughtful and careful, trying to grasp this new concept that was put before them. Maybe that’s why the professor invited me to take part. For people who don’t ride bikes there’s a whole new series of things to learn in this sort of project. That’s always different than building messaging about something with which you’re intimately familiar. And the end product, which we’re aiming at motorists, in general, can benefit from their work too.

I’m fairly confident about that part. We’re definitely at the awareness stage of this still-new state law, and they were all interested in carrying this on. So all of the important elements are there. So this is exciting: I am looking forward to continuing to watch them learn and grow through their creative process, it is important, it compliments some volunteerism, I don’t have to grade things. That’s win-win-win-win.

Worth going to campus for. But, now, I must get back to my own class prep and grading, so let me do that.

adventures / photo / Rowan / Wednesday — Comments Off
29
Jan 25

The answer is: it’s about 300 yards, but it isn’t linear

You don’t know how far away it is. How high it is. You don’t know what’s on the back side of it. You could eyeball it, but you’re not really good at that. Most people aren’t very good at that, actually. You can train the eye and a long period of experience would help, but most people don’t devote themselves to that, which is understandable.

Then, most of us don’t have the knowledge to hazard a guess about the mass involved, either. How do you estimate the weight of something that’s a bit far off, that you’re not used to assessing, that you probably don’t understand, not really, something you’d perceive differently if it was up close, anyway.

How large do you suppose that cloud is?

Saw that on the way home today. I think we were talking about the news at the time. Anyway.

We went to campus together today. Mostly because we both had to be there, and also because I dropped my car art the mechanic’s for an oil change and some TLC. I had a class today, then we had a faculty meeting. And after that I spent the evening emailing replies to students. Somehow, it made for a full day that started late in the morning.

In class, I had students do a library book project. It’s important to introduce people to the wonders that take place there. So, since it is the beginning of the semester, I sent them out with a simple assignment. Go pick up a book about media in any other part of the world. Your choice. (It’s a class on international media.) Start reading it, bring the book to class and come tell us about it.

Tell us why you picked it up, and what it is about so far. Tell us what you like about it. Sell the rest of us on checking out that book. And tell us why we might not want to check out the book.

In my mind, this assignment served several purposes. It sent students to libraries, either a local library or the campus library. The library experience! Some people don’t have a lot of those. Of course our campus library is currently under renovation, so their process, while effective, does not offer a true library experience just now. It made the students start talking, which is useful because I intend this to be a talkative style of class. It gave them some momentum in the form of easy points. And it introduces everyone to 16 new books.

We’ll do it again at the end of the semester, when I’ll narrow their choices a bit, when the class has crystalized it’s focus. And we’ll all have even more new books to consider. Someone is going to get beach reading out of this exercise, I can tell.

Me, that someone will probably be me. Four or five of the books I heard about today are books I now want to read.

When they’d all talked a bit about their books I shared one other little thing. I’d run across someone in Chicago who found at her library a family archival kit you could check out for free. Gloves, acid free folders, picture holders, tips on how to start preserving your family’s history. That, I thought, was a really thoughtful idea. So I quickly ran through what the local library here offers beyond all of those wonderful books. You can check out a book club in a bag, for you and seven of your friends. They have a seed bank. They have museum passes for some truly terrific places in the area. There are, of course, movies and music, but also board games and yard games. Different branches run different sorts of workshops all of the time. They have a makers space, with 3D printers and laser cutters and more. Libraries, I told my class, are magical places.

No one disagreed.

After class there was a faculty meeting. We, as faculty, met. There is an agenda, a shared Drive, a tight schedule, and our chair, an altogether fellow who has it all together, runs a good schedule. Somehow, how we always get out right on time, which was 4:45 today. Then the drive home, that cloud, the many emails, and now a late night effort to catch up on the day’s news.

Shoulda stuck with the cloud.

Monday / music / photo / Rowan / video — Comments Off
27
Jan 25

Luke is Joe, until he finally gets to play himself

I’m not going to upload the whole Guster concert we saw Friday night, but there are maybe two or three other little bits I want to highlight. This was the beginning of their second version of the “We Also Have Eras Tour.” We saw them on the first leg of this tour, last march in Baltimore. We also saw them last May in a live radio concert. Obviously we were going to see them again. We’ve now seen the boys from Tufts three times in the last 10 months. I can’t wait to see them again.

This one takes a little context. Which I guess is perfect and confusing since the silly conceit of this tour is they are acting (to critical acclaim) their life story. So, context. Guster started, in 1991, as a three piece, guitarists Ryan Miller and Adam Gardner and percussionist Brian Rosenworcel, the Thunder God. In 2003 Joe Pisapia, a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer joined the band. He stayed in the group, and added a lot, until he left to play in k.d. lang’s band in 2010. So, at this point in the concert, they’re in that period. But Pisapia isn’t there. The part of Joe Pisapia is played by Luke Reynolds, who joined the band when Pisapia departed. When he first comes on stage in this show, he’s holding a giant picture of Pisapia over his face. He wears a name tag that says “Joe” on it during that part of the show. It’s dorky and tongue-in-cheek and great. Everyone is in on the joke.

So this is Reynolds, with the banjo, playing as Pisapia. He and Miller are pretending to re-enact the creation of one of their most popular numbers and, because of the magic of show business, it comes together for us here fully formed. This is “Jesus on the Radio,” which is always referenced on March 16th, since March 16th figures into the song.

Only, there’s a lot going on here in this particular performance. Reynolds is obviously losing his voice. It’s January. Miller knows it. The sound person knows it. Most people in the crowd probably didn’t catch this, but I heard it: Miller picks up some of the slack and the booth made some quick adjustments to their mic levels. And then when Gardner joins in, they change the layering in the chorus. This is all done on the fly.

Let’s check in on the cats, who have entered another noir era for this week’s installment of the site’s most popular feature.

Phoebe was catching a nice little nap in the 1 o’clock hour.

Same spot, a few days later, and almost down to the minute, I found Poseidon doing the same thing.

So, clearly, I’m the one with the routine.

(Bonus point for you if you see Phoebe in the background.)

In class today I demonstrated that the students don’t want me lecturing all semester. I did this by … lecturing for a full class session. Today we talked about globalization, and the history of cities, and a little about how each helps the other. And this will get us started down our path for the semester. A path that, I hope, they’ll lead the way on, conversationally.

The class was great today. A third or more of them were chipper and chiming right in. A few others sprinkled in some ideas, as well. Next week, we start talking about media and culture. And then we’re off to the races, examining various kinds of media from different places around the world.

I hope it all works out half as well as I’ve imagined it. In the the imagined version, a few students who took the class as a pure elective tell me they’ve been so inspired that they’ve changed their major. Others say they’ve had a vote and decided I am the Cool Professor. They’ll tell me this class was gas. That I left no crumbs. I will accept the gesture, but politely decline the gift they’ve all chipped in for. And, besides, being the Cool Professor is a great honor. It’ll go on my vita, I tell them. Right at the top, in fact. Instead, of a gift, just tell all of your friends about the class. And they do. And, eventually, it becomes so popular that they have to move it into one of those giant auditorium settings. Each semester it grows, becomes more intriguing, and more innovative. And then one day, a former student from this class comes back, now a cross-cultural pioneer in some as yet unrealized medium, and they guest lecture in the course. They say it started for them, right here. And they feel so indebted that they still want to give me that gift. By then, my career is winding down and I’ve become so popular that accepting a gift doesn’t seem problematic anymore. I figure maybe they’re going to give me a new prototype of their newest technological innovation. Or make a sizable donation to the university in my name, and my name goes on a building somewhere. But, then, my former student and now friend and global media pioneer says, No, the alumnus says. In 2025 we bought you a granola bar. And I’ve held onto it since then. Here it is, your 20-year-old thank you.

So, yeah, if it works out half as well as that, I’d be pleased.

After class I completed the impossible and Herculean task of putting office hours on the office door.

And then I went to the UPS store. Now there’s a tale …

I walked in because I had to return some poster frames I bought. I had to return the poster frames because I bought the wrong size poster frames. I need 24 x 32 and I bought 18 x 24. Not an original story.

I walked into the UPS store bracing myself for a line, because some part of my brain just thought it’d be like the USPS. But let me tell you, there was no one in the UPS store. When I opened the door the bell rang or the ding donged or whatever, and one of the guys came out of the back.

What can I do for you, boss?

This is now the second person that’s called me boss in the last 72 hours.

“I need to return this box and I’m sure you can tell me what to do from there.”

He has by then picked up his scanner, punched three buttons he hits dozens of times a day and scans the code I have shown him on my phone. His printer spits out a label faster than the sound from the scanner dies in the room. Seriously, you could still hear an “ep” and he had the thing in his hand.

OK, he said.

“It still has the label on the — ”

I’ll cover it with this one. Have a great day, boss.

And that was that.

So then I went to a gas station. Now there’s a tale! I’m going to save that one for another day.