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Samford

Auburn / iPhone / photo / Samford / video / weekend — Comments Off
6
Nov 11

Catching Up

Wildflowers on weeds on campus.

Pumpkin seeds anyone?

Mums from our stoop.

A rainy view of the break area outside our building, as seen from our classroom.

The turning maple in our yard. I was talking with my grandmother when I took this.

They’re turning up top, but still sprouting down low.

The stages of the maple in early November.

Auburn would win the swim meet against Penn State handily, in part because of the men’s 50 yard freestyle where and Karl Krug and TJ Leon, finishing first and second, led the way. Andrew Sideras finished third for PSU. Krug swam the race in 20.15.

The Auburn and NCAA record in this event is held by Caesar Cielo of Brazil. He swam it in 18.69 in 2007. The Auburn men improved to 2-0 on the young season with their 152-86 win. The women are now with their 138.5-99.5 victory.

Finally, a video in which not much happens. This is from the Caf, looking into the Samford quad on a rainy day. But the tree is nice.

journalism / links / Samford / Thursday — Comments Off
3
Nov 11

Memory and tradition dictate

Oh you thought you knew all about barbecue:

One historian speculates that the slow-cooking method of barbecue stems from a long tradition of general slowness in the South, (Bass 311), and maybe that is the reason that the South has been slow to abandon its traditional foodways. Other theories include the relative poverty of the South compared to the rest of the region, and a resulting reliance on familiar (and easily and cheaply procured) foods. Slow-cooking methods can transform tough and stringy meats and vegetables into delicious meals, and canning and preserving bountiful summer foodstuffs is an economical Southern custom. Cooking with pork adds flavor without expensive seasoning. The Depression which enveloped the United States in the mid-twentieth century was nothing new for most Southerners– poverty was a way of life for many Southerners long before it affected the rest of the country.

Another reason for the strong tradition inherent in Southern cooking is the emphasis on tradition in most aspects of Southern culture. Most Southerners are proud of their traditions– for hospitality, for strong family ties, and for a lavishly laid table.

[…]

Simmering vegetables for hours on the back of the stove made sense in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries– the stove was already lit, and the cook could tend to her many other chores without worrying about the greens and fatback (or butter beans or stewed corn or other vegetables). They would peacefully simmer at low heat, and would provide a meal (along with some biscuits or cornbread) when her other chores were finished. Today, this method is not convenient, but it persists. When Georgia Brown’s, a restaurant specializing in Southern food in Washington D.C., started serving collard greens that were cooked quickly to retain crispness and nutrients, patrons complained. Now, the restaurant serves collards both ways. Obviously, convenience is not the main factor in food preparation in the South anymore– memory and tradition dictate some food choices.

The sociology of food would be an interesting field, but it would always leave you hungry. You’d only find yourself stuffed when you disagreed with someone’s obviously wrong conclusion.

That’s from the Department of American Studies at Virginia, where they will also demonstrate the complexities and contradictions of America in the 1930s. Read everything there, go back in time and fit right in. It has only been 80 years, but that’s our world and our great-grandparents world do have some differences. We have, for example, successfully learned to keep giant gorillas off the Empire State Building.

A touching feature story from Ohio, where Sgt. 1st Class Steven Jessie is being forced out of the guard after a 30-year career. His last duty assignment has been working honor guards at funerals, having participated in more than 1,000 burials.

“I don’t necessarily believe that the guest of honor can look down from the great beyond. But, if he can, he will see that his remains are being treated with honor.”

Fifteen minutes later, Charlie Smith’s family arrived. The ceremony unfolded. The flag was folded. And presented to Mike Smith, Charlie’s son.

Jessie gave a special emphasis when he said the word “appreciation” as he presented the flag to the GI’s son.

Smith noticed. After the funeral, he walked to where the honor guard stood. The trio had marched from the crest of the hill to a valley out of sight of the procession.

Smith shook Jessie’s hand.

“It meant a lot to know a man who took up the call of duty for his country,” Smith said, “hasn’t been forgotten.”

He turned and walked away, still clutching the flag in the same position in which he received it from Jessie.

My great-grandfather, a decorated World War II medic, had asked only for a VFW honor guard, which was simple and sweet and somehow not enough, but that was his way and the family’s wish.

This function of military ceremony, though, at once critical and tragic, is an interesting area. You’re one of the main players in some terrible, traumatic moment of people’s lives, whether you’re talking about old gray veterans or active duty service members. The other side of it is the notification. There was an understated movie — which was greatly harmed by one too many subplots — on the topic:

The really moving piece on the subject, however, is this slide show and the incredible Pulitzer Prize-winning feature writing that accompanied it. Sadly the paper that published it, The Rocky Mountain News has since folded, but Jim Sheeler and Todd Heisler’s work is enduring, as they followed a notification and burial detail for a year. They tell this story from a Marine’s return home, to his funeral, before his child is born. The photographs just build and build and then the last one, one you might not expect, punches you in the throat.

Back to the story on Sgt. Jessie, then, where the funeral director says he’s seen soldiers who can’t fold the flag. But he knows: when Jessie is there everything will be right. That’s a job to be taken seriously, nice to see there are men and women who do it.

Class today. It was otherwise one of those days that slips away in chunks that you can’t quite explain. I did read a lot though. There’s always a lot of reading, it seems. Should have gotten more done than I managed to, but that’s what tomorrow and next week are for.

Auburn / movies / Samford / Wednesday — Comments Off
2
Nov 11

The toils of history

Late in the summer I was asked to read, and review, the new memoir of Dr. Wayne Flynt. He is a retired history scholar who was educated at Samford, where he would first teach. He’d go on to earn his greatest acclaim during his almost three decades of scholarship and activism while on the faculty at Auburn. Here’s the review, and a brief segment:

For his ground-level view from the center of many critical turning points in the state in the last 30 years Wayne Flynt’s memoir is worth reading.

But you’ve probably read this far to see what Flynt says the power struggles at Auburn. That starts in Chapter 12, which he’s titled In the Eye of the Storm.

Here again Flynt delves deep into Auburn’s long history to establish the setting. A lot of talk over the years, dating back to President Isaac T. Tichenor (1872-1881) has centered on the mission of Auburn University. Flynt — noting that Auburn has a unique history as a Methodist school that taught the classics before the Morrill Act created the land grant institution — almost distills decades of dispute to the mutual identities as an institution with an agricultural and mechanical mission and as an institution of the classics and other liberal arts. Flynt, the history professor in the College of Liberal Arts, acknowledges in his memoir the role and need for both, while portraying board of trustee member Bobby Lowder as a nearly exclusive supporter of the former.

From such divides Flynt recalls the pesky matters with the the SACS investigation and subsequent probation, the NCAA and, of course, coaching changes. Lowder, who wanted Auburn to aspire to be like Clemson, is of course the central figure.

If you’re interested in history, education, religion, the rural post-war South, the modern day political landscape of Alabama or, in particular, Auburn University, this might be a book worth your time.

Elsewhere, class prep, grading things, trying to figure out a new assignment and reading.

I also started The Kennedys. Sometimes Greg Kinnear is John Kennedy. Other times he’s just Greg Kinnear. You can totally buy Barry Pepper as Bobby Kennedy, however.

You can see why Kennedy fans didn’t want this show to get picked up. Early scripts got panned. The final script is apparently different and, still not well liked. The mini-series, which won four Emmy awards and was nominated for three more, was finally aired on something called ReelzChannel. The History Channel passed because, “this dramatic interpretation is not a fit for the History brand.”

As I write this The History Channel is in an Ancient Aliens marathon.

This is the best quote on the subject, in the New York Times of all places:

There is something wonderfully Kennedyesque about a backroom campaign to discredit a series that claims the Kennedy White House had more than its share of backroom shenanigans.

Also, methamphetamines? You learn something new from television everyday.

Google Reader. I got the update last night and was immediately dismayed. Not the least of all because it removed the thing I was reading at the time. And then I looked at it, and oh, the thing is just dreadful. Best part, you have to actually seek out how many unread items there are. And in Chrome, Google’s own, you can’t see that number across the top of the browser because there is no top to the browser. The design aesthetic is now working against them. A lot of people are complaining of wasted space — I have big screens, so I can only imagine their pain — but I do agree with everyone’s sentiment about the lack of color and the inherent un-usability that comes with this roll out.

There’s a word you don’t see with Google a lot. But, as they say, you get what you pay for.

If you decide to stay, then please do send us your feedback on today’s set of improvements. Google+ is still in its early days, after all, and we’re constantly working on improvements. If, however, you decide that the product is no longer for you, then please do take advantage of Reader’s subscription export feature. Regardless where you go, we want to make sure you can take your data with you.

So you take a product that works and people like. You turn it into something people hate — and apparently near universally judging by Google’s own un-answered message boards — to try and bring it in line with Google+, which is fighting for its own life. You strip the communal Share feature from Reader so you’ll have to do that in Google+, without considering that the user might have or desire different audiences and communities at different places.

Look, I like simplicity — Have you seen the rest of this site? This iteration was designed as an ode to basic code — but Reader has abandoned simplicity for starkness. Two horizontal rows over three columns, and now nothing to differentiate any of it. Stylistically it looks like a step back to 1997 (can the subscription button blink?) built for baud modems in old East Germany and devoid of color, graphics or anything of any kind that might be useful to the eye.

White space because the #FFFFFF pixels are cheaper. (They are not.) Air, as a design element in the print format is a beautiful thing. Air in an ultra-data format, an RSS reader, betrays the point of concisely packing a lot of information on a page. And when you have data, you’re going to need a color or two and a rule here and there to separate the basic elements. Now, it is all gone.

It is a polar bear, walking across an empty ice floe looking for food. Finding none, it has moved on. Also, the javascript is slower. There is no Classic Version reset button. No option. (Though the former lead designer has offered to help fix the thing.) Take it or RSS elsewhere.

So, yeah. Find me an reader that gives me a browser and a phone version that are both tolerable. Allow them to communicate with one another — “He’s read this feed on the computer, the unread items should disappear on the phone.” — and I’ll export and move on.

My only regret is that I would not be giving ad opportunities to Google. Not that their using that trick in the Reader just now.

Oh, and GMail is due a change too. I’m sure that’ll push more stuff to Google+ and allow even more spam through.

Auburn / journalism / music / Samford / Tuesday / video — Comments Off
1
Nov 11

“The beat don’t stop”

Sent the in-laws home today. They’re lovely folks, full of fun and I’m glad when they get to visit. It seems we’re making this an annual thing, though, their fall trip for a weekend. Last year they made it down for a homecoming game. This weekend they saw Auburn host Ole Miss. Next year, a big-time game perhaps.

Anyway, we had breakfast at Barbecue House, as has become a weekly tradition. Some football players were there, including an offensive lineman. My mother-in-law barely came up to his shoulder blades. Mr. Price now remembers me. He asked my mother-in-law if if I was back or visiting.

And this is the sign that I ate here too much in undergrad — several times a week for breakfast and sometimes for lunch as my class schedule allowed — he now recalls me by name. That’s a powerful memory.

I graduated a decade ago.

Saw them off and headed to campus. Did a little work, graded some papers, mingled a bit and went to class.

I learned what relief sounds like. I told the students they would have no quiz today and the room got brighter, louder and the barometric pressure dropped two degrees. The escape of tension can be a tangible thing.

At the paper, where the student-journalists are hard at work … showing each other videos. Rapper’s Delight shows up in here, as well as other high points of the genre:

There are three things about that. First, I’ve now seen Jimmy Fallon do something funny — he’s just … not. Second, I think I’ve found Jimmy Fallon’s audience — the college student. Third, this is the jumping off point where I can no longer relate to that audience — I’m old.

They are also putting together a paper, alas, there is no compelling video of this herculean feat. There will be news copy tomorrow, however.

Google is making changes. They are horrible. More on that tomorrow.

Friday / iPhone / music / photo / Samford / video — Comments Off
28
Oct 11

Many heads nodding together

Beyond that window is a brightly flaring tree. Beyond that tree is a campus covered in low clouds. Beyond that non-fog is rain.

And that’s what the world looks like today.

The big JMC Advisory Council was today, where the faculty welcome back alumni, recent grads and local industry pros to get a ground-level sense of the industry and where we should be heading as a department. These sorts of meetings can be insightful, particularly if you’re prepared to hear what the advisory council comes to say. When this happens there are many thoughtful nods, supportive gestures of considerable heft from important people. Also, there are snacks and jokes.

I found myself taking minutes of the meeting. Never done that before. I typed, single-spaced, eight pages of notes.

Outside of the room where this took place were two floor-to-ceiling book shelves filled with old books free for the taking. I went a little crazy. When I stacked them up later my haul was up to my knee. A lot of writing books and a few tomes of literature, which will all look good in the office, and then a few more that will look good as I read them.

One day. I now have two full shelves of books at home waiting to be read.

Shot this video and edited it on my phone, for fun, while waiting on a table at dinner tonight:

I hate the music to it, but it was the only track that fit the edited footage of nothingness that I had on my phone. I need more bumper music! He said to an uncaring world.

“You and everybody else, bub.”

My in-laws are here. They flew in today for a weekend visit, since we don’t have the chance to make it New England for Thanksgiving. Also, they’re missing the first snow fall of the year, apparently. That’s early and unwanted by everyone in their part of the world, but they’ll be enjoying sun and a breeze here.

I really think they come for the football. They were down for the Homecoming game last year. This season we’ve upped the ante a bit, having them for a conference foe in pitiful Ole Miss. Next year they’ll have to come for a more heated rivalry.

Anyway, I was editing that video as they made it to the restaurant. The Yankee, her parents and Brian, who is also in town for football, went to the charity home run derby at the baseball park tonight. I made it home in time to put our name on the wait list. We had corn nuggets and fried pickles and sandwiches and a lovely time all together at dinner.

Feeling sort of wimpy, I may have to call it an early evening. This was a fairly long day after about four hours of sleep. (I was writing things.)

So, just so you don’t go without, YouTube Cover Theater, where we demonstrate the power of the video camera, the Internet and passion for music, in the form of talented people covering tunes because they like the way they sound. This week’s featured artist is Ray Charles.

We’ll start with people in wigs and bad hats covering the tune that was the precursor to soul music:

Who likes harmonica?

Ray. Willie. Must have it here:

Ray Charles covered a lot over his great career. Here he is re-imagining Eleanor Rigby: