The Rhetorical Situation, Dec. 3, 2009

Well, capping off a pretty crappy Saturday night, I've realized that the mp3 of our show is, apparently, completely blank/muted. So, ignore everything here but the playlist at the bottom. C'est la vie.



Jacob and I talked some smack about the Ducks this week, debated about some of our favorite female vocalists, and declared that it's about damn time for this term to end.

I'll be sure to get this up on Thursdays from now on. If you've been listening to any artists we might not be familiar with, but should, please let me know. I'm looking forward to spending a few nights searching for new music soon. But first, four more days of intensive writing.

Check us out live, Thursdays at noon Pacific on 88.7 FM in Corvallis, or at KBVR.com.

This episode's playlist:

The Harlem Shakes, "Nothing But Change, Pt. II"
My Morning Jacket, "One Big Holiday"
Billy Bragg & Wilco, "California Stars"
Jenny Lewis, "The Next Messiah"
Neko Case, "This Tornado Loves You"
Buck 65, "Bandits"
Run on Sentence, "November Nights"
Jolie Holland, "Old Fashioned Morphine"
Lucinda Williams, "Well, Well, Well"

The Rhetorical Situation, Sweet Potatoes and Green Beans, 2009

Yesterday, Jacob and I shared a few tips on how to cook the Thanksgiving bird, delivered an engineer's recipe for green bean casserole, and read a couple of PSAs ourselves for the first time. But more importantly, we played just a few of the bands we're deeply thankful for, artists who continue to influence the music we love today. Neil Young, Jerry Garcia, Sonic Youth, The Magnetic Fields, Pavement.

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Be careful out there today. Is it a coincidence that we call the first day of the Great Depression and the day of consumption after Thanksgiving black? In 2007, 137 million people participated in the Black Friday shopping rush, about 6 million more than the number of people who participated in the 2008 presidential election, which had the largest turnout in United States history.

Tune in live every Thursday at noon Pacific on KBVR.com or 88.7 FM in Corvallis to hear The Rhetorical Situation.

The Rhetorical Situation, Nov. 26, 2009

Travis Margoni's Podcast

The stuffing:

Neil Young, "Helpless," from The Last Waltz
Jerry Garcia, "Dire Wolf," from the Oregon State Prision
The Velvet Underground, "Rock and Roll"
Elvis Costello, "Less Than Zero"
The Rolling Stones, "Sweet Virginia"
Sonic Youth, "Teen Age Riot"
Violent Femmes, "Please Do Not Go"
The Magnetic Fields, "I don't want to get over you"
Radiohead, "Just"
Pavement, "Blue Hawaiian"
Arcade Fire, "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)"
Ray Charles, "What I say"

The Rhetorical Situation, Nov. 19, 2009

Today, Jacob and I fought and defeated the Technology Monster, but we walked away with a few flesh wounds.

The damage done: we had to interrupt someone's pre-recorded interview/show at the start of our show; online streaming wasn't available for the first 10-15 minutes; one of the CD players wouldn't recognize Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros (and I called them the Magnificent Zeros); finally, for the second straight week, our last song of the show, at least on the mp3, is cut off and something otherworldly replaces it.

The victories: we opened with a fantastic new band, Delta Spirit, and considered whether or not there are mountains in San Diego; Girl in a Coma made a second appearance; Las Cruces's Retsila Gem hit Oregon airwaves for the first time; we discuss some great bands coming to Doug Fir in Portland next month; finally, we promise to bring the sweetest potatoes next week.

Tune in every Thursday at noon Pacific for The Rhetorical Situation at 88.7 FM in Corvallis, or kbvr.com on the web.

The Rhetorical Situation, Nov. 19, 2009

Travis Margoni's Podcast

Today's playlist:

Delta Spirit, "People Come On"
The Walkmen, "Postcards from Tiny Islands"
Retsila Gem, Unknown
Girl in a Coma, "Vino"
Xiu Xiu, "I Love The Valley Oh"
Blitzen Trapper, "Black River Killer"
Felice Brothers, "Take This Hammer"
Grizzly Bear, "While You Wait For The Others"
Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros, "Home"
Mount St. Helens Vietnam Band, "En Fuego"
Hockey, "Song Away"
Bodies of Water, "Under the Pines"

The Boycott List (running)

From time to time, I just need to take a stand. I boycott a product, a company, a location, business, my landlord, stopping at stop signs, whatever. I really stick it to The Man.

Here is a running list of things I am boycotting:

• Widmer Brothers Brewing. Seventh largest brewery in the country. Their hef helped me get hooked on beer, but that's not enough to override their general dickery, and the new Brrr commercial campaign is sexist and made to appeal to the people I like least in Oregon.

• Sportscenter. Stroking stupid sports fans and Northeast sports teams for too many years to count now.

• ESPN.com. See above. Also, I'm not paying a penny to read Hollinger's self-righteous shit.

• FOX News. Duh, right? But, I mean, I won't even turn to the channel to see what kind of insane things they're doing now. Just makes me too angry.

• Nike. Too dominant, too much money going into the University of Oregon, too many unethical labor practices, and too much Michael Jordan. They can't have my money.

• Walmart. I don't care how cheap it is. Please do not ever buy me a Walmart gift card.

• Coors. Nope, I won't drink a Coors Light if it's the only beer at the party and I've had the worst week of my life. Pete Coors makes me hopeful there's a hell.

• David Sedaris. Just not very funny, although he's okay on This American Life. Overhype = boycott. (Dave Eggers, you and your McSweeney's crowd are on my radar, too! Influencing pop culture by publishing your friends = boycott!)

• Rogue. Oh. My. Gosh. I still need to fully explain this one in a separate post. Man, I'll never drink another Rogue beer in my life. We were treated like children over a perfectly legal ID at the brewery in Newport, and subsequent e-mails between myself and one of the founders/co-owners revealed just how awful they really are, how profit trumps all, and how lying is okay when you're a big enough brewery. (Josh also experienced such unprofessionalism and disrespect.)

• Australian wine. Seriously, you live near some of the best wines in the world if you live in Oregon, Washington, or California. Let's support the Oregon and Washington wine industries.

• Myspace. So happy this company is dying in the hands of News Corp. Last.fm and Pitchfork are just as good (Better? Wouldn't know anymore!) for finding music.

• U2. I will childishly plug my ears and scream Boycott Boycott Boycott!

• Onions. Obviously.

• David Bartholomae. Write for the institution, write for the institution, write for the institution. (I'm probably misrepresenting here, but what the hell, right?)


More to come!

Tell me what you're boycotting. I'm probably down for the cause!

The Rhetorical Situation, Nov. 12, 2009

Four weeks in, and we're still going strong. Today, Jacob and I introduced a couple of Portland bands, Hockey and The Dead Trees, discussed the use of the word "partner," and went about 6 minutes over our allotted time. We had a couple of mishaps on today's show, and while we're not ashamed (pun?), we promise to do better next time.

You can hear us live at noon on Thursdays on 88.7 FM in Corvallis, or at KBVR.com.

(Podcast starts about 17 seconds in. Patience, grasshoppers.)

The Rhetorical Situation, Nov. 12, 2009

Travis Margoni's Podcast

Today's playlist:

Hockey, "Too Fake"
Starfucker (Pyramiddd), "Girls Just Want To Have Fun"
The Dead Weather, "60 Feet Tall"
The Drive By Truckers, "Sink Hole"
The Dead Trees, "Killer in Me"
Thao and the Get Down Stay Down, "Geography"
Papercuts, "You Can Have What You Want"
Grampall Jookabox, "Old Earth, Wash My Beat"
These United States, "West Won"
Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, "The Hardest Part"
Wilco, "Kingpin"
Deer Tick, "Ashamed"
Built To Spill, "I Would Hurt a Fly"

The Rhetorical Situation, Nov. 5, 2009

Here it is, episode 3 of The Rhetorical Situation. Today, Jacob and I gave a nod to Kenneth Burke, determined which beer is the best in Corvallis, and I shared some safety tips for bicyclists and motorists in Corvallis. Not to mention, rocked off some socks with Girl in a Coma before gettin' twangy with it.

Apologies for not recording the beginning of the show. Technical difficulties. (Read: Couldn't figure out how to get the mp3 recording started.) So, it begins a minute or so into the first song.

The Rhetorical Situation, Nov. 5, 2009

Travis Margoni's Podcast

Remember, high noon on the Pacific, www.kbvr.com or 88.7 on the radio.

Here's the playlist from today's show:

Girl in a Coma, "BB"
The Felice Brothers, "Helen Fry"
The Builders and the Butchers, "Golden and Green"
Modest Mouse, "Three Inch Horses"
The Shins, "Gone for Good"
Leslie and the Badgers, "The Torture"
The Decemberists, "Grace Cathedral Hill"
Animal Collective, "Leaf House"
TV on the Radio, "DLZ"
The French Kicks, "Love in the Ruins"
The Fiery Furnaces, "Drive to Dallas"
Portugal. The Man, "Guns and Dogs"
Of Montreal, "A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger"

Show #2, The Rhetorical Situation

Well, Jacob and I survived our second show with no major mishaps this time around. We are still going to look into creating a podcast in the near future, but, in the meantime, take a look at our playlists. I'll post them here each week.

Tune in at noon each Thursday to hear The Rhetorical Situation on KBVR.com or 88.7 FM in Corvallis. Thanks, dear listeners, friends.

Today's playlist:

Sam Roberts Band, "Love At The End of The World"
The Detroit Cobras, "I Wanna Holler"
Portugal. The Man, "People Say"
Wolf Parade, "You Are A Runner"
Chris Bathgate, "Every Wall You Own"
Pavement, "Embassy Row"
The Dirty Projectors, "Winter is Here"
Thao and the Get Down Stay Down, "Feet Asleep"
The Builders and the Butchers, "Bottom of the Lake"
Massive Attack, "Splitting the Atom"
Grizzly Bear, "Two Weeks"
Band of Bees, "A Minha"
Neko Case, "Prison Girls"
The Flaming Lips, "The Ego's Last Stand"

Blazers season begins

I'm so thrilled to be able to watch the Blazers again. Such a good bunch of guys, so talented and well-coached. Can't wait to see how this team grows. I'll throw up just a few links right now, since I'm coming down with a cold and need to get to bed.

Jason Quick wrote a good piece about Roy's leadership today in the Oregonian.

Unfortunately, we received some bad news today, just 24 hours before the season tips off at home against the Houston Rockets, the team that bounced the Blazers out of the playoffs last season: Nic Batum will be out 4-5 months, most likely, due to a torn labrum requiring surgery this Friday. Batum was penciled in as the starter at small forward this year, and the young second-year player is a great defender whose offensive game developed nicely this summer playing for the French national team. Martell Webster will start in his place, and the Portland depth is already proving invaluable.

Finally, be sure to check out this fantastic season's eve preview from Blazersedge, the finest Blazers blog out there.

Cheers, Rip City.

Radio Show

Jacob and I hosted our first radio show today, The Rhetorical Situation. You can listen at noon on Thursdays online at KBVR.com, or 88.7 FM in the Corvallis area.

Several friends have requested that we create podcasts, so we'll work on that. Until then, hope you can catch us live. Here's our playlist from earlier today:

Mount St. Helens Vietnam Band, "Albatross"
Arctic Monkeys, "505"
King Khan and the Shrines, "Land of the Freak"
Run On Sentence, "Stonewall"
The Devil Makes Three, "Tow"
Starfucker, "Boy Toy"
Jenny Lewis, "Jack Killed Mom"
The Boggs, "Forts"
The Fiery Furnaces, "Take Me Round Again"
Broken Social Scene, "KC Accidental"
Camera Obscura, "My Maudlin Career"
Pixies, Complete 'B' Sides, "Manta Ray"
Of Montreal, "Oslo in the summertime"

2009 Beer Awards

It wasn't a great year for Oregon breweries, but, hey, the competition is growing.

Here are the 2009 Great American Beer Festival results.

Here are the North American Brewers' Association results.

I definitely need to check out the Pelican Brewery in Pacific City. Very soon. Pelican took home seven awards from the North American Beer Awards.

Cheers.

Columbus Day

Kudos to the University of Oregon Native American Student Union for protesting, once again, Columbus Day.

There's a growing movement against Columbus day, and while I don't necessarily agree to every group's mode of protest or reform, I certainly prefer to celebrate El Día de la Resistencía Indígena.

Another Top Ten: Songs

Again, a friend on Facebook prompts me to compose a list. This time, it's my ten favorite songs. Yes, the all-time favorites. I hesitate to post this even, since it's wholly inadequate and was drafted in about 7 minutes. I didn't allow myself to include more than one song for an artist. Really difficult for me to not include a few groups/artists, like Beck and the Pixies. Also, for my own time and sanity, I didn't include rap/hip hop or jazz, which may have brought in Snoop, Dre, and Herbie Hancock. But this is what I came up with:

Beatles, A Day in the Life
Blitzen Trapper, Furr
Broken Social Scene, 7/4 (Shoreline)
The Builders and the Butchers, Bottom of the Lake
The Decemberists, Grace Cathedral Hill
The Fiery Furnaces, Take Me Round Again
The Grateful Dead, Shakedown Street
Jenny Lewis, Rise Up With Fists!!!
The Shins, Gone for Good
TV on the Radio, Shout Me Out

Honorable Mention:
The Arcade Fire, No Cars Go
Of Montreal, A Sentence Of Sorts In Kongsvinger
Starfucker, Pop Song


What about you?

RSA Panel, Pedagogy of Advocacy: A New Media Argument

Two friends and I recently developed a conference proposal for the Rhetoric Society of America's biennial conference, a panel titled "Attending to New Media: Identification, Style, and Advocacy." We should know in December whether or not it has been accepted for the May conference in Minneapolis.

Below is my portion of the presentation. Fingers crossed.

Speaker 3: The Pedagogy of Advocacy: A New Media Argument

First-year students enter composition classrooms well equipped to use (and change) many new media and emerging technologies. Their experiences with advocacy--real or conceptual--however, are often more limited, at least in their eyes. In their first-year composition textbook, Compose, Design, Advocate, Anne Francis Wysocki and Dennis A. Lynch outline for students the parallels between argument and advocacy; all argument, they maintain, is advocacy--neither “left” nor “right” politically, but a matter of community health and one’s own happiness. The problem for many instructors of first-year composition quickly becomes one of merging two essential elements for student growth: new technologies (and the literacies therein) and rhetorical awareness. In this talk, I argue that one useful goal is to help students realize and appreciate the act of advocacy as both civilizing and expressive using Wysocki’s pedagogy and theory as a model. Essentially the pedagogical moves toward advocacy are queries on identification--who writers identify with and who dis-identifies with their writing. The communication between two or more people expresses values, beliefs, and concerns that help shape one’s sense of identification internally and in the eyes of others. Therein continues the growth of concord and controversy in our students, and as much in ourselves. In Compose, Design, Advocate, Wysocki and Lynch write that, “To talk about argument, and so to talk about advocacy, is to talk about how we can and should live our lives” (112). My talk promotes advocacy as a pedagogy and the benefits found in new media and emerging technologies toward that end: specifically, materiality and composition, user-centered web designs (often called Web 2.0), media convergence at grassroots and corporate levels, and how new media productions build relationships among people.

America

I've been staring at, plugging away at a thesis prospectus for hours tonight. Here, respite:

"America"
by Ginsberg

America I've given you all and now I'm nothing.
America two dollars and twenty-seven cents January 17, 1956.
I can't stand my own mind.
America when will we end the human war?
Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb
I don't feel good don't bother me.
I won't write my poem till I'm in my right mind.
America when will you be angelic?
When will you take off your clothes?
When will you look at yourself through the grave?
When will you be worthy of your million Trotskyites?
America why are your libraries full of tears?
America when will you send your eggs to India?
I'm sick of your insane demands.
When can I go into the supermarket and buy what I need with my good looks?
America after all it is you and I who are perfect not the next world.
Your machinery is too much for me.
You made me want to be a saint.
There must be some other way to settle this argument.
Burroughs is in Tangiers I don't think he'll come back it's sinister.
Are you being sinister or is this some form of practical joke?
I'm trying to come to the point.
I refuse to give up my obsession.
America stop pushing I know what I'm doing.
America the plum blossoms are falling.
I haven't read the newspapers for months, everyday somebody goes on trial for
murder.
America I feel sentimental about the Wobblies.
America I used to be a communist when I was a kid and I'm not sorry.
I smoke marijuana every chance I get.
I sit in my house for days on end and stare at the roses in the closet.
When I go to Chinatown I get drunk and never get laid.
My mind is made up there's going to be trouble.
You should have seen me reading Marx.
My psychoanalyst thinks I'm perfectly right.
I won't say the Lord's Prayer.
I have mystical visions and cosmic vibrations.
America I still haven't told you what you did to Uncle Max after he came over
from Russia.

I'm addressing you.
Are you going to let our emotional life be run by Time Magazine?
I'm obsessed by Time Magazine.
I read it every week.
Its cover stares at me every time I slink past the corner candystore.
I read it in the basement of the Berkeley Public Library.
It's always telling me about responsibility. Businessmen are serious. Movie
producers are serious. Everybody's serious but me.
It occurs to me that I am America.
I am talking to myself again.

Asia is rising against me.
I haven't got a chinaman's chance.
I'd better consider my national resources.
My national resources consist of two joints of marijuana millions of genitals
an unpublishable private literature that goes 1400 miles and hour and
twentyfivethousand mental institutions.
I say nothing about my prisons nor the millions of underpriviliged who live in
my flowerpots under the light of five hundred suns.
I have abolished the whorehouses of France, Tangiers is the next to go.
My ambition is to be President despite the fact that I'm a Catholic.

America how can I write a holy litany in your silly mood?
I will continue like Henry Ford my strophes are as individual as his
automobiles more so they're all different sexes
America I will sell you strophes $2500 apiece $500 down on your old strophe
America free Tom Mooney
America save the Spanish Loyalists
America Sacco & Vanzetti must not die
America I am the Scottsboro boys.
America when I was seven momma took me to Communist Cell meetings they
sold us garbanzos a handful per ticket a ticket costs a nickel and the
speeches were free everybody was angelic and sentimental about the
workers it was all so sincere you have no idea what a good thing the party
was in 1835 Scott Nearing was a grand old man a real mensch Mother
Bloor made me cry I once saw Israel Amter plain. Everybody must have
been a spy.
America you don're really want to go to war.
America it's them bad Russians.
Them Russians them Russians and them Chinamen. And them Russians.
The Russia wants to eat us alive. The Russia's power mad. She wants to take
our cars from out our garages.
Her wants to grab Chicago. Her needs a Red Reader's Digest. her wants our
auto plants in Siberia. Him big bureaucracy running our fillingstations.
That no good. Ugh. Him makes Indians learn read. Him need big black niggers.
Hah. Her make us all work sixteen hours a day. Help.
America this is quite serious.
America this is the impression I get from looking in the television set.
America is this correct?
I'd better get right down to the job.
It's true I don't want to join the Army or turn lathes in precision parts
factories, I'm nearsighted and psychopathic anyway.
America I'm putting my queer shoulder to the wheel.

Top Ten QBs

Today, on Facebook, a friend declared that Brett Favre isn't one of the top ten quarterbacks of all time. Naturally, riots ensued, but I supported the claim and came up with my own top ten list. This did involve some research at Pro-FootballReference.com, and I think there are two guys who could make this list depending on one's sense of how the game has changed or hasn't changed, and what makes a good passer: Steve Young and Tom Brady. Young didn't do it long enough, and, well, after seeing how Brady lobbied for a b.s. late hit this weekend, I feel justified in not adding little Tommy to the list.

1. Marino
2. Montana
3. P. Manning
4. Tarkenton
5. Otto Graham
6. Bart Starr
7. Elway
8. Moon
9. Unitas
10. Staubach

Total TDs doesn't do it, yardage doesn't do it, nor does winning rings alone. I won't bore you with the evidence.

Get this album

Goodbye Solo

Saw one of the best (and saddest) movies I've seen in a long, long time. "Goodbye Solo." I recommend that you don't watch the trailer because it gives too much away, but I've included two clips here that I think are worth checking out, and they reveal much less than the theatrical trailer.

I don't have the words to really express just how powerful and perfect this movie is, how understated and unsentimental--probably because it's 87 degrees at 10:30, and probably because a film like this speaks so well for itself that I shouldn't even bother trying to speak for it.

From Iran to Grants Pass

Good thing I don't call myself a blogger. Not much text going up lately.

I heard Michael Jackson died and the internets nearly exploded.

Things are happening in Iran. That's a big understatement as I sit so cozily housesitting for a professor out on Cardwell Hill. Twitter has served the people of Iran well, but let's keep it in perspective, please.

And by the way, I'm drinking a Pike Kilt Lifter ruby ale from Seattle. Gets my full recommendation, for what that's worth.

The NBA draft came and went with the Blazers doing little but moving Sergio and swapping picks with Sacramento.

Also in Oregon, a marijuana clinic will be opening in Grants Pass, the same place where we stopped for pizza a couple of weeks ago. I can't speak for the beer there, but the pizza is average and the Wild River Brewing and Pizza Company is one ugly, ugly place. Time to replace the carpeting with wood floors.

Well, I've really digressed, from the death of a pop star whose sales totaled 750 million albums and the crumbling theocracy in Iran to the floors of a pizzaria in Grants Pass. I don't know why I'm including so many pointless links today.

iPanic

Art from The New York Times: iPanic.

Recent Jenkins interview

Henry Jenkins discusses the problem of schools blocking computer and internet access. Pointed and accurate.

MOB: LBJ and I run isolation in different circles

Check out my latest entry to Monster on the Boards.

Here's hoping the Magic play just as well against the Lakers.

New bars on the bike

In the fall I ordered clubman handlebars for my '78 Honda CB 550. Well, at last, they're on the bike, thanks to Josh.

"A Vision of Students Today"

Many of you may have seen this already, but if not, check it out.

Anxiety/Excitement: Missing Girl Talk?

The Sasquatch Music Festival weekend is fast approaching. We leave for the Gorge in Washington at 7 a.m. on Saturday, two cars, six people, two tents, five pounds of peanut butter, and a few tubs of sunscreen.

I'm getting excited. So many great bands, five great people to join in the drinking and dancing and driving. But it is nearly 6 hours away, so a few people are going to want to head back before the 7:15 performance by Girl Talk on Monday night. I don't know how to convince a car to stick around that long, since I'm not driving, but I'll keep saying how he'll be one of the best performances of the entire weekend. Fingers crossed.

2008-2009 slam stats

All the dunk stats you can digest, thanks to Roto Evil.

Great work. And check the disclaimer at the bottom.

Blazers had the 5th most dunks this season. As noted on Roto Evil, the team should stay near the top of that list with all those young legs, despite the slow (and effective) offense they run.

MOB: Recovery of the Roy Boys: Stage One -- Acceptance

My latest Blazers piece for Monster on the Boards.

In the future I'm going to write occasional shorter correspondences from Roy Boy Nation.

Where Will Amazing Happen This Year?

Rise of the Roy Boy

Just a quick note: I'll be writing at least a couple of blog entries on the Blazers for Monster on the Boards, thanks to co-editor Chapin Bennett, beginning with today's review of Portland's game five victory over Houston. Be sure to check out the link to the original controversy that led to me suggesting Chapin sit in on a journalism class and Chapin crowning me Leader of the Roy Boys.

NBA Playoff Update

I've been hesitant to blog in-depth about the Blazers so far. It's been too painful. But I thought I'd write out a few ideas to help me organize my own thoughts about the playoffs so far, a postseason many people are criticizing, but I don't really understand why. Upset about the Cavs-Pistons series? What'd you expect? It's the first round.

Blazers-Rockets

I'll start with the Blazers, down 3-1 and heading back to Portland for game five on Tuesday night. They lost the last two games in Houston, 86-83 and 89-88. Brandon Roy has been fantastic this series, averaging 28.3 points per while being dragged down by some of the toughest defenders in the league, Ron Artest and Shane Battier. Unfortunately, the Rockets have nearly shut down everyone around him, namely LaMarcus Aldridge and Travis Outlaw, who've been good at times but not consistently able to muscle up and score against the Rockets.

Greg Oden and Joel Przybilla have been in foul trouble a lot trying to guard Yao Ming, and today McMillan finally sounded off about it. Things should change back home on Tuesday, in the officiating and in the result of the game, but whether or not the Blazers can come back to win this series, well, I'm not about to place any bets on them. I anticipate a Blazers victory Tuesday night, but Thursday night's game in Houston will require great games from Roy, Aldridge, Outlaw, and, in particular, Rudy Fernandez, whose three-point shooting off the bench will be needed to silence the Houston crowd.

On top of all this, Roy is coming down with the flu, but will play, of course. Not swine flu, we don't think.

In the end, it'll come down to whether or not the Blazers can scrap for a victory on Thursday night in Houston. They've lost two games there by a total of four points, and this team has surprised me time and time again this season.

Also in the West:

The Lakers are on their way to defeating the Jazz as I type this. Series over. And the Nuggets embarrassed the Hornets in New Orleans tonight to go up 3-1. Series (basically) over. I was hoping CP3 could carry the Hornets this year, but that team around him is woeful.

The Mavericks are on their way to defeating the Spurs, up 3-1 right now. The Mavericks will probably fall to the Spurs Tuesday night in San Antonio, then finish the series at home on Friday. Tony Parker can't carry the Spurs past a much deeper Mavs team, and many SA fans think it's time for some sort of rebuilding in Texas next year. Easier said than done. Goodbye Finley, goodbye Bowen. Still hate the Mavs, but it's been nice to see Ryan Hollins contributing in spots during this series. He's a guy who, if he can bulk up, could be a nice young center for a team like, well, the Spurs.

Back East:

Cavs sweep the Pistons. Please, Joe D., blow that Pistons team up this summer. Keep Stuckey and McDyess. The Cavs and all their clowning have me and Chuck pretty irritated, by the way. Someone, anyone, beat that team back east.

Who can beat the Cavs?

The Sixers. There, I said it. That's if they can beat the Magic, which won't be easy, considering the series is tied at 2-2 with two games left in Florida. Andre Miller is playing very well right now, and Thaddeus Young is becoming a critical and reliable young player for the Sixers. If those two are playing well, the defense is set and able to reach Orlando's shooters, then it all comes down to Andre Iguodala. Iggy needs to get in rhythm early, hit his free throws, and get a few good looks from three. Should they get that far, he and Young are the guys able to slow down LeBron. First things first, let Orlando run its offense through Dwight Howard, who can't pass well from the post, and stay on those shooters. We know they're too soft to get to the rim.

In the South, the Hawks beat the Heat tonight in Miami to tie the series at 2 games apiece. I have no idea how this one will play out, which makes it one of the better series this postseason. I think the Hawks are a stronger team with the ability to go deeper in the East and challenge the Cavs, so they have my half-hearted support. Two of the final three games are in Atlanta, including game 7. Big win tonight for the Hawks.

Finally:

The Bulls and the Celtics are fighting it out in a series that, although not loaded with the biggest stars in the league, is easily the best, most entertaining series. (At least for fans of those teams or people who don't obsess about the Blazers.) Rajon Rondo is averaging a triple double in this series, which is tied at 2-2 and includes a double-overtime and an overtime victory by the Bulls. Ben Gordon has been great at times for the Bulls, and Derrick Rose is showing that he can keep up with Rondo under pressure. Well, aside from all those turnovers. These are two jump-shooting teams with KG on the sidelines, but ultimately I think it may come down to how well the Bulls can establish an inside game. In the two games that Tyrus Thomas has scored double digits and played more than 27 minutes, the Bulls are 2-0. They need this guy taking shots, getting rebounds, and blocking shots, especially if Gordon's hamstring doesn't improve, fast.

Well, I'm going to go to bed now and I'll try not to worry about the Blazers game. Houston can take the series, but they can't take away our Brandon Roy man crushes.

Behind the Locker Room Door

The Oregonian's Jason Quick concluded a fantastic series of articles on the Blazers today, Behind the Locker Room Door. He explains why he has decided to end this series now, one that has had a tremendous following because of Quick's insights into the team, and the ways in which he has shown readers the personalities of this Blazers team. It's rare that a reporter has this sort of access, rare the he or she is willing and able to write about so many private moments, and rare that a team is willing to grant such access to a beat reporter. This speaks highly of not only Quick's work, but of these young Blazers and the coaching staff.

In a time when newspapers are struggling, reporters are being cut, and in-depth reporting is in jeopardy, it's nice to see that there is still a place for this kind of work.

And I know, I know, attention to professional sports may seem misplaced as the entire world is in economic and environmental crisis, but Behind the Locker Room Door provided a nice escape. Quick got readers excited about this team, let them know these players and coaches as real people and not just revenue-generating basketball machines, and rekindled my old appreciation for the sports beat.

Painful loss

I think Quick is right. I'm not sure if the Blazers can win this series. All 8 guys in the rotation need to play their best basketball every game on both ends.

Gah. I don't want to talk about it.

Quick's take on Rockets-Blazers, Game 1

Blazers over the Lakers

Again. On Friday. And check out Rudy:

Starfucker video

Guess this is a few months old, but I just now came across Starfucker's video for "Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second." Pretty cool.

Lost Generation video

As Michael said, now this is composition. And it's a nice example of a writer bringing writing to new media. This was created for an AARP video contest.

Where The Wild Things Are

I had no idea this was in production! I feel stupid, but this just made my day. And the Arcade Fire -- perfect.

Kaufman: "Movies are Dead"

Interesting interview from Charlie Kaufman, whose film Synecdoche, New York was my favorite of 2008.

Milk

I finally had the chance to see Milk on Saturday night, and better yet, I watched it while drinking beer at the McMenamin's Old St. Francis School theater in Bend.

Of the nominees for Best Picture this year, I've seen Slumdog Millionaire, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and Milk. I'm hoping to see Frost/Nixon and The Reader soon. I think it was clear that Benjamin Button did not deserve to win Best Picture, and I think it was a toss-up between Milk and Slumdog Millionaire for me; perhaps I'd give Slumdog just a slight edge.

Anyway, this is old news, as Slumdog won Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, while Milk won Best Original Screenplay and Sean Penn won Best Actor for his role as Harvey Milk--he certainly deserved it. (I do want to point out that Richard Jenkins was fantastic in The Visitor, and if you haven't seen that, check it out.)

I felt a bit embarrassed and ashamed that I didn't know more about Harvey Milk before watching this film, and going in with little knowledge of how he actually died made that scene especially powerful. My ignorance worked to my advantage this time, at least as a moviegoer.

(Aside: McMenamin's wheat beer in Bend was unbelievable, one of the best I've ever had. I'm going to head to the Corvallis locations this week in search of the same brew. Fingers crossed.)

Here is Sean Penn's Academy Award acceptance speech for best actor in a leading role:


And here is the trailer for Milk:

Farewell Bend, Oregon

Jackie and I made a weekend trip to Bend to begin our spring break. Bend is a nice, trendy town nestled in the heart of the Cascades in central Oregon, and it reminds me a lot of Boulder, Colorado -- very neat, very friendly, very expensive, and filled with rich people from all over the country.

We visited the Deschutes Brewery, which was fantastic, and the local McMenamin's, a former Catholic school.

The trip back was a little slow because of a snow storm in the mountains at Santiam Pass (elevation 4,800+). A lot of people were putting chains on their vehicles, but fortunately that wasn't necessary with ODOT doing a nice job of keeping the roads clear enough for most drivers to make their way safely through the pass.

The first photo below is from Oregon Route 223 looking back into the stormy Cascades.

Sunday happenings

Two goals for today: Watch the Blazers play the Hawks (in Atlanta, 10 a.m.), and make great strides on my paper for ENG 595, Language, Technology, and Culture.

Well, the Blazers got whipped. I won't mention the score or link to it, but I will say that they must play much better in the next week during this 5-game road trip if they're going to stay in the middle of the Western Conference playoff race. Rudy, Blake, and Nic need to play better than they did today.

The paper is going fine. It's a sort of mini-MA thesis for me, focusing on five openings Anne Wysocki sees for new media:

1. The need, in writing about new media in general, for the material thinking of people who teach writing
2. A need to focus on the specific materiality of the texts we give each other
3. A need to define “new media texts” in terms of their materialities
4. A need for production of new media texts in writing classrooms
5. A need for strategies of generous reading

More on the struggles and successes of the Blazers and my thesis project as we move forward.

Wendy and Lucy

Here's the trailer for one of the saddest films I've seen in a long time, which is currently playing at the Darkside in Corvallis. Great movie, and shot in Portland.

Mos Def added to Sasquatch

Great news: Mos Def has been added to the Sasquatch Music Festival lineup for Saturday, May 23.

The case for Nic Batum?

Today on Yahoo! Sports blog Ball Don't Lie, I make the case that most of us in the Northwest are not saying, "dang, we should have taken Durant over Oden." It may happen one day, but I'm not ready to call Greg a bust, not for at least another year or two.

Further, I claim that Nic Batum is a better defender than Kevin Durant. This is not a wild claim; do the math on their blocks and steals per minute. Here is an Oregonian story from early November about Batum moving into the starting small forward position because of his defensive ability.

Now I'm on my way to class, and I have a paper due tomorrow on Ben Jonson and the Foucauldian author function. Ugh.

And enjoy this Batum highlight in hopes that the Blazers take down the Lakers in the Rose Garden tonight:

Wrangler Bandit Captured!

My Wells Fargo bank in Roseburg was hit by the Wrangler Bandit late last month. I had no idea. This was just two blocks down from my apartment on Jackson Street. Bank robberies in Oregon have been all the rage lately, but that's no surprise with this depression on.

Never Had Nobody Like You

Very catchy song off of M. Ward's new album Hold Time, called "Never Had Nobody Like You."

Worst commercial campaign right now?

Carl's Jr. gets my vote. There isn't much resistance online to CKE Restaurants, parent company to Carl's Jr. and Hardee's, and I'm not sure why. Their human rights record is not good, but that's typical of most fast food chains.

These are infuriating:





Jay Mohr's take:

LA Clipping The Birdman's Wings

The Blazers lost to Denver last night in a game I didn't expect them to win, having just played a tough game against Indiana in Portland on Wednesday, then hopping a flight to play in Denver with the division lead on the line and Carmelo returning from suspension. Oh well.

But I want to show Chris "The Birdman" Anderson's block against Rudy Fernandez, and then show you what happened on the very next possession. Following the play, Anderson combed his hair with his fingers. Good show, but some of us have grandparents who could have blocked this one:



LaMarcus then shows The Birdman up on the next play:



And please, can we keep Rudy on the bench until he grows up? Nice to see some toughness from LaMarcus, who I've criticized at times for being too soft and not rebounding enough. His rebounding average is firmly stuck at 7.0 per game. As a 6-11 power forward, with Greg Oden out of the lineup, the Blazers need Aldridge to hit the boards harder than that and keep his game in the paint on both ends of the floor.

Clearly, he can play in the paint.

Sasquatch Music Festival

Last weekend a few friends and I decided that, yes, we will spend the $160 per ticket (it's up to $195 or so now) to attend the Sasquatch Music Festival on Memorial Day weekend, May 23-25, at The Gorge in central Washington.

Three days of great music and comedy. I'll probably continue to have anxiety over the amount of money this will cost me (camping is another $100 for 4 people, I think), but then I just look at the lineup and figure, well, this will be great. Performances I'm most looking forward to:

Saturday:
Kings of Leon
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Decemberists
Animal Collective (not that familiar, but I hear they're excellent)
M. Ward
Blind Pilot

Sunday:
Jane's Addiction
Nine Inch Nails
TV On The Radio
Of Montreal
St. Vincent
The Builders and The Butchers

Monday:
Ben Harper
Erykah Badu
Silversun Pickups
Fleet Foxes
Gogol Bordello
Grizzly Bear
Girl Talk
Blitzen Trapper
Demetri Martin

I really enjoyed typing that up.

I can hardly wait to see TV on the Radio. Here's a clip of them performing "Shout me out," off their latest album Dear Science, which was selected as the best album of 2008 by Rolling Stone, The Guardian, Pitchfork readers, NPR, Spin Magazine, and on and on.

Thesis Project (Wysocki citations)

Once upon a time, I thought that this may be a research blog. Bah! But in that spirit, I thought I'd provide a few annotated citations that I'm focusing on for a seminar paper on new media, which will serve as an entry point into the actual writing of my thesis focusing on the work of Anne Frances Wysocki and new media studies.

What I especially appreciate about Wysocki (who spent a good deal of time in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan at Soumi, now Finlandia, and Michigan Tech), is her focus on advocacy and rhetorical awareness in the composition classroom, and that all of her theory is applied to the classroom. Theory and pedagogy are one.

Wysocki, Anne Frances. “awaywithwords: On the possibilities in unavailable designs.” Computers and Composition 22 (2005): 55-62.

Wysocki examines in this article why the materials we use acquire the social and historical restraints they have, particularly those used for communication. She argues that, “to ask after the constraints as we teach or compose can help us understand how material choices in producing communications articulate to social practices we may not otherwise wish to reproduce” (56). She questions whether we’ve read her title as “a way with words,” or “away with words,” and considers visual spaces as they’ve changed where reading becomes more public and less in silence.

Wysocki, Anne Frances. “Impossibly distinct: On form/content and word/image in two pieces of computer-based interactive multimedia.” Computers and Composition 18 (2001): 137-162.

Wysocki explains that much of what is written to assist students with writing or analyzing visual aspects of texts “assumes that those visual aspects work as form or theme or emotion or assistance to memory,” making the visual separate from but supporting the text (137). This article argues that “idea” and “assertion” do the work of “content and “information,” and teachers need to expand and modify the ways we conceive visual aspects of texts when we teach.

Wysocki, Anne Frances. “It is Not Only Ours.” College Composition and Communication 59.2 (2007): 282-288.

In the “Re-Visions” feature of CCC, Wysocki reappraises Joseph Janangelo’s “Joseph Cornell and the Artistry of Composing Persuasive Hypertexts,” first published in the February 1998 issue of CCC. Wysocki examines the ways in which hypertext have become naturalized and argues that there are “other compositional logics besides the academic that are worth exploring as people in the classes we teach come of age in times of variegating texts,” and that our ethics serve as a proper guide as we move away from “our academia” (284).

Wysocki, Anne Frances. “Opening New Media to Writing: Openings and Justifications.” Writing New Media: Theory and applications for expanding the teaching of composition. Anne Frances Wysocki, Johndan Johnson-Eilola, Cynthia Selfe, and Geoffrey Sirc. Eds. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2004. 1-42.

Wysocki outlines five openings she sees for her teaching practices in this article, which is the first chapter of the book:

1. The need, in writing about new media in general, for the material thinking of people who teach writing
2. A need to focus on the specific materiality of the texts we give each other
3. A need to define “new media tests” in terms of their materialities
4. A need for production of new media texts in writing classrooms
5. A need for strategies of generous reading (3)

These openings serve as “ground and introduction” for the chapters that follow, which include a second chapter by Wysocki, “The Sticky Embrace of Beauty: On Some Formal Problems in Teaching about the Visual Aspects of Texts.”

Wysocki, Anne Frances. “The Sticky Embrace of Beauty: On Some Formal Problems in Teaching about the Visual Aspects of Texts.” Writing New Media: Theory and applications for expanding the teaching of composition. Anne Frances Wysocki, Johndan Johnson-Eilola, Cynthia Selfe, and Geoffrey Sirc. Eds. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2004. 147-198.

In the opening of this chapter, Wysocki shows us a page from The New Yorker that she finds beautiful, but upsetting. The issue at hand centers on an advertisement for a book of photographs from The Kinsey Institute, and the ad features a naked woman standing sideways in high leather boots. Wysocki’s primary argument in this chapter is that “approaches many of us now use for teaching the visual aspects of texts are incomplete and, in fact, may work against helping students acquire critical and thoughtful agency with the visual, precisely because these approaches cannot account for a lot of what’s going on” in, for example, this magazine ad (149). Wysocki’s article argues the existence of these shortcomings, turns to eighteenth-century definitions of beauty and aesthetics, and attempts to “better understand how to support students (and myself) be generously and questioningly reciprocal in our designings” (149).

Wysocki, Anne Frances and Julia I. Jasken. “What Should be an Unforgettable Face.” Computers and Composition 21.1 (2004): 29-48.

In this article, Wysocki and Jasken look at the history of interface development and how we have come to a limited focus on the computer screen. They suggest that we see how the design of what is on screen shapes the actions and thinking we can do while engaged with interfaces (29). They reference articles from Computers and Composition dating back to the 1980s, and offer strategies for teachers to help students “develop reflexive and more generous interfaces” (29).

Wysocki, Anne Frances and Dennis A. Lynch. compose/design/advocate: a rhetoric for integrating the written, visual, and oral. New York: Longman Press, 2006.

In the opening of Lynch and Wysocki’s first-year composition textbook, compose/design/advocate: a rhetoric for integrating the written, visual, and oral, they describe the text as “an approach to communication intended to help you determine the most effective strategies, arrangements, and media to use in different contexts” (iii). The book aims to provide students with “systematic” approaches for analyzing situations that require different documents or presentations. The authors note that, seeing communication as key to developing relationships among people, and “careful communication as being central to active and engaged citizenship,” the text focuses on civic advocacy (iii). The three sections are titled, “Designing compositions rhetorically,” “Producing compositions,” and “analyzing the compositions of others,” with assignments woven into each section but also compiled at the end of the textbook.

Wysocki, Anne Frances. “Seriously Visible.” Mary E. Hocks and Michelle Kendrick. Eds. Eloquent Images. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003. 37-59.

In this book chapter, Wysocki challenges the “old and not uncriticized news that visual documents ought not to be taken seriously” which is “still very much present and repeated” by applying counterexamples of visual documents and hypertexts that do and do not support active and engaged relationships with texts (37). While hypertexts do not automatically make active readers, Wysocki argues, visual documents are not best suited for children and the illiterate.

Blazers vs. Spurs

I went to my first, and possibly only, Blazers game this season with three friends yesterday. The Blazers, fighting for the playoffs in a very close, tough Western Conference right now, blew out the Spurs 102-84 after losing to them in San Antonio roughly a week earlier. The Blazers opened the game with a big lead and never allowed the Spurs to get close. Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge each scored 26 in the win. Rookie Nic Batum also contributed this dunk:



P.S. Don't count on finding good food near the Rose Garden before a game. Go early and eat on the other side of the river.

General update

A list:

• I am an inconsistent blogger and therefore a poor blogger.
• Today was a beautiful winter day in Oregon.
• I hadn't missed 3 days of work or school consecutively in years; but, I was sick from Tuesday afternoon until Sunday, today, only recently feeling a bit better.
• Randy Johnson is a fantastic addition to the Giants pitching staff. Too bad they still won't be able to hit. (Bring back Barry!)
• Midway through the second year of my MA program, I've finally written a paper I'm truly happy with. It hardly relates to my thesis and it's only 6 pages long, a careful look at Marlowe's move toward the Foucauldian "author function" in the Prologue of Tamburlaine the Great.
• I will have a beagle one day. One day, when Zoe is gone.
• My fantasy basketball team is up the upswing thanks to Kevin Love and Lamar Odom.
• I'm too short on time to include links in this blog because I'm behind in my work.
• My thesis will now focus on new media, rhetoric and composition studies through the work of Anne Wysocki.
• Lankshear and Knobel's section on "New 'Ethos Stuff'" in "Sampling 'The New' in New Literacies" is too simplistic but a nice introduction into talking about Web 2.0 and authorship.
• The Blazers need to move Raef's contract and Sergio.
• Curb Your Enthusiasm is now, probably, my favorite series.
• What's with all these little black gnats flying around town lately?
• I should have watched "The Last Waltz" a long time ago.

Cadillac Records

Don't see Cadillac Records. Don't miss the music, though. Okay, maybe see the film when it goes to DVD.

There are a lot of problems with the film, and what's worse is that there's so much potential here. This could have been a great, great movie, and there are several strong performances wrapped within a plot that fails to do justice to the influence of Chess Records. Adrien Brody plays Leonard Chess, the record executive who began the label in the 1940s by selling records out of his Cadillac. It seems a little convenient that this film is out as General Motors begs for money from the federal government, of course, and there is no subtlety here: LOOK AT THE TRADITION OF THE CADILLAC, THE HISTORY! WE HELPED BREAK DOWN RACIAL BARRIERS! THINK OF THE TRADITION! I actually laughed aloud in the theater several times.

I need to say some good things about this film, though. Amazing cast. Brody wholly fails, but I think it is due to poor writing, not execution. Jeffrey Wright does a nice job as Muddy Waters. Mos Def predictably steals the screen as Chuck Berry. Columbus Short does a fantastic job as Little Walter, and Beyoncé's Etta James is the highlight of the film. Eamonn Walker as Howlin' Wolf is another bright spot; you may know him from HBO's Oz. Cedric the Entertainer's narration is so poorly written that I shook my head a few times in the theater, just hoping he was about to lead into another performance from Beyoncé or Mos Def. Gabrielle Union shows some talent as Geneva Waters, Muddy's wife.

None of these characters are developed as much as they should be, as much as you'll want them to be. What this does, hopefully, is introduce some of these musicians to new audiences, and perhaps it will lead to more developed biopics of Etta James or Howlin' Wolf in the future.

And please, please buy a Cadillac.

Howlin' Wolf's "Smokestack Lightning" (1964):


Eamonn Walker's Howlin' Wolf:


Beyoncé doing Etta James's "All I Could Do Was Cry":