Obsession

So I've been obsessed (very appropriately, it would seem) with this song for almost 10 years, but it really got bad in the summer of 1999. I'm posting it today in honor of the Latin American conference I'm attending tomorrow. There's a session on Brazilian music. Don't they know they're just enabling my addiction?

Return to Mayberry

Maybe I'll never post anything but a video again! I'll give a big prize to anyone who knows why I'm posting this one. Please apply below. (Or send me an email if you're shy.)

This is dedicated to the one I love

I hate doing two video posts in a row, but maybe my head isn't full of any particular thoughts right now, or at least any that are fit to print. Anyway, I think this video of Andy Gibb performing on "Punky Brewster" is priceless. The song is always beautiful anyway, but here he gives it a very special interpretation. And yes, the above title is true. I just hope that the one I love is not so oblivious that he misses this.

In Too Deep

I guess you could say that I'm in too deep with the nostalgia here.


But what can do you? After all, no one ever is to blame.

Kist's, the source of all other good things

Ok, I couldn't get started on gleaming 60's progressivism (or at least the glimmers of it that remained by the early 80's) without discussing Kist's Livestock in Mandan. This picture, although not from the perfect angle that I have in my head, shows something of the glory that still remains of Kist's. Taking cows or horses there was always a destination for my family, and although it may not look that futuristic and exciting to a modern city dweller, the very fact that it was always clean and well-lit and brightly colored put it head-and-shoulders above any of the other more regional livestock rings that we had occasion to visit. (See this page for a good example of what the alternative was, and still is.) And those panoramic windows all the way around the top only added to the seductive allure.

The Chieftain, source of all good things

Chieftain Motel statue
Originally uploaded by Threat to Democracy

I just found this picture in Flickr, and boy, does it bring back memories. It's hard now to explain how incredibly urbane and sophisticated I used to think the Chieftain Motel in Carrington was as we drove by. There was something of an aura of 60's progressivism about it. (Never mind that it was the 80's by then!) The drive by the Chieftain is also included in one of my happiest adolescent memories, and I'll admit the nostalgia is what made me look it up right now.

Thoughts on doing reference work

"My constituency is the desperate, the damned, the disinherited, the disrespected and the despised." That Jesse Jackson quote is something my supervising professor used to teach alliteration in our public speaking class eons ago, but it just popped into my head right now as I'm working with a particularly slow patron on our library's chat reference service. The question in my head is, "Who is my constituency?" Is it the students who have no clue what's going on, who seem to be the ones that gravitate to us naturally, but often don't get what's going on even after an intensive 30 minute-session, or is it the ones who are good students but could be great students with our help? Am I being classist if I want to argue for the second option? I don't know. You tell me. I just know that I've been working with this person on finding an article for 22 minutes and we're still at the stage of searching for the journal title in ALICE. Lord, give me patience!

Sweet deja vu

Isn't it odd how you can never have heard of someone before and then all of a sudden they're everywhere? That's how I feel about this Feist person I'm suddenly hearing so much about. There are posters all over Baker Center announcing that she's coming to campus in April. And also this video. If it gives you deja vu of something I posted a few days ago, well, it should. 

A poem by Emily Dickinson

I dwell in Possibility--
A fairer House than Prose--
More numerous of Windows--
Superior--for Doors--
Of Chambers as the Cedars--
Impregnable of Eye--
And for an Everlasting Roof
The Gambrels of the Sky--
Of Visitors--the fairest--
For Occupation--This--
The spreading wide my narrow Hands
To gather Paradise--

Another YouTube video

Oh, and by the way, since it's been so long since I've given you a video link, here's one. And here's a contest for my loyal readers: see if you can guess which line in the song is the one that made me think of it today. Post your answers in the comments, kiddos!

Back in the game

I just wanted everyone to know that I've rejoined the land of the living. I got back on Monday and have spent most of my time either catching up on work or studying for the test I had to make up. But I took that this afternoon and now I feel a thousand times better. Next week will be kind of a catch-up week for me, and then English 151 season starts in earnest!