jeblog

my summer garden so far

My little garden is mostly for the basil, which I use for making LOTS of pesto, in different experimental forms (baba ghanouj pesto, guacamole pesto, sweet potato pesto), which I (and my housemates) eat through the summer. I also freeze a lot to help get us through the winter.

I planted a different kind of basil this year. I went to a small garden shop at S and 14th Sts. (called the Garden District) and they didn't have the kind of basil I'm used to. When I got up to the register I was informed that this was a dwarf basil, which would only grow about a foot and half tall (half the size of the regular basil). This would not serve our pesto needs, but I thought it might be fun to experiment with this new kind of basil, along with my other pesto experiments.

So I planted the dwarf basil, along with some marigolds (for protection from bugs). At the same time, I transplanted some clover to a bare patch. One of my housemates dumped lots of dead pine needles (from a christmas tree) into the garden at this spot. Not a good idea. Nothing grew there, everything was smothered by the pine needles, which didn't look like they were going to decompose anytime soon. Another thing I discovered was that, if you garden barefoot (which I do), those damn needles will keep pricking the bottom of your feet! So they had to go.

I shoveled up the pine needles and moved them to a spot closer to the house, near the azalea and rose bushes, and where the tulips were growing (but are done now--I left the bulbs in because they keep coming back every year). So now I have an experimental pine needle bed. We'll see if anything grows there.

The other plants in the garden: the phlox have been blooming for the past six weeks, but they're about done. There are a couple of bushes that produce golden daisy like flowers (I forgot their name), which I planted last year thinking they were annual, not perennial. They're full of buds and will soon be blooming again. We also have a glorious azalea bush which is about to pop. It blossoms at least twice a year. Then there's a rose bush about to get busy as well. When the rose bush is done, I'll cut it back later in the summer and it will probably bloom again. We used to have a smaller rose bush near the sidewalk, but someone stole it over the winter. Plants have also been lifted from remodeled houses and new condo buildings in the neighborhood, I've noticed. Either someone is putting it to the Man (that is, the yuppies infiltrating our neighborhood), or someone wants a fabulous garden for free. I just hope they don't figure out basil and what it's good for.

PS. I'm told that in some places in the world (i.e. Haiti), basil has magical powers. Maybe I should cast a circle around my garden to keep any magicians, desperate for basil, from stealing any. Then again, if they asked me nicely, I'd probably give them some.

damned books

I confess: I'm having a hard time staying away from books.

Originally, the idea of taking a couple weeks off from books seemed a really good idea, after doing so much reading the past two months. But trying NOT to read books only highlights that my "habit-energy" (as buddhists say) is to read pretty much constantly. Starting with the newspaper in the morning, the Sun magazine while sitting on the john, and something with a good story at night to help me get to sleep--and that's when I'm not studying or doing research.

Do I get points for reading in conjunction with different kinds of media consumption? Last night I watched a great Lucchino Visconti film, The Damned, with Dirk Bogarde (one of my favs), about the machinations of various members of the Von Essenbeck family in Germany, trying to gain control of a steel works in the early days of the Nazi regime. Not as deliciously demented as The Night Porter (also with Bogarde), but still pretty good. A major character is Martin, a polymorphous perverse momma's boy who becomes a perfect little Nazi.

So what did I do after the film? I picked up William Beckford's Vathek, on my book list (pub. 1786), which features as a main character a powerful medieval Caliph, a polymorphous perverse momma's boy who becomes a perfect little reprobate. Like the characters in The Damned, he also ends up in hell, taking those he loves with him. This is one of the things I like to do: mix-and-match media, particularly if they're mediating the same work (Gurinder Chadha's Bride and Prejudice, matched with Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, for example).

The Damned and Vathek were a pretty good match, though not based on the same work. Vathek would make a good film, I think, if we could only find a reincarnated Fassbinder to make it, and a reincarnated Dirk Bogarde to star.

veronica mars season 1

After my comps, my committee and I decided I could use a little break from books. So I went from books to television: I decided to watch the entire first season of Veronica Mars. It took me a week, but I finished the last episode (of 22 total) last night.

Why Veronica Mars? Because I'm a total Veronica Marsian. That was one television program that I couldn't miss, even when I was reading ten hours a day for my comps. (I also found that, with so much reading, I was watching MORE television, because when I went brain-dead from too much reading, generally in the evening, television was one of the things I could do).

It was my housemate Sarah--aged 18 and hooked on Veronica from the very start--who got me watching. I started watching to watch Sarah, since she (and another Marsian friend of hers) would be so engaged in the show while watching it: yelling at the television and other Rocky-Horror like fan interactions, discussing plot points and character motivation (only during commercials!), and then going directly to the online discussion groups after the show.

Now I watch the show for the show on the screen. The show is very well written (by Rob Thomas and, no doubt, a staff), with weekly mysteries that get solved in that episode, embedded in a longer season-long mystery that gets solved at the end of the season. There are very few implausibilities in the plot, though I certainly keep watching for them, media critic that I am. If there are any mis-steps in the story, the fans make their opinions known online and sometimes changes are made after the writers see the comments.

The characters are also well-drawn, multidimensional, and engaging. These are lives you want to observe, and participate in vicariously. Their dialogue is witty, but real. My favorite characters are Veronica, Wallace (her best friend), Keith (her father, a private investigator), and "Weevil," a latino thug with a deep sense of grievance and justice (Sarah says, speaking in Veronica discussion group royal we, that "WE" love badboy and sometime boyfriend LOGAN best, but I can't include myself in that "WE." Though I like him a lot more after seeing the entire season 1).

I really enjoyed my marathoning of Veronica season 1. It's more immersive, and more enjoyable, seen that way, if you have the time (though maybe it was a little too much: I started dreaming about watching Veronica Mars). It was certainly nice not having to watch the commercials, my main problem with commercial television. Though the "previously on Veronica Mars" segment (non-menu-ed, so you can't pop past it) at the beginning of each show got to be a little annoying.

Now what's a Veronica junkie supposed to do? Season 2 is not yet out on DVD. Maybe I should go on to another marathon. One of my housemates has three or four seasons of The Sopranos, but I don't think that'll work for me. I need to find another show to immerse myself in, or a series of films. Not the Lord of the Rings (done the marathon), or the Matrix films (didn't like 1 or 2; skipped 3).

Any suggestions, email me (since I have comments turned off):

josa33@yahoo.com

comps part 2

Anyone who has looked at my blog over the past month will have enountered a Tristam Shandy-esque black page. That is because, as I announced in March, I was suspending my blog in order to concentrate on my studies for my Ph.D. qualifying exam (comps), which left my blog page empty. Well, my main period of comps study is past, so I'm back to the blog.

I thought I did pretty well on my exam. The reality? Not so much. I did my own thing, which is what I have usually done in grad school, and been rewarded for it. Not this time. I had an insufficient grasp of the fact that this is an exam to qualify the grad student for the PROFESSION of an academic/scholar/teacher, not just to read a lot of books and say something snappy about them.

Anyway, it's crystal clear to me now. Luckily I will have a another chance, sometime in June. I'm pretty confident that I'll do well this time, especially since I'll be working much more closely with my committee and checking in regularly.

I think this "failure" will turn out to be a good thing. At the very least it's caused me to look long and hard at my talents, my work/research, and my desire to be a part of this profession. After initial doubts post-exam, I now feel confirmed in my aspiration to be a teacher and scholar (though not necessarily a "gentleman").

I'm taking a couple weeks off and will be back at it in May. But, unlike last time, I plan on blogging throughout.

Easter Googlephobia

Not being a christian, I was not in church on Easter Sunday. Instead, I was at my computer, practicing Google that morning. Curious, I Googled "Jesus." What I found, frankly, appalled me.

The no. 1 Google spot for "Jesus" on Easter Sunday 2006 was slick, sick Jesus parody site, offering a kind of online game in which you use your mouse to move Wizard of Oz paper-doll-style outfits over the body of the crucified Jesus on the cross.

I know the christian churches are responsible for their share of oppression of marginal groups (Crusades, Inquisitions, witch burnings), but this kind of mockery is beyond the pale. I don't see what good--what dialogue--a site like this could engender. It just pisses people off (This site is also offensive in the sense that it makes light of torture and capital punishment, both of which Jesus suffered, at the hands of the state).

I will go on the record as saying that I think it was an incredibly bad idea to print caricatures of Mohammed in newspapers, when it is well known that such depictions are patently offensive to a sizeable religious community (approx. 1 billion muslims), who might be expected to respond violently (which many did).

Freedom of speech is great, but so is cultural and religious sensitivity. I think there is plenty of room on this planet for muslims, christians, jews, zoroastrians, etc. and our planet (re: population) is increasingly cosy. We need to learn to play and pray without offending other people who are quite sincere in their religious beliefs.

This pretty much defines my religion. "My religion is kindness," the Dalai has said. Mine too.

I also want to highlight that this was a "new media" incident. Google works by algorithms, and algorithms don't always work towards the common good or what's moral; they deliver what they're coded to deliver, including incredibly offensive Jesus parody sites on Easter Sunday. It's one example of the soullessness of modern technology and technocracies. It's the kind of thing that makes the fundamentalists worship their book all the more, and gives those in power in Washington one more excuse to constrict and censor the electronic public sphere.

Not that I'm advocating censorship, but maybe we should try a little harder to find the "soul in the machine," and discourage the fanatics and fanatical anti-fanatics from turning our shared online space into a warzone.

I usually include URLs when I do postings like this, but not this time. I can't countenance this parody site by linking other people to it. You have the freedom of Googling it and finding it on your own.