Beantown

We are getting ready to head out to Boston on Wednesday. I'm presenting at the Popular Culture Conference there, so we decided to try and see some sights as a family while we're there. Our family loves baseball, so I'm sure we'll tour Fenway. We'll also try to see some historic places...you know like the bar for Cheers. Btw, we lived in Moses Lake, WA for a few years, which is on Interstate 90. This highway runs from Seattle to Boston, and I drove much of it on my way out to Chicago in August. We're flying, so we won't be seeing the rest of the road...just the end of it.

Anyway, I'm writing a paper on college students and Facebook. I'll let you know how it goes.

March in Chicago

Dang, isn't it spring yet? As you can see, the weather can't decide. Spencer the dog is enjoying some beautiful sunshine, but the ice floes are a reminder of the cold, cold, cold winter we've enjoyed. To give you a little context on where this picture was taken, we are on the pier in Loyola Park. The buildings on the horizon are partially Loyola University Chicago (where I attend) and a few high-rise condos on the lake. If it were a clearer day, downtown Chicago would be visible to the left of the picture. The John Hancock Building looks like the tallest one on the skyline from Rogers Park, but as you all know the Sears Tower is the tallest building in Chicago by about 500 feet. On a clear day, the Sears Tower can also be seen from this vantage point, but it is way off in the distance, west of downtown. Later this spring I'll take some pictures to show the skyline from our neighborhood.

Need a mindless distraction?

Then check out my old friend in the lab coat at willitblend.com. I've only seen a couple of these, but that blender can do some damage. You can also track down these videos on YouTube. I especially like the iPod, the glow sticks, and the plunger, but then again, I haven't seen them all. Which ones make you wanna blend?

Hip hop anyone?

So, it is hard to explain to some, but I'm a hip hop scholar (or at least I aspire to be). I wrote a paper on 50 Cent last year, and even my closest friends pause and say, "um, why?" The reason isn't that I love gangsta rap or think Fiddy (as my wife insists I refer to him) is some kind of musical genius. Rather, his life story and rise to stardom are not only hard to believe, but they also say something about the culture we live in. 50 Cent exemplifies cultural relevancy, and it is better to try to understand his rise as a phenomenon unto itself rather than simply trying to censor or ignore him. (If anyone's interested in the topic, I can post my paper later.)

All of this to segue into my current hip hop research project: Chicago hip hop. Since I moved to Chicago in August, I've been thinking about how I need to understand this area and its hip hop history. So I'm now researching another topic in hip hop studies. One place I've found good information is in Jeff Chang's History of the Hip Hop Generation. I'm still plowing through this one, but it documents the rise of hip hop in New York. I'm trying to document the rise of hip hop in Chicago...which came a bit later. Perhaps you've heard of Common, Twista, Rhymefest, or Kanye, but you may not have heard of other artists like Juice, Crucial Conflict, Lupe Fiasco, Verbal Kent, Ric Jilla, or the Grind Family. And this is just the tip of the hip hop iceberg in Chicagoland. I'm hoping to show that the flavor of hip hop in Chicago is a bit more about social consciousness than gangsterism. We'll see.