Tracking life through webcams

I grew up in the Sierra Nevadas, in a small town called Portola (a place that fancies trains). When I moved out of the house, I headed south to La Mirada where I attended Biola University. After spending a few years there, I spent a couple of summers in Alaska (a view of Fredrick Sound from Petersburg, where we did our first seine set). When I got tired of fishing summers, I got married and we settled in Moses Lake for a while (does this webcam work?). Later, we moved to Spokane, where we went to EWU (Rebecca at the joint EWU/WSU Riverfront campus downtown and me out in Cheney). We liked Spokane but decided there's never enough school, so we moved to Chicago, where I now attend Loyola University (the English department is in the same building as this camera).

Edvard and his take-out [1]

The first thing I noticed was a flickering, blue - a flash - then a steady black and white. The large, brown-rimmed bifocals reflected the television set, his head tilted to look up at the small screen, his lap holding the square styrofoam take-out box. I only get quick glimpses of him as I walk by his I guess I should call it store. Usually, the crusty brown door is closed fast, with a cast-iron gate locked over the top of it - as if the door wasn't enough to keep people from stealing what amounts to a collection of old junk. The faded sign outside the door says "Original Vintage Movie Posters," thus explaing the forest of rolled up posters that surround him as he eats. I've only seen him on the street once; he was parallel parking his curtain-windowed, silver hearse.

Pictures from Boston

So we had a great time in Boston. The conference went well, and the presentation done. I guess I don't have much to say about my paper, but instead, I'll tell you about our trip. We arrived on Wednesday and left on Saturday, so we tried to pack in as much as possible. We took a trolley tour of the city that was interesting. There are a couple of things that you hear over and over on the tour. First, most of Boston used to be swamp or water and that they filled it in by moving various hills into the sea. Also, many of the buildings are either built on pilings (which you can't see) or are built on top of very large pieces of wood stuck vertically into the soft ground. We also went to Fenway on Friday morning, and enjoyed a cold, but informative tour. We were on the first tour of the morning and luckily there were only about five of us there. The next tour had about 30 people; most of them looked like obnoxious high schoolers. Then on Friday we went to Harvard and took the student-led Hahvahd Tour of campus. These guys recently started their own tour service, and we happened to get off the train right when they were starting their tour. They did a good job, and fun tidbits like what dorm Matt Damon or the Unabomber lived in were especially interesting. Anyways, Boston is great. Here's a few pics for you:

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.