tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76405212009-11-09T08:26:54.752-06:00Arranging, deepening, enchanting the blogosphere. Commentary on film, art, music, books, and the ideas they inspire.John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.comBlogger1047125http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/fb_pwrd.gifThis is an XML content feed. It is intended to be viewed in a newsreader or syndicated to another site.tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-49391619873675830612009-11-08T11:58:00.002-06:002009-11-08T12:00:57.753-06:00

Andrew Wyeth, Antler Crown (1983). Image found here.I like Andrew Wyeth's work. Really. I also knew that his father, N. C. Wyeth, was a prominent illustrator during the first half of the 20th century, and I knew that Jaime, Andrew's son, is a well-regarded artist in his own right. So a few weeks ago, when Scruffy and I had wandered more than usual and found ourselves at the Wichita Art Museum

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com2http://blogmeridian.blogspot.com/2009/11/adventures-at-wichita-art-museum-6.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-36707053256269727032009-11-07T07:16:00.005-06:002009-11-07T07:45:09.295-06:00

You read Dr. Seuss books to your three-year-old niece just one too many times over the summer, then in the fall assign a unit on parody to your Intro. to Lit. class . . . Beware the slippery slope.“The Love Song of the Cat in the Hat”(with apologies to T. S. Eliot and Dr. Seuss)It was evening, October, and we were alone,Just Sally and me and no one else home.When there at our door came a

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com1http://blogmeridian.blogspot.com/2009/11/dangers-of-reading-to-children.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-67329121242562437062009-11-06T07:14:00.004-06:002009-11-06T08:29:54.443-06:00

Two days ago, the crows began returning to downtown Wichita.Today, the words I'm writing are the words you're reading.Coincidence? Perhaps. Perhaps not.Anyway, I think I'm able to begin easing back into posting here more or less regularly. Long story short: The Mrs. is (finally, relievedly) doing better, and I find myself to be present, like, mentally as well as physically at work . . . and that

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com6http://blogmeridian.blogspot.com/2009/11/post-hoc-ergo-propter-hoc.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-58059467853154432542009-09-12T09:38:00.003-05:002009-09-12T09:40:45.458-05:00

My home computer has a nasty, nasty virus that I don't yet have time or money to deal with. So, this blog will be a little under the weather for a bit. I hope to be back "here" sooner rather than later.

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com4http://blogmeridian.blogspot.com/2009/09/virus.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-47001082663503973192009-09-04T15:21:00.001-05:002009-09-04T15:23:19.280-05:00

Words are of vital importance. Knowing who says or writes them is of vital importance. So also is/are the context(s) within which they are spoken or written--"context" here meaning not just the other words that surround them but also the larger historical circumstances under which they are spoken; if we do not know them, we cannot, in the fullest sense of the word, read anything. Before

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com2http://blogmeridian.blogspot.com/2009/09/do-you-have-calvin-coolidge-in-can-some.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-52110549925024148182009-08-28T07:19:00.003-05:002009-08-30T20:32:49.279-05:00

[Now: Updated with answers to said questions!]We're two weeks deep into the new semester. So far, so good. The classes are full, and most of my students seem to want to be in class. Of course, next week my first set of papers comes in . . . Anyway. On the first day of class, I tried something that a colleague of mine shared with our department: after I'd talked about the syllabus, I called

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com4http://blogmeridian.blogspot.com/2009/08/actual-questions-my-students-asked-me.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-26225518087573315902009-08-15T20:31:00.001-05:002009-08-16T07:59:27.188-05:00

These words heard by Socrates in his dream ["Practice music, Socrates!" in Phaedo] are the only indication that he ever experienced any uneasiness about the limits of his logical universe. He may have asked himself: "Have I been too ready to view what was unintelligible to me as being devoid of meaning? Perhaps there is a realm of wisdom, after all, from which the logician is excluded? Perhaps

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com3http://blogmeridian.blogspot.com/2009/08/does-art-still-matter-i-mean-really.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-69163887541499489392009-08-12T07:55:00.000-05:002009-08-12T07:58:50.168-05:00

"He's out there operating without any decent restraint, totally beyond the pale of any acceptable human conduct." Image found here.The above is how I characterized myself yesterday at our department meeting as the sole full-time English instructor at my school's teaching site at McConnell AFB. (Some context is here.) My school's organization is a bit strange: we have several campuses, but they

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com6http://blogmeridian.blogspot.com/2009/08/in-which-meridian-briefly-plays-col.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-65184467633356527602009-07-31T09:57:00.001-05:002009-07-31T09:59:37.400-05:00

The cover (no pun) of Paul Anka's Rock Swings. Image found here.Some of you know that I find myself drawn to odd cover versions of songs; indeed, one of you publicly expressed concern for my state of mental health when I posted a link to the Leningrad Cowboys' version of "Delilah" (which, yes, you really should have the pleasure of seeing). Of late, I find myself indulging in this pleasure more

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com5http://blogmeridian.blogspot.com/2009/07/art-of-cover-version-two-that-shouldnt.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-54064013597410751732009-07-30T11:44:00.001-05:002009-07-30T11:46:04.358-05:00

The central plaza of Uruapan, Michoacán. Every city of any size in Mexico has a place that looks very much like this. Click on image to enlarge. Image found here.Most of you have no doubt read or heard, in general terms, about Mexico's war--what else to call it, when the army has been summoned to assist the police and over 10,000 people have died along the way?--against the drug cartels that

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com2http://blogmeridian.blogspot.com/2009/07/john-b-assaulted-in-uruapan.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-38441195992357763872009-07-28T11:08:00.001-05:002009-07-28T11:10:26.185-05:00

[First post is here. Oh--and regarding my absence from here: Families are weird, complicated things.]. . . there are few of us who are not protected from the keenest pain by our inability to see what it is that we have done, what we are suffering, and what we truly are. Let us be grateful to the mirror for revealing to us our appearance only.--Samuel Butler, Erewhon (as quoted in William T.

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com4http://blogmeridian.blogspot.com/2009/07/what-is-this-you-you-speak-of-memory-as.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-81465064524879142982009-07-12T09:25:00.001-05:002009-07-12T09:28:02.125-05:00

They once grew 'em kinda weird out here on the prairie. Children, too. Image found here, about which more later.There's a fellow I see, oh, every couple of weeks or so, fishing off the Murdoch Street bridge in the mornings. I've seen him often enough, in fact, that we feel comfortable enough to exchange greetings. One morning, a while back, when he was busy landing a fish, I asked him what he

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com5http://blogmeridian.blogspot.com/2009/07/stretch-of-river-lvi-of-carp-and-blog.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-79727970079363530242009-07-02T18:50:00.003-05:002009-07-02T19:49:14.478-05:00

Laura McKenna (via Russell and a couple of other places): "It's all about niche blogs. If you have a particular expertise and unique perspective, they you can quickly gain a following. Everyone else is out of luck."Some of these are better known than others, some more serious than others. All are fun in their respective ways.Apostrophe AbuseBad Paintings of Barack Obama (the images come up

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com1http://blogmeridian.blogspot.com/2009/07/some-niche-blogs.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-23829156190934032532009-06-30T16:00:00.003-05:002009-06-30T16:05:56.449-05:00

Three potential beneficiaries of Waxman-Markey.I have a thing for polar bears--so much so that I'd say this about them: My existence and my world are intangibly better places because of their existence and would be intangibly worse off were they to cease to exist in the wild. These seem like frivolous things to say, I recognize: indeed, someone could reasonably argue--indeed, some are making it,

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com3http://blogmeridian.blogspot.com/2009/06/quick-comment-on-waxman-markey-and.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-3521136650931799992009-06-25T17:58:00.001-05:002009-06-25T18:05:47.820-05:00

[Note: This is part of a draft of a post from last year, the 25th anniversary of the release of Thriller. It never got finished, and I never came back to it. Edited somewhat to make it more apropos for today.]Here is a moment filled with considerable pathos for me, Michael Jackson's performance of "Billie Jean" at Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever. Remember this, those of you Of A Certain

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com3http://blogmeridian.blogspot.com/2008/06/rip.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-9084172221086418972009-06-19T16:02:00.005-05:002009-06-19T17:18:25.455-05:00

As I write this, it is now Saturday in Tehran, not yet dawn. Mousavi's and the other opposition candidates' supporters will be rallying in a few hours in direct defiance of the Ayatollah's orders in his sermon today. Here are a couple of e-mails received by the National Iranian-American Council (via Huffington Post). You read these, and no matter how legitimate your worries, it's hard for

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com1http://blogmeridian.blogspot.com/2009/06/thinking-about-tehran.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-43006421035594487882009-06-16T15:00:00.004-05:002009-06-16T15:31:51.572-05:00

James Joyce's sketch of Ulysses' hero, Leopold Bloom. The line in Greek is the opening line of The Odyssey: "Tell me Muse, of the man of many devices, who over many ways…” Image found here.It is June 16th again. If there's a literary equivalent of solar calendars, surely one of the days by which it would be oriented would be this day. Ulysses is one of those books which, even if you haven't

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com1http://blogmeridian.blogspot.com/2009/06/happy-bloomsday.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-91612191465627435302009-06-14T05:48:00.014-05:002009-06-14T17:13:18.039-05:00

( . . . and YouTubed and blogged . . . )On occasion, this blog is visited by Iranians. More precisely, they visit this post almost to the exclusion of any other post. I have often wondered what it is in this post that draws them. It contains no special insight into Van Gogh or into modernist art. There are other posts here at good old Blog Meridian that are better than this one that my

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com1http://blogmeridian.blogspot.com/2009/06/revolution-will-be-twittered.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-41660289640933366952009-06-10T21:41:00.005-05:002009-06-11T07:31:44.560-05:00

I could comment on the specifics of today's shooting at the National Holocaust Museum or even on the background of the accused shooter.Instead, I'll let Shepard Smith read "a representative e-mail":This was an important and needed thing he did today. More like it needs to be done.UPDATE: Putting the moron in "oxymoron": Via hilzoy, here's a snippet from this Washington Post article about the

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com3http://blogmeridian.blogspot.com/2009/06/i-could-read-hundred-of-them.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-33155009898758817612009-06-07T12:23:00.004-05:002009-06-07T12:28:54.782-05:00

The Roberts and Gregory families, Kentucky, early 20th century. Click on image to enlarge. Image found here.What follows isn't exactly a continuation of yesterday's post. It's more like a picking up of another thread and unraveling a perfectly good idea from Front Porch Republic so as to hastily (and, no doubt, clumsily) re-weave it here in combination with other recent concerns of mine as a

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com0http://blogmeridian.blogspot.com/2009/06/front-porch-cycle-chic-bicycle-on-every.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-48098554908968135922009-06-06T23:57:00.007-05:002009-06-07T08:08:39.675-05:00

Two people converse next to a high-wheel bicycle at the fence of the first home of Alfred W. Bitting, 259 North Emporia Avenue, Wichita, c. 1882. Unknown photographer. Click image to enlarge. Repository: Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum. Image found here.I don't know whether the bicycle in the picture belonged to the Bitting family or to a visitor. But it doesn't matter. What

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com0http://blogmeridian.blogspot.com/2009/06/front-porch-cycle-chic-revolt-against.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-40022404510339580432009-06-05T18:12:00.002-05:002009-06-05T18:20:26.089-05:00

Michael Pollan or Michel Foucault?Admit it: If you've found your way to this blog, you already want to play. You just don't know it yet.(Hat-tip: Matthew Yglesias)And: Old Jews Telling Jokes. Exactly what it purports to be. Some NSFW.I promise that more substantive posting is coming. Sometime.

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com0http://blogmeridian.blogspot.com/2009/06/game-thats-sweeping-nation.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-64092900150690138912009-06-05T07:52:00.002-05:002009-06-05T08:01:58.908-05:00

Spotted: DC Summer Interns.One of the more amusing ones I've read there: An intern had been with the office for a few weeks, and the Legislative Director wanted to give her a substantial assignment to work on:LD: What issues are you interested in?Intern: [thinks for a moment] Yes.LD: Um, no, I mean, what legislative issues do you find interesting? Do you like health care?Intern: Yes.... I mean...

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com0http://blogmeridian.blogspot.com/2009/06/our-future-leaders-and-tax-dollars-at.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-58640668858409102282009-06-05T06:00:00.003-05:002009-06-05T06:42:02.269-05:00

A brief passage from Brad Gooch's new biography, Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor:A cartoon O’Connor drew when she was nine years old shows a child walking with her father and mother. In a balloon coming from the mother’s mouth are the words: “Hold your head up, Mary Flannery, and you are just as bad, Ed.” To which the girl, dragging along, snidely replies, “I was readin where someone died

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com0http://blogmeridian.blogspot.com/2009/06/flannery-oconner-already-dangerous-at.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7640521.post-56476443620633396922009-06-04T15:40:00.002-05:002009-06-04T15:51:42.209-05:00

In brief (insufficient) honor of the 20th anniversary of that event, here are the reminiscences of four photographers who took very similar versions of the now-iconic "Tank Man" photograph, and (via Andrew Sullivan) this never-before-published, on-the-ground perspective by Torril Jones, taken moments before that more-familiar moment. Jones's very different perspective has the effect of (re)

John B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06358811061653958120noreply@blogger.com1http://blogmeridian.blogspot.com/2009/06/remembering-tiananmen-square.html