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Showing posts from July, 2012

Cleaning out my camera

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When I moved from Florida nearly a year ago I didn't have a clear plan, and things were in limbo for a good six or so months before I decided to move in with Christopher. As such, many of my boxes are only now getting unpacked in the slow process of settling in. While I'd kept my camera in my purse and continued to snap photos, I'd thought my connector cords hopelessly lost until this past weekend when I opened a box and a bunch of electronics spilled out. Here are a few of my favorite photos from the past two years or so: Downtown Dothan, Alabama, where my mom was born. Christopher and I up and decided to make the drive from Tallahassee for no other reason than that we hadn't been there before.

The Business of Education

UNC Chancellor named among top 100 most influencial business leaders I am glad the university is being noticed and that those involved in its management are being recognized for their work, but identifying them as "business leaders" rubs me the wrong way. The danger of associating education with business is that it allows efficiency and profit to overshadow growth and intellectual stimulation. Students become numbers, classrooms become conveyor belts, and educators become cogs in an endlessly churning machine managed increasingly by administators. The CEOs of UNC Health Care and REX Hospital, the chancellor of NC Central University, and the CEO of the NC Museum of Art appear on this list as well. My fears apply to them also.

"Haley said taxpayers could decide for themselves whether to support the arts."

Arts Commission veto upsets local groups, Greenville Online , 7 July 2012 As a four-year participant in the South Carolina arts scene, I am shocked at the abuse and neglect it has been shown recently by local government. Cutting all public funding is a death knell to orchestras, museums, writing programs, theaters, and arts education initiatives -- those things that enrich and sustain communities. I am hoping for another override, but this pattern in and of itself is damaging.

Readings in Musicology

I decided to forgo a doctorate for the time being and give myself a much needed exhale. And I think for the most part is was a good, if not always exciting or intellectually fulfilling, decision. And while I think that periodic departures from any field or path are important, it is equally important not to drift too far. The fall and winter were rough, but I'm finally returning to a place where I can approach and absorb music again. Now seems a good time to read all those books and articles I wished I'd had time to read during school. This list is ongoing and nowhere near complete. Text Books A History of Music in Western Culture ; Mark Evan Bonds Ideas and Styles in the Western Musical Tradition ; Douglass Seaton The Oxford History of Western Music ; Richard Taruskin Biographies The New Grove Twentieth-century French Masters ; Jean-Michel Nectoux et al. Claude Debussy ; David J. Code Claude Debussy ; Paul Roberts The Life of Debussy ; Roger Nichols Le Six: The Fre