books

Kicking it old school

More of the same today, which will almost certainly continue tomorrow, and which threatens to spill over into next week. How busy am I at the office? I have an away message up in my e-mail, even though I rarely leave my desk.

I left only briefly this afternoon for lunch and then a presentation — that’s meeting-like, so I think the Year of the Meeting will allow it — on the role of adjunct professors at colleges and universities. Apparently, it’s really on the rise, with some schools relying on adjuncts for two thirds or more of their faculty, and with tenure becoming increasingly a thing of the past. The focus, obviously, was on what that means for those of us trying to put textbooks in instructors’ hands and secure course adoptions, but it raises all kinds of other issues, like about who’s teaching (and with what credentials), how honest a university is about that (since “adjunct” can still carry a stigma), and the value of a higher education. Which isn’t to say that adjuncts — or whatever a school is calling them — are worse than tenured faculty; often enough the opposite can be true. But the presentation and discussion did reveal that higher education, at least in the US, is rapidly changing.

This week, though, seems like it hasn’t changed at all since Monday. At least tomorrow is Friday. I know I won’t be working over the weekend. (I don’t get paid for it if I do.)

Weekend’s end

I spent all of yesterday in Maryland to celebrate my sister’s birthday. Like last year, we met up for lunch in Towson, and then she and my mother went off to shop, while my father, brother-in-law, and I drove over to the Maryland Historical Society, which turned out to actually be a quite interesting museum. Then we met up for dinner at a tapas place in Baltimore, where I had some of the tastiest duck I’ve ever eaten.

This morning we drove home, and along the way I finished reading He Died With His Eyes Open by Derek Raymond. There are some good things to say about the book…although maybe more about the person who bought it for me as a gift. Ultimately, the bleak and grimy poetry of some of the noirish writing aside, the book was a disappointment.

I’d probably say the same for Red Dwarf: Back to Earth, although that, obviously, was a disappointment of a different kind. Now that I’m all caught up on the show — minus, of course, the new series being filmed now — I have to say, my favorite remain the earlier episodes. Somewhere around series 5, the show took a turn. Maybe it was the loss of Holly, maybe it was the new filming process. It rallied a little in the series just before BtE — shooting again before a live-studio audience — but my common complaint watching later episodes was: more money, less funny.

This is what I’m doing instead of watching the Super Bowl, mind you.

Wednesday various

  • tudent receives free cocaine with Amazon textbook order. Is this where we’ve going wrong with our textbook sales? [via]
  • How College Football Bowls Earn Millions In Profits But Pay Almost Nothing In Taxes. Are you ready for some economic disparity?! [via]
  • The Texans who live on the ‘Mexican side’ of the border fence: ‘Technically, we’re in the United States’ [via]
  • Roger Ebert on why movie revenue is dropping:

    The message I get is that Americans love the movies as much as ever. It’s the theaters that are losing their charm. Proof: theaters thrive that police their audiences, show a variety of titles and emphasize value-added features. The rest of the industry can’t depend forever on blockbusters to bail it out.

  • And finally, Scott Tobias on why 2011 was secretly a really good year for movies:

    I don’t mean to be bullying or schoolmarmish about it, only to point out that when great films get pushed to the margins in our technology-rich times, far more than just a handful of self-selecting New Yorkers have a chance to see them. The key is to not let awards-season hype color your perception. We consider 2007 a monumental year because its strongest achievements—movies like There Will Be Blood, No Country For Old Men, and Zodiac—happened to have healthy budgets and the backing of major studios. Compare that to a 2011 where a pleasant-but-disposable trifle like The Artist is leading the charge, and it’s little wonder that perception marks it as a weak year. (The Tree Of Life may be the only 2011 film high in both ambition and visibility, and will almost certainly top every critics’ poll as a result.) But for the adventurous—and again, you don’t have to venture off the couch to be among them—2011 was an embarrassment of riches, full of lively, diverse, form-busting visions across all genres and around the world. And the best of them ask something of the viewer, offering rewards in exchange for an active engagement. Just don’t expect all the question marks to turn into exclamation points: To quote some advice to Michael Stuhlbarg’s spiritual seeker in A Serious Man, “Accept the mystery.”

Tuesday various

That was Monday

What can you say about a Monday? I have the next one, the one next week, off. But there fifty-three Mondays in this year, and not every one of them is going to hold thrilling tales. Most of them are just going to be your average…well, Monday.

I slept late this morning and was again rewarded by a slow train — although not anywhere as delayed as last week. I RSVP’ed for a wedding in March — anybody wanna be my plus-one? And at lunch, I took a chance on the Chinese place around the corner and discovered it — or at least my sweet and sour chicken — wasn’t bad at all. And I finished reading a book. I wasn’t super-impressed.

That was Monday.