Then and Now

“As albums go, Arcade Fire’s “The Suburbs” was probably my favorite of the year, with Ra Ra Riot’s “The Orchard,” The New Pornographers’ “Together” and Titus Andronicus’ “The Monitor” as close runners-up.” Robert Blaszkiewicz”

I put on Robert’s favorite songs of 2010 CD to see how the selections hold up a decade later. Most seem particularly fitting in this, our plague year.  Robert led off with “A More Perfect Union,” by Titus Andronicus, the Civil War theme hopefully not a harbinger of things to come with a sociopath in the White House sowing sedition.  Spoon’s “Trouble Comes Running” follows, then “Crash Years” by New Pornographers and, two tracks later, Cee Lo Green’s “Fuck You,” served with a figurative raised middle finger. The middle verse goes:

Yeah I'm sorry, I can't afford a Ferrari,
But that don't mean I can't get you there.
I guess he's an Xbox and I'm more Atari,
About the way you play your game ain't fair.

 

Robert always broadens my musical horizons, and 2010 was no exception, with “Boyfriend” by Best Coast, “10 Mile Stereo” by Beach House, and “Glass Printer” by The Besnard Lakes. I hadn’t recalled that the 2010 Mix contained “The Weekenders” by The Hold Steady, one of my favorite bands since Alissa’s husband Josh introduced me to “South Town Girls,”; also, Arcade Fire, whose 2010 “The Suburbs” CD, which contains “Rococo,” I presently have on heavy rotation. The finale: “Talk on Indolence” by the Avett Brothers, whom Robert and I saw at Merrillville’s late, lamented Holiday Star with the Nitty Ditty Dirt Band opening for them. “Talk on Indolence” could be a lamentation for our current time

Well I've been lockin' myself up in my house for some time now

Readin' and writin' and readin' and thinkin'

And searching for reasons and missing the seasons.

The Autumn, the Spring, the Summer, the snow.

The record will stop and the record will go

John and Lorraine Shearer discovered numerous Petroskey stones during a recent expedition to Lake Michigan by Sleeping Bear Dunes. They live in Traverse City in one of the few areas where the pebble-shaped fossilized coral can be found.  According to Wikipedia, “Such stones were formed as a result of glaciation in which sheets of ice plucked stones from the bedrock, grinding off their rough edges and depositing them.” It is the state stone of Michigan.
Neil Goodman sculpture at IUN

On campus during Indiana University Northwest’s registration for Fall semester, I found my building and the library virtually deserted.  The process is apparently all automated.  In contrast, when I began my IUN teaching career, registration was a chaotic affair with heavy faculty participation; in order to successfully enroll for a particular course, a student had to maneuver in lines in order to pick up IBM computer card from department representatives situated in a huge room filled with students, faculty, and harried Admissions staff hoping to provide guidance to bewildered freshmen.  Working registration, I socialized with colleagues whom I might not otherwise have been with at any other function.

 

Numerous people identified with my description of past registration.  Janet French wrote: “That’s how it was at VU when I began in 1974.  In the gym heavy canvass was spread out on the floor.  If you didn’t get in line quick enough, for a class, you lost out. Chaos, but I miss that.”  IUN grad liked the socializing aspect of registration, adding: “It appears that part of the college experience has disappeared.”  Former IUN History professor Jerry Pierce recalled:

    Had something similar when I started at Oregon. We had to go to the basketball court in the arena, get cards, and stand in line. While waiting for a science class that was filling too fast, I struck up a conversation with a grad student at the Religious studies table and decided to register for Intro to the study of the Bible, which set me on my career trajectory. And it was a much better class than Physics of light and color.

 

First day of Fall semester at IU Northwest was unlike any I can remember. Normally the parking lots are filled to overflowing; not this year. No sign of student groups recruiting new members at tables set up near the student union. The cafeteria was almost devoid of customers.  With so many online offerings, less than 20 percent of courses are in classrooms, and the Zoom website was so overwhelmed, it crashed for a couple hours. Those students I encountered were wearing masks inside buildings but not always while outside. Only a few professors appeared to be around, but Philosopher Gianluca Di Muzio asked if I’d attend his freshman seminar next month to talk about the history of IUN, a course component. I agreed but am unsure whether I’ll need to keep a mask on during the entire 75 minutes.  I plan to give students my latest Steel Shavings beforehand, something that sparked discussion when I spoke in Jon Becker’ class last year. I’ll begin by mentioning that IU is celebrating its bicentennial, IUN its hundredth anniversary, and that I have been at the university exactly half that time - 50 years. In 1970 fully a third of the classes were in the evening, and most students were from steelworker families and first-generation college students whose parents or grandparents were immigrants.

My Oral History Association conference session is all set, chaired by Dr. Annette Henry of the University of British Columbia, who will also speak about two Black-Canadian women she interviewed.  Also on the panel is Izumi Niki, who will discuss Japanese-Canadian Kishizo Kimura, a west coast fisherman interned shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, similar to what happened in the United States.  Some 22,000 Japanese-Canadians, 90 percent of them Canadian citizens, were order to evacuate British Columbia and move inland into relocation camps.  The Canadian government also deported others and would not allow those relocated to return to the west coast until 1949, four years after World War II ended.  What is unique about Kimura is that he served on government bodies charged with disposing of the property holdings, including fishing vessels, of people he formerly had worked with and kept n extensive diary, which has been edited and published under the title “Witness to Loss.”  Were it not for the pandemic, I’d be looking forward to meeting Annette Henry and Izumi Niki.  As it is, we’ll be at home rather than in Baltimore.

 

David Foster Wallace’s “Infinite Jest” (1996) takes place at a future time when years will have a corporate sponsor similar to sports stadiums.  Thus, most of the action takes place in the “Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment.”  Other years are named for the Whopper, Perdue Wonder chicken, and, my favorite, the Trial-sized Dove Bar.

The Republican convention is un-watchable.  Among the despicable things that has transpired is approving a platform branding the Southern Poverty Law Center, which catalogs the nation’s hate groups, a “radical organization.”  Co-founded by Julian Bond and dedicated to the rule of law and ideals of Martin Luther King, it is an organization that we have supported for decades.

The Republican convention is un-watchable.  Among the despicable things that has transpired is approving a platform branding the Southern Poverty Law Center, which catalogs the nation’s hate groups, a “radical organization.”  Co-founded by Julian Bond and dedicated to the rule of law and ideals of Martin Luther King, it is an organization that we have supported for decades.