Sandhill Trek

Listics progress...

Work continues on my new site.  You are invited to drop in, leave a comment, subscribe, whatever...  Sometime in the next few weeks Sandhill Trek rel. 2.0, this site, will be frozen and Sandhill Trek rel. 3.0 will be born at LISTICS.COM

Joys and Sorrows

My nephew Tony wrote an essay on the Importance of a UN Peace-Building Commission and the role of the United States in its Formation and was selected the 2006 Dane County UNA-USA contest winner.  They have forwarded his essay to NY to  the National contest.  East Side Pride!

On a sad note, Matt and Ben and their mom family are gathering with family in San Diego to share their love and comfort with each other and with Grandma Joyce who is gravely ill and at eighty not expected to recover.

Diane Farsetta on media ethics...

A year ago, Dan Gillmor appeared via phone on Madison's WORT community radio station talking about his book, "We the Media."  Diane Farsetta hosted the show, and she had me in the studio with her providing a little local blogger color.

Today on Alternet I noticed a reference to a recent Sandhill post.  That made me happy, but I was happier still at the company I kept there...  Diane Farsetta, was quoted extensively regarding media ethics.

I haven't seen Diane since October at the UN Day banquet here in Madison, but her picture in the Alternet posting reminded me of what a good and true person she is.  I am so proud to know her.

Find Frank

Photo shamelessly lifted from Dick Jones' Patteran Pages.

Mundane Stuff...

Had an opportunity to exercise my inner geek when my Dell power supply died.  The machine has only been in service 13 months.  (Any guesses on warranty length?)

Then, tasked with dumping forty pounds of salt in the water softener I discovered that it was sort of backed up.  Too much water in the tank.  Household water wasn't soft but there was plenty of brine...  I reset the timer on the unit and felt like Mr. Householder.  I may have done that once before in this life.  I liked it better in California where the water was fresh from the mountains instead of pumped up from some limestone stratum.

Moonlit night, but not that bright... sort of hazy, but not too dim for Molly to chase the flying disk (can I say "frisbee" generically?)  She has better night vision than mine.

Number Three with a Bullet!

Sandhill Trek surfaces as one of the best read blogs in the highly competitive Madison market.  Author "Fred" Paynter says, "I'm honored, and next year we will really give Paul Soglin a run for his money.  Take that Ann Althouse!"

Yet another quiz...

But this one seems valid...  You might know that I stole it from Chris Locke.

You're Watership Down!
by Richard Adams
Though many think of you as a bit young, even childish, you're actually incredibly deep and complex. You show people the need to rethink their assumptions, and confront them on everything from how they think to where they build their houses. You might be one of the greatest people of all time. You'd be recognized as such if you weren't always talking about talking rabbits.
Take the Book Quiz.

Another obsession...

As if I didn't have enough compulsive habits...  thanks to those who gave us Sudoku puzzle books for christmas.

Death and Taxes

A telemarketer called.  She was advertising the existence of a "conservative alternative to AARP."  We talked.  Indeed she wasn't making all that much money as a telemarketer.  Maybe her insurance wasn't THAT great.  She understood the plight of people growing older with fixed incomes in the face of rising prices.  She was, I think, ready to join me in tearing apart the malevolently conceived organization that she served, but we agreed we'd have to do it carefully.  She needs her paycheck.

As the demographics of the so called post war baby boom shift into elderdom, the opportunists of the Republican Party will have a harder and harder time hanging on to those they have thus far duped, and they will have a marvelously difficult time gaining converts.  But, while they lack the truth, and they lack concern, they do have plenty of money to shovel into intense marketing campaigns.

Public programs supporting health care, income continuation, public utilities and services become ever more attractive to those of us with limited means.  A "conservative alternative" to AARP is bizarre -- so bizarre that I dare not name it.

"Authenticity of Experience"

My youth seems to have asumed a constant distance from the present with the result that the upper boundary of those times gets larger as the years go by.  When I was a kid the phrase "authenticity of experience" was bandied about enough for it to be burned into my consciousness.  Authenticity of Experience  assumed a dominant place in a value structure that was built on a minimalist frame, a frame trussed up by things like "do no harm," and "it's all good."

To the extent that a lot of that is puerile bullshit, I think I understand AKMA's reaction to the offhanded use of the word "authentic" to describe musical performances that are not necessarily so.  Oddly, I think the intellectual rigor with which he frames his objection diminishes its force.  Not that I think imperfection or lack of rigor is necessary for authenticity, but rather that I think the concept itself deserves a lot more attention than we've given it.

Tom Matrullo dropped some tantalizing crumbs along the way.  As I stumble along toward an understanding of what makes "authentic" real, I'll be referring back to these heavy thinkists.

Meanwhile, here's a tidbit that turned up that seems to have some value.  From "Constructing Authenticity in Rock," by Allan Moore:

This brief discussion (1) takes as its starting position the refusal of two assumptions upon which the current discourse of authenticity appears founded, and which have led to countless fruitless discussions. (2) The first assumption is that authenticity is inscribed in music. The implication here is that any listener hearing the voice of Bruce Springsteen, let us say, will immediately perceive the truth of his expression. On the contrary, it appears to me that authenticity is a value which must be constructed. It is only once a particular audience has learnt to interpret the particular non-verbal sounds that Springsteen makes as indicative of his honesty, and has learnt to value that expression, that authenticity can be attributed to him. This assumption perhaps needs little attack these days.

The second assumption is more recalcitrant: it is that authenticity can be ascribed to a certain performance, and this assumption is held not only within the discipline of music. Again, however, this has led to much pointless debate about whether a particular performance can legitimately be read as authentic ('true to its origins') or not. Rather than ask what it is that is being authenticated, in this brief paper I ask who. I believe that this furnishes a more useful model for investigation of musical authenticity. Although my examples here deal exclusively with rock music, I believe the model to be employable in other fields.