Philosophy in the Times

It's interesting to see philosophy outside of academia. Here, a portrait photographer, Steve Pyke, posts some black and white photos of important philosophers looking into the distance, caught in deep thought, disgruntled, and so on. They explain "why philosophy," and Pyke explains why he takes their pictures. I've never been a huge fan of reading through comments, but it was interesting to see people's reactions to the feature and essay. "Since when are 'philosophers' exclusively anglo-american?" (My follow-up question: when not Anglo-American, why Zizek?) Why aren't scientists and other theorists in there? "Lawyers and philosophers...are like half-brothers. Sometimes I wish I was a philosopher, but I love my flat screen TV. Whatever." I think a lot of these questions have to do with Pyke being based in New York and how he is interested in philosophers who are respected by other philosophers. But this doesn't explain the best question: "How about Philosopher trading cards?"

Of the portraits and explanations, I liked Kwame Anthony Appiah's and Tim Scanlon's best. Appiah looks inviting, and though he gives a standard explanation of "why philosophy," it's succinct, and the way he puts it is worth repeating. I like the look in Scanlon's eyes, and the compelling comment about becoming our own prisoners without philosophical distinctions. Of course, this has got me thinking about myself, so I'll be posting my own philosopher trading card here soon, complete with an explanation of "why philosophy." I'm sure all -3 of you are dying to know, so stay tuned.

And then Jade alerted me to this essay on hipsters, also from the NYTimes. It references Pierre Bourdieu's Distinction, which is not quite philosophy, but its premise is beef with Kantian aesthetics so I say it counts. Anyway, Bourdieu's whole research on class and taste is interesting, but ultimately, I don't think taste is determined by class. I mean, we all saw Vivian cry at the opera in "Pretty Woman," right guys? REMEMBER? I just saw that movie last night on USA (i.e., edited and laced with commercials not from 80's, which would be preferred) for the first time. I couldn't tell if the writing was terrible, especially for Vivian's parts, or if Julia Roberts is a terrible actress. I didn't mind looking at Richard Gere's character and his sometimes-Asian-looking eyes, and I loved George Kostanza's cameo as the lawyer, and the storyline is interesting enough to keep watching. But damn, I felt so gross after seeing it, and not just because Julia Roberts has wiry eyebrows, like the fur of an Airdale Terrier.

Today

As I noted earlier today, here's a log of today, inspired by Richard. Yesterday I watched two episodes of Nodame, read four pages of philosophy and graded zero exams. Today I repented.

7:27AM Wake up, reluctantly get out of bed.

7:45AM Leave with Mordecai; he goes to work, I order medium soy latte at a nearby Caribou. The foam of my latte tastes a little like tofu. I eat my croissant I brought from home in a Ziploc bag.

9:30AM I've graded two exams, set out a short stack of papers that I don't think will be difficult to grade (i.e., good students' papers) and started reading Axel Honneth. I've got about 25-30 more pages to go. It's an essay on reification and recognition, and there are moments that make me sad. Why is philosophy so caught up in knowing things, like the world and its people are the subject matter of a standardized test? I note in the margin "REQUIEM" of some page and draw clouds, a stick of lightening, rain, and wind. I have in my mind Mozart's Requiem Mass that he was singing to Salieri at the end of "Amadeus," but only the second movement of Beethoven's 7th Symphony comes to mind. I don't know much Mozart, come to think of it.

10AM I check Twitter to see confirmations of Mariah Carey's pregnancy. I anticipated a good "article" on the matter on Dlisted, and whoever that genius is, delivered. I tweet that link, tweet again about how sad it is that Mimi had a miscarriage two years ago. 

By this point, I've also probably checked to see if Glenchester Kennels has updated (or "pupdated," as I almost accidentally typed) their website with a recent photo of six puppies, one of which will come home with us soon (more on this for another post)!

11:30AM Finish Honneth, skim the responses to his essay, get annoyed by them. I start to bother Mordecai with texts about lunch. Also, I've been at this Caribou for about 3 hours and wonder now and then whether anyone secretly notices cares, because no one apparently does. Wonder why I don't do this more often.

12PM I meet Mordecai in the car at the parking lot between Caribou and his office, and we go to some place called Jason's Deli, which is basically a variation of Panera. I think I prefer Panera. I have a BLT with potato soup; Mordecai has a "Chicago Club" and some red-colored soup. I see a bulldog running in the parking lot outside, people chasing after it. A young man was able to grab it by it's collar, and patted it while the owners caught up with the leash. The bulldog appears to appreciate the petting; it looks happy to have had its ephemeral moment of freedom.

12:45PM I get dropped off at the Roosevelt red line, take it to Fullerton, and take the Fullerton bus home. Someone on the bus is coughing up a storm. By the time we get to Clybourn, I start to think about Nodame. She asks, "What's so wrong about playing the piano freely, for fun?" I think this is a good question. What's wrong with her original ambition of being a preschool teacher? I love Nodame so much. I wonder if I'll grade that little stack I set out for myself earlier.

2PM I get home, watch the last episode of the Nodame drama series, cry, look for the Europe specials. I can't find them on DVD, which I know I have somewhere, but they seem to be on Mordecai's external hard drive (mine is almost full with HD version of Glee, Season 1). At some point I practice piano--working on a simplified version of the first movement of Beethoven's 7th. I've got it down, but can't play it through without slipping on the black keys.

3PM I blog, gchat with Emily, gossip about the Regenstein staff, clean the kitchen somewhat, prepare things for dinner. No more papers will be graded, but two is better than zero.

5PM Start cooking rice. Prepare potatoes, tomatoes, green beans, tofu in a light stew of soba tsuyu, miso, sake, sugar. The ginger is no good. 

6PM Mordecai comes home, helps with dinner, and we start watching World Series Game 2. Mordecai laments that Jeff Francoeur is not starting in right field, and Daniel Murphy is instead. I expect that Jorge Cantu will warm the bench. For dessert, we share an almond croissant and a plain croissant.

8PM Mordecai installs the blinds in our sunroom. I practice some more piano, this time a theme from "Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind." 

8:30PM I blog, watch Edgar Renteria hit a home run, the Rangers continue being unable to produce anything offensive, and C.J. Wilson get pulled for a blister on his finger. I note to myself that I should shower and get ready for bed--I want to watch the first Nodame Europe special and go to bed early to leave with Mordecai again tomorrow morning.

9:15PM PUPPY PICTURES OMG OMG OMG

Flannel + Docs

Thursday and Friday I wore similar outfits but varying in color. Both shirts are Mordecai's, and they happened to match my two pairs of Doc Martens, which pleased me a great deal. On Thursday it was warm-raining, which I don't particularly mind. At the Jackson train station, a young man approached me on the platform and remarked, "Damn, you lookin' kinda sexy in all that purple." I had to break it to him that I'm engaged to be married. I'm also pretty sure he was over five years younger than me. But anyway, what was so great about this moment in my life was that at the station platform nearby, a man was playing his bass with some background music and I realized that the song was "PURPLE RAIN." I think there were purple fireworks in my head!

Today I hung around the office, met with a couple of students, and later met up with Mordecai to go downtown. I noticed more logic notation on the office board than usual. Since it was so orderly and covered the whole thing, I decided to document it using PhotoBooth. It's Sean's work, presumably for his 210 students. I really ought to retake 210, and probably with Sean, but for now I will just pose with it.

In other news, I started up another blog exclusively for Fantasy purposes: MARAUDERS OF TIME. Here is Carlos Peña, the unofficial spokesperson for our new blog. He leads the MLB with 10 home runs thus far into the season. Somehow he currently surpasses all other proven sluggers. He's my utility player hero!

Focusing FAIL, Distraction SUCCESS

Today was kind of a long day. Towards the end of class around 5:30PM, I became unable to focus. I stared at the underlined sentence below, trying to read and understand:

Instead of reading:

"You practically have to wait for what are called the neo-classical economists, Walras and Pareto, to see the more or less clear emergence of what is understood by homo economicus."

I swear to the Gods of Baseball I saw:

"You practically have to wait for what are called the neo-classical economists, DAVID ORTIZ and JORGE CANTU, to see the more or less clear emergence of what is understood by homo economicus."

I was quite concerned about Jorge's hand (today's performance indicates he's recovering) and I think I was so impressed by Jenni's move to drop Ortiz for Nick Swisher that the wallpaper of my subconscious became this image, which Joe showed me yesterday:

Big Papi looks like our landlord in this picture.

I had a lot of dreams last night about baseball too, and possibly Stat Tracker and/or the At Bat app, but I can't remember the details. I am kind of going crazy but I'm not gonna lie, I'm loving it.

Eight O'Clock Coffee

This morning I got up at 7:10 and got out of bed at 7:40. I didn't have the Eight O'Clock Coffee until about 9, but I had a relatively productive morning that made up for laziness from the previous 4 or 5 days. This is my new study area, near natural light when it is available.

My fondest non-memory of Hegel is writing a 15-page paper on Phenomenology of Spirit back in the spring of 2004. I have absolutely no recollection of what the paper was about, or what the reading was about. I just remember writing it in the Regenstein and emailing Sam back and forth about how the paper was (not) coming along (ah, pre-Gmail days). Anyway, thank goodness for a fine professor who can make Hegel not only understandable, but appealing.

The coffee was good (and is reported to be a good buy, link via Mordecai), but you shouldn't take my word for it. We also got Dunkin' Donuts coffee grinds, so I will have my own taste test that no one should pay much attention to. I will report back nonetheless.

It should also be noted that I took an hour nap before noon. Still, progress is progress, peoples!