that was probably awkward

I Rant Because I Care: There Are No Original Ideas Indeed

This -- ranting incoherently -- is what happens when you:

1. Barely survive a terrible job interview for an assistant professorship, during which you tell the search committee about your dissertation and ongoing work on exploring the relationship between ruins and the search for national identity and historicity in the face of a constantly changing conception and experience of modernity, and then

2. Not get the job (nor even get a polite rejection letter), and so then

3. Quit academia, and decide to continue working on ruins-related ideas, even though without institutional backing you know it will be hard to get your foot in the academic publishing world, but then

4. Find out that the head of the search committee for the job that you applied to, and for which you had that terrible interview, has, out of nowhere, and three years after said interview during which she seemed to scoff at the idea of thinking through ruins as a way to examine 21st century narratives of the present, become the guest editor of the latest issue of Cultural Anthropology:

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY: "Imperial Debris: Reflections on Ruins and Ruination", Ann Laura Stoler

The May 2008 issue of Cultural Anthropology is a special issue edited by Ann Laura Stoler focused on "imperial debris." "This is not a turn to ruins as memorialized and large-scale monumental 'leftovers' or relics," Stoler writes in her introductory essay, "but rather to what people are 'left with': to what remains, to the aftershocks of empire, to the material and social afterlife of structures, sensibilities, and things. Such effects reside in the corroded hollows of landscapes, in the gutted infrastructures of segregated cityscapes and in the microecologies of matter and mind."

In expanding conceptions of ruins and eschewing any romanticization of them or their empires, Stoler hopes to interlink postcolonial studies with analyses and concerns about urban decay, environmental degradation, industrial pollution, and "racialized unemployment."  She also hopes to highlight how some people and places are more susceptible to ruin than others.  "Modernity and capitalism can account for the left aside, but not where people are left, what they are left with, and what means they have to deal with what remains," writes Stoler.

It's Memorial Day here in the States.   Methinks it's a perfectly reasonable time -- 1pm -- to get my drink on. 

My joy knows no bounds

Babies kicked out of Brooklyn bar.

It's a shame I wasn't there to see it.

Steve Jobs is a Douche [Updated]

This might not be the best way to ingratiate yourself to your customers [from USA Today]:

That's technology. If they bought it this morning, they should go back to where they bought it and talk to them. If they bought it a month ago, well, that's what happens in technology.

I know this isn't the worst thing that has ever happened. But it's like Apple is trying to piss off their early adopters. It's because they know we'll just come crawling back like junky whores.

[Updated]
Steve Jobs has done some crisis control to pacify the mac faithful. Text of letter after jump. Thanks go out to Joe for the information.

The iPhone Loses Apple Another Customer or Object Lessons in Betrayal

Today Apple Computer released new iPods: A Nano that Does Video, the Shuffle in new fashion colors, and a new iPod Touch that does everything the iPhone does except for make phone calls, send text messages, and take pictures -- all for $100 less. This news made me feel a little blue, making me wish I had waited on buying the iPhone. Then I thought about the joy I got from only needing one gadget in my pocket and felt okay again.

The announcements ended and I went to a meeting. When it finished I checked my phone for text alerts from MacRumors and I learned Apple dropped the price of the iPhone $200. As an early adopter, I'm used to a second generation product coming out that's faster, better, and cheaper. HOWEVER, that product and price drop usually do not come out for at least 6 months. This time getting a product 2 months early cost me TWO HUNDRED dollars.

I'm so angry I can barely think straight. I've been meaning to write a glowing review about how this product lets you live in a magical bubble of silence but now my head is filled with unspoken screams. I know this is nothing compared to HT's recent apartment betrayal but it is completely maddening. Today is AH's birthday and I was considering getting him a new iPod a a gift. Now he'll have to console me as I fight my urge to throw the iPhone against a wall.

Hey! On the bright side, now if I break my phone out of rage and frustration it will be a whole lot cheaper to replace!

[MD: Added my letter to Apple below.]

Anger Management: Dogs and Babies

Saturday afternoon after watching (part of) a matinee at the lovely Cobble Hill Cinema, my friend PK and I wandered the neighborhood trying to figure out what to do. The film had unexpectedly broke down and let out early leaving us unsure of what to do with ourselves. It was 3:30 on a Saturday in New York: Too late for caffeine, and too early for drinking, and not the right time for a before dinner snack. Neither of us needed thriftstore/designer women's fashions nor precious, overpriced housewares. It was the quintessential NYC dilemma: what to do if you're not consuming?

Befuddled and unable to answer this question, we decided it was, in fact, not too early to drink.

So we go to Abilene, a lovely bar with a good soundtrack, small assortment of classic bar foods, and an al fresco front patio for summer. We get two Brooklyn Weisse and proceed to talk about the film, my rage at the absurd family in Flight 001, and PK's job in branding.

It's about this time when the first baby arrived, followed by another, and another. The couches slowly fill up with the two separate groups of hipster parents and their children as we look on in horror realizing our mellow bar becomes a nursery school, or at best, the alcoholic version of Tea Lounge.

PK and I begin to discuss the horror our non-native friends and relatives have experienced in baby bars such as Union Hall and how in other cities it's only alcoholics, single-mother/bartenders, and trash who bring their children to bars. Among the Brooklyn intelligentsia bringing a child to bars seems to represent a certain european je ne sais quoi. It's as if they're saying "i am exposing my children to adult discourse. I am teaching them that alcohol is not a drug to be abused but a healthy part of life in moderation. And also: I can't really be bothered to make changes to my life now that I have these little bundles of joy."

A man walks in with a pug that starts barking at someone elses's lapdog and prompts three of the kids to start crying. I turn to PK and say "Babies are the new dogs." They're the new cute pet cum fashion accessory, the item the quality-obsessed and self-indulgent obtain when they've already bought every high-quality and self-indulgent item they can for themselves and need something or someone else to pamper and accesorize.

The rage dies down and PK and I go back to talking about branding, the kid in his office who thinks shorts and knee-high white socks counts as business casual, and the retro 70s porn moment we're currently experiencing in fashion.

This turns into a discussion about work, how conservative one needs to dress in the media, and how both of us feel lame but relieved that we'd never gotten tattoos.

"Tattoos... THAT was a bad fashion trend."

"And one you're stuck with forever. I feel bad for them. And a little embarrassed."

At that moment one of the indie daddies leans out the open window to hand a plastic truck out to the parents who have moved out to the sidewalk so they can smoke (SMOKE?!?) and parent. His sock falls down a little and a tribal band is revealed above his ankle. I turn to PK:

"Babies aren't the new dogs. Babies are the new tattoos: A sometimes impulsive choice that alters your body and your life forever. Even after the trend has passed, you can't get rid of when you're bored or realize it was a bad idea. "

At least you can do the right thing and take a dog to the pound when you realize his need to be walked and fed is crimping your social life.