neurochemical con job

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university budget cuts
I knew the University of California system was gefucked, but now we get to find out just how gefucked it is. The NYT reports today on the systemwide budget for the UC system, and reports from the individual campus chancellors will be forthcoming on July 15th, they say.

I do thank my stars that when UCLA accepted me for their PhD Theatre program last year, I didn't get to go. They couldn't offer me any funding, and while I was sad at the time, I knew that if I didn't rate funding when they had some, then they didn't really want me. And last fall as the economy tanked, it looked more and more like a blessing in disguise that I hadn't gone the UC route at all. Now I'm interested in whether or not any of the UC theatre departments are going to be cut in toto, as I wouldn't be surprised. Reading the tidbits in the NYT article, I almost wish they would trim back the arts programs.

I can't believe I just said that, but I do wish they would trim back the arts programs at the University of California schools.

For god' sake, they're cutting the Earth Sciences major, in California, where the earthquakes live. They're cutting all required undergraduate distribution classes that have enrollment of under 100 students. They're cutting the liver transplant program.

Yes, I do theatre, I love theatre, I respect theatre, and I think it's a really efficient component of a liberal arts education. But call me a heathen, I'd rather see them cut theatre than the liver transplant program.

Kids who really need a tertiary-level education in the arts should be auditioning for conservatory programs. Kids who just love the arts and want to explore that should continue to participate in and run their own extracurricular student-run arts organizations while majoring in something that will mightily enrich the art they make--something with a robust and world-class faculty, the kind the UC schools are known for, not a sad, anemic, cheese-pared little major in the arts.

pretty kitty
Finally got good pictures of Mimi. Yes, her eyes really are that color!

LAST CHANCE PARTY
Come to the Holiday Club next Saturday night--my last Saturday night in Chicago--for food, drinks, hanging out, and photo booth hijinks!

CLARE and FRIENDS' LAST CHANCE PARTY
HOLIDAY CLUB
4000 N. SHERIDAN ROAD
JULY 18
8:00 PM onward

I love Chicago!
I love all my Chicago people!
I don't wanna go!!!!!

Of course, as most of you know, I am moving to Ithaca NY. I leave on July 21st. I'm already sad about all the things and people and events and occasions I'm going to miss. You DO realize, o my best beloveds, that the only thing I couldn't find here was adequate career scaffolding?

I feel like a plant that's being repotted, and I'm *hating* it!

p.s. Packing is evil.

mmm...margaritas
What's your favorite place with margaritas in Chicago that's open past 10pm?

Tam Lin
I've finally read Pamela Dean's Tam Lin, on the advice of many many friends over the years (I'll love it, it's set at a liberal-arts college, it's about theatre people, it's a fantasy classic, etc.). And I'm sorry to say, Carls, that it's just a terrible book. All those endless descriptions of the campus buildings and layout? Boring if you didn't go to Carleton. All that dialogue where no-one says anything of their own, but consists entirely of quotations from English literature? Dorothy Sayers did it better. All those girls doggedly dating boys they never see and don't even particularly like? WTF? And all so that in the last ten pages the heroine can get knocked up, bit by a swan, and looked at sternly by the Queen of Faery?

I have a new-used copy of Tam Lin, if anybody wants it.

rental cars
Do you have a favorite rental car company you can recommend?

I have teh plantar fascists.
Does anyone know where I can get one of those splints/braces for plantar fasciitis? You know, the kind you put on for sleeping so that it angles your foot up and stretches the connective tissues?

I'm trying to write a conference proposal, but it
Seems like everything is either too obvious to mention, or too complicated for me to understand.

I know-- welcome to grad school.

Make Me A Supermodel
Poor Mountaha. Off the show, but WAIT!-- already been signed by the agency that signs the winner. Yay!

http://www.tierstimmen.org/

The Animal Sound Archive (Tierstimmenarchiv) of the Humboldt-Universität, Berlin includes over 100,000 animal recordings, with free access to their database of sounds.

Time to make some ringtones!

bleaugh
I have spent the day wheezy and feverish, intermittently coked out on cold meds. I hate being sick on holidays. What a fucking waste.

Who understands Audacity?
Okay, fine, fuck it. Even when the cat is quiet, I can't figure out how the fuck to record this thing. Nor can I figure out through any amount of Googling through the documentation what I'm doing wrong. I give up. Who knows how to use Audacity? This is not supposed to be this difficult.

Trying to record some voiceover samples, but the Siamese won't shut up. She may think I'm talking to her. This could be a problem.

thinking about shockmounts
I'm thinking about shockmounts. Microphones have shockmounts (usually a sort of suspension web made of something elastic) to prevent them from picking up low-frequency vibrations from, say, your hard drive, or passing vehicles.

Shockmount is *almost* the right word for the way I envision the anatomy of the voice, in the sense that the larger laryngeal superstructure is a suspension web of muscles and tendons in which the larynx sort of enmeshed, like a weaverbird's nest.

But if the superstructure of the larynx *does* function like a shockmount, what for? To protect the larynx from what? I mean, obviously there are resonant benefits to the voicebox being held in a loose, warm cat's cradle, but that can't be the *reason*.

The neck is an awesome crossroads of bone and breath and blood, but for all that, it's one of the body's weak points. The shockmount superstructure is probably there to protect the trachea/epiglottis structure-- which is more vital than voice function. I'm just guessing, though.

Intro to Cog Sci
I'm trying to get a basic grasp of cognitive science, but I don't even know where to begin. I suppose I'll do the usual: look up syllabi on the web, skim them for the shape of the field, and gank their reading lists.

It's just SO FREAKING HARD to teach oneself this kind of stuff with no guidance or support! And nobody to bring my questions to.

Current Mood: annoyed

RIP Augusto Boal
I heard him speak last summer. What a wonderful man.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusto_Boal