¦¦ The world will get more complicated and frightening this week. One of my colleagues mentioned "war anxiety" today. I'm thinking I'd like to lighten things up a bit, so I'll mention the upcoming film A Mighty Wind, which features the legendary 60s acoustic group, The Folksmen. The first I heard of The Folksmen was in the mid-80s on SNL, when they reunited to sing their Top 70 hit from 1962, "Old Joe's Place." Be in line on April 16th! (BTW, any and all feelings of deja vu re: Spinal Tap, is intended.)
¦¦ The new Steely Dan album, Everything Must Go, the follow-up to their Grammy-winning Two Against Nature, will be in the stores on June 10th.
¦¦ The Beatles Anthology will be released on DVD in a couple weeks. The Beatles' web site is dedicated to this release, but it's a bit frustrating to have to move the cursor around the screen to locate the "hidden" video and info nodes.
¦¦ In other news, McDonald's outlets in three US cities will offer one hour of Wi-Fi to customers that buy a combination meal. Geoff, we'll have to check this out in NYC in June.
¦¦ I guess it can't be all fun all the time. Read this scathing indictment of the US education system, Learning To Be Stupid In The Culture Of Cash. The author laments the absence of awareness and knowledge geography, history, philosophy, and political science among her students. This may sound familiar to Albertans. In the early days of Ralph Klein, our current premier and de facto King, some members of his political party, at a convention in Banff, seriously considered having the philosophy and psychology departments at universities in Alberta closed down, because they didn't generate money or wealth. Dumbing down, anyone?
Posted by Randy at March 17, 2003 09:59 PM | TrackBackYou'll have to eat at McDonald's, too. Seriously, you will also need a laptop. There are supposedly lots of Starbucks with Wi-Fi, too. And there are wild unguarded wireless nodes all over, including Edmonton. I think I can come up with a URL for you on this. Maybe the UofA should offer Wi-Fi, especially in the libraries!
Posted by: Michael Hall at March 17, 2003 10:39 PMWhat about Five Neat Guys?
Posted by: Michael Hall at March 17, 2003 10:41 PMThe Five Neat Guys. Didn't they sing, "Mom Pressed The Crease In My Chinos"? Yes, the U of A Libraries should at some point in time offer Wi-Fi. There are places on campus where it is functional already.
Posted by: randy at March 17, 2003 11:37 PMi think philosophy/ literature/ psyche in general are essential to our lives. They make us human; and are not called humanities for nothing.
Posted by: sharon at March 18, 2003 11:23 AMI liked five neat guys singing stairway to heaven.... or was it elevator to menswear?
Posted by: jen at March 18, 2003 02:57 PMR: I like the subtle changes to your site, although I am noticing a red, white and blue theme beginning to emerge...you are not planning on dumping your French wine down the drain anytime soon, are you??
Posted by: G at March 18, 2003 11:00 PMGiven time, I could probably come up with an article on American education from 30 - 35 years ago that is exactly the same as the one you cite.
Posted by: Billy at March 18, 2003 11:08 PMSharon, of course you are right. The Earth needs liberal arts, philosophy, and the like, to interpret everything else that happens, and to keep us sane. Geoff, currently I'm drinking Argentinian wine. Billy, you're probably right, so I wonder if things are as bad as Luciana Bohne makes them out to be.
Posted by: randy at March 18, 2003 11:38 PMi vote for more pink
Posted by: jenB at March 19, 2003 12:33 AMThere is Wi-Fi in SUB (UofA) apparently, but I don't have the means of trying it out yet.
As far as shutting down philosophy and psychology because they don't generate money and wealth, why stop there? Might as well shut down all the liberal arts departments, because they don't generate wealth. Might as well shut down all the biological sciences, since all they do is sit in their labs and stare at monkeys. Oh, and math and physics isn't good to anyone, because it's all theoretical. In fact, what good is education at all? Ralphie didn't need one.
Posted by: Limegirl at March 20, 2003 12:57 AM