New MacBook

Well, not exactly new new, it's a refurbished laptop, but it's got what I need. It's fast and able to handle all the stuff I need for work. iPhoto, Word, Bento, MacSpeech Dictate, and everything else work great on the new machine. No more waiting minutes, literally, for a program to load, to switch between programs, or doing any other day-to-day tasks. It will probably take a day or so to get everything transferred to the new machine and get it back to where the old one was. Nevertheless, it's great to have a new machine. I don't think it's absurd to get a new machine every 4-5 years. It's been 4 years since I got my iBook, and it's been a great computer. Let's just hope that I can get another good 4 years out of this MacBook. But right now, I'm really excited about being able to dive in headfirst to my research and writing (Does that make me a geek? Probably, but that was never in doubt.)

The other thing I need to mention, and I'm sure any one else in graduate school can agree with this, is that Interlibrary loan is the greatest thing ever. I'm working on part of one of the main chapters of my dissertation at the moment. I found a book on the subject I'm currently writing about (housing for Irish ex-servicemen) that Loyola did not own, naturally. A few quick clicks and interlibrary loan had the book for me in a few days. The book is a great complement to the primary sources I have, by filling in some of the administrative history those sources lack. Needless to say, the folks at ILL will be getting an acknowledgement when this thing is done!

The week that was

Since my last update a few interesting things occurred. The section of the diss I'm working on now relates to Irish ex-servicemen and housing in the 1919-1932 period. I spent some time this week trying to track down an Act of Parliament that was passed in 1919. That's the sort of thing one would expect to find online, but alas, I was informed that this is not so. They (how ambiguous) have only gotten the Acts through the 17th century digitized. Fortunately, I found a reference at Loyola's law library that seemed useful, and ended up finding a bunch of books that had what I wanted. It's nice that Loyola actually had what I needed - a rarity to be sure. Progress this week was a bit slow though. To make a long story short, my laptop if four years old and cannot handle running multiple programs at once any longer. Hell, it hangs when I just try to use the internet. Today, I ordered a new MacBook (well, a refurb) and I'm really pleased with the prospect of getting a new machine. Since my student loan money came in this week, I've been able to clear my credit card debt, and I should be able to pay off the new computer very shortly as well. Regardless, I'm looking forward to being more efficient with a serviceable computer.

In other news, the band I'm playing in - Fat Tuesday - had a gig tonight (Sunday) in the city. It was fun to get out and play again. Being my own harshest critic, I don't think I played great, but I played well enough. I even got to sing a song, though I couldn't hear myself in the monitor and my throat was dry. The worst part about the gig, besides having an 11:15pm start time on a Sunday night was that NONE of my friends showed up. How sad is that? I must have told at least 70 people and not a single one stopped by. I don't know if that says something about me, my friends, or Sunday nights. Our next gig is in the city on a Saturday night. If similar circumstances prevail, I'm looking for new friends. Other than that, the gig was fine. I had a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to doing it again.

Steady as she goes

Just a few updates from the past week. On the dissertation front things are progressing steadily. I've been both going through material and starting to write. I put together a brief outline today about what I think the first chapter will look like based on everything I've seen the past few months. I'm trying to decided where to make a chapter break. The primary period of concern is the interwar period, but the entire project goes to the present. For the interwar period it seems easiest to just break down the chronology with one chapter for the 1920s and one for the 1930s. I could stretch the chronology of the first chapter from 1918-1932, and then the second from 1932-1939, with de Valera's ascension to power in 1932 as the watershed moment in the interwar years. I'm still trying to figure out which chronology to use. I'll have to look at the material from the 1930s more thoroughly before I made a final decision though. This week and last week I was going through the 1920s. So time will tell. Is it lazy to just break things down by decade?

What else has been going on? Let's see. The Michigan game on Saturday was an absolute travesty. Given the weather and the fact that ND weren't working with a brand new offense, I'm not terribly surprised that Michigan lost. Any team that fumbles the ball 7 (!!!) in a single game and loses 4 of them deserves to lose. Hopefully the bye this weekend will help big Blue to get their heads out of their collective asses against Wisconsin.

I'm also playing bass in a band now. We have a show this coming Sunday. Not the best night of the week to play a show, especially since it's at 11:15pm, but any excuse to play is fine with me. I'll probably have some reflections on the gig next week.

The Derek Trucks Band - God's gift to the ears

My two favorite bands of all time are the Grateful Dead and the Derek Trucks Band. Since Jerry Garcia died I'm obviously not going to any Dead shows. But the DTB just started a new tour and came through Chicago last weekend. Below is a review of the show that I posted on the DTB listserv. You'll also notice that there is a link to the show in the column on the left if anyone interested would like to listen to a recording and hear just how amazing these guys are. A few notes for clarity - Derek Trucks (DT) is married to blues singer Susan Tedeschi (ST). The members of the band are: Derek Trucks, guitar; Yonrico Scott, drums; Todd Smallie, bass; Kofi Burbridge, keys, B3, flute, clavinet, etc.; Mike Mattison, vocals; Count M'Butu, percussion.

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Hey folks,
Just got back from the DTB's rocking of the Windy City. It was my first DTB show since the Park West filming of Songlines (i.e. WAY too long). The band was in excellent form (as if they had any other). Susan sat in for a few songs on vocals. The setlist is as follows:

The Vic, Chicago, IL - 9/6/08

I'll Find My Way
Leavin' Trunk
Soul Serenade
Key To The Highway
My Favorite Things
Down Don't Bother Me
Get Out Of My Life Woman
Done Got Over*
Anyday*
Joyful Noise*

Encore:
Volunteered Slavery >
Up Above My Head

*with Susan on vocals

A few notes: The band was hitting on all cylinders from the starting gun. The soul serenade was a nice treat - something I wasn't expecting. I thought I heard a brief Amazing Grace tease during the intro. Wait for the tapes to confirm. (There were at least two tapers there, although I didn't get a chance to go talk to them. I recognized one from the last Park West show, and I know he got his source up pronto). My Favorite things was a nice, long jam. Very nice. I was in Ireland this summer when I first heard the new arrangement of Down don't bother me. I liked it from the get-go, but hearing it live was truly impressive. I hope they put this one on the new record. GOOMLW brought the funk. Susan did a great job (she even gave Barack Obama a shout out while she was improving over the Joyful Noise vamp). I hadn't seen her sit in with the band before and she added a great dynamic, especially when exchanging lines with Mike and Derek. The Volunteered Slavery was a bit spacey, most notably the jam into Up above my head. A real highlight if you ask me. Derek was on fire all night. Detuning, pulling the low E behind the neck of the guitar, and all kinds of DT wizardy. Everyone looked like they were having a good time, and the interplay between DT and ST was fun. They made a good time of it all. Derek also seemed to be more mobile. Not Pete Townsend by any stretch, but a few more bends at the knee, shrugs of the shoulders, and flexing of the elbows than a few years ago. He seems to be finding his element and having more fun with it (perhaps others have noticed this as well, I only bring it up now since I've been unable to hit up many shows in the past few years).
This was the first show I went to with my fiancee. She's not into the jam thing, but really enjoyed the show. We were standing in the section in front of the soundboard, and Katie said that from there Rico looked like Turk from Scrubs (that made me laugh). She got a kick out of Rico and the Count. She definitely enjoyed the show and I think she understands my obsession a bit better now.

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If I had the money I would follow this band on tour in a heartbeat. At some points during the show it felt like you were in a huge chautauqua tent, especially during Joyful Noise. It's really a great feeling to have. Plus watching DT play guitar is something any music lover should experience. Check to see if they'll be in your neck of the woods soon.

... and the band played on.

When I was overseas it became abundantly clear to me how people could spend a solid year in research. Now, it has become equally clear as to why it takes folks so long to go through everything. The dictation software I have works pretty well, however, I don't see myself relying on it exclusively. It's certainly helpful when taking notes on material, but there's something to be said for actually typing out text that necessitates thought. One other piece of advise I got this past week (or should I say, received again) was to start writing. Don't worry about going through every single little piece of research. As you write you'll have a better idea of what, exactly, you need, which prevents spending ungodly hours trolling through material you probably won't need. The goal is to chip away at the stone. And that's certainly what I'm trying to do!

In other news. The Red Bull Flutag was in Chicago this past weekend. I went down to check it out with some friends. It was entertaining, but we didn't stay for the whole thing. There were a ton of people there and the novelty wore off after a while. By attending the Flutag I missed a good portion of the Michigan game. They looked pretty good when I left, but as I read the game recap it seemed pretty clear that this was not maintained throughout the rest of the game. I watched a bit of the Notre Dame game, and they looked just as pathetic. Apparently a fourth quarter rally enabled them to beat a team they were trailing for most of the game and who had lost to Cal Poly the week before (my parent's alma mater; No offense Dad!). Hopefully, the UM quarterbacks will pull their heads out of their assess long enough to put together a win this week.

Finally, I actually watched sizable portions of both the Republican and Democratic national conventions. I have to admit that I tend to lean republican, but really consider myself a moderate. In the present election, however, I have no idea why anyone would want to vote for John McCain. I felt like writing something following his speech and that of his proposed veep, but refrained. Perhaps that was a good thing. It's disturbing that the republicans are trying to make this an election about personalities, again, while Obama addresses the issues and offers concrete proposals. As someone who hopes to work in the education field, I cannot understand how anyone in that industry would vote republican given the current education planks in their platform. Granted, I like the idea of small government, but in some sectors I think it's beneficial to have the backing of Uncle Sam: education, health care, and the environment. Those are areas I can support "big government." One might notice that all of these are long-term issues, that contribute to social well-being. Shouldn't be a surprise there. These are all areas that have systemic problems, need to be addressed quickly (i.e. the health care system needs to be blown up and started from scratch if you ask me), and, unfortunately, will probably continue to be ignored until it's too late. Anything beyond these issues, I prefer small government.