Pop Goes Philosophy

So Open Court Press has a "Philosophy and Pop Culture Series" that takes various parts of pop culture (hip-hop, The Simpsons, The Matrix, etc.) and recruits writers to write in an accessible way about how that part of pop culture speaks to philosophical issues. They have an upcoming Radiohead and Philosophy volume coming up and I'm very proud to say that I'll be included in it! I'll be writing about the way the band disfigures the human voice in Kid A (through the manipulation of human voice samples) and, in doing so, recruits inarticulation in order to speak out of and about the recording technologies that shape expression. I can't wait!

Finally, years of listening to Radiohead pays off. ;)

There Will Be Manhattan

I know this is coming a bit late, but after months of job-market anxieties and, well, all those things people write about along side job-market anxieties, I'm *very* happy to say that I'll be joining the English Department at Manhattan College this fall as assistant professor of English and Director of Composition. This was *just* the job I wanted and the folks in the Department were just the sort of people I hoped they would be: warm, supportive, curious, and excited. I really couldn't be happier. Steph and I have already made plans to sublet for our first year in NYC and things are beginning to fall in place.

On realizing that we would be moving to New York, our first order of business was to say to each other, nearly in unison: "we get to sell our car!" Then we went to see *There Will Be Blood* and relished in our first step toward curing our own addiction to oil. (We also relished in the brilliance of Daniel Day-Lewis and found ourselves wanting milkshakes...)