Please Stop Singing
Posted on October 31st, 2007 in Uncategorized | 29 Comments »
IvyGate’s “Worst Ivy League A Capella Tournament” rolls on; apparently there is no shortage of candidates.
Featured today are the Brown Jabberwocks, the Princeton Roaring 20, Cornell’s Absolute A Capella, and Yale’s Living Water. Listen as the Cornel group takes a classic Oasis song…and makes you never, ever want to hear it again!
(Plus, what are they doing with their bodies? It’s as if they all have some sort of contagious nervous tic syndrome.)
Even the names are excruciating….
29 Responses
10/31/2007 7:51 am
Yes! Keep it up, Rich. A capella is on the run!
10/31/2007 7:58 am
And BTW, if we don’t see Standing Eagle on the board later bashing Andy Card’s visit to Harvard care of the IOP, then he’s out of town or incredibly ill. If so, maybe someone could arrange a mass email in FAS and we could sort through the away messages…
10/31/2007 10:14 am
You know, I would argue a capella groups are a form of performance art, designed - a la Britney’s performance at the VMAs - to do a surreal twist on our oh-so-predictable expectations. Let that first wave of revulsion flow over you. Perhaps what is left shining on the sand is a lovely little pearl!
10/31/2007 11:31 am
Does anyone think that Standing Eagle’s first name begins with a “J”?
10/31/2007 2:13 pm
Squatting Egret,
What *about* Card’s visit? I are you suggesting that I think no Republicans should be allowed on campus?
Card seems from the Crimson account to have come to campus to tell more truth than has yet been told about his departure from the White House. Should Card have been a zillion times smarter in processing whatever intelligence got in front of him when he showed up for WHIG meetings? Should he listen a little bit to himself and make note of his implicit confession of deceit, by observing that his definition of the WHIG mandate — to prevent contradictions in public statements — maps perfectly onto the axiom that if you just tell the truth you don’t have to remember what you said? Should he have resigned at any given instant of his time subserving the corrupt and deadly Bush agenda? Would it have been better last night for him to join a religious order and begin a frantic regimen of penitence in the hope that he can atone for all the things wrought by his catastrophic failures in managing the morally monstrous buffoon in the White House? Is he a criminal against the Constitution? Yes; but I say Harvard is the right place for people to come when they want to tell more truth than has yet been told.
If they lie there should be fact-checking, both on the KSG website and in the Crimson.
I don’t intend to allow myself to be caricatured as a partisan. I care about truth (small ‘t’), and I will listen to anyone who brings some.
I hope no one is listening too closely to the speculation about who I am; it’s not worth much.
Standing Eagle
(whose first name is actually Xerxes, so there)
10/31/2007 2:15 pm
VoxJazz used to be a pretty awesome singing group, just in musical terms.
10/31/2007 2:31 pm
And here is yet another example of why Maureen Dowd should NEVER NEVER be invited to speak at Harvard about her work. What a disgusting human being she is.
http://tinyurl.com/28qvoe
This is a nice little Matryoshka doll of a column too, because embedded within this moronic display from a person who should not be in the Times and certainly should not be elevated from the Times to the intellectual respectability of a university is an even more moronic display from Caitlin Flanagan, who should never have been in the Atlantic and certainly should not have been elevated from the Atlantic to the intellectual respectability of the Times.
Dowd at least has the decency to be openly catty. Flanagan is sneaky catty — she pretends to be writing about cattiness and feminist backlash but is herself just a real nasty piece of work who cashes checks in proportion as she blurs conceptual distinctions and mocks the idea that words or work mean anything. Nothing could be a bigger backlash against feminism than a clever woman who — while claiming to represent women and their contemporary concerns — constantly shows that she cares nothing for ideas.
These — Dowd, Flanagan, and I’d add David Brooks and probably a couple of Richard’s buddies down the food chain who might someday become useful and get hoisted up like Coulter was — are the real villains of our nation’s intellectual life. Card is just a villain of our political life. If universities get their own houses in order, and present real alternatives to essayists like these (and lame subvillians like Friedman who care only about selling books), they can begin to be useful in getting people like Card and his boss laughed off the stage when they make claims on grown-up jobs. Instead our visible champion is Malcolm Gladwell, who can write but doesn’t seem to care if he’s wrong and doesn’t believe in expertise.
Standing Eagle
too much Halloween candy on board
PS. By the way (not that there’s any reason anyone should be interested in this) I thought Clinton won the debate with discipline and clarity, — and Obama lost my vote with his return to the Social Security issue as (I guess) the only place he was interested in criticizing Hillary. A dumb and desperate choice, and indeed a right-wing talking point. I was for him; now I’m agin him.
10/31/2007 6:11 pm
“I hope no one is listening too closely to the speculation about who I am; it’s not worth much.”
I’ve been spending all afternoon on this, and the only tenured FAS professor I can think of beginning with “J” is Jeremy Knowles. But if there’s one thing we know about SE it’s that he’s a goddam Amur’can, so that can’t be right.
10/31/2007 6:35 pm
I think SE is Micheal D Smith! the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering! It would explain why he knew about Zuckerberg. The same personality, same insight! C’mon!
10/31/2007 7:23 pm
eadw,
It’s impossible to imagine Jeremy Knowles behaving as I behave, even pseudonymously.
SE
10/31/2007 7:30 pm
FYI: Xerxes means “ruler of heroes”.
10/31/2007 7:59 pm
“Xerxes means ‘ruler of heroes.'”
Oh hell, you caught me. I’m Rico; I make the sandwiches at Pinocchio’s….
Your fiendish cleverness pierced my ruse immediately, 7:30! Curses!
Rico
(the racketeer)
10/31/2007 10:25 pm
My incredibly rough SE profile:
The outspoken Bush critic absolutely must carry over into the real-world SE. In day to day life, I imagine he’s similarly passionate/obsessed with condemning Bush policy, particularly Iraq, the definition of torture, and illegal wiretapping (the hawkish stuff). I know Bush hatred is par for the course in FAS, but this seems like something more. Something that would come up on an almost daily basis.
And I agree with the SE=American call, eadw. For example, that’s the only way he’d write “agin him” (the charming way SE can sound like a high-order intellectual, even an elitist, and simultaneously sound like just one of the guys, a real ear for regionalisms, colorful speech - my favorite trait of his). He is certainly not P.C., so he’s a serious democrat. No Al Sharpton love here.
Look for a reasonably popular professor, who did not stand out in college (not sure if that helps but ’twas SE’s own admission).
He’s not very young and not very old, I’m thinking 40-something (exhibits solid knowledge about the last 20-30 years of pop culture). Watches the Sopranos but not when they air.
Has a great deal of energy - some folks have given him hell for spending all of his time writing lengthy posts, but I think he’s just a tad hyperactive and a fast typist to boot. Probably a very good speaker, but only in company he thinks worth it (so not a fan of public speaking outside the classroom). If he speaks like he talks, then he speaks fast on occasion.
Dedicated to ideals of education, so takes his classes very seriously (again, popular teacher but I feel likely more popular with students than with other faculty).
I used to think he also had some sort of administrative role, most likely in the past, but now I’m not so sure (though I still think it’s more likely than not - certainly well acquainted with University Hall, but could be a degree of separation, like with a close friend/colleague).
I came up with a candidate along the lines of student popularity and politics but nothing strong enough to share - not that I would ever really want to out you, SE. You’re too entertaining and occasionally valuable. Don’t think I would have written this if I really thought it would help expose him, I just find it temporarily fascinating.
That’s all I’ve got, and I’m sure half or more is off target (and hope you’re not too annoyed, Eagle Man). Can’t imagine what Professor Ryan is talking about when she says it’s become obvious in the past few months.
10/31/2007 10:39 pm
I think Standing Eagle’s first name begins with R.
10/31/2007 10:51 pm
I’m thinking SE is Cornel West. The remark about Maureen Dowd being the Ariel Sharon of media tipped it off for me.
10/31/2007 10:54 pm
PS, that was good profiling, Egret. Probably a lot like how the FBI figures out the identity of serial killers, or CIA profilers on Kim Jong Il and Saddam Hussein.
11/1/2024 10:15 am
Did I say I’d figured out who Standing Eagle is? I think that was another poster. I’m still trying to decide among a small number of possibilities. But I don’t think SE is a professor, since s/he once addressed me as “Professor” in a response in this blog. (Watch out, I’m listening to what you call me! I’m closing in on you!) We need to be looking for someone with a degree in English (Tennyson, Hopkins), some teaching experience and some continuing contact with students, considerable administrative experience, knowledge of more than one school at Harvard (Univ. Hall and KSG), and the ability to write like someone younger. The rants against IOP seem to bring out a wilder use of language, such as the word “fricking.” I agree with Squatting Egret’s analysis of Eagle’s age: not too young, not too old. Maybe the more agitated language is a throwback to student years?
11/1/2024 11:13 am
Oh, so sorry about that, Professor Ryan. I looked back and it was “Just Asking” who said that (under “The Proliferation of Clubs” post). Guess I remembered only the “J” and the “U” and went astray after that.
Interesting point about him (just believe in my gut SE is a man) not necessarily being a professor. What do professors call each other then if they’re not acquainted? First names regardless? Maybe he’s junior faculty and showing a little respect for the food chain…
11/1/2024 12:47 pm
Professors don’t use the term “Professor” unless a name follwos it. Thus, it might be natural for another professor who doesn’t really know me to address me as “Professor Ryan,” but not for another professor just to address me as “Professor.” Most colleagues call me Judith when they’re not speaking at a Faculty Meeting, where verbatim minutes are taken for posterity and thus formal address is more usual.
11/1/2024 1:52 pm
Prof. Judith,
{ambiguous sigh}
Episodes like this don’t point you in a different direction?
Maybe you should look for someone with a degree in Jackass….
POST:
John Huth. Berkeley Ph.D. fascinated by the experimental origins of electroweak symmetry. Yes, you heard it right. Electroweak symmetry. (Like you don’t know what that is.)
Discuss.
¶ 8:44 AM
Comments:
Hey goof,
Electroweak symmetry would be easy to look up. All the four elemental forces of nature — gravity, electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force, and the weak nuclear force — are thought to complement each other in symmetrical fashion.
I will now spend NO MORE THAN 40 seconds on Wikipedia….
Okay, that took seven seconds.
“In particle physics, the electroweak interaction is the unified description of two of the four fundamental interactions of nature: electromagnetism and the weak interaction. Although these two forces appear very different at everyday low energies, the theory models them as two different aspects of the same force. Above the unification energy, on the order of 102 GeV, they would merge into a single electroweak force. Thus if it is hot enough (Big Bang hot, for example) then electromagnetic force and weak force will merge into electroweak.”
Seven seconds. We learn something every day, don’t we! The beauty of blogging. (Not meant to be sarcastic, that bit, just a little dig in the chops.)
Still can’t log in,
Standing Eagle
11/1/2024 1:55 pm
Okay, before you scoff: that last physics thing was MEANT to be an obvious head-fake.
Judith is awfully good at what she does — but even so….
SE
11/1/2024 2:30 pm
Dear Standing Eagle,
Maybe the rolling level underneath me steady air is just hot air after all…
Judith
11/1/2024 2:33 pm
Out forth on swing with you!
Or not.
11/1/2024 2:47 pm
I caught this morning morning’s minion, king-
dom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate’s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird,-the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!
-“The Windhover” Gerard Manly Hopkins
Another bird reference. (sigh) Actuall I’m really enjoying this.
eayny
11/1/2024 11:17 pm
I go with 10:39 last night (first name begins with “R”). Now if I’m right, R/SE, that was quite clever of you to say you don’t have time to look at bradley’s blog when I (half-innocently) asked you last week if you had seen something or other on him/it. Those Frenchies seek him everywhere. No, that was SP, wasn’t it? SE, if you are truly puzzled (and be honest!) say so, and I will drop my “R”, which, with my NZ accent, I do all the time anyway.
11/2/2024 9:23 am
Not R.
11/2/2024 9:34 am
Back to the drawing board, Judith.
11/2/2024 11:06 am
RT: I’ve gone back to my first idea. The name doesn’t begin with “R.”
11/2/2024 11:15 am
Interesting, Judith. I had been leaning that way too, even before I tried out our R possibility.