I remain interested in Les Back and his sociologically related ideas. Reading his The Art of Listening, I realized that I have had a life long lay interest in many of the social sciences including psychology, sociology, anthropology and others, the more holistic the better.

This morning I was reading Back’s introduction (written along with Michael Bull) to  The Auditory Culture Reader. This book is a collection of articles and is edited by Back and Bull. (click on the title and you can scroll down to read the table of contents to get an idea of the wide range of articles in this collection if you’re interested).

Bull and Back quote Geertz

It is always very difficult to determine just when it was that “now” began. Virginia Woolf thought it was “on or about December 1, 1910,” for W.H. Auden it was “September 1, 1939,” for many of us who worried our way through the balance of terror, it was 1989 and the Fall of the Wall. And now, having survived all that, there is September 11, 2001.

I recognize Geertz as one of those behavioral science type writers I have read (and thought had died long before Sept 11). I ran down a copy of the quoted article via Jstor which I have from being employed at Hope College.

I was delighted to find that this article is also online for anyone to read.

HyperGeertz-Text:AN INCONSTANT PROFESSION:
The Anthropological Life in Interesting Times by Clifford Geertz (2002)

One thing I like about many fields of study in the 21st century is that they are interconnecting like crazy. There seems to be an emphasis on losing the gobbledygook-jargon-Ivory-Tower approach.

Many thinkers are trying to write with wide ranging clarity and insight.

I find the Geertz article to be like that. As he outlines his experience of his field he cites  I  recognize many thinkers I have read and who have influence my thinking: Ruth Benedict, Margaret Mead, Erik Erikson and of course many I do not.

I’m hoping that the articles in the Bull/Back reader will also be clear and informative.

I have been slowly playing through piano works by John Adams. When I approach his music more as a percussionist than a pianist, it makes more sense to me. I have been playing his stuff, because I was basically in the mood to work on Ligeti’s piano etudes and couldn’t find my copy of them.

Yesterday I went through organ music at church and then came home and went through all of my piano music file. No dice. I kept searching and finally found Ligeti tucked in a cranny.

So now I have both Adams and Ligetti to study. I even treadmilled to recordings of the works I have been slowly playing through.

They have a cleansing effect on me. Something that is helpful this time of year in church work.

I ran across this cool image of Jupiter yesterday and put it up on Facebooger.

The Scrambled States of Immigration – NYTimes.com

Overview of the confusion created by not having a coherent national policy about immigration.