Round Up!
by Brian Michael Foote
Hello Commons!
I was kind of enjoying bragging about Hawaii each week. I’m not proud of that but it’s the truth. Then Tony Picciano was like “Hawaii, that’s cute” and started posting about his world tour. Early in the week we got some great posts about Tony at Queen Elizabeth’s Jubilee. Then there was a ship. Then Tony wound up in Copenhagen. Then I got jealous because I think Kierkegaard is buried in Copenhagen. Now I’m just really curious to see what’s next for Tony as he travels around Europe. We should have given you some Commons stickers to pass out ‘Over There.’ Speaking of — we have a ton of cards and pamphlets for the Commons so if you’d like some to pass around your department or to other CUNY colleagues send me a note and I’ll see to it you get some. I just might deliver them myself.
A small post over at Thought Sphere showed up this week pointing out that CUNY didn’t get a mention in a recent Crain’s article on the tech initiatives around New York City. I like to think of the Commons community as a pretty tech savvy bunch so maybe we could put our heads together and compile a list of initiatives around CUNY right now that Crain missed. Keith Okrosy mentions that the CornellNYC project got a little ink in the article. Just because they voted us off the island doesn’t mean we aren’t plugged in. Thoughts? This is just he kind of thing the Wiki is for.
Jessica Yood over at Associations had a wonderful post this week about writer’s block. The whole thing has left me wondering whether Footenotes is a failed rhizome. The post ends in what I suspect is close to Judith Halberstam’s notion of a “queer art of failure.” The writing doesn’t happen but a text is consumed instead. This might only be exposing the gross extent of my sloth but I tend to think of reading as tertiary writing. A good writer must read everything.
Whoa, I really wondered out into the tall grass.
Speaking of writers and such – Footenotes favorite Brooklyn Zine Project announced their two new interns this week! Welcome to the project Erica and Sarah, you might want to check out the last interns’ posts to see what’s in store for you.
Finally this week — new blog Identification of Weeds in the Garden asks the community, “How do you eliminate patchy spots on the lawn?” Well, go on…How?
Till next week.
I’d have to go back and look at the notes I scribbled in that book. I think we see an element of failure in the professional writer when we start to collect things like first drafts of famous works. You know how people comb through different authors’ journals as if that’s somehow going to answer a nagging question about the primary text. Weirdly enough I thinking blogging is probably a good environment for failed professional writing, since it often lacks the editorial direction or professional incentives built into formal writing.
Thanks so much for reading this and for keeping us updated on everything else. The “queer art of failure” is indeed on my mind. That art is always what’s possible, I think, for the beginner, basic…”bad” even…writer. Not sure how the theory plays out for the professional.