Defrag This Blog

Athletes writing

deanya — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 20:08:48 +0000

One of the dream classes that I’ve always wanted to teach is a class for student-athletes about identity writing: writing yourself as an athlete. In the past, I’d planned to look at all of the genres that athletes might go on to write: box scores, autobiographies, text interview replies, letters, etc. And of course over the years, I’ve added blog posts, Twitters, and Facebook profiles to that list.

Today I find two new sources for my planning pleasure: Jockipedia and TheJockosphere.

Jockipedia is a site where athletes can make their own profiles and link to all of their own social media, including their personal web site, their blog, their Twitter feed, Facebook and MySpace pages, video and photo sites, and even their foundation or charity’s web site. There’s a brief bio of the player and even some stats on the site. The bio links out to the original Wikipedia article.

TheJockosphere is a collection of reviews of athlete’s blog posts. The editors of the site pick interesting posts and condense them, linking the original blog from the post. This is a great way to surf and find fantastic athlete-writers. Their tag line is: “TheJockosphere - Because how many blogs can you read on your own?”

Please please help me find a department that wants this class taught!

Marco Pierre White: The Devil in the Kitchen

deanya — Fri, 29 May 2009 12:36:20 +0000

I just finished reading Marco Pierre White’s The Devil in the Kitchen: Sex, Pain, Madness, and the Making of a Great Chef.
It’s a great autobiography; you get to see what White thinks of as the high points and low points of his life, but you strangely see very little in between. A strong sense of his youthful narrow hyperactive focus comes through, and the book ends when he’s in a pretty good place.

I’m both a little relieved and a little bummed to have finished it. Since I have less than half an hour a night to read this sort of thing (and often only about 10 minutes), it took me a couple of weeks to finish it. I feel like I’ve been in a whirlwind romance and we’ve figured out that we’re not good for each other, but I’ll really miss him.

Cheers Marco, and thanks a lot. I’ve had less fulfilling two-week relationships.

Love that Green Porno

deanya — Fri, 22 May 2009 21:45:39 +0000

If you haven’t seen Isabella Rossellini’s “Green Porno” on the Sundance Channel, you ain’t seen nothing yet. You’ll learn how insects and sea creatures do it and you’ll laugh and say “wow” in the process.

Watch now online.

The Archive of Golden Age Romance Comics

deanya — Wed, 20 May 2009 14:15:47 +0000

GeorgeOnline tweeted about this wonderful archive this morning, created by a student, Jenny Miller, in his class a couple of years ago. It’s the best thing going for old romance comic scans.

Miller's Golden Age of Romance Comic Archive

Her blog, Heck’s Kitchen, is fun too. Thanks, George!

That’s what I want…

deanya — Fri, 15 May 2009 18:54:29 +0000

Skorpion multi-terrain skates from Quadline. Hoo-ah!