Resurrection, Return, Reconnoiter.

I have a good friend with a very different view of the universe. (To be fair, I have many friends, each with their own engaging takes on things; but I digress). For this first friend, today is the New Year: 1 October. Forget all of that January nonsense; traditional New Year's resolutions all come unraveled and are not but dusty detritus by February. Now is a much better time to turn over new leaf as the old ones transform into a riot of color.

I've been plowing the same row in many ways for a while now. Life has been comfortable in its foreseeable patterns. And dust has collected on the shelves that once saw an ever-changing cavalcade of books from history to cinema to poetry and a few CDs to boot. Cobwebs have formed in my synapses, and I feel sometimes like I've reached that point where I need to let it ride or get off the boat and start swimming. (I like to mix metaphors).

That all sounds very dramatic. It's not so much. I just need a Swerve. So maybe I'll start with some Lucretius. What I am starting with this morning is Marian Calls' new album, Something Fierce. And it is fierce, and vulnerable and beautiful. (And I'm not a little glad to have finally found some music that my wife will like, too). It's everything good about music, being a geek and a feminist all in one place.

This place wants for a plan. I'm big about plans and to-do lists. Building this skill helped me survived grad school and makes sure that I can juggle 100-odd students plus lesson plans plus committee meetings plus research each semester. (The latter's been sliding lately; this little corner of the web is a small corrective to that.) So here's the plan and I want you all out there to hold me to it:

1. I'm going to write here three times a week. (That's a minimum, there may be more, but let's start small). Monday, Wednesday, Friday sounds nicely symmetrical. 
2. I'm going to write about movies and teaching and music and poetry. I know all of these things very well in different ways. You can see some of my older writings already lying about. 
3. I'm going to use this space to hone my writing towards concision and engagement. The subjects I write about will keep me current in a couple of fields that are important to me. 

Some things to know about me.

• I like big words. 
• I have a tendency towards prolixity.
• I like hyperlinks and the connections that they both literally and figuratively make. 
• I'm going to use the "f" word a lot. No, not that one. I am a  feminist. Third wave. Big fan of Ani DiFranco and Erin McKweon and Hélène Cixous.
• I might write about other things. Like the TV shows I love or the latest thing on NPR that strikes my fancy.

Ça suffira.