Home | Away

Pitching about “pitching”

My contribution to the running Mad Men commentary at Kritik, the blog of the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is now up.  And somehow, spyder has already logged a comment.  How did he do that?

Anyway, the pix are great.  That Joe Namath really was quite attractive.

Posted by on 09/07 at 02:26 PM

  1. I have been sitting in that class for 30 hours now, waiting for the professor to show up.  I forgot there was some sort of holiday for working people, since so many working people had to work.

    This image by Neil Leifer speaks volumes.

    Posted by  on  09/07  at  04:14 PM

  2. For the record, I spent most of Monday writing that thing even though my house was visited by (a) Nick (b) Rachel (c) Rachel’s sisters and (d) briefly, Rachel’s parents.  Had to turn it in Monday night so that I could get back to work, namely, preparing for teaching and general institute-directin’.

    Posted by  on  09/07  at  04:43 PM

  3. Inquiring minds want to know:

    When did “protein” lose a syllable?

    Posted by Ben Alpers  on  09/07  at  04:51 PM

  4. that I could get back to work

    That cycle of work that never goes away, even on a holiday, ostensibly set aside to honor those who work. 

    Well, the six more episodes should pretty much get through 1965, so i will be curious to see how they handle Dylan’s going electric, the creation of Medicare, and A Charlie Brown Christmas.  They absolutely must have the late ‘65 blackout of NYC, but nary will they mention Cat Ballou.

    Of course they will also never mention the heroic driving of Jim Clark in winning both the Indy 500 and the F1 Championships (a Neil Cassady favorite), nor Koufax’s perfect game.

    Posted by  on  09/07  at  05:18 PM

  5. ABP

    Posted by  on  09/07  at  07:39 PM

  6. Process question (and a compliment):

    Back in the good old days of say, Mohammed Ali, Broadway Joe, and pro-tee-(n)(?), we were taught the essay form. These essays were composed with ink on paper, composed of words. Whatever it was you wanted to get said, you only had words. The idea of dropping a short movie into the body of one’s essay text was as unthinkable as Dick Tracy’s wrist-TV. The ability to do exactly that now changes the game. It markedly decreases the amount of text needed to express certain concepts while increasing the communication bandwidth between writer and reader. Like in this commentary on Mad Men I just read at Kritik.

    How are these new rhetorical toys handled in Comp 101?

    Posted by  on  09/07  at  10:26 PM

  7. A protein can be protean, and often is. 

    A protein can also be designed, but i don’t think “pitched” (which of course Koufax could do very well, and led the Dodgers to the World Series in five of the ten years he played, and winning three, including 1965). 

    And being a Dodger fan since 1958, i can only hang my head in shame that the organization is sadly and seriously bankrupt (not at all like the halcyon days of O’Malley and Rickey {who died in 1965}wink.

    Posted by  on  09/08  at  04:54 PM

  8. I always cap off my Mad Men episodes with roundups from Slate and James Wolcott. This was better than any of them. Truly, I wish you were doing this every week. Are you really writing a book about Mad Men? If I didn’t know you better, I’d ask if you intend to go into this much detail. (This is what you do.) Anyway, I’m looking forward to the book.

    Posted by Martin  on  09/09  at  01:18 AM

  9. Many thanks, Martin!  But I’m not writing that book—I’m (supposed to be) writing the afterword to a collection of essays that will make up the book.  It’s hard writing about a moving target.  The one thing I can say is that everyone on all the MM comment threads who says “Peggy would never take her clothes off” and “Don would never have been beaten so soundly by Duck” should just STFU.  They’re not your characters.  As Lesley Gore might say, you don’t own them.

    And truly, I wish I were doing this every week.  Who knows?  Maybe I might.  I can’t bring myself to write about politics or higher-ed news these days.

    How are these new rhetorical toys handled in Comp 101?

    Great question, bdb!  But you should ask Richard Miller of Rutgers, or someone like that.  He’s way ahead of me on this stuff.

    Posted by Michael  on  09/09  at  02:31 PM

  10. Now Johnny Unitas, there’s a haircut you can set your watch by.

    Posted by norbizness  on  09/09  at  04:13 PM

  11. Sorry for the quasi-threadjacking, but I was wondering if anyone had seen this:
    http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/feature/the_mayo_clinic_of_higher_ed.php?page=all
    and what responses people (esp. Michael) had in light of prior writings on tenure and (to connect at least a little to this thread) questions of “new rhetorical toys [being] handled [(or not)] in Comp 101”.

    Posted by  on  09/13  at  05:15 PM

  12. and to think i was going to hijack the thread with my distaste for the performance of the swimming stuntmen last night.

    Posted by  on  09/13  at  05:18 PM

  13. on reflection, I think my focus in the question of tenure in the previous comment may be too narrow… let us say instead questions of the proper structure of the academy

    Posted by  on  09/13  at  08:35 PM

Name:

Email:

Location:

URL:

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?

Submit the word you see below:


Next entry: ABF Friday: Days of Future Past Edition!

Previous entry: Culture and anarchy

<< Back to main