Whig Hill

Visit

Just sitting here in Virginia watching the Redskins. I should be heading back home, but I want to see Jason Campbell in action (missed him last week.) Unfortunately, I think Nick Novak is getting more play time.

This is my fourth time up here in eight weeks. Dad's recovery is a miracle...marked improvement every time I see him. We went to the new Marine Corps Museum yesterday. Awesome building, pretty good exhibits. I didn't have enough time to linger, but my two complaints are, 1) wayfinding and time management info is not good in the main gallery, I was confused, and 2) too much reliance on the flat text/image combination in places. Otherwise, pretty good and I can't wait to go back. (Another Chadbourne exhibit, btw.)

Oh, and they've got the original 2nd Iwo Jima flag on display. Wow.

Most interesting was the tabletop model of the runway at the MC base at Chu Lai, Viet Nam. My dad  crewed planes on that very runway, so he pointed out what was right and what was wrong about the model. Cool. That's the meaning-making museums should strive for (and you won't get with those flat text/image combinations.) Anyhow, that visit and the AK-47 article in the Post this morning has caused him to run on with his old Corps stories about weapons he used. Amazingly, some of them I haven't heard before.

MEMO

To: Mom & Dad
From: #1 Son
Re: PDA

Jeez, people... Get a room, will ya'?

(Signed)

cg

You think this says something about me?

A meme from Lisa B.: (And yes, I think I've seen this one before, but have never done it.)

1. Open up the music player on your computer.
2. Set it to play your entire music collection.
3. Hit the "shuffle" command.   
4. Tell us the title of the next twelve songs that show up (with their musicians), no matter how embarrassing. That's right, no skipping that Carpenters tune that will totally destroy your hip credibility. It's time for total musical honesty.   
5. If you get the same artist twice, you may skip the second (or third, or etc.) occurances. You don't have to, but since randomness could mean you end up with a list of twelve songs by four artists, you can if you'd like.

Le Results

"War on War" :: Wilco
"Bitching Camaro" :: Dead Milkmen
"Gun Shy" :: Paul Westerburg
"All the Same to Me" :: Golden Smog
"Pretty Little Poison" :: Robbie Fulks
"It's Not the Liquor I Miss" :: Luke Doucet
"Flow" :: Son Volt
"Standing on the Promises" :: Dwight Diller
"Fater" :: Richard Buckner
"Thomas Hart Benton" :: Clodhopper
"The King of Carrot Flowers" :: Neutral Milk Hotel
"These Arms of Mine" :: Otis Redding

The twang selections are admittedly a reflection of my total music library (only one of which is on my current playlist.)

Bonus tracks: right after the Otis Redding song, "Jupiter" by Gustav Holst played, and now it's playing an unnamed Orchestra Baobab number. There ya' go.

D'oh!

This morning's playlist does not include the profanity I let fly on air.

Hot Tip

The China photography exhibit at the Nasher is real good. And free for Durham County residents.

In the papers

Go pick up a copy of today’s News & Observer. Enclosed you will find a pull-out devoted to Wilmington Massacre of 1898 penned by Timothy Tyson. Or just find it here. I don’t know yet if there is a mea culpa by the N&O for the decisive role they played on behalf of the bad guys—that would be quite a corrections page—but it’s a fine thing they are now promoting knowledge about that pivotal event in a campaign to strip blacks of all rights and push them into civil oblivion.

The N&O piece is largely based on the final report of the Wilmington Race Riot Commission, researched and written by the Research Branch of Archives and History. I’m glad to have had a very small hand in that by helping clarify the role of State Guard and Naval Militia in the riot and identifying military units in photographs. The full report is here.

Anyhow, historian-hero Edward Ayers wrote up this article in Slate decrying the ever-lamentable state of historian-civilian relations regarding the accessibility of academic history. He writes,

That is too bad, for the writing of history has never been richer, deeper, or more inventive than it is today, and historians have never been bolder in tackling new topics in new ways than they have been in the last two generations. The writing in many academic books is as good as the best nonfiction. These books have made a place for the people who have been left out of the best-selling histories…

Among those writers is Glenda Gilmore’s Gender & Jim Crow: Women and The Politics of White Supremacy in North Carolina, 1896-1920. (Yes, I gave her Hell on the old blog for a dismally predictable editorial she co-wrote—sorry, no link.) It is one fantastic piece of history in the way it illuminates an aspect of our past you’d never imagined existed. While writing about black and white women, Gilmore explains better than any report or topical history how important the Wilmington Massacre was to North Carolina history. As important as the Civil War, I think. 

Depressing day

Bleh. Rain like this depresses me. But that's nothing compared to seven people being killed in a tornado down in Columbus County. Then I read about Jo & Joe's possibly closing this week and Fowler's possibly not reopening. I haven't been down to J&Js in months, but...still. Now, if Fowler's closes, that'll cause serious problems. I call it my "Durham office" because I can get away from home and still be some place comfy and get some work done. Plus...all the cute clerks. Also, my favorite laundromat is owned by a coniving slum-lord and I should boycott his washing machines. But this town has so few late-night choices.

Also feeling a bit cranky and headachey.

One funny thing... I pulled out of the driveway this morning then stopped in the street to run back in the house to get something and found Lizzie walking to the living room carpet with a balled up paper towel in her mouth. Caught: Red-Handed! She occasionally chews paper when I'm gone a while, but I never thought it was so soon after I leave. So busted.

A VERY good day

Good news all around. First, Rumsfeld's out and I'm elated because I'm fond of the military and hated to see it misused so dishonorably by that man.

Second, I called my mom to see if the washing machine repair man had been by as scheduled and learned that my dad made it home today! He sounds weak over the phone, but claims to feel real good. He was sitting in his favorite lazy-boy. They've still got -scopes and -grams and -other tests to run on him before he can get back into chemo, but...I'm not much of a believer in miracles, but this is good enough for me.

I told him I'm glad he lived long enough to see the Redskins beat the Cowboys one more time. He liked that.

Wednesday update

I stepped on a slug with a bare foot on my back porch. It was gross.