I'm taking a class on Coursera which was just too perfect for me to pass up, really. I think I mentioned a few weeks ago I am working on A Mission: I am trying to collect every Rolling Stones album on vinyl. There's a little nuance to the goal I haven't finagled yet, specifically whether or not "every Rolling Stones album" means "every (studio) album" or "every-every album," but I figure I don't need to decide on that one until I have every studio album first. The course is "The Music of the Rolling Stones, 1962 - 1974." I am about halfway through. I am using this week off of work to get ahead because, well that's just a good idea right? I am really, really enjoying it. I had heard of Coursera before and even signed up for a Poetry course but never ended up taking it. Now I see that the site also offers "History of Rock Parts 1 & 2," a course I always wanted to take in college but never had the availability for. I am really excited and I am going to take these too. Sadly, although I want Coursera to be more useful, interesting, and relevant to me, there really aren't many other courses offered on the site that really pique my interest. Maybe "The Behavior and Habits of Chickens," but that's about it. I am reading Helter Skelter, recommended by kleinbl00. It's huge but easy reading so far. I am writing a prose piece which may or may not be a mess but it will hopefully be a fun write and the story driving the piece I think is a fun story. That's what I want to do - tell fun stories. I often feel writers and especially poets are way too Serious about themselves and their Work. I don't like it. It's NaNoWriMo now - anyone doing it? I am doing it accidentally with aforementioned prose piece. And my usual monthly goal of trying to write every day. Every month is Writing Month for me. My upstairs neighbor has complained to management twice about the sound of my door closing. They have contacted me and let me know they do not think there is anything I can do about the request/basically they don't really support the neighbor in his miserable existence, but they are going to come by today and put weather proofing on the door which may (probably won't) help with the noise. I am pretty sure they are doing it so they can tell the dude they tried something to help - I do not think that he will feel it improves anything, but at that point I suspect all other involved parties will say "Tough titty, dickhole. Get some earplugs and an attitude adjustment." Maintenance is late to our appointment. Things are pretty good, I am old now and I like it. I think 27 will be a good year for me. I'm excited. I mentioned to mk and thenewgreen and kb and 'bootz at the wedding I used to have a weird thing with compulsively determining if strings of numbers were divisible by 3. I guess a vestige of that has still carried over into adult life because I really like being an age that is not only divisible by 3, but is 3 3 3. It's just such a tidy number, to me. Aren't people and their brains funny?
From someone who once had 1100 albums, I say that you want to collect all the studio albums. The point of having a collection like that is delving deep into the artists' psyche, study their artistic development, and hear the details of what they were able to create when they had time, equipment, and the ability to do it over and over again until they got the recording they wanted. Live albums and other one-offs are an interesting documentary about one night (or a hand-selected series of tracks from multiple nights), but they only get one shot at the song, the crowd has an effect on their performance, and equipment/recording techniques get in the way of nuance. So yeah, there my be one or two live recordings that add materially to your understanding of the artist, but "all the studio albums" is where my money's at. There's a little nuance to the goal I haven't finagled yet, specifically whether or not "every Rolling Stones album" means "every (studio) album" or "every-every album," but I figure I don't need to decide on that one until I have every studio album first.
And more Stones opinion... No need to buy any studio past Tattoo You. Exile On Main Street is my favorite, Get Your Ya Ya's Out is my 2nd. My favorite song I don't know why, Keith's vocals, it's super loose and doesn't give a fuck, talking about all the things done roughly and wrongly in the past, Graham Parsons reference, I don't know why, amongst a huge catalog of songs it's my unremarkable favorite. I listen to the Stones rarely now a days but oh god I've listened to a lot of stones. In a world of overly sensitive white guys with guitars relating their valuable 'wisdom' and pain the stones just rock. I'll go back to listening to west African music now that you've baited me with completing the greatest rock and roll band of all time.
My boyfriend's trying to get all the Pink Floyd albums, but it's not as easy (or cheap) as it first appears... Here's his holy grail right now : https://www.discogs.com/Pink-Floyd-Pulse/release/647117 about 400$! The funny thing is we found this recording on a cassette at my parents country house a couple weeks ago. Weird because my parents barely ever listened to any music. But now that we have been playing in the car for a couple weeks, he wants it even more sigh
I wish NaNo had happened one week earlier this year. Then I could've committed to it again. I have a big bunch of word-vomit that needs to be expelled so I can get back to the core stories I am working on. But now, this week, I am just too busy with other commitments (which I wouldn't have made if I'd been doing NaNo). So no NaNo for me this year. The best year ever for me was maybe 2 or 3 years ago? One of the Seattle writing groups - The Hydrophobic Ducks - took over an entire Denny's restaurant, all night. At the stroke of midnight, everyone opened up their laptops (or whatever) and began writing. Any time someone hit a goal they'd yell it out - "a thousand words!", "five thousand words!". It was fun. I wrote until about 5:AM and put down 7k words, I think. Talk about a healthy start to NaNo! Hit your first week's word goal in one night! Bam.
Facebook reminded me that two years ago I was taunting all the NaNoNiNies by editing 50,000 words out of the manuscript in 30 days.It's NaNoWriMo now - anyone doing it?
I feel like I have probably commiserated with you on this elsewhere. When I was typing out the question I actually had a thought not unlike the vegan joke: "surely, if anyone is doing NaNoWriMo this year, they would mention it in Pubski, right?" And then I was like "Oh, right. I talk to Hubski about trying to write every day for a whole month all the time."
It's not just writers. That's why I'm not studying theatre here-- our department is convinced that we have to do something film can't do, something that is Artistic and Serious and Affecting. You know what's affecting? Real characters that I can care about. Not a crazy woman that kidnaps some people at a party and brings them into her terrifying fantasy house.That's what I want to do - tell fun stories. I often feel writers and especially poets are way too Serious about themselves and their Work. I don't like it.
I'm fascinated by Coursera and other MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). It's both surprising and not at the same time that less than 10% of enrollees (if I recall correctly from the book College (Un)bound) in these classes ever wind up finishing. Unsurprising if you take the signalling theory seriously, because these MOOCs don't hold a candle to a traditional four-year degree where you pay lots of money and get a sheepskin, so there's less payoff in the end. But the high dropoff rate is surprising because I figure that a sizeable chunk of people who enroll in these classes (a) know that it's not really going to further their career but is merely for education's, and so (b) take classes that they're genuinely interested in. People therefore must be dropping these classes because they underestimate the time commitment or they overestimate their interest in a subject. Both completely understandable, but lamentable. Thanks for being a part of the 10%.
I love the opportunity to take these 3 music courses because, yeah, I'd wanted to take stuff like this in college but I couldn't. There is an option on Coursera to buy the course certificate so I can "officially say I've officially done it" for $50 but to your point - yeah, this is completely unrelated to anything except my curiosity and pleasure, so I certainly won't be spending my money on that. I did pretty well on the 1st test but not that well on the 2nd. At first I thought "Oh, well, I passed," shrug and started to move on. Then I was like "But wait fuck this! Do you want to retain the knowledge that you're here trying to absorb just for funsies or what?" Like, why take a Rolling Stones course to know more about my Rolling Stones albums only to barely pass and immediately forget it? There was a definite mentality left over from college courses and grades and passing being what mattered that I had to fight a little. For the poetry course I never completed, honestly, as I started to go through the course I became less interested as I saw the grading structure and learning expectations. Basically just 4 quizzes/exams of 30 questions or so each. I wanted to learn about poetry but I didn't want to sit through lecture and get quizzed on it, I guess I really wanted something which would have had more challenge to me and more discussion. More challenge would have meant like writing assignments, and discussion of course is an issue with online courses anyway, so it makes sense that Coursera just wasn't that good of an option.
About the same here. I've had a tough couple of days, but I'm going to return to the intentionally-terrible prologue tomorrow. Two hundred words a day is as much as I ask of myself right now. Best of luck with your quest! I hope you catch 'em all.It's NaNoWriMo now - anyone doing it? I am doing it accidentally with aforementioned prose piece.