Things That I Want To Do Thursday (but probably won’t)

This time of year, my mind wanders and I invariably begin to think of things that I really want to do, but also know that for all kinds of reasons, probably won’t do. 

1. Mini-book series based on some of my random essays. Over the last couple of months, I’ve been enamored with the simple saddle stitched books of the kind published by Half Letter Press. My little press, The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota, has really worked hard to come across as a professional operation, but it has its roots in punk publishing practices. For all sorts of reasons, I got away from that aesthetic and hidden the practice and ethos behind books that are, at their best, well-sorted.

This got me thinking that perhaps it’s time to start a more casual press (or imprint) that explicitly embraces a more casual aesthetic and wears its punk roots on its sleeve. Maybe, the first book from this little press will be called Grand Borks: Some Notes on Life in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Another book, perhaps focused on some of my pseudoarchaeological writing, could have the puckish, but fun title: Flint Dibble is Wrong. I’m not saying that I’m going to do this stuff, of course, but it would be fun to do.

2. Noticing in the Classroom. I have this idea that students today circulate the world in a kind of protective cocoon. They look at their phones, wear headphones, and shuffle dutifully from place to place on campus secure in their individualized bubbles. 

I’d love to add components to my classes that encourage students to look around them, to listen to their environments, and to be aware of their spaces as historically constituted places. This translates the notion of history from being something that takes place in the classroom or in books, to a force that informs our lived experiences. Of course, I’m not sure how to integrate this into the classes that I teach which are mainly European and World History classes. That said, I would love to teach a 1-credit course called Noticing History.

3. Write More Music Reviews. As readers of this blog know, I’ve started to dabble in writing about music in my “Music Mondays” feature. At some point, the goal of this was to develop my own voice in writing music reviews. Needless to say, that has not occurred, as much as I’ve come to love sharing my musical tastes with folks.

The next step is to go from just sharing my listening habits to describing the reasons behind them better. Right now I continue to struggle with the old maxim “writing about music is like dancing about architecture” even as I have long appreciated the work of music writers. I’d love to find the mental space to listen more deeply and write more thoughtfully about the music that I love.

4. Read More; Write Less. Of course, as part of developing a sense of a confidence to write about music, I need to read more. This goes for my academic work as well. I need to read more and think harder about the things that I’m reading. I know my writing list is long but my reading list is even longer and I know that I need to dig deeper into my research (and personal) interests instead of always pushing myself to read more broadly. (And my summer reading list is both longer and less fully digested that I would have hoped.)

5. Write at least ONE journal article. Over the past few years, I’ve fallen into the mid-career rut of writing lots of contributions to edited volumes. I have really enjoyed the invitations to write for focused projects and to have my work appear alongside other thoughtful authors. That said, I feel like I have lost a bit of my instinct for communicating with the larger discipline. I want to get back to writing for a broader audience this year and reading more intensively in my field. That said, I learned this morning that an article I’ve been working for the last year has appeared.

6. Developed Better Non-Digital Habits. I’ve blogged about this a bit over the last few weeks, and I want to try to create a better analogue to digital workflow. First, I want to get back to writing in my notebooks with a pen. I also want to integrate this better in my current digital workflow. I want to figure out how to bring my handwritten notebook pages efficiently into Obsidian. Right now, I’ve not found an easy way forward (and I can’t seem to get the Obsidian AI Images plug-in to work!). Any tips, tricks, or insights into this would be great!