Thursday evening: more Metallica listened to, some Captain America (vol. 5) read … and then, sleep.
Friday:
morning – arose early, showered, and caught a bus to campus. The department was nearly deserted but there was fresh — if low quality — coffee. Neither Tyler nor Angela were around, but Kristin was there. Andrea and I chatted a while about a MILC abstract idea or two (or three) I have, including: the excusative case, the grammaticalization of diss-, and the balanced-tree solution to syntax. This somehow — a matter of syntax and psychologists and the like who do not really believe in syntactic structure — led to talking about analogy, and she provided me with an analogy resource that will be of use, Analogy: The Warp and Woof of Cognition: Raimo Anttila, University of California, Los Angeles, from The Handbook of Historical Linguistics (edited by Brian D. Joseph and Richard D. Janda, Blackwell).
I taught. We discussed the “Redemittel” section of chapter 8, read the text (“Wenn die Haifische Menschen wären” by B. Brecht), and talked about it for a while. In terms of tangential trivia, two of my students (Anne & Stephanie) watched parts of “Voyage of the Mimi” (early role for Ben Affleck) back in the 6th grade, a few others also remembered LeVar Burton’s “Reading Rainbow” line “But don’t take my word for it …” Regarding the Brecht text, there is a German high school level “analysis” of it at www.schoolwork.de that is hilarious, precisely because from the outset the (stupid!) author turns matters around. She (Imke) writes: “Ein kleines Mädchen geht zu Herrn K. und fragt ihn, ob die Menschen netter wären, wenn sie Haifische wären.” That is, Imke writes, the little girl goes to Mr. K and asks him if people would be nicer if they were sharks.
Wrong wrong wrong.
The story begins, “‘Wenn die Haifische Menschen wären,’ fragte Herrn K. die kleine Tochter seiner Wirtin, ‘wären sie dann netter zu den kleinen Fischen?'” In English: “‘If sharks were people,’ the little daughter of his landlord asked Mr. K, ‘would they then be nicer to the little fish?'” So far my students haven’t made this error in understanding … I think.
For more Brecht (‘free’ texts), see the Hamburger Bildungsserver.
afternoon – I returned to my office after class, chatted a bit with colleagues, was given a couple big chocolate cookies by Lynn, and walked to State Street.
It had begun to rain, albeit it lightly, and so I did not miss my umbrella.
After a short walk I ended up at Fair Trade and I got a coffee, found a seat along the wall, and wrote a while. As the minutes ticked by it began to drizzle in ernest — yes, that sounds a bit contradictory — and at 4:20 packed up my things to head home. I had noticed shortly before that I did indeed have my umbrella. It’s almost always in my laptop bag.
evening – Jack, Claire, and I will head to the Weary Traveler for food around 8. Kris and the others, who will be with Melanie the prospective, won’t arrive until much later because they’re going to The Orpheum to see David Lynch’s new movie “Inland Empire.” I’d like to see it, but will hold off … I don’t want to return downtown in this weather, and I’m tired. A couple years ago Lynch directed Rammstein’s video “Rammstein” for the collection “Lichtspielhaus.”
I won’t spend time cooking, since I’ll eat at the WT, but viewing The food pornographer (safe for work … just food) makes me want to eat savory things.
Let’s get Meta(-physical?) … MySpace and murder?
Bloggers have been blamed for lots of sins — but murder? On Feb. 3, 17-year-old Bryan Grove allegedly stabbed to death his girlfriend’s mother in the bedroom of her suburban Denver home. Friends say that he and Tess Damm, 15, hated Linda Damm because of her drinking. Police found Damm’s body, crammed into the trunk of a garaged car, when they arrested Bryan and Tess more than three weeks later, on Feb. 28, following an anonymous tip. Between the murder and the arrests, neighbors heard loud music from the house, saw teens coming and going, and saw Bryan riding on the hood of Tess’s car. What is extraordinary about this case is that Tess and Bryan apparently documented their feelings in their MySpace.com blogs in the weeks before the murder and during the 25 days in which Linda Damm’s body remained undiscovered.
Bryan Grove wrote poetry on his MySpace blog. For example, at 7:39 on the morning of Feb. 1, he apparently posted this: “Every time I feel you wrapped in my arms, I feel nothing can go wrong, every time we hold each others hands, I feel everything is so right…” The next evening, the night before the murder, this appeared: “Knives take my breath away… trapped inside my wake, despair? no, just another day of lifeless.” Police say that when Bryan offered to murder Tess’s mother, Tess didn’t believe him — replying, “Whatever,” according to the arrest affidavit. On Feb. 3, Bryan allegedly stabbed Linda Damm four times in the throat and once in the mouth.
His blog goes dark until Feb. 11, when this is posted: “My baby… I miss you. I’m here without you and I hate it.” At that time, Grove was visiting a tech school in Florida with his father. Tess replies, “Baby I miss you too… It’s hard to do everyday things without crying…” At this point, according to police documents, Tess was alone in the house with her dead mother stuffed in a car in the garage. In a P.S. Tess says, “Your gonna be really happy when you come home! Your wifey cleaned up the house and did ALL the laundry for you. [emoticon for a grin]” But two days later she writes, “I lied about the laundry… [emoticon for a frown] There was too much to do. So I like, did a lot of it, but theres still a lot left.”
According to police, she had apparently washed Bryan’s bloody clothes and set fire to bloody sheets in the backyard. Meanwhile, on Bryan’s home page, which featured tortured demons and flames, these words raged: “I am dark. My picture might not be menacing, but I do stand a good 6’1 tall and I am… HUGE…” On Feb. 19, there is this entry in Bryan’s blog: “I did things that I shouldn’t have, with my two hands, I just want to drink a barrel of cyanide, to make this pain go away…”
Tess’s MySpace home page gave hints of her dark moods before the murder. On Jan. 19 a post reads: “Current mood: discontent… Everyone knows the story of me and my mom… everyone knows how much I’ve tried to fix it my whole life… I could write a book about how confusing it is trying to please that woman… and trying to do whatever I can to get her to stop drinking.” Lyrics are quoted: “Smile, I’ma blow a hole in your neck…”
According to police reports, Bryan enlisted a friend to help move Linda’s body to the garage. The friend recounted that when the body was moved to a freshly dug hole, Tess couldn’t look. When Bryan and his friend dug up Linda’s body because the hole was too shallow, Tess lay down in the backseat of the car, again refusing to look. The relationship between Bryan and Tess, meanwhile, seemed to be fraying. On Feb. 24, her blog read: “I don’t understand how two people who are ‘in love’ can have so many… fights in one day. I’M DONE WITH GIVING YOU MONEY TO BUY CIGARETTES. I’M NO LONGER JUST YOUR MONEY SOURCE.” On Feb. 26: “I’m like, so amazingly bored.”
Under police interrogation, Tess and Bryan, interviewed separately, gave conflicting stories. Jailed since Feb. 28, Tess and Bryan have been charged as adults. He has been charged with first-degree murder and is under suicide watch. She has been charged with conspiracy to commit murder and with evidence tampering. They will enter pleas following an arraignment in May. Meanwhile, their MySpace pages remain active. Tess’s page lists more than 1100 comments, both pro and con, a little world of sympathy and condemnation. “Killing ur mom is one thing but leaving her in the f—–g trunk of the car for [25 days] and partying in the house is just a sick thing to do,” reads one. Says another: “I love you Tess I’m sorry. goodbye.”
Okay, I don’t want to be too much of an ass, but jeez, kids, how stupid are you people today? Really, how stupid are you?
Saturday: noon-ish showing of “300” (yeah, I know, bad reviews, etc. … but sometimes I need a little campy spectacle) and my brother over for food, drink and a movie in the evening. I really need to clean around here.
