In my decade as department chair, the department admin staff and I developed a motto for dealing with the upper administration. But I've since found it a good principle for nearly all of academic life: "It helps to not care"

Today's Guitar Adventure... Geordie's model and year. Only 10k. Luckily, not lefty...

Friendly reminder that roughly 49.8% of American voters need to ask themselves what their reaction would be if the things being said and done right now were coming from the people they hadn't voted for

Mellow Saturday. "I Burn For You" - The Police

Happy Friday Evening! "Seeing Red" - Killing Joke. Proof that sometimes one note is all you need

FACT. (Also: I own this shirt)

Dropped the Mustang off with my guy Gavin at Nashville Guitar Repair & Restoration. He'll transform it from a jangly surf guitar into a properly filthy beast

Thirty years ago I went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with a philosopher I’d just met, apparently as dull as me. It turned out he’d known the Sex Pistols.

Happy Friday! "Born to Kill" - Social Distortion

Most of the things that go on in the world these days serve only to make me glad that I'm old....

Thankfully, it’s not lefty

Prepared for the desecration of that Mustang.... this hotrail will go in the bridge. Probably will migrate the humbucker that's currently in the bridge to the neck, eliminating the single coil. Life's too short for single coils....

Every so often, I get asked to write a think-piece about philosophy and punk rock. Maybe someday I'll change my mind, but I always decline. There's plenty to say, but also compelling evidence that there's no way to do a decent job of saying it.

"Down In Flames" - Dead Boys. Dialing in a new drive pedal...

I get texts

"Machine Gun Etiquette" - The Damned. By request from someone who didn't care for my lounge version...

I love the feel of this new Mustang. But it needs some mods. The SD "red devil" bridge humbucker is too mellow - putting a Hotrail in. Also, the pickup switches are needlessly complicated. Bypassing one entirely and wiring the other to work like a Tele 3-position blade

Where I was 36 years go tonight... $17.50

New arrival

Sometimes it takes a Tuesday at 9:25am two weeks after the semester had ended to remind you how nice an academic building can be when you're the only person in it

"Memories Can't Wait" - Talking Heads. My favorite of theirs

I could have lived a happy, fulfilled life without ever encountering the word "ballmaxxing"

Finally... a parking lot to have Jersey-style fistfights in

BREAKING: Pedalboard Update. I still love the ProCo RAT, but I've been using it mainly as an overdrive, and it escalates from OD to full-on distortion quickly. This TCE unit has more variety within the OD spectrum. Giving it a spin for a week or two

One convenient thing about being a professional political doomsayer is that when your predictions fail, everyone is too relieved to complain

Happy Monday! "Rockaway Beach" - Ramones

Tonight's Amon Amarth show....

Someone knows what’s up

"Mother" - Danzig. Consider it a friendly reminder

Niche Riff Sunday. "Dance With Me" - Lords Of The New Church. My Brian James kick goes on....

I'm guessing I'll be the only philosophy professor at tonight's Amon Amarth show....

Disaffected goth young lady boarding my flight wearing a Lost Boys shirt and carrying a backpack with a Misfits skull pinned on the back knows what’s up

This 11pm flight back to Nashville is looking ROWDY….

I haven't attended commencement at my university in over twenty years. Last time I did, it was so hot (the robes didn't help) that a senior colleague had a heart attack....

There's a kind of academic who is convinced that the reason why their work doesn't get uptake is that there's some field-wide animus against it, when in fact it's because their work isn't very good

Happy Friday! "Hair of the Dog" - Bauhaus. Noisy.

It hardly seems possible, but every new encounter with an airport is somehow more miserable than the one before

We've all been there....

"Follow The Leaders" - Killing Joke

My big summer plan. (Except for the Wittgenstein part)

I spent the last two weeks thinking was traveling tomorrow to Charlotte, North Carolina. Turns out I'm heading to Charlottesville, Virginia Luckily the person who made my arrangements wasn't so confused.... Anyway, if you're around Charlottesville this weekend let me know

"Soup Is Good Food" - Dead Kennedys. Trying for that crazed Easy Bay Ray psycho-surf tone....

It's great when university administrators understand that research ecosystems differ drastically between the sciences and the humanities But they also need to understand that the differences among the disciplines within the humanities can be just as stark

I haven't read student evaluations of my courses in over twenty years. Last time I did, one comment was "Have compassion for all beings, Dr. Talisse"

There's a kind of academic who takes your lack of interest in socializing with them in particular as evidence that you're antisocial as such

We've shifted quickly from quietly ignoring that elected officials are public servants to overtly denying that elected officials are public servants

Fair Warning: Unreasonably noisy Bauhaus clip posting this week...

Happy Monday! "I Won't Look Back" - Dead Boys. An ironic title, as every lyric is looking back. Anyway, from their glorious and almost certainly self-sabotaged second album....

One change I've noticed since my time as dept chair is that whereas one used to be able to accomplish things with a call, upper admin is now structured like a mega company: you're never talking directly to someone who can give a definitive answer or make a final decision

Every so often, I get an out-of-the-blue email from some or other derelict I knew as a kid and haven't seen for decades. When that happens, I always pause for a few minutes to appreciate that the world is big enough for kooks and misfits to find a place in it