An ideal day

I kind of have a tendency to procrastinate (oh, you’ve noticed?), which leads me to get frustrated and angry with my inability to manage my time and prioritize work over relaxation. After all, don’t normal people spend 40 hours a week at their job? Being a grad student doesn’t give me any special privileges. After all, I’m still an adult, and I need to be putting in the same amount of hours at my job (that is, graduate-level research) that other adults do. In fact, I really ought to be working harder than most people if I want to stand out from my peers. Y’know?

So during a recent walk down Doom and Gloom Blvd, my girlfriend advised me to write down what my ideal day would look like, if I was really using my time at peak efficiency. This sounded like such a simple and useful exercise, I was astonished I hadn’t heard anyone suggest it before. So what would this ideal day look like?

Featured Link: Intangible Economy

I thought that they had exhausted all the names for this phenomenon. The Information Economy. The Knowledge Economy. The Creative Economy. But now we have something new: the I-Cubed Economy. The three I’s standing for Information, Innovation, Intangible. A new name for an old concept. Still, they have a decent blog. Get yer click on right here.

Blogging the AAG

1:50p Just got out of a good session about the Creative Economy. I walked in on the tail end of Robert Kloosterman’s (Univ of Amsterdam) presentation about careers in Dutch architecture design. I liked the way he characterized the reasons why architects are willing to exploit themselves for the opportunity to work long hours for less money than their similarly educated peers. He notes that, for these creative workers, “the economic logic is intertwined with artistic logic,” and that these logics ebb and flow depending on the architect’s life circumstances. It just struck me as a really nice and elegant way to describe this ubiquitous soul searching between art and commerce.

I also greatly enjoyed Karenjit Clare’s (Univ of Cambridge) paper about gendered social networks. It’s almost common knowledge that social networks help people advance in their careers, and this is especially true in the creative industries (“it’s all about who you know”). But Clare wanted to look at the ways that male social networks differ from female social networks, and if the differences between these networks produced different degrees of career advancement. A great exercise in problematizing popular notions of common knowledge.

Blogging the AAG

11:30a Took the T into town morning and registered at the Marriot. Registration was quick and painless, despite the massive crowds. I tried to prepare myself for high attendance, but it’s still pretty humbling to think just how many geographers actually come to this thing. At the registration desk, I got my own complimentary AAG “reading is fun” bag, which I’ll probably use to go grocery shopping from now on. I was also issued a program of the weeks events. The thing is as thick as a phone book. A suburban phone book, but a phone book nonetheless.

11:45a I had just a few minutes to peruse the phone boo – er, program – and settle on a session about Gentrification. I needed to walk to the Sheraton hotel, but I wasn’t sure just where to go. All of the hotels in Copley Place are connected by a network of shopping mall corridors and arcades. It’s easy to get lost, so I asked a mall security guard how to find the Sheraton. He replied… in a gloriously stereotypical Boston accent. I mean, I know there’s lots of people around here who talk that way, but still. When somebody opens their mouth and lets loose with a perfectly molded Boston accent, it’s pretty sweet. It makes me wonder if I sound “funny” to him. Freakin’ midwestern tourists.

Blogging the AAG: Prologue

2:45pm Arrived in Boston on a direct flight from Columbus this afternoon. I thought I was flying by myself, so I brought a book and my iPod in order to keep me busy on the plane. As luck would have it, I ran into a couple of other OSU geography grads in the Port Columbus terminal and we did well to keep each other entertained and occupied during the course of the trip.

3:15pm Met up with another grad in baggage claim and so the four of us went to lunch at the Legal C Bar and Grill in Logan Airport. Had a tuna burger. It was pretty good.

5:00pm Lauren’s directions from the airport to the hotel via the T were flawless. Checked into my room at the Holiday Inn Brookline. Nice digs. I think it used to be an older, privately owned, perhaps more distinguished hotel that got purchased and renovated by Holiday Inn several years ago. At least, that’s what I gather based on the layout of the lobby, which feels kind of old and stodgy.

9:00pm Met the other grads for dinner at Douzo, a sushi restaurant. Very posh. Very tasty.

Total spent on food today: $60.00

Change Congress

Free Culture

Several years ago I briefly considered going to law school, largely because I had just watched this poignant lecture by Stanford Law Professor Lawrence Lessig. At the time, I thought going into copyright law would have been just about the noblest thing I could have done with my life.

It turns out my affinity for the law was just a phase, but I still greatly admire Mr. Lessig and his work. (I confess I even emulate his presentation style when crafting my own PowerPoint lectures.) He recently gave his last Free Culture lecture at Stanford and, thankfully, someone recorded it for posterity. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

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What does it take to get an A?

A student recently e-mailed me with this question: “What does it take to get an A?” Here’s my reply.

I admire and respect the fact that you want to improve. If you’re following the guidelines on Carmen for writing a good review, then you’re on the right track.

Writing in a professional tone will greatly help your grade. While we are looking for original opinions in your critique, it shouldn’t be full of personal anecdotes written in a casual tone. We do grade for grammar and spelling, so if you have a lot of little mistakes, they’ll count against you. Be sure to proofread your writing or have a friend proofread it before handing it in.

Critical thinking skills are also important in your critique. Use the article you reviewed as the basis for a thought experiment, and try playing out a “what if” scenario in your mind. We love to see students who not only elaborate on the article, but exhibit some original thoughts of their own.

After all that, you might get an A-.

Getting an A is admittedly difficult. It’s not enough to hit all the notes. At that level, we’re looking for the kind of writing that really “sings”. It’s a subjective evaluation based on how effective your writing is. It has to be clear, concise, and convincing. Or to put it another way, it’s gonna have to rock my world a little bit.

I’m happy to look over a rough draft and offer suggestions before Wednesday. I also encourage you to use the OSU Writing Center. It’s a great resource that’s easy to use and totally free. Let me know if you have any other questions. I’m looking forward to reading your next review.

Bill Ivey: America’s Arts Need an Attitude Adjustment

Hat-tip: AllBusiness.com

Bill Ivey, a former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (1998-2001) and now director of the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University, at first seems to position himself clearly in his essay “America Needs a New System for Supporting the Arts,” published in February in The Chronicle of Higher Education. He seems to say, in essence, that the problem of underfunded nonprofit organizations, such as theatres, cannot be solved by hoping for new donors or by making new, stronger arguments for government appropriations.

Review: Inequality and Politics in the Creative City-Region

Eugene McCann (2007) seeks to problematize emerging policy discourses associated with Richard Florida’s creative class thesis, couching them within an urban political context, pitting creative class proponents against other local actors for limited public resources. McCann argues that Florida’s research has (among other things) conflated what had historically been two separate issues relating to urban politics: city-regionalism and livability. That is, the ability of city-regions to compete for “creative capital” is associated with high levels of livability, which is increasingly measured in terms of the amenities available within a city-region. This new discourse has had a noticeable impact on the local political arena, which McCann illustrates with an empirical examination of creative class übercity Austin, Texas.