Adele – Set Fire to the Rain
Posted by Michael Livingston in Homelife on February 17th, 2012
So Adele is all the rage these days, especially given her big night at the Grammys this week — where her song “Rolling in the Deep” won big.
It’s a great song, and her lauds are well deserved. That said, I think — for the record — that “Set Fire to the Rain” is a superior track.
Admittedly, though, I might be hugely swayed by this live performance of it, which is breathtaking:
Just an astounding talent. If you’ve not picked up the album, well …
Robin Hood Interview: ABC News 4
Posted by Michael Livingston in Academics on February 11th, 2012
Talking medieval bodkins with Kelly DeVries.
Nipping at the heels of one interview, Kelly DeVries and I were picked up for another this past week: this time with ABC News 4 here in Charleston.
The interview became an article for their website, and for the moment it’s “front page” news over there.
Robin Hood Interview with Me and Kelly DeVries
Posted by Michael Livingston in Academics on February 7th, 2012
I mentioned a few days ago that I got cornered for a videotaped interview with Kelly DeVries in which we blathered on about Robin Hood, all in preparation for a public lecture we’re giving on Tuesday, February 21.
Well, today I got an email from The Citadel’s External Affairs Office, sending me a link to the news release/feature that they produced out of it.
I daresay they did a pretty slick job of editing the off-the-cuff chatting between Kelly and me. Made it almost sound like I knew what I was talking about.
Almost.
Kelly is obviously more polished at this — no surprise since he’s a History Channel veteran — and I’m sad that I was caught tired and with my uniform on … but I’m pleased overall. I’ll get better at it!
Indeed, I’ll have the chance to polish the act soon enough. Apparently this went out to all the local media folks about the same time I got it this morning … and already we have an interview scheduled on Thursday with the local ABC affiliate.
They suggested (jokingly?) that one of us could wear a Robin Hood costume, to which I replied (quite seriously) that I am not paid enough to wear green tights.
What Google Thinks of Me
Posted by Michael Livingston in Academics, Homelife on February 2nd, 2012
A friend and colleague kindly passed along this link to a blog containing a link to the “Ads Preferences Manager” that Google associates with a given user.
In other words, following the link on your computer shows you what/who Google thinks you are.
I followed this link on my work computer, and it turns out that Google thinks I’m a Male (whew!) between the ages of 25 and 34. I apparently don’t surf my age at work, which is nice to hear.
I also have interests in Arts & Entertainment, Games, Law & Government, and Shopping. All true to a degree, I suppose, but I would have thought sports (Go Broncos!) would have been in there, or something picking up my academic research interests (though those could be construed under Arts & Entertainment).
On a lark I typed “Male 25-34″ into Google Images and received the following as the first hit:
A Male, aged 25-34
Nice to have hair in Google’s eyes!
Unfortunately, this image happens to come from a Microsoft website (feel the irony) that describes my supposed age group thus:
At a time of near-constant change, Males 25 – 34 flirt, play, relax and stay on top of the social scene, normally all through the internet and digital media.
… which frankly makes the Google-me sound a bit like a hipster loser.
So then I tried seeing what Google thinks of me on my home computer. Interestingly, it there declared me a male (whew x2) between the ages of 35 and 44 — got me! — with additional interests in Autos & Vehicles (that’s 4xGuard, I suspect), American Football (Broncos!), and three cities: Charleston, Denver, and Orlando.
All in all, it’s pretty fascinating.
What’s Google think of you?
Publicity and the Lecturer: Beowulf, The Hobbit, and … Brunanburh?
Posted by Michael Livingston in Academics on February 1st, 2012
I’m giving a lot of public lectures this spring, so news about them will be popping up here from time to time. Yesterday, for instance, Kelly DeVries and I did a videotaped interview about our upcoming (in three weeks, egads!) Robin Hood lecture, and I’ll probably want to link to whatever results from that if/when it’s available.
Today, though, I wanted to pass along the first bit of publicity I’ve received for a later lecture on Tolkien. Here’s what the organizers have sent out as a press release/advert:
Wednesday, March 14, 2012 – 6:30 pm – Bond Hall 165
Michael Livingston is an Assistant Professor of English at The Citadel and holds a master’s degree from the Medieval Institute and master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Rochester. Dr. Livingston’s medieval research interests include Chaucer and the military history of the Middle Ages. He is also an award-winning writer of speculative fiction, with an additional scholarly expertise on Tolkien. In 2011 he published two books, including The Battle of Brunanburh: A Casebook. Dr. Livingston’s talk, “Tolkien’s Creation by Edition: The Medieval Origins of The Hobbit,” will focus on the ways in which Tolkien’s career-long interest in Beowulf interacted with his fiction writing. Book signing. Free admission. Refreshments will be served.
Nice, right?
Only … what’s this about a book signing? It’s the first I’ve heard of it. I mean, a book signing is fine — great even — but what book am I signing? Will folks interested in Tolkien be lining up for my edition of The Middle English Metrical Paraphrase of the Old Testament
I’m guessing, therefore, that what they’re thinking about is having some copies of The Battle of Brunanburh: A Casebook
And if that is the case, I’m wondering if maybe I should somehow try to work Brunanburh into a Tolkien-Beowulf lecture. Would be an interesting leap, for certain!
The Average Ordinary Day Today
Posted by Michael Livingston in Academics, Homelife, Teaching on January 30th, 2012
Recently, someone suggested that I write posts here more often. This was without doubt an incredibly kind thing to say — a writer first and foremost, after all, wants to hear that his or her work has been read — but it was also an unpleasant reminder of how busy my life has become.
That said, it did spur me to write a post here today … on how busy my life has become. I’m not looking for pity or anything of the sort, and I have no doubt that most of us have lives that are twice as busy as they ought to be. I don’t think I’m special, in other words.
That said, here’s my day in an nutshell, not counting a lot of “little” interruptions. The times are rounded off but pretty accurate, since I was keeping notes:
Video Killed the Radio Star
Posted by Michael Livingston in Homelife on January 14th, 2012
I’m not quite sure how it happened, but the wee lad, who is roughly 5.5 years old, announced today that his favorite song is “Video Killed the Radio Star,” by the Buggles.
That song, which as it happens is also a favorite of mine, was the first video (and thus a subsequent all-time 80s classic) shown on MTV when I was, well, roughly 5.5 years old.
Amazing.
It testament, I present here the original video from the 80s, followed by a live, just-for-fun cover from Robbie Williams, a current favorite of mine:
Awesome trivia bit: Take note of the bass player in Robbie’s video, an older gentleman who is getting a decent amount of camera time. That’s actually Trevor Horn — the man who wrote, sang, and produced the original song with The Buggles. Yep, the same dude wearing the oversized glasses in the first video. He became one of the great music producers post-Buggles. One of his recent jobs was producing Robbie Williams’ excellent album, Reality Killed the Video Star
Once More Unto the Breach
Posted by Michael Livingston in Homelife on January 9th, 2012
The campus begins to fill with students once again, and the pleasant days of the Break are drawing to a close. As you can tell from the silence hereabouts, I’ve been busy with things: making it through the teaching wave of the Fall semester served only to bring me clear for a moment before I was struck by the writing wave of the Holidays. For almost a month now I’ve been nose-to-grindstone on several academic projects and two fiction projects. One of those fiction projects in particular is both quite significant and on a bit of a deadline, so that’s pretty much had me occupied around the clock in one way or another.
I did get the chance to get away, though: A quick couple of flights from Charleston meant that the Holidays were spent back home in Colorado. It was pretty sweet to see snow again, though the 28-inch dumping we got shortly after arrival was perhaps a bit more than was necessary.
Still, it was fun. And all the research and writing is fun, too. I’m damn lucky to enjoy what I do.
For that matter, I’m excited for classes to start in a couple of days. If I could just find my textbook for English 102, all would be right with the world…
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