not pictured, his male engagement ring

dear friends,

it is reports of stuff like this that have me understanding anti-feminism.

and i didn't even watch the video.

not a promise keeper's wench just yet,
cam

don't nytimes freelancers watch 80s cinema?

dear friends,

love a good nytimes article with a soc of religion connection. today in the magazine, dancing at christian colleges. but really, 5000 words and not a single mention of footloose. whaaaaaaaaaaaat.

picture it notre dame, indiana summer 2002

[redacted]: yeah, at biola there is no dancing. we had to stop playing the beatles in the school coffee shop when a mother complained that it reminded her of her dark days before becoming a christian.

ms. cam: wait, like footloose?

[redacted]: haven't seen it

ms. cam: [speechless]

[redacted]: but, kirk cameron holds his movie priemeres for his movies about the rapture on campus

ms. cam: mike seaver, swoon.

the end,
cam

a mystery from across the pond

dear friends,

my dear friend and co-resident of the little yellow house at the corner of alfred and earl, mandy muffin (so named by her parents, so repeated by her friends) is known for many things but not her love of email. in fact, i have to keep in touch with her via the telephone. so, it was with considerable suprise that ms. harvey took time out of her busy day as a teacher in london, england to send along this little tidbit to her family and friends:

You MUST check this out.Will, my housemate, has posted this on you tube. Have a good look, you will never see anything this good again.Love, A

this is not amanda. but she must be britney or whitney. she has not replied to my calling her out as such, but i offer the following as evidence that she is somehow involved:

- she has memorized and likes to sing the girl part in meatloaf's "i would do anything for love, but i won't do that"

- was a film major in college

- does an excellent richie sambora to my bon jovi (what'd i'd give to run my fingers through your hair, to touch your lips, to draw you near.... i will love you ALWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYS)

- has told me that if i want to be in her wedding party i will have to start practicing high kicks for the choreographed dance down the aisle.

- knows all the words and sings 'acapella' (of sorts) to city high's what would you do.

- i have personally witnessed her 'i'm a slave for u dance'

in other youtube so good it is bad action, you might want to check out:

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6i2WRreARo&eurl a wee bit o' the nicholas cage

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMOlQX6l5dg and a whole lot of 'the h'

both of those are via oc and lest you think i am not working i offer you generals list 2/3 to assure you that i have to be.

back to the reading,

cam

the enemy on my generals committee

dear friends,

because i am a bougie academic i was reading the sunday book review in the new york times this morning and happened across a review of dinesh d’souza's "the enemy at home". (sidebar: you know you are a sociologist when you would rather study the amazon reviewers comments than the political questions being discussed). in spite of my troubled youth as a young conservative i was never given a copy of this, so i was largely unfamiliar with d'souza's work. anyway, as further evidence that i am no longer a little thatcherite my generals committee now includes a domestic insurgent!

The “domestic insurgents” who, in D’Souza’s view, constitute the cultural left want “America to be a shining beacon of global depravity, a kind of Gomorrah on a Hill.” “I intend to name the enemy at home,” D’Souza proclaims, and so he does. ... Others — the sociologist Paul Starr... are less obvious candidates for inclusion. All these people might charge D’Souza with “McCarthyism” for supposedly exposing them, but he accepts the challenge. McCarthy, after all, was “largely right.”

i initially tried to rack my brain for another edition of "when sociologists do it better", but realized i would never find anything because sociologists don't attempt to answer questions like "how did the american left cause 9/11" or other questions where the outcome is largely decided before the inquiry begins.

for the nerdlingers among you, here is what the domestic insurgent and i have decided on for my reading list.

and since clearly i have a lot of work to do, i am stepping away from the internet.
cam

the couch saga, a photo essay

dear friends,

last night was the couch-warming, so it seems time to bring the couch saga to a conclusion, and what better way than with a blogged-photoessay.

above: may?june? 2006 val and i test out the couch in the room and board showroom. one of my many trips to visit the couch.

above: val lovingly helps construct couch cake for couch warming. not pictured-- the delivery, the set up, emily and alex's role in couch cake construction.



above: one of the beloved guests at houseparty, gives the couch a sit. also pictured the spazzier of my two sheepskin pillows and the corner of my awesome rug and the couch(armchair?) pinata.

and finally, even though i do not have a full picture of couch (the birth announcment is pretty accurate) please accept this cake facsimile.

the end,

cam

for the first time since 1998, i wish i was living in ottawa...

this is rad.

that is all i've got until i determine what factors predict whether single moms return to school after they have their babies.

cam

short attention span + desire to cross things off lists=songs for you

dear friends,

several weeks back i did something i have never done before-- purchased a cd based on awesomeness of cover art alone. $2.99 is not a lot to pay for an adventure after all. anyway, record review short, it is awesome and is officially the soundtrack to my generals reading list construction. and though i am nearly done with that (!), this record will still be spinning in the weeks to come. you can download the m4as (sorry, i am not saaaaavy enough to convert'em) here.

back to another 8 minutes of solid work.

cam

becoming a princeton mom

dear friends,

well, the day has finally arrived. chris and dan from r&b just delivered my new couch. when i mentioned to luke that as a bonus my delivery persons were both sweet and cute, he noted that he had a hilarious mental image of me as a femme fatale housewife. it was then that i realized i had instantly aged a decade, bypassed cougar, passed go, and paid rue mclanahan $200 for playing me in the lifetime movie. with a great couch, comes a great risk and responsibility.

plans are still in the works for the couch-warming which will feature a couch-shaped pinata from pinatas.com. a word to the wise though-- if you are considering what to put in a pinata other than things that kids might enjoy DO NOT GOOGLE ADULT PINATA.

back to running into my living room, lying horizontal on the couch and giggling. running into another room and then repeating.

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
cam

ps- the graphic above is also courtesy of lukas, photoshop wizard.

new feature: when sociologists (and/or canadians) do it better

dear friends,

i realize lil ol' truthfullytruthfully has degenerated into ms.cam blogs about things she buys (hercules hooks came yesterday! couch comes today!) and bands she sees (or won't see because she has too little cash and too much dignity). the reality is that those are not the things that occupy the majority of my time. most of the time i am a professional sociologist. and increasingly i find myself reading articles in the newspaper where i can immediately think of a case where a sociologist does it better. witness:

ny times article on effect of differential minimum wage in two states

vs.

dan zuberi's work on hotel workers in vancouver and seattle that considers more than just wages and looks at the other things that determine how poverty is experienced--access to healthcare, education...

anyway, be it resolved that everytime this happens i will not just mentally note it i will post it here (might be useful for teaching purposes eventually)-- which likely means you will see lots of article in media v. sociologist of religion royal rumbles here soon.

feeling more soapboxy and less vapid already,
cam

the roasting pan that came back, a true story

dear friends,

now, i probably love thanksgiving more than the average girl. i enthusiastically celebrate it twice. but even i have no need for two roasting pans. here is the story... before canadian thanksgiving i ordered a roasting pan on the internets. when it did not arrive in time, i bought one at a bricks and mortar store. when the internets pan did come, i returned it and was fully refunded. one would think the story ends there but no. a few days ago i came home to find a suspiciously familiar looking box at my door. it looked to be a foreman type grill. and then i recalled that i once ordered a roasting pan that came inside a box marked for a grill. sure enough inside was the same roasting pan. however, there was also an invoice from?to? someone who won this in an auction. either on its way to them, or on its way back from them the other labels were removed from the original box leaving my address. i emailed the address on the invoice but no reply.

in short, if you would like a roasting pan please email me and i will send you this one. in the mail even. not for fake.

wow. i blog a lot about internet shopping.

yours in the spirit of being vapid,
cam

commodity fetishism

dear friends,

in spite of losing tickets, i did win this gossip bench on ebay, so in terms of irresponsible consumption, consumption as procrastination, and consumption to appease my workplace misery the day is sort of a wash.

back to trying to find my species-being,

cam

scalper karma

dear friends,

ms. cam is trez triste that she will not be attending the judson church arcade fire shows. she spent many sad minutes in the virtual waiting room. but all five shows were sold out by 9:13.

VWR Ticketing

curses.
cam

on my plate

dear friends,

the early days of 2007 have me back at l'ecole with much to do. there is how you say, much on my plate. this metaphor has been brought to you indirectly by the brother and sister neville whose lovely christmas gift to moi is pictured above. it was a delight to return to the office and find! when i am slightly more organized i plan to do the following:

- have people over to eat off said plates
- blog about how i want to dress like adrian in rocky the original, particularly i covet the outfit she wears at the skating rink
- blog about maximum joy, my most fave recent princeton record exchange radom score.

until the color coding, filing, piling, shredding, list making, and actual working are done.
cam

first ever truthfullytruthfully wine review

dear friends,

this is a fine, inexpensive, easy to drink wine that should be purchased in its largest size (1500ml), refered to only as "the beast", and consumed straight from the bottle as outlined below.

if you live in ontario, you can find it at the wine rack.

clearly a sommelier,

cam

a new year, an old list

dear friends,

this is for posterity.

the 2006 list, in mostly chronological order:

1. meeting my best show friend hannah (thanks val!), from january's new haven ok go show to december's rainer maria farwell there have been a million and one good memories in between. two words. baby doveman.
2. working through "bad march", not losing one of my dearest friends, and all the big (pton record exchange) and little (albinos and electrical storms) fun that has followed.
3. my secrets from your sister bra fitting (thanks hilary!) and the weeks after where i enjoyed saying "my rack looks amazing" and the other fun things like seeing ms.hez's new apartment and staying with ms. self that happened on that t-dot visit. sofi it was great to see you too, but that joel plaskett show does not make the list!
4. there are two bobs who made me want to go to gradschool. one is de facto my advisor. the other who isn't affiliated with princeton hired me as an ra- this year. even if i won't agree with everything in the book, that's pretty neat.
5. said job, allowed me to purchase my very grown up dream sofa from roomandboard.com (the dublin in doria mocha), thanks to all of you who looked at my fabric samples or treked into nyc to see it with me (possibly even more than once, possibly even with your mother). i am planning a couch warming party (it goes on the truck jan 4th!) that is sure to make the 2007 list.
6. the return to montreal almost a year to the day since i left, brought about for professional reasons, joyous for personal ones. the road trip for inadvertantely hilarious reasons. the never sleeping. the dining avec ms. p, seeing david even if he did tell me that i would end up teaching "special topics in sociology of the family: homewrecking" (for the record, that is why in 2004 i may have screamed i hate you in mcgill's parking lot... oh, yeah that and you telling people i am bob wuthnow's daughter), dinner and drinks with julie and liam, introducing alex to lebanese potatoes. alex introducing me to good conference people watching strategy (let the people come to you).
7. my august kingston visit. getting to see jim's art space. returning to martha's table, time at the goat with luke and k8 the general hospitality of indra and lukas, proprietors, chateau bagot.
8. the night i went to see the science of sleep-- because just when you think someone isn't worth missing grey's anatomy for again, they show you they can be.
9. the thanksgivings-- canadian and american. the heaping double shopping carts at mccaffery's, the secret trips to boston market (cornbread is delicious!), the tearing of the greens (sp?), the carving of the turkey, the quadratic-termed pumpkin pies, the trifle, meeting dale, the joan collins moment, the fact that the two are clearly already blending together in my memory...
10. the gradual process by which carousel became caroSOUL. two eggs scrambled, bacon, wheat toast and sometimes homefries. usually eaten with alex (who i wasn't even really friends with before 2006!) who is eating shortstack bluberry pancakes with a side of bananna. there is sometimes working. there is nearly always gossiping. but next semester there will be no talking of pfk (praise the lord).

more bloggin' to come.
cam