I finally got around to listening to SOPHIE by SOPHIE. Man, I have such mixed feelings about posthumous releases. The greedy bitch in me wants more, always, especially from artists who died way too young. I know SOPHIE’s brother, who finished the album, insists that SOPHIE was nearly done with it at the time of her death, but the stretch between “nearly finished” and “actually ready to release” can be miles long for an artist. I’m not an artist, by any means, of SOPHIE’s caliber, but a piece of writing for me can completely transform in the edit. Posthumous albums too often feel like an early sketch1, a pastiche of the auteur that are perhaps categorically incapable of capturing the genuine vision and artistry of the deceased. Unfortunately, this was the case for me with SOPHIE: “Reason Why” and “Live in My Truth” were standouts, but in general, it lacked the thrill and voice of SOPHIE (RIP).
I’ve been podcasting on and off for over ten years now — all shows that I’ve since abandoned1, either intentionally or due to time — but I’ve kept websites for them up and running for archival purposes. Originally, the sites were powered by WordPress and podcasting plugins (PowerPress and then Podlove). I didn’t want to continue paying to host the sites nor maintain a WordPress install2, so here’s how I migrated the sites to Hugo (which I then deploy with Cloudflare Pages).
I’m still working on planning for the college class I’m teaching in a few weeks. I need to have my basic syllabus done within the next week or two, but I don’t really plan that way, so I’m going week by week and outlining the entire lesson. It’s a lot of work, but I’m feeling a lot better than I was last week. I was previously trying to reverse engineer the previous professor’s syllabus while bringing in some of my own resources, but I gave myself permission to do my own thing and only consult her work when I felt I needed something more for a lesson or a text. I’m moving much faster and things feel easier now, so it’s just a matter of doing the work.
I’m teaching (adjunct lecturing) a college class in the fall for the first time. I’m starting to put together my syllabus and lesson plans. I have a lot of resources from the previous professor (who is a friend), but I’m also trying to do my own thing. It’s a lot of work and I’m very stressed about it.
I know it’s only just August, but it somehow feels like the summer is already over. It’s the Sunday scaries month of the summer for me, which is ridiculous because who else gets two months off from their job every year? (Aside from, you know, people in civilized countries that get actual vacation days.)
Joe and I visited some of his family with a lake house this week where my farmer’s tan became more and more pronounced. I also “worked” two days this week: I had committee meetings on Thursday and then a joint meeting to coordinate middle school/high school/college GSAs in my area. I also went to a concert (more about that in the music section) with a friend who moved away a year ago and who I missed a lot!