Creative Destruction: Privatize the liquor stores!

Creative Destruction: Privatize the liquor stores!

This is just something I feel strongly about and have been involved with. Professor Weise makes some good points, and more people should read up on this issue. As a Marylander myself, the Pennsylvania laws seem idiotic especially when home to such great breweries as Troegs, Victory, Weyerbacher, and are one of the few East Coast states to even receive the revered beers of Russian River Brewing Company. Support freedom of liquor sales in PA, or at least some well revised laws!

Message Board Dynamics: Assessing the Plan-It-X Debacle

For a long time, I've done nothing but sing the praises of Plan-It-X records. Founded by Samantha Jane Dorsett (may she rest in peace) and Chris Johnston, it has been the home of various bands with varying levels of success, with the general idea being that no one should sell a CD unless they believe in the music and that if it ain't cheap, it ain't punk. A FAQ is available here, but let me quote a piece for ideology:

Q: WHAT IS THE POINT OF PLAN-IT-X?
A: we release music we love. music that we want other people to hear. plan-it-x records is not about making money. we are about getting punk music heard. punk rock is more than a business, or at least it should be. we sell all our cds for $5 postage paid. we still make enough money to feed ourselves and release more music. CDs only cost about $2 to make. think about that the next time you buy a $10 cd that's supposed to be d.i.y.

Bachmann Wins the Iowa Straw Poll

The now winner of what Jon Stewart noted as a tent contest, Michelle Bachmann has established herself as a viable candidate for the Republican Primaries. CNN has a data report available here.

Now, full disclosure, I am a pretty far left individual, but the point of this blog is to give fair coverage to both sides of the American discourse. The election of 2012 will be an obvious hotspot for every sort of discussion, but this straw poll may be a more interesting topic to talk about before everyone hops on to primary coverage.

Pop Music: Individual as Capital

To be clear, this is somewhat off the Reagan topic. It is, however, a quick look into modern international pop with a focus on defining the individual through material rather than personal terms. The major example here will be Annie's "Chewing Gum" from her 2004 album Anniemal.

An Introduction

Hello!

In a meeting about an honors thesis months ago, the idea was brought up to make a blog to chronicle articles, thoughts, and drafts of a cross-disciplinary thesis. The goal was set to make information accessible to all parties, as well as to catalog what is actually occurring while designing this work.

So what is being done? I am writing a thesis concerning the impact of Reagan and H.W. Bush era economics on current and then-current literature. In essence, how did a largely liberal artistic base react to a conservative economic policy? How did the death of the Fordian system affect Republicans as well? The demonization of Reagonomics is to be studied from the radical liberal to the black tie conservative, gauging cultural reactions through the literature created on all sides of the cultural divide.

And a divide it is! The goal of the thesis is a 35-60pg concentrated analysis of this cultural and economic shift. None of this would be possible without the gracious support of Stefanie Sobelle, Yahya Madra, and the English and Economic Departments of Gettysburg College. Thanks as well go to Professors Flynn and Goldberg, the current chair and the Honors Program director respectively.

So, this will be for fun and ideas. Reads of articles, analyses of things that may not fit into the general time frame, or other forms of media. PLEASE comment and email anything you think would be interesting, or would like commented on!

Thanks for reading!