I Tried, But the Old Devils, They Found Me in My Room

Here’s a favorite passage of mine from March 11th of this year: “I'm also stoked that I have finally (I hope) finished coding the content I was working on for one of the profs here in the J-School. It was like pulling my own teeth, and I have discovered that content analysis may not be for me.” In fact, after that I swore that I would never again participate in a content analysis, and that I would certainly never again be a participant in a study using someone else’s methodology. Well, I’m doing both right now. And it is frustrating the hell out of me. Honestly, how do you argue with a tenured professor, a Ph.D. no less, about how he has defined his variables and categories? The answer, I am finding out, is you don’t. I’m not sure how many of you are familiar with the process behind a content analysis (and those of you who are should probably go outside and throw yourselves in the street), but there is a process, usually quite lengthy, of fist fights, coding data, arguing about who is coding properly, re-coding some data, and more fist fights before you actually begin the real work. Well, we don’t have time for that amount of fighting and acrimony, so I find myself biting my lip and swallowing the minority opinion in favor of just getting the damn thing over with (sounds like prom night). After all, I’m getting paid. Sometimes that thought comforts me, sometimes it makes me feel like a dirty whore. It’s last semester all over again, and all this quantitative work is giving me brain fevers. I need to do something interpretive, and I need to do it now!

So, I guess the moral of the story is, no matter what you think the future will bring, it’s usually the same shit you choked on yesterday.

It’s not all bad here in bible belt babylon, though. This weekend was cool. I saw so much indie rock I started to forget where I was. For instance, Laura turned me on to the Stock Market Crash. Honestly, when I saw them, I wanted to hate them. They reminded me of the kids in high school that I, as a drama kid, rolled my eyes at. But they were good. Think Psychedelic Furs, the Fixx, and Arctic Monkeys. Yeah, these guys won’t be around here much longer. And on Sunday we saw John Vanderslice at the Opolis. Just awesome. John stuck around after the show to meet people and host the John Coltrane Dance Party. No one danced, and John asked me if I thought the 6/8 rhythm was what was keeping people off the dance floor. I think it was probably the 3.5 hours we’d all been standing in the sauna-like confines of the Opolis that dirtied our dancing shoes. Still, a fun time was had by all. I only wish I had thought ahead and brought some cash for CDs and whatnot. Next time.