Notes on Transitions

So the ALC was great (except for the rain on Day 6). I returned and almost immediately graduated from UCLA and proceeded to pack up my life for a big move. In 3 days I will board a plane with my partner, my mom, and my cat for Maine where I will begin a postdoctoral fellowship in non-western music at Colby College. Big news and big changes!

The huge contrast between riding my bike everyday for the AIDS/LifeCycle and temporarily returning to life in LA has been a little rough. I did a couple of nice and long rides before all of the huge changes got under way, but I have mostly been living a very different lifestyle than I would prefer. For the last week I have lived life in LA without my bike or my scooter and have instead been using a variety of buses to get around town (and the occasional car use). As a result, I have been cranky and extremely sad about seeing the incredible disfunction of the city. Why, for example are major roads like Beverly and Pico so poorly maintained? Why is the city cutting back on the 704 line (the rapid line that runs along Santa Monica Blvd.) when ridership is so consistently high? But I suppose I will have to let go of all of these LA specific problems along with the sad condition of my home state once I board that plane on Tuesday.

I have been fretting for the last few weeks about the fate of this blog. What will happen to my thoughts on urban life on two wheels when I will be living in a small town and once again be a car-owner? What will happen when I am forced by cold weather to stay off my bike saddle for months at a time? Honestly, I haven't been a very good blogger since I started the home stretch of my dissertation. But now that I have more time to contemplate bigger ideas, I have decided to use this blog for a slightly different purpose than it was originally intended to do. The theme of this blog will shift to a more general contemplation of sound studies, urban studies and social media. The specificity of LA, and more broadly southern California, will disappear almost entirely in place of my contemplations of living my pro-bicycle lifestyle in a very different environment.

In coming posts, expect to see my thoughts on my fall and spring courses at Colby College. Fun times!