May 31, 2005 Announcements

I'm back, and I'm tanned burnt, rested, and ready! Great trip! Only two things were less-than-ideal. First, I apparently confused God knows what (It might as well have been cooking oil!) with sunblocker. (I never needed or used that sh--tuff when I was a kid, but I guess my brown days are over....) Second, the holiday came to an abrupt end Monday afternoon when, at the 1.50 beer mark, I received a phone summons to rescue my stranded in-laws from a car breakdown.

But hey! I'm not complaining about the rescue mission! That otherwise was to have been the car I drove back to the Crescent City to catch the plane back! And the mechanics still haven't figured out why it just "up and died," as they might put it at the Onion. Good luck in the form of an early breakdown came disguised as a wasted half-pint of Blue Moon. (This light, citrusy wheat beer was perfect for the heat.)

Here are a few announcements.

Reason Roundup

Last Sunday's Reason Roundup appears at the Charlotte Capitalist.

Welcome to The Reason Roundup! Spicy hamburgers. Hot "Chocolat". Orange...feathers. Say what? Soapy cars. Cool "Sahara". Killing individualism. Celebrating Memorial Day. Aristotle and John Locke.

Blogger Contest

The staff of the Undercurrent will be hosting its second blogging contest, this time asking that contestants take the South Central Bildungsroman, Friday, and its sequels as a point of departure.

Now that I have your attention, the real topic is Star Wars. The contest announcement email (with some added formatting) is transcribed below.

Dear Objectivist blogger,

The Undercurrent (www.the-undercurrent.com) is pleased to announce its second Blogger Contest, which invites blog owners to write an article for the newsletter. The winner's article will be published in Issue 3—both in the print and online editions—along with the name and URL of the winner's blog. To give you an idea of the publication's scope, 9500 copies of issue 2 of The Undercurrent were distributed in twelve cities across eleven states. 14 universities received copies of the newsletter.

The article topic for this contest is: Star Wars, either the entire series or the most recent movie. This leaves open a wide range of topics for you, but please keep in mind—this kind of article is not an esthetic review. The article should analyze a philosophical/cultural issue raised by Star Wars or by its cultural reception, such as selfishness vs. selflessness, reason vs. mysticism, moral absolutes vs. compromise ("Only the Sith use absolutes!"), evil as powerful vs. evil as impotent, etc. But it should not constitute an esthetic evaluation of the film(s).

For those new to The Undercurrent or the blogger contest, please be aware that our target audience consists of college students who are unfamiliar with Ayn Rand and Objectivism. Thus, any Objectivist principles cited or reached in your analysis should be adequately explained, keeping the context of a general audience in mind.

The deadline for submissions is June 10th. Articles should be approximately 750-1000 words in length, but do not panic if you run over; should you win, we will work with you in editing the article for publication. Whether or not you win the contest, you are welcome to post the article to your blog at any time.

Also, regardless of whether you submit an entry to the contest, please feel free to post this announcement to your blog, or link to it here: http://www.the-undercurrent.com/index.php?b=/000027.html. And, as always, we are also accepting contributions on all topics.

Questions? Write to us at mail@the-undercurrent.com.

We look forward to hearing from you.

—The Undercurrent staff

Anger Management May Be Back

For some time, I have contemplated posting a series of brief reviews of some of my favorite "ex-blogs." Time constraints and more urgent subject matter have precluded this so far. My favorite Objectivist ex-blog was to have been Anger Management. However, rumors of the death of this blog may have been greatly exaggerated (HT: The General).

... I'm back. And I have lots to say. Stay tuned.

To echo the sentiment of one of the commenters: "Well then, spit it out, man!" (This should be said in the manner of J. Peterman of Seinfeld fame.)

This is one blog among several I'd like to see back, or at least posting more frequently.

Reclaim Your Brain

Meanwhile, Sarah Beth has encountered difficulties with her move and has been posting intermittently at her blog. (Lots of posts today, though.) Stop by and say "Hi!" if you haven't in awhile.

Pajamas Media

Martin Lindeskog over at Ego mentioned to me today a blog network he has recently joined called "Pajamas Media." See his post for more info.

-- CAV

Updates

6-1-05: Fixed a typo.