his master's voice

today in my classes the students were reading an essay by maya angelou title, "champion of the world." it's taken from i know why the caged bird sings, and is about listening in a group to joe louis fight.

in the essay she uses the phrase "master's voice" in an apparent allusion to the old rca promotional slogan "his master's voice" featuring the dog sitting and listening to the old timey phonograph. anyway, i had the students answering a question about the phrase and its context in the story. as the students were discussing it became apparent that some were familiar with the ad, and some were probably even unfamiliar with rca as a company. for the sake of disclosure, i actually own an rca television, but i'm not sure they're still making them.

during my second class i decided to draw the ad to aid their discussion:



so, i was an art major in college, but i was working with white board markers, and wasn't all that concerned with perfection. however, when i started drawing the dog i realized that i didn't really know how to draw a good dog. i put up what i thought might look like the dog in the ad, but when i looked at the finished product it reminded me more of a chihuahua.


i also thought i'd share a pic i took last night. rademacher played @ audie's olympic for free, and i had been told they'd be playing around ten. i thought it would make for a nice evening. unfortunately, rademacher didn't actually go on until 11:43. the good thing was that it was a really nice set. and, a song that that has felt pretty slow and dragging during recent sets, arkansas, popped up in pace. not quite as fast as it appears on the live album, but maybe a hair faster or at pace as it is on stunts. overall good set. the picture is eli's new drum head (adam bought it) that features a print of animal from the muppets on it that i screened. looked pretty good in the club, if i do say so myself.