Moving Shop

In an effort to unify my web presence, this blog is moving:
http://emilykausalik.com/

Check it.

Thesis: Proposed

I have written a proposal and had it approved. Holy crap. The title is:

A FISTFUL OF DRAMA:
A STUDY OF MUSICAL FORM IN THE DOLLARS TRILOGY

Witty, yet cliche. I think I'll put up a PDF of the proposal at some point.

Also, tomorrow I am officially accepting Texas's offer. woot.

Qdoba is my new favorite place to study

For some reason, Qdobas and Paneras are almost always next door. This is great for two reasons: (1) I love Qdoba and eat there quite often, and (2) Panera has free Wi-Fi. This combination allows me to sit at Qdoba, eat a veggie burrito, and mooch off of Panera's free wireless. I've been sitting here for over two hours now, reading sources and do research for my thesis, and about ten minutes ago the owner brought me some chips and salsa. "You're working far too hard to not have something to snack on." Pra sweet. So now I have more yummies and more inspiration to continue working.

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On the PhD front, Prof. van den Toorn called me again yesterday and I again missed it. I'm going to try calling him tomorrow I think. Sounds like the fellowship I got is pretty big and they really want to sweet talk me into going there. I'm not complaining about that, trust me.

In other PhD news, Jennie got into FSU! That is so so awesome. Now we both have places to go next year.

More+ on UCSB

Hi Emily,

Dr. Van den Toorn mentioned that he had left you a message.
Congratulations! You'll get the official letter from the university soon
that explains that this fellowship covers all the costs of university study
at UCSB. You might also want to look at Moodle (Google Moodle and UCSB) to
see some of the listings in the film department. And don't forget that we
are only two hours from tinseltown...

Please email me if you have any questions. You have the opportunity
through this fellowship to visit our campus. I will be in Paris March
17th-24th, but I will be in SB the rest of the time. I believe that $650
in travel money is paid for.

Best,

Pat

Free vacation much?

Studying for the dreaded ORAL QUALIFYING EXAMS OF DOOOM

Yes. Three Os in DOOOM. That's how bad it is.

Anyway, the final part of my competancy exams takes place tomorrow at 2:30pm. I have hit the 24 hour mark, so I thought I would reflect on the organizational process I have developed.



I'm a very visual person, so I used a color coding technique. Green folders are GOOD TO GO! Purple are HEY, MORE WORK NEEDED. Yellow files have been read and bullet pointed. Red are READ ME!s. This has worked pretty well so far. Seeing the colors change has helped me get a decent grasp of how much work I've done, and how much is left.

I'll reflect more on the experience once I pass, be it tomorrow or some other time. Preferably tomorrow.

Fiona Apple & Friends cover "Tonight You Belong To Me" (Gene Clark)

In case you don't read You Ain't No Picasso, or are too lazy to click on my Google Reader link, here is a great cover of Gene Clark's "Tonight You Belong To Me" by Fiona Apple and a few members of Nickel Creek. In my opinion, Fiona Apple can do no wrong. I love her.

More on UCSB

So. I just received an email from Patricia Hall, the theory coordinator at UCSB and my roomie at the M&MI conference I went to last May in NYC. (If you don't know that story comment and I'll fill you in.) Anyway, she emailed me to let me know about my being accepted into the program (already knew), about my TAship (uhhh .... didn't know that!) and my fellowship nomination (heard about that). But the TAship? Hell yeah.

*five minutes later*

Okay so I just looked up the TAship info ... apparently it is a partial fee waiver (ehhh) and free health insurance (very nice). So I'd need the fellowship, which Dr. Hall said pays for tuition and fees. So I'd really need both. And the fellowship is for students who are the first in their families to go to college.

This is started to get complicated. I applied to, like, seven PhD programs because I didn't think I had a shot. I applied to the MA because I wanted to see if I had a chance in hell at a top music program in Europe (I mean ... Adam Krims works there!). I've gotten into three of the seven and have been offered money at two of them. I may actually have to make a really tough choice. If I get a big honkin' fellowship at UCSB in addition to a TAship ... hmmm. But I mean, Texas is my #1 ... ugh. I didn't think I'd get in anywhere! Now I have three possibilities, maybe even more after I hear back from other places. I'm way too indecisive for this.

I was talking with some other grad students today, and out of the four "scholar" grads that are graduating this year (all in August because we're too lazy and too much of commitaphobes to write our thesis) I am the oddest one out and the only one to continue on after this year. Morgan is a musicologist that focuses on 20th-century music (she's writing on Berg's Lulu, Kathryn is a musicologist and cellist who is obsessed with Bach and is writing about Vaughn Williams, Jennie is a theorist writing on phrasing in Bach, and I am a theorist that listens to punk and indie rock and is writing about film music. They fit much better into the canon than I do. Yet Morgan and Kathryn are seriously considering changing fields, and Jennie may give up if she doesn't get into FSU.

So. Maybe the canon is changing? Maybe the field of "acceptable dissertation topics" is finally branching out after ... two hundred years. I guess I just have good timing.