The Pag(lier)e

Alan Pagliere's Page

I am a pedal steel player living in Brooklyn. You can see my ReverbNation page and my myspace page (as awful as they are) to hear some mp3s and see some videos of my playing.

My latest blog entry
The long project to make available the Catford Lectures on line is finished!! Thanks to Professor Ian Catford and University of Michigan's English Language Institute, Bentley Library, and DeepBlue, the 8 lectures by Professor Catford on his fascinating life in linguistics, given on the occasion of his retirement in 1985, are available on the web. Check: http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/57759
MICASE rewrite finished! I wrote the first implementation of the Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English web application in 2001 while working for the University of Michigan's Digital Library. I just recently finished the rewrite of the application for a new search engine. See the MICASE page and history for some information.
A favorite poem, in Lunfardo: Musa Rea
annarborpublicschools.org: Read the story of a parody website set up to call attention to the Ann Arbor School District's mismanagement and secrecy . I was also interviewed by "Homeless Dave" about the website. Read the interview.
The Rape of Reason in Ann Arbor: what the unregulated Ann Arbor Public School District has done to the environment, the Greenbelt, the economically disadvanted students in the district; how they've created a traffic disaster in the process. Other evidence of mismanagement, secrecy and corruption continue to come to light.
Article about my steel playing in the University of Michigan's University Record
Recent Photos
- Argentina 12/04 - 1/05
- Photos of my "work" from my introductory glassblowing classes
- Argentina February - March 2004
- Argentina 2001
- Alex and his rowing team on 4/17/04
- 30th Anniversary Reunion of The Lentil Soup Boys (my old college band) at the New Jersey Folk Festival, April 2004) .
- Garden photos from the summer of 2003 and photos of the argiope spider.
- Art Pro Tem installation shots (9/18/2003)
Music:
- Lately, been working on swing and bop standards on steel. More information about that crazy instrument, the Pedal Steel Guitar.
- The Cadillac Cowboys, the Western Swing band I've been in since 1978
- Pedal Steel Guitar
  - My new MSA Millennium pedal steel guitar.
  - A few photos from my trip to the 2003 International Steel Guitar Convention
- Corndaddy: The other band I used to play with. "Alt country."
Work
- My Resume for those that might want it
- Just moved to JSTOR
- Used to work at the University of Michigan's Digital Library Production Services
Family news
Interests and hobbies (past and present): Chinese Calligraphy, running, calligraphy, kite flying, cooking (Indian, Chinese, Italian), bread baking, beer making (hobby and professional), beekeeping, music (Celtic, Swing, Country, Western Swing, Jazz, Bluegrass, Tango), instruments (guitar, banjo, fiddle, pedal steel), martial arts (Aikido, Karate), languages (English, Spanish, French, Italian, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese), Linguistics, computer programming, knot-tying, needlework (knitting, weaving, needlepoint, bobbin lace).
Language / Linguistics / Culture
- An article I was kindly invited to write for the online Vocabula Review, whose views on language I do not hold ... at all.
- See what's happening at the University of Michigan department where I got my graduate degree in Linguistics.
- Watch the Catford Lectures. Professor Emeritus Ian Catford has been a great inspiration to me. I feel I am a direct descendant of Henry Sweet in the geneaology of phoneticians, studying as I did with Professor Catford and having been his teaching assistant.
See Esther's web sites. www.estherkirshenbaum.com for serious artwork and www.funandfunctionalart.com for fun, functional, commercial products
Skepticism and Atheism and Reason
- Interview with Douglas Adams. I always say I'm a devout atheist. His term "radical atheist" is much better. Tooth fairies, Santa Claus, god....
- The Richard Dawkins website. Yay.
- The End of Reason, David Morris, Alternet, 3/31/05
- Data > Information > Knowledge > intelligence > Wisdom
Beekeeping: A project I was involved in to bring Ann Arbor neighborhood honey to the world! Tree Town Bees.
Malt
- Beer / Brewing
- Single Malts
Writings
Food
Dogs
Travel
- Photos from the Dec. 2004/Jan. 2005 trip to Argentina
- Photos from my 2004 trip to Argentina to visit the family
- Photos from my 2001 trip to Argentina to visit the family
- Scotland Travel Log: compiled from notes taken during a great trip to Scotland in 1993.
- While traveling in Japan, in 1981, I met a kind-hearted man. Adachihara-sensei and Kusakari Juu-ji-gun. An amazing person. At 76, he has more energy than any ten 25 year olds. A full-length film was recently made of his "crusade." I need to get information about him on this site ... as soon as I have time....
Books
Quotes