This week has been taken up by reading Theodore Gracyk's Rock Music and the Politics of Identity as well as rereading my proposal, chapter summaries (so I can remember what I'm supposed to be writing about!), and the first part of the first dissertation chapter (so I can remember how I've already written about the first chapter in the book). Rereading the dissertation is always a nervous experience for me, especially now that I'm working on the book version. What seemed like great writing at the time, full of useful discussion, now seems simplistic and almost naïve, and in need of some serious stepping up (isn't this always the way it is though?). There needs to be more depth to my discussions of genre, the cultural context of thrash metal in the early 80s, and what I mean by big concepts like "the body" and "identity." Thus the reading this week. Gracyk is only one resource of course, and I'm primarily interested in that book as part of the larger conversation on these issues. Professor Steve was nice enough to send me his chapter on the NWOBHM (part of his upcoming book on punk and metal) and that's also been helpful.