Friday, May 13, 2011

Here!

Abode Humble Abode
Dang it! Blogger (the Entity, the Thing) lost a wee post that I'd written on my iPhone. So much for hipness -  I will just go back to typing quickly and look for my carrier pigeon.  I AM AT KALAMAZOO! Here are small mentions of great things: breakfast with a scholar of generous mind and thrilling brilliance (he gave a talk today about the poignancy (in every sense of the word) of stones that had me both in Brittany and starting to wonder (through the process of lithography and other technologies of the word) about the souls of computers); reunions with my dear friend and late-night confessions and discoveries in our humble Kalamazoo abode; the sighting of a fully frocked monk (almost) brushing shoulders with a hipster (a Chaucerian, I bet) bedecked in a tank top and short skirt in the marvelous world that is the cafeteria during Kalamazoo...

The Geese of Kalamazoo
... the Killer Geese of Kalamazoo (yes, Oliver, like the killer rabbit - I just know that someday they will strike); difficult work with a talk about images in Cyprus, but the tantalizing idea that the Muslim Christ gave shape to the Christian Christ within a New Testament image cycle; an occasion to think through the Ovide Moralisé as a confessional text rather than a collection of exempla (yes, this is exciting); Indian food; the power dynamics of conspiracy theories, history, Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari and Assassin's Creed and World of Warcraft (holy cow!); speaking on a panel that left me hovering between my allegiance to medieval texts and images, and my allegiance to my students' pleasure and/or critique of the same; looking forward to speaking on stained glass and Chaucer tomorrow; the purchase of many books; now trying to make my way across campus in the pouring rain. But drinks with Italianists await, so, you know, things are great!

2 comments:

  1. I cannot believe that you broke fast with a brilliant scholar who actually gave a talk about my subject area of stones and did not invite me! Still my ire does not prevent me from thanking you for the breakfast you and I shared together -- a conference highlight, one of its truly enjoyable moments.

    It sounds like you had an exhausting time, mostly in a good sense. I was sorry not to see you at Bells (a night that did not end until we ordered Chines food at 3:30 am) ... and I'm sorry as well not to have made your paper, which sounds like a landmark one for you. I can hardly wait to hear more about it.

    Jeffrey

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  2. Viewing Eileen's "Slapapalooza" images on facebook made me all the more sorry not to be there (so Robert Longo)- dang! does this mean that I missed "Slap a Medievalist Day" as well? urgh! My hopes for 3:30 a.m. Chinese food are now pinned on further punctum parties celebrating the success of its books (looking forward to the General Tsao chicken already!). I really hope that you meet my breakfast companion someday - he's awesome! The paper may come knocking at your door yet, though with many a tremulous caveat.

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