NOLA - In Pictures

Just a few tidbits for now, will post more later.  Had a great time, saw some great and not-so-great presentations, ate a lot of food, and hung out with some locals -- but the last is definitely a story for when I have more time.
(p.s. below slideshow seems to work better when you click on the pictures and move them, rather than using the arrows at bottom)

The conference that was a vacation

Today is the big day.  In other words, off to N.O. for the AAA!! Panel is done tomorrow around 4pm, and then time for awesome food, music, and well free time.  At some point, I suppose I will actually attend the conference that I paid a ridiculous amount of money to go to (just talking about fees here,  if you include airfare, food, hotels...actually I don't want to think about it).

But isn't the point of the AAA that students are supposed to mingle and make professional connections? Well yeah, but I know I told you about the time that some grad student tried to talk to Maurice Bloch....

I will just take lots of pictures, especially of the sunshine.  B/c down South they have this thing called "the sun."  It is really hard to see up here in the tundra, especially when it is dark at 4pm.

Mostly I am happy to be finished with grants, turned in the last one yesterday! And to not be teaching for a few days, or worrying about school.  Though of course, when I get back I will have tons of catching up to do.  Like transcribing 2 hours of interviews!

October Roundup

Not sure what happened to this month.  I can't believe it is Week 10 of the semester.  I have been busy reading, and writing, and revising.  OH, and I made Halloween costumes.  Pictures forthcoming as soon as I find my camera and upload pictures onto my computer.  It was EPIC.  Especially when one of your friends is willing to dress up as the Labyrinth.

No, not a Labyrinth, but the one and only David Bowie/Goblin King Labyrinth.

I would like to point out that this year I did, in fact, complete the RIP challenge.  You just don't know it b/c I didn't post that fourth review.  And I ain't gonna.  No time, no time.  Besides, how am I supposed to review the first gothic novel ever written - The Castle of Otranto?  However, I like to have completed some goals in life, even if in the grand scheme of things they aren't important.

I also importantly submitted not one but two grant applications.  Neither are very good, but at least I turned them in.  Another due on Wednesday, a paper due on Friday.... and then a small breather as we all gear up for the big AAA conference in the Big Easy (New Orleans that is).  Maybe this year will inspire me to write another poem.  The AAA in S.F created an ode to Talal Asad (which I won't dredge up as it was awful).  He is my academic anti-hero. 

Much love and happiness to you all, and happy November.

Just Because

Forthcoming will be a couple of posts here about my touristy adventures in San Francisco. On the other blog I will post my reactions on the conference itself, and some of the papers I heard.

But first, because I am officially delirious, I have written a poem:

Attenuating Seasons And Days

Oh, shall I count the many ways

that the outstanding papers

over the course of several days

without flurries or frivolous capers

cited the man, Asad (power!)

quietly, with reverence, as if for vespers

while I leaned forward with a glower

(religion, history, and the secular)

listening to essays hour after hour?

Talal "no universal definition of religion" Asad

Talal "reads more than enough Foucault" Asad

Talal "at least he doesn't write in French" Asad!

Please don't leave a comment telling me how much I suck - yes, I know that I can't write poetry. But I had fun doing it, and besides I went to talk on anthropology and poetics - so there!!