Know-vember: Peg Aloi

My movie buddy! Peg and I have seen a lot of movies together, good and bad — and have often argued about which was which (hee)! Peg is also a writer and academic as well as an amazing cook and baker (mmmm, deliciousness). I haven’t gone to the movies yet in Galway, surprisingly. The good…

Mary of Nijmeghen

Mary — or Mariken van Nieumeghen as it is in the original — is a play that shows up in the early sixteenth century. My students read it this week and (among other things) we talked about how one might adapt it to a modern movie and came up with a really good plan. They’re…

Hectic

Paperwork for the Fulbright to prepare; details to work out; pictures for the work permit; appointments to schedule; belongings to jettison; prep for the reading of “Lumottu”; revisions of essays to finish; grading grading grading. So, um — here’s something from the Fall!

The Galway Project

Yes, I’ve dug out my Learning Irish book and tapes (yes, tapes O_o) and will endeavour to master what I can. I probably should have thought of it before, but thanks to Karen Hayes for asking on Facebook if I would share a description of the project I’ll be working on in Galway (assuming all…

Snapshots of Pop Culture

Here’s a little taste of the trip to the Popular Culture Association Conference: we stayed at the Marriott Rivercenter which is a combination mall and canal, chock full of tourists and cheap Texas trash, er, souvenirs. I lived in that state for three years, eleven months, six days, five hours and fifteen minutes and I…

Powerpoint is Evil

I used Tufte’s piece in my own PPT presentation, which as folks on Twitter know, has almost 80 slides. I’ve described it as being sort of like “The Word” on The Colbert Report. Will this work? Who knows. Still tweaking. But I printed my boarding passes. If you’re on Facebook, I’m now having a contest…

Euro Punks Exhibit

Wednesday already?! Eek! Madness — this entire week has been, will be, is. Yesterday after the Glass Ceiling talk organized by the Women’s Initiative, I jumped in the car and headed down to Kingston for a reading of a new play at the Arts Society of Kingston. The play was on the life of Margaret…

Carnival of the Animals

Image via Sokoblovsky Farms, petitelapgiraffe.com The CSR Camerata concert went very well (not just saying that; read the review :-). I had a lot of fun reading Nash’s poems and listening to my fabulous colleagues play. We all went out to The Point afterward, which is always lovely, too. I am consequently brainstorming more ways…

BitchBuzz: Women’s History Month WTFs

It’s the middle of Women’s History Month and we’re facing some of the most aggressive attacks on women ever in this country, while people are overwhelmed by the terrible tragedies in Japan and the desperate battles for autonomy in the Gulf as people fight against dictators who have traditionally been propped up with help from…

BitchBuzz: Technology and Temperance + Jane Quiet

My column today springs from my annoyance with paternalistic colleagues who keep giving people the impression that academics are stuffy know-it-alls who pontificate from their position of privilege. I realise I can also be a bit unreasonable about it: on President’s Day a colleague in the midst of his “technology: bad” talk (thank goodness there…