another boring academic has a blog? has (finally!) moved to Wordpress. Note the slight change in URL (i.e. the /index2 is gone).

It's pretty bare-bones, and none of the tagging is done, but it's moving along (albeit at the speed of continental drift).


Alert the media. *snort*

It's heading to the printer.
It's heading to the web.

It's off my effing desk, and that's what effing matters!!!

For next summer's International Medieval Congress at Leeds (7.-10. July 2008), an already accepted session on Alchemy and the Larger World could now use a third 20-minute, scholarly paper on any aspect of alchemy in a broader cultural or societal context.

Proposals should be submitted via the Congress' online Paper Proposal Form, available at: http://imc.leeds.ac.uk/imcapp/Submit/PaperProposalForm.jsp

Abstracts should be headed by a note indicating that this is for Session 2429 (Alchemy and the Larger World). Proposals arriving within the next two weeks will receive first consideration.

General information about the Congress is available at its website: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/imc/index.html

link here, I'm working on embedding, but it's misbehaving

Gods I love this show! (I won't even take a stab at what it says about me that I've been singing songs from the musical since I first saw it well over 25 years ago - stab, get it? Bwahaha)

I just stumbled into something surprising and wonderful - it appears that one can watch the entirety of Closet Land (which is not easy to find, and not available on Netflix) on YouTube.

It's a very powerful film (I had nightmares for a week thereafter, and I normally don't get the eebies from films) and if you are really uncool with psychological torture do not watch - but I recommend it, the performances of the two actors are intense and amazing (and, as I think I've mentioned before, this is what cemented Alan Rickman in the #1 spot of my mental list "Actors of Amazing Talent - Seek Out All They Do"...I had been watching for more from him since 1988's Die Hard, but this performance floored me. Nigh on 20 years a fan I am - och, I'm showing my age).

Parts:
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine

AAAaaaaaaaggghhhhhhhh!

Wow. Just - wow.



The Long War by Laurie Lee

Less passionate the long war throws
its burning thorn about all men,
caught in one grief, we share one wound,
and cry one dialect of pain.

We have forgot who fired the house
Whose easy mischief spilled first blood
Under one raging roof we lie
The fault no longer understood
But as our twisted arms embrace the desert where our cities stood
Death’s family likeness in each face must show at last our brotherhood

Tomorrow is ADHD Awareness Day. There is an on-call event, for anyone interested.

I need to talk to Emma's teacher tonight, but I suspect 4th grade is too old for me to continue my classroom visit...it'll likely just cause her grief.
Will be blogging it, as usual, at My Other Blog. You're welcome to send me email if there is something in particular you want me to address: lisa at carnell dot com or my university email .. I'll check both.

Oh, it'll be a Merry Christmas, indeed! I can't wait -- I have loved the musical for an age (although I can't recall whether I saw it at the Fisher Theatre or Miller Aud. here on campus...hmm..) but add the creeping darkness of Burton? Hellsyeah!


eta: upon reflection I'm pretty damn certain I saw it during the 1980 (Angela Lansbury and George Hearn) national tour - I saw a lot of great shows at Miller, but that tenure is way too late for the national tours listed on the Sondheim site. I recognize the playbill - this is how my effed-up memory works, you know, I remember things I've seen forever but dates and names and whatnot? Not so much...

Magic: Frontiers and Boundaries
At the University of Waterloo
200 University Avenue West
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1
12-15 June, 2008

Call for Papers

In the history of western culture, magic tends to be a term by which accusations are made or intellectual territories defended; like the terms 'heresy' or 'perversion,' it does not have a stable or secure content. Any accusation that an act, ritual, or mode of practice is magical will have a formula that is peculiar to the time, place, institution, race, class, or gender of the accuser. Conversely, arguments that magic is a good thing, in a spiritual or material
sense, also vary according to context, particularly because pro- and anti-magical arguments develop in relation to each other, and cause changes in one another's rhetorical and conceptual strategies. Assertions that magic exists or does not exist, has ceased to exist, is marginal, is flowering, has just declined or just erupted, is religious or non-religious, scientific or non-scientific, or develops into religion or science are part of an ongoing argument.

This conference will explore the locations, in texts, bodies of texts, or historical contexts, where magic becomes a problem, a disputandum, or a frontier of knowing, from the ancient to the modern period, including modern ritual magic and contemporary magical religions. To put it another way, it will examine specific examples of the relation of magic to convention, to authority, to 'religion' and 'science' from a sociological or historical perspective.

We invite papers for sessions on topics including but not limited to: magical theologies; magical epistemologies; magical sciences; magic and the law; magic and the universities; magic in art and literature; magic, sanctity and inquisition; magic and Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Paganism and new religious movements. If you are interested in presenting a paper, please send title and abstract along with a CV, to the organizers at
<mailto:societas.magica@gmail.com>societas.magica@gmail.com.
Proposals must be received by September 1, 2007.

Potterdammerung: hilarious retelling, but SPOILERS so warning- Will Robinson, Danger!Danger!

ROFLOMG

post-Potter depression:

The empty feeling that comes from finishing the seventh book in the
Harry Potter series and realizing there will be no more.

Lucy started reading the Golden Compass books to fight her
post-Potter depression but she said she just kept waiting for
Voldemort to show up.

http://post-potter-depression.urbanup.com/2335031

One of our students will be in London from Aug. 24-31 (flying from Chicago to Manchester Aug. 23 / Sept. 1).

She is finishing her booking and has choices - could anyone comment on neighborhoods (safety, or convenience, or whatever you know) as she's traveling alone and doesn't want to have to avoid evening events out of physical concern? Danke!

This si where she will PROBABLY stay:
Finsbury Residence -- part of City University, short walk from Barbican Station
15 Bastwick Street, London C1V 3PE England

OR: [a bit further from the center of things...]
Kings College Hall London -- near Kings College Londons Denmark Hill Campus
Champion Hill, London SE5 8AN England

Furnival House London -- part of Westminster University
Cholmeley Park, off Highgate Hill, London N6 5EU England

I don't write fanfic. I am a parent of a pre-adolescent. But I do NOT support witch hunts.

I believe in the Constitution of the United States. I believe in the Bill of Rights, due process, and the rule of law. I believe in the fundamental right of all people to express their opinions, free from censorship or fear of reprisal.

I may despise another man's opinion, but if I take away his right to express it, I take away my own rights as well. Freedom and Democracy cannot exist under a mantle of oppression and fear. Wrongdoers must be punished, but not at the expense of citizens whose only crime is to exercise those freedoms set down in writing over 200 years ago.

Yes, it's "only" LJ. It's "only" fanfic. In the scheme of things, perhaps not so important, right? Except that every flood starts with a single raindrop, and the bedrock of our political system is worn away bit by bit every time the rights of ANYONE are denied.

(via this post from celandineb, and read the bit from ancarett! follow the link!)


I am a paid user.
This is a present statement. Given my growing disenchantment with Six-Apart (I also nursed my children, and their other debacle disgusted me more than I can communicate using polite language!) that is very likely to not be a future statement - I can take my money elsewhere.