BitchBuzz: Hi-Tech TNG

My latest piece for BitchBuzz deals with my on-going concerns about the ways we're not incorporating New Media into the classroom and our students' professional development. Sure they can all Google and text each other, but they're not always aware of how they present themselves rhetorically in digital space, nor how to prepare themselves for the new working models of collaborative work and constant revision.

I was fortunate to have my colleague, Kim Middleton, point me to a quick note in the Chronicle of Higher Ed about the higher rates of collaboration between digital humanities scholars that really highlights one of the touch points of this on-going negotiation for faculty. Thanks, Kim!

NYC and Beckett

I headed down to the city on Saturday and the first stop was to have brunch with pal Dana from the Horror list. Dana joined the list when he was thirteen, so he made me feel ancient. Nonetheless we had a good time laughing and gossiping over our meal at Iguana. After our meal, I sauntered down to Studio 54 to see Beckett's Waiting for Godot. They still have the leopard skin carpet that Bianca and Andy waltzed down while on their way to groove the night away with their plastic bags.

It was a interesting production. The difficult things with stars is that it's hard to see them as anything but themselves. As good as Bill Irwin and Nathan Lane are, you can't really forget that they're who they are and not really Didi and Gogo, although I completely believed their adventures. The clowning aspects in particular came off well -- the hat sequence and the (apparently) fortuitous popping off of Lane's hat into Irwin's hands. Wonderful! Goodman, too, was wonderful, but you couldn't stop seeing him as Goodman.

Glover, however, made me forget who he was. He was Lucky. He took up this often stylized part and made it both shocking and real. I have a beef against Glover because I really didn't like his audio book version of The Thief of Always, but I suppose it's time to let that go and let him get beyond Lionel Luthor.

Walking toward Columbus Circle and Central Park, I saw this woman-positive advert and tried to take a picture of it to capture the Hooters restaurant in the background (that's the orange neon), but I don't think my phone was up to the complexity.

I hung out in Central Park and watched the people who crammed the park playing and relaxing, before heading back to Grand Central and the train via the cramped and sweaty subway. I got some lovely cards from Papyrus which I plan to use and enjoy, and drove back from Poughkeepsie listening to Robyn Hitchcock (yes, still!).

Mused in Print

I will write a recap of NYC and the play as soon as possible, but I wanted to pass along the news that Mused has made print versions of their magazine available via Lulu (ah yes, the flexibility of POD!) and of particular interest will be:

Spring 2008
Cover: Shades of Rock by Jill Florio

Art and Photography
Geometrica Sfumatura by Dan Florio
Hôtel Métropole by Melissa Demiguel

Fiction
You Can´t Take It With You by Kim Kenney
Heart Surgery by Jennifer Tiszai

Non-Fiction
Give Me Credit! by Sheila Sproule
Scars by Kimi Ross

Poetry
Three Fates by Patricia Maulding
A Soul´s Oasis by Cynthia Parker

Play
Bell by K. A. Laity


Fall Equinox 2008
Cover: Mountains by William Gibbons

Interview
Karen Allen

Poem
Those Distant Dogs byCatherine Van Herrin

Fiction
My Jekyll and Hyde by Bushra Farooqui

Play
Book by K. A. Laity

Non-Fiction
Save Me! by Jacquelyn Richey

N.B.: I do plan to getting around to that third play in this set, Candle, soonish, but as you know, I'm always knee deep in deadlines and duties at the end of the semester, so I have no idea when. I always imagine summer stretching out in front of me as a time of blissful idleness, but the truth is I'm teaching a three-week summer intensive and traveling a lot, so I may not fit in everything I dream I will do. But I am thinking seriously about getting a little net book for travel.

BitchBuzz: 21st C Women's Studies

Check out my latest piece for BitchBuzz where I try to focus on the duties I'll be taking on as coordinator of the Women's and Gender Studies program at my college. It's going to be a challenge to revitalise the program as we had an off-year last year for a variety of reasons. My thought is to shift focus to targeted topics and events that invite participation from a wide variety of folks: students, staff and faculty as well as the wider community. I also hope to forge closer relationships with like-minded groups on campus.

Suggestions welcome!

Belated Easter

We went to Robert's for a belated Easter celebration as he gets ready to move into a new house. Of course he filled our bellies with good grub (bacon wrapped steaks, bébé taters, yum! He's got a pair of mourning doves nesting outside one window, and a pair of wrens nesting by the door. There's also a set of cardinals that keep attacking a mirror that sits outside. I watched an osprey circle off toward the hills and the kingfisher fishing in the estuary. I know he's glad to be going to his own house, but I will miss the beauty of Larry and Bernie's sprawling gardens and feeding the fat koi in the pond -- and the frogs, too.

Unikirja on Amazon!

Although it currently shows it as "temporarily out of stock" that should be changed very soon. You can order now and it will be shipped within days I'm told. Wheeee!

BitchBuzz: Terminated

Check out my latest piece over at BitchBuzz, about how the cancellation of the Friday night Fox double-header of Terminator and Dollhouse will doubtless be taken as more evidence that "chick shows don't sell" rather than "not so good shows with little support or worthwhile writing don't gain much of an audience."

Publication: Heofen rece swealg

My essay about the Grendel opera, "Heofen rece swealg: Neomedievalism and Spectacle in Grendel: Transcendence of the Great Big Bad" appears in the latest issue of This Year's Work in Medievalism.

This was the paper I gave at the conference in London, Ontario in October 2007, where Terry Jones of the Pythons was the keynote speaker and all around bon vivant. Great conference and hey, a publication *and* a Python out of it. Who could ask for more?

New Orleans Pix

Not many, admittedly, but some are not forwarding from the phone. Recap to follow. Short version: much food, too much spending, fun with Miss Wendy, a whole lotta folks we always see at PCA and not surprisingly, a bunch of new folks, too. A little work got done even so -- surprise!

BitchBuzz: Sic Semper Baconis

Hola from New Orleans! Of course I need to let you all know that my latest piece for BitchBuzz is up and it's all bacony goodness.

Down here at PCA things are jumping. We had a long day getting here, but we had plenty of time to catch up with Miss Wendy and check into our room before the first set of panels. A little Abita and dinner at the Palace Cafe later, I think we're all ready to sack out due to the unaccustomed early start.

With luck, tomorrow brings Pat and Petunia's!

Two weeks to Unikrja

Available for sale in just TWO WEEKS! Hurrah! I will be scheduling a reading at East Line Books in late April or early May. Whoo hoo!

All right, no time to be giddy. Loads to do before heading to New Orleans at dawn tomorrow.

Write Here @ Arts Center

Yesterday was a blustery day but on the agenda was Write Here, a panel on writing resources in the Capital Region hosted at the Arts Center of the Capital Region and co-hosted by the Hudson Valley Writers Guild and the New York State Writers Institute. It was a chance to get together with folks and start the long process of creating buzz for Unikirja, and also to promote Albacon as well as to sell a few other books as things turned out.

We hadn't been to the Art Center before -- conveniently located across the street from Market Block Books, an independent bookseller -- but it's a great space. Of course it made it much more pleasant to immediately run into Robyn Ringler, proprietor of East Line Books and hardest-working bookseller/writing promoter in the Hudson Valley. Robyn is such a joy to be around.

The panel itself seemed to be aimed more at beginning writers, while a large part of the audience really got involved once the topics turned to promoting your writing and networking with others. I was kind of staggered by one panelist mentioning that she had been working on her novel for fifteen years (but hey, she has an agent and I don't so what should we conclude from this?). The panelists seemed to be less oriented toward the practical side of writing, but I was among a number of people from the audience who shared tips about promoting and networking using the internet (it all comes back to karma! help other people and they will help you, too. Focus only on me-me-me and no one will care).

Thanks to Megha Godambe for the invite!

Publication: Thank you, Facebook. May We Have Another?

My latest column for BitchBuzz on our love/hate relationship with this thing called Facebook. Yes, I am very proud of that picture, which came from an ivy league blog. HA HA HA!

Not a Joke!

Proof copy! Thanks for bringing it down to my office, Gene. There is a least one little fix to be done, but it will be available for purchase within a week (yes, it will be on Amazon)! Hurrah!

Who's a Fool?

Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote
The droghte of Marche hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne,
And smale fowles maken melodye,
That slepen al the night with open ye,
(So priketh hem nature in hir corages:
Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages...

Must be spring! [h/t ThejoeyZone]