I am off to Philadelphia today to make a flying visit to the always stressful conference for the Modern Language Association. Fortunately, this is probably the last time I'll have to go to the conference (at least for the foreseeable future) and I am neither interviewing candidates nor interviewing for jobs, so my personal stress level should be reasonably low (assuming all goes well with my travel plans -- one can never tell). I plan to see friends for dinner, then chair a panel and a brief meeting on Tuesday before I head back to NYC and then dinner with Robert. Wonder if I can squeeze in a visit to the Mutter?I hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend; I actually got a good bit of writing done, which always cheers me. Nothing completed, but a couple of things well along the way. I also watched a number of movies on DVD as well as The Road which I saw with my pal Peg on Tuesday, but haven't had time to write up. I always have too much to do and too little time in which to do it.
Don't forget: there's a new episode up at The Mangrove Legacy, in which Alice chats with a very pleasant ghost. You may notice, too, that there is a new look to the serial which should make it much easier to read (or so the initial feedback suggests).
How many of you have time off this week? What do you plan to do with your leisure?
15 comments:
Squeeze in Mutter if you can! I worked there for 9 months or so, it's so cool. I recommend it to everyone.
Go to the Mutter! Go to the Mutter!
I made a special, and very out-of-my-way trip just to see the Mutter Museum, and dagnabit! It was SOOOO worth it!!
Give my regards to the Soap Lady. :-)
PS The Green Lady clashes with the Mauve.
Oh, yes, I have the Holiday Taint off, saw some movies, reviewed one, working on projects... you know, a relaxing vacation.....have as much fun as possible at the MLA!
Cool beans! Isabel, it was great to join you for Belgian beer and food tonight with Todd. What fun. Hope you didn't have any trouble working your way back home.
Cranky, if I can get up early enough tomorrow, it might happen. :-)
Queen, I hope I'll be seeing you and Cranky Thursday night for the blue moon/New Year's/blood moon festivities.
Did you like "the Road"? I heard it was deeepressing...C'est vrai?
I did not like The Road and hope to write about it at greater length. I didn't find it so much depressing and poorly done, so that none of the characters really engaged me, despite the quality of actors involved. Duvall's cameo really seemed calculated to suggest "Oscar-worthy performance!" but instead seemed stagey showboating.
I will rant anon, when I have my usual keyboard in front of me and not this travel computer.
Read the book, The Road--one giant coincidence after another. Hungry? Oh, no worries, that next corner will have food. No fuel? Not a problem, look, just lying here a can of gasoline! Poorly done all round.
Plus, I wanted to know more about what happened. Very vague as to that, which was probably on purpose, but still. Without knowing that, I couldn't tell if it was at all feesible what they were trying.
Isabel, that is about it in a nutshell (and it ought to have said above not "so much depressing as poorly done").
People said, oh but didn't you find X disturbing? No, not really, and especially not after it was repeated over and over. People become barbaric in hard times: shock! This is not a revelation. Human history shows much worse.
Damn that cheesesteak looks good. Philly is my hometown and I miss it so have one for me. Or at least a butterscotch krimpet.
Have a good time in Philly -- although the cheese in that pic looks surprisingly real. I though authentic Cheesesteaks had to use the synthetic stuff.
As for what I am going to do this week -- I'm preparing for next semester because it's starting very soon.
I loved the book so much, that it masked how much I disliked the movie until I was able to think about it more. Leaving the theater, I didn't think it was terrible, just a bit showy and not as quietly intense as the book; more like they had to try really hard to accomplish with images and actors what the book did with just words. That part that infuriated me was the fact that the thief in the movie was black, and spoke in ebonics, wearing tattered black basketball shoes. Seriously? The ambiguity and lack of descriptors is one of the things that make the book so powerful for me. The blatant racism of the movie, by making the only Black actor play the thief, really got under my skin. I don't know what I was expecting though, the movie never does what the book can! Don't worry Kate, I'm sure I'll have a lot more to say once you post your own review!! I'm glad I wasn't the only one who didn't like it.
I have yet to read a criticism of the book that doesn't read like hypercritical literal-minded nitpicking. Like it or not, nothing about it was poorly done. The fact the always-hungry protagonists occasionally found something to eat is supposed to be a flaw? Please.
I can't comment about the book -- haven't read it, oh Anonymous one. It is certainly one of the many criticisms I'd levy against the movie, however.
"butterscotch krimpet"?!
TastyKake (TM). The northeast has the best packaged cakes, or at least the best alternatives to Grosstest and Little Debris...although the same people own Drake's and Hostess these years, after Hostess bought out the somehow even worse, if PEANUTS-cartoon-sponsoring, Dolly Madison Cakes some years before. I'm guessing TastyKake doesn't make it out to Detroit, much as Drake's doesn't, or didn't, get too much sount of DC and not much west of Penna. Are Entemann's even availble nationally yet? It's a minor shame, to deny the rest of the nation its Devil Dogs and Chocolate Jrs.
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