Well, the new semester starts up this week, and to celebrate, we've pretty much been drinking ourselves silly every night (beer margaritas = awesome; beer margaritas < scotch martinis). Madison, our quiet tranquil little town, is once again home to an infestation of young people, breathing my air and taking up my space on the sidewalks (sidewalk's for regular walkin', not fancy walkin'). I believe the situation was best summed up by the two obviously sketchy middle aged men I saw standing on State Street, one of whom remarked to the other "Well, all the co-eds are back." Yes, sketchy lecherous old guy, they are indeed. (See McJew's blog for further elaboration.)
I personally am looking forward to the new year, as I'm finally going to have a sit-down meeting with my advisor to discuss my dissertation proposal, and hopefully have my conference sometime early this month. And I'm apparently presenting part of a chapter from it in December for the CLC, so I should start writing it sometime in the near future. Plus, I need the structure in my life to counter the eternal ennui of being me.
My lecture this fall looks particularly promising. We're reading a book no one seems to have heard of called Rhapsody, my instructor has yet to give us a syllabus or tell us the theme of the course, and I have to teach The Autobiography of Malcolm X, which will both neuter any type of coherent discussion amongst my freshmen because of its obvious *gasp* problematic racial discussions and simply confuse them because it's a long, sprawling work that clearly is participating in and altering a dominant American tradition, which they won't care two licks about because they aren't familiar at all with that tradition. Oh, and the kicker: we're reading Hawthorne's House of Seven Gables. The title of the course? English 169, Introduction to 20th century American Literature. Yup, Hawthorne. He was in the 20th century, right? Right? Bueller?
Anyway, every semester I try to ask my students at least one pointless question on their "get to know you" survey. Traditionally, this question is "Who would win in a fight, Samuel L. Jackson or Batman?" (See here and here for past breakdowns.) But this year I'm contemplating breaking the pattern and finding a new question. Part of me wants to maintain the "fight" schema, as it provokes hilarious responses, so I need two new people to fight. But I'm hungover and unimaginative, and afraid I already peaked with the Jackson/Batman rumble. Any thoughts from you the readers? Or any other questions you're dying to hear answers to? (Nothing too obvious, either. I'm a huge fan of "What's the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow?", but that and questions of its ilk are a bit overused.)
A few other random notes before signing off:
-Happy Birthday to T. over at SpeakMemory, even if she didn't tell anyone. Drop over and send her a shout out.
-Read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which is as awesome as T. says. Though I still feel more strongly about Everything is Illuminated, even though I recognize Extremely as the better book. (Quantum, you as the fanatic about everything New York should definitely read it.)
-Saw Superbad. Captain Americanist says it best with his recent post "Superbad=Superawesome!" Personal favorite line, "Yeah, they told us about that in health class."
-God the new M.A.s all seem so young. Definitely starting to get that "sketchy older guy at the party" feel that predominated my last year in Evanston, when I wasn't a student but still hung out with them all the time.
-Just noticed L.A. Girl has given me a link on her new and improved blog. My empire expands!
-Last, if you're the one recalling all my books, please stop. I need those to sit on my shelf and not get looked at ever again.
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16 comments:
Your empire expands and yet, you don't have it in your heart to link to me:-(
Would you like to feel younger? If I remember correctly, you graduate from high school after I graduated from college. I'm working on the 'write the conference paper" so that I have a writing sample thing. Very stressful. This is why I am online right now.
Before I forget, here are some first day activities: http://www.icebreakers.ws/
You're not that "sketchy older guy" at parties, you're that "totally awesome dude who's going to do karaoke with me." Huge difference.
Wait, who are you teaching for? Do they know that Philip Larkin's poetry isn't American lit?
Also, I'm so glad you liked ELIC! The "heavy boots" got me right away.
And one last thing. Have you seen Metropolitan? If not, I'm lending it to you.
well, now I'm really glad I linked you what with your love of BSG. it even counteracts your love of Extremely Loud (a book I didn't really enjoy).
I like your Fight question and, while I don't really have a suggestion, I'd like to throw Jason Bourne in there because he would kick anyone's ass. Maybe Bourne vs. the snake in "Anaconda". But I'm sure you can do better than that.
What's Metropolitan? And this person may or may not know that, based on previous reports.
Also, if I wanted to read some Jeeves and Wooster, where's a good place to start?
Alright. I'm lending you Metropolitan. You can watch it, then put it on your list of romantic comedies that are awesome.
As for Jeeves & Wooster, I'd start with Carry On, Jeeves. Carry On, Jeeves starts with the story about Jeeves's arrival, but if you want to go all post-modern and non-teleological, then The Inimitable Jeeves was published first. There are a ton of Jeeves & Wooster books (which are all good), but when you finish those, I'd also recommend the Psmith books (and don't forget Young Men in Spats, which is about the Drones club, I think).
Also good, though not by Wodehouse, is Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat.
I saw this and thought of you...
http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=908
Actually, James Bond vs Jason Bourne might be interesting. Or Alfred vs. Q.
Indiana Jones vs. John McClane?
Seems like a pretty dated match-up, though, even with the sequels coming out.
See, the beauty of the Jackson/Batman debate was the ridiculousness of pitting a comic book hero against an actor. Bourne v. Bond wouldn't lend itself to hilarity so much as technical choices of each strength. So might Jones v. McClane. At the moment, I'm thinking of Darth Vader vs. someone, perhaps Jackie Chan. Any other thoughts on who would be a reputable match for Vader? Or some other equally odd pairing?
True, although Sam Jackson and Jackie Chan are about as comic book-y as people get.
How about Joey Gladstone versus Principal Belding?
Or are your students too young?
I'm kind of at a loss for characters who are well-known to this generation; they were in, like, middle school when my favorite shows starting playing on Nick at Nite.
How about Jackie Chan versus one of the X-men? Or you could go Bruce Willis versus Vader.
I'd pay to see either of those fights.
This "beer margarita" may be the most awesome and dangerous thing I have ever heard of.
Beer margarita:
Take a pitcher, add one can limeade. Fill can back up with tequila. Add tequila to limeade. Fill pitcher with beer. Blend and serve. Repeat. Vomit.
Ok, correction. Beer margarita = one can limeade, one empty limeade canful of tequila, 3 beers, stirred (not blended), served chilled but not with ice in the glass itself. Thanks for the correction from my drunken friends.
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