I'm reading You Are One of Them right now, and today I came across this description of the narrator's college experience:

Midmorning lectures in imposing Gothic buildings, afternoon seminars in quaint clapboard houses, late nights in the library, where friends were never more than a few carrels away and could be easily coerced into coffee breaks. It was a picturesque campus on a hill, and even in winter, with several feet of New England's snow on the ground, the place seemed to be bathed in warm light. It was a nostalgia factory; we were being trained to be sentimental about the school so that we'd respond to their relentless appeals for money after we left.

Now, I know many small liberal arts colleges are more similar than their advertising would like you to believe, but still, something about that passage was awfully familiar. Even with the half-hearted attempt to disguise the location (New England, hah), I was getting not so much an imagined image as a memory...

Oh, look, Elliott Holt is a Kenyon alum. No one is surprised.

P.S. While I was looking up the lyrics to "Kokosing Farewell," I came across Kenyon's new 404 page. Bwahahahaha.

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THE PINK MONSTER LIVES.

(Context, for those of you left scratching your heads. Also relevant.)

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Neutrinos break the speed of light! Obviously this means we're only a few years away from Starfleet, yes?

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I found several recent articles about the movie Liberal Arts: filming at Kenyon, interview with Josh Radnor, interview with Allison Janney.

The film still sounds awful--the female lead is named Zibby, which I think tells you everything you need to know about it, though IMDB also has a summary--but apparently almost all of it was filmed on campus. I have to watch when it comes out! Maybe with the sound off.

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Seal says hi.

Creepiest ice cream truck ever. Seriously, that should turn up in a horror movie some day.

Kenyon's Special Collections has put up an impressive amount of photos on Flickr. There are several duplicates, and several that share no obvious connection to Kenyon, but most of them are very cool, especially the ones from before WWII. (Uh, well, they're probably not as cool for people who didn't go there. But fellow alums, you should check them out!)

( Some of my favoritesCollapse )

Odd fact: The account is Flickr-friends with Wil Wheaton, of all people. Huh.

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Query: Since three is sacred to the Minbari, does that mean they really, really like waltzes? (Someone should write that fic.)

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Ideas for two vids are poking me, but they would require rewatches of the entire runs of BSG and the X-Files. Since both are on Netflix Instant, this is in theory not completely impractical, as I could figure out which episodes I need clips from and then just have those discs sent to me to rip from, but that is a LOT of TV, even if I just do one of the vids.

The first is a Six- and Baltar-centric BSG vid to "Calling," by Leona Naess. I think of it as a Six-and-Baltar vid largely because of the second half of the chorus, because both could be such unpredictable characters at times. (Also, of course, there's the line about angels, and, well...) I can see it in my head; in addition to maybe fading to white with each transition in the second half of the chorus, I would make sharp cuts to highlight the emphasized beats that come right before the last syllable of each line of the chorus's first half, and I think it would look really cool.

The second is a Scully vid to Hem's "Leave Me Here," because she is really just so tragic sometimes, and has kind of a horrible life, but remains still so very, very strong. I can't see it as well in my mind as I can the first one, but I think it could be pretty. It's just that there are NINE SEASONS of the show to wade through if I ever make the vid.

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Someone has written CSI fic set...at my undergraduate institution. I...um. Somehow, these two things just do not co-exist in my head. I've never watched CSI, but I'm reading these fics where the characters are running along the Gap Trail and see the old steam engine, or go to the butterfly garden at the BFEC and then haul themselves up the hill to campus to visit the market, and my head is kind of exploding. I've read, like, X-Files fic where Moose & Squirrel come to Nashville and not had this kind of reaction. I think here it's perhaps because Gambier and Kenyon are so small and off the beaten path that it's hard to imagine people who are not me and my friends there. Lower Broad or Centennial Park--eh, hundreds of thousands of people pass through there every year. It's easy to see fandom characters there. Middle Path, NOT SO MUCH.

(Also, oh god, I just did a search at FFN, and there are like five Twilight fics set there. I don't even want to know.)

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And in non-fandom-but-related-to-that-last-bit things: Allison Janney and Josh Radnor, both Kenyon alumni, are starring in a movie about a liberal arts college, to be filmed at Kenyon. The plot sounds like unwatchable hipster tripe of the highest order, but hell. I think I have to Netflix this when it comes out.

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For those of you just joining, I went to my college class's five-year reunion this weekend. It was epic, in the way that only a tiny liberal arts college (my class = ~400 people, 170ish of whom were back for the reunion) in a tiny town (full-time residents = ~600ish; "town" is one street in the middle of campus with roughly eight places of business) in the middle of nowhere in Ohio (a dorm on campus with nine stories is the tallest building in Knox County) can be epic. In other words, amazingly so.

Note the first: This will be 75% nostalgia for fellow Kenyon grads, and 25% pretty pictures and explanations for everyone else. Just FYI. But there's a reason Forbes named it one of the world's ten most beautiful college campuses, so, you know, pretties!¹

Note the second: All thumbnails are linked to the original photos, which are some 5-6MB rather than the usual scaled-down versions, in case anyone who was there wanted to download them for some purpose that required the big original.



( Image-heavy, obviously. Also, ten pages long in Word.Collapse )

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I have returned from the reunion, and IT WAS GLORIOUS. Those of you who couldn't attend missed out, and we missed you. :(

However, a full report, with pictures and video, shall come along tonight or tomorrow. Short version to whet your appetites: Sergei, Chamber Singers, monstrosities on Middle Path, singing on the Rosse Steps, servery madness, ballroom dancing, a conspicuous absence of Jesse (BOOOOO), an excellent absence of cicadas (YAAAAAAY), pretty trees, and ice cream. Plus much more! Stay tuned.

I'll be skimming my flist, so if there's something I should comment on but I don't in the next twenty-four hours, please do poke me.

P.S. to Ellen: FLAILFLAILFLAILFLAILFLAIL. How much TV have you watched this weekend?

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Kenyon-era Bill Watterson art!

Awww, the BFEC barn! Gates of Hell! Peirce! (Something very like) my freshman year dorm room, down to the giant built-in bookshelf and the ugly tile! (Though he's missing the middle panel in the window.) I'm pretty sure the teacher here is Martin Garhart, who I met once during the semester I took an art class, and apparently still remember, why?

And my favorite, because really, it is SO TRUE: Caples!

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So I'm searching through databases for articles on Eavan Boland, and what do I find but one by my Irish Lit professor at Kenyon, on the VERY SAME TOPIC as my thesis! (Well, actually, I'm sort of writing on the reverse side of the coin as her article; from what I've skimmed so far, the article deals with deconstruction, and I'm dealing with construction. Of a sort, anyway. I promise that sentence made sense in my head.)

AWESOME.

(Must e-mail her. Must, must, must.)

Other awesome things include Pamela, which is cracking me up. It's like a farce of the typical Gothic novel, but before the Gothic novel was even invented! Pamela is an idiot, but a hilarious and even sympathetic one.

I'm about halfway through now. I assume Pamela and her master are going to get married at some point, given the anvils Richardson's been dropping about Pamela still finding him attractive even after he's kidnapped her and attempted to seduce her umpteen times, and the part where the master is dropping the "m" word with increasing frequency...

Long but productive day today. I met with the managing editor of the journal I'll be working for next year, and in addition to more prosaic things, like the job duties, I found out that they always try to let the editorial assistant publish a book review in their last issue, so I'll get a publication credit out of this gig in addition to the class release in the spring. Woot!

My thesis director also invited me and a doctoral student working on Irish poetry to have lunch with today's speaker, David Caplan, who was both informative and full of entertaining stories. We both came away with some more names and titles to add to our lists of sources for our respective thesis and dissertation. His lecture was cool too; it was on Anthony Hecht, a Kenyon grad of the '40s. Caplan teaches at Ohio Wesleyan, so we got to chat about Kenyon for a while too.

And now I am reading articles on The Odd Women, because soon I will be writing a paper on it. Everything will be ooooooover on April 29th. Hurray.

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Name a fandom and I'll inform you as to my:

One True Pairing Ship
Cannon Ship
"If this happens I'll stab my eyes out with a spork" ship
"You are one sick bastard" ship
"I dabble a little" ship
"It's like a car crash" ship
"Tickles my fancy but not sold just yet" ship
"Makes no cannon sense but why the hell not" ship
"Everyone else loves it but I just don't feel it" ship

Hmmm. Pictures of the renovations to Peirce are up. I think I like what they did to the former courtyard (it is the courtyard area, right?) by roofing it over and putting in comfy chairs, but am very "meh" leaning towards "YOU RUINED IT!!!" about Upper Dempsey. It doesn't complement the Great Hall as well as it used to. The new chandeliers are atrocious.

The new servery looks nice, though. And HUGE. Yay for not being all crowded.

don't want to write this paper don't want to write this paper don't want to write this paper

Heh. I'm probably annoying my neighbors by chortling merrily at the second Adrian Mole book. I just finished it, and have now realized there are four more waiting for my consumption! Must investigate at the library.

Speaking of libraries, I have a carrel! Alas, it is just a desk and shelf, rather than a locked room, and I'm sharing it with someone else from my program, but at least when the books for papers get to be overwhelming, I can check some of them out to the carrel and leave them there rather than humping them back to my apartment.

Speaking of dragging things back to my apartment, I got the Writing Center hours I wanted, which means that I don't have to be on campus at all on Tues/Thurs. HOORAY. Of course, I still have to get up at 6:30 on MWF for the 8 AM 101 class, so I won't really be able to sleep in on TR and stay sane, but I'm a big fan of only having to be there three days a week. Lots of uninterrupted time for errands and studying and cleaning. (I have turned into SUCH a clean freak, y'all. It's mostly due to my fear and loathing of roaches, yes,* but still. I think being entirely responsible for my living space has galvanized me into making sure it looks nice. I bought a vase and some pretty fake flowers today to go on my table. I AM TOTALLY MARTHA STEWART NOW.)

Speakin of nothing else, did you know Kenyon has an iTunes U site? With ancient records from the archives on it? ...Dammit, now I have "The Thrill" stuck in my head. But ah, memories.


* No dish stays unwashed for longer than an hour. The trash goes out every night without fail. I bleached my entire bathroom and much of the kitchen last week, and will probably get a supply of boric acid just in case. I had my father caulk up every tiny hole anywhere, and put out a ton of those Combat roach bait/poison thingies. NO BUGS HERE.

Yay Chamber Singers! They were excellent, as always. Too bad the audience was so painfully small (~40 people). I got to see Helle, Adele, and Michele for a few minutes after the concert, which was great, and of course there were Doc and Kay there as well. Aw, Kenyon! I miss you!

And now I have "Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel" stuck in my head. Argh, Moses Hogan. Although that's one of the better Hogan pieces I've heard. (And I know I've heard it before, done by a school choir. Did CS do it our freshman year, maybe?) They also did a piece of Lauridsen's Les Chansons des Roses, which--eeeee. Love. My other favorites were a gorgeous Nocturne by a guy with a great name: Adolphus Hailstork, and an interesting choral arrangement of "Hard Times," which I've heard a couple times before as a bluegrass song, thus it being a bit of a shock to hear it this way. This one was so pretty, though, and Julia did an amazing job with the solo.

The obligatory South African songs this year were more low-key and contemplative than usual--definitely unlike Dubula--but they worked.

If any of y'all want the full program, I've still got a copy and can type it up for you.

Answers to everyone's "top five" questions herein! Wow, you guys asked a lot of questions. Thanks! (You can still ask me my top five anything, and I'll ask you another top five question back.)

Um, these aren't in any sort of hierarchy. Each member of a top five got slotted in as I thought of it, not because it's number one or four or whatever. They're sort of top five groups rather than lists.

vallentine asked about my ( Top Five Places to Visit/Travel ToCollapse )

serendipityxxi asked about my ( Top Five Characters and WhyCollapse )

She also asked about my ( Top Five Pet PeevesCollapse )

sleepingcbw asked about my ( Top Five Poems in the English Language (excluding epics)Collapse )

wildtiger7 asked about the ( Top Five Books I Most Want to ReadCollapse )

rowdycamels asked about the ( Top Five Things I Want to Do in the Next Five YearsCollapse )

aervir asked about the ( Top Five Holidays I've Been OnCollapse )

She also asked about my ( Top Five Items of ClothingCollapse )

weyoun21 asked about my ( Top Five Things to Do on a Rainy DayCollapse )

By the by, the Chamber Singers are performing in town tonight! I am definitely putting in an appearance, and will have a full report when I return. :)

Hey, Kenyon put up the new admissions videos. (And then e-mailed all us alums about it so we could go and see if we were in them, naturally.) Wow, Community Choir sounds...not good. Of course, they did film us doing the Evil Handel, and it was, like, September, so I suppose that's to be expected. And I notice that the cameraman got an unflattering closeup of my nose and mouth from the side, despite me trying to lean back and out of the way. Eeeek. Ellen, they caught you going down Middle Path. I'm pretty sure it's you, anyway. Allyson, you and Jon can be seen in the audience for the Stairwells at one point.

And Doc! Doc is in there, being oh-so Docish and goofy! I miss Doc. :( (But the Chamber Singers are coming to Nashville on their tour in March! I must go see them. I must find out where and when they'll be here...)

Nice that they managed to get Allison Janney doing a voiceover on the last video. Spiffy.

Aw, Kenyon. Why did we graduate, again?

BTW, laserhead, I got your card the other day. SUCH A CUTE KITTY!!! Sorry, I'll lay off the capslock now. But it was adorable. Thank you. :)

Hey, my yearbook got here today!

It's quite nice. I love that it's all in color, and the binding/cover is very pretty. I'm a bit nonplussed by the large amount of attention given to sports and complete lack of anything relating to say, choir or orchestra, but probably they just had access to more/better quality pictures of the athletic teams. The editors used this picture that I took at the Activites Fair for the "Student Organizations" title page. Seeing it printed that large made me feel a bit embarrassed that I hadn't framed it quite correctly (part of Valerie's skirt is out of the picture, although to be fair, I was trying to get the fire truck in there as well, so), but other than that, I of course think it looks great. ;)

I had hoped they would use more of my campus shots, but the ones they did use are nice nonetheless. I think the small photo of the Great Hall from the balcony--or, more accurately, through that miniscule window set in the locked doors that open to the balcony--is mine. It's about the same level of out-of-focus that mine is, anyway.

I love how on the ballroom page, the Pink Dress I'm wearing can't even be accurately represented by the printer they used. Parts of it are light purple, and parts of it are almost reddish. Hahaha. But the team photo at the bottom looks very nice. And I think we had just about everybody who'd paid dues in that picture, which is great.

I have to wonder what went so wrong with the senior English majors photo that they had to use one from the Exeter program instead. (It's the one where the dog was running across in front of us and we were all cracking up, which at least is amusing. Does anyone remember where that was taken? Was it in Ireland somewhere, maybe?) Hmmm. I counted up all the names, because I'd always been curious exactly how many majors we had, and there were 91 listed. (For those who are new, I'll mention that that's out of a senior class of ~400/school of ~1600. Yay for the English department. Highly amusing, particularly compared to, say, the Physics department, which apparently had two '06 majors, if the yearbook is to be believed.)

Oh, and my headshot's in there somewhere, but I'm much more interested in pictures I took being in the book, rather than pictures of me. ;)

Aw, Kenyon. *sniff*

Netflix delivered the Northern Exposure DVD containing episode 1.3, "Soapy Sanderson," to me today. Good times. I love that old man matchmaker and his little scheme to make Fleishman and O'Connell actually like each other, even though he's in the episode for all of five minutes.

Also, it has this line from Maurice, upon going through the country music records Soapy leaves to the radio station: "'She's Acting Single, I'm Drinking Double'? 'I'm the Only Hell My Mamma Ever Raised'? Chris, you play this crap at six o'clock in the morning, you're gonna be looking down so many barrels, you'll think you've landed at an NRA convention. And I'll be leading the pack!" Mwahaha.

Plus, the student filmmakers are said to be from Kenyon! No, really. Because we so have a film department... And Soapy was a professor and "major benefactor"; though whether he would've taught in the Religious Studies or Classics department is a mystery, since he's supposed to have had doctorates in both theology and mythology. I was unaware anyone gave out Ph.Ds in "mythology," but okay...

Anyway, I thought that was rather cool, especially as Cicely is essentially Gambier North. *g* I assume one of the writers must be an alum. (Maybe the phonathon could call them instead of me? At least until I have a steady source of income? I swear, I do actually plan to donate when I have money!)

And the song in my music field is giving me a fic idea relating to this show. A depressing one. Whoops.

Don't ask why, but I was looking at the course catalogue for this year. I found that Klein is currently teaching the "History of the English Language" course that I would have taken during fall semester last year, except that he changed it to a weird course on "Dialects of English," so I switched to Anglo-Saxon. ARRRGGHHHHHHHH, I HATE YOU, KLEIN, I HATE YOU!!!!! (Except I don't really, because you're Klein and I couldn't hate you if I tried, but...ARGH!)

AND Kinzer is offering the Victorian Culture seminar this semester. Which I also wanted to take last year. GAAAAHHH!!! WHY DID I GRADUATE?!?!?

Bah.

( A ballroom quiz with a large, rather ugly pictureCollapse )

*waves at rowdycamels*

Guess who got on the long list for the Booker Prize. Yeah, your favorite guy in the world, Barry Unsworth.

*ducks*

Claire Messud is on there, too. (Didn't she teach poetry when she was at Kenyon? Maybe I'm making things up. And I had no idea she was British. Huh.)

Of all the titles on there, the only one I'd heard of was Sarah Waters's The Night Watch, which I tried to read last month and couldn't get into. Gathering the Water sounds sort of interesting, though.

I just got back from walking the dogs (as is my wont around this time of day), and this time, I was wishing for a jacket. It's chilly out! Well, okay. It's 78F and cloudy and breezy out. Whatever, chilly. Aw, fall's happening again. The leaves started turning a couple weeks ago. And the days are shortening, of course...because Nashville's about 45 minutes west of the line between the Eastern and Central time zones, we get everything early--sunrise, noon, sunset. I'd prefer it the other way around.

How strange to be here for fall, and not at Kenyon. That hasn't happened in a while.¹

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Drive-by fic rec: Grounds for Annulment by SubRosa. Six, Peri, hilarious.


¹ Our little officer trainees had their first ballroom officers' meeting without us on Tuesday! *sniff* They're all grown up now and budgeting for the swing dance! Awwww! *is proud*