conferencing
Sometimes the joy is all about the goofy meeting of minds, perched on seat edge listening with all ears attuned to someone elses' theories about life the universe and everything.
In other words, I was a geek and attended a couple of panels at a Taiwan conference today.
First panel was on literature and film in Taiwan - the first panelist happened to be a PhD candidate from USC! So yay new alma matter. It made me sit up and pay close attention, though the best part was that she was presenting one of the chapters of her dissertation and didn't bother to read from her paper but instead just talked over her salient points, which is far more egaging and fun than listening to people stumble over words meant to be read, not said. The english language is a weird one.
Anyway, I now have another film I should probably watch (though sadly netflix doesn't actually have it available - stupid hollywood hegemony or something) and know that Cape No. 7 , for all of it's pop status as a cute little rom com with lots of musicians in it, is a quasi-national allegory hinting at the birth of a community and nation, but also that it has a circular temporality where the twin love stories are the origin of one another - so trajectory of the one informs the other while they're being displayed onscreen in contiguous time. It's ahistorial in the sense that it doesn't dig into or revisit history, the originary moment is precisely the moment of separation and homecoming.
See, when I put it that way, don't you want to see it too?
And this afternoon I learned about the global lingua franca (of course, sadly it's English, which is just a creuel thing to do to the world really) is disseminated in teaching materials in Taiwan that are both glocalized and interested in confirming/conveying stereotypes of homogeneous white people (because, of course, learning another language is not ever just about learning how to speak and write, but always about learning the culture as well...)
And there was another presentation on Unicode and Chinese language that I'm too tired to explain properly that was absolutely fascinating and had one of the best speakers I've listened to in a long time.
Oh, yeah, and of course because it's a conference and people from out of town are going to expect it, dinner was BBQ. But at least it was decent BBQ.
The best part about the whole thing was the holiday atmosphere - everyone was chatty and sweet and having a good time. OH, and Mulhollando-san, if you're reading this, I met a friend of yours!! And I bonded with the woman who gave the talk from USC so I actually got to ask her some of my financial questions - and had on the whole a totally intellectually stimulating day.
The roofers seem like they're done with the re-roofing of our house, but of course they screwed up the alignment of the satelite dish when they put it back on the roof so we have no TV (the horror!). After two days of incessant pounding going on over head I'm glad they're done and everyone around here is a little tired and a little on edge and ready to drop.
Oh weekend. I am pleased you're here. Perhaps there will be graphicing.
In other words, I was a geek and attended a couple of panels at a Taiwan conference today.
First panel was on literature and film in Taiwan - the first panelist happened to be a PhD candidate from USC! So yay new alma matter. It made me sit up and pay close attention, though the best part was that she was presenting one of the chapters of her dissertation and didn't bother to read from her paper but instead just talked over her salient points, which is far more egaging and fun than listening to people stumble over words meant to be read, not said. The english language is a weird one.
Anyway, I now have another film I should probably watch (though sadly netflix doesn't actually have it available - stupid hollywood hegemony or something) and know that Cape No. 7 , for all of it's pop status as a cute little rom com with lots of musicians in it, is a quasi-national allegory hinting at the birth of a community and nation, but also that it has a circular temporality where the twin love stories are the origin of one another - so trajectory of the one informs the other while they're being displayed onscreen in contiguous time. It's ahistorial in the sense that it doesn't dig into or revisit history, the originary moment is precisely the moment of separation and homecoming.
See, when I put it that way, don't you want to see it too?
And this afternoon I learned about the global lingua franca (of course, sadly it's English, which is just a creuel thing to do to the world really) is disseminated in teaching materials in Taiwan that are both glocalized and interested in confirming/conveying stereotypes of homogeneous white people (because, of course, learning another language is not ever just about learning how to speak and write, but always about learning the culture as well...)
And there was another presentation on Unicode and Chinese language that I'm too tired to explain properly that was absolutely fascinating and had one of the best speakers I've listened to in a long time.
Oh, yeah, and of course because it's a conference and people from out of town are going to expect it, dinner was BBQ. But at least it was decent BBQ.
The best part about the whole thing was the holiday atmosphere - everyone was chatty and sweet and having a good time. OH, and Mulhollando-san, if you're reading this, I met a friend of yours!! And I bonded with the woman who gave the talk from USC so I actually got to ask her some of my financial questions - and had on the whole a totally intellectually stimulating day.
The roofers seem like they're done with the re-roofing of our house, but of course they screwed up the alignment of the satelite dish when they put it back on the roof so we have no TV (the horror!). After two days of incessant pounding going on over head I'm glad they're done and everyone around here is a little tired and a little on edge and ready to drop.
Oh weekend. I am pleased you're here. Perhaps there will be graphicing.