Some thoughts on grad school
Career plans are certainly on a roll lately. My Manet project is finally behaving itself nicely; talks with Dr. Bari prove inspirational, although she managed to seriously burst my bubble last night. I naively had my sights on applying for an internship in the Spanish curatorial department of the National Gallery. I should have known it was the kind of institution to only accept silver spoon-fed Ivy League elitists and the like. 30k a year to do exactly what I want to do in life seems too good to be true. I just might apply anyway, on principle, but I will settle for letting Dr. Bari talk to some friends at the BMA and the Phillips to see if I can get a summer internship instead.
In the meantime, I'm researching, meeting new people around town and constructing an independent study course for next semester. I want to do a focused study of readings on art theory related to my time period (16-17th century Spain and Italy) while sharpening the arguments in some older papers for future writing samples. Hopefully Dr. Bohrer will take me on. I wouldn't exactly say we've "had our differences" but, well, our dynamic has traditionally been something like this:
FB: blah-blah-blah, blahdedy-blah...
A: --yes, but!
FB: BLAH.blahdedyblahblahBLAH...
A:--OKAY, sOOOoooo...
FB:--BLAHBLAHBLAH!!!
Or in translation, what we're really saying:
FB: You're going to listen to me because I'm SOOOOO fucking smart. Getty likes me--you better like me, too!
A: I know you're smart, but I don't really care about your stuck-up rhetorically challenged post-modernist theoretics!
FB: Now, now, grasshopper, Yogi Berra says the mind is like a delicate flower: it should open itself to all the possibilities around it. Or maybe just me. Right now!
A: You know what, I really like you, but you're an arrogant prick!
FB: Well you're a headstrong little ninny!
A: Fuck you!
FB: Fuck you, too!
If we can convince him to do this project, keeping my temper at bay will probably be my most difficult task. I've never overtly disliked Fred--we just don't grok one another. Being a much wiser grad student, I'm hoping our egos don't brush each other the wrong way this time around. I can truly stand to benefit from his knowledge if I'm going to make it at UMCP or Bryn Mawr.
In the meantime, I'm researching, meeting new people around town and constructing an independent study course for next semester. I want to do a focused study of readings on art theory related to my time period (16-17th century Spain and Italy) while sharpening the arguments in some older papers for future writing samples. Hopefully Dr. Bohrer will take me on. I wouldn't exactly say we've "had our differences" but, well, our dynamic has traditionally been something like this:
FB: blah-blah-blah, blahdedy-blah...
A: --yes, but!
FB: BLAH.blahdedyblahblahBLAH...
A:--OKAY, sOOOoooo...
FB:--BLAHBLAHBLAH!!!
Or in translation, what we're really saying:
FB: You're going to listen to me because I'm SOOOOO fucking smart. Getty likes me--you better like me, too!
A: I know you're smart, but I don't really care about your stuck-up rhetorically challenged post-modernist theoretics!
FB: Now, now, grasshopper, Yogi Berra says the mind is like a delicate flower: it should open itself to all the possibilities around it. Or maybe just me. Right now!
A: You know what, I really like you, but you're an arrogant prick!
FB: Well you're a headstrong little ninny!
A: Fuck you!
FB: Fuck you, too!
If we can convince him to do this project, keeping my temper at bay will probably be my most difficult task. I've never overtly disliked Fred--we just don't grok one another. Being a much wiser grad student, I'm hoping our egos don't brush each other the wrong way this time around. I can truly stand to benefit from his knowledge if I'm going to make it at UMCP or Bryn Mawr.