I just finished a long run of activity, culminating in Crazy Week - last Monday in Philadelphia, Tuesday going to DC (it sort of does take all day to get there), gave a paper on Wednesday (went more or less ok), Thursday-Saturday helping a friend with her project in DC, Sunday - getting up at 5am to come back to NYC. Monday - back to work. All the while editing galley proofs of a friend's soon-to-be published book celebrating 20 years of publishing a martial arts journal (full disclosure - I have an article in it, too).
Philly was great -we did a swordsmanship demo/lecture/hands-on workshop for a kids' camp. The feedback was great - it's nice that every now and then someone likes seeing what we do. I heard that one of the kids even wrote a haiku ode to his sword - now that's tradition! I mean, of all the weird things that I've done, I've never done that.
The DC experience was more of a mixed bag. It was nice to see some people I had not seen in awhile, and some of the sessions were good at midweek. Good discussions on Chinese "Classical Dance" (or lack thereof) and my own paper about kenbu. Stuff like that always stirs the brain, which is a good thing, because my brain frequently does not get the kind of workout I think it deserves. The very best part was that James Brandon, a towering figure in the study of Japanese theatre, gave a lecture, and all of the scholars sat there like undergrads with their notebooks and pens. And of course, one of the (planned) conclusions he addressed was: what makes kabuki? My response to that question may make it here, or somewhere else, in the near future.
What did I learn in DC? A few things: (1) No one really likes shingeki (look it up). (2) The Shochiku company really did perform short propagandistic "democracy" plays during the US occupation at the "suggestion" of the various cultural review boards (that they showed them from around 1895-1945 on some level or other favoring the other side should go without saying). Thanks, as always, Dr. Brandon! (3) Don't listen to Jonah (you know who you are!). (4) Get my own room again for conferences - it is worth the money (no offense guys, but I am really a loner). (5) To avoid aggravation, make sure the next time I help someone with a project that it somehow furthers some of my own projects, not just creating an opportunity to review galleys for someone else's book at the same time. (6) You really can beat beach traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike if you lose enough sleep. There's probably other stuff but I will have to remember it later.
I am burnt out and this post is not as polished as some of the other ones - editing, writing my own paper, writing the book contribution, creating my powerpoint presentation (the best part), all in the past month or so. Obviously I have the writing bug today, but am too tired to do anything coherent (not that today should be all that different). Gak.
I just finished the galleys today and sent them off. I think the book will be a smash, inasmuch as books of that sort ever are. More about that later. More about a bunch of stuff later.
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