Alabama Phoenix Festival

Hello, Readers Mine! As I mentioned in an earlier post, Mockingbird and I headed down to Birmingham, Alabama this past weekend to take part in the Whedon Track and to generally geek out at the Alabama Phoenix Festival. It was a fun, exhausting, and inspiring weekend of old friends, new friends, and a plethora of geek flags flying high, and I thought I'd share a little bit about it with you.

The Whedon Track Super-Panel, from left to right: yours truly, K. Dale Koontz, A.J. Wiley, and Paul Smith (Nicole Brunk and Cam Crowder were also in on the fun, but they're not pictured here). This is pretty much what we did all weekend. Photo credit: Pam Smith.

I've written here about the academic conferences I go to fairly regularly, but this was a different kind of event. Alabama Phoenix Festival (APF) is a fan convention, where geekdoms collide and intermingle, and you don't have to cite your sources nearly as much. The Whedon "Track" was basically a series of discussion panels focusing on various aspects of the works of Joss Whedon including war and military representations, faith and religion, women and feminism, and general discussions about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Serenity, and The Avengers. It was a tremendous time, and great fun to share a table with folks who have the same general passion for all things Whedony, but whose areas of expertise were so varied that between all of us, we were able to field most any question from our audiences. And those audiences were gratifyingly large, well-informed, and comprised of devoted, thoughtful fans who are some of the finest people on the planet, and from whom we all gathered some cool new friends.

APF wasn't all Whedon, all the time, though. There was an enormous amount of stuff going on at any given time. I'm not going to list all the folks and fandoms who were there, but I'll tell you about those with whom I was privileged to meet and greet. First up was Mr. Allen Bellman, who worked at Timely/Marvel Comics from 1942 ~ 1951. During World War II, he worked on Captain America Comics, The Sub-Mariner, The Human Torch, Young Allies, and All Winners, to name just a few of the classic Golden Age comics Mr. Bellman had a hand in. I'll put it to you this way: Al Bellman remembers when Stan Lee came to work at Timely - as an office boy. If you have ever enjoyed a comic book, you have folks like Al Bellman to thank for the medium as we know it today. The Golden Age artists and writers literally invented the medium, and there are damn few of them left today. Mr. Bellman is also one of the kindest, humblest, and funniest men it has ever been my pleasure to meet, making it not only an honor, but a true pleasure to have met him - and to get some originals signed!!!!

Bombs Away! by Allen Bellman, limited edition print numbered and signed by the artist.

Next up was another comics superstar, David Michelinie, who's written comics for DC, Marvel, and Valiant Comics since 1975. He is perhaps best known for writing the Iron Man: Demon in a Bottle arc, which dealt with Tony Stark's struggles with alcoholism with a compassionate realism that is unfortunately still rare today, not to mention in 1978 when he actually wrote the story. It is one of the great moments of courageous storytelling in comics, and it was incredibly moving to meet Mr. Michelinie, who also turns out to be a total sweetheart of a guy. Mockingbird got her hardback collection of Demon in a Bottle signed, and we were lucky enough to chat with Mr. Michelinie off and on throughout the weekend.

In an entirely different fandom, we got to meet Oliver and Terry Holler, who have bought an old DeLorean and modified it into an exact replica of the time-travelling vehicle made famous by the Back to the Future films. The car really is just incredible, and has to be seen to be believed, which you can do pretty easily as the Hollers (and their time-machine) tour the country raising money for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. The Hollers are wonderful down to earth, and very funny people, and were one of the highlights of our weekend.

We also ran into an old friend from the academic world, Jennifer C. Garlen, author of Beyond Casablanca: 100 Classic Movies Worth Watching, which, if you love great films, you really should have on your shelf. Jennifer was at APF indulging in her LEGO fandom, including a LEGO Dr. Who-ville complete with custom built Daleks. We also ran into Gil Gerard (Buck Rogers!) and Ernie Hudson (Winston from Ghostbusters!), and I got to sit next to Jeremy Roberts (Kakistos from BtVS!!!) on the Buffy panel!

Finally, there was the exhibition hall, where I spent way to much money on comic books (including some great Bronze Age Our Army at War and Sgt. Rock books), buttons, books, and MST3K episodes, and Mockingbird got herself a very cunning hat! It was a weekend of early mornings, huge breakfasts, late lunch/dinners with friends, and wonderful fun. This was my first con, and I loved it. The organizers brought their A-game, and took extraordinarily good care of us even when they were rapidly spinning 50 other plates at the same time. If you didn't make it this year, plan on going next.

We sure are!

Meth Monday: Poisoning Brock

When the fifth season of Breaking Bad premiered on 15 July last year, I had the great good fortune to be attending the 5th Biennial Slayage Conference on the Whedonverses at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Even better, I was able to watch "Live Free or Die" in the company of both Dale, my co-author on Wanna Cook? The Unofficial Companion Guide to Breaking Bad, and our brilliantly fantastic editor at ECW Press, Jen. Needless to say, the three of us were wound tight and incredibly excited to get to watch it together, and we'd made a party of it by inviting several other people into the room to join us. The downside to all of this is that, between frenzied discussions about the episode between we three BrBa fanatics, and frantic explanations to the poor benighted souls with us who'd never watched the show before, I managed to miss a key bit of information which I finally saw this Saturday when I rewatched the episode for the book: how Brock was poisoned.

The final shot of "Face Off" (4.13) revealing the significance of the plant Walt was so fixated on in "End Times" (4.12).

Okay, so after Gus' computer has been destroyed (and further evidence unintentionally revealed in the process), and Walt is riding high on his new-found sense of control, he goes to visit Saul, to work out a few issues. During the meeting, Saul gives Walt a Ziplock bag containing a single cigarette, which he reveals is Jesse's missing ricin-cig. Along the way Saul notes that his bodyguard Huell had to handle it and risk killing everyone in the office, and he censures Walt because "...you never told me the kid would end up in the hospital!" Subsequently, as Walt backs Saul up against the wall to tell him that "We're done when I say we're done," I began to realize that it isn't so much killing Gus which has put the fear of Walt into ol' Saul, but Walt's willingness to risk a child's life to get what he wants.

So, what happened? How did Saul poison Brock and how did Huell wind up with Jesse's deadly smoke? Here's how I think things went:

Back in "Hermanos" (4.08), we see Saul delivering money from Jesse to Andrea and Brock after they've moved into a new house in a nice neighborhood. Saul talks easily and freely to Brock about school and girls, and Brock seems perfectly comfortable with him. Further, Saul's cash deliveries are apparently a regular thing. So, in "End Times," Walt gets the idea to use the lily of the valley plant he has by his pool to make a poison which will threaten, but hopefully not kill, and has Saul to give it to Brock. Judging by their relationship in "Hermanos," Brock probably wouldn't hesitate to take candy from Saul, and Andrea wouldn't hesitate to let him. At the same time, Walt tells his criminal lawyer about Jesse's ricin cigarette. In the same episode, Jesse receives a sequence of progressively frantic calls from Saul to come to his office, and when he does, he is immediately searched by Huell, who switches out Jesse's pack of cigarettes with the ricin in it for one without. The Next morning, Brock gets sick.

How dangerous is lily of the valley, and how depraved was Walt's use of the plant to poison Brock? Well, Readers Mine, here's a teeny sample of one of the extras you'll get in Wanna Cook? which pretty much sums it up:

"...Every single part of the plant – the stems, the flowers, the berries, and the leaves – are extremely toxic. Ingesting lily of the valley can result in blurred vision, skin rashes, headaches, vomiting, disorientation and sudden alterations in heart rhythm. Treatment involves breathing support, IV fluids, and possibly the insertion of a temporary pacemaker to regulate your heart rhythms. And you could still die.

            And Walt knew all of that."

Keep in mind that Walt was estimating a dosage amount that would make Brock seriously ill without killing him, all based upon only a couple of quick sights of the boy. In all likelihood  Brock actually dying would have served Walt's purposes just as well, if not better than a serious illness. The whole point of the exercise was to manipulate Jesse into helping Walt kill Gus, after all. Brock was just a means to that end. Walt's darkness has now consumed his heart completely.

That's it for this week's Meth Monday! Tune in next Monday for more ramblings on the best show on TV, and until then, you can get the latest BrBa news and notes by following me on the various social networks linked up there right below that creepy guy with the purple cephalopod on his noggin'. See you soon.

Meth Monday No. 12: the Origin of Wanna Cook?, or How I Wound Up writing a Book About Breaking Bad

Good morning, Readers Mine, and welcome to another Meth Monday here at Solomon Mao's! This week I thought I might do something a little different and use this space to tell you how I ended up co-authoring a book on Breaking Bad. It's called Wanna Cook? The Unofficial Companion Guide to Breaking Bad and it's being published by ECW Press in the Spring of 2014. Or have I mentioned that already? Anyway, my co-author, K. Dale Koontz, already has an academic monograph to her credit, so this isn't her first time at the rodeo, but it is mine, and I thought one or two of you might be interested in how that came about.

Breaking Bad fan art by Ian Glaubinger

It all began when Dale started letting me tag along to the popular culture and Joss Whedon conferences she was regularly presenting papers at, and in the process introduced me to a group of incredibly smart, fun, funny, and accomplished scholars who were also into pop culture, Whedon, and TV scholarship. Up until this point I had no idea that I could combine some of the things I love and am passionate about with rigorous scholarship and actually do something I love as my work. This was a pretty exciting and important discovery.

For full disclosure, at the time all of this started I was 37 and had just gone back to college after finally getting some things figured out in my life (I am, Readers Mine, a slow learner at times), so while I was new to  the world of academia, I also had some miles on me, and during the previous 25 years or so I had almost always been writing. Bad poetry, stories that started but never finished, angry poetry, editorial essays, a self-indulgent ream of paper I called a novel, and even some pretty fair blank verse. The point of telling you all of that is to emphasize that, despite never really having done anything with it, I had been writing pretty constantly and consistently for much of my life, and I have always (and still do) read voraciously. In other words, I had accidentally created the basic structure of my own voice as a writer. That turns out to be important.

So, after going to a couple of Popular Culture/American Culture Associations (PCAS) in the South conferences, meeting people, and hearing some amazing papers, I had an idea that no one seemed to have looked at yet. I wrote a piece called "'We Just Declared War': Buffy as General" and presented it at the 4th Biennial Slayage Conference on the Whedonverses in 2010. Later, the full paper was published in Watcher Junior: the Undergraduate Journal of Whedon Studies, and I was over the moon. So I kept writing, kept presenting, and kept going to school. I like to think I've built a reputation for doing quality work on time, and have a speaking style that generally keeps my audience interested. I also can't emphasize enough the importance of sticking my hand out and asking for guidance and mentorship from the scholars and friends around me. Rhonda V. Wilcox encouraged me to publish my Buffy piece. David Lavery mentored me in television studies. David Kociemba at Watcher Junior gently guided me through the review and revision process of academic publishing. Oddly, they were all eager to help. All I had to do was ask. Who knew?

So, along the way, I met Nikki Stafford, another scary-smart scholar who is also the ultimate companion guide writer, an editor at ECW, a geek's geek, nerd's nerd, and more fun in 5'5" than should be legal. This was around the time of Breaking Bad's third season in 2011, and she was a fan like I was. She heard that I was presenting a paper on Lonnie Athens' theory of violentization in regards to emotional realism in Breaking Bad and asked me to send her a copy. I did, and never heard from her again. Until six months or so later at the 2011 PCAS Conference in New Orleans, when she blew me away and left me walking about 12" off the floor by practically gushing  about how much she liked my paper. She also seemed to really enjoy my presentation at that conference on Samuel Colt and Supernatural. After the conference, I struck up an e-mail correspondence with her. (Turns out we both like to write LONG chatty e-mails [and blog posts, apparently]). In one of her letters one day, she broadly hinted that I ought to write an episode guide on something. With everything going on school-and-life-wise (Dale and I married in 2010), I wasn't too sure about taking on a book project all by my lonesome, and Dale was every bit the Breaking Bad fan I was, her style was also adored by Nikki (and most everyone else who's ever met her), and Nikki was really excited about the prospect of both of us working on a guide, so Dale and I expanded our partnership into a whole new area, and it's worked out beautifully.

All of that sounds like happenstance and good luck and I'll be the very first to admit that Fortune has favored me, but there's also a good bit of hard work and discipline there (remember the "quality work on time" bit?) The scholars who helped me are not only kind people, but produce brilliant works of rigorous scholarship, expect nothing less from me, and also expect me to get better, so I can help mentor the folks who come after me. All of this is incredible fun, but it is also an incredible amount of work. Often it doesn't feel that way because of the whole passion-work combination thing, but it is. At the end of the day though, I get to do something I love, and to call myself a professional writer and scholar. And that ain't bad.

That's it for this week! Tune in next Monday when I promise to look at something beyond myself, and in the meantime, check me out of Facebook and Twitter for all the latest BrBa news that crosses my screen. Until then, be well.

Meth Monday No. 11: The Academy Breaks Bad

Hello there, Readers Mine! I know, I'm late again this week, but once again I plead graduate school. The couple of days before and after a conference always seem to be really busy, but what needed to get done today is done, and it's time to play a bit.

Fan art by Paul Flanders

Speaking of conferences, you might be interested to know that the one I just got back from was the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association in the South, held this year in Nashville, Tennessee, at the incredible Hutton Hotel. Seriously, I have never stayed in a hotel with such exquisite customer service. We were gypsies in the palace, for sure, but boy what a palace! Anyway, we'd driven half-way across Tennessee in order to present Friday morning in a panel devoted to Breaking Bad. Unlike this blog, or even Wanna Cook? PCAS is a full-on academic conference, and so were the papers.

Dr. David Lavery of MTSU chaired the panel, and gave a presentation on "Vince Gilligan, Breaking Bad, and Television Creativity. When it comes to the critical study of television, David's name pretty much heads the list, and his work has been instrumental is establishing television studies as a vibrant, growing field of scholarship. In his presentation (which I unfortunately missed half of in an ultimately vain attempt to fix some of the tech issues the panel was facing) David looked back over Gilligan's career in television to find the roots not only of Breaking Bad, but of Gilligan's own inimitable creative style. Focusing on some similarities in his work on The X-Files, David demonstrated that Gilligan's latest success was the product of a long process of dues paying, and continuous creative work.

Next up was Trevecca Nazarine University's Dr. Jeffery D. Frame with "Walt's Wake: Chemical Disincorporation and the Break Down of Breaking Bad's Secondary Characters." Jeff used Walt's technical term for dissolving bodies in acid as a bridge to looking at the ways in which Walt destroys so many of those he comes into contact with after he has decided to "break bad." Examining what might be called the collateral damage, Jeff looked at how Walt's actions corrode his family, his enemies, and even true random innocents through various direct or indirect chain reactions. Jeff also referred to Walt as the agent and Jesse as reagent/reactant, and framing which I think is just brilliant. I'll have to ask him if I can use it.

Then came yours truly, with "Buying the House: Place in Breaking Bad," where I used humanist geographic theory to examine the ways in which Jesse's house at 9809 Margo St changes throughout the series, and how those changes are projections of Jesse's own psychological state as he moves through incredible - and often incredibly painful - transformations of his character. This evolution, which the audience watches, imbues Jesse's house with indelible history and memories that reach out beyond the narrative universe and into the viewers' and thus makes the house a place with significant meaning for both Jesse's character and we who travel along with him for 8 - 13 weeks a year.

The panel was closed with true brilliance by my wonderful partner and co-author, K. Dale Koontz, of Cleveland Community College, with "Pregnant Pauses: The Uses of Nonverbal Communication in Breaking Bad." To set the mood, she began by "ding-ing" a bell like the one attached to Hector "Tio" Salamanca's wheelchair, which go the audience ready for more. From Marie's penchant for purple, to the foreshadowing "bell of doom," to Gus's stillness, to deadly car horns, to the Cousins' creepy crawling to the shrine of Santa Muerte; Dale showed us that the words we hear are only part, and not even the major part, of how information is communicated to us in Breaking Bad, what's not said, but seen; not articulated, but heard, sometimes tells us more than anything else, and more than we realize.

Needless to say, and gratifying to report, the panel was packed and all of our papers very well received. The rest of the conference was spent in leaping from panel to panel to try and hear at least most of the presentations we wanted to, and catching up with old and very dear friends from across the country, a process which included a walking ghost tour of downtown Nashville, and one hilarious night spent with 10 friends packed into our hotel room watching Joss Whedon's Avengers with the English subtitles on and the snark in full bloom. The kids on the Satellite of Love would have been proud.

That's it for this week, Readers Mine. Be sure to head over to Dale's Unfettered Brilliance this Wednesday for "Walter White Wednesday," and in the meanwhile, look us up on the social media and whatnot - we'll keep you in the loop of all the Breaking Bad news.

Meth Monday Delayed

Hey Readers Mine! I just wanted to let you know that this week's Meth Monday will be posted today, just not this morning. My co-author, K. Dale Koontz, and I are headed to Nashville Tennessee to present papers on Breaking Bad at the Popular Culture/American Culture Associations in the South Conference, and that means there's a pile of stuff to get done before we hit the road Wednesday. Therefore, Look for Meth Monday late this evening (EST), after I've gotten my head above water a bit. In the meantime, here's a picture:

Aaron Paul celebrating his second Emmy win for Breaking Bad last night!

General News and Something to Remember

Well Readers Mine, it's been a couple weeks again, but they've been busy ones, and I must warn you that today is not the day when you'll see a substantive new post here, but expect a new Book O' the Fortnight by week's end.


So what's been going on? Well, last week, Mockingbird and I celebrated our birthday (we have the same one, you see. Different years, but the same day) with a series of dinners, many cool presents, and by sleeping in until 11 and enjoying the extra snuggle-time. Meanwhile, school has cranked back up for both of us, me on one side of the desk, and she on the other, which also means the commuter marriage has resumed, and I am once again feeling the growing suspicion that my real permanent address is Interstate 85. So it's been the usual round of quizzes, exams, assigned readings, short papers, figuring out topics for long papers, etc, but this is the last semester I'll be facing those particular tasks -- at least in an undergraduate setting. Graduate school applications are all out and I should start hearing from a couple of the schools as early as the end of this month. (Crossed fingers, prayers, and good vibes are all welcomed and encouraged!)

The Avengers coming May 4, 2012

Of course, amongst all of this normal stuff is work on Wanna Cook? The Unofficial Guide to Breaking Bad, which is proceeding well, but in the re-watching and note-taking phase is somewhat time-intensive (as I expect the writing will be as well). Still, so far the project is a lot of fun and my co-author and I are having a blast analyzing and critiquing the episodes over the phone almost nightly. I also have the paper for the Fifth Biennial International Slayage Conference on the Whedonverses coming up in Vancouver in July, for which I have, for the first time ever, applied for a passport. And finally, just yesterday I was presented with an offer that I couldn't refuse in the opportunity to write a brief essay about The Avengers, directed by Joss Whedon, for the forthcoming The Essential Whedon Reader from Syracuse University Press. So many incredible opportunities have come my way this year! But the plate, Readers Mine! The plate, she is very full!

Between school deadlines and writing deadlines, I expect to be something of a rapidly typing recluse from mid-April to mid-July, in which time all of the various deadlines fall. It is doable, but you can see that I'm going to be a bit busy in the coming months. (By the way, if anyone ever tells you that writing is not really working, politely take them out back and hit them in the head with a shovel, because they are obviously insane and therefore likely a danger to themselves and others.)

Here's the thing, though: I am going to be incredibly busy doing something that I love and that I have wanted to do since I was 10! I got sidetracked for several years along the way, but I'm here now, and finally following Joseph Campbell's incredibly sensible advice: "Follow your bliss." Not to mention that I'm doing a good chunk of it in the company of an incredible woman and partner (who also happens to be the love of my life) who feels exactly the same way.

When things get a bit overwhelming, it is good to remember this last part -- and to give thanks.

Thank you.

Catching Up A Bit

Okay, it’s been more than a while since I’ve posted here and I’m sorry for that, but to be fair I did warn you that this semester the blog might get few and far between. Fear not, though, I’m still kicking!

In NOLA, plotting a bit of the ol' ultraviolence.

To briefly catch up, the PCAS conference in New Orleans was an absolute blast, and Mock’ and I managed to eat our way through the French Quarter with some fantastically smart, fun, and funny friends whom we see far too rarely. Our presentations went off well, and we enjoyed a nice long weekend together away from all of the usual routines. I’m not sure what it says about us that having someone come into the room and make the bed while we’re gone, and replace all of the towels we’ve thrown into the bathroom floor with freshly laundered ones feels like luxury bordering on decadence, but it does, and we enjoyed every minute of it. For more details, head on over to Mockingbird’s professional blog, Unfettered Brilliance, for her NOLA wrap-up as well as a look at the ongoing Great Buffy Rewatch and her Intro to Film class.

In school news, classes are going very well, and I’m pleased to announce that the GRE is done with and my scores look to be pretty good, all told. Now to start cranking out the applications! I’ve also been expanding my “new media presence,” which translates into setting up a Twitter account. You can follow me there as @EnsleyFGuffey, should you be inclined to internet-stalk me. The Farscape paper has been submitted, approved, and is in my pile of stuff to do awaiting some tweaking, and so you can look for my chapter, “War and Peace by Woody Allen Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Wormhole Weapon” in Tormented Space, Uncharted Territories, and Wormhole Weapons: Critical Explorations of the Farscape Universe, edited by Sherry Ginn from McFarland and Co. in early 2013. Pretty groovy, huh?

There are some other plates spinning and some I’m in the process of trying to get spinning, but that covers all the highlights for now. Now that my schedule seems to have produced a relatively clear space for a bit, I’ll try to make up for some lost time here, Readers Mine, with a few posts in the coming week, starting out with some reviews of what I’ve been reading and watching recently. The reading has been pretty good, the watching (at least when it comes to movies) not so much. Until then, be well.

What I Would Do at Geek Girl Con, Part I

While I’m in New Orleans in October, Seattle will be playing host to the first Geek Girl Con on October 8 and 9, an event described by the GGC’s press kit as “dedicated to promoting awareness of and celebrating the contribution and involvement of women in all aspects of the sciences, science fiction, comics, gaming and related Geek culture through conventions and events that emphasize both the historic and ongoing contribution and influence of women in thisculture.” Good enough!

Honestly, this is a Con I’d love to go to, and a great one to get in on the ground floor of, because I have a feeling it’s going to go huge, fast. Unfortunately the scheduling conflict with the Popular Culture in the South Conference (you didn’t think I’d be completely self-promotion free here did you?), as well as a lamentably tight travel budget, means that I will have to miss Geek Girl Con. However, this does nothing to stop me from idly fantasizing about going, and what I might do while there.

So, if I were able to attend Geek Girl Con:

I would seek out Chase Masterson and ask her to autograph the largest boxed ear-wax removal system I could find (fellow ST:DS9 fans will understand).

After a Friday night in the hotel room spent with a highlighter and the GGC Programming Guide, I’d get up Saturday morning and start hitting panels:

10:00 – 11:00: Star Trek & Beyond with Chase Masterson. The actor who launched her career as Leeta on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and who now continues to act, sing, and produce speaks on fan-activism among genre fans.

11:00 – 12:30: The Heroine: Journey, Culture and Narrative. Haviva Avirom (mod.), Sara Freeman, Catherine Bailey, and Erin Lovejoy-Guron discuss the heroine’s journey in popular culture from Claudette Colbert to Wonder Woman to RPGs. I think I’d come prepared to ask about their takes on Haley Atwell’s character Peggy Carter in Captain America: the First Avenger.

12:30 – 1:00: Some kind of junk food lunch.

1:00 – 2:00: Trina Robbins on Tarpé Mills and Miss Fury. I don’t know Tarpé Mills but the programming guide makes me want to: “Trina Robbins, ground-breaking herstorian and comic author, introduces you to one of the greatest female creators you never knew existed. Author Tarpé Mills’ created Marla Drake, aka Miss Fury, has been described as the “grandmother that Buffy Summers and Sydney Bristow didn’t know they had.” Time for a history lesson!” I will even be willing to overlook the twinge that “herstorian” gives me. For now.

2:00-2:30: Shopping for cool stuff, particularly books!

2:30-4:00: History of the Universe as Told by Wonder Woman. Kristy Guevara-Flanagan (mod.), Gail Simone, Trina Robbins, Jennifer K. Stuller, Mike Madrid. Footage from Guevara-Flanagan’s documentary History of the Universe as Told by Wonder Woman will be shown, and the panelists will discuss our obsession with superheroes, and the evolution of female empowerment in the culture. Note historians Trina Robbins and Jen Stuller. Jen is one of the most delightful, brilliant people it’s ever been my pleasure to know, and both women are applying the historian’s art to fields too long neglected by traditional historiography. Definitely a professional interest in this one for me, but also (hopefully) a chance to catch up with someone I haven’t seen face-to-face in too long.

4:00 – 5:00: Character Studies: Geek Girls in Popular Culture. Jennifer K. Stuller (mod. [okay, obviously we’ll have to catch up later, Jen!]), Amy Berg, Javier Grillo-Marxuach, Sara Kuhn, Jessica Mills, and Stephanie Thorpe take a look at geek girls in film, TV, comics, etc. They’ll also discuss the status of geek girls in our culture. Good stuff.

5:00 – 5:30: Snack? Sit dazed for half an hour? Cat-nap?

5:30 – 6:30: Whedonistas. Naturally. Teresa Jusino (mod.), Jane Espenson, Nancy Holder, Mariah Huener discuss Joss Whedon’s work and the impact his shows have had on them, on the culture, and on Whdeon’s fans, who have become some of the world’s most active, particularly for women’s rights.

6:30 – 7:00: Dinner. See Lunch above.

7:00 – 8:30: Viscera Film Fest. I’ll let GGC’s program guide have this one: “Heidi Honeycutt hosts a mini-Viscera Film Fest. They will screen selected horror short films created, written, directed, produced, acted, goredup, and designed by women. You’ve never seen horror like this before. Operating since 2007, Viscera is committed to expanding opportunities for female horror creators.” How frakkin’ cool does this sound? I know, right!

9:00 – 11:00: Whedonesque Burlesque. “Man, if you gotta ask, you’ll never know.”

Then, I’d stagger back to the hotel, collapse into bed, and rest up for Sunday’s events… Which will constitute Part II of this little exercise in imagination. Until then, Reader’s Mine, maybe some of you might need to book a flight or two to Seattle, eh? Failing that, you can show your support forGeek Girl Con, by donating here.

Goings On

Well, there’s a Latin exam tomorrow, but I’ve spent four days studying for it, and believe I’ve reached the point of diminishing returns, which, with other homework being done, leads me here. It’s been a busy couple of weeks since my last post, Readers Mine. School is rolling along, and there is an ever growing stack of books threatening to overflow my shelves on everything from Samuel Colt to the Late Roman Republic to the Alhambra and Moorish Grenada to the cuneiform tablets of Sargon II. There is much reading still to be done, followed by much writing. Also test taking.

Samuel Colt

First up (aside from the aforementioned Latin exam) is the Popular Culture/American Culture in the South Conference, which is being held in New Orleans in October. I’m presenting a paper which uses the character of Sam Colt in Supernatural as a springboard to examine the historical Samuel Colt and his place and part in American popular culture. I hope to have that written by the end of this weekend. Good thing too, as the conference falls right before UNCG’s fall break, meaning that all of my midterm exams, papers, etc need to be finished and turned in before I head south, so I’ll probably need all of next week to gear up for that. The up-side, of course, is that I can enjoy the conference and the city with a pure heart unburdened by looming assignments.

Ed, Spike, Faye, and Jett

And one hell of a conference it promises to be! Along with the usual PCA/ACA crowd, the first LOST mini-conference will be held, featuring the one and only Nikki Stafford as keynote speaker. I’m looking forward to the whole shebang, not merely for the usual crop of great papers, but for the all too rare opportunity to catch up with friends from hither and yon face-to-face rather than by Facebook or e-mail. Mockingbird and I are both going, as usual, and she will be unveiling the first part of a look at the influences of Cowboy Bebop on Joss Whedon’s Firefly. Part II she’s saving for Slayage 5 in Vancouver next summer.

Gigi Edgley as Chiana

After the conference I’ll have two and a half weeks before taking the GRE, by which point the application process needs to already be rolling along. I am seriously hoping that I manage to get accepted into a school where I can go straight through to a doctorate, as applying for school is one of the more tediously stressful things in life. Almost as much so as applying for jobs. Along with graduate school applications, there will still be regular undergraduate work to be done, and also, sometime before the end of the year, I should be seeing my Farscape chapter come back to me with notes for revision. It’ll also be time to start the research for my own paper to be presented at Slayage 5, which reminds me, the deadline for proposals there is 1 December!

Like I said, busy semester.

In other news, the GOTP (Grand Ol’ Tea Party) is gleefully fucking up my home state of North Carolina through a series of legislative actions which have gutted the education budget, set women’s rights back by a few decades, and now they seem to think that putting civil rights up for a popular vote is sensible (which it is, assuming your goal is to deny a minority group its civil rights). My hope is that the conservative movement has overreached at last, and that the fine people of North Carolina will stand up, throw the bums out, and tell the next bunch of “representatives” that we’re looking for frakin’ jobs, not laws that make things harder on all of us. Jackasses.

Finally (for now), it seems I'm precognitive. If you are not watching Breaking Bad, you are missing a masterpiece of storytelling, and film. Don’t let the fact that its television fool you, this is something special. It’s on AMC. Watch it, bitch!

Ave Minerva!

Well, it’s the end of August again, which means back to school for yours truly. I begin what is hopefully my last year of undergraduate study early tomorrow morning, and in most respects it’s stacking up to be a good semester. I’m only on campus Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, which leaves Tuesdays and Thursdays as workdays, which has proven to be a very effective arrangement in the past. It’s amazing what you can get done when you don’t have to go anywhere, see anyone, and have a coffee pot in your room. I’ll be living with the in-laws again and driving about forty minutes each way to good ol’ UNC-Greensboro, where Athena continues to watch over me.

As usual I’ll start out my day with Latin, and this semester I’ll follow the noble language with Spanish history, ancient Near Eastern history, and an independent study on the rise of Augustus and the establishment of the Principate in ancient Rome. Heavy on the history, but that is the major, after all. Plus, thanks to some long semesters earlier and summer classes, I only have to take twelve hours each of these last two semesters, so the work load should be doable.

That’s the school workload, of course. Beyond school, I’m lucky and excited to be involved in several writing projects. First, I’m working on finishing up a chapter for a forthcoming edited collection on the US/AU/UK science fiction series Farscape where I’m examining the show’s story through the lens of military-political history. Next comes a paper on Samuel Colt in fact and fiction to be presented at the Popular Culture/American Culture—South conference in New Orleans in October, and then beginning/stepping up the research process for Slayage 5 in Vancouver next July, where I hope to present the first in a series of papers on “War in the Whedonverses.” Finally (for now) I’m proud, flabbergasted, and downright giddy at being asked to serve as an assistant editor to David Lavery for a forthcoming project on the life and works of Owen Barfield.

Beyond all of that there’s studying for and taking the GRE. Getting together writing samples, letters of recommendation, applications, transcripts, etc to send off to prospective graduate schools, and dealing with a “commuter marriage” after a wonderful, too short summer season in which Mockingbird got me used to all of the myriad pleasures that come with sharing the same nest all the time (including co-authoring a post for Nik at Nite's Buffy Rewatch which goes up Tuesday!). One does what one has to do, of course, and all of this driving and separation is leading to a goal which will allow us to keep said nest well-feathered, but I do miss her, Readers Mine.

All of which is to say that, if you think posts here have been few and far between this summer, you may very well have not seen anything yet. I’ll try to pop in regularly, but I guarantee there will be times when other elements of life will be taking priority. In the meantime, though, be well and remember, as Jeff Bridges’ mom said “Have fun, and don’t take it too seriously.”