Ahhhh, sweet aestivation. So close I can sniff your -- um, OK, I'm giving up on that metaphor before it goes anywhere because once you are sniffing something's something, no good writing can emerge.
Summer is close at hand. I know this fact because within a week I will be done the last of my Official Administrative Duties for 2008-09: submission of the English Department's Annual Report. Sure, I still have a pile of Master Course Data forms to complete, a renovation of a seminar room to instigate, an In Box filled with odds, ends, and the neglected detritus of the spring semester ... but the end is nigh.
So what am up to this summer? Since you asked:
- that Leeds keynote I keep mentioning
- a piece on John Mandeville and Manuel De Landa for the inaugural edition of postmedieval
- an essay on Eduardo Kacs and queer green bunnies for a collection on Kacs' transgenic art coming out at U Minnesota Press
- co-editing an issue of postmedieval with Cary Howie on "New Critical Modes" (stay tuned)
- working on a piece for a conference in York for March 2010
- laboring at my next monograph, provisionally entitled Art from a Stone: Dreaming the Prehistoric in the Middle Ages (I have some research money from my university for this book this summer)
- organizing the 2009-10 GW MEMSI schedule
Well, here is one thing more: I'll be abroad for almost all of July. After the conclusion of the Leeds conference, I fly to Rome to meet my family. My in-laws now live in a small village outside the city, so we will be visiting for nearly a week before heading to Paris. There we've rented an apartment for ten days in the 5th arrondissement, near the rue Mouffetard. Early in August we are back in DC ... and later in the month head to our annual vacation in Ogunquit, Maine.
Not a bad summer to look forward to. I just need to get some work done on that Leeds plenary ...
4 comments:
When you're in DC and focusing on Mandeville, come on over to the Folger--we have a bunch of nice early print editions, starting with a Venetian 1567 one and a bunch of early 17th century English ones. Plus we keep the temperature set to meat-locker conditions! What could be more postmedieval than that?
Sarah, sadly for me that would just be procrastination -- in that I really don't need to work with the later editions for this project. Still the ice-coldyness is attractive, and I haven't been to the Folger for quite a while...
Ooh, if you get a chance while you're in Paris in that part of the 5th, you *must* eat at Le Buisson Ardent on Rue de Jussieu -- here's their website: http://www.lebuissonardent.fr/. Unbelievably fabulous, inventive bistro food. One of the best meals I've had anywhere, ever, and in a pretty little space, too.
Of course, if your whole family is there, it might depend on how adventurous your kids are when it comes to food, and how much they can put up with fancier restaurant atmospheres.
There's also a more laid-back and very good bistro on Rue Monge right around there, but alas, I can't remember its name or exact location. I think it's somewhere right around Place Monge, but I'm not sure.
Thank you Dr V! My kids are picky, but not in predictable ways: Alex for example is dying to get to Paris to lose himself in cheese shops. It looks like Le Buisson Ardent will be a good indulgence for us.
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