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But my excuse is that no computers were available to me over the weekend. I did call my dad on Sunday morning and gave him all my email passwords, which he used to hack into my accounts to read time sensitive materials to me, after which I dictated replies. And then I had him read new blog comments to me, but decided to stop short at dictating replies there because I had seen an article on Yahoo News entited "Do you or one of your loved ones suffer from internet addiction?" and wasn't ready to admit I was that desperate yet.
My lack of internet accessibility was due to the fact that I was in Kingston at the RMC (Royal Military College) Fencing Invitational. Those military colleges produce top quality fencers. Westpoint was there. They all went by their last names and said "yes, sir" to the judge. I fenced sabre, a weapon that I have never touched, being a foil-ist myself. Sabre involves charging and slashing (the motion of slashing, no blood is actually drawn), so I could get a couple of points by poking the midriff of my opponent with the tip of the blade. Sabre-ists are not used to poking. My downside was an attempt to dance rather than charge. I also got a yellow card for crossing over. Silly footwork differences!
I realize this all sounds like insider talk. And it is. I will return later to be more explanatory. I just want to say that I should go into Yuker professionally.
Oh, and I gave the BEST presentation ever. (Well, after the Existentialist presentation done in conjunction with the Five Points, but that was so off the charts, I had to remove it and start over again). The presentation was on Claims to Fame: Celebrity in Contemporary America. Since a lot of the book discusses audience-celebrity relations as game-playing (rather than typical audience-celebrity relation theories of role model or fantasy fulfillment), I simulated a TV game show program. I opened the presentation by walking to the front of class dressed to the nines (with my beret, some black suede high heeled boots, and some very snazzy tortoiseshell shades), popped Rubber Soul in the CD player and hit track 1. As I waited for the Beatles to reach the refrain ("Baby you can drive my car, yes, you're gonna be a star") I suddenly realized how awkward it was standing in front of class doing nothing. So I started to jitterbug, swishing my skirt around. I thought that I was doing it rather down-played (it was something to sort of keep everyone from getting bored, and besides how can you listen to Beatles without dancing??) but got comments later ("Great dancing!!!") so maybe I was getting into it a little more than I thought. But then I hit pause and opened dramatically, "Welcome to The Celebrity Name Game!!! Are you the person who arrives at the cinema 20 minutes early so you can read all the trivia bits? Then this game is for you!" And so I proceeded to read cards with celebrity trivia questions and the class had to guess the celebrity and then got to keep the card as a "celebrity trophy." It was rather fun, if I do say so myself, and the competition stayed civil but lively. Then I was able to segue nicely into the discussion of trivia as knowledge and community-building uses of celebrity that depended more on distribution of information rather than on "authenticity" or finding the "true" celebrity (although coding information as the "real scoop" can definitely up the ante when people sit around sharing information).
My killer outfit (taken in my room before leaving for class. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the suede boots or the funky hem line on the skirt. In retrospect, I should have brought the camera to class. Ah, how clearly we see in hindsight.):
And now I have to get as much work done on my thesis as I can before heading up to Toronto to kneel at Colin Meloy's feet (and see, that sentence is just part of the game, because I really don't worship Colin, but for those of my friends who appreciate Decemberists, it will make sense. We know. We connect. We can joke about these things. It's all about the community-building function of celebrity and celebrity knowledge....).