This was one of the first things I saw, which struck me as really funny:
Too bad the conference hotel wasn't on a street so aptly named...
After that I did a little bit of economy-stimulating! Just a tad, cause you kinda have to, really....Since there were so many little galleries and such, I didnt' want to snap too many photos, since I'm sensitive to the troubles of artisans...but here's a fountain and a pot!
I found something pretty cool there - an artist's coop, Yucca Gallery, with some really really neat work for sale. Most of it was either too dear or to hard to transport, but gorgeous! I particularly recommend the papercraft of Judy Luttrell. In more of the roadside shops, there was more of the touristy style stock, but if you looked hard enough, you could find local artisan goods and generally cool things - handmade retablos, non-kokopelli jewelry, and some really original multimedia, such as this little notebook I found for a couple bucks (and justified because my bookmaking skills are subpar at present!)
Got some awesome craft inspiration, though....As for the conference, I did one panel that day, for the following talks: "The Passion of Superman: Why Christian Metaphors Failed the Man of Tomorrow" and "They Came from Outer Space and Stayed for Breakfast: How 1050s Science Fiction Bought Passing Anxieties Home".
First off, the Superman talk - cool! Among the many other thigns on my plate, I'm looking interestedly at the cultural uses of superheroes, as well as their roots in Judaism, so this got me thinking, since I'm starting to concieve of the typical American superheroes in terms of Golem/Maccabee type stories. Which is valid, but I didn't recall a lot of Christianity in the last Superman movie. Turns out I missed a lot, since I mostly watched for Brandon Routh. (I can't be academic all the time, can I?)
Jeffrey Moulton, who presented this one, pointed out parallels between this incarnation of Superman and the Christ story listed far-fetched to "ok, i'll buy it right off" :
-Kevin Spacey's Luthor "staged" similar to ???'s Lucifer in Passion of the Christ and Parker Poesy as Mary Magdalen,
-Cruciform postures of Routh
-Empty tomb/empty hostpital bed
-side spear/kryptonite stab
Moulton's thesis, as far as I can see, is that the Christ metaphor fizzled, since Superman spent an awful lot of his time getting his butt handed to him, and "won" but couldn't be with Lois or their son. And that one was the kicker for me - giving a superhero painted as a Christ figure a kid ticked off many people because it aligned him with humanity. In addition to the whole history/use of superheroes thing, I'm impatient with a lot of the cultural depictions/performances of religion anyway, especially Christianity, so this was a cool talk for me to hear!
The next talk that got me going was the alien one, since the speaker, Megan Kelley, examined several 50s B pictures for anxieties related to "passing" of aliens for human - as well as people in terms of sexuality, race, and politics. I took several pages of notes on that one....She mentioned among other things, the modernist nature of these "they came from XYZ" films - the fragmentation, alienation, self-fashioning idendities. The final point I'll yammer on about is the start of "paranoia horror" as I think she called it, which I see as paving some of the way for my beloved zombs.
I'll be back after dinner with an account of today, as well as an entertaining scribble!
2 comments:
The Romero street sign - ah - it will need to be a slide in your next presentation. :-)
Sounds like you are making great use of your time. I am assuming you are on the plane back by now - and I will see you on Monday. Thanks for the great reporting and pictures. I almost feel as if I were there.
See you soon.
The sign: Oh I'm saving that baby ^_^ I ended up turning in early that night, since we had to leave at 4 for the plane. I'm glad you enjoyed the blogging and yammering - it was a swell time, really was!
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