central states commie conferencing: day one and two

DAY ONE Music: Gene Loves Jezebel: The House of Dolls (1987)

Location: Hyatt Regency, Minneapolis, Nicollet Mall, 8:45-9:00 a.m.

I'm sitting in the lobby of (a sorta-run-down) Hyatt, near the front entrance with a squirting fountain and every-so-often a cold draft from the revolving doors. I sense the laser beam stares of strangers squinting to read nametags (I fantasize: what if you could smoke up the room like thieves stealing giant diamonds from museums do? What would the configuration of laser-beams look like? A grid? A vortex?). Unlike the SSCA or NCA, I don't recognize a single face and so the hope of socializing over coffee before my 9:30 panel has been dashed.

I arrived yesterday somewhat frazzled but, eventually, all the hassles of traveling melted when I met up with Karlyn. A big hug rejuvenates! We went back to her place, dumped my luggage, grabbed a salad in a skyway eatery, and then went back to her place and played with her two, brand new Burmese kitties. They are soooooooooooooooooooo cute! They are two brothers, about four months old and 3.5 pounds each, very playful with hypnotic, gold eyes. Their Japanese names are Tye and Taka (I'm not sure how to spell these, the names sound like "tie" and "tak-ah"), meaning "persistent" or "perseverance" and "the hawk" respectively. Nothing makes your day like playing with two very cute kittens (if Brooke is reading this, I know you are immediately jealous!). The gallery of the kitties is here.

After romping on the floor with kitties and a ribbon and "catching up," we went to dinner at my favorite Thai restaurant, Sawatdee (ooh, the curry is yummilicious). Afterwards, Karlyn retired and I spent some time at a coffee shop, and then hit the sack by 10:00 p.m. I have trouble sleeping as of late, but surprisingly I slept right through until four or so.

It's cold here. I mean, six years in the "south" has re-set my body such that I probably should have brought a heavier coat, but then, I would have looked ridiculous on the street. High 40s is still chilly to me, though. Oh well.

So, yeah, I'm in the lobby. Central States seems like the smallest conference I've attended in many, many years. There are not many folks here--or it seems like there's not many folks here. You can tell, though, that this is a communication studies conference: the women to men ratio is two-to-one, and most folks are dressed fairly well. Except, perhaps, for the portly middle-aged men with tweed jackets. For some reason we have a lot of those in comm studies too. Barry Brummett always makes fun of the "pompous theoreticians in black clothes," but what he doesn't realize is that black is slimming (and if you wear all black at conferences, packing is joyfully mindless).

I peeked in a few sparsely attended sessions trying to find my "room." Three or four to a room, tops, and I spied one bearded man delivering about the "downloading revolution" in highly animated gestures. It's hard to feel very important or to take anyone (or myself) seriously at conferences (especially the smaller ones like this; heavy gesturing for three people seems sort of silly). So far, the pretension meter has not been set off, however---only slightly with the DL Rev guy, which is a good sign.

Heh: well, it feels like I've been away from Minneapolis too long. Walking down Nicollet toward the hotel this morning, I ran into an old friend and colleague, Joe Jacobs. We chatted it up for a block until he turned left with a pack of Target people (Minneapolis is Target HQ). I sez, "Yo, are you with the Target peeps now?" "Yeah," he called back, "let's catch up later." I thought he was at the conference. Nope. Looks like Joe has left the academy. He's like the seventh person I know who got the degree and split with the rat-race for a living wage.

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DAY TWO

Music: Underworld: A Hundred Days Off (2002)

Location: Caribou Coffee, Nicollet Mall, 8:30-55 a.m.

The panel yesterday went Old Kinderhook: I overprepped for an audience of three, if you don't count the four panelists, the time-keeper, and the respondent. I should have just came with talking points, instead of winnowing down a fifty page manifesto into ten pages of something quasi-coherent. Ah, well. The respondent was great, if not visibly a little nervous about responding for the first time (a very nice and well-groomed grad from BGSU). He did something very generous: each one of the panelists got a page or two of single-spaced feedback from him about their papers.

After the (too early) panel, I managed to catch a friend/mentor for lunch, whereupon we discussed the demands of "service" to the field. How much is too much? What should one do to repay the debts one incurs (many of those debts in area of affective investment).

My dilemma at the moment is that my computer battery is running on 25 minutes; every table in the joint with a nearby plug is occupied by the computerless. Argh.

Last night Karlyn and I ate at the new Loring Pasta Bar in Dinkytown [ah-ha! couple at a be-plugged table just left: I have juice!]. The Loring Café used to be on Loring Park at the edge of uptown, a funky eatery and French Café sort of place with fichus trees everywhere and very weird architectural stuffs. David Beard and I used to go there religiously to people watch and drink martinis. All the hot art-student kids with asymmetrical hair (before that sort of thing was cool) and outlandish shoes used to go there. It was like drinking in a W magazine fashion ad. Well, for some reason toward the end of my tenure here the Loring closed down. But they've opened a new joint right off campus (with the coolest bathrooms you've ever seen). The food is actually much better, the drinks are more expensive, but it is truly a delightful joint.

After dinner Karlyn and I retired to her place, talked about love and academic careers, played with her kitties, and went to bed. I hope it is alright to admit the kittens are one of my trip's highlights. Sure, I mean, panels are great and all . . . but kittens!. Kittens are better.

I'm getting ready to jet to my next presentation. It's on the iPod essay I wrote with Mirko. For the presentation I'm talking a good bit about the OhMiBod vibrator, which should be fun for that early-to-rise crowd and something of a surprise for the respondent (but who doesn't enjoy surprises, right?).

After the presentation, there is a luncheon where my advisor is getting the lifetime achievement award. Hooking up with Mirko and David and Kate later for dinner at Brit's Pub, perhaps post dinner drinks . . . or my favorite goth-a-dustrial haunt of old, Ground Zero. Gawking at half-naked people in corsets and garters would be fun. They don't do that in Austin much.

Good times.