rsa redux

Music: Westin hotel lobby muzak, some folk standard---oh, it's "Will the Circle Be Unbroken"---sounds like Mary Chapin Carpenter

It's difficult to believe I'm back at the Rhetoric Society of America conference two years since the last because it seems like I was just at RSA last year. Same crowd, same faces, but in addition to lots of new faces. Apparently RSA has swelled to over a thousand members and there were more than 800 attending this year. My first RSA was as a master's student in 1998 in Pittsburgh. It was a great conference. It was the last time I smoked pot---that is, it was the last time I hit on a random stranger who passed me a joint. It was the last time my buddy David ever doubted my ability to get us a ride home at 2 a.m. It was the last time this conference was small and cheap.

The panels I saw were good, and in general I was pleased that everyone I saw give a paper was prepared. The "Queering Public Address" panel based on Chuck Morris's edited collection was the highlight; great panel.

Seattle was a lot more fun this time than the last time I visited! It didn't rain! We found a working class bar at Virginia and Fourth called the Whiskey Bar that was not yuppied-out. We had some amazing oysters at Cutters.

I had---still have---a chest cold. Bourbon was the only thing that made me feel better [smirk]

The only thing that sticks out as uniquely reportable was the luncheon yesterday. During the luncheon awards are given, speeches are made, we thank each other and so on. David Zarefsky gave a speech on "the responsibilities of rhetoric," which of course was about teaching and promoting deliberative democracy and so on. What was really striking, though, was an "Ode to RSA."

Some dude was asked to give a "ode" as a point of levity. Understand RSA is comprised of people who teach and study public address in writing and speaking. So we're all supposedly trained to analyze the audience, assess the norms and predict expectations, and so on. So this dude---no doubt a nice guy---gets up there and starts reading his "ode" from a lap top (you know, pausing every so often to hit the arrow-down key) and basically gives us a rap on the all the other RSAs he found on google. It sort-of rhymes. One would suspect an "ode" lasts about a minute to five minutes, but at the ten minute mark I started to wonder what was going on.

So this guy keeps reading his ode, and suddenly it stops rhyming and turns into a sort-of platonic dialogue about the muses and white veils and stuff. The dude laughs at his own jokes (the 700 or so people at lunch do not laugh at the jokes). When he's into about fifteen minutes of this, the room is annoyed---you can just smell it---and this guy is still reading his ode. At one point he says something about being "indulgent," and I said quietly "I'll say!" People around chuckled.

At about the 25 minute point I serious start contemplating standing up and shouting, "hurry up already" or something like this. I start thinking about the ramifications of doing such a thing. Would I want to be known as that guy who stood up at a luncheon and told a speaker to hurry up? Maybe some people in the room are enjoying whatever it is this guy is saying?

I decide not to stand up and embarrass myself. Instead, I made a rabbit puppet out of my napkin and started to pretend my puppet was speaking. It entertained my table. I'm afraid it did not entertain a couple two tables over, as they gave me a disapproving stare. I know it was childish, but I couldn't help it. As a consequence of this guy's "performance," the panels started late.

That's my conference, in a nutshell. I'm sitting in the hotel lobby waiting for someone to come by and say hello and distract me as I also wait to meet up with Texas peeps for a cab to the airport. So if you're readin' blogs and are at the Westin, please come socialize with me. I'm make a puppet out of a napkin for you. I might even give you my cold!