SO MUCH FUN!
Oct. 27th, 2005 12:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oneirophreniaOMFG, the Lovecraft presentation today was soooooooooooooo good. I got a wonderful response from students who actually bothered to read the story and the essay ("Supernatural Horror in Literature"), and...dear lord, the one girl in class was the hottest thing I've ever seen. Yes! I admit it! I was completely smitten! The entire class dressed up for Hallamoween--even my colleague Pratul (who came as the killer from Scream)--and I, of course, dug out the lab coat and the vest and whatnot and donned my usual 1920s-coroner look. The students interacted well, were clearly very interested, and everyone seemed to have a grand ol' time. I'm getting called back a little later in the semester to lecture on Clive Barker and possibly Caitlin R. Kiernan--![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
greygirlbeast, I certainly want to work some of your presence into this class, since, considering how much the students loved HPL, they will devour some of your work (just need to decide on a good representative short story, since they don't really have the time for an entire novel). Regardless, when it's Barker's turn--The Hellbound Heart, Hellraiser, and Imajica will all be discussed (as well as some selections from the Books of Blood, as well). Hope the kids are ready for some hot gay sex and mutilation!
After that, down to Jozart Studios for the Hallamoween Open Mic Nite. HOLY CHRIST WAS IT FUN! I ended up hanging out with Gravedigger Girl and a bunch of her friends, one of whom was in the horror-lit class and actually rode down to the place with me after class. She's a good cat. Very amusing and very bright--the kind of person you just want to educate in the secret ways of the Cult of Cthulhu. She and Gravedigger Girl both dressed up as zombies and...wow, did they do a good job! Very Romero-esque zombies, too. None of the Savini shite. I ended up running into a mess of people I knew ages ago in Uniontown...including one fellow named Craig who--I SHIT YOU NOT--remembered the legendary first-ever Nyarlathotep the Crawling Chaos performance at Coffee on Crawford in Connellsville, Pennsylvania, in late summer 1998. He had been there, and he recognized me by the labcoat and the "insane voice!" He also remembered that I'd hooked up a bunch of televisions at the show and forced everyone to watch John Carpenter's The Thing. It was the coolest reminiscence ever.
I felt a little odd hanging out with my students for a bit--but that quickly passed. I mean, I used to chill with my students from Penn State frequently...but they were mostly older students--close to my age. This lot is around the 18-to-22-year-old range (for the most part: Craig, obviously, is a good bit older), but, shit, once I got to flapping my gums and telling tales of ribald craziness and psychotic drunken binges, lecturing extemporaneously on all matter of gothic and horror-lit aesthetics and their influence on so-called "mainstream" films like Stay and even Elizabethtown, and all that...things just became fun. I ate a lot of candy. I drank a LOT of tea. I pissed more than I ever have before in my life. And it was just a great ol' time.
Apparently, I'm becoming some kind of local legend around Cal U. All these people seem to know who I am, and I've never set eyes on them before in my life. I guess word of mouth has identified me as a "cool fellow" or something. I'm sure most of them have by now realized what a completely and utter nerd I am, but it's still a bit of an ego-stroke to find out that my reputation sort-of precedes me.
I also found out that Wednesday nights in California are Karaoke Nights at a place called Lagerhead's. It's the local geek/punk bar. A geek/punk bar near Cal U! All gamers, indie rock and obscure music freaks, computer nerds, writers, bohemians, and art fags. I soooooooo have to check this place out next Wednesday. Something tells me if it's as cool as it seems, I'll become a local fixture right quick and find myself singing "Hey You" every damn week.
I am now totally stoked for going to Cleve Land this weekend. The freshness must continue!
greygirlbeast, I certainly want to work some of your presence into this class, since, considering how much the students loved HPL, they will devour some of your work (just need to decide on a good representative short story, since they don't really have the time for an entire novel). Regardless, when it's Barker's turn--The Hellbound Heart, Hellraiser, and Imajica will all be discussed (as well as some selections from the Books of Blood, as well). Hope the kids are ready for some hot gay sex and mutilation!After that, down to Jozart Studios for the Hallamoween Open Mic Nite. HOLY CHRIST WAS IT FUN! I ended up hanging out with Gravedigger Girl and a bunch of her friends, one of whom was in the horror-lit class and actually rode down to the place with me after class. She's a good cat. Very amusing and very bright--the kind of person you just want to educate in the secret ways of the Cult of Cthulhu. She and Gravedigger Girl both dressed up as zombies and...wow, did they do a good job! Very Romero-esque zombies, too. None of the Savini shite. I ended up running into a mess of people I knew ages ago in Uniontown...including one fellow named Craig who--I SHIT YOU NOT--remembered the legendary first-ever Nyarlathotep the Crawling Chaos performance at Coffee on Crawford in Connellsville, Pennsylvania, in late summer 1998. He had been there, and he recognized me by the labcoat and the "insane voice!" He also remembered that I'd hooked up a bunch of televisions at the show and forced everyone to watch John Carpenter's The Thing. It was the coolest reminiscence ever.
I felt a little odd hanging out with my students for a bit--but that quickly passed. I mean, I used to chill with my students from Penn State frequently...but they were mostly older students--close to my age. This lot is around the 18-to-22-year-old range (for the most part: Craig, obviously, is a good bit older), but, shit, once I got to flapping my gums and telling tales of ribald craziness and psychotic drunken binges, lecturing extemporaneously on all matter of gothic and horror-lit aesthetics and their influence on so-called "mainstream" films like Stay and even Elizabethtown, and all that...things just became fun. I ate a lot of candy. I drank a LOT of tea. I pissed more than I ever have before in my life. And it was just a great ol' time.
Apparently, I'm becoming some kind of local legend around Cal U. All these people seem to know who I am, and I've never set eyes on them before in my life. I guess word of mouth has identified me as a "cool fellow" or something. I'm sure most of them have by now realized what a completely and utter nerd I am, but it's still a bit of an ego-stroke to find out that my reputation sort-of precedes me.
I also found out that Wednesday nights in California are Karaoke Nights at a place called Lagerhead's. It's the local geek/punk bar. A geek/punk bar near Cal U! All gamers, indie rock and obscure music freaks, computer nerds, writers, bohemians, and art fags. I soooooooo have to check this place out next Wednesday. Something tells me if it's as cool as it seems, I'll become a local fixture right quick and find myself singing "Hey You" every damn week.
I am now totally stoked for going to Cleve Land this weekend. The freshness must continue!
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no subject
Date: 2005-10-27 04:38 am (UTC)Hmmmm. I'd probably suggest "Andromeda Among the Stones," or perhaps "La Peau Verte."
no subject
Date: 2005-10-27 04:56 pm (UTC)Provided, of course, I have even the smallest amount of time to do anything with them before December.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-27 11:16 am (UTC)And it sounds like you had an awesome time - congrats!
no subject
Date: 2005-10-27 01:10 pm (UTC)And HOW COOL it will be to have Caitlin's work read in your class.
Nice to be known as a cool geek, too. My rep is officially now "weird/scary", as in Depp's Willy Wonka. I haven't seen him in this role yet.. the comparison has been made! should I be flattered by this?
One of my professors has asked me to oversee his class while he's away. It's a lecture class of 200 students, very few of whom give the slightest shit about theatre. Mostly business majors and pre-law scum. On Tuesday, one guy threatened to hit a female TA because she asked him to please stop reading the newspaper in class (they were watching a film on one of the plays, in Professor's absence).
So I'm to be there today... my professor told me it would scare them to see a "strange, mysterious" adult. I'm to remind them what they need to do to prepare for their quiz on Tuesday. Then, while they watch the rest of the film, he said I should "stalk around" amongst them, or in some way make my looming presence known.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-27 04:58 pm (UTC)Oh, and BTW: if any of those pre-law or business wastrels threaten to strike you in any way, carve them up like a Christmas ham--either verbally (the preferred method) or physically. If anyone ever pulled that shit with me, they'd rue that day for the remainder of their miserable life.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-27 02:56 pm (UTC)