Images of betrayal, et cetera

I would have done a new Nostrum last night, but I’m getting over a cold, caught no doubt in the dank, dark dungeons of Bronx Scientology, and I figured one more day’s wait would be a little easier on my throat. Tonight.

But I have completed this, which is a takeout of the art of Caveman. Which means that I have also illustrated the Caveman lecture, if someone is so inclined to look at the whole thing. Of course, it really is a lecture, not an essay—as I was reminded as I was polishing it up for its next presentation—so you’re better off listening to it, if you’re really interested, with these pictures in your hand while you do so. It’s all available on my podcast page. I have mentioned here recently that I intended to give the lecture again live, and I’ll probably start a week from this coming Tuesday. I figure three sessions or so to get through it. Tickets on sale at TicketMaster. I’m expecting SRO crowds, at least.

I did update it a bit, and I was indeed struck by how much of a lecture it is, and not an essay. It doesn’t read like something you sit with like a book, and I know that a lot of what is there is simply starter material for me to digress from. Lectures, in my world, are as much performance art as delivering the material. In a way, working on it again marginally inspired me to make more of it, given all the tangents I’ve run since doing it back in the day. For instance, there is no material in it on the aesthetics of art, which I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. But I left it mostly alone: it is what it is, which is an attempt to provide historical background for the understanding of the major ideas of postmodernist thought. Everything else is just gravy. Someday I may just do Art History for Non Art Historians, but that’s another beast altogether. Anyhow, one thing I did as I worked was throw in pictures of stuff when it made sense, and when I was starting I thought there might be a lot of that, but surprisingly enough, there were quite a bit fewer than I expected. Still, I hated to waste them, which is why I’ve assembled them (with captions) and referenced them here as a separate entity. You might find it entertaining. Just looking at that Magritte O’C picture always entertains me, for instance. What more can you ask for? The other thing I did to the lecture was shuffle some of the elements at the end. I always felt the thing sort of trailed off, and by combining some of the linguistics material and reorganizing the Critical Theory stuff, things now seem better connected. Much of this does rely on the conceit that there is some relationship between the various pieces of modern/postmodern thinking, which in many respects is simply empty noodling. But I’m trying to make a story out of it, and it is about the making of stories, so even if I’m marginally intellectually dishonest, at least I’m marginally intellectually dishonest in a consistent sort of way.

Tomorrow is Lakeland, and Saturday is Lakeland cum Regionals, for those interested in pursuing the NY State finals in Albany. As far as I know, exactly one Sailor is interested in said pursuance, for reasons that elude me completely. After this weekend I’ll do what organizing I intend to do for States, which isn’t much, as my chips are riding on TNC at NFA. For that matter, we intend to polish the invite of TNC at NFA this weekend, and go live with the invite. There was some exploration of maybe Massachusetts joining us en masse, but they told us Tufts darts and figured they’d re-attack their original venue, which had told them Tufts darts in the first place. Whatever. I don’t want all those people who can’t pronounce the letter R hanging around causing trouble, as is their wont.

And before heading off to the Land of Lakes I will send a final reminder to the Districtians, reminding them to sign up for that roundfest. I’ve done all I can do to prep the data while having in hand, uh, no data. The Sailor entry is pretty much set, although I need some parent judges to come around and take up some space. I’m working on it. Even just putting them in the odd round of PF will make everyone’s life so much more easier.