Well, my introduction and first chapter are now finished and sent off, hopefully in a state that can be considered adequate. I can't tell myself, as towards the end I just found myself just cutting and pasting paragraphs over and over again hoping that eventually all of the pieces will fit together smoothly, until all of the words ran together and began looking like scribbles. It was around the time that I started blithely throwing around 'Foucaultian', like that's what normal people do, that I decided it was time to stop.
I'm not even writing about Foucault. What is happening to me.
Anyway, I start in on Goethe possibly tomorrow, more probably Tuesday. Hopefully it will take less time, and not require a new chapter to spring up out of nowhere. Once is probably already too much for that.
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Traveling, far and near
I have returned from choir tour in Paris! It was very fun. We sang to Napoleon in the chapel where he's buried in the Ecolé Militaire, and did a concert in the Irish Chaplaincy. Additionally, we managed to get in last-minute singing in a massive and beautiful church near the chaplaincy, and then sang a service at Saint Eustache, which is even more massive and beautiful. It was a little mind-blowing, and very odd, just because when the space is so tall and expansive your voice tends to spin up towards the ceiling and never come back down so that it sounds like you're the only one there. Disconcerting, at best. But still amazing.
Also, I gorged myself on French pastries and cocktails, so it was a lovely vacation altogether.
The day after I came back from Paris, I went on a trip to Cragside for my public engagement project, which was also very fun! Lord Armstrong was a bit mad, and as a result, his house is amazing, filled to the brim with gadgets and hydroelectric-powered machinery. We took a tour around and checked out his various acquisitions (everything from paintings to Moorish tiles to taxidermy), as well as a fireplace so massive it had to be built into the mountainside to avoid collapsing the house. He was a man before his time--knew sustainable energy when he saw it. The whole place was incredible, and very fun to have a wander in.
This has of course all distracted me from work, but in a good way, I think. I'm feeling refreshed on the whole, and ready to have a summer full of labour. This will no doubt change as soon as I actually get back to work, but the feeling is helpful for now.
Also, I gorged myself on French pastries and cocktails, so it was a lovely vacation altogether.
The day after I came back from Paris, I went on a trip to Cragside for my public engagement project, which was also very fun! Lord Armstrong was a bit mad, and as a result, his house is amazing, filled to the brim with gadgets and hydroelectric-powered machinery. We took a tour around and checked out his various acquisitions (everything from paintings to Moorish tiles to taxidermy), as well as a fireplace so massive it had to be built into the mountainside to avoid collapsing the house. He was a man before his time--knew sustainable energy when he saw it. The whole place was incredible, and very fun to have a wander in.
This has of course all distracted me from work, but in a good way, I think. I'm feeling refreshed on the whole, and ready to have a summer full of labour. This will no doubt change as soon as I actually get back to work, but the feeling is helpful for now.
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