Betwixt.

Last weekend Bryan was in Nashville! See, look:

- Except that that's a picture of him in Louisville, KY. Did you know that the state line is a mere half-hour away by car? Oh, the places a rental car (even the tiniest Fiat) will take you...

 

 

It absolutely does not look like it from these photos, but Louisville is actually a city and a pretty great little city at that. We found it quite walkable, with commendable food diversity, neighborhoods, public art, thrift stores, and parks. The only real drawback is the name: as a friend pointed out, to say it correctly ("Louovul"?) feels a little like vomiting in your mouth.

This weekend I am back to the grind, eagerly awaiting my trip to Philadelphia (!) first thing Thursday morning. Yes indeed, Fall Break 2011 is upon us already. That means I'm scrambling to meet all of my routine academic obligations while casting an eye toward final papers -- and of course, interpreting the world through the lens of my PhD program application Statement of Purpose.

I did carve out an hour yesterday to swing by a handmade book fair at Watkins College of Art, Design, and Film yesterday. I attended a talk on "writing words worth preserving" and bumped into a few folks from the indigo-dying workshop I attended last fall. 

Here are a few of my favorites from the art show (and forgive the sloppy reportage; I didn't note the names of the artists...):

  

Magnetic Fields tribute, anyone?

  

 

  Nothing, but nothing, beats a harmonica-shaped book!

Okay, back to it...

Books of the week: 

Fearlessness, Imre Kertesz

In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America, Eddie S. Glaude, Jr.

Women's Ways of Knowing: The Development of Self, Voice, and Mind, Belenky et al. 

On Job: God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent, Gustavo Gutierrez

Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life, Giorgio Agamben 

Films of the week:

A Serious Man

Sankofa

Aguirre: The Wrath of God

Beloved

Carnival of Souls

The Spirit of the Beehive