Dream of Doctoral Student

 A student from Spain wanted to work with me a year in Kansas to do his PhD dissertation, but without enrolling in our program. He explained that it was a "doctorado ???."  I couldn't catch the last words, and he explained that it was a "doctorado EB," where the student did course work first and then went abroad to work with a professor. This seemed normal to me, since a student did come once from Spain to work independently with me, and another one is now applying for a Fulbright to do the same. This guy's dissertation, though, was on the novel, and our interests didn't seem to mesh very well. I mentioned Vicente Luis Mora to him, and he called him "ignorante." I began to school the student on the virtues of VLM's novel Centroeuropa, the historical research that had gone into it and also the very rigorous process of writing Vicente had followed. He also couldn't name any Spanish poets. I also doubted whether this student could write the entire thesis in year. He said not to worry, since he had already written four books... 

As I was waking up, I  realized it was dream, but only gradually through a process of reasoning it out. It had to be a dream because it had happened at night when I was sleeping. The dream shows ambivalence. On the one hand, I do like it when people want to work with me, but on the other hand this guy was arrogant as well as out of my field, quite unlike the two women who actually have wanted to work with me without being students in our department. 

Bluthochzeit

 I'm listening to a German opera on Bodas de sangre. While my German is not particularly good, I can follow the first couple scenes pretty well. The diction of the singers is excellent, in the recitative and spoken parts, and I know the Spanish text very well, needless to say. "Dein Vater... Blut..."  "Das Madschen ist gut, nicht war?" "Niemals."  Ganz alein.   "Leonardo Félix"  "Felix?!!" 

The second scene, I don't understand as well. There are two women, so it must be La mujer y la suegra de Leonardo. Now I am hearing the lullaby. "Mein Kind..."  Now Leonardo enters. Very strong, masculine baritone. "My cousin..." [Leonardo's wife and La Novia are cousins]. 

This is really a comp lit project!  Earlier today I was listening to something in Italian. Unfortunately I am not an opera guy. 

Yerma

 I decided to give Villa-Lobos's opera a chance. I found a copy of the CV very cheap, just through a little extra searching. I still don't know where to put it in the book. Does that mean I have to include another opera or two?  Or maybe I can get away with making it a marginal part of some other chapter. 

The Paradox of Narrative Music

 I'm coming across this paradox: works of narrative music, say, that follow the story of a Lorca play, but do so mostly wordlessly. The paradox (if you want to call it that) is that the music itself (often) lacks narrative. In other words, you could play it for someone and they wouldn't be able to tell you what is happening. 

I'm coming across more and more instrumental music, and it is difficult to talk about because you don't have the anchor of the text, as you do with a song setting. Or rather, you do have that anchor, but the listener is not seeing the text.  

It's a bit like Bodas de sangre of Saura, where the only words performed are some of the "arias," if you like; none of the dialogue. Dance, or pantomime, takes the place of dialogue. 

Dream of Incompetence / Dream of lachrymose song

 I was trying to use an electric coffee maker and couldn't figure out where to pour the water. I poured cold water from the sink directly into the filter holder with coffee already in it. A typical dream of anxiety over competence.

Later, I was in a song-writer's workshop. Nobody knew I was there and so it was kind of a clandestine thing. I was lying in a sleeping bag on the floor and heard someone's song. I used the word "lachrymose" to myself. I sat up and applauded, even though I had found the song not particularly compelling. We were later sitting around, and someone asked me what wine I wanted. I got a glass of red wine filled almost to the top. 

A guy named Ted or Teddy was there, that we didn't like (me and unidentified woman with whom I was somehow in league. Teddy was there just to stalk us, so when he passed out we put him out on the deck. Then there was some weird seance sort of thing... We were worried about whether Teddy had harmed someone but a spirit told us that this person would live until 108 years old.

There is no I in team

 There is no I in team

but there is me, am,

ma, maam, mamma, 

mate, meme, tame, tam,

Matt, matte, mat. 

Meta is is team., too,

met, meat, meet, teem, tem. 

Ama, amat, Latin verbs for love

are in team,  but not I. 

I is not in team. Am not there. 

 

Impact statement

 We are required to submit a statement on how the pandemic has affected our work. And now the administration has the power to terminate unproductive people. Putting those two things together, it would be unwise to point to one's lack of productivity in a "Covid impact statement." This is the problem with the supposedly benevolent will of the institution. They have to take into account what you say in your statement for the annual evaluation, so they could go easy on you for that, but still fire you.  

The constant drumbeat of DEIB (with "belonging" the new term here) is also at cross-purposes to the new power of dismissal. Wouldn't the dismissal of a single tenured person in a protected category severely undermine all pretense of caring about diversity?