Work

So here's a theater story, because I do still work there and occasionally things do still happen that make me feel good about myself (or at least that make me feel like I've spent two waking hours not doing physics).

Tonight was a reading (or rather a playing of a recording of a reading by Ginsberg) of Howl followed by a panel discussion. It was somewhat entertaining because the panel speakers were good, but mostly it was interesting as it was being protested by the Underground Literary Alliance which I hadn't previously heard of. I don't think ULA is really intended to be taken seriously, but they managed to be rude and disruptive while being unimaginitive and not especially funny. One guy was kicked out for heckling. There was another guy dressed up as a clown who snuck onstage and invited the panelists to silence him by attaching a mousetrap to his tongue... they passed on the opportunity. The audience was unimpressed. The guy was escorted out by security. Ostensibly, the point these people were trying to make ran along the lines of "this whole thing is really fake." But dressing as a clown and setting off a mousetrap on your tongue is completely sincere (and I'm sure no one has ever though of it before).

Conclusion - [some] humanities people supposedly have lives, but don't have anything useful to do with them.