Life on Mars

Correction. In my last post I mentioned that Kat would be on BBC Radio 4. I was mistaken. We had faulty information. She was on BBC Radio Leeds. Here is the link to the show with the segment in which she is interviewed about the Hyde Park Picture House project. Her segment begins at 2 hours and 23 minutes into the show, so you will need to fast forward a bit. You'll also need RealPlayer. I don't know how long this will be available. Probably only for the next 24 hours. So go and listen.

When the Levee Breaks

I have double the good news to announce. Yesterday saw me discharged from the hospital about the same time my sister was being admitted to give birth to my new nephew, Landon Edward Cuevas, who came into the world at 2:59 PM Central Daylight Time (Greenwich Daylight Time -0600), weighing in at 7lb 11oz and 21" long. Welcome and happy birthday Landon! I can't wait to meet you. Congratulations Joelle and Scott!

So, yes, I said I was discharged from the hospital. I was supposed to be spending this week helping excavate a Roman villa in Norfolk. My appendix had other plans. He wasn't a happy fellow. Last week he became inflamed, causing me much abdominal pain. He was sneaky though, and didn't show any other signs that he wanted to be separated from me, such as nausea or diarrhea. Then Friday evening he threw a fit, creating some of the most severe pain I've ever experienced, at which point I decided it was a good idea to go to the Emergency Room of Leeds General Infirmary. I was admitted, and Saturday afternoon, around 2 o'clock, the surgeons sucked out my appendix and stomped that puppy flat. This was the first time in my life I was admitted to hospital as a patient. I made it 30 years in life without experiencing the joys of being a hospital patient, the wonderful cuisine, sharing a room with 5 other sick people, the courtesy of leaving a light on for you all night, and the hourly visits from the nurses to poke you and squeeze you to make sure you're still alive. I hope I make it another 30 years before I am lucky enough to be admitted to hospital again. I'm recovering well though. My stomach has three holes in it from the laparoscopy, and is a bit tender and sore, but I'm quickly regaining my strength. I intend to spend the next few days surfing the net or parked on the couch watching westerns and samurai films (I am rarely at home alone with enough time to watch the films that Kat doesn't like to watch). Needless to say, I won't be digging trenches or lugging buckets of dirt anytime soon.

In other news, Kat will be on BBC4 Today programme tomorrow morning around 8:30AM talking about her book project on the Hyde Park Picture House. Tune in! If you don't live in an area where your radio picks up BBC4, then use the listen again feature on the website.

Call for papers: Saints in the City

Special Session at the International Medieval Congress

University of Leeds, 9-12 July 2007

To complement the theme of the 2007 International Medieval Congress, Medieval Cities, I am organising a special session devoted to the relationship between saints and cities. For example, early Christian saints sometimes shaped the geographic evolution of medieval cities. Early saints’ cults often developed around the tombs of martyrs; therefore shrines were constructed in cemeteries that lay outside Roman towns. These shrines occasionally became the nuclei around which churches expanded, with communities in turn developing around them. This shift away from the Roman centre of settlement is evident at, for instance, Bonn, Cologne, Xanten, Tours, and St Albans. This demonstrates just one aspect of possible associations between saints and urban centres.

I am seeking papers that explore not only the effect of saints on geography, but any aspect of the relationship between saints and cities in the early medieval period.

Please note that I am only organising a session proposal. The International Medieval Congress Programming Committee determines which sessions are accepted, and they usually make their decisions in November. It should also be mentioned that all session speakers and moderators at the International Medieval Congress are required to pay their own travel, registration, and accommodation fees. Information and applications for bursaries are available at http://imc.leeds.ac.uk/imcapp/Submit/BursaryApplicationForm.jsp.

Organiser: Michael Garcia, PhD Student, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds

Please send an abstract of no more than 300 words to Michael Garcia at saintsinthecity at googlemail.com by 1 September 2006.

The fourteenth International Medieval Congress will take place in Leeds, from 9-12 July 2007. For more information on the International Medieval Congress, go to http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/imc.

We Can Work It Out

I found this YouTube clip over at That Little Round-Headed Boy's blog. He posted it on his blog in order to counter the depressing events being reported in the news over the past month. If your faith in humanity needs to be restored, I encourage you to watch this. It's not Frank Capra, but is just as inspiring.

Back in Black

It’s been nearly two months since my last blog entry. What happened in that time that prevented me from chronicling my life in this highly anticipated blog? Did I fall off the face of the earth? Was I kidnapped by pirates (again)? Whisked away by the sole-surviving Time Lord and taken on adventures through space and time? Or is that that my life has been so mind numbingly dull that I haven’t had anything to write about. Nope. None of these is true. On the contrary, I’ve been so busy I haven’t had time to blog. I went to Iceland for a week. I returned in time to work ridiculously long hours at the International Medieval Congress, and had enough time after that to recuperate for a visit from my sister, brother-in law and nephew, their first trip to the UK.

Iceland was absolutely fantastic. I won’t go into detail now. I plan on transcribing my notes from the trip to this journal in the near future. In the meantime, pictures from the trip can be viewed at www.flickr.com. I must also tell of the International Medieval Congress. Several interesting developments resulted from some contacts I made there. Furthermore, I just had some family visit me here in the UK, my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew. Each of these merits at least one bog entry each.

So last week was my first full week back in the Le Patourel room (the shared office of postgraduates in medieval studies). While I should have been busily working on my thesis and preparing for my next supervision meeting, I spent my time applying for jobs. Why? Because the contract for my last job ended on 31 July, and it wasn’t renewed. This is because it was decided that since several people would be leaving the office, it would be a good idea to combine several part time jobs into one nearly full time job. Unfortunately, I can’t spare more than a few hours a week away from thesis work, so I won’t be applying for the new position. I also cannot afford to not make any income, so I’ve been whoring myself out, looking for teaching opportunities at nearby universities, and also applying for jobs in the library here at Leeds. Wish me luck!

I also spent some time last week composing a call for papers for a session I am organising at next year’s International Medieval Congress. The session is titled ‘Saints in the City’. Yes it is a pun on ‘Sex in the City’, but it is also a reference to a Bruce Springsteen song. I’ve received a few replies so far, and I hope to get more. Maybe I’ll post the call for papers here soon.

By far, the strangest thing that has happened to me since my last blog is that I have lost my sense of taste. Yeah, I know I never had much taste to begin with, but what I’m talking about is my ability to taste food. It’s a very rare side effect of some medicine I was on. It’s been a very strange phenomenon and makes eating an entirely new experience. Everything tastes of cardboard and wax. Eating is reduced to a purely biological function. I went to the doctor, and he said it was okay for me to come off the medication. I am starting to notice the slow return of my taste buds.