![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
keryxOr so people keep telling me. Northampton actually was lovely on Sunday before we left, but that's because I apparently can shift from thinking 50=freezing to 50=lovely in a day.
I jotted a lot of notes during presentations (not all the notes were related to the presentations) that will become blog posts that actually address fat and academia later. For now, you'll just get this: We left Richmond sometime after seven Thursday night, and ended up driving until we felt near passing out, which turned out to be in Connecticut a scant two hours from Noho, at four in the morning.
Driving along the edge of New York that late at night was striking - the city really did feel asleep, like I'd never seen it before. The strange weight of that kept us awake later.
In the morning (by which I mean "at one in the afternoon") we huddled around my laptop in the hotel lobby to finalize our music choices (made in the car the night before - generally not my preference) and block out our set. [Side note to those who saw us perform: tribal (belly)dance is improvised with a leader and followers; we work from a core movement vocabulary, but exactly what movements are coming are cued by the leader - only the general floor pattern is planned out in advance. We didn't choreograph that set in two hours; we planned a leader/follower structure.] Then we drove on, stopping at a Typical Northeast Diner (aka a restaurant that serves nearly any basic American meal you can imagine 24 hours a day, as opposed to a Proper Southern Diner, which serves breakfast and pie all day and other things at certain times) for lunch.
I have to say, I was really impressed with the effort the Size Matters women put into the whole conference. It was relatively loose and flowing, and they still kept on top of things and seemed to enjoy themselves, too. The only possible complaint I'd have is that it turns out we're too old for sleeping on the floor at a college - but that's just something I didn't realize until we'd already done it.
Friday night![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
susanstinson kicked things off with her adorable self and poetry. Kathleen Lebesco read a presentation about queer/fat political tactics. We danced. The fabulous drag kings performed. Our early Friday evening experience was weird, though - even when we asked people direct questions, the only folk who talked to us were the Smithies. We initially concluded that this meant yankees are mean, but the reaction Nikita (who is fat like me) & I got when Petunia (who is "average" built) wasn't around the next morning was totally different. I think there may have been an element - in a room half composed of people who see each other regularly at conferences and shit and half of strangers - that no one would talk to strangers who brought a Thin Person with them. Not entirely weird, I guess.
Saturday morning was Paul's sharp and delightfully not academic presentation about the role of blogging in the fat movement, about which I appropriately took the most "must blog this" notes (including something that says cryptically "MySpace: school Paul?"). We had lunch at the (G)Haymarket, which was a much-needed wholesomeness break after roadtrip food and pizza from the day before. Came back formermeydele's presentation on image and Fat Girl/Size Queen. The biggest surprise there was the general lack of "but, that's porn! are you sure it's art history?" questions from the audience. I expect someone to have something to say in that respect when any group of feminists meet, and certainly many of The Fat are also feminist, neh? It wasn't a discussion that would have been totally relevant to the plot anyhow, which is why I didn't go there myself (well that, and I felt inexplicably outnumbered all weekend), but I do think I'll blog more on this idea later. Pattie Thomas closed out Saturday night with another thought-provoking speech where I also took a lot of notes.
Saturday night we had sushi, ice cream and dancing withhope_persists, which made us all love the Noho despite its assfreezing talents. Much fun was had (and yes, we did go to whatever that ice cream place was that everyone said to go to - I had burnt sugar & butter ice cream with almond hot fudge and gummi bears). Then we stayed up more or less all night talking about the intersections of movements and prejudice, kinda riffing off the idea that Petunia might be unwelcome or at least relegated to a bystander role based on her appearance, but swinging much wider too.
Which is why we didn't make it to the Sunday portion of the conference - we slept through Paul Campos' talk (shame, as I was looking forward to it) and were planning to leave town early to finish our New England tour in Boston before heading home. Because we love spending 13 hours in a car! Rock! But we did grab some tasty iced hot chocolate at Burdick's (who are also now sending my parents an Easter basket, it was that good), official Noho pride stuff for those who couldn't make the trip but really wanted to, and another Gaymarket lunch before riding off.
I hate driving in Boston. But we figured out how to get to Brookline eventually, and had a great dinner with the artist formerly known as Rev. Then the roadtrip started up again, with much hilarity and the cursing of Boston and masshole drivers in general, as well as the blessing of the woman who finally steered us correctly to the highway. People in Boston don't know how to get to their own highways! Amazing.
We got back to Richmond at 7 after a fabulously traffic-less drive (you can't see much at night, but wow is the traffic easier), I got home at 8, slept till 3 and am now 100% screwed up sleep-wise. But it was worth it; fun and food for thought almost always are.
I jotted a lot of notes during presentations (not all the notes were related to the presentations) that will become blog posts that actually address fat and academia later. For now, you'll just get this: We left Richmond sometime after seven Thursday night, and ended up driving until we felt near passing out, which turned out to be in Connecticut a scant two hours from Noho, at four in the morning.
Driving along the edge of New York that late at night was striking - the city really did feel asleep, like I'd never seen it before. The strange weight of that kept us awake later.
In the morning (by which I mean "at one in the afternoon") we huddled around my laptop in the hotel lobby to finalize our music choices (made in the car the night before - generally not my preference) and block out our set. [Side note to those who saw us perform: tribal (belly)dance is improvised with a leader and followers; we work from a core movement vocabulary, but exactly what movements are coming are cued by the leader - only the general floor pattern is planned out in advance. We didn't choreograph that set in two hours; we planned a leader/follower structure.] Then we drove on, stopping at a Typical Northeast Diner (aka a restaurant that serves nearly any basic American meal you can imagine 24 hours a day, as opposed to a Proper Southern Diner, which serves breakfast and pie all day and other things at certain times) for lunch.
I have to say, I was really impressed with the effort the Size Matters women put into the whole conference. It was relatively loose and flowing, and they still kept on top of things and seemed to enjoy themselves, too. The only possible complaint I'd have is that it turns out we're too old for sleeping on the floor at a college - but that's just something I didn't realize until we'd already done it.
Friday night
susanstinson kicked things off with her adorable self and poetry. Kathleen Lebesco read a presentation about queer/fat political tactics. We danced. The fabulous drag kings performed. Our early Friday evening experience was weird, though - even when we asked people direct questions, the only folk who talked to us were the Smithies. We initially concluded that this meant yankees are mean, but the reaction Nikita (who is fat like me) & I got when Petunia (who is "average" built) wasn't around the next morning was totally different. I think there may have been an element - in a room half composed of people who see each other regularly at conferences and shit and half of strangers - that no one would talk to strangers who brought a Thin Person with them. Not entirely weird, I guess.Saturday morning was Paul's sharp and delightfully not academic presentation about the role of blogging in the fat movement, about which I appropriately took the most "must blog this" notes (including something that says cryptically "MySpace: school Paul?"). We had lunch at the (G)Haymarket, which was a much-needed wholesomeness break after roadtrip food and pizza from the day before. Came back for
mermeydele's presentation on image and Fat Girl/Size Queen. The biggest surprise there was the general lack of "but, that's porn! are you sure it's art history?" questions from the audience. I expect someone to have something to say in that respect when any group of feminists meet, and certainly many of The Fat are also feminist, neh? It wasn't a discussion that would have been totally relevant to the plot anyhow, which is why I didn't go there myself (well that, and I felt inexplicably outnumbered all weekend), but I do think I'll blog more on this idea later. Pattie Thomas closed out Saturday night with another thought-provoking speech where I also took a lot of notes. Saturday night we had sushi, ice cream and dancing with
hope_persists, which made us all love the Noho despite its assfreezing talents. Much fun was had (and yes, we did go to whatever that ice cream place was that everyone said to go to - I had burnt sugar & butter ice cream with almond hot fudge and gummi bears). Then we stayed up more or less all night talking about the intersections of movements and prejudice, kinda riffing off the idea that Petunia might be unwelcome or at least relegated to a bystander role based on her appearance, but swinging much wider too.Which is why we didn't make it to the Sunday portion of the conference - we slept through Paul Campos' talk (shame, as I was looking forward to it) and were planning to leave town early to finish our New England tour in Boston before heading home. Because we love spending 13 hours in a car! Rock! But we did grab some tasty iced hot chocolate at Burdick's (who are also now sending my parents an Easter basket, it was that good), official Noho pride stuff for those who couldn't make the trip but really wanted to, and another Gaymarket lunch before riding off.
I hate driving in Boston. But we figured out how to get to Brookline eventually, and had a great dinner with the artist formerly known as Rev. Then the roadtrip started up again, with much hilarity and the cursing of Boston and masshole drivers in general, as well as the blessing of the woman who finally steered us correctly to the highway. People in Boston don't know how to get to their own highways! Amazing.
We got back to Richmond at 7 after a fabulously traffic-less drive (you can't see much at night, but wow is the traffic easier), I got home at 8, slept till 3 and am now 100% screwed up sleep-wise. But it was worth it; fun and food for thought almost always are.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-11 02:01 am (UTC)p.s. you guys so so rocked.
non sequitur
Date: 2006-04-11 03:24 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-11 10:36 am (UTC)Heheh - great to see you guys, looking forward to the additional notes.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-11 11:46 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-11 12:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-11 01:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-11 01:49 pm (UTC)(It's too bad about the "strangers with a Thin Person" thing. I noticed that when I took my sweetie to a naafa event. She isn't thin, but she wears about a size 18, and most of the folks at the event were a lot bigger.)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-11 03:58 pm (UTC)