Monthly Archives: June 2016

A Tale of Two Cults: Chapter 2

This time ’round the “cult” in focus is actually a “culture”.  I am headed to Bali to participate in a music arts festival.  No lie.

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In the first shot I believe we see the backs of both Alice and Logan, two members of my Gamelan orchestra.  The second shot is my gong. *My* gong.  Yep.

In about December of 2015 my dear friend Janelle invited me, for about the 10th time, to come to see her Gamelan group perform at Gettysburg College.  I happened to be free and I popped by…a nice way to spend some time knitting, I thought.  I. WAS. ENCHANTED.  Completely.  I even left my knitting bag on the floor of the auditorium and…LEFT IT THERE…I was so taken (I had to hunt it down days later at the Campus security office where they were somewhat amused by my stricken plea: I’ve lost my knitting and I hope you have it!  “Ma’am…we don’t get much knitting in the lost and found so you can be sure we still have it here.”

Anyway, that day in December (or November…whatever) I took off my shoes and made my way on to the stage after the concert and just gaped.  I HAD to play this music.  The professor in charge, Dr. Brent Talbot, said “sure” (actually, he screamed from across campus, “Kris!  Are you in?”  My kind of guy!).  I started playing with them every Friday starting in January and I cannot imagine a better way to end a week.

Now, everyone needs to understand I have NO MUSIC BACKGROUND except I like to listen to it.  Mostly alt rock and folk rock with a few musical theatre show tunes (who am I kidding: with A LOT of musical theatre show tunes).  I don’t know a note from a hole in the ground.  I can sing Do Re Me from the Sound of Music.  Except for the occasional church choir I never had a music class IN MY LIFE.  And I think everyone in the orchestra will admit I am the “weak link”…but they are all so good natured about my sincere attempts to learn it.  I am determined not to be an embarrassment.

When it was announced that the troupe would travel to Bali this summer to participate in a music arts festival I immediately jumped in.  Got a new passport (it had been THAT long since I’d had international travel), a few immunizations, a travel cpap machine…I am all set to go.  I’m not sure how easy it will be to document the trip while we are there…but I’ll try.

And guess what ELSE???  I’m totally going to document the religious and spiritual aspects of the culture and the music and create a lecture for my Psychology of Religion and Spirituality class.  I understand there are Hindu temples galore on the island and I hope, hope, hope I can take photographs!

Bon voyage!

A Tale of Two Cults: Chapter 1

Last time, dear reader, I reported I would be following up about the next set of plans in my life that promised to ring in more crazy.  Today’s episode: AP Psych crazy.  And by that I mean Advanced Placement Psychology Exam reading:

AP Psychology

My dear friend, Caitlin, is a reader for the Advanced Placement exam in psychology.  This is the exam for high school students who take an advanced class and hope to get college credit by scoring a particular score on a standardized test.  Caitlin shows up for a week every year and grades exams until she needs a new eyeglass prescription.  And this year she convinced me that this was EXACTLY what I needed to do to round out my academic year.  (She was only able to compell me because I was motivated by the money, needing to fund a certain excursion that will be detailed in the next installment.)

So last Thursday afternoon she and I boarded a plane and flew to Louisville, Kentucky…on the self-same day that the fine city buried its hometown hero (Mohammed Ali: it was an honor to witness the thousands who came to pay respects)

Mohammed Ali

We arrived too late to get tickets to the memorial service but the testimonials were broadcast on outdoor televisions all around our hotel and conference site.

It wasn’t too long until I realized that I was being inducted into a freakin’ CULT!  Seriously…all the cult indoctrination techniques were in evidence.  Taking a group of relative strangers to a place outside their normal environment; restricting their access to media by insisting we actually TURN OFF our phones during the eight hours we are cloistered into frigid rooms lit only with horrid florescents; surrounding us with hyper-enthusiastic leaders/cheerleaders whose job it is to keep us in line and ALL GRADING THE EXACT SAME WAY.  A cult!  Wait until I tell my students…

But along the way I met with some really cool high school AP teachers whose devotion to their profession/students is without compare.  I found an old friend from more than 20 years ago who is also a grader (“reader” — we’re actually called “readers”).  I played my first game of Cards Against Humanity (and I was pretty darned good at it!)  Several of my “young” friends tease me UNMERCIFULLY because I keep calling it Crimes Against Humanity.

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We’re trying to take really good care of ourselves (hydration, sleep, protein) because, my people, this work is GRUELING.  The effort that goes in to eight hours of focus, consistency, alignment with the rubric, etc., does not permit staying up to close down the bar or subsisting on donuts and Snickers bars.

More evidence of my entry into a cult?  Secret handshakes in the form of honorary titles for various roles: *I* am an “acorn” (a first-year).  “Aliens” are people who can plow through piles of essays with superhuman speed and maintain excellent consistency scores (oh yes, we are being evaluated on our evaluations).

Will I do this again next year?  I haven’t decided.  Dinner last night with five really great people, most of whom were new to me, at a fabulous Southern Smokehouse, after a day putting in REAL work was pretty fabulous.  Let’s see how the next three days pan out…

The End (and the Beginning) of Crazy!

Had a bit of a blog lapse due to the end of the academic year craziness and currently experiencing a lapse due to beginning of summer craziness.  Will it not stop?!?  Let us itemize:

End of academic year: after the final push to get any papers out before tenure review I was reminded that, oh yeah, I have STUDENTS I’ve been ignoring!  Grade, grade, grade the work that piled up; prep, prep, prep them for their end of term projects/papers/presentationsCopies 05 27 2016 852Evaluate said work; turn in grades; celebrate:

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Crash from exhaustion (but still answer their emails inquiring about said grades).  And, naturally, graduate some of them:

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Finally, get that presentation ready for the conference and, oh, it might be nice to make flight and hotel reservations.

Next up: what ensued in the post graduation frenzy.  Hint: it involves this:

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Til next time, where upon all mysteries will be resolved!