"Vanity of Vanities, sayeth the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is Vanity.  Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh."  - Ecclesiastes 1:2 and 12:12

 Famous Not Last Words:  Check out some prime words of wisdom my students and I have shared over the years.  From Geography and my Honors World Civ. class, to American Government and Beyond.  A bit of wisdom from everyone, including myself.

 Graduate Student Eggs: I can't call all of them gems.  Some are amusing.  Some are dense.  But these are the graduate student eggs I have laid while at UCSB.  Some of these (on Nietzsche, Heidegger, or Taussig) are specific responses and reactions to specific readings.  Others are more general, ranging from historical perspectives on theory (Sacred Space, Shoes, and Success), while others are simply narratives (Our Lady of the Rocks).  Enjoy!

Nietzsche's Twilight of the Idols - a two-page summary review (and interpretation) of Nietzsche's philosophy as expressed in his Twilight of the Idols.  The class was highly divided on my focusing on aesthetics as the touchstone of this brief, readable, but potentially cryptic work of Nietzsche.  It is followed by a comic primer on punctuation, using Twilight for reference.

The Role of Response in Nietzsche's Twilight of the Idols - a puzzler that  emerged in class as we discussed which Nietzsche would prefer: the thinking person or the reflexive and reactive one. 

My Midrash on Brett Esaki's Reinvention of Heidegger - aka Fun with Being and Time, presents fellow student Brett Esaki's take on Heidegger's imposing volume Being and Time and my take on Brett's take.

My Taussig Museum - a one-page summary and critique of Michael Taussig's elliptical post-modern My Cocaine Museum.

Journal Our Lady of the Rocks - a brief journal of a vision site in southern California presenting the assembly of the crowd before the arrival of Maria Paula Acuna outside of California City on March 13th, 2008.

Naked Boots - is the version of my "These Boots weren't made for Walkin'" which is an examination of the argument between art historian and curator critic Meyer Schapiro and the art-philosophical views of Martin Heidegger set forth in his "On the Origins of the Work of Art".  It is the "Naked" Version because I have not yet placed the images which accompany the text on the web-page.

 A Chain-Saw Opera: I've written an opera, based on a myth found in Ovid's Metamorphoses: Erysichthon.  You can read it as a word document here.  Or you can view it scene by scene (select below).  It was a several-years' effort, begun in 1992 with the help of Jef Dinkler.  Jef has written an alternative prologue to Erysichthon.  We sketched out the basic plot and then took turns writing dialogue for Act I.  I showed it to an English professor at SDSU who immediately (and appropriately) criticized it for the complete lack of love interest.  Jef and I revised, added in Solones' and Mestra's relationship (pandering actually adding a better sense of symmetry and tragedy) and completed the basic dialogue of Act I.  I then sketched out Acts II and III and began versifying them.  In 1993 I went to Spain and my English-writing skills took a major nose-dive so I put off all work on Erysichthon until I returned in 1995.  After a set of revisions and cuts cuts cuts, I hastily threw in a Narrator and produced the Readers' Theater Version which is here.  It is still a work in progress, but anyone wishing to perform it is welcomed to do so.  Contact me for information on obtaining the music.

Act I                                Act II                           Act III

Complete Version of Erysichthon here.