What you know

I don't usually write about academic stuff, since for most of you the ins and outs of Japanese literature in the Meiji period are of little to no interest. You're more interested in all the spicy goings-on in my life. Well, this post is no exception. I'm still not going to write about Japanese literature, and I'm also not going to write about all the spicy goings-on in my life, largely because there aren't any, really.

Kate and I went to see Blades of Glory last weekend. You know what to expect - anything with Will Ferrell in it tends to lower the horizon somewhat - though that said, I was actually pleasantly surprised by how it managed to actually be, you know, funny. Most of his stuff, aside from being plain dumb, just doesn't strike me as very funny, but I even managed a few belly laughs. It helps, perhaps, that ice dancing and the attendant world is inherently ridiculous - you can't go wrong, really.

The theatre was packed, too, and the film got a round of applause at the end, an act which strikes me as completely pointless, but there you go. One thing that did pique my interest was the trailer for Hot Fuzz, featuring what looks like the complete cast of Shaun of the Dead, one of my all-time favourite movies. I'm on it, soon as it comes out. How's that for a slice of fried gold?

I did also have a couple of JETAANY things this week, my first now that I'm officially president, including a Happy Hour at a pub named Galway Hooker on East 36th (apparently, it's a type of boat, though the staff drag about as much comedic value as is humanly possible - i.e., not a lot - out of the title). We got around 40 people in the end, including Mr. Fusco, who is now our co-Social Chair. Also the Consul for New Zealand to the US, who is apparently an ex-JET.

One thing that the evening did drive home was just how phenomenally powerful a networking tool this JETAANY lark is. I would never have heard of the scholarship if not for the organisation, and when I'm applying for the heavyweight ($30,000+) grants next year I think it might prove helpful, for the following reasons. Consider - one grant is administered through the Japanese Consulate, and I know many of the staff there, including the Consul himself. Or the Japan Foundation, which administers another grant. I'll be having dinner next month, courtesy of JETAANY, with the very woman who deals with the PhD grants, by a happy coincidence the field I'll be applying for. I'm fairly sure that can't hurt. Sometimes - and particularly in academia - it's not so much what you know...