W&L - Princeton - Yale (2011) Summer Summary

Yale Law School
After the initial meetings of largely international group of law graduate students, there was a reception for everyone at the law school. I managed to get into some of the photos.

New Haven
Moved into my apartment in 360 State Street in New Haven in August. Pretty cool place, I have to say.

Great view from the bedroom, too.

Eventually managed to decorate the apartment a bit.

Galway
Finally made it over to Ireland to see my family in Galway, including my grandparents and uncles and aunts and cousins. The Arts Festival was in full swing, and I was determined to get to a number of events.

I went with my mother to hear Emma Donoghue on July 20 reading from her Booker-nominated and best-selling novel, Room, at the Hotel Meyrick (previously the great Southern Hotel), the town's oldest hotel.

I also went with my mother to see Cork-born actor Cillian Murphy in a one-man play, "Misterman," written by Irish playwright Enda Walsh, at The Black Box theatre. No photography was allowed during the show; this is Cillian taking a bow.

I went with my father to "The Devil's Spine Band," a rather bizarre dance and music performance that was very loosely based, if one can even say that, on Oscar Wilde's lecture tour of the U.S. The musicians were excellent, however. Here is a clip that gives some sense of the performance.

England
In July I flew to London and visited my sister and her family in Cambridge. They rolled out the welcome mat for me. My niece had not seen me since the previous summer, because they were unable to make it over for Christmas.

I then took a train to St. Anne's College, Oxford, where I attended the annual meeting of the British Society for Ethical Theory. One of the keynote speakers was Susan Wolf, from UNC Chapel Hill.

After that I visited my other sister in London, who was expecting her first child, although still working at her law firm. Their apartment in South Kensingnton had been redecorated and looked great. I also went shopping in nearby Harrods. Window-shopping, that is.

Princeton
Once again I relocated to Princeton for the summer, and stayed in the same apartment on Nassau St., in Palmer Square, with a view of Princeton University.

I worked in the seminar room of the Philosophy Department in Marx Hall.

I used Princeton as a base. I drove to New Haven to look at apartments, and went to New York to help my friend move into his apartment in Brooklyn, and flew to Europe from Newark airport.

Graduation

On Wednesday May 26th I welcomed graduating seniors and their families at the Philosophy Department reception. I gave a speech about our "bittersweet" year in which we lost both retired colleague Chuck Boggs ('66) and philosophy students Granvil George ('11) and Mark Harris ('13), and saw Lad Sessions retire from teaching, but also completely revamped the philosophy department curriculum, and tenured and promoted colleagues Melina Bell and Nathaniel Goldberg. I awarded prizes to the majors, including two completely new prizes. The Charles Thomas Boggs Prize in Philosophy was awarded for the first time, and the William Wells Chafin Memorial Scholarship was awarded for the first time to students who took part in the Ethics Bowl intercollegiate debate competition earlier that year. I also handed out graduation tee-shirts to students who had completed the online exit interviews.

The following day was graduation ("Commencement") itself, which afforded me the chance to wear my Duke robes and get photographed with minutes-old graduates.

Music
I did not have to teach a course in the Spring Term, for the first time since I started teaching at W&L (excluding my leave year in 2006-7). Although I was occupied with putting together my promotion file and organizing my move to the New Haven, I managed to find the time to make it over to Charlottesville to see two musical acts.

The first was the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, who played at The Jefferson on May 10. Spencer played the gig in leather pants, and looked fantastic. I sat further back for most of the concert, but came up close to the edge of the stage towards the end, and shot some footage of him as he finished up. It came out quite well, I thought.

I did get to meet Spencer after the show. I talked to him about the use of the song "Help These Blues" in the tv commercial for the Jaguar XK, one of my favorite car commercials. I also got him to autograph one of his cd's.

The next band I went to hear in C'ville was the legendary ZZ Top, who played at The Pavillion on May 31st. I watched ZZ Top's movie videos as a teenager in Ireland on the Saturday morning round-up of music videos known as Music Television USA, produced and hosted by the late, great, and sorely missed Vincent Hanley, or "Fab Vinny," Ireland's very first "VJ" (video jockey). Perhaps the best of those ZZ Top music videos was the one for "Gimme All Your Lovin'" (taken down from YouTube for copyright reasons). I could hardly believe that, many years later, I was watching them play this famous song.