"see this film, it only had one scene. my recollection fades - it may just have been a dream."

Hi, my loves.

So I am a little bit obsessive lately about my professors. How did they get to be professors? I wonder. How come they're so good at what they do? How can I get into grad school and then be a rocking professor? Out of curiosity, last week (due to an attempt to link to a Daniel Finch website in my last Jesus College blog post), I googled all my art professors to see if they had websites. I learned all sorts of things, like which professors have the same names as dead British earls, and which professors have the same name as famous movie stars. I even found some of the websites I was looking for.

I get excited when professors (like Matt Roth) have facebook. Or, if any of them kept blogs, I would so be there. Barring that, an attractive, cleanly designed professorial website is pretty rocking too. The art faculty does a pretty good job, although some lack current work, and some didn't have a website at all.

Compared to the English faculty, their websites positively rock my world. Of course, with words it is a little different, because by posting them on the internet you are technically publishing them, and with creative work that can lead to lack of later paying publication. However, I still think English faculty should have websites. They could provide links to publications in which their work appears, particularly if it appears in an online journal or magazine. They could indubitably blog, perhaps about their creative process or as a form of sketching, and their blogs would indubitably be well-crafted. They could provide a photograph of themselves and their curriculum vitae. English professors, however, should not design websites themselves (or, as I sadly discovered, they end up horrendously ugly).

So, here, for your enjoyment if you are curious, are a few of my favorites among professorial websites I discovered (these are, actually, the ones not under massive construction or lacking current work. . . um, and of course, they exist):

Ted Prescott (my favorite in terms of color and layout)
Dave Kasparek (This site has its quirks. . . but I love the ability to select a project and simply scroll through images of it on the right, versus selecting thumbnail images. Also, the sheer quantity of his work displayed here dwarfs anyone else.)
and Don Forsythe (I wish that it contained new work. . . but it is a little bit under construction.)

I am. . . waiting. Yes, waiting is a good word. Waiting and trying to clear my life so that when this semester starts there will not be things hanging over my head.