"A Sea of C's" or "What I learned in New York"
New York City is laid out in a grid system. While this can make navigation and driving an easy task, it can also be extremely disorienting. This is one of the many things I learned on my recent trip to New York. As I previously, and briefly, posted, I attended the Conference for Collegiate Composition and Communication Convention (also known as anywhere between 4-28 C's).
Like I said, I learned a lot while in New York, and not just about composition and rhetoric. I also learned all about navigating a sprawling city, traveling via train, and other helpful things to keep in mind next time you plan to visit the Big Apple.
Lesson One: If you're not in a rush, take a train.
Before this trip, I had never ridden on a train before. I have watched movies that take place on a train, played the train level in GoldenEye 64 hundreds of times, and even wrote radio shows about trains... but never before had I experienced the thrill of sitting still for 9 hours.
I won't repeat what I said in a previous entry about train travel, but I will say that it's worth trying; at least if you're not in a hurry. It was nice to be able to sit back and read over 100 pages of a novel in one sitting (I'm currently working through the fantastic "World War Z" by Max Brooks). I was also able to play my DS, work on some things on my computer, and mess around with some crossword puzzles. But, if you live closer to an airport, especially one that is flying Jet Blue, you can get a plane ticket to New York for about the same price. Sure there is the added stress of an airport, but you'll get there a heck of a lot faster.
Lesson Two: Jon Stuart is the only type of parody.. I guess
The first panel I sat in on was about the study of parody as a proper form of writing. There was some stuff thrown in there about the various forms of rhetorical pedagogy, but really, the whole thing was about parody. I was rather let down by the panel when I saw that the only thing people really talked about was how great Jon Stuart was. He was proclaimed to be a genius while being one of the only stars of parody they mentioned.
The majority of the panel, along with the rest of the attendees in the room, were so enamoured with Stuart, that they failed to really discuss more than him. Slowly the entire discussion dipped into this sort of Bush-bashing Gospel service (maybe I'm exaggerating a bit... but still, it was silly). Meanwhile, I couldn't help but think to myself "What about 'The Onion?'" or the scads of other parody publications out there. Heck, for the sake of balance, why not talk about "The Half Hour News Hour" on FOX?
The lowest point in the panel was when someone in the audience made the claim that because Dennis Miller tells intelligent jokes, he should be telling liberal jokes--because clearly, liberals are high-brow academics. Everyone on the panel gave up this weird groan of approval, and I just rolled my eyes.
Lesson Three: Wear ear buds all of the time
The first thing I noticed about New York (which unfortunately lead me to an initial negative reaction) was the amount of people trying to talk to you. You can't walk down Time Square without someone coming up to you and telling you about some comedy show--because apparently they happen 24 hours a day. We also couldn't eat in a McDonalds without getting approached by someone asking for change.
At first I was shocked how anyone could live like this. How could anyone put up with being talked to by someone on every block? There are a lot of blocks in downtown New York! But then it hit me... they wear earbuds. I had the chance to spend a fair amount of time walking around New York, and the one thing that I noticed was that a ton of people wore earbuds. After all, they were talking about banning iPods on the streets of New York. Now I see that lawmakers don't understand why people wear the iPods in the first place! It's not so listen to kickin' jams (although that is a great side-effect), it's so that you can pretend to not hear people talking to you.
By the third day in to the trip, I was considering just putting in my earbuds and walking around. Not necessarily plugging them in to anything, but just having them on so that I could ignore the next guy trying to hand me free tickets to something.
Lesson Four: Grab Swag
As my adventures to C-PAC have taught me, it's all about the swag. Whether it's something as simple as a keychain or as grand as a bobblehead, it is your job to take it. The conference tells you that it's your job by giving you a tote bag. You would be doing a disservice to the conference and to the tote bag if you didn't grab all the swag you can.
4C's was no different. Their exhibit hall was a little smaller than C-PAC's, but it was filled with quality booths: book publishers. The publishers at the conference ran the gamut from small academic publishers to big time book sellers like Harper Collins and Penguin. When I first got there, I made the rounds, found a few cool freebies and signed up on some newsletter lists. I was most excited to see the Ayn Rand Foundation there (they were also at C-PAC). For a foundation that publishes a book called "The Virtue of Selfishness" they sure are willing to give stuff away! I got both "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Anthem," thanks to Karissa, along with a giant poster of Atlas. Totally awesome!
But the real prizes came on the last day of the conference. The exhibit hall closed at 2:00pm, and as noon rolled around, publishers were looking around at all the books they still had left. So they started slashing prices, or in some cases just giving them away! I instantly got in line at Harper Collins, who were giving away three free books per person. I was able to nab a Post Secret book, "To Kill a Mockingbird," and" Understanding Comics." Folks like Wesbter's were just giving away dictionaries, so I made sure to grab their "Crossword Puzzle Dictionary."
My colleagues on the trip made sure to get some sweet books as well... and when it was all said and done, we each had an extra bag to carry home.
Posted by MikeRubino at March 30, 2007 12:52 PM | TrackBack