First, I finally finished the raw draft of my presentation at the SBL meeting, “C’Mon Save Your Soul Tonight.” It’s still mutable; I expect to make significant changes and additions, so by all means help yourselves to offer feedback in the comments. (I’m leaving the post at the older address, since that address is listed in the SBL Call For Papers.)
Second, I’m now working on an article (principally) about the Mountain Goats’ recent album The Life of the World to Come; working title, “ ‘What These Cryptic Symbols Mean’: John Darnielle’s Allusive Hermeneutics.” This is a welcome opportunity, though not without its dangers. I can now rationalize all sorts of web browsing about Darnielle and his five-hundred song catalogue, interviews, live-performance banter, and so on. “No really, I’m doing research.” So my last.fm statistics suggest an obsessive fascination with the Mountain Goats, but that overstates my enthusiasm to a degree. I love the new album, I’m very impressed by Darnielle’s body of work, but honestly, I’m not five times more impressed with tMG than (say) the Beatles.
Anyway, it’ll be fun to put my love of music to work in a biblical-interpretive mode.
I’ve had a paper on Will Oldham in the pipes for a while now… I’ve been doing “research” for quite some time. 🙂