Queer Bop Update 2:00am

Wadham Queer Bop

My determined effort to go and read in the library led me instead to Leonora, and from thence to my second, far longer, and more enjoyable encounter with the Queer Bop phenomenon. The Wadham Library is being used as a kind of warming and refueling centre, a storage depot, and – in the darker corners – a venue for more adventuresome activities. We did not persist there long, but headed out boldly into this human wilderness.

As quite possibly the two most sober people in Wadham, Leonora and I wandered through the JCR Quad area, immersing ourselves several times in the tent that was the nexus of all light, sound, and activity in Wadham tonight. By the time we were there, some of the energy density had dissipated; it was more of a throng and less of a crush and consequently rather more enjoyable. Additionally, having at least a good portion of the attention of another person makes these sorts of experiences far more comprehensible and enjoyable for me. I even made a few awkward and pathetic attempts at dancing, as well as getting to serve as the base of one of the two-person amalgamations that swerve around to “Free Nelson Mandela” at the end of Wadham bops.

While all manner of interesting things took place tonight, this blog is not the venue for all stories. Moreover, if I am to have anything at all to edit with Bryony tomorrow night, the rest of tonight will have to be devoted to producing it. In any case, my thanks go to Leonora for helping me to perceive the bop in something much closer to its proper light. To have not done so would have been a betrayal of the basic imperative to experience and understand life.

Sorry about how grainy the above photo is. This is what happens when you set the ISO equivalent on the A510 to 400. Not such a bad effect, once in a while, but the ones in the 10:30 update are better. Once I have sorted the potentially publishable photos from those better confined to encrypted disk images, some more of them will appear online.

11 thoughts on “Queer Bop Update 2:00am”

  1. ‘Leonora’ isn’t an extended form of the much-aforementioned ‘Nora’ is it?

  2. Decidedly not. Leonora Arieh is a Wadham alumna in mathematics and philosophy. She is one of the colony of Wadham students who live on Cowley Road.

  3. Not so well. I’ve had to go back and do a lot more reading. In turn, that means I will need to re-write much of the China essay. I absolutely must have a draft done before I go to sleep tonight. I should also have a solid near-draft of the AmFoPo paper.

    Ah, the glamorous life of the quasi-procrastinatory graduate student.

  4. I bet the Wadham librarians will be happy to see whatever detritus has been left behind by bop participants. Library as extension of party is a usage that definite contradicts my conception of Oxford.

  5. thanks for stopping by my blog earlier this week.
    But you should know – Balliol is where you want to be for a Bop. Wadham just has the bright lights….

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