Oxford Conference

I'm still in Oxford but leaving tomorrow for London to spend three days looking at museum and private art collections. The conference in Oxford was one of the best I have ever attended. The model for the conference is new to me but I believe it works. More on that later......and some photos......

On the Road Again......

Here I am once again sitting in the Business Class lounge at Terminal 7 - JFK. No, I don't fly Business Class. I just fly so much that they always let me use the lounge - free food, free drinks, etc.

London is my next port of call. I arrive at 6:20 in the morning and then immediately catch the bus from Heathrow to Oxford. Most of the conference participants are already there enjoying the Oxford pub life. The conference starts at 2:30 tomorrow which will allow me a few hours sleep before lunch and the opening speeches and lectures. My paper is scheduled for Friday afternoon. The title "Traditional Tibetan Art: Moving Beyond Iconography & Religion." It is actually an updated version of a paper I gave in Beijing this past October. The Powerpoint presentation is full of great art with most of it unpublished. I have also added recently discovered paintings from my last trip to Chengdu and Beijing in March/April.

I don't think I have been back to Oxford since 1970. It has been a long time. The Ashmolean Museum has re-opened and hopefully I will get a chance to see some of their Tibetan paintings. Amy Heller just recently published a book highlighting the Ashmolean's Tibetan sculpture collection. Still, it is the paintings that are of primary interest for me.

Sitting at YVR

Well, once again waiting in the lounge at YVR heading back to JFK. The last time I was here was in January just after Captain Underwear was foiled while attempting his dastardly deeds. Security was tight back then, very tight. The only thing missing in January, aside from no carry-on, was a strip search to accompany the very physical pat-down. But here we are, again, at YVR. I asked at check-in if I had to surrender my small carry-on back. They said no, "no problem" was the response. I approached security not knowing really what to expect. Nothing, nothing was what I got. Disappointed, well yes, I had built up expectations, expectations that I believed were valid, rational and based on prior experience combined with mass media news hysteria - mostly American. Was I wrong to have these feelings and expectations of intensified security and scrutiny? Well, apparently the neurosis is all mine! I was whisked through security quite quickly, there was no line. My bag, which really wasn't that small, seemed to fly through the screening machine and arrived on the other side before me - no double pass, no prolonged examination of the contents on the screen which even the addled traveler can catch a glimpse of. What happened, what did happen? Whatever happened, I don't know! I don't know what it meant when they had the news coverage day and night of the Underwear Bomber. I don't know what the different security agencies were talking about and announcing as official statement after the event. And, I realize now that I don't care and don't want to hear about it anymore. I grew up with the Three Stooges and the Marx Brothers. Back then we new it was make believe but I think now a days people can't make those distinctions as easily as they could in the past.

What I would like is that the burden of security be placed on the backs of the security agencies and not on the travelers. If those security agencies can't figure out what they are doing, what tone they are setting, and what instructions they are giving to us, then how are we supposed to know?