Month: May 2025

Rene Magritte at the Baker Museum in Naples

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René Magritte might not be a household name, even though you might have his iconic Ceci n’est pas une pipe print hanging in your room or have seen his images many times.

Magritte (1898-1967) was a Belgian surrealist painter known for his amusing but ingenious surrealism, the body of a man in a suit with an apple for a head, the pipe painting, and so on.

On a recent trip to Naples (the Florida one), I had a bit of time in between meeting friends, so I snuck into the Baker Museum (which I write about here).

The Magritte exhibition was admittedly small, with just half a dozen paintings sandwiched inside a much bigger exhibition about the Everglades and its environment. But it was still worthwhile and beautiful to sit down for a while and contemplate these paintings that make you think about the metaphysical.

Magritte: Reflections of Another World comprises six paintings — five oils and one gouache — by Belgian artist René Magritte (1898-1967). Renowned for his witty Surrealist paintings of everyday objects in strange surroundings, Magritte preferred that his artworks remain mysterious and open to interpretation. These works are from the collection of Jean Van Parys, a collector of avant-garde art and a close friend of Magritte, and they are on a five-year loan to Artis—Naples, The Baker Museum from Van Parys’ daughter. The paintings have never previously been shown in North America, and none have exhibited publicly in over 48 years. Baker Museum

Tokio Ramen, my obsession with noodles

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One of the recurring topics of this blog is food. I have written about paella, American breakfasts, sushi, pizza, and now noodles. Noodles in all their great Asian versions have been a relatively recent discovery for me, but I love them.

This is a bit embarrassing, but it might have been my old friend Theo who took me to Wagamama’s in London in the 90s, not the most authentic experience, but enough to get me hooked!

The beauty of noodles is that a bowl of noodles is a full meal in one serving. You have soup, noodles, some proteins, some veggies, and a perfect meal.

Boynton Beach has a few great noodle venues, with Tokio Ramen being right down the street from me, so I go with some regularity. It is run by an older, cute Japanese couple who also sell some Japanese candy and sodas. But the star is noodles. They come in different broths, with different proteins, eggs, pork, etc., paired with a Japanese beer, you have the perfect meal. The place is simple, nothing fancy, but it does not need bells and whistles, it has phenomenal ramen, which is really all you need! It is reasonably priced and did I mention they have Japanese beer?

If, like me, you are a noodle aficionado, you must see the great Japanese film Tampopo about a ramen joint in Tokyo!

What is your favorite type of noodles? And your favorite noodle restaurant?

Teaching beyond the classroom; a night at the opera.

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If you are a teacher, you are not only teaching your subject matter: you are teaching your behavior, your attitude, your presentation. More importantly, you are teaching your whole field. So, if you are teaching a science, then you are teaching the whole scientific method. In my case, I am not only teaching language, but I am also teaching culture, diversity, and the humanities.

With this excuse, the Philosophy faculty and I recently arranged a field trip to the Palm Beach Opera’s Marriage of Figaro. It was fantastic. For most of the students (if not all), this was their first time at the opera, and they were pleasantly surprised. The key takeaway is that the students appreciate a new art form for them, understanding the beauty of art. Especially an art where the artist is the instrument, so no two can ever be the same!

Unlike, say, The Magic Flute, Mozart does not have any blockbuster songs in this opera, but the whole thing is very melodious and easy to enjoy. The story is funny but moralistic -this is the Enlightenment after all! So the students were never bored; they were able to enjoy the story and the music. Coincidentally, we had just studied the Enlightenment in class, reading Benito Jeronimo Feijoo, so to see the students making connections is extremely rewarding. Mission accomplished.

If you have a chance to have your students make connections outside the classroom, across different fields, let them rip! You are welcome.

Here are two of my favorites, Cecilia Bartoli and Renée Fleming, doing one of the more famous duets:

About academic conferences, the Southeast Coastal Conference on Languages and Literatures.

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With Martha, Encarni, and Grant from UNC

Academic conferences were designed to share knowledge, to understand where your field stands, and where it is heading. But equally important is the opportunity they afford to meet new people in your field and to catch up with old colleagues.

This was the case at the recent Southeast Coastal Conference on Languages and Literatures hosted by Georgia Southern in Savannah, Georgia.

It all started when Grant, my mentor at UNC, who now teaches at Georgia Southern with his wonderful Sevillana wife Encarni, invited me to present at their conference. I was honored; I had never been invited to attend a conference! I had always just submitted a paper to a conference I wanted to participate in. Fortunately, I was already working on an article (you will have to wait for a post on that), so I agreed to go.

Savannah is a great place; you can read about it here.

The fact that this conference combines languages and literature means that you can learn about different aspects of language pedagogy. The Keynote speaker, Mary Risner from the University of Florida, spoke about the resources available online and innovative pedagogies and partnerships. Other great panels spoke about the study abroad experience and how to maximize it and “replicate” it in class, and so on.

My panel was wonderful. Bobby Nixon from Columbus State spoke about Spanish 70s horror films based on Becquer’s poetry, Adrianne Woods presented about the theatre of Buero Vallejo, and I presented about my main man, Isla, and the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain.

But, as I mentioned earlier, the best part of conferences is reconnecting with old friends and colleagues. The evening’s reception was held at a great venue, a food truck plaza called Starland Yard. It was great to see dear friends from UNC and to meet new folks.

So, if you get a chance, write a paper and present it at a conference!! You are welcome.