The Mainly Annual EastWesterly Review / Postmodern Village Conference 2011

Willie Loman and the Ayurvedic Power of Being Well (but not Well Liked)
by Art Weiller

Attention must finally be paid to Weiller's counter-example of Miller's (in)famous (anti)heroic everyman. The balance, calm, poise, represented by Uncle Charley is certainly admirable in these days of uncontrollable market fluctuations, but Charleying as therapeutic practice seems a bridge-pose too far. The Hap Loman Sutra provided a comic coda, though, but the flute music throughout was a bit of a distraction.

The Guiding Price: Market Valuation, the GDP, and Soap Operonomics: a Convolution
by Luke N. Laura

As soap operas collapse due to lack of perceived economic viability, perhaps a grand substitution is underway: replacement of the intentional complexities of plotting that are soaps with the intentional convolution of intent that is the stock market. Who needs the fictive machinations of Victor Newman when you can have the real machinations of Goldman Sachs?

Hercules Monochrome: The Fanfic Scene – or Mythology as Meta-For, a Reific Desperation
by Joseph "wolvereen23" Campleton-Lucas

So it has come to this: an amateur online adaptation of our foundational mythology compounded with fantasy wish-fulfillment, purple prose, poor usage, questionable punctuation, and a melodramatic flair? While we enjoyed the Xtranormal animations of these tales, we believe that tradition deserves at least a modicum of respect. Sometimes folkways are best not left up to just any-old folks.

Fellinnious Monk: Jazz, Cinema, Meditation and the Avant-garde, a Concert in Three Reels
by Lady Rothsphere Messina

Messina's entrancing presentation combined surreal autobiographical imagery with contemplative space and masterful keyboarding in a way that made us want to vow silence and retreat from the rest of the conference. But the constant improvisation made us lose track of the theme. After 8½ hours things finally wrapped up ‘round midnight, but no matter how sweet the life represented, it still left our satyrical spirits feeling light blue.

The Erectrick Company: Physical Precocity, Infantalization, and "The Talk," a Primer for the Disengaged
by Dr. Drew Elders-Comfort, MD

If it looks like kids are getting older and older younger and younger, Elders-Comfort has an explanation. If that makes you narratologically uncomfortable, he's got a solution: apply where they are physically to where they are emotionally with a little help from the CTW. But then, we always really learned it in the streets?now it's just Sexame Street.