Lecture 11.27.07

2.24 The Stage is set. No sight of The Trox yet, but the anticipation in this room is ridiculous. We're back, turkeyed up, and ready for some Biblical scholarship.
2.26 Where is he? An unconfirmed source has told us that Troxel was not "burning the midnight oil" despite a late night email, but rather was in San Diego, preparing a talk on Isaiah in the Septuagint.
2.27 He enters. A (potentially new) blue winter jacket is being sported with his grey/black backpack, complete with umbrella in water bottle holder. He's sporting a very wintery "homesy" feeling cookies n' cream colored sweater with a wonderful zig zaggy design in the middle. It is wonderfully complemented by some grey khakis.
2.29 Projector on. He has a traditional "blue wave" macintosh desktop background up. My guess is that he ditched his traditional photo backgrounds for a more classic, professional look at the Biblical Scholarship party in California.
2.31 Lecture begins. Today we begin the third and final section (tear) of the Hebrew Bible: "THe Writings" Troxel refers to them as "a popery" of writings
2.33 Startin' with "The Psalms." which comes from the Greek word "Psalmoi" I think that is a lot more fun to say than "Psalms." Maybe I'll begin using this term more often. Kind of like how I use "grey" instead of "gray." Take that contemporary American English norms!
2.35 Troxel is outlining the characteristics of Hebrew Poetry. While the lecture material is nothing short of stellar, the colors are leaving something to be desired. Plain white background with dark blue text. But...Whoa! It matches his sweater so nicely! He planned this! He had to have! It's like he's a chameleon up there! He moves a little, in sync with the slide show, one with the projector. It has finally happened. Ron Troxel has become so in sync with Powerpoint that he has become an actual part of the slide show.
2.38 Troxel says "virtual absence" and for some reason it makes me think of robots. Robot Troxel would be awesome.
2.39 The characteristic of "Rhyme" has been X-ed out. It's looks like an episode of "THe Jamie Kennedy eXperience." You've been X-ed Rhyme, You've been X-ed.
2.40 To demonstrate cadence, Trox demonstrates with "dah dah dah dah dah dah dah dah" So rythmic.
2.41 Trox realizes that the lower blackboard is up slightly to high, so that part of his powerpoint is obstructed by it. He turns around while saying "Whoops. I'll fix that. and lowers the blackboard. How humble! By saying "whoops" he implies fault on his part, while it was clearly the blackboard's fault.
2.43 The T Man is breaking down Parallelism in Hebrew Poetry. Synthetic parallelism is being singled out right now, with a red circle around it. Based on what happened to "rhyme" when red last appeared, I wouldn't want to be synthetic parallelism right now.
2.44 Oh boy, parallelism has been labeled as "inaccurate" (in red). How has red become the bearer of bad news?
2.45 Man, the guy's really on his a-game today. When you look into his eyes you can tell that he means it. He could convince me that possums could talk right about now.
2.46 Possums would be terrifying if they could actually talk.
Troxel is name dropping like nuts. Maybe these are people that were at the Biblical scholarship party with him.
2.47 More red is appearing as we delve into the concept of "seconding", but I think red has resumed its role of highlighter rather than phrase-hitman.
2.49 "Is this clear?"
2.50 Here's a picture of Kanye West and Evel Knievil. It made me laugh.
2,51 The term "narrativity" has just been dropped. Twice. This is groundbreaking.
2.53 The background shifts to a more yellowy shade, casting an incandescent like glow over the classroom as Troxel begins his riveting narrative on "Psalms outside the Psalms"
2.57 An old friend appears on the screen as Troxel begins to incorporate yellow shaded boxes to highlight certain parts of the text. I feel like I'm at home.
2.58 The "cube" transition effect is used, reminding us that a third dimension exists. It's so easy to get caught up in Troxel's magical two dimensional presentations. Thanks for reminding us of the third, Trox.
2.59 Sometime between 2.53 and now we've shifted back to the straight up white background. Correction: While I felt it was a white background, Marc has informed me that there is indeed a "slightly marbled" texture in the background. Upon second look, I can confirm this. Also: while the projector may simply be slightly off, the text seems to have a slight "shadow" effect to it. You have to really concentrate to notice it, and when I concentrate on the text enough, I get a little dizzy.
3.02 My stomach and I seriously regret having a cup of black coffee with no food this morning.
3.03 Pinwheel effect into a yellow background-ed title slide for "lamentations" The contrast text color of choice seems to be a maroon, which complements the light yellow color splendidly.
3.05 There is a girl wearing a yellow sweatshirt in the second row that appears to be dead.
3.06 Forty nine minutes of battery remaining. Stupid battery. I need to send it in. Oh well, it should carry to the end of lecture.
3.07 OKay, we're back to the 2.53 yellow shade of background. I'm fairly certain that this is a textured yellow and white "cloud" pattern- but the lighting in the room is slightly to bright to truly discern what the understated background is. But still; it's the little touches like this that make Troxelectures so magical.
3.10 As Trox talks about an August 9th holiday, he slips and says August tenth- it's like he was thinking of my birthday! Does he know my birthday!? I bet he gives fantastic presents; like a Strong's concordance.
3.11 Coherence and flare is shown as he sticks to the "pinwheel" effect is used to transition to the title slide for "Esther" Interesting note of actual relevance: Esther is one of two books in the Hebrew Bible where God is not mentioned. The other? Song of Songs.
3.13 "The Story" appears, and Trox promises he will outline this story for us. I move to the front of my seat, waiting for him to pull out a large tome and rocking chair. It's hard to sit indian-style in these seats.
3.14 We're rocking some green italics here. He's also saying some horribly sexist things about men being the masters of there own houses and virgins being brought for evaluation. There's lots of sarcasm in his voice, but it's more fun to pretend he's serious.
3.15 Trox tells us to "tuck (a fact) in the back of your minds." until we come back to the subject later.
3.16 I'm very warm. I remove my scarf and roll up my sleeves. Surrounding students might mistake my sleeve rolling for intensity in doing actual work. Suckers.
3.18 We're entering "Act Two." This is a long story. Troxel uses the term "ridiculous proportions." I think that's a new one.
3.19 We're coming up on the power lecture barrier. A normal lecture would be finished in one minute, but we still have twenty five to go. Heads begin to nod...
3.20 It's like he sensed the barrier and broke it with some banter "...Those who are writing the blog aren't going to be particularly impressed with this as...(mic cuts out, begins talking loudly without amplification)... I'm going to pause to change my batteries, but...(mic turns back on, returns lav pack to his belt)..." I disagree. It was smooth, humorous, and suave. Instead of his typical seamless transaction, he brings attention to his debonairness with some casual banter.
3.23 While analyzing the past transaction, Troxel has dropped humorous terms such as "enjoying cocktails..." and "death schmeth." I think they're more funny out of context.
3.24 I did notice that when Trox mentioned the blog, many students looked at me. to maintain my secrecy, I may begin wearing a ski mask to class. It would be terrifying if I did that. I think I would cry if someone sat down next to me in lecture wearing a ski mask.
3.26 Trox calls Mordecai a jerk and Haman whiny.
3.27 The guys is just on fire. On fire. You can tell how much he loves this book. I feel like I'm in the story. He's blending in narrative, humor, puns, direct quotations; it's incredible. You just have to see it. All that's missing is character voices.
3.28 He's nearing "character voices" intensity, as his inflection is really getting into this story.
3.29 There's talk of costumes and noise makers.
3.30 He's about to tread Queen Esther's address. We're on the edge of our seats. He loves this. We love this. I wish I could live in this moment forever. The passion! The emotion! The narration! I'm going to say it: we've transcended Biblical scholarship. We're in something I like to call Biblical FUNarship.
3.32 Wow. I feel like I should clap. Give a standing ovation. And we're about to go into the final scene.
3.34 Story completed, conflict resolved, heart rate beginning to slow. Palms are still a bit sweaty. The term "cocktail hour" is displayed on the screen, humorously describing a scene from the story as he summarizes what we've just been over.
3.35 Man, around 3.18-3.19 I thought the lecture was dragging a bit. Then all of a sudden BAM battery change BAM blog reference BAM intense narrative. Time flies when you're analyzing Biblical texts with the Trox.
3.37 Still summarizing the narrative, energy has dropped a little bit in the room, but look at what I'm comparing it to. Despite stumbling over a word here or there, Troxel is still very much in the zone.
3.39 In case you were worried because of lack of mention, John Wylie is in the back of the room at his normal seat. He's okay, people.
3.41 In a rare moment, Troxel looks down at his lecture notes, possibly reading from them, for a duration of nearly ten seconds. Pace and inflection are not altered. If visual confirmation was not made, I would not have known or believed it myself.
3.43 We're racing to sum up Esther in the next two minutes.
3.45 I'm concluding now as my battery life is waning. What a day. He was on his A Game. All I could do is sit in awe, aware that I am in the presence of a living legend.