Had a colloquium yesterday - plus an interesting "go-go dancer" story...

And it went rather well. Lots of nice feedback, even though I felt that I was unable to clearly state my position at some points - it's that 3:30 slot - forever associated with the dreaded syntax class at Berkeley. Anyway, in terms of other difficulties during the presentation, the colloquium room has (almost) always been fraught with technical problems... My presentation was no exception.

Anyway, let me tell you about a funny story my gamelan teacher here told me: several years ago, he and a friend were visiting the Kraton (sultan's palace) in Yogya (Central Java) to watch a performance. They soon found the performance a bit dull, so they headed out of the palace grounds. When they got out, they came to a dark alley of some kind with some makeshift stages. On these stages were some "dancing girls" with some really short miniskirts and high-top boots. According to my friend, the girls weren't really dancing - they were just sort of swaying back and forth. Eventually, these friends spoke with one of the spectators there to find out what exactly was going on. The person said something like this: ah, yes, pretty girl. Sexy, yes! Like if it were some sort of peep show. My friend was thinking, "what the fuck is this?" It must have been so ridiculous-looking. (And hilarious at the same time.) After awhile, the two friends left the "dance" show. As they were leaving, they suddenly met up with a squadron of police officers who were going towards the direction of the "dance" show. As it turned out, they raided that "party". The next day, the main paper's headline said something like: "Police stop dangdut (a popular music genre in Indonesia) dance sex party!" Whoa, slightly swaying, fully (but scantily) clothed dancers with high-top boots as scandalous. Boy, we here have it so easy...