Play dough on my Lego bricks

Goodness. Next week I should present a paper on cultural studies pedagogy at the Crossroads conference on Jamaica. I've wanted to write about this for a long time -my problems between many teachers', including myself, anarchistic anything goes-attitude and the students' inner desire for structure in the curriculum and in the classroom.

My irritation and enthusiasm combined is probably best condensed in what the British media culture people have presented: cultural theory as Lego brick constructions

http://www.theory.org.uk/lego.htm

Another thing that shouldn't come as a surprise, but to naive people like me always does, is how certain theorists are treated as rockstars. I have always had a soft spot for the writings of Slavoj Zizek, on one hand his celebrations of joystick culture and on the other his fierce critique of postmodern consumerism. His writing style has been called "hyperkinetic" and is definitely spiced by his tendency to develop panic attacks. In many interviews I've recently read about him the common thread is wonder about how his emotional insecurity transforms onto theoretical brilliance in sold-out lecture sessions world wide.

Today I discovered that his fame in Argentina, due to his marriage to a former lingerie model from Buenos Aires, has even produced a new genre of music called Zizek:

http://www.nydailynews.com/latino/2008/03/13/2008-03-13_zizek_brings_to_ny_its_infectious_buenos.html

After hearing this, there's a stubborn layer of play dough on my theoretical Lego bricks. Wonder if the paper ever materializes.