musings

All Paths Lead to Rome

2009-09-17T13:01:00.000-07:00

Does this dress remind you of anything?

.......

I'm right, right? If she had had an angel puppet perched on her shoulder she would have been a dead ringer for St. Theresa.

When in Rome, Do As the Romans Do

2009-09-13T10:23:00.000-07:00

long time no post.

I don't know what made me think of this, but I did. A year ago in my upper-div Rome class, we watched Fellini's Roma, which wasn't personally my idea of great fun. Except that there was a ten-minute segment towards the end that I loved pretty much more than anything ever.

You know how for the Fashion Week section of Project Runway, each designer has an approximate theme and music picked out for their final collection? Well, this is SO going to be my music:

The part right before this in the movie is good too.

Adventures in Yosemite

2008-12-27T18:12:00.000-08:00

Yosemite was pretty awesome. I REALLY liked the snow, even if it was cold and wet and slippery (especially because I was wearing my mom's rain boots, which have NO traction whatsoever, as proven by the perfectly flat footprints I kept leaving in the snow whenever I left our room).

During our last night, we played the Name Game (as usual), which gave Linus an opportunity to be Linus. I think this exchange between the two of us perfectly illustrates the WIDE range of his mind:

It is Linus' turn to pick names out of the basket and have his team, to which I belong, guess. He doesn't recognize this particular name which he has just pulled out, so he's using clues to have us guess the separate parts (keep in mind that there's a time limit).

Linus: Oh, um, Amelia, this is that really tall guy in Romeo and Juliet at Burroughs last year. He played Capulet.

Me: Evan?

Linus: No.

Me: I don't know. Um, John? Lex? I didn't even see this production!

Linus: No, keep going! He's tall!

Me; Uuuhhh, I don't know! Jacob? Linus, I DIDN'T SEE THE PLAY!

Linus: He goes to school in Monterey.

Me: Oh! Isaac.

And then to have me guess this person's last name...

Linus (in a perfectly bored tone): Oh, this was one of the Gilded Age presidents.

Seriously! It took him FOREVER to get me to give the name of one my own FRIENDS, but he knew right away that Hayes was a president during the Gilded Age!

Farewell to Nova Scotia

2008-10-21T07:17:00.000-07:00

This whole month has been so busy, I don't even know how to begin, so I won't.

This Wednesday, some of my sisters and I are meeting up for a debate about the election between two (supposedlu crazy) Poly Sci professors, and then on Thursday I'm going to this presentation by a group of students (some of my friends) made up of Jews, Christians and Muslims who all went to Israel together over the summer with the Vice Chancellor. Should be fun, especially because Hillel AND the Muslim Student Union should be there.

My left foot has been very slightly twitching for three days now, and I think it might be because of all of the mental stress I've been under since Thursday, when my (usually super nice and awesome) History professor had a sudden freakout about us not reading/participating well enough, canceled class and told us that from then on we wouldn't be discussing, just listening to his lectures. It was actually rather scary, because it's a really small class, and I think we ALL thought he was talking to us specifically. Especially because I HAD fallen behind on my reading. And this whole weekend I was freaking out, because I definitely read and took detailed notes about everything due today, but I don't know if I'm still going to be accountable for what we didn't go after last week, which includes hundreds of pages that I don't understand anyway (which I didn't REALLY read). Whatever. I'm freaking out about it, but then again, what's the worst that's going to happen to me? Everyone knows he's a jerk now anyway, and I probably won't end up failing, even if he does happen to call on me in class when I don't know what's gong on. I hope.

Maybe Disneyland with EB on Friday? Classes are overrated, anyway.

I'm suffering from Romanitess.

2008-10-04T10:43:00.000-07:00

For the first time, I really like ALL of my professors and TAs, and my classes are really super amazingly excellent.

In my Upper-Div class on the Roman Empire, we've been reading lots and lots of Virgil and Livy. We'll be reading stuff like that all year, then coming back together to discuss them and to decide what we think Romanitas meant to the Romans (except that in class the other day someone pronounced it RomanITEss, like a disease. We all thought that was awesome). The class is great. I have a seven page paper due on Thursday but I'm not even worried because I like this class so much. And yesterday the professor told me I made an excellent point when we were discussing the orgins of Rome's founders and how that contributed to the Roman point of view about the growth of the empire, so that felt good.

My Lower-Div history class focuses on the Roman Republic, and it's the complete opposite from History 105. There are no essays, just tests. I really like this professor too, and my TA is great because he uses Latin in class just for fun as much as he can. The other day we talked about Roman names and how what part of their three names refered to what, and how ALL of Cicero's daughters would have been named Tullia, which is funny. My two history classes complement each other PERFECTLY -- I'm doing the actual reading in one, and getting the history in the other, and each class is giving me evidence to back up any thesis I need to come up with in the other. AND because of the way my schedule works out I get to study ancient Rome five times a week, so I'm one happy girl.

Lingustics isn't exactly fun, but at least it's interesting. Right now we're talking about the IPA (the International Phonetic Alphabet, I think), and how each sound has a corresponding symbol that represents that sound. And we're also talking about how to classify sounds based on what part of our mouths form them. It's hard so far, but it's the mathless math class, so at least it has that going for it. And our Professor is a good lecturer and my TA is cool. And I like knowing that if I do well in this class I'll have learned something that I actually do sort of have use for every day, unlike Pre-Calculus.

My Physics class is called Great Ideas of Physics (it's a non-Physics major class). It's the same stuff we studied in high school, but a very basic version, so we go over LOTS of different things in one class, versus spending a few weeks on one form of an equation. I don't look forward to going to class, but my TA is really attractive and super nice, and even though my Professor has a thick accent, he ALWAYS has a smile on his face, which honestly does put me in a better mood.

I decided to bump up my schedule to 20 units so that I could add Intro to Stage Management. I miss Drama classes terribly, so I was thinking that this one would be good way to at least be somewhat connected to the Drama Department. Plus my Big Sis is in the class too. And I am SO glad I added it. It's taught by the Dean of Stage Management (for the Grad School), and the best way to describe him is that he's a slightly less flamboyant version of Tim Gunn on Project Runway, and in the sense that Tim Gunn is excited about fashion, my professor is ten times as excited by us learning about the art and technique of stage managing. It's a super easy class (I have a short paper due on Tuesday about five good qualities that I believe a good stage manager should have. C'mon) and my professor is EXTREMELY encouraging. Anyone one else would come off as sappy, but as easily-congratulatory as he is on the basic points we come up with in class, his compliaments NEVER seem ridiculous, because he is just so awesome. And he knows everything and everyone and he worked for Equity for a long time so we get to hear all of his really interesting stories about that kind of thing. It's pretty much amazing. AND because I'm in the class I get to observe (on my own headset!) the dress rehearsal of UCI's upcoming mainstage production of West Side Story. So pretty much I'm ecstatic.

Eeee!

Zot! I love UCI.

2008-09-24T15:48:00.000-07:00

I'll make this quick because I still have to read Books I-IV and VI of The Aeneid before I go to the Hillel Bonfire at Corona Del Mar tonight. I LOVE my apartment. There is too much storage space in my room, kitchen AND bathroom. My roommates are awesome. My pink kettle is amazing. My room is fantastic! Except that I can't decide where I want anything to go, plus I didn't bring enough hangers, so it's still kind of messy because I haven't really unpacked yet.

Recruitment is going really awesomely so far. We have a consultant who is there for us (mostly me, really, since I'm Recruitment Chair) pretty much 24/7, and who tables with us from open to close every day. Having her there is seriously a big boost, because with her tips we've spoken to more girls in two days of recruiting than we did all last quarter.

Lots of boys around, but no time to talk to them because I have to meet potential sisters! Grr.

Class officially starts tomorrow, but it's Thursday so I only have to go to one of my history classes and physics. Then table table table, and then Chipotle with Talia and Shannon to discuss our upcoming Recruitment plans.

Must go finish coffee/read about Aeneas!

The Adventures of Amelia And That Little Boy With the Same Last Name Who Hangs Around Her.

2008-09-05T14:33:00.000-07:00

Episode One: Studying for His First AP United States History Test.

Amelia: Linus, give me the definition of the word "graft".

Linus: To have graft in the past.

*Amelia and her mother exchange blank stares*

Linus, realizing he must be wrong: Ohhhhhh. I thought you meant "graftuh".
*Amelia and her mother attempt to laugh but fail*

+++Ten Minutes Later+++

Amelia: Linus. If you want to do well on this test there is no such thing as being "done studying". You have to study every night.

Linus, shocked and appalled: What?! That's called communist!....ism.

Lord, what Fools these Mortals Be

2008-09-01T22:21:00.000-07:00

One of the things in life that I have become a huge advocate of is the Humanities Core Course at UCI that I trudged through for thirty weeks plus three weeks of finals last year. This stuff was honestly, and I'm not even exagerating, the BANE OF MY EXISTENCE. But I can't deny that I learned a helllllll of a lot of crap. And I mean crap in the affectionate way when I say that.

I keep thinking back to Michael Kohlhaas, which was probably my favorite read of the entire year -- it was written in 1811 by Heinrich von Kleist, and it's about this super awsomely good guy whose horses get taken away from him unfairly, and so he goes on this...quest....to get revenge on the guys who did it, all the while losing his wife and burning lots of stuff down in the process. It's what Ragtime (favorite musical!) is based on (um, "Coalhouse" Walker Jr., anyone?), but I didn't even REALIZE that until I was pretty far in. Anyway, it was FANTASTIC, and I reccomend that anyone who hasn't read it reads it soon. It's short, and you don't even have to know German because the Penguin (I think) translation is AMAZING.

SO yes. I HAAAATED those thirty weeks of lectures and discussions and essays and stupid research, but I'm still proud of all of the stuff I learned. And now, because I should probably write this down before I forget, and because this is my blog and I can do whatever I want here, I'm going to make you hear about all of the stuff I had to think about that I wouldn't have had to think about otherwise.

ALL OF LAST YEAR consisted of Aristotle On Rhetoric, Novam Organum, causality, Aristotle's thoughts on the separation of body and soul, sappho, theophrastus, Descarte's Meditations on First Philosophy, German professors who come to lecture dressed as Aristotle, allying myself with the narrator in Persuasion,, wondering if a character's lack of relationship with the West Indies makes them a good person, long discussions in office hours with professors about Louis Sachar, Toni Morrison's prose, the rude mechanicals in Midsummer Night's Dream, 15th century texts about painting, Kuhle Wampe, Spartacists, the art of Photomange, Bauhaus, Entartete Kunst, Weimer Germany, John Heartfield, Lady Macbeth of Mtensk, Shostakovich!, Russian peasants, Gershwin, "Summertime", "It Ain't Neccesarily So", Jane Jacob's opinions on city planning, discussion of web 2.0, Antigone, Brecht's stupid Antigone legend, democracy vs. monarchy, German men burning things down, epistimological crises, Indian self-rule, Indian peasants, professors with direct links to Ghandi's assassins, Holocaust memoirs, punk music in the German Democratic Republic, the South Asian Underground, female South Asian DJs, and the Asian Dub Foundation. Among more stuff.

I AM SO GLAD I WILL BE A SOPHOMORE NEXT YEAR AND THAT I PASSED ALL THREE QUARTERS OF HUM CORE BECAUSE IF I HAD TO RETAKE THIS CLASS AGAIN I WOULD KILLLLLL MYSELLF. But I can't deny that it was worth it the first time around.

sick of magnolia trees and endless sunshine.

2008-08-26T16:48:00.000-07:00

Um, I thought that Parade was coming to the Taper THIS season, but actually it'll be there in Fall TWO THOUSAND NINE. Stupid musicals. I guess this means I will have to postpone my trip to Bordeaux.

HAMLET TWO tonnniight!

summer complaints and praises

2008-08-25T13:54:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how little I've read this summer, after promising myself to read a lot, since it would have been the first time since LAST summer when I actually would have had the time/energy to pick up something other than Aristotle or a manifesto from the Weimar Republic, or something (not like I actually every had the energy to pick that sort of stuff for Humanities last year, either, but you know what I mean). It's rather pathetic that the only stuff I've actually read have been the first two books in Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series, because even at 400+ pages each, they really don't count.

And I've hardly watched any movies, either! I suck. Although I'm extremely grateful that I ended up watching Gosford Park with Jenna a few weeks ago, because I love that movie pretty much more than....all but...two movies that I've ever seen? I think it officially edges into the third spot on my Favorite Movies Ever list, following Sense & Sensibility and The Court Jester, of course. GOD it was so good. LOVED IT.

Get Smart was also really enjoyable -- don't expect it to have much at all to do with the TV show, because you'll be disappointed if you do. On it's own it was REALLy funny, however.

The Cat's Meow was good, too, until I saw Gosford Park, which takes place about ten years later. GP was so good that pretty much anything else set during that time period seems kind of unfortunate to me.

I didn't expect to like The Affair of the Necklace, and while even though I wouldn't tell anyone to go out and rent it, I was pleasantly surprised by how it tied everything together, with how the heroine had a personally impact on the French Revoltion and all of that stuff. So it wasn't bad.

Reefer Madness was AMMMAZING (the 2005 movie musical version, not the 1930s film it is based on). I saw the stage version (twice) at school this past year, and I think it's unfortunate that it never took off as a successful musical. The lyrics and music are really great. My favorite song is "Listen to Jesus, Jimmy". GO RENT IT.

Merchant of Venice was good, too. My only problem is that I'm so into the history plays right now that I really don't care much for anything else. Sorry.

You've probably never heard of The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant, and that's too bad. It's the most expensive Australian made-for-TV movie ever. I had been waiting to see it FORRREVVVER, but I figured it couldn't be that great, because the DVD cover was kind of ridiculous, among other things I had heard. But it ended up being AWESOME -- it's about the first group of British prisoners to be transported to Botany Bay in Australia, and it features Romala Garai (who played the older Briony in Atonement, but better here) and Jack Davenport, who I LOVVVVVE. The whole time my mom and I were watching it, it was hard not to point out all of these things that would have been different (for the worse) had it been an American movie. This one is highly reccommended.

Perfume was weird, but I liked it. It's about this guy who has this ridiculously good sense of smell, so he tries to bottle up and save the smell of everything -- including all of these hookers that he kills. Everyone in it is pretty good, and it's worth seeing, I just wouldn't watch it again.

And I liked Cold Comfort Farm, too. It wasn't what I expected, and it usually bothers me to No End when a plot point is built up like crazy, with nothing ever happening. But that didn't really bother me, so that's good. Eileen Atkins is awesome in EVERYTHING. And I thought Kate Beckinsale was really good too, which means something, because I think she's pretty annoying otherwise.

Annnnd, my mom and I watched all ten episodes of Berkeley Square, which was sooo fantastic that I can't even begin to tell you. It's this British TV series that was made in 1998, and it follows the lives of three nannies who all live at different houses in the same square in London in 1902. So pretty much I feel like I know what it feels like to be an early 20th century live-in nanny, now. OH MY GOD. Seriously, American TV SUCKS.

And I watched the entire first season of The Tudors, but I didn't like it. This deserves a post of it's own though, so expect my official review soon.

For Worms, Brave Percy

2008-08-07T12:21:00.000-07:00

I worked from 8 PM to 3AM last night/this morning (the district supervisors were coming in this morning so the store had to be absolutely perfect. Like, regulation sized and board folded perfect. Ewww).

Um, I feel like I'm missing everything. I haven't back to the Independent Shakespeare Co. for what seems like forever, but I guess it's only actually been a few weekends. Henry IV is ending soon, and it's my favorite play of the season, so I hope hope hope I won't miss it (and I would like to be at the last performance, please?). West Wing Crew is behind on the 3rd season, because 3/4 of us have jobs/summer school in the morning, but we must must MUST finish the season before Sarah goes back to USC.

Am also majorly behind on recruitment planning for fall. Now I'm actually getting worried, too.

But at least...some things...are looking up at work :)

Will post about Denver soon.

home from work, finally.

2008-07-26T19:53:00.000-07:00

I hate retail. Seriously, never again. Except that yesterday I rang up Shia LaBeouf. I'm not personally that impressed with him, but internally, as I rang up his three t-shirts and jeans and threw away the frozen yogurt container that he asked me to throw away for him, I was totally freaking out. He was wearing a baseball hat and didn't really say much, which I assume was because his face and voice are relatively recognizable. He was just lucky that there wasn't a line for him to wait in when he was ready to make his purchases. And I was just lucky that Mark was already ringing up someone else, and also that I happened to return from whatever I was putting away elsewhere in the store in time to ring him before Mark got to him. Not that Mark even saw him. Anyway, he paid with credit, so even though I KNEW he was Shia LaBeouf, and his credit card SAID he was Shia LaBeouf, I still had to ask to see his ID. Which also confirmed that he was Shia LaBeouf, so I guess that means I was right. He didn't seem hesitant or anything when I asked for his ID, only like he knew what was coming. Whatever. I'm too cool to freak out about famous people I've come into contact with (unless I like what I've seen them in. THAT'S another store altogether).

Then he left and I told Mark that I ran up Shia Lebeouf, and at first he didn't believe me, but then he did. Then we dug out the unfinished yogurt from the trash can, and as we both peered down into the remains of the blueberries and strawberries that remained in the large circular cup, Mark said he was going to save Shia Lebeouf's spoon. I don't know if he actually did, but I swear I saw him wiping it off with a paper towel soon afterward.

So, yeah. I MISS BARNES AND NOBLE LIKE YOU HAVE NO IDEA. I bet they have no idea over there on the other side of the mall, either. ANYWAY, I need to go finish typing stuff up for the Western States Jewish thing that I'm doing.