Friday means nothing until 1, or noon in this case. Except working on 502 papers and stuff like that. But today, a student just joined the class. And so I tried to get her caught up in stuff. Thankfully, she's a musician, and doesn't need to learn "rhythm" or "melody." That went OK. Then a GSI meeting, chatting with Yona about the co-op, class, coffee/late lunch with the speaker today, and then the speaker's lecture. Topic was really exciting: how Egyptian musicals adopted European ideas of Eastern music as their own. The examples he showed were interesting, but the entire thing seemed to be about finding evidence here and there (and good evidence, mind you), but I wanted a lot more on the why this is happening, some of which occured in the Q&A. Still, a good talk, and yummy food, and Carlos wasthere with some baby photos. We miss Carlos. Actually a lot of people were there. And then I came here and kept working. And now I'll go home and keep working. And tomorrow...you get the idea.
1/26/05- ***
Thursdays aren't as long as Tuesdays, but they feel that way by the end. 502 was helpful, once we figured out what Wiley was talking about (he asks cryptic questions, and we have to come up with what he wants, or else its discounted or discarded, and it's frustrating as hell). Then Stephen joined Rebecca and I for lunch, and I put on Assassins to block out the bad brass band practicing next door. And more class followed, and it slowly wore me down. But after dinner, I went to hear Mary sing at the art museum, and was very very pleased. She has a lovely, clear, and extremely flexible voice. The program was varied, including some Scottish tunes (I knew one of them as a pipe reel) and a Cole Porter song (Night and Day), but the problem with these is that they sound too entrenched in the classical idiom- they are so exacting on pitch and rhythm that they lose something important. Sigh. Still though, lovely Renaissance Dowland, Villa Lobos Bachianas Brazilias #5, Britten, and the gloriously catchy and uplifting Schubert Der Hirt auf dem Felsen. Wonderful, and wonderfully attended. Then more Chaplin movies. Also, today's word of the day was my favorite yet: apocryphal
1/25/04- **1/2
Today's French class offered up hints about why it's hard to have a British professor teaching translating. Sometimes it just sounds funny to her, or to us, and she's well-positioned for ribbing. Afterwards, I came home and had a lovely, slow lunch, read some, and headed off to lecture, which was fine and good. i get questions about the exam now. I don't know why they think i know things. Afterwards, it was a good solid afternoon of reading and working and other fun things, except for an excursion out to see Nine Lives (****) at the theatre. It's a wonderful collection of brief, semi-interlocking vignettes. I don't know why small tales feel the need to interlock characters, usually with no other reason. But it's a side note here, and at least not distracting. The vignettes have all the explosive power of good short stories. If a few seem weak, it's only because of the strength of others in comparison. There's little action, little resolution, but by the end of each, the central female character in each feels completely defined, and so realistic. this is due in part to the phenomenal acting. In one scene, Robin Wright Penn meets an ex-lover (Jason Isaacs) by chance in a grocery store. They catch up, and it quickly becomes clear they're not over each other, not fully. The camera is so intensely focused on her face, it's captivatingly excrutiating, watching everything filter through her eyes, rather than action or even dialogue. There's a s ense of desperation in each scene, and inescapability from it. Some are deceptively simple- a young girl wanders back and forth between her mom and her dad, being played off of them, but not in a dysfunctional divorce kind of way. It's subtler. And others are fiercely emotional without going over the top. The movie's strongest is a tale of an estranged daughter who comes home to talk with her dad. As she waits for him and talks with her sister, she asks her which room she has, and where her bed is. It's so wonderful to see a movie that asks questions which aren't important to the audience, but important to the characters.
1/24/05- **
My 9 am section was slow, as ever, but OK. In any case, I do feel like I'm getting through on some level to my students. And then the onslaught of classes was the same: frustration and anger by students in 502 (I'm really not likely to get overly pissed or reactionary to these things), quiet British music class where musicologists talked, and a looooong Bach class where I glean very little. But afterwards, i had a nice chat with Danny about politics and music, which we'll continue, and then I dragged Clarie and Kira to English dance. So nice to be back. And to do some calling. Collier's Daughter is easy, and i would love to take it faster, but it would have died. Puck's Deceit fell apart, sort of, but people recovered fairly easily by the time the lines led up. And i got excellently complimented on my two slow dances: Michael and All Angels, with the gorgeous gorgeous music, and De'il Take the Warr, which everyone really really loved, which is great. I made a few style points, and got complimented on my demos and clear instructions, and had fun dancing too. The only problem, we did Greensleeves and Yellow Lace, which takes forever to do, and I chose to sit out, so no dancing in the second half. But I had fun, and maybe Kira and Claire did too. Oh, I hope I get to come back some time. Maybe after this long long week is over?
11:00 PM
