Resolutions, now with American/Russian Tragicomedies.
All right, all right, without further procrastination, allow me to join the mold and give you my 10 New Years Resolutions, few of which have anything to do with it being a New Year, and mostly just with the fact that it is time now to do them, or else.
1) Lose 15-20 pounds, and KEEP IT OFF. Hey, you asked. Use the KAC thingie!!
2) Get a good, prestigious internship this summer at which I make important connections and meet good people, damnit!! Oh, and make a little bit of money too ....
3) Oh wait, manage my money better.
4) Make the Bahamas HAPPEN. Spring Break Bahamas is not exactly something I'd usually do. But, with Lauren and Erin I know it would be awesome, and I just feel it needs to happen. Therefore, what also needs to happen is no egregious spending for three months and as much time spent with Eli Kramer as possible!!
5) Stop comparing myself to others. This one is not quite as simple as staving off that second helping.
6) Let ... petty social things ... roll off my back more.
7) Be more focused. Stop letting the performance monster eat me. At least try out being more focused.
8) Be nicer to my parents. Just be nicer to everyone.
9) Accept change.
10) Have faith in myself.
OK, those last two are like 400-level resolutions. But here we go. This is a big year.
Holy shit!! This is the Thesis Year.
;)
So, in the many days since I last complained in this forum, I have seen two well-designed sets onstage. Haha, that's pretty much the only thing these two productions had in common, I guess. On the 28th, Dad and I careened into the Best Western, Fort Lee New Jersey, where we were staying in order to see Tobias Picker's "An American Tragedy". Despite my inablity to shower and our inability to eat dinner because of Dad's getting "hung up at work", the opera's $100 a pop tickets were quite enough, and I felt bad complaining (even though I did, a little bit). Picker's score is supposed to be the modern composer's answer to the passion of Puccini and, to some degree, Wagner, while Adams and Glass do the more interesting stuff. Eh, I say. Picker's music sounded to me like Gershwin with an Asian man poking at it with an ice-pick. I say not because I am a racist fuck, but because the xylophone whole-tone scale stuff going on just really confused me. The plot is predictable enough, another American Dream thing, where the ambitious young worker gets involved with two women, one rich and one poor, gets the poor one pregnant, and ends up killing her. The singers, however, were phenomenal, especially Susan Graham, and I would probably sing any of her stuff in the score. As I said, the set was something to see, very fragmented small-town, interesting. Compared with the magnificent drowning (method of the kill) scene, the electric chair scene (what he gets in return) was a real let down. I mean, if they can make it thunder-and-lightning for twenty seconds of Otello, they can surely give us something more interesting for an electrocution. After all, it is the Met. Sigh ....
Yesterday, I saw "Three Sisters" at A.R.T. (American Repertory Theatre, Cambridge). I realized, as I sat down, how long it had been since I'd seen professional straight theatre. I used to see it ALL the fucking time, in high school, mostly. But now, at school, we see the theses, and we're hard-pressed to get out of town for long enough to see anything else. Too bad. I guess that's why people go abroad. Haha. Anyways, this was very refreshing. Krystian Lupa, weird Polish director's Checkhov vision seemed very apt to me, he brought out the absurdist and exitentialist parts of Checkhov, which was interesting to see, especially in this particular play. Every single one of the actors was amazing, especially Masha, Irina, Natasha and Andrei. Young people, too. I was there alone, and I also realized I hadn't seen a play alone before. Also, since I'd paid for it (student rush!), it was nice to just be alone with my thoughts on it and not have to vocally display my loving of it, haha.
New Year's was fun. Bonding with Jen and Meredith was great, because we never did much of that in High School, though we were friends. Franzia and brownies, it was how it was done.
My dog is, I guess, dying. His back legs have given out and he's not allowed to come up from the basement, because he might collapse on the stairs. The vet is coming over here soon, and we hope to get it a bit more figured out. He's 14, so my father pretty much understands that it's time for him to go, but it's not going to go over well when he does.
I've been trying to find things to cut out from my schedule for next semester. I do want to be a *little* less busy. All I can find is piano lessons, which are going post-haste. Dance helps my back and it's good exercize, and it makes me more "graceful". I said I'd do Reed Browning's thing ages ago, though we may need to find another time to rehearse. The two shows aren't even a question, and how can I not audition for "Gospel", regardless of outcome?? Sigh. I only have one class class a day, not counting Wednesday's seminar, so maybe it will be OK .... yeah.
Wee hooo ... two more weeks. Plenty to be done ....
1) Lose 15-20 pounds, and KEEP IT OFF. Hey, you asked. Use the KAC thingie!!
2) Get a good, prestigious internship this summer at which I make important connections and meet good people, damnit!! Oh, and make a little bit of money too ....
3) Oh wait, manage my money better.
4) Make the Bahamas HAPPEN. Spring Break Bahamas is not exactly something I'd usually do. But, with Lauren and Erin I know it would be awesome, and I just feel it needs to happen. Therefore, what also needs to happen is no egregious spending for three months and as much time spent with Eli Kramer as possible!!
5) Stop comparing myself to others. This one is not quite as simple as staving off that second helping.
6) Let ... petty social things ... roll off my back more.
7) Be more focused. Stop letting the performance monster eat me. At least try out being more focused.
8) Be nicer to my parents. Just be nicer to everyone.
9) Accept change.
10) Have faith in myself.
OK, those last two are like 400-level resolutions. But here we go. This is a big year.
Holy shit!! This is the Thesis Year.
;)
So, in the many days since I last complained in this forum, I have seen two well-designed sets onstage. Haha, that's pretty much the only thing these two productions had in common, I guess. On the 28th, Dad and I careened into the Best Western, Fort Lee New Jersey, where we were staying in order to see Tobias Picker's "An American Tragedy". Despite my inablity to shower and our inability to eat dinner because of Dad's getting "hung up at work", the opera's $100 a pop tickets were quite enough, and I felt bad complaining (even though I did, a little bit). Picker's score is supposed to be the modern composer's answer to the passion of Puccini and, to some degree, Wagner, while Adams and Glass do the more interesting stuff. Eh, I say. Picker's music sounded to me like Gershwin with an Asian man poking at it with an ice-pick. I say not because I am a racist fuck, but because the xylophone whole-tone scale stuff going on just really confused me. The plot is predictable enough, another American Dream thing, where the ambitious young worker gets involved with two women, one rich and one poor, gets the poor one pregnant, and ends up killing her. The singers, however, were phenomenal, especially Susan Graham, and I would probably sing any of her stuff in the score. As I said, the set was something to see, very fragmented small-town, interesting. Compared with the magnificent drowning (method of the kill) scene, the electric chair scene (what he gets in return) was a real let down. I mean, if they can make it thunder-and-lightning for twenty seconds of Otello, they can surely give us something more interesting for an electrocution. After all, it is the Met. Sigh ....
Yesterday, I saw "Three Sisters" at A.R.T. (American Repertory Theatre, Cambridge). I realized, as I sat down, how long it had been since I'd seen professional straight theatre. I used to see it ALL the fucking time, in high school, mostly. But now, at school, we see the theses, and we're hard-pressed to get out of town for long enough to see anything else. Too bad. I guess that's why people go abroad. Haha. Anyways, this was very refreshing. Krystian Lupa, weird Polish director's Checkhov vision seemed very apt to me, he brought out the absurdist and exitentialist parts of Checkhov, which was interesting to see, especially in this particular play. Every single one of the actors was amazing, especially Masha, Irina, Natasha and Andrei. Young people, too. I was there alone, and I also realized I hadn't seen a play alone before. Also, since I'd paid for it (student rush!), it was nice to just be alone with my thoughts on it and not have to vocally display my loving of it, haha.
New Year's was fun. Bonding with Jen and Meredith was great, because we never did much of that in High School, though we were friends. Franzia and brownies, it was how it was done.
My dog is, I guess, dying. His back legs have given out and he's not allowed to come up from the basement, because he might collapse on the stairs. The vet is coming over here soon, and we hope to get it a bit more figured out. He's 14, so my father pretty much understands that it's time for him to go, but it's not going to go over well when he does.
I've been trying to find things to cut out from my schedule for next semester. I do want to be a *little* less busy. All I can find is piano lessons, which are going post-haste. Dance helps my back and it's good exercize, and it makes me more "graceful". I said I'd do Reed Browning's thing ages ago, though we may need to find another time to rehearse. The two shows aren't even a question, and how can I not audition for "Gospel", regardless of outcome?? Sigh. I only have one class class a day, not counting Wednesday's seminar, so maybe it will be OK .... yeah.
Wee hooo ... two more weeks. Plenty to be done ....