(no subject)
So on Facebook yesterday, I briefly joked that in honor of Charlie's birthday I would kill a small animal. In retrospect, I did not do that. I did, however, do many other things.
Waking up fairly early (for me) (8:30), I actually got my day started quickly. I was on my way to the library in less than an hour's time. My goal - to print out another copy of my dissertation. Hopefully, the final copy. I had already done two drafts of the entire thing looking for flaws in my ideas, and I thought that it was fairly strong overall.
I sat in the library all morning, editing small details. No punctuation, surprisingly, but there were a few times when I had to switch "masculine identity" for "masculinity," put my third sentence of a paragraph before my second, etc. Ultimately, only one section still seemed very weak to me, and I actually spent an hour rewriting it that morning (It was one of the final paragraphs right before the Conclusion begins, so I felt it crucial for that one not to suck). I checked over all my internal page references once more, then went down to the Copy Centre.
Nothing exciting happened in the Copy Centre. It cost a little over 10 pounds to print out and bind 3 copies of dissertation (2 for them, 1 for me).
Final count - 53 pages; 15,985 words (including cover page, TOC, and Works Consulted)
(15,000 words was the supposed limit, but my advisor gave me a 10% leeway)
The sensation of finally handing it in was surprisingly... nonplussed. I was 24 hours early for the deadline, but obviously not the first to hand such a work in. The woman at the desk accepted it, had me sign a piece of paper stating that it is all mine, etc., and then gave me a really minimalist course evaluation sheet (I already did one for my convener personally, so it seemed redundant, so I just gave the basic 'ra-rah!' kind of responses).
I then met up with Nick and Benji at The Library Bar in Teviot, had a few pints and some nachos. By this time, it was only about 2 PM, and we had some good times chatting about summers. Benji is coming back across the Atlantic for a year in Vancouver this next year, but things were surprisingly unsentimental. They were off to a Chinese Buffet for dinner about 5 PM, but I had other places to be.....
You see, I had already booked a ticket to here Irvine Welsh speak at the book festival at about half-six. He's best known for writing Trainspotting, but because I already own that back in the States, I had to buy something different for him to sign. I settled on "Babylon Heights," a play which Welsh co-wrote. Unfortunately, it is his only dramatic work. And since I am not an uber-fan, it seemed like the one piece of work which I would most value compared to his other books. The story, for what it is worth, is centred around the rumoured debauchery and subsequent myth of suicide that surrounds the munchkins on the set of The Wizard of Oz. All four characters in the play are supposed to be little people, so it's just twisted enough to be really enjoyable.
(For what it's worth, I also now have a personally signed copy of Chuck Palahniuk's "Snuff," as well as Dave McKean's signature+sketch on a copy of Neil Gaiman's "The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr. Punch" - for which he did the illustrations).
Anyway, Welsh - while still not someone whom I'd want to get in a fight - is surprisingly mellow and upbeat. He showed a genuine interest and was asking everyone if they saw any good shows at the Festival so far (Palahniuk, similarly, is extremely clean-cut, well-spoken, and tall. He has an extremely community-orientated perspective on life and speaks about his work in all cultural seriousness, despite the shocking content that goes into it) (And since I'm recapping, McKean is just one of the most humble and nicest artists I've ever met. He has a DVD of short films that he is trying to get released in the U.S., but due to music copyrights he is having difficulty).
Um. So, yes. This brings us to about 8 or 9 PM, and already a full day. But wait! There is more!
My friend Mike Walsh and his Dublin crew arranged to go see a play titled "Apollo/Dionysus" at about 12:30 AM that night, to which I joined. So after dinner, a quick shower, and relaxing with some video games, out I went into the rainy Edinburgh night to see a 2-hour play about the philosophical balance between order & chaos. The play, for what it is worth, is very good. There are only three characters at first (The Child, Apollo, and Dionysus), and the first half is extremely well-written.
I should mention here that both god characters are completely naked for the entire show. It is surprising how quickly you get used to that, actually. Although the theatre seating is very close and the audience is only about 20 people, there are no moments where you feel particularly assaulted by the concept.
About halfway through, a fourth character is introduced (The Woman/Oracle). She is picked from the audience (a plant) and she too is disrobed and gets on stage completely nude. It is about this time the story gets a little convoluted - mostly because everyone speaks in some form of psychological riddle and the entire play takes place in The Child's head. I think that, in retroflection, it wasn't so much the script as I simply needed about 10 minutes to clear my head before continuing to ask extremely heavy questions about the nature of life, death, and human morality.
So the show ends and the Dublin crew (of which two are Classical Lit. majors) all love it. We are slowly leaving the theatre, not quite wanting the experience to end, and the play's director catches us on the way out. Somehow, chatting occured, talk of the show's future plans to go to Dublin, etc., and before we know it, the cast is coming out (in underwear, etc.) and we're all talking about what a great job they did and everything and we are polishing off the last of the wine from the play.
Oh yes, lots of wine was used in the play, but more importantly, bottles were also passed around the audience in true 'free spirit' fashion.
So, for what it is worth, my friends are going a little ga-ga actually quoting bits of the play back at the actors (Dionysus has a great line at one point - drunk on the floor, when Apollo offers him water he slaps Apollo's hand away and simply shouts, "I am the world!"). But it dawns on me how young these actors are - Apollo is still in undergraduate, The Child is 19, and Dionysus is only about 22 (with an acting job lined up in London for when the run ends). Pleasantries turn to conversations, and we soon all agree to meet downstairs for a drink.
Long story short, my day ends talking to the Director about gender in theatre, Apollo about his improv-comedy group back in Liverpool, and just generally trying to think of things to say which don't sound like either a reporter or fanboy. Considering that I just saw these men prance around naked for 2 hours, things are actually very mellow. In a sense, nudity was their costume. To see them clothed is like seeing an alien from Star Wars out of makeup (perhaps not that much, but you get the picture). I essentially knew these people only as their characters (and I will probably always imagine their faces now any time I think of either god), so to meet the actor feels just like meeting someone completely new.
I get home about 3:30 AM (oh yes, it was a 2 hour play) and crash shortly thereafter.
...only to wake up at 1:15 PM. Now, it is a bit past 2:00 and my day must go out to begin. Goals? Well, not quite as much as yesterday, but I would like to get a haircut and work on closing out my bank accounts for departure.
I'll talk to ya'll soon.
P.S. Yesterday isn't what I would call 'typical,' but it is a representation of what CAN happen in my life over here. The idea of losing all this still hasn't set in, and probably won't until I get back. I don't look forward to that realization.
Waking up fairly early (for me) (8:30), I actually got my day started quickly. I was on my way to the library in less than an hour's time. My goal - to print out another copy of my dissertation. Hopefully, the final copy. I had already done two drafts of the entire thing looking for flaws in my ideas, and I thought that it was fairly strong overall.
I sat in the library all morning, editing small details. No punctuation, surprisingly, but there were a few times when I had to switch "masculine identity" for "masculinity," put my third sentence of a paragraph before my second, etc. Ultimately, only one section still seemed very weak to me, and I actually spent an hour rewriting it that morning (It was one of the final paragraphs right before the Conclusion begins, so I felt it crucial for that one not to suck). I checked over all my internal page references once more, then went down to the Copy Centre.
Nothing exciting happened in the Copy Centre. It cost a little over 10 pounds to print out and bind 3 copies of dissertation (2 for them, 1 for me).
Final count - 53 pages; 15,985 words (including cover page, TOC, and Works Consulted)
(15,000 words was the supposed limit, but my advisor gave me a 10% leeway)
The sensation of finally handing it in was surprisingly... nonplussed. I was 24 hours early for the deadline, but obviously not the first to hand such a work in. The woman at the desk accepted it, had me sign a piece of paper stating that it is all mine, etc., and then gave me a really minimalist course evaluation sheet (I already did one for my convener personally, so it seemed redundant, so I just gave the basic 'ra-rah!' kind of responses).
I then met up with Nick and Benji at The Library Bar in Teviot, had a few pints and some nachos. By this time, it was only about 2 PM, and we had some good times chatting about summers. Benji is coming back across the Atlantic for a year in Vancouver this next year, but things were surprisingly unsentimental. They were off to a Chinese Buffet for dinner about 5 PM, but I had other places to be.....
You see, I had already booked a ticket to here Irvine Welsh speak at the book festival at about half-six. He's best known for writing Trainspotting, but because I already own that back in the States, I had to buy something different for him to sign. I settled on "Babylon Heights," a play which Welsh co-wrote. Unfortunately, it is his only dramatic work. And since I am not an uber-fan, it seemed like the one piece of work which I would most value compared to his other books. The story, for what it is worth, is centred around the rumoured debauchery and subsequent myth of suicide that surrounds the munchkins on the set of The Wizard of Oz. All four characters in the play are supposed to be little people, so it's just twisted enough to be really enjoyable.
(For what it's worth, I also now have a personally signed copy of Chuck Palahniuk's "Snuff," as well as Dave McKean's signature+sketch on a copy of Neil Gaiman's "The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr. Punch" - for which he did the illustrations).
Anyway, Welsh - while still not someone whom I'd want to get in a fight - is surprisingly mellow and upbeat. He showed a genuine interest and was asking everyone if they saw any good shows at the Festival so far (Palahniuk, similarly, is extremely clean-cut, well-spoken, and tall. He has an extremely community-orientated perspective on life and speaks about his work in all cultural seriousness, despite the shocking content that goes into it) (And since I'm recapping, McKean is just one of the most humble and nicest artists I've ever met. He has a DVD of short films that he is trying to get released in the U.S., but due to music copyrights he is having difficulty).
Um. So, yes. This brings us to about 8 or 9 PM, and already a full day. But wait! There is more!
My friend Mike Walsh and his Dublin crew arranged to go see a play titled "Apollo/Dionysus" at about 12:30 AM that night, to which I joined. So after dinner, a quick shower, and relaxing with some video games, out I went into the rainy Edinburgh night to see a 2-hour play about the philosophical balance between order & chaos. The play, for what it is worth, is very good. There are only three characters at first (The Child, Apollo, and Dionysus), and the first half is extremely well-written.
I should mention here that both god characters are completely naked for the entire show. It is surprising how quickly you get used to that, actually. Although the theatre seating is very close and the audience is only about 20 people, there are no moments where you feel particularly assaulted by the concept.
About halfway through, a fourth character is introduced (The Woman/Oracle). She is picked from the audience (a plant) and she too is disrobed and gets on stage completely nude. It is about this time the story gets a little convoluted - mostly because everyone speaks in some form of psychological riddle and the entire play takes place in The Child's head. I think that, in retroflection, it wasn't so much the script as I simply needed about 10 minutes to clear my head before continuing to ask extremely heavy questions about the nature of life, death, and human morality.
So the show ends and the Dublin crew (of which two are Classical Lit. majors) all love it. We are slowly leaving the theatre, not quite wanting the experience to end, and the play's director catches us on the way out. Somehow, chatting occured, talk of the show's future plans to go to Dublin, etc., and before we know it, the cast is coming out (in underwear, etc.) and we're all talking about what a great job they did and everything and we are polishing off the last of the wine from the play.
Oh yes, lots of wine was used in the play, but more importantly, bottles were also passed around the audience in true 'free spirit' fashion.
So, for what it is worth, my friends are going a little ga-ga actually quoting bits of the play back at the actors (Dionysus has a great line at one point - drunk on the floor, when Apollo offers him water he slaps Apollo's hand away and simply shouts, "I am the world!"). But it dawns on me how young these actors are - Apollo is still in undergraduate, The Child is 19, and Dionysus is only about 22 (with an acting job lined up in London for when the run ends). Pleasantries turn to conversations, and we soon all agree to meet downstairs for a drink.
Long story short, my day ends talking to the Director about gender in theatre, Apollo about his improv-comedy group back in Liverpool, and just generally trying to think of things to say which don't sound like either a reporter or fanboy. Considering that I just saw these men prance around naked for 2 hours, things are actually very mellow. In a sense, nudity was their costume. To see them clothed is like seeing an alien from Star Wars out of makeup (perhaps not that much, but you get the picture). I essentially knew these people only as their characters (and I will probably always imagine their faces now any time I think of either god), so to meet the actor feels just like meeting someone completely new.
I get home about 3:30 AM (oh yes, it was a 2 hour play) and crash shortly thereafter.
...only to wake up at 1:15 PM. Now, it is a bit past 2:00 and my day must go out to begin. Goals? Well, not quite as much as yesterday, but I would like to get a haircut and work on closing out my bank accounts for departure.
I'll talk to ya'll soon.
P.S. Yesterday isn't what I would call 'typical,' but it is a representation of what CAN happen in my life over here. The idea of losing all this still hasn't set in, and probably won't until I get back. I don't look forward to that realization.