(no subject)
so the past week has been hectic. i've gotten myself involved with another university theatre production which means rehearsals nearly every night. they are a very 'exclusive' lot, or at least try to be. they have this thing called 'CMCB' every quarter - it means Cast Meets Cast Bash. basically it's for all the people involved in UT shows to meet each other. it's an exclusive party, you've got to be in a show or be really tight with them to get in and people often get thrown out. my non-UT friends related to me an incident where they got thrown out and bitched at by some guy who was all, 'what show are you in? yes you, what show are you in?' i'm not quite sure why they do this - defense mechanism, maybe? because in typical american high school fashion, most of them were considered freaks back in the day and shunned by everyone else.
the production i'm assistant directing is Look Back in Anger. and i'm genuinely very excited about this. i didn't care much for Woyzeck which i did my first quarter and Miranda July's script last quarter was ok. but John Osborne is fab. he's in the same vein as Pinter and 20th Century british theatre (literature) which i love and will always love. it's so rare to find a play like this being put up in my tries-to-be-Euro-but-so-very-American university that i'm really glad to be able to be a part of it. the more i read the script the more i love it. british theatre is just amazing.
i didn't go for the CMCB though. i went last year, it was boring and filled with cigarette smoke, and i didn't think it would be much fun last night. instead i went to a cosy housewarming party in the building just opposite mine. malibu rum, pineapple juice and plenty of gay men and black girls dancing around to hip-hop music i had never heard before. i really admired how they could dance, it made me wish i had such moves! i suppose black/hispanic people (and gay men!) generally are born with that certain rhythm in them. it is very attractive. i've gotten to be quite interested in the spanish rock group Mana. maybe i shall learn spanish next year?
i'm taking stage design, art 101, french 101 and "Self, Culture, Identity". stage design has been pretty cool, i really like the teacher. he's so endearingly eccentric and enthusiastic and helpful it's hard not to enjoy his class. the idea of making a little set model is very exciting to me too.
on tuesday i went downtown by myself to get some things for my apartment. in the cab back, i had a chat with the taxi driver. a lot of the taxi drivers here are from africa or india (more so africa). he said he was from somalia and he asked where i was from. i said i was from singapore. he got quite excited about this and he said he studied in a university in Madras and was telling me about all the places in Southeast Asia he'd travelled to. it seems so unfair somehow, that an educated and well-travelled young man can only find a job as a taxi driver in America. we talked about Lee Kuan Yew and i was surprised about this because he actually brought him up first, and said how he's 'not very popular' and 'once you stay in power too long, people won't like you'.
yesterday i went downtown by myself again just to walk about and shop. as i was waiting for the bus back to campus, i met an argentinian lady. i had noticed her looking at me for awhile before she actually came over and said, 'i really like your purse, where did you get it from?' i explained to her it was miumiu and her eyes widened and she said, 'oh no wonder. that is expensive. but then you can use it all the time'. and i said yes, it was a birthday present from my parents. we talked the rest of the bus ride home about argentina and singapore and i had a feeling that she might be an illegal immigrant. i see so many of these immigrants coming here, hungry for a better life and desperate for freedom. to them America is the land of dreams and i guess it has been that way for a long time. they work so hard to make ends meet just so they can be here and i wonder what is so wonderful about this country, about this city. maybe it's because they know they can find so many other people here just like them, working through the years for their dreams.
the production i'm assistant directing is Look Back in Anger. and i'm genuinely very excited about this. i didn't care much for Woyzeck which i did my first quarter and Miranda July's script last quarter was ok. but John Osborne is fab. he's in the same vein as Pinter and 20th Century british theatre (literature) which i love and will always love. it's so rare to find a play like this being put up in my tries-to-be-Euro-but-so-very-American university that i'm really glad to be able to be a part of it. the more i read the script the more i love it. british theatre is just amazing.
i didn't go for the CMCB though. i went last year, it was boring and filled with cigarette smoke, and i didn't think it would be much fun last night. instead i went to a cosy housewarming party in the building just opposite mine. malibu rum, pineapple juice and plenty of gay men and black girls dancing around to hip-hop music i had never heard before. i really admired how they could dance, it made me wish i had such moves! i suppose black/hispanic people (and gay men!) generally are born with that certain rhythm in them. it is very attractive. i've gotten to be quite interested in the spanish rock group Mana. maybe i shall learn spanish next year?
i'm taking stage design, art 101, french 101 and "Self, Culture, Identity". stage design has been pretty cool, i really like the teacher. he's so endearingly eccentric and enthusiastic and helpful it's hard not to enjoy his class. the idea of making a little set model is very exciting to me too.
on tuesday i went downtown by myself to get some things for my apartment. in the cab back, i had a chat with the taxi driver. a lot of the taxi drivers here are from africa or india (more so africa). he said he was from somalia and he asked where i was from. i said i was from singapore. he got quite excited about this and he said he studied in a university in Madras and was telling me about all the places in Southeast Asia he'd travelled to. it seems so unfair somehow, that an educated and well-travelled young man can only find a job as a taxi driver in America. we talked about Lee Kuan Yew and i was surprised about this because he actually brought him up first, and said how he's 'not very popular' and 'once you stay in power too long, people won't like you'.
yesterday i went downtown by myself again just to walk about and shop. as i was waiting for the bus back to campus, i met an argentinian lady. i had noticed her looking at me for awhile before she actually came over and said, 'i really like your purse, where did you get it from?' i explained to her it was miumiu and her eyes widened and she said, 'oh no wonder. that is expensive. but then you can use it all the time'. and i said yes, it was a birthday present from my parents. we talked the rest of the bus ride home about argentina and singapore and i had a feeling that she might be an illegal immigrant. i see so many of these immigrants coming here, hungry for a better life and desperate for freedom. to them America is the land of dreams and i guess it has been that way for a long time. they work so hard to make ends meet just so they can be here and i wonder what is so wonderful about this country, about this city. maybe it's because they know they can find so many other people here just like them, working through the years for their dreams.