Opus 1
Mvt. I: Good News, Bad News
a) Campus Movie Fest - The good news is that our Campus Movie Fest movie was one the top sixteen films from BC campus. This means that we move on to the Boston Finale this Friday in the John Hancock building. The bad news is that, due to apparently irreconcilable scheduling conflicts, the BC Awards Ceremony was never held. This means that we weren't able to watch all the top sixteen BC movies on the big screen, which would have been cool. Also because of this, they never nominated BC movies for Best Drama and Best Comedy as they did at other schools. On the upside of this downside, the Campus Movie Fest powers that be offered free tickets to the Boston Finale to BC students due to the fact that we had no BC Awards Ceremony. This will be cool, although it's probably unlikely that we will actually be competitive on a city-wide scale. We were more interested in seeing how we did compared with other BC entries than actually contending in the Boston Finale. Our movie may not even be shown at all in the finale, except in a brief highlights reel.
b) Marathon Monday - The good news is that I watched the Boston Marathon from the roof of an apartment building, providing for both a great view and a great time. I cannot fully express how much respect I have for anybody who begins that race with the intention of finishing it, regardless of whether they end up finishing or not. I think I want to try running it someday, but I don't know when or if that'll happen. The bad news is that Colleen hurt her foot.
c) Camping - The good news is that first New Hampshire Camping Expedition of 2006 looks like it will take place on April 28th, a week from this Friday. The trip last fall to the White Mountians was a success despite cold weather, rain, and even snow, so we will again be going to approximately the same place. We'll be there for two nights instead of one this time, and hopefully we'll have some better weather. There looks like there will be some new people on this trip (and really, if anyone else of the four people who read this want to go, that can most likely be accomodated too), but...
The bad news is that some of the last trip's members may not be able to make it. Hopefully everyone will be able to go though.
Mvt. II: Narrative Fiction
Today in my Narrative and Interpretation class, we read a short story called "Revealed" by Randolph Dexter. Here's an excerpt:
"Although I could not distinguish with complete certainty the motion in which her thoughts progressed, her outward appearances betrayed a more than ample series of indications as to her mind's goings-ons. Her hands fidgeted with such a violent intensity that it gave me the impression they were engaged in battle (in which case much credit must be attributed to the right's steady perseverence--clearly the inferior force as she stirred, ate, swept, and reprimanded her children with the left and would have written with it, too, had she possessed the ability), and even her most voluntary features struggled to retain composure as the greatest bulk of her mental faculties were at the moment being employed in an attempt to process this revelation.
The man soon departed--his purpose having been wholly fulfilled--and (strangely, I thought) I detected still a masterfully orchestrated effort on her part to outwardly reflect as little of her inner turmoil as possible. Even now while alone she sought to conceal, and I thought it to be as much for her benefit as for her children's, who were now sleeping in the adjacent bedroom (for to consciously present even a trickle of this inner sea with an opportunity of escape--I surmise that this must have been her reasoning--would have made the resulting flow far too strong to suppress any further; what would doubtlessly have begun as mere adjustments of countenance and inaudible weeping would have inescapably led to expressions entirely more disruptive to her children's slumber).
The following morning she faithfully attended to her daily household routine, and only the most active of observers (which would, I suppose, include myself) could have discerned any relevant change from the morning prior. A notable difference did, perhaps unavoidably, occur later that afternoon as she began scolding her children for some inconsequential transgression or other (her children were exceedingly well-behaved, a fact which today seemed to irritate her more, perhaps, than did their occasional instances of legitimate disobedience). As a result of her increased volume, this was the very first point at which I was able to make of her speech anything other than a series of muffled utterances. To my astonishment, her words were of no language I had ever heard previously, much less had any understanding of or experience with. Her rapid speech and passionate tone gave the only clues as to her words' meanings, and her children seemed to be just as baffled by them as I."
The story goes on to describe the woman's very unique form of insanity. After hearing a "revelation" from some guy who comes to her house, she loses the ability of coherent speech. She also loses the ability to engage in any new experiences without flipping out and/or fainting. Dexter never explicitly states what the revelation is. I've always agreed pretty much completely with all of his political writings and can relate a lot to some of his more introspective work, but I haven't really liked much of the fiction stuff I've read by him. I didn't really like this story too much, but I thought the narration was kind of cool because, as we discussed in class, it has a first-person narrator who never in the course of the story engages in it actively. He just observes everything and none of the characters ever mention him or seem to notice him. His relation to the story is really ambiguous, and it was probably my favorite element.
Mvt. III: In Conformity With Classical Tradition
In my Beethoven class, we had to do a reading about one of his piano sonatas, Opus #111. The sonata broke with tradition pretty blatantly by having only two movements rather than the traditional three or four. The sonata was unique in a lot of other ways, and people naturally began to try to figure out what artistic and thematic reason there was for Beethoven to write only two movements, leaving out the last one that normally revisits and concludes some of the ideas of the others. Beethoven was actually asked about this in his life time, and he responded that he didn't have enough time to write another movement, so he just published it as is. This may or may not have been the truth, but people continue to look for a reason for this two-movement sonata. I thought I'd better learn from Beethoven's mistake and include a part three.
a) Campus Movie Fest - The good news is that our Campus Movie Fest movie was one the top sixteen films from BC campus. This means that we move on to the Boston Finale this Friday in the John Hancock building. The bad news is that, due to apparently irreconcilable scheduling conflicts, the BC Awards Ceremony was never held. This means that we weren't able to watch all the top sixteen BC movies on the big screen, which would have been cool. Also because of this, they never nominated BC movies for Best Drama and Best Comedy as they did at other schools. On the upside of this downside, the Campus Movie Fest powers that be offered free tickets to the Boston Finale to BC students due to the fact that we had no BC Awards Ceremony. This will be cool, although it's probably unlikely that we will actually be competitive on a city-wide scale. We were more interested in seeing how we did compared with other BC entries than actually contending in the Boston Finale. Our movie may not even be shown at all in the finale, except in a brief highlights reel.
b) Marathon Monday - The good news is that I watched the Boston Marathon from the roof of an apartment building, providing for both a great view and a great time. I cannot fully express how much respect I have for anybody who begins that race with the intention of finishing it, regardless of whether they end up finishing or not. I think I want to try running it someday, but I don't know when or if that'll happen. The bad news is that Colleen hurt her foot.
c) Camping - The good news is that first New Hampshire Camping Expedition of 2006 looks like it will take place on April 28th, a week from this Friday. The trip last fall to the White Mountians was a success despite cold weather, rain, and even snow, so we will again be going to approximately the same place. We'll be there for two nights instead of one this time, and hopefully we'll have some better weather. There looks like there will be some new people on this trip (and really, if anyone else of the four people who read this want to go, that can most likely be accomodated too), but...
The bad news is that some of the last trip's members may not be able to make it. Hopefully everyone will be able to go though.
Mvt. II: Narrative Fiction
Today in my Narrative and Interpretation class, we read a short story called "Revealed" by Randolph Dexter. Here's an excerpt:
"Although I could not distinguish with complete certainty the motion in which her thoughts progressed, her outward appearances betrayed a more than ample series of indications as to her mind's goings-ons. Her hands fidgeted with such a violent intensity that it gave me the impression they were engaged in battle (in which case much credit must be attributed to the right's steady perseverence--clearly the inferior force as she stirred, ate, swept, and reprimanded her children with the left and would have written with it, too, had she possessed the ability), and even her most voluntary features struggled to retain composure as the greatest bulk of her mental faculties were at the moment being employed in an attempt to process this revelation.
The man soon departed--his purpose having been wholly fulfilled--and (strangely, I thought) I detected still a masterfully orchestrated effort on her part to outwardly reflect as little of her inner turmoil as possible. Even now while alone she sought to conceal, and I thought it to be as much for her benefit as for her children's, who were now sleeping in the adjacent bedroom (for to consciously present even a trickle of this inner sea with an opportunity of escape--I surmise that this must have been her reasoning--would have made the resulting flow far too strong to suppress any further; what would doubtlessly have begun as mere adjustments of countenance and inaudible weeping would have inescapably led to expressions entirely more disruptive to her children's slumber).
The following morning she faithfully attended to her daily household routine, and only the most active of observers (which would, I suppose, include myself) could have discerned any relevant change from the morning prior. A notable difference did, perhaps unavoidably, occur later that afternoon as she began scolding her children for some inconsequential transgression or other (her children were exceedingly well-behaved, a fact which today seemed to irritate her more, perhaps, than did their occasional instances of legitimate disobedience). As a result of her increased volume, this was the very first point at which I was able to make of her speech anything other than a series of muffled utterances. To my astonishment, her words were of no language I had ever heard previously, much less had any understanding of or experience with. Her rapid speech and passionate tone gave the only clues as to her words' meanings, and her children seemed to be just as baffled by them as I."
The story goes on to describe the woman's very unique form of insanity. After hearing a "revelation" from some guy who comes to her house, she loses the ability of coherent speech. She also loses the ability to engage in any new experiences without flipping out and/or fainting. Dexter never explicitly states what the revelation is. I've always agreed pretty much completely with all of his political writings and can relate a lot to some of his more introspective work, but I haven't really liked much of the fiction stuff I've read by him. I didn't really like this story too much, but I thought the narration was kind of cool because, as we discussed in class, it has a first-person narrator who never in the course of the story engages in it actively. He just observes everything and none of the characters ever mention him or seem to notice him. His relation to the story is really ambiguous, and it was probably my favorite element.
Mvt. III: In Conformity With Classical Tradition
In my Beethoven class, we had to do a reading about one of his piano sonatas, Opus #111. The sonata broke with tradition pretty blatantly by having only two movements rather than the traditional three or four. The sonata was unique in a lot of other ways, and people naturally began to try to figure out what artistic and thematic reason there was for Beethoven to write only two movements, leaving out the last one that normally revisits and concludes some of the ideas of the others. Beethoven was actually asked about this in his life time, and he responded that he didn't have enough time to write another movement, so he just published it as is. This may or may not have been the truth, but people continue to look for a reason for this two-movement sonata. I thought I'd better learn from Beethoven's mistake and include a part three.