Hieronymus Bosch in a Hot Air Balloon

At the beginning of the semester, Oberlin has Add/Drop, when students can make changes to their schedules. If you're not sure if you'd like to take Human Origins, History of Medicine, or Epigenetics, you can attend all of those classes to check them out. During Add/Drop, Obies overcommit. This is inevitable. There's the Exco Fair, overwhelming and marvelous. There's a community service fair. New plays start auditioning, new ensembles grow into a niche.

For the first time, I'm going to try not to overcommit. Really.


Schedule:
Writing Project II: The Final Project (Sylvia Watanabe)
Grant Writing (Jan Cooper)
Western Architectural History (John Harwood)
Neurophysiology (Michael Loose)
Storytelling Exco (Me and Amanda "Tigerkiller" Lozada)

Independent Writing Project II
Sylvia taught Novella. Sylvia is my advisor. Sylvia is amazing. After you finish the workshop component of creative writing, you take independent projects where you meet one on one with your project sponsor. My goal: I want to put on a really exciting, new senior recital. More on that front soon.


Grant Writing
During Winter Term, I met with one of the performers and the tech director for Circus Contraption, a raunchy circus. One of the things I'm super interested and curious about is art management, so it was a good time to ask weird little questions...

Terry, Tech Doctor: Right now, we make about 80% of our income through tickets and sales.
Aries: That's awesome!
Terry: No, not really. We're just lousy at grant writing.

And then, a little lightbulb flickered on top of my head. I could take a whole *class* on Grant Writing! I would have a useful skill!

After two classes, Grant Writing does seem to be super-useful. We're doing it in a hands-on manner. First, we get in touch with an organization, either personal, or a community group... then, we learn all about them, learn how to write grants, and go try to earn money. Instead of Friday class, we have private meetings with the prof, Jan Cooper, who's really sweet.


Approaches to Western Architectural History
This class is so, so good. Yesterday, we talked about the merger between classical and Christian styles, as well as the mythos of Architecture, and the oddity of a thing invented and practiced before it was named.

Quotes:
[On the linguistic origins] "We pull the thread, and, as the Weezer song goes, the sweater unravels."
"There was no TV in Sodom and Gomorrah."
"I have opposable thumbs. I'm the boss here."

John Harwood is also a dreamboat, rather like Professor Indiana Jones in the classroom scene of Temple of Doom. No matter what gender you're attracted to, there's something nice about listening to someone handsome early in the morning.


Neurophysiology
When I don't take science classes, I can feel parts of my brain start to... rot. If I were to take a lateral slice, various parts of my cerebrum would be the consistency of cottage cheese. Or Ricotta. Something creamy that you eat with melon or salted ham.

I went through the science library the other day and nearly imploded. I needed a science, like peanut butter needs jelly. So, I looked through the course catalog on Wednesday, researched open Bio/Chem/Neuro/Physics/Geology classes and saw Neurophysiology.
I really like neuroscience, and the combination of Physics and Neuro seems lovely. I've only taken one day, so I'm withholding judgment, but it seems hard and really, really good. Prof. Loose has a really clear style of teaching -- he's going over membrane potentials until they feel intuitive.

In high school, I rather disliked most sciences, excluding Biology. When the teacher started drawing equations and models on the board, I fought to stay awake. I didn't really see the applications of it; I didn't think they could apply to me. I worked hard at my classes, but my heart wasn't in it (only my pig-headed need to do well). These days, I like the mathematical component of the sciences. I enjoy learning mechanisms, messenger systems, and all the little details. I like working on my problem sets.

Dammit, Oberlin. Dammit.

Storytelling Exco (Me and Amanda "Tigerkiller" Lozada)
If you missed this entry, here's a recap on Storytelling:
I took the Exco my freshman year, taught it my junior and senior years. My co-teacher is Amanda, one of my good friends, who I got close to when she took the class her freshman year. She is coincidentally one of the coolest people in the world. We're making the course our own.

Storytelling is an interesting practice, because the narrative is clear, but audience-speaker relations can be muddied. Unlike traditional theater, we encourage a lot more improvising, more fresh, experimental jokes and uses of scenery. So, to improve that aspect, we're leading more group and theater activities. Over Winter Term, Amanda worked on "In the Blood" as tech director, but also took some improv workshops, including a week-long course on Theater of the Oppressed. Together, we've got lots of ideas.


Amanda and I:


For the first class, we did "Yes, And," a storytelling game that improv groups use a lot to teach listening and innovation. Our three groups told stories...
1. Hieronymus Bosch in a Hot Air Balloon, poisoning children with evil candy.
2. Small Woodland Creatures start an earthquake that nearly destroys them all.
3. The Knights Templar drown in a Nerf Ball Pit, after ripping a hole in the sky.

It's going to be a great semester.

I don't write my stuff anymore, I just kick it from my head.

Ratatat, playing at the Sco on Tuesday, was insane.

There were two starter bands: E-Rock and Panther. The former I really enjoyed- he came in wearing a black cloth over his head, covering his face with big sunglasses and a white bandanna holding it all in pace. He looked like a robber, if not a terrorist. On his arms, he'd drawn robot-style joints and a heart. Overall, an awesome aesthetic. His set was solid electronic dance music. I liked "teengirl fantasy" more, pound for pound, but it was an awesome way to start it off. I wouldn't hesitate playing it for my Dad when he asked what newfangled stuff I listen to.

Panther was a bit to indulgent indie, but with a solid beat and amazing drummer. The singer seemed like a self-absorbed dweeb- he made his voice echo on nearly every track- still, I danced.

The Sco filled to its sweaty brim as Ratatat set up. I was at the very front for the two openers; by the time Ratatat was ready to go, I was about 4 rows of people in after a bunch of folks pushed ahead of me.

Izzie looked around and said, "Guys, we're gonna get crushed," a mix of fear and excitement in her voice. The dance floor filled more and more.

The instant Ratatat started, the crowd became a huge, amorphous organism. We swelled, we danced, we jumped, we moshed. The Sco workers moved to the head of the stage and pushed the crowd back, away from the equipment. Despite the claustrophobia, the crowd was really pleasant, all of us swaying in the sweaty human ocean. Sweaty isn't the right word, but it approached the soaked-ness that described the whole audience.

I love Ratatat.

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"What's so funny about attrition?" asked Prof. Kalyn, in a lesson on Zipcar for Entrepreneurship.
Yoshi and I looked at each other and laughed. I'm obsessed with attrition and Yoshi and I had a disagreement about the value of following up on new OCircus recruits through some alternative means. Yoshi wants us to build a solid structure and let the newbies settle as they will; I want to increase the social activities of the club to increase the cohesion of the club.

On Friday, we had an incredible showing at TGIF: it felt like a festival. There were so many freshmen learning, picking things up... I taught about 8 people beginning poi, including a girl who was the spitting image of Harper Jean. About a fourth of us, myself included, pulled off our tops and rocked out in our bras/skins. Given the number of people, it was pretty paramount in my mind to keep as many as I could around. New blood, my friends. New blood.

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Death of a Salesman was phenomenal. It was something special- the Theater Department brought in 5 Actor's Equity folks to put on a professional show. Adrian Brooks was Willy Lohman. Adrian Brooks, Captain Sisko in Deep Space 9, amazing actor and orator. His reading of Willy was painful and brilliant, making his dementia more explicit and grand than I imagine a lot of actors would do. Justin Emeka, who teaches theater was directing and playing Biff- he did an amazing job. The lead cast- the Lohman family- was entirely African-American, meant to highlight a racial component in the class struggle, so visceral by Miller's play. I stopped noticing race about 10 minutes into the show, going from "this is the African-American experience" to "this is the American experience." Bernard and Charlie were very Jewish refugees, an interesting choice- Josh Sobel, who's in my Drama Literature class, played Bernard and did an amazing job, especially with the age component of the play. Raphi was brilliant, as ever.

Walked around Oberlin after seeing Salesman, to go from Very Serious Theater, to a campus where music echoed out of every third house on a Saturday night. I'm glad I saw it. I cried afterward for about a half-hour.

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Pertinent quotes:
"I'm a robot! I've always been a robot! Our relationship is doomed!"