Interesting Week

As the title of this post suggests, it's been an interesting week for me. To start with, when I say "week", I mean 5-12 days, not Sunday - Now. Interesting, right? Well, hopefully the rest of this is more interesting than that.

I've been making some changes in my life. I'm annoyed by clutter lately, for one. Space clutter, time clutter, mental clutter, emotional clutter, even (especially?) spiritual clutter.
Why is my room so full of stuff I can't find room for anything, yet I don't even know what all I have. If I don't know I have it, I haven't missed it, I wouldn't know if someone stole it... why is it in my life?
I have the same hours in every day now as I do during the weeks that I have three hours of theatre rehearsal every day, so where did those three hours go since I'm not rehearsing? Why do I still not have time for any hobbies?
Why do I take on mental, emotional, and spiritual baggage and junk that doesn't help me, isn't constructive, or needs to be dealt with and gotten out of the way?


I'm trying to start a new lifestyle for myself. Slowly, bit by bit. I started by cleaning up my room. If I don't use it, it needs to not be in my dorm. If I don't need it at all, it needs to be given away. So far I'm making pretty good progress and I'm pleased.

I also bought a keyboard and accessories. I'm very excited about that. One of my endless hobbies that I don't pursue is learning the piano. It's hard because at school I have limited access to pianos and at home basically not at all since ours is lovely but doesn't sound so lovely. I bought this keyboard:

Which is fabulous. I also got a stand, cover, carrying case, and batteries & charger. Yay! It's partly just because I've wanted one for a long time, but partly as a motivator. I wouldn't let myself get it unless I knew I'd have a place to put it in my room, which meant I had to clean out a lot of stuff. Also, I want to be serious about practicing. I love music, it's relaxing and great for me, so it makes sense to make a point of playing music every day or so. I hope it will remind me every time I play it to keep clutter down whether it's space, time, mental, emotional, or spritual.


What is cluttering your life?

Workshop One Act

So tomorrow, we're performing a one act put on by our guest artist. He's only here for two weeks, so there was a little over a week and a half of rehearsal. I have more lines than I've had before I think [which isn't saying that much!], and about six or seven days to memorize them. Whee!

It's neat though. It's called "Pullman Car Hiawatha" and has some really different techniques. I'll explain more later if there's interest (-:

Interstella 5555

Last night I had a dream about you
In this dream I'm dancing right beside you
And it looked like everyone was having fun
The kind of feeling I've waited so long

"Interstella 5555" is like the "Mama Mia" of anime. Daft Punk's album "Discovery" (2001) was made into a feature length animated film and released in 2003. There is no dialogue in the move and very limited sound effects. Thus, the major components are the visual part of the film, lyrics in the music, and the music. Even if you don't like anime, you should probably check out one or more of the songs, like "Something About Us" or "One More Time". If you're up for an hour of aesthetically and musically entertaining, beautifully artisitic animation, check out the full video.

I enjoy anime and I love musicals, so for me this film was very entertaining and fun. Watch it, tell me what you think.

Shallow

Even the deepest lakes have a superficial layer.

Baubles and Babbling

This blog is a place for me to publish things I like, thoughts I think, and feelings I want to express. To kick it off, I would like to share a few poems from my new favorite poet: Arnold Adoff. His unique style involves using spacing and line breaks in creative ways to create rhythm and meaning. It is impossible to accurately recreate that on a blog but I'll do my best. (-: Here is a small selection to get you started on his works:

The Rain Falling on West Train Tracks, Ohio,

never seems to stop until it turns to snow
with winter cold. This is a new town for us,
with a new wet weather for my most unhappy
sinuses. But there is this girl in my class
at Power Mouse Junior High School whose
hair is the color of the best European candy
featured in the library magazines. And the

sun,
which is always and exclusively s h i n ing
over her sweet head, has m e l t e d some
of that fine brown down, to drip sprinkled
drops
of choc
o
late freckles onto her shining cheeks.


~

I Will Hold Your Hand

and take a fine walk
around the lake with
you.
I will hold your hand
and sit down at the
side
walk
cafe to share a piece
of lemon cake or two.
I will hold your hand
and eat some popcorn
as we stroll around
the zoo and see what
we can see. But you
know, baby love, my own
sweet dear and lovely
you:
I'm saving all of my
chocolate kisses just
for
me.

~

Both of these poems are from "Chocolate Dreams". The following are from another delightful book by Adoff titled "All the Colors of the Race". I didn't separate them with a tilde (~) because the entire book is made up of separate poems that flow togehter like a single long poem. Since I didn't have room for everything I made selections. It might be of interest to know that Adoff is white, his late wife was black, and at the time they married that was a very unpopular marriage. This book is written from the point of view of a child with one white Jewish parent and one black Christian parent, which describes Adoff's family precisely. It's a charming book in many ways.


All the colors of the race

All the colors of the race
are
in my face, and just behind my face:
behind my eyes:
inside my head.

And inside my head, I give my self a place
at the end of a long
line forming
it self into a
circle.

And I am holding out my hands.


I think the real color is behind the color

I think the real color is behind the color.
That
skin on
my face is for the cold mornings,
and
the cool breezes of some
summer afternoons.

Under that skin and under that
face
is the real
race.


Sum People

The black man
said
I was a half
breed.
but I told
him
to
check out his
math:
like
one
plus
one.


The way I see any hope for later

The way I see any hope for later,
we will have to get
over this color thing,

and stop looking
at how much brown
or tan there is
in
or on this
woman
or that man.
And stop looking
at who is a woman
and
who is a man.

(facing page)

Stop looking.
Start loving.

All the colors of the race

All the colors of the race. Human, of course.
Beginning in Africa, in Asia, in the
Middle
East.
and long before Plymouth
Rock.

In ancient kingdoms the people are firing
clay heads for their gods;
mixing
colors
for the headcloths
of the mothers.

Mixing colors.
Mixing
colors.

(following page)

All the colors of the race. Human, of course.