Saturday, February 7, 2009

Getting My Culture On

This week has been pretty low key. But I have been getting my culture on! On Wednesday night, Sara and I went to see a play called Twin Houses. "Imagine finding yourself invaded by a multitude of beings who act through you without asking your opinion. They grab hold of one or another part of your body, they creep in between your intentions and your gestures, emitting contradictory voices and they initiate strange discourses and courses of action..." I do not know why I thought it would be a good thing to get so creeped out. But there we sat, listening to the ominous music and peering into the dark stage. When someone came out with a puppet attached to them. At first you couldn't tell who the puppet was and who the actor was. It was FREAKY. Especially when the puppet pulled out a knife and sharpened it against air and proceeded to cut the actress's head--pulling it back and further back until it really looked as if her neck was broken. It was just too weird.

Then on Friday we went to go see Aida. I was completely excited for it. I was anticipating some wonderful Elton John & Tim Rice music. But this was no musical. Stupid Alex. Oh SO stupid. Obviously it was an opera sung in Italian. Of course! Silly me! It was my first opera. And I think maybe my only opera. Though I may still give it a chance. It was long. There was a nazi usher. She showed us to our seats (and these seats are made for short midgets--there is virtually NO leg space) and we were all piled on one side of the nosebleed section. A woman behind me had some groceries (or something) and elected to put them in the row across from her as to not take up anymore space of her own. Unfortuantely the usher descended upon her with a wrath. She told the woman she was NOT allowed to as she did not pay for the use of two seats. Though the theather was virtually empty--the usher was just not having it. Later, when it became truly apparent that NO one else was coming (it was pretty empty up there) several people tucked in my row wanted to switch seats. The usher came with her fury and told them they weren't allowed to move. The woman who had been originally told off, asked me, "so what did she say now?" As I relayed the order the woman got all huffed up and said, "Well, that's bull shit, love." It was hilarious. Overall though it was enjoyable (a little long) but luckily there were subtitles so I knew what they were singing. Afterall, I am very good with subtitles.

Now, for my creative writing class, the assignment this week was to write about a character already created and have them describe a movie to another person. I had to use their point of view to see how they would summarize a movie plot. Ali, bless his soul, is just not cut out to be a writer. Maybe he could think about going into soft porn scripts...who knows?
An excerpt from his illustrious work...
"
Harry stroked his wand along Hermiones thigh. Tremulously, he peered into her eyes, her soft eyes, before drifting his hand down the small of her back to clench her sweet rump. Despite the heady cocktail of centaur saliva and elf he had served with dinner, things werent proceeding smoothly at all. In fact, it was a complete disaster. Cardinal sin: hed had to use the old wingardium leviosa to get her bra off. What if the slitherin crew got their hands on that information? Perish the thought."

I should not be heckling his creativity. But as soon as I read this, I could NOT keep a straight face. I am appalled, amused, and just overall worried. It actually gets a lot worse. He calls Voldemort, Valdimort, and Hagrid, Hagred. It pains me. But I am not the one to judge...afterall he has given me overwhelming compliments. So, Ali, who am I to put a stopper to your creativity? I just genuinely do not know how to respond to this much less workshop it.

Today Claire & I went to Ocean Terminal to go see Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist. I enjoyed the movie a lot. But the traveling to and from was not ideal! We were like going through the back streets of Edinburgh on the 11 bus, and every other second we were like, "where the heck are we?!" But we eventually go there. But being Sunday, the buses SUCK and run inconveniently infrequently. It was hilarious. We were standing at one bus stop for a good five minutes when we realized we were on the wrong side of the street. Oops.

Tomorrow is back to classes, but I have so thoroughly enjoyed spending my weekends in blissful laziness. Oh well!


1 comment:

Gabrielle said...

I'm proud of you for getting your culture on! Give the opera another try, we'll get cheap tickets to the Met. (And go to Alice's Tea Cup!) I've gone several times when the Italian Dept makes a group trip, it's sooooo good. Long, but good. And that Harry Potter soft porn script is freakin' hilarious! But what a way to ruin a classic...