Calliope
Friday, September 30, 2005
The Constant Gardener
I saw an absolutely INCREDIBLE movie last night - possibly one of the best movies I've ever seen in my entire life! Seriously! It was The Constant Gardener, starring Ralph Fiennes - it was absolutely amazing! It's about this British diplomat (Fiennes) in Kenya, and his wife is like an aid activist. She discovers this huge conspiracy involving pharmaeutical companies, but then she gets killed and he has to figure out what happened. I know that plot scenario sounds a bit mundane, but this film is SO well done, so well put together - the structure, the editing, the cinematography, the ACTING (Fiennes is absolutely incredible, and if you don't completely fall head over heels in love with him, then you have no soul; the woman who plays his wife is also excellent, as is EVERY SINGLE MEMBER of the supporting cast), the WRITING - EVERYTHING, is absolutely brilliant. This films is so moving and emotional, and it's also not afraid to confront some pretty hardcore political issues - including the politics of development aid, the exploitation of poor African countries, the corruption of government and big business (and it's interesting, because this time the BRITS are the bad guys, and not the Americans for once - granted, it's a British film; the Brits just usually aren't portrayed like that, and I think someone is expressing a little discontent with the British support of the US/Iraq war.) It's one of the most brilliant films I've ever seen. GO SEE IT ASAP - it's one of those films that you really really truly need to see on the big screen (except for my parents, who ought not watch it until I've returned home from Africa).
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Tales From China
Ok. I just had to share this email I got from Nick today. Three letters: W-T-F?!
"I had a really bizarre experience today!
I started to tell you the Chinese man I bumped into in the lobby of the
dorm yesterday...the one who needed a white person with a beard for some
sort of ceremony. I asked him what it was, what kind of a ceremony,
where (very natural questions, I think), but all he would tell me was
that I had to present awards to students. And also, that I shouldn't
ask so many questions. At the time, I thought, wow, this is a little
sketchy, and not just because I can't understand what his Chinese
(chinese has a good phrase for sketchy, by the way: "bu san bu si",
which means "not 'three', but also not really 'four'"). Anyway, despite
the sketchiness, I figured this was of course something I absolutely had
to do in order to satisfy my curiosity.
So today, I put on a suit and tie, gave his business card to another
student to give to the police in case I didn't return, and I got into
his car with him to go to this place, whatever it was. (I wouldn't have
done it, but he was very familiar with all the workers at the dorm, and
they told me that he was on okay guy). In the car, he gave a sheet of
paper that said: Name: Su Kesi, Age: 32 years, Occupation: English
teacher. He said that if anyone asked me, I had to tell them that was
who I was. I asked him why they wanted me. As an English teacher, was
I supposed to represent something, like Chinese-American relations? Or
was I supposed to be playing the part of a particular person who wasn't
there? Or was I merely a decoration? "Decoration", he said. Strange...
We then got to this place, which turned out to be a "pet hairdressing
school" (so says their English translation; but that's the best way I
know how to describe it). It was like a university, but there were
little poodles everywhere, with ribbons and stuff covering them, with
fancy hairdos.
This old lady came out to greet us, Teacher Cui, and I tried to act
really mature, like a 32-year-old (I know what you're thinking...and
you're right, it wasn't very easy for me). It was really funny...she
told the man, "oh wow, he's so handsome! wait, he doesn't understand
what we're saying, does he?"
We went to this lady's office, and she started asking me about myself.
I didn't know what to do; I was kind of caught off guard. Should I
just make stuff up? I decided yes, because that would definitely be the
most fun thing to do.
Why was my Chinese name so strange, she asked? I said, oh, my students
thought it up and they think it's a big joke. I told her that I taught
English at Beijing Normal University (the place where Princeton in
Beijing was). I figured that way if she wanted to ask me more detailed
questions, I would know what I was talking about. As I talked with her,
my fake life began to take shape. It was actually pretty fun. I told
her that I'd come to China three years ago after becoming disillusioned
with materialism in American society. Also, I told her that my wife was
an alcoholic, and we both thought that China would be a great place to
get over her alcoholism, since she couldn't stand the taste of Chinese
liquor. I also told her I had a five year old son. I said that I
thought China was a great place to raise a kid, but that now my kid
spoke English with a Chinese accent, which was really weird.
After we talked for a while, Teacher Cui took the man and I to the room
where I was apparently supposed to give out awards. There were like 8
people there, university student-looking people in their mid-20's,
mostly girls, with a few stray poodles wandering around on the floor,
and a couple of poodles standing on desks. But despite the lack of
order, everyone was wearing nice suits and dresses. I sat at the front
of the room at a table in front of a big banner that I couldn't read.
"Teacher Cui" introduced me to everybody as Mr. Su, the English teacher.
The students started to come up one at a time, and I had absolutely no
idea what was going on. I only understand half of what people were
saying. I looked down at the table and saw a stack of certificates,
some medals, and one giant trophy. I took one of the certificates and
gave it to the first person, shook their hand, said "congratulations!"
in Chinese, took a medal and put it on her. No one laughed or said
anything, so that's what I did with everyone. After I gave the award to
each person, they stood next to me while Teacher Cui took our picture.
Anyway, the whole thing was really strange! In the car on the way home,
the man gave me 100 yuan (about 12 bucks). Just another bizarre China
story, I guess."
Yeah....I guess.....?!?!?!?
Resurrection Ode
(Here's the text of the last movement of Mahler No. 2, as taken from my choral score.)
Rise again, yes rise again you shall,
My dust after a short rest!
Immortal life! Immortal life will He who called you give you
Again to blosson you are sown!
The Lord of the harvest goes and gather sheaves:
Us who died
O believe, my heart, o believe:
It is not lost to you.
It is yours, yes yours, what you have yearned for!
Yours, what you have loved for,
what you have fought for.
O belive, you were not born in vain,
Have not lived, have not suffered in vain!
What has come into being must pass away,
What has passed away must rise again.
Cease trembing,
Prepare yourself!
Prepare yourself to live!
O grief all-penetrating!
From you I am wrestled away!
O death all-conquering!
Now you are conquered!
With wings which I have won for myself,
In heated struggle,
I shall fly away to the light which no eye penetrated!
With wings which I have won for myself,
I shall fly away!
Die I shall, so as to live!
Rise again, yes rise again you shall,
My heart, in an instant.
What you have searched for,
To God
It will carry you!
Fabulous Day(s)
Yesterday was just all around a fabulous day. Which is saying a lot, because Tuesdays are my most challenging days, and I had some extra stuff on the ol' agenda. But I thoroughly ROCKED both my seminars (Transatlantic Relations since the Cold War @ 1:30 and European Politics @ 3:30). Like, seriously, kicked some ass. Insightful. Intelligent. Thoughtful. (A rare occurance - I know; that's why it was so significant.) It was very exciting, all the more so because they're both taught by really big-name profs. YEA!
Then, after a brief dinner break, I went straight to rehearsal in Woolsey - our first run-through of Mahler No. 2 with the Philharmonia (graduate school orchestra). Symphony No. 2 is the Resurrection Symphony, but in writing the piece, Mahler had in mind not the resurrection of Christ, but the resurrection of man. The first movement represents a funeral, asking the question "Is there life after death?". The second movement is a remembrance of happy times in the life of the deceased. The third movement represents a complete loss of faith, and belief in life as meaningless. The fourth movement is a rebirth of faith, with a soloist singing the text "I am from God, and will return to God". The fifth movement ends the piece with a realization of God's love, and recognition of everlasting life, and it includes a text called the Resurrection Ode sung by choir. The concert is on Friday. All I have to say is WOW. SO. MUCH. SOUND. Not even a hall like Woolsey can handle the amount of sound we're putting out. It's incredible. Plus I get to sing a high G - in public. (Never knew I could physically produce that sound. You just kind of brace yourself and take a stance like you're gonna kill someone, take the biggest breath possible and go for it. A lot of fun, actually.) It's just SO powerful and emotionally overwhelming - impossible to describe with words, I wish everyone could fly in to see it. It's gonna be an amazing concert.
Monday, September 26, 2005
More Words of Wisdom from Philip Stephens
Increasingly my favorite collumnist in the best newpaper ever (the Financial Times), Stephen Philips provides these comments on the evolution of the Bush administration, the UN, and the role of the US therein. His assessment is - once again - right on.
Excerpt from "The United Nations is flawed yet vital" by Philip Stephens, in the Financial Times on 9/16/05:
"Listening to his speech [at the UN] it also struck me that the US president has accepted the underlying logic, if not the precise forms, of Mr. Annan's [Secretary-General of the UN] proposed bargain between [global] north and south. This was not the president who berated the UN over Iraq. The inescapable connections between security, development and conflict resolution have begun to win acceptance in the White House. We should not be starry-eyed. Mr Bush is an instinctive unilateralist. But self-interest is beginning to push the US along the multilateralist road."
And thank God for that.
Saturday, September 24, 2005
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Skype
So, I just downloaded Skype yesterday, and, um, it's probably the coolest program in the universe. Why, you ask? Because - by using this fabulous program - I can talk to Nick in China for free, and with better reception than you can get over cell phones. IT'S AMAZING. It's basically like talking on the phone, except you do it through the computer. You need headphones (just like discman or iPod headphones) and a mircophone - which, apparently, I have built into my computer. Who knew? I had no idea I had one. I kind of stumbled on it by accident, and I still don't actually know exactly WHERE on my computer it's located...But it's great because you can talk long distance for as long as you want for FREE. PS: It's the program I will be using to talk to you all next semester when I'm abroad, so you'd best download it now.
ED FRICKIN' HELMS!!!!!
OH. MY. GOSH. AMAZING news today: we have this thing called the Fall Show (haven't had it the past two years due to budget reasons...) where our college council brings in a comedian AND THIS YEAR THEY MANAGED TO GET ED HELMS!!!!!!!! AGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! I am SOOOOOOO excited!!!! Words are inadequate to express my elation! Since I don't really expect anyone besides Al and Barb to know what the hell I'm talking about, Ed Helms is one of the "correspondants" on the Daily Show - Comedy Central's news show hosted by Jon Stewart. He also happens to be the FUNNIEST corresondant on the show. He also happens to be the one I voted for when our college council polled the student body to see who they should bring in to do the Fall Show. This is just incredible. I can't believe it. Tickets went on sale at midnight. I had a receipt in my had at 12:01. I will also be the first person in line. Such much-needed good news!!!!!!
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Sunday, September 18, 2005
Good Company and Ethiopian Food
Beth and I finished off a week of trying, boy-related emotional stress with dinner at Lalibela, this amazing Ethiopian restaurant. (I realized that it's exactly 2 years since I'd last been to eat there, since the last (and first) time I'd gone was this same weekend Freshman year with my suitemates in celebration of Veronica's and Rosanna's birthdays.) We had a really great time, and the food was outstanding. Plus, I got to see more of her pictures from Sierra Leone. It was a fantastic evening, all around (even despite the ridiculous thunderstorm and torrential downpour)!
Saturday, September 17, 2005
Incursion of the Fruit Flies
OK, we have a SERIOUS infestation problem. And I have NO idea where they're coming from. (Ok, so I kinda know where they MAY have come from, since before today I hadn't emptied my garbage in over a week...) But Abby and I went on an extermination tirade today, and I swear we killed over 100 of them, AND THERE'S STILL MORE FLYING AROUND. Daaaaaaaaaaaaadddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy - what do I do???????????????????????????
Quote of the Day
"So what if their suite is classy. Our suite has character. You can buy class, but character is organic!"
-Me, talking to Abby about the boys who live next door
Friday, September 16, 2005
The Biggest Disappointment of the Semester
Tonight was World Fellows night (see glowing, euphoric posts on World Fellows Night from Sept 2004 and 2003), and I am very sad to say that this was one of the most disappointing events ever. Traditionally, WFN is the highlight of my Fall semester, but they made some changes and this year it was just LAME. They eliminated the best, most important part - the panel discussions. Instead, they just had the World Fellows make little stupid cardboard country displays with pictures, etc, and you could go around and look at them. It felt like a study abroad fair, or something. That was it. Then they just had food and a salsa band (granted, the salsa band was great; but THAT'S NOT WHY I WENT). You couldn't really talk to any of the fellows or hear the amazing, brilliant, insightful, thought-provoking ideas they always have on various world issues. It was really disappointing. Oh well, at least the first two years were good.
CAST, or The British Are Coming!
Actually, the British already came. The student theater company from Cambridge (as in Cambrige UK, not that shitty city in Massachusetts where Harvard is) came to Yale again on Monday. I remember I blogged about them when they came and did Midsummer Night's Dream my freshman year. THEY'RE INCREDIBLE! No, seriously. They're phenominally talented, SO hilarious. Some of the best Shakespeare - indeed, some of the best theater - I've ever seen. And STUDENTS! This time around they did Much Ado About Nothing (which is not one of my favorites. I actually think it's kinda dumb and tedious), and it was - obviously - great! Perhaps not quite as good as Midsummer, but that's Shakespeare's fault, not theirs. They set it in late 1930s Britain, and it worked very well. The cast was awesome and I hope they come again next year, because I greatly look forward to their performances.
Monday, September 12, 2005
YGC Retreat
So I got to spend this weekend in the Middle-of-Nowhere, Connecticut. Why was I stuck in the Connecticut wilderness all weekend, you ask? At the beginning of every
year, Glee Club has a retreat to this, like, girl scout camp or something - I don't even know what it is - but we stay there for the weekend and spend about half the time rehearsing, the other half bonding/getting to know each other. Activities include inane ice-breaker games, campfires and smores, story/joke-telling, parties, etc. It's kind of ridiculous, but if you have a good attitude about it, it can be kind of fun. Except for the whole sleeping part. I don't really do the whole "camping" thing, as some of you may know (it's my princess complex rearing its ugly head). We have to sleep in these cabins (<--- euphemism for wooden shack), and honestly, we might as well be sleeping right outside. It's SOOOOOOOO cold (and this from the girl who grew up in Buffalo). It's gets down to like 40 degrees at night. I thought I was going to die. Indeed, I wished for death. But retreat is good because it's how we learn most of our music. It's also a good chance for our new members to integrate with the rest of the group. The new members are pretty cool, and it was great to hang out with all my old YGC friends again, partying together, etc - it felt like Australia again. I think I had a lot more fun at the social events this year (the parties, games, icebreakers, etc) than last year's retreat, just cuz I'm more comfortable and I have FRIENDS this time around (Glee Club is a very open, welcoming group, but because it's such a tight knit group, its a little hard to break in initially - inside jokes, stories from tour, etc. It gets better after we all go on tour together. Talk about a bonding experience...); but I enjoyed rehearsal far less this time around, cuz our repertoire kinda sucks. I don't really like what we're singing - we're not doing anything normal or pretty. Lots of contemporary crap; and the normal pieces we're doing are the exact opposite - to the point where they're really boring and mundane. Hopefully the random/wacky/atonal pieces will grow on me. Also, since we have 50% new membership (lost a LOT of seniors, and a bunch of old members didn't return), we have a very young, bright sound right now, and it's gonna take Jeff (our conductor) a little while to put a leash on that. But personality-wise, the newbies are a pretty cool bunch, I think. So all in all it was a pretty good weekend.
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Transatlantic Relations
I'm taking a seminar on Euro-American relations, so I've been trying to keep my eyes open for relevent pieces in various newspapers, journals, etc. So, here's one I read on Friday that I think is really good. This is for all of you who get your news from Fox. Try branching out from that "continuous drumbeat of misinformation"(Jon Stewart) and read some international papers like the Financial Times, whence comes this article:
FT.com site : Philip Stephens: We need a powerful but humble US.
Philip Stephens
8 September 2005
A central thread in the geopolitical story of the past few years has been American power and American vulnerability. In the global maelstrom since September 11 2001 the rest of the world has at once chafed at US might and quietly celebrated its pregnability. The paradox, visible again in the grisly aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, explains much of the confusion in international affairs.
There are many ways of measuring US primacy. Most obviously, America spends more on its military than every other nation combined. Look around the world and more often than not the US is the dominant regional power, an indispensable presence in balancing local rivalries. American economic power, meanwhile, is reflected not only in an unrivalled wealth but by seemingly unassailable leads in science, technology and innovation. To the political and the economic, add an extraordinary cultural reach. Like it or not, young people from Beijing to Brussels and Reykjavik to Rio de Janeiro look to the US for their lifestyles.
The other side of the story is the vulnerability. The terrorist attacks on New York and Washington were a murderous reminder that to be invincible is not to be impregnable. The insurgency in Iraq has shown how a relatively small, fanatical enemy can inflict heavy losses on the most fearsome military machine the world has ever seen.
The manner of the exercise of American power has served to undermine it. We are all Americans now, Le Monde, the French newspaper, famously declared after September 11 2001. In the years since we have seen instead a steady erosion of solidarity. Shock and awe rid the world of Saddam Hussein's regime. But the circumstances of his removal exacted a heavy toll in terms of broken friendships and the sullen refusal among many allies to help rebuild Iraq.
Hegemony always sparks jealousies and resentments among weaker nations. But American power has historically rested as much on the perception that it is fundamentally benign as on material strength. That has changed. Only this week an opinion poll commissioned by the German Marshall Fund of the US confirmed again the hostility of Europeans to the Pax Americana.
The decision to go to war in Iraq without the support of the international community and the denial of legal process to the inmates of Guantanamo Bay are the most obvious causes. They seem affronts to both the idealism and the respect for the rule of law on which the US has built its moral authority. The consequences are set out with objective calm in an essay by Stephen M.?Walt, of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, in the latest issue of the journal Foreign Affairs. The most damaging, to my mind, has been the collapse of trust in America's motives.
To a degree, the need to buttress power with legitimacy has now been recognised in Washington. If anything has changed in the psyche of George W.?Bush's administration during the president's second term, it is an acknowledgment that even a hyperpower sometimes needs allies. But the conversion is reluctant, the instinct still unilateralist.
I know from my e-mail inbox that the reaction of many Americans to this is: "So what?" Europeans are wimps, unwilling even to pay for their own security; the US must defend itself. Such sentiments are too easily dismissed by those at whom they are directed. But that is another argument.
Americans should not be surprised, though, that the reaction in Europe to the devastation wrought by Katrina has been ambivalent. The human instinct has been to share the sadness at the loss of so many innocent lives and at the ruin of a city that has carved out a special place in the affections of millions far beyond American shores. Yet alongside this sits a nagging satisfaction that Mr Bush's inert administration has been humbled.
Many have simply been baffled as to how last week so many thousands could be left to fend for themselves without food, water or medicines and as to why this week bloated corpses have been allowed to rot in the streets of New Orleans. How quickly the dream has become a nightmare.
Observers from afar are also struck by the extent to which the tragedy and the deep inequalities it has revealed seem to have startled the US media. American television reporters have often appeared as shocked as their European colleagues at the realisation of what it means to be black and poor.
All this plays to a belief that the social price of America's vibrant but unruly capitalism is too high. Europe too has its underclasses, witness the miserable poverty of the immigrants who perished in a spate of recent fires in Paris. I read the other day that Harvard and Yale have extended their scholarship programmes to allow students from deprived parts of London to compete with those from Bangladesh and Nigeria.
New Orleans, though, spoke to poverty and racial division on an epic scale. The improvised placards of the victims, begging food, water, medicines and, above all, help, were a reproach not just to Mr Bush but to America.
For opponents of the Iraq war - on both sides of the Atlantic - there has been the added "bonus" of being able to blame the ineptitude of the rescue effort on Mr Bush's decision to remove Saddam Hussein. It seems to me doubtful that the hapless response reflected the focus on Iraq. Mr Bush, after all, spent August on his Texas ranch. But it is easy to make the elision between overstretch abroad and neglect at home in a nation where many, if not most, voters share an innate suspicion of foreign entanglements. So Katrina may well weaken already fragile support in the US for the Iraq war.
Europeans, though, should be careful what they wish for. Neither a US retreat into isolationism nor a return to the pursuit of the narrowest of national interests would serve the world well. For the moment, Mr Bush's mission to spread democracy is widely scorned. But would America's allies really prefer a return to the cold war policy of propping up any dictator or tyrant willing to declare himself as a "friend" of the west?
The three biggest threats to European security and prosperity at present are the bloody chaos in Iraq, Iran's nuclear ambitions and the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. None can be resolved without US engagement. The world needs a powerful America but a humbler one.
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Non-Sequitur
One of my favorite bands, Our Lady Peace, has a new cd out. It's called "Healthy in Paranoid Times".
My birthday is October 22.
(The above statements are not related in any way.)
Russian
I don't really know why, but I didn't read the back of my Russian textbook until just yesterday (mind you, we're currently on page 75 of that text book; we've had class for 6 days). But this is what they have on the back - I think it's absolutely hilarious!
"Top Ten Reasons for Studying Russian:
10. The alphabet IS the hardest part. Really.
9. Those funny-shaped letters make great tattoos.
8. Big Brother would want it that way.
7. Dostoyevsky makes for good light summer reading.
6. Russian has 75% fewer calories than the leading foreign languages.
5. Learn the hidden meaning behind those little wooden dolls.
4. Understanding Russian grammar is guaranteed entry into the "Mensa" society.
3. The word for "hello" has 13 letters.
2. Knowing two alphabets increases your brain capacity.
1. The book is cool."
My mother at least can attest for number 3. Stop pronouncing it like "swastica", mom.
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Authentic African Clothing
My friend Beth - bless her heart - spent the summer in Sierra Leone, saving little Africa children in refugee camps. No seriously, she did. Anyway, she brought me back authentic, hand-made African clothing, which is SO cool, even though I look kind of ridiculous in this picture!
Back to School
Wow - I can't believe I've only been here since Monday! It feels like I've been here FOR-EV-ER! Even though I moved in kinda late, I've managed to settle in pretty quickly. My room is REALLY cute - it already looks really homey. Today, I put up pictures (every member of the extended family is WELL represented on my walls, in addition to friends) and my HUGE Australian flag that I purchased when I was Down Under. Classes started yesterday. Thank GOD I had my schedule figured out before I arrived so I don't have to deal with the chaos of any of this "shopping" business. Here's the schedule:
M-F: INTENSIVE intro Russian language (meets an hour a day, and an extra hour on MWF!)
MW: Strategy, Technology, and War - a polsci lecture course that looks really good.
T: European-American Relations After the Cold War (polsci seminar - taught by my advisor, the amazing British dude)
T: European Politics (the polsci seminar I have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA how I got into; it's taught by the head of the political science department)
I feel like a real veteran here - it really does get easier as you get older! I have so many wonderful friends here, so many awesome people. I feel very established and comfortable here.
Thanks to Nana for my lovely going back to school gift: A FRENCH PRESS! Hooray for good coffee! I made my first cup this morning - it was delightful. And I would imagine it will only be better once I use Willoughby's coffee - courtesy of Barb, who has furnished me with a gift certificate that will keep me well up to my ears in coffee beans for the better part of the semester, in addition to a travel mug and a bag of chocolate covered espresso beans! Life here is pretty good...at least while the work is still light anyway...
