- I don’t wanna start classes again tomorrow. 🙁
- These sectionees are kind of brutal in their evaluations. But I guess I’m not a terrific TA. I’ll just have to try harder next quarter, or something.
- New Lene Marlin album!
- My ankles and knees kind of hurt. I think I’m going to start trying to swim instead of jogging to the gym. The pools at Avery Aquatic Center are heated, which is pretty sweet.
- I think I’m losing hearing in my left ear. When I’m asleep, somehow I can’t hear anything through it. Usually, I regain hearing after an hour or so of waking, but I think it’s getting worse now. Not sure if it has to do with swimming, but it started before I swam, so I’m probably going deaf.
Too many movies…
In accord with boringest spring break bylaws, I watched many movies over the past few days: Australia (kind of weird and unfocused; not Baz Luhrmann’s best), The Seventh Seal (interesting), Let the Right One In, Ghostbusters (not exactly how I remembered it), The Wizard of Oz (never saw the whole thing in one sitting; Judy Garland is kind of pretty in it), Metropolis (Lang, pretty incredible especially for its age). I’m still trying to work up towards watching Match Point. Maybe tomorrow. A good bunch of films overall, though.
Let the Right One In is a great movie, pretty much the most adorable yet creepiest vampire movie. Oddly enough, I’ve had a bloody nose the past few days due to the dry weather. Also, I learned that eating spaghetti while watching scary vampire movies makes one lose one’s appetite rather quickly.
SFB Programs 4 and 5
A lesson I learned is to never attend the ballet when sleep deprived. Or maybe it’s that I shouldn’t go during finals week. I pretty much had no idea what was going on in Program 5 (Wed, 3/18). “Joyride” made less sense this second viewing than the first. Oh well.
Program 4 (Wed, 3/25) was pretty amazing, at least in part due to the fact that I actually got enough sleep. “On a Theme of Paganini” (Tomasson) I enjoyed a lot more this time around. Its simplicity and beauty resonated more this season than it did last, at least partly due to Maria Kochetkova’s stunning performance. She pretty much tore shit up on the stage. It was a little incongruous to see paired with Frances Chung, who while technically adept never seems to me to be very graceful. And also the height difference between Kochetkova and Tiit Helimets (also fantastic) was a bit disconcerting. Maybe that’s what made the pas de deux seem that much more emotional. Somehow it all worked out.
“Jardin aux Lilas” (Anthony Tudor) was an emotional masterpiece. It sent shivers down my spine. Sarah van Patten (or “SVP” as I like to call her; I need to stop thinking so much about matrix decompositions) and Elana Altman both have great stage presences and are among the better actresses in the company. The tension on stage was palpable. It was a treat to see them in their roles for “Jardin.”
“The Concert” (Jerome Robbins) was actually quite hilarious. Very blatant and also nuanced in its humor. I can see why it has stood the test of time. I now wish I had gone to see this program again.