Just found out that this year Philly's One Film program has chosen to screen Empire of the Sun out of all old movies. I saw this movie at least three times on my settle lite TV last summer, but I don't mind seeing it once again especially now that I'm how many thousands of miles away from Shanghai, the actual location of the film and I'm not sure if all the longtang scenes and the occasional Shanghainese would bring out my homesickness. I was once also an enthusiast at digging Shanghai's "colonial" (though the Chinese word is "rented" ) past, a history the ruling party tried so hard to wash off from people's minds and now the city government ironically seems very supportive of rebuilding. Not the colonialism of it of course, but Shanghai is very Romantic about just everything European. I don't know why Philly would choose a Shanghai-based film and am not sure what kind of horrible impression the film would leave the people here of Chinese though.

Oh and Dr. Z asked me today if I'm interested in babysitting.

 

 

 

My theatre test came back with a B minus. Apart from not getting enough sleep the night before due to it being Lunar New Year's Eve, I got only 8.5 out of 10 for the essay question. The question was about whether critics were needed as the two essential elements of theatre are a performance and an audience. Instead of talking about what critics could bring to actors and audiences like my prof turned out to have expected, I focused on the organization perspective. I talked about what critics put in the paper can affect audience's reaction to the play prior to seeing it and consequently affecting audience turn-out rates and ticket sales. My professor responded that critics help actors and directors (or in my perspective, the artists) improve their productions instead of just "putting butts in the seats", a concept in my opinion is very much important concerning how live performing arts are struggling to survive nowadays. That's just one aspect of how artists think vastly differently than the management side. Their performance is far more important than the funding needed to cover the cost of the production. The funding is not within their considerations and is left to the management side to take care of of course. And that's why they are going to need me one day.

Cafeteria just put up a number of interesting "African maps" with no signs of Madagascar.

I'm kind of jealous of people who are on semester schedules. They only go to school for eight months a year and take 12 classes. We, on the other hand, go to school for nine months, take 18 classes, and work the rest of the three months. This coming summer will be the very last summer break I get to enjoy.

It's kind of surreal to realize that the aroma lingering in my friend's hall is the smell of marijuana.

It's 4am and roommate is still in the lounge working on her second project since this evening. I myself have a paper due on Thursday which I haven't even started. I'm glad I'm not a fashion design major. I would kill myself I had to do so many projects.