- I went home last weekend and remembered what it was like to watch a great movie. For those of you who know me, I am a movie junkie. When living at home on Long Island, I used to go see a movie almost every weekend at my local cinema. My family is actually hugely into seeing movies together, and our tastes usually line up, so we go to the cinema quite a lot to see indie films. It's a nice family bonding experience. Living in the city has starved me of this experience, since I have neither the time nor money to go see movies regularly. This weekend, even amongst all of the midterm prep I had to do, I got the chance to go home and see two amazing movies (one for my brother's birthday, the other just for bonding time with my dad): Birdman and Gone Girl. Birdman was a crazy, surrealist, magical realist masterpiece. Really great performances all around, but especially Michael Keaton and Edward Norton. Gone Girl was another David Fincher thriller--again, amazing performances all-around. I've been meaning to read the book by Gillian Flynn. A lot of people are saying this is a misogynistic movie and I completely disagree. Rosamund Pike as Amy Dunne kills it (no pun intended); there were a lot of moments where my (not so) inner feminist screamed with joy. A lot of passages are spot-on, but I'll save my inner glee for the book itself, which is unfortunately checked out of every single NYPL location and also every library in Suffolk County!
- I had two midterms this week. I cried a lot and my hands hurt from writing.
- After my intense day of midterms, I had two days off because two of my teachers cancelled classes. So I had a mini break/weekend in the middle of the week to relax and regain my strength (and feeling in my hands). I'm proud to say that I did absolutely zero work during this time.
- I went to see two of the exhibits at the FIT museum. One was a history of lingerie, the other of dance costumes. It was a gross and rainy day but I wanted to make it out of the dorm for some culture to reward myself for all my hard work. That night I went to the Open Mic at the Brookdale dorms. The first open mic was nearly 3 hours long because there were so many acts. Probably because the freshmen were excited about being part of the community. There was a noticeably smaller lineup this time, whittled down to just the dedicated handful of musicians and performers who weren't overwhelmed by midterms and work. It's always nice to see the talent of my classmates, and to just relax and listen to some music.
- It's always good to have passive interests in college because they give you things to do outside of school work. I love reading poetry as much as the next person, and academic interests are nice, but sometimes I just want to go to a concert, or read a non-academic book, or look at clothes for a couple of hours. These are the things that keep you sane, keep you from becoming your workload.
This will have to suffice for my post for now, since I have so much work to do. I'll leave you with part of a poem I read recently. I strongly suggest you look up the rest of the poem, since these parts really don't do it justice:
V
I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.
...
XIII
It was evening all afternoon.
It was snowing
And it was going to snow.
The blackbird sat
In the cedar-limbs.
-Wallace Stevens, "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird"
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