Progress Report

Holy shit, is it really March already? I’ve been doing a pretty crappy job at keeping this blog up to date and while I’d like to say it’s because I’ve been doing nothing but studying I think laziness has a lot more to do with it than anything. That’s not to say I haven’t been plenty busy. School’s been going pretty well but there’s always room for improvement. For the most part I like the classes I’m taking this semester.
Intro to Guitar is nice because I’ve owned a guitar for a little bit but I’ve never really taken the time to learn how to play it. The professor is really nice and I while I don’t think I’m discovering any hidden musical talent it’ll be nice to be able to pick up a guitar and to have actual sound come out of it. For the final exam in order to get an A I have to be able to play the guitar while singing. Thankfully vocal talent is not being graded or I would have dropped the class not only because of the low grade I’d inevitably receive but because it would be cruel to put my instructor though such an ordeal. She actually said it would be ok to just speak the words as we play as long as we’re doing two things at once, very Bob Dylanish.
Speaking of Bob Dylan, I’m listening to the album Highway 61 Revisited while I’m writing this. What the hell was that guy talking about? I’m beginning the think he was on some kind of drugs. Someone should look into that.
The Vietnam War is interesting but so far the lectures have been a little dry. I’m finding the reading we have to do for the classes to be more interesting and easier to follow. And I’m actually really disappointed with the discussions. I thought we’d be talking about the war and our opinions of what went down and why. Instead we just show up for an hour and the TA gives us a work with about four questions that we have to answer in groups of three and then we go over the answers together. It’s like being back in grade school when the substitute teacher didn’t really know what to go over for the day.
My English class is called Entertainment Arts and so far I’m not impressed. I thought the class was going to be about what’s happening in entertainment today and how it’s affecting the world at large, which to me is a really interesting topic. And considering we just had an election where one of the V.P. candidates’ personality was decided by a TV satirist before she got to decide it herself you’d think there be plenty to talk about. So far the biggest revelation of the class has been that the sixties and seventies were times of social change and that change was reflected in the movies being made. Oh and the way people act on TV is different than how they act in real life. I’m also not a big fan of the Professor or the TA. They seem like a couple of hipsters who are too cool for the room. I hate going to discussion because the TA never seems to really have a plan for class. Call me an egotistical son of a bitch but I feel like could run the class better than him. Shit, put me and Zach in the room together, get us to start talking, have everyone take notes and not only would it be more informative than his discussions it would hilarious to boot. But I guess hoping a class called Entertainment Arts would be entertaining is too much to ask for. This class is really just a reminder of why I switched from film to theater in the first place.
And speaking of theater I guess it’s no surprise that my two favorite classes are my theater ones. Theater History II is fun and I love my professor. Her name’s Jessica Maerz and she’s new here. I really like her lectures because she's a total theater geek and proud of it. When she’s telling us about the history of theater it seems like she’ been telling people about theater for years and now she’s thrilled that she’s actually getting paid to tell people that care. Lots of fun. She’s a tough grader though which I’m fine with, I like a little bit of a challenge. Funny side story (that may very well just be funny to me). I told my mom that this class covered the 19th century up to today. She seemed shocked.
“That’s an awful lot of time to cover in one class isn’t it?” She asked me. I told her that it wasn’t really that bad considering Theater History I covered ancient Greece through the 18th century.
The last class I’m taking is Acting II and I love it. I got a really nice compliment from my professor. We’re studying the play ALL MY SONS by Author Miller (great show) and I’m playing the role of Frank. Frank’s not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed and she told me she cast me as that character because she thought I was very intelligent and wanted to see me play the opposite of myself. I always enjoy being called smart so of course I’ve deemed her the best theater professor I’ve ever had. What can I say? I’m easily flattered.
Also one of the actors playing the lead role of Chris is really busy acting in a real play (something I should really start doing again) so for the first half of Act II I’ll be playing that character too. Considering Frank and Chris are significantly different characters I’m really interested in seeing how I’ll show I’m a different person when playing one as supposed to the other.
Well, that’s about it as far as classes go. And I honestly haven’t been doing that much besides going to class. This make shock you but I’ve only seen one movie so far this year. But that’s going to change in March since there’s two movie coming out that I’m really psyched for, WATCHMEN and I LOVE YOU, MAN. Both seem like there going to be pretty great. Also Ben Folds is coming to the Rave in a couple weeks and I’d kind of like to see that show.
That’s enough from me for now. I’ll try to do better at keeping this thing up, it feels good to write, and I love typing on my Mac. Almost makes me look forward to that 10-page paper I have coming up.