Operatic Death Star.

First off: the lane of legends. I will investigate. The pastries of all our hopes and dreams are somewhere in this bloody city.

This week has been trying, but it's the beginning of a long phase, productive phase in my life. I can tell, because I had a lot of moments of meditation and enjoyment when it came to actually doing parts of my work. While everything for this weekend is far from finished (Paper, presentation, reading, the usual 10 phalanxes of assignments to barrel through in the next few days). Here's the judiciously sculpted summary of my week!

Monday: Crazy paper editing and sitting in the park at Bedford square, eating lunch. There was a ladybug in the grass with me. We were illing. It was empty and really a place to go back to. Note to self: Sandwiches and great apple juice are great meditational tools. Fortunately, this park is owned by NYU-L for the time being, and all I have to do to get access is to trade my ID to the NYU guard across the street for a gate key. Also, I went to a play; sadly, it stank. It's called the Mousetrap, and it's the longest running play in the world. Yes, that may be a bad thing. If you want to read more about that, here's my review.

Tuesday: Rock Climbing with the ULMC! (And classes...but that's not the sparkling part of the day). It was a really great time. No pictures this week, but I went with my friend Keity, and was releived to find my sport alive and well here in the UK. It was comforting--a way of not feeling a little homesick, as I get sometimes here. Anyway, I learned a little lead climbing theory from a nice guy named David, excercised poor technique (I used my arms a lot, it's called "cranking". My signature move, which I've dubbed the "hella-crank", is well known at the Palladium wall). Also, today, at the honorable Linda Zou's request, I bought and ate a Galaxy Bar. Here it is, just before it enters the maw of delciousness. Thank you so much for your fructal guidance, Ms. Zou. You have made my candy week. I should describe the experience as somewhere in between the taste of milky chocolate with the very desirable chewiness of a Tootsie Roll, but without the hardness or inferior taste of a Tootsie Roll.

Wednesday: Lordy, how time flies. I don't even remember what happened that day.

Thursday: I mostly spent time reading, before showing up for Measure for Measure at the Globe. It was a good performance; although not my favorite, it was of my favorite Shakespeare play I've read this semester, so that definitely helped. It was also an "original production" (all the costumes, props, and sets were hand made as they would have been in Shakespeare's time.) The Duke, for those of you who know the play, was surprisingly mousy. It was hilarious.

Friday: Worked at a soup kitchen for a few hours at a church on Tottenham Court Road, got day tickets for Wagner's Siegfried at the grand Royal Opera House, bought some candy (Skittles and Shortbread cookies), and then, much to my delight, hunkered down for about 5 hours of incredible opera. I was in the back row on the fourth floor of this gigantic auditorium, and it was still one of the greatest performances I've ever seen. I'm hooked, it's safe to say.

Saturday: Woke up, went running/grocery shopping (fruit tarts!), wrote my review for Siegfried, and then went to have a very settling discussion about careers, writing, and Britishness with a very kind and generous opera critic, whose work I admire. It's not often that I get to say that, but there it is. I think my review (soon to be edited) of the same show was remarkably similar in structure to his; but I wrote it seperately, I assure you. I think it's an unconscious act of flattery. He was the guest speaker at my critical writing class a few weeks ago, and we had both seen the same opera recently-- The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant. So I ended up having this further chat with him about the merits of this performance, and how I might get more intellectually invested in opera as a form. I'll keep you posted as to how that goes--I think I may try to spend some time listening to music in the library. Finally, I acquire sophistication! I tell you, I had hopes for myself once I started eating salad three years ago, but I never expected this...

Today: Went to a party! I brought mueslin. That stuff is delicious. Went to sleep. Woke up. Reading Jane Eyre. Dinner with Patti tonight? Only the Dieties can say for sure. Hang on, I'll call her: Ringing, ringing, ringing. Message machine. Again, who knows!

I'm proud to say that I'm starting a bit of a web comic. Maybe I'll start next week's post with one of my latest inventions? Come on, people, make some noise. Maybe I'll get brave and crawl out of my blogular groundhog-hole a little early next week...

Cheers unto infinity, you all. Next week, Italy! I promise to update before I leave. Then, when I get back, it's photo time. Sorry about the extremely text-y post, blogger's doing something strange with in-image posts.

Current Music: M10 III - Reincarnation, Ghost in the Shell soundtrack. Also: Sound Check (Gravity), by the Gorillaz.

(Two Stormtroopers, standing near the tractor beam power grid.)
Stormtrooper: Do you know what's going on?
Other stormtrooper: Maybe it's another drill.