This past week was kind of a blur. I celebrated my birthday on Thursday with some friends at this restaurant called Henry’s Tavern. The food there is moderately priced and fairly delicious, but the company of my friends was what really made the night for me. My mom sent me a card in the mail saying she wished I were home so she could make soup for me. I don’t know why I’m admitting this here, but her letter made me tear up a little. I miss her a lot, and can’t wait to go back in a month to see her and my 1-year old baby brother, Erik. I guess I’ll post some pictures of him. Who doesn’t like a cute baby?

Until next week!

Lee

lyang@lclark.edu

Somehow, this last spoonful of the semester is dense with performance poetry. On Tuesday, Elephant Engine High Dive Revival performed to a crowded and rowdy Council Chamber. Two of my favourite poets were in the lineup this year, Anis Mojgani and Buddy Wakefield, plus Derrick Brown and Mike McGee. The same four poets performed together at LC when I was a first-year, but they called themselves the Solomon Sparrow Electric Whale Revival then. They’re good with names. I shot two videos of Anis performing, one of the whole group, and one of Buddy. (Content/language of videos is not appropriate for all audiences. Send your kids out of the room.) One of the things I like about Buddy’s style is you can never tell when he begins a poem because he usually slips into it with a stream of banter, and then you’re halfway through the poem before you realise it’s a poem.

The very next day, Katastrophe and Athens Boys Choir rocked the Trail Room with their hip-hop and spoken word madness. Since I brought them as “visiting scholars,” SAAB agreed to fund the workshop and performance, collectively called F to eMbody. What a great way to celebrate Trans Day of Remembrance. I took a completely ridiculous number of videos of these two dudes, and again with the language and content warning. But if you’re okay with some F-grenades, definitely check out those videos. It was really cool to be the person who arranged and hosted that tour, because it meant I got to have dinner with two quasi-famous hip-hop artists, usher them to our library to use the internet, and just generally hang out with a couple of chillers doing the work of social and political change. The workshop and show inspired me to keep doing what I’m doing, the creative arts stuff and the LGBTQ advocacy stuff.

Next week, the Pincushion Orchestra is coming to campus for yet another dose of performance poetry, and then we have our last Slam of the semester following that. I wrote a new poem on Wednesday (it’s about beekeeping) that I might perform if I can get it suitably memorised in time.

Here’s my class lineup for next semester: Intro to Queer Studies, Gender in Relational Communication, Women in American Religious History, and Bowling. Yeah, Bowling. Oh hey there, final PE credit! I’m pretty stoked. It’s going to be a good semester.

We had a mix-up between the book store and our syllabus whereby my whole Anthropology of the Body class realised yesterday that none of us has the book we’re supposed to discuss on Monday. We all bought a different (although similarly titled) book back in September. Luckily, a few of us had put the correct book on hold through the library, and when our copies came in we requested that the librarians put them on Course Reserve, meaning any student who is in our class can check out the book for a maximum of two hours at a time. It will work out, but it sure is inconvenient! Luckily, mix-ups like that don’t happen very often.

Okay, my goal for the weekend is to get some sleep! I am ten thousand kinds of ready for Thanksgiving break. I get to go home and snuggle my dogs!

Email me at maisha@lclark.edu after the beep.

P.S. – I’m having some difficulty with the youtubes, so videos will be posted later this weekend. Hold tight.

Well the countdown till  Thanksgiving has officially started!!!!! My friends and I dont have a “normal” or “boring” countdown, we countdown with events =).  Iman and I started our daily work out to stay in shape for track season, which starts when we get back. *sigh* the first few work outs were such a killer! We both sounded pretty pathetic by the end with our desperate gasps for air!!

On Saturday  Tali held the annual hot chocolate milk  marshmallow party. Apart from being DELICIOUS, it officially kicked off our countdown. We felt like little kids again with our card game of “Go Fish” and Connect Four. The final event count will be this weekend for Fall Ball. We all had a blast last year and I was told it is going to be even better. It will be held at the crystal ball room again, which is a great venue. What will be different though is the invite of the grad students and an incorporation of a live band. The girls and I particularly like it because it gives a reason to get all dolled up =)

On Friday night I held the KLC Radio add party which went very well. The idea of the add party is  accomplish a couple things. The amount of DJs and board members at KLC Radio is quite large, so its important to have gatherings where everyone is together. It is vital to  give the opportunity for everyone to build a relationship. Another reason is for the DJs to expose themselves to different types of music and present the possibility of variety for their shows. Overall the add party went great, which I was very satisfied with. Next week the board members should be getting T-Shirts, which Tim Howe made!!! 

Today, Molly Hertz asked me to attend the “F Embody” event in the trail room. To be honest, I wasn’t sure about it because I had not heard of the performers. At the end I had absolutely nothing to worry about because the show was GREAT! Mayisha was in charge of the show so I am sure she will go in to GREAT detail, I will leave that up to her, but it was a great hip hop show!!

Song of the week: Gavins Song- Marc Broussard 

So when your brother calls you from home then there must be a good reason for it.  Just like all good little brothers, Garrett proceeded to tell me that he was going to a Trans-Siberian Orchestra Concert.  Without me.  Because I’m in Oregon.  Thanks Garrett.

Despite that lovely phone call from home, my Dad (Along with significant-other Jennifer)  visited this past weekend!  It was definitely good to see them, but I think they needed to see me more than I needed to see them.  Not in a bad way, but I am settled and very happy here.  What was awesome was having the ability to show them around my new home and for them to meet my friends.  When they got here we camped out in Maggie’s Café for about three hours and a few friends came down.  When parents come to visit, then there is always a  FOOD aspect involved.  It is pretty wonderful.  At most of my meals at the Bon I am unintentionally a vegetarian.  Not like that is a bad thing, but I am used to more protein through meat sources in my diet.  We ate at Manzana Saturday night and I had a burger.  Dang it was wonderful – my first burger in three months.  The Trail Room does serve them, but I do not eat there much.  The second night we ate at Bamboo Grove Hawaiian Grille as suggested to me by Kelsey.  (Hint for anyone in the Lake Oswego/Portland area: this place is amazing!!)  I literally received half of a plate of meat.  Chicken to be exact, and it was so good!  This was the “small” plate by the way, and I should have had left-overs, but I ate it all.  Whoops. 

In the school realm of life things are getting busy.  I have three papers that I am working on, all of which are about interesting things, but three papers = work!  And you know how in High School you could just kinda BS your way through papers because you already knew all of the information and you could just regurgitate it onto paper?  Well, I can’t do that anymore.  For example, in Exploration and Discovery I will be writing my final paper on prayer as it is portrayed in Genesis, Exodus and Matthew versus in the Aeneid.  I am looking forward to it very much, but again, lots of work will be going into that paper before writing it.  Thankfully I love the library here, so I am alright with spending many extended hours in it. 

Quick side-note:  I was able to register for all of the classes I wanted to for next semester!  I have been so fortunate with that.  So I am signed up for: Spanish 201, Intro to Sociology, E&D, and The New Testament. 

One of the highlights of this week was last night’s poetry slam with the Elephant Engine High Dive Revival.  I saw fellow blogger Maisha there who was sitting in the very front, so hopefully her pictures are less blurry then mine – I’m sorry about that!  But it was an incredible performance.  I wish I could contain in words all of the emotion and passion those four men conveyed within their poems, but it would be impossible.  Slam poetry is a performance.  Many poems were read with music in the background.  Everything about the way each poem was presented allowed the audience to further connect with the poet and what he was saying.  Themes were many, varying from redemption to self-image.  But every single one was beautiful.  Please, if you are able, listen to poetry.  Not just read it, but listen to it.  When poetry is  verbalized it takes on a whole new life.  Watch THIS and THIS and take it in…

Send me your words!

karonson@lclark.edu

“A poet should give to any nothing a local habitation and a name” -Shakespeare 

My first final paper (on the red controversy of Sirius) is due on Thursday next week in Astronomy, so I barricaded myself in the library for a five-hour stint on Tuesday to gather and read my sources. I was initially experiencing research turbulence, so I booked an appointment with one of our super helpful reference librarians, and she set me up with about twice as many sources as my paper actually requires. I got thoroughly acquainted with the Periodicals section of the library, and then went on a date with the photocopier machine. This weekend, I’ll be distilling all that research into a five-to-seven page paper that presents the evidence for several competing explanations for why the ancients recorded Sirius as reddish when today it is distinctly bluish.

It somehow turned out to be Craft Week in Maishaworld. Observe:

1. On Sunday, I abandoned homework for a few hours to attend a screenprinting workshop in the Co-op on campus. I whipped up a tea-based design, taped it to a window to trace it onto freezer paper, painstakingly cut it out with a combination of x-acto knife and kid scissors, taped it to the largest screenprinting frame the Co-op could muster, and squeegeed purple paint onto the screen, which transferred my design to my t-shirt. It was awesome! If I had an extra few weeks without homework, I would just screenprint t-shirts for everyone for Christmas. Since that’s not gonna happen, I hope everyone likes receiving hugs as gifts. College makes you money and time deficient.

2. I finally finished my first scarf! I’ve graduated from scarves and now I’m starting in on my first hat. My knitting teacher, Kris Tea, says I’m getting good enough to be worthy of quality yarn; the yarn I’m using now is blue and fuzzy, and it’s a lot nicer than the stuff I used for my scarf.

3. I hand-sewed a plaidypus shirt! I am immensely pleased with this visual pun. The platypus was cut from a secondhand pair of plaid pyjama pants I picked up at the Goodwill Bins for the express purpose of this kind of crafting. Not-so-secretly, I hope to begin making things like this in some degree of quantity and selling my creations at the Co-op. Or Etsy. Winter break project, perhaps?

The three-day Annual Ray Warren Multicultural Symposium was this week! I really, truly loved this year’s theme, Mixed: The Politics of Hybrid Identities, because I feel like almost everyone feels a little mixed, no matter what they look like on the outside. Attending the panel Remix: Identities and Artistic Expression encouraged me to reflect upon how I stir, stitch, and spin my various identities into my creative pursuits. Of the panelists, I particularly enjoyed Leyendas de México, a storytelling/music-playing bilingual performance by two artists who emigrated from Mexico to the US a number of years ago. They said that they chose to perform legends in order to reconnect to their indigenous roots. Click for a video of their performance.

I also attended the Race Monologues, which had so many people in attendance that it probably violated fire code – people were perched all around the periphery of the room because all the seats were full. The Race Monologues were born at LC six years ago by a student who wanted to participate in the Vagina Monologues but was barred on account of his gender (the Womyn’s Center at the time was not as inclusive as it is today) – so he created his own space where students of other marginalised demographics could speak about their experiences. The Race Monologues, unlike the Vagina Monologues, are written and performed by the participating students every year, so it’s really a once-in-a-lifetime performance. Although anyone and everyone can participate, the Race Monologues have always drawn a high proportion of participants of colour. I think it’s great, since people who have been systemically marginalised because of their race by a society still struggling toward equality need to have a space where they not only have a voice, but listners too. I loved every single monologue even more than I loved the three cups of hot apple cider I quaffed during the mingle-style social following the performance.

Tonight is the last night of Beckett(s)! I saw it last Saturday with Mel. The whole stage is a world, it turns out – the performance was all over the theatre building, even in the men’s shower and the costume loft. The first hour was a confusing self-propelled exploration of a handful of shorts being performed all over the building simultaneously (I managed to see most of most of them), while the second hour was the regular sit-down style performance of End Game. I’m glad I had to read Waiting for Godot in high school, because it somewhat prepared me for the off-kilter nihilism of Samuel Beckett’s playwriting. I’m friends with several of the theatre people, and they insist that this production is haunted by Samuel Beckett’s ghost – they’re convinced that something catastrophic will transpire tonight at the dénouement of the show, since several things have already gone horribly wrong at almost every performance thus far. The night I saw Beckett(s), though, it was immaculate. If you’re in the Portland area, I definitely recommend you drive, bus, scooter, bike, or walk on over to Fir Acres Theatre. Just be prepared for a strange night of macabre humour, hopeless nonsensicalness, and ennui. Samuel Beckett wasn’t exactly the most cheery of playwrights.

And with that, it’s time I turn to the army of articles on my floor that all insist different reasons for Sirius’s alleged colour shift. Here’s my email address, you know what to do with it: maisha@lclark.edu.

I. Remember the mini-documentary I filmed last Friday? Well I stayed up all night on Sunday editing it and here it is. I hope you like it.

Alright, apparently we can’t embed YouTube videos on this thing, so click here to watch it directly on YouTube (and watch it in HD if you can!)

 (A few notes: Bon is short for Bon Appetite, which is the company that runs all the food-related operations on campus, including the cafeteria. “The Raz” is the awesome shuttle that transports LC students from campus to downtown and back.)

II. On Monday, I went to the Party Rock Tour with Carina at the Hawthorne Theatre. The line-up included LMFAO, Shwayze, Far East Movement, The Paradiso Girls, and Space Cowboy (Lady Gaga’s DJ). I had wanted to go since I found out about it months ago but couldn’t find someone to go with until Saturday, two days before, which coincidentally was also when the show sold out. So I tried my luck and hit up Aria, the lead singer of the Paradiso Girls on Facebook (she added me as a friend a few months back because she liked a video I recorded of them performing at a club in West Hollywood). And what do you know? She put me on the guest list. Heeeck yea, and I recorded some videos (1, 2, 3, 4) and wrote a review of it for the PioLog, but unfortunately they were already full for this week, and it will be outdated by next week’s issue – so I’m just going to post an excerpt of it here:

…Space Cowboy began the show with his hit “Falling Down,” which is sort of like a male reincarnation of “Just Dance” by Lady Gaga. This is not a bad thing. Nor is it a coincidence; both songs are penned by the Swedish Grammy-winning producer RedOne. On stage, Space Cowboy goes for a minimalist feel: he is backed by a DJ and two half-clothed female dancers, one of whom seems to have an affinity for licking her index finger. (I counted five times.)

The night is not about asceticism, and who better to declare this than the Paradiso Girls, a group consisting of five girls of different geographic origins, and whose recent club hit “Patron Tequila” pairs a Lil-John produced bass line with these lyrics: Hey girl, where’s your drink/We can all get f—ked up tonight/By the end of the night I’mma have you drunk and throwing up. Adorned in so much shiny that you feel the need to wear shades, the girls put on a brassy performance of intricately-choreographed and high-energy electro-hip-pop songs, while simultaneously showing enough skin to rival the Pussycat Dolls.Yet despite the dubious couture, their Peaches-influenced “Who’s My Bitch?” (which samples the melody from the famous aria ‘Habanera’ from the opera Carmen) suggests that these girls  reject objectification and are proponents of girl-power: I’m not your bitch/I’m not your ho/Now give my heels a lick/And tell me, who’s my bitch? 

Entering the stage in gorilla suits and space helmets, with Daft Punk’s “Robot Rock” blaring in the background, the boys of Far East Movement served up a doubleshot of energy with their unique electronica/funk/hip-hop style. Never mind that these guys have received the least amount of attention from mainstream media (several people I asked also had no idea who they were), shortly into their set it immediately became clear that they were here to rock, as iPhones were turned to standby, and couples making out untangled their tongues – the crowd was rendered physically unable to stand still…

 III. The rest of the week went by as usual. Classes were interesting, and I’m pretty sure I aced my Spanish exam. I also went to the health center to get a few things tested and I am all good to go. So I’m pretty psyched about that. J

IV. Tonight, I went to the Race Monologues It’s kind of like the Vagina Monologues, only the panelists are (mostly) ethnic minorities (at this school/in this country/in their country of origin/etc) and the topics discussed have to do with race and multiculturalism. It was started a few years back to give minorities at LC a venue to speak and apparently has gotten better with each year. This year’s theme was Mixed: The Politics of Hybrid Identities, and it was absolutely amazing. Some of the monologues were emotional, some were downright hilarious, and some could have written with a bit more care and understanding, but each was insightful in its own way.

V. After Race Monologues, I went to a friend’s apartment on campus to play this board game called The Settlers of Catan. It is simply brilliant and got me and all my housemates hooked. I have a feeling it will have a pretty major presence in this house in the next few weeks (Ivan is already planning on buying it tomorrow hahaha).

Phew. That’s all. I’m off to enjoy my weekend. I think I’m shooting a music video. And writing papers. And applying for internships for next spring. And brainstorming for my senior thesis, for which I’m contemplating doing a documentary. It will be a lot of work, but it sounds much more appealing than writing a 25-page literary synthesis. We’ll see.

Hello all =) 

 Well this week has been a lot better health wise. I have been eating  Vitiman C chewable tablets like skittles the past several days. I have been catching up on make up work but it is steadily getting better.  

Dance Extravaganza is creeping up on us. I cant believe its in a couple of weeks now!!! Tali worked us pretty hard today. We had rehersal for three hours and we still have a lot to cover. She already warned us that tomarrow is going to be pretty rough. I hope my legs will last, because at the end of today they felt like those blow up balloons that move in the wind at the car dealer! I am really looking forward towards the end result though. We will be able to see how this hard work will pay off!

 Today my rhetorical theory professor, Mitch Reyes,  canceled class  in order to attend a lecture so I was able to attend the sixth annual multicultural symposium.  I did not go last year so I was not sure what to expect. When I walked in, inspiring art filled the walls. I was also very impressed to see many student submission. One of which was my very own friend, Osabea. 

The panel discussion had very intriguing  speakers, who mainly spoke about cultural identity, specifically through adoption. 

Fortunatly the “mixted” multicultural fair will be going on for the rest of the week. I cant wait to hear the other speakers.

 The rain has officially made its welcome. To be honest I cant remember a day that it has not rained! Its actually kind of crazy! Kemi and I were thinking about it today at lunch and if we had to put our money on it we would say its been about two weeks…. What has been keeping me going is my chant. CALI SUNSHINE CALI SUNSHINE CALI SUNSHINE!

Tomarrow is Mari’s birthday party which should be really fun! =) The party has a celebrity theme, so i decided that I am going to dress up like Beyonce in the Austin Powers movie! Cant wait!!

What a week! So much has happened. I have turned in paper drafts, proposals, bibliographies and read oh so much, but I would have to say that the highlight would have to be the opening of Beckett(s). It was a pretty grueling process, getting everything organized for the play (since the ENTIRE theatre is the set), but in the end we got it all together. Opening night was a little rough, but I think it was just nerves and us adjusting to having a large audience. By Saturday, we really got into the groove of things and I am very excited for this weekend! Once again, if you are in town, you should definitely check out the show. It’s a great show and also would be a great way to see the college and the kind of creative vibe that makes campus such a vibrant community to live in. Here are some photos of some backstage shenanigans during Beckett(s).

American Gothic much?

Yeah, the make-up for this show is pretty intense…

            This week has been interesting for classes, but I would have to say that my favorite moments have been in Theatre and Society lately. At the moment, we have switched gears from learning about Greek tragedy and have now moved on to more theatre that was produced during the Middle Ages. Instead of gods and catharsis and fate, we have plunged into the world of strange pagan rituals and English mythologies such as St. George and the Dragon. It’s been giving me some pretty interesting ideas about what to do for a final project at the end of the semester. Anyone up to do a harvest antler dance? Maybe?

            Things are really starting to kick into high gear with classes. I need to really start cracking down on my final paper in Anthropology of the Body and really rehearse my directing scene at the moment. I am also waiting to hear back from some theatres that I have applied for internships for in London *fingers crossed*. I’ll let all of you know how they are doing as soon as they start getting off the ground, but until then stay tuned, and stay warm! It’s getting pretty cold up here!

-Jon

Musical present of the week:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iYRg1A_piM

Warning: this song is EXTREMELY catchy. Enjoy!

Getting things in the mail is always a great thing, but when the thing you get in the mail is a pre-ordered CD that you forgot about, it is awesome!!  I had bought the new Switchfoot CD   when it went on pre-order, but I did not realize that it was coming so soon.  Unfortunately, my computer is being odd and it is not uploading the songs, or playing them for that matter.  I have about four successfully uploaded, but it makes a weird clicking noise when I try to play the CD.  Hopefully I will figure out why soon so I can listen to the rest of the songs!  Well that’s not true, I’ve heard most of them thanks to YouTube, but still.  Having them on my iPod will be much better.

I came to L&C not fully knowing what I wanted to major in, but seriously considering majoring in English and becoming an English teacher.  While this track still sounds good, I am finding myself looking at the Religious Studies department more and more.  Through my Bible in Literature class and the reading of the Bible in my E&D and even through reading the Koran in Bible in Lit. it has sparked a new interest.  One field that I had never really thought I could study.  The other option that I’m considering is SOAN.  I took a Sociology class my senior year of high school and had a fantastic experience, so I am giving the Intro to Sociology class a shot next semester.  I have heard good things so far.  Plus, even if I am not interested in that as a Major after the class, just having taken the intro class allows me room to take higher level classes and some of them sound so interesting.

My potential class load for next semester looks like this:  Spanish 201, Intro to Sociology, the New Testament, and E&D.  My E&D is about “Exploring the Auditory Experience”.  I am very excited to take it – we have gone on tangents in my Bible in Lit. class talking about how oral culture has affected the writing of the Bible and the poetry relating to it.  It is a topic that I am interested in, but do not know how to explore.  But now I will have an entire class based on it!  I am so happy that worked out.  I really liked the sound of a lot of other E&D classes though, check them out here.

With all of this talk of schedules, of course the topic of studying abroad came up for my epic “four year plan”.  Here is my dream as of right now: study in Morocco the spring of my Sophomore year, spend that summer in Uruguay with some family friends (I haven’t confirmed this with them… but this is still in “dream” stage remember) and then study the fall of my Junior year in Valparaiso, Chile.  I am not expecting this plan to remain concrete, but this is a vision.  The other option (in order to deal with the Spanish language requirements for studying in Chile) is to spend that Sophomore year slot in the Dominican Republic, which would also be awesome.  Ecuador, Vietnam, Cuba and China are also options… so where I go from here is still unclear.  But it is a very good problem to have.  Next step is to go talk to the Overseas department tomorrow and then talk to the parental units.  Also, it is so incredible to be surrounded by friends that have or will be studying abroad soon.  I cannot get enough of their pictures and stories.  Having a community that supports my desires to go abroad is making me even more excited.

 It was my friend Jen’s 21st birthday on Monday!  Happy Birthday Jen!  Carolyn made Jen a beard cake (cake decorated like a face with a giant beard - Jen really likes beards) and I went over to the Alder main lounge with a group of friends to celebrate.  Jen spent her birthday in meetings, in class, and doing homework.  I don’t think that that was how she was planning on spending her 21st birthday, but it was awesome to eat beard cake with her!

The papers that I have written this year have been about some of the most interesting things.  The prompt for my E&D paper was basically this: listen to two different recordings of the song “Amazing Grace” and, using the song and one or two of the books we have read, answer this question, “Is seeing a good thing?”  …ready, GO!  So I get to go anywhere I want within those guidelines.  I am using the history behind the song as well as the chord progressions within the song to support my thesis, along with text from the book Flatland.  And with that I am going to go to Copeland (my friend Kelsey is having a tea party) and then with some caffeine keep working on this paper.

I know this is college-searching season Seniors, so please, let me know if you want to talk about something other than colleges.  I mean it.  But, that said, I would be more than happy to converse about college, whether it be Lewis & Clark or not.

Kayla

karonson@lclark.edu

“We are once in a lifetime” -Switchfoot