Today was another crash day, but a long one; you know you're in the corporate world when you wake up naturally at 7am or earlier on a Saturday and are actually ready to get out of bed.
Yesterday an interesting thing happened; I was sitting there doing my work, and a German who was working with the group stopped in, and we chatted a bit, and he needed help with some text on his computer. So I helped him out a bit, and then went to run errands. When I returned, there was a bouquet of flowers sitting on my desk, and I didn't know who had brought them. The guy eventually said that he wanted to thank me for my help, and that I reminded him of an ex of his. He was very sweet, but a little discomfiting when he took up residence in the chair in the waiting area with his computer and just sat there looking at me, mentioning from time to time how remarkable the similarity was. Anyway, he's left the country now. Work is still very exciting, but also consuming....
The really interesting thing I experience on a continual basis is a sense of collaboration at work, which is really something I haven't experienced in a long time, and something I envied about my first roomie last year as he was a grad student in the sciences, where there is collaboration. We're all pretty interdependent at work, and interpersonal relationships are really cared for. That's been very nice.
out to go find some culture.
Samstag, 23. Februar 2008
Mittwoch, 20. Februar 2008
Mondfinsternis II
Well, the moon is now high in the sky and all white again.
I did see the Mondfinsternis. First I was on the bus on the way home from work (busy day, 8-6:30, translated intensive techinical document, did office stuff, started with the company webpage) and saw it through the window, partially orange.
Then returned home and watched it through the lilac branches outside of my window. Then went to 7-11 for dinner and wine, got a tuna sandwich and wine and they were playing Balkan nusic. Mentioned to a guy I crossed the street with "check out the moon" and he did and told me of his desire to see it from a building, which was my buidling. So I said, let's try to go to the roof, and we did, and we made it, despite the rental company's warnings that it was not allowed. His name is Alex and he's a professional photographer and has long hair and looks like the guy Orlando ended up with in Ornaldo. My photographs of the orange moon are not good at all because I don't have a telephotic lens.
I liked seeing the orange, and the way the moon looked like the czech symbol of the smileys over the letters for a brief time while red on top. Like for once one could see some of the contours and details of the moon without so much white glare. Beautiful.
No idea what part of the menstrual cycle I'm on these days, can't feel much corresponde to it on that level. Off to the Columbia River tomorrow. Miss lectures about art history and so on.
I did see the Mondfinsternis. First I was on the bus on the way home from work (busy day, 8-6:30, translated intensive techinical document, did office stuff, started with the company webpage) and saw it through the window, partially orange.
Then returned home and watched it through the lilac branches outside of my window. Then went to 7-11 for dinner and wine, got a tuna sandwich and wine and they were playing Balkan nusic. Mentioned to a guy I crossed the street with "check out the moon" and he did and told me of his desire to see it from a building, which was my buidling. So I said, let's try to go to the roof, and we did, and we made it, despite the rental company's warnings that it was not allowed. His name is Alex and he's a professional photographer and has long hair and looks like the guy Orlando ended up with in Ornaldo. My photographs of the orange moon are not good at all because I don't have a telephotic lens.
I liked seeing the orange, and the way the moon looked like the czech symbol of the smileys over the letters for a brief time while red on top. Like for once one could see some of the contours and details of the moon without so much white glare. Beautiful.
No idea what part of the menstrual cycle I'm on these days, can't feel much corresponde to it on that level. Off to the Columbia River tomorrow. Miss lectures about art history and so on.
Montag, 18. Februar 2008
two films
At the filmfest, I saw XXY (Argentina) and Yella (Germany).
XXY was well-done, the story of an intersex teenager and two families. The location was gorgeous, and the contrast between the two families as well, and the incorporation of nature. Alex's character was extremely well-played. The rape scene was terrible, it reminded me of grad school except that in her case it was brute force rather than professional power which was used to intimidate and torment her. The film addressed the issues surrounding the intersex experience well, and used simple language to do so. A great alternative to Herculine Barbin.
Yella was also very good, with an ambiguous ending. I did like the negotiating scenes, but the end compelled me to wonder what the film was doing with the interplay of materialism and death. If one has to be dead in some way to be a successful capitalist. Also, the trauma and the terrible ex-boyfriend who kept showing up was poignant and well-portrayed in terms of the increased sensitivity to nature and her spacing out at points, and her conflicted emotions about her stalking ex. The other thing it did well was show differences between the former east and former west. The stereotype is of venture capitalists from the former west being carpetbaggers in the former east and cashing in on government subsidies, but this film seems to go the other way around as the woman from the former east profits from dealings in the former west. I think this can be explored further, as these questions also play out in the interpersonal relationships. I could really relate to parts of it, and it was an interesting and successful film, but not my favorite, and it was depressing.
XXY was well-done, the story of an intersex teenager and two families. The location was gorgeous, and the contrast between the two families as well, and the incorporation of nature. Alex's character was extremely well-played. The rape scene was terrible, it reminded me of grad school except that in her case it was brute force rather than professional power which was used to intimidate and torment her. The film addressed the issues surrounding the intersex experience well, and used simple language to do so. A great alternative to Herculine Barbin.
Yella was also very good, with an ambiguous ending. I did like the negotiating scenes, but the end compelled me to wonder what the film was doing with the interplay of materialism and death. If one has to be dead in some way to be a successful capitalist. Also, the trauma and the terrible ex-boyfriend who kept showing up was poignant and well-portrayed in terms of the increased sensitivity to nature and her spacing out at points, and her conflicted emotions about her stalking ex. The other thing it did well was show differences between the former east and former west. The stereotype is of venture capitalists from the former west being carpetbaggers in the former east and cashing in on government subsidies, but this film seems to go the other way around as the woman from the former east profits from dealings in the former west. I think this can be explored further, as these questions also play out in the interpersonal relationships. I could really relate to parts of it, and it was an interesting and successful film, but not my favorite, and it was depressing.
Samstag, 16. Februar 2008
Handel's Rodelinda
For Valentine's Day, I went to see Rodelinda.
It was fabulous. The set was spare with much framing and white shapes.
I had never heard a castrato live before.
The costumes were amazing with the enormous true-to-life wide frame skirts and corsets, they were in fact stunning. This was followed by a brief question and answer period with the director and the singer who played Rodelinda. The most stunning part was the duet sung by Rodelinda and her husband, who was played by a woman, which closed act 2. I think it surpasses the Lakme Opera in parts. The enterprise lasted 4 hours all together.
Here's another version:
and here:
It was fabulous. The set was spare with much framing and white shapes.
I had never heard a castrato live before.
The costumes were amazing with the enormous true-to-life wide frame skirts and corsets, they were in fact stunning. This was followed by a brief question and answer period with the director and the singer who played Rodelinda. The most stunning part was the duet sung by Rodelinda and her husband, who was played by a woman, which closed act 2. I think it surpasses the Lakme Opera in parts. The enterprise lasted 4 hours all together.
Here's another version:
and here:
Sonntag, 10. Februar 2008
perambulation
Today I've had some fun exploring Hawthorne, which is my new neighborhood. One has to walk up and down the main streets and learn what's where.
I've also planned out my week more, also in terms of the films I will see, and when the opera.
The other interesting thing I've learned is that there is no sales tax here.
Still minorly disoriented and vertiginous from moving, but it's gotten better.
One big thing has been the different time orientation.
My orientation to time was always a bit different, I think, but the whole corporate thing seems much more to be about immediacy. What to the academic world may seem to be simply leaning on the panic button, but in other ways, it really forces one to be in the now. Then my other time orientations can just go on swirling around that one.
I've also planned out my week more, also in terms of the films I will see, and when the opera.
The other interesting thing I've learned is that there is no sales tax here.
Still minorly disoriented and vertiginous from moving, but it's gotten better.
One big thing has been the different time orientation.
My orientation to time was always a bit different, I think, but the whole corporate thing seems much more to be about immediacy. What to the academic world may seem to be simply leaning on the panic button, but in other ways, it really forces one to be in the now. Then my other time orientations can just go on swirling around that one.
Samstag, 9. Februar 2008
Akin's The Edge of Heaven/Wie die anderen leben
What a great afternoon.
I went to see Akin's The Edge of Heaven / Wie die Anderen leben at the PIFF.
It's my favorite film of his so far, we'll see if that sentiment holds up after the novelty wears off. What perhaps also made a difference is having been almost everywhere the film was filmed-- except for some of the smaller cities in Turkey.
Not only was it existential and ripe for discussion hand-in-hand with Pamuk's work (the academic turned bookseller from the small town in Turkey who started out living in Germany with the narrator of Pamuk's Snow) but there were even some good Frau-Frau scenes, and not only that, but also girls in the slammer, and even the leaving academia moment! I found the entire work quite exciting. Revolution-inklusiv. As the story developed, the end actually seemed to fit, though the whole time and throughout all of the crossed paths, I was plugging for things to actually work out in terms of the different peoples' goals, and oddly, the different goals were in fact met, but not by the people who wanted to meet them, it seems. . How Germany meets Turkey, through a variety of relationships in which both elements are always represented in the different interactions. The word Edge in the title is, I think, integral to discussing it, there are so many edges of different realities, edges which always seem to almost meet, but not quite. What I also found pretty neat was the whole Goethe element: the discussion of Goethe's reaction to the revolution as being like a rose in winter (which then totally explains Hofmannsthal's discussion of a rose in winter) and also in terms of the Werther-Lotte element, and Lotte of course dies. But the German dies in Turkey. That was some good sturm and drang. Instead of Lotte in Weimar, we have Lotte in Istanbul. I also loved the element of how all of these mourning episodes then turn into travel stories, and the sending of caskets back and forth between countries. Still thinking about it.
I'm too excited about it at the moment to feel very coherent, but I will supply a clip, in which the girlfriend hangs out with her girlfriend's mother:
h
I went to see Akin's The Edge of Heaven / Wie die Anderen leben at the PIFF.
It's my favorite film of his so far, we'll see if that sentiment holds up after the novelty wears off. What perhaps also made a difference is having been almost everywhere the film was filmed-- except for some of the smaller cities in Turkey.
Not only was it existential and ripe for discussion hand-in-hand with Pamuk's work (the academic turned bookseller from the small town in Turkey who started out living in Germany with the narrator of Pamuk's Snow) but there were even some good Frau-Frau scenes, and not only that, but also girls in the slammer, and even the leaving academia moment! I found the entire work quite exciting. Revolution-inklusiv. As the story developed, the end actually seemed to fit, though the whole time and throughout all of the crossed paths, I was plugging for things to actually work out in terms of the different peoples' goals, and oddly, the different goals were in fact met, but not by the people who wanted to meet them, it seems. . How Germany meets Turkey, through a variety of relationships in which both elements are always represented in the different interactions. The word Edge in the title is, I think, integral to discussing it, there are so many edges of different realities, edges which always seem to almost meet, but not quite. What I also found pretty neat was the whole Goethe element: the discussion of Goethe's reaction to the revolution as being like a rose in winter (which then totally explains Hofmannsthal's discussion of a rose in winter) and also in terms of the Werther-Lotte element, and Lotte of course dies. But the German dies in Turkey. That was some good sturm and drang. Instead of Lotte in Weimar, we have Lotte in Istanbul. I also loved the element of how all of these mourning episodes then turn into travel stories, and the sending of caskets back and forth between countries. Still thinking about it.
I'm too excited about it at the moment to feel very coherent, but I will supply a clip, in which the girlfriend hangs out with her girlfriend's mother:
h
Donnerstag, 7. Februar 2008
but I like to pump my own....
After crashing, picked myself up and went into the week, not helped by a couple of nights where I just couldn't sleep. Now more balanced, know my work better and neighborhood and so on, things are starting to be more familiar and have met a few more people. It's really funny, you can't get your own gas here. Someone has to do it for you. I find this really strange. Just between states, it is sort of foreign. I am also heartened some by the turnouts of the primaries so far.
Some good news; my German relatives from southern DE, with whom I spent a vacation and a christmas (one of my favorite christmases ever), are coming to visit the U.S. in the summer and to meet my Granddad and other relatives-- his cousin, the father of one of them, died in the last couple of years. My granddad's simply delighted, which is lovely. So I will visit too to interpret and translate, since the Germans don't speak much english, and as my family speaks about zero german, apart from my granddad, who is fluent. Then they're going to tour around in the U.S. for a bit on their own and I'm helping to find some German-language things for them and to organize who's when where in terms of my family members in CO.
It's interesting how much confidence I've gained on the job already. I have a nice boss who's proactive, a good person, and with strong interpersonal skills, and that's always welcome. Learning much.
Some good news; my German relatives from southern DE, with whom I spent a vacation and a christmas (one of my favorite christmases ever), are coming to visit the U.S. in the summer and to meet my Granddad and other relatives-- his cousin, the father of one of them, died in the last couple of years. My granddad's simply delighted, which is lovely. So I will visit too to interpret and translate, since the Germans don't speak much english, and as my family speaks about zero german, apart from my granddad, who is fluent. Then they're going to tour around in the U.S. for a bit on their own and I'm helping to find some German-language things for them and to organize who's when where in terms of my family members in CO.
It's interesting how much confidence I've gained on the job already. I have a nice boss who's proactive, a good person, and with strong interpersonal skills, and that's always welcome. Learning much.
Montag, 4. Februar 2008
today simply crashed, have been going nonstop for awhile, and it was time to crash and even a migraine all afternoon, and got all triggered off again by a newsletter I thought I'd unsubscribed from and that hurt. tried to get out for a walk and to see the hood, but couldn't do much. I think I just need to meet people here. it's like leaping from a sense of groundlessness into another sense of groundlessness, and scary. I like my colleagues and the job is interesting, but it was a pretty hard crash. drinking tea and trying to be mellow.
Samstag, 2. Februar 2008
the hammer, the screwdriver, and me
Phew... today I built five bookshelves and put my books into them, hung pictures, and built a thing to go under the sink, and hung curtains. I think it's looking better.....
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