What's Real?

I worked the Black Gosphel festival concert yesterday. The woman who was coordinating the event was named Sonya. She was especially interesting. She was so robust and frank and friendly that I just had to smile. She liked my name as well. :)

Afterwards, I watched "15 Park Avenue." It was a good film, but the best part was trying to come up with interpretation that made sense of the movie. We read one person's vantage point and it totally blew us away. It made Aparna Sen all the more masterful moviemaker in my eyes. It also frightened me a bit.

Today we went to the Spinning class. We actually got the elusive wristbands as we were extremely early. It was a good mix of people, including a Pleshenko look-a-like. Eerie.

Busy times

On Wednesday night, I was at a Qawwali performance at the Statler Hotel. It was one of CP's gigs, so I reported to work at 4:30pm. We finished loading all the equipment back at WSH at 1am. Whew!

We loaded the truck with tons of sound equipment, including some new EVs that CP is testing out. We droved into the Statler parking lot; I "borrowed" a cart, and we rolled most of the equipment into the auditorium. The stage was re-done so there's not as much space, but the stage can be mechanically lifted and lowered so that helped a lot.

The performers arrived after 7:30pm; the show was supposed to begin at 8pm so sound check was hurried and incomplete. But there were a lot of people waiting outside, so the PSA let them in. I think people enjoyed the music. I think a lot of them just wanted to learn more about it, so that was cool. The lady next to me kept on asking me questions, but thanked me before she left for answering them. That felt nice.

The performers were Farid Ayaz Qawwal and Brothers. It was a man who was around 76 years old, his brothers, and his 4 sons. They were enthusiastic and kept on encouraging the audience to clap. They sang some songs that I even recognized, like Mere Piya Ghare Aya. I also found it rather funny that they somehow managed to slip each other paan during the performance. The lead vocalist got rather emotional, and sweated a lot. From the heat and excitement prolly. All and all, cool experience.

Then we had to strike everything. That took awhile. But we loaded everything in the truck and drove to WSH., only to find a Cornell Dining truck blocking the loading dock. So we had to look around for the baker who apparently had the keys. We walked in this room where all these freshly made muffins and breads were just made (at 12:30am). It smelled so good! Anyway, Pete finally went into the truck and found the keys already there. So he moved the Dining truck, which was surprisingly an automatic. We loaded all the equipment back into the office, and called it a night at 1am.

I woke up the next morning; muscle sore. Oh, and then I had spinning too. I sweated so much, yuck. My hand towel had also fell, but the songs were fun with S Club 7 and whatnot.

Then we went to the Blast into the Past dinner at Alice Cook House. Sheila and I won tie dye shirts. She rolled an 11, I rolled a 7. Oh she brings such good luck!

Afterwards, I went to the Islam Awareness Week event; a talk by Ahmed Younis in Goldwin Smith. He's a national director for the Musclim Public Affairs Committee, and has been working on a national level for Muslim civil liberties. He's been on several televison programs like the O'Reilly show and CNBC programs. We talked about Muslim integration into American society, and the need for it in order to be a part of the counter terrorism movement. We also talked about the Danish cartoons and the Dubai company port situation.

After the talk, it was hailing, snowing, raining. I was lucky to be not blinded as hail went behind my glasses. I prolly looked like a drenched cat when I got back to Casca.

THEN, we watched the Olympics: Ladies's Figure Skating, Long Program. Wow, I would not have expected the results. Arakawa of Japan won gold. Her performanced wasn't one of those "one-in-a-lifetime" free skates, but it was good enough with no falls to capture the top spot on the podium. I was happy for her, but also felt sort of sad for Irina Slutskaya of Russia. It was probably her last chance, but I admire her work and courage.

The First Step

I read this article and kept on thinking, "That is SO true."

I am an addict.

When I have it once, I need more.

(I'm talking about sugar which can be as addictive as cocaine according to this guy: http://www.fitness.com/articles/18/is_sugar_as_addictive_as_cocaine.php#).

For example, I had an piece of chocolate yesterday at around 8:30pm. By 8:40pm, I had eaten all the rest of my Valentine's Day chocolate, plus a Kashi bar.

Semi-Formal

Tonight was the SI Semi-formal. Yes, the event, I never was particularly excited about. I mean, freshman year, I didn't go. Sophomore year, Harita paid for my ticket so I had to go. (I paid her back eventually). Junior year, I was on board and Sav and Gati forced boardied to go. Senior year comes, I think, I might as well go. I would see people that I hardly see, and just to continue with the story.

I dressed up in the blue salwar kameez that I got for Eid. I like that outfit as it is comfortable, yet fashionable. Almost like a modern day Cinderella, lol.

Anyway, the semi-formal was held in the Hilton Garden Inn. It's actually a fairly nice place; it's brand new, right in the middle of the commons. We took a charters CUtransit bus there. I was in the first batch of people and there were like 10 people on the bus. But, the second round came by and brought many more people too. A bunch of people apparently drove, took taxis, and got rides to the Inn as well, so we got a good turn out. I am glad as I was worried about it, especially since Mani was working so hard to get people to come.

So, we took photos, people drank pretty looking drinks, apple juice, coca cola, and smuggled-in Bar-ens. It was fun sitting at the Senior Table. Though at one point, I felt so old. There were all these new people. I mean, I've seen them around and probably knew them by name, in fact because I have a thing with names, but it was surreal.

Buffet dinner was good. I had palik paneer, one of my most favorite dishes. Oh, and the kheer!

Then, the dancing began. There was some issue getting it started. I guess people weren't drunk enough to begin right away and felt shy or something, but V-Factor got the ball rolling by getting his groove on (I have video, pretty funny). Then, the seniors came in. Eventually everyone joined in.

The music selections were good and very diverse from the typical hip-hop party songs to bhangra to "Living on a Prayer" to "Like a Prayer" to "Chaiyyaa Chaiyaa" from Dil Se to "Mambo No. 5" to "It's Electric!" to "Mahi Ve" and "It's Time to Disco" from Kal Ho Na Ho. Oh, thank goodness for Bollywood. Those were some of the most popular songs.

Then the bus came backaround midnight and whisked us away back to C-town. The ball was over, and my shoes were still on my feet, so it's all good.

The curtain falls

The closing performance of "Vincent in Brixton" was this afternoon. First of all, it was tough to get up because I went to bed at 4 in the morning, but after a bowl of Berry Burst Cheerios, I was charged up, as best as I could be at the time anyways. The actors gave out little tokens of appreciation, so that was sweet of them...

The show was supposed to start at 2pm; actors were due at 1:30pm so they can dress up and all. At 1:35pm, the actor playing Vincent still wasn't in the dressing room. The stage manager was worried, especially since we all knew that he had a cast party the night before (one of the reasons that I stayed up so late last night). (Those theater-types, wow, such unique people---I saw a girl dressed up like Catwoman at two places. I'm glad that I branched out from the brown crowd for a bit...). Anyway, we didn't worry about having a played called "In Brixton" because Vincent showed up. The show went well.

It's funny how each and every audience had its own personality; we had some dirty-minded ones ("Well you've got to eat something!"), ones that thought that the play was a comedy instead of a drama, ones that took a wrong turn on the way to Olin Library, and the "oohing and aahhing" ones. Yup, that was a sweet run.

Human Bowling and Big Brother

I had a dream of my neighborhood last night. Hundreds of young people were lining the sidewalks on St. Peters Ave by the park. There was some sort of street competition where the guys were throwing these balls and trying to knock out the opposing side of people or something. Like a huge game of bowling but humans as pins? I dunno.

I'm reading Born Red, a memoir of a Red Guard. The Cultural revolution was terrible, but I can sort of see how one can be swept into the movement. Students suddenly had the power to take vengeance over their teachers who had once picked on them or gave them a lot of homework.

I returned my hatstand --- formerly the Bhangra sign from Diwali today. Now my hats are in the corner somewhere.

I walked all around campus yesterday. I went to West to drop off BOOM posters. I went to North for gym. I went to the theater at night. Man, I was tired.

There are many "live cam views of Cornell" online. Now, one can see if a person is walking by WSH or through the Engineering Quad. Cool, but sorta like Big Brother is watching. Creepy.

Birthdays, Audiences, and Participation Points

"Yeah....::::sigh:::: I'm going to turn twelve." - my cousin

Man, I am old.

We began our second week of "Vincent in Brixton." The audience was very receptive and into it, oohing and aahing and laughing at the lines that were funny and even ones that weren't really unless one had some "dirty" throughts. Even the actors laughed at the audience's reactions backstage. All and all, it was fun.

I am using up all the ink left in my printer by printing in blue and green. It's different.

I participated several times in my Chinese Film class. It's funny that the only people who say stuff are not the Chinese students. That's probably why only only a third of the class actually says anything. The professor plans two hour long lectures, so he seems a bit surprised when people raise their hand to say stuff. I guess that's okay, but it can get rather dull. I'd rather talk a bit more when there is a small class anyway.

Random sounds

Last night, there was an awfully annoying banging or ringing come from.....somewhere. At first I thought it was next door, but then my neighbor was not here. Then, maybe it was actually in my room. I roamed around in the dark, trying to figure out the source. I heard it while I was by the wall near my door, but not near my dresser as loudly. I even heard it early this morning. Perhaps someone's alarm clock rang for....over 8 hours....I do not know. It is a mystery.

Apprently, my hall-mates also heard some banging as well.

Yesterday someone was jumping rope in the room above me. They jumped for about an hour. I think they must be quite fit.

I had creme brulee at Simeon's last night. It was pretty nice.

Bloody fishcake and Secret Lovers

Opening night of Vincent in Brixton went remarkably well, except for the blood in the fishcakes. Emily made everyone tiny bead violets. I also received many healthy and junky treats from Sarah and Richard with a lovely little note. By the way, the costume shop is really freaky at night, especially when I have to walk through it in the dark to get to the exit. I see all these mannequins lurking in the shadows, and I never really know whether one of them will turn out to be a real person. Creeeeeepy.

I had the most weird dream last night which involved Museo having a secret bf since the 8th grade....sure it's possible, but her guy was apparently someone who went to my old school. We all felt betrayed and all....Our family reputation was at stake etc. etc. Mad crazy.