Thursday, December 18, 2008
New life
Thursday, December 11, 2008
TemperTantrum
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
"Demon seated in the garden"
Monday, December 8, 2008
Maryland Dance Ensemble
For my ballet class, I was required to go and see Maryland Dance Ensemble performance on campus. Since I had to write a report about it anyway, here is what I thought of my evening in the theater.
My previous experiences with the modern performances were quite upsetting, but I went to see Maryland Dance Ensemble with an open mind. Unfortunately, it has been a great disappointment. The ideas of the compositions were obscure and their presentation on the stage was not appealing or esthetically pleasing.
The piece that I liked somewhat ("Ella at Duke's Place") was the very first one, because it involved the most movement on the stage and I could see that it required a substantial amount of work to create such a coordination of the dancers. However, the moves often seemed abrupt and transitions between the positions were not smooth.
The piece by Sharon Mansur ("here/there.. (for one)") was the most puzzling of all. The flapping of her arms did remind of nature, but in a childish sort of way. The composition seemed extremely simplified, and there was a great lack of variety in the movements of the performer. The piece did not seem to require any dancing experience at all, and it was quite shocking, since from the “About the Artists” section of the program I learnt that Sharon Mansur is actually a faculty at the University now. She might be an exceptionally skillful dancer, but from her performance I could not tell if she was. Oh, and once she left the stage, for a few minutes a projector showed some amateur videos of this girl surrounded by plants. As I read later, it was part of the "multi-media" composition. What is wrong with the single-media on stage?
Overall, I thought that the lack of motion and rhythm were the greatest problems in all the compositions. There were a lot of still and expressionless positions, but not nearly enough of dynamic pieces. The mystery of the music and “dances” did not personally enchant me, but rather evoked irritation and confusion. The lack of technical skill presentation was a great cause of my inability to take the performers seriously.
For half of the first act my sister & I actually barely kept our laughter within ourselves. I have been to theaters many times, but on Friday it was the first time that I have ever left for home during the intermission. We just could not bare the performance anymore.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Holiday season
Saturday, November 29, 2008
World on fire
1128 children & teachers are taken as hostages in school in Beslan on the 1st day of classes in the new academic year
350 dead, 500 injured
At the time I was still in Moscow, but already graduated from high school. Because of this, luckily, I didn't get to learn how it felt to go to classes to your school after the tragedy in Beslan. Everybody in Russia and around the world was shaken: those were innocent children taken as hostages. They did not start wars, some of them were just starting to learn to count - how could they be blamed for anything?
A bomb explodes in one of the trains in Moscow metro during the rush hour
40 dead, 122 injured
October 23-26, 2002
129 dead, >700 injured
12 dead, 140 injured
300 dead, >1000 injured
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Thanksgiving
So, first of all, I won an iPod shuffle (1Gb) in the competition in one of my classes. It is not even the prize that I am happy about, but more the victory part. Unfortunately (or rather fortunately?), I already have an mp3 player, so now I need to find some good foster parent for the poor iPod. Will try to think of something interesting here.
Secondly, I have gone to the university "Midsummer Night's Dream" opera performance, and even though it was not the most brilliant opera I've seen so far, it made the Friday night great nevertheless.
Thirdly, not being able to find anyone free on Sat. night, I went to the movies by myself to see "Slum-dog Millionaire" in DC. Such a great movie! A bit depressing, but touching. After that, I drew for a couple of hours at Starbucks and then got myself a book and read it later at home till the arrival of the night.
Fourthly, the ballet performance in DC that we went to yesterday had an interesting turn-out. When I was buying the tickets, I was sure they were for the San Francisco's Ballet dancing "Giselle", because this is what the online event description was stating. When we came to the theater and got the program brochure, it listed some strange musical and dance pieces for the current date and then Giselle for the weekend dates. I was devastated and quite upset, since I was really looking forward to seeing a full ballet.
Have to admit, the dance pieces were quite interesting and the dancers themselves were extraordinary good too. I was still upset about missing the "Giselle" though, so later at home I wrote an email to the theater saying that their online event description never stated that SF Ballet will dance Giselle only during the weekend and that on the other days they will just dance "misc". My hopes were not high, when I wrote the complaint, but at least I wanted my voice heard. So what do you think? Today I got a response with an apology and an offer of 2 free tickets to the Giselle performance on Sunday! I guess, there is good customer service somewhere in the world after all :P
The fifth thing would be that I tried doing pilates today and found it exceptionally good. The exercises are challenging, but it is a great work out and somehow is soothing for the mind. Maybe that's something I'll continue in the evenings after the graduation.
Oh, and of course before I had all this great time going out, I barely slept during the week, working on all of my school projects and studying for the exams. Just mentioning this, so that no one feels bad about not having free time, because quite often I don't have much of that either ;)
P.S. I am thankful for all I have. I really-really am now! And I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!
Monday, November 10, 2008
Google & Russian students: know your users
As the average results from MAI (Moscow Aviation Institute), for example, state, girls there want to have a family at the age of 24 and guys - at the age of 28. I've heard a whole bunch of "20", "22", "23" answers from both genders in the video though.
It would have been interesting if Google (or someone else for that matter) did a similar survey in the US universities. I'm not particularly interested in the marriage question, but all the questions in general.
Videos mention the following questions and the average statistics for the students of Russian universities:
- how many of the university lectures do you usually visit (~68%)
- how much time do you spend daily at the university (~5-6hrs) and afterwards on homeworks (~2-3hrs), in the internet (~3.5hrs)
- in how many social networks are you registered (~1-2)
- how many emails do you send daily (~5-12)
- how much tv do you watch daily (~20min-1.5hrs)
- how much do you read daily (~2.5hrs)
- how many books did you read in the past months (~2.5)
- how much do you work daily (~2.5hrs)
- how much do you usually spend daily (~$8-10)
- what historical figure impresses you the most (Peter the Great, Stalin)
- what book should be a must for everyone (War & Peace, Crime & Punishment, Master & Margarita)
- what film everyone should watch at least once (Forest Gump, Fight Club, Requiem for a dream)
- who from the currently living people inspires you the most (no one, Putin, Madonna, Medvedev)
- who do you want to be when you graduate (owner of their own company, work in the industry, work for the government)
- where do you want to work after graduation (Google, Microsoft, their own company, IBM)
- what monthly salary would you like to have after graduation ($1000-1800)
- in what Russian city would you like to live after graduation (Moscow, St Petersburg)
- in what country would you like to live after graduation (Russia, England, Germany, France)
- at what age would you like to get married (23-25)
- how many children would you like to have (1-3)
With the questions that required word answers, there were some more top answers and they varied between the universities. Just though I'd mention that to keep the stats fair.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Errors on servers
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Interview with Diana Vishneva.
"Giselle" is probably one of my favorite plays. It's a masterpiece in the romantic ballet kind. There's nothing better in the classic ballet than a first act of "Giselle". Of course, it's my personal opinion, but many people would probably share it. When I was celebrating my 10 years in theatre, I specifically chose to perform this ballet. It is a disclosure of an inner actress of the ballerina.
Of course, there is one name that is always associated with "Giselle" and it is Olga Spesivzeva. The photos of her in this ballet are widely discussed: her poses, her individuality. She brought a lot into this ballet; she basically dedicated her whole life to it. After her there was another famous ballerina - Galina Ulanova. She had completely changed "Giselle", but nevertheless got on the history pages as another famous Giselle. Dancing "Giselle" after such stars is a great responsibility: you always have to add something to it; you cannot just dance it plainly. This ballet is all about the individuality of the prima: you cannot hide behind the technicalities of dancing or implementations of the particular movements, because it is not them that make this ballet so special.
I was preparing for this ballet for a very long time, setting the date for an opening performance 3 times and every time cancelling and pushing it further away, because I didn't feel ready: it seemed like some nuances were overlooked. It is only when I danced it for the first time that I realized: you cannot just train yourself for dancing Giselle. It is a type of performance that can be improved only by giving a show after show. Of course, this is somewhat true with all the performances, but with “Giselle” it is crucial: you need to understand all the nuances, find your own way of dancing, and bring out your inner gift of acting.
There are 2 completely different acts: the first one is mundane and the second one is completely surreal and weightless. It's usually easier to do well in the second act, because the first one is much harder. It is harder because of its apparent simplicity, naïvety. Of course, a lot depends on your partner and a contact with him as well: he can be of great help or completely useless. Every performance is different and unique, and you never know how it will go with your partner: what he would do, how you would be able to respond to it, and what kind of things would develop between the two of us. But, of course, something always will occur between us: the magic feeling that you so wait for and that audience so impatiently expects to see. In this duet sometimes even I start to believe that everything on the stage is for real. I know it's just a performance and I only create an image, but it feels like all the events are real.
Preparing for this ballet always makes me feel special. I think one can dance it through the whole career and always learn something new about it and add some unique things to it. With experience you will start to perceive the role differently and through the performances you will sense a whole new set of emotions within you.
From a pure technical point of view, the first act has this one capricious combination of turns that need to be done perfectly. You are deep in the mundane image and you act and dance accordingly, so, of course, when the time for this combination comes - you feel disturbed and bothered, because suddenly you need to concentrate on some technicalities that you don't even feel like doing.
In the second act the arms and poses are very important: they are flying and weightless. The position of your head is very important too. You need to make it all look unreal, create an image of a spirit - so you would suddenly stop on the tip of your toes or do these movements when you look like you are getting deep into water. And, of course, you should not make any noise with your shoes. If you create some sound when you pretend to be a spirit, then you can say that the whole second act was completely ruined."
Friday, November 7, 2008
Spirits of the past
Ok, there are betrayals and there are cases when you don't see the real face of the person right away. And yes, of course there are those situations, when you just get bored with each other. But what about the rest? What if you stop talking to someone, but you really miss them? You get hurt, you get angry, but if even months after that you still miss their friendship, why do you have to keep forcing the isolation on yourself?
I do not see why relationships with other people have to be in black and white: either we get along most of the time or we should just stop communicating as a whole. What if there is this gray middle: we don't get along quite often, but we feel sad and lost when separated?
You cannot bend all your relationships to follow one law, just like you cannot grow all plants with the same amount of water and sun: there are sunflowers and then there are mosses, there are cacti and then there are water lilies. Maybe with some people we are just like cacti and water: we dry out without them and we deteriorate in the excess of their presence.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Commercial
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Re: Good Deed
Books in dust
- One-third of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives
- 42% of all college graduates never read another book again
That's scary! I don't know why wouldn't people read, it's such an exceptional experience. Maybe you never visit France, but read Hugo and you'd feel like you did. You might know nothing of life during the French revolution, but read Dickens and you'd probably get a better sense of events than from a history class. Reading is a cheap, worry-free, and comfortable way of traveling and learning more about the world. No, do not stop socializing or visiting other places, but keep in mind that not all people are available for a chat and not all places are easily reachable - that's where the books come in handy.
Source of stats: http://www.parapublishing.com/sites/para/resources/statistics.cfm
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
These are just the statistics, the so called "dry numbers", but I look around: among my close family and close friends 5 people had the tumor. This is mad!
What's the key to avoiding the disease? No one has the perfect answer, but a healthy life style is at least a way to reduce the risks. Don't smoke, avoid chemicals and radiation, eat more fruits & vegetables, do sports, take more time to rest.
Would you like some spam in return for your help?
I did several blood donations with American Red Cross in the last 2 years, so now they have decided to thank me by spamming me with the calls on my cell phone. Today, for example, I have received 10, and only on one of them the person actually started speaking to me, the others were just silent.
A similar thing happened at the beginning of the year and after getting quite irritated, I demanded that they stop calling me and said that when I want to donate, I would just come myself - no need to remind me. Unfortunately, I had to say this to 3 people before the calls actually stopped.
Is it just me or there is something wrong with getting spam phone calls in return for your blood? Seriously, is that the way to encourage more people to do good? I know the proverb says "If you do good, don't expect it in return", but it mentions nothing about getting spam in return.
I seriously did not expect anything like that from such a respected organization as American Red Cross and before I choose to donate again now I'd think twice.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
Respect
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Kittens with mittens
Quite scared and irritated at the same time, I finally started pushing the cat out of the door. Only then I've noticed that on her front paws she was wearing.. mittens! From all the fighting, the mittens started to crawl down, and by the time the cat was out of the door, the mittens were off the paws. The cat gave me a sad look, quietly sat down, and started to put her mittens back on.
I felt ashamed of myself. How could I be so cruel? From the scene of the poor creature pulling her mittens back on the paws, I was almost crying. And then I woke up. Kittens with mittens, huh?
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
School
Then it seems like our childhood and youth are the school of relationships. Nature assigns the people, who we should learn to communicate with, and once we are done with these classes, we are free to choose our own surroundings. Does this mean that in life before we choose something for ourselves, we always have to go through a preparation course with things chosen for us?
Good deed
I returned to the library quite upset and sad. Some time later, when I was working on the project, I got a text message on my phone: "Your planner is in *** on a desk in the back of the room". I sent a "thank you" reply and rushed to the specified room. 40 minutes of waiting until the class finishes in the room and trum-pum-pum - I got my planner back! There are good people in this world, I was sure. I texted my savior and offered to buy a cup of coffee to express my gratitude. No, we didn't fall in love and lived happily ever after :) Instead, we had a wonderful conversation over coffee and then I walked home with a warm feeling: there are good people in this world and they will help if you are in trouble. If you know this, then nothing will scare you. Well, almost nothing.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Does it really matter where we live and find the beauties of life? Being on the edge of a decision about my future, I wasn't sure, what the answer to the question was. Is it really the place that brings the best in us or is it just ourselves who do this? How do you decide, where you will be a happier person? How do you find out which things will be better for you? Do you just go and try or do you think it all through very carefully?