In substantially happier news than malfunctioning electronics, I just learned that Once, starring Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova (and their music), won the World Cinema Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival. I’ve been reading rave reviews from all over throughout the festival but winning an award is even more exciting! I’m really hoping that the U.S. distribution is large enough that we can at least get it here in Ithaca at Cinemapolis or at Cornell Cinema. Fingers crossed!
Archive for January, 2007
My poor laptop appears to be dying in a loud and creeping manner. Since turning it on thirty-five minutes ago, I don’t think the CPU usage has dropped below 50% despite having only Thunderbird and Firefox open. That, along with the fact that the computer seems convinced that only fifteen minutes have passed since it was turned on makes me suspect that my processor is dying. Needless to say, I do not have gobs of money laying around for a shiny, new replacement, and this is quite unfortunate. Hold on, little Dell!
Stephanie commented that the laptop seems to have trouble breathing. I suggested that maybe it thinks that it’s on top of Mt. Everest instead of, you know, in Ithaca.
Before anyone asks, I updated virus definitions last night and ran a complete virus scan–even though I do that weekly anyhow. No viruses. No spyware. No excuses of that nature. I spent a substantial chunk of my Christmas break performing maintenance on the computer, too. I cleared up the hard drive and defragged it around New Year’s. As it is, I fear that it won’t last me to March, let alone to this summer like I’d planned. Oh sadness…
I finally made it over to Cinemapolis on the Commons last week. Joe and I saw Curse of the Golden Flower there. The movie is set during the Tang dynasty in the late 10th century in China. Without giving away too much about the movie, I will say that it reminded me very much of a Chinese version of The Lion in Winter, which is one of my all-time favorite films. The difference, of course, is that there is a great deal more action in Curse of the Golden Flower–most likely because it is not based on a play. Incidentally, some of the musical themes reminded me of The Lion in Winter, too.
I think, for me, the most stunning aspect of the movie was the visuals. Almost the entire movie takes place in the Imperial City, and, while I can in no way claim to be an expert on medieval China, I was surprised by the color and decadence of the palace. Even the vast armies (and I do think that word is appropriate) of servants in the palace were respectably dressed, and the Imperial family themselves wore finery that King Louis would have envied eight-hundred years later. My basic conclusion was that Versailles in its heyday would have been given a serious run for its money. (As an aside: armor, swords, weapons, ninjas falling from the sky, yay!)
Although servants were not featured prominently in the film, they were one of the things that stuck out to me the most. The opening shots of the movie involve hundreds of young female servants getting up and dressing themselves for the day in a highly ritualized manner. The sheer numbers of servants that managed to appear almost out of nowhere throughout the film were astounding. (In case you couldn’t guess, having a visual representation of the sheer power the Emperor wielded made a big impression on me. I think, somehow, that Western historical films are somewhat lacking in that oh-my-God-what-an-overwhelming-number-of-people-at-one’s-command department, and I’m not sure whether that’s a reflection on differences between feudal/ancient power in the East and the West or simply the emphasis placed on such things in the movies.)
The acting was quite good, too, in my opinion. I found Gong Li’s performance as the ailing Empress to be particularly impressive. As Joe commented after the film, there were several points at which she almost seemed to be channeling Meryl Streep. And anyone who’s watched Streep in Sophie’s Choice knows she’s not a bad person to be channeling in a dramatic role.
Overall, I felt like the movie was well-worth the ticket, and I would recommend seeing it if you get the chance to. As for me, I’m now eagerly awaiting the premiere of Pan’s Labyrinth at Cinemapolis. Fairy tales come to life? Yes, please!
When even my lab partner turns to me and asks if I’ve updated recently, I figure that means it’s time to raise a little flag out there in Internet-World at least to say, “Hello, yes, I am still alive.” These past couple of weeks have been pretty busy and full, as I’ve been working (almost) full days in the lab. It’s been quite the learning experience but a lot of fun at the same time. I would say that Stephanie and I have become fairly comfortable and independent when it comes to working in the lab with our hot-wire anemometry. The highlight–apart from getting to play in the wind tunnel–has probably been learning to make hot-wire probes because nothing says, “I’m awesome” like managing to solder a ~80 micron-thick wire underneath a microscope. When you accomplish that with two wires on one tiny probe and then manage to etch the wires down to about 3 microns in diameter, it’s hard not to come to the conclusion that you rock.
Fortunately, the older grad student in the lab and our advisor seem happy with our progress and our work ethic thus far. I really can find no substantial reason for complaint. (I mean, I could say something about the lab being dirty, but then Stephanie and I did some cleaning earlier. Or I could be annoyed about having a weekly half-hour meeting with my advisor late on Friday afternoons when my class ends at 11, but I’m going to try to get that changed anyhow.)
Today marks the beginning of my second semester of classes. I’m holding out hope that classes will be better this semester, but we shall see. I’m really going to work at establishing some better work habits when it comes to classes. I’m only taking two, which will hopefully make that a bit easier. The first one is a course on turbulence taught by one of my profs from last semester. Again, his classes lack graded homework, so I’m going to have to motivate myself to spend time doing exercises if I want to avoid some of my sillier mistakes from his class last semester. The second class I’m taking–High Reynolds Number Flows–looks like it will probably cover a lot of the material that I covered in 453 and 454 at Case. So I’m planning on fishing those notebooks out and hauling them up to campus to use as references.
Outside of work and school, life goes on as usual. Winter has finally discovered us here in central New York, so the snow is accumulating, though we still haven’t had very much of it.
I spent Friday evening bowling with some of the other first-year students. It was tremendous fun. We had three first-timers and no one who was much good at it, but everyone performed respectably. I found that taking my own ball helped my performance a lot; even though I haven’t bowled in ages, I got a 124 and a 115, which were pretty good scores for me back in my senior year of high school when my family played in a league for fun. I got teased some for bringing my own ball, but I can never find one at the alley that’s light but still has holes large enough for my fingers. Oh the challenges of having unusually large hands for a female!
I think I’ll end this for now and write something separate for my recent trip to the theater…
Today, one might say, the Gods of the Wind Tunnel Lab are laughing at me, poking fun, and having their jolly good amusement with me. I mean, seriously. What next?
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