Sunday, February 24, 2008

PR Shmee R

Our latest brief for school is a strange one. We are supposed to think of ways to re-invigorate a dance company that has recently lost its funding from the Arts Council of England. This particular dance company was founded (and is directed) by one of our tutors (who, frankly, is too busy dealing with the situation of her company to give a crap about tutoring for this course...don't get me wrong...I feel for her, but for her own good, and for the good of the course, the course director should replace her). Sticky situation, eh? I've been assigned to the PR group. While this is a serious situation and is supposed to be treated as such, it's difficult to do that when you only have 2 weeks to research and present your proposals. If we are supposed to treat this like it's real, then we feel like we should be given time to research properly. We all know the company is going to fold in its current form, so why pretend that our assignment is urgent? A room full of Harvard MBAs couldn't propose a proper business plan in 2 weeks. And as part of the PR group, it's difficult to decide whether or not we should promote the company as it is or promote the company-to-be (which is conceptual, and somewhat different for each group). Every group is entirely frustrated with the assignment, but despite this, we've all been working our asses off. Hopefully, the presentations won't be a train wreck because the external examiners are coming on Monday, and I wouldn't want these presentations to reflect poorly on the course as a whole because I think the course as a whole is great. This assignment, however, is asinine. Oh, well. You win some, you lose some. The good part is that I'm looking forward to a different group presentation I have on Wednesday. I'll write more about that one later.

On another note, a classmate of mine has taken to photographing me (and others, but mostly me) while I'm eating. Most of the shots are far from flattering, but this one's okay:

That's all for now. More soon...

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Alchemy and Flooding

This past Monday, we had a presentation on Alchemy. After reading a bunch of Jung, who was big into alchemy and gnostics, and other metaphysical texts, my group and I put together a little performance that focused on the process of transformation. Considering that we only had about a week to research and a week to develop a presentation, it went relatively well. Now we have to propose a topic for our final brief which the class will vote on and work on through the Easter Break.

Our current brief involves helping to develop a plan for a dance company that one of our tutors founded. The Arts Council of England cut their funding, and they're not sure what to do. We've been broken up into new groups and put in charge of different areas. I'm on the PR team, which is nice since I've done some PR-type stuff before. In a way, this ties in with our previous project, but I guess everything can be tied into Alchemy if you think about it long enough.

Yesterday, we tried to meet up at school, but it was closed due to flooding. Apparently, this happened to another school building yesterday, and it was determined that is was caused by frozen pipes that burst. The other building was re-opened the next day, so I imagine that will be the case for our building as well.

After we found an alternative location, I went back home to eat, and headed off to my housemate Gavin's gallery for an art opening. It was cool. I'll place a link to his site and the artist's work here soon.

Then, I was off to 93 Feet East, a club on Brick Lane, for Anne's birthday. Claire, my other housemate, stopped by after she got off of work, and a bunch of my schoolmates showed up as well. We had a great time, although the boots I was wearing gave me some wicked blisters, so I'm hobbling around today. Ah, the price you pay to cut a rug and look good while doing it...

Friday, February 8, 2008

Knock, Knock

I'm getting my bed today. It was supposed to arrive between 10am-2pm, so when I heard a knock on the door earlier this morning, I thought, "Oh, good! My bed is here". Instead, I opened the door to find 2 women standing on my doorstep. Jevhovah's Witnesses. Yes, they're everywhere. They gave me a booklet called "Awake". The headline was, "Will We Ever Be Free of Crime?" and in the bottom corner, "Also: Does God Forgive Serious Sins? page10". Of course, I took their literature so that I could use it for fodder of some kind. Don't know what exactly, but I'm sure it will be hilarious, whatever it is. When they asked me if I think that we will ever be free of crime, I said, "I don't know. I'm from the US."

Anyway, the bed to going to be late. I know this because the Argos Delivery guy actually called me to tell me that it was going to be around 2:30 before he got here. Do you believe that? I'm only paying £4.95 for my double bed to be delivered, and I even get a courtesy phone call. Gotta love it.

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Moving Day

I'm hEEEeeeeere. I transferred my stuff from Anne's to my new flat. Of course, I had to run a bunch of errands like purchasing an air mattress, sleeping bag, pillows, and pillowcases...handy things to have, regardless of transitory status. Luckily for me, I don't mind air mattresses. It will be just fine until my bed arrives in 2-3 weeks. Not only that, but my friend Tristan said I could raid the linens in her loft when we meet up. That's going to be incredibly handy.

Here are some pics:




On a side note, I realized today that I now live about 100 yards from a Unitarian church. Weird.