To Unhinge

A few weeks ago, coming home from school for winter break, I wrote a poem about the terminal. Here it is:

To Unhinge:

An ode to the terminal

The words of the poet are much like the shuffling passengers,

aligned for a purpose,

their goal a journey to a more meaningful place.

A process that is mindless and fluid,

though strictly speaking never considered needed,

often causes the average,

            or the author—

to unhinge.

Those who live by the appropriate,

mimicking the blue clad bane of the supposedly secure,

fling forward their cold black bar

            their metal detector or harsh stare or accusing questions—

Seeking to uphold and protect for the greater good,

but cause those innocent,

those artists—

to unhinge.

The calm quiet silence of solidarity and sanity

is often broken by the crackling of the droll,

the words so blatantly unnecessary, benign, tedious

sometimes spoken, sometimes machine—

                        or in the head or set in standards—

The effect often the same, though denied by any except the cynic or the simpleton

is proven to cause the sane

            or the romantic—

to unhinge.

Outside force is the last authority

the Driver of the chaos in the terminal,

            or the imagination or the word count—

known by the name of either inspiration or rocky weather.

She

 or he, one can’t be so pompously blind

is the one invariably impervious to prayer or tantrums

And one can be so certain to swear to the God that any given man lives by,

that this muse of great passion and flight delay

causes Everyone

            Every artist and Every stranger

to unhinge.

Mein Raum

I promised pictures of my room later this week, but I got bored and decided to do them now. So, I begin with my doorway. The shadow on top is so dark it makes it look like a different color or material, but really it's all the same. The poster on the side wall is the academic calendar.

Next my closet area. Yes, that is a poster of the original Ocean's 11 with the Rat Pack. Gotta love it. The closet is pretty small, but it holds enough.

We come to my Psych poster and dresser. It's in a bit of a state right now, but I got my tide and my bathing supplies over there. The dresser has three drawers that actually hold a lot (but not enough for a dead body or drugs to sell*).

*Disclaimer: No, literalists, I do not sell drugs. Take a joke, please.

And we come to my bed. I took this picture along with the other below to show you the full scope of the area. The cityscape there is of London (they didn't have another option of cityscape, but I love cityscapes so I got that one. I've gotten the most compliments on that). The poster above, if you can't clearly make it out, is Help! by the Beatles.

Another view of the bed area. On the windowsill-thing behind me there are two pictures of myself and my friends. The pillowcases are custom from Etsy. There's my spouting whale and behind it is a radio. 

And last, but not least, my desk/bookshelf. Those are Buddhist prayer flags that I and my best friend both have. I brought some of my favorite books and next to those are my textbooks. My giant pile of printer paper along with my two notation books are right there, and my computer is in the bottom left-hand corner.

So there you have it! Nicole's living space. It's cozy, I like it. I was gonna put up a picture of my roommate's area, but I figured that was a breach of privacy and immediately threw that idea out the window. Not literally, of course, because our windows don't open. Or, if they do, it's not easy. I'm living in the nicest dorm on campus. I would say "arguably the nicest," but nobody argues that. Parkside is the nicest, quietest area. It's also the newest and one of the few that has AC, so I'm pretty happy to be here and not some of the other dorms/residential colleges.

So, adios! I'll update as updates come along.

I Guess I'll Try This Again

Hello world! It's been a while since I've posted on here (again), and I know I always say that I'll post more frequently, but I really will try. Especially seeing as I really need something to help me ease the transition right now.

You see, since I last saw all of you, I've gone away to college. My senior year breezed on by, my summer took even less time, and now I've been here since the 22nd of August. I don't really have any friends yet, which is fine with me seeing as I have friends. I know that sounds ridiculous, but really, it's true. I don't need any other friends. Everyone I've met I just don't like as much as my friends. So, I'll hang out with people, be cordial, get acquainted, but they're not my FRIENDS. I miss my friends a lot.

And I'll leave that there because I could go on for hours about that whole scenario. I'll just give everybody a summary of what's been going on. I'm taking 6 classes, including my individual instruction. All of them are music-related except for my general ed (obviously), and I think they'll go well. Aural Skills is going to kick my ass, but I'm trying, and that's all that matters. I'm not going to the football games, and all my suitemates are partying hardy. They were at the Row till 3am last night. I'll post pictures of my suite/room within the week.

I'm signed up to volunteer with this program called Visions and Voices, which is an arts and humanities initiative. They put on shows and lectures and the volunteers help organize and everything, but we also get to attend whatever we're volunteering at, so that should be really interesting. Besides that I'm not really involved with anything except my program, which is a full-time job in itself. The program is very small and close-knit, and unlike most majors here you really represent it wherever you go. There's a giant microscope on this program all over the country, because it's really the only thing like it at any regular 4-year university.

I think I've rambled enough. Everything is the same with me, and I mean everything if you check my previous posts. I did direct Eurydice last summer (summer of 2011, not the summer passed), and it went very well. A few bumps and hiccups, but that's to be expected. My recent project fell through the cracks, but that's okay, we were experimenting anyway. I'll keep you updated as much as I can, which hopefully will be a lot as this is a very hectic time.

Lates,
NIIIKKKIIII

So I'm doing this play...

It's true. Right now my main project is a play I'm doing, entitled Eurydice. It's quite an amazing play, once it's revised a little bit. There are a few times where the dialogue is a little bit... Well... awkward I believe is the word.

The basic plot is along the lines of the myth, Orpheus and Eurydice. Orpheus is the world's greatest musician, playing the most beautiful music in the world, and Eurydice is his lover. Eurydice is more of a philosopher and scholar; she enjoys her books and thoughts. They get married, too young and too much in love, and on their wedding day she runs into this Nasty Interesting Man. He says he has a letter from her long-dead father, and takes her back to his high-rise apartment, where he proceeds to tell her he loves her and she needs to be with him. Naturally, she gets scared, and manages to fall down 600 stairs, and perishes.

She goes into the Underworld (based on Hades) and forgets everything. She finds her father there, and after some pleading realises that he is, in fact, her father. They strike up the relationship they never really had, and Eurydice even comes to like it in the Underworld. Meanwhile, Orpheus tries to look for her, and searches for a way to find her. Finally, he decides to use his music to break into the Underworld and get her back. As the myth goes, he is allowed to walk out, and trust that Eurydice is behind her, for he cannot look behind him at her until they have left. Eurydice seems hesitant, and as they are walking out, she calls his name, and he looks. After quite a depressing scene between the two, Eurydice dies a second death, and heads back to her "home" with her father. She finds that her father, depressed, has dipped himself in The River of Forgetting again, and does not remember her or anything else, really. The Lord of the Underworld decides to take her for his wife, and goes to prepare the wedding; devasted and alone, Eurydice decides to dip herself in the River again. The play ends with Orpheus entering the Underworld, after what we assume to be a suicide, and gets dipped in the River.

Depressing, I know, but also hauntingly beautiful. Besides, at this point I've already done too much work on it to just put it down, especially seeing as rehearsals start at the beginning of April. There isn't a set show date yet, seeing as my partner in our theatre company and producer is currently attending NYU and I'm stuck in small-town Auburn in Northern California. Nevertheless, it will be an amazing work of art, my first directing experience, and an exciting rehearsal process. Look forward to more posts about it.