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Roleplaying, Madame Butterfly, Hackers and Vietnam
After a two year absence, I finally managed to get around to doing some roleplaying. Using a slightly modified version of RuneQuest I ran a introductory session set in East Java in the early 16th century. For some time I have hoped to develop a fully fledged historical fantasy game based on this period entitled "Ten Thousand Islands" and over the past week I've managed to do quite a bit of research on this matter, including reading Shaman, Saiva and Sufi: A Study of the Evolution of Malay Magic.
Saw Madame Butterfly at Her Majesty's Theatre last night with caseopaya. Lovely deco building, albeit very uncomfortable. Personally, I find the narrative of this opera awful. I don't like sexism or racism in real life and I don't like them as plot devices in a story. I also dislike how the personal trajedy is separated from the social trajedy. Accurately described as "Girl wins boy, girl loses boy, girl commits hara kiri", and with an unexciting set this opera is invariably saved by a fantastic musical score. Last night was no exception - despite the critics comments, the performance last night was lukewarm and tiresome - but the music made it worthwile.
Have been spending time recently with the people from 2600 Australia. Hardly surprising really, we have mutual interests. Nevertheless, it is interesting as a social group, dealing with people who live a very similar lifestyle to oneself. Invariably intelligent, albeit oddball, I have always preferred the company of hackers.
Caseopaya has just been offered a two year volunteers placement working for the Voice of Vietnam. It seems probable that AVI will also find me something similar, seeming that we're housemates. In many ways, this is hardly unexpected. I realized prior to my placement in East Timor that if I wanted to do third-world volunteer work seriously I would have to do it for several years. All par for the course really.
The thesis moves on. Nothing exciting to report there, except the tedious task of rewriting setences to improve readibility. Whilst previously well aware of the situation, further research into what a bunch of evil monopolistic swine Microsoft have been really stunned me, both in their early days and more
recently. On a related topic, how can an economist be ignorant of economics and a hypocrite as well? Read The Economics of Open Source Software by Dr. Stephan Kooks.
Even if Kerry now looks certain, my
preferred presidential candidate is Congressman Kucinich, why? Because he is "tikkum olam" (repairing the world)
If you oppose Australia following the highly restrictive US copyright legislation under the "Free Trade" agreement, go to theProject Gutenberg Australia protest letter.
Congratulations to the_christian for his new comic. Support it.
Recently found this little gem; the collected works of McGonagall, considered by many to be the worst poet in history.
Ministers have been chared for performing same sex marriages in New York. Prior to clicking the link you have one guess for which denomination they were. It shouldn't be hard.
Two people have broken my brain recently on livejournal. One is 17Catherines for showing me the
dancing Snape and the other is greylock for the link that combines anthropomorphic fandom with "adult" movies (not work safe).
Doc_Redfern's party invite is deserving of a Doc Redfern. link. Seriously it is that good. One of the best in the history of the species.
Saw Madame Butterfly at Her Majesty's Theatre last night with caseopaya. Lovely deco building, albeit very uncomfortable. Personally, I find the narrative of this opera awful. I don't like sexism or racism in real life and I don't like them as plot devices in a story. I also dislike how the personal trajedy is separated from the social trajedy. Accurately described as "Girl wins boy, girl loses boy, girl commits hara kiri", and with an unexciting set this opera is invariably saved by a fantastic musical score. Last night was no exception - despite the critics comments, the performance last night was lukewarm and tiresome - but the music made it worthwile.
Have been spending time recently with the people from 2600 Australia. Hardly surprising really, we have mutual interests. Nevertheless, it is interesting as a social group, dealing with people who live a very similar lifestyle to oneself. Invariably intelligent, albeit oddball, I have always preferred the company of hackers.
Caseopaya has just been offered a two year volunteers placement working for the Voice of Vietnam. It seems probable that AVI will also find me something similar, seeming that we're housemates. In many ways, this is hardly unexpected. I realized prior to my placement in East Timor that if I wanted to do third-world volunteer work seriously I would have to do it for several years. All par for the course really.
The thesis moves on. Nothing exciting to report there, except the tedious task of rewriting setences to improve readibility. Whilst previously well aware of the situation, further research into what a bunch of evil monopolistic swine Microsoft have been really stunned me, both in their early days and more
recently. On a related topic, how can an economist be ignorant of economics and a hypocrite as well? Read The Economics of Open Source Software by Dr. Stephan Kooks.
Even if Kerry now looks certain, my
preferred presidential candidate is Congressman Kucinich, why? Because he is "tikkum olam" (repairing the world)
If you oppose Australia following the highly restrictive US copyright legislation under the "Free Trade" agreement, go to theProject Gutenberg Australia protest letter.
Congratulations to the_christian for his new comic. Support it.
Recently found this little gem; the collected works of McGonagall, considered by many to be the worst poet in history.
Ministers have been chared for performing same sex marriages in New York. Prior to clicking the link you have one guess for which denomination they were. It shouldn't be hard.
Two people have broken my brain recently on livejournal. One is 17Catherines for showing me the
dancing Snape and the other is greylock for the link that combines anthropomorphic fandom with "adult" movies (not work safe).
Doc_Redfern's party invite is deserving of a Doc Redfern. link. Seriously it is that good. One of the best in the history of the species.
Madame Butterfly
Re: Madame Butterfly
Hmmm.. So not a one off muck up then?
Thanks for the info. Next time I'll keep an eye out on who's actually doing the production!
Obviously important but I didn't check. Silly me.
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PS - Snape link doesn't work for me :(
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And the DocRedfern link is a private entry.
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Hmph! My links are right - it's just that the dancing Snape has been taken down (damn) and Doc_Redfern has a private entry (damn).
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(It's very disturbing)
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I was getting 404 errors half an hour ago.. Maybe they've (ahem) updated it.
It is very disturbing. It is also one of the funniest things I've seen for a long time.
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Hard to put it into words.. but essentially being aware of the various social conditions, and how people worked within them. Not playing them up, but being aware they were what had to be dealt with in the character's life.
But I suppose that is in fact linking personal with social tragedy...
In the mid '90s we had a production of faust which was set in the middle of the 19thC.
No specific region, but with the stirring, patriotic return of the soldiers music... they had soldiers come on in dribs and drabs, some wounded, some didn't arrive at all. So it was a comment on war and the expectations of the people not directly involved in the war.
The scene in Church when the devil torments Margarite, he was actually dressed as the preist rather than the pointy horned stereotype;)
heheh, I'm also just reading Maskerade where the comment if it wasn't for the music it would all be ridiculous seems to apply aptly to real life opera as well;)
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What I was alluding to (perhaps poorly) is how distinct the two are in Madame Butterfly. The only intentional act by Ms. Butterfly is to kill herself. Now that may be a realistic potrayal of the circumstances of women in early modern Japan, but I don't like it on an aesthetic level as narrative. I much prefer something like Tosca where Floria is much more involved in the narrative - despite probably having a similar social standing.
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Yep, that's exactly it. Whilst I have enormous sympathy in a social sense for the dispossesed in any historical epochs, in a narrative sense I want to see a protagonist - someone who gives the narrative a damn good shove, for better or for worse.
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and kucinich is awesome. i know some of those 'vibrant young students' they talk about in that article, heh.
have you heard that some people in the US gov. is trying to re-instate the draft? Me and my mom already spoke about it and she said I'll probably go to Australia should the need arise. I almost hope something does happen just so I CAN go there...and then I think about it and I just want Bush and friends to die and to stop trying to ruin mine and everyone's life.
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Jeez, I wouldn't be too sure about coming to Australia. The political landscape isn't that good here either! I wouldn't be surprised if they try to reintroduce the draft here either!
New Zealand or Canada would be my recommendations.
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and i think you're underestimating how horrible it is over here...i'm genuinely afraid of something happening to me a majority of the time i walk around. i literally don't feel free, it just started recently, but it's been creeping up on me. as an activist i literally feel like one day i'm just gonna be arrested and put in jail without getting a reason for an undisclosed amount of time. and i don't even wanna be in there for an hour!
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Citizen and Immigration Canada...
http://www.cic.gc.ca/
It may be pretty bad in the US, but you know what? We in the rest of the world depend on people like you to keep your leaders in line. It's a tall order, a nasty job and I don't envy you for a moment. But you're doing heroic work over there.
Jefferson would be proud.
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that's honestly why i don't know if i'll ever ACTUALLY move out. like...it's my home, i fuckin love new york city, it's made me a busy person and that's part of who i am so i feel like i'm gonna stay here forever (with hopefully some trips here and there). and i know so many people here i want to make life better for them.
THAT'S PATRIOTISM DAMMIT! :)
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I tend to think Jefferson would be no more enamored with the democratic slate than with our current 'leader'
Can't you at least avoid government more in OZ than here in the US?
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I think you are right about Jefferson. There is little doubt from his writings that he would have wanted a highly decentralized federated state (sort of like the latter writings of Marx e.g., The Civil War in France)
The other thing I think Jefferson would definately despair at is the US military structure. There is no doubt in my mind that the US "founding fathers" adopted a militia system deliberately - it is almost impossible to invade a country that is defended by a patriotic militia and it is almost impossible for a country with a militia to invade another nation (as the US found out when it tried to annex Canada).
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I find it laughable when US politicians of the modern era try to invoke the founding fathers. It is generally so wrong headed.