Dara buys a vowel

Okay so the latest episode of Dexter is making me crazy, I'll have to wait who knows how long for that cliffhanger to resolve because I don't get Showtime.

Hum, hum...grad school applications are nearly done. All that's left to do is revise my personal essay and send out my mailing packets, and that'll be that. Should hear back in March.

Street Fighter paragraph: NorCal Regionals was a great tournament. The final rounds between Alex Valle (Ryu) and Ricky Ortiz (Rufus) were genuinely thrilling. I was only sorry that I missed the Third Strike finals...after the news that Ibuki is quasi-confirmed for SSFIV, I cracked open Third Strike and the lady and I went a few rounds, I with Ibuki, Necro, Q. I love that game's sense of speed and motion, it feels a lot sleeker than SF4 in that regard.

Ryu and Akuma players are always pretty boring to watch at tournaments, though you have to laud their skill. Still, it's way more engaging to watch a good Rufus, Guile, Bison. Filipino Champ's Dhalsim was very intimidating.

I still haven't gone to get fingerprinted by the Santa Clara Office of Education. I think I'm dragging my heels...partly because of the ridiculous construction going on in my house (I'm still living in the dining room), partly because I've been in Davis. And now it's Thanksgiving, so another week is lost. But meanwhile I'm doing some essay tutoring/editing for my aunt's kids and she's insisting on paying me so I'm not arguing with that. English tutor: the job I was probably born for.

I halted all my explorations of jazz music and Star Wars this week to lose several days to Dragon Age: Origins. Beat it last night, playing a new game now. What? I rented it, I have to get my 10$ worth.

The History Channel just happened to be running a special called Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed, which set out to discuss the various thematic/philosophical resonances of the entire film series. I watched that instead of watching Return of the Jedi. It was interesting. They had the requisite historians, literature professors, The Dude From The Joseph Campbell Archives (I didn't know there was such a thing; can I work there?). They went through the various Eastern religious ideas, Christian symbolism, historical moments (i.e. Nazism, ancient Rome) and mythological tropes that inform Star Wars. The topics were pretty broad overall, Good vs. Evil, Man vs. Machine. It certainly wasn't an in-depth study but it was a neat piece to think about.

In real life news, I have been displaced. My bed, computer, and various other things are now in the dining room while these guys we contracted with are fixing a hole in the floor.

There's an interview with George Lucas that really made me think about the way he made Star Wars. For him, each film was the maximum expression of the movie technology available at the time. That he had plotted out this six-part story but somehow had the foresight to first make the latter part is pretty amazing. It seems he intuited that the money and tech available in the late 70s would be totally insufficient to create the late-Renaissance Old Republic he envisioned in the first three films. Meanwhile, Episode IV is literally in the middle of a dark age where culture seems to have stagnated, demonstrated by the militaristic, industrial, beat-up feeling of all the craft and ships. In Episode I, everything is more colorful, with more rounded edges and aesthetic flourishes. But as the war progresses, you see a shift in Episode II towards more militaristic craft and then by Episode III you basically have the alpha versions of TIE Fighters and Stormtroopers. They're still more varied and color-coded at this point, but it's only a few steps away from the total uniformity of the Imperial regalia.

And whether it was an accident of moviemaking or not, I really liked the shift from total alien multiculturalism to a completely British Whiteman Empire. Even the Rebellion is mostly human and mostly white in Episodes IV and V, but there's a pleasing swing back towards alien-human cooperation in Return of the Jedi, with Ewoks, Lando's co-pilot (who is apparently speaking Swahili), and Captain Calamari (don't even start, my mom nearly named me Akbar when I was born).

There are so many amazing, subtle little detail bridges between the two trilogies. The way Obi-Wan reacts when he meets R2-D2 is really curious. You can't quite tell if he's lost his mind and can't remember Anakin's droid, or if he's putting on a show of being a funky old hermit like Yoda does when we 'first' meet him in Episode V. Chewbacca is also a little more interesting, since we know that Chewbacca fought in the Clone Wars and is likely in a kind of exile, as was Yoda. The parallels between Luke and Anakin are interesting too, as Luke is not so adept with the Force as his father, having not been trained in it, and not having the same immaculate affinity for it. But he does trust in his friends, which Anakin couldn't, in the lonely egotism of being very powerful. That said, like father like son: Skywalker men are pretty whiny.

All that's left to watch is Return of the Jedi. I'm kinda sad this playthrough is drawing to a close. There's few other long-running movie series that are quite so visually compelling or so layered in their mythmaking.

the key to happy living is banana

Grad school apps are coming into the back nine. Final schools list: Davis, Notre Dame, Brown, Cornell, Syracuse, Columbia. Wish me luck doods.

My grad school applications are half done already.

The unofficial school count:
California: 1
Indiana: 1
Rhode Island: 1
New York: 6

I guess it's kinda obvious where I am trying to end up for the forthcoming 2 school years.

I really enjoyed Episode III. I actually got really into it, to the point where the few truly ridonkulous moments ("NOOOOOO") didn't interrupt the overall fabric too much. Quite diggable, and now I'm very excited to get started on 4-6.

My "playthrough" of the entire Star Wars film series started today. I just finished Episode I and am watching the opening scenes of Episode II. I have to say that these prequels are pretty good, which is very much the opposite of my initial reaction to them. Anyway, I'm taking some notes, might write up something longer when this is done. In any case, I'm seriously enjoying this shit!

Oh, Bibio.

This is an icon for when I want to shoot somebody in the face.

Today is a crappy little day. Let's count up the good things that are left:

Flash Forward. How I Met Your Mother. The Safeway by my house sells Thomas Kemper root beer. Swiss chard has cool stems. My new hat feels good on my head. I had a very good idea for a revision on a short story I wrote. I am outlining for something longer to be written during a certain populist literary ritual on the internet during the month of November. I do still have a home and shelter and food, that's, I mean, that's always a buzzkill when you're feeling bad about yourself, isn't it? I'm listening through all of my compact discs. I never listened to the two Hala Strana albums I bought during community college. They're really good. I'm supposed to hang out with a friend tonight. The novelty of saying 'God' hasn't worn off yet. Still very happy about where I am spiritually, despite it all. My grad school applications are going to be very, very strong.

Hey, that kinda made me feel a little bit better.

Well, I have added a default "typing furiously" and a sparkly new "hella astounded" to my icons, which is good enough for now.

GRE: done. Got a 610 verbal and a 680 math. Why did I get a higher math score? I was going into this with no studying, that's why. But I was expecting pretty dismal math scores. I guess this bodes well for the, uh, three schools I'm applying to.

Street Fighter IV Normal Trials*: finished this morning. This is pretty cool, for me it represents a milestone. It's the culmination of a lot of improvement and training, and I'm really proud of it. Haha it's so weird to say all that about fucking Street Fighter, but really now, this is more than a casual hobby at this point. It's really something I love and want to be awesome at, and that's a long road!

*Normal Trials are a set of 5 challenges per character. Each challenges asks you to do specific moves and combos, escalating in difficulty and testing your understanding of the gameplay mechanic. There's a 'Normal' set and a 'Hard' set. Suffice it to say, the normal set is already very difficult for a new Street Fighter player. I love this game.

Ben's performance / Street Fighter tourney / Go to Jaymes' popsicle store /  Copiously treat the lady / Summon the balls to actually play the arcade rats on the MU's SF4 machine / See either Gentlemen Broncos or Ong Bak 2...or neither, you know, whatever / Don't get another speeding ticket in Solano County, dammit / Talk to Colin Milburn / Hang with neat peeps / Eat Tofu / Look at bikes

A couple chapters into The Hero With a Thousand Faces. Really good so far. Campbell's knowledge of the 'collective unconscious' appearing across a broad range of literatures over the centuries is really formidable. I like the conclusions he's drawing. They feel familiar, and that's kind of the point, that there are universal human forces at play in all myth and literature, but I've never seen them so well fleshed out. I feel like this book will really deepen my appreciation of mythology and literature in general.

Other than that, playing lots and lots of Street Fighter IV. 'Training,' you could say. There's a tournament on the 8th and I don't know if I'll enter, but I'm a hell of a lot better than I was a month ago. Also checking out Uncharted 2, which makes me want to read the Marco Polo book, if there's a single volume that is so named.

Grad school applications are going really well. After having a minor freakout about the 19 schools I was thinking of applying to, I narrowed it down to what matters: in my region, full funding, faculty working in my areas of interest. That cut it down to like...3-4 schools max. Way easier to breathe now. I don't have to hitch my wagon to that one star, and that's a huge relief.

Since this update seems all art/media related, concert update: Treasure Island was great. Langhorne Slim is playing in the city on Thursday and I'd like to see them, but I'm really more excited about Horse Feathers in SC in a couple weeks, and J. Tillman coming to town in December. And there's Friendly Fires and The XX playing right before Thanksgiving, which is going to kick lots of butt.

Love and some verses,
Dara

I think I need some new LJ icons, since mine have a pretty limited emotional range of Disapproving, Existentially Overwhelmed, Morbidly Depressed, and Supremely Satisfied. Or at least there needs to be a 'ho-hum' in there somewhere.

Finished Waiting For Godot, which was fantastic. That got me reading the first story in Borges' Labyrinths, which is so far fantastic and I'd love to read more.

Started Waiting For Godot. Really very good so far, about a third of the way through. Makes me want to go see more plays and read more plays. I'll be happy when this whole apps process is done with...I feel like I've been stressed beyond my usual comfort level for a while now and it's been hard to orbit my usual desired serenity.

This morning I finished The Entire Predicament, by Lucy Corin, who was one of my professors of creative writing and my honors thesis adviser, and is currently advising me on my grad school apps. It's cool reading published fiction by someone you work with. Continuing my app process, studying for the GRE, hoping I get some time to read The Hero With A Thousand Faces...

Been working on my apps all day, could really use a massage. Hot damn I wish I could apply to all 15 of these schools with the same application. How nice that would be. Okay, gonna go rewrite my personal statement now.