OTL's 9th Annual Cabaret

This weekend I went to Off The Lake's 9th Annual Cabaret. I must say, it was pretty amazing. Of course, I love musical theatre so I automatically enjoy anything OTL does. However, I believe even someone who doesn't particularly love theatre would enjoy this show. It will make you laugh, cry, and feel all fuzzy inside. Faith and I both left Baker Hall's Performance Space feeling fully satisfied with the entertainment we received. If you want to go yourself, their last performance of the cabaret is tonight at Baker Hall Performance Space, and the price of admission is one canned good. They are donating the cans they collect to a local food bank. So if you don't want to go for the awesome entertainment, go to help a great cause! I hope everyone is having a good weekend :)

Metomorpho-Thon

My Classical Mythology professor first told me about Metomorpho-Thon because he was scheduled to read during it. Essentially, this event is sponsored by the Classics Club, and they read classical literature from 8 am to 8 pm in front of the Thompson Library. When I sat down next to the statue, a student was reading from Ovid's Metamorphosis. It was slightly distracting when his friends showed up to listen and take pictures (embarrass) the reader, but overall it was a good experience. It's still going on today, so if you want to listen to a little bit of classical literature, head down to the Thompson Library before 8 pm!

Dinner with Ben and Jenna

Meeting in the Haverfield lobby, we had a little time to wait until Ben and Jenna arrived, so we messed around on the piano a bit.  They finally showed up, and we all signed in and headed over to North Commons.  Apparently they had never eaten there before (at least Ben hadn't), so we had to explain the swiping process, then got our food and headed to the basement to find enough seats for everyone.  It didn't look like many people came when we were in the lobby, but there were quite a few of us sitting downstairs when all was said and done.  I sat at Jenna's table first, and we had a great time talking and finding common interests (like "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog!").  Ben joined our table for dessert when the majority of his table was gone, and he learned all of our names fairly quickly.  Overall, it was a fun time, and it spiced up the dinner routine with a Humanities flavor!

Wexner Center Party -- photos and a movie

Last Friday, I went to the Wexner Fall Student Center Party.  The main attraction of the party was the showing of an Annie Leibovitz exhibition.  I’ll be honest – I didn’t really like it.  When I think of photography, I think of powerfully emotional or evocative pictures, such as the picture of the view of planet Earth from the Moon or photos of soldiers reuniting with their families.  The image of a naked John Lennon clinging to Yoko Ono like some type of oversexed koala really just didn't do it for me.

However, the party did have a saving grace: there was a screening of Joss Whedon's horror film The Cabin in the Woods.  Needless to say, I absolutely loved it.  This movie is notable not only for having a plot (a rarity in a horror film), but for taking every trope and cliché of horror movies and twisting them into new and refreshing ideas.  Every time I thought that something was going to happen, two things happened: either the event occurred in a completely different way than I thought it would, or the event didn't happen at all.  When the latter of the two options occurred, the movie went out of its way to point it out, essentially saying "Ha ha, we got you there, didn't we?" The film is essentially a satire of those 'torture porn' slasher movies that are all the rage in the box office these days.  It is impossible for me to go into a full review of the movie without spoiling the entire plot, so I will cut myself off here, but I highly recommend this movie to anybody who is even the slightest bit interested in horror movies -- and even to those who are not.

Karl Rove vs. James Carville: A Debate

Last week, I attended the political debate between Karl Rove and James Carville. While I realize that I am not a PSL scholar, as a college student of voting age I believe it was an important opportunity of which to take advantage. While neither of these men are candidates in a current election, they have both played important roles in national politics and presidential campaigns over the past years. Listening to what they had to say was informative and contained a surprising touch of humor. They both made very strong arguments for their contrasting points of view concerning the upcoming election and were encouraged by the audience throughout. At the end of the debate, they even answered questions that the students in the audience posted on Twitter with the hashtag #OUABdebate. It was an enlightening experience and I'm glad I was able to attend. 

Writers Block Poetry @ Kafe Kerouac

So, today I went to Kafe Kerouac near North Campus with some members of the Psychology Peer Mentor program (and, as it turns out, a fellow Humanities Scholar member too!). Kafe Kerouac, for those of you who don't know, is a cafe/bookshop/bar. (I bought two fantasy novels there and a House Special called Roald Dahl. I thought it was pretty cool that they had drinks named after famous authors. ^^) They had a poetry night around 8:00 PM, which costs $5, and since I guess poetry is a part of the Humanities, I decided to write about it on this blog! Maybe it'll count? I hope so.

It was a really enjoyable experience!! The crowd was friendly and it was real fun. After listening to a few poems, I suddenly got the urge to go up and read a poem. Alas! I didn't prepare any printed poems or whatever because I thought the poetry thing was one where the audience would judge your poem or something (that's something else though, I found out). So...I raised my hand and told the MC that I'd really like to go and that I had a poem on the Google Docs, if only someone could let me borrow their laptop for a bit. And, someone actually did let me use their laptop!!!! So, I got to read my dramatic monologue called Shadow and I calmed down afterwards. IT WAS SUCH AN AWESOME FEELING!!! It was my first time attending a real poetry reading event as well as all the people I went with!

The poems that I listened to were really good. Many of them made me feel like I was listening to a internal monologue in a film or something. I didn't stay for all of it because some of my group had to leave and I wanted to walk home with them, but from what I saw, the poetry night was pretty good. All the seats there were filled and there were 27 people (including me) who performed or were gonna perform. I was surprised there were so much people!

Humanities Scavenger Hunt!

Well, needless to say, I love my mentors(: They were so much fun! Devon was our motivational leader, fearlessly leading us around the whole OSU campus, and Kathryn was my lovely photo buddy. We practically ran from building to building, and the opportunities for taking the pics for bonus points seemed to fall into our laps. On our way out from the Union, we threw away people’s trash for them; right from the get-go, we had a group of strangers do the O-H-I-O for us; on our way out of the Thompson Library, we asked a lone studier to take a pic of us doing a pyramid.  We got through every single bonus and booked it to all 8 of the necessary places. We had a fun time bonding and getting a glimpse of Devon’s competitive nature. Hopefully, we won(: The popcicles at the end were a nice treat since all that speed walking around made it very hot.  The weather was truly perfect for today- not too sunny and breezy. Overall, the scavenger hunt was a lot of fun and I would definitely recommend it to the next year’s freshman class.

Study Abroad Expo

A few of my friends and I got together today between classes to go to the Study Abroad Expo in Thompson Library.  I was kind of excited, because as an International Studies major, studying abroad is something that I really want to do, but I was unsure about how much specific information I would be able to get from this one day in this short amount of time.  The greatest part about it was that I left so much more excited than I went in.  I had no idea there were so many different kinds of study abroad programs to choose from! I knew that I could go pretty much wherever I wanted, but I learned so much from the half an hour or so that I was there about the different types of programs; there are ones with internships as well as classes included, ones that are basically just an internship abroad, ones that are just classes, semester at sea, Global May, etc.  There are just so many different options, and different programs count for different kinds of credit on your college transcript.  It was so overwhelming, but all the representatives from all the different areas were great.  They had so much knowledge about the different countries and different programs, they eased my worries about not knowing the language in some cases, and I found a program that I am so excited to do, although I will probably wait until at least sophomore or junior year until I go.  It is in Geneva, Switzerland, which is perfect since I am an International Studies major focusing on international relations and diplomacy.  I will be taking classes, and I will have an internship with a non-government organization while I am there as well.  I went in to this expo thinking I knew everything I needed to know about studying abroad, but I was quite mistaken.  I actually knew very little, compared to what I learned today, and I am so glad I went to the expo and found out about all these fun things that I can do instead of sitting in classrooms for the next four years of my life (although I will be doing some of that as well). :)

Study Abroad Expo

Being a double business and Chinese major, I am definitely interested in Study Abroad; it also helps that my native land is not the USA :P Unfortunately, I was only able to attend today's Study Abroad Expo for a short amount of time, due to my class schedule. However, what I saw was definitely worth going to. The booths that attended all had numerous amounts of information about all sorts of programs. Here at Ohio State you can travel pretty much anywhere you'd like to to further your education. I was informed about specific programs for my major and other programs that appealed to anyone at OSU. Studying Abroad is definitely on my "to do" list while I attended school here. (:

The Campaign

Yes, I am fully aware that we are HUMANITIES Scholars - not PSL - and that many would consider themselves politically indifferent.  On the other hand, you have people like me: those who avoided politics as long as possible, found themselves forced to develop political beliefs, and then become so simultaneously annoyed with the political climate yet so loyal to one party that it becomes difficult not to care.

Well, Will Ferrell and Zach Galifaniakis make The Campaign equal parts human interest and political satire.  Being an election year (and living in a swing state), much of American culture is currently devoted to politics.  Ferrell and Galifaniakis' movie makes the election process a little more tolerable.  The comedic tandem fight over the rights to kiss babies, engage religious groups, and make the other look dumber...although, much like in real life, they are perfectly capable of looking stupid on their own.

While the movie is good for a couple of laughs and employs some juvenile humor, it has a sort of quiet brilliance.  It's amazing that a movie like this didn't come out decades ago.  While there seems to be a slight bias to the Republican Party, the film delivers a message that both sides would do well to adhere to: the reason one gets into politics probably has little to do with supporting one side's entire agenda; it has a lot to do with wanting to make a difference. 

 Watch The Campaign Trailer Here! :)

8th Floor Improv-- the Unmistake

   Having made the rookie mistake of scheduling four classes spanning from 9:35 am until 5:05 pm on Friday night, I found myself lacking the motivation to get out of my bed last Friday evening. As I drifted into consciousness amidst a 6 o'clock nap, I remembered a commitment I had made to my roommates the night before: "Sure, I'll go to the improv show with you!" I had stated, BEFORE staying up until 4am doing the homework I had neglected all week.
    It wasn't until I heard them discussing dinner at Sloopy's prior to the show that I finally motivated myself to roll out of my bed and get ready for the evening. Do I even like improv?, I asked myself recalling just how odd of a sense of humor I actually have. As we began our trek across campus, I realized I was already in too deep.
    When 8 o'clock arrived, our group filed into the third row to our seats. I looked around the overly-crowded room and remembered handing over $5 at the ticket counter, I began questioning my presence once again. As I raised my voice to ask my roommate what time the show would be over, the lights dimmed and the show began.
    The show began with a few skits in which the members of 8th Floor Improv used the same word or theme to act out several different scenarios. But laughter for the sake of an appropriate reaction transitioned into hysterical laughter on my part when the group began the show's focus on social media. I realized that the entire audience became more active and participatory as the improv group incorporated aspects of Twitter and Facebook to the show. The groups idea to utilize social media in their act was an ingenious one! The awkward relationships, taboos, mishaps, unspoken dos and don’ts--they were all familiar. By choosing such a far-reaching aspect of today’s culture, 8th Floor Improv was able to unite a group of nearly 300 complete strangers in laughter and amusement.
The show concluded, that night with a wild round of applause. I realized that an event I had originally attended out of obligation turned out to be a great bonding experience and a valuable learning opportunity. By the time I had maneuvered myself out the theatre, I was sure to both add the next show to my calendar and ‘Like’ the 8th Floor Improv Comedy Group on Facebook.