do brilliantly well in college

School has been intense. My favorite prof is teaching the pinnacle class of the grad program which involves intensive reading of Darwin, Zola, Marx, Marxist theorists, Neitzsche, Freud … an incredible book entitled “Violence and the Sacred” by a French philosopher/critic who now teaches at Stanford . . . all the while using this dense philosophy to analyse plays throughout history. In fact, we are only allowed to use points from our reading to analyse the plays. No, “I thought it sucked.” All of our analysis has to be based on the theories of the master philosophers we have been studying.

My mid term is to condense a 20 page thesis (brilliantly written by the way) into 1500 words as a concise summation. Gahhhh. This is not Gone with the wind I am summing up. It is the thoughts of major ethnographers about the concept of violence within the “savage” that has been manipulated since the age of European expansion. Intense.

Guess, I’ll be biting my teeth on knowledge for awhile.

Rather than being content with just doing well, I want to excell.

I want to aim for the top, I want to be well rounded in all aspects of college life. I want to have many friends, get excellent grades, make a difference, join clubs, try new things, i want college to be an environment that I am able to feel comfortable dong anything in, an environment in which i can be myself , wait no, not myself but a better version of myself.

College is the last time of my life before i go on into the real world of bills, and insurance forms, I want to use this time where i am independent (location wise) but dependent(financially on parents) to pursue my own interests, to pursue and search for myself.

My Final Grades This Semester
Hum 425 Thought & Image A-
THA 408 Asian Plays/Perf A-
THA 403 Theatre BKGRND 1900-Presesnt A
THA 402 THEATRE BKGRND 1642-1900 A
THA 205 Intro Tech THEATRE Design A
THA 313 Lighting/Sound Lab/Crew A
BIO 101 Human Biology Lab B

Not bad. And that infernal Bio Lab that was a drain on my more important classes, turns out I did not even need it. Damn clueless counselor.

Finito! Grawg, that paper was an annoying beast for the past week. Thanks to the oh-so blase professor I had to write a paper encompassing every possible abstract element of the production of the real by simulation in Pop art and Kafkaesque prose. ?? Well that was not the assigned essay, but it was what it ended up being about basically.

A paper on Foucault, Matisse, Warhol, Shaviro, Kafka, and of course I had to reference Nietzsche and Alfred Jerry’s Ubu Roi (had to have some fun, sheez).

I did have fun with the title too. “This is Not A Report To An Academy”. This being a play on words seing as how much of the paper discussed Matisse’s “This is not a pipe” sketches and Kafka’s “Report To An Academy”

Gah, I do so love humanities classes, but professors that are on the ball make it so much more enlightening and enjoyable.

About a month in and things are going swimmingly. Well, it is sort of a swim through waters that are at times choppy and then like quick rapids as fun as a day at Slippy Village.

So to cut to the good stuff and leave you the reader with none of the dull, tedious stuff that would end in a rather long tirade on my part . . . I have two great professors that I have been enjoying. They have been awe inspiring in fact. And to me, one of the main points of college is to meet mentors that teach you an incredible amount about life, the universe and everything. Otherwise, one might as well go get educated at a library or take all ones course on line.

So, the first prof I have for Theatre History 1642-1900. He is quite a passionate lecturer. He gets into the description of the characters and the history of the times as if he actually lived it. It truly is like what one would imagine Aristotle being like before his students. Appropriate, since he quotes Aristotles theories of poetics all time. This French gal in my class and I had a bet on what is nationality was and neither of us were correct. I had guessed Armenian, she guessed he was from the Balkans. Turns out he is from Iran.

Oh, and he rides around campus on a scooter. No not a moped scooter, but a little silver scooter like kids ride about. A complete and total mad genius. Just like other profs I have had that could care less about appearances or social norms. If a scooter is the most efficient means to get about campus, by golly a scooter it will be.

The next prof is in the same vein but he is Japanese. He is the Head of the Theatre Department at SFSU and he is the only person on the planet with a Masters in Western Theatre as well as a Doctorate in Asian Theatre. He comes into class and he talks for 3 hours straight in this slow but enthralling manner. He weaves stories about Japan and his ordinary life into this long narrative that at times seems like he is using the students as his therapists, but slowly but surely he ties everything together and by the end of the class you start to understand the points he is trying to convey about the difference in approach between Western and Asian theatre.

Also, he moves like a jungle cat and occasionally shows off his vocal training with loud exclamations to punctuate his points. Apparently, he has trained with Kabuki masters which is nearly impossible. The reason being that in Japan only those born into a Kabuki family can be trained in Kabuki performance. But he has met and trained with Kabuki masters outside of Japan in the U.S.

Thus college is going good. I walk in the footsteps of masters.

First week is finito.

Have one theatre history prof who is a mad whirling dervish, one could out-dull paint drying, a lighting designer woman who is so powerfully efficient that I want to nominate her for US President, a thought and image prof who is the gay version of the lead singer for Anthrax, a Biology lab asian tigress prof, and a Asian theatre prof/seance who illuminates thoughts like Lao Tzu at a poetry slam.

Whew. Decided to not audition for the Brothers Karamozov production. The first time ever done, and adapted by the Prof and some students. Sounded possibly titanic bound. Besides I have to study.

Went to the theatre department’s Player’s-Mixer. Almost all the techie geeks. But hey, I like hangin’ with the techies. They end up being the backbone of any production one directs.

So, in one of my classes I have two gay theatre guys saying all sorts of things to see if I’m gay. Always happens. See how long until I get hit on. Oh and in another theatre class this lil’ gal with a mohawk keeps sitting next to me and her introduction to me was “I’m a stripper. Had to work till 3 last night. 6 days a week.” Now, I’m fairly certain she is not trying to gain another customer, its just the way she introduces herself. And possibly flirts with guys (?) Bizzarre.

My reading list this semester may very well bury me in an avalanche. Note to self to learn how to speed read asap!

Yeeeeeh, new colleges rock!

All of my classes are locked in. Looks like alot of reading but what the bloody hell.

Think this 6o to 40 female to male ratio at SFSU could be pretty nice.

Gals were friendly and starting conversations with me in all my classes. I was leaving this one class and a gal stealthily lingered and asked me for directions to a building. Then walked with me half way across campus and had tea and croisants with me by the student union. That just does not happen in the real world. Maybe this campus is a whole new world. Well, I claim it in the name of Me!

First day of classes tommorow. Yes! About time. Been waiting all this past year for this new start at San Francisco State U. When I went to get my ID the other day the guy giving information at the end of the line said, “Sir, are you faculty?” Ha ha. People think I’m a Prof already. I am just going to assume that is because I look/act so distinguished and not because I’m looking older now.