We Did It!! Hooorayy!

Finally, the day that we have to act out "Trifle" has come. Since 15 points out of 30 are given for the props/ costume, I decided to go all the way to be Mr. Hale. I'd prepare a set of clothing including a men coat, vest, and a pair of trousers a few weeks back for Halloween to be the Mad Hatter costume, which I did not have much time to fully make, so now they come in handy. I think I nailed the look, but oh dear, my acting is terrible. I was literally reading out my lines.....But my teammates were great! All in all, it was fun to do though.
Here's a picture of our group :D

"The Man in a Case" - the play

I loved the acting on the first scene of the play, by Young Mi and Kevin. They were fantastic! They both dressed up nicely to present the character they were playing. Kevin even prepared a background that he painted for the scene of the garden with full bloomed roses. That alone deserved extra points.
I thought both Young Mi and Kevin played their parts very well and clear. It all seemed very natural.
Young Mi played the role of Varinka perfectly; she was lovely and lively, somewhat mischievous. As for Kevin, he stayed calm and strict, just the way Byelinkov was described. The quarrel was amazingly enjoyable.
As I've mentioned in my previous post, I did not think that Varinka and Byelinkov would work out well with neither their relationship nor their wedding. However, at some point, the acting done by Young Mi and Kevin had me convinced that somehow, some way, this couple might do just fine.
I was so engrossed in watching them acting out the script, that I completely forgot to take at least one picture for the sake of this very post.
So here's a picture of a pretty little rose garden for your own amusement after reading that big chunk of words :D

Thoughts on "The Man in a Case"

I thought this plot is quite amusing. While Varinka seems to be a carefree, lively girl, her fiance Byelinkov is describes to be so stiff, strict and almost emotionless. Most importantly, Varinka is very excited about the wedding and is clearly proud to be married to Byelinkov, whereas Byelinkov himself seems to think of the marriage as something he would have to eventually do in his life, it's like you have to wake up in the morning, have at least three meals throughout the day and then go to bed at night. To me, he seems like that kind of a man; the kind who plan out his day, heck, he plans it out down to the minutes! Then follows it like a programed robot. I'm pretty sure he would go through with the wedding, since it seems to be on his to-do list already, but poor Varinka is going to be miserable in this boring marriage.
On a side note, he reminds me of Harold Crick in the movie Stranger Than Fiction. This guy even takes it to the extreme of brushing "each of his thirty-two teeth seventy-six times. Thirty-eight times back and forth, thirty-eight times up and down" (Stranger Than Fiction).

Anyway, back to Byelinkov. When I read the script at home, I was so confused when I reached the last scene of the play. So, when Varinka and Byelinkov were still talking (somewhat) happily together, he wrote a note that every year on that same day, he would place a lilac in her hair (a way of expressing his teeny tiny little affection he has for her I guess), but after they trifled over the bike and she went off, he ripped the note off, threw it away, then "carefully picks up each piece of paper and places them all in a small envelope" (25, Wasserstein).
And "girls are hard to understand", they say.
After examine Byelinkov's characteristic again, I think the reason why he acted the way he did could be because:
1/ He'd already told Varinka about the lilac thing, and she'd seen him writing it down, which forces him to have to really do it every year, keeping the note just in case he might forgets.
2/ He seems to be a neat freak. He can't stand having pieces of paper all over his pretty little garden. And he just happens to have an envelope to put all the paper pieces in, he might even recycle them later, who knows?!
3/ He ripped the note out of momentarily anger just to soon regretted his action.

Acting out "Trifles"

I'm in a play. Again. For the second time in my life. 

The first time was more than a year ago in high school, for the school's Talont show (yes, that's how it was spelled, probably because our school's mascot was a falcon). I did it with a few friends of mine, and we all did it for fun. We sure did have a great deal of fun preparing, rehearsing and doing it on stage, even though it was preeettty terrible when we looked at it on YouTube a few days later (someone in school manage to film the whole thing and posted it on YouTube).

Now for my English class, I have to play one of the characters in a script called "Trifles", it's sort of a murder mystery, my type of thing, but rather my type of thing to watch with other people acting it, not for me to be in it, and act. Nevertheless, I assure myself "it's going to be one hell of a ride" (Gravity).

Thoughts on "Introduction to Poetry" by Billy collins

I asked them to take a poem 

and hold it up to the light 

like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive

I say drop a mouse into a poem

and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's room

and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski

across the surface of a poem

waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do

is tie the poem to a chair with a rope

and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose 

to find out what it really means.

Billy Collins

When I first saw the assignment of reading 5 poems on the class agenda, I was horrified. I've always hated anything that is related to poem in general, because when I think of poems, I automatically think of an analysis essay that would come along with the poem.

But then I started reading, and I was so excited about this particular poem. It was almost a euphoric sense of revenge through this poem!

 I don't know what they do in school with poems in the States, but in Vietnam, back in my years being in middle school, poem was a form of torture. We would read a poem from a text book, and have the whole period of lecture on the "meaning" between those stanzas. The teachers would try to open up a few ideas, then have us students discussing about what the author wanted to say, the deep meaning he/she hid in that poem. Or in another way of saying it, to the teachers, the poems were written using all sort of metaphors, and we need to get decode them. I mean, really?! What if the author was just simply describing his/her moods, or some normal objects? And all the sophisticated meaning were just the something that teachers themselves come up with? Moreover, some of the poems were written hundreds of years ago, how are us twelve year-olds supposed to get the meaning out of them?

So in short, this poem is awesome.

Maus: A Survivor's Tale and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

I thought Helen's presentation on Maus was very engrossing. I've always been very interested in World War II and anything that relates to the Nazi. What the Nazi did was gruesome and unhumane, but what can I say, anything that is violent or involves fights, murders, etc. always catches our generation's attention. I mean, have you seen Hansel and Gretel? It's a bit creepy, given that 2 siblings were abandoned in a forest and ended up going in a witch's house then killed the witch, but still, it's used to be bedtime story for kids. Now they've made it into an action movie with blood, guns, knives, and more guns.
Ok, back to Maus. It's kind of cool to have this period of time depicted in form of comic, where the Nazis are portraited as cats, the Jewish as mices. The drawing itself is fantastic.

And what's important is, it reminds me of this movie that I've seen a few years back, called "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas".

It is mainly about the friendship of 2 little boys, Bruno who is the son of a commandant at a concentration camp, and Shmuel who is a Jewish boy in that concentrated camp. So long story short, they become friends after Bruno sees Shmuel at the fence of the camp, as he's overjoyed knowing there's the present of another boy who is around his age.

At the end of the movie, Bruno crosses the fence of the camp, changes his clothes into a set of striped pajamas as that of Shmuel, and goes into the camp with Shmuel.

They get mixed up with a large group of grown ups, and ends up in a gas chamber (where, as I remember, Bruno thinks they're getting a shower). It ends with Bruno's parents crying outside the chamber in the rain, holding his clothes.

Here's te trailer of the movie.

Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return

In Persepolis 1, it ends with Marjane departing at the airport for Vienna, leaving her parents behind. Persepolis 2 continues her journey when she is at Vienna. According to the plan, she will be living with her mother's friend, Zozo, however, as Zozo's life has gotten worse than it used to in Iran, now that she's working as a hair dresser while her husband is unemployed (whom used to be a CEO), Marjane's present is not very welcomed. As unexpected it is to Marjane, Zozo arranges for her to be at a boarding school, run by nuns, just 10 days after her arrival in Vienna.
Then, she attends school, where she found herself friendless and an complete outsider, since she arrives in the middle of the trimester, groups of friends have already formed.
 After a while, she did make some friends, who were fascinated by the idea that "she's been through war".

 Soon, she reaches puberty, and experiences many physical and psychological changes. In addition, being in Austria, she also faces many vast differences in term of cultural and traditional beliefs.

She turns into a punk, which is not allowed in Iran.

                  She smokes.

She sees and knows about  things that are considered completely outrageous in her country.

She soon finds herself in her first relationship.
Then the second.
After 4 years of struggle in Austria, and occasionally mistreated in term of ethnicity. Marjane goes back to where her heart most longs for, Iran, home where the loved ones are. There, she continues her journey as she grows.














Connection with Persepolis 1:
This book goes deeper in the cultural and traditional values that Marjane has learned at home before leaving for Vienna as depicted in Persepolis 1. It shows her perspective as a more matured Marjane now thinking and applying all these traditions into her new life. The lifestyle in Austria though gives her total freedom to be herself, at the same time makes her question her real identity, and whether or not to keep her cultural values and beliefs that she once stood for.

R.I.P Uncle Anoosh

Appears in 2 stories in Persepolis 2, "Moscow", and "The Sheep", Anoosh is one of Marjane's dad's brothers. Out of all 5 uncles that Marjane has, Anoosh is the only one that she has never met, until his return from Russia.
Always fascinated by the idea of a hero whom has been in prison, Marjane is overjoyed when she learns that her uncle Anoosh had been in jail for 9 years.
Telling it as bedtime story, Anoosh begins the story of his life starting when he was 18 and leaving his parents to be with his uncle, Fereydoon, who self proclaimed to be the minister of a new republic. Fereydoon was soon arrested, and Anoosh was on the run since. He finally went to Moscow, became a student, got his doctorate, even got married and had 2 children. Insinuating that his wife separated him from his children, he attempted to get home by disguising himself in order to pass the airport. However, he was recognized and arrested. Then goes 9 years of being imprisoned. 

uncle Anoosh gives Marjane a swan he made from bead when he was in prison

Soon after the reunion with his family, Anoosh is arrested again.
In prison, Anoosh was granted 1 visit, and he wished to see little Marjane. In this visit, he gives her a second bead swan, "it's the uncle of the first one", he tells her.


















 That's the last time Marjane ever sees her beloved uncle; he was executed soon after, as a Russian spy.

I too, had an uncle who was imprisoned for years, it was not because he was accused a communist like Anoosh was, it was the communists he was against and it was them who arrested him.This happened way before I was born. When I was born, he was already released. As I remember, he did not look very healthy, always had a gloomy expression on his face, and rarely went out of his room. It was a dark room, with a heavy smell of alcohol and cigarette smoke.
However, I enjoyed being around him. His face lightened up a bit when he saw me though. He would always buy me candies and told me stories of when he was young and ambitious, or we would make car models out of his cigarette boxes.
One chilly winter day when I was with mom at home, we had a phone call. She bursted into tears, put on a jacket, put me in a jacket, and we headed to my uncle's house. He passed away that very day. I was nine.