In which two of the mysteries of Essex are revealed.

I meant to post this a few hours ago. Seriously. I keep forgetting what I'm doing.

Today was my two-lectures-in-a-row day. Myth class was entertaining as usual. At the end of class we watched scenes from an Italian opera, Le Orfeo I believe, or possibly La. It was interesting because the producers found the stage directions and machinery from the original production, way back in the 1500s or something, and they reproduced it exactly. Even the orchestra was wearing period dress (if you just thought "Even the orchestra... is beautiful", props to you. Hee. Props. And I'm talking about theatre. Ok, sorry, back to your regularly scheduled blog.). Anyway, they really do pick the actors based on voice. My goodness. Orpheus was... pudgy. Not overweight, just... soft. Ah well. It was pretty neat anyway. And in the first scene, they are celebrating the marriage of Orpheus and Eurydice, and the two actors walk on stage, and they're holding hands, but they just look... wooden. And miserable. Yeah, good voices though.

Anyway, the next lecture was the one for which I had stayed up reading Mrs. Dalloway last night. The lecturer though, simply gave us a biography of Virginia Woolf and did not talk about Mrs. Dalloway at all. At the end of lecture we watched the beginning of the movie Mrs Dalloway, which I felt utterly failed to capture the essence of the book, but then, it was only the first ten minutes.

After lecture, I was very tired, so I grabbed a stuffed croissant on the way back to the room and ate it on the way so that I could nap immediately upon returning. I also didn't want to face the kitchen just yet. After a rather ambiguous nap, I got up, did some reading, some writing, and then remembered that I probably had actual school work to do. I picked up Life: A User's Manual and began wading through it. It's quite an entertaining book, in fact, but very very long and the rest of the class read it last semester. I am just trying to catch up.

After, and meanwhile, I had a rather amusing chat with Emily about D&D, among other things, and this is where I stand now.

Oh, also, I have discovered, I believe, why everyone calls Chris "Manbeast". His last name is Manby. That explains so much. I don't think there was ever a guy who the word "manbeast" described less. Chris is a very polite, softspoken, stuttering politics major who writes fantasy on the side... manbeast indeed.

Also cleared up is the mysterious "Ents" sign, reproduced here for those of you who do not recall:


It is apparantly short for "Entertainment". A little anticlimactic, I thought, and certainly depressing for there are no advertisements for entertainment adorning this wall, though the sign itself certainly entertained me for a while...

Anyway, I shall now continue reading my user's manual. Tomorrow is fat Tuesday! eat a donut for me : )