It continues...

But if only the linguistics class held up! It’s gotten immensely repetitive and uneventful, but I suppose it’s been worth it. If anything, it’s because of those moments in celebration of learning I described earlier. And we’ve been drilling roots, which is helpful, albeit mildly mind-numbing. It’s definitely one of those things that you know you know, but don’t actually know, you know? So that’s a positive. Plus, I’ve been watching Ken Burns’ Civil War documentary during the labourious process of making the flash cards, and that’s always exciting.

While re-watching the Civil War for the eighty-trillionth time, I’ve definitely decided that my new obsession is colloquialisms coined by Johnny Reb and Billy Yank. And hey! What the heck?! Stonewall Jackson’s dying words! “Order A.P. Hill to prepare for action! Pass the infantry to the front rapidly! Tell Major Hawks! … Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees.” I can only hope to be as awesome one day.

But I don’t think that obsession has overshadowed my current fixation with Baroque music. I’ve been listening to Bach, like, non-stop. I’ve got so much love! Plus, it makes everything so much grander! Like the dining hall or taking care of laundry… Every activity becomes a plus six. I mean, Wagner can typically do the trick of making mundane tasks epic, but I think it’s just that I’ve been especially into Baroque culture of late... Way more than usual. Maybe it’s because of taking all this Italian, or maybe it’s reading Apollo’s Angels, I’m not sure. (And if you haven’t read or even looked at Apollo’s Angels yet, you’re missing out! It’s a new history of ballet, and is so gripping and well written. I’m SUCH a fan. It has so many hilarious anecdotes, too. I highly recommend it.) What other obsessions have you found particularly gripping recently?

A Taste of Winter Quarter

So here’s a new post! Mainly because this linguistics homework is really ridiculous and super tedious, aaannnd I just haven’t added much in a million years. I started working on another project here at school that wound up being pretty similar to this blog, and most of the pieces I produced just never wound up making here. But moving on… I suppose academic updates? Fascinating, right? Actually, totally.

I really lucked out with classes. I'm taking Elementary Italian 2, which is continuing the first class I took last quarter. I have a much better TA this quarter, though, thankfully. I'm also taking Structure of English Words, which so far has been awesome. We've got this old, Bulgarian woman as our teacher who's just so excited to be there talking about the subject matter. I've found the past few lectures to be, well, almost spiritual occurrences, if you will, as I get so in the zone that my appearance doesn't matter, where I am- who I'm around doesn't matter... All I'm concerned with is the material on this intense intellectual, academic level that it's like an out-of-body experience. Extremely refreshing. We'll see how it holds up. And I'm taking Philosophy of Language, which has been incredibly interesting. We're spending the quarter on one paragraph of one of Frege's essays, and our professor learned from one of Frege's students, so we're like Frege's grandstudents. How adorable. It's a super crazy class, though, just in that it's so in depth (It’s week eight, and we’ve gone over four paragraphs of “On Sense and Nominatum.”) and the professor is so top-notch. Not to mention, he's the oldest professor in the department, and is a total riot. (Oh! And not to mention he also used to be a magician! But more on that later.)

More Magic

Magic updates! Hey! Well, I just performed at the DVD release gala for the new documentary of deaf entertainers, See What I’m Saying, which Universal just took on. So the show was at Universal Studios, Hollywood, in the Globe Theatre (right by the Terminator 3D attraction), and it was a royal blast! I’ve worked within the deaf community previously with the GLAD Association, and it was an honour to be back. Working with the amazing and talented people who were part of this film was inspiring and a lot of fun. I hope you’re able to watch the film at some point, or at least take a peak at the trailer. And working at Universal was just surreal! We had to go through the “backstage” of the park in order to get to the theatre for tech rehearsal, and it was bizarre seeing costumed characters wandering around without their heads on, or Marilyn and Frankenstein’s monster on a coffee break together. On the day of the show, we had to enter through the loading dock, but got in the wrong elevator… Instead of going into the theatre, we went into the monster house! Super trippy. It’s four layers, which I didn’t realize, so every time we’d press a button hoping to get off, we’d just be on another layer of creepy set pieces and screaming teenage girls. Eventually, we found the right spot, but that’s just a taste of the experience.

Make Believe! Let’s talk about that! Super exciting. First of all, we have the first official public screening this Monday at the World Magic Seminar, after which there will be a director/producer/stars Q&A. (I’m flying out to Vegas on Sunday to participate, and am really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, I have to fly home immediately afterward for a linguistics quiz. Blehh.) Aallso, the film has been picked up by Showtime! It’ll premiere on April 12^th. Here’s the official release about it, and here’s a piece with a bit more detail. After that, probably around Spring or Summer, there will be a theatrical release, as well, but I’ll have to let you know more about that once I know more about it. ;)

In the meantime, I’ve been working on some new pieces, especially through various local open mic nights and campus events. They’ve provided a great environment for me to practice and showcase consistently, beyond when I’m performing at formal gigs. I’ve been having a ball! Again, I’ll keep you updated with such things as they come up. I will add, though, that I’m really pumped for Future Stars this year!

Valentine's Day Tomorrow

Valentine’s Day is the main socially acceptable day every year to openly express admiration for others, romantically or otherwise. You don’t need to be “in a relationship” to share the fact that you feel someone is a significant part of your life. It’s important to relay how someone is meaningful to you. And meaningful or significant doesn’t have to mean earth shattering, just something you appreciate or respect, you know? I guess the bottom line is that Valentine’s Day provides a wonderful excuse to convey such sentiments, so do let’s!

KLOnline?

Yes, she is... Mainly with press from her documentary "Make Believe," take a look... We've got...

The LA Times article...

Variety's review...

A Malibu Times article...

Highlights from the opening night Q&A...

And more to follow...

Future Stars '10

KLOnline

And to answer your question, Mark... What’s new with muh Internet life?

1. Not much. See previous post, i.e., where has the time gone?

2. But with what time I have had, this has been my new life soundtrack. (Seriously, click on the link.) I think my suitemates want to kill me, but it’s so fabulous.

3. Oh, what? A new TeamKrystyn upload?! Finally.

4. Aaand a new article! Chickity-check it out, yo!

What's new?

A truckload. This quarter at UCLA has been quite the... Well, my classes have been such the chore. Not much academically has been at all creative, but rather just a lot of work, which hasn’t allowed much time for creativity even outside of school. (Not even with internet nonsense: no blogs, no videos, few facebook dot com updates, and I've hardly remembered to tweet. (Ha.)) It’s driving me sane. I mean, I’ve been working on the ResReport, which is the UCLA television news program. (You can watch those episodes here, if you’d like.) And that's been super fun, but not exactly oozing with imagination. However, a couple of us have been developing a scripted comedy talk show that may be in production next quarter, so that’s pretty sweet. We’ll see what happens.

Magically, I’ve been working on a new rope routine as well as a new version of my flying ring routine. Both of these have been keeping me plenty busy, although it’s fairly difficult to balance school with magic. I’m finding this to be particularly frustrating, but what is there to do? I know a few people who aren’t attending college in order to focus on magic, but so much of why I’m involved with magic is because of its emphasis on intellect. Without continuing school I feel like I’d be depriving myself of that sort of development, which I just couldn’t stand. Thus here I am, and loving (just about) every minute of it. (:

Flying Rings

"Check Her Out"

When I founded this blog, I received a number of requests for video blogs. When school picked up, and I started blogging less, I received even more requests for video blogs. So I decided, why not? And thus YouTube.com/TeamKrystyn was born.

On this page I, along with other members of the team, will post various video blogs, videos we've taken that you might find interesting, and probably some magic clips.

I think I'm also creating this as a sort of response to all of the Krystyn videos that have already been posted on YouTube. I'm amused by how much has been uploaded, but at times somewhat embarrassed, because not everything up there is what I would have selected.

Though you know, those videos remind me of where I used to be. It's all part of the learning process, and I'm growing so quickly that what's satisfying to me one day may not be the next. But I'm doing what I love, expanding my horizons, and having a blast. Awww!

By the way, how thrilling is this?

Unfinished Business

I mentioned that I would blog again once I finished my Spinoza reading, and now here I am well over a month later blogging. To be honest, I lied. I'm still not finished with my Spinoza reading. I'm taking the History of Modern Thought and Introduction to Philosophy of Mind, and he just keeps popping up.

Next quarter I'll be taking another version of the History of Modern Thought, this time focusing on modernism, Logic I, and probably a linguistics course. I wonder if Bento will decide to show up again. We'll see.

Regardless, as you may have guessed a lot has happened in the last month... It's college, where more can happen in one day than can happen in three weeks otherwise. Attending UCLA has been the largest emotional roller coaster I've ridden in my life. It's amazing.

When I first moved to school I expected to be surrounded by a bunch of trained test takers who had sold their souls to the SAT. At first it felt like those were the only sort of people I met, and I was a little concerned. "Ah! Where is the zest? Where is the gusto?! Air! Please, I need air!" However, with a school that large statistically you're bound to find a wider variety of students. And I have. It's wonderful. We write songs about having affairs with Descartes, we build cardboard box forts, we spend evenings dancing through campus singing Disney songs, and the list continues. UCLA is an ideal home for me. It seems as though everything is there, and this paragraph really can't do it justice.

Academically, it's delicious, and I can't get enough. My professors are truly top in their fields, and most every class serves a savory plate of... Oh gosh. Can you spell trite? OK, so school's phenomenal. I feel like this post hardly scratches the surface, but maybe that's alright. I mean, I also feel like my experiences at UCLA are so fresh, beautiful, and particular to me... I'm still in the process of reveling in them. I'm still cherishing them, and I think I'm not quite ready to share. When I am, I'll let you know, but in the meantime, perhaps these simplistic posts will have to suffice.

High School Death and Taxes

Musing about college and social interactions, another interesting thing is that what I was scorned for in high school is often what I'm praised for in college. Thank goodness I never have to go through that again! Being passionate, energetic, successful with my career, academic, and you know, just a little quirky (just a little bit) have made me quite likable where I am now, as opposed to being the fuel for nasty glares, rude remarks, and being seen as generally "uncool."

To those of you still in high school, hang in there, and don't compromise who you are, besides what’s necessary for mere survival, obviously. It’s just not worth it. You know, we're all a little mad here. You have to find the right human companions, and they are out there.

It seems as though most people in high school are so busy being concerned about what other people are thinking about them, that no one has time to actually think about anyone else but themselves. I mean, sure, you might not be "cool" or people may still look at you strangely, but no one truly cares. Besides, chances are those kids who are "cool" or give you those weird looks are pretty envious of the fact that you're okay with being atypical.

And when it's over, it's over. Seriously, no worries. Writing this I can’t help but recall Idle's "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life." He's right. Just remember, you are going to get through it, and once you do, forget those social restraints. When you move on, they’re not applicable anymore. You’re free.

Since August...

Since August quite a bit has happened. I went to UCLA orientation (August), attended MAGIC Live!, which was awesome (August), had another stomach issue (September), fretted about school (September/August), and finally moved into my "new home". You can see photos of this on my facebook dot com profile. Hurray!

Also since August I've been having these exciting allergic episodes. Well, these have been a part of my life since it began, but around May/June it started to get worse as I had a change of allergy medication. I'm allergic to dust, pollen, dogs, mold, cheese, pine, you name it. I can go to a different city where something else is bound to be in bloom to make me sniffle, sneeze, or rash, which is often quite entertaining to those around me. So, off and on I'd have a couple of days where my hearing would dull or vanish altogether, but in August (thus this story being included in this post) things continued to slip downward at remarkable speed. My throat was irritated, and soon my Eustachian tubes were fully inflamed. My immune system is my hero, but sometimes my body tries too hard to fix my problems, damaging other aspects of my life. This time it decided to close my ear canals in order to protect my tubing. During this process, however, in my left ear water became lodged behind the wax build-up. This resulted not only in the complete blockage of hearing, unlike the mere softening of sounds in my right, and additionally in massive infection. All sorts of procedures were performed in order to unclog my ears and disinfect, all of which were very painful: fluid flushed in, peeling skin ripped out (seriously), drops, nose sprays, and tablets... In short, I'm back on allergy meds.

Now, here I am at jolly UCLA, which maintains its own host of stories, (many of which will be relayed here as soon as I'm done with my Spinoza reading,) and I'm living in what looks like a log cabin and is, in fact, surrounded by pine. Leaf blowers and lawn mowers have been ever-present, and my system most certainly has been feeling the consequences, especially today and yesterday. Though really, that's one of the only negatives thus far. I'd say that's pretty darn good.

Summer Rains

Sunday morning I woke up at 7:55am in New Jersey to rain beating horizontally across the hotel room window. It looked like a blizzard. 'Maybe my eyes are fuzzy,' I began to think to myself, but when I heard the rain I knew otherwise. It was like an old black and white film with the rain so intense and out of proportion to other sounds in the scene it seems fake. Seriously, it went there... For 37 minutes. Finally the storm lessened so then it only sounded like the Marine Corps was pelting the window with peanuts. 'How can rain fall horizontally?' I was still working through my waking experience.

Soon enough the lights began to fade in and out. The power generator was surging, setting off the fire alarm. 'Whatev's, I still have to fix my belt.' There was pounding on the door, and a young girl's voice came through, "Peoples! This is an alarm! You need to leave! Peoples..." She went calling down the hall. The hotel was being evacuated. I've never had that happen before. There were five fire trucks outside by the time we made it out. 'It's only a generator surge...'

So we head off to the airport, at least the rain had dissipated. To make a longer story short, our flight was delayed and eventually cancelled. We were on the waiting lists for all of the following flights, and there was a good chance of getting one owing to all of the other flights unable to get into Philly. I set up camp by a window, which was fascinating. You know how weather channels show cloud patters as they move over the land, well, that's how the ground outside looked... White masses circulating around like swirling soap in a bathtub. My goodness.

Hours went by, but we made it on the next flight, which was only delayed an hour, and made it to Greensboro, North Carolina, later that night. It hasn't rained an inch.

Summer Travels

Hey, so (many of my posts begin with "so") I just uploaded some Summer travel photos onto my facebook dot com page, and here's an addition that I neglected: