Overall this has been a pleasant week.

My PoCo (postcolonial) lit class with Arnab has been excellent this week. Not only are we reading one of my favorite books, A Passage to India, but the class has under 15 people in it, most of whom are rather engaging and insightful. Class discussion has been invigorating -- it's a great way to end the academic day. For the most part I like Arnab. I think he's a funny guy and he certainly knows what he's talking about. He can, however, be awkward at points (e.g. starting discussion with that most hated of questions: "So, what did you guys do with/think about the reading?"). Also, considering that until this term he's only taught 100- and 200-level courses, I think he's still getting adjusted to teaching a class that actually gives a shit about literature. He also focuses more attention on formal/structural elements than I generally like, often providing pat readings which, by his own admission, don't really work. As was the case with Kipling, however, we didn't have enough time to really break those readings down to my -- and I think others' -- satisfaction.

French has been sort of meh. I was fine reading "La Belle et la Bête," but reading "La Légende du pain" has been sort of annoying. To be fair, my annoyance primarily derived the fact that I had to give a group presentation Wednesday on the author, Michel Tournier, with a less-than-inspiring group. As usual, I ended up making the powerpoint myself, which was more time-consuming than I had hoped. The presentation went fine, though.

Hopkins today went pretty well. We discussed some of his early poems, in particular "Spring and Death," "For a Picture of St. Dorothea," and (my pick and personal favorite for the day) "Easter Communion." Since our independent study has become semi-focussed on the musicality of Hopkins (and thus an exploration of how composers have sought to capture his poetics through musical setting), we also listened to settings of "Heaven-Haven" by Barber and Britten.

Semaphore has, as usual, also been great. Sarah's piece is getting better, though we still have a ways to go as far as intensity is concerned. Since the piece is a lot of contact improvisation, however, that means more that just drilling set movement. But it will get there soon enough (and Katie and I have been invited to perform in the piece with another cast at the Ritz in Minneapolis, which is pretty cool; I hope it all works out). Wynn's new piece, "Unquiet Grave," is also getting better. It's far more energetic than her first piece for us, "Floating World." Whereas the latter piece was difficult because of how grounded you have to be to perform it well, the new piece demands a lot of attention to details. I moves very quickly and fluidly, and it will look like we're flailing unless we get every detail as crisp as possible. It makes for intense rehearsals, but it'll be 100% worth it. We just started working on a new piece tonight, choreographed by Liz Tan. It'll involve video projection, and it is going to be awesome, with multiple realities and shit. Shweet.

Other than that not much to add. I've been studying in the GSC all week. I made a new friend -- Hubert -- who works in the adjacent Office of Multicultural (or is it Intercultural?) Life. We had a nice discussion about poetry (Milton, Hopkins, some Latin American wonders). I also had a really nice conversation with Justin Smith. Whenever I talk to him I remember how cool he is.

Now I've got to fill out an application and go to bed, so I can wake up at 4:30 and have someone teach me how to do my radio show. I'm excited.

Oh yes, and props to Saira who is awesome and had a birthday and to whom I promise to write an extended email/letter thanking her profusely for her lovely mix and thoughts.