dumb-founded

 So there's been little going on lately, hence the lack of posts. Well, yesterday we had a Curry Party (capitals seems appropriate), which essentially means people bring ingredients to a place where you cook - five guesses what - curry. Turned out very yummy indeed and was the first 'proper' meal I've had so far here. Can't really call my own cooking proper without deviating somewhat (read: a lot) from the truth. A further admittance in accordance with this statement is my recent discovery of instant noodles. You shove in a portion of noodles and the spice into a pot of boiling water, wait for 2 minutes and it's done. How can that not be a win-win situation?

Right, curry, curry. It turned out well, as mentioned, and had a rather pleasing aesthetic aspect of it as well, especially if you compare to the IKEA curry from last week. And I helped. I stirred. And stirred. And chopped. In other words, my terrible cooking (un)skills were not terrible enough to ruin 8 people's work. That's always something to be proud of. Gotta hold on to the little things...

Curry Party Lounge Bonanza

Found this in the lounge. Is it Windsor, as in my Windsor?

Also started the reading for Japanese Cinema today (and watched the film). Now, I've always maintained the strong opinion that I do not like old films, and especially not black and white (unless they're Swedish 'pilsnerfilm' (there's no translation, youtube it!) which is just hilarious) and what do I get landed with? A Japanese film from 1966, very much monochrome in appearance. It's called The Face of Another if you'd like to check it out. I can only blame myself of course for taking the Japanese Cinema FROM THE 1960S. Hrm. Anyway. Turned out the film wasn't too bad. Interesting theme of identity and quite well-developed plot.

But the reading. The reading. After a couple of lines I felt insulted. Or rather, my intelligence felt insulted. Allow me to quote:

"Mise-en-scene [like setting, lighting, costume etc - my addition] usually involves some planning, but the filmmaker may be open to unplanned events as well."

"Viewers expect that female performers will wear lipstick and other cosmetics, but the male actors are often wearing make-up, too."

Now please allow me laugh, or snort, whichever is more appropriate. Gosh. This year will make me dumb (-er). Let's hope the discussion in class takes it up a level. I'll be honest here as well with one thing: this was the basic reading, and the other texts have shown a little more sophistication and suitability to our age.

Sunday offers a little more reading, some writing and a lot of Japanese learning. Sort of know all the Katakana characters, but need to be 100% sure of them and a few are sneaky little tricksies. To be continued...

Jo x