Wringing the towel

God Bless: Much love from the Big Guy to you, Elaine, for feeding the hungry. You Mother Teresa, you.
Feeling: running on low

Shameless Plug:

THEATRE RICE!

all-you-can-eat comedy/improv/drama

*we are not serving food*

April 28-30, 7 pm in 155 Dwinelle

$2-5 pay what you can (proceeds go to charity)

http://www.theatrerice.com

Alright. So i might not have much to write about, but there's no way i'm throwing in the towel until i'm done wringing it.

Let's see. Whew! What a weekend. PCN went down on Saturday, dedicated to the rising (up, if you will...see what i did there? PCN went down and then i said rising u...nevermind) of the I-Hotel. Can i share a secret? i was holding up the set-piece for the I-Hotel in the last skit, and let me tell ya, i was a little afraid the I-Hotel would fall down again :-/ i'm a wimp.

Anyways, i didn't realize until last year that PCN's occurred at college campuses across the country. ("Where there are Filipinos, there you will find PCN"). i was a little critical of the PCN we had at Berkeley this year because the content was a esoteric and lacked cohesion. If you weren't Filipino, there was a good chance you wouldn't have understood the show. Exhibit A: After-show testimonials from my non-pinoy buds:

"So, why was (insert name of skit) funny?"

"Um, the dances were cool. What's muta?"

and, my favorite

"Huh?"

And that's wrong. What i like about culture nights is that they provide an opportunity for an ethnic community to extend to the greater public an invitation to celebrate their culture and struggles and achievements and existence. If people walked out scratching their heads, then i don't think we accomplished anything. Don't get me wrong, i'm sure our parents loved it. But PCN ain't no talent show for Mommy and Daddy. It was supposed to be a chance to show the greater community what we're about. Shrug.

Janet Stickmon:

i was standing sideways holding my copy of Crushing Soft Rubies upside-down during a PCN rehearsal, and one of the guys told me that the picture on the cover looked like me. HA. So apparently, from the side i look like an upside-down, hapa, African-American, Filipino....woman.

Right.

Regardless, i was just a little star-struck when Ms. Stickmon came to visit our class. Gosh, when author's come in and read their work it's like concerts and compact discs (because i don't download music, ha, of COURSE i don't download)--music is always better live. Not that my opinion matters--in general and as a rule of thumb--but i was impressed by how nonchalant, or i mean to say how casually she can speak about her life. i was impressed by how willing she was to share her story, especially because my parents taught me to swallow my troubles.

Obviously, there's nothing that can or should be said about Soft Rubies in terms of literary analysis, but i suppose if there's anything to be said of Ms. Stickmon's autobiography it is that it is an exercise in humanity. And that's fine by me--i've been needing to stretch out my sympathy.

ummmmm how to fill in space how to fill in space

i'm excited about watching The Debut in class.

Alright, i'm spent.