11/3/10

Several Things of Note, brevemente

1. Last week was SexFest, or the First Annual Festival of Sexual and Reproductive Rights with la Casa de Panchita. Since May, we've been working with a group of about 25 young people to use Forum theatre and improvisation to talk about sex. The project was cool; the students were awesome; their pieces were funny, smart, and honest. But the event was a bit of a mess: the microphones malfunctioned, we started way late and wasted a lot of time battling with the mics, and the attendees were, at times, a bit out of control. Balloons, it turns out, are a lot more fun to pop than to admire from a distance, especially when it becomes clear that your teachers and those stupid extranjera volunteers in the funny vests aren't going to stop you (in my defense: I was busy working with my actors and couldn't do classroom management for 200 at the same time). It was disheartening.

But. BUT. There were still some major victories among my students: many of them had never acted before, and they did a great job. And they were speaking out about really important stuff-- contraception, abortion, consent. That was awesome. I was so, so proud of all of them.

2. I'm applying to grad school. It's not as easy as it looks.

3. I'm concerned that our Peruvian Perro sin Pelo may have brought fleas into the house, which seems counterintuitive since he doesn't have any hair. Nonetheless, something's been nibbling on me. Don't worry-- this isn't like the Great Bed Bug Panic of 2009-- but it IS disconcerting. Today I finally got up the nerve to clean under my bed. I found no bugs, just an alarming amount of dust and maybe some mold. Eurgh.

4. Rehearsals for the performance with Lili and Coqui are going well. We still need a title. More to come on that.

5. Talked to my little brother today, which was great! Gosh, I like him.

6. Elections last night deserve a comment. That comment is this: Obama et al, don't spend two years ignoring and mocking progressive voices and then blame us when the Democrats lose (check out Glenn Greenwald's comments about this here). And also, Russ Feingold, you will be missed.

7. On Monday, my housemate Erick took Rachel and me to the cemetery in Comas for Dia de los Muertos, or Dia de los Vivos, depending on who you talk to about the name. It was incredible. I don't have pictures because I decided to leave my camera at home, but I'll publish Erick's video when he finishes editing it. Stay tuned.

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