Dolce and Anna Aveo Campaign Video

My friend Dolce spent the past week living in a car with her friend Anna in front of the Topping Student Center, for the Chevy Aveo Livin' Large Competition. They won! and are donating the cash value of the car to an organizations in Ghana and Armenia! It really felt like a community effort, thanks to the facebook support groups, repeated emails from mutual friends reminding people to vote, the chatter and actually checking in on the car between classes.

swinging good time

My last weekend was completely invested in the KMBR 1430 Concert. USC Tcdance was invited to perform as backup dancers for the show, which included 8 singers and djs, 70 plus songs and acts, and audience of 1000. We pulled together a performance in less than a week! I was surprised to recognize a bunch of songs. Thanks ma for rasing me on Michael Jackson and Chinese pop of the 80s.

Tcdance's next performance is an outdoor show at Troy Hall's Diversity Dance and Art Show this Thursday. The show is our new dancer's debut performance on campus!

On Culture

I've been working as an undergraduate student consultant for the American Language Institute on campus for a couple months now. My job involves working with international teaching assistants enrolled in the oral skills class with their teaching, English language skills, and also easing the adjustment to the university/ the U.S. My ITAs this semester are form China, S. Korea, and Turkey.

Part of the job requirement is the culture aspect. But how exactly do you teach/learn culture? What is American culture? I've been using an "I enjoy this...do you?" approach and in turn my ITAs have shared what they like to do and parts of their lives with me. So far we've watched movies and performances, shared meals, gone shopping, visited community centers and listened to music. We've also been engaging in much conversation about topics ranging from affirmative action, the education system, interracial dating, sororities and frats to religion and health. While pronunciation and grammar exercises are straight forward ( I sometimes feel like I'm channeling Henry Higgins), culture is implicit and relative.

Related Article: Unclear on American Campus -NYT
Is there a similar expectation for foreign teachers to adapt to the native language in other countries? Since English is so widely used, do English speakers naturally expect others to cater towards them?

Diavolo Dance Theatre

Program Board performing arts committee brought Diavolo Dance Theatre onto campus this Monday night for an amazing performance. They did crazy stuff... scaled walls, danced on and leapt off of moving arcs. The show reminded me much of Cirque de Soleil, I later learned that Jacques Heim (whose name I can finally spell correctly after much practice while making posters) had choreographed for "Ka."

It was great to see Bovard packed. The committee had tried to target students that wouldn't normally attend a performing arts event by making announcements to the large GE classes in all fields and working with ResEd instead of limiting our audience to theatre/artkids and dance emphasis students.

email from arthur

Alex,

Just FYI, it is your mom's birthday today. You might want to call her later...

Later Alex!
a

Haha, I heart my family

Parent's Weekend Performance

In Argue Plaza, in front of a heat tray of stuffed mushrooms. I guess I have an affinity of sorts for bird dances. First there was the bluebird, then the flamingo, and now the peacock.

#214, my room

a)cut up MFA 2005 catalog b)vanity c) slide of HK freeway on reading lamp d)asian babar

Quote of the Day

"Generally, women can't do this, but men retain the ancient ability to leave a family and a past. They just unhook themselves, like remvoing a fake beard, and skulk discreetly back into society, changed men. Unrecognizable...He was in a maybe this, maybe that kind of mood." -Zadie Smith, White Teeth

I think I want that kind of freedom.

school starts!

i've recently made my way back to usc for the start of school. it has been fun, yet hectic settling into student life once again. but before i get too far into the school year, here are some pictures from this summer and from my trip to china.

Michael E

While I was in Canton, I got the chance to have dinner and catch up with my childhood friend Michael E. He recently graduated from college and is now a freelance illustrator for children's books and various publications. We talked about the hot spots in Canton, design, and recent travels. It's funny how we still have so much in common.

Tour de Chine

I start my two week trip around China tomorrow morning. I'll be visiting Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Canton and Hong Kong. I'll also be visiting three or so villages outside the Canton region. I look forward to spending time in my great grandmother's hometown. While I have been to five of the six cities before, plenty will be unfamiliar. Everytime I visit China, I notice shifts in my world view. My first trip to China was when I was five. The great thing about traveling as a kid is that you're free to roam around and notice the slight differences in culture because you're interacting with local kids (how other people play, that kids in villages hide corn in the ground to snack on later, and that it's not ok to free the ducks into the pond).

I also look forward to seeing most tourist sights in Beijing for the first time. I missed the sight seeing portion of the CAIS summer study program at the Beijing Opera School while I was in China in 2001 because I returned to San Francisco for 48 hours in the middle of the trip to perform in a production of Sleeping Beauty (I was only part of the corps, but had committed to the production months before). Forbidden city here I come!

Visions and voices

This year kicks off USC's Visions and Voices Arts and Humanities Initiative. The year long programming schedule looks impressive. I'm glad that the initiative is in place because the humanities and arts are often overshadowed by research and science oriented departments who recieve significant funding. While there have never been a shortage of arts programs, it'll be nice having another resource and a general presence on campus. I'm interested in seeing how student attendance will fare.

hello marina

from sunday july 23, 2006

lets get down to business

I struck a deal! I spent today meeting with and touring potential sponsors for CAIS' Autumn Moon Family Festival. Ten Ren Tea decided to be a sponsor and donate 500 cups of bubble tea to the event! I got ben and jerry's for lunch.

Tomorrow is my last day of work. It's been fun catching up with old acquaintances and seeing how the school has grown. A very brief reflection on my time in the office. I've taken away:

1. that i should build on business related and more conversational terminology in mandarin. The language used at the functional level is so different from the language used in a classroom, or say to analyze literature. (On a seperate note, I hear that cais is switching from zhuyin to pinyin for the lower school because parents are better able to relate to the roman letterization and assist if there are homeowrk woes. i know my bias, but i've always felt that zhu yin produces more accurate pronounciation, and prevents english from being the dominant language when you're learning as a kid. )
2. In terms of design, i want to know a lot more about outputting. i also realize design and studio art come from different places for me, and for now, i still enjoy the latter much more.
3. Ethics and art should be discussed even in beginning/intermediate level design courses, not only in visual literacy class.
4. As a student at cais, i wasn't aware of how much the teachers and administration are invested in outreach, university panels, and diplomacy aside from teaching and running the school.
5. It's nice working surrounded by people who sing beautifully

first garage sale

i'm a sentimental person, some say i feel too much. i keep a journal, have a hatbox of cards and letters i've recieved, have had a long lived fascination with hand me down clothes, and have a tendency to be a packrack. i spent the past week cleaning out my room in preparation for my family's garage sale. it was difficult seperating the crap i want to hold on to oh-so badly for nostalgic purposes from what i really need. i ended up sticking to the rule of getting rid of whatever shoes and clothes i haven't worn for the past year, items still in their original packaging and any electrical appliance not plugged into the wall which resulted in a large pile. the family and our stuff in tow drove to sunny dublin for the sale.

we put 2 ads in the paper and 8 actual signs in the neighborhood, so there were a fair amount of people. it was hard letting some things go, but i guess you have to appraoch the situation as charging for junk. we starting giving items away after 1ish in the afternoon which is pretty much the end of the garage sale window. a man saying he was a dollar man, ended up buying my swimsuit for 2 after much bargaining (he did the walk away/drive away, come back, ok fine $2 jig), haha (it was brand new!) my favorite sale was a book on attracting birds to your garden and some of my kiddy jewlery to a 2nd grade teacher.

inside & out

written 6/30/06-for the past couple weeks i worked with the camp in addition to the office. I spent half the day in each building. The stint as temp registrar, kevin/camp assistant, and receptionist gave a good balance to the day. I enjoy the interaction with parents, kids, staff and faculty, even the odd jobs like holding babies while parents use the restroom and entertaining kids with tardy pick ups. it's nice to see the human aspect of planning, and budgets. being at the front of the school also promises so much free food! haha like the strawberry bundle bouquet from a parent today.

fais has their amusez-vous summer camp running alongside with the cais camp. i secretly envy the kids' ability to sing, rhyme and absorb everything french. little fais kids put me to shame when they order at tartine, while i settle for the self consciously anglo greeting of "good morning" every day.

Kid Chow

I've been eating "Kid Chow" for lunch this week(cause kids don't show up and there are extras). I love it. It's a web based lunch delivery service that provides personalized and nutritious brown bag lunches to bay area schools. According to the website, they use...
fresh fruits and vegetables from local farms, all natural peanut butter, organic jams, hormone-free and organic milk, cage-free eggs and chickens and all natural deli products. We strive to use many organic ingredients and we offer foods that are nitrate and trans-fatty acid free.
It's healthier than the brioche or sandwhich I would normally grab from Tartines.

the brash and the beautiful

It's become a tradition of sorts for my mom and I to go to World Arts Fest's Ethnic Dance Festival every year. I went to the Spirit segment of the Festival this Saturday. The show was narrated by Marc Bamuthi Joseph who works with youth speaks. He kept the theme of spirit continuous and eased transitions, all through spoken word and movement. It worked for me. I also liked that more dance groups opted for live music from the stage this year.

I was also at the Festival to support CAIS's dance troupe, the only all kids dance group to be selected to perform this year. They performed a Mongolian piece called Girls on the Grassland. I was impressed. I was expecting a kid's dance that would get major cute points from the audience, but they delievered a professional, and not to mention technically tight piece. They have some really strong dancers amoung their ranks. The group definately held their own against the adult performers. Zhoa AiPing laushir (haha, my roomate during the Beijing Peking Opera trip) did an amazing job with the choreography, her teaching experience at the Beijing Dance Academy really showed.
Some other favorites were a solo by Parna Basu and Ballet Folklorica Alma de Mexico's big finish ending with a 14 piece live band.

Sedaris

My supervisor gave me David Sedaris' memoir,Naked today. I'm so excited to start it! I had to pace myself through Me Talk Pretty One Day, because I didn't want it to end, it was so good.

A- line skirts in SF summertime

The past couple days have been beautiful in San Francisco. I don't remember summer ever being this plesant. Warm weather always prompts major skirt wearing action, but A-line skirts only seem to work in theory. It was spare the air day today so I took public transportation and did much walking around downtown and hayes valley as usual. Sudden gusts of SF wind came out of nowhere and caused much difficulty. I think I'll stick to pencil skirts from now on.

The page st. office has also made a transition into summer mode. Yoga balls have made their entrance into the office replacing the traditional swivel chair and Ms. Molly the art teacher has redecorated the walls with tribal kiddie art.

first 24 days in office

i've spent the last couple weeks working in the CAIS development and business office. i spend most of my time event planning, designing smaller projects and attending various meetings, plus the inevitable grunt work of interning( yay filing!). the annual fund announcement i've been working on has finally been completed and was sent out today! it was my first time preparing a design for output to a high load printing company and working on a project without guidance. i ran into some conflict from the messaging to technicals. the pantone colors shifted from the review version yellow to a murky greenish mustard, but everything else turned out ok. i still have much to learn and some new concerns i want discussed in my d3 class next semester regarding ethics, copywriting and such.

i've also been cold calling in mandarin as part of the job, which is truly testing my speaking ability in the language. it's good practice. growing up with immersion model at CAIS allows me to think directly in mandarin as i speak, but i notice that i'm starting to translate from english into chinese for certain phrases. i was originally planning to take the adv. language seminar placement next semester as recommended by my EALC counselor, but now i might take mandarin 4 to review instead, seeing as there has been a four year span of not really utilizing the language.

fabirthday

so tomorrow is father's day and ba's birthday rolled into one. i find myslef continually outdone by my younger self. it wasn't until recently that i realized hallway installation art isn't the norm for doting on parents.

ma will always be better at basketball

Summer

I'M DONE!

college 25%

things are wrapping up:
i'm packing up my freshman year of college! i have two more finals and then it's off to sf with the gang and java. courtney and i walked over to smart and final yesterday and got giant boxes to ship and store. i'm moving out tomorrow because we have a final on move out day. i'm sudddenly sentimental as our apartment is turned upside down and boxes and suitcases fill the halls. our apartment has always been so chaotic and homey. it is strange to see the walls blank. i feel lucky to have had great roomates/ floormates this year and hope that we are on the same floor/wing next semester.

i had my geology final which i think i bombed, but turned in a final visual memoir for design that i am happy with. the presentation went well too. i'm going miss my design 202 much. it was such a good class. chip kidd came to speak at roski and it was amazing, a real smart guy. he does book cover designs (including a lot of david sedaris books!) and he also did the design for three days of rain.

may 1st was the pro-immigration march and los angeles poured into the streets. the grassroot organization networks are so tight in this city. it 's inspiring to see la mobilize because it's usually so fragmented. it took boima 7 hours to get his cheesy bread order and my art history review was postponed.

Festive All

Some warm up perforamce before our Banquet. Friday: Production matinee at noon and then Festive All performance at 7:30! ...and yes, this is a multicultural festival.

dance wellness

Relief in a World of Hurt- LAT
Slightly dramatic "... the Journal of Sports Medicine in 1975, ranked the demands of ballet ahead of 60 other physical activities, including football." Pavlich of ballet A drilled this into our heads, especially in classes with actual football players. The closest dance physical therapist avilable is the one located in the university village, who is always busy and over booked. The dance department, here is small, but should look into dance care. Since dance functions under the school of theare, it is often seen as a seperate matter from athletics all together.

Last Days

I went to see the school of theatre's production of The Last Days of Judas Iscariot at the scene dock theatre. This campus isn't all that big, but there are still buildings and and corners of the school I have never been to. The scene dock is wedged between two parking structres and looks a bit like a large garage. I like the space. The interior is small giving it an indepedent theatre feel or a teach shop turned stage. The set was minimal and used the space well depicting an abstract heaven, hell, and a court room. It was opening night and there were some minor line slips, but overshadowed by some strong acting by Judas, Jesus, Satan, and Butch Honeywell.

"you don't mess with nature"

the last 24 hours have been eventful. i woke up early saturday to go to dance only to find a bunch of restless actors and athletes outside PED and that the building was locked. since anny couldn't make it we were key-less for practice. somebody eventually got the doors open and we managed to break into studio 207. the theater students come equipped with hangers, credit cards, and all sorts of other tools, but we just yank on the doors until they open. ended up rehearsing for four hours cause we have a show in less than a week! theres still so much to do...

after dance, i went on a hike for earth day with vince and destiny in temescal canyon park. we were looking for a waterfall but found the top of the hillish mountain instead. it was a nice getaway from the city even though we had a clear view of downtown LA ontop of the mountain. after hiking, we came back on campus to walk for relay for life on team ATPS and for the luminaria ceremony.


next week is gonna be rough. 2 final projects, final portfolio, geology lab final, and a final biology lab quiz, performing in a matinee show, Festivall, and our banquet show saturday. ugh.

Happy 25th!

CAIS is celebrating it's 25th anniversary since first opening its doors in 1981! This photo is from the school archives. I still remember this all school photo (yes, that was our whole school: Pre-K through 6th grade) being taken on the steps of the presidio. I think I was in kindergarten. I'm on the bottom row with the pink dress on, (and yes excuse my underwear and unladylike position). the whole gangs in this picture: kevin, hillary, om, jenna, nicole, andrew, matthew m., matt, wei-cheng.

happy hour

after hearing the recent buzz around positive psychology at harvard and reading ben casnocha's blog on "the good life," i decided to go to a professor panel on happiness (a follow up to the panel on love i went to in feb) featuring an ir, developmental psychology, english, philosophy and electrical engineering professor. it makes sense. you always hear about depression in regards to psych, so why not happiness? the development in positive psych and realization that emotional intelligence is important is kind of key, especially in a university setting where happiness is supposed to be based on the stuff you do with your day/night, your achievements, and accumulated pride. an interesting point made was the difference between happiness which is usually based on external variants and joy which is a state of fulfillment and gratitude, yes i sound very new age hippie.

fun fact: zebras and cats have low stress levels. i like zebras even more now.

oh, p.s. vince got a rabbit last night...with small ears and a big butt, making it not really a rabbit, but a guinea pig. come see her.

class registration again

tomorrow afternoon is my permit to register for fall semester classes. i have an ugly schedule planned out involving a 6pm-9pm design class, large gaps spanning from the afternoon until the evening and a gradual major shift from the fine arts to communication with a global emphasis. i struggled with commiting my classes to a major track, but realized that if i don't figure out my emphasis now, i might not have one. so i am diving in, rather than tkaing a dip into my new major. scary. i even made a four year plan...i can manage a global comm major, and a double minor in comm design and east asian languages and cultures comfortably, leaving a semester of wiggle room for random electives and enough dance classes/ 2 unit classes.

i plan to take ballet B next semester, but am conflicted about which section to take. I know the saying is "take the professor, not the class", but should i take a teacher i know and enjoy at an inconvinient time (creating a day with long gaps) or take a risk with new teacher who doeesn't have any course evaluation data available?

6-5=1

kate, angie, destiny, marisa and i braved the rain on friday night to go watch hedwig and the angry inch (the musical, not the movie) at the roxy. we managed to get last minute standing tickets and pull off the fifteen dollar drink tickets each at the door on our college student budget, as well as the late night snack stop at mcdonalds that caused a nasty honey mustard spill. the show was over the top as expected, (hedwig's accent was way over the top), but the music/ band was awesome. john stamos/ uncle jesse was in the audience! haha.
rehearsed all saturday morning with tcdance, and performed later in the afternoon at bovard theatre for a fundraiser show which was fun. it was our first time performing at that big of a venue with lighting designs and all. it's good practice for our upcoming banquet show. went to springfest afterwards to catch some excitement with performances by mos def and saul williams.
sunday: easter, eggs, cooking easter food. vince and i cooked a yummy glazed ham.mmm. leftovers.

tcdance program

design 202

i love my design class! it is a well rounded introduction to graphic and entertainment design. we recently took a field trip to color graphics headquarters in los angeles and got a tour of the printing facilities. it was huge inside and reminded me of food network's unwrapped. the giant rolls of paper fly through the dual-sided printer, get blow dried and end up as a folded brochure. today, we watched dogtown and z boy's, milk chan, and happy tree friends in class. we also had a really good sub for digital tools who talked to us about resume, business card and portfolio design.

boima's debut

boima thinks i'm dull. i've come to embrace my dullness, but here is boima's rendition of my last post to add some spice into my blog: "wow it was awesome seeing the characters come to life. Red Riding hood was a bit more ghetto then i had imagines, with a bit more booty, but it was fun" how appropriate.

lil red in da hood

I did some rough sketches for my ballet classmate Joie's film pitch earlier last semester. Joie recently filmed "Little Red in da hood"! It's cool seeing the 2-d characters and scenes come to life. Some production photos.

headless pigeons, hearts?

helen lindhurst gallery, usc artist

contend

Demian Flores Cortes.MATCH. dual presence

Roski

University renames school in honor of Gayle Garner Roski- usc FA news

I am now a Roski student. haha. The Roskis donated a ridiculous amount of money (23 M) to the school of fine arts, so USC renamed the school after them. Trickle down? Maybe we'll actually have dry erase markers in the classroom now.

waikiki food

i'm back in sf after spending four relaxing days in waikiki. i spent my time there resting up on the beach and eating out at various restraunts around oahu. these are a couple of my favorite restaurants and dishes.

1. pho 97: (located in waikiki's chinatown) i've eaten here every time i've visited oahu since it opened in 1997. i had their banh xeo which is a green bean based egg omlet filled with pork, fresh bean sprouts, and grilled shrimp wrapped in lettuce and dipped in fish sauce, almost better than homemade. i also had their "sour soup" with a catfish, pineapple, tomato base.

2. marie's organic cafe: i got snacks from this cafe which also specializes in vitamins and teas. my favorite dish was the barely tapioca mousse topped with red bean paste. it was light and tasted a bit like green tea. i also packed their delicious organic tuna inari's in my backpack for day trips.

3. the lemon pepper tilapia: from denny's was surprisingly good. i ordered it to go with a side of vegtable pilaf and stuffing late one rainy evening.

my visited countries/ states

theres quite a bit of ground to be covered.


get your own map here.

dance and such

Study: some people born to dance. - Discovery
The Genetic Lottery

I Predict a Riot - Guardian(UK)
Jon's Dance

look, it's a rock

my geology class took a fieldtrip to palos verdes starting early this morning. it was beautiful day. we spent time looking at rock layers, the compositionn of the sand, and explored a pirate cave. this is abolone cove where we ate lunch.

idealism

i found this package in my apartments' unwanted mail pile a while ago. i picked it up and kept it because i thought it was well designed. i was alarmed when i opened it up and it turned out to be a camel cigarette promotional package (complete with poster and coupons) because the package appealed to me on a basic level even though i'm not a fan of smoking. i guess it's joe camel madeover, this time they don't even need the camel (the poster doesn't have a camel or even anyone smoking on it). visual literacy is not a new thing for me, but this instance reinforced how powerful images and design can be. in my design 203 class, i 'm learning the visual language of graphic design and how to manipulate images and text. the class has a very strong entertainment design bend. if i do pursue the design field, i hope to find design projects and opportunities i believe in or else i don't see the point.

i like this

i move up the geological timeline when i go from lecture up to my biology lab.

untitled

a little like this

as a prance around in my new blue skirt, listening to the music boima gave me and eating my quesedilla made out of really flat, flat bread.

another list

this week i...
1. read Persepolis on loan from mr. tio. It was enjoyable and i finished it in one sitting. It reminded me a lot of Maus, but without the animal heads.
2. heard Robin Swicrod(the writer for Memoirs of a Geisha, as well Little Women and Matilda adaptations to film) talk in Tani's film class.
3. took the stairs instead of the elevator.
4. watched Invisible Children as recommened by Lindsey Quock. The documentary's about kids in Uganda who commute to the city by night in fear of being abducted by rebel soilders. It had a good message and actually had a call to action, but I felt that there was too much emphasis on the three film makers, which got distracting.
5. had a really good chicken pesto sandwhich

long weekend! and it's raining outside...

imdb

I have been spending much time on imdb lately due to my movie logo projects. It turns out that my geology classroom is going to be in The Number 23 with jim carrey (who i bumped into while heading to class last week). I also found the documentary title The Children of Theatre Street which had a big impact on me as a kid dancer, but couldn't remember the title of. The documentary is from the 70's and about Kirov Ballet's youngest students hoping to gain a spot in the company. My repertory teacher showed it to our performance group when I was 7 and I wrote my common app essay on the movie referring to it as "the Kirov film" or "the film" the whole time.

I don't watch too many movies, but I made a list of ones I'd like to/have yet to see in order to take advantage of the film library at the bottom of Doheny Library.
1. Billy Elliot
2. Lost in Translation
3. Newsies
4. The Pianist
5. Hotel Rwanda
6. A Streetcar Named Desire
7. Singing in the Rain (I've only seen parts of it)
8. One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
9.Fiddler on the roof
10. Good Night and Good Luck
11. Match Point

ok just 11, this could go on forever.

midterms

so, the week started off with my bio midterm which went alright except i couldn't remember how smart balance and benecol margarine worked even though i woke up last night to read the nutrition facts on my container of countrycrock. this week is most definately hell week. it was 80 something degrees today and i felt nauseous after sitting in a study session with thirty other students without AC.

to do:
i have preliminary movie logos and name pattern due tomorrow, an art history paper due thursday and a geology midterm friday. i also need to contact my assignments for TBTN to find organizations interested in tabling. and my danceteam decided this evneing that we are going to put on a dance show and fashion show by the middle of april, so theres work to be done there too.

i am bit uncertain about the movie logo assignment because the movies i was assigned to are:
1. "school for sex": wouldn't have been my first choice for a movie genre, but i think i'm going to do a porky's/ american pie type treatment.
2. "satin slippers"...no clue what to do with this.

tonight was also val's birthday. the four of us roomates (for the first time ever!) sat down and ate dinner and cake together. i also played with reese cause he/she was over.

lalaland

a reminder that i go to schooll in LA:

Please note that tomorrow (Fri 2/3) the main hallway in ZHS in front of the lecture halls 159 & 163 will be blocked off for filming. You will need to enter from the main archway on Trousdale (in the middle of the building) and go up the stairs to the left or take the elevator.

slob

this happens sometimes, but i finished my project and made it to all my classes this morning. woo.

"i got pets today. they kinda disgust me."

tcdance (usc's traditional chinese dance team) had our first performance tonight at the lunar new year night market. we performed three dances: fan, peacock, and handkerchief. these are my new friends green eggs (the smaller one) and ham (the bigger one) that i got from one of the booths.

uh oh

Crowded Meeting of Residents Postponed - Daily Trojan
I couldn't make it to the public hearing about the planned USC off campus overlay district that was set to take place last night, due to another commitment. I guess I didn't miss much except concerned, angry and irritated neighbors...probably rightfully so. It is upsetting to hear that the public hearing was so poorly planned.

reunion

Group photo from the first annual CAIS(Chinese American International School) alumni party back in December.

back to school

i arrived back in LA last night after a bit of a delay with the shuttle, in time for the start of the spring semester and my floor's weekly "Cookies with Carly" get together. I had half of my new classes today, all of which i enjoy thus far. i had:

Crisis of Planet: geology course. which is all about planet earth and the environment and the destruction of man. i'm glad to be in the class because i didn't get the chance to take APES at UHS.
Digital Tools for Design: learning the technicals to InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator
paired with
Design 2, Graphic Design: about typography, researching/reaching target audiences, magazine/promotion/web design, and functional design. crits are definately going to be harder this time around. i don't think i can "sell myself" verbally, which might be a problem. i have a feeling that i'm going to be in the computer lab a lot this semester.

i also picked up photos from my sculpture class last semester. these are some of my favorites.
emily's cast of splintered wood in wax
hallie's shark and samona's cityscape

the other half of my classes tomorrow!

overlay district?

As a resident of USC off-campus housing, I recieved a notice in the mail recently from the LA Planning Department proposing an USC off-campus housing overlay district. there seems to be general confusion about what that technically means and surrounding city plans. It would be great to have more of a school presence in the area and a more college friendly neighborhood, but how exactly is the city/ USC planning to gain such a large area in regards to private rights and such? Will school housing be dispersed through out the district and private property? I hope that it doesn't resemble the 32nd St. Market to Superior Market switch that happened in the fall semester. I also don't understand how such a proposition could be considered "city initiated." I guess I will have to go to the public hearing to find out more. I searched online, but only found residents with similar concerns.

How would it affect preservation/architecture related things? I've looked a little on the internet and on the City Planning Homepage, and can't find anything explaining what this type of District means or how it affects buildings, residents, etc. or what it even means? Does it give USC some sort of weird power over buildings and residents as the name so implies? The area described in the map as part of the mailer is huge, between Normandie and the Harbor (110) Freeway, from the 10 Freeway to Martin Luther King Blvd. in the south. Has anyone heard of any other "off-campus overlay districts" or have any idea what that means?!?

(the USC campus is the big pentagon shape near the middle, and the dotted line is the proposed overlay district which currently consists of small corner shops, stores, private housing, churches, temples, and schools.)

i feel like this sometimes

especially in san francisco.

Jean-Jacques Sempé

some really good nougat

my aunt brought some golden boronia original crunchy nougat home from her trip to Sydney and i'm hooked. it is the best nougat, ever. it tastes like the smell of fresh waffle ice cream cones, but so much better. i'm sad that i'm out.