“introduced by the Japanese, popularized by the Chinese, but ultimately … consumed by Americans.” -Wiki
Did you know know fortune cookies were not actually created in China? 😮

…if you saw it for free, but would PAY to see it a second time.

I’m not someone who usually watches movies, and other than The Passion of the Christ, there is no movie that I have liked to the point of re-watching over and over again (except maybe Disney movies-but I would never pay to see them when I could watch them online or on t.v.), and even then, The Passion of the Christ isn’t watched for entertainment value. HOWEVER, Les Misérables is a movie that I would PAY to see over, and over, and over again, though haven seen it once already for free. I love historical fiction, especially ones with elements of romance, and I love musicals, Les Misérables has to be the best combination I’ve seen. (It almost reminds me of The Scarlet Pimpernel, though the storylines are total opposites).

Watching Les Misérables was a kind of repeat Warhorse experience for me, where for days on end I would unconsciously hum “only remembered for what we have done.” Till this day (and even now as I’m writing this), I cry over characters, sing the theme song, and randomly stop my homework to stare into space and think back. :’)

CCNY is such a friendly community. Last week, a couple of friends and I sat down to lunch outside of the cafeteria, and a friendly lady just starting her 30’s engaged us in conversation. She gave us what I dub life lessons from lunch.

Has anyone else encountered such friendliness from the CCNY community? If so, what was your experience like?

I really enjoyed Friday night’s performances. I got a lot more out of them than I thought I would have. The dances were all well structured and I really enjoyed them. The way I approached the performances was to watch them first and write down all the words, memorizes, and phrases that came to my head, then I looked in the playbill and saw if the descriptions matched my reactions. For the most part they did (though I don’t really understand what “Desire and Conscience” was trying to portray). For example, while I was watching Rite of Spring the words, “elegant,” “rain,” “birds,” “confusion,” “energy,” “diversity,” and “pigeons?” popped into my head. However, I was certain that pigeons was abstract, but after looking in the playbill and seeing the title of the dance it all made sense. The one thing that I really loved about Rite of Spring was the flexibility of the dancers. They looked like puppets on a string at the whim of the puppeteer. It was amazing how the dancers were able to fluently fall and rise in one action as if they had no bones but were bodies of water. It made me think, “It would be awesome if I could move like that.” And that excitement and awe I felt set the tone for the entire night.

If I could make a suggestion to the dancers, not to be mistaken as criticism from a novice but from my role as a spectator that night, it would be to avoid too much repetition, especially if the music is really calming as it was in “Rite of Spring.” To be honest, I ever so slightly dozed off during the first and last acts–the excitement of “Oh, this is something new!” wore off really fast and it was like, “Been there done that.” HOWEVER, that is not to say that the dances were not fabulous, they were still very good. 🙂

I really enjoyed this play. It was more than I expected it to be. Before, whenever I heard of War Horse (the book, movie, play), I would discount it as being a boring story about a boy and his horse (similar to The Red Pony). YAWN. But after Thursday night, I take back every criticism. Thursday was definitely an experience worth repeating. ^__^

I think the thing I like most about War Horse is its realism. I have been humming “only remembered for what we have done” since. 🙂

Topthorn and Joey

Inspired by Wei’s post, I looked around for a modern African dance that was popular among African youth and also youth on a global scale. While probably not as globally popular as Gangnam Style (at least not that I know of), Azonto is very popular among African youth. Originating in Ghana, it is a dance favored among people ranging from elementary school to mid thirties. There is no one specific way to dance it, everyone can add their own twist. So, what do you guys think of Azonto fever?

Since I couldn’t find a picture that accurately represented the theme I was going for, I semi-Photoshopped one. The theme I was going for is Christian Nigerian. So the Nigerian flag represents my Nigerian ethnicity and “God Bless” and the stars are symbolic of my Christian background. (Don’t the stars kind of remind you of the star that led the three wise men to where baby Jesus lay in the manger?)

http://kemifilani.blogspot.com/2012/07/taxi-driver-wins-award-for-not-stealing.html

http://blingee.com/blingee/email_friend/130530186-God-Bless-Nigeria-

Can’t Live A Day

Songwriter: Avalon

Avalon is among one of my favorite Christian music groups. I chose this song because, like others, it seems as if the words of my heart were taken and put into a song. This song expresses love as engrossing; as being at the point where you could lose the whole world and still live happily, but you couldn’t imagine living another day without God. As the song says, I could live without many things in my life, but I couldn’t carry on without God. God is the heartbeat of all I do and I can’t live a day without Him. ^__^ <3 <3 <3

http://youtu.be/uGCQnwn2hIQ