feminism. Retro?

in america, the 60's was marked by progress in various social aspects, including the striving for gender/racial equality and gay rights. since the 70's, the country has seen a steady decline of the fighting spirit and a smooth return of the pre-60's conservativism. New York Times columnist MAUREEN DOWD analyses the past present and future of feminism in What's a modern girl to do?
some interesting excerpts:
A few years ago at a White House correspondents' dinner, I met a very beautiful and successful actress. Within minutes, she blurted out: "I can't believe I'm 46 and not married. Men only want to marry their personal assistants or P.R. women."

I'd been noticing a trend along these lines, as famous and powerful men took up with young women whose job it was was to care for them and nurture them in some way: their secretaries, assistants, nannies, caterers, flight attendants, researchers and fact-checkers.

John Schwartz of The New York Times made the trend official in 2004 when he reported: "Men would rather marry their secretaries than their bosses, and evolution may be to blame." A study by psychology researchers at the University of Michigan, using college undergraduates, suggested that men going for long-term relationships would rather marry women in subordinate jobs than women who are supervisors. Men think that women with important jobs are more likely to cheat on them. There it is, right in the DNA: women get penalized by insecure men for being too independent.

"The hypothesis," Dr. Stephanie Brown, the lead author of the study, theorized, "is that there are evolutionary pressures on males to take steps to minimize the risk of raising offspring that are not their own." Women, by contrast, did not show a marked difference between their attraction to men who might work above them and their attraction to men who might work below them.

Or as Bill Maher more crudely but usefully summed it up to Craig Ferguson on the "Late Late Show" on CBS: "Women get in relationships because they want somebody to talk to. Men want women to shut up."

Sylvia Ann Hewlett, an economist and the author of "Creating a Life: Professional Women and the Quest for Children," a book published in 2002, conducted a survey and found that 55 percent of 35-year-old career women were childless. And among corporate executives who earn $100,000 or more, she said, 49 percent of the women did not have children, compared with only 19 percent of the men.

A 2005 report by researchers at four British universities indicated that a high I.Q. hampers a woman's chance to marry, while it is a plus for men. The prospect for marriage increased by 35 percent for guys for each 16-point increase in I.Q.; for women, there is a 40 percent drop for each 16-point rise.

Fashionista 69% Tastefulness, 56% Originality, 49% Deliberateness, 31% Sexiness

[Tasteful Original Deliberate Prissy] One is certain: you have great taste and plenty of ideas. You have clearly defined beliefs about what's good and what's bad in fashion but they are far from banal. Stylish and imaginative, you prefer to inspire admiration than to shock and you mostly succeed. Even if sometimes you'd like to have more courage to put on something absolutely outrageous you do great job in creating a unique look that others look up to. There is a possibility that you work in the fashion industry. If you don't, perhaps you should. The opposite style from yours is Bar Cruiser [Flamboyant Conventional Random Sexy]. All the categories: Fashion Enemy Bar Cruiser Kid Next Door Sex Bomb Hippie Kid Fashion Rebel Fashion Artist Catwalk God(ess) Librarian Sporty Hottie Office Master Uptown Girl/ Boy Brainy Student Movie Star Fashionista Glamorous Soul

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 87% on Tastefulness You scored higher than 75% on Originality You scored higher than 39% on Deliberateness You scored higher than 8% on Sexiness

Link: The Fashion Style Test written by mari-e on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

stumbled into the enchanted woods. wondered in awe. walked out.

How apt this picture is. to describe the person painted. and to illustrate my point.

so when i was at the university art gallery seeing the collection of works by john cage (new music composer, pupil of arnold schonberg), merce cunningham (modern dancer), dove bradshaw and william anastasi (artists), i suddenly thought of the objection people ofte made against modern art. "hey, so what is it? is it like a woman or something?" at that moment, i finally figured out the problem with that objection. a portrait can be both a likeness and an art work. it is the likeness that makes the portrait a likeness, it's not the likeness that makes the portrait an art work. it is the creative element that makes the portrait an art work. similarly, there are other creative things that don't look like anything, or don't mean anything. it doesn't mean that they are not art works. they are merely not portraits of things.

Masterclass with Dawn Upshaw

as soon as she landed in san diego from a flight from new york, she rushed over to the school for the masterclass. Dawn is a charming character. she gets into work right after she gets into the room. everybody commented afterwards that she is unexpectedly sweet and professional. (soprano stereotype gets into the mind again.) she worked on 4 of our graduate students. anne-marie sang a beautifully written song by her boyfriend, a 3rd year new music composition student. the ornamentation sounds kind of eastern. anyways folkish. and generally atonal. laura sang an italian song, not particularly of interest to me, but nice sound. fiona sang something totally shocking. sequenza III for a woman's voice by berio. it's scary. if you can find it, you should listen to it. it's absolutely amazing. and this is about the first time i'm hearing modern stuff proper in ucsd. you actually need to fish it out. man. imagine i didn't take the voice class and leave ucsd the hugest modern music place on earth thinking that there's only bach here. lorant sang the same mozart piece.
so to summarise Dawn's suggestions:
1. recite the poem without pitch to help with the dynamics of the language.
2. when an unusual gesture such as a rest in the middle of a phrase appear, ask yourself what might have been the reason for the composer to put it there and how you might make use of it.
3. think through the phrase from the point of departure to the end, show the audience where it ends up. crescendo towards the most important word,as if you can't wait to sing that word. (we are constantly told of this by all the teachers, we just need to be reminded of it again and again)
4. take rests as essentials, not stops.
5. nothing is about total comfort. nothing is totally calm. always some other emotion in it.
6. make it an enjoyment of breathing.
7. all or nothing experience.
8. paint mental pictures.

always think about the big picture, the structure of things.

so thursday i'll be watching her sing. the west coast premiere of Ayre

it's been chilly these days. i still remember the uncontrollable shiver that i felt the other day when i came out of CLICS (some library) after finishing my matlab hw at 00:30am. I indeed utilized a whole bunch of ATP's to unlock my bike with my hands that just wouldn't stop shaking, the cluttering of my teeth nice accompaniment for the action. and then i set off on the bike. i took the route around revelle, which is primarily downslopes. i could hear the wind shrieking by my earphones. on my ipod, was prokofiev. i thought i'd listen to him on a dark night, esp when i had to bike home after a long tiring day. he's a source of energy, usually. so, imagine, i was cutting across this patch of grass, downhill, surrounding me were a few linear and barren trees, with their shadows projected onto the modern sculptures forming bizzarre lines and shapes, as if laughing. the sculptures themselves were mesmerising, the faces in the light orange and those in the shades blue. like an fauvist painting, against the background of shostakovich's ethereal playing. it was a wicked feeling. despite the fact that i was still shivering like mad, i was thrilled! i was almost not able to contain my excitement as i biked down the narrow paths. now i understood why chopin's op 25 no. 11 ("winter wind") was so exciting, not quite bitter, but thrilling. winter can be exciting. was a near death experience.

Soiree for Music Lovers

Friday night was spent in the rehearsal hall of mandeville, with János Négyesy and his friends, who presented an intimate chamber concert. having anticipated for this concert all month, it was no less than shocking for me to find no contemporary pieces on his programme list. on the list:

Händel - Sonata in A for 2 violins and continuo
Marais - Variations from Les Folies d''Espagne for solo flute (done by a student(?) doesn't concern János)
Mozart - Per questa bella mano, KV 612 for baritone, double bass and piano
Fauré - PIano Quartet No. 1 in Cm, Op. 15

Well, i was disappointed. He is so big in contemporary stuff and all he plays on records, is new music. i have no choice but to think that it was the consideration for the slightly out-dated taste of the audience from this OLD la jolla community that had directed his choice of programme.

that aside, János and P�ivikki Nykter (János' long-term collaborator and also a contemporary music enthusiast) played beautifully, especially in the Fauré. their lines were beautifully singing, their emotions no doubt synchronised and their actions tightly knitted (hmm, for most of it.) the Adagio had all of its intensity perfectly conveyed but carefully contained, like the water surface at the brim of a full glass, as, you can imagine, the surface tension holds the meniscus in a smooth curve. only that in this case there's actually ebbs and flows of complex colours under the surface. which was also, i believe, like Fauré himself.
P�ivikki is such a poised and elegant creature. i was so fascinated with the movement of her bow in relation to her brightly shining earrings and her slight but smart smile. she is the kind of person who would've made the plainest hair style and the cheapest gown look priceless on her. she just project a different image from my singing teachers, who are always loud and bubbly, and often dramatic. maybe there is eventually a difference between the instrumentalist and vocalist personalities. i donno.
the Mozart is actually nice, partly because i know the baritone solo from voice master class. i think he might have been a year four or five. but he certainly sounded very professional. i hate myself for not having a recording of that performance. his legato is close to perfection, with gentle onset of the sound but soon growing into a passionate blossom of energy and ending with the unoticeable lifting of the sound into the air. sings like a poet, sings and cries and sighs. one word, bravo.

think should go take chamber music from that two violinists next quarter. think they are perfect teachers for this genre.

just a thought. maybe ucsd should have its own science podcast too. just like berkeley groks. hmm. and, don't know what's up with SQ.

Podcasts

Look, the wave of using podcasts as a form of information distribution is kind of spreading from the west towards the east. i searched the podcast directory, currently schools using podcasts to distribute information include the UC's, stanford, caltech, ubc, chicago etc. most of the ivees in the east haven't started utilizing this extremely useful and convenient way of relaying info, considering the vast number of ipod/mp3 owners on college campuses. see, it says something.

Small World

There are quite a few la jolla pple there. it's amazing. take a look.

quote of the day

A magician pulls rabbits out of hats. An experimental psychologist pulls habits out of rats.
- Anonymous

if only i had a car!

then i could have driven downtown san diego, buy a student rush ticket at copley hall for 10 bucks at 730, and watch joshua bell play respighi in concert at 8. or, i could do the same thing on jan 21st, then i could watch prokofiev's violin concerto no. 1, my fav... :( nothing. for now. go back and study cellular neurobiology.
my life still sucks.

school's been freaking crazy. can't believe that i'm feeling like dying so early in the quarter. actually it's not that early already, there're two mid-terms coming next week. freak!

my philosophy class has become very bashy. curiously, the most active pple in the entire class were two atheists. when the prof is presenting materials for religion, this other guy and me were relentlessly supporting prof's criticism of those theses, and when the prof is criticising materials against religion, we were the most engaged in bashing the prof. the religious rest, did nothing but sitting there and making one or two weak defense against the bashing. i wonder why they didn't passionately defend their belief system just like we do. or is it what i've heard before that they are not supposed to really work on anything but have faith in that god who will make things happen. but i'm utterly disappointed at the fact that the prof only spent less than 10 min on nietzsche's view on religion, and he even spelt his name wrongly. i thought he was an atheist! maybe i really can't tell, and he's just doing a fabulous job in disguising his own religious believes. this other guy in the class, is a very devoted atheist, who repeatedly states his belief system in front of the class. and he openly declared that the masses are stupid this morning. i find it risky a thing to do, because i got strong criticism on that before. nevertheless, this arrogant atheist guy has evidently been exposed to a lot of works on this topic, and makes sensible and well versed comments on almost everything gone through in the class. i wish i could express myself half as accurately.

that aside, it feels good to have a personal voice tutor, who not only knows my name, my major, but also my range, my sound, my preference for music. i feel so important suddenly. (bleagh. i shan't allow my ego to inflate any more.) she sounded really good, at the first lesson, when showing me the pieces that i could choose from. all italian pieces, which according to her, are like spinage for my voice. And she told me, the prof P really liked my voice, and as long as i worked hard and get involved in the projects P would pull me through. (this prof is really good. she could get what she wants out of pple with just a description or two, and the singer sounds instantly different. as if a tranformation.)this suddenly made me feel very guilty. I really don't know how much time or effort i could afford to put into the music department, with all my other commitments. same feeling when my postdoc told me that i shouldn't just look at publishing in a school journal. all is ealier said than done. maybe it's not a good idea to overload yourself from the start. i don't know. it's crap. and i'm tired.

Explanation to "Hey I'm from the other time-space"

The Glass of Raspberry Nestea




The Model

The Stage

And the Picture

HEY I'M FROM THE OTHER TIME-SPACE

i've been wanting to make this fuss for a long time. i've never realised the extent to which biologists are discriminated against as a distinct (lesser) group among the scientists until recent months.. even the lousiest physicist can sneer at any biologist without the least contemplation. how many times have I heard the careless and subconscious comment "blah blah blah....biologists!" as if the name suggests a kind of bad logic that is not even worth discussing. what's the matter with that? i'm reminded of this injustice once again when i read a comment on one of my friends' blogs, by an arrogant PHYSICIST "faint~... biologists." . why? why make the association at all? i think he has got nothing better to say, due to limited thinking capacity and knowledge. from the blog, he is nothing more than a physics student trying hard to become one or those cambridge snobs, who brags endlessly about his own major and school, and who gets excited about the most trivial physics trivia.

my mentor back at imcb has a line. life is a bitch, and then you die.