On the bright side...

One of the weirder things that happened to me last semester: During dinner, I got a call from a guy who graduated last year and who happened to be back in town for a little while. Now, I kinda knew this guy--he was friends with my freshman year sponsor--but the two of us had never had an actual conversation. So when he asked me if I wanted to accompany him to a Joanna Newsom concert in LA that same night, I was understandably a little taken aback. (My first response: "How did you get my number?" His reply: "Uh, Facebook." Bad sign.)
I turned him down as respectfully as I could ("I've got this huge essay due tomorrow...") but now that I've listened to Ys I sort of wish I'd gone. I fully expected to hate Joanna Newsom---I mean, she's a "psych-folk" harpist who sings about magic animals, for God's sake--but her music is evocative and gorgeously orchestrated and totally unlike anything else out there.

Other sources of excitement in my life: the thing with cheaptickets.com got straightened out, and now I'm going to Hungary--yes, Hungary--over spring break. Am hoping to God I'll have enough of my thesis finished by then that I won't have to pass up sightseeing/the opera/etc. in favor of staying in and writing.

Speaking of which, my thesis might be kicking my ass/destroying my social life, but I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Yes, it's a little ridiculous that Little Miss I Hate Academia is throwing herself into a project involving avant-garde Soviet cinema from the 1920s, but I figure it's got to give me at least a little hipster cred. Did I mention the guy I'm researching has 200-odd MySpace friends?

I also got started on the film scoring process for the creative component of the thesis. No composition quite yet, just blocking out cues and hit points on Digital Performer, but it's going to rock. I hadn't been in the music studio in about seven months, so I'd almost forgotten that Zen feeling I get when I'm figuring out the shortcuts and idiosyncrasies of music technology, that state where even the most bewildering of technical difficulties is somehow manageable. I think this theory explains it best.

Now if I could only get into that same state while writing my thesis abstract, I wouldn't feel the need to distract myself with things like this blog.