Generally Speaking, Unspoken

I played a gig at Tastebudds yesterday with my friend Adam who is an amazing pianist, guitarist and singer. Our music seems to work beautifully together so I think we'll be doing more together in the future. All our friends came along with some people we didn't know very well, which was cool. We got free food (a welcome change from the cafeteria!) and even made fifteen dollars for playing! It was great fun. I played violin on some of Adam's songs and he sang on some of mine. Tomorrow we have studio time so I can start working on my projects for my production class.

This is from a series of shorts I'm writing tentatively called
"Generally Speaking, Unspoken" It's still in the working stages (when is any writing NOT?) but anyway, here it is.

"And then he said, 'I love you.'" Rachel sips her iced tea and stares at me, her eyebrows raised over her hazel eyes, waiting for a reaction.

"Like, LOVE love?"

"I suppose so…" She sets her glass on the table with a sharp clink and pulls her purse from the ground. Rifling through the oversized white, leather tote, she pulled out her compact and eyes herself.

"I mean," she said tucking a stray length of mahogany hair behind her ear, "we've only dated for two months!"

"Well, what did you say?" She shifted in her seat, uncrossed then crossed her legs again. The purse still in her lap, the compact open and forgotten in her right hand.

"I didn't say anything. I didn't know what to say. It's like, we were standing on my front porch and all the mosquitoes were buzzing around, and he said it, and my brain froze. I couldn't…" she trailed off shaking her head.

"Do you think you love him back, then?" I ask, pulling my sunglasses down to reflect the sun's hot glare.

"I don't…" her head rolls back staring at the sky "who knows, right? Maybe I do, maybe I don't. I don't think anyone ever really knows, right? Like how can I really, truly KNOW I have a sustainable feeling for someone and I haven't just caught a fleeting emotion that will vanish just as quickly as it came?" her shoulders rise with her uncertainty. I sip my water, she her tea. The sun makes Rachel squint, she pulls her dark shades over her eyes.

"Whenever I went shoe shopping with my mother she always said, 'if it's not an absolute yes, it's a no," I offer.

"That's a tad extreme."

"Yeah, but it's better than limbo." The waiter comes, setting our salads on the table. He is cute, I see Rachel check him out as he walks away.

"Rachel," I say reaching for the balsamic vinaigrette, "trust me, it's a no."

"You know," she says, cutting her cucumbers into quarters, "men aren't shoes."

"Yeah, but they're just as hard to shop for."

How did everyone do with last weeks three hug a day challenge? I'm not sure I even met my quota... The past week I've found myself thinking a lot about how I act differently around different people. With certain people who I feel safe around I can act goofy and playful, but when I've just met people, or am in a public situation, I have a harder time letting loose. It seems like all the "good" actors I know act differently with everyone constantly, if that makes sense. They're continuously playing with their identity and personality. They don't get stuck in one character the way I tend to. This week I'm going to try being looser with my identity, which for me probably means being sillier and doing things that I would normally not do because, "it's weird."I challenge everyone to do one thing a day that is out of your normal character. I want to hear what happens!

I wish you much silliness and laughter.

Love,

Marina

New Semester, New Projects

Well, the first week of Spring semester is over. All my classes are GREAT. I'm taking, intro to acting, physical comedy, private guitar lessons, electro-acoustic ensemble, production and reproduction (not what you think, it's a music class where we learn the ins and outs of the Bard recording studio), acting company and first year seminar. All my teachers are lots of fun and I anticipate learning a TON.

On top of all the amazing classes I'm taking, my friend Hannah and I started the Bard Puppetry Union. The club will allow all puppet lovers to express their pent up alter-egos through puppetry. Hannah's mom's best friend is a professional puppeteer and we hope that the school will fund her coming to Bard to teach a puppet making and performing workshop one weekend! For those I haven't been gushing to about puppetry recently, my puppet fervor began when my dear ol' dad took me to see the Jim Henson exhibit over winter break. I'd forgotten how much I LOVE the Muppets, but being surrounded by all of Jim's artwork and reading about his amazingly creative and upbeat life made me fall in love with Kermit, Piggie and all the others all over again. Puppets can create such silliness and joy, which these oh so serious, depressed, existentialist scholars of Bard need quite badly. I also envision the club acting jointly with other clubs, especially those involved in human rights and social issues to raise awareness in a fun, innovative fashion.

I've decided since I'm not taking any poetry or creative writing this semester, and it's something I enjoy and want to cultivate, I will be posting one short story or poem a week on my blog. The main purpose of my telling you this is so that I'll feel the need to actually DO it. If I know people are expecting something once a week, I'll feel obligated to produce something.

I don't have anything right now, because I just came up with this idea, but next week, expect something a bit more substantial to read than my normal run-down of life events.

I'm also going to start doing challenges of the week, just for fun. You can choose to ignore this or not. This week's challenge: Give at least three hugs a day! Hugs are great and wonderful things. If you hug someone for about thirty seconds your hearts start to beat together. I don't tend to be a very huggy person naturally, but I've started making a point of hugging my roommate, Emilia, because both of us are used to being hugged by our parents at home and we miss the huggin' since we've been here. So go on, hug someone!

Love,
Marina