Culturing of Self

Last Friday, I woke up at 5 AM to attend the free summer concert series at Rockefeller Center as apart of the Today Show starring Rihanna. Though the line to get in was ridiculously long, I had the chance to stand immediately behind the VIP section and see Rihanna perform live. Though I wasn't a big fan of her newly-done short hair, she did perform some of my favorite songs by her: Please Don't Stop the Music, Take a Bow, and Umbrella. Here are some pictures:



I must say I did have to make some sacrifices here - I had to wake up at 5 AM and pull in to work at 10 AM. It was then I realized I had involuntarily become a Rihanna die-hard fan.

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So this week I feel like I've cultured myself a bit by finally watching a Broadway show and a Shakespeare play live on stage.

I found Rent to be a moving musical considering the circumstances of each character and the kinds of difficulties each one has to face in the play. Most songs, some of which I found are supposed to be pretty popular, accentuated the somber mood of a majority of the scenes. If you're not familiar (warning: spoiler ahead), Rent is a Broadway musical about a small group of people who are each homosexual, bisexual, or just diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. They encounter many difficult situations throughout the movie, for example, Roger (one of the main characters) finds out that he has AIDS while Angel (a drag queen) dies of AIDS breaking the heart of his homosexual lover, Tom Collins. (end of spoiler) I really liked the songs "Without You" and "No Day but Today" though they did bring me down to an emo state. Though "Seasons of Love" is supposed to be the more popular song, I didn't like it as much as the other two however it did instill the number 525,600 into my head. I enjoyed watching this musical and would recommend it to anyone who will be here before September 7th when it goes off Broadway.

On Monday, my friend Michelle asked me to sign up for an online lottery to try and see if I could get us both tickets to watch Hamlet at Central Park performed by a rather famous group of performers including Sam Waterson from Law and Order (according to Michelle) and Lauren Ambrose. Though both of us signed up for the lottery, Lady Luck decided to be on my side this time, probably because she knew how much I needed to culture myself. Somehow Michelle managed to leave work before 7 for this opportunity. This Shakespeare play had been modernized considering the modern-day military clothing worn by everyone and the fact that there were some pretty neat special effects that took place throughout. There were sequences in which puppets were creatively put to use and it was entertaining to see how they integrated them into the storyline. Throughout the play, I was recounting what had exactly happened in that play, since I had not read it since my junior year of high school. I remember Hamlet being a very tragic play in which pretty much every character dies in the end (sort of like in the Departed). However, the actor who plays Hamlet does a great job of bringing out the insecurity and cowardry that is truly his character. Though it was great to relive the Shakespeare play, I had not anticipated being there for almost four hours. This is what it's like to sit through an entire Shakespeare play, I learned.

During intermission, I confirmed my belief that I saw one of my electrical engineering TA's in the same audience by speaking with him. I found out that he was working as a quant at another financial firm and will also be in the city for most the summer. He's a really smart guy who is intending to receive a Ph.D. for possible teaching as a profession.