I’ve been writing papers non-stop for eight weeks. So I thought, “What better way to take a break from writing than to do more writing?” Good idea, right?
So this is my way of procrastinating the taking of my Film Analysis final…
So here’s a little update from the Land of Crystal over here in Kalamazoo.
Summer courses suck. Don’t take them. Eight weeks to do sixteen weeks of work is just not worth it. Let alone two at a time.
But, good news: for the next eight weeks I’m taking two more! Wahoo!
I’m working at Greenfield Village all summer (every Saturday and Sunday) so those of you with kids, or who are still kids-at-heart, come on down to say hello! I sing eight shows a day, and admission is free if you let me know you’re coming. I can let people in with my badge on any of my breaks or in the morning before performances. I can even let you in to the Henry Ford Museum for free as well, but that means I have to walk to the entrance there with you so that has to be on my lunch hour (starting at about 1:15p). There are all kinds of other cool shows throughout the Village, including Simply Broadway which is a musical revue of the most popular years of Broadway musicals; Laura’s Little Town on Sundays about Laura Ingalls Wilder; Tales From Huck Finn on Saturdays about… well, about Huck Finn; the Edison show starring my friends as Thomas Edison about the invention of the lightbulb followed by a tour of his research lab, and some others spread throughout town.
This coming weekend we’re having our annual 4th of July celebration with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, I’m still waiting on official word about buying tickets, but I get a discount on that if anyone wants to go just email me (email is on the Get Ahold of Crystal page).
So to sum up: Greenfield Village / Henry Ford Museum, totally free admission as long as you let me know you’re coming so I can let you in with my badge. 4th of July D.S.O. concert, discounted tickets (once I hear from boss).
Almost no one came to see me last year, and the ones that did didn’t even have kids with them, so seriously… get your butts out there. How often do you get free admission to a theme park that normally costs $22 a pop? Hm?
Now my coming home every weekend means that, yes, I’m around in Macomb Township on (usually) Friday and (always) Saturday nights, so I do have some free time for possibly arranging visiting rights with my so-neglected family members. But I’m usually sleepy, so don’t expect me to do a song and dance number for you. If you wanna see that, COME TO THE VILLAGE (see what I did there?).
Even my own mother didn’t come see me last summer.
Okay, I’m done with the guilt trips and nagging.
As far as school, like I said, I’ve been reading books and writing papers on them for eight weeks straight, and then in film class I’ve been watching one or two films a week and writing analyses of certain scenes. I just finished writing my last two papers and turned them in on Friday, but now it’s finals week (tonight and tomorrow).
If anyone wants an example of the sort of thing I’ve been doing in class, here goes: I just wrote a thesis paper on a novel called Waterland arguing that, though it was written in the Post-Modernist era of the novel genre, it is actually a Romantic novel told in fairy-tale format, and that it could not have been told any other way than this, because fairy-tales make readers more open and susceptible to the morality tale within, for which I supported my thesis with highly analyzed portions of the text (broken down under both Romantic and Post-Modernist conventions) and the research of one Vladimir Propp (a famous Russian theorist who broke down folk- and fairy-tales into their most irreducible narrative elements for analysis; Joseph Campbell is to myth what Vladimir Propp is to fairy-tales).
* Deep breath *
Got all that?
Okay, good. Moving on.
I’ve got one last bit of cool news before I disappear for a few more weeks to finish finals and settle into my work schedule.
Many of you may have seen my mother’s status on the subject, but if not…
I’ve been nominated for a Wilde Award for Best Actress in a Play with LGBT Themes (that’s Lesbian / Gay / Bisexual / Transexual). The Wilde Awards are the Tonys of professional Michigan theater. This was for the last show I did just before leaving town (in fact, the final weekend of performances made me move in a week late to school) called The Little Dog Laughed. It’s really awesome to be nominated, and I’m in a category with some phenomenal local actors, and it’s all very exciting.
So there’s your update!
Now come see me at the Village (I lied)…
