Jorge Luis Borges "Poets Creed"

- One reads what one likes, and one writes, not what one would like, but what one is able to write.

- In reading we seem to have the ability to transcend and to stretch beyond ourselves. In writing it seems that we are limited by our own talents, and experiences.

- Borges remembers back to his father's library and recalls stories not by there actual content, but how they made him feel.

- One of Borges definitions of humanity is that to be human is to live in the past and the future, to know a time before one is born, and a time that occurs after ones death.

- Another definition of humanity seems to be able to see yourself, face to face, and know. Perhaps an ecstatic truth, one that gives illumination?

- As a poet, Borges favors being the reader. It seems easier and in my opinion it is. The writing part, and which is a part of Borges Creed is that writing is troublesome and painful.

- "I suppose young men are found of unhappiness, they do their best to be unhappy, and they generally achieve it." A great quote, and it is very clear inside this classroom.

- In poetry everything is feeling.

- To repeat the last two lines of a play or poem, gives the second repeated line more weight. There is a thickening of meaning.

- The mistake that free verse is easier than structure. When, structure actually frees you by making your job easier. You just plug in your ideas into a form. In free verse you must construct everything from scratch.

- The art of hiding and writing as others do, pretending to write in an old "style"

- Borges finds that we are all contemporary. Because, we all exist now. You cannot get away from it.

- "What does being a writer mean to me? It means being true to my imagination."

- Stories as dreams or ideas, not factual re-accounts. Facts are just a web of accidents and circumstances.

- Be loyal to the dream not the circumstance.

- Poetry can harbor laziness, or idle writers. It's easier to hint at something than to write a novel about it.

- Finally he state that he has not real creed and that he only has a few precautions and misgivings.

Visiting the Web

I visited the web today to add my origami. Since the cocoons did not get made I made my own version. Using the class syllabus I fold it into what is called an origami ballon. I pinned them to the web to look like cocoons. I liken the paper to the thread that holds our class together, and what is cocooned is our ideas and thoughts. Below you will also find a video of how I folded the paper. Enjoy.

Recap

Hi all,

Great work everyone, on the Stage Design presentation. We kicked major ass, we should all be proud of our hard work. Now it's time to present our Environmental Design. It's some how strange since this is the thing we started out with. Well now is the time to show it off.

If you are curious and aren't apart of our group, now is the time to go see the Right Angles' Web Of Ideas. You can follow this handy map!

Right Anglers', remember we will also meet 45 minutes before class on Thursday to discuss our presentation style. We will also touch on our live design project so be prepared to talk about that and think of a time to actually rehearse it.

As always, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask.

Cheers,
Brian

Music

Angus & I met this afternoon and talked about music. We were on the same page about this music shoul contain a childlike quality. As the director I can't help think of this concept as this play, this story, is taking place inside a child's mind. So Angus found some music of a band that makes childrens music, but plays it as if it's for adults.

I found music that turns rock music in to lullaby's for baby's. Pretty haunting stuff. We also looked at other music that was made for video games, and horror film soundtracks. Tomorrow I will bring the disc I made tonight and hope that you all like it. I kinda scored it to what's happening in the story.

We talked alot about the story and what characters, what's happening, what's the feeling. We often asked, "What's happening, now?" We've got a theme for the White Witch, and some nice builds for the battle scene.

We're going to have a great proposal. I'm excited to see what we can dream up for our Live Design.

Adding Kira's Bugs.

Today I walked to the web to add Kira's bugs and some flowers that she made. I also snaped some cool photos.

I climbed the tree to take this one, it made me happy. Yay!

And, this one was my attempt at taking a POV shot, "What would it look like from a spider's point of view?"

INTERVIEW WITH DR. SETH SHOSTAK

Unfortunately I was unable to meet with Dr. Shostak in person. He was called away to New York City to tape a television appearance. He was kind enough to reach me by phone and I transcribed his answers into a little script. Here is an account of our call:

SETH: Hi, am I talking to Brian Luce?

BRIAN: Yes?!

SETH: Good. Brian, I just wanted to let you know that you’ve won the California State Lottery. It’s a sum of 4.2 million dollars … how do you feel?

BRIAN: (Smugly.) Where’s the other .8 million?

SETH: Hey Brian, it’s Seth, but you probably already guessed that. (Laughs.) How you doing, man?

BRIAN: Good, I’m glad you called, where are you?

SETH: I’m sorry I couldn’t be there; I’m in the Big Apple. I’m going on the Colbert Report to promote my new book.

BRIAN: Cool, I’ll have to check you out. When does it air?

SETH: Wednesday. Listen, I haven’t got much time. Are you okay with doing this over the phone?

BRIAN: Absolutely. I’ll start out with your bio, which you of course wrote:

As Senior Astronomer at the SETI Institute (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), Seth is an enthusiastic participant in the Institute’s SETI observing programs. He also heads up the International Academy of Astronautics’ SETI Permanent Study Group.

In addition, Seth is keen on outreach activities: interesting the public – and especially young people – in science in general, and astrobiology in particular. He’s co-authored a college textbook on astrobiology, and continues to write trade books on SETI. In addition, he’s published nearly 300 popular articles on science, gives many dozens of talks annually, and is the host of the SETI Institute’s weekly science radio show, “Are We Alone?”

Did I forget anything?

SETH: That I also am the editor of the SETI Quarterly magazine, The Explorer.

BRIAN: Thanks for being on the phone with us tonight to grant this lowly interview to our dynamic group. The Ten Right Angles. I was wondering if you could briefly explain what the SETI Institute does. And, for those who are curious, who funds the SETI Institute?

SETH: The SETI Institute is a privately funded organization that basically points it radio telescopes or “listens” to distant stars for radio signals emanating from other planets. We’re looking for ET. I’d also like to make it clear that NASA does not have a SETI project.

BRIAN: So, it’s like the movie Contact with Jodie Foster.

SETH: Well, sort of. Carl Sagan is one of the founding members of the SETI Institute, way back when this program did belong to the government. Carl Sagan, as you know penned the book, Contact.

BRIAN: Now that we’ve gotten some of the background out of the way let’s move on to the questions my group asked. So, I went through the list of dozens of questions that were posted on our blog at www.10rightangles.blogspost.com, and combed out the most pertinent and the most intriguing questions. Ready?

SETH: Shoot!

BRIAN: When you originally came to college, was searching for extraterrestrials your dream, or did you have another dream as a freshman in college?

SETH: Well, I had always been interested in the possibility of alien life -- I read books about it when I was a kid. But in college, I was torn between wanting to go to the moon and wanting to save railroad passenger service. So far, I've done neither.

BRIAN: I want to know this one. Do people ever mistake you for a radio horoscoper and ask you about their love lives?

SETH: (Laughs.) Not a radio astrologer, but occasionally an ordinary astrologer. I try to gratify their wishes by telling them something about their futures... for example, that they're going to lose 20 pounds this weekend, and make a few million bucks on the lottery. I never see these people a second time.

BRIAN: What kinda of music do you like?

SETH: I like most musical forms, other than jazz. But when I buy music, it's mostly classical. Love the Russian romantics.

BRIAN: What movie made you think the most?

SETH: Lots of movies have made me think about things, but the movie that made the biggest impression on me was the original version of "War of the Worlds". I saw it as a kid, and many times since. Unlike the Spielberg remake, the Martians were pitiless in the original. Truly horrifying.

BRIAN: What is your take on the Roswell incident? Area 51? Abductions?

SETH: Regarding Roswell, that was the best thing that ever happened to that New Mexico town. I don't think aliens crash-landed there, however. Same with Area 51 -- lots of secret aircraft, but I doubt that they have the aliens in drawers there. As for alien abductions, well, seems strange they would come hundreds of light-years to prod and probe us. Charles Darwin didn't do that to the iguanas of the Galapagos, and they at least had DNA.

BRIAN: You did a radio show from Roswell once, right?

SETH: That’s right. If you remember it was an on-the-road radio show.

BRIAN: Is it still up on the "Are We Alone?" website?

SETH: I’m not sure, but it’s worth checking out.

BRIAN: How do you think the public would respond to a confirmed existence of extra terrestrials?

SETH: I don't think they'd go non-linear at all. If we were to pick up a signal, I'm sure the overwhelming reaction would be ... that's interesting. Tell us more.

BRIAN: That sounds very civil, perhaps wishful.

SETH: (Laughs.) You know, we’ll get some nut jobs, but we get those people calling anyway.

BRIAN: We sure do. If life where to have occurred elsewhere in the universe, what is the likelihood that it would be similar or identical to that of earth? What kind of life-form do you think they/it would be?

SETH: If they're biological life forms, then the safest bet is that they, like us, are carbon-based. That just makes good sense from a chemistry point of view. But if we find intelligent aliens, they may very well have moved on to artificial intelligence, and could be made out of anything.

BRIAN: Where do you think this type of technology will put us in terms of communication in 20 years?

SETH: SETI follows developments in digital electronics, rather than leads. But of course our terrestrial communication systems are becoming cheaper and ubiquitous. Everything will be wireless soon enough....

BRIAN: Using this technology, what have been some more of the interesting findings over the years?

SETH: SETI hasn't yet found a signal, but the radio astronomers have discovered things we never even imagined could exist -- such as pulsars and quasars, not to mention perhaps the most significant find of all: the remnant radio "glow" from the Big Bang.

BRIAN: How do you handle criticism of people who think the search for extra terrestrials is all nonsense?

SETH: Nonsense?! I grant them that this effort is a long shot. But then I ask them if they think it would be important to learn that we have cosmic company. They almost invariably agree that it would be VERY important.

BRIAN: Where do you think the intersections between this science and the arts are?

SETH: (Pause.) All over the place, but the interaction is mostly faulty. That's because people specialize a lot these days. The era of the Renaissance Man ended with ... the end of the Renaissance!

BRIAN: You said it man. Well, that’s it. I’m glad I did this. I know I learned a few things about you that I hadn’t known before. Thank you Seth for you time and your responses. I thank you and I know 10 other students thank you.

SETH: My pleasure. I hope this gets you closer to that theater degree.

BRIAN: (Pause.) Bye, Seth.

SETH: Talk you later, man.

BRIAN: Seth’s radio show is called "Are We Alone?" and can be found on the SETI website. If you want more information on the SETI Institute and the search for life in the universe please visit, http://www.seti.org/.

Thursday's Meeting

ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN:

Spider Webs! Angus is going to buy some string for our webs, we will all have to chip in when he gives us a receipt. Upon the webs completion it should reach about 8 to 10 feet in diameter. Angus, James, and Krys will be starting the build very soon, so contact Krys if you'd like to help.

What you can do in the meantime is start building a bug or two, maybe a book with spiders coming out of it, and bring it the web to hang next week. The suggested medium is papier mache or something equally light where you can write words from our manifesto on it. As you're building, take photo's of your build and post them to the blog.

We will also post some description of our piece to invite people who come upon it to add something to the web. We will also try and document this.

INTERVIEW:

If you haven't yet, please post your questions to the blog.

Dr. Seth Shostak is on travel this week and won't be available for interviews. He will return next week where I will interview him using the questions you post. I talked to Al and Melanie about our scheduling problem and they said it's fine if it's late, they're eager to hear our project. Yay!

STAGE DESIGN:

We briefly touched on the stage design topic. My suggestion, start reading plays and thinking about what shows or concepts you would like to design.

I'm counting on the people in our group, passionate about design, (ie. model building) to have a big hand in this.

Next meeting after class on Tuesday, bring an idea for a Stage Design, remember to show a transition. Feel free to bring in some sketches.

As always feel free to comment or ask if you need anything.

Cheers,
Brian

Meeting Overview

Hey Right Anglers,

Just wanted to post a few words about our last meeting. As a group we came up with an idea for the Environmental Proposal due Thursday. The web's in the environment seems to have won out! We have one student already working on writing it.

As for the interview, we will be interviewing Dr. Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute. You can check out his bio at http://wwww.SETI.org Please post your question for the interview to the blog.

If we could please meet again at the end of Thursday's class that would be great to touch base.

As always contact me if you have any questions.

Cheers,
Brian

Meeting Review

Hey,

Great meeting today. We heard some really great Ideas for our Environmental Design Proposal and the Interview assignment. Below you will find a list of the things we were brainstorming about. If you feel like you still want to contribute, please feel free to add something to either list.

BRAINSTORMING ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGNS:

· A walkway that's decorated in some way
· Mazes on the lawn near the ARC Center
· Stick Graffiti
· Clusters of trees and making them not look like trees
· Spider webs strung between trees, possibly above passer-by's heads. We could do this near the bridge by Hahn Student Services, at the tall tree near the music center, there are many places. Things could be "caught" in the webs (ie: books, bugs with writing on the wings, bugs crawling out of books, our manifesto.) We could also place cocoons on or near the webs. This idea was favored, so far.
· In the little ravines we could put Arabian Tents and/or Forts. We could do this in the ravine behind the quarry; behind the amphitheater.
· Inside the tunnel in College Ten we could build a forest
· A shelter in the forest, a fort

If you have any more suggestions or are passionate about one of them, let us know. A few questions we need to answer for this proposal are:

· What?
· How?
· Where?
· When?
· Why?

Some ideas on Interviews:

· Tandy Beal (modern dance teacher)
· Don Williams (theater director)
· New and/or Small Business Owners (we could ask about certain ads they use, how they got started, some of the struggles of being a small business owner, and how design contributes fits in to their business)
· Art Gallery Owners
· DANM (Digital Arts & New Media) Building Designers
· Students at UCSC who juggle kids and school work
· Dr. Seth Shostak (Radio Astronomer at the SETI Institute. SETI's main goal is to be the first to detect a radio signal from an extraterrestrial world. Dr. Shostak also hosts his own radio show and we might be able to do the interview as a radio program.)
· Seth Hodge (a stage manager, also he host Comedy Sports in San Jose.)

If you have any more suggestions or are passionate about one of them, let us know as well.

We will meet again at then end of Tuesday's class to decide on our environmental design, and who our pick is for an interview.

See you Tuesday,
Brian

Wednesday's Review

Hey all,

We had our weekly meeting for theater 10 today. Please remember to post your insights to the blog. It doesn't have to be long it can be a couple of sentences. I think the more we post the more we can start a "virtual" dialogue.

In today meeting we discussed:

· The reading, "World on Stage".
· Our newest member Kyle McElroy
· The inconvenience of Wed.'s at 2PM
· And the possibility of finding a meeting time where we can all meet and discuss our first design proposal.

We will probably not meet next Wednesday. Keith if you can think of another time, where everyone is available for next week, please let me know. If any of you have any thoughts or comments please feel free to email me directly.

-Brian

My Collage

Hello all,

This is my collage I did. I took two photos. One inside and the other outside to get different effects.

~Brian

Our First Meeting

Great meeting everyone. It looks like we're off to a rocky but promsing start. As soon as you finish the reading post a response to the blog.

Make sure you post before the end of the week.

We will meet as a group again, next Wednesday, 15th at 2:00 PM in front of Second Stage.

We will also continue to define our goals as group, so please bring your ideas and your insights.

Cheers,
Brian