Friday January 28, 2005
January 27, 2005
Well, it had to happen eventually. I planned to wake up early and go to work, but I got up at 10am and was screwed over because by the time I got to work, I would only be there for an hour before having to leave. So, I called Beth and luckily she was very understanding, so I have to go into work tomorrow. I enjoyed an extra hour of much needed rest before going to a chat with Vincent Maphai, a prominent political scientist, philosopher, and businessman in South Africa. To put it simply, the guy is a close from of Tabo Mbeki and Nelson Mandela. And I got to shake his hand! Quite cool.
He had some pretty interesting insights into South Africa and he seemed so intelligent. People like him are definitely needed in this world and hopefully he can help further democracy in South Africa at the present moment. After that I went to Tokyo class where I learned a bit more about the transition from Edo to Tokyo. Nothing too noteworthy there.
After relaxing in my room and a quick dinner, I heard the Daedelus Quartet in Kimball Lounge. http://besenarts.com/daedalus/ They are the Grand Prize Winners of the Banff International String Quartet Competition and are apparently one of the most in demand quartets at the moment. Needless to say, I got to sit about 2 feet away from the first violinst while they performed a modern piece from a composer named Gyorgy Ligeti. The piece had a lot of harmonics and crazy rhythms. At one point, they were all plucking in 4/4, then the 1st violin went to 5/4, then 6/4 while the second violin plucked in 5/4, then 7/4, 8/4, all the way to 12/4. It was, as they put it, the most “controlled chaos” in a piece. They were quite talented and I enjoyed the free performance.
I went to the gym after that with Alex, Marshall, Chris, and Andres. We jogged there and back which also gave us a chance to do some cardiovascular. Back in Kimball, I sent out a ton of e-mails requesting meetings next week. Next week will be jam packed – besides classes, I have an internship application due, a possible meeting with my OCT, my Tokyo Professor, and my Asian Americans in Politics Professor. It’s not so bad considering it’s just a meeting, but both meetings are about long term projects, so I need to figure out what I’m doing before I go to these meetings. Anyway, it’s late so I’m off to bed.