4th Annual Humanities Film Festival

This past evening I stopped by the Wexner Center to watch the videos put together by the first year humanities scholar students. The theme this year dealt with Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness, and I have to say that the videos had a much greater variety than the year that we had the environment as the theme. With that being said, there were two videos that stuck out to me as being atop the list. First and foremost, I really enjoyed the "What Makes You Happy" video put on by the Zig-a-zig-ahh group. They reenacted the scenes from the Breakfast Club, Rocky, Risky Business, and Good Will Hunting and played their scenes side by side with the actual movie clips. I thought it was the best video of the group and that it had great content. A second video that I enjoyed was the group that showed clips from the media showing the stupidity displayed by many Americans. They did a tremendous job of displacing that common notion. All in all, I was impressed with quite a few videos and enjoyed the show!

Post-Election Discussion

Yes, I was a political nerd and went to both the pre-election and post-election discussions. I really enjoyed this post-election discussion because it was extremely informative and helped us understand the impact of this election. It was interesting to hear people's opinions and what they thought was lost or gained in this election cycle. I'm really glad they had both of these discussions to kind of wrap up and conclude the election. I also really liked hearing the perspective of professors that had a more professional opinion. Overall, I'm glad I attended both political discussions because it allowed me to see both sides of the debate and how others thought they would be impacted by it in the future.

Arc of Justice Book Club

We had a small group for our book club discussion this term, but we had some fabulous discussion. We were lucky enough to have the author, Kevin Boyle, join us to talk about his experiences writing the book. I think this was great, because instead of just speculating what the author was trying to convey, we could hear firsthand how his research and trips inspired him.
The book itself was very enjoyable. It took me a few chapters to realize it was non-fiction, so the level of detail and description was high. Prof. Boyle told us his idea was that people would read this book before bed, and he hoped the plot and characters motivated them to stay up and keep reading.
Not only did I like the book, I also loved the ability to talk to the author about the writing process. For example, he says he hates the title, but would never want to change it. Another marvelous event from the Humanities Scholars, and of course lots of free pizza.

Honors and Scholars Political Talk

I went to the Honors and Scholars political discussion talk (pre-election) and I got a lot of good things out of it. First off, the fact that a political science professor that has had experience in campaigning for local candidates gave a lot of great insight into politics and campaigning. I thought the discussion was very well-rounded and there was a lot of free discussion periods in which we could describe any of our experiences campaigning or ask her any questions we had. I liked that the discussion was not so closed and that it was not just her lecturing; we all really got to talk about the topics we wanted to discuss while still being somewhat guided by the professor. The food was also great! We got it from Qdoba which was definitely switching it up. I overall really enjoyed the discussion and it helped me to understand some of the topics and issues relevant in the presidential election that I was unsure of before the discussion. I would recommend everyone to go to the post-election discussion! Hopefully it will be just as informative. Or maybe I am just a political nerd haha.

BalletMet presents...Dracula!

Last Thursday I joined the Humanities Scholars as we journeyed to the Capitol Theatre to see Dracula the Ballet! I had only been to one ballet before in my life, and that, as you may be able to guess, was The Nutcracker. With that admittance comes the declaration that I am certainly not an expert on ballet, or dance of any sort. I just love the performing arts :) Although I have never read Dracula and was a little unaware of the general plot line, I was entranced from the beginning until the end of the performance. The dancers did a wonderful job of not just dancing, but also acting. I was generally able to realize what was happening even though I only had the dancers and the music to guide me. Also, I was blown away by the strength demonstrated by the dancers. I can now fully understand why Barre workout classes are popping up everywhere as the lastest craze in getting fit!

For all of my fellow readers out there who also attended the performance, I have a question for you. Did the plot of the ballet match up with the storyline of the novel, Dracula?

After this ballet, I really hope that we all get a chance to go see the Little Mermaid in the Spring!