(no subject)
Oct. 13th, 2004 03:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
charloweenthere's this reading that I have to wade through - 70 pages on Javanese shadow plays - that's densly written and filled with the Javanese terms for things. From what I can tell, Javanese is like Latin... dead language.
I've just finished reading 4 pages of how to identify characters based on the alus (refined) and kasar (coarse) physical characteristics of their puppet representation. Stuff like: "Both figures share the same general physical characteristics of medium-sized body build (pideska), medium-sized and pointed nose (sembada) and large, oval-shaped eyes (kedelen). This type of puppet indicates a noble figure, often a king, who has a violent temper or bold and vigorous ways." Et cetera.
And then I get to this part and started to laugh out loud: "Bima can be recognized not only by his large size and curling headdress but by a huge talon on each hand with which he rips apart his enemies."
So all this time I was trying to figure out whether he had a dempak, mbangir or sembada nose when all I had to do was look for the huge fucking claws. Sometimes this article is very informative, sometimes it's obtuse. I am glad I'm doing the homework, though, because tomorrow I'm actually going to see a traditional Javanese play (sorry... lakon). It's probably moderately comprehensible without knowing all the little details, but now I can sit through the performance and spend most of the time trying to remember why that damn tree was significant and what it's called. Kajon, I think, and it's um... tree of life?
Other than that, nothing interesting has happened. I got 80% on my 1st potogapy assignment and handed the 2nd one in. It's all close-ups of cornstalk roots. Landscape, shmandscape.
I've just finished reading 4 pages of how to identify characters based on the alus (refined) and kasar (coarse) physical characteristics of their puppet representation. Stuff like: "Both figures share the same general physical characteristics of medium-sized body build (pideska), medium-sized and pointed nose (sembada) and large, oval-shaped eyes (kedelen). This type of puppet indicates a noble figure, often a king, who has a violent temper or bold and vigorous ways." Et cetera.
And then I get to this part and started to laugh out loud: "Bima can be recognized not only by his large size and curling headdress but by a huge talon on each hand with which he rips apart his enemies."
So all this time I was trying to figure out whether he had a dempak, mbangir or sembada nose when all I had to do was look for the huge fucking claws. Sometimes this article is very informative, sometimes it's obtuse. I am glad I'm doing the homework, though, because tomorrow I'm actually going to see a traditional Javanese play (sorry... lakon). It's probably moderately comprehensible without knowing all the little details, but now I can sit through the performance and spend most of the time trying to remember why that damn tree was significant and what it's called. Kajon, I think, and it's um... tree of life?
Other than that, nothing interesting has happened. I got 80% on my 1st potogapy assignment and handed the 2nd one in. It's all close-ups of cornstalk roots. Landscape, shmandscape.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-13 03:00 pm (UTC)Damn this cold to the pus spewing bowels of hell!
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-14 07:53 am (UTC)Is the hell-pus flaming hell pus? Because flaming bowels-o-hell pus would be so cool.
"I don't know what the hell chee-ken soup is but there's food at the mining camp." (signs I've been watching Farscape too much)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-13 06:11 pm (UTC)You're making that up. Y'know, it's not nice to lie to friends. *shakes his head all disappointed-like*
Whatever it is, it sounds neat, and I wish I had a class that had stuff like that.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-14 08:02 am (UTC)Here's more:
"The gold wanda, called dunuk ("plump"), which shows a pot-bellied Samar, smiling and pleasant, would be used in quiet scenes; the black wanda called mega ("cloud") has a much more severe face (jutting jaw, narrowed eyes).... "
"The gender, gambang, and bonang paraphrase and elaborate upon the nuclear melody of the saron...."
ET CETERA.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-14 11:36 pm (UTC)