The Universe Is Expanding

I think my feelings regarding the past week's Astronomy classes can be summed up with this clip from Annie Hall: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U1-OmAICpU

I would say that this certainly is an exciting time to be involved in astronomy, but that's only because I'm such a naturally enthusiastic individual. My peers tell me that my zest for education is exceeded only by that of life in general. Still, despite the wonderful times in which we live and the advances in modern telescopy which enable us to view galaxies and star-stuff many unfathomable fathoms distant, one can't help but wonder if astronomers weren't a bit more boss a few decades ago. To help prove the point of the bossness of these astronomers, I submit to you the following five photographs of Edwin Hubble, namesake of the Hubble telescope, proposer of a theory of universal expansion.

First, we see a humble Hubble sitting over his desk, surely after a long day's astronomizing, having a smoke while examining a photographic plate of the stars:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidewalt/2012/08/30/hubble-at-work/

 

 Nothing so unusual about that. Until you realize that Hubble didn't put the pipe down for anyone. He couldn't be bothered.

Here's Hubble at the telescope, observing and chilling out. (Courtesy NASA)

Here's Hubble with his cat, Nicholas Copernicus:

http://content.answcdn.com/main/content/img/scitech/HSedwinp.jpg

 

Here's Einstein observing something astronomical, while Hubble hangs back to learn from the master. Astronomer Walter Sydney Adams appears on the right:

http://www.interactions.org/quantumuniverse/qu2006/images/discovering_image_05.jpg

And just so everybody knew he wasn't an egg-head, 6'2" Hubble also broke records on his high-school basketball team:

http://chicagomaroon.com/2009/04/10/before-revolutionizing-astronomy-hubble-helped-rewrite-record-books/

Here's an article about Hubble's cat (who apparently didn't like Aldous Huxley: http://huntingtonblogs.org/2012/11/hubble-and-copernicus/

Meanwhile, back in Astronomy class... Professor Les Blatt explained different astronomers' calculations for the age of the universe as being between 13.6 and 13.7 billion years, "but what's 100,000 years between friends?"

Also, check out CMT's production of "Spring Awakening" in Atwood Hall tonight at 2PM and 7PM. It will rock your world like no other musical has ever before.

# 33 on the list of Places One Would Rather Not Get Snowed-In: A Theatre

Last week, Worcester was hit with some nasty weather of the hurricane/tropical storm variety. Not as bad as that which struck New York and other more coastal locales, but the administration still cancelled classes over it. Two days ago we were hit with some inches of snow. This was nothing over which to cancel classes. It only merited the sending out of snow-plows across campus at 5 AM to the chagrin of, I daresay, nearly every student who resided within earshot. After having watched a video on GLOBAL WARMING for Astronomy, I'm convinced that, as Alanis Morissette told me, "This isn't your grandma's climate." Unless your grandma grew up, alternately, in the Bahamas and Alaska, in which case, it might be exactly the same.

In the past week I've spent about 30 hours in a theatre, so it's difficult for me to consider other classes as being more relevant than that which is called Technical Theatre. As I alluded to last week, my life has successfully meshed the course proper with the play's production. (I use the term "play" in this instance to refer to "Miss Julie," a 19th century Swedish play by August Strindberg.) Though the class has moved into the area of stage management this week, I'm still in audio central. Last night was the show's opening and, despite a number of technical glitches from more than one area, it was pretty good. At this point, having mixed all the sounds and music needed, and having gotten rid of the bits that weren't along the way (a lot), and having set all the correct cues in the computer, all there is to do during the next performances is press a button on the assumption that the actors will do the same thing they did the night before. They usually do.

But stage management, right? Last class I took, like, four pages of notes which essentially boil down to how to structure one's time and get everything done. I think I'll incorporate the basic structure into my next book, "How to Say Yes: Getting Everything Done with Positivity," and then work the opposite angle with the sequel, "How to Say No: Getting More Things Done After You Don't Have Time for Anything Anymore" It's a working title.

Basically, what you need to know is that, 1) to get everything done that you want to, you need to attend to items that are at once important and not urgent before they become important and urgent, and they will, and 2) You can only affect what's within your sphere of influence, and nothing else. Worrying about things that you can't immediately influence will only cause you stress, make your hair fall out, and lead to unhealthy eating habits. As you work on those things that you can easily influence, your sphere will grow and you'll become more powerful than you could ever imagine. Like Godzilla with a clipboard.

Sounds of Loudness

There comes a time in every student's life when he or she just doesn't feel the same enthusiasm for class as at the beginning. This is what we call the end of the honeymoon phase. In the beginning, everything's new and exciting. What'll the course be like? Will I be challenged to my full potential? Is this the class to take me into a glorious future of bioinformatics or, dare I dream, education? It happens sometime after the middle of the term when the weight of the work becomes tangible and real. "But wait," I hear you cry, "You're a theatre major; surely there isn't that much work to be had with such a relaxed course of study!" Attend a moment and I shall reverse this notion while deftly weaving together a tale of academia and extracurricula.

Scene opens on a computer lab containing the students of the TECHNICAL THEATER class. They've been given an assignment involving the manipulation and distortion of sound effects to create a scene from a production of "H.M.S. Pinafore vs. the Pirates of Penzance from Space." The scene begins with the two ships firing upon each other, one with traditional canons, the other with lasers. Also, the Pinafore is crewed by barnyard animals, while the Pirates are robots. Pretty standard.

One of the more important elements of sound manipulation I've learned while working on this project is that of panning, which is the placement of the sound from right to left, or center. The point isn't just to find sound effects on the internet and place them one after the other in the program Garageband. There're all these little bits that need to be taken care of -- fine points that you don't notice when you're watching a movie, for example, but which make the scene completely believable movie magic.

I've had some experience working with sound for high school and college theatre productions, but usually with live microphones, so sound editing is a sort of brave new world. Add to that the radio programme on which I appear every week (for which many a sound effect and manipulation are needed every show), I find myself surrounded by sound.

Move forward, now, into Clark's upcoming production of "Miss Julie." (Three guesses for the technical capacity in which I find myself engaged regarding this show.) Last night, at a rehearsal which took the typical too long length of time for a show a week away, I offered up some song mixes for a scene of dancing, revelry, and debauchery. Imagine a bunch of drunk servants tipping over furniture and chanting a German drinking song for about two minutes, highlighted with a creepy Stravinsky track plus pre-recorded audio of that same drinking song playing as loud as possible and you might get a bit of an idea of where the scene is going. But that's just two minutes of the thing. That's just the part I had finished before the rehearsal yesterday.

A couple hours in, the director tells me that he wants some ambient noise throughout a different scene, so my technical theater professor and I mix about thirty seconds of background ambience characteristic of a drunken summer's night (this took about an hour and a half -- too long). The director takes a listen and proclaims that he thinks it'd be a good idea to have this sort of ambience play throughout the entire show. After a half-hearted attempt at convincing him that this is a bad idea, and that there shouldn't be ambient noise on stage for almost two hours, I consulted with my tech theater professor and left with directions to loop a lot of sound. Come tomorrow's rehearsal, there may not even be need for the sound I'm going to work out tonight, but I enjoy the work and do it for the love of the theatre, and if anyone ever needs two hours of ambient summer sounds, I can hook you up.

The point is, though the honeymoon phase is over for such classes as those which I've above described, this is the time when one can really learn what the class is all about, and find those hidden aspects that make the whole course of study meaningful and worthwhile, for now and for the future.