Mummenshanz: 50 years

A treat for the mind.

Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley, CA. 8:00pm - 9:30pm.

Mummenshanz is celebrating fifty years of performing around the world, so they performed various silent acts from the last five decades. Mummenshanz is known for silent mime shows, where they portray emotion through dancing and elaborate costumes. They started last nights show opening the curtain with a life-sized hand.

Mummenshanz knows how to trick and entertain the mind with the use of black and bright color contrast. They employed various characters, such as a blob with a taste for spiky treats to their well-known clay masks. While their performances were silly and triggered laughter from the audience many times throughout the night, Mummenshanz remained smart and creative. With their larger than life costumes and expressive dancing they portrayed relationships, intimacy, kindness, sensibility, excitement, and so forth.

Some standouts performances from the night.

One of the first performances that caught my attention was the sea and sailboat act. There was an inflated balloon that represented the ocean, and a small sailboat with a single flashing light. The auditorium was quiet and all that was heard was the soft ruffling of the balloon as the sea carried the boat. Then, lightning struck and the sea swallowed the small sailboat.

Another outstanding performance, was the handshake. Again, they brought out the human-sized hands and with the two hands they danced, patted the audience, and told a story without a word.

Beautiful and intricate show.

Some quotes (running list)

"If man makes himself a worm he must not complain when he is trodden on." - Immanuel Kant

"Phenomenology is as painstaking as the works of Balzac, Proust, Valery, or Cezanne - through the same kind of attention and wonder, the same demand for awareness, the same will to grasp the sense of the world or of history in its nascent state. As such, phenomenology merges with the effort of modern thought." Maurice Merleu-Ponty, 'Preface', Phenomenology of Perception, p.lxxxv, translated by Donald A. Landes

"Three passions, simply but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a great ocean of anguish, reaching to the very edge of despair." - Bertrand Russel

A Newer Introduction

 Hi Everyone!

This is Santos :) I'm hoping to revitalize this blog by reviewing new media and uploading some original work. 

A few updates about me... I am in my last year at Cal! Yayy!! I am majoring in Philosophy and am currently interested in post-Kantian philosophy, phenomenology, metaphysics and existentialism. I am currently applying to graduate school. Among other things.. I am the Treasurer of the Cal Lightweight Rowing team, an organizer for Philosophy Forum, and a general member for Kesem Berkeley.

Recently, I have become interested in art, music, and fashion, so expect some reviews..

Hope all is well with you!

Drown - Junot Diaz

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This book does not, however, presume its impact-fulness. It felt as though I was reading the diary of someone.

There are some readers that call Junot Diaz a misogynist for his portrayal of women in this book. I was surprised to read these criticisms because from my initial reading I could feel how much Junot Diaz sympathized with the immigrant woman, who is also a mother, daughter, boss, employee, sister, mother-in-law, etc. Junot Diaz is not a misogynist for portraying women in a subservient manner, because it portrays to the reader that these women's stories remain untold. I apologize if I sound like an apologist but I wrote this review in haste and hope to return to it in the future and expand.

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The book was much more than vegetarian and vegan rhetoric in that animals are treated gruesomely and abhorrently, although true.

I also just got the ironic connection between corrupt leaders and pigs.

It truly is a well-executed satirical fable representational of these totalitarian ways of ruling. The seemingly peaceful socialistic society quickly turned gruesome and corrupt. What is evident is that the pigs were overcome with corruption and greed, and took on this role and developed aspects that the other animals unanimously despised: humans.
It's unfortunate what happens by the end, but, in retrospect, the rise and then fall of the Animal Farm, later renamed the Manor Farm, truly covers the brevity of the toxicity of following communism and dictatorship ideologies.
It's been evident before that power can often lead to corruption and oppression, and this book is truly indicative of this dreadful nature. A Great Read.