Tango

You know what is really hot? That's right, it's the tango. You know what is even hotter? Let me tell you, it's when two men dancing the tango together. In Argentina, it's called Queer Tango. The videos I am about to show you do not focus on the romantic same-sex relationship between the dancers; more likely, I intend to applaud the freedom from the hetero-normative codes in ballroom dances.

Men Tango

My dancer friends at Goucher are probably more knowledgeable than me about the aestheticism of ball room dances. I like ballet, ballroom dancing and dance composition and all, but the whole mechanistic minimalist modern dance sometimes performed at Goucher just didn't claim its place in my heart. I don't want to have a fixed prejudice against any art form. If I did, I would be in perpetual lamentation whenever an aria is sung and I wouldn't be risking my life taking the ghetto bus to go see old opera shown on a screen at the local movie theater. Anyway, There is a ball room dance class at Goucher, which is always in dire need of dancing guys. I decided to take the Jujitsu class instead, and I regretted my decision till this day.

Excuse my digression, the men in the clip below don't execute the common tango moves I see in the ballroom, yet I love the music very much. It's La Cumparsita, authentically tango, interpreted through modern dance - the good kind.



As you can see, the more the merrier. I like the staging here, you can play around with the Yin-Yang ideas, good vs. evil and the whole cornucopia.



And finally, when you decide to bring the dance out of the stage onto the street, and it's New York city. They are brothers, by the way. What a sumptuous visual experience.



Totally hot, I know.

11 Rules of Bill Gates

Can the Rules of Living be found
in these books?

I was doing some MCAT passages when I ran into Bill Gates' thought-provoking rules. Apparently, he "talked about how feel-good politically correct teachings have created a generation of kids who have no concept of reality and how this lack of a concept sets them up for failure in the real world." I see truth in his ways of thinking, so consider this a reality-check. Sugar-coating reality is quite lethal, don't you think?

• Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it.

• Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself.

• Rule 3: You will not make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone, until you earn both.

• Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure.

• Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping; they called it opportunity.

• Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parent's fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

• Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes, and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasite of your parents' generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

• Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades, and they'll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to anything in real life.

• Rule 9: Life is not divided into semester. You don't get summers off, and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. You have to do that on your own time.

• Rule 10: Television is not real life. In real life, people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

• Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one. 

I realize myself doing or not doing certain aspects proposed by these rules, which are quite practical and applicable to me as a young adult freshly out of college. I don't think these rules only work for a certain population at a certain age but should be considered universally to everyone. At the moment, I still can't believe that I graduated. Indeed, I still call these months my summer breaks, which makes me startled every times someone asks me about my plan post-grad. "Uhm... after the summer break, I'm taking the MCAT this September... uhm... probably find a job somewhere before applying to the med school." I'm still scared though. I want to get on my own feet taking care of my future before I can take care of anyone/anything else that needs me. Sitting at home studying might sound stagnant but dear World I am getting out there. *sigh*

Chopin Piano Concerto No.2 in F Minor Op.21

Frédéric François Chopin

I love the second movement, which makes me feel so peacefully pensive. I was thinking about Evgeny Kissin's rendition, but I decide to post Aimi Kobayashi's instead. She has a very distinct vivacity that is quite exhilarating to enjoy. I find her expressive nature genuine, not hysterically histrionic like Lang Lang. Ugh, maybe he deserves a second chance, who knows?

My MCAT prep is quite physically draining. I found this studying schedule some guy posted on the Student doctor forum, and am trying to catch up with it. Basically, it tries to squeeze my entire career of science undergrad in three months. What a bitch. Consider that the test is allegedly the only thing that stops me from obtaining the entrance ticket, I shouldn't be complaining.

My sister saw a ghost in the hallway this weekend. She diverted her fear to merry-making quite skillfully by poking fun at me since I am forever haunted by that movie The Hills Have Eyes (the remade one, I haven't seen the original, and I don't ever want to.) The story is that we got lost once in Nevada on the way back from Las Vegas to Orange County. I refused to leave the car as the household went into this sketchy gas station in the middle of the nowhere-but-the-desert to ask for direction. I was literally screaming and hissing and begging them to leave that god-forsaken hell-hole even though the car was running out of gas, the air conditioning system stopped working, and my infant nephew passed out from the heat.

Anyway, to calm me down, here is the beautiful Second Concerto. Enjoy.

[Update 05/03/12] The clips were removed. Please savor Mr. Kissin's rendtion!