Required Readings for Thursday

Regarding the Information Report... wow. Just wow. From a personal perspective, this was a terrible event, but from a literary perspective, this was an impressive work. Many details were employed to inform the audience of every aspect of the hijacking. The details conveyed a definite feeling of shock and terror even for the audience members not directly impacted by this event and a sense of empathy for those who were impacted. It was a beautiful work describing a tragic event in our country's history.

I really don't have much that I can say about the Annotated Bibliography. The beginning is creative, and the rest is... a list. The list has some interesting titles in it, but there's not much that I can say about it unless I were to read any of the books described in the bibliography. It's just kind of... there...

The report was entertaining and definitely achieved the purpose of informing on the history of what we know as the blog, that thing I'm using right now to convey a message to an audience. Overall, all of the entries accomplished their purposes, but that's all I can really say about two out of three.

Thursday Night with Samavayah

The first thing I noticed when I walked into the Backdoor Playhouse last Thursday was low lighting and a red backdrop, so things were going well right off the bat. I wandered around for a while since the group was still setting up their props and instruments, and then I sat down in front and listened to one of the singers sing the opening prayer.

At first, it seemed strange. I was given a page that had unusual words on it, and later I found out that we, the audience, would be singing along. I'd never been to such a concert, but it seemed like it'd be fun. Later, the troupe informed us that we would be allowed to join them onstage and encouraged dancing and other actions during each verse.

It was definitely different, but that didn't take away from how enjoyable it was. It was very interactive and was... a liberating experience, at least while singing along. The back store that had Hindu-based materials was entertaining to browse through, as well. The night finished well, and the troupe regrouped at the Thai restaurant across the street.