Strawberry Fields Forever

is one of the courses I am taking this semester. I love this class cause of the diversities of students’ cultural backgrounds and all my cute and lovable classmates. There are about twenty students in this class and we are all from different countries. Most of us come from Asia, such as Taiwan, China, Korea and Thailand; a few are from South America. I like it also because this is the only class in my two year’s master program that I feel us caring about each other. Unlike my any other class in which everyone disappears right after class dismissed, we always hang around in the class a little bit chatting, talking about our lives, and we walk together to the entrance of the building, then say goodbye to each other.

Last Thursday is the last day of the class. Before the class dismissed, the professor reminded us of the “Power of Ten”. This is a website showing the earth at different perspectives. Each image is 10 times bigger or smaller than the one before or after it. By reminding us of this again, she wishes that we can always apply different viewpoints to explain things happening around us.

春神來了誰知道?

是一個集合獨立創作藝工作者的活動，今年第54屆，一共邀請到210位來自繪畫、攝影、陶藝、木雕、琉璃等藝術工作者參加。活動售票所得將全部捐贈給Austin Museum of Art。Festival在Austin的downtown舉行。原本車水馬龍的四街和五街被一個個四四方方的白色的帳棚所取代，大家悠閒地頂著82F 的德州大太陽從一個帳棚晃到下一個帳棚，開心的享受這個午後的藝術盛會。這裡不但有的看、有的拿、還可以跟在棚子裡的藝術家們寒喧兩句，聊聊創作血淚史或殺殺價之類的。而在這210個攤位中最讓我眼睛為之一亮的 (也是小朋友最多的) 就是以下這幾個有富有童玩風味的藝術創作：

嘻嘻嘻 看看我們臉上的笑容吧!!!

(South by South West) 可說是 Austin 每年藝文界的重頭戲。她是一個集合音樂、電影、網路的大型Festival，為期約一個禮拜，今年是在3/15-3/21，正好也是學生們放春假的時候。

在音樂部分，估計約有一千多個從世界各地來的bands，每晚輪番上陣在Austin最有名的6th street (一條酒吧街) 舉行表演，只要買個wrist band, 你可以酒吧一個接一個，從街頭聽到街尾，這家不喜歡換下一家，聽到高興為止。去年我有去，卡司還不錯呢，聽到了 Cat Power, Yo La Tango 和Supergrass，還有一些有趣的日本團。今年也有大卡的Sonic Youth, The Thrills, Stellastarr*,想必六街一定熱鬧非凡。除了Live music 之外，還有music conference, 請來一些音樂工作者分享當紅的音樂話題和創作歷程，去年就請到了Ani Defranco, 今年好像有Liz Phair。 在電影方面，則有一百多部的獨立製片電影參展，內容包羅萬象，從documentary, narrative, political到animation，買一張$50的pass也是可以讓你一次看個爽。