Author Archives: Osamu

The Advocacy Center

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Whenever I go to the restroom, I always manage to see the sign and contact information for the advocacy center. I have never really thought much about it, but Wednesday’s Rose cafe gave me a better understanding of what the Advocacy Center is all about.

Laura Rodriguez de Simons, a worker at the Advocacy Center described her work as helping people in the Tompkins County area by offering them free psychological and mental support. I was surprised to learn that even in a more rural area like Tompkins county, an organization like hers is constantly busy. I thought that this shows that no matter where one lives there will be people in need. As a student at Cornell, one can easily disregard all the suffering that occurs behind the scenes, even though he/she may not intend it. We usually leave this dark side up to places like the Advocacy center to deal with.

After the talk, I realize that that if we want to help a community, there is always room for more volunteers. Even in the countryside where one would not expect social problems, they actually do exist. While this might sound depressing, it is good to remember that there is always oppertunity to help others. No matter what career path one chooses or where they live, he she/ can always contribute his/her skill to a place like the advocacy center.

Watching a concert from literally a different perspective

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A week ago, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the Cornell Symphony Orchestra concert would be a Rose event. Since I play in the CSO, it was nice to know that I would be fulfilling my rose event at the same time performing in the concert!

In the concert I played the viola and was fortunately located right at the center of the stage where I could observe all the players. Like many other concerts we have had in the past, the performance was very different from our usual practice. In rehearsal, the orchestra concentrates on all the technical aspects of each piece which drains out much of the fun and makes the music seem lifeless and repetitive.  As performers, our main goal is not to mess up during the actual concert. However on the day of the actual performance, people are no longer nervous about making mistakes because there is no use worrying about it. All the musicians can do is do their best. Even the conductor always reminds the orchestra on the day of the concert to relax and enjoy the music, and not to worry about making mistakes during the performance. This way of thinking aways works and makes the music feel alive and transformed.  In many ways, I think the performance on the actual day is special because we too (not just the audience) are able to enjoy the music .

While this performance was just another great experience, it was also a sad one for many of the musicians because the visiting conductor would be leaving after this semester. Even though he is just a visiting guest conductor for this semester, the short time we had with him has created a bond. While many musicians (including myself) did not attempt to get to know him on a personal level, almost all of the people I talked to felt sad that he would be leaving. This is quite interesting because it shows that music crates a sense of attachment between people. Since successful performance requires the conductor to understand the characteristics of the orchestra, it is necessary for everyone to understand the conductor at a deeper psychological level. Though this usually happens naturally over time, it is interesting how this deep understanding of one another can lead to an unnoticed friendship between the orchestra and conductor.

IMG-459107932While this particular performance was very exhausting compared to others, it was also a great one. I am already looking forward to next semester’s performance!

Interesting Movie

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Last Thursday, I went to see “Aferim!”, a movie that was about Gypsies. Since I did not read the description, I thought the movie would be more of a documentary and was prepared for some dry movie. However, it was completely not what I expected…

One thing I learned from this movie was how possessive and sexual men were in the 1800s, especially those of Eastern European decent. While people today tend to marry whomever whenever they want, our culture has become less centered around family. However after watching the movie, I observed that marriage was taken more seriously and was considered a necessity for survival. In other words, conducting adultery or being unfaithful towards one’s mate was punishable by death. Especially for women, wives had to be obedient towards their husband. This movie made me realize how much our culture (or at least that of European heritage) has drastically changed over such a short period of time.

While foreign films tend to be more difficult to understand, this specific movie was pretty simple.When I first figured out that the movie would be in a foreign language and in Black/white, I thought that I will eventually drift off to sleep. However, because the story was not complex and had a smooth flow throughout, I found that I was able to stay engaged throughout the entire movie. I think this showed (at least to me) that life (at least from the perspective of the movie) in the 1800s was more simple and slower moving. While people did have hardships and conflicts, the average person’s lifestyle appeared to be more simple and thus less complex. In other words through this movie, I observed that while life on earth has become “advanced” through technology, it has also added numerous complexities. However, I know it is not good to judge form one movie and thus conclude that in this specific situation, people appeared to have simpler lives.

This movie therefore has given me a new understanding of how life has changed and evolved over time.

What is an activist?

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What is a real activist? When I usually think of one, I usually think of active protesting. As a child, my parents were constantly involved in demonstrations and protests. There was a lot of shouting, marching, fundraising, and meetings with government officials. Thus, when I think of activism, I automatically equate the word with what I saw growing up.

Todays discussion about activism gave me a better sense of what activism could mean. For example, I realized that protesting is just one way of being an activist. Some activist might never protest, but are behind the scenes organizing the event. This is still activism. Other way of activism could be quiet protesting. In other words, people could be activists by quietly and peacefully working against their opponents. Such an example is Gandhi and the Salt March where people quietly boycotted the British colonial government by harvesting their own salt. Though violence did result from this action, the activists were not initially rioters, but peaceful activists. In this way after reflecting over the definition of protesting, I realized that there are many ways to be an activist.

Today’s discussion has made me understand that the definition of an activist can be very complex. While individuals have their own simplified definition of an activist (like myself), I realized that it is important to understand that there are many different versions of activism. Like many words, it is not a good idea to oversimplify definitions, especially those that could lead to conflict. It is good to keep a flexible definition of words like activism… But wait, this is hard to do, since simplification is the nature of how our brain works. Therefore I find that  it can be difficult to find the balance between the two different ways of thinking.

Rape Culture

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Sexual harassment and rape is a big thing on campus these days. When I first transferred to Cornell, I was very surprised to see how much Cornell emphasized the danger of rape and sexual conduct on campus. Tonight’s discussion with Ms. Harding gave me a chance to learn more about why rape is such a big deal on college campuses.

One thing I found interesting at Ms. Harding’s discussion was the idea that men can also be victims of rape. Usually, when I usually hear of rape, I instead usually picture the woman as the victim. However, according to Ms. Harding sexual assault and rape can happen to anyone.

Another thing I found interesting at tonight’s discussion was that rape culture happens at all schools. In other words, no matter how prestigious the college/university might be, there is an equally high probability that rape will occur on that campus. I found this hard to believe because it just naturally seems more likely that rape will occur at less competitive schools (I do not mean this in an offensive way).

Overall, I found that Ms. Harding’s discussion was very informative and gave me a better understanding about the current rape situation on campus. I think that more of these kind of educational discussions will help the issue of rape and sexual harassment on campuses throughout the country.

Free Movie

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Learning about how a movie theater works has been more fascinating than I thought. We learned about the tedious process of obtaining newly released films as well as how the actual movie was projected on the screen.  We were generously given free access to any movie by Rose house. Therefore I thought this event was definitely worth the time to come to Ithaca.

The first thing the movie theater manager talked about was the process of obtaining a newly released movie. Up to two years ago, Hollywood still used films which took a long time to travel across the country. This was quite interesting because as a person from Japan, newly released American or European movies took a year or two to make their way over to Japanese movie theaters. As you can imagine, that was quite frustrating for many people including myself.  However, over the years I noticed that this delay of new releases was getting shorter and shorter. According to the manager of the movie theater, movie theaters have stopped using film altogether due to the large size and limited supply and are now using large flash drives instead. This conversion has allowed movie theaters to easily get the new movie on time.

Like most people, I have been to movie theaters many times without knowing anything about what happened behind the scene. I just assumed that there was a man in a back room with stacks of film, managing the projector and everything else that had to do with the theater. However, I was wrong. When we went into the back room, there was a large box with a projector on top. This box was the computer that scheduled  and played the movies, controlled the lights, managed the room temperature, and everything else that is associated to  the theater. I found this extremely fascinating and realized how much computers have changed our world.

Visiting a movie theater was more interesting than I thought. Before visiting, I did not have high expectations and thought that there would not be much to see other than the theater itself. However, I found that a movie theater has many more parts to it other than showing the movie. I would definitely go again!

 

Sports at an Ivy League

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Mr. Tanasoiu’s talk on being an athlete an Ivy League was very informative. While I did know that sports at Cornell and other Ivy League Universities was very competitive, I did not know how time consuming it actually was. Because all Ivy league universities are academically rigorous, I expected that these athletes would either focus on one or the other (sports or academics). However, these athletes are expected to perform well in both. Additionally, some of these students are majoring in though subjects like engineering. I find this to be quite remarkable, at the same time…crazy. How can a person excel in both? Doesn’t the student/athlete get overwhelmed by the amount of work? According to Mr. Tanasoiu, time management is the key. Because each athlete has a crammed schedule, he/she must use his/her time as efficiently as possible. Of course this makes sense; the more you can do within a certain given time, the more time you will have to do other things.

While I originally went to this meeting to get some inspiration, I found that I was instead more overwhelmed by what these students can do. Yet at the same time, I realized that time management is key in order to be successful in life.

A nice morning walk

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Ornithology is something I do not know much about. I do like birds, but I just never thought about them as an academic study. That is why I decided to go to the Cornell Ornithology lab.

When we first arrived, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the lab grounds were almost as nice as the Cornell plantations. While we walked around the grounds, the guide explained to us about the different facts of birds that exist at the lab.

Though I did find some of the information interesting, I was mostly surprised by the amount of birds I could hear in that specific area. Unlike the rest of the Cornell campus where only a few birds can be heard, here it felt like I could hear ten or maybe even 20 different bird species singing at once. At first, I thought that these birds must be controlled  in some way to keep them inside the grounds. However, the guide told me that this accumulation of birds was actually natural and the lab does not have any control over the birds that come and leave the grounds. I found this fact interesting because one normally does not see such a diverse and dense population of birds in a small geographical area.

Apart from ornithology, the guide showed us  the skeleton  snake that was almost 30 feet long. Thought it does not make sense why an ornithology lab has a snake, it was quite amazing to see the size of the animal. I thought this was one of the most impressive things I saw that day.

Overall, the ornithology lab was a nice place to visit and take a nice morning walk. Though we did not see many birds up close except for Canadian Geese and finches, it was interesting to learn how scientists study birds and what it is all about.

Jurassic World!

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Last week, I went to the Museum of the earth. As a local of Central New York, I have always heard of Earth museum in Ithaca. This was a great oppertunity to finally go inside and see what it was all about.

The collection was a bit disappointing. At first, I expected to be walking through a large collection of fossils. However, the museum was small and only took 30 minutes or so to walk through the entire museum. While the collection was interesting to see, I found myself most of the time looking at plastic models rather than real fossils. Why would a person want to come to a museum to see plastic models and animated animals? You can just google this and see the entire museum. This question kept repeating in my mind. I know that fossils are rare and hard to find, but I expected that with all the money put into the construction of the building itself, the collection of fossils would be a more impressive collection. In other words, I was more impressed with the building than with the collection of fossils.

The one thing that I found worthwhile at the museum was the tropical fish tanks. As a big fan of coral reefs and tropical fish, I was very impressed by the beautiful ocean scape  in the tanks. It was interesting to see all the different strange looking plants and animals that lived in that tank. After observing these sea animals,the whole idea that life started in the ocean seemed to make sense. In many ways, it seems as though the ocean contains the entire story of evolution. While fossils are important, I find that the ocean can actually tell more about the story of the earth and life itself.

In the end, while the collection of fossils was not entirely impressive, the fish tanks at the end the tour made my day!

Rich culture

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Music has always been an important part of my life. As a child, I always felt inspired after a good concert or some musical event. It always gave me a sense of deep satisfaction and comfort. However for a great deal of my life good musical performances were hard to come by, for I lived in a poor small city in Japan where classical music was almost nonexistent. Unlike the United States where foreign music and art is fairly accessible throughout the country, Japan only has accessible foreign cultural events clustered around well-known large metropolitan areas like Tokyo and Kyoto-Osaka. Obscure cities like mine that are far from these major metropolitan centers are unable to afford most international musical ensembles and famous art exhibitions. The few that might come to a city like ours would usually be overpriced ( $300~) and would be mediocre performances.

When I moved back to the United States three years ago, I was shocked to see the richness and abundance of music as well as other cultural related events. After the Freiburg performance, I remembered how lucky I am to have access to such events that would be inaccessible to most people in Japan and other countries. Thank you to all who made this special event possible!

Watching a Quartet close up

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Music is something I really enjoy, especially classical. Tonight, I went to hear the Momenta Quartet perform in a professor’s apartment. At first I was surprised to hear that the performance would take place in an apartment. It just seemed that it would be too tight. And indeed, the space was too small for the quartet. The large audience sat right up against musicians who performed their intense yet wonderful music. As a violist myself, I really enjoyed sitting up close to the musicians and observing their techniques. However for a large portion of the audience, I could see that sitting up close was not a great experience. In fact, the music was probably less appealing and a bit too loud. As part of the audience, the performance felt like an intense fight between four instruments.  For me, I enjoyed watching this “fight” or interaction between the musicians. It gave me a better understanding on the importance of psychological connection between musicians. Therefore, even though the performance was a bit too intense and loud for the size of the room, for me it was nice to have the oppertunity to watch the musicians up close.