First off, a review. I went to the BB King concert Wednesday, and the King of the Blues was...the King. Occasionally rambling between songs, amazing during them, but definitely showing his age -- he shared the wisdom that's come with his 83 years freely. The warm-up band from Chicago was pretty good too (although between them, intermission, and the intro numbers by BB King's own band, he didn't get on stage until 9, so there was only an hour out of a two and half hour show with the headliner. Still a good show overall.) They did a standard 5 song warm up set. BB King did a number of songs, only one of which I recognized from an older album. He made a Willie Nelson reference at one point, who's coming to Stephens in December (I'm guessing BB King didn't even know). Isn't it great how we can walk and see not just the academic and student events, but some of the most amazing artists of the 20th century?
The other review I'd hoped to do was the movie I'd wanted to see, Nick and Norah -- surprisingly, it hasn't stayed a second week so I'm going to have to hope it returns or goes to the North Grand theaters. The two movies at the Varsity now just don't appeal to me (Eagle Eye and Sex Drive), although the new big-budget western directed by Ed Harris, Appaloosa, and the new plot-twist-riddled police corruption story starring Colin Ferrell and Ed Norton, Pride and Glory, look like they have potential. I'm hoping they stay for a little while since I'll be out of town from Friday through Tuesday, so if they're out after only a week I won't get much of a chance.
In other upcoming walking distance events, the Greek community is a bit busier with the fundraisers this week, with brats at Adelante Wednesday night, spaghetti at Sigma Alpha Epsilon late Thursday night/friday morning, and walking tacos hosted by Phi Beta Chi at the Memorial Lutheran Church (they're one of the few Greek organizations that doesn't own a house.)
This weekend is big for student productions, with the Symphony Orchestra on Friday, Band Extravaganza Saturday evening, and the ISU Theatre production of Tartuffe all weekend (showtimes and ticket prices at their websites).
Other performing arts include the Billy Joel based musical, Moving Out, on Thursday, and the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra on Sunday.
Lots of concerts and comedy at the M-Shop, and lectures (mostly at the Union) in the next week -- none of them from a genre or academic discipline respectively that I'm especially interested in, but in a couple of weeks is Carly Fiorina, and later that week is a forum with Dr. Politics and Arnie Arneson. I am a WOI addict so I will probably be there for that.
Finally, athletics -- Football is away (there's only 1 home game left, it's the 15th.) Basketball exhibitions have started, with a couple this weekend, as well as a volleyball game. Wrestling starts next week, so we are definitely shifting gears away from fall and into winter.
As always, if you made it to anything, please post your comments below!
Showing posts with label basketball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label basketball. Show all posts
Monday, November 3, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
ISU Lectures: Paul Shirley
Paul Shirley's talk was a lot of fun. He's got a self-deprecating shtick, heavily laden with sarcasm, that makes you think he'd be a fun guy to spend an evening having a conversation with. Since the talk was part of the Globalization series (actually a mechanical engineering course, but everything's open to the public), he tried to make a few points about how students should respond to that, namely:
1. Don't try to predict change; it's unpredictable by its very nature. (he recommended The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.)
2. Don't specialize yourself too much, as tempting as it is as an engineer.
3. Pay attention to the world around you. Go visit it.
He also had some life lessons to impart learned from sports and the business of sports, about how to deal with stress and failure, mainly having the right attitude so that you don't compromise your own success, as well as living in the moment. He also recommended writing as a way to handle failure. But the main thing I got out of it was the anecdotes, pretty hilarious on their own but made funnier by his style (if you like it; there were a few times when Chris, my old roommate, and I were the only ones laughing out loud. I think some of the students were afraid to be amused by a classroom speaker.) If you missed it, there's supposed to be a podcast, but it looks like they haven't updated that feed since spring. Check back with www.lectures.iastate.edu/podcasts/ in a week or two. I'd totally recommend his book, and he was classy enough to stick around signing them afterwards; I'm sure he'll be back in Central Iowa to sign books at some point in the future.
1. Don't try to predict change; it's unpredictable by its very nature. (he recommended The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.)
2. Don't specialize yourself too much, as tempting as it is as an engineer.
3. Pay attention to the world around you. Go visit it.
He also had some life lessons to impart learned from sports and the business of sports, about how to deal with stress and failure, mainly having the right attitude so that you don't compromise your own success, as well as living in the moment. He also recommended writing as a way to handle failure. But the main thing I got out of it was the anecdotes, pretty hilarious on their own but made funnier by his style (if you like it; there were a few times when Chris, my old roommate, and I were the only ones laughing out loud. I think some of the students were afraid to be amused by a classroom speaker.) If you missed it, there's supposed to be a podcast, but it looks like they haven't updated that feed since spring. Check back with www.lectures.iastate.edu/podcasts/ in a week or two. I'd totally recommend his book, and he was classy enough to stick around signing them afterwards; I'm sure he'll be back in Central Iowa to sign books at some point in the future.
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