tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40864971964973886162011-07-07T23:00:18.794-07:00The Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01185770738368140213noreply@blogger.comBlogger251100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086497196497388616.post-34675746272548556042010-03-04T13:15:00.000-08:002010-03-04T17:31:01.901-08:00

What a wonder! Another week punctuated by steady rain. a true Los Angeles winter. I've only had to water my lawn once since December, that once in February when we had 90 degrees+ three days running. Now it's late winter cool again and the San Gabriels blur in a gray white smear of rain and snow. This evening I sit and listen to another steady rainfall in wonder at our brave trust that

The Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01185770738368140213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086497196497388616.post-38950580374040963602010-02-09T13:54:00.000-08:002010-02-09T14:07:20.161-08:00

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The Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01185770738368140213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086497196497388616.post-24639047436464401532009-12-30T17:03:00.000-08:002009-12-30T17:10:42.571-08:00

It’s been a quiet December at Cal State LA’s College of Arts and Letters. With the winter break, furlough days, and the always cold and silent week before winter quarter begins, I look forward to students, faculty, and staff returning to enliven the atmosphere. This year it was nice to stay home for the holidays. My break started off with a cheery evening at Disney Hall with the wonderful

The Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01185770738368140213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086497196497388616.post-39661990339852271642009-12-01T15:41:00.000-08:002009-12-01T15:53:45.434-08:00

The last ten days has been another whirlwind of events as we begin to wrap up Fall Quarter 2009 and the first decade of the 21st century. December 31st is the 10 year anniversary of Y2k. I spent the millennium celebration at a favorite hotel in the small town of Collias in the South of France, near the 2000 year old bridge and aqueduct, le Pont du Gard. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pont_du_Gard

The Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01185770738368140213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086497196497388616.post-18140411900543019432009-11-19T17:53:00.000-08:002009-11-19T18:13:38.425-08:00

I rarely pick up and leave in the middle of a quarter, but this year was an exception. My parents wanted to return to Hawaii, where we had lived from 1963-67. I’ve been back several times but my father had just flown in and out in 1969 and my mother hadn’t returned since we left 42 years ago. She and my brothers lived on the island of O’ahu for almost four years without leaving, so I wanted to

The Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01185770738368140213noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086497196497388616.post-13754993763490819912009-11-04T13:39:00.000-08:002009-11-04T13:52:27.448-08:00

October has flown, midterms have come and gone, and I’ve hardly had a chance to sit down and share. Now it’s November and ninety degrees (again); time to report the not so latest in Arts and Letters.Our welcome party for the first exchange students from Korea University was a smash. Several officers of the Korea University Alumni Association, including the President of the chapter for the

The Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01185770738368140213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086497196497388616.post-60843320116615893062009-10-12T11:47:00.000-07:002009-10-13T12:12:00.930-07:00

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The Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01185770738368140213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086497196497388616.post-84975364014902780522009-09-30T15:53:00.000-07:002009-09-30T15:56:25.338-07:00

From the Pasadena Star News: http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/ci_13447415

The Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01185770738368140213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086497196497388616.post-36990844297093583352009-09-30T15:34:00.000-07:002009-09-30T15:44:35.461-07:00

How often do you wake up in the morning and say to yourself, “I better hurry and get ready for the opera?” Well, when Wagner’s monumental nearly five-hour Siegfried is on the bill, you’d better get your daily ablutions out of the way early enough to enter the temple of music, properly cleansed with mind and senses awake. A double espresso also might help, especially when said Siegfried is an

The Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01185770738368140213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086497196497388616.post-81164859647936851572009-09-18T15:44:00.000-07:002009-09-30T15:48:40.805-07:00

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The Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01185770738368140213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086497196497388616.post-27129778080117637512009-09-08T15:31:00.000-07:002009-09-08T15:56:15.295-07:00

During three of the past five summers I spent a week at the Santa Fe Opera, watching the dramatic, distant lightning backlight the stage and enjoying some wonderful productions of La Somnabula (with Nathalie Dessaye), Tea: a Mirror of Soul (composer Tan Dun), and last year’s beautiful Billy Budd and Le nozze di Figaro. This year’s main attraction was La Dessaye in Traviata but having heard an

The Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01185770738368140213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086497196497388616.post-24883126553866569102009-09-02T11:03:00.000-07:002009-09-02T11:26:53.143-07:00

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The Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01185770738368140213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086497196497388616.post-55252091878947701042009-07-28T14:08:00.000-07:002009-07-28T14:20:31.188-07:00

As my beloved California self mutilates and summer strikes its first vicious blows naturally my thoughts turn to the world of entertainment. What better remedy for a bout of budget blues than a musical, a film, and…a musical?! Perhaps it’s mood, maybe it was bad choices, or then again it could be things used to be much, much better in the past because so far my summer has not been sizzling

The Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01185770738368140213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086497196497388616.post-79285895262839199382009-07-09T17:28:00.000-07:002009-07-15T13:14:20.439-07:00

And now the wrap up of my June trip to South Korea.After our tour at Seoul Institute for the Arts (now located in Ansa, not far from Seoul) our Fulbright group returned to Seoul on Friday, June 27. We met in the hallway at the Sangnam Institue to devise our final gift-giving protocols and then headed back to the Fulbright House for a program wrap-up, evaluation, lecture by one of the Fulbright

The Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01185770738368140213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086497196497388616.post-27363016704912148502009-07-06T10:25:00.000-07:002009-07-06T11:04:30.139-07:00

My last blog left me on my Fulbright trip to South Korea in Gyeongju, the capital of Silla, one of the three ancient kingdoms that formed on the Korean peninsula, the Buddhist center of Korea, and once the center of fabulous wealth. We visited a serene mountain Buddha, a temple complex at Bulguksa, huge burial mounds, museums and institutes in a muggy heat. Another rain cooled our visit to two

The Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01185770738368140213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086497196497388616.post-3424768468213431202009-06-26T15:52:00.000-07:002009-06-26T16:07:53.895-07:00

The last weeks of the spring quarter, always a whirl of events and emotions, became more hectic and unsettling as I readied myself to leave for South Korea on the US-Korea International Education Administrators Program. That I had to bring my luggage to Commencement and leave directly from the ceremony only heightened the inevitable tension of leaving work at a time of great budget upheaval,

The Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01185770738368140213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086497196497388616.post-46595996270171268592009-06-10T15:39:00.000-07:002009-06-10T15:44:15.875-07:00

Last Wednesday evening the light was transcendent, finely filtered through a lifting mist, a Millet or Monet brushed to life. A surprising thunderstorm had passed lending a new quality to the atmosphere, charged yet caressing. The storm wind had shaken the fully blooming jacaranda leaving a dazzling blue purple carpet on my front lawn. Jurple, the name I’ve given to jacaranda’s brilliant,

The Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01185770738368140213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086497196497388616.post-48002405032706860392009-06-02T11:35:00.000-07:002009-06-02T11:54:07.963-07:00

If a recent well-known author learned a lot from his kindergarten experience I suppose that I’m learning equally from watching quietly my own backyard. Now that the light stays later I’ve been trying to rush home to find some contemplative moments (oxymoronic irony noted).At dusk I’m often sitting or standing at the edge of my garden in a semi-meditative state reviewing the day’s events when a

The Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01185770738368140213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086497196497388616.post-12354671243108547362009-05-14T11:45:00.000-07:002009-05-14T11:56:16.810-07:00

The Good News:It’s been a busy few weeks, dear readers, and I’m just catching my breath (and icing my back) to write about one of the many arts and letters events that has me dancing, if stiffly, towards the academic year end deadline.On Saturday May 2, I hosted a book party for Josefina López. To date, Ms. López is known for her screenplay, Real Women Have Curves, which became the 2002 film

The Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01185770738368140213noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086497196497388616.post-2759789933026943612009-04-21T15:04:00.000-07:002009-04-21T15:07:27.803-07:00

Too long since my last blog and so many highlights since spring quarter began.On the academic quarter system it seems that we obsess about enrollment for about half of each quarter. Arts and Letters is having a record spring and this is likely very good news for our bumper crop of new freshmen. Our first year students seem to be staying—and taking their courses in an appropriate sequence

The Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01185770738368140213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086497196497388616.post-81871617118619601102009-04-01T14:21:00.000-07:002009-04-21T15:04:13.111-07:00

Now that spring is here the azaleas are ablaze. This year in my neighborhood and on and near campus the pre-blossoming jacaranda are thick with goldenrod sprouts exuding a mesmerizing sweetness (to be followed in May by an azure musk).Stepping out my front door is like walking into a florist’s shop during prom week. If only I could linger, even briefly, to join in the intoxication… In academia

The Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01185770738368140213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086497196497388616.post-35637831301257738672009-02-26T15:06:00.000-08:002009-03-11T16:18:55.715-07:00

You know those weeks when the most exciting things that happen are exactly the things that you can’t tell? That’s the way it goes sometimes with Deans. Now that our brief two weeks of winter rains have dissipated, it’s hiring season! It’s hard to believe that in this budget parched climate our state university is allowed to hire. But with so many retirements and some growing programs, I’m

The Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01185770738368140213noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086497196497388616.post-57531294384853340202009-02-04T14:58:00.000-08:002009-03-11T16:13:21.853-07:00

This past Saturday evening another extraordinary educational event occurred in Cal State LA’s College of Arts and Letters. Over 600 people turned out to discuss a pressing topic. Not the financial meltdown, the war in Iraq, or Sunday’s Super Bowl. Students, faculty, artists, civil servants, and the community came in great numbers to discuss public art in Los Angeles.The occasion? Under the

The Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01185770738368140213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086497196497388616.post-45459230933991427782009-01-30T15:31:00.000-08:002009-03-11T16:08:14.967-07:00

And don’t I love starting my weekly blog with that phrase! Five days, nine films, one spa treatment, one closing night party, and one cross-country ski lesson later, I’m back to sunny SoCal, fifty degrees warmer and much wiser about the inner workings of film festivals and the various grades of icy rain and powdery snow. Thanks to the amazing organizational and texting skills of Assistant

The Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01185770738368140213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086497196497388616.post-3805587307752814202009-01-30T11:50:00.000-08:002009-01-30T15:26:47.341-08:00

What a weird winter in California. Yes, I’m used to some warm snaps and sun soaked Rose Bowl parades, but this January when great swaths of the nation lie under bone chilling blankets, we in sunny Pasadena seem to be experiencing four seasons simultaneously.My white blossoming Crape Myrtle stripped naked, sculptural and touchable, woody bare hydrangea stalks, roses cut down to the stump, and

The Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01185770738368140213noreply@blogger.com0