the final countdown

I just came from registering for next semester's classes. Look at me, all grown up and a senior in college! I will be taking "Film and Literature," which is looking like an overview of most of what I've been studying these past few years, but I'm sure will be a good class to take concurrently while I write my thesis because a) it's exactly the subject I'll be writing about, and b) it's taught by my advisor and thesis reader! Wrapping up my last course requirement for my lit major I've signed up for "Women and Comedy," which is taught by my current (amazing) Jane Austen prof, and focuses on 18th and 19th Century lit.

The honor of fun elective will go to "L.A. Stories," a Pomona class which could be very helpful to me in the future. L.A. is a great setting and a better character, and we may indeed learn some history about my beautiful home as well. According to an email from the professor, "How is Los Angeles made and remade in the products of its culture? An exploration of that question in the overlapping fictive forms of noir, social realism, postmodern fantasy, and neo-noir. Writers to be considered include Nathanael West, Raymond Chandler, Christopher Isherwood, Chester Himes, Oscar Zeta Acosta, Joan Didion, Karen Tei Yamashita, Luis Valdez, and James Ellroy. Some attention, as well, to the more theoretical work of Theodor Adorno, Mike Davis, Norman Klein, and D.J. Waldie, as well as to the relationship between L.A. and our own Inland Empire. Films, roughly, from The Big Sleep to The Big Lebowski." If we don't watch Chinatown I'm going to have a fit.

Somehow I, a former dedicated athlete, managed to get this far in college without having completed her final P.E. requirement. To compensate, I'm taking two next semester. I'll be taking ballet again, which will be good for my state of mind, and I'm paying $50 to spend one weekend kicking some guy in the nuts and learning how to defend myself against attackers. Too cool.

Also, I'd just like to thank those of you who have read my blog so far. In the future I don't intend to continue with this many posts a day, but I'm just trying to bulk it up while it's getting started. If you like what you read here, I encourage you to sign up for blogspot so that there can be some discussion about what's posted, suggestions for what should be discussed, and communication among interested people about the cultural zeitgeist!

~Kat

P.S. Zeitgeist. What a word, huh? It's one of those terms that I hate myself for using, but I can't get enough of. Like...Schadenfreude, mise-en-scène, and even "deus ex machina." What are your favorite guilty pleasure words/phrases? I'd like my snobcabulary to expand as much as possible, please.
P.P.S. Yes, I just conflated two normal words to make a weird one that would never fit into its own description. I rock. If this is how I am after three hours of sleep, I'm doing alright!