This evening I saw the law school's improv comedy group perform along with a group from one of the Harvard undergrad houses. They weren't bad. I laughed. I got my money's worth and more (it was free). Tuesday night, I've been meaning to report but haven't had a chance yet, I went to see composer Randy Newman do a "conversation with some music" on the undergrad campus -- basically it was like an Inside The Actors Studio kind of thing -- an interviewer asked him questions and occasionally one would spur him to get up and play something on the piano and sing. And then he took questions from the audience. I was not hugely familiar with his body of work, but I definitely thought it would be cool to see him talk and sing -- and it really was. Totally converted me from a non-fan into a moderate-fan; and I thought he came off as an interesting, bright, articulate, passionate person and songwriter. Who has had a tremendous career I would give my little toe for. His song from Toy Story 2, "When She Loved Me" (performed by Sarah McLachlan) was very, very nice. His film music from The Natural was awesome. Good stuff. It's all been part of my effort to go see more arts stuff that's on campus -- these two events, the a cappella concert a couple of weeks ago, the Hasty Pudding show... I'm into all of it; definitely trying to take advantage. And even the non-arts stuff -- Dennis Kucinich, the law and politics panel this past week.... Because that's part of what makes being on a university campus cool -- there's stuff going on. I don't want to miss seeing interesting and cool things that'll make the day more fun and give me something to think about and talk about and maybe inspire some more creativity in me. Go see stuff. It's so worth it. So much better than movies. So so so much better than reality TV. So so so so so much better than doing your reading. :)