Whether or not we had to do a post about the class on Friday, I felt obligated to blog about the presentation by Rich Stremme on Friday in class. I found this class to be the most enjoyable thus far because it offered us perspective into another form of “art.” Rich is a singer in a band with Lisa’s husband, Mike, and he has had quite a history. I enjoyed the fact that he had a background and did not just come from one place and got to the top. He had a lot of stories and all of them revealed another characteristic of who he was as a person. My favorite part about how he ran around with the graffiti artist, Ravvs. Ravvs was a big influence on Rich and was a good friend to him. He was getting very emotional talking about how he would run around with Ravvs, telling his story on the walls of the subway. Rich really treasured the friendship he had with Ravvs. The “Godsquad” stories were something I thought were also very special. They defied the authority and were trying to make their band known to the city of New York. We discussed how the punk scene in New York sent him to just go crazy and have fun. Rich realized that it was the connection with the people that made it all worth while and that it was not the money or anything else that made him happy in his life. He wanted to connect to the people the way that the people he looked up to connected with him. One of the more awesome things about Rich was his love of art in the form of tattoos. He found that tattoos are a way of connecting a story and convening a message to the person looking at the tattoos which tells a little bit about the person who has the tattoos. Rich was a very fun guy to listen to and I was so happy that he came and talked to us. I hope we have more guest speakers like Rich that can come in and talk to us about their view of what art is and the numerous adventures that they took to get to where they are today. Plus, he owns two of the best guitars in the world, both of which I want from him.