To have this topic as the “last” blog seems sour to me. Why should we find what is the most or least of something? All the performances and exhibits influenced us in their own unique ways. They all had something to express. Each expressed different ideas and some shared similar ideas. Talking about this reminds me of today.
After the snapshot event, I met up with a few of my fencing teammates at a ramen restaurant. We were talking about food and why they won’t eat pork or lamb and such. It struck me that each person experiences food different so we cannot fully compare ourselves to one another. Personally, I am fine with eating a lot of different foods. I am open to trying new things, but I do have my limits. For them, they have limits because of what they think or because of their beliefs. So for me, I cannot really compare the different performances and exhibits. No, I am not finding a way out of writing this blog. I am purely stating my opinion on it.
Rather I feel that the blog could have been a topic of our choice that related to the performances and exhibits as a whole. I find that more pleasing because, personally, I don’t think that this class is really ending. It is more of a beginning that exposes us to the city and the following seminars will further expose us to other ideas in the city and the world. That will be the topic that I will write about.
Every exhibit and performance was influential in many different ways: Andy Warhol and celebrity life, Jacques Offenbach (composer) and… love, Ralph Lemon and… expressing himself, Leon Levinstein and people, Israel Horovitz and racism, and the rest. Okay, the examples aren’t that great because they are very simplistic. If I went into depth, I would exhaust my brain. The brain is not meant for thinking, that is why we yawn (but I do not yawn much, somehow it is suppressed which is not good). Anyway, each performance has influenced me and as a whole they made me see the world in a lot more perspectives than I did before. Before, I viewed the world as cynical and horrible (in light terms) and humans as foreign and bestial (I, too, am a human, but I do not mind). I was really negative on the world and people, in general. But after experiencing all the shows, I am slowly understanding a bit more about life and its troubles. I can’t just bottle the ideas up in a small container. They need to grow and change. As I have grown and changed, my views of the world do the same and my understandings. Nothing is a simple, one-word answer. Everything is complex even though we may not want it to be.
This seminar was complex in itself because it made us think and ask questions. We had to voice our opinions and support them. The great thing is that we weren’t restricted on what we said which is something different because there is always a borderline. Even though we were given this freedom, I felt that we didn’t utilize it to its full extent because we were afraid of hurting others. But there can be other reasons why the freedom wasn’t utilized. We all fear something, like in Taxi Driver. I remember writing in a previous blog that we are all fueled by fear. I hope someday we will be able to break free from this sense of fear. I think the artists we have seen do not fear as much as we do because they are able to freely express themselves, especially Ralph Lemon.
In the end, (well, not really) I feel that there was a lot to take away from this seminar. All the experiences and people were great. I was glad in partaking of this journey. Now it is time to continue moving forward while taking what I’ve learned here with me. Mmmm… cake is a good thing to have to end the day. Ahahaha! This is exhilarating. Thank you, Professor Healey for these blogs. Even though I felt that they can be troublesome a few times, I am grateful for them. By the way, there is no cake >;D
