**Sigh**

It’s already December and the end of an extremely eventful semester.

As I think back to those first days of semester in August, the main words that run through my mind are: “Who would have thought?”  Who would have thought that I could stay awake and alert in a class three hours long, when I could barely manage in my forty minute classes in high school?  Who would have thought that I would get to explore my city so much, even venturing out to Brooklyn for the first time in my life?  Who would have thought that there would be so many people on the subways at 1 a.m., as I found out when I traveled back from the opera one night.  Who would have thought that this class would give me so much to talk about and so much to look back fondly on?

I flash back to the beginning of the semester.  I am talking to my friend about my photojournal project.  I’m so excited about my photos that I email all my friends the link to my Macaulay page, telling them to keep up with my photos.  I remember one of my friends calling me lucky and saying that she wishes she had a fun class on her schedule.  I tell her that’s why she should have come to Queens.

A few weeks later, this class gets even better for me.  We go see “The Little Foxes” and it’s my first time getting to see a live performance.  I’m nervous and excited because of course, I want to see a live play but then the weather outside is terrible and I’ve never been out to the city so late before.  I find out as the semester goes on, that I love being in the city at night.  There’s so many people around and it feels safe and it’s beautiful.  Plus, hailing a taxi to come back home actually makes me feel sophisticated and grown-up, for some reason.  Anyways, back to the play.  I think that “The Little Foxes” affected me the most precisely because it was my very first live performance.  Everything was new and exciting and magical to me.  I remember sitting in my seat like a child, gazing in awe at the stage, flinching every time the actors started to yell and hit each other, and just thinking “This is so cool.  This is so cool”.

I also think that “The Little Foxes” affected me so much because the plot of the play was just so interesting.  Coming into the theater, I had no idea what the play was going to be about.  I think that this made the experience better for me, because as the play unraveled and all the drama between the siblings, and Regina and her daughter (yes, it’s been so long I’ve already forgotten some names) exploded, I found myself caught up in the drama and wanting to know what would happen next.  Also, for me at least, the characters make or break a story for me.  If the plot of a story is bad but then the characters are oddly fascinating, I’ll give that story a positive review.  With “The Little Foxes” I thought that all the characters were fascinating because they weren’t two dimensional and I never knew if I should feel sorry for them or hate them (with exceptions like Birdie, of course.  See, the names are coming back to me now).

Of course, we saw so many performances there has to be one that wasn’t that enjoyable.  Hmmmm…. a performance that I didn’t like…. a performance that made me wish I’d stayed in my house all day…. a performance that made me think Professor Healey was purposely away for it… This is going to be a tough one.  No, as I’m sure many people can agree, the Ralph Lemon piece at BAM was my least favorite.

I guess that this piece was the least affecting for me because it wasn’t what I was expecting.  You see, when I walked into the BAM, I thought that I was going to see a dance performance.  I thought that this meant music, cool costumes, and well… dancing.  However, I actually didn’t get any of that.  Reading some of the blogs about Ralph Lemon’s visit to Queens College, I saw that the Ralph Lemon piece was not meant to be something that we would understand.  It’s just that I didn’t know that when I actually sat in the audience and watched the performance.  I just sat feeling really confused and bored about having to watch people twirl and bang themselves on the ground and put socks on their feet.  This wasn’t entertaining for me, and I think that this performance disappointed me because I was expecting it to be really entertaining.  Despite how bad I might have found this performance, however, it still makes for an interesting memory and an interesting story to tell.

Besides more knowledge about the arts in NYC, one of the biggest things that this seminar has given me is a treasure chest of stories to tell.  It has also opened my mind to some wonderful directors and writers that are out there.  I will even be giving my bookworm friend my copy of “The Metal Children” to read.  I hope that we can discuss it, just like the discussions that our class had that I will miss so much.  I’ve come a long way in this semester and I will always remember it as my most exciting class of freshmen year.

Au revoir, Arts in NYC.

…A wop bam boom

Awww….I’m going to miss this class. For real….Time sure does fly by when you’re having fun :).

It’s hard to pick just one piece that affected me the most, so I’m going to begin with the least succesful and go on from there.

Ok, so since I actually really liked this performance this might be a little bit of a contradiction but I believe that the least successful was Ralph Lemon’s piece. It was successful to me and maybe two other people, but for the whole class it seemed to be the one that people had the most problems with. Most of my classmates had problems grasping the meaning (although respectively there might not even have been a meaning). I really felt that it was an interesting experience. It opened my eyes to something new and challenged my views on what art/dance really is. Based on the majority though, it didn’t serve it’s purpose if people weren’t inspired or challenged by it.

Ok, phew got that over with. On to the next challenge.

The performance that affected me the most was “Beirut Rocks.” I actually liked everything from this semester,maybe some more than others, but this was the performance that started it all. This was the one that began the controversies and some of the major themes we explored in class. I’ll never forget that moment in the play when Nasa said that the world would be a better place without Jews and everyone in the audience gasped at the same time.

It was weird, while watching this play because I actually tried to place myself in all the characters’ situations and by doing that I understood where they were all coming from. Usually while watching a play you pick one or two characters you can identify with but with this one you could very easily be every one of them. Although they were different, in the end they were all the same: a bunch of young, scared, college students forced to come to the realization that war is cruel and it always bring out the worst in us.

This play strongly displayed themes of racial tension, like in “Do The Right Thing,” conflict and war, like in “Fahrenheit 9/11”, and the role of women, like in “Ruined.” Even after seeing three performances in a row this was the one that stuck in everyone’s minds when we discussed them in class, and the one we all felt we could most strongly relate to. That’s where this performance comes in as more successful than Ralph Lemon’s piece. My classmates were able to understand and discuss the major themes and the significance of the play. On the contrary you couldn’t really place Ralph Lemon’s piece with a lot of the themes discussed in this semester.(I mean you could…if you really tried =/ )

From this though stems the question, of what is art? Something we should look at and relate to or something that exposes us to new ideas and makes us question our old ideas? I believe it could be both but that it should be more of the latter.

And so, I tip my hat and bid my adieu to you (at least in writing). I’m sure I’ll see you guys around but this class was a blast and I hope everyone will have much success in the future~ 🙂

XoXoXo,

Olivia~ <3

Wow, I can’t believe I can actually say I’ve ridden on a city bus, and been into the city more than once a year.

Unfortunately for me, before this class that’s what my life was like, I guess you could say that living in the suburbs really sheltered me.

The first exhibit that we had to go see at the Brooklyn Musuem, I remember getting ready to go out with a bunch of people from class, and when I told them that this was my first time going on a bus, they couldn’t believe it, but it was true, and now I can say that I’ve been on one more than once. I actually also thought that there was only a 1,2,3 subway, and now I’ve learned that there are not only many different numbers, but also letters (who would have thought?!).  A place that was so unknown and unfamiliar to me is now becoming more known to me, and I’m so glad that this class has given me the opportunity to become more cultured. I’m so glad that I can now consider myself to be considered a cultured individual, and I hope to continue to see new intriguing things.

My favorite performance that we saw this semester would have to be the opera that we saw, les Contes d’Hoffman, maybe it’s because it was the first and only opera that I have ever seen, or it could just be because there was so much going on on the stage, but for these reasons and many others it was my favorite performance of the semester! Everything was just so amazing, from the sights to the sounds, I felt that even though I was so tired, I could not help but pay attention. The opera truly provided my eyes with “eye candy”.  Although I couldn’t understand everything that was being said because it was in French, the language barrier was not an issue just because it was so beautiful to listen to and watch.

I could definitely see myself going to the opera again, and I’m so glad that I had the opportunity to go to one this year.

Maybe next time we can actually all get dressed up in fur coats, top hats and bring monocles, now wouldn’t that be fun?!??

Although this was my favorite thing that we saw this semester, I wouldn’t say that this was the most effective thing that I’ve seen this semester. Contes d’Hoffman was so my favorite because it was the most entertaining to me, but did it actually have any meaning behind it….well if it did, I must have missed it because I was just too distracted by the beautiful environment. The thing I viewed this semester that had the greatest effect on me had to have been Farenheit 9/11. The strong stance that was taken within this documentary definitely caught my attention right away. This documentary was filled with facts, but so many of the things that were said I just wanted to believe weren’t facts. I mean it’s not that I didn’t believe that some of these things could be true, I guess it’s more that I didn’t’ want to believe these things. I was just so angry while watching this film, and that’s exactly what Michael Moore wanted to do, he wanted to make us angry, we were supposed to walk away mad, and trust me, I WAS!

Least favorite performance of this semester…..I think that one’s pretty obvious. Ralph Lemon. Although I now have a better understanding of what the piece was supposed to accomplish, immediately after watching the “dance” I will never forget the subway ride home where everyone was just hysterically laughing. I laughed so hard on the subway ride home that I could barely breathe. Sure Ralph tested the boundaries of what we consider dance, but did I find this entertaining…..absolutely not!!! I’m more entertained at my little brother’s middle school orchestra concerts (which aren’t that entertaining). Besides the entertainment factor, I guess I just really didn’t think that there could be any meaning behind a man dancing with one sock on a stage, or a girl spinning in circles for what seems like hours upon hours. Let’s just say that if I ever had the opportunity to go sit through something like this, I definitely would NOT!

I have to say that my favorite part about this class wasn’t our discussions or the plays we read or movies we’ve seen (although I really enjoyed both).  My favorite thing about this class is that it exposed us to live theater and gave us new experiences (both good and, shall we say, not so good).  Would I ever have gone to see “Little Foxes” at New York Theater Workshop, or any play at NYTW for that matter, on my own?  I have to say probably not.  But am I glad that I went as part of our Arts of NYC class?  As Sarah Palin would say, “you betcha!!”  Would I have gone to the Metropolitan Opera?  Not in a million years.  Now would I go back?  Yeah.  Would I ever have gone to see Ralph Lemmon on my own?  No.  Now would I see it again?  ABSOLUTELY NOT.

I guess it is clear that the Ralph Lemmon performance was my least favorite this semester and that I thought it was the least effective.  It was strange, and hard to relate to, and there was not a clear point of it, which made it ineffective.  After our discussions in class and with Ralph and the dancers, I understood that there was a point he was trying to make.  But to the average person who wasn’t studying the performance and didn’t have a chance to speak to Lemmon and the dancers, the point would have been unclear and the dance would have been excruciatingly boring, which is why many people left in the middle.

But since I’m pretty sure that most people in our class will say Ralph Lemmon was least effective/ least favorite, to be different I’ll say that Kissing Fidel was pretty out there.  While it was definitely an entertaining piece to read (who wouldn’t love gay incest??) I don’t think it was effective in conveying a point or opinion.  Here is where I would go into reasons why I don’t think it was effective in proving a point, but the problem is that I don’t even know what point it was trying to prove which is why I can’t even disprove it or claim that he didn’t say the point he wanted to-because I DON’T KNOW WHAT POINT HE WAS TRYING TO MAKE.  That fact alone is enough to tell me it was ineffective in getting a point across.

Out of all the live performances we saw, I think my favorite was Contes D’Hoffman.  It wasn’t only the performance, it was the whole experience.  I loved seeing all the people getting dressed up in ball gowns and it was fun to follow them and take pictures of them.  I felt like the paparazzi.  Next time I go to the opera, I want to dress up like those fancy ladies.  I also loved the actual performance because of the spectacle and the singing.  I didn’t understand it, but that was fine because I enjoyed the experience.  Also the subtitles helped.  Although it was my favorite, I don’t know if I would call it the most effective because again, I wasn’t sure what point it was trying to make.  I think it was more of teaching us to appreciate the opera by showing that it is not just for old people.

I think the most effective piece we saw this semester was Fahrenheit 9/11.  It was the most effective because it was the clearest- it had an agenda, a clear opinion pointing in a certain direction, and it made its point very, very clearly.  As I spoke about in the Fahrenheit 9/11 blog, whether you agreed with it or not, there was a clear point that couldn’t be mistaken or misunderstood.

All in all, I have to say that I loved this class and all the performances we saw.  Even Ralph Lemmon.  I mean, I didn’t love the Ralph Lemmon performance, but I enjoyed complaining about it and talking about how much I hated it.  But for real, I truly enjoyed the performances and I plan to go to more performances on my own in the future.  Oh!  I forgot to mention the exhibits we saw.  I love museums, so it was cool that I got to see the Andy Warhol exhibit-that was my favorite exhibit that we saw.  Not only was the exhibit cool, but it was also my first time going to the Brooklyn Museum and it was really nice.  Thanks for a great semester!!

Entering college, entering this class, I could only think “‘Arts in NY?’  Are you serious?  Is this really a class?”  I love the arts, but I couldn’t fathom spending three hours a week studying it.  Thankfully this class put my fears to rest quickly.  I looked forward to seeing the exhibits and performances ever since we saw the series of Israel Horowitz plays in August.  The performance that affected me the most was Contes D’ Hoffman.  Before taking this course I had never seen an opera in my life and I’m afraid that I used to judge the opera based on the stereotypical image that was always portrayed.  You know, the one of the fat lady belting out high notes in a foreign language dressed in some weird costume.  In fact one of the first times I ever even saw something remotely close to an opera song was in a Bugs Bunny cartoon.

I can say that Contes D’Hoffman was better than the Bugs Bunny opera cartoon (but only by a little, cause seriously, not much beats out the the wabbit).

So Contes D’Hoffman was an experience I’ll never forget, mostly because it opened my eyes to a different form of art.  I never would have gone on my own to see an opera, but now I can honestly say that the show has taught me not to prejudge art and that it’s okay to like opera.  The actors, the scenery, the costumes and of course, the music made the show a unique and entertaining story.  Even if we sat at the back of the room and needed to squint to see what was going on, it was worth it.

Now, I know I’m supposed to talk about which performance I was least affected by, but there’s a problem with that.  Sadly (or thankfully?) I didn’t get to see everyone’s least favorite performance of the semester, the dance piece by Ralph Lemon.  At the class after the performance I was lost, stuck listening to comments about a crying woman and animals.  And it sounded like the whole performance made no sense (well it sounded like that to me).  So I guess technically this performance affected me the least because I didn’t see it… Just kidding, ya I didn’t see it, but to say that it was the least affecting performance would be taking the easy road.  I think the exhibit “Hipsters, Hustlers, and Handball Players”affected me least because I felt disconnected from the exhibit.  I saw the photos, but they didn’t seem to really strike me in any way.

If I could have seen the Ralph Lemon piece I would have been more satisfied with this blog, because then I’d have at least those two to contrast.  But sadly I didnt’t and I can’t take back what’s already happened.  I can only look back and remember fondly the dancing doll, the menacing villain, the man with broken heart and his beautiful muse.

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

The most effective performance for me was “The Tales of Hoffman.”  I didn’t understand the cultural or social implications of the story, but I thoroughly enjoyed the performance.  Art’s main purpose to entertain, and “The Tales of Hoffman” could not have accomplished this purpose any better.  I loved the music the singers and musicians were amazing.  The set design was spectacular, and the story was great.  I was laughing one moment, and sad the next.  This up and down emotional ride is a big part of what makes going to a performance a great experience.  Real life has difficulty providing ups and downs of emotion.  Art is all about it.

It also affected me in that my enjoyment of it will lead me to go to the Opera in the future.  In class, we learned that the opera is struggling to gain a new audience.  The Opera is attended by an older generation.  Eventually,  this generation will no longer be able to attend the Opera.  As a result, the Opera must try to appeal to the younger people.  “The Tales of Hoffman” accomplished this goal.  It had cross-generational appeal which will likely help to bring in new audiences.  This Opera was unlike anything I had ever seen, and that factor will bring me back.  It was also very different than I expected.  I had preconceived notions, likely due to the typical audience that Opera was boring and antiquated.  The is the opposite of the truth.  Opera is fun and exciting, and enjoyable to even the most modern audiences.

In contrast, “Hipsters, Hustlers, and Handball Players” couldn’t have had less effect.  There was nothing bad about it, it just did not evoke any response from me.  To me, it just looked like a bunch of pictures of people doing normal things.  This may have been the point, I’m not sure, but I just couldn’t find any entertainment, political, or social value to the exhibit.

My lack of appreciation for this particular exhibit may be the love of excitement which so attracted me to the Opera.  I like art that is big, loud, and powerful.  “Hipsters, Hustlers, and Handball Players” had none of these aspects.  I don’t even really know what to say about the exhibit because it did nothing for me.  I guess there is something to be said for the fact that the art was about ordinary people, but that’s not what I’m looking for in art.  I see ordinary people all the time.  If I want to see Hipsters I can just go to Brooklyn or Montclair (a place I spend a lot time).  If I want to see handball players, I can go to a number of schoolyards within walking distance of my home.  To see hustlers, I need to just visit a pool hall.  The rest of the photography was just of people doing regular things, and this I can see anywhere.  I want art to make me say “wow!” and this exhibit did not.

I know this is how everyone has started their blogs this week, but it must be said: Wow, I can’t believe the semester is over and this is my last blog. I feel it was literally yesterday that I was trying to figure out what Professor Healey wanted me to write in a review of The Indian Wants the Bronx. I remember struggling to structure my blog correctly and make the blog flow in the way I wanted it to.

After that I remember, week after week, feeling so impassioned during a performance we attended that I would outline my blog in my head as the performance was going on.

The opera especially, I vividly remember sitting in that performance and being so entranced, yet simultaneously trying to focus on the things that inspired me so I could write about them.

Because of this class, I think about every piece of art, every movie, every play and every performance, I read or view. I think about them not just in terms of “Oooh I really like this” or “Oh man, I do not like this” but rather, I peel off the first layer and look deeper.

Every performance has been beneficial in teaching me how to see things, to really SEE things, for more than they appear to be. This class has broadened my perspective on many political and social issues. But most of all, it has forced me to question the fundamentals of art and the person behind the art.

Who is this artist? Why is he creating? Who is he creating for?

Once again this is expected, but the performance that effected me the most was, drumrolll please, Ralph Lemon’s creation.

His performance affected me the most because it was his performance that fundamentally questioned my view of art, and dance.

While watching it, I had to think: Is this a movie? Is this a play? Is this a dance number? Or, does this performance perhaps not fit into any one category that I can think of. The performance was essentially a microcosm of what I just spoke about, thinking about art in a radically different way than I was ever used to.

Ralph Lemon’s performance was considered challenging, but why?

I think the answer to this is the fact that it made people question the parameters they have set up in their minds and deeply think about the thoughts that have been stamped into their train of thought, before they even began thinking.

Personally, it made me question the way I view things, it made me think about beauty and dance, and right and wrong.

What makes something beautiful?

Why do certain pieces seem beautiful and right, while other ugly and wrong?

These questions can go on forever, but what I think is important is the fact that Ralph dared to be different. He had the courage to think outside of what is expected, and truly create something unique. Is that not how all-innovative creations are created? They are done by people who step outside the comfort zone in a labyrinth of creative possibilities.

Because of this performance I will never think of dance in the same way again. I will really never think of anything the same again after this class: dance, theatre, photography, art, opera, and film…

This class has encouraged me to think about everything with a critical eye. This is what makes it so hard for me to pick a performance that was least effective. I really found something positive about everything we saw and experienced. They were really all enjoyable to me.

I guess I would have to say, Kissing Fidel and War, were the two least effective for me. It is because, unlike the movies or performances or exhibits, it was simply something we read, and there was less life to them. But then you could say that Metal Children and Ruined were also written plays.

Perhaps the fact that they were mostly, simply, dialogue made them less enjoyable to me. There was no engaging story line. If they happened to be plays than each would mostly take place in one simple scene the entire time. But the again, Little Foxes was basically the same setting the entire time.

It is harder to think of why something is bad than why something was enjoyable…

I think if a performance or an exhibit lingers in your mind long after it is over, it had made an impression. Just the fact that I reference the performances I enjoyed in this class in other classes, means they have made an impact on the way I think and have influenced my life. To be honest, I forgot we had even read War and Kissing Fidel. That is the number one reason why I consider them to be less effective. They did not linger more than a day, while Ralph Lemon’s performance still lingers inside of me EVEN today.

RUINED definitely was the piece that affected me most this semester. I think the reason why it was so powerful was because it was so real. Unlike The Metal Children or Little Foxes (which I enjoyed very much), Ruined was based on real people. It wasn’t just another fictional piece. It was real and instead of being set in the past, it was about an issue facing women living in this decade. Another reason why ruined was so powerful for me was because there are a few women I know and am very close to who are also victims of sexual crimes. The shame that women who are sexually attacked face from their families and from themselves is overwhelmingly powerful. It is amazing how one terrible event can alter someone’s life, reputation, and self-image forever.

While Ruined affected me the most, it wasn’t my favorite piece we studied this semester. The illustrious title of the “favorite” would have to go to Contes de Hoffman. The music was fantastic, and while I had no clue what was happening as far as the plot went, I loved it! I think I enjoyed it so much because of the magic of the experience. The elaborate costumes, bright lights, and lush velvet curtains all made Contes de Hoffman a “real” show.  Instead of looking for a profound message, I could sit back relax and enjoy the show. I could simply be entertained.

The runner up for the “favorite” had to be Fahrenheit 9/11. In spite of its heavy political agenda, I loved it almost as much as I loved Contes de Hoffman. I’ve never been the type of person who followed politics. I don’t read the paper or watch the news on a regular basis, mostly because politics has the same effect on my brain, as would aggressively prodding it with a red-hot poker. Michael Moore somehow, probably through his use of humor, managed to make politics interesting in his documentary. The fact that it held my interest is a testament to its outstanding quality as both a form of entertainment and as an educational piece.  I’m a pretty tough critic, which is why I intend to slaughter my choice for least effective piece of “art” viewed this semester: How Can You Stay In The House All Day And Not Go Outside?

The Ralph Lemon Dance performance was PAINFUL to sit through. While I had no clue what was happening in Contes De Hoffman, at least the music and talent of the opera singers could be appreciated. The Ralph Lemon Performance however had no redeeming qualities. This performance had no elaborate costumes, no music, and no talent or skill required to perform aside from maybe stamina. I suppose not many people could wiggle around aimlessly on the floor for more than 15 minutes without being bruised and out of breath. Ralph Lemon’s “social experiment” of sorts did not make me feel anything except conned. Luckily I hadn’t spent any money on seeing the performance, but still I feel that the Ralph Lemon performance had stolen something much more precious than my money: It had stolen approximately two hours of my time.

…we remember all the times we had together <3

Waking up to get to class at 9:15 AM used to seem like it would be an immense struggle for me, being the late waker that I am. Every Monday morning my mom wakes me up (yes, she still wakes me up) and I drag myself to class with absolute assurance that I would fall asleep due to the lack of rest I had the night before.  Monday–the most hated day of the week.  Yet, Honors 125 with all of you, has changed that for me.

For some reason, every time I walk into class, I am energized, even if I’m going to be there for a full three hours.  Most people would say that we’re all nuts for taking a three hour class, but I’m sure many of you can agree with me that those three hours seem to fly by.  It is in this class that I have made many close friends, not only because of what we do inside of class, but also because of what we do outside of class.

Macaulay Honors College has given us experiences that we will never forget.  For me, this has been a class of many “firsts.”  Although it hasn’t been my first play, it has been my first community-based theater experience.  I have also never been to the Brooklyn Museum.  I have never been to the Metropolitan Opera House.  I have never been to the Brooklyn Academy of Music for anything other than ballet.  I have never seen a dance piece, without dancing or music involved.  I have never read so many plays by writers other than Shakespeare and what I would call, the other “oldies.”

My perspective on art, especially in New York City, has changed drastically, and I am pretty sure that was the exact motivation and hope of the Macaulay board and Professor Healey.  We have taken away with us experiences that we will remember forever, with people who I also hope to remember forever.

Although all of the plays, shows, and exhibits we have seen this semester have each influenced my way of thinking, I never thought I would say this, but Ralph Lemmon’s “dance” has influenced my view on art the most.  I was hoping I would never have to blog again on Ralph Lemmon since we have all done it so many times, but we gotta give it up to the man: he made us question everything.

Sometimes going to see a play, musical, dance, etc, just because it is entertaining will leave us feeling happy for a few days, but Ralph Lemmon stayed in our mind for weeks.  Many of us were just trying to figure out what the hell we had seen, and once we figured that out, we wanted to know how that tied into any of the themes he talked about at the question and answer session a couple of weeks after the performance.  The ability to even meet with the artist who created the show was really awesome, even if I hated his piece.

What made this piece stay in my mind, even until this day, is the complete and total mind game that Ralph Lemmon played on the audience.  It was like nothing I had ever seen before, it stirred up emotions that I did not even know I could feel about any work of art, and it left me feeling uneasy.

Although this has, no doubt, been the least entertaining work of art that I have experienced thus far in class, it has definitely been the biggest eye opener.  We learned different ways and a wide variety of methods that we could use to analyze a work of art that is very unfamiliar to many of us.  Unlike the opera which we spoke about one time after we saw it, Ralph Lemmon’s name seems to pop up in every lecture that we have.

We’ve learned to not always look for the entertainment aspect in art, but to really dig deeper and try to analyze, understand, and take away something from the piece.  After watching Ralph Lemmon’s hour and a half of “dancing,” I know that not all forms of dancing can be done at a party or on Dancing with the Stars.  He didn’t want for us to sit there and be jolly little entertained elves.  He wanted us to hear about his life, to experience something we had never experienced before, to do something out of the box that we have confined ourselves in.

If there is one thing that I have learned this semester it is that we should always try to go outside of our comfort zone; art isn’t meant to always be understood, and we should appreciate art whether it leaves us happy, sad, or pissed off.

Twyla Tharp, an outstanding choreographer, said “art is the only way to run away without leaving home.”  We have the ability to run away, get ourselves immersed in art, and enter a completely different world.  This semester we have all entered a completely different world, and I cannot wait to experience even more of it.