It’s weird looking back on the semester as a whole. You almost forget how many things we saw, read, watched, or listened to until you’re forced to. It’s interesting because despite liking or not liking each piece of art, I feel that everything we interacted with during the semester was useful in our journey to understand New York on a deeper level.
Now, anyone can talk about the pieces they really liked. (Intringulis and Maria Full of Grace for the record) I thought it would be more interesting to look back on a few of the things that I wasn’t as fond of.
We can start with Anthony Caro. To be fair, my view of this exhibit was a bit biased. Because the event on September 11 was cancelled, it was the first class outing. Exciting right? Except I wasn’t able to go. So while everyone else was able to discuss the beautiful sunset over Central Park and the interesting posh New Yorker scene, for me, the art was left to stand on its own. Needless to say, I was a bit annoyed, so when Zohar and I met on a Sunday to go check out the exhibit, I might not have been in the best mood. Whether because of this, or simply because it wasn’t really my style, Anthony Caro’s sculptures did not speak to me. However I do think they made an interesting statement on the industrial nature of New York City, especially against the backdrop of Central Park. Additionally, for everyone else it definitely fit into the Haves and Have Nots unit.
I’ll group the plays together. I was not the biggest fan of God of Carnage or In Arabia We’d All Be Kings. However I think they were such great representations of caricatures of New York inhabitants. Interestingly enough, they were total opposites. God Of Carnage gave us a sneak peak into the over privileged, back stabbing, pretentious group. (I’m not sure if was ever explicitly said, but I assumed the play took place on the Upper East Side) In Arabia We’d All Be Kings then took us on a trip to the opposite extreme. The people with no money, no education, and no hope. Since I assume few people in our class belong to either of those categories, I think the plays were worth reading despite my not enjoying them. [The same type of thinking can and should be applied to The Bald Soprano. Great social commentary, but I wish I would have understood it more while I was watching.]
Do The Right Thing was the only movie I actively didn’t enjoy. No character was actually likeable. There were too many and yet not enough things going on. It just all in all dragged on for way too long. And yet the message still resonated with me. I can still remember the scene where each character just stares straight at the camera spewing racial stereotypes. I think it was an especially interesting movie to watch from the viewpoint of people living in Queens, one of the most culturally diverse neighborhoods. No matter how understanding we are, there will always be times when sparks will fly, and we have to watch where they land or they can start a fire. (Did I go too far with the metaphor?)
Now I could keep going, discussing the pieces that deepened my understanding of New York as a center of art, a residential area, a tourist attraction, and a mythical wonderland, but we’d be here all day. Call me an optimist, but I think everything we saw this semester was worthwhile.
Although the dense cloud of Jewish holidays in October was a bit inconvenient, missing a lot of the performances afforded me the opportunity to go on some nice adventures around New York City to see the performances: Zohar can attest to that.
Also, if anyone is actually still reading this, I just want to thank you all for a terrific semester! I loved hearing everyone’s thoughts. They were actually really helpful in understanding things on another level. If you ever feel like your opinions don’t matter, you should just know that Zohar and I bought tickets to see Asuncion on Wednesday night because of the rave reviews you guys gave it.
(I just read that back and I think I came off sounding a bit too cheery, but you know what? With finals coming up, I’ll take any opportunity to sound really happy!)
