Author: jennylai

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Concert Review: Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra

November 29, 2014 / jennylai / 0 Comments

The classical music concert at Carnegie Hall was a new experience for me because I had never been to one. The most memorable performance for me was the second performance. It was a concerto for violin and string orchestra (with two harpsichord interlude) composed by André Previn. It was something I had never heard before because it was all over the place but at the same time not. The strings sang in different patterns at different pitches that brought me over the edge. The first movement was building up the pressure and anticipation, the second movement was dark but there were hints of optimism, and the final movement was rich, deep, and finished off like a roller coaster. I couldn’t predict where the next note would bring me and I was able to experience different kinds of feelings with just this performance. It was fun, dark, playful, and exciting.

Open Mic Review

November 29, 2014 / jennylai / 0 Comments

I thought the different variety of poems were great. There were poems about romance, poems about racial issues, poems about humanity, and poems about mundane everyday things. There were also songs that were composed by the students that expressed their inner turmoil of their lives. My favorite poem was about how people were actors and God was the screenwriter. The poem was blunt with undertones of tragedy and comedy. God wrote life (“the play”) and the people He created were acting out in this “play”. I thought it was an interesting perspective of God’s relationship with human beings. It wasn’t essentially from a religious point of view but more of a philosophical point of view. There was always that analogy that humans were actors and that they were acting on a stage but it was the first time that God was part of the play. In some ways, the poem humanized God and gave Him a character. God was no longer an outsider and that just observed. He was part of the play of life.

Gallery Review: Bird, Real, Spiral Clock

November 29, 2014 / jennylai / 0 Comments

The first picture is a girl with a bird drawn on her face and braids across her face in horizontal and vertical directions. The braids form the cage that traps the girl and the bird. The braids also have tiny little hairs that stick out. These little hairs look really uncomfortable and they are all over the girl’s face. The girl’s face and the bird can’t escape from the cage because they are immobile inside the braids and trapped by the array of hairs. It is like a double cage. The bird is also drawn right in the middle of the girl’s face and its tail on her nose and its head, body, and wings on her forehead. The braids run along the tips of the bird’s wings and its body, essentially trapping the bird from making any movement or trying to fly away. The braids also cover the girl’s lips which prevent her from talking. Interestingly, the girl’s eyes are open and clear. Her eyes contrast the predicament she is in. Her eyes are the only part of her that is free but her eyes can’t do anything to set herself free. Her eyes can only watch through the cage and draw the viewers in. She is like a caged bird that can only see the outside world and doesn’t have the ability to actually be in the outside world. It is a lonely feeling.

The second picture is a girl with her eyes downcast and thin arrays of hair covering her face like a waterfall. There is a symbol on her forehead (it is not a symbol I was familiar with). Her hair is thick at the right and left side of her face and it is thinner as the hair closes in in the center of her face. The hair covering her face is like a veil. The veil is hiding the girl’s face, but from what? The veil is also hiding the girl’s view, but from what?

The third picture is of a girl with her head to the side on her arms like she is sleeping. Unlike the other two pictures, her hair is not over her face and this gives us a clear view of her face. Her eyes are closed like she is in a slumber. On her forehead, there is the roman number for 12. On her left cheek, there is the roman number for 3. On her chin, there is a roman number for 6. On her right cheek, there is a roman number for 9. On her nose in the center of her face, there is an arrow going in a clockwise direction in a circular motion. The marks on her face are symbols that represent time. The symbols give the feeling that the passing of time is occurring on her face. However, it might also be the opposite because the symbols are cemented on her face. It can also mean that time is not passing. That time is something that humans made up.

After reading Photoglyphs and researching more about the artists, I finally have some understanding of the complexity of these three art pieces. The subject of all of the three art pieces is Rimma Gerlovina, one of the artists who created the pieces. These art pieces are used to demonstrate the psychological and visionary experiences of different situations. Basically, these art pieces go beyond logic and into the mental state of the mind.

The first picture is titled Bird. The description of the art piece is “Self-enclosed spirit, or beating against the bars of one’s own mental cage”. My analysis is similar in that the girl and the bird are trapped in a cage and that they have no freedom. The description of the piece makes me think deeper in that the girl and the bird are not just physically caged in, but also mentally caged in. The girl and the bird can’t escape from their own mind and there is no escape route. Instead of the lonely feeling I originally felt, it is now more of a chilling feeling. When one is physically trapped, it is one against another force. But when one is mentally trapped, it is one against oneself. It is a frightening thought of being trapped in oneself because as long as one is alive, one can never escape from one’s mental mind.

The second piece is called Real. The description of the piece is “… seems from behind our own veils. It is only when we wake from a dream that we know we have been dreaming”. The description matches my analysis in that her hair is like a veil. The title of this piece gives me the realization that the symbol on her forehead is REAL written in an abstract form. The REAL on her forehead gives a physical evidence that REAL is real because viewers can see REAL on her forehead. To tie it with the veil of hair, it can mean that reality is seen behind a veil (which can be taken figuratively as veil of thoughts or knowledge). This then brings up the question of realities and dreams. The description “only when we wake from a dream that we know we have been dreaming” demonstrates the blurry concept of reality. There is a thin line between reality and dream and one can only be sure that something is just a dream when one wakes up. The veil of hair also obscures the viewers from having a clear view of the subject’s face which adds to the muddled concept of reality.

The third and final piece is called Spiral Clock. The description states that ‘“It is believed by most that time passes; may be it stays where it is. Never was time it was not”’. The description of this piece matches my analysis in that time doesn’t actually pass. Many people believe that time passes by but maybe the reality is that it doesn’t. Time actually stands still as everything else around time passes by.

Just Kids: Woodstock Festival

November 29, 2014 / jennylai / 0 Comments

The Woodstock Festival was a three-day concert that involved lots of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll. It was held at Max Yasgur’s dairy farm in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to 18, 1969. During that festival, 32 acts performed outdoors before an audience of a little less than 500,000 people. The acts included Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Winter, and Janis Joplin. It is known as a crucial moment in popular music history and the festival is also linked to the larger counterculture generation. This festival synergized a way of life that had been growing through the sixties; antiwar, pro-drugs, individualism, breaking down racial barriers, unconventional sexual practices, and new philosophies. The organizers of the Woodstock Festival were John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, Artie Kornfeld, and Mike Lang. Roberts and Rosenman were looking for a way to use Roberts’ money to invest to earn more money. They placed an ad in The New York Times to look for partners and met Kornfeld and Lang through the ad. Kornfeld and Lang proposed to build a recording studio and a retreat for rock musicians up in Woodstock, New York. The idea turned into creating a rock concert for 50,000 people. Many things went wrong such as the location, contracts, constructions, and their estimation of the people that will come to the rock concert. On Wednesday, August 13, there were already 50,000 people camping near the stage. They had walked right through the gaps in the fence where the gates had not yet been built. There was no way to get the 50,000 people to leave in order to pay for tickets and no time to built the gates to prevent even more people from just walking in. The organizers ended up being forced to make the event a free concert. The news spread and an estimated one million people headed to Bethel, New York. It was estimated that about 500,000 people actually made it to the Woodstock Festival.

Comic: Childhood Adventures

November 25, 2014 / jennylai / 0 Comments

http://bitstrips.com/r/SRWGF

The Magic Flute: Props

October 20, 2014 / jennylai / 0 Comments

Majority of the props that are used in this opera are made out of fabrics. The fabrics give the props a light and airy feeling. The puppetry of the fabric wolves when Prince Tamino plays his flute gives the whole atmosphere a mystical aura. The light and fleeting movements of the fabric wolves draw the audience into a world of fantasy. The bird that carries the three spirits is also made out of light materials. The slow movement of the bird and the light flapping of its wings seduce the audience into the spiritual world. The bird also has a haunting quality to it which complements the soft voices of the three spirits. Other props include colorful birds, the three ladies’ masks, and Papageno’s dinner. These props are mostly controlled by puppetry which make the audiences feel like they are in a dream-like state because the props are floating all over the place. Everything is so light and airy that the opera feels surreal. There is no constraint and stability and these qualities add to the mystical aura of the whole opera.

The Valley of Astonishment: Lighting

October 20, 2014 / jennylai / 0 Comments

Majority of the time, the lighting is focused onto the center stage when the actors and actress are interacting with each other. It draws the audience’s attention to the center of the stage. The main light source comes from three different sides: the front, right, and left. There are also five poles with light bulbs on top of them at the back of the stage and they light up when the center lighting diminishes or when the actors and actress move to the back. An example of this is in one of the scenes, the pianist that associates music notes with colors plays the piano and the center light diminishes and the two light poles behind him lights up and cast a shadow over him adding to the solemn atmosphere. During the scene when another “patient” starts painting on the floor, the center lighting darkens and the different color lights are concentrated onto the “paper” he is painting on. The color is first blue, then green (the color gets brighter and brighter), orange, dark red, red, and finally yellow. The colors draw out the vivid transition from one thought to another inside the human brain. The backdrop also changes colors to match the colors on the floor. The four light poles at the back also light up. In another scene when another “patient” with a paralyzed body gives a monologue about walking around the garden, the floor becomes green to give an image of a garden filled with greenery. When Sammy’s nightclub boss burns the paper that contains the numbers she wrote down, the backdrop becomes a vivid red. This lighting gives an effect of her internal conflict with the memories bombarding her. The backdrop is also a vivid and intense red when Sammy performs her act. The backdrop lights up with purple when the magician performs his act. This gives a sense of mystery and anticipation. During the scene when the actor is giving a speech, the center light is focused only on him. His surrounding areas are all tinted in green light. It makes the audience only focus on him because of the contrast in lighting.

Fall for Dance: Vuyani Dance Theater

October 20, 2014 / jennylai / 0 Comments

Vuyani is a dance that incorporates a lot of different musical instruments and dance movements. The musical instruments used in Vuyani include voices (sounds of nature), violin, drums, cabasa and castanets that sound like the hisses of snakes. The dance choreography makes use of the whole body, from the tips of the fingers to the heels of the feet. The choreography also includes arms spreading to reach for the sky like the dancers are offering themselves to the gods or summoning the gods, bowing down to the earth like they are praying to the gods, feet stomping on the earth, vibration of the whole body, and multiple spins and turns. The dancers are the bridges between the sky and the earth. They connect the sky and the earth by spreading their arms and stomping their feet. The dance movements also remind me of martial arts with the long kicks and bending of the knees and arms. The design of the Vuyani clothing is similar to the design of karate uniforms. Like karate uniforms, one edge of the top is layered over the other edge and complemented with a belt and loose pants.