Category — Blurbs

The Lee Young Hee Museum of Korean Culture is located on the third floor of a building on 32^nd Street. For a museum that is so full of culture, the size is very small. The size of the museum is more like a gallery in a big museum. But the Lee Young Hee museum shows us that size does not matter. In that small space, visitors can see Korean traditional clothes (Han-bok) of everyone from the king to the common peasant. Designer Lee Young Hee has recreated traditional everyday wear and ceremonial wear from centuries ago. Each and every piece of clothing is carefully made and since the royal family could wear a lot of color, the clothes of the royal family are very colorful. Besides, the clothes, visitors can also see the accessories men and women used to wear. Visitors can also see olden tools that Koreans used long ago. Everything from the old coins to the glasses worn is on display. Although most of the clothes, accessories and tools are not in use today or are only worn on special occasions, everything is very beautiful to look at. The pieces are unique and not something you can see commonly. Through the museum, visitors can have a great time discovering the fashion of olden-day Korea.

What forces, external and internal, determine who we are and how we act? To what extent is a country’s collective identity reflective of its inhabitants? Catherine Opie: An American Photographer, a photographic exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum, is a superb assemblage of Catherine Opie’s most compelling works that seeks to redefine the nebulous concept of the “American identity.” Opie’s photos deal with a wide array of topics, ranging from homosexuality to freeways. Her Portrait series, for example, is a brilliant portrayal of the vibrant queer subculture existing in mid 90s America. Glorifying one’s sexual orientation as a fundamental factor of identity, her portraits are not only aesthetically stunning, but provocative as well. Similarly, her Domestic series is a collection of photographs documenting the daily lives of lesbian families, providing a unique perspective of “how the other half lives.” Deviating from the human element of photography, the exhibition also features selections from her American Cities and Freeways series. The incorporation of these photos was a very wise decision by the museum’s curator, serving to juxtapose raw emotion and sexuality with landscapes that are completely void of life. In doing so, Opie ties together the elements that truly define “America” in terms of one’s sense of self and community. The exhibition is one that should not be missed.  

Well, I’m not big on opera, but last night’s talk got me really excited about going to see Dr. Atomic. I am that person that nods off instantly at the mere word opera, but I am also a geek who loves science, and a pacifist who abhors violence, so the idea of Dr. Atomic is right up my alley. What struck me the most about last night’s talk was how down to earth and passionate Adams was about this complicated and seemingly ugly aspect of American history. I loved how he and his team used existing materials – newsreels, popular texts promoting the bomb, John Donne poems that Oppenheimer carried around in his pocket to keep him calm, and especially the Native American poetry speaking to a counter-cosmology that these scientists couldn’t really see all around them. I had no idea that a libretto could be written that way, like a collage of some sort. [Read more →]

My eyes being blinded by the sun. It is too bright. From where is this heat coming? The weatherman said it was going to be 80 degrees. Why does it feel like 100. It’s not the humidity. I can’t see the stage that well. Im sitting down to watch a festival. All for what? To watch a Thanksgiving concert of Korean singers. Was it worth waiting there since 6:30 in the morning until 4:00 p.m.? At first I thought I had made a big mistake. When it was 4:00, I knew it was not a waste of my time. This concert was so fun. I was able to see my favorite group from Korea. Of course they were girls, and extremely pretty=). About 15 songs were being performed. I got the worst tan ever, but if an opportunity like this were to come again, I am willing to do this again. Waiting for something you like, it’s definitely worth it. Maybe next year, I will recommend this concert to all of my friends.

The cast of Fela! did an amazing job knocking down the fourth wall. Sahr Ngaujah did a great job in his portrayal of Fela Kuti and made the audience feel as if they were in “The Shrine.” The music and the dancers provided chronologically accurate representation of his life. The music is mostly composed of Afrobeat, which Fela Kuti created, by adding elements of jazz and funk to traditional Yoruba. The smooth transition from lively, dynamic scene to serious scene also facilitated the illustration of Fela’s life. This smaller off Broadway musical production offers intimacy and personalize feelings. The best part of it is the interactive part in which audiences learn how to dance- known as a pelvic thrust. Even though the scale is not as big as Broadway musicals, Fela! proves that great musicals do not need enormous stage and props to shine.