Category — Blurbs

Not long ago I had the opportunity to watch the film The Last Conquistador, a documentary created by John Valadez and Cristina Ibarra. At first I thought it would be boring — it’s about an artist, John Houser, who was commissioned by the El Paso City Council to create a monumental sculpture of the Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate. The seemingly simple tale, however, was far from simple – controversy arose when the Native Americans – a people who had been oppressed, enslaved, and massacred by the Spanish (including Oñate), protested against the statue, turning the monument into a battle not only between conflicting views of the past, but one of socioeconomic classes. Houser, previously shown in the film to be rather self-centered around his art and creating a gloriously wonderful statue, finds himself confronted with the social and moral implications of his work, realizing all too late his failure to realize what his work really meant and represented. I thought that the most powerful moment in the film was the Native Americans confronting Houser — the artist, in the course of the conversation, is visibly shocked and shaken, seeming to realize for the first time the real impact of what he has done. Overall, I found the film very powerful in its execution, and clear in its message — I don’t think a Hollywood script could have told it better. The film encourages the viewer to truly think not only social issues concerning race, heritage, and political injustice, but also about the meaning and message of art and the consequences of one’s actions.

At the Metropolitan Museum of Arts, Jeff Koon has an exhibition of high chromium stainless steel sculptures. These sculptures are about twice my height. There is one of a yellowish dog, a red heart and one with layers of different colors. They were very interesting to look at. The largeness of these objects and the colors it made made me small and just amazed. Before I had went to this exhibit, I saw the pictures online. There is a difference between seeing something great on paper and seeing it in person. I’m glad I had the opportunity to see. Not only do these objects reflect the chromatic colors but also the reflection of the people and the sky scape around the roof. Although it would have been a short browse around the exhibit, I couldn’t help but stare at each piece at least three times. This exhibition closes on October 26. I suggest many to go and see it before the weather gets colder.

I was wandering around Chinatown in search of ice cream last weekend when I came across a normally-quiet Mulberry Park that was bursting with people and activity. As it turns out, they were celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival, a holiday reserved for family and friends to gather and celebrate the full moon. Lately I’d been busy with school, so I had completely forgotten about the festival; as a result, it was a nice surprise to come upon a celebration like that. Festivities ranged from modern school-girl renditions of ancient Chinese dances to screeching operatic performances by groups of senior citizens, and there were helpers handing out free slices of mooncake, a treat that I personally don’t even really enjoy (but I ate some anyway). The people there were mostly half or double my age, but everyone seemed to be having a good time. It was an exciting two hours of my week, as well as a nice reminder of how much I really do enjoy my own culture.

When I walked into the Wang Hui art galleries at the Metropolitan, I was struck by the serene silence of the rooms. It was the perfect time and place to enjoy the realistic natural landscape paintings of the objects that contribute to the beauty of the world and simultaneously contrast the everyday violence in it: trees, mountains, rocks, and rivers. Borrowing his ideas from the Song Dynasty, one of the most affluent dynasties in Chinese history, Wang Hui paints the idealistic peaceful life of human existence among the mountains and the streams – free from the worries of the world. The landscapes adhere to the Buddhist principles of peace, nonviolence, and moral order in the world and invite contemplative reflections from viewers.

I’m sure everyone reading this has received those annoying comedy club fliers handed out on the street without paying much attention to them. The people giving out those fliers either come off too strong or too weak in their sales pitch to interest me. However, my friend managed to drag me out of the house on a boring Friday last week to go a comedy club. I can’t remember the name of the club, but it’s probably better that way.  I’m not feeling too bad about that. Effort is always appreciate, but these amateurs had simply relied on certain key words (read: swear words) to elicit laughter. I had written in the NYT post that this is the generation of degeneration for comedy, and this was definitely one of the reasons I feel this way. Clean comics are the best, relying on witty tact rather than shock value to get laughs. So ladies and gentlemen, if Brian Regan (clean comic, search on youtube) comes to town, go check it out; otherwise, be reserved about seeing random amaetur comics.