Category — Blurbs

The talk with filmmaker David Holbrooke on October 7 at the Macaulay Honors Center was one of the most fascinating events I’ve attended. David Holbrooke is a one-of-a-kind filmmaker willing to listen to anybody as long as he or she has something interesting to say. I really appreciate his open-mindedness and all the documentaries he has made with this viewpoint. He directed the documentary “Hard as Nails”, which explores a very controversial Catholic young minister, Justin Fatica, a man very intense about his beliefs. Holbrooke admits that he did not agree with Fatica’s ideas at all, but was still willing to understand and help demonstrate his unique perspective to the public.
Holbrooke produced “Live from Shiva’s Dance Floor”, which features underground tour guide “Speed” Levitch on what to do with Ground Zero. He expresses how he was affected by the way Speed acts and views the world. It further supports the fact that he wants the world can listen and understand what these people are trying to convey through their unique way of expressing their feelings. I couldn’t help but feel the same way because although most of these people are conveyed as unsocial iconoclasts, I believe that the ways they think are very crucial in shaping our society. After all, everyone has his or her individual voice that should be allow to be heard in order to better society.

Thousands of brightly lit balloons filled the Brooklyn Bridge with hope and unity on October 16th. Now in its 10^th year, the annual Leukemia Light the Night walk continues to raise money for patients, survivors, and their supportive families. This year, I had the chance to join the community for the first time. Seeing all the people with one common goal was such a new and exciting experience. Right before the walk started, I roamed around Seaport and advanced to one of the upper floors overlooking the whole place. Seaport was more beautiful than it ever was. Three levels below, there were thousands of people in white t-shirts and red, white, or gold balloons that blinked repeatedly. Shows and speeches brought people together to share tears and experiences. Many were overjoyed to see the amount of donations go up and up—soon to be given to the some of the best researchers for cures. The walk across the Brooklyn Bridge was such a visible and symbolic way to attract attention to patients battling leukemia. Just seeing their appreciation makes me want to participate every year. 

I have always wanted to learn more about Chinese history, especially the period of strong Communist rule. Because many new concepts were forbidden during this time period, the rebellions that often occurred just fascinates me. I am such a strong advocate of studying in depth Chinese culture because it is important not to neglect the culture that my grandparents and parents lived through before they immigrated here. Having this idea in mind, I visited the Asia Society and Museum to see the exhibition: “Art and China’s Revolution.” It is a great cultural change since China is becoming more modernized and opened to displaying the works from Chinese artists during the 1950’s in the United States for the first time. Some artists went against the normal styles of their time of what was acceptable; rebellion in this case is good because it called for change. They were brave enough to express their artistic feelings despite their fear of being imprisoned. Walking through the exhibition I felt so amazed at the different talented works displayed, and I kept on thinking of how inhumane Mao’s party was to quell the beginnings of a cultural revolution that would forever transform contemporary Chinese art with its modest beginnings. It also astounds me to know these paintings and scrolls survived the violence during this timer period and were not destroyed earlier on.

From the outside, the Guggenheim is a structural marvel. Since it is very difficult to describe, you’ll have to take my word for it (or take your eyes to it). The inside looked promising, a beautiful ceiling and spirals leading upward to the various exhibits on display. On this particular day, there were only two exhibits on display; hence the terrible timing. I had just missed the Louise Bourgeoise exhibit; and the museum was in the transitional phase of bringing down the old, and setting up the new, effectively limiting off the majority of the museum.

I, always the optimist, still tried to find the good in a bad day. The Catherine Opie exhibit was distinctive in that her photographs were all of buildings, streets, roads, etc, none of which contained any people in sight. All of her pieces were named “Untitled #,” # being whatever number she had assigned for that particular one. I thought that it was a very interesting technique; by not giving the photograph a name, Opie forces the observor to either make a personal name for the photograph, or move on and forget about it. I had chosen the latter for many of her pictures, but the one that had really stood out left quite an impression on me. A snapshot of American life, the photograph was of a fast food (junk food) place, with an advertisement for Funeral services in plain sight. It was a wonderful mix of acuity and irony, which I thought was a great combination. Having found something meaningful in a photograph of something that seemed so “ordinary” at first, I took a second look at ther other photos in search of something I had missed, and spent the afternoon there.

I had though it was the wrong time; but if I had gone at any other time, I wouldn’t have made the observations about that I did about Opie’s exhibit. It’s a nice bit of irony in itself.

Located on the outskirts of Chinatown, the New Museum is not worth the general admission of $12; and for some, might not even be worth free admission. The building itself is spectacular, with its unique architecture resembling boxes being stacked on top of one another. However, that is probably the best part of the museum and it all goes downhill from there. Despite the towering height of the building, only three floors were being used for art galleries since half of the floors were in renovation. The weirdest exhibit for me consisted of televisions playing random events, such as people performing on a stage to a speech by an elderly woman. I would have been more interested in the videos if I understood the meaning of them, but they seemed to have no connection to each other in my point of view. Another exhibit consisted of books, a large chuck of them depicting kung-fu. Don’t they have a library for that? It takes under an hour to explore the entire museum but it is best to not even attempt it.