Art adapts

I read this article in NYTimes Arts and thought you might enjoy it as much as I did. I am not a fan of metal music but this article made me want to pay attention to it more. It made me think also about our discussion on how to bring the arts into other areas of your academic life (in this case, music is brought together with philosophy, myth, religion, etc). It doesn’t hurt that the article has a really catchy title, too.

MUSIC
Thank You, Professor, That Was Putrid
By BEN RATLIFF
Published: December 15, 2009
“Hideous Gnosis,” a six-hour theory symposium on black-metal music, commenced on Saturday at Public Assembly.

On Wednesday December 16 we will be meeting in our classroom from 3-5pm. If you’d like to bring snacks or whatever, that’s fine by me. See you soon!

Paper Reparation

When I go to a group show of work by visual artists, my tendency is to head straight for the artist whose work drew me to the show. It is not a great habit because my impatience prevents me from taking in the context of a show before exploring individual contributions. When I headed to see Zoë Sheehan Saldaña’s work in a current group show exhibition, my usual viewing habits failed me.

I have had the good fortune of working with Zoë for a few years now at Baruch and have developed a sense of her work through passing conversations with her and through exhibition announcements and press releases. This is the first show I’ve actually seen in person. [Read more →]

** Since it is a special exhibit, the museum did not allow people to take pictures. Thus, the pictures are from the Tim Burton book I found at the bookstore.

Today I want to introduce to you guys a special person who is an American born in the 1950s and he had reinvented the Hollywood genre filmmaking as an expression of a personal vision. Some of his well-known works are Edward Scissorhands, The nightmare before Christmas, Batman, Batman Returns, Planet of Apes, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barbet of Fleet Street. So now… can you guess who he is? That’s right! He is TIM BURTON.

This exhibit at the MoMa brings together offer seven hundre d rarely or never before seen drawings, paintings, photographs, moving-image works, storyboards, puppets, and concept artworks.

When I first entered the Tim Burton exhibit on the 3rd fl of MoMa, I saw glow in the dark acrylic paintings. There was also a model of a rotating carousel. Of course the carousel was not a normal one. The whole carousel was covered in clown-like patterns.

Through his artworks, I saw that Tim had a full grasp of the human body structure. He used lines and manipulated body structures to develop characters of his own. His caricatures showed people who were playful and sentimental. It was drawn from a perspective of an outside viewer.

Tim burton has created a body of films marked by striking visuals, indelible characters, and a distinctive and uncompromised point of view.

Lastly, I want to introduce to you guys some drawings that really took the words by their meanings. For a drawing captioned “Two people enjoying each other” – the picture above it was literally two people enjoying each other. The two people were eating each other’s body parts and enjoying it. Another one titled “Curtis is giving his eyes a rest” – the picture shows Curtis standing with his eyes relaxing under an umbrella on the beach.

Overall, tim burton’s special exhibit is definitely something to go see. It definitely changes one’s view about the animation world. Plus, you can get a tim burton picture – poster for free. Make use of that macaulay culture passport of yours! Okay, that’s it for now!

The Buccaneer, performed at the Brick Theatre as part of the Fight Fest of December, was a short piece about a pirate, named “The Buccaneer,” and his quest for love, vengeance, and to “get the hell out!” when danger came running at him with thrashing swords. The performance was entirely in Spanish, and the subtitles added an extra layer of comedy as the completely ridiculous choice of dialogue was displayed very clearly above the actors’ heads. It was almost reminiscent of a Monty Python dialogue with the animal references while they were taunting, and the invisible horseback riding that occurred throughout the entire piece. The highlight of the piece was the sword fighting, (which was the central focus of the Fight Fest in the first place; highlighting theatrical pieces with great fight scenes) which was very realistic even as the characters did absolutely drastic acts, such as sticking a sword in their foot, which would normally look cheesy on stage.
It was especially impressive because of the setting. Set in a black box type atmosphere, where the entire audience was within feet of the action, all of the fighting scenes had to be very specific and very realistic. There were a few actions that could not be duplicated realistically, such as a bullet killing one of the characters, but some artistic design with a flash of bright light and fake blood made the impossible possible. The Buccaneer was over the top and hilarious, but with some great fight sequences it gave way to a very enjoyable show.

The video for this podcast is so bare because I don’t have a good picture of Ana (only the facebook default photo that shows up when I search for her) and I wasn’t allowed to photograph at the library…she has no official website, either. I have her email address, though, and might ask her for any pictures she has so you guys could see her work. Also, I really (weirdly enough) recommend going to a bilingual event. That was half the fun. The Latin American perspective on visual art is something I think I’d like to study more.

On Sunday, December 6th, I was on the E train going into Queens when a woman sat down next to me and began to read a book about music and psychology. I was humming the tune of a chorus from The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart, and the woman asked me what I was singing. We got into a discussion then that lasted my entire train ride. She is an artist, she told me, from Argentina, who loves to meet people of like mind to her and talk about the important things in life. That is, art and love and happiness. [Read more →]

It was one of the Sexy Sunday events hosted in Peachfrog store. Yes, I went again. they have it almost every Sunday now, free food, free beer, and free performance.This was actually the second time that I saw this Japanese dance group came to perform here. But it still amazed me. It was not a huge space, not a big audience—the storeowner had to move the cloths to clear up a stage. But it was so intimate and everyday that both the artists and the audience loved it. Bands, singers, and dancers who had performed here always come back. So the Japanese cute guys came back for the second time and I was there every week.
So, check this out!

BARUCH IN CONCERT features Baruch students playing and singing music of diverse styles and traditions, from piano classics to songs old and new, from the early Baroque to contemporary rock.
Thursday, December 10, 2009 at 1:00 p.m.
Engelman Recital Hall, Baruch Performing Arts Center

BARUCH CHOIR HOLIDAY CONCERT features a mix of traditional holiday songs and carols.
Thursday, December 10, 2009 at 6:30pm
Engelman Recital Hall, Baruch Performing Arts Center

Free admission!
www.baruch.cuny.edu/bpac

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