New York Scenes

Author: Brandon Green

Mood Diary: How IDC has changed my view on art.

November 22, 2015 / / 3 Comments

Coming into the beginning of the semester, I was dreading this class. In high school and even before that, I never had been able to get an A in an art class. Even more importantly, I never truly understood art’s purpose. Right in the beginning of the semester this was clarified for me, art could be anything that I wanted it to be. Art did not have to only be things like John Singer Sargent’s “Madame X”.

I was intrigued to learn this because I do not resonate with traditional art. What I think of when I think of art is motorsports, whether it be drifting, circuit racing, drag racing, or even aerial acrobatics. I find the melding of man and machine to be truly beautiful. My go-to example of this melding is drifting, here’s a great clip of it. Watch the run starting at the three minute mark.

In competition drifting, you are scored on style. The scoring is completely subjective, just like art is. The driver who looks the best on his run, wins. These drivers wrestle, and I mean WRESTLE with 1000+HP cars, trying to keep them as sideways as possible, while coming within inches of each other, sometimes giving a friendly tap. This is what I resonate with. The few times I have driven my car in snow I was able to get it sideways and see what it feels like to drift in a controlled environment. Driving sideways is all about finesse and balance, no madder how many times I practice it on a simulator, it still feels like a totally new experience for me every time I do it. When you get it just right it is immensely gratifying and it makes me smile every time.

Ultimately, when I combine my own experiences with what we have experienced in class, I am able to come up with a statement that encompasses my mood toward art: Each person has their own type of art, and that type of art makes them happy. I love motorsports and some people love traditional portraits, there is something for everyone!

Can we separate a person’s race from a stereotype?

November 11, 2015 / / 6 Comments

Screen Shot 2015-11-11 at 12.25.35 AM

As I was reading through Quinn Peterson’s “Choreographer Kyle Abraham Discusses “The Watershed” and “When The Wolves Came In” I was slightly bothered when Kyle Abraham said “And when you put that Black body on stage with any other dancer, the story shifts based on the history that whoever is watching it has already experienced. Whatever your experience is – if you’re seeing a Black body and a white body, a Black man and a Black woman, and Black man and a white man – all of those things have their own kind of politic to them.” I agree with Abraham in that your interpretation of a scene can shift based on a person’s history but disagree with the idea that each race, when seen by an audience, has a “politic” to them. It might be because I my peers and I were born in a time where we can be separated from segregation by more than one generation, but I feel that we as a society have moved on from racial stereotypes as serious ideas, only using them for off-color comedy. Because Abraham is older than my classmates and I, his parents, or even he could have experienced racial injustice himself. This is where I believe the disparity in our interpretations of a scene lies. When I see two men on stage, one black and one white, I don’t immediately associate this with this nation’s past racial injustices, which is what I believe Abraham is trying to say. When I am trying to assess a scene, I look past the performers’ race and try to analyze things like the set, the tone of the music, their posture, and the clothing that they are wearing. This reminds me of my piece, “Is today’s society too sensitive when it comes to race.” from the 10/2 NY Times blog. In the blog post, I discussed how casting trends are leaning toward not casting a person of particular race, leaving the role open to actors of all races, even though having the character be a particular race would add to the impact of the story. I find it interesting that Abraham is sort-of doing the opposite here. Abraham is intentionally using actors of a particular race to try to convey a story. Another difference lies in that in Othello, the character Othello is usually casted as an actor with dark skin only because it makes him stand out from the other actors, where as in watching the video of the dance, the white male actor seems to be a racist man, possibly a past owner of slaves, so his race represents a stereotype. I’m not sure what to make of that.

Not What I Expected From my First Opera

October 27, 2015 / / 5 Comments

Before our class discussion on Monday, i had absolutely no experience with operas of any kind. From the class discussion, I expected to see Turandot, Calaf, Liu, The Emperor, and Timur all dead by the ending of the script. This is not what happened, we only see Liu give her life for Calaf, after professing her love for him. While this is incredibly tragic, it is not tragic to the extent of which I expected from the opera experiences of my classmates and professor.

The unknown prince

Calaf seems to be a foolish man. Not five minutes after being reunited with his father after a long period of separation, Calaf decides that he must risk his life in order to be with Turandot. This is a selfish decision. Imagine the emotional rollercoaster that Timur must have been on during the rest of the opera. He must have experienced the full range of sadness in seeing an execution, to the joy of finding his lost son, back to the panicked frenzy of trying to talk Calaf out of making the foolish decision of risking his life for the princess, to the terror of seeing his son risk everything in the trial, to the joy of seeing Calaf succeed in solving the three enigmas, to the sheer shock of his son ONCE AGAIN risking his life in the bet that the princess cannot find out his name by dawn, and the final relief of Calaf and Turandot falling in love. It is shocking that Timur did not die of a heart attack!

vengefull turandot

I do not believe that Turandot is an honorable princess or a role model to the citizens. Turandot is a vengefull woman, she has no problem killing dozens of men that adore her just because her ancestor was tied down in a marriage in situations that she did not like. While this is by no means ok, it is no reason to go around killing your citizens. All the princess had to do was refuse to marry, instead she set up a spectacle of killing to put on a show to satisfy her crazed citizens.

I have no problem at all seeing why this opera was banned in China until the end of the twentieth century. Names like Ping, Pang, and Pong are racist cues that would not fly if this play was released today. I am actually surprised that the performance of this opera does not cause protests to to its racism. The emperor and princess are very eager to execute the suitors, this is certainly not the image you want the leaders of a nation to have.

Reading Response: Frank Wedekind’s “Spring Awakening”

October 4, 2015 / / 3 Comments

As i’m writing this, I am still unsure of what to think about Wedekind’s work, “Spring Awakening”. During my reading of the play, I felt a varied group of emotions ranging from disbelief to disgust for the characters. I found it odd that there is no relief from the depth of depression that the reader feels for Melchior, Moritz, and Wendla. This German drama is very unique in that. The lack of relief almost makes me feel uncomfortable. I can’t remember the last time I watched a movie, read a book, or saw a play and it didn’t have some kind of reprieve from any left over tension. The left over tension leaves me still analyzing what I just read, I wonder if that is what Frank Wedekind intended. I wish we were able to discuss this play in class, I would love to bounce ideas off of other people and get their opinions on the characters and plot and see if they felt as lost as I do.

The story is truly tragic, two out of the three main characters end up dead and the last one ends the play at the others’ graves. The reader or listener never feels anything but sorrow for everyone involved. The final scene is especially morbid as it plays with our uncertainty about death. As humans, we have an addiction to certainty, and this certainty is completely absent when it comes to the topic of the afterlife. Many religions tell us that they know the answer, and this has gained them many followers, but the fact of the matter is that science’s vast knowledge ends after our death. With this in mind, Melchior’s conversation with Moritz’s ghost is disturbing for me because it seems to me that Melchior has simply gone insane and is standing at a grave, babbling to himself, and thinking that he is actually talking to the deceased Moritz. It seems like his rough life has caught up to him and made him insane.

Wendla seemed to have a strange fascination with beatings. I understand that she was trying to be empathetic for her friend in wanting to take her place when she was being beaten, but I cannot comprehend why she would egg Melchior on, wanting him to hit her, to a point where he could have caused serious damage to her. This and the fact that Melchior beats her so intensely shows me that these are two truly disturbed characters.

Is today’s society oversensitive when it comes to race?

September 30, 2015 / / 11 Comments

Today, in class, when we were asked what topics were social taboo, someone instantly said race. This is exactly what is discussed, especially pertaining to the performing arts in Ben Brantley and Anthony Tommasini’s “Debating ‘Otello,’ Blackface and casting trends'”.  The authors tell us that in today’s castings, directors must not take race into account even when the original piece calls for an actor of a specific background.

Traditionally, the role of Othello is played by a darker skinned man, but the director of this production decided to cast a man with light colored skin.

The photo above is of the play Othello, where Othello is being played by a man with light skin. The authors of the article talk about how Othello usually stands out because of his ethnic background which is different than all of the other characters in the play. If Othello being of a different ethnic background adds to the plot, why is it deemed offensive? This is where I believe that society is oversensitive. If people who believe this to be offensive took a step back, maybe even had a conversation with theater critics, they would be able to see that they are hampering creative expression. The authors of the article make it seem that Othello blending in with the other characters takes away from the impact of his role, and i can see where they are coming from. Why would anyone want to take away from Othello’s impact on the play?  For this reason I cannot see why Othello cannot be of a darker skin tone.

The controversial play “The Mikado”.

Where I believe the criticism might be warranted is in a play such as “The Mikado” where the characters are somewhat portrayals of asian stereotypes. The authors describe the makeup used here as “yellowface”. Today, things like yellowface and blackface are extremely discouraged and seen as racist. I am of the opinion that if an actor is using makeup to portray a stereotype that any offense taken has validity to it, but it is totally fine to darken the skin of someone playing a role like Othello, where it is constructive to the plot, and I think that the authors of the article would agree.

Comparing and contrasting John Singer Sargent and the contemporary artist Ai Weiwei.

September 17, 2015 / / 11 Comments

The article is used for this blog post can be found at: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/15/arts/international/a-departure-for-ai-weiwei-at-the-royal-academy-in-london.html?ribbon-ad-idx=10&rref=arts&module=ArrowsNav&contentCollection=Music&action=keypress&region=FixedRight&pgtype=article

A poster campaigning for Ai Weiwei's release

A poster campaigning for Ai Weiwei’s release

The man in the poster above is the contemporary artist Ai Weiwei. While John Singer Sargent lived about a century earlier than Weiwei, the two have many similarities.

Both Weiwei and Sargent are men without countries. According to Farah Nayeri’s article, “A  Departure for Ai Weiwei at the Royal Academy in London”, Weiwei was imprisoned  for 81 days in 2011 and only regained his right to leave the country two months ago. Weiwei is famous for his artwork that criticizes the corruption and wrongdoings of the Chinese government. The piece “Straight” is a “96 ton floor sculpture made of steel reinforcing bars salvaged from shabbily built schools that collapsed in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, killing more than 5,000 children”, and was a strong contributor to his arrest. After Weiwei helped design the 2008 Olympic stadium in Beijing, he became famous, which consequently led to his radicalization. The artist began his own blog in 2005, which included 2,700 anti-Chinese government posts. The blog was censored in 2009. While Sargent chose to leave his country due to a lack of supporters, Weiwei was forced to leave China under fear of future arrest, or worse, by the Chinese government due to his quite open opposition to it.

Weiwei’s sculpture, “Straight

Both Sargent and Weiwei have worldwide fame. After Weiwei’s release, he was able to attend the opening of Britain’s largest survey of his own artwork at the Royal Academy of Arts, something that no one expected to his status as a political prisoner with no passport just two short months ago. Weiwei’s artwork has been featured in more than 100 solo shows and 350 group shows.While Sargent is famous for his portraits, Weiwei is famous for his sculptures and more tactile arts. My favorite piece that he created is “S.A.C.R.E.D.”, the artwork is a shockingly accurate representation of Weiwei’s detention in a Chinese prison. The piece is almost photorealistic, it must have taken him months, if not years, to finish. Weiwei’s work in bringing justice not only to himself, but to the 5,000 students that were killed is incredibly admirable and honorable. I would love to go see some of his renowned works.

9/10 Reading Response

September 10, 2015 / / 4 Comments

The pieces “Every Portrait Tells a Lie”, and “How John Singer Sargent Made a Scene” seem to contradict each other in many ways. In Debra Brehmer’s “Every Portrait Tells a Lie”, she tells us just that, that portraits are always a false representation of a scene. In Sarah Churchwell’s “How John Singer Sargent made a scene”, Churchwell makes it seem that Sargent’s prized portraits were one hundred accurate, and even that Sargent as well as other artists struggle to make their portraits accurately represent the people involved. I believe both have a valid side to the argument. What I took from these two pieces is that painted portraits more accurately represent a scene then a photograph. When you take a photograph it can take less than a minute to set up and take the photo, whereas a painted portrait can take hours or days on end to create. Because of the very small amount of time required to take a photograph, someone or the group of people that want it can change their apparent mood so that it is pleasant to look at in the future. In the time it takes for an artist to paint a portrait, he/she is desperately trying to make the piece accurate and represent the subject’s actual emotions. I also believe that this is a generational difference, we see hundreds of selfies posted all over social media with fake smiles now. The overwhelming majority of the youngest generation has no interest in sitting for hours for a painting that will just hang on a wall and never get looked at. The self portrait has become a method of communication in the past few years. People use selfies to convey emotion that may be accurate or not, it has become so easy to fake a smile for a picture that it is now out of the ordinary to not put aside one’s feelings of sadness in order to have a nice picture. We have seen this for a few decades now with, as Brehmer tells us, the family portrait. I can guarantee you that if you have a sibling, that at one time or another you have also experienced her example with a family portrait of your own. You and your sibling might be at each others throats and ready to kill one another, but then out of the blue, mom wants a nice picture, so you are forced to put your quarrels to rest and pretend like you are the best of friends, and that portrait is definitely a lie.

9/9/15 Reading Response #1

September 8, 2015 / / 3 Comments
Sargent's Madame X

Sargent’s Madame X

One of Sargent’s portraits that he was so famous for

John Singer Sargent lived a very privileged childhood, his family traveled to Florence, Rome, Nice, and the Alps just to stay away from harsh weather.  Sargent’s parents thought they could give their child a better education then a school could, he received a “Baedeker education” from them. “Sargent learned geography, arithmetic, reading, and and other disciplines” from his father, where his mother, who was an amateur artist, encouraged him to draw and provided many subjects for him to paint. I feel that Sargent gained an advantage over other artists in his early years because he was not burdened by a formal education, and was therefore able to pursue his passion while other blooming artists had to wait until adulthood to work on their skills. In his later teenage years, Sargent was able to study art formally starting in 1873 and shortly after was moved to Paris to “foster his talent.” Sargent’s father made this decision, supporting his son’s artistic pursuits. I do not believe that in today’s society that a father could make the same move, it is simply not a sound financial decision to pursue the arts as a career. If someone were to do this today, they’d almost certainly be ensuring a lower-class lifestyle where they would have to struggle to pay their bills and I don’t believe that a modern parent would see this and encourage it. Defying the odds, Sargent was able to move around to where he could make commissions and was popular due to the “notoriety” of his work, Madame X. Madame X included “an unmodulated treatment of the face and figure inspired by the style of Edouard Manet and Japanese Prints”, which was uncommon at the time and was not appreciated by critics. From the readings, it appears that Sargent often got bored and changed his styles and location to satisfy his artistic desires. Sargent has did most of his most popular work in France, Great Britain, and the United States, being popular for his portraits and later in life, his watercolors. I don’t believe that Sargent would tell us that he has ever worked though, he seemed to love art so much that creating it was more of a passion than an occupation. While I do not share the same passion for the arts, I envy Sargent’s devotion to it and his resilience to the not-so-kind critiques he received at times. if he were able to tell us how he felt about his life and career today, I don’t think that he would say that he resents anything he did or would change a thing.

Hey, I’m Brandon Green

September 1, 2015 / / 1 Comment

Hey, I’m Brandon Green, I’m from Shoreham, NY and Macaulay was my first choice when I was picking a college. I will be majoring in finance and have a specific interest in Investment Banking. I first decided that I wanted to go into finance when I took a class on Wall St. during my freshman year of high school. Our class was able to visit the NYSE and from that day on, I knew I had to work with the markets somehow. If everything goes well here, I’d like to intern for Goldman Sachs as an analyst and have a job lined up there by the time I graduate.

I have quite a few passions, they include cars, drumming, rock music, and of course, world markets. I started drumming in fifth grade and took lessons until I moved into the dorms two weeks ago. I enjoy all music as long as it has an interesting percussion part, but tend to lean toward rock and heavy metal. Some of my favorite bands include Avenged Sevenfold, Slipknot, Stone Sour, Atreyu, Machine Head, Linkin Park, and Nonpoint. One of my favorite things to do is to drive my car with both windows open, my left arm on the door, and blast music as loud as I can bear. I find this to be incredibly relaxing, it makes me forget about all of my troubles and feel at peace with myself and the world around me. As you all know by now, I have a 2009 Inferno Red Dodge Challenger Rt. I’m one of those guys that takes pictures of his car as he walks away from it, sometimes I can’t help it! A huge draw into the world of Investment Banking for me was that I would be able to make enough money to be able to satisfy my car hobby as it is quite an expensive one.

I am very excited to see where the next few years take me and can’t wait to get started!

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