Category — Oral Performance

I found the Christmas vs Hanukkah debate to be not really a debate. They were not arguing against each other and just stating facts. I did not really find it funny. But I can’t blame them because it was difficult to make the topic amusing. I laughed the most when the Jewish side made fun of how concerned with money Jewish people are and how all the Jews are living in Uptown. I found the lady in the Hanukkah said to be very boring because she was really concerned with winning the debate instead of making the audience laugh. Winning the debate and comedy does not really  hand in hand. I thought the Hanukkah side won because they made me laugh the most, especially the first guy. The Q and A section was really awkward and I felt like whoever was brave enough to ask a question was made fun of. There were a lot of sexual references and insults to the audience. One of the best answers to the questions was from the Christmas side, “I feel awkward telling my black friend I take the N train.” Overall, it was not as funny as I wanted to be but I learned a lot about Christmas and Hanukkah. I had a great time.

The debate in class, apples vs oranges, made me realize how hard it was to win. There is always a negative side to the topic you are supporting. Jake was a good debater because his argument was clear, he did not stutter, and his voice was powerful. Hand gestures were used frequently in our debate and I thought that added more power to our speech.

A summary was already given, so I’ll just mention a few things I noticed….

Firstly, after doing the debate in class (apples vs. oranges), I realized one thing was missing from the debate at Uptown Showdown. The debaters there seemed to have each been doing their own thing. There was no rebuttal from the other side on the exact points that were made. Additionally, even within a team, there did not seem to be a sense of cohesiveness amongst the group. It did not seem like the preparation for the show was done together. Like Amanda mentioned, the Hanukkah side was more focused on the history of the holiday, whereas the Christmas side was more focused on the festivities of the holiday.

Secondly, as Professor Ugoretz mentioned in class to keep an eye out for, I noticed that people did indeed look around for “approval” before/ during letting out a laugh. As we were sitting in the front few rows, it was difficult to get a full study of this, but I was able to see our class (including myself) looking around at fellow audience members (unless we were all just checking if everyone else was looking around in order to gather this “research”).

Thirdly, I found the Q & A to be quite a fail. The questions asked did not really add anything to the debate. And, they were either dumb, irrelevant, rude, or even crude. But, the attack back to the questioners was reminiscent of the way the pitchmen involve the audience and not-so-subtly (here, even obviously) insult them.

Hello,

Symphony Space had a great comedy act last night with some highlights and some not-so-good moments.

The debate of Hanukkah vs Christmas was set up with three debaters for each team.

The first for team Hanukkah was funniest overall. He started a bit dryly with the story and threw in a few jokes here and there. He made fun of a few names, and called the heroes of the story bad-asses and mentioned that Jews were cheap then too. They were so happy because the miracle of the one day’s worth of olive oil staying alit for eight days saved them some money.

The first guy for team Christmas basically took a vacuum and make believe it was all the different smells of christmas. Pretty funny.

Overall the Christmas team was funnier than the Hanukkah team but Hanukkah had better arguments probably because they took it too seriously. The Hanukkah team’s woman representative, Jackie Hoffman, started with the history of the persecution of Jews… not funny. And she was too loud.

And then the Q and A…

The improvised remarks of some of the comedians were better than their stand up acts. For example, Jackie Hoffman calling Michael Showalter, “Moshe Showalter,” When the jerk called Michael Showalter fat (“Is that a pillow in your shirt or … “) the vacuum guy sprayed imaginary “turd” incense at him.

But I was biased from the beginning… Yay Hanukkah!

Either way happy holiday! (Thanksgiving…)

Hi everyone,

I hope you all are doing well. Before tomorrow’s gathering at the Symphony Space, I want to share a brief reflection on a protest that I attended on Thursday for the civilians in Gaza. With the recent surge in violence in Israel and the Gaza Strip, millions of people across the world are organizing/attending protests to show their solidarity with the people in Gaza and Syria, who are both suffering at the hands of brutal regimes. It’s interesting to note that these people are not only Muslim; they are of different ethnicities, races, and religions. The protest I attended was, needless to say, incredibly emotionally charged; my friend was very angry and upset because she was unable to get in touch with her family in Gaza due to the Israeli government shutting down all forms of communication (i.e. internet, phone lines, etc.) in the Gaza Strip. I guess the only thing that I can do is hope for peace and justice in the Middle East. As one poster said, “WE HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT OUR HUMANITY.”

While I was at the protest, I noticed various manifestations of “resistance art” directly on the posters, the signs, and the banners. The Palestinian flag was omnipresent; a blur of red, white, black, and green permeates my memories as I recall seeing weeping old men, teenage males passionately shouting “Free, Free Phillistine, Free, Free Ghaaza,” and fiery, young girls wearing hijab (the Islamic head-scarf) thrusting their fists into the air demanding justice. I help up a sign that boldly stated, “With Justice Comes Peace-Free Palestine!” and there were dozens of other people holding up the V-sign colored in the Palestinian flag colors. Perhaps what was most striking about this protest was not  the signs brandished by the Arab community, but by Hasidic Jews who held up signs reading, “Judaism Does Not Support Zionism.”

Overall, this experience will not be forgotten any time soon. I first-handedly witnessed protest art!

“The Tempest” is the only opera I’ve ever been to in my life.

Thanks to a friend of mine, I had read “Maskerade” by Terry Pratchett, so I was prepared.

According to this book, a random person viewing an opera won’t know what’s going on at all without the little booklets that they pass out explaining it, so I looked up the plot online beforehand. The book was right- I would’ve never been able to follow the show without it.  I like my entertainment to be fun, and fun can only be had if at least half of your brain isn’t saying “OK…what’s going on….I don’t understand.” So I can read a book and not understand why a character did something because I know it will be explained later in the plot. Movies take this reliability to an extreme, recycling the same plots over and over again- you know what’s going to happen in a movie just by the title and poster. The opera seems to be the most brain-bruising form of entertainment by far. I wasn’t used to this, and I don’t think I like it.

“Maskerade” also pointed out that the singers in the opera have to worry about their appearance, and I noticed that everyone in “The Tempest” took good care of themselves, but maybe that’s just in acrobatic operas like this? I wouldn’t know. Either way, the Tempest involved a lot of  gymnastic skills, and I wasn’t expecting that- I guess I always pictured some fat lady singing high enough to break glass when i pictured “opera.”

The voices involved sounded good to my unsophisticated ears. The Ariel singer’s voice was annoyingly high- 2 people complained that they got headaches from her.

I liked the scenery, especially the sea and the forest. The idea of waving a sheet to portray the ocean worked out well, and the trees moved farther apart as singers walked towards them, creating and illusion of depth.

The costumes were intense. They were made so that even the people in the top row could see all the details.

I don’t know. Opera just isn’t my thing.

Coming into the opera, I didn’t know what to expect. Often I’ve seen clips of operas in movies in which only individuals of the higher society attend.  Therefore, I thought it would be full of rich people coming to socialize amongst themselves. However, upon arrival I saw that there was a mix of people who attend the opera. Most of them looked like regular people, not power-hungry individuals whose checkbooks speak for them before they do.

The opera itself was extremely intriguing. The plot was very interesting and had me captivated throughout the performance. The introduction with Ariel on the chandelier was nothing short of captivating. The orchestra managed to capture the moments of the play with the perfect music. I especially liked the way the director set up Prospero on one side of the stage for him to “watch” over what he was doing. The actors’ voices were amazing, especially Ariel. It’s unbelievable that she can reach such high octaves and yet still maintain a strong voice.

The visit to the opera changed my perspective of it. It puts a spin on the type of performing arts I’ve been used. I no longer think if it as something only rich people do, but as an exciting performance to watch.

On Thursday, October 4^th we went to see the play Luz at La Mama Theater. At first I was a little skeptical about the play because it said on the website that it was an experimental play. I immediately thought about a random assortment of events that I wouldn’t understand because it was a director’s idea of an “experimental play.” However, I was glad to find out that I could actually follow the events in the play.

What I liked the most was the role of the actors in the play. The concept of one actor having multiple roles during the play at first seemed strange to me. I thought it wouldn’t work and roles would clash with each other. To my surprise, the roles flowed throughout the play. The director/writer did an excellent job of distributing the roles among the actors so that none of them would clash.

The story of Luz was also very interesting. The subject of rape is a sensitive topic that is affecting people worldwide. I like how the story ended up with the lawyer saying her own story of how she was raped. It showed that no matter what situation or social status you’re in there’s a chance that you can be raped, which is an idea that we all should realize.

Last Thursay I had the pleasure of visiting the International Center of Photography with a friend and my Macaulay classmates (that’s all of you!). On the way to the ICP we met familiar faces from our childhood on 42nd Street (Sesame St and Toy Story represent). There was some interesting imagery at the CP, not all of it PG-rated. I noticed how the so-called ‘candid’ images were much more fascinating than those portraits of influential people that were abundant. I was drawn to the vintage magazines that lay beneath the glass. Most striking was that they lacked the superfluous text that infests most magazine covers today (refer to any edition of Seventeen). The cover usually had just a color portrait, with a reference to some sensational news on page XX. On the lower floor were more photos and also some illustrations. Particularly I am referring to those that were drawn upon pages of New York Times. I was all done and just about ready to leave, when – unbenownst to me – there was actually an assignment to be completed. Whoops! With the last few minutes, I tried to scrounge up the most interesting photo of the lot. It was going to be a challenge, but finally I found something that really caught my eye. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find it online. Those of you who’ve seen it, great! Others, try to imagine it through my words.

It was titled ‘Sheep Farmer and Son,’ 1983, by Wendy Schwegmann. Basically it was a boy and his father in front of some white house. Details, details. The boy had a gun, a pistol sort of thing, and it was directed at someone or something (hopefully the latter!) outward and to the right of the picture. He was fat, and chubby, and short. So not the most athletic kid on the block. I’m thinking of Piggy here from Lord of the Flies (great book if you haven’t read it). He was also wearing pants. The dad was looking on outward and to the left of the picture (he’s facing the photographer but his body is directed to the left). He’s an ordinary man, except for the fact that he is wearing short shorts! What I mean is he is wearing those ‘boy scout’ shorts that the kids usually wear (remember that white boy with the watch that we discussed in class?) I thought it interesting that the boy had on pants while the fatherly figure was wearing the shorts of childhood. Something like a societal reversal, don’t you think? Something like turning social norms upside down, maybe? Like the end of apartheid, I would say.

After that enlightening visit, we endured the trek down to West 4th, where we caught a showing of Luz at La Mama. I did not really catch on to the one actor=multiple characters thing that was going on. It seemed kind of all over the place, which made it hard to follow. One aspect I thoroughly enjoyed, however, was that little bit with the Carmina Burana. It made me chuckle when they mentioned performing it at Carnegie Hall, an event I personally attended earlier this year where chorus members from my own school were performing. The incorporation of the Roasted Swan (which is a tenor solo and has its own movement) was a welcome addition. My favorite character was the ‘businessman,’ who had the same attitude as one of the guys who appear in Jersey Boys: smooth, fast-talking, and confident.

It was an OK way to spend an evening, I’d say, and I’ll close with these few photos I took during the trip.

Elmo’s excited. Sofia doesn’t look too pleased!

Is there some chemistry between them? Artur laughs and looks on.

Nice to see the Empire State up close. Great view at the top, from what I’m told!

A skyscraper with an interesting facade. I wonder what goes on there?

Saying goodbye to the Empire State Building. See you soon!