Macaulay Seminar One at Brooklyn College

Hi everyone,

“Hitchcock” was a really interesting movie! I enjoyed it mostly because it gave me some insight on Alfred Hitchcock as a cultural icon in American history. Prior to our class discussions, I had no idea who Hitchcock was. It was interesting to see how cinematic suspense can be traced back to his work in “Psycho.” After I watched the movie, I went on youtube and found this:

I feel like this acceptance speech gives us a glimpse of Hitchcock and Alma’s relationship, which was not only a romantic one, but also a creative partnership. I think Hitch was incredibly needful of Alma and I think the movie did a wonderful job of illustrating that especially in the argument scene, when Hitch accuses Alma of having an affair with Whit and demands her full support. It is not often that the partner is acknowledged and I think that the movie tapped into that universal story quite well. Alma, who helped Hitch with scriptwriting, casting, filming, and editing, should have been recognized more often as a gifted editor and director by Hitch and his colleagues. I think it was great that Hitch shared his award, as he did his life, with Alma.

I grew up in a small town outside of Boston, Massachusetts called Scituate. Before high school, I moved 4 times. I was born in Scituate, which has its own harbor, and then 6 years later moved to Weymouth. After Weymouth, we continued moving north, ending up in Haverhill, MA. 5 years after that, we crossed the southern border of New Hampshire and now live in a small town of about 7,000 called Hampstead, NH. Since I grew to age 6 in Scituate, we’ll revisit some of the sights and sounds of that beautiful little fisherman’s town.

Above is a map of Scituate. Boston can be seen to the north, and if you were to continue to the southwest, you would eventually reach New York. It is the second furthest outcropping of land in Massachusetts, with the first being Cape Cod. Fishermen, wharfs, and the US Coast Guard call Scituate home, and I remember very vividly trips down to the water to see the boats.

This is an aerial view of Scituate Harbor. I lived on small street called Egypt Lane, and I would walk around and describe the neighborhood houses to my parents. Scituate has been a port town for over 200 years, and the houses were all built to accommodate the sea captains and fishermen who used to live there. Many of the houses are quite old, and the architecture was based on the amount of money the inhabitant had. Fishermen generally lived in smaller, less spacious houses than wealthy sea captains, who had multiple bedrooms and verandas, as well as roof patios.

My upbringing here was very dependent on the sea culture. I would be taken down to the beach, and the smell of the sea wouldn’t wash off you for days. My pockets would be full of sea glass on my walk home, and the toy store in downtown was a sure stop. the lighthouse was constantly lit, and smell of saltwater taffy was in the air.

Time to go back and visit, I think.

I, too, had the great pleasure of going up inside Tatzu Nishi’s installment in Columbus Circle, Columbus’ Living Room. The artist, Tatzu Nishi, worked with the Public Art Fund to build scaffolding around the 7 story high statue of Christopher Columbus in Columbus Circle. The idea behind it was creating a situation or scenario in which you would stand in C’s living room, experiencing a closeness to a statue you would never otherwise experience. Although we were close enough to reach out and touch it, the guards wouldn’t let us. The view, however, was unbelievable. You enter through the door and see that every little detail has been attended to. The TV is playing CNN, couches surround coffee tables full of art books and history novels, and lamps fill the corners with light. Hardwood floors are below you and windows looking out onto central park surround you.

The creativity of this art installation and the experience going up to it was remarkable. How often do you get the opportunity to stand so close to a legendary statue? A great idea and a great experience. Remarkable and breathtaking.

They do need to get up there and clean up the bird crap, though. Next time.

Coming into this debate, my Jewish background and upbringing was knocking on the inside of my head, saying “You better decide the right winner, Jake. Don’t mess this one up.” Ultimately, I think I would have to choose Christmas as the winner, but Hannukah was an extremely close second.

Michael Showalter, Craig Baldo, and Albertina Brooks made up the competitors for the Christmas side. They are all extremely talented comedians who have either had their own shows, sitcoms, or stand-up performances. As they began to compete for the audience vote, Craig Baldo brought out the Christmas Smell Machine, which produced christmas smells for the audience. This was a crowd pleaser, and he did very well. The rest of the Christmas team also did very well, with their arguments that Christmas gifts are better, the spirit is more jolly, and its a lot more fun to be celebrating Christmas.

The Hannukah team, made up of famed comedienne Jackie Hoffman, Seth Herzog, and some guy who was clearly not Jewish, fought hard and won on many points. They had more days in which to celebrate, and they didn’t have to deal with that Jesus guy.

Personally, I don’t have a crude threshold. I think as long as the audience is old enough and mature enough to experience that kind of humor, then lay it on. Some people may argue that the humor used in this debate was crude, inappropriate, or rude. I say lay it on. If it makes you uncomfortable or upset, then leave. We have the power to make changes in the media we allow to enter our lives. Change the channel. Change your seat. Your complaints will not stop the F-bombs and dirty phrases coming from the performers on stage. Maybe it is a sign of their inability to make people laugh without the crude. That’s an interesting concept. But overall, let them perform. It’s you who has the power.

And finally, unfortunately for the little Jewish man in my head, Christmas won.

Our trip to the opera was wonderful, and I enjoyed it very much, but I would not recommend The Tempest as a first choice for unexperienced opera-goers. I myself am not very experienced, having seen 2 operas previously, but I can say with confidence that my previous two were significantly more enjoyable.

The Tempest as a play is hard. It’s difficult to follow at times, and the language only makes it more difficult to understand at times. To translate that to the opera stage, with a new score and new words written along the basic plot line, it would be extremely difficult to successfully execute. I wasn’t as pleased as I hoped I would. I had previously seen a Puccini and a Verdi, both very melodic, extravagant, and exciting Italian operas. This was not that. The Tempest was choppy, had no recurring rhythm or musical theme, and reduced Shakespearean dialogue to choppy, disjointed rhyming couplets. While it was a great evening at the opera, I would not recommend the Tempest unless one is truly prepared to see and experience something completely out of the ordinary. Regular every day opera goer beware! The Tempest is most definitely an acquired taste.

The International Center for Photography, a mecca of photographic documentation located a few blocks from Times Square, was the first cultural experience of our Macaulay evening. When you enter this unassuming building, you’re immediately overwhelmed by the photographs. Covering every wall, there was a sensory incapacitation of images ranging from innocent images of children standing in deserted fields, to dead bodies laying in the streets. It was unbelievably difficult to look at some, while others were rather simple, and other still lighthearted. There was an interesting video exhibit as well, which appeared to have been significantly less frequented. A video made up up animated pencil sketches showed the death, danger, and hope of the Apartheid, and detailed periods of history in which these moments were especially relevant.

The most moving photograph for me was one by a member of the Bang Bang Club, Ken Oosterbroek. This was a group of four friends, photographers, and journalists who were on the front lines during the apartheid. Ken and Kevin have both since passed away; Kevin committed suicide due to the mental toll of one of his photos, and Ken was shot during the war, believed to be by peacekeepers. This image is of what looks like a large mob of people marching towards something, and children holding hands, running in front of them. The image is moving and powerful; with the juxtaposition of those running peacefully away from the angry mob, we see a true contrast between apartheid violence and apartheid peaceful inhabitants. A very moving exhibit, photo, and visit.

Also this evening we went to see a play at La MaMa experimental theatre, down in the east village. This play was interesting for a number of reasons. Firstly, the characters all played other characters. They interchanged between a lawyer in a suit and a street inhabitant wearing dirty clothes, a judge and a victim. This performance was mainly about the legal proceedings involving citizenship, as well as a really moving discussion of sexual assault. The talk back with the author at the end was enlightening, and I’m glad we had the opportunity to attend. The sets were beautifully crafted, and the ingeniousness of the symbols, including the 2-person-operated bird, took it to a new level.

Great evening altogether.

This is not my first visit to the Opera (in fact it is my second). I have also seen Verdi’s Macbeth at the Opera in the spring season of 2012 (GREAT deals for students: for something like $32.50 you get seats at the back of the Grand Tier ($100+ price range)!

Anyway, about the Tempest: I unfortunately did not know the storyline. As is most often the case, I had trouble following the action on stage. It seemed disjointed, and at times chaotic. The orchestra, though not particularly musical, was effective at setting a dark, shadowy mood (though it was supposed to be a comedy?! Whatever.)

Obviously, the singers were very talented; to my (untrained) ears they hit notes with accuracy and meaning (the vibrato permeated the opera house). I am not going to say I liked hearing Ariel’s screaching, though I can appreciate the years of training it took to be able to ‘sing’ notes that high.

We were so high up in the Family Circle that I could not make out the costume designs. Based on the clips we saw in class, however, I know that it was terrific and well-thought out.

I haven’t seen a ‘real’ opera sung in English before (does Porgy and Bess count?) so it was interesting to hear music accompanying an English libretto. From what I hear, it diverged sharply from the original Shakespeare, and consequentially the words seemed awkward and unnatural.

With all honesty I enjoyed Macbeth far more than I did the Tempest. I feel like enumerating the similarities and differences for you:
Macbeth Verdi
-Italian -English
-Tragedy -Comedy
-Knew the story beforehand -Did not know the story beforehand
-Lyrical, Melodic -Disjointed, Chaotic

Both
-Dark
-Great costume, set design
-Adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays
-Lead singer is Baritone

There are plenty of elements to a good opera: music, costumes, lyrics, acting, dance, supporting cast, stageworks. They all have to come together to make a truly powerful work of art. For me, the Tempest did not hit the mark. I feel that all types of performance (Broadway, Opera, Orchestra, Ballet) may be compared because they share the same goal of entertaining the audience. In comparison with Verdi’s Macbeth, Porgy and Bess, and Carl Orff’s Carmina, the Tempest just didn’t have the same level of impact. Nevertheless, I look forward to my next visit to the Opera and to Lincoln Center; may it be a great experience!

On the same day we visited the ICP museum, we watched an experimental show called Luz at the La Mama theater in downtown Manhattan. There is no easy way to explain this show. I honestly cannot say I had a firm grasp of it myself. The thing I took away from it most was the idea of how different women from different underdeveloped regions of the world have been taken advantage of. I have heard of such stories, read about them in newspapers, seen them on TV. However, there is something different about seeing a story such as this up close. Although the story itself was fictional, there is something about being there in the room while discussions of it are occurring on stage that gives me chills.

The environment of the theater enhanced the effect, to be honest. It seemed to be like an out-of-the-way place and the theater itself was very small and simple. Thus, because of its size and lack of decorations, there were no distractions. There was nothing that could take away from the full effects of the play. I was especially impressed by the stage setup that the show had, with heaps of papers in the background, cabinets lined along the sides, and a simple table in the center. Walking into the play, I had thought that the set would be changed between scenes. However, it stayed the same throughout, which takes much skill to manage without the story not making sense. The same set was used as the lawyer’s office, and as the courtroom, and at every other place visited by the lawyer. The set did have a sense of symmetry, in terms of how everything was laid out. Although it seemed chaotic, it seemed to fit the scenarios presented. For example, in one scene, Alexandra, the lawyer, walked over to one of the gigantic piles of paperwork and pulled out an important document. Although everything seems chaotic, there is some sense of organization for the characters.

I was, however, very confused by the role of the businessman. There was obviously some clear signal there about corruption and politics, but I had a hard time picking up on it. Additionally, the fact that the same actors were used to play multiple roles was quite impressive. This shows a few things: one, that the actors chosen are very versatile and creative. This also serves as a symbol to show that the lives of the people portrayed are interchangeable…the things that happen to these women can happen to any other person in similar circumstances. This could teach the members of the audience not to take their lives for granted. I was also confused a bit whenever the black bird-like  creature came into the picture. I was not sure exactly what that could mean.

Despite certain aspects of the play that I found to be a bit hard to follow, I thought it was all in all a very impressive performance by talented actors. I loved how the set stayed the same, so that there were virtually no distractions for the audience. The story is a touching one that many people can empathize with, and the strict was very well executed.

Hello, all!

I thoroughly enjoyed our trip to the ICP museum. I have taken many history classes and as a pianist, I have been exposed to many art classes as well in the last few years. However, I have never had a more fulfilling experience in either subject than I did at the ICP museum. I thought it did a wonderful job at creating a story out of the photographs that were there. History can often be presented in very dry ways, I have come to learn over the years. However, the way the museum was structured was very interesting. There were lines of photographs hung on the wall, and we followed the photographs in a very specific way to create a story. I found this very interesting; I have visited several museums in my life, but this was the first time I was told upon entering that there is a specific way to go in order to attain a full understanding of the content in the building. I was told to follow a specific path and pay careful attention to each photograph on that path, in that order. I can honestly say this made my job as an observer both easier and harder at the same time: it became easier because there was no ambiguity. I usually feel very lost at museums, unsure of where to go and what to look at. I would usually just walk around to random works of art, stare for several seconds, and move on without another thought. However, my job was made much harder because now there was more pressure to pay attention to the story that was being told. I had to take good care to observe and analyze all the details presented in each photograph, on the first floor and downstairs in the basement. There was not a single photograph that seemed out of place. Everything there tied in with everything around it and the experience gave me a very real idea of the time periods represented, from the 1960s all the way up until the present.

The photographs at the museum were unlike anything I have seen before. Through techniques such as perspective and lighting, I could feel myself being put into the pictures themselves. They conveyed a wide range of emotions from picture to picture that helped me understand the time period and the discriminatory practices that were around for many years.

The photograph I chose to focus on was called “Sleeping quarters at miners’ hostel” by Leon Levsen, taken in 1946. Here is a brief description of the painting.

There is a small room that looks sort of like a jail cell or dungeon. Light is entering the room from windows that are high above on one of the walls. There are two lines of beds. In each, there is a row of bunk beds. Six men are visible in the picture. Five are sitting and one is standing up. Two of them are seated at a table located at the center of the room. There is a pail on the table, so perhaps they have just finished eating a meal. The man on the left appears to be staring off into the distance towards his right. The man on the right is knitting a white article of clothing. There are two men sitting opposite each other on opposite bottom bunks near the photographer on either side. They are both merely grasping one hand in the other. There is one mean standing at the back of the room, underneath the windows. He is wearing a beret and is staring straight ahead. The last man is in the bottom bunk on the back left corner of the room. He seems to be examining a bottle. He is the only man in the picture who is barefoot. The other men have on black shoes. The man who is knitting appears to be wearing deteriorating work boots. He also has on a beret. The man next to him is wearing untied high boots. The man on the bunk near the photographer on the left is wearing deteriorating dress shoes. All of the men appear to be wearing a towel or bedsheet-like article of clothing, except for the man wearing dress shoes. The room does not appear to be very clean, The floor has many stains of different colors and sizes. The sheets on each beds are thrown about without organization. All of the men have very stern expressions, though the man examining the bottle seems to be the least stoic. He seems extremely interested in the bottle. There are no decorations in the room. It appears to be all gray and white, at least what can be made out of it in the black and white photograph. The tiles on the walls are cemented and look like bricks.

This photograph moved me because it has a very ominous feeling to it. All of the details add some sense of darkness to it, from the stern expression on each man’s face to the disorganized room to the bed-sheet like clothing to the bottle, which may indicate that some of these men like to drown their sorrow through drinking.

All in all, I had a very enjoyable time at this exhibit and look forward to visiting it again sometime in the near future.

Hi everyone,

This weekend, I went to Tatzu Nishi’s art exhibit at Columbus Circle and it was an amazing experience. According to nyartbeat.com, Nishi decided to do his first “public project” in the United States on a historic statue of Christopher Columbus that was created in 1892. I was really astonished to see how Nishi reinvented our perception of Columbus by situating this 13-foot statue of Columbus right in the middle of a modern, NYC-inspired living room. The room is full of nice furniture and when I walked into it, it was a bit breath-taking at first because  I wasn’t quite expecting to see a colossal statue in the middle of a fictional room. Nevertheless, it was an interesting art exhibit because Nishi made me rethink my perception of Columbus as a man of the past, with no connections to the present or to the future. The exhibit humanized him for me and made me think about the things I had read about him in Michael Troulliot’s book, “Silencing the Past: Power and Production in History.” Although I lost my brochure, I do remember reading that the original statue was made in Italy to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ discovery of the New World. I always found that term “discovery” really biased because it implies that the Western perspective on history is the only view that is valid. I’m sure that the indigenous peoples would not celebrate Columbus’ “discovery” of the Americas…

As Trouillot suggests, I would also agree that it was not Columbus’ discovery that changed the course of history as we know it, but it was his “accidental encounter” that did. Nishi helped me reflect on this idea a bit more and I am grateful for that.

Sofia