I absolutely loved the ballet. It was my first time ever seeing one and I’m so grateful I got the chance to. Ballet has always seemed so boring to me. I always imagined it with little passion, just a show of specific moves. But now I get it. Now I understand that ballet is about pure beauty, the ideal human form.

It reminded me of classical Greek art. The Greeks, and the Romans after them, were in pursuit of the ideal human form. Polykeitos’ Spear Bearer, Da Vinci’s Vitruvius Man’ Michelangelo’s David: all were striving for that ideal human form. And that’s what ballet is about. These people sculpt their bodies and make them do impossible things in the most graceful way. The limited number of specific moves is for a very important reason: those moves are specifically designed to show the human body at its best.

When the dancers raised their arms like a contrappasto statue, they were gorgeous. Their form was absolutely stunning. during the first intermission Elizabeth asked me what I thought and without even thinking I replied it made me want to cry of beauty. It was like seeing a gorgeous Van Gogh (who, by the way, has made me cry on more than one occasion). The dancers were so beautiful. And through their hard work I could see the passion in it all. That even though it was so set in stone, even though there was no room for interpretation or change, it was beautiful And passionate.

The 9-11 Memorial is absolutely gorgeous. It is so grounded, so massive, so simple, and so magnificent. You can’t help but feel something in the presence of all those names lining two waterfalls where the World Trade Center buildings once stood.

I think part of the reason the memorial is so powerful is because it envelopes all of your senses. You can see exactly where the buildings were. You can see the names, feel each and every name of each and every person that lost their life. You feel the breeze, the water spraying up onto your face from down below. The sound of the constant falling water takes you out of time, out of place, and envelopes you. It forces you, in the most gentle, unassuming way possible, to reflect, to be silent, and to feel.

The massiveness of the whole thing is also very awe inspiring. Those huge basins full of water and the endless pit in the centers of both really impact you. I felt like the buildings were falling. I could feel the emptiness above me where two buildings full of people should have been. That falling water is like the buildings forever falling.

And I know we could all feel it. We were all so taken by the memorial. And when we saw a woman’s name and “her unborn child” I know we all felt that loss. When a memorial can do that to so many different people, it is definitely a successful memorial.

I have always, always, always wanted to got o the Opera (well at least in the past few years). I always pictured it as the most classy cultural experience I could have. With absolutely no knowledge of the Opera, or plays, or anything along those lines, I wanted to go just to go, just to experience something I never have before.

It was so much fun from the beginning. I was giddy all day, and when I finally got home and started to get ready I only got more excited. With literally the only nice shirt I own on, a black blouse with black leather details, and some vintage earrings I got at a flea market, I walked onto the subway and found a very good looking group of class mates. Being all dressed up and seeing everyone dressed up, made me feel like this was actually happening, I was actually attending the Opera.

The show itself did not disappoint. It was by no means what I was expecting, but nonetheless I was pleased. Before that day, I had not been familiar with Shakespeare’s Midsummer play. I was caught off guard by the fact that an Opera, something I had always envisioned to be the pinnacle of class, could be a comedy in which a fairy queen falls in fake love with an ass. I was also surprised by the fact that it was in English. I had always wanted to go to one in another language. I didn’t even know there were any in English. It was weird but still enjoyable. The last act especially, with the silly play within e Opera itself.

Even end though the show we saw wasn’t what I had had in mind as my Opera experience, I really enjoyed it. I think it was a nice, light choice as a first. It really made me want to see a deeper one though. I’d like to see one that was written as an Opera and not a play originally, I want to see one in another language, witha deeper, more serious story, and I’d like to wear something nicer next time.

The Zoe Strauss exhibition is where I spent most of my time at ICP. I wasn’t crazy about all of her pictures but a few of them really did strike me. There was one of a man who had just been shot in the leg and was on a stretcher smoking a cigarette. There was one of a yellow door with KKK written in black and white on it. I loved the juxtapositions of colors and ideas in her work.

The photograph that struck me the most was the one of the naked man lying on the bed in some trashy room. When I first rounded the corner and looked to my right I had a good chuckle at this comical specimen but after a while the photo really got me thinking. Yeah we were all making fun of him and joking that we’d all write about the naked man but there was something to that photo that made us stop and look and chat and laugh. He was so nonchalant in his nudity and in his surroundings, which were pretty deplorable. He was posed like a model of the Renaissance, like some Venus of Urbino. But he definitely did not have the ideal Greco-Roman figure.

Maybe it’s that juxtaposition that had me lingering there. Maybe it was wondering how Zoe Strauss could have possibly ended up in a situation in which she took this photo. Maybe it was the questions of where is he, what did he do last night, who is he, why is he there, what is he doing now? It was comical at first but I slowly realized all the layers behind this one photograph.

It’s not like I’d go home and order a print of it online, hang it up in my room. I really don’t have a desire to look at that picture, I didn’t at the time I was either.. but something kept me there. This man was interesting, and Zoe Strauss captured that.