As a fan of classical music and a musician myself, I was excited to go see a performance at Carnegie Hall. First I feel the environment of the hall was what first set up what to expect for the performance. The hall oozed class and gave the vision of women in evening gown and furs trailing on the arms of the escorts in suits, each holding glasses of champagne. So i felt very fancy-schmancy sitting in the velvet seats. I was surprised of how bare and plan the stage an backdrop was, that was the only thing in the hall that I felt was plan, but when the performer took stage I understood the simplicity of the stage. If the stage was all lit u and designed and bedazzled with paint  or carvings it would have possibly taken away from the music. By having such a bare stage it made the music its self bare and raw, and allowed the performers to become the music instead of just string players. The pieces themselves I remember being impressed by, and the endurance of the players to play for so long. Each piece invoked certain emotions  like happiness and confusion from what I remember and the cello players where some of my favorite performers because of how passionate they where while playing. I would like to possibly attend another performance there again one day.

Looking back on the symphony space food talk I can say I appreciate the event more now than when I was in the actual talk. I enjoyed the conversation and learning about some history associated withJewish food, but like many of my classmates I wish the speakers would have talked more about the actual dishes and their significance in Jewish culture. But reflecting back I can understand why the speakers didn’t automatically talk about that, or directly shifted their focus to typical Jewish food because it’s getting harder to classify something as “Jewish” food, or any other cultural food for example. At one point in the conversation the speakers stated that bagels were stereotypical jewish food and Natalie who was next to me kept saying “no, no they’re not, what is she saying?” and once we got back to class everyone who was Jewish had something to say about how it Jewish food was a bit misrepresented. I always understood someone saying they’re Jewish as being in the same context as someone saying they’re a Catholic and never understood it is a culture and not just a religion. But through the input of my classmates and the Jewish food talk I now understand a lot more about the Jewish culture.

Out of all the events to thus far I have to say the Columbia comic book archive was my least favorite. Not to say that it was a bad experience or a horrible time, but it just wasn’t great. I enjoy comics and have a little bit of knowledge regarding some of the more popular, mainstream comics such as DC and Marvel so I expected the archive to reflect those aspects of comics and maybe explain their history and how they have evolved. Maybe because of what I was expecting to happen didn’t happen altered my view of the event, but I think it was more so of the information that was presented. All the comics and pictures and everything present were actually interesting to view and talk about, but I felt the collection was lacking in information of what comics actually were and how their history relates to the time now/ how they have affected modern media. But what I did learn more of is the different types of comics, and the more business-like and analytical aspect of comics. The most interesting thing in the collection for me was the cosplay costume, because it was honestly really cool, and the Columbia comic made by the students. I was so surprised about the crude and MTV like nature of the comic and how students years ago who today we view as super intellectual sounding students who would casually say things that sound directly out of a Victorian English novel would create something like that. For me that comic showed how no matter what the age and decade is, college boys basically have the same type of humor. I wish the archive was more inclusive towards people who have little or no interest in comics and had more information of the topics/characters that we associate comics with.

Where do I start with Carmen? The story itself was so intricate and not really what I was expecting, from the down fall of Don Jose’s character, to Carmen’s desire and hold to her freedom, I was pleasantly surprised of the entire story line. I loved how we could see Jose slowly fall deeper and deeper into basically his obsession and madness towards Carmen and his destruction, and how his two love interests paralleled each other. Carmen herself was such a complicated character that I don’t really know what to make of her, which I love. The first impression I got of her was just a tremendous manipulative flirt who knew she was attractive, and used her looks to get whatever she wanted.  That image of her continued for me throughout the entire opera until the very last scene where she says she rather die than live without her freedom. That line for me really changed my perspective of Carmen and had me pause and review all her past actions, and see even though she was manipulative and selfish, she was also a strong woman who refused to live her life on anyone else’s terms. In general, I enjoyed the opera, most likely because of the story of Carmen and the interesting music that was performed.

One ting that surprised me at the ballet was how easy all the dancers made the performance seem. Only after maybe the first 15-20 minutes into the performance was when I realized how hard what they were doing was, and these dancers were some of the best in the world and have been training ti do this for practically their whole lives. The costumes of the first performance was one of my favorites because they were what i picture in my head when I hear the word ballet. Also, I loved the solo performances in the first dance, especially one selection performed by a brunette ballerina and the duet between the other two ballerinas. The first section I felt was more “classy” and traditional ballet and demonstrated the skill of the ballerinas. The second performance I felt was the dramatic and theatre-esque representation of ballet and I thought was beautiful. I was happy that i read the synopsis of the dance before the actual performance or else I would have been a bit lost. The scenery was amazing and I didn’t think there was going to be props and stuff at all. The third performance was by-far my favorite (and not just because of the Brazilian danseur (term for a male ballerina) even though he added so much to the performance and my entertainment.) It was funny, and entertaining, but you could also see the level of skill and talent each dancer had and I just had a great time.

1. Why do you think certain specific dance art forms such as ballet or tap dancing were created, and do they accurately express human emotion/ serve as an emotional outlet for an audience and the performer?

2. Why do you think there are “suffering artists”? Can someone be an artist without suffering or being emotional about their work?

The 9/11 and Vietnam memorial for me achieved different emotion in the way they were structured, the location of the memorial, and what I feel were the designer’s overall goal in the creation on the spaces.

The 9/11 memorial was in my opinion more of a sanctuary and actually a memorial in memory of what happened at that place. All you could hear was the sound of rushing water and see a large open area with trees so it gave more of a peaceful vibe to me. It was a memorial for the living and the dead that were affected by September 11th in my opinion. The symbolism of the two pools/wells I think were tastefully used and gave the structure more oaf a personal meaning to the families of those whose names were written on the ledges. It upset me a little that the memorial was a little like tourist spot for some of the people there, and they didn’t understand the significance of why that memorial had to be created,and for some people the visiting the memorial is almost like visiting a cemetery for them, but regardless I feel despite that it didn’t diminish the effect of the memorial.

The Vietnam memorial was depressing for me. Unlike the 9/11 memorial, I didn’t get a feeling of remembrance  or gratitude for what the soldiers of this war had to endure and their legacy. The Vietnam War itself was not a popular war to say the least, and the troops coming home from Vietnam were not treated kindly by the American public, and even in their memorial I didn’t feel the soldiers were respected. First, the location was far off out of the public eye,and was not taken acre of. The fountain was off,and people were just ignoring the structure. Also what was written on the glass cubes were what I felt to be almost regretful word by the boys/men in this war. Almost all of the phrases taken to place on this memorial were words expressing how frightened they were, or how changed they have become because of Vietnam. In that aspect I think the artist of this memorial was trying to achieve this effect that I had of remote towards the attitude of the soldiers and what they experienced, but I feel like the entire meaning of the memorial was brushed aside because no one wanted to see it.

I felt the Gary Winogrand exhibit was one of those things you don’t really think about until someone puts the idea right in front of you. I’ve walked around New York City and have obviously seen a menagerie of people go about their daily lives. I’ve even wondered who this people are and what they;re doing in their day, but theres something different and kind of eerie with capturing that moment on film like Winogrand does. The first photograph I saw as one of a young woman the artist took without her knowing and unexpectedly. I got kind of a peeping-tom/ paparazzi type vibe from the exhibit at first because that’s what it was for me, little private glimpses into an unknowing person’s life, but that is what I think what was trying to be captured in these pictures. I generally liked the exhibit because it wasn’t staged, it was pure human existence which is one of the most complex, beautiful, and ugly things I feel we will ever experience in life.

After looking at some pictures I stated watching the people watching the pictures. Most were really  enthralled and deeply observing the photos and I overheard this one conversation. What looked like a mother and daughter. The mother was explaining one picture to the girl who had to be around 14 or 15 about the “juxtaposition of  the men in the air force and the plain where they are where stationed in with their families watching them go” The woman was clearly very into the gallery and was explaining to her daughter the “creepiness” of the air force and how Winogrand was trying to make a statement about the war in this image. After this very insightful and very passionate explanation of this picture her daughter just looks up at her with a completely teenage look on her face and goes “What’s so creepy about the air force?” Which to me this exchange  shows exactly what the photos themselves were trying to show, the different degrees of human emotion, life,and perspective in one singular place.

ana luiza introduction

So when I first heard about the “Macaulay Night at the Museum” I thought we were having a sleepover. I honestly believed the entire 400+ Macaulay students were going to bring sleeping bags and camp out underneath the paintings of Van Gogh and watch the cinema classic  that is “Night at the Museum.” I was quickly informed that my feetie pajamas would not be  necessary, and the event was redefined to me. Regardless of a sleepover or not I was excited to attend to event,  and once it was over I was more interested in art than I was before.

I liked how we were free to explore the museum and pick our own pieces of art to discuss.I saw certain groups gravitating towards the more obscure interesting works, while others wanted to discuss the more classical and traditional paintings. The Egyptian exhibit was my favorite out of all of them because the art itself was created for some purpose beyond simple aesthetics, and I could see how it was crafted by a human hand hundreds of years prior. The sarcophagi in my opinion were so cool and intricate that I probably could have spent the majority of the night looking at them. I had a fairly large group of six individuals, but we broke up into groups of three to discuss two different art pieces. My threesome observed an African tribal costume of fertility, and the other looked at a painting that symbolized the French Revolution (Vive la France!). At first the tape recorder was awkward to use, and there was a brief moment of panic where I thought I erased the entire six minute conversation, but after we all got into the art I found that the pressure of having something to say into the mic just fell away. I wished I had more time to look around the museum and talk to the other students because personally I didn’t get to meet as many people as I wanted to.  There were a lot of different styles of art that I didn’t know existed and I found myself constantly questioning how someone had the idea to make this? What inspired them, or what were they thinking when they created this work? I will look forward to other events like this, especially if it involves art because I now know how to actually talk about the work without trying to sound like an art critic. I heard a lot of other students saying that they want to tour the museum again on their own time to explore more and I feel the same way.

So in sum, I enjoyed my night at the museum even though it wasn’t a sleepover.