Before coming to this performance, I assumed it was going to be about two people who fall in love at a bar. I did not expect the plot twist to be that the wife was a transexual, I thought for sure that the man she fell in love with her step brother her something. Major plot twist! I was sitting trying to figure out for a minute who was Chris, the man’s brother and what surgery she had. It took me a few minutes to catch on to what was going on. This show was very interesting and funny. The language was a little over the top but I enjoyed every minute of this show.

At first I was confused that the show was in such a small theater and that we weren’t able to take pictures, but I just figured that they wanted to conserve the rights to the show. This show went by so quick for me and I was upset that it was over so soon! I don’t like when shows end in the middle of the story somewhat, and the viewer is forced to decide what happens at the end. I was hoping that once it was over that they would have a scene fast forwarding into the future showing us what eventually happened to the family.

I felt bad that everyone did not believe that the husband didn’t know that his wife was once a man! It was probably so hard to deal with and  I kind of understood why the husband was yelling so much. I do think though that they shouldn’t have told the kids and just left the fight between them. The kids were so scared.

This was by far my favorite trip! I am taking music 1300 this semester and I just learned about all of the famous composers such as Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. I loved this event because I was able to relate to it and understand the performance.

During the first concerto, I wasn’t simply enjoying the sound of the music, I was studying it as well. I was paying attention to the tone change and the dynamic change, and was so thankful that I learned about those terms in class this semester.

The first performance was nice and calming. I loved closing my eyes and picturing a story in my head of what could possibly be going on. I loved that there was no set story for this concerto written, so I was able to use my imagination and make my own story.

The second performance to me, sound eery. I did not love the sound of the harpsichord, partly because I couldn’t hear it so well and partly because it sounded creepy to me. The harpsichord didn’t have as smooth of a sound as the violin did.

The last performance, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons was my favorite part of the night! As I was listening to this song I was swaying to the music and relaxing. I loved this song because it was familiar to me, it was my best friends phone ringtone when she was younger. Every time I was with her, her phone rang to this song. It was uplifting to hear a familiar sound and associate it with a nice memory. I also liked that there was a story for each season. I loved following along and thinking, “this must be winter the keys sound much deeper and slower,” or “this must be summer everything sound nice and calm”.

Overall, great night! I would definitely want to attend another classical music performance in the near future.

I enjoyed this event and was able to relate to it because I am Jewish. I felt that many people could just not appreciate what the panelist were saying and referring to because they had no idea what they were talking about.

At the beginning of the show, I was looking at the program with the picture of the two owners of Zabars. I looked in front of me and one of the owners were sitting in front of me. I was starstruck. The owner of Zabars was sitting in front of me! I wasn’t sure if it was him and kept asking the people around me if it was him, and lo and behold it was!

I enjoyed hearing about “Jewish” food but was confused because those foods are just associated with ‘ashkenazic’ Jews, not Sephardic Jews. I was hoping that the people would talk about the two different backgrounds of Jews and felt enlightened somewhat when the israeli woman spoke about that.

Other than that, I enjoyed this trip and was happy that I was able to hear about foods that my mother cooks at home. It was nice to share that experience with someone else. Those panelist also remember coming home to their grandmother making matzah ball soup, and I was so excited because while they were reminiscing about that moment, I was picturing myself running home to have a hot bowl of chicken matzah ball soup.

After standing outside for a half hour in the freezing cold, worried that we weren’t going to get in on time, I was relieved to finally see Professor with our tickets. As we got the tickets literally five minutes before the show, adrenaline was rushing through my body. I was running up the stairs so fast to make the show. To me, that was a great start to the show. As I was running up the stairs to the top floor where our seats were, I was amazed by the beautiful building and excited to watch the opera.

Before going to the opera, like everyone else, I expected there to be a person standing in the middle of the stage alone, singing. I did not expect a whole performance and play. The minute the show started, the orchestra played a familiar song and I was immediately engrossed in the music.

I loved the setting of the opera and how everything was changed in between acts so quickly. As far as the opera goes, I think it was a little scandalous. Carmen was the star of the show who wanted the men and would do anything to mock Jose.

I didn’t mind that the language of the opera was not in english. I loved reading the subtitles on my screen and felt that it gave the viewer their own personal perspective and view on the show.  It was like reading a book. Although the setting and plot is the same for everyone, reading the subtitles is like reading a book and helped make it more personal to me.

Another part I loved about the opera was that there were children in the performance. It was so uplifting and refreshing to see kids performing at Lincoln Center. I was a little shocked though that they were performing so late. If I was tired, I could only imagine how the kids must feel!

Overall the opera was a great new experience for me! I enjoyed spending time with the class and watching a fun and cool opera. Hoping to go to another opera in the near future!

Before going to the ballet I expected it to see a lot of girls in pink tutus pointing their toes and jumping up in the air. So when the show opened up and there were men and women wearing white and black costumes, I was shocked.

The first performance was beautiful. It was nice to see how passionate the dancers were.

Before the second performance I read the story behind the performance and was amazed that a story can be depicted through ballet. I did not realize that a ballet was not just about people dancing. But it was a little hard to follow with the story because there were so many things going on at once.

The last performance was my favorite one. I loved the typical story of three sailors looking to impress a woman. The comedy of the performance really had me going. It was the cherry on top of the cake. I expected to listen to classical music and watch performers dance for two hours, but was blown away from the last performance. It was like a broadway show to me, and I enjoyed it a lot. I would love to go to a ballet again!

1. Throughout the term we spoke about photography, paintings, music, and food, etc. Are there any other things that you think would be considered art and would like to discuss?

2. When thinking about arts specifically in New York City, what is different about the arts that make it unique to New York City. What makes the arts in New York specific and special to New York and how is that different to arts in other places and cultures?

This was the first time  I attended both the 9/11 and Vietnam Memorials. I was shocked at the difference of the two.

The 9/11 memorial to me is beautiful from an architectural and artistic point of view. I loved the square shape of the memorial. The waterfall streaming from the sides of the memorial looked beautiful. But what scared me was that the water was flowing into a black hole. Looking at the hole, I had an eery feeling. I kept thinking about how the water was streaming down into the hole and into nothingness. I began to think about all of the people who died from the tragedy of 9/11. I did not want their legacy and memory to go into nothingness. I wanted people to remember Frank c. Salvaterr and Dowell Jr. who perished on 9/11. I wanted people to realize how crazy 9/11 was. How crazy the people who were behind 9/11 were. I want someone to make sure that this never happens again. At the memorial I took a picture of 3 names and a rose. The rose signified that it was the person’s birthday recently. The whole time I kept thinking about how that family is never going to be able to spend another birthday with their loving relative.

I was shocked to see that there were no people at the Vietnam memorial. The memorial was dark and drab with not a single person in sight. I felt bad that no one was at the memorial. There were millions of people at the 9/11 memorial. I felt as if the Vietnam memorial was neglected. I loved the letters that were written across the Vietnam memorial. One of the letters that stood out to me was: I just wanted to let you know that I am OK… Love Kenny. I could imagine that his parent’s must have been so happy to receive a letter that their son was OK. I know I would be.

Memorials to me are a great idea. It is a great idea to build something that represents something that happened in order for everyone to know and remember what happened. By seeing a memorial people will learn to never forget. Memorials are a good way to help people deal with their pain experienced by the tragedy. When people see the 9/11 memorial for example, they know that they are not alone. Other people lost people from 9/11 and there are families that know what they are going through.

After walking 20 blocks across town from the Macaulay building on Sunday, I finally arrived at the Met. Exhausted and out of breath I was not in the mood to walk up the  steps to the Gary Winograd photography exhibit (no offense). I am not such a photography person, so I wasn’t sure how I was going to react to the photos.

I immediately noticed that Gary does not name his pictures. I  didn’t really like this because I love to connect a title to a painting or picture. While looking at the pictures at the entrance of the exhibit I felt like I was in the movie The Great Gatsby. I loved seeing couples in their elegant evening wear smiling and dancing. It made me want to get dressed up and attend a formal dance.

I was  confused about the picture “Dallas”. I couldn’t figure out if the picture was taken in Dallas, or was titled Dallas because of the cowboy standing in the middle of the picture. But I have to say, I do like that Gary allows the viewer to interpret his pictures and name them. It allows a connection to be made between the photographer, the photograph, and the viewer.

One Man’s Dream by Yanni

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihic3AqopZk

[quicktime]http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/ugoretz14/files/2014/09/Arts-in-NYC.mov[/quicktime]