This was definitely one of my favorite performances that we went to. It made me happy that the Professor trusted us enough to be mature in something that was rather racy, and very heavy to go to. The storyline of the play was very controversial and many times very difficult to listen to because of the intense homophobia, but it educated me because it showed me how difficult people’s lives can be when dealing with such strenuous matters as such.

The entire time I was wondering how my classmates would react to the play because I wasn’t sure how I was reacting to it myself. At some points during the performance I found myself literally sitting on the edge of my seat with anticipation, or clenching my fists out of fear and anger combined. I just couldn’t believe that someone wrote a play that consisted of so much profanity and hatefulness on a topic that is even difficult to speak about regularly. During intermission, a few of us were talking about the play, and everyone seemed to be in complete shock because they were not expecting something so racy and different.

This play was not the a-typical love story or Disney play, but it did send a message to me. It showed me that everyone has their own story to tell and everyone should be given the same chance to tell it without being judged because everyone is different, and thats what makes this world a more interesting place to live in.

I am glad I had the opportunity to go to Carnegie Hall because I don’t know when else I would ever have the opportunity to do so. Although I am not the biggest fan of classical music, and I don’t have extensive knowledge on the topic, I definitely enjoyed the calmness that some of the performances invoked within me.

My least favorite act was the second performance because the music put me on edge and did not soothe me in any way. I didn’t realize it as the song was being played, but once they went into the Four Seasons, which consisted of more peaceful music, I came to realize that your body feels it when the music is rougher.

After the performance, I was thinking about how musically challenged I am. I was stressed about how I would contribute in class because everyone else seemingly has more of a knowledge of music than I do. This made me upset at myself, but then I also realized that its the era that I was raised in that gave me less of an understanding of classical music. I associate classical music with things such as commercials and ringback tones, not because I’m less intelligent, but because this is what the 21st century is, and therefore I decided to download some classical music to my playlist.

Although many of the other students had their aversions to the discussion, I personally loved it, though that is most probably because I’m Jewish and therefore it was easier for me to relate to what they were saying. Since my greatest hobby is baking and cooking, I loved the fact that we went to an event that discussed food. Going into the show, I knew that they weren’t going to be speaking about the Jewish foods that I’m used to eating, like Middle Eastern foods, but I wish that they did because the foods that they chose to speak about don’t scream out “Jewish” to me, such as bagels, lox, and delis. I associate those foods with regular everyday life and people.

The discussion was flowing amongst the speakers, and the audience was interacting, which gave this sense of unity in the room. I felt as if I was in high school again where mostly everyone around me had something in common, being Jewish, which is something that I haven’t been around for months. What did make me uncomfortable though was the fact that many of my classmates felt as though they were left out because they had no idea what the speakers were speaking about since they aren’t Jewish and therefore I took it upon myself to try and explain to one of my classmates the different aspects of Judaism and Jewish foods which gave me pride in the extensive knowledge I have of my religion.

After going to the show, I realized how many different types of foods there are within different groups of people and ethnicities, even amongst my own. As a food lover, this has made me want to learn more about how food unites people and what food means to every family.

1. How has your perception of art changed/improved throughout your experience in visiting and learning about different types and aspects of art? Do you now see art in different things that you wouldn’t have described as “art” beforehand?

Tuesday night at the opera left me with this feeling of electric energy. Carmen perplexed me the entire show with her seductive, cold, and nonchalant attitude, yet she was still able to put off feelings tenderness and care at the same time. Carmen was full of fire the entire show and I couldn’t wait in every scene to see what she was going to do next. Her seductive nature was first shown in the first scene in a very underrated way. She sang her first song while she was washing her legs where she lifted up her dress to show her body and when the men stared, she splashed them away. What was extremely shocking to me though was the seductiveness and sexuality played in the opera. As a watcher of many broadway plays, I was most definitely not used to characters in a live play being so “intimate,” but it was an eye opener and an experience. A main person who disappointed me in the opera was Don Jose, who at first showed characteristics of a timid solider who loved his mother and his city and who promised to marry Michaela, to a desperate, raging man.
The opera did make me question what true love really is, and it showed me that there are a million different interpretations as what love means to every individual. In the opera, I found it funny how the characters fell in love with each other in a second, but it just taught me that we can’t judge people for how they love.

I had no idea what to expect from the ballet, but turns out that I loved it so much that I asked my mother to buy us tickets to go see the Nutcracker together. The only word that I can use to describe the ballet is MAGICAL. Everything about the entire experienced provoked this feeling of enchantment, from the Lincoln Center Square, to the performance hall, and of course to the ballet itself.
I loved how the ballet was split up into three different performances. My favorite act was the dance that gave the story of the forbidden love, that was basically a story of a love triangle. Since I am not a dancer and I don’t have much experience with it, I was shocked to find myself really understanding the entire dance and I was able to figure out which characters were the bride-to-be, the fiancee, the lover, and the mistress. I couldn’t take my eyes off the stage the entire time. The other two scenes were also very enjoyable and I loved how they added a comedy aspect to the ballet because I always associated ballets with just a romantic aura, but it showed me that imagination can go beyond anything we expect. I am so grateful to have been able to experience the ballet and get that feeling of magic within me.

There was nothing comforting about looking into those two huge pits at the 9/11 memorial with the water flowing nonstop and disappearing into an endless black hole. The feeling that I got from staring into that hole, was a feeling of hopelessness. To me, that giant hole was symbolic in that sense that it represented all of the lives lost and how those innocent people died for no reason and inevitably fell into a “dark hole” that they would never be able to escape.
Another reason why I felt a feeling of hopelessness was because the overwhelming amount of names there were written around the memorial. As I stood in front of the fountains, I just kept reading as many names as I could and I couldn’t help but wonder if that person was a mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, aunt, uncle, brother, sister, or child. This depressed me because I wanted to know more about these people who passed away. I felt as if the memorial was trying to tell me that there was no point in even trying to find out who they were because they are gone, they fell into that black hole in which they would never escape.
The Vietnam Memorial gave me a little bit of a different feeling. I wasn’t disappointed in the memorial and I wasn’t in awe of it. I think that I possibly felt that way because I am obviously detached from the Vietnam War since I was no alive when it was taking place, but rather I feel a deeper connection to the collapse of the Twin Towers because I remember every detail of that day. But, I did like the memorial because I felt like it was very personal. The letters and words and quotes written on the wall were very touching and it showed me that these people that fought and died in the war were just regular people who were living every day lives until they suddenly had to fight. The letter that caught my eye the most was the one in which a son was writing to his father and telling his father to apologize to his mother for him and that he just had to go fight and that it was very sudden. This really hit home hard.
In all, I really enjoyed going to the memorial as a class. I loved hearing what my friend’s interpretations of the memorials were because I find that the goal of the memorials are to let people find their own meanings. 

Before visiting the Gary Winogrand exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I decided to do some research. What I read online was that Winogrand was despised by many other artists and photographers because they did not see his work as art and the reviews that he received were extremely negative and insulting. This heightened my curiosity, but I decided that I was still going to go the exhibit with an open mind. Winogrand photographed images of things that happen in every day life. His photos are trying to say that if the photo wouldn’t have been taken, no one would remember that it happened since it is so natural for these types of events to occur.
My favorite photograph was Winogrand’s “Coney Island” photo, which is a picture of a man carrying a woman in the ocean. The couple in the photo seems so playful and epically cliché but it just caught my eye and I couldn’t stop staring at the picture. Even though the picture is in black in white, to me it seems as if it is the brightest picture in the world because it is so full of life. Everyone in the picture seems like they are just so happy and euphoric, including the people in the background which are an addition to the atmosphere of the photo.
In all, I was extremely impressed by Winogrand’s works of photography. I found his work to be honest, while each photo told a story of its own whether it was true or not. His pictures left a lot to the imagination. As I walked around the museum admiring the art, I would look at the pictures and create an entirely made up story about the people in the picture. Winogrand’s work really made my imagination run wild, while it taught me that everything in life is a picture worth remembering.

I know that someone is probably going to roll their eyes and say, “What a corny song!” but this is my beautiful song because of how amazing the words are. The words are so real and it gives the song just amazing meaning. When I listen to the words she’s singing, I just get engulfed and never want it to end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9ayN39xmsI

Before visiting the museum on Wednesday night, I was nervous. I was thinking to myself that nothing could surmount to the amazingly beautiful works of art that I saw this summer in Rome and Florence by artists like Michelangelo and Raphael. I was imagining that I would never be able to feel such emotional connections to works of art again. On top of that, I was nervous that I wouldn’t even have the chance to try and feel some sort of connection to the art around me because I would be too busy conversing with my friends.

Turns out, I was completely wrong. The night at the museum was nothing I was expecting. I found a way to look inside myself and search for my own meanings inside the works of art. No, the painters were not Michelangelo or Raphael, and I was not standing inside the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel, or in front of the David statue in Florence, but I was in Brooklyn, in a museum, and I was enjoying every single work of art that I saw. I cannot name any specific work of art that was particularly my favorite, but the entire experience as a whole was very enjoyable. I loved creating my own interpretations to the paintings, as well as hearing what other people took from them.

The museum taught me to be open-minded when it comes to understanding and exploring works of art and that the painter doesn’t have to necessarily be worldly “famous” in order to speak to me and convey a specific message. I learned that every individual grasps different concepts and ideas from different art works and that’s why it is important to converse with people and try and understand their perceptions of art. Even though I’ve never been such a fond lover of museums, Wednesday night inspired me to educate myself more culturally in the world of art.