Category — Or?

This is probably going to be the most memorable trip of the semester for me because it was the last one, how much I enjoyed it, and because I was so surprised by it. I should start my review by saying that I did not know that this play was supposed to take place in the 70s or the 80s, which is why for almost all the play, I did not get what the big deal was. I just didn’t understand why the sex change would change anything about Chris. She is still the same person with the same thoughts and feelings. But even if it did take place today, I think that the fact that Chris lied hurt more than anything. I really understood why Chris lied. She had everything he wanted and I think she was trying to hide the struggles of her past and not bring up the traumatic things that happened to her before she had the life she always wanted to avoid ruining it or being judged again. If she was kicked out of her house and only 17 by her own family, how could she expect others to accept her? I was really sympathizing for Chris for so long, I really didn’t judge her until she played her father. It was when she revealed what she did to her dad to her brother that I realized that these characters aren’t ideal and that everything is not black and white. I think the thing that made these characters so real was that they had both good and bad qualities. They were only human. Even until the end of the play, I was really sad for Chris because I think it is naïve to believe that the family would live happily-ever-after, especially during that time period, but I was feeling bad for Chris until the end because at the end of her therapy session, I was wondering if she would have gotten the sex changed if she felt that she could have been a gay guy during that time and find someone to love her.

I do not remember who brought it up in class first, but I definitely agree that some of the language in the play was offensive. Every time one of the characters said the “f” word, I would cringe or wince. It is such a vulgar word and even the way the actors delivered the word, you could tell it was out of a place of disgust, which was just so harsh.

For some reason, I thought it was really selfish of some of the family members to make the situation about them. For example, Tony was very concerned about himself and if he is gay and concerned about the fact that he was with a man. During his confession scene, I realized he probably did not want Chris’s secret to get out because of what people would say about him too. Even the son Joey was kind of selfish. I thought his reaction was selfish as well. I thought that he left the family to join the military because he couldn’t take knowing that his step-mom was a man. I feel like his reaction was impulsive and I feel like he wasn’t thinking about how running away might affect his family and was just concerned with himself.

I think it was Alex and Cale who mentioned it, but they said that the playwright tried getting the play recognized years ago and no one would touch it. This got me thinking about other works of art that in the pass would not be acceptable. It really made me sad to hear that this play and probably other art forms that are considered inappropriate go unrecognized because I feel like the arts are supposed to be this open and honest way of communicating the truth, even if it a truth we do not want to see.

I had never been to the NY Historical Society before or knew what it was. It reminded me to the other museums we have been to or that I have seen in the city, except this one was more high-tech and combined this idea of ancient beauty with technology of the future. I just really loved the idea of know that the Macaulay student made history on October 11 because our pictures were documented and presented in an exhibition for people in the future to see. I feel like this makes our pictures mean so much more.

However, I was really disappointed with the size of this exhibition. The room was supposed to house a little less than half of all the Macaulay students. It was crowded and tight, and if you have read my other reviews, you know that I am not a fan of tight and compact spaces. I have to be honest and say that I did stay at the exhibition for more than forty-five minutes. I just wanted to circle the room as quickly as I could. But it took time to see every picture because there were so many of them and they were all so small. I would have liked to seen the pictures blown up and hung up on walls like they would be in other art museums.

I enjoyed seeing the creativity of the other Macaulay students. It was really interesting to see why they and how they grouped certain pictures together. I really enjoyed the mini-Manhattan with some of the train lines running through it, made-up of our pictures. It was also really cool to see the use of filters and the orientation of each photo in its presentation. One curator thought that the pictures were more interesting upside down, and I definitely agree. I also really appreciated the slide show. I can tell that the curators put a lot of time into making the exhibition. Aside from the creativity of the student curators, the creativity of the other Macaulay students was also really lovely to see. One student took a picture of these butterflies that was really beautiful and serene. Another took a picture of ice cream. However, like myself, the most popular subject was the city. So many students took pictures of Manhattan and I think that we did this because there is so much to see in the city. I know I took my pictures because I love the way the city looks when I’m on the ferry and when the sun almost creates this silhouette of the city, it is just a breathtaking view.

I want to start this review with the good things I got from this trip. It clicked in my mind when we were discussing the trip in class that food as an art form, like any other art form, involves passion. Every speaker at the food talk was very opinionated and ardent about the food and the discussion, and this really appealed to me. I assume that chefs who spend so much time, effort, and creativity on the food they prepare to be passionate about the art they are creating. When we were talking about how much food means to us, culturally, I brought up my personal connection with my grandmother and my sister. When I was younger, we would prepare rice and meat and roll them into grape leaves together. Whenever I think about grape leaves, see them, or even eat them, I automatically associate them with my grandmother and the memories I have of her making them with me. I think food is one of those art forms that we use to define different cultures, but I can’t help but wonder if we underappreciate this as art. I never thought about the food I have at home as art before this trip. As for the actual food discussion, I really appreciated how there was at least one speaker who kept mentioning the history of the food and how the food immigrated to New York with the people. I also was intrigued by the idea of the food almost “evolving” over the years. For example, the same dish probably will not look or taste the same in Israel as it does in Manhattan or look or taste the same today as it did 30 or 50 years ago.

Now what I did not like about this trip was that the discussion was meant for a specific audience that was well versed in Jewish culture and food. I would have learned so much more had I known what the speakers were talking about. I think if the discussion spent a few minutes trying to introduce audience members who did not know much about Jewish food to the culture, the discussion would have been more effective and I would have been more engaged in the conversation. I honestly apologize if I am being rude or harsh but the name of the event is, “Five Boroughs Food Talk.” I think that the Symphony Space is hosting a series of food discussions. At least I hope that is the case, because the particular one we went to only talked about Jewish food and predominately only in Manhattan. For some reason it really bothered me that almost all of the conversation was about Jewish food in only one borough. I think it would have been interesting to hear about how the food varies across the boroughs and explore the reasons for this and perhaps relate it to the immigration patterns.

I definitely learned a lot from this trip, but I cannot say that enjoyed the physical trip. I felt left out and almost excluded from an inside discussion, and I do not think that the speakers meant to do that, perhaps because they anticipated a specific audience. I think the best word to describe this trip for me is “frustrating.” However, what I love about most of the trip we go on are the questions they bring up. We brought up some of them in class. For example, who is the real artist, the person who prepares the food or the person who makes the recipe? Does the food have to look nice for it to be considered art? Is this art form closed off to those who cannot afford to eat out or explore different ethnic foods? I love it when these trips bring up these debatable questions that have no real right answer.

The food talk for me was a mixed experience. Jewish culture is rather foreign to me, I have always though of it as a religion and never understood the cultural aspect of it. That being said the talk was really insightful and i learned a lot about the history of Jewish food. I was really surprised they mentioned bagels as a stereotypical Jewish food. I never realized the influence that Jewish culture has had on New York culture. My only qualm about the talk was the audience it was directed at. There were too many things that only Jewish people would understand and they didn’t take the time to explain for others that might not be. This was despite the fact that they even mentioned they wanted to attract non-Jewish listeners and consumers. The whole time I felt like I was missing some obvious joke. However, I am glad that i was able to learn more about Jewish culture which was something that has always been a mystery to me.

First of all, who wasn’t excited to go to this event? I was on board the minute I heard food. I’ve never been to a panel discussion like symphony space so I was unsure about how it would be for me. The topic intrigued me because Jewish culture was something that was unfamiliar to me.

Let’s say it was not my favorite trip. It may sound harsh but this was a trip that I did not enjoy at all. Right when I sat down people were shocked that Justin and I were there. Simply put, we did not fit in with the demographic at all. The fact that we stood out as 2 non-caucasian teens in hoodies made me weary of the talk. I was certainly right. The next 1.5 hours involved me wondering what was going on and consulting with Justin about Jewish food. It seemed necessary that you had a basic understanding of Jewish culture in order to gain anything from the talk. I went hoping to gain knowledge about Jewish food. It only managed to confuse me. Overall the trip wasn’t what I hoped it would be and I did not get much out of it.

Seriously, are bagels actually Jewish food?

Going to Carnegie hall to listen to classical music was great. It was amazing to be able to close my eyes and listen to a performance and not have to use my other senses, however being able to look and see all the individual musicians use their bodies as they played their instruments was an amazing feeling. I really enjoyed hearing the four seasons part of the performance since I felt it provided the most emotions with the piece. It was intense to hear the women in the yellow dress(forgot her name) and the (base or cello) player performing together since it was amazing how they would build on one another’s instrument. I guess the only part that was not so enjoyable was when the harpsichord was playing solo, since people would cough and it was at such a low volume you could not really enjoy the music that was being performed.

Overall I really liked being able to go to Carnegie hall and listen to classical music since it was such an amazing and wonderful experience.

I can honestly say enjoyed this event, was completely enthralled in it and was able to relate to it well because I am also Jewish. That said, I felt that a lot of people in the class at the end of the show couldn’t understand most of the things being talked about because they did not grow up with it causing sort of a rift in appeal.

A few things really made me enjoy this show. Firstly, i couldn’t stop laughing when one of the owners of Zabars advertised his company and skewed a question around in order to try to do such. I enjoyed the talk of many european jewish food because as stated above I’m a european jew. Imagining Kasha Varnikie and Matza Ball soup immediately reminded me of my grandmother’s house who i went to every shabbat night for dinner before she passed away so that brought back some strong memories too.

In conclusion, this event went better than expected for me as I was expecting something fairly bland. On a cold wednesday night however it was truly nice to go out and experience this public forum.

Earlier in the year we as a class went to columbia university to look at the history of comic books in America. Although it was slightly bland, i did enjoy quite a few parts of it. First and foremost, the thing i really enjoyed was looking at the comic from the late 1700s when the Columbia students tried to make their teacher’s life miserable. In this comic, we see the teacher having an affair and getting an asian woman pregnant, then offering her a large amount of money to get the baby aborted. I found it mind numbing that truthfully nothing much has changed over the last 300 years as we still have the stories about affairs and offering a lot of money to a woman to abort her child. Another part i liked was the cosplay of the Red Dahlia it was so well made i was shocked that someone wouldve put that much effort. One thing i didnt like is that i was expecting more comic books about superheroes like Xmen but apparently the curator is more of a fan of historical comics as opposed to hero comics. I guess this shows the importance of a curator in the development of an exhibit as it can completely change the atmosphere of the show.

Going to Columbia to see an exhibit about comic books sounded like so much fun. Honestly I think comics are interesting to look at, not that I read them I do like DC and Marvel movies, and learning about Characters in comics. However the exhibit was not exactly how I expected it to be.

I had expected the exhibit to be rather large, which it was, but a third of the exhibit was placed into a narrow hallway. I thought that we would be able to learn about things in comics history. After going to class the next day, I did rethink the way the tour was given and how she would constantly question us. Most tours are given that way when they try to involve the people in the tour into a discussion.

I did enjoy looking at all old art pieces shown to us. I guess looking at different aspects of comics was interesting, like the company letters, draft comics, and cosplay. I probably would have enjoyed the comic archive if we were allowed to just walk around the area and look at all the different things for ourselves.

Honestly I found the five boro food talk to be interesting in a confusing way. I had hoped that the panel would be discussing and explaining the history of certain jewish foods, but listening to the panel talk, and not knowing much about jewish food, I got lost listening to the panel talk. Although it was enjoyable to be in a small panel room and sit so close to the people talking, not really knowing so much about the history was not so enjoyable. After going to class and hearing what other’s who were jewish had to say about the talk, it made it seem that the panel was not very good at talking about jewish food. The panel did seem too focused on the discussion on gefilte fish, zabar’s, and bagels and was unable to bring enough of a focus onto other topics. I probably would have liked the talk more if the talk didn’t assume everyone knew jewish food to start with, although in their defense most of the people who went were indeed jewish, the discussion should have been a more, in general discussion, instead of putting such a narrow focus on the large diversity found in jewish food.

I guess in the end I came to the talk expecting it to go one way, but was disappointed since I left the talk not knowing about much more jewish food then I had started with.