Macaulay Seminar One at Brooklyn College

I really enjoyed the concert.  I love classical music, so hearing it played live and non-digital was fantastic. The acoustics in that hall are amazing.  I think because of that, I was able to appreciate the wonders of instruments.  It is almost miraculous that such a plethora of different sounds and tunes could come out from a hollowed out piece of wood and some string.  The variation in volume was also incredible.  They went from super low, to very loud, all with such fluid motions.  Which brings me to the thing I liked most about going to Carnegie Hall.  The visual experience really took the music to the next level.  Watching the musicians move along with their instruments was mesmerizing.  The way their elbows bent in sync and the bobbing of their heads as they slid their bows back and forth was almost like some sort of dance.  Sometimes their moves were ferociously fast, almost like they were slicing their instruments in half, while other times they were being so gentle, it seemed like they were not even touching their instruments at all.  They made the music so much more alive.  I liked the Vivaldi piece the best out of all the ones played.  I don’t know exactly why.  Maybe because it had a theme and was easier to understand ( special thanks to Alex for helping me follow which season we were in and the Playbill, which gave really nice descriptions for each segment of each season ).

There aren’t many ways for me to describe the concert, other than peaceful. I am not very knowledgeable when it comes to classical music, but it is almost impossible to deny that it is very relaxing. I enjoyed listening to the Four Seasons more than I enjoyed the rest of the music, because I was actually familiar with that music (from high school- we learned about it). As I looked around the auditorium while Winter was being played I saw people nodding their heads or kicking their feet along with the music, everywhere. They were really enjoying the music and that made me find a stronger connection to it. Even though classical music isn’t my personal favorite, I am fully aware of what a challenge it is and I applaud the performance that we saw for their great presentation. After the second encore, I was really ready to go. But, the show overall was nice and got me at ease. It got me so calm that I kept thinking of all the things I had to do. I felt “too calm” kind of. But it was a good feeling that people need to have every now and then. It really was a very nice performance.

Yesterday’s performance was beautiful, I think.

I had a couple of thoughts that may be random or relevant.

After walking out of Symphony Space last week, I felt confused by the whole talk. I felt like the food talk focused on a specific culture in a specific area of Manhattan, while masking itself as a talk about “Jewish food” of all the “Five Boroughs.” Sure, much of the culture may have been influenced by the Jews who immigrated to America- they shaped the community, bringing certain foods as well as traditions and religious practices relating to it. But I think the discussion assumed that “Jewish food” = bagels, gefilte fish, lox and deli, simply because they are associate with that specific community (and possibly the Jews of that specific community.) I felt that the talk was lacking in that there was no mention of how- or if- these are actually jewish foods.

One thing that I found interesting was the comments about “Jewish food” not necessarily being kosher, or abiding by some of the basic rules pertaining to Jewish food. I would’ve liked to hear their thoughts about what makes “Jewish food” remain “Jewish,” even when some of the fundamental qualities that those foods had when they were first brought over to America are stripped away.

Another thing: Notice how there were five guests on the stage, four who were of the Ashkenaz (Eastern European, Russian, etc) communities, and one who had Sephardic culture (middle eastern, Spanish), specifically Iraq. The Sephardic woman hardly spoke except when asked about her specific business, and I think that may expand upon the fact that the sole focus of the discussion was on Jews of Eastern Europe. Gefilte fish, lox, deli- these are foods associated with Ashkenaz Jews. I found it interesting that the discussion didn’t give much openness to what they defined as “Jewish food”- it is specific foods from specific people who came from specific countries to a specific area of Manhattan. Almost as if to say: that IS what “Jewish food” means, no question about it.

Although it was cool to hear about “Jewish food” through a cultural lens, I think I would’ve enjoyed it more if it wasn’t so specific to that area of Manhattan. I would’ve enjoyed a discussion that could be easily overlapped with a discussion about other culturally connected foods, but I guess that wasn’t the aim of this talk.

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.

Stepping into the Symphony Space auditorium the first thing I noticed was the distinction between those already seated and our class standing up. Most of the audience was decades older than us. This personally set the tone for me for the rest of evening. It’s not to say that I felt like an outsider listening to the panel discuss Jewish food in the context of New York culture, but it made me more attentive. I was surprised at how much they deliberated on the significance of Jewish staples such as herring and gefilte fish. Considering that there wasn’t much attention to the concept of Kosher food and laws—but that is probably also due to the assumption that most of the audience was a part of Jewish culture, or at least, understood it more than I did—I left with a some confusion, and honestly a little disappointment. I felt a little excluded because of a lack of knowledge of the subject matter. However, I did appreciate the historical context the panelists, and especially the host, set in terms of how Jewish food evolved with the migration of people and development of the culture in modern times.

The class discussion we had last Thursday helped to fill in some of my questions, and allowed me to understand how much some of my other classmates, who are Jewish, appreciated the talk. It was interesting what people thought about the changes in Kosher laws and how they followed them according their own familial customs.

Here are the two midterm questions that I forgot to post earlier:

1. What makes art “art”? How could each of us consider specific types/works more of a work of “art”  than others, and does that disrupt the essence of art?

2. How does art impact our lives? How could this knowledge be used by an artist in the creation of his art? Moreover, should the artist consider the impact his art will have on others when creating it?

I’m not sure what to make of this event. On one hand, as we were going around and learning all this information I was listening and became quite interested. On the other hand, I don’t know how much I actually understood since I had no prior knowledge of anything comics. I wish we did know some more things.

I thought the first thing that we saw was really cool. The comic that the students of Columbia (then Kings College) made about their teacher was very interesting to me. I thought it was cool that we have such an informal document from that long ago. Plus, we totally understand what their saying even today… meaning the jokes. It’s just like Josh said, “it’s MTV.”

I felt kind of bad because I think that the curator thought we were a class that learns about comics or something. But we’re not… I thought it would have been better for her to just tell us who are the people she is talking about instead of first trying so hard to get it out of us. I guess it’s just a disappointment for her because she loves them so much.

The only comics I’ve ever read were the Tin Tin comics and almost the whole novel of Persepolis. I really enjoyed reading those but this event made me want to pick up comics (I guess you can say again) and read them. They seem pretty interesting and fun.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to see “Carmen” with the class this Tuesday, but coincidently I had the opportunity to see part of it during high school for a class. We watched a practice run of the first act and then went backstage to see the set design, costume, and prop rooms. It was a really interesting experience to see how much went into an opera production besides the talent of the singers. While opera may not be my most preferred art form, I appreciate the intricacies of an opera. The training and practice the singers themselves go through is impressive in itself, but the visual aspect of the performance is captivating. The costumes and set are usually very ornate, and the fact that the singers sing at that volume and range while acting and dancing on stage is incredible.

Watching Amanda Hicks sing in a small room for our class was just really awesome. Her expertise in both singing and her knowledge of opera was enriching. I’m glad we could have that experience to watch a great opera singer so personally.

Going to the American Ballet Theatre was really enjoyable since I haven’t experienced ballet in many years, almost since I used to dance ballet when I was in elementary school. The fact that we were that close to the stage blew me away since I’ve never seen a ballet at Lincoln Center from that close. The first performance was very elegant and I liked it as an introduction to the rest of the night. I really liked the second and third performances though because of the incorporation of a plot and set into both. “Jardin aux Lilas” was backed by a beautiful night sky and forest, in which the characters engaged in two separate love affairs which were never fulfilled. “Fancy Free” was also very engaging as it used elements of humor to showcase a lighter side of ballet many people don’t necessarily associate with it. I feel that it fell a little short in comparison with “Jardin aux Lilas” because it seemed almost more like a musical without vocals than a ballet with thematic elements. The dancers in all the performances, however, were magnificent and were very in sync with one another and the music.