...so today i finished my 1,000 word "Own Town" review (see below), edited the paragraphs and pictures in my senior project, printed 3 pictures in the darkroom, and wrote this Skoglund paper. I'm pretty much amazing...and DONE!
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Sandy Skoglund
I just wrote a paper on Sandy Skoglund for my final color photo class...and i mean, i actually wrote it...by hand, made use of my 3 year old white-out and everything. I've loved Skoglund's work since Mrs.Debonis introduced us to it in high school. Here are the images i wrote about!
...so today i finished my 1,000 word "Own Town" review (see below), edited the paragraphs and pictures in my senior project, printed 3 pictures in the darkroom, and wrote this Skoglund paper. I'm pretty much amazing...and DONE!
...so today i finished my 1,000 word "Own Town" review (see below), edited the paragraphs and pictures in my senior project, printed 3 pictures in the darkroom, and wrote this Skoglund paper. I'm pretty much amazing...and DONE!
Our Town
These days, most things are over the top, whether they are intended to be or not. Technological advancements have made it possible to listen to songs on devices smaller than playing cards, the latest cell phones come equipped with Internet access and built-in digital cameras, and video games have become more interactive than ever. Theatre is certainly no exception. Take “Spiderman 3” for instance- a movie loaded up with $250 million worth of dazzling digital effects. This past weekend it broke the box office record for selling more tickets on opening day than any other movie in history. It’s not that “nothing is sacred” anymore, just, very few things are.
One of those few things is Purchase College’s production of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town,” which ran at the Performing Arts Center from April 27 through May 5. Seeing as how it may be the most produced play in America, re-creating “Our Town” in a new, fresh, and interesting way is a difficult task that many take on and a handful successfully complete. Believe it or not, director Michael Johnson-Chase’s secret to success involves a reverse Spiderman strategy: he keeps it simple.
For most of the play, the set (if you can call it that) consists of two dining tables with chairs and two towering ladders. The “sound man” is literally a man at a desk making noises with ordinary objects like books, and coffee mugs, to imitate sounds on stage that would have naturally been made if the actors were working with props, which, they weren’t. The actors opened invisible doors, threw invisible newspapers, and drank invisible ice cream sodas. Traditionally, the play, which was first produced in 1938, was done so in the same avant-garde style, with few props, for Wilder originally envisioned it this way. He believed that “our claim, our hope, our despair are in the mind- not in things, not in scenery.”
Thornton Niven Wilder was born in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1897. He graduated with a B.A. from Yale University in 1920, and a M.A. in French from Princeton University in 1926. Wilder is the only American author to win Pulitzer Prizes for both fiction and drama. He won his first for fiction with “The Bridge of San Luis Rey” in 1928, and two for drama with “Our Town” in 1938, and “The Skin of Our Teeth” in 1943.
Throughout his life, Wilder served in both World Wars, studied archaeology at the American Academy in Rome, and taught at the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, the University of Chicago, the University of Hawaii, and Harvard University. He considered himself a teacher first and a writer second. Though Wilder never addressed his homosexuality publicly or in his works, he is believed to have had affairs with younger men.
“Our Town” is undoubtedly Wilder’s most celebrated work. Since its debut production, it has been revived on Broadway three times. In 1940 it was made into a feature length movie, and it has been made for TV on four separate occasions, between 1959 and 2003. Chances are, it has been done by your local high school’s drama club at least a couple times.
The fact that “Our Town” has been so incredibly popular over the years is not surprising, unless, however, it considered that there is no real plot. Nothing extraordinary happens, with the exception of life, maybe. The main character in “Our Town” is the Stage Manager, an unconventional role that Wilder created to break the fourth wall between the audience and the happenings on stage. A rooster crows, and the audience follows the Stage Manager to Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, a fictional town based on Peterborough, New Hampshire, where the Webb and Gibbs families dwell side by side.
Grover’s Corners is the stereotypical small town. Newspapers and milk are delivered to the houses in the morning, the kids are sent off to school, and the women take care of the housework and attend church choir in the evening, while the men practice being intellectuals. Whether or not Wilder portrays Grover’s Corners in a cynical light is up for debate. Some parallel him with Simon Stimpson, the town drunk who eventually commits suicide and reflects back on life with a hatred for the ignorance of small town life.
Alright, so maybe something happens in this play. The Webb daughter, Emily, and the Gibbs boy, George, fall in love with each other, becoming high school sweethearts. The two get to know each other in the first act, get married just after graduation in the second, and Emily Gibbs dies during childbirth in the third. Purchase’s rendition didn’t have clear cut, announced acts; things just flowed smoothly from start to finish, and at one point the Stage Manager, played by Taylor Flowers, says something along the lines of, “this part is about love and marriage,” and alludes to the fact that the part after it is somewhat of a downer.
Since the set is so basic, there had to be something to draw eyes to the stage, and that something was a stunning patchwork American flag painted on the floor. Apparently there was some controversy over the flag’s initial design, which was described as an abstract, Jasper Johns adaptation. The college’s President Schwarz saw it as a desecration, and deemed the design inappropriate, forcing set designer, Melissa Shakun, to do it over.
The acting was overall, superb, aside from the fact that the characters’ old time New England accents wavered in and out of New York accents every now and then. The play takes on a pretty slow pace, and this is essentially because it is about daily life in a sleepy town, but the cast carries it through with awkward humor, especially in the part where George, played by Andy Bean, is about to get married and has a man to man talk with his future father-in-law. The actors’ demeanor in working with invisible props was also very believable, (it was hard not to smile when George was hopping through imaginary mud) and, since “Our Town” is very much about character development, it was enjoyable to watch Emily, played by Christy Cole, go from being a skipping, giggly, happy-go-lucky child, to a fully realized, ghost of an adult.
The climax of the play comes as Emily looks back on her 12th birthday from the grave. She comes to the tear jerking epiphany that human beings don’t realize life while they live it, that routine carries on while they’re “shut up in little boxes,” unaware of the greatness that surrounds them. Yes, life is definitely awful, but it sure can be wonderful- especially when MP3 players, cell phones and video games disappear for a couple hours, and things become simple again.
One of those few things is Purchase College’s production of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town,” which ran at the Performing Arts Center from April 27 through May 5. Seeing as how it may be the most produced play in America, re-creating “Our Town” in a new, fresh, and interesting way is a difficult task that many take on and a handful successfully complete. Believe it or not, director Michael Johnson-Chase’s secret to success involves a reverse Spiderman strategy: he keeps it simple.
For most of the play, the set (if you can call it that) consists of two dining tables with chairs and two towering ladders. The “sound man” is literally a man at a desk making noises with ordinary objects like books, and coffee mugs, to imitate sounds on stage that would have naturally been made if the actors were working with props, which, they weren’t. The actors opened invisible doors, threw invisible newspapers, and drank invisible ice cream sodas. Traditionally, the play, which was first produced in 1938, was done so in the same avant-garde style, with few props, for Wilder originally envisioned it this way. He believed that “our claim, our hope, our despair are in the mind- not in things, not in scenery.”
Thornton Niven Wilder was born in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1897. He graduated with a B.A. from Yale University in 1920, and a M.A. in French from Princeton University in 1926. Wilder is the only American author to win Pulitzer Prizes for both fiction and drama. He won his first for fiction with “The Bridge of San Luis Rey” in 1928, and two for drama with “Our Town” in 1938, and “The Skin of Our Teeth” in 1943.
Throughout his life, Wilder served in both World Wars, studied archaeology at the American Academy in Rome, and taught at the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, the University of Chicago, the University of Hawaii, and Harvard University. He considered himself a teacher first and a writer second. Though Wilder never addressed his homosexuality publicly or in his works, he is believed to have had affairs with younger men.
“Our Town” is undoubtedly Wilder’s most celebrated work. Since its debut production, it has been revived on Broadway three times. In 1940 it was made into a feature length movie, and it has been made for TV on four separate occasions, between 1959 and 2003. Chances are, it has been done by your local high school’s drama club at least a couple times.
The fact that “Our Town” has been so incredibly popular over the years is not surprising, unless, however, it considered that there is no real plot. Nothing extraordinary happens, with the exception of life, maybe. The main character in “Our Town” is the Stage Manager, an unconventional role that Wilder created to break the fourth wall between the audience and the happenings on stage. A rooster crows, and the audience follows the Stage Manager to Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, a fictional town based on Peterborough, New Hampshire, where the Webb and Gibbs families dwell side by side.
Grover’s Corners is the stereotypical small town. Newspapers and milk are delivered to the houses in the morning, the kids are sent off to school, and the women take care of the housework and attend church choir in the evening, while the men practice being intellectuals. Whether or not Wilder portrays Grover’s Corners in a cynical light is up for debate. Some parallel him with Simon Stimpson, the town drunk who eventually commits suicide and reflects back on life with a hatred for the ignorance of small town life.
Alright, so maybe something happens in this play. The Webb daughter, Emily, and the Gibbs boy, George, fall in love with each other, becoming high school sweethearts. The two get to know each other in the first act, get married just after graduation in the second, and Emily Gibbs dies during childbirth in the third. Purchase’s rendition didn’t have clear cut, announced acts; things just flowed smoothly from start to finish, and at one point the Stage Manager, played by Taylor Flowers, says something along the lines of, “this part is about love and marriage,” and alludes to the fact that the part after it is somewhat of a downer.
Since the set is so basic, there had to be something to draw eyes to the stage, and that something was a stunning patchwork American flag painted on the floor. Apparently there was some controversy over the flag’s initial design, which was described as an abstract, Jasper Johns adaptation. The college’s President Schwarz saw it as a desecration, and deemed the design inappropriate, forcing set designer, Melissa Shakun, to do it over.
The acting was overall, superb, aside from the fact that the characters’ old time New England accents wavered in and out of New York accents every now and then. The play takes on a pretty slow pace, and this is essentially because it is about daily life in a sleepy town, but the cast carries it through with awkward humor, especially in the part where George, played by Andy Bean, is about to get married and has a man to man talk with his future father-in-law. The actors’ demeanor in working with invisible props was also very believable, (it was hard not to smile when George was hopping through imaginary mud) and, since “Our Town” is very much about character development, it was enjoyable to watch Emily, played by Christy Cole, go from being a skipping, giggly, happy-go-lucky child, to a fully realized, ghost of an adult.
The climax of the play comes as Emily looks back on her 12th birthday from the grave. She comes to the tear jerking epiphany that human beings don’t realize life while they live it, that routine carries on while they’re “shut up in little boxes,” unaware of the greatness that surrounds them. Yes, life is definitely awful, but it sure can be wonderful- especially when MP3 players, cell phones and video games disappear for a couple hours, and things become simple again.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Holy horoscope!
So, today i met with my color photo 1 professor Sergio, and he suggested that i join the peace corps after graduation. It's definitely something i've thought about, and he seems to think that it would look great on my resume and that i'd have lots of amazing pictures that would land me a decent job. Basically, i spent the whole way home thinking about what i'm going to do after graduation...the summer...and even after that, which at the moment, is a huge mystery. I'm having a hard time thinking about leaving Ishmael to pursue...life...i guess. I feel like at this point, i'd be lost without him there to listen to every mundane detail of my life, to give me advice, and most of all, love. I know he wants me to move on to bigger and better things, and deep down inside i know that i want bigger and better things too- it's just unbelievably hard for me to think about what my life would be like without sleeping next to him every night. Anyway, I stopped in at the gas station at Hopewell Junction and picked up a 25 cent copy of the Daily News. I'm not sure whether or not i really believe the shit they put in horoscopes, but today, seriously, it's dead on, and frankly i'm a little creeped out by it:
Virgo
"New energy surrounds your career, Virgo, and it's progressive and positive. Life is made up of priorities. Although love is also asking for attention, it seems like there are certain opportunities at work now that need to be followed through. Take the reins, and be proactive and productive in making your dreams come true."
I'm still not sure what's going to happen. I definitely want to have the most relaxing summer ever though. I want BBQs, vacations, picnics, road trips, Yankees games, nights on the town...i want to do everything with Ishmael that we said we were going to do and never did. I want to save up money for a digital camera and possibly a new computer, and i want to set one day a week aside to hang out with my mom and another to help my grandfather out in his garden. One day i'd like to have a garden of my own, or maybe a horse farm. I want to raise my children here. Wherever i end up i know i'm going to miss home, i've grown to love upstate NY more than i thought i ever could. I wish there were more oppotunities here, that's all. My life would be perfect if there were. And i know that wherever i end up, i'm always going to come back here. To visit my parents, to take in the mountains, the river, the grass, the back roads. Bleh, i'm torn. I can only see myself as being miserable living in a city full of buildings, pollution and tourists. I really don't like not having a plan. 16 days till graduation and i'm on my own. No more senior project, no more Lisa Keller or Dispatch, no more driving back and forth, no more homework, papers or projects, no more roommates or filthy Alumni Village apartment, no more parking tickets or piss poor library, no more annoying hipsters or people yelling outside my room keeping me from sleep...i'm so ready to leave, but at the same time...not. So thank you astrologer Jennifer Angel for clearing things up for me and making my day (and life) a little less anxiety-ridden...i think.
Virgo
"New energy surrounds your career, Virgo, and it's progressive and positive. Life is made up of priorities. Although love is also asking for attention, it seems like there are certain opportunities at work now that need to be followed through. Take the reins, and be proactive and productive in making your dreams come true."
I'm still not sure what's going to happen. I definitely want to have the most relaxing summer ever though. I want BBQs, vacations, picnics, road trips, Yankees games, nights on the town...i want to do everything with Ishmael that we said we were going to do and never did. I want to save up money for a digital camera and possibly a new computer, and i want to set one day a week aside to hang out with my mom and another to help my grandfather out in his garden. One day i'd like to have a garden of my own, or maybe a horse farm. I want to raise my children here. Wherever i end up i know i'm going to miss home, i've grown to love upstate NY more than i thought i ever could. I wish there were more oppotunities here, that's all. My life would be perfect if there were. And i know that wherever i end up, i'm always going to come back here. To visit my parents, to take in the mountains, the river, the grass, the back roads. Bleh, i'm torn. I can only see myself as being miserable living in a city full of buildings, pollution and tourists. I really don't like not having a plan. 16 days till graduation and i'm on my own. No more senior project, no more Lisa Keller or Dispatch, no more driving back and forth, no more homework, papers or projects, no more roommates or filthy Alumni Village apartment, no more parking tickets or piss poor library, no more annoying hipsters or people yelling outside my room keeping me from sleep...i'm so ready to leave, but at the same time...not. So thank you astrologer Jennifer Angel for clearing things up for me and making my day (and life) a little less anxiety-ridden...i think.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Devendra Banhart review
To call singer/songwriter Devendra Banhart an eccentric would be an extreme understatement. At the mere age of 25, Banhart, who sports long flowing black hair, a thick beard, and often appears with a Hindu bindi on his forehead, has been described as a “hobo/minstrel” who strives to express a hippie mentality of love, peace, and unity through soft spoken words and melodies.
Having that said, it’s nearly impossible to clump Banhart into a modern genre, and he probably doesn’t belong in one. Banhart, whose music is often dubbed psych folk, Naturalismo, New Weird America, or freak-folk, is the shining star of a current folk revival movement, involving similar popular “indie” artists such as Animal Collective, Iron & Wine, and Joanna Newsom. Many liken his jarring, yet intoxicating voice and story-telling approach to lyricism to those of Bob Dylan, but Banhart has said that his inspiration comes from his parents- “older hippies, people into Eastern philosophies and New Age.”
Born in Houston, Texas in 1981, Banhart was named by an Indian mystic whom his parents followed (it translates to “king of gods” in Hindi). After his parents divorced, Banhart moved to Venezuela with his mother and spent his childhood in a violent area he describes as “insane.” When Banhart’s mother remarried, they moved to California, and he attended San Francisco Art Institute on a scholarship. Though he had been writing songs since age 12, Banhart came to a realization that he could write anything while arguing about a Rolling Stones song with his girlfriend, and shortly thereafter became a “wandering minstrel,” playing at any venue that would take him. After two years of art school, Banhart dropped out in 2000, moved to Paris, moved back to California, and was ultimately discovered by a friend of Michael Gira, the owner of Young God Records, while playing a show in L.A. “We'd never heard anything quite like him, ever,” says Gira. “His voice - a quivering high-tension wire, sounded like it could have been recorded 70 years ago.”
Banhart’s first four albums were released on Young God Records in 2003 and 2004, and his latest album, “Cripple Crow” was released on XL Recordings in 2005. One of the greatest things about Banhart’s songs is that they constantly vary in sound and lyrical subject matter without losing their luster. Though Banhart’s signature sound comprises of tinny words and acoustic guitar, the songs from his earlier albums, “Nino Rojo” and “Rejoicing in the Hands,” toy with horns, violin, and backup singers. His lyrics, which sometimes wander in and out of Spanish, often unfold like folktales, ripe with an abundance of natural imagery of things like sparrows, spiders, crabs, squid, water, islands, dogs, insects, and of course, the sun. In “We All Know” he sings, “We all know, that the wind blows, and the moon glows, and our lungs grow, we belong to the floating hand, that's made by some animals.”
“Cripple Crow,” though it seems more experimental and involved, is a slight departure from his earlier work-- a get-up-and-dance kind of departure, that is. The songs seem jazzier, more upbeat, and percussion orientated. As far as lyrics are concerned, a lot of the songs focus more heavily on the womb and children. His song “Long Haired Child” touts, “I said to all my friends when I have kids, I’m going to want the child to be a long haired child” and “Chinese Children” begins, “if I lived in China I’d have some Chinese children.” Additionally, Banhart dips his toes into political territory on this album, singing “I heard somebody say the war ended today” and “I need you to please explain the war.”
Whether he’s singing about eating breakfast, or a lazy butterfly, Banhart never disappoints. His sound is matchless- not to mention, completely refreshing in a world full of has-beens and wannabes. Banhart undoubtedly succeeds in expressing love, peace, and unity, for his songs will not only make you sing and dance, but they will make you smile-- or, more appropriately, rejoice.
Having that said, it’s nearly impossible to clump Banhart into a modern genre, and he probably doesn’t belong in one. Banhart, whose music is often dubbed psych folk, Naturalismo, New Weird America, or freak-folk, is the shining star of a current folk revival movement, involving similar popular “indie” artists such as Animal Collective, Iron & Wine, and Joanna Newsom. Many liken his jarring, yet intoxicating voice and story-telling approach to lyricism to those of Bob Dylan, but Banhart has said that his inspiration comes from his parents- “older hippies, people into Eastern philosophies and New Age.”
Born in Houston, Texas in 1981, Banhart was named by an Indian mystic whom his parents followed (it translates to “king of gods” in Hindi). After his parents divorced, Banhart moved to Venezuela with his mother and spent his childhood in a violent area he describes as “insane.” When Banhart’s mother remarried, they moved to California, and he attended San Francisco Art Institute on a scholarship. Though he had been writing songs since age 12, Banhart came to a realization that he could write anything while arguing about a Rolling Stones song with his girlfriend, and shortly thereafter became a “wandering minstrel,” playing at any venue that would take him. After two years of art school, Banhart dropped out in 2000, moved to Paris, moved back to California, and was ultimately discovered by a friend of Michael Gira, the owner of Young God Records, while playing a show in L.A. “We'd never heard anything quite like him, ever,” says Gira. “His voice - a quivering high-tension wire, sounded like it could have been recorded 70 years ago.”
Banhart’s first four albums were released on Young God Records in 2003 and 2004, and his latest album, “Cripple Crow” was released on XL Recordings in 2005. One of the greatest things about Banhart’s songs is that they constantly vary in sound and lyrical subject matter without losing their luster. Though Banhart’s signature sound comprises of tinny words and acoustic guitar, the songs from his earlier albums, “Nino Rojo” and “Rejoicing in the Hands,” toy with horns, violin, and backup singers. His lyrics, which sometimes wander in and out of Spanish, often unfold like folktales, ripe with an abundance of natural imagery of things like sparrows, spiders, crabs, squid, water, islands, dogs, insects, and of course, the sun. In “We All Know” he sings, “We all know, that the wind blows, and the moon glows, and our lungs grow, we belong to the floating hand, that's made by some animals.”
“Cripple Crow,” though it seems more experimental and involved, is a slight departure from his earlier work-- a get-up-and-dance kind of departure, that is. The songs seem jazzier, more upbeat, and percussion orientated. As far as lyrics are concerned, a lot of the songs focus more heavily on the womb and children. His song “Long Haired Child” touts, “I said to all my friends when I have kids, I’m going to want the child to be a long haired child” and “Chinese Children” begins, “if I lived in China I’d have some Chinese children.” Additionally, Banhart dips his toes into political territory on this album, singing “I heard somebody say the war ended today” and “I need you to please explain the war.”
Whether he’s singing about eating breakfast, or a lazy butterfly, Banhart never disappoints. His sound is matchless- not to mention, completely refreshing in a world full of has-beens and wannabes. Banhart undoubtedly succeeds in expressing love, peace, and unity, for his songs will not only make you sing and dance, but they will make you smile-- or, more appropriately, rejoice.
Monday, April 23, 2007
The end is near
1. I can't wait to rid myself of this ridiculous schedule. May 18th couldn't come soon enough. Kim Clark and Lisa Keller can both kiss my ass.
2. I want to go to the Coney Island mermaid parade.
3. Why on earth is there a bajillion people running around yelling outside my room at 11 pm on a monday night??? Ugh.
25 days of hell left.
2. I want to go to the Coney Island mermaid parade.
3. Why on earth is there a bajillion people running around yelling outside my room at 11 pm on a monday night??? Ugh.
25 days of hell left.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Oh, and almost forgot this!
Lauren and I ran up to the stage for Michael Showalter when he made an appearance at Culture Shock yesterday. After he played songs for us from his Itunes, he exited the stage and some people got in line to meet him. Sooo, Lauren and I went up, didn't say much to him for fear of saying something retarded (I didn't even want to compliment him on his tv shows/movies because I know that pretty much everyone does that and its got to get annoying after a while), and we got our picture with him! <3
-"I want you inside me!"
Let's go Yankees!
2-0, Yankees over Red Sox...1st inning. Yeah Giambi! This is my new hat and my "Let's go Yankees!" face.
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