Been a while since the last update! Right now it is snowing outside and it's very pretty. It's been a very cold weekend, which I like. I like how there's never anybody outside, all you have to do is step out your front door to be in complete and utter solitude.
So here's the story of the last five days. On Thursday morning me, my chorus teacher, and the tenor who made District choir drove up to Southern Lehigh where rehearsals were taking place. I liked the guest director who led the group a lot, with these festivals it can be a little hit or miss, but this guy I really liked. He was an excellent conductor, had a good personality, and really made you care about the music, which is the most important thing. People had prepared the music pretty well for the festival so in general we had two very good concerts Friday and Saturday. We got to have them in this nice big church with a real pipe organ for us to sing along with. I'll be getting a CD with Saturday's concert, and I'll probably post some of the tracks for you to hear.
As for the re-audition for regionals (which is the next level up), I lucked out and they picked a piece for the audition which I had already performed at another festival, so I had a pretty good audition and I made regionals easy. Now I have music for that to prepare in three weeks, so that will be fun.
Thinking about it almost made me want to be a choir director again, at a high school or college. Luckily that feeling didn't last long.
Saturday evening and Sunday I got to be with Rachel again, which of course was very nice. She came back for the weekend for her birthday. She didn't have a very good birthday, in fact it was really quite lame. Sunday for a party we went to her brother's house, where her brother and father watched a football game, her mother sort of lurked (she's that kind of person), and her brother and sister tried not to be bored to death. The two of us walked the dog, played with some blocks, and argued about the gift I gave her. Wednesday last week I went to the book store with my father to get her a book. I couldn't find what I was really looking for so I bought her an art book about optical illusions and visual deception. It's a very good book, but she claimed I was thinking more of myself when I bought it (because apparently I like that kind of thing more than she does). What's funny is I thought I was just buying her a good book.
No presents at all (except what I gave her) to unwrap, a tiny ice cream cake without any candles, we didn't even sing to her or anything. I don't even know if anybody else besides me and her had any cake.
Well anyway, her family is in general pretty insensitive and tend to regard each other with tepid indifference at all times. I'm always trying to tell her that, that her family is fucking weird, but she refuses to see it until something like this happens.
Back to the book. Me and Rachel have a long history of her not liking anything I buy her. She claims I don't listen to her, that even her room mate at college knows what she'd like better than I do. Last Christmas, I got her jam, a Bible with anime illustrations, and a wind chime. She didn't like any of it. But I had reasons! I got her jam because I knew how much she liked toast, she was always telling me how much she liked toast, so what goes better with toast than jam. And it was even special fancy jam. I knew she liked anime, and she didn't have a Bible, and it was a little corny but I thought maybe she'd like a combination of the two. And I thought the wind chime matched the decorations in her bedroom. I remember her telling me she disliked wind chimes, but a single tiny bell at the end hardly qualifies is as a "chime", it's more like a mobile than anything (especially if its indoors, hence no wind).
But the gift flopped hard anyway. I think she should feel lucky to get anything, I mean, it's pretty rude to complain about something somebody buys you no matter how close you are. Especially a nice big full-color book that obviously wasn't from the bargain bin. It sure is a lot nicer than what, say, her brother bought her, which was nothing. Oh well, I guess from now on I should just go with more obvious things, things I know she'll like. But it's so boring! I hate boring things.
But of course later in the evening we kissed and made up (and out) (ha ha j/k). She said at least the book will be a good distraction for me when she's busy with something and can't lavish me with the attention I so readily deserve.
She left this morning, and I look forward to seeing her again, hopefully around Valentine's Day.
If you're wondering what Napenthi is, it's the name of my new band. Well, sort of. I met with Khai the guitarist today to try and get something a little bit organized. We ironed out what songs we are going to prepare for a possible live performance on the first in two weeks (death doom destruction). He talks like he's really serious about this and knows how to play. I have my hopes, and my doubts, but there's no reason to give up before you start. Today I'm going to prepare practice tracks for him, just bass drums and chords, so when we meet this weekend he'll have his parts down slightly so we can see if we actually have something or not. I'm not going to make any judgments on the potential of this project until we've both had time to practice. Napenthi is a botched spelling of the word Nepenthe, which is a mythological drug of forgetfulness. I may need some Nepenthe after this week.
This week being school show auditions and all. I've been trying to let my voice rest yesterday and today, since it was pretty well tired after singing all day Thursday and Friday. Tomorrow is a half day, we get out at like noon (for the end of the semester), and then we'll have to come back for auditions at three. During that time I'm going to practice the song and make sure I can still sing it. It is very high, mind you. I'm a little anxious to have it over with. With any luck I won't get a good part and I won't have to do the show, or I'll get the lead. One or the other would be ideal. I kind of hope the directors don't read this blog.
That's all for now. I think I'm going to go watch the snow.
_Dr. M
Showing posts with label trip. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trip. Show all posts
Monday, January 19, 2009
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
The Philadelphia Museum of Art
This post should be appearing under the sixteenth, but I haven't figured out how to change the time stamp, if it's even possible. Oh well.
Anyway, today (or yesterday, I suppose) I took a field trip to the Philadelphia Museum of Art with my art class. I had very much been looking forward to the trip, as I hadn't been to an art museum in a long time, and I feel like I have a better appreciation for that kind of stuff now that I've learned a little about it. Also the fact that this is one of the premier art museums in the entire country, and (without getting into the existentialism of what art is really worth and why, etc) seeing millions and millions of dollars hanging on the wall right there in front of you is an experience in itself.
I made sure to take lots of pictures to document my journey. I'm certainly no art critic, but I took pictures of anything I just thought was interesting. Most of them are of sculpture, as I figured anybody can look up any painting they want on the web and get a better view of it than anything I can take with my camera phone, but every picture of sculpture is different and shows different qualities of the art, and so taking them felt a little more worthwhile.
I spent the longest amount of time in the first two wings I came to, which was European art from mostly the eighteenth and nineteenth century (I believe) and contemporary art. This statue was from the former. It was a sculpture of a young ballerina, from an artist who apparently really had a thing for ballerinas. I was told that he made many, many of these statues, nowadays all with different length skirts. The length of the skirt actually tells you how intact the piece is, as they would fray with the passage of time, and museum curators would trim them accordingly. Our girl here would appear to have lost a good bit of her skirt, unfortunately. I love the expression on her face, she's obviously very tired, but trying not to look it.
I love this piece. The artist who was commissioned to create this sculpture of a child was having a very difficult time of it, until he happened to catch a glimpse of the child peeking through a curtain. To him it appeared to be a "picture of purity", and served as the inspiration for this piece. It looks eroded, but I believe this is the way he created it, with just the hint of a face peeking beyond the blankness.
This is supposed to be a representation of thought. To me it looks like he started with that block and gave up on life after carving the head. Maybe the girl was really out of shape and only wanted her head carved. I really don't see how it portrays "thought". Maybe "brain fart", but not "thought". This is all still part of the European art wing, believe it or not. This piece looks very contemporary to me. I guess they had already started to experiment with traditional form when this piece was made, I think during the eighteen hundreds.
This is titled "Eve". It really makes you appreciate the story of creation better, I feel, whether one were to take it literally or figuratively. The look of utter shame and embarrassment, when there's nothing in her figure to be ashamed of. What could better illustrate the fall of mankind, in the presence of God himself?
I know the old European ideal for womanly beauty was quite different than ours today (they liked them plump and pale, i.e. rich). Call me whatever you like, but this is still the most beautiful feminine figure I think I've ever seen, and I'm not talking about as a work of art, I'm talking about as a woman I would like to have a long, steamy night with.
Now we're into contemporary art. This is one of my favorite paintings I saw while I was there. It's a Picasso, in his cubism phase. "Man with Violin" or something like that. I love the color pallet, and how the longer you stare it, the more you think you see.
This is indeed what it looks like: an iron with nails glued to it. Another one of those "I shit on a stick and it's art, because I said so. Don't try to argue with me, you uncultured barbarian." In all seriousness though, I really can appreciate art like this, it sure makes you think about things in a different way. Upon just looking at it, you feel a vague sense of frustration as you instinctively imagine trying to use the thing, ripping your favorite shirt to shreds in the process. With modern art it's very tempting to go with your instinct of "Geeze, anybody could do that!", but the truth is anybody in the whole world could pick up a paintbrush and learn to paint, or to sculpt or anything else, if they're willing to put in the time. Just because you may see this as "easier" doesn't mean it's worth any less.
I thought this was funny. And, though the piece itself may claim otherwise, I'm sure this is actually worth quite a few dollars.
This was probably the creepiest piece in the museum, especially since it was tucked away in the corner; I doubt if many even noticed it. Continuing from the last picture, as this is spray-painted right onto the gallery wall, is it really worth anything? It's not as if, after buying it, you could move it or do anything with it. I sure wish I knew the context of this piece, as its meaning or intention all but escapes me (unless the intention was to thoroughly creep me out, which may very well have been the case).
This is also one of my favorite paintings that I saw. There's a lot you can't really see in the picture, like the smaller figures of nude women hidden in the skirt of roots the lady is wearing (or growing or whatever). I decided this painting, being created by a lady, probably deals with the concept of aging. The woman is in a very vulnerable state clothing-wise, heightened by the look of despair on her face, along with the endless corridor of doors beside her, perhaps to represent the passage of time. She's obviously still attractive and full of vitality, yet in her face she's so withered and aged. I imagine the griffin-looking thing in the corner is a reoccurring theme in this artist's work.
This is a wooden door shrouded in darkness. If you go up and look through the two small holes in it, you see a brightly lit scene featuring a woman's naked body lying spread-eagle in a pile of hay, with a painted landscape behind it. I would have completely missed this had my art teacher not happened to be in the same gallery at the time. Fairly startling, anyway this was practically hidden all the way in the back of the wing, and I felt so special having found it, until a huge group of girls from some other school entered and started swarming around it. To make matters worse I kept going back and looking through it, as I was trying to get a sense of how big the scene was (pretty hard to do with the two holes like that, very limited depth perception), and I'm pretty sure they thought I was some kind of creepy perve. Oh well, story of my life.
This was an interesting piece, I assume dealing with commercialism and whatnot. There's a lot to it, a phone, some peaches, a bent snow shovel, a picture of Reagan as you can see (probably dealing with politics as well). This is the kind of piece that made you nervous walking around it, as presumably it was all just lying there, and you might accidentally bump it and knock something off. There isn't even any way of telling if the original artist would consider that ruining it or improving it.
This was the main entrance to the museum, which I saw after exiting the modern art wing (we entered through a back entrance). What you're seeing is a large metal mobile hanging from the ceiling. Apparently you can move it just by blowing hard at it, but I definitely couldn't do it (probably I wasn't blowing that hard because I was afraid one of the three bazillion security guards would yell at me).
This is the skyline, as seen from that same entrance hall. I liked the view of city hall which you can see fully in the distance, framed by the large pillars on either side.
This is one of the rooms of their collection of really old armory and weapons. I'd heard a lot about it, honestly I only found it vaguely interesting. They have those self-guided tour things with the ear pieces and the old man blathering at you, I'd probably have to do that in order to appreciate it a little more.
This is my own work of art, I call it "Untitled (Sleeping Guard in front of Large Window)".
This was another one of my favorite parts of the museum. It was a collection of artifacts from Europe and Asia from like the fifteen hundreds and before, and a lot of it was parts of buildings that had been moved and reconstructed inside the museum, like this Asian temple. I couldn't take as many pictures as I would have liked because most of it was very dark, but in retrospect I should have taken some pictures of those beautiful stain-glass windows (darn!). Anyway, most of it was simply breath-taking, the kind of thing you have to be there to really experience.
You can tell by the large entrance way behind this that this was extremely large. Speaking of that entrance way...
It is (or rather was) actually a giant window. Weird, huh?
Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to going back (forward to going back... hm) sometime soon. Hopefully I'll have plenty of opportunity to do so while in college.
BTW, Mr. Urffer, if you're reading this, I WANT TO HAVE YOUR BABIES! That is all.
I really have to go to bed! It is raining outside, hopefully it will ice and there will be a delay. If not, I'll be up again in four hours. I really should stop staying up so late. Oh well.
-Dr. M
Anyway, today (or yesterday, I suppose) I took a field trip to the Philadelphia Museum of Art with my art class. I had very much been looking forward to the trip, as I hadn't been to an art museum in a long time, and I feel like I have a better appreciation for that kind of stuff now that I've learned a little about it. Also the fact that this is one of the premier art museums in the entire country, and (without getting into the existentialism of what art is really worth and why, etc) seeing millions and millions of dollars hanging on the wall right there in front of you is an experience in itself.
I made sure to take lots of pictures to document my journey. I'm certainly no art critic, but I took pictures of anything I just thought was interesting. Most of them are of sculpture, as I figured anybody can look up any painting they want on the web and get a better view of it than anything I can take with my camera phone, but every picture of sculpture is different and shows different qualities of the art, and so taking them felt a little more worthwhile.
I spent the longest amount of time in the first two wings I came to, which was European art from mostly the eighteenth and nineteenth century (I believe) and contemporary art. This statue was from the former. It was a sculpture of a young ballerina, from an artist who apparently really had a thing for ballerinas. I was told that he made many, many of these statues, nowadays all with different length skirts. The length of the skirt actually tells you how intact the piece is, as they would fray with the passage of time, and museum curators would trim them accordingly. Our girl here would appear to have lost a good bit of her skirt, unfortunately. I love the expression on her face, she's obviously very tired, but trying not to look it.
I love this piece. The artist who was commissioned to create this sculpture of a child was having a very difficult time of it, until he happened to catch a glimpse of the child peeking through a curtain. To him it appeared to be a "picture of purity", and served as the inspiration for this piece. It looks eroded, but I believe this is the way he created it, with just the hint of a face peeking beyond the blankness.
This is supposed to be a representation of thought. To me it looks like he started with that block and gave up on life after carving the head. Maybe the girl was really out of shape and only wanted her head carved. I really don't see how it portrays "thought". Maybe "brain fart", but not "thought". This is all still part of the European art wing, believe it or not. This piece looks very contemporary to me. I guess they had already started to experiment with traditional form when this piece was made, I think during the eighteen hundreds.
This is titled "Eve". It really makes you appreciate the story of creation better, I feel, whether one were to take it literally or figuratively. The look of utter shame and embarrassment, when there's nothing in her figure to be ashamed of. What could better illustrate the fall of mankind, in the presence of God himself?
I know the old European ideal for womanly beauty was quite different than ours today (they liked them plump and pale, i.e. rich). Call me whatever you like, but this is still the most beautiful feminine figure I think I've ever seen, and I'm not talking about as a work of art, I'm talking about as a woman I would like to have a long, steamy night with.
Now we're into contemporary art. This is one of my favorite paintings I saw while I was there. It's a Picasso, in his cubism phase. "Man with Violin" or something like that. I love the color pallet, and how the longer you stare it, the more you think you see.
This is indeed what it looks like: an iron with nails glued to it. Another one of those "I shit on a stick and it's art, because I said so. Don't try to argue with me, you uncultured barbarian." In all seriousness though, I really can appreciate art like this, it sure makes you think about things in a different way. Upon just looking at it, you feel a vague sense of frustration as you instinctively imagine trying to use the thing, ripping your favorite shirt to shreds in the process. With modern art it's very tempting to go with your instinct of "Geeze, anybody could do that!", but the truth is anybody in the whole world could pick up a paintbrush and learn to paint, or to sculpt or anything else, if they're willing to put in the time. Just because you may see this as "easier" doesn't mean it's worth any less.
I thought this was funny. And, though the piece itself may claim otherwise, I'm sure this is actually worth quite a few dollars.
This was probably the creepiest piece in the museum, especially since it was tucked away in the corner; I doubt if many even noticed it. Continuing from the last picture, as this is spray-painted right onto the gallery wall, is it really worth anything? It's not as if, after buying it, you could move it or do anything with it. I sure wish I knew the context of this piece, as its meaning or intention all but escapes me (unless the intention was to thoroughly creep me out, which may very well have been the case).
This is also one of my favorite paintings that I saw. There's a lot you can't really see in the picture, like the smaller figures of nude women hidden in the skirt of roots the lady is wearing (or growing or whatever). I decided this painting, being created by a lady, probably deals with the concept of aging. The woman is in a very vulnerable state clothing-wise, heightened by the look of despair on her face, along with the endless corridor of doors beside her, perhaps to represent the passage of time. She's obviously still attractive and full of vitality, yet in her face she's so withered and aged. I imagine the griffin-looking thing in the corner is a reoccurring theme in this artist's work.
This is a wooden door shrouded in darkness. If you go up and look through the two small holes in it, you see a brightly lit scene featuring a woman's naked body lying spread-eagle in a pile of hay, with a painted landscape behind it. I would have completely missed this had my art teacher not happened to be in the same gallery at the time. Fairly startling, anyway this was practically hidden all the way in the back of the wing, and I felt so special having found it, until a huge group of girls from some other school entered and started swarming around it. To make matters worse I kept going back and looking through it, as I was trying to get a sense of how big the scene was (pretty hard to do with the two holes like that, very limited depth perception), and I'm pretty sure they thought I was some kind of creepy perve. Oh well, story of my life.
This was an interesting piece, I assume dealing with commercialism and whatnot. There's a lot to it, a phone, some peaches, a bent snow shovel, a picture of Reagan as you can see (probably dealing with politics as well). This is the kind of piece that made you nervous walking around it, as presumably it was all just lying there, and you might accidentally bump it and knock something off. There isn't even any way of telling if the original artist would consider that ruining it or improving it.
This was the main entrance to the museum, which I saw after exiting the modern art wing (we entered through a back entrance). What you're seeing is a large metal mobile hanging from the ceiling. Apparently you can move it just by blowing hard at it, but I definitely couldn't do it (probably I wasn't blowing that hard because I was afraid one of the three bazillion security guards would yell at me).
This is the skyline, as seen from that same entrance hall. I liked the view of city hall which you can see fully in the distance, framed by the large pillars on either side.
This is one of the rooms of their collection of really old armory and weapons. I'd heard a lot about it, honestly I only found it vaguely interesting. They have those self-guided tour things with the ear pieces and the old man blathering at you, I'd probably have to do that in order to appreciate it a little more.
This is my own work of art, I call it "Untitled (Sleeping Guard in front of Large Window)".
This was another one of my favorite parts of the museum. It was a collection of artifacts from Europe and Asia from like the fifteen hundreds and before, and a lot of it was parts of buildings that had been moved and reconstructed inside the museum, like this Asian temple. I couldn't take as many pictures as I would have liked because most of it was very dark, but in retrospect I should have taken some pictures of those beautiful stain-glass windows (darn!). Anyway, most of it was simply breath-taking, the kind of thing you have to be there to really experience.
You can tell by the large entrance way behind this that this was extremely large. Speaking of that entrance way...
It is (or rather was) actually a giant window. Weird, huh?
Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to going back (forward to going back... hm) sometime soon. Hopefully I'll have plenty of opportunity to do so while in college.
BTW, Mr. Urffer, if you're reading this, I WANT TO HAVE YOUR BABIES! That is all.
I really have to go to bed! It is raining outside, hopefully it will ice and there will be a delay. If not, I'll be up again in four hours. I really should stop staying up so late. Oh well.
-Dr. M
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
