In late June, Mom and I went to see the Dia Beacon. I enjoyed it! It was all modern art (as in, mostly shapes and giant instillations). They even had an interactive exhibit (it was by Franz Erhard Walther: link)!
It would be neat to visit there with STAC sometime.
I liked Richard Serra's sculptures. There was this one that looked like a giant bronze(?) boat. If you walked on one side, it felt like it was going to fall on you, it was a bit scary, but on the other side you got a completely different feel from it!
Interesting thought:
My Mom and I also learned from a gallery attendant that Richard Serra is sort-of bad tempered, while this other artist we were going to see, Louise Bourgeois, is very nice...However, when we saw her sculptures, we weren't that impressed (but she did have a giant spider sculpture, which I thought was impressive!)...
Does personality have a lot or a little to do with the art the people create? (I suppose it depends...)
(Here's a quick video I took of one of Richard Serra's sculptures...video and cameras weren't allowed, but sssh, I couldn't resist it, the view was fascinating!)
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Below is slightly copied from another site I blog on:
I've been seeing a lot of movies recently...but they've all been good in their own way:
-Super 8: Saw this with a friend. I liked the kids filming their movie, but it got less suspenseful after seeing what the monster actually was.
Summarized in 3 words: A Violent ET
-Buck: Saw this on Tuesday with my mom~ What a great movie. It's a documentary, but you were given a new perspective on horses, and this amazing "horsewhisper", Buck. It was interesting to see how he lived. He traveled around the country all year (except one or two weeks, I think) and didn't see his family a lot.
He kept on saying that the horses show what kind of person the owner is. At one point in the movie, he came across this horse who was so wild, it had to be put down. The owner seemed normal, but it made me wonder what kind of person she was...
Summarized in 3 words: Horses Equal Lifestyle
-Transformers 3: I went to see it yesterday with my friends purely for the special effects (the most I knew about transformers was from my little cousin XD). However, I ended up liking the red guy (because he had awesome scythe-like weapons) and Bumblebee (I thought it was interesting that he was mute except if he used audio from the radio)
Summarized in 3 words: CGI Machines Attack
-HP7 (pt2): It was enjoyed seeing the book in movie format, with the characters moving and breathing in real life, but they had to cram so much plot into two hours that it felt rushed...I cried when my favorite characters died when I was reading the book, but the movie didn't feel the same way.
Summarized in 3 words: Book was better
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I've been working with this music program, UTAU, and it's very interesting....
UTAU It's a free program that's based on the principle of Vocaloids (started in England and made popular in Japan). You record your voice (or use other people's) to make a "voice bank". Then you can use your voice in the program to make yourself sing songs! You can also change your voice by making it lower and higher, which can create different results (it's fun to see how you'd sound as a guy, or with a higher voice...).
However, you must have the background music to the song you want to sing. UTAU only does the singing part. You have to combine music with voice on an editing program (I'm using garage band).
You can create your own songs, and have your UTAUloid (your voice) sing them, or have your UTAUloid sing other songs created by other people. I haven't created a song yet, but I hope to in the future!
Anyways, here's a song I did a cover of, as an example of what a finished product may be. It's the first song I did, but it provides a good example of the different voices and such you can create (all of the singing is from the voicebank I recorded).
I know, I know, it's anime/manga. But it doesn't need to be. Japan just made it popular by giving the singers mascot(?) characters that were drawn in the anime style, and it just caught on that way.
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Going on with other news:
I'm happy to say that I've been keeping up with my daily practice!
I do most of them on an oekaki (a drawing site) and someone suggested that I try coloring them. Well, I did, and here's the result:
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| Mitchell from Modern Family |
Speaking of Modern Family, I've been doing a little marathon of the first two seasons...I've grown to love the show! With all of the characters, who on their own are funny, interacting with each other, it just makes the show better! Great actors and great writers!
Well, that's all for now!
