-7.2-

Note: Ohno! I forgot to talk about the STAC t-shirts! I loved a lot of the STAC t-shirt designs! (I completely forgot that we were supposed to submit them last(?) Tuesday). I meant to ask everyone for advice about my idea on Facebook, but I didn't get to it. Oh well.
I'm glad people picked the winning designs (I was surprised at Ashley's design, since I haven't seen her do a lot of art...It was very ascetically pleasing. I think it was my favorite!) It'll be a hard decision to choose which one to use as the final choice!

Monday: Felt like Dada. I woke up in the morning feelin' like Pdiddy (that's a rapper, right?) and I felt like putting on my wig. It wasn't a statement or anything. I just felt like it.

Acting class: The idea of everyone manipulating everyone really bothered me. Manipulating usually has more of a negative connotation to it than a positive one. It's brought up a couple of issues in my life recently, so it really bothered me. (It also seems that I'm still stuck in Holden's writing style, goddamit, haha.)

I can't remember where I heard it, but the idea of putting a character on the person you're talking to (in order to help you with your acting) seems familiar. When we got into arguments, it reminded me a little of the Jim Bonni workshop. We always started off with pairing off and getting into shouting matches. I guess getting angry loosens you up a little, too, since when you actually get mad (or any other strong emotion, I suppose) you forget what everyone else is thinking of you and get lost in your feelings, if you're not careful.

I was just reading Ellen's journal, and she reminded me of Koans. The idea of a Koan is interesting, yet sort-of frustrating. It reminds me that I have one more thing to search for when I'm looking for myself. I've come up with a couple possible Koans, but like Ellen, I'm not sure if they fit. I'll list them here, but I don't feel like explaining them at the moment.

Is it possible to gain attention by hiding?
Can you survive living opposites?
If you don't know who you are, how can you live throughout the day?
Is it possible to follow and lead?
Is it good to withdraw or blow up?
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Drama/Quiz: Drama is not my thing. I felt REALLY uncomfortable as the quiz questions kept on coming. Was that just a rant? My mind went blank, and I couldn't/didn't put down anyone's name. If Luke chose everyone, then we should trust his decision. If there are changes to be made, decide them at the end of the year....we're just starting out, and there are a lot of noobs, so we don't know each other THAT well, yet.
(I admit, perhaps I need to reach out to the noobs more...I'll try doing that more!)

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Hanna
I vaguely remembered watching some commercials for the movie, and thinking it looked exciting, however, the first time I saw it was on Thursday.
It's scary when you see an idea that is similar to yours.
From...about 7th grade to now, I've been playing around with some characters, and one of them is very similar to Hanna. Both were experimented on by the government, and both had outside help in escaping. And both, when they were in their teens were caught again (except it wasn't my character's choice, and he didn't re-escape).
It slightly bothers me that I'm not exactly original, but what can you do. At least the two characters aren't exactly alike.

I liked the movie, although it was really violent at times (the three most disturbing scenes, to me, were when Hanna broke fake!Marisa's neck, when the french guy stabbed the hotel(?) owner with a pen, and when Eric stabbed the French guy through the head with a piece of wood). The action scenes reminded me of Matrix (especially when Eric gets ganged up on in the parking lot) and of ninjas/Chinese action movies (especially the scene where Hanna is running along the shipping boxes).

While watching the movie, I remembered last year how subconcious was symbolized by water, underground, and forests. Then I noticed that the movie could be broken into 3 parts: Hanna in the forest, Hanna coming out of the forest, and Hanna returning to the forest. I wonder if that was intentional (it probably was)...that could symbolize many things.
-Hanna is nature (in the beginning), yet synthetic (later on in the movie)
-I wonder if humans can have their emotions manipulated even before birth.

I hope we discuss this more on Monday. I like hearing everyone's insights and putting in my own, to see how everyone reacts to it. Sometimes, like during the art discussion, I get a great thought and then I have to wait my turn to speak, so I write it down....if I don't get to say it, I usually put it on my blog, here. But I'd rather that I said it during the discussion, since I like hearing what other people have to say/add on/disagree with my ideas.

-6.2-

It's been a while since I've blogged.

Acting class ('should have wrote more about this sooner, since I forgot a lot.....whoops!):
-It was interesting when we all "became" another person. I had a hard time thinking of a name, though. I mainly got the sense of quiet observation.....
-I find it better doing things with a group of people, or at least another person. It's easier that way, since everyone's doing it so you don't feel like you're being stared at, or that you're being stared at, but you can stare at other people, or that you're being stared at, but at least someone else is, too.

Be Kind Rewind:
-It was fun working with different people. It was very different than last year, indeed. We had less time to do it (if I remember correctly) and we had a group that had slightly more non-actors than actors (3:2)
-I think the main problem of our Be Kind Rewind was that we all had different visions of the plot, and there wasn't enough time to straighten it out. I thought our plot was going to be some sort of horror version of Groundhog day, where at the end, the radio kills the girl, but it evolved into something different.

The Georgians
-I remember that there was something going on with Russia and Georgia a few years ago. It was on the news....besides that, I know nothing of Georgia.
-I (coincidentally) happened to be eating a Dannon yogurt on the day they came in XD
-I wonder if they'll send us whatever they decided to use.....

Power Project
-At first, we had trouble deciding if we should talk a little, or just do whatever fancied us at the moment.
-We came up with a rough idea of a building, but then we gradually ended up doing 3 separate projects
-On Friday we came together and thought about how we could combine our projects into something meaningful. We may....just may, be almost done.

"Art"
I wrote a lot about it, but here are some main points:
-Something as out of the ordinary (although it can be ordinary) that generates a reaction and strengthens/changes a viewpoint.
-Art is what you think it is, however many people agree on a general definition
-Art is someone making a decision(s) and forcing others to make a decision(s)

Misc:
-Someone put a urinal in a museum since there's paintings in a bathroom. Why was/is it not appropriate for that latter to happen, but not the former?
-"Emotion-changing masks". It was funny, since I came up with a character that uses those when someone starts a fight. They just slap a happy/calm mask on the angry person, and they cool down.
-While we were talking about art/ the power projects, I noticed that people used either "I" "We" or "They" when they were talking.

I'm excited for another city trip. I hope we get to go on the highline since we'll be in Chelsea! It's a nice place to take photos!

-5.2-

I've been meaning to write up a blog about the field trip, but I somehow didn't get to it until today. Oh well.

I thought the field trip was a success! Although pretty much everyone got soaked, we saw and did a lot. Now our libraries are that much fuller. I was a little disappointed that most of the floors of the Whitney were closed, but then again, that could have been a plus for us, since we were tired (physically and mentally). My mom sometimes says that you have to see what you want to see before your eyes get tired of looking at art, so I think by the time we got to the Whitney, a lot of us were almost 'art''ed out.

At the sculpture garden: I've never been there, and it was nice to see a 10-foot statue right at the beginning (well, the tree came first, but in the actual museum). I thought the garden would be outside, since the word garden brings images of the outdoors, but the inside was interesting. I liked exploring the tunnels and finding artwork in them. One of my favorite parts was this long dark hallway. I'm not even sure if it was part of the exhibit, but you could go on both ends of the hallway, and it was a different experience on each side. One side was lighter, facing a pitch-black hallway, but you couldn't go down it since it was roped off. The other end was on the pitch-black side. You could see the light, and if people were there, people. I didn't go down the dark hallway, though, because I wasn't sure if you were allowed to. Megan took a picture of the hallway, and it looked creepy when it showed up on flash, too.

At PS1: I think my favorite parts about PS1 were the sound room, the "dungeon" on floor zero, and the wall of pictures in the 9.11 exhibit.
-It was cool hearing the individual voices along with the whole chorus. Everyone sounded a little different, even if they were singing the same part. Some were louder than others, some had a more gravely voice, some had more vibrato...
-When I went down to the "dungeon", I thought that it would be a cool place to film something. I didn't understand what it had to do with the 9/11 exhibit, though. Then again, I didn't read/find the explanation that had to do with it.
-The wall of pictures in the 9.11 exhibit were sad. I found myself focusing on this one of a sleeping child and a woman in the service. I thought it was sad, but when I read the description about it in the booklet, it was even sadder (I thought the woman and child were mother and child, but it turned out that the kid lost their parents and were at the memorial service for them).

At the Whitney: I've passed by the building before, and I've never realized that that was the Whitney! I thought it was somewhere by Chelsea, and was a white building...
As I said before, most of the floors were closed off. It was also a little hard getting around the museum, since the elevators were slow and there were a lot of stairs (ew, exercise... haha). But I liked when you looked out of the windows at the Whitney, the view of the city looked a little like it was a painting! It was also good that we got to see the building before it got moved. A bit of history.
-I saw three floors. The first floor exhibit was ok. I think it would have been a different experience if we came in at a time where the actor was interacting with the exhibit.
-Floor 3 was interesting, since it was an artist at the Bauhaus. However, I wasn't that impressed with the majority of his work. I didn't care for the out of proportion figures. I liked his work like Bridge V and Broken Glass. They were more abstract and had lots of shapes.
-Floor 5 I liked a lot. The first installation you walked into cut the room in an interesting way. I didn't realize that the giant L's were all the same shape until I read the text on it! I liked that it gave a different perspective on the shape, and made it seem interesting. I think I like big, abstract, instillations (like at the Dia Beacon).

At dinner: Before dinner, we ran into another group. Twice. I find it funny how there's a huge city, and somehow people can run into each other. It's nice, actually. We split up and went into Trash and Vaudeville for a bit, then walked up and down St. Marks. Dinner was good. I was in the mood for something a little healthier like soup, but we ended up eating hamburgers and all. Oh well~ I got to try pizza fries. That was different.

The play: I LOVED THE PLAY. It was funny how the actors had straight faces on, but they were doing very dramatic stuff. And the fact that they took things literally, made it all the better. I was looking up the name of one of the plays they put on, and I found the original play. I skimmed through it (I don't have enough time to read it all, since I still have to write up my Dada reflection) but the gist of it had a different meaning with the dialogue than when it was preformed on the stage that night.
-I found those shark hats hilarious.
-When the narrator was yelling at the people at one point in the play, was that intentional? Or could they really not hear her?
I wonder what happened during the 3 minutes of silence during other showings. I guess the actors get a kick out of seeing how the audience reacts during that part.

I hope to have another field trip soon!
(Maybe to raise funds for STAC we could hop on a train and preform or do something in the streets :) ? But I think you need a permit for that...that would be interesting, though.)
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(Note to self: You have to write about Dada day, also)