-20.3-

Kontroll.
A Hungarian movie we saw in class on Tuesday.

Initially, I liked the movie...except for the fact that it had a feeling of claustrophobia. Since it all took place underground, towards the end, I kept on looking out the window to get some mental fresh air.

The acting was great - it all felt natural - and some shots were beautiful (I specifically remember one of the light hitting two enormous fans underground; the way the fans cut the light and dark of the scene appealed to my aesthetics.)

Most of all, I liked the characters. I liked the sense of camaraderie among the main team of Kontroll. Although they split up in the different trains, they always managed to get back together by the time the train got to the next stop. I also liked seeing different tropes among the group. For example the Professor and Tibi (I think? The young guy...) fit into the old cop young cop trope. (Mugi also fits nicely into PluckyComicRelief)

The end scene of the movie seemed pretty symbolic of death. Bulcsu goes with the train conductor's daughter, who's waiting for him in an angel's costume, up the escalator and into the light. Why Bulcsu had to suffer as a Kontroll poses the subject of atonement. If he did push the passengers off the platform, he may have had to suffer before he went to "heaven". Another way of looking at this is that Bulcsu is part of the "untouchable" class in the hierarchy of the subway, and must suffer in order to have a better next life (When he leaves the subway station, it's implied that he can go back to a successful life/job, with a girlfriend.)

---
Another point I'd like to bring up is that there is, basically, an all-male cast. I didn't notice this fact before Luke pointed it out, which brings up some issues to think about.

I don't think I noticed the lack of girls, because I've grown up in an all-male world. My Mom and Dad told me stories about male heros...the Greeks, Norse mythology, Peter Pan, Robin Hood...I grew up liking adventure and doing things by myself. When playing with my friends in elementary school, we used to pretend to be superheroes and we'd have our own myth-like adventures. In middle school, I was introduced to anime, and most of the ones I read had a very strong male myth structure to it. I think I'm so used to the male myth that female leads have become...on the back burner for me. I'd really like to see a strong female lead, but the shows/stories that do this are few and far between (off the top of my head I can't remember specific titles...maybe the show Madoka Magica?). I feel like boys get to have the adventures while girls stay at home. But I want to do things, too.

But does one have to be a man/act manly to have an adventure? How can girls stay as girls but still provide a strong point? I think this may be a better way of looking at things: link.

Gender roles is an extremely interesting subject, but it's so hard to overcome the partitioning ingrained for thousands of years in society. You've got to be carefully untaught, eh?
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Misc. point: When the soundtrack to the chase sequence first came on (the one used in "The Laramie Project" commercial) I started grinning, because I recognized it, but didn't know it was from this movie.
---
Unrelated note: When we were talking about STAC live and all of the instruments required for the songs, I thought about my goal for trying to play a different instrument(s) bass, trumpet etc. I will delve further into this subject another time.

Another unrelated note: I like the main theme in the Thor soundtrack.

=====Edit=====
Perhaps Bulcsu fits into the MustMakeAmends trope, since he could leave at any time, but it was the trap of his mind that kept him underground until the very end.

-19.3-

Time for a college post!

-Florida New college + Birth play
I went to a college that (supposedly) sounded like STAC, the New College of Florida, during the Columbus day weekend. My Dad and I flew down to Florida, but my Mom had to stay behind because she had work.

Before taking the college tour, my Dad found out that the college was hosting a play at their theatre, so we went to go see it (and also see college life before touring around). After watching the play I took a few notes:

Birth the play

-great acting (they...really threw themselves into giving birth...there was even a scene where an actress breast fed her child on stage)

-promoted vaginal natural birth vs. hospital birth

-Immediate reaction after seeing the play: I WANNA HOLD A BABYYYY(there was a baby behind me that was sooo cute)

-The music was a bit loud, it might have been because I was right next to the drummer, but I liked that it was mostly live (some scenes had tracks played from the speakers, but at other times a drummer played)

-At times the play got immature "Having a baby is like taking a poo", but there were serious times when things got very emotional such as the scene when one of the mothers had a traumatic time at the hospital (she didn't want a c-section, but the doctors forced it on her)

-check if the author is a girl or boy

-The show used minimal props (literally stacked colored crates, exercise balls, chalk, and some hospital gowns)

New College the College

After the show my Dad and I went to the cafeteria area and ended up talking to a 4th year student. She was really friendly and happened to be in a bio major, or study of concentration as the college calls it. She also happened to be from New York (it was weird...all of the people we met on the first day coming into Florida were from New York!)
We talked about how the college was, and it seemed interesting. In New College, you can focus on one area, or else take classes that interest you. You choose whatever classes you want in the contract system. You also set your goals for the classes, and even set how many classes need to pass in order to get through the quarter. However at the end of four years, you have to write a thesis in order to graduate; the thesis can be on any topic you choose, but you have to get a teacher to mentor you (during the tour we saw the thesis room, which showed theses all the way from when the college began, and in the room student-written books lined all of the walls!) It sounded a lot like last year's STAC 4th quarter.
I was a little afraid of having too much freedom (during that time I was working on the extended project, and having no real guidelines on the subject scared me) but I also heard from other students that if you go into science at the school things are a little less free. (On the other hand, I didn't like the sound of having less flexibility because I wanted to choose the classes I want to do and not be restricted by required classes like in other colleges...)

Two days later I took a tour of the college. I liked how the campus was bright and airy, and near a great beach, but Florida was really hot that day, so walking around was a big turn-off. Another thing that I didn't like was that the architecture wasn't that colorful...stepping a little outside of the college was a neighborhood of houses, and those houses were more bright than even the student dorms!
However, I really liked the marine biology laboratories. They had fish tanks from every environment in the surrounding water! After the tour I got to sit in a science class. It was more of a lecture that day, so it was a little boring (even the teacher warned me before the class started), but the subject of the class seemed interesting (the class was a course on how events in history shaped the world of science ex. in times of the plague there were more advances in medicine than in other areas). I hadn't thought about science and history in that way before, and it was a different connection to look at!
Also, after the class some students went up and introduced themselves. They seemed really friendly and helpful, and I learned a lot about different clubs and activities the college had...and random stuff like how the cafeteria food sucks and the lake by the school has bioluminescence (another fact that was nice was that the students were all first years, but they already seemed like they were comfortable)!

Overall, I liked the college's freedom in classes and the openness of the students, but the weather was hard to deal with and it's far away from home...New York. I'll definitely keep this college in mind, but it didn't seem to completely...click. I'm not quite sure what I want, but I think I'd like to stay around NYC...also, I'm looking to major in Biology, minor in art, have an english elective and be in a band.
 (I'm worried that I won't find the right college...I suppose I'll have to do more searching, then time will tell!)

-18.3-

Quite a bit has happened since my last post...unfortunately, things have built up between that time and now, so I'll keep this post to my extended project, and talk about the other events at a later date:

-For my extended project, it evolved from a straightforward script, into a more abstract piece! At first, I had trouble beginning the script. I felt as though I didn't have anything to say...no ideas to pursue that were really meaningful. I knew this kind of thinking was dangerous, so I started to write whatever popped into my head (an idea I got from talking with my Dad- the conflict between a student and her unwavering music teacher).  When talking to Luke, about this problem, he said I wasn't thinking about my audience, and I realized he was right. But I was still confused about what kind of message I wanted the audience to take away. With this, I was stuck on a direction throughout the whole Columbus day break. I felt stuck with my original idea, but I didn't know what different direction I could/should take...
In the end, I borrowed an idea of two voices talking at once and wrote a poem/lyrics of...opinions about the internet. Through poetry I feel easier with using language...(although I feel like I need to use more vocabulary in my poems so I can express myself better). Sive the poem/lyrics were about technology, coming up with the music was a bit easier since I had an idea to work with. This time I worked in two keys. I found that B flat major and D minor worked relatively well together, so I played around with melodies that would fit with the "talking" in the poem. Recording went easier this time, since I coordinated both hands (I didn't need to record all of the hands on separate tracks) but when I put the song on garage band, the .mp3's didn't show up at all, so I was forced to edit with Audacity. (Annnnd Garageband ended up working again later, so I was able to record the audio on there and mix everything together.) I recorded the audio with my computer mike, because I was curious if having a "grittier" tone would affect the song. I have to listen to it again, but I think I'll re-record the voice with the zoom...(Sandy came and knocked out the power. Oi.)
After the finished version is done, I'll upload it here. I think after re-recording the voice, I'm done. It was painful doing the project (mainly coming up with an idea) and I just want to work on the next adventure (but...I'm stuck with ideas for that, too. Maybe I'll focus on more technical work...? I wanted to improve with my drawing...)

Misc:
-I feel stuck about what I want to say to audience. Nothing personal....just general things like school is bad and gay rights

-When I went to English extra help about an essay of mine..Mr. Mattson also said that I wasn't thinking about the audience (I didn't clearly state where logos, pathos, and ethos examples were)...coincidence?!

-8.3- -9.3--13.3-

My blog this year has been a bit disorderly with the posting order. This is because I've written/drafted some posts that I haven't had time to properly write. Here is a conglomerate of those posts I've been meaning to post, but haven't had the time to:

-8.3-

+Talk about vacation

During the Rosh Hashana vacation, I went to visit colleges in Florida. The last time I went to Florida (During the spring break of 10th grade I went to Tampa and visited the University of South Florida Tampa.)

This time around, I visited Miami University, Florida Atlantic University (FAU), and FAU's honors college (that was a surprise visit, since we first heard of it while on the FAU tour; we were feeling spontaneous, so we drove to the honors college right before going to the plane!)

Also during this Florida trip, I visited a Japanese garden and museum. I didn't get to see all of the garden, but there was a section where it showed how the zen gardens evolved over time (It was really cool...the earlier gardens were based off of chinese paintings, but the later ones took their own form and became more abstract.)

There was also an exhibit on folklore art by Tsukioka Kogyo. I was so glad that we went that day, because it was the last day of the viewing (in fact, they started taking down the art a few minutes after we left)! Kogyo has amazing brushwork. I loved the lines and the pictures had fantastic colors:

From the "100 Noh" series that was on exhibition

The next day, on TV there happened to be a news feature about the origins of Pixar. We tuned in a bit late, but it was very interesting! I didn't know they partnered with Steve Jobs.

They also discussed how they had to tackle their successes, along with their failures. I clearly remember the Pixar artists talking about how they had to overcome "second project syndrome". After the breakthrough of Toy Story, they had to come up with something just as good, which was a big challenge... (I felt some connection there...what am I going to do after my big animation from last year?) 

+Talk about Marc Chagall

I thought most of Chagall's art was ok. It was nice, but I didn't spend a ton of time on the majority of his work (but I did love his use of color on all of them).

The two paintings I liked best were this watercolor of flowers (I can't find a picture of it), which captured the airy feel of late spring/early summer and one of a winter scene (the description said that it was too cold outside, so he had to paint indoors...I think it was when he visited Switzerland?). The colors of the winter landscape also captured a feeling, but this was of the crisp winter air. It's amazing how, if you use colors just right, you can evoke specific feelings and memories...

I also liked the paintings when he used ink. One of mushrooms reminded me of when I painted mushrooms during the sumi-e workshop in 9th grade (again, I can't find a darn picture of it...)

-goache= type of opaque paint

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-9.3-

The grey sky dark green leaves of the trees and the dull orange scraps scratching against the ground only add to the clear smell in the air distinct to the oncoming winter. The house is bathed in a blue-grey light the brown of the wooden paneling almost bright against the cloudy landscape.

Inside one finds immediate warmth...

The dark of the hallway, with a paper cut out of light pasted on the stairs, gain a bright yellow glow as a switch is flipped. Soft footfalls pad upstairs, the doorknob briefly losing its shine as a hand grasps it, opening the entryway into the cold blue living room. Northern light quickly loses its power as another yellow glow pops into existence, the room divided into fire and ice. A savory smell of tomato-baked chicken, or perhaps it's tomato soup, invades all scents.

And yet the room is quiet. The two orbs of light gloss over a silent TV, and illuminate the shadow of an empty table and coats are thrown over the three chairs still pushed out. The lady downstairs cooks well. What exactly is the food shes making. Who will eat it. A light hum pushes atoms around it creating vibrations. Flip.

Hi Im home.

Hi can you check the rice and beans?

Hm?

"You can probably smell it."

"Oh. Ok."

"Take off the lid. Try some."

"...It tastes good."

"Help yourself. It's dinner."

Suddenly, the warmth of the spoonful spreads to the rest of the body.

"Thanks...! See you later. I'm gonna hang up now."

Click.

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-13.3- (written around 9.30.12)

I just finished watching the movie Tokyo Godfathers.

It was free on demand, so my parents and I decided to check it out, but I remember wanting to watch the movie when I saw it on a shelf in the library.

This animated movie tells the story of three homeless people living in Tokyo who find a baby on Christmas Eve. Through their journey to find the baby's mother, a darker side of Tokyo is revealed...

The movie was a fresh take on Japanese culture and city life that I've never seen before. Although there was an ugly side, some of the characters looked downright gross, the characters seemed real (although overdramatic) and believable. It was a serious story, but there were lots of humor throw in, too.

The movie was rated PG-13, but I thought that was mainly because it was an animation. If the movie had been real people, it would have been rated R, I think (there were violent scenes, strong scenes of suicide, and lots of cursing.) ...It annoys me when people underestimate animations becuase they think it's "for kids".

The 3 main characters + the baby
(by the way, the character on the top left is actually a guy)

Speaking of animation, the art was fantastic. As I mentioned before, some of the scenes were very gory and ugly-looking, but the backgrounds looked almost as though they were photos. Almost.

The realism of the animation

-17.3-

I'm a bit confused about what I missed yesterday. I asked a few people and got that we were making groups, and that we're going to make projects for the city, but I don't get if we're making our own projects or if we're doing a project in a group.

If we're doing our own project, I may do something with photography (with my iPod camera or another camera I have) or with writing (probably short poems). I was thinking of doing art ("draw the first thing that stands out to you at every place we go to"), but I think that would be difficult to accomplish...I'd like to do something that can be done while on the trip.

-15.3-

Extended project day 0:

I recieved the e-mail froom Luke, and, from the description, it looked like I was doing a type of radio drama. However, when I looked at some examples, it seemed more like a song, but with spoken lyrics instead of sung lyrics.

I brainstormed in the car with my Dad and came up with a plot. I was telling my Dad about a voice that bothered me in one of the Youtube videos Luke sent. Dad said maybe I could play off of that strong feeling, and asked me what kind of people would usually have that voice. I said a teacher.After we talked more, I came up with an idea of a dialogue between an interfering music teacher and a  student trying to write a song.

Extended project day 1:

I started writing my script. I managed to get a good chunk of first draft completed within two periods, but part of the time was spent going, "Is this good enough?" I didn't get to finish watching all of the Youtube examples, so I was a little confused about what exactly to do.

I haven't started thinking about the music part yet. However, since the story is about writing a song, I did think about writing the "song" the student writes and using that as part of the beginning and ending. Then I'd play around with the melody while the teacher and student were conversing. The audience wouldn't know the significance of the song until the student started to play it.

Extended project day 2:

I finished watching the Youtube videos in class today (Thanks, Matt for letting me borrow your earphones!) I really liked how all of the artists played around with the sound and rhythm of words (Bbut listening to songs from The Velvet Underground was a little hard because there were two tracks separately recorded for the left and right ears. So when the song played it was an overload of information coming in, and my brain didn't know which ear to focus on.) I think my favorite song was Elephant Talk by King Crimson. It had a neat concept of using alphabetical alliteration of different ways to describe talking.

When I got home, I looked over my script with my Dad and he gave me some feedback that I'll work on tomorrow (For example, I need to get stright to the point!)

-16.3-

Quick puddle study (17 minutes on oekaki)