BYU summer Dancesport

I have never attended a ballroom dance competition live before so this was another first for me. I was impressed with many of the dancers I was going expecting to see a bunch of amuteurs stumble their way through some bad dancing but it was pretty good. I could definitely see the stress in some of the faces but at the same time I could tell that everyone out here was here for fun. The most interesting dance to me was the cha-cha becuase I have danced it before. I like the upbeat rhythym of the music and I like latin culture in general, they know how to party.

I thought the pricing was a little steep for an event like this and I feel like the only way someone would get their moneys worth would be to stay the entire time. This is something that I could not do. First because I don't enjoy watching people that much and second because of other time restraints. Overall though I was impressed with the dancing but would rather pay 5 bucks to go dance instead of watching people dance.

Jackson Pollock

I’m going to start off being honest; this class has been different than most I have taken here at BYU. I have taken more science classes than any type of humanity class in the past and so I don’t lie when I say this class has been a struggle for me. I also will not lie when before this class I could recognize famous pieces of art but I couldn’t really analyze them. That is why I am surprised when I look at some pieces of modern art and I enjoy them. At one time I would have just said that is garbage but understanding the background and how one movement affected the next movement makes things interesting. Jackson Pollock might be one of the most abstract artists of the 20th century and his painting Number 1 shows it.

At first glance Number 1 just looks like a canvas with a bunch of paint splattering and dripping all over it. That might be because that is exactly what it is. As one looks at it though there is something aesthetically pleasing about it. The colors really do seem to flow and blend with one another in a random yet orderly manner. When I look at it the black seems to make so many random shapes that leave the imagination to go to town. Almost all of the lines in the painting are rounded in some way but to me they seem to be pointed up as well telling our imagination to stretch.

It seems interesting to me that although when I look at the painting there is no central focus point. The painting is about motion and it is up to the observer to like or dislike it. The entire canvas is filled with paint except for a small area at the top. By doing this whether on accident or on purpose Pollock seems to keep our eyes moving from side to side rather than up or down or in circles. Even though the darkest lines are pointing up Pollock keeps us expanding the painting horizontally with this technique.

Film

In class this week we discussed the history of film. This whole class has been something new to me and this subject continued the tradition. I can sit down and enjoy a movie but when it comes to some of the older films I guess I just get bored. I have not seen that many older movies or so called classics that portray the development of film. I have been spoiled with color so much that I guess I get bored when watching black and white. In a learning atmosphere I did enjoy watching some of the older movies but when I watch a movie I’m usually not looking to learn, I’m looking to veg.

My other philosophy on movies is that I am looking to be entertained as well. I understand that there are some things that a movie has to have to make it good and we understand most of them by experience. If a director isn’t doing his job then he won’t make money. I will most likely never be a director or anything close to it but I will enjoy movies for the rest of my life. This is my other point; I don’t want to dislike a movie just because it is missing something that other movies have. I want to like a movie because I was entertained. That is the director’s job: to entertain the audience. If I and the rest of the public are entertained then he will have a job just like when I have a job if I do it correctly then I will continue to hold my job.

Singing in the Rain

This week I attended Singing in the Rain at the Hale Theater. I was actually really impressed with the production and acting. I was surprised because I thought I recognized the lead actress and I did. I didn’t know her that well but I had met her before in a ward that I attended. She and the rest of the cast did an excellent job. I have never seen the real movie all the way through but I have seen some scenes and I recognized all of them in the production. I especially liked the rain scene right before the intermission. The water was everywhere and the cast went out of their way to get the audience wet. The people in the front row got ponchos but everyone else had to fend for themselves. At the beginning of the scene they even had a light post come out of the floor which I didn’t expect at all. I did go with my girlfriend and Singing in the Rain is one of her favorite movies so she told me what they added and what scenes they didn’t do from the movie.

The Hale Theater is an open stage that I would guess can seat about 200 people. It was a perfect size for this musical. They did a really good job about not only involving the front audience but both sides as well. I was actually sitting in one of the corner seats but I still got wet and I still felt like I didn’t miss out on anything. I was really impressed to with the costume selection and color throughout the production. When Lina approached everyone about suing and doing all the bad stuff she was dressed in red and black. She then sang this horrible song that made the audience dislike her even more. I didn’t feel bad at all when she was revealed as having a horrible voice. If you haven’t seen this play yet I would recommend seeing it. I saw it on Thursday and that was an amazing cast, go see it before it’s over.

Realism and a Doll's House

Realism started in the late eighteenth century but by the beginning and middle of the nineteenth century it was in full swing. Theater has been a part of culture for hundreds and hundreds of years but the plays were not normally about the middle class or average Joe. The play that I think best symbolizes the change in theater is A Doll’s House.

Henrik Ibsen wrote A Doll’s House in the late nineteenth century. It was one of the first realist plays that were written and it is about the troubles in a marriage. Nothing spectacular like a king or nothing about the gods but it is about a couple eight years wed and the troubles of the time. Nora is the wife and the husband is Torvald. It is quite a play that shows both the good and the bad things in marriage. Nora has done something behind Torvald’s back and she has spent years hiding it. Finally the man that Nora has borrowed money comes and tries to blackmail her to advance his career. They both have problems and they are quite evident throughout the play. Torvald seems to love Nora but he might love his reputation just a little more. Nora seems childish and loves to spend money. Neither seem good at communicating and I’m surprised especially at how Torvald treats Nora. I won’t give the ending away but it isn’t that they lived happily ever after and this especially seems to be part of the realism that we see.

Many of the things that the realists did in theater had great effects in the next generations of theater. They influenced theater in so many ways and you can see it if you sit down and read A Doll’s House.

Music

I am one of the four people in class that doesn’t know anything about music. At a young age I was forced to play the piano but would often hide outside until the piano teacher went away. My parents weren’t too happy and I would get grounded for a little bit but I just didn’t like to play the piano. This is why I’m writing about music so I can learn a little bit more because I didn’t take advantage of it when I was young. I really wasn’t a fan of the middle age music that we listened too. The monophonic stuff just sounded creep to me. One we got into the Baroque classical and romantic music then I enjoyed listening to it.

Vivaldi and Bach really revolutionized the music during the time period. Renaissance still just sounded like chanting but the new baroque music actually sounded like it had an intellectual sound to it. Then we started talking about Haydn and Mozart and the symphonies that I enjoyed listening to. I enjoyed learning about the sonata method as well. It seemed like it was a mathematical equation and that is how and why they wrote so many symphonies. The operas during that time period I wasn’t interested in at all. Verdi and Wagner were probably just as much genius in their music but I’m just not a fan.

Ballet

In class today we talked about dance and focused on ballet. In the past I have attended many ballet and dance performances. I have two sisters that are just older than me and were huge into dancing growing up. One of them actually got a dance scholarship at the university that she went to and so you can see that it was a major part of her life. They started out with ballet and had several performances throughout the year. I always dreaded going to the nutcracker every December and then several other performances during the year. I don’t think that any young boy would want to go to those but I was forced to. I tell you this so you can see why I started to have the distaste for ballet. My dislike would grow even more when my sisters would try and teach me ballet.

Later on in life I would date a dancer and would learn more about how the actual culture of ballet would catch on to the girls. Ballet seemed to demand perfection in every way and seemed to diminish the self esteem of many of the girls that I knew. Now this is one of the biggest concerns that I have with ballet. I am an exercise science major and have a huge concern for people’s health. Now I can’t watch ballet without focusing on the health of the individuals dancing. When we watched Swan Lake the girl just looked sick to me. Sure she had muscle to do some of the moves that she did but seeing her rib bones distracted me throughout the whole scene. I understand that ballet can be beautiful but I just can’t focus on it.

Reading on Theater

In the reading we read about theater. The origin of the theater really interested me the most. I thought it was interesting how the book related the beginning of the theater to a parent reading the book and just getting into it. I know that when I have read stories to little kids going to bed I have created different voices and have maybe gotten into it a little more than the book required. I can easily see how people read stories and then decided to pass the book around and read it like a play where different people have different parts. Then I could see someone acting a little bit and it would just grow. I also thought this analogy was a little strange at first because the ancient people didn’t really have books but as I started to think about it made more sense. People would have the story memorized and they could even add their own parts to it. I can’t quite make the jump in my head to where they performed it on the stage but of course it happened.

I think it would be cool to see the ancients perform a play with their masks and really taking in the whole atmosphere. I’m sure I could really only take one before I got bored then I would want to see some special effects or something. The way the stages and the performance areas that the Greeks and Romans used really fascinate me a lot too. I have been to many different stages in the past and I am always amazed. My favorite was in Ephesus for different reasons. Probably the biggest reason that it is my favorite is because Paul spoke there to the Ephesians. It is also the biggest that I have seen and had a huge library not too far away that I’m sure housed many of the plays that they used.

They book explained different things that surprised me greatly. I thought that comedy and tragedy had always been the way that we know them but like Jasie put in class it really is how many people are dead at the end. After thinking about how these words could have evolved into the definitions that we today it could really easily happen. I just think it is fascinating to learn about this stuff and how our modern entertainment used to be people with masks walking around in the dirt interacting with each other.

The Fair?

When I was growing up I loved going to the fair. I’m not sure what I liked the most but I liked everything about it. When I was in middle school I actually raised sheep and then at the fair I would show them before auctioning them off. I lived at the county fair for about a week and I loved it. I would camp out for a week and would go on an occasional ride, eat elephant ears, look at all the other animals, and at the end I would go to the rodeo. These and other reasons are why I wanted to go to the fair down in Spanish Fork this weekend and for the same reasons that is why I was disappointed.

On Saturday I walked from one end to the other in about 2 minutes. I didn’t expect it to be so small. It was in the middle of a city in a school parking lot that overflowed into the street. I thought that at least I could get an elephant ear but they didn’t even have those. What they did have were the jacked up prices even though there were restaurants and fast food chains a block away. The ferris wheel was the smallest I had ever seen and besides that there were probably 5 other rides. I was expecting a lot more out of a small town that seemed to have a lot of countryside and farms but the people I saw were high schoolers that didn’t have anything better to do and small children with their parents. I was planning on going to the rodeo but after seeing the fair portion I abandoned that thought. To drop 12 bucks on anything that relates to that fair without seeing it first would be ridiculous to me. Honestly we walked up and down the entire fair in about 20 minutes. We then took off because we didn’t seen one thing that interested us at all.

The MOA

So this week I went to the Museum of Art here are BYU. At first I went through the American Exhibition which I liked a lot. I noticed a lot of the transitions that we talked about in class. I was actually a little impressed with myself when I thought something looked Dada and then I read the caption and it mentioned that it was in fact Dada. I also enjoyed looking at the buildings pictured and the architecture in them. Many of the pieces drew on patriotism that I am easily drawn into. We talked about some of the art in class but it really does seem different seeing it live up close and in the atmosphere of an exhibit.

The highlight of the museum was Walter Wick. I never really had the I spy books but I thought it was amazing the attention he put into the detail. The tricks that he played with the mind were pretty cool and a couple of them really tripped me out. I also enjoyed the I spy section. I wish I had a larger sheet to find all the things that were pictured but they did have a few things posted that we could search for. The different shapes that Wick saw and then incorporated into his work were amazing. How a pen can be in plain sight but hidden right into the surrounding takes imagination that Wick has plenty of. We really enjoyed finding all of the normal things to us but were out of place to the environment of the picture or painting. We found thimbles, matches, clothespins, hair pins, toy soldiers, and a lot of other things we didn’t find.

Visual Arts Through the Ages

In class we really just went through the time periods and what distinguished them throughout from one another. I was a little disappointed that we skipped over the Northern Renaissance because I enjoy the artists. Durer is one of my favorites especially his engravings that I think are amazing. I do like Bernini and Michelangelo and enjoyed looking at their architecture and sculptures. It was interesting to see why and how the mediums were developed and what prompted the different style changes.

I also liked the neoclassicism because it is used more in the United States. I have seen a lot of neoclassicism in the different museums that I have been in such as the Chicago art museum. It also draws my mind to the renaissance which I also enjoy. I like the idealistic view that the artists have and how they put their vision into the art.

Sculpture Reading

The reading this week wasn’t long, it was really only six pages. All of it was on sculpture too so I really don’t have a lot to say. Sculptures are probably my favorite medium for one because it looks so hard to do. Especially with a chisel and hammer I can’t imagine making the sculptures that have been made in the past. I am also drawn to sculpture for one of the reason that the book brought up: sculptures are physically real and aren’t as illusory like paintings are.

The evolution of sculpture was also interesting to me. The fact that the sculptures use to be so lifeless and after centuries Bernini was able to make the marble look like cloth is amazing. The old statues have an artistic feel but really look lifeless and lacked the motion that came later on. Then the grandeur of Michelangelo’s David is breathtaking. It will always baffle me maybe because I have worked with clay and have failed so many times with a malleable material that I don’t know how anyone could make something so beautiful out of stone.

From Bahaus to Our House

Bahaus to our House was an interesting book. While reading I didn’t know what exactly what was going on it just sounded like a lot of negative critiquing. It was when I finished and put all of the pieces together that I realized what the book was really about. The critiquing seemed to be what the architects of that time were experiencing and what pushed them from one scene to the next. When a type or techniques of architecture were criticized the architects would fix it and move on. There were so many different styles in the past 50 years and it is interesting to see the changes and why things changed. I thought it was interesting that Europeans didn’t like the skyscrapers and just straight up insulted them. Stepping back I can see why, the skyscrapers were more engineering marvels than they were architectural art. Architects and engineers were starting to become separate fields and the European architects didn’t like it or appreciate it. Americans seemed to be more on the power side and wanted to create bigger and better things so they created the tallest building in the world. I can relate to this especially directly following a war and when the United States is the up and coming world power. The Europeans were more into the art aspect and connecting with their roots that went on for centuries.

Other parts of the book were interesting as well. I thought that the part where Wright punked Gropius was quite funny. To have someone come up to shake your hand and then just basically say you’re here for this purpose so leave when you are done would be hilarious to me. Gropius was a man of influence too so the significance of that moment would be huge. This also showed the distaste and bitterness that the battle of architecture resulted in. The critiques that one architect would put on another or that even other critics would compare one to undoubtedly made some people bitter. Overall From Bahaus to Our House was a book that I enjoyed more when I finished it. Not that I didn't enjoy the read but when I put together the information that it had I enjoyed it more than while I was actually reading it.

Movie at the Capitol

Last night I attended a movie screening of Shrek 3 at the Utah State Capitol. It was quite interesting to see the capitol lawn filled with people on blankets and chairs. The background was amazing with the capitol building lit up the way it was. On the drive up I decided to go through downtown and I was intrigued by the architecture. I immediately could see the different arches and different column styles as well as the domes. Each building was unique as I tried to analyze the different aspects of them all. I bored my girlfriend talking about what was taken from the classical period and what an ionic column was but I just told her I was putting it all in my memory for the test. It is one thing to talk about buildings and to look at slides but actually seeing something in real life is such a better way to learn. The capitol building itself had the same dome that just about all the capitols have in the United States. It was interesting to me to see how Michelangelo affected so many buildings so far away when he designed the dome on St Peters.

The movie was one that I had seen before but I had forgotten how funny it was. Mike Myers is a comical genius and although I could only hear his voice I could almost see him moving the same way that Shrek moved. Eddie Murphy was also hilarious in how he spoke for his character. A lot of the comedy though came from the little side remarks that different characters would make. The integration of both adult and child humor was genius. At times I looked around and the little kids wouldn’t be laughing but their parents would be cracking up. Other times it was the opposite. I’m not sure how the directors did it but they got laughs from all age groups constantly throughout the movie. The only downsides to the event were when the screen blew over briefly because of the wind and the kid that screamed in my ear several times throughout the movie because he wanted some snacks. I’m not sure how often they show movies at the capitol building but it was well worth the trip.

Architecture Discussion

In class we discussed a lot of different architecture types. This was very interesting to me because we find out so much about the people from the buildings that they constructed. It is interesting how most of the buildings that have lasted and that we have talked about have been religious buildings. I also think it is interesting how the religious buildings have switched religions. The basilicas to Christian churches and the Hagia Sophia from Christian church to mosque. I have visited the Hagia Sophia before and was amazed at the size that they could create so long ago. The other mosques were very beautiful as well, the blue mosque being my favorite but none matched the size and age of the Hagia Sophia. By knowing this we can differentiate the parts of the building that each religion built. The minarets around the Hagia Sophia were built by the Turks to take away from the Christian aspect of the structure.

I also enjoy learning about the different time periods and how they almost alternated between mantic and sophic. The classical and roman interest me but more interesting is the renaissance until present. This is probably because I can see more beauty and relate to these types of buildings. I was once a civil engineering major and I like a lot of order and patterns in the architecture. This is why the classical and Roman interest me but the renaissance adds something to it. I start to appreciate more of the art and sculptures and grandeur of the buildings that starts to surface in the renaissance period.

Once we start to learn about the sculptures and visual arts we will be able to put more of our knowledge into the buildings. We have already started to learn about art and putting that together with the architecture gives us a story of their lives that we will learn more about.

Jay Z

This past weekend I was in Las Vegas and so this is why I’m writing this a little late. Vegas is a cultural event in itself. I stayed in a hotel a block away from the strip and went there often. Casinos tried to set up their own culture and appeal to people by making it a memorable atmosphere. I had the chance to go to a Jay Z concert at the Palms. It was tight. One of the best performances I have ever been to. I would put Jay Z in the top 5 rap artists of all time below 2pac and Dr. Dre for sure but up there with Notorious and Eminem. Jay Z also is a great MC and that is what really made the show. He did such a good job of involving the audience which wasn’t too hard because everyone wanted to be there.

I don’t know how we got in but we got lucky and found major discounted tickets that made it worth it. If I paid original price which was anywhere from 130 to 190 I wouldn’t have even thought of it. Las Vegas is such a chill atmosphere which just added to the fun. Everyone goes to have a good time and it was the beginning of the weekend so everyone still had their life savings. Jay Z performed many of his great hits like ’99 Problems’ and ‘Dirt off Your Shoulders’ and also performed other lesser known ones like ‘Song Cry’. It would have been sweet to see some him with other groups that he has collaborated with like Coldplay, Linkin Park, or Eminem. One of the best parts of the concert was when Beyonce made an appearance and they performed ‘Bonnie and Clyde’.

My group of friends got lucky but the Jay Z performance at the Palms will be a show that I will not forget anytime soon. Everyone was into the music and before the show we met a local named Sneaky P. He liked my shoes and came and started talking and he showed us some other cool places that aren’t normally on the tourists agenda. All in all it was worth it and I’m almost disappointed I didn’t see him again the next night.

Symbols

I have always been fascinated by symbols. Symbols can mean so much and provoke us to analyze the context of whatever we are looking at. The analytical part of art is really what I enjoy if you read my above post I mentioned it. Understanding the content of the painting and how the artist used symbols to represent certain things interests me a lot. This stems from church and the scriptures that are full of symbols and have been fascinating to me ever since I have started to understand them.

Appendix two of the book was officially last week’s reading but this week we read chapters 14 and 17 that dealt with understanding art analytically. I have had the opportunity to go to quite a few museums throughout the world and started to understand the paintings this way. I wish I had the knowledge that we are learning right now because I could have understood so much more. I found that in Egypt they loved symbols and coming to understand the alphabet I could understand the art even more.

In the art that we are studying of the western world I have not yet understood the Greek gods to understand some things but I can often seen symbolism pointed towards the Bible and this is what really interests me. In Michelangelo and Bernini’s different David sculptures we can definitely see the symbolism involved. Bernini has a harp and armor at David’s feet showing celebration and trusting in the Lord. Michelangelo has a more idealized sculpture that symbolizes the power of David in the rest of his life and celebrates his later successes.
It is analysis that I enjoy over emotion and again I believe that might be the left brain right brain argument going on in my head. I look forward to analyzing the different paintings that we will see throughout the semester and that I will see later on in life.

Beauty

I consider myself a rational person; I think that is why I have such a problem with this argument. In a rationale argument there is an answer and a reason behind it. If we are trying to find beauty then we cannot argue that something is beautiful all the time. The argument that something is beautiful is not something that any two people can agree with all the time. There are personal variances in each of our lives that will change our opinions, sometimes subtly and sometimes with great impact.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder but it doesn’t mean that there is something that more people will find more beautiful than something else. For me the most beautiful things in life are out in nature usually without human intrusion. These are normally beautiful with regards to everyone’s standards. With regards to art beauty is a little more complicated. I would say that beautiful art is aesthetically pleasing, invokes emotion, or communicates with the beholder. High art I would say invokes good emotions and communicates good and valuable things to the individual. I would also say high art is intellectually intelligent as well. It might stem from my more intellectual side. My girlfriend gets frustrated with me for the same reason; I pay attention more to the intellectual things than the emotional things.

Maybe it is the left brain right brain argument that keeps me from enjoying these types of debates. Maybe I just enjoy answers that are definitive and don’t like the gray in between the black and white. Maybe I haven’t been involved in these debates enough, are they like acquired tastes. Whatever the reason I have always tried to experience things with an open mind and to not go off of others opinions too often and will continue to do that in my life.

Class Discussion

On Wednesday we briefly went over art and the change of art throughout the centuries. It has in a sense evolved but has repeated itself as well. I think it is interesting how art tends to repeat itself going from idealized to not idealized. We also talked about the mantic and sophic and how the pattern between these two types rotated as well. There have been so many great artists but what I started to realize and I’m not sure if I’m correct but the great artists were the ones that started or changed the art of that time period. Although I’m not a fan of memorization the different artists do intrigue me and I think I will enjoy learning about them.

Do we know culture?

The class discussion that we had on Wednesday evening about our reading intrigued me greatly. The main topic of the reading was our curriculum at Universities. Are we receiving enough culture in our education? This has been a topic for decades and I have thought about this before, especially with BYU’s general education courses. My opinion is that we are in one of the greatest times of human civilization. People might argue that on average people are less cultured than they were 50 years ago but I would argue contrarily. How many college graduates were there 50 years ago compared to now? The number of high school graduates has increased as well.
Our society has boomed because of specialization. The first factories thrived on this concept and though the first factories were not all bright and cheery places they spawned the industrial revolution which is why we are so successful today. Specialization in universities is happening because there is so much more to learn. In sciences it is impossible to know every little thing about the fields of chemistry, biology, and physics. There is just too much knowledge out there, ask any professor here on campus. That is why specialization has been developed in these fields and specialists to relate these fields. Here at BYU we have chemist, biochemists, and biologists. The beauty is that there is knowledge shared between them and more questions can be answered to advance our society even more. I use science as my example because I am studying for a BS and not a BA but I’m sure someone can relate the same way to the liberal arts.
Now I am not proposing that we specialize everything and do away with the general requirements. What I am proposing is that the university should teach a student what he needs to know for his career and also teach the student the value of learning. The most intelligent people that I have met have a thirst for knowledge, they have an appreciation for the arts and normally it isn’t because they took a class in college. That is what needs to change, students need to be taught how to learn and why to learn it. The thirst for knowledge has gotten us this far and will continue to make our society great, we increase the desire and knowledge follows.

Oquirrh Mountain

This week as I was thinking about what cultural event to go to my friend called me up and invited me to go to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. I wanted to attend a cultural event that I enjoyed and so this was the perfect opportunity. When we got up to West Jordan I was surprised at the building, I could really tell that it was different than most temples, it was taller and bigger than I expected. One of my friend pointed out that the Angel Moroni had recently been hit by lightning, which explained his black arm and trumpet. We first watched a video that described the temple ceremonies and how they relate to LDS culture. The video explained how these temples help accomplish certain tasks and how important they are to members of the church. It also went into a brief history of West Jordan and how the Jordan River here was named after the Jordan River in Israel because they both flow from a fresh water lake to a salt water lake.
After the video we could go in and take a tour of the building. Inside there was plenty of art on the walls and murals that we could admire. The symbolism that was explained was interesting as well. Most of the interior stone work was from Egypt or Morocco and was very intricate in some places. Even though there were hundreds of people walking around the atmosphere didn’t feel like it. There were so many things to admire and so many things I didn’t understand. Everything was so interesting and it was put together so well. This was my first temple open house that I have ever been to and it was amazing.