Billy Elliot

I absolutely love this movie, I saw it when it came out in 2000 and have not seen it sense. This is one of those movies that never gets old. I love how Billy stayed true to himself throughout the entire movie and didn’t let anything stop him from achieving his dreams, not even his father or brother who greatly disapproved of his decision to dance. It seemed his father strived for him to be a man’s man and to be in boxing but Billy’s heart just wasn’t in it. When the man caught Billy dancing and told him he looked like a “wanker” that was very disappointing, just let the boy dance! I feel like his father and brother did a complete 180, in the beginning of the movie they were totally against Billy dancing even just for fun in the ballet studio. Later when Billy’s ballet teacher comes to the house and tells the family about the audition at the Royal Ballet School in London they start to shift their opinions. Once part of the miners strike his father decides to go back to work to save up $2000 for Billy to attend the school if he gets in, however his eldest son stops him from entering into it again. With the help of the community they end up pooling enough money for Billy to attend and also the strike ends right when Billy gets accepted. My favorite part of the movie was on Christmas when Billy and his friend go into the gym late at night and are dancing and Billy’s dad spots him and instead of just leaving or apologizing to his father Billy dances his heart out in front of his father. At this moment Billy’s dad runs to his ballet teacher’s house and has a change of heart, he wants what his son loves. Also in the end of the movie when his father, brother and childhood friend attend his performance and you see only a glimpse of him dancing but it is in that moment that you see his joy, his love, and his passion! 

Viva La Revolucion exhibition

Wow what a treat this was, I am so pleased that I got to go to something such as this. There were so many things to see explore and read about, I greatly enjoyed all of it. I really liked how some were in a museum then you had to go drive around to find the graffiti that were on buildings and that you could listen to the details of them all from your phone. When I first walked in I was very pleased that you didn’t have to pay if you were under the age of 25, I like museums and all but not when I have to pay a ton of money to go visit them. I walked into one of the rooms and to my left their was a trash can that was moving and had musical beats coming from it, it scared me at first! This piece of artwork was created by David Ellis and his representation of the trash can to me had a very urban feel to it. Next was my favorite piece that I had seen all day, it was titled, Swimming Sisters of Switchback Sea by, Hermanas Nadadoras Del Mat Tornatras. This piece was astonishing! It had so much incorporated into it, including ladders, furniture, and many elements. She has people in cardboard and refers to them as the “forgotten people”. As stated in the definition of the piece, “the presence of nature is seen throughout this piece which she calls, the rebirth of nature. With the mixture of urban wreckage they spiral together to form what is the world and to those who are forgotten.” Truly an inspiring and beautiful piece. Next was my second favorite piece, this one called, Scratching the Surface by Rasgando La Superficie. When I was walking towards it I could clearly see that it was a women’s face with some shadowing but as I approached it more it didn’t look like anything, just some brick that had holes in it. How this artist made this piece was by removing layers of history by cutting into the brick with a chisel and a rotary hammer. What provided the contrast was plaster paint and the brick background. As I walked into the education space their was a piece of art work set on the side wall that was made out of what looked to be plastic and resembled many flowers squished together and you could see all the way through it. Light from the outside shined through it and just added to it’s brilliance. I also greatly enjoyed going into the Dzine room and looking at all the fabulous paintings and tricked out bicycle and carriage, the carriage truly was made for a prince. I also liked that you got a map and could go all around downtown San Diego to look at the different types of graffiti, how people manage to put such masterpieces on scratched and broken down walls is beyond me but never the less amazing. 

Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision

This was my favorite movie we have watched so far. This 21 year old college student named Maya Lin had entered an architectural contest and was not expecting to win at all and ended up wining the entire competition. Her design would be chosen for the Vietnam memorial. She also was not expecting how much backlash she would get for the memorial, one Veteran even called it a "black scare". Many put her down for winning stating that she wasn't a veteran, was Asian and was a female but she never let any of that stop her. People who were trying to stop the memorial were very mean people and would do anything to stop it. Her memorial would list the people who have died serving this country during the Vietnam War and would be listed in the order they died instead of by their last names, no one wants to walk up to the wall and see 30 Dan Smiths. It is better as Maya said to take the extra three minutes to look up when they died and find that specific persons name on the wall. When I was 12 my mother, brother and I went to this wall and my mom was able to find her ex boyfriend who died in this war, I always wondering how she was able to find his name so quickly through all these thousands of names. It was fascinating to see how much this young woman achieved in her life at such a young age, she was the second youngest person ever to graduate from Yale with a doctorate. Veterans who attended her graduation thanked her for her memorial and mentioned that numbers are just numbers but by her putting the actual names of people that died really made you remember. When Maya was asked to do a Civil War Movement memorial she really wanted to strip the movement to the bare and get the spirit of it out and what came to her was a Martin Luther King Jr quote that she would use on the memorial. Along with that she would she would intertwine people's deaths with political movements and involved water. She involved the water so people could feel it and get a sense that they are part of it. My favorite piece that she did was the one composed of all glass; it was stunning and so different from anything I have ever seen. As the man at the end of the movie stated what Maya Lin has is "courage" and I couldn't agree more! 

The Buena Vista Social Club:

This Movie was very inspiring the fact that these musician's used to be known as Cuban's best, only to be all but forgotten several years later. This is not my type of movie, I really did not like that it was all spoken in spanish except a little english at the end, and how I had to watch it and read the subtitles, this made it very hard to follow. Also Cuban music is not my taste in music so even after they interviewed each musician and then they played a song I just was not into it. I felt myself loosing interest in the movie pretty fast and it was hard for me to watch the entire thing, I did but it was a very long movie. The one story that I liked the most was the young man who taught himself how to play the piano from a very young age and later meet up with a neighbor of his who was blind and they ended up making beautiful music together, I thought that was very inspiring. Overall I did not think it was a good movie but no the less very inspiring how almost all these musicians taught themselves how to play their own instruments at a very young age.