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.

Stomp Live

When I first started watching this movie and saw that it was a full on performance, I thought great a musical, the type of thing I’m not too found of. Then the more I watched the movie I thought; okay no words, great I have to write a paper on instruments that consist of buckets and brooms how will I do this. As I watched further I came to see that there is a story line here and it does have music, it does not need words to get the story. I found It very interesting how in almost every scene would start out with one character playing a simple instrument, trying to find out its sound then another character would intervene then many would and they all together would take this one instrument, whether it be a broom, pipe or bucket and make beautiful music out of it. I had many favorite scenes, some were where humor was involved such as the four guys who were washing dishes and came out with full on sinks around their neck complete with dishes and water and made the most unique music together. Then when they let all the water out at the end into their buckets that was very humorous. The funny guy was my favorite, he was always getting into trouble and trying to fit in with everyone else. Who knew that tossing water jugs up and down could produce such a pretty sound. The scene where they are bouncing the basketballs reminds me of the movie, “high School Musical” but I think I performance the one in HSM because there was added music and words. In the beginning of the film I was not found of this at all but by the end I greatly enjoyed the beautiful music that was made!

            

Event #3

On September 18 I attend my friend Paz’s polka band, called Z band at Oktoberfest in Point Loma. This day was like a big concert filled with lots of people, music and good times. This was my first time every seeing a Polka Band perform and I actually really enjoyed it. My favorite thing about this particular Polka band was their lavish attire of all these different colors, topped off with this great hats! The mix of different instruments that usually wouldn’t go together in the type of music I would generally listen to was different. The Z band consisted of two trumpet players, a piano, bass guitar, drummer, trombone, saxophone, and tuba. You could tell that this band had been together for a while because their music just flowed so well. I liked how they took a break in between their sets to mingle with the crowd; you could tell people in the crowd liked it as well. This really gave their performance a more personal experience when they took the time to meet their fans. Also they sang one of their songs and a guy from the band came down into the audience and got everyone involved and dancing. It was another great way of how they involved the crowd. Along with the beer that they had their they also had some of the best food I have ever eaten, I’m glad that it was the perfect mix of good people, food and drinks. I will defiantly go back and see them next year!

EVENT 1 and 2

I greatly enjoyed the basket weaving lecture that I attended on September 21^st at noon. I loved the overall presentation of all the beautiful baskets and how they were positioned on the table, all different shapes, sizes and colors. Two women by the name of Lydia and Rose were sitting behind the table and were weaving baskets, it was so interesting to see the technique that went into making such detailed works of art. Lydia’s cousin Rose who is a storyteller told us a story by the name of, “The Gift Basket.” This story was about a girl who looked up to her grandmother, who was the best basket weaver in their community. One day the girl decided to make her grandmother a surprise basket, she snuck out early one morning into the fields to gather materials, to her surprise they were all gone. With determination overwhelming her anger she heard a voice that said, “follow me,” she looked down to see a rabbit. She followed it through the brush to a clearing where there was a lake. There was an island in the middle of the lake with all the materials she needed for the basket. She had heard of this island from her grandmothers stories. It was said that only those with a kind heart could see this island during low tide. She thanked the rabbit who introduced her to a duck, she followed the duck into the water. Although the water appeared to be very deep it never went past her knees. The duck told her to only gather enough materials for one basket and she did so. Once she finished she followed the duck back to the shore and then realized she didn’t know how to get home then appeared a raccoon that lead her home. When she walked into the village she heard a scream and everyone swarmed around her asking where she had been. Her grandmother broke up the communication and just looked at her like she knew. That girl became one of the best basket weavers in her community, just like her grandmother. Lydia then began showing us some of the baskets and told us how she teacher second graders how to make baskets. These baskets were good too! She went down the line off all the baskets and showed us one made to carry the Jungas plants, it looked like a backpack. Rose showed us some sandals made out of the plants that people wear in the desert to keep rocks and cactus’s out. Everything was made with such great detail and I greatly enjoyed this lecture. 

Songcatcher

A doctor of music, a musicologist by the name of Dr. Lily Penleric gets passed up on a job at the school she is working at so she moves into the mountains with her sister, Eleanor who is a teacher at a school. In her spare time she starts creating musical ballads of the people in the small community who either sing or play an instrument. She has a machine which looks to be an old fashion recorder and the people can sing into it and she will play it back to them so they can hear how they sound. Meanwhile she will write the music down, she put so much time and effort into her work. I overall thought this was a fantastic movie. A few moments that really stuck out for me was when everyone was at the dance and just having a great time and Earl Giddens came in drunk and causing a scene and starts dancing with Lily, Tom Bledsoe gets up and punches him. What surprised me the most was everyone just kept on playing their instruments like nothing happened. This is the moment when you realized that Tom has true feelings for Lily, not just a love/ hate, it was love. It also came out when Lily was running through the woods and runs into Tom and they finally kiss, I had a feeling that they would end up together, it was building throughout the entire movie. A few other moments were Eleanor and her assistant teacher and their lesbian relationship. First when Lily sees them then when Fate, the young boy who works from  Eleanor finds her and her assistant kissing in the woods. This  causes him and another boy to retaliate and burn her school house down, along with Lily's musical ballads, my heart sunk, she worked SO hard on these. After this accident Lily decides to head back to the city with Tom and decides to make cylinders out of music and to not publish her work. Truly an inspiring movie.