Phyllis Chen

The other week I went to a pizza party in founders with Phyllis Chen and other kids part of the Writing and the Arts Living Learning Community. We all ate briefly and put our names into a raffle to see if we could win a prize. Unfortunately for me, or any of my friends for the matter, we did not win anything at all. I wasn’t too upset about it though. After a few slices of pizza and some lemonade, we went back to our rooms until it was time to watch Phyllis play.
Once it was time, we all headed over to see how a woman of Phyllis’ size could play a supposed “toy piano” and what a “toy piano” looked like. I mean I was ready to see a tiny red piano with rainbow keys that glow whenever keys were pushed. Or some piano made of plastic that sounded like a Fischer Price toy. But when I got there, I was surprised. These pianos were legit. They actually looked like a piano… just shrunken down to the size an American Girl Doll could use. It was kind of hilarious watching her sit down on the floor in front of the little pianos with her little music stand and start to rock out like it was no big deal. She was really good too which was nice… not that I didn’t expect for her to be a magnificent piano player or anything of that matter. It is just the idea of a full grown woman playing toy pianos and making full beautiful music out of such a strange situation is kind of strange to wrap your head around. I really enjoyed watching it though. It was one of those things that was so peculiar that you cant take your eyes off of it no matter how hard you try. I guess the one thing I wondered the whole time is if it is hard for her to fit her hands on such tiny keys. The keys have to be small if the piano is that small… maybe she just has small hands. Overall it was a great performance and an interesting concept

Go Dayton Flyers

This week I decided that instead of looking at your typical art, I’d go watch the art of athletics at the University of Dayton Stadium. I went to watch the Dayton Flyers play University of Akron on Tuesday November 16th at 9:00. Unfortunately for me, we have the worst seats in the house… the major nosebleeds. It is super dark up there and you can barely see anything. I wouldn’t mind if I didn’t actually enjoy watching people play basketball. I love basketball. There is nothing like it when your team had the sweetest dunk ever. But that is beside the point. For the first half of the game I sat in the nosebleeds until we found empty chairs in the student section. Now those are great seats. Nothing beats sitting in a crowd of Red Scare t-shirts screaming, “ GO DAYTON FLYERS…”
As for the game, at first it was close with both teams going back and forth to get the lead. But after halfway through the first half UD broke away and got ahead to end the first half in what looked like a success. But this was not the case for the second half. Akron came back out like it meant business. They kept scoring and eventually got in the lead, which was only adding to the suspense of the game. (Brief side note: if you want to increase your stress levels, going to athletic events is one of the most stressful things imaginable. I mean it makes sense when you are freaking out because your team isn’t winning when you want them too.)
This game was getting intense. Dayton was majorly slacking and needed to get back in the game. There was only 11 minutes left when thank god UD decided to actually play some ball. With in the last 11 minutes UD caught up, broke off again and managed to stay on top for the remainder of the game. It was beautiful and definitely an invigorating game to watch.

Coalesce Depart

This week I went to the Senior Art Exhibit at the Rike Center Gallery. The show was entitled “Coalesce Depart”. The point of the show was to advertise all of the seniors’ talent and potentially sell some of their artwork. There were all sorts of artwork from photography to paint to sculpture to graphic design. There were a few really abstract pieces. One was entitled “Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain”. This piece was a mirror covered in green clear fabric with a green light shining from up top. At the bottom of the fabric was a pair of red shoes. I interpreted the point of the piece was like something from the Wizard of Oz. You weren’t supposed to look into the mirror and rather just be the opposite of Dorothy and pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. This piece definitely stuck out from everything else. Another one of my favorite pieces was called Light and Air. This piece was basically 3 panels of fabric that had all of these warm colors depicting a sunset. I have always been a fan of paneled artwork, which is probably why I was attracted to this one so much.
One artist put an actual installation on the wall where he hand painted on the wall a self portrait of himself with his birthday and some other things he liked. The piece is priced for $2000. It is an amazing piece of art.
Being a design major like I am made going to this art show inspiring. I know I’m exhausted of my classes but seeing what they have created only inspires me more to keep going and create something even better.
Art is truly something amazing. It can turn your day from a complete waste to something relaxing and great. Even if it isn’t the next Mona Lisa, a simple craft could take your ordinary day and turn it into extraordinary. I feel like in the hustle and bustle of today’s society no one makes time to appreciate the little things. People should focus on what is going on around them and not fret about all they have to do. We all need to take a deep breath and notice all the little things we seem to overlook that make our day great.

The Social Network and TNL

This weekend I went to see the movie The Social Network. The movie is about the creation of facebook. Facebook was created one night at Harvard University by a drunken freshman that was mad at his girlfriend. He first created a website called face mash where you would rate people’s attractiveness in comparison to each other. After his genius broke into Harvard’s IT system, two upperclassmen found him and asked him to be the programmer for this website they wanted to launch which was social networking for Harvard students only. Mark Zuckerberg (the creator of facebook) took their idea and turned facebook into what it is today.
In the process of taking these guys idea, he also had his best friend invest a large sum of money into the company and later kicked him out.
The filming of this movie was great. It was never confusing and always interesting. The unfortunate thing about this movie is the truth about how much of a jerk Mark Zuckerberg really is as well as the creator of Napster. It is sad that these people who create such great inventions have to be so rude and such elitist snobs.
Overall the movie was good, not one of my favorites but I would definitely recommend it to anyone searching for any form of entertainment.

On another note, I went to Thursday Night Live again this week because my friend Mary was performing. She sang five songs and played guitar. She was great, and she dedicated a Backstreet Boys song (You Are My Fire) to everyone on the floor that went to support her. Another one of my favorites she sang was Stormy Weather by Billie Holliday. It is such a nice peaceful song and it was in such a peaceful setting. She sang a duet with a guy named Anthony called Say Hello by Rosie Thomas and Sufijan Stevens. This Thursday Night Live was by FAR better than the previous one I went to. It was the perfect day to sit in a nice café and listen to music. It was cold and dreary while the café was warm and lovely.

A creative Halloween

I always struggle with what I am going to be for Halloween. Each year I end up coming up with some costume within a day or the day of. This year was going to be different.
Liz, Paris and I went to the Green to find costumes each having somewhat of an idea as to what we were going to be. Once we got there we realized how unnecessarily expensive Halloween costume stores are. I was not about to pay fifty dollars when I could easily make my costume. I decided to be a Native American and we went to Wal-Mart to get some feathers and a pillowcase.
Once we got back to the dorm I pulled out the biggest pillowcase I’ve ever seen. First I cut out a neck hole. Then I cut up the side seams so I could try it on to see what I was really dealing with. After I figured out what I needed to do, I began fringing the sides. Liz helped me turn the bottom of my costume into one of straight out of Disney channel. We cut the bottom of the soon to be native dress into a diamond shape then fringed it.
After we finished cutting and making my costume look decent I realized that it needed something else. It was boring because the fabric was just plain and beige. I decided I wanted to be like Pocahontas and have a bear claw on my costume. I was afraid to free hand one on the fabric so I decided to use some of what I learn in my 2D design class to good use. I printed off a picture of a bear claw and I traced the claw on tracing paper. Then traced the opposite side of the tracing paper and traced that on the pillowcase. It was perfect. I painted it red and then added a belt to bring it all together.
On Halloween I received many compliments about my costume. I had colorful feathers in my hair and a tomahawk on my hip and the best part about it was that I only spent 7 $ on what some paid $50.
Halloween is a great time to express your creativity. There is no reason that you cant be whoever or whatever you want on this special day. And there is no reason that you can’t be creative while doing it. I saw a million Indians out there and none of them looked like me.

Rocky Horror

This week I went to see Rocky Horror Picture show at Timothy’s Bar on Brown Street. It was definitely an interesting experience. I have seen bits of the movie before so I had a general idea what to expect but it was still strange. There were a lot of people dressed up in lingerie that weren’t even in the show. It was basically a preview of what these people will look like on Halloween.
Anyways, we walked in and were greeted by two girls in lingerie (duh). They asked if we were a “Rocky Virgin” I said no, but if you were you got a big V put on your forehead in red lipstick. The venue was fine, only because I like Timothy’s. I didn’t enjoy how it was standing room only though; it made it quite hard to see especially because I’m short.
The show started out semi-cultish which was the idea I assume. All people with a V on their head had to say a pledge while everyone cheered. The way they started out the play was especially strange. Basically they played the movie on 3 different projectors and acted it out simultaneously and danced on stripper poles. The problem was, that a lot of the cast was tipsy if not belligerent which made the play part hard to understand as well as impossible to see. In a way it could be compared to watching a movie with a ton of people screaming at the movie telling the actors what to do and other vulgar sayings and gestures.
I understand how they intended the show to be and I have to say I don’t think they accomplished their goal very successfully. For the most part I couldn’t see anything and was extremely uncomfortable standing for that long while people were screaming at the movie. It was a lot of yelling which made it uncomfortable. I could have left after the first 15 minutes but I didn’t want to be rude. Maybe if everyone in the audience were as sloppy as some of the performers it would have been more enjoyable. It was a good show until it got to the point where one of the actresses almost fell, spilt ice all over part of the audience and hit 2 lamps.
I get that Rocky Horror Picture Show is a creepy crazy movie but I don’t think it was given its proper justice.

Adventure

This week I went on an adventure to the 7th floor of Rosch Library. I had always heard of the view from the notorious 7th floor bathroom and decided I should take a look for myself.
It was a beautiful sunny day, the perfect temperature (not too hot but not too cold). After the UD soccer game, Liz Paris and I walked to Rosch Library to explore and look at the artwork they show. I enjoyed the huge statue about the story of Jesus. I couldn’t stop looking at it. I mean, the piece is huge, and there is a new story each way you look at it. The statue has everything from caveman, to Jesus. It is kind of a dreary statue for the most part, with the exception of the gates of heaven, which are very bright and pretty.
Once Liz and Paris pulled me away from the sculpture we went on the creepiest of elevators to the 7th floor. Once we got up there we quickly started looking for the bathroom. It wasn’t very hard to find so we all crammed into one stall to see the nice view of UD and Dayton. Then, all the sudden, we hear a toilet flush and bolt. To our surprise an old lady walked out and asked us if we would like to see a better view. She took us into the staff lounge and showed us these huge windows with an even better view than the bathroom. You could see all of UD and into Oakwood. The trees were bursting with reds and oranges. It was beautiful. Fall in a nutshell.
After the library, we went back to the lady’s office, which was full of pictures of pregnant women and children. There were a few statues of Russian dolls and dolls from other countries. I wasn’t too impressed by the pictures of the people. They were all under saturated which looks nice at times but not for a family portrait. To me it created a dreary affect to what should be a happy moment. Maybe the photographer intended the dullness of her photo to represent the thought or a moment between mother and child. I just didn’t find it that convincing. The dolls were cute but just looked like your typical doll. After looking at a plethora of art and views we said thank you to the nice old lady and walked back to the dorm.