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.

So Percussion/Matthew Daylor

Oh wow what a week for artsy things. On Wednesday I went to the So Percussion workshop pizza party on Art Street to see what this was all about. For the most part Liz and I sat outside in the chilly weather while So jammed and improvised their new music. 3 dancers from the DCDC also came to improvise what they heard into some sort of dance. The dancers really added to the music in my opinion. My personal favorite was the girl in the turtleneck and big jeans. She looked as if she should be in an old school hip-hop video and she always had a smile on her face while dancing. When So Percussion played their music here, they described a floor plan of a house so I tried to in vision what music could be in what room. I got a bedroom and a kitchen (the kitchen was easier because the dancers looked like they were cooking). That is how I perceived what they were messing around with. If it weren’t freezing cold, I would have stayed for longer.
Thursday was extreme art day. I woke up, went to English, listened to 2 guys from So Percussion talk about who they are and what they do. One of them started talking about the phenomenon when you’re driving and your turn signal is on as well as the car in front of you and the 2 blinkers are opposite then slowly matches up then get off from each other again. I think and look for things like this ALL THE TIME so I was extremely pleased when he brought it up. He also brought up a few good points about what we perceive as art and why aren’t the little things in life considered an art (i.e. trash).
After So Percussion I went to listen to local Cincinnati artist Matthew Daylor talk about his new art exhibit Into the Village. He was born in Hamilton Ontario and later moved to Toronto. You can see his background in underground club life and graffiti in his current works. I really like his art. It is a mixture of screen-printing paint and graffiti. If you want to see his current work it is in the Rike Gallery.
To end a day of art after classes I went to see So Percussion again play at KU. This was much different than what I saw on Wednesday and honestly I preferred it. Although some of the bells were hurting my ears they did some really cool things (i.e. play on a cactus and they had these tubes to blow which would play long notes). Some of their songs got a little long but I really enjoyed the Mallet Quartet. I’ve always loved the sound of xylophones and they created the coolest of sounds with the instruments they played and their music led you on a journey.

Thursday Night LIVE

This week I went to Thursday Night Live at Art Street. I thought I should go support my fellow LLC-ers while they go up there to show what talent they may have.
It started out with a guy named Fresh playing guitar and singing three covers and one original song. He sang I’ll Follow You by Death Cab for Cutie, some John Mayer song, Cats in the Cradle, and his original called “One Year”. He is a great guitar player and has apparently been playing for around five years. As a singer he was sub-par. I would have much rather listened to him play his songs without singing them due to the fact he was always sharp. He probably had the longest performance out of anyone only because he chose to do standup comedy at the same time, which was also hard to bear.
Next up was a girl named Rachel. I’ve seen Rachel many times before but don’t really know who she is. Paris and Liz talked for five minutes about how she looks like a girl on the Suite Life of Zach and Cody. I told them I outgrew Disney channel TV shows while they both had seemed to hold on a little too long. We all laughed about it briefly as I tried to convince Paris to ask her if she was from Suite Life. We later decided it was a bad idea. Rachel sang Hallelujah by Rufus Wainwright while her friend played and sang the piano. They both talked briefly about being music therapy majors and how rad it was. It does seem like quite a fun major. If VCD doesn’t work out, maybe I’ll head that way… As for her performance, she has a nice tone to her voice but she was flat. Why is it that the one time I decided to go to Thursday night LIVE everyone is sub par. Rachel only sang one song (minus the duet she sang with Fresh previously).
Then there was Dave Zup from Cleveland. Dave and his friend mix beats and rap. His band is called Isomatic. Kind of reminds me of that Nas album Illmatic. Isomatic starts out with a Kid Cudi cover due to the fact he is from Cleveland. He was all right but personally, if I had to cover Kid Cudi, I’d do Pursuit of Happiness. His next song few songs were better because he actually sounded like a rapper.
I don’t mean to sound pretentious but I was fairly disappointed for Thursday Night LIVE. I love listening to live music and I love being outside so this was supposed to be a win-win. Instead I spent most of my time playing with grass unenthused.

Rike 3D

I am currently a Visual Communication and Design major here at UD. Basically, all my classes except English and Religion are 3 hour long art classes. I do a ton of art every week. Well, I guess I should say I work on a ton of art each week in order to get better and learn/hone new skills. Ideally I want to be an Interior Designer when I grow old, but that’s beside the point.
I spend each class and most of my free time in the Rike building. It is where I do my projects and talk to people about their work. For being such a grossly small and windowless building, Rike has a lot to offer. There are always exhibits there (right now Peter Losch’s Throughout the Years) as well as student work displayed around the hallways and classrooms. Everyone should take a look around if they have the chance. When I get bored of too much work, I tend to creep around the other studios to find inspiration to keep going.
In my 3D Design class, I am making a 18 in. model of a tape dispenser. Originally, the project was made for a cylindrical object (i.e. a lamp). Instead, I chose a non-cylindrical object and it has been nothing but torture. Firstly, we had to make a 180-degree model of our object. It is impossible to take 180 degrees of a tape dispenser. It is flat! Instead I just made a mini 360 model. Between all of the measuring and cardboard cutting I do, it is ridiculous how the work never seems to end. So far, I have made one ½ scale model of my object, and have a week to finish my full scale one. Then after the full scale, we are moving to 1½ scale. I don’t know how many more Xacto cuts I can make! The arts are beyond frustrating. It is all work… hopefully for a good outcome… right?
The beauty of art is that you love it. I find it ironic that in a way I don’t fully enjoy being in an art school program. Maybe it is because I find what we’re doing tedious and models and grids aren’t my style. I’ve always been more of an organic drawer. I love nothing more than the simplicity of a nice doodle. Hopefully, one day all my Xacto cuts and doodles will bring me to what I love.

Starbucks

This week I went to Starbucks a couple of times with my friends Liz, Olivia, and Court. Each time, all of us walked to Brown St. so we could get real non-dining hall food. I always love going to Starbucks just because it is always the perfect temperature and smells like whatever season it is/will be soon. It also makes me feel nostalgic from my massive study sessions there before exams in high school while sitting by the nice warm fireplace.
Each time I go to a Starbucks, I usually order an iced Chai Latte if it is hot out (and it was) so I got my latte with a spinach, feta, and egg white wrap. After we all got our food, we sat outside facing Brown St. at a nice iron table and chairs. My food was delicious and there is nothing like a chai latte to hit the spot (at least in my opinion). We listened to soft jazz and we talked about our lives, shared stories, and talked about the weather and Court’s predictions for a cold fall and winter.
It always surprises me how different it is to leave campus and enter the real world. It’s a nice change and an important change in my opinion. We can’t stay trapped in the Dayton bubble forever. I mean, really we have no real reason to ever leave campus unless we’re going home. We have food, shelter, and everything anyone could need there for us.
People watching is one of my favorite past times, but people on campus are all the same. It was nice to see puppies and families riding bikes throughout town and all the things we forget about while stuck in our dorms and on campus. The funny thing about going out into the real world is to see how different it is and how in a sense you know you don’t fit in there as perfectly as you used to. Each new adventure off of campus is an entirely new experience. Going to college is a lot like going to a summer camp in my opinion, but you get trapped in that bubble where sometimes it is hard to breathe. Once I got to Brown St. I could feel myself breathe again and it only reassured me how important it is for one to go places and do things with their life.