Swan Lake

Swan Lake was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Despite the face that I wasn't completely sure of the plot, the end brought me to tears. The plot seemed pretty open for interpretation anyway. The relationships were what were made incredibly clear. In fact, I found that the relationships were all I really needed to understand to get something out of it. Everything else seemed up in the air, and I was okay with it, and maybe even liked it better that way. It had this dreamlike quality where you're unsure what's really happening and what's only happening in the prince's mind.
I realized, when the show started, that I should have done some research on it beforehand because I'd expected it to be like the original version of swan lake except with men as swans. I loved the interpretation of it; it just took me a while to figure out that it wasn't going to be Swan Lake. It was even self referential at the beginning in the funny scene where they're at the ballet. I thought that was really well done because it was hilarious and it also tells you that this isn't going to be what you expected which, if you didn't do your research like me, was the traditional story (minus women plus men).
As someone who's lived with a low level of coordination and little control over her body, I could really appreciate the dancing. The choreography was spectacular. I was watching and thinking that it is actually a miracle that someone could come up with these dances. They went so well with the music and fit the action so well. I've never seen a ballet before this; a lot of times it seemed to verge more on modern dance which was really cool; the whole show was very modern, especially considering it was a rendition of something written over a hundred years ago.
What carried through from what I know about the original Swan Lake is the idea of forbidden love. That was one of my favorite parts of this show. From my understanding of it, nobody had a problem with the love between a man and a man; what was looked down upon was the love between a man and a swan. This was really interesting to me, and before I say anything else about it, I want to talk about it in class and see who else had this interpretation and what everyone thinks about it.

Be Kind Rewind

Be Kind Rewind was really good this year! Last year, I was in a group with all noobies, so naturally none of us had any idea what we were doing which was how it was supposed to be! This year, having already done it once, we still didn't know what we were doing! Which made it fun and interesting. Not to say we didn't improve at all. Last year, I remember my group was most concerned about just getting everything on film. We didn't have many cuts and we couldn't really hear ourselves. This year, I think we were able to focus a little more on the technical stuff, whether or not our execution of it was all that grand.
I'm always amazed at what we can get done when we know we have to get it done. It makes me think, if we were told we had to make 12 movies in 24 hours, we COULD do it, spending an hour on each one, with time to spare. Realistically, no one would ask us to do that, but it makes me wonder how much more product could come out of us if it was out of necessity.
Art that was never made..
It's strange to think about the art that was made and the art that wasn't made. There are a few things that have stopped people in the past from making art, like Hitler and poverty and I guess even laziness because contrary to popular belief, laziness wasn't invented just for generation Y. It says something about the art that was made. Everything is made with a different purpose, and some things suck and some things are wonderful, but it all has something in common: it was made. Whether it was because they were told they had to get something in or because they were trying to express their emotions about the death of their guinea pig, art that is made is made by someone who had to do it. It makes me wonder about all the art that is in people, that they could make, but that they don't because they don't have to.
Just a thought. Which I will now end with these Simon & Garfunkel lyrics!


I held her close, but she faded in the night, like a poem I meant to write.

This was an extremely successful trip. Everything at MoMA was really great, especially the woman photographers. And La Caga Aux Folles was ridiculously good and entertaining. Still, the highlight of the trip had to be getting to observe the reactions after we chased Dan Lane down the street trying to get his autograph and a picture.
There were foreign people taking pictures, the guy who followed us, the guys who stopped Elisa and Viviana to ask who he was, the lady who stopped dead in her tracks just to stare at us. I think what was so exciting about it was getting people in such a fast moving city to pay attention to you. Usually, when walking around New York, you try not to make eye contact with people, you look away from funny looking or funny dressed people, and you ignore anyone doing weird things. It's nearly impossible to get anyone's attention. So when you do, it's really cool! You can turn a face you see onto a street into a personality by getting them to talk to you or react to you. We see a million faces every day and hardly remember any. One of the most powerful motivations (if not the most powerful) for doing art is the reaction from others. It's also empowering to trick people! Knowing that you know something that they don't automatically puts you above them on the hierarchy we subconsciously create.