Random Post- Christmas Decorations

I love how even though we all live in dorms, most people are still preparing for the Christmas season. Once we came back from Thanksgiving break, everyone had new decorations for their rooms. I think its really cool to see how people are taking the limited space and resources that they have, and still making their rooms unique to them and their personality. I know my room rate and I have Christmas lights hanging up, a big bow, light up candy canes, and actual candy canes. It just feels better to walk into the room and see it all done up for Christmas time. Even if you don’t celebrate lights and you want to just put up holiday lights or whatever, it just looks nice to see everything lit up once a year and decorated.

 I saw a group of girls, just last night, on their way to a Christmas themed party with blue bows in their hair. When I asked what it was they explained that they were Chanukah bows. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. It’s all about the spirit of the season and whatever holiday you celebrate. Even though they didn’t celebrate Christmas they weren’t going to let that ruin their night and they weren’t going to dress up for a holiday they didn’t celebrate, and I thought that was really cool. I love to see how everyone uses the Holidays to express them selves. 

Journal #6- What I've Learned

I feel like over the semester I have learned a lot about writing, Penn State, the arts, and how they are connected and always have been. I found this course particularly interesting because me and my room mate are both musicians and we realized quickly up here that there weren’t a lot of places to play music and not a lot of people to play with either. Because of this, we had multiple discussions about how maybe we picked the wrong school if we wanted to play music. To us, there wasn’t really any art at Penn State. Through this class I have learned that arts are indeed everywhere here at Penn State and you don’t have to look very hard to find them.

It might be true that there aren’t a lot of bands here at Penn State, but that was no reason to count out the arts all together. I have since learned that the arts are pretty much anywhere you look. Whether its anything from painting, to dancing, to poetry, to acting you can always find a Penn State student ready to share their talents with the rest of the school. Now I think it is a shame that people not only look at Penn State as just a school with a football team, but also don’t even consider the arts to be in the picture at all. I was one of those who did not think the arts really existed here. I’ve even come to learn that we have a very impressive theater program here and our very own art museum right on campus. This is something I would have not expected when I first came to Penn State.

 Hopefully through our art, we can show the entire world that Penn State is not just a football team, it is quite the opposite. We are a diverse group of individuals who all love and do different things. Yes, some of us like sports, but others have dedicated their life to the arts. If Penn State continues to be as involved in the arts as it is now, then I think it wont be long before people start to really notice in the exact same way I noticed. Pretty much everything I just said I learned about Penn State in this English class, and I think its only a matter of time before other people see the same thing that I do.

I also learned a lot about writing too. I think that I have really improved as a writer during this semester. It just feels like a completely different atmosphere then high school English class. I would say the number one thing I took from the class is to think about your target audience. I have found this to be a great writing tip. It helps you be narrower in your work, and not jumping all over the place. It also has taught me to write somewhat different things based off who my audience is. I especially learned this from writing my memoir. I wrote about wrestling and realized that some things I needed to go into some more detail on since I was writing to none wrestlers. Over all I learned a lot in the class and I feel like I have a lot more to learn about Penn state and writing in general.

2.

http://ashleelindoh.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-arboretum-at-penn-state.html?showComment=1354495321894#c1020254416340093975

http://bryancarse74.blogspot.com/2012/11/in-red-and-brown-water.html?showComment=1354400809289#c7037378988430217688

http://samanthamartinblogspot.blogspot.com/2012/09/palmer-museum-visit.html?showComment=1354495401242#c7163294274401988966

http://tarasaverageblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/2.html

http://derosag5050.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-palmer-museum-of-art.html#comment-form

http://ashleelindoh.blogspot.com/2012/11/in-red-and-brown-water_16.html?showComment=1354494405528#c3797903465946544060

http://ideasoninspiration.blogspot.com/2012/10/artscultural-response-lecture-with.html#comment-form

http://joewater.blogspot.com/2012/09/what-garden-means-to-me.html#comment-form

http://carascornerthearts.blogspot.com/2012/11/extra-blog-post-2-my-photography.html

http://jimmyschlupp.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-social-network.html?showComment=1354495234626#c4907119496569689600

3. I have completed my survey. 

Arts and Cultural Event: Open Mic Night

For my event i went to see an open mic night at East halls. Its pretty low key, its just held in Roxy's on a thursday night. I was pretty surprised to see the amount of people that were there. Many people were there to perform and to listen as well. Most people did the same thing, got up with an acoustic guitar and sang a song. It honestly did get a little repetitive. Some people, how ever, did mix it up. One person got up there and did an entire rap about greek mythology and related everything to a girl. It was hard to take in everything he said because he was speaking so fast but basically he related the different attribute of a girl he was rapping about to the different gods or creatures in Greek mythology (i.e. being strong like Zeus). He did it in a way that was really cool and interesting. Another person got up and did a song that was more of a joke. He played Lil' Johns "Get Low" which is normally not a song you would expect on an acoustic guitar. He made it sort of theatrical and the song was really funny to watch and listen to.

Another girl who took it a little more serious, got up and did her version of Adel's "rolling in the deep." She changed it to the point where it was almost not recognizable, but it was still really good. It was nice to hear someone do the song differently. I was pretty surprised by how good everyone was and enjoyed the whole experience. I definitely think that I'll be back for another open mic night soon.

A Day at the Theatre

It starts with the main character Oya in the middle of the stage surrounded by four other characters. We later find out this is a flash forward to the end of the play. After this it goes into the main story line. It is all about Oya running on what I would assume I her high school track team. Even though her mother is sick, she goes to her track meet anyway and wins the race, leaving the other runners in the dust. After this a man from state comes to offer her a position on the team and a chance at a better life by going to college. She unfortunately has to refuse the offer because her mother, is sick and did not have long to live. Her mother does soon pass after she rejects the offer. Her good friend, another main character, comes over to greave with her but is selfish and self centered. He ignores that her sadness is likely greater then hers and says he isn't even upset about the death of her mother. Then she gets involved with a character, Shango, who her mother had explicitly said that Oya should stay away from. Against her mothers wishes she begins a relationship with him. Things almost immediately go bad as they start screaming and yelling. Oya starts to change and Shango comes to tell her that he has joined the army and is going away. When he leaves Oya eventually gets into a relationship with Ogun Size, who has always loved her. Things are complacent with him but she is not satisfied. He does not provide the same rush that Shango does. She eventually realizes she wants a child from either Ogun size, Shango, or anyone. She begins desperately looking for anyone who can be the father of her child. She even goes to a fortune teller who hints to her that she cant have a child. It ends with another girl coming to tell Oya that she is pregnant with Shangos child. This is the final blow to Oya and she snaps. She cuts off her own ear and hands it to Shango when he comes to see her. Then it cuts to the same scene that the play began with.

The most important goal of Oya was having a child, which she could not achieve because she was physically un able to. This eventually destroyed her and she couldn't handle never having a child. Oya was the most compelling thing in the play, specifically her passion. First directed toward running and later on having a child. When she wanted something she wanted it more then anything and that is something I can respect. I thought the play was done very well. They definitely did a much better job than I could have done, so I don't really have any critiques. I'm sure no performance is ever perfect but nothing stuck out to me. I thought each actor/actress did their job very well. All of the parts were very believable, they read their lines well and projected themselves nicely, and the vocals and dance were both done extremely well. I have seen shows on Broadway and plays performed by local companies.  I think it's fair to say it was not as good as a Broadway performance but it was a clear difference from any non-professional performance I've seen. There is a clear step up when you get to the college level from what I saw last Saturday. Over all I thought the play was done well and I'd recommend it to anyone in state college that wants a good live experience.

Not the Typical College Story

  The Social Network was an interesting choice as a movie to display college life. It is not exactly your typical college story and Mike Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) is definitely not your typical college kid. This movie, originally released October 1, 2010, is one of the multiple movies that I had seen from the list of those being shown at the film fesitval but was the one that most held my interest, so I decided to go see it again. It intrigued me more then some of the other ones I hadn't seen as well which also were at less convenient times. It is a fascinating story about a young college student who basically creates one of the biggest internet sensations of all time, one of the biggest sensations ever for that matter. He gains fame and fortune when he gets an idea to create a social network with the main selling point being that it is "cool." The main selling point of the website is only that it is popular and that is what will make people want to join it. He makes it feel just like a party, an exclusive party, to lure people into using it. Then once their own it, they get hooked! interacting and socializing with friends, seeing who's single, and who other people are socializing with as well are among all the things Facebook has to offer to get people hooked on it. Once it gained enough popularity, everyone wanted to join since it was the cool new thing. Zuckerberg, having spent barely any money on advertisements of any kind, made a fortune off the idea, which he allegedly stole from the Winklevoss twins, (Armie Hammer) which caused legal problems for Zuckerberg, which is one of the main points in the movie. It really gives an inside look into the creation of Facebook  and the controversy that originally surrounded it. It lets the audience see inside a product that they likely use everyday. Any body who fantasizes about living the American dream or just an ordinary person who likes to use Facebook would love to see this movie, not to mention anyone who just likes a good old fashion movie.

What the Garden Means to Me

     This was my second trip to the arboretum this year and in the garden and I liked it just as much the second time as the first. I run around campus often and am looking for new places to run all the time and someone suggested I run through the arboretum and I happily took their advice. I love nature just because of the fact that I run. Checking out a new route of a run is one of my favorite things. I love looking around at all of the trees and flowers and whatever else around. My favorite place to run is definitely the woods, actually. So when I found this garden, needless to say, I was pretty excited. It isn't huge and has a lot of turns so it isn't really ideal to run through. I do, however, love running past it or walking through it all of the time. I think the garden and the entire arboretum are one of if not my favorite places on campus. I just think it makes everything more interesting to be surrounded by a beautiful place like that. Whether it be running, walking, or even having an english class on a monday morning. All that being said, you can likely guess that I will definitely be there again. I will almost definitely be by there on runs again and might even stop by just to walk around if I ever need to relax and just have some quiet in this busy environment. I'm not really sure if my friends would find the garden as interesting as I do, but I would love to go over there with my floor or anyone else if they were interested. Good company is only made better by an awesome environment. It made me happy to be there mostly because it reminded me of Cross Country season last year with all my friends. Since it instantly made me think of running, it reminded me of all the good times I had with my friends when I saw all of the flowers and many different plants growing throughout the garden. As simple as it was it brought me back to a completely different time or place. It felt like I was crossing the finish line at the Catholic League championships again my senior year of high school. I could see the hills I was running up and hear the crowd cheering as I crossed the finish line. It was so strange of a feeling how it brought me back to a completely different place in mind. Even though gardens and running don't really go together on a normal basis, but to me nature and running will always be linked together. So in a way, the garden will always be linked to the happy memories of my cross country season and my senior year all together. This will always be a happy place on campus for me. Hopefully I will have many more trips to the garden in my years at open at Penn State.

Palmer Museum Visit

   
Almost immediately when I walked into one the first rooms of the Palmer Museum, this painting caught my attention. At first I liked the painting so much that I didn’t even write down its name. It was the first painting I'd seen, and I had never been to an art museum before in my life. I naturally assumed I would like many of the paintings at least as much as this one if not more. But as I walked through the rest of the first and the second floor, I was not as taken with the other paintings. Each one of them was brilliant but did not hold my attention like this one did. The reason being that, with no explanation of the painting and little to go on, there were endless possibilities of what it could mean. It was clearly a religious figure standing over a severed head, but what did it mean and who was San Gennaro? Was he a corrupt pope, or was his friend beheaded in front of him? The thoughts running through my head were endless so I wanted to know more.

This work of art is San Gennaro by Louis Finson (1580-1617). I now know it is a painting of San Gennaro, otherwise known as St. Janaurius. San Gennaro was the Bishop of Naples from the late third to early fourth century. His feast day is a large celebration every year in Naples, along with the liquefying of his blood which supposedly happens three times a year and is thought to be a sign of him watching over the city. He is loved and revered by the people of Naples even to this day.

The picture depicts the martyred saint with a gruesome look upon his face, standing over a severed head. This could be interpreted as at least a few different things because not to mention that San Gennaro himself was beheaded but many other Catholics at the time were being persecuted for their beliefs, including some of his own personal friends. The story behind the painting is interesting because it is a very bizarre scene with absolutely no explanation. If you don’t know the reason behind it, then it could have many different meanings. The painting itself is interesting if nothing else because of the contrast of colors. A completely black background with the bright colors of San Gennaro's robes and the color of the head lying on the table are complete opposites of the background. It almost gives off the illusion of a three dimensional picture. Like the picture itself is jumping out from the backdrop. However, a picture of a work of art on a computer screen cannot really show all that it has to offer, so I highly suggest to anyone that gets a chance to go see it to make a trip to Penn States Palmer museum.