I Love Flying

I was inspired by "The New King of Irony" (essay we read last week in Falling Upward) to post a video I made over the summer.  Just in the first paragraph, Lee Siegel writes: "Maybe that's why we're so attached to our iPods: they provide a score of background music that lends to our ordinary days something like the cohesion of a meaningful plot."

I love seeing the world around me, which is why I love photography and video. I love music. These elements combined? Oh my. At it's best, it can be more than breathtaking. Music can tell different stories, without pushing any words down anyone's throats. It challenges the viewer/listener to find the meaning and importance in what they're witnessing.  Certain musical notes can be combined to create harmony. Harmony can be also be created by combining two or more mediums. In the case of music videos and movie scores, for example, two senses are being entertained.  

In June, I flew to Minneapolis for a friend's wedding. I love to travel and I also love Claude Debussy. Some may think there's nothing necessarily amazing about it, but the two elements together make my heart skip. 

"Welcome to Chicago, By Way of Minneapolis/St. Paul"

(For some reason there are two options of video quality, so if you are interested, I recommend watching it in "High Quality", rather than "Normal Quality". You can click on the title "I Love Flying" to go straight to the youtube page. Look under the bottom right hand side of the video.)

Indian Express

I don't know why, but the comment "Best dance/music video on a train ever" caught my eye on Artsjournal.com. So I watched it.

 HOLY CANDYLAND, BATMAN! 

If I had no idea about Indian culture and their "Bollywood" and were to see this I would be so confused. As it is, I really only have a vague (very vague) idea about mainstream Indian pop music/art culture. If this is a peek, then I'm sold! Who would have thought that a train which travels through villages and forests in India would carry such magical musical gifts atop of it?? I mean, the front man wearing the Michael Jackson-esque jacket (circa 1984) has a haircut that every boy in my 6th grade class had. The Indian dance troop in traditional cultural outfits, the belly dancer, the synchronized dancing: it is like eye candy with music from the ice cream man's truck. Something familiar enough about the music to get drawn in, but different from the "everyday" sounds in my surroundings.

While watching this video I wonder what cultural boundaries it crosses. What similarities are there, differences between the two cultural giants? Seriously, this is mainstream Indian pop culture with all the synchronized dancing, the token lead female, and token male pop star included in our mainstream pop culture. Instead of sagging pants, there are traditional turbans; the setting is a choo-choo train instead of an alleyway/street corner. The token female is a belly dancer, and that seems totally normal in the Indian light. The colors, the movement, the costumes. The dancing, the singing. (Did I mention the Michael Jackson jacket?) What and how is any of that "cool" or "hip"? 

Do they see American culture in the same surreal light as we see while watching this video? I would imagine it's just as silly for them as they look at us.

I just gotta say- I love this.It sounds facetious. But honestly, this video makes me smile and makes me want to eat sugar. 

That Poetry was DEAF, yo! Really- it was...

Friday October 10th, Columbia College held a symposium that featured Peter Cook, an ASL (American Sign Language) poet and storyteller (he is also a professor at Columbia), and his hearing collaborator, Kenny Lerner. These two men are "The Flying Words Project", created by Kenny and Peter in 1984. In this hour and a half presentation, a number of poems were told in the ASL language, coupled with movement, spoken word, mime and gestures. By combining humor, drama, political commentary and more, stories were told in a way that made me feel like a kid again, watching a cartoon for the first time. They offered explanations behind some of these stories, like where the idea originated, and how often and best Peter and Kenny work together. I was in awe with the majority of the presentation. It was amazing. It was beautiful. 

Poems told by way of their collaborated talents and imaginations were unlike anything I've seen. The closest thing I can compare it to is a book being made into a movie... but it is more than that! With different languages intertwined and intersected and taken from, the words not only came alive, but took on a life of their own.  The words were literal actions- each word, a painting or photograph of a river from the seat of a canoe. Each word brought us up close and personal with flying birds and allowed us a peek at what air looks like. After this experience, I visualized seeing these same words on a sheet of paper: colorless. Who knew little four, five, or six-lettered words were capably of expressing so much off of the page?

Peter Cook is an amazing storyteller. Kenny Lerner has the perfect poetic audial voice. To do it justice, I encourage you to check out the link I've included. First off, it is a 58 minute video and I do not expect you to watch all of it. I would like to highlight one of the poems I watched. 

I will add, too, the poems/stories change as time changes/passes. While this piece has the same name, it is not exactly the same poem I watched.

The performance on youtube was sponsored by The University of California's Department of Literature on May 23, 2001.  If you are so inclined, please watch the introduction and the first piece, (which is comical, geared more toward a younger crowd). (Approximately 8:30 minutes total) Otherwise, I encourage starting at approximately 3:30, (which includes the last part of the introduction) and the first piece. The whole performance is pretty cool, and if you have the time, I encourage you to enjoy more of it.  (Please click on the Title above to watch the video.)

Knifed to Death- Andres Serrano

  

"Knifed to Death Part I & II" are inclusions in Andres Serrano's "Morgue" series. Appropriately stated at an MCA exhibit, Mr. Serrano successfully "reveals a tension between the power of an image to attract and the power of the subject matter to repel". 

The emphasis on this exact moment in this body's existence brought on by the stark contrasting backdrop neither overwhelms you with gory facts and back-story, nor does it limit the depth of analysis you would choose to go. It invites and allows the viewer to look and stare at an otherwise taboo subject matter.

                                                                      

My initial reaction was both curious and repulsive. But as my eyes and mind continued to roam about these pictures, I found the detailed hands-which were capable of doing so much damage-  to be peaceful, subdued, even while carrying these horrendous gashes.  Once I accepted the body as uninhabited, I found the glossy fingerprint ink to be more alive than the hands themselves. At the same time, singling out these hands may ignore the fact that this person's will to live was literally overpowered by their own heart and mind. This also brings up vulnerability and the sense that we are possibly overstepping our bounds, intruding on not just a corpse, but a real person.

                                                                                   

Even without a face, name or body, we feel a sense of connection: flesh, blood, human. But perhaps the most intimate being the solemn connection with death, which is a guarantee and certainty we will all experience. It lays out a blatant truth and it draws you in and makes you think for yourself your reactions, thoughts and emotions. Without cultural propaganda, this piece allows its viewers to contemplate within themselves their ideas and comfort in their own mortality.