http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG3dFpW9vRo&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL59B468BD271C9BA5
Besides really looking for minor details this screening, I also listened to the class’ reactions. I love when something funny or sad happens on screen (like the Italian man getting soaked in his antique car) and I see friends next to me laughing or making some sound of discomfort. These audience reactions let us know that Spike Lee is doing everything right, and that’s something I’m learning how to do right now via my film production major.
One of my favorite scenes from what we saw today is the first one in the movie. It’s the one where Señor Love Daddy, the DJ at the radio station, screams “wake up” at people. This doesn’t give anything away, but those words are mirrored in the end of the film. It’s a really cool technique that Lee implemented; repeating a phrase at the beginning and end of a movie. It really makes a lasting impact and statement about how everyone needs to “wake up” and realize that these cultural, racial and religious clashes help no one.
I think that’s what this film is all about: trying to get people to understand that all this hate is pointless. I won’t give away the final sequence of events, but it instantly became my favorite Spike Lee when I witnessed the events that took place at Sal’s Italian Pizzeria.
Judging the by the title, fans of the YouTube series “Epic Rap Battles of History” will know what I’m referring to. For those of you who have no clue what I’m referring to, here’s a link to the specific rap battle I though of while reading Acts One and Two of Richard II:
The reason I think of this video as I read this or any other Shakespeare work is because I do agree that it’s hard material to understand. There’s a very unique rhyme scheme and pattern that’s followed, and the words and manner of speaking from Shakespeare’s time are eons different than those of today.
The linked video is mainly for entertainment purposes, but it does show state a valid point: Shakespeare’s work is timeless. No matter what age, I feel that classes around the world in every school will always read some Shakespeare. His style is just that influential and important to classical and modern English literature. Although it can be extremely challenging and very hard for some to sit through, it’s just a section of literature that’s going to be around forever.
As for Richard II, I enjoy the fact that two men are posed against one another in a sort of “battle of / for honor.” It sets up the play for some interesting plot points and twists involving the two men and the people they may meet on their journeys into the unknown. Richard II serves as a sort of mediator in the beginning, determining how the two men will live for the next couple of years and naming the consequences and what can be gained as well. I’m excited to see how this play ends, even thought it means navigating through Shakespeare’s tricky language!
Daniel Hope, the “man behind the musical magic,” is a truly talented performer who has hands that move faster than the sounds the instrument produces, haha! As I listened to the Spanish, French, American, Japanese and Middle-Eastern music, I was reminded of a few video game scores I’ve listened to in the past.
One song was entitled Dancers On A String, from the BioShock Original Soundtrack. This song is definitely more macabre (and features more instruments) than any one at the East Meets West concert, however there was something about the violin in Tzigane, rapsodie de concert that reminded me of this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3zkhrBWU0k&feature=related
The other song is titled Deference to Darkness, from the Halo 3: ODST Original Soundtrack. Although saxophones weren’t present at the concert (that’s the main instrument used in this song), the piano sections resembled those of Simon Crawford-Phillips.
I thought it was weird that these classical compositions reminded me of modern day video games, but I believe that this comparison just goes to show us how effective and powerful the music really is. The songs that were composed hundreds of years ago have come a long way to reach where they are today. As they’re performed freshly in concerts like East Meets West, younger generations can relate them to “the music of today.”
As a side note, I was confused as to whether we were supposed to blog today about the East Meets West performance or Don Juan. I know it said blog briefly about the play in the syllabus, but I interpreted that to mean the performance we attended last week. If this blog was supposed to focus on Don Juan, I would like to add this:
Towards the end of my senior year of high school, I played Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera. Our high school was one of the only ones in Queens that was given the rights to put on the show. Throughout the musical, there were references to the opera Don Juan, and I was never sure what that was. Now that we have to read the play for this seminar, I’m gaining a whole new aspect of The Phantom of the Opera and its references to other musical works.
Don Juan is someone who enjoys seducing women and causing problems for them and their lovers. This is a lot like the star of The Phantom of the Opera, The Phantom, in that he seduced Christine and fought with Raoul. I’m not that far in the play yet, but I expect to learn much more as it progresses.
After browsing through all that was available to him, he decided upon the bright red, strawberry lollipop from the large bucket in the middle row. His mother had no problem parting with one quarter if it meant keeping her son happy until they got home, or wherever it was that they were going next. Unfortunately for the mother, “the best laid plans o’ mice and men go oft’ awry.”
As his mother took his hand to cross the lane to their parking spot, the boy ripped off the paper wrapper with pictures of dancing strawberries wearing sunglasses and baseball caps on it. Even though his mother had taught him that littering was bad for our planet, he threw the wrapper into the wind. As it fluttered away, the boy slipped the lollipop into his mouth and lodged it between his upper and lower pre-molars to get the strongest possible lick for the most flavor.
Standing at the rear of the car, the mother began loading the groceries into the trunk. The boy didn’t care about helping with the lifting; he was only interested in how swiftly he could “un-exist” the lollipop. After his mother finished, she shut the trunk and walked to side of the car. It was time to help her son into the child’s seat.
As she lifted her boy up-up-up, the lollipop was dislodged from his clenched teeth and flew from his mouth. Everything he had been working on for the past 10 minutes had been destroyed. All the intricate licking patterns, the reserved pockets of saliva for wetting the pop and the grinding motions on the pop’s edges to make it easier to hold were no more. The boy only fully realized what had happened in those few seconds he was lifted by his mother when he was plopped into the car.
The mother didn’t know what to do (considering it had already fallen to the ground). The five-second rule didn’t apply here since it had been at least ten seconds in her mind, and dirty cement trumps the possibility of picking up food. She didn’t want to go back to the store to buy another lollipop because they had places to go that afternoon. As the boy looked at his mother with tears rolling down his face, she smiled and promised to make it up to him next time. She sat in the driver’s seat, closed the doors, started the car and backed up. Then came a loud crunching sound that echoed from underneath the car.
As they drove away, the boy watched his red lollipop where it lay on the ground. It was supposed to have been his to finish. He had a relationship with this lollipop. He was supposed to have the enjoyment of the sweetness to its natural end. The car crushed all that. The boy stopped crying and the mother felt a little better. She said with affection that she would come back tomorrow and get him the whole bucket of pops. The boy realized it wouldn’t be the same, but he knew there would be other pops to enjoy to the end. He stared back at the red crystals as they drove off.
I wasn’t sure where to write about this, so I figured what better place to begin than the Macaulay Arts in NYC seminar blog? As I’m sure you all know, we’re able to start our own blogs through the Macaulay eportfolios site. I began my own blog the other week and entitled it: The Utopia of Daniel.
I have some big plans for the site and I hope to add my own background and header images soon, but until then I thought it would be fun to promote it here! Feel free to comment or post links to your own blogs, as I’d love to check them out.
See you all in class!
-Danny S.
Smith’s memoir is all about her life and relationship with Mapplethorpe. It also focuses on how they survived while waiting for their big artistic breaks, how others viewed them and their relationship and how they interacted with their family and friends. I’ve only read through about a third of the book so far, so right now Smith and Mapplethorpe are still struggling to try and make it in the art industry.
Out of everything I’ve read so far, the thing that appeals to me the most is the attention to details when it comes to the boroughs of New York City. It’s always cool to read about how celebrities’ old stomping grounds are where some of us live right now. I particularly enjoyed when the couple took the subway over to Coney Island and had an original Nathan’s dog with some of the money they saved up. There’s nothing like classic fast food Americana to get you feeling nostalgic!
As I read through the rest of the book, I realize that Smith and Mapplethorpe weren’t the only people who were living off spare change around that time. There were many other struggling artists who just wanted to break into the industry of that choice. As my main interest in college (and future work) is filmmaking, it’s always unsettling to hear stories about young men and women who spend time working on artistic projects and believing things will change the next day only to not get realized and lose their homes, friends and jobs. Despite the startling nature, this theme of struggle creates a very real NYC feeling as well as gives a sense of the times back then.
"The Flowers of Robert Mapplethorpe" for the Sega CDi.
And to be honest, I still don’t know why they made a video game about pictures of flowers. Haha!
-Daniel Scarpati
At first, I was a little confused about why we were assigned a “picture book” for a college-level seminar, but after the first five pages I knew exactly why. “The Arrival” is no children’s book, even though that’s the section it’s categorized under in the Queens Library system. It’s an exploration of immigration, cultures of the world, life, death, good, evil and a long list of other topics. The first time I saw a strong example of one of these topics was on the fifth page. The image found there depicts the family the story centers on walking away from their home as the shadow of a tail (of what I believe to be a dragon) hovers above them. This image can be interpreted in numerous ways, but I take it to mean the family has an evil force or encounter lurking ominously in their past (as well as the father’s future).
The strong immigration story involves the father traveling to countries unknown and attempting to settle in there for work and to start life anew. The situation the father was in really makes one think about other immigrant families. Fathers are usually the first members of families to travel to other countries, and the spouse and / or children follow. Such is the cue in “The Arrival.”
One other image that remained in my mind after “reading” the book was the image that showed the progression of a plant through the four seasons. It’s on the fifth and sixth pages in Part V of the book. The reason I like these two pages is because they remind of a picture that hangs in my father’s dental office. It’s entitled “Change” and shows a tree at different times during a year when viewed from different angles. It’s sort of a 3-dimensional photo because you really have to move to see each stage of the tree. “The Arrival” links the cycle of a plant or tree during the year perfectly with stages of life. As the tree began as a lone plant, the father began life anew in another country. As the tree lost it’s leaves only to become whole again in time, the father’s family meets him in the new country in time.
The four seasons of a tree as seen in Part V of "The Arrival."
The book ends with an image showing the daughter of the man who came to the new country helping guide a newcomer to the country. The girl was once a newcomer who needed help finding her way, and now she can help show others the way around her new home.
Ten years ago, the United States was brutally attacked by one of the most evil forces this world knows. Many lives were lost, and even more were mentally and emotionally injured.
One decade later, we remember those men, women and children who lost their lives that day. And we look forward to the future.
Whether or not we (or future generations) will remember 9/11 as we do today isn’t the question. It’s how will we decide to live our lives and move past that tragic event while paying respect to it.
To quote a character from the television show LOST, “I’ll see you in another life, brothers.”
God rest the people who have died due to terrorist attacks, and God bless the United States of America.
