finalized

so that right there is my finalized schedule for the rest of the semester. it’s really super exciting and enriching and going to put me in the poor house but i don’t care. i also might go slightly insane from inhaling all that awesome photo chemicals but who cares?! i don’t care. i am going to be making so much art and it just… ahh! there are so many ideas floating around in my head now about different forms of art and materials that i can use. i want to start doing installations and sculptural things this semester, time and money permitting.

the contemporary art history class is just great because it’s being taught by jim down and noit banai, my two favorite teachers at smfa. this class is indescribable. i come out very session filled with theory and talk and confusion about how i can place myself on the contemporary art spectrum. it’s funny in a way because i don’t really consider myself as an artist. many, if not all, of my art teachers will probably murder me during my review board if they ever found out. i feel uncomfortable saying so. i have many faces (thank you erving goffman) that i can take on but the artist one never felt right to me. the closest comparison is that of a scientist and her experiments in the lab. art is like an experiment, where i take all the theory, my world views contextualized with my experiences, and ideas and make sometimes wonderful and mostly awful representative pieces.

it’s also interesting to think about my own social network–the way i fit inside it, who i find most important (and for what reasons), how it helps me, etc. it’s been recently that i started thinking about networks in a conscious way where i form relationships now with a specific intent in mind. call me cold and calculated but my professor thinks it is ’instrumental’. i don’t know. i also like looking at the pretty computational diagrams that come with studying social networks as i am a huge fan of informational graphics.

i am going to end this on the note that the word ‘like’ should be banned from academic discussions. it’s incredibly distracting that i can’t even pay attention to what the person is saying, which may be some fantastic insight into the topic… but nope, it will be lost on me. that word… ew.

auditioning

i was never a theatre kid. sure, i enjoyed plays and performances. but i was never the one to seek out a part on stage. (the several times i did, i ended up being a stage director. boo.) as a pseudo senior, this is technically my last year, last semester. and it also happened to be a new year. so new things, new experiences, new me. hence, i saw casting calls and jumped at the chance. there were two that looked promising to me: cinderella (as a musical) and subUrbia.

i tittered about, not knowing what to do with myself. how do i prep for an audition… do i go in all smiley faced and happy? or surly? like what do i do? turns out that subconsciously, i did not want to audition for cinderella and didn’t go (went shopping instead). so sorry i took that spot, people who actually wanted to audition! so subUrbia it was. i read a synopsis of the play and it kind of sounded like a movie i saw called kicking and screaming directed by noah baumbach, in that ‘i’m too cool for this and will futz around like i’m some big shot intellectual but all i really want is a hug.’ so yes, i think it was right up my alley. i wasn’t sure if i wanted to go to this either so i tweeted, “do i really want to audition?” lo and behold, one second later, i get a direct tweet from @8ball saying, “it’s looking more and more like a ‘no’.” i got angry. what kind of bot thinks that they can tell me what my destiny holds?! so i did a big f— you to twitter and biked furiously to the performance hanger for my audition.

when i got there, i paced around a bit in the waiting area, filling out my information. then i was called in. YIKES. i was shaking, nervous and thrilled at the same time. AH. i read for the part of bee-bee and before i knew it, it was over. then i was asked to read the part of sooze and read that. it’s funny in a way because i can see a bit of myself in sooze, well at least mentally yes. and that was it. I DID IT. i did something completely out of my element. and it was awesome. the callback emails are going out tonight. i have my fingers crossed but not too hard. i just wanted to do something different and new and i did it. that’s all that matters. if i get called back, awesome. if not, well, i have more time for other kinds of art anyways.

i made a promise, mr. frodo.

i think it’s one of those givens, that in college, one watches a lot of movies. i mean, a lot. it can be those epically awesome ones where your mouth drops open in the staggering greatness of the story, the cinematography, the actin, the soundtrack… not that all of those are needed! it can also be one of those other ones where you wonder why, where, and how that came to be but accept it as a necessary evil. and there those films in between.

my freshman year, i watched films like it was my life line. well, they kind of were since two of my classes were film based. i watched movies in the middle of the night in the common lounge on the fourth floor of south hall, tucked away in a corner; films on the big screen at a theatre; flicks on the tv screen in a crowded living room passing around bowls of junk food; been there, done that. my movie watching prowess has somewhat gone down hill since then but i came across this chart. and this chart is awesome and warrants me writing this post. seriously. also, it was only a week ago that i watched the director’s cut of the lord of the rings trilogy and it was mindblowingly fantastic. (although i can see why he cut some scenes out since they were completely unnecessary!)

so this chart, they’re all about trilogies. i haven’t seen all the films and some i refuse to see on principle (star trek). but i thought the chart was a bit fun to see in how the other movies in the trilogy match up to each other. also, if you haven’t read the godfather by mario puzo, you are missing out. better than the movie. go read it. now. and i am completely willing to forget that indiana jones had a fourth installation. actually, what fourth indiana jones? and that spiderman 3 was just fail. lastly, if you haven’t watched the director’s cut of the lord of the rings…. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! that is all.

oh look, they forgot pirates of the caribbean.