Aaaand… here… we… go!

–

(trailer)

Taos: Dysfunctional families are funny. Especially when seen through the eyes of quirky Wes Anderson. He’s an acquired taste, but I think those that give him a chance grow to love him.

David: I left this off my individual decade ballot. I fault the audience with whom I last watched it. But Elliott Smith + Luke Wilson, alone = genius. American cinema needs more artists as true as Anderson.

—

(trailer)

Taos: Maybe Bill Murray is playing himself here. I for one would watch a film of just Bill Murray’s everyday life. That is how awesome the Murray is.

David: It’s like waking up and suddenly being Bill Murray. In Japan. And without skipping a beat. This was more Bill Murray than Being John Malkovich was John Malkovich. ….even if that wasn’t the point of the latter film… stop judging me.

—

(trailer)

Taos: Oh man, I’ve exhausted my thoughts on this too much to add anything. Vampires. Seven Deadly Sins. Morality tale. Vampires. Twice.

David: So glad to see this again on DVD before making this list.  Already having liked it a great deal, as with all Park Chan-wook, it gets better every time you see it.  For more, see my earlier, occasionally misguided thoughts here.

—

(trailer)

David: Singular.

Taos: I’m not sure what is worse: the emo soundtrack or the lame “twist” of an ending. Can you tell I hate it?

—

(trailer)

Taos: Batman + Nolan. What else is there to say about it? Everyone has seen it, you know why it is here.

David: Quite the roller coaster with this one. With such a, not even movie but cultural event, and all of the history it packs, the barrage of critiques ranging from fair-minded to nitpicking have been predictably unavoidable. But, if you’ll so indulge, stop to consider its plot diagram. Isolate it. The details, rather messy in places; however, the basic storytelling elements orchestrate some kind of beautiful machine. The show will forever belong to Heath, his last triumph, but Oldman, Zimmer & Howard, Wally Pfister, obviously Chris Nolan, and the countless others involved meet the ambitious scope of this genre epic.

For my next cultural event, I took a bit more of a serious approach. I went to see an exhibit by Barnaby Furnas. This exhibit included a collection of very large paintings. A video of Barnaby Furnas making the largest of the paintings, which measured at 30 feet in length, was also shown to give you a feel for his technique and to show the amount of work that goes into creating such an immensely large painting.

In order to make his paintings, Barnaby first props up the canvases so that one side is sloped higher than the other. Then he uses scaffolding so that he can climb over the canvases. Then he pours, splashes, splatters, and sprays paint all over the canvases. Because the canvases are sloped, the paint slowly spreads along the canvas and the drips off of the end. Because of this and because he uses so much paint to make his paintings, he calls his paintings flood paintings (many of his works, individually, are left untitled, however). He uses darker shades of reds to give the idea that his paintings are representations of the bloody remains of wars, with blood flooding the canvases.

This was also a really interesting exhibit. I had never seen such large paintings before, much less the process that goes into making them. These paintings were very surreal and involved. I enjoyed this exhibit, too, and I am going to keep an eye out for more of Barnaby Furnas’ work.

For my first cultural event, I went to see an exhibit of a work by the artist, Jim Green. Jim Green is a sound artist. He uses sound as a medium for his art, and has been creating sound- based art for about 25 years. An interesting aspect of his works involves the subject matter that he includes in them. He likes to incorporate aspects of his adolescent mischievousness into his projects, and “Unplugged” was definitely no different.

“Unplugged” is a sound installation piece. For this piece, Jim Green created and mounted six aluminum box frames to a wall and set up a pneumatic pumping system to two clear, plastic discs that were mounted at the front of each of the frames. The pneumatics would pull the two discs together flattening the space between them. Here’s where the adolescent mischievousness come into play: in between the two discs on each of the six frames was a whoopee cushion. As the two discs were pulled together, they would flatten the whoopee cushion and let out a fart sound. Each of the frames pumped out fart sounds at their own pace creating a very unique and interesting sound experience.

I really enjoyed this piece. When I was walking through the exhibit, I walked around the corner and was all of a sudden confronted with this. I was completely taken by surprise! In no way whatsoever was I expecting a series of pneumatically operated whoopee cushions. It was very refreshing. It was nice to see someone create a project that had some humor and play in it, and yet was still very well thought out and skillfully made. I wish more artists were like Jim Green!

Good morning friends.  I am glad to know that IBM will facilitate in the creation of “Little Africa” in the city of Gujarat.  This means a lot to youth as there will be an employment opportunities.  So it will be a good  information to many especially to Gujarat people 

In a bid to provide employment to youth of the African-origin Sidi community settled in Saurashtra, Gujarat government has planned to create a ‘Little Africa’ on the fringes of Gir forest by developing a theme-based resort. 

The resort to be developed on 25 acres of land would be promoted by global giant IBM. The tribal development department of the state government has entered into a tie-up with IBM India for the project.

“The Rs 10-crore project, excluding the cost of land, would be fully funded by the Gujarat government. IBM will provide expertise to select a private partner to run the resort. It will also provide consultancy to market this ‘Little Africa’ across the world to lure maximum tourists,” said Per Yorgansen, project manager, IBM Denmark, who is in Ahmedabad for IBM’s Corporate Service Corps (CSC) program.

Pallavi Shukla, senior consultant to the state government for the project, said that development work would start by March 2010 and the resort would be functional in three years.

“Around 200 Sidi youth will get direct employment. Besides, there would be plenty of indirect employment opportunities as a ‘gram haat’ to display Sidi handicraft will be set up. Every evening there would be cultural events featuring Sidi ‘Dhamal’ dance troupe, which is very popular,” said Shukla.

The resort would be a replica of a typical Sidi village. Even interiors of all the 30 rooms would have an African touch. A museum would display various facets of Sidi life in and around Gir, especially their interface with the Asiatic Lions.

The Sidi community came to India from East Africa as slaves around 500 years ago. Their population is currently 10,000 in Gujarat, concentrated mainly on the periphery of the Gir forest in Junagadh district.   -The Times of India

Industrial Workers of the World’s Delegation to Palestine presents a Coctail Party and Art Auction benefiting the Palestine Ramallah Federation of Independent and Democracti Trade Unions and Workers’ Committees. This event takes place on Saturday November 14th at the Ninja House (see above image for address). It will feature Music From Palestine, Art and Events.
At the event, you will have the opportunity to bid on and win an original painting by VAA Collective Member and Palestinian-American Artist, Nabeel Muaddi.

We hope to see you there!

            On November 5^th, 2009, I went to the art show in the Driscoll Ballroom which featured art from other students on the general subject of propaganda. The pieces presented ranged from commenting on traditional color associations to videos to more abstract pieces. Before I delve into my thoughts on individual pieces, I thought I’d begin by describing the ones that most stood out to me.

            The first piece I observed was a video mash-up of old 1970’s commercials for various products. This almost certainly fell under the umbrella of propaganda due to the portrayal of the American life within it. Commercials from the fifties to the seventies all played into the cultural theme of homogenization that was ongoing at the time. Specifically, America (and its people) wanted to do everything in its power to be as un-Communist or Soviet as possible, thus resulting in the very idealized lifestyles portrayed in those commercials.

            The second piece that was of interest to me was a mannequin dressed in those standard, recognizable rubber gloves. It was probably my favorite piece of the bunch (to be discussed later) and while I’m not sure I’d classify it as propaganda per se, it was certainly a piece with a message. Specifically, the dress was drawing attention to the stereotypical and discriminatory idea that a woman’s place is in the kitchen. By making a dress (specifically one that seemed constricting) out of a representation of the kitchen, the author draws attention to that.

            After that, I moved on to another video project, this one exploring the relationship between people and their cell phones. The video showed various iPod-esque people (black silhouettes) doing various daily tasks, all with their cell phone in hand. The video was also accompanied by music although I didn’t feel that it was incredibly relevant.

            The final piece that I found noteworthy was a group of organic fruits and vegetables which had been combined with various pieces of technology. I had trouble understanding how this piece connected with the propaganda theme although that may be more related with my innate fascination with technology (for example, I took the time to determine that one of the pieces was using a PCI express card for an extra Ethernet jack) which may have clouded my ability to accurately admire the work.

            Although there were certainly other works there, the four that I listed above are the ones that stood out to me. I found the first especially interesting as my history class studied the culture of that time in some depth which certainly helped me understand the piece as a whole. While I’m not sure I’d call it propaganda, the commercials were certainly about portraying an idealized life. I also have to admit I find a comparison to today’s commercial (with their “idealized” life) especially interesting as it shows just how different todays cultural is. The second piece, as I mentioned earlier, is probably my favorite as it did a fantastic job of making its point clear. From a distance, I almost couldn’t tell exactly what the dress was made of and it was only when I stepped closer to it that I realized just how much detail had been put into the piece. It was truly an impressive sight and one that only added to the art’s effect. As for the third piece, I found it especially interesting given how many of those images were relatable to me personally. There must be dozens of times where I’m working on everyday task or another and pull out my phone, whether that’s to check e-mail, text messages or the like. I’m not sure I’d say that it was propaganda but it’s worthwhile to think about how tied to our phones and other devices we are. The final piece, as I said earlier, appealed to me most due to its integration of not only technology but the workings of what most people consider to be one item (Most people think about a computer, not a video card, motherboard, processor, etc). I had a bit of trouble discerning the point of the piece but it did remind me of an article I saw recently about the increasing amount of technology waste that isn’t being properly thrown away and recycled. Some technology is slowly working towards a more efficient, greener and cheaper future (i.e. Computer power supplies that are highly efficient, thus reducing energy costs) but for the most part, much of it is still on the more wasteful side. While I’m not sure that technology will become organic (as the work seemed to imply) but it’s certainly something that should be interesting to watch develop.

            As I said earlier, there were certainly more pieces of art at the show but these are really the ones that stood out to me as being interesting in one way or another. I was surprised by how small the show was, and by how few people seemed to be there, but it was enjoyable to go to and it was nice to see some more abstract works.

During San Diego Comic-Con 2009, during the Star Wars Spectacular event, Lucasfilm announced one of the future events that Star Wars fans (and others) could look forward to. This event was Star Wars: In Concert, a musical event featuring the original scores created by John Williams for the two Star Wars trilogies, would be played for audiences worldwide, accompanied by one of the largest high-definition screens which would display scenes from the movies that were determined to fit the mood of the music. By focusing on the musical ties between visuals and soundtrack, Star Wars: In Concert transcended some of the cheap merchandising into which other Star Wars events may have fallen previously.

I went to Star Wars: In Concert with my roommate, David Fogle as we both consider ourselves avid Star Wars fans. David probably had a higher level of anticipation due to his more musical nature but I was looking forward to it heavily as music is something I tend to filter into the background. The event was located at the Pepsi Center and our seats were in the very back (approximately three rows from the very back) and quite high up. We did have a relatively good view of the orchestra and screen, even if one of the speakers did block part of our view.

The orchestra began with the traditional Star Wars theme (Specifically the version heard in A New Hope) which then transitioned into a number of other short themes. At this time, Anthony Daniels (who played the character, C-3PO, in all six movies) came on stage and narrated the entire concert. Taking on the role of the traditional story teller, Daniels guides the audience through the Star Wars story, from Episode I until Episode VI. One of the things that immediately struck me as I listened to him speak was that he was not speaking of Star Wars as if it were a fictional story but instead an actual event. The effect was jarring at first but by the end of the concert, I think it had worked quite well.

The concert was very good overall but I did have one fairly specific complaint on it dealing with the movie scenes that were selected to play during some of the themes. While I make no secret that I prefer the Original Trilogy, there are a number of moments where scenes (usually from Episodes I, II and II) were inserted into musical themes that simply did not match the mood of the music. I would not say that these moments ruined the concert but they were certainly jarring to the overall effect I think they were trying to achieve.

That being said, however, I definitely enjoyed the experience of the concert overall and I think that it did a fantastic job of bringing a normally overlooked part of cinema into the spotlight. Before the concert began, Lucasfilm also donated a number of movie props and such to be put on display, giving my roommate and I a chance to see up close and personal the work that goes into making any movie. In addition, members of the 501^st Legion, a well-known Star Wars fan-costuming group, were also at the event which always makes for great pictures and a couple of laughs. The music itself was fantastically re-created by the orchestra and the effect was certainly enjoyable. As I said earlier, I usually overlook music in movies (unless it’s very obvious) but this truly did allow me to really absorb and appreciate the work that John Williams put into the project. Listening to Anthony Daniel’s narrate the Star Wars story was wonderful to listen to and he proved to be amiable all-around. One of my favorite moments involving him began following the “Droids” theme (seen in Episode IV) where Daniels began to wax poetic on the character of C-3PO (whom he portrayed) with lines such as “C-3PO was a vital part of the Rebellion and, through his deep yearning for knowledge and always helpful advice….” The visuals often flowed with the music very well without stealing the show and, in some cases, actually enabled me to appreciate scenes that I had previously been unable to. All in all, Star Wars: In Concert was a great event, from the environment, to the other fans and to the music itself; it is certainly something I wish I could repeat.

Día de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead)      

El Centro’s Multi-Cultural Tribute to:

 Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Páramo

 And your soul

Where do you think it’s gone?

 It must be wandering around up there on earth,

Like all those others,

  Looking for people to pray for it.

Opening Night – Sunday Nov 1, 2009

Brunch Served 2:30 PM · Opening Ceremony 3:30 PM ·  Opening of Ofrenda/Altar Exhibit 4:00 PM

Admission and Food are FREE · Parking in South Lot

El Centro de la Raza  2524 16th Ave S, Seattle, WA 98144

 Presentations by Ameyaltonal Danza Azteca · FANDANGO  · Hope For Youth · Richard Hugo House • Mariachi Seattle Azteca • José Martí CDC • Professor Cynthia Steele, University of Washington

Children’s Activities · Face Painting · Sugar Skulls

Featuring Ofrendas by ~ ALAS · CD Forum · Beacon Hill International School · Denny Middle School · Friends of the Orphans · Guatemaltecos Unidos · Lutheran Volunteer Corp · Office of Multi-Cultural Affairs · People of Color Against Aids • Los Poetas del Monton • Rhonda Gossett and Family • and many more!

Enjoy the Ofrenda Exhibit November 1st-20th – Open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday from 10 am – 6pm and Wednesday 12 pm – 8 pm

Come enjoy a beautiful cultural event in the exhilarating

Experience the opera in Houston's only Baroque Palace!

environment  of an elegant three-story baroque palace. The festive evening features a selected aria from Barber of Seville by Gioacchino Rossini and Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss and in its entirety Czech Comedy

The Bartered Bride piano score

Opera The Bartered Bride by Bedrich Smetana, 1863, performed in English and directed by Gottfried Schiller. This is a rare opportunity as the Czech Center Museum Houston collaborates with Kingwood College Opera Workshop to bring this unique performance to Houston’s Museum District.  There will be a reception in Brno Gallery with refreshments and bar, performance follows  in the inimitable Prague Hall, Theatre in the Round.

Event commences at 6:30 p.m. at the Czech Center Museum Houston, 4920 San Jacinto, Houston, Texas, 77004 in the Museum District. Advance reservation required; for prepaid reservation call 713-528-2060 or online at www.czechcenter.org. General admission is $15.00, Seniors $12.00 and Students $8.00.  Please book early as seating may be limited.

With temperatures now reaching 105°F in Yerevan, I welcomed Vardavar Day with open arms.  On Sunday July 18th, buckets of waters were poured all over the capital. Distracted pedestrians, cars with windows left open, and foreigner were specific targets for the childrens’ folly. So I came home drenched, but happy that for once I could walk in Yerevan without zigzagging from tree to tree seeking shade.

In ancient times, Vardavar was a pagan celebration honoring the goddess of water. This holiday has been integrated into the Christan calendar, and today it falls exactly 98 days after Easter and has become an important family holiday.

On the Saturday before Vardavar, Armenians are at work because the following Monday is a vacation day.  The quiet streets of Yerevan on Monday reminded me that summer is the best time for angist (rest).

- Celine

P.S. : As you can imagine, I am unable to provide pictures. With the litters of water being poured, there was no possibility to take my camera out of my flat!

It would be fair to call it unconventional. Not every pastor encourages his or her flock to show up to church packing heat. Or for that matter, participate in a raffle for a big gun giveaway during the service. But not every pastor is Ken Pagano of the New Bethel Church in Louisville, Kentucky.

Pagano likes guns. He likes guns so much that he asked his parishioners to come to church this evening armed like Sylvester Stallone in Rambo (.50 caliber machine gun optional).

In all seriousness, Pagano did hold an “open carry celebration” tonight at his church. That meant if you owned a gun you could bring it to the service (provided it was unloaded) as part of an effort, he says, to promote responsible gun ownership and firearms safety.

About 200 people took him up on the invitation. It wasn’t mandatory to have a gun to get in. In fact, according to the church website, you didn’t even have to believe in God. The only requirement was to be a supporter of the First and Second Amendments.

“We are wanting to send a message that there are legal, civil, intelligent and law-abiding citizens who also own guns,” Pagano said in welcoming the attendees.

“If it were not for a deep-seated belief in the right to bear arms, this country would not be here today,” he said.

This was an oft-repeated message for Pagano. He’s been fielding media requests from all over the world since word of the service became widespread earlier this month. All appearing to have the same question: What are you doing?

“As a Christian, I believe, and as an American this country was founded on the deep-seated belief in God and firearms — without which we wouldn’t be here today,” Pagano told FOX News earlier this week. “There is nothing illogical nor immoral about being a God-fearer and a decent community-minded individual who believes in rights to bear arms and use firearms for self-defense if necessary or just for sporting purposes.”

OK. But why hold the event at a church?

“This event is not taking place on the Lord’s Day,” Pagano explained on his website. “This is not a Church worship service, where the focus is on Jesus and our responsibility to Him. Rather, this is merely a Church hosted event, similar to any other event that any other Church may do to celebrate their heritage. It would be our hope to see this event become a nationally celebrated, annual occurrence on the last weekend of June.”

via Church has “Saturday night special” service for gun owners | csmonitor.com.

For my first cultural event, I went to the artist talk with Janet Delaney. The gallery featured another pair of artists as well but Delaney’s work, specifically her “Housebound” series and a pair of other photo-collages, were spot-lighted and she was also the only artist who spoke on her work. Delaney is from California and considers herself to be both an amateur (and occasional professional) photographer. She has always been fascinated by the camera and has worked as a photo-journalist overseas and in South America. After these events in her early life (Until her mid thirties I believe), she settled down with her husband and had at least one daughter. It was during these early years that she photographed what would become her “Housebound” series.

Janet Delaney mentioned a couple of things on the basis for the series and her motivation behind it but I found two of her statements to be most important. The first was that she felt that there was a “story behind every photograph” which was a sensation that certainly came out of the series (more on that in a moment). The second quote was that for her, the most foreign “country” she had been to was the family (this coming from a woman who has already traveled worldwide). Delaney said that she found herself fully immersed in the family culture and it was wonderful but glorious as well. She found herself almost trapped by her responsibilities (Which is not to say that she didn’t want it) and she used her camera to document it. Delaney’s mother was noted as having influenced her photography, primarily through her gratuitous numbers of photo albums. Janet Delaney mentioned that in many ways, she tried to do the opposite of what a photo album did. While she regarded the latter as cherry-picked “perfect” moments of life, she wanted “Housebound” to reflect the real, the emotional of the moment. This certainly ties into the idea of “form vs. content” that we learned in class. While the photo album certainly demonstrated the form of a life, it was not the content of one. As Delaney put it, the photo album was something the creator could choose and edit; it wasn’t that the photo album was a lie but instead that it simply omitted the truth. Her “Housebound” series, however, was much closer in content to what her life actually was by trying to convey moments that generally weren’t all that special; they were almost at random, taken because of something that caught Delaney’s eye.

The “Housebound” series stopped around the time Delaney’s kitchen was remodeled as the remodel changed the lightning, thus robbing her of part of what drove her creative instincts. Regardless, in my opinion, the “Housebound” works that were present in the art gallery were beautiful pieces that certainly told the story of her life.

My favorite piece of the series was, without a doubt, a series of three pictures. Alone, they were moving pictures but when they were combined, it formed a truly deep and emotional whole. The first picture was of Delaney’s mother, affecting a concerned expression. The second was a picture of her father on his death bed, an event that was ongoing during her early family life. The final picture was a close up of two people holding hands and, when combined with the previous two photos, carried enormous power. The message was quite clear, that of two people holding to their love even as one approached the end of life. It was easily my favorite piece as a result.

These pieces also demonstrate a technique Janet Delaney used known as sequencing which uses sequential pictures to tell a story where one alone cannot. Even though I am not strictly an art major (I’m aiming for a Bachelor of Arts in Video Game Animation and Game Development), one of the things I’ve always been interested in is using games to tell truly deep and emotional narratives. As such, this idea of sequencing that Delaney used holds particular appeal to me and I’m very glad I was able to see it in action. Delaney used other series of pictures to tell the observer about her family as well such as the series dealing with her child’s desire for candy or even her love of grapefruit and pomegranates. Janet Delaney was not necessarily trying to tell extraordinary stories through her pictures but moments that stood out to her for one reason or another.

Photo from blogs.roanoke.com

 Beirut’s francophone book fair celebrates 16th anniversary 

The 16th anniversary of Beirut’s francophone book fair was launched on Wednesday at the headquarters of BankMed in Clemenceau. With over 150 authors, 70 of whom come from francophone countries scattered across the globe, “Salon Du Livre Francophone de Beyrouth” is a major event in Lebanese cultural life.

… With over 80,000 visitors a year, the event is the third largest French-language book fair in the world, after those of Paris and Montreal.

… The 16th Salon Du Livre Francophone de Beyrouth holds extra significance over previous events, as it coincides with Beirut’s year as the UNESCO World Book Capital.

To mark the occasion on October 21st many prominent francophone writers hailing from all over the world will embark on a boat and to salute the city of Beirut. 

… Beirut’s Salon du Livre will take place from October 23rd until November 1st 2009 at the Beirut International Exhibition and Leisure Center in Downtown Beirut.

Londoners got involved with spectacular Diwali celebrations in the heart of London at Diwali in the Square, bringing Diwali to Trafalgar Square in an extravagant cultural event.

Colourful Event attended by hundreds and hundreds of people

Beautifully dressed. These young girls wore beautiful saris.

London - an attraction for Diwali

The Festival of Lights
Diwali in the Square transformed Trafalgar Square with vibrant Diwali celebrations, including traditional light displays, floating lanterns and colourful Diwali decorations. The event was was attended by hundreds and hunmdres of people from all cultue, background, faith and  transformed Trafalgar Square in traditional Indian style.

Happy Diwali - Festival of Light

Garba dance

Musicians

Music and dance
As well as lights and decorations, a full programme of performances featured at Diwali in the Square including a mixture of traditional and contemporary music and dance. This year’s highlight included the chance to take part in a traditional circular dance known at the garba accompanied by live music from Asian band Shama and Friends, and performances of Bollywood hits from the Trafalgar Square stage.

Dressed in colourful Indian sari

Human Chain

Dancing to the music.

Large screen was in place for people to see

The event was lead by Mayor of London

In blossoms 2009, the deaneries of Christ University will battle it out for the following trophies :-

1. The Christ University Deanery rolling trophy for Art Events
2. The Christ University Deanery rolling trophy for Literary Events
3. The Christ University Deanery rolling trophy for Theatre Events
4. The Christ University Deanery rolling trophy for Stage Events
5. Intra-collegiate Christ University trophy for
    Artistic Excellence and Service