Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Rocky Horror Live

During Halloween weekend Spectrum went to Universal on a Friday night to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show Live. The show involves an audience watching the musical on the big screen with a live cast reenacting the scenes as they unfold and simultaneously mocking the film. Many audience-goers come dressed in costumes for the show. The show had a fun atmosphere, but even as a Rocky Horror fan, I was not thoroughly impressed.

RIP Tag

A few weeks ago, I attended the RIP Tag show in the Fred. This show was hilarious and probably my favorite of the fall season. The players were really excited and enthusiastic about playing the improv games. Though it was slightly competitive, the atmosphere was still fun. The crowd was laughing the entire time and like usual, got to participate in the RIP show.

Art Experience 8: RIP Tag

Two weeks ago, I attended a RIP tag show. While I have been to many of the improv shows that RIP has offered this semester, this was my first RIP Tag. RIP Tag is a show in which three teams compete against each other and are rated by three random members of the audience. While I do always enjoy RIP shows, and I thought RIP tag was very funny. it came off as too much like a game show. I felt like I was watching an episode of Whose Line Is It Anyways? instead of a RIP show, which is usually characterized as having a plot and reoccurring characters. The game show feel came from the jeers from the crowd and the competitiveness of the cast. I also felt that the audience members who were selected to rate each game rated them way too highly. Averagely funny acts were given 4's and 5's which eliminated the standard that should be given in each performance.  Because of the inflation, almost every scene was given top marks even when they were not equally funny. When a truly funny act came on, all they could be given was a full 15 points (all 5's). While I will surely attend more RIP shows, I will not be racing to see another RIP Tag show.

Art Experience 7: Rocky Horror Picture Show

On Halloween weekend, a group of girls from my RCC decided to get together and go see the Rocky Horror Picture Show at Universal with Spectrum, the LGBT group on campus. Most of us had never seen the movie before, let alone a show, but we decided it would be a fun bonding experience to have together. Once we got in and were finally seated, we had to wait for what seemed like forever for the show to begin. Before the performance, they hired, and less than par singer to entertain the audience. Not only was he  untalented musically; but his songs were about octopi, boring sex, and attempting to write a song... not very enticing. He tried to make jokes as he performed his set, but his humor was even worse than his music and we were all glad to see him get off the stage. Once the movie actually started, and the actors began doing their thing, things got even worse. The sound was terrible, you could hear neither the movie nor the actors and it was just a big mess of unorganized chaos. As things were already pretty bad for someone who had no idea what was going on "plot-wise," the icing on the cake was the men they hired to stand in the aisle and make loud, obnoxious jokes that made zero sense. These guys were not funny in the slightest, they made the type of jokes that the kid who sat in the back of the class in high school would make. You know the one who did more "high" than "school". Overall, this Rocky Horror experience was less than ideal, and while I did not particularly enjoy it, I am still glad to have had the experience and would be more than willing to go to another performance... so long as it is at another theatre.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Art Experience

This entire year we have talked about what art truly is to someone and what qualifies something to be considered art. In my opinion I feel its many things that qualify, both abstract and concrete. For example, the other day I took guitar lessons which is considered music while at the same time being labled an art. Each chord to a musician was similar to that of a new color for a painter. So many options and possibilites that one could easily baffled with where to begin. My teacher at the time began playing "Sweet Home Alabama" perfectly, hitting every note and pitch with excellent precision.
Music is a great way for someone to escape and really be able to express their feelings. I feel playing guitar has done all those things for me and I can't stop thinking about which song to learn next. Art has so many possibilities which is what makes its so great and unique. Overall, playing music is a great form of art and I recommend for everyone to try learning to play an instrument at least once.

Art Experience

About a week ago I decided to watch the movie Halloween,what caused me to partake in such a horrifying thriller was most likely all the research I have done on "Realistic Horror Movies." Every source I turned to for a some clues on this challengeing topic lead me to this masterpiece of a film. The orignial movie was done by John Carpenter, who also is not only known for his directing but his terrifyingly creepy music. However, his version is good, it was the Rob Zombie remake that dragged me in. Made in 2007, the movie included all of the main plot ideas as well as the main character himself, Michael Myers. Who by the way is the massive serial killer the entire movie series is based around.
After watching the movie, I felt more thrill and excitment from this one movie alone then any other two movies I've ever watched before, put together. Zombie does an excellent job keeping the viewer on their toes the entire time. His angles and cinematography were fantastic but it was his writing as well the music that really put it above and beyond.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Final Art Occurrence (8)

Last night I played in and attended the Christmas Vespers Service here at Rollins. It was the first of 3 nights of performances and it went very well. It was truly a magical service with outstanding, wonderful music. All of the conductors, musicians, and vocalists alike were aptly prepared and made the service flow very smoothly.

I myself had a very nice time playing the organ on a few pieces and enjoying all of the others when I wasn’t playing. It was very rewarding to see the final product of all the music department’s work over the course of the last semester.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Art

Thanksgiving parade

Every Thanksgiving my family turns on the Macy's day parade. I would consider the parade to be art because it has many types of art in it. It has floats, music, and dancing. My favorite part is watching all the musicals and dancers preform on the main stage. I would love to be able to go and watch it in person one day.

Australia

Last weekend I watched Australia the movie for the first time on Netflix. I really enjoyed it. I though it was filmed very well. My favorite part of the movie was the cinematography. The shots of the landscape of Australia is breath taking. One of my favorite quotes from the movie comes from Sarah, she says "Just because it is, doesn't mean it should be".

art occurrence 8

Another concert that I went to this semester was Avicii. Having never heard anything from the name I did not know what to expect with going, this concert was in downtown Orlando. Going to the concert was an experience that I will not forget while down here in Florida. The types of songs that were play were like Bassnectar with all of the techno music. I thought that the effects that were going on were very different than what I have seen so far at a concert. Also I did not really recognize many people from Rollins at it but I still had a great time!

Art occurrence 7

A few weeks before thanksgiving I went to the Bassnectar concert that was held in Universal Park concert area. I knew that I bought tickets prior to going but completely forgot that I had a ticket until that day. Going to the concert was a very interesting experience because of the type of music it was. I am not that into the techno music, but I did have a good time while I was there. The lights that were going on all around we not as exciting as the ones at the Kanye and Jay-Z concert I went to. It was neat to see all the different people that showed up and what they were wearing. Overall I had a good time with my friends!

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Art Occurrence 7

Last week I attended and performed in the Chamber Music Concert. The concert was made up of students in small chamber groups from the music department.

The concert began with piano duo work by Debussy. It was a very challenging work but the players were well prepared and did not struggle with it. It proved to be an exciting and engaging way to start the concert.

Following the Debussy was a movement of music by Franck. This piece was also quite complex and difficult. The work was for violin and piano and both players had a lot of energy and good sound.

A Bach trio came next. This piece for violin, oboe, and piano was longest of the concert. The trio played the complete sonata by Bach as opposed to just a movement. Their work on this piece was outstanding. Stylistically, they nailed it.

After this, another movement of the Franck violin piece was played. This one was much more exciting and I enjoyed it very much.

The next piece on the recital was a trio by Faure. This was one of my favorite pieces in the concert, and it’s not because I played in it. Faure’s trio is a beautiful work for piano, violin, and cello. Our trio did a very nice job playing it that evening and we were all very pleased with ourselves.

Some Schubert and Mozart followed and both were excellent. Then came the final piece of the concert: A trio by Mendelssohn. This work was by far the most enjoyable for me to listen to. I think the audience felt the same way too. It was very exciting, very intense, and most importantly, very well played. The pianist was flawless in his part and the string players were very good too.

Overall, it was an excellent concert that I was glad to attend and be a part of.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Art Experience: In Time

Recently I went to see the movie In Time with Amanda Seyfried and Justin Timberlake. It was very interesting and kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time, the concept of the movie was very unique. Im usually someone who enjoys watching chick flicks, but surprisingly I really liked this movie as there was just the right amount of action and it was not over done. It is a futuristic movie in which people only live until they are 25 years but can get more time by buying or stealing to live longer. I would definitely recommend seeing it!

My last Art Experiences:)

The art experience 5

About three weeks ago, I got a chance to go see Bald Soprano in the Fred Stone theatre. The whole play was very confusing for me. First of all, everyone spoke in fake British accents, which made very hard for me to understand. And also, I did not understand the plot at all; I have no idea what the story was about despite the fact that I did concentrate on trying to make sense out of it. Especially the end of the play, where they started back right at the beginning, I had no idea why they even did that. Although, I did not really understand it, I did enjoy couple of scenes. I really like the scene when one of the female character in black dress talks with one of the other guys, and they realized that they were actually husband and wife, but apparently they weren’t according to the maid. The other scene that I like was the scene when all the characters argued about the doorbell. I like how none of they were either right or wrong about it. I appreciate the actors’ ability to perform even though the whole play did not make any sense because I know that it is hard just to act normally and being able to entertain the audience. The actors did a good job entertaining the confused audience. Overall, I did like the play even though I had no idea what was going on. However, if I ever had a choice to see it again, I wouldn’t watch it again.




The art experience 6

On November 10th, I had a chance to go see the preview of Little Shop of Horror with my RCC class. I was really excited about it because it was free. First thing that I liked as I entered the theatre was the stage, it was beautiful. I liked how the crew created something that looked like an actual city with very limited space. The fact that there was a live band was really cool. As the play goes on, I enjoyed all the song. The opening song got my attention. Fortunately, I got to sit in the second row, so I could see every characters’ facial expressions clearly. (Thanks to Crysta for picking the seats for us). From my opinion, the whole sitting in the front experience was so much better than watching 3-D movies. The costume was really cool too. I like how Ryan really dedicated his hair for that play. I love Jaz’s version of Audrey. Her and Taylor had a lot of chemistry. Brian’s character was very entertaining. There was a scene when Brian made me very uncomfortable. If I remember correctly, it was the scene where he sang the Dentist song. Brian came really close to me as he said, “say ahh”. I actually said ah as he said that the first time because he scared me. The plant was my favorite character. I like the fact that no one notices anything weird about it. Overall, I like everything in the play. I would see it again if I had a chance.



The art experience 7

At the beginning of November, I was assigned to read the unpublished play Feeder: A Love Story for my RCC class. The whole play focuses on Feederism. Feederism is a type of sexual fetish involving obese women consuming large amount of food for the sexual pleasure of their partners and viewers. In the play, the guy, Noel, was trying to get his girl. Jesse, to a 1000 pounds. However, once Jesse got to 700 pounds, she had doubts as to whether she should keep doing it , as she became immobilized. The play was very educational. I never knew what Feederism was until I read the play. For me, I don’t feel like the whole play is a love story, it’s rather more about lust in a weird way. In the play, Jesse went on a TV show so that she could get help losing weight. Noel did not know that Jesse actually decided to do on her own so he thought that she was kidnapped. From my opinion, Noel was very selfish as he was the one that came up with the getting to a 1000 pounds idea. Although Jesse loves eating, I don’t think that she would have liked to have been that obese. Pretty much, Jesse just agreed to do that because she did not want to lose Noel. If Noel really loves her, he would’ve loved her as she was. Overall, the whole play was weird. I felt very uncomfortable reading it especially because I was reading it out loud with Jennifer So.



The art experience 8

Recently, I’ve been having this zombie obsession. (Thanks to Rollins Zombies Apocalypse Survival Club). So I decided to look up all the zombie movies on Netflix. I came across this movie called The Crazies. The movie follows the classic zombie movies plot: small quiet town, virus outbreak, apocalypse, everyone dies at the end. As I watched it, I still debated whether it counts as a zombie movie or not, as people that got infected did not have zombie characteristics. Everyone that got infected still had consciousness. However, their appearance changed and they all had the urge to kill. From my opinion, this movie is much more scarier than the average zombie movies. What makes this movie creepier would be the fact that those people that were infected were still humans, and nothing could be creepier than psycho killers, especially when they were everywhere in one small town. One of the creepiest scenes I saw was the scene when one of the people that was infected slowly walked into a room where one of the main characters was tied up on a bed and could not move. In that room, there were also other people tied up to the bed lining up. As that infected person walked pass each bed, he stabbed the people on the bed one by one until he reached that main character’s bed. The fact that I saw other people get killed before her repeatedly made me imagined of what that person would do. The way the camera showed blood dripping from under the bed gave me a chill. Overall, I felt like this is one of the best horror movies that I’ve ever seen even though it’s not a zombie movie.


Wednesday, November 23, 2011

art experience

Last Friday I went with a friend to go see the Taylor Lautner film Abduction. This was a horrible movie, i'm glad we went to the dollar theater so we didn't have pay full price for a ticket. The acting was bad, the plot was very predictable, and it had no suspense at all. To add more to my bad experience people would yell at the screen things like "get him" and "good job", plus the people beside us left and came back like four times. The only way i would recommend this movie is if you think Taylor is cute enough to watch for a hour and a half.

Art Experiences

Experience 01:

Little Shop of Horrors tells the story of Seymour (a meek flower shop assistant) and his problematic plant, The Audrey II (named after his co-worker, and the love interest of this story). The story takes place in the 60’s and on the poverty stricken Skid Row. As the story progresses, we discover that Audrey II, is not any ordinary plant – he (yes he) is in fact, an extraterrestrial, man-eating plant who uses a very sharp tongue to convince Seymour to collect his ‘plant food’.

The Rollins production of Little Shop of Horrors was absolutely brilliant. John DiDonna did a superb job in the direction of this production. The set, lighting, sound effects, props, and costume/make-up were all perfectly constructed and composed.

As for the acting, the entire cast did a wonderful job. Taylor Sorrel (Seymour) set a new standard for Seymour. The progression from shy-nerd to tragic hero was flawless and the vocals were good too. Jaz Zepatos did a wonderful job as Audrey bringing a much more powerful voice to her than I have ever seen before. Robert Burrows (Bum and Audrey II vocals) brought a rather powerful jazz tone to the devil plant, and Brian Hatch (Orin + five others) was amazing as usual in is portrayal of multiple characters. Not to mention, the comedic timing of the entire company had the audience entertained every second of the show.


Experience 02

On October 8th, my cousin, Jennifer, and I spent the day at the Ocoee Founder’s Day festival. Basically, the entire city of Ocoee (and surrounding towns) gather together in a giant field, surrounded by tents filled with overpriced vendors and listen to live country music. The festival is actually an entire weekend event, but they day that we went on, is the biggest of all three. We set up a nice area directly in front of the stage and then bought all of the food and drinks we would need. The only thing left to do was sit, listen and enjoy. The acts included Michael Ray, Hazzard Kounty, Little Texas, Daryle Singletary, and most importantly…Mr. Joe Nichols.

By the time that Joe actually went on, it was dark out (and we later discovered that it was around 8:30). We were both extremely excited because Joe Nichols is one of our most favorite country singers – we danced and sang along to every song and had an amazing night. Joe’s portion of the concert lasted for about three hours and then we had to run to beat the traffic. We had such a great time and you can’t beat a entire day of live country music (three hours of which were one of the best country musicians of our time) for free! ☺


Experience 03

I recently went through a rather informal dance audition. It would have been much more professional, but the department had a ‘technical’ issue, and had a rather difficult time advertising the actual audition. So long story short, I talked to Dr. Sherry (in charge of the up-coming dance show) and he asked me to attended Ms. Les’ inter./adv. Jazz class as my audition. The experience was rather interesting because that was actually the first ‘technical’ Jazz class I had taken in around three years – I wasn’t nervous, but it was more challenging than I thought because I found myself falling into old habits instead of adapting to the new teaching style. After class, Ms. Les called me over and we had a rather nice conversation. She said that she thought I would be able to keep up just fine, and that she was going to put me into two of the three numbers, and that she wanted me to shadow the class to get me back into a dance class before rehearsals start. So even though the audition was as formal as I’m used to, it still turned out all right! ☺


Experience 04:

Last Sunday, I went with my mother and her co-worker to see The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn. I’m sure everyone has his or her own opinions on this story, but I for one love Twilight (not as much as Harry Potter, but still…). This installment of the collection wasn’t the best, but it held its own with the other three movies. The storyline included the first ¾ of the book, from the Wedding up until “the change” (and that’s all I’ll say about that). The acting was tolerable, and the set/effects were what made this movie worth watching. I love Stephanie Meyer’s work, and because of that, I will definitely see the last chapter of this saga, but I would only suggest it to true Twilight fans, or people that aren’t too ‘stuck-in-their-close-minded-ways’ about what a Vampire story should be.