Moving

There are too many different blog websites available to chose from now-a-days and until I find one that works, then I'll continue personal blogging from that point on.

A tout a l'heure!

Mon Mellieur Ami - Yelle, Je t'adore beaucoup!

AMAZING NIGHT!!! I caught Yelle at the El Rey Theater on Thursday night. After pining to see her since I found out this past summer she would be touring the East Coast (in October no less, my birthday month) I was slightly miffed. But I held out hope that she would inevitably make it to the West Coast.
Slight panic a couple of hours prior to making it to this concert but none the less, I made it and of course it was incroyable!
It was quite the show. Her band - just a drummer, keyboardist and of course that ubiquitous Macbook, were fantastic. The perfect compliment to a pop singer, wait correction, French pop singer. There was something about her energy, her charming Franglais, her short hair and her mod/80s/stretchy and glittery spandex ensemble - nothing short of parfait.
She was introduced by none other than Perez Hilton. This is where I shrug it off in Hollywood apathy.
I was surprised at the diversity in the crowd that night. Despite the apparent language barrier - it didn't seem to matter. Something about watching her live is utterly incredible. She's so infectious from the beats and when you juxtapose that into a language that not all Americans can understand its just utterly catchy. It was so much fun - I had a great time dancing along (in heels - I've learned the only way to get some sort of leg up or height advantage is to at least wear 2/3 inch heels to compensate for the fact that my current height puts me at a disadvantage.) especially with one of my girlfriends. It was also strange to see a couple of my fellow Trojans who came out for the night - who knew so many people actually like Yelle as much as I do?

All I do Is Party? Ha ha?

In the midst of massive paper writing - music is what keeps me slightly sane as I attempt to construct coherent phrases and arguments. Surprisingly I do not listen to some mellow Belle and Sebastian, or Keane to keep me slightly focused - I listen to dance music to help me write papers.

I do not recommend or endorse said practice - it has some adverse effects I'll willingly admit.

After many numerous driving adventures (life sure does change once your friends are suddenly upperclassmen and drive to and from campus - seriously when you drive why would you ever walk again??) of course I have become the semi-DJ in avoidance of the mindless commercials that flood the radio airwaves. My friend introduced me to this song "Bounce" by MSTRKRFT.

In doing a google search just for the lyrics to this song, I realized that was such a futile act. Simply stated and without much real grunt work on my end:

"All I do is party? Ha ha ha ha. All I do is party. Ha ha ha ha. So bounce low, bounce high" - repeat a bajillion times and you pretty much have the lyrics to this song. There is some rapping, but that of course gets overlooked because when you're on the dance floor, you're only just waiting for the chorus.

Which brings me to a sad truth that I will bashfully admit: I feel a majority of the "dance" hits that I listen to on my own, are because I hear them from the collegiate-party environment. Have you ever heard Lady Gaga's "Just Dance" and suddenly think, where are my girls, and why am I not dancing to this right now? Or "Sunglasses at Night" and think: Oh, so "fratty".

Unfortunately in the college environment I am product of my own social life - I can't even escape a dance hit as I even compose this entry. Yes, I am now listening to Lady Gaga as I compose this.

There is a sense of empowerment and focus that comes with listening to dance tunes while one composes an essay. I'm the strange one at the library in her cubible mouthing along, and bobbing up and down as I stretch out my tired fingers and slam away at my laptop's keyboard praying for a dazzling thesis.

So head caution - you too, can dance while you write your essays. Throw a dance party in your head as you attempt to pound out that 8 - 10 page paper.

It's Time We Met

Unfortunately I am in the city of nothing but sunshine (sorry to those who were recently hit with the mountain of snow in which for the first time in five years, the city public schools were closed) and alas, I am not in New York.

If I were, I would love to participate in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's "It's Time We Met"

Details as follows:

"It's Time We Met" Photo Contest (February 15–March 7, 2009).

Take part in "It's Time We Met," our new photo contest! We're looking for photographs of the Museum's Main Building and of The Cloisters Museum and Gardens by visitors like you, depicting your experience with friends and relatives at the Museum. The winning photograph will be used the "It's Time We Met" marketing campaign photo contest.

Cute idea, and gives you an excuse to actually "use" flash photography in a museum. I wonder what will win...

Sara Mast, I Always Saw Your Name in the Credits

Rather sneakily, Monday night I slipped into my friends Television symposium class. As standard for the class, a couple of minutes were spent in introduction of the show in which we were going to watch for that Monday night. Why would I sneak in to her class? On a Monday night no less?

Simply two words: The Hills. The creators and producers of “The Hills” were the guest speakers and we painfully watched 3 episodes. Of which, the one where Whitney & Lauren are whisked away to Paris when Teen Vogue was covering the Crillion Ball, then the one where I think Spencer tries to win Heidi back in Colorado, and finally the season finale of the last season where gasp – Lauren and Heidi have a moment!

Something about watching the show in an academic environment (and of course next to the friend who let me sneak into her class) was highly amusing. I normally watch the show alone, in the comfort of my own home, an extremely solitary experience – yet this time not so much the case. It was just so amusing to watch it projected in a classroom auditorium (in the monstrosity that is the new cinema building no less) with a mixture of fans, haters and guys. With slight delight, watching it with guys was amusing in my book – partially because it is such an audacious show and really something that I’ve always stereotyped that only girls ever watch.

Now to the gnitty gritty – the goods – yes, all the copious notes I took and quotes from the creators:

Question: Why Lauren, why this show?
Adam: Something very true and real about Lauren wanting to be a fashion designer. I thought it would be great to watch her struggle. I went and say with her mom and dad and if they were ok if she would continue on with this because we were used to dealing with them as minors, so it just made sense. Then we approached her – she was excited, and then she introduced me to Heidi” (then there was some slight laughter) We thought it would be Lo, so Lo was going off for her serious 4 years so didn’t think they’d have time to do, and Whitney was applying to intern at Teen Vogue so we approached them, at Teen Vogue and it all started.

Question: Did Lauren really burn that dress (in reference to: )? Then a person from France, who knew about the show, told the producers that Mattias was coerced into pretending to like Lauren.
Adam: Lauren did burn the dress and at the time, we asked ourselves – do we even follow that – you just start producing, can she wear that dress, there are parts that we don’t show, then Vogue decides and that show went through so many stages in editing. That particular part of the story was cut out and put back in. It was so long – I think it wasn’t until the locking the end of the episode, we put that unexpected part of the show
In response to Mattias: She met him in LA, just didn’t make it into the Hills, they met them from Kelly, so Audrina thought it was going to be cute – didn’t make it into an episode. Not a lot of chemistry there – we called up the guys when we went to Paris, we set up the meeting of the two of them – But that’s what he said on the new: we call it the pinball machine – it’s on a much broader scale, its finding a Teen Vogue to let us shoot in, when we go out to Les Deux we have to go and ask for that booth – but its all set up for us so we have to have the locations cleared. But their lives are there.

Professor: The quote of the evening “They really sound dumb.”
Producers of the Hills: They’re only as dumb as the producers who edit them, they’re not – they’re very smart kids, they’re not sitting around about the most important topics daily. The stuff that we use is the stuff that drives stories.
Professor: Won’t the reality affect them?
Adam: For me the show is a form of escapism, Doug’s jet to Vegas – not hurting all that badly, the fact that he is friends with these kids. It’s part of the fun watching it – not the show.

Question: Does Lauren really wear all those outfits; don’t you guys worry about product placement?
Adam: I feel really strongly about that – we stick to it every day we don’t do it. This came up when we were doing Laguna Beach. That was the first time we had to deal with it – Jessica & Dorritos (she was eating a copious amount of dorritos while talking); we’re lucky that they let us in.

Who cares about Lauren – let’s move on to Whitney!
Question: Why Whitney?
Producers: Oh, that was Adam’s idea! We love Whitney – we think she’s great. We had lunches with her – I want a change (she said) and she had toyed around with the idea of it, if you want we’ll follow you. For me the idea was really exciting a tall, blond, LA native I thought would be fun to watch. When cameras were rolling and she met Jay and instantly fell in love with that guy – that is so often happens when you’re lucky. That’s the second time she’s ever fell in love in her life. Whitney had a boyfriend that we weren’t allowed to film, we knew it was there.

Then of course I did talk to the producers after the show, just casually, since I’m not technically enrolled in the class. I walked up to Sara, and asked if she was Sara Mast. I admittingly told her “Sara Mast? I always say that name at the end of the credits, and I thought that was a cool name”. Of course I was complimentary to the producers since bashfully, I am an earnest fan. It was fun to talk to the producers, just because you realize they are smart people. I think that’s why what I’ll call “The Hills-effect” has done for most of its viewers. Adam is from NJ/NY, so it’s understandable the appeal that Los Angeles does have to one who is not native to California. There is this form of mysticism that seems to enrapture people as they hit the strip – and for the show, it was Lauren’s foray into the world of fashion. I think in class we were asked if we could relate to any of the characters in some form – and I raised my hand, as a yes.

Seriously speaking – who can’t relate. If you’re within the 16 – 24 age range, when hasn’t a girl been led on by a guy / jerky guy? Who doesn’t dream of in some form aspiring to that quote-un-quote “Hollywood” life-style? Los Angeles – the city of angels and the city of dreams. It’s the same effect that New York has for those who just as wide-eyed as Whitney aspire to “make it”.

I did of course voice my concerns and issues with “The City”. To quote for instance “The Hills-effect” – now suddenly lots of blonde-haired girls like “LC” want to be fashion designers, and all frequent FiDM. And now, hopefully “The City” will not ruin what is already great about NYC. But now young hopefuls will aspire to I guess pull a “Whitney” and work for some sort of “styling firm” (enter Kelly Cutrone’s own reality show, she wants to help women after all) and then of course move on to bigger leagues – to the likes of DVF. I plead with you “The City”, please don’t ruin couture (kind of has already happened with “Project Runway”).

I will always tie some sense of “nationality” to my love affair with New York. As a native, it’s strange to see the way people take to “my” city. I forget where I’m from sometimes. That is why this show is such a form of escapism – better to watch and live the life of another for at least 22 minutes than yours?

Valentine -NO, DD - Yes

My father emails me his work schedule. Usually this is so I can prevent instances where he is working and I try to call him, while he is at work. (Doesn't usually happen because like any good daughter, I find ways to annoy my father whenever possible).

I noticed that my father had off on Valentine's day. Then I asked him if I could be his Valentine. His reply:

BP,

Valentine -NO, DD – Yes. I’ll always be your Doggie Daddy.

I’ll be going to Ikea Brooklyn on Valentine’s Day. Do you want anything?

Love

DD

So I sent him an e-card which will appear in his inbox on Valentine's Day which reads as follows:

Jasper Johns - Love At First License Plate Map of America

When I went to MoMa, on a Target Free Friday no less in January, I had the chance to catch "Focus: Jasper Johns", showcasing 87 paintings, drawings, and prints from MoMa's permanent collection. It was organized by Deborah Wye (chief curator of prints & illustrated books). Hard to imagine, but Jasper Johns is actually still living (American, born 1930) and the exhibit serves as an "investigation and reinvestigation of a repertoire of motifs" and it examines "thematic imagery and highlights ways in which his inventive re engagement with it creates a sense of metamorphosis and shifting meaning in his work".

I thoroughly enjoyed all of the prints which "has served as the artists investigatory process especially well. Thoroughly exploring the intricacies of the medium, he has gleaned new directions for his art from its many possibilities".

The quotes on the wall I agree with. I love just the mass proliferation of differences that occur when an artist does prints. I could go on for days about printmaking and even the history of movable type - but what is pertinent to my admiration of said medium holds true for the exhibit. Johns is able to create copious amounts of prints, but all with different souls. Yes, they did come from some form of a carbon copy, but each print amasses something that is all its own. Ah, I love prints, they're so entertaining and so much fun to make. It's just the big rubber stamp that you came home with when you were little that had your name on it, and you would dip it into the rainbow ink pad and stamp it across tattered and special pieces of paper. Um, well maybe not everyone did that - but I sure did.

In the NYT review:

• It has commonly been supposed that Mr. Johns picked motifs that were relatively empty of meaning so that he could focus without distraction on abstract forms and technical processes. So, in many prints in the exhibition representing the numbers 0 through 9, we study the exquisite sensitivity with which Mr. Johns makes lines, washes and colors cohere into chunky, rounded numerals.

Oh goodness, I had like a mini-heart attack when I saw all those numbers. I liked all the various ways in which he used just simple numbers to create a series of depth. Great art is usually simple - take one thing, do it a bunch of times, call it a day. Johns achieves such a thing.

• Why is this image so compelling for Mr. Johns that he returns to it over and over? You could say he’s just practicing the art of self-branding, which he has been enormously successful at. But you may also note that it’s an image of many different things contained by one thing — another metaphor, perhaps, of the multiple self contained by one psyche.

Yes - it sure does. It captured me, mind, body and soul. Kind of an exaggeration but I had no idea what was going on at the MoMa until I went. So I will have to say with it being my last visit to MoMa in quite a few months, great exhibit.