Waterboys - Film Screening

Last night, I went to Muse Music to watch "Waterboys". The picture is one of the 5 main actors.



The movie was supposed to start at 10pm. However, it didn't start until 10:30pm. I think the host wanted to wait until more people had come. By 10pm, there were only 4 people there ready to watch the movie, including myself.

The movie was color (I thought it would be black-and-white) and in Japaneses with English subtitles. The movie was about a group of high school boys that had quit every other activity that had started at school. The school hired a new, female, swimming coach and all of those boys joined the swim team. Most of them didn't join the team because they wanted to swim. All of them also thought that they would be taught how to swim competitively, but the swimming coach thought there would be girls at the school (this was an all-boys school) and wanted to teach synchronized swimming. After hearing that, all but 5 of the boys quit.

A end of summer break festival was planned and this synchro team, as they called it, was to perform. The swimming coach ended up being 8 months pregnant (no belly at all) and took maternity leave. The 5 boys ended up quiting.

Later, the leader of this group got inspiration after going to Sea World in Japan, and got the group of 5 together again. They were put to work and trained by the dolphin trainer at Sea World. When the festival came around and the rest of the original group saw how popular men's synchro had become, they joined the team again.

With about 30 boys, the team performed at the festival. All of there routine was modeled after what the dolphins were doing at Sea World. The performance ended up being great.

The movie was humorous in a cheezy way. Everyone watching the movie laughed. It was entertaining. The acting or the script weren't great, but still okay. I like the movie. The moral of the story, as I understood it, was to never quit, but keep trying.

Color in Art - The Night Cafe' by Vincent van Gogh

In Wednesday's class, we analyzed a painting by Vincent van Gogh called "The Night Cafe'".



Learning what the colors in paintings represent really bring to light the meaning and feel for the painting. Just looking at the painting above from van Gogh might give the impression of a good night on the town. Maybe relaxing, even. However, the pale yellows and greens, the sharp contrasts in red and green on the ceiling and water, and the demeanor of the people in the cafe' tell a different story. The yellow and green colors represent sickness, decay, cowardice, and discord. The ceiling and walls are intense while the room in general in low key, giving the painting a relaxing feeling. The scene is dull and quiet.

It seems like the artist may be depicting a scene that is lonely and bleak. Looking at the change from red in the walls to a bright green in the ceiling, it almost seems like the author is suggesting that even though life my be hard and lonely, there is hope if we look up.

From Bauhaus to Our House Thoughts

The last time in class, we discussed the book "From Bauhaus to Our House". I enjoyed the discussion. It was interesting to hear the thoughts of the rest of the class of today's architecture.

As some of you may know or remember (maybe), I am studying to be a Civil Engineer. In that since, I find architecture interesting. The engineer must work with the architect to build what the architecture envisions for a building, bridge, or any other structure.

While reading the book I couldn't help but wonder why America at the time (early 1900's) allowed foreign architects to decide what the future of Architecture in America would be. Learning who Frank Lloyd Wright was and what he has done as an architect made me wonder even more. His projects were interesting and dynamic. Below is a picture one of his most famous projects, Falling Water.



The foreign architects that found refuge in America after the first and second world wars brought with them their ideas of how architecture in the world should be. They had what is called as the International Architecture view. They wanted nothing to do with fancy, dynamic buildings full of color and fancy furniture. They wanted square, white or gray, machine made buildings to support the "working" people. This so called vision caught the eye of the American people then and these architects were given positions in prominent universities like Yale and Harvard. This gave way for I see as a brain washing of what these "White Gods", as the author of the book refers to them as, thought of what architecture needed to be. Because of this, we have this "modern architecture" all around us. It filled America because its buildings were cheap and easier to build. To me, a sense of creativity was lost. Our buildings are mundane and plain. Below are two examples of this.







However this reality may be, I have noticed a push to return to the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. We have Green buildings today that incorporate the building surroundings that Falling Water does. The buildings are creative and dynamic and have their own personality

I hope that the creativity in our buildings and in the arts in general will not fall into a one-way track of thinking, but will come out of the box and share their creativity with the rest of the world. By doing so, our lives will be enriched. Whatever your talent is, share it! Don't be afraid to take a stand and go against what has been done for the last century. What's been done in the last century concerning architecture in America was a step in the wrong direction as far as creativity, expression, and functionality are concerned.

Sam Jone - Guitar Media Music Recital

My wife and I went to this recital last Tuesday in the Madsen Recital Hall in the fine arts building at BYU. Sam is in our ward so we went to go support him and hear what he had done with his music.

The seats in the Madsen were comfortable and it wasn't crowded. The recital seemed to be a final project that Sam was required to do for school. I wish I had taken a camera so that you could see how the recital was set up.

Sam wrote or at least started all of the songs that were played. He mentioned that he had help from his roommate and other friends. The first couple of songs sounded like a mixture of rock and heavy metal. They had a vocal part, but the vocalist couldn't be heard very well if at all over the much loader instruments. Once the first song started, my wife took our son out because it was too load. The balance among the different parts was not right for the heavier music. However, it improved with the ballads.

The ballads were my favorite. For some reason, I like that slower and softer music. I always have. The instrumental parts were great. Sam played the guitar like a pro. I could hear and understand the vocalist better as well. The music was more relaxing as well.

Half way though the program, Sam let us listen to three of his music synthesizing projects. The projects involved taking computerizing instruments and putting the music together on the computer by one person instead of recording a band. This is something that's done often today for movies and TV. The music was pretty interesting and very well done, I thought.

Sam was also the guitarist for the Young Ambassadors from 2007-2008. He said that hardest song he had to play was "Mountain Music". Imagine the violin solo as a guitar. The guitar part is blue grass. Incredibly fast music. He is used to improvising, but after he finally got the feel for the rhythm he memorized what he did and never changed.

The last song played was another rock or heavy metal song that I wasn't a big fan of because it didn't flow well for me. No cool blending. The volume was again off and not balanced.

Overall, the recital was good. It was a good experience for me to see someone I know show their talents and love of music. Although I've never been a fan of rock music or heavy metal, I learned that it does take skill and understanding of music and rhythm to be able to put a piece together. I did enjoy the recital.

4th of July Freedom Festival!! Community Event

On Friday, Rachel, Trevor, Brett (my brother), Liz (my sister-in-law), and Avery (my niece) went to the Freedom Festival event on Center Street in Provo. There was something for everyone there. Huge blow-up toys were out, as well as various kinds of art booths, and food stands. The place was crowded too. There were some places were it was too much for me. I wanted to be somewhere else. Most of the people I encountered were friendly. There were some, however, who were weaving in and out of the crowd to get through (that happens at any event like this one). That was probably the only bad experience I had. I didn't buy any food because I wasn't hungry. However, my wife and I bought something for our son, Trevor. Here it is!!



Pretty cool, huh!! Rachel and I had one of these done when we went to California in High School and we thought it would pretty cool to have one done for Trevor as well. I'm not sure where the artist is from or what his name was (I didn't ask). I do know that he is Asian. The letter's in Trevor's name are spelled with different types of animals and buildings. Each object has a meaning to it. I thought that knowing the meaning of the objects, the entire work of art meant a lot more. Here are what the objects symbolize and a short history of "Leather Brush Art".

History

"This history of leather brush art dates back to 1600 AD. Leather Brush Art is a form of hand art, which was created by a great scholar Yoo Duck-Gong. Leather Brush Art is a form of art in which the letters are written in the combination of animals, plants, and senses of nature. For over three decades many talented artists have modified Leather Brush Art. Young Kim is one of those talented artists who has modified Leather Brush Art. In the orient, it is believed that to have your name done in this art form brings you 'GOOD LUCK!'"

Meanings of the Drawings

"Bamboo/Cactus/Palm Tree ........................................Long Life
Bird/Rooster ...................................................Good Luck
Butterfly ......................................................Pleasure
Dolphin/Seal/Whale .............................................Strength
Dragon/Mermaid .................................................Dreams
Elephant/Monkey ................................................Wisdom
Fish ...........................................................Energy
Flower/Penguin .................................................Success
Lighthouse .....................................................Happiness
Mailbox ........................................................Good News
Mountain/Canyon ................................................Bravery
Sea/Sailboat ...................................................Bright Future
Sun ............................................................Ambition
Swan ...........................................................Love
Waterfall/Mushroom .............................................Hero
Windmill/Pelican ...............................................Wealth"


While we were waiting for ours to be finished, several people gathered to watch the artist work. All of the comments made were positive. It sounded like most of the people I heard may not have seen one of these paintings done before. They were intrigued, which is evidence to me that most people love art and appreciate it when they see it. Here is a picture of the artist with the crowd of people behind him watching.



I don't go to many of these kind of sidewalk art shows, but enjoy them. This one was especially good because I saw things that I never saw before which made the experience enjoyable. What also made the experience good was that I'd never been to this particular art show. People go to a lot of work to show what they can do. They love to do it and go to a great deal of effort to show it to everyone they can. I appreciate that. I will try to go to more of these type of events.

More Architecture!

I went to the Freedom Festival activities last night on Center Street in Provo. While I was there, I saw the Utah County Office building and noticed the architecture on the front of the building. The columns were an ionic style and in the pediments were sculptures that I couldn't really make out. I find it interesting that the two government office buildings that I've looked at lately both had the ionic style architecture.

Classic Architecture in America

After learning about the classic architecture in class yesterday, I was curious to know what the architecture is on the White House and Lincoln Memorial. I found it interesting how classic architecture was used on both of the buildings.

The White House



A close up look at the columns and capital show a ionic style of architecture. The architrave is clear. The ionic style comes from the Greeks and is viewed as graceful. I think this is fitting for the White House because of its symbol for America. However, as can seen, there are no flutes in the shafts of the columns. The presence of flutes is viewed as feminine. To keep the flutes out still creates a graceful, majestic, and strong feel.

The Lincoln Memorial



This building, however have different architecture than the White House. Again a close view of the building show the details of the columns. The capital on the columns indicate a doric architecture. The Greeks thought of the doric as bold or masculine which I find very fitting in defining the character of Abraham Lincoln. The entire building in and or itself resembles a smaller parthenon which was also view as a strong symbol for the Greeks and it still is viewed today. The Lincoln Memorial stands as a symbol of strength and courage and also unity as a tribute to what Abraham Lincoln did for America. The building also shows triglyphs and and metopes in the entablature.