Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: emotions, music, past, present, private, public
i cry a lot. but it’s very rarely because i’m sad about something. usually it happens when i’m extremely happy or think that something is incredibly beautiful. things that could be considered silly like a sunset or hearing a song come on the radio will make me tear up.
case and point, this song -
every single time i hear it, it makes me cry. i remember hearing it for the first time in my dads car when i was really little and it made me cry. i dunno what it is exactly, but it gets me every time.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: change, faces, growth, illusion, lines, music, observations, past, phx, present, sky, summer, tucson
a year is a long time. and a lot can and does change. so how is it that we find ourselves in the same places and routines? does that much ever really change?
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: american, candles, concern, dead, music, observations, opinion, photographs, public, tucson, vigil
there was a candle light vigil in the rose garden of reid park tonight in honor of michael jackson. we went to check it out and the whole time i had the same two thoughts running through my head.
- how is it that we can rally for shit like this, but the stuff that actually matters we just sit on our asses and do nothing?
- these people are totally serious about this.
within the first 5 minutes of being there, we heard michael jackson get compared to the dali lama, louis farrakhan, and martin luther king. and apparently he had a greater affect on the world then any of them. why? because his music brought people together.
seriously?? how is he even on the same level as those guys??
i mean, yeah it sucks that he’s dead but personally i’m more bummed out about farrah fawcett. the burning bed was like my favorite movie when i was little. and as far as i know, he never had a lifetime movie…not yet anyways.
rip farrah fawcett
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: analysis, music, noise, opinion, politics, private, public, reading
i learned about the Infernal Noise Brigade last summer and it really struck a chord with me then, and still does today. sometime last fall, the loft opened a film called battle in seattle. it deals with the protests happening in seattle on november 30th, 1999, the same time in which the INB was gearing up for its debut. while watching the film, i kept thinking about the articles i read during this class. especially the one written by jennifer whitney since it hold a first hand account of the events that lead up to and took place on that day. the director made the very smart decision to incorporate real footage from protestors and news crews, and in the background you can see the INB marching but you can definitely hear them playing. it was a really great experience to see them on the screen, and see how they really motivated the crowd. you get that sense because of the readings as well as the powerpoint presentation, but to see it for longer then a few seconds makes it very clear and unarguable.
the idea behind the Infernal Noise Brigade of being the dope propaganda is great. they are reclaiming public space and actually making them for the people. the street is their venue instead of being in some gallery or museum space. it makes it more accessible for the masses, and is also really the only setting that this could really take place. anywhere else would just be odd, since they are trying to break up the differences created between art, politics and everyday life. there shouldn’t be any kind of division between these things, because all of them happen daily and need one another to grow.
this time around i found the second article, affective composition and aesthetics: on dissolving the audience and facilitating the mob, to be much more interesting then the one written by jennifer whitney. i think its because it focuses more on the principals of political art instead of a personal account of the event. not that that isn’t interesting as well, but this one feels more insightful then it did the last time i read it.
what i found most interesting about this is the idea of performance and how it can be used in different ways. what the INB does is break down the barrier between performance and art by taking music off the stage and into the crowd. they are no longer on that pedestal, and there is no longer a focal point. instead, the crowd becomes the focal point and everyone there is involved with the action instead of passively watching, they’ve become apart of the experience. they have used the idea of the spectacle to their advantage, by doing these lively performances they draw attention the themselves and their message. “In order for political speech to cause affective resonance, conditions must exist for the audience to be able to identify with the speaker as well as possess a capacity to affect and be affected.” they help create this kind of environment.
Political art is political not just through its content, but also in the way in which it is designed to work with or against the conventional circulation of ideas, images, and relations. In other words, forms of street art are not subversive simply because of the fact that they occur in the street, but rather because they unfold relations that resist the over-coding operations of the art institution and commodity production.
i think that the INB uses this idea of political art beautifully, and can be seen just in the pure fact that they are a marching band. for many people, their first associations with the marching band comes from war time and its use to motivate solders. they have re-appropriated what a marching is and can by, by using to help revitalize those who are protesting. it is still used as a motivator, but the audience it is targeting is much different then what it used to be. also, the kinds of music they draw inspiration from is from across the world which creates a multicultural experience. by using music styles from anywhere and everywhere, it is a way of connecting people and making them apart of something bigger.
the Infernal Noise Brigade does an amazing job at incorporating the people around them into their performances. i love the idea of interrupting routine with music. but especially, i enjoy how much fun they all seem to be having. they want to provide energy for the crowd and do so not only through their music but the positive energy they exude.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: overheard, walking, music, private, public, observations, maps, reminisce, nature, natural, southwestern art, ugly, mall
i decided to take this walk in a place that has gone from a place of comfort to one of total disdain, the mall. i remember being like 13 and going to the park mall every weekend with my friends. that was the place to be at that age, and that seems to linger on for a few years. but at some point, it switched over for me. it stopped being a place that i liked going, instead i absolutely dread going.
i was armed with my ipod for this walk, which happened to have crashed the day before and needed to be reloaded with music. i was at a friends house so he put on a bunch of music for me. all of which were bands that i liked when i was just finishing middle school and starting high school. so listening to bands like incubus [yeah, i know] really took me back to the time when i actually enjoyed being at the mall. while on my walk around the place, i became very interested in all of these things that i never really noticed before. i couldn’t help but stare all of the horrible southwestern art that could be found throughout the space.
and the attempt to bring in natural lighting into this very artificial environment.
but what i found really interesting was the big potted plants.
this idea of bringing nature into totally fabricated, unnatural environments is a theme that has been popping up a lot lately. i know a lot of people working with this theme, and was able to see it a lot while at the mall. i found it to be a really funny juxtaposition of these plants against these brightly light, backgrounds with bright colors and photoshopped models.
i walked through the whole mall and had all of these thoughts about the space itself and didn’t really take into much consideration the people in it. which happened during the second half of the walk.
i’ve always been an eavesdropper, and the mall is totally the right place to be in to hear some really good stuff. its not that i am trying to be nosey, but i just really like seeing people in their element. when they are totally themselves because they think that no one is paying attention. people are so funny and don’t even really know it. so, when walking through the mall without headphones i couldn’t help but not smile and giggle a bit when people would say something funny or just ridiculous. the highlight being this: “now, learning how to say what color are your panties in Arabic seems way more important than anything else.” that gem happened right outside the victoria secret, which may or may not be a coincidence.
i also noticed how unwilling people are to make eye contact with you there. everyone was either looking at the person they were with or staring at the ground. there were a few accidental glances by some teenagers and they quickly looked away, the only people who actually maintained eye contact were those annoying kiosk people and the mall security. both of which make sense, since it is part of their job. but, it is still very interesting how people react when they make eye contact with you especially when you don’t look away. we’ve become very sensitive to this and can feel when it has gone on too long.
it was a very interesting experience going back to a place i used to spend so much time in. this walk made me realize different things about the space that i don’t think i otherwise would have payed attention to.
here is the route that i took for my walk,
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: music, observation, private, public, walking
music is more important to some people then others. i like it a lot and have it on all the time, well almost all the time. i used to constantly wear my headphones while riding my bike or walking anywhere. at some point i stopped, i can’t really pin point the exact moment in time in which i’d stopped doing that but i did. so, taking a walk with them on again was very strange. and felt almost like a sensory overload.
this is the route i took: [black = ipod, blue = no ipod]
i noticed that i became very observant. at least about the big things i saw, like buildings and landscape but totally blew past things that i normally would spend a lot of time with. like the sidewalk and traffic. it was very odd to hear music while walking instead of the sounds that i knew i was producing as well as the ones that were around me.
i ventured into value village because i realized i’d never tried to go into a store with headphones on. i think it’s really rude to try and interact with other people with them in. it’s as though what they are listening is too important to give you their full attention. i felt incredibly rude with them on and had a conflict with the other music that was being played, they meshed but not in a good way.
i took a slight detour on my walk home, which felt like FOREVER long. when really, it wasn’t that far.
i prefer to listen to music in a more private setting, i’ve concluded. in the car, and most definitely at home but it isn’t necessary while walking. also, it isn’t the safest decision to make either. though i become very observant to things that i don’t normally pay much attention to, those other things that are important – like hearing traffic – tend to take the backseat.
