Dance Sport YAY!!!!! 8th cultural event

I went to Dance Sport on Saturday and watched a few groups compete. They were very good. This was on ballroom dance. The first groups did the Cha-Cha, others did the Rumba, and some did the Samba. To be honest I was quite bored to watch the Social Dance 180 compete, because they were beginners. I enjoyed watching the Samba. They were very good. I think they were a level 300 group. It looked like fun.
I've taken three dance classes, 180, 280 and Social Country Dance. I think by far country dance was my favorite class. Doing the Foxtrot in the other classes was awkward, but I thought the Waltz was interesting. We learned about the Viennese Waltz, and that was fun.
I have not taken a dance class for about a couple years. I wanted to take more, but I got married. I do not know why or how I got into a little dance. I always thought dancing is for wussies. So I manned it up by going shooting, hunting, fishing, 4x4ing, and working in construction. I enjoyed myself though, but the dance stage of my life is over.

In Class 7

Class has been very interesting to me lately. I must admit a few things did not catch my interest quite as architecture, cinema, and music. I absolutely love architecture, but for this week, we have talked about music and cinema. I am amazed how some of these virtuosos came up with their compilations from their head. I like to play classical music on the piano, and I can appreciate how these wonderful composers came up with such beautiful and complicated music. I am more familiar with Mozart and Beethoven. Mozart's music is very intense on the piano and it takes much practice to get down. Finger placement is key to play his music perfectly, if it can be played perfectly. I used to be able to play Rondo Alla Turca or Turkish March. My mission in Bulgaria made me forget how to play his music, and it is very hard to get back to where I was especially with college always biting me in the back. Seriously a four credit math class should not have twenty hours of homework a week!!!! When I can afford a piano, I want to acquire one.
We started discussing cinema towards the middle-end of class on Monday. I think it's funny how people back then were fascinated with their five minute clips, and how they gathered at the local movie theater to watch. I could imagine seeing a movie picture for the first time would be fascinating. Nowadays it seems as if we do not make many breakthroughs with technology. Man landing on the moon now, or even Mars, big deal. Ipods and mp3 players were not as much as a breakthrough as much as moving pictures to people in the late 1800's and early 1900's. I wonder what we will invent today that will make us be in awe. I definitely agree that closeup shots are very important for movies. They make me feel as if I am there instead of just observing what is going on. I wonder what movies would be like today if it weren't for that one gentleman (what's his name again?) who introduced to the public closeup.

Readings 7

I did not read too much this week. However, I read part of Jasie's two papers that she put up on blackboard. They seemed too much out of my reach, but they were interesting indeed. I did not know that Jasie is focusing on zombies. I did not realize anyone could focus on them, but I guess throughout history and cultures the concept of zombies is interesting and important to many.

Cinderella at the Valley Center Playhouse in Lindon

My wife and I went to Lindon to go see a play at the Valley Center Playhouse. It was hard to find, because it was located in a neighborhood. I did not see any signs or anything. We hesitantly walked in, and there were people in there already. The stage was set up as an arena. There must not have been more than 60 people there. The whole time Rachel and I were wondering what or why they were doing this play. There were all ages there.
Anyways, we all know the story of Cinderella. That is what the play was about. The girl who played Cinderella is a very beautiful singer, and I actually enjoyed everyone's acting. The older lady who was supposed to be the evil step mother was very emotional and did a great job. The two step sisters were very annoying, and I could sense a little how Cinderella would have felt.
Also in real life Cinderella and the Prince actors were engaged and are getting married at the end of the summer. The actors even interacted with the crowd, especially the little girls. They had them try on the slipper, and it was pretty cute.
If anybody understands why people put on these kinds of plays in random places, let me know. Thanks.

Readings 6 (A little research on realism theatre)

Out of that list on the Power Point presentation, I decided to do a little research on theatre in the realism era. I looked it up on the internet, and found out that this type of theatre started in Russia, but gained much popularity throughout Europe. This type of theatre has great influence on modern drama today. Realism has plots that deal with everyday normal behavior for the middle and lower classes. The climax reveals secrets that are unkown to the audience, thus everybody understands at this point. Heroes were no longer represented by only the upper class. Any average Joe can be a hero. Certain new theatrical ideas, politcs, and social attributes complimented theatre in the Realism era. It still dominates today.

In class 6

I must say that I enjoyed class this week. I liked how Jasie introduced us to grooveshark.com, and that she could show us a piece of music from each time period. There was more interaction with that in class discussion about music in general. I liked how we went over how music is important and why or how it affects us. Music is very amazing to me. I took a physics class last semester and one of the subjects that we learned had to do with acoustics, and how sound is created. Each note has a certain frequency and they are all related mathematically. Also when the source of sound is moving or when the obsverver is moving there is a doppler effect. The doppler effect changes the frequency of the sound. In this class we are learning how music affects our brains or our emotions. I personally love music. I play the piano, and when I had extra time in the past, I liked to learn new pieces. I love playing mozart. He definitely was a genius. Seriously, how do people come up with this kind of stuff? How do all the notes flow perfectly to make us feel the way we do? It is all amazing.
Throughout my life, I have noticed that when I listen to certain songs I remember the first time or around the first time that I've listened to them. For example, when I am listening to The Beautiful Mistake it reminds me of my senior year of high school, and how I would drive every other week from Las Vegas to go snowboarding up in Brian Head near Cedar City. Also other songs remind me of other things. I wonder what I am listening to now that will make me remember now later. Now, that is interesting.

Bang the Drum Slowly (Orem Public Library)

I went to the Orem public library and watched this movie that was filmed in 1973. I have not even heard of it in my whole entire short life before. I guess I am way young, because apparently many older people know about this film.
During this time period films were definitely slower and less action I presume. I was waiting for comedy, but it never came. When the movie came to an end, I realized that I liked it. It had a good story. It is mainly about two professional baseball players who are best friends. One of them had an illness that took his life a year later. The player who was not sick took care of his best friend and made sure where his sick friend went, he went too.
If it were not for the requirement in this class to go to a film screening, I probably would have never seen this movie in my life. I am thankful that I was able to see a different genre in movies. I assume that in class next week we will discuss cinema, and hopefully that will help me understand better.

In class 5

In class we discussed dance and theater. I think it is interesting how dancing is a natural thing to do. Everybody dances to something, and it makes everybody happy. Humans have been dancing since ancient times, and it is in the bible. Every culture has different types of dancing, and I think it is interesting to see. While I was in Bulgaria for my mission, I saw their folk dancing and costumes. I enjoyed it.
We also talked about Michael Jackson and his song Thriller. Jackson definitely contributed much to our society especially in the pop culture. He could definitely move and sing. It is sad how he left this world as a recluse. He had some major talent.
Talking about ballet was a little interesting. It was not my favorite topic, and I really do not care too much about ballet. All I know is that I respect them doing it, because I know it is extremely difficult.

Readings 5

I started listening to the audiotape of the book, This is Your Brain on Music. He started talking about how getting a pair of headphones for his all-in-one stereo set that he paid a hundred dollars for back in the day. He noticed that his speakers were not very good, and that he could listen to the music more in depth when he had his headphones on. I notice that too sometimes. I have a classical song that I like to listen to and I did not notice the detail of it when I listened to it through a pair of not so good speakers. When I put headphones on, I was amazed by the beauty of the whole song, because nothing was not left out.
I like how the author has a great love for music producing, and that he can notice stuff that we cannot. It is important where to place the microphone, or how to record. I am looking forward to talking about this guy in class on Monday, because he seems interesting.

Walter Wick: Games, Gizmos, and Toys in the Attic

Today I had the opportunity to visit the BYU Museum of Art. I decided to go check out Walter Wick's exhibition. I did not completely know what to expect, but his work completely exceeded my expectations. I know that I am not supposed to expect something when it comes to art, but generally I liked to be impressed. I headed downstairs onto the bottom floor of the museum, and I headed into Wick's exhibition. Ignoring the hundreds of children screaming and running around with their parents I enjoyed Wick's art. He is a very talented photographer with an intense imagination. He used toys of all sorts to create illusions. He used mirrors to emphasize these illusions and they did trick the eye. He had a few sets on display that he used for his photographs. His photographs seemed real.
By looking at some of his photos from the 1970's I could tell that he had a knack for creating illusions with his camera. He knew the right angle, lighting and everything. I could not believe all of the work he put in for a photograph. His pictures came to life as if nothing was out of the ordinary.
His medium is photography, and he knew the right angles for light and image capture. I recommend everyone to take a few moments to investigate his artwork. It is very amazing.

readings 4

I am reading The Great War and Modernism written by Jasie Stokes. It is a very well written paper about the Great War. World War I was a very devastating war that shaped the world, and it is mostly forgotten. Most of our attention is focused on World War II and other more recent wars. We do have evidence through the art during the first world war that show how people felt or were affected by it. Much of the art is very dramatic, and symbolizes broken young soldiers who would be better off dead, because they would suffer from their injuries for the rest of their lives. The Dada movement after the war is rather interesting, because they seem very apposed to war and they wanted to show people the effects of it. I do not completely understand the paper, because I have not studied these movements. It is too far advanced for my understanding and for critiquing.
I looked up some pictures from Van Eyck. He was an amazing oil painter. Although his paintings were very serious and dark they seemed intriguing. I could assume that Northern Europe is pretty dark anyways, and very cloudy. No one is smiling in his photos, and all his portraits are very serious with no action.
I also had the opportunity to look up Caravaggio. His paintings were more action oriented and did not seem as serious. They appeared to be a bit more dramatic. His time period is in the Baroque era when the Catholic church was trying counter reform. I can see how people might have wanted to stay with the Catholic church to this style of painting.

in class 4

This week in class we discussed artwork. It is interesting to see how many types of artwork we see from the past 150 years. In reality there was not as much change in art centuries ago compared to the changes we see now such as futurism, dada, fauvism, and many others. Even though these movements of art are interesting, I prefer art from the Baroque period because it is more dramatic and intriguing. The upside down urinal as a fountain was unreal. I thought that was funny.
We reviewed for the test a bit, and I am a little scared of what it is going to be like. There is so much material to go over again, and I hope that I may remember everything. I guess I have until Friday to take it so a few days to study for it. I do not know where to get started. Maybe starting with architecture is a go.

Jazz Night Baby, Yeeyeaaahhh!!!

On Tuesday I went to listen to the jazz band that was performing at the Muse on University Avenue in Provo. It only cost three dollars at the door. This band has been together since December of last year, and they sounded very good. The saxophonist was extremely talented, and I enjoyed listening to them. They played very old tunes from the 1930's or earlier. They played a cover of "Somewhere over the Rainbow" famous from the Wizard of Oz.
I know we have not discussed much about music yet in class, but it would be interesting why these men were playing in a jazz band. It is a little sad how our society would rather do something else such as watch a movie instead of enjoying live music from very talented musicians. I know that I am guilty of such, because I have never been to the muse. I enjoy live bands such as jazz or other non-popular type genres, but I usually never go out of my way to see them. They are definitely talented, and I hope they find their way playing such good inspiring tunes.

Dan Steinhilber Art Exhibition

Yesterday I had the opportunity to check out Dan Steinhilber's art exhibition in the BYU Museum of Art. This artist definitely has an interesting view on things. He had exhibits of materials that I would not have normally thought would be artistic at all. I would have thought of it as trash. I do not know exactly his motive, but to me aesthetically his artwork represents our society. He gathers up material that is mass produced and arranges it to look ordered somehow. The act itself of putting up his exhibitions such as a board of orange packets is considered artwork. He had a monitor on in fast forward motion that showed the people people this stuff together, and it looked artistic to me. I cannot quite decide if his artwork is considered contextualism or formalism. I would say it is contextualism, because he used modern things to makeup his artwork.
My favorite piece of artwork is a picture of a florescent light bulb exploading as if a 9mm bullet going through it in slow motion. They way the light bulb shatters looks as if it is in perfect order.
I thought the film of him blowing packaging foam around in his bathroom is bizzare, but it was interesting for sure. He also had a placard of clown balloons and a stand of PVC pipe. I just thought it was interesting, and opened my mind up a bit.
I personally would not have thought someone could have made trash look pretty and ordered, but Dan Steinhilber proved to me that that is possible. We live in a world with much garbage, and there has to be a way in which we can look on the bright side. Imagine graffiti being beautiful. It would be difficult to imagine for me, because culturally tagging is against the law as it is wrong. However, if someone came out and decided to make the trashy graffiti look beautiful, then people would appreciate it. I believe Dan Steinhilber has an excellent way portraying his ideas through the trash that we find and work with everyday in our lives. I enjoyed seeing a wonderful art display, and I recommend it to everyone.

Readings 3

Wolfe had some interesting points in his book, From Bauhaus to our House. It is interesting to me how there are many eras in our time that we go through, or how there are groups of people who claim that they are in a certain era. We definitely do not have many bourgeois type buildings. We live in more cookie cutter type style houses and go to cookie cutter type style buildings for work and school. I look at the Clyde and MARB building with disgust, and wonder when they are going to implode them to build something more pleasing to the eye. Oddly enough the testing center is a sweet building, but it could go through some renovations as well, but it looks more bourgeois on the outside. The Maeser building looks good as well, inside and out. It is made out of stone, and it has a certain look when the sun shines on it.
I know that we need to be cost effective, but the MARB?? Or the Clyde?? Let's stick the engineers in the Clyde, they will not care. Whoever designed the JFSB almost had it, but I still think it could have been designed a little better. I like the terrace they have on the fourth floor. That is a neat idea.

In class 3

This week in class we talked mostly about architecture and a little about paintings. I must admit that I enjoy talking and studying architecture. As a mechanical engineering student, I tend to appreciate the ways how people do and build things. The artwork is interesting, but how these people designed and built these massive churches during the Gothic Era. I am amazed how they are still standing today, and that these people actually succeeded in putting flying buttresses and arches to hold the building. I honestly believed that people had more pride in their building practices than many people in our day. As a construction worker, you go to work just to get paid, and if it works, it works. It seemed as if these people had more respect, especially for their churches and temples.
Our architecture today is a bit boring. Before college when I worked in construction, it was the same thing everyday. Nothing extravagant was built. I worked on building dental offices. The only really expensive commercial buildings had interesting features with waterfalls in the lobby or beautiful marble flooring and such. Don't get me wrong, we did a great job making our work look nice, but the outside buildings are called building shells with temporary improvements on the inside such as law office, dental office, and other offices. The keyword "shell" is a building that is a typical one story rectangular box. I guess the important factor is saving money, but being professional at the same time. However there are some buildings today that look extravagant such as LDS temples, custom homes, and hotels in Las Vegas. It is interesting how our society is much different, and we just like to make it easy even with our modern conveniences such as cranes, computers with CAD systems, concrete trucks, etc.
When we started talking about art on Wednesday I did not realize the difference colors make emotionally. Looking at those weird interesting color paintings made me realize that colors do matter. It is interesting how subconsciously we recognize and respond to colors. Van Gogh's usage of colors definitely sinks deep down into the soul. For example that one painting in the restaurant with the pool table he used a dull yellow to make the painting seem dark and solemn.

America's Freedom Festival

Today, for Independence Day, I went to the Freedom Festival in Provo with my wife and my family who came up from Las Vegas. We first stopped by the farmers market. It was interesting. They had many nice things there. They also had a rally of protesters who do not like President Obama. A person was speaking to a group of people with a bunch of signs protesting what is happening to our country. I agree with them and I am not very fond of Obama. However, that is an appropriate activity for the Fourth of July, because our country started by many protesters that eventually resulted in the freedom that we enjoy now. We need to stick up for the same things that our forefathers did when the British government was too strong and tyrannical.
We walked around and bought some famous Utah cherries, and tried someone's homeade barbeque sauce. It was pretty tasty. Then we head up to the carnival.
On the way to the carnival, something caught me by suprise. There was a miniture carshow of hotrods. There was pure American muscle there. There was a Mazda there, and I was not sure why it was there. I drooled over the Chevy Nova, Camaro, and some other classics.
Then we went to the carnival and checked out all of the sweet shops of arts and crafts. We saw someone doing some old school blacksmithing. It appeared he was making a knife. That really seems like hard work.
My family and I just got back from watching the fireworks for the stadium of fire. Nothing beats watching those fireworks for free. We earlier set up chairs at the spot that we like each year and came back later. The fireworks are very beautiful.
This whole day has been very eventful. I am forever grateful for those who sacrificed their lives for our freedom. We indeed are blessed to be free and to live here. I am proud to be an American, not sorry to be one.

Readings 2

I thought that the article on beauty was interesting. The author mentioned about a plant that was so beautiful, but his botanist friend thought it was hideous for what it does. This beautiful plant destroys the ecosystem where it takes root. This reminds me of the mistletoe and how funny it is that it represents a kiss when you stand underneath it, but it is a parasite that destroys trees. Something that seems so beautiful to you may not seem beautiful for others.
As I am reading about the many different types of art, I am amazed at the different techniques artists use. They choose different mediums for many reasons. An oil painting is much more detail and specific, whereas buon fresco does not have as much detail but still has a specific feel to it. Stained glass is interesting because it lights up with color when the sunlight passes through it and makes the room fill up with colors. It has a majestic feel to it.
As I am reading about architecture, I am amazed how the Druids at Stonehenge stacked up those heavy blocks up.

In class 2

The topic that we covered in class today was interesting. After the readings and what we discussed made me realize that there are many definitions for beauty, and there is no right answer. Beauty is definitely what the eye of the beholder believes to be. For example, I am from Las Vegas, Nevada, and my wife is from Alaska. There are definitely stark differences in our perception of beauty. I think 100 degree hot August nights are beautiful when the sun goes down. The sky is orange on the sunset, and you can feel the warm air driving with the windows down. My wife on the other hand is from Alaska with disgust that I think the desert is beautiful. She cannot stand the desert, and the heat consumes her. Alaska is definitely gorgeous with desolate mountains of green trees, snow, and glaciers with abundant wildlife. Our views of beauty are completely different, and neither view is right. We need to understand for ourselves what beauty means and what it does for us as what we associate it with.
In class on Thursday we went over architecture which is to be my favorite of the arts. It is very interesting how ancient cultures built massive buildings without modern technology as we have today. It is fascinating that many of these buildings still stand today hinting us what it was like living amongst these ancient people when these buildings were built. Seeing pictures of Ancient Greek, Roman, and Egyptian buildings entice me to go there. Unfortunately I have never been to these places, but someday I will. While I was serving in Bulgaria (which is bordered with Greece) it was tempting to hop the border for a day to check out Ancient Greek ruins. Unfortunately that never happened. However, I did have the opportunity to see Byzantium buildings and a couple ancient Thracian or Roman structures. I was amazed that they were still standing. I also saw other different types of buildings that drew my attention. The spaceship looking building was on top of the tallest mountain used by the Communists. It had an eerie feeling to it. I believe each and every building has a certain feeling to it whether it's bad, good, happy, sad etc. I hope to learn more about architecture in this class.

cultural events that I plan to attend

1. Manti Miracle Pageant Saturday June 27 (Community)
2. Farmer's Market or Parade July 4th (Community)
3. BYU Museum of Art Steinhilber (Art exhibition) July 10
4. Jazz night on the 14th (music)
5. Movie Screening Monday July 20 (Film)
6. Theatrical Event (Singing in the Rain)
7. Dance Sport (Dance) August 8th
8. Movie Screening

In class 1

I just added this class last Friday. As far as I can tell from the power point slides from the first week is that this class will help me understand more on how to interpret art, and what it means to me and the community. I tend to live everyday ignoring any art around me, and that I think some specific types of art are silly. I know that I need to change, and I want to change. I believe this class will help me understand how to read art, even if it may appear silly. This will help me respect those who try to make us understand our world a certain way and be more open minded. However, there is some types of art that I am interested in such as centuries old art, architecture, mathematics, and engineering, but I want to try to understand more of other kinds such as street art.
Understanding art is important for us as a culture, country, and heritage. We may seem very narrow minded in our society ignoring what may actually be very important. I know in today's society to be competitive with other nations we have to specialize in something individually and nationally. This forces us to forget about other things in our world. For example someone may be a very intelligent physicist, but he may not even know how to change the oil in his car, mow the lawn, understand history, dance a simple waltz, or play the piano. He may understand cold fusion which is impressive, but it is sad in our society now that people do not know how to do other things or appreciate art. I know that it is important to specialize, but I want to understand more. I hope this class will help me understand how to criticize art in way other than saying a piece of art is silly and stupid. I want to be able to understand why it is there or what it means to me. With an open mind such as this will help me engage in many things that I would not have thought of that would help me grow and understand our world. Always willing to learn something new is a start.

Readings 1

I always wondered why we had to take general education courses here at BYU or at other universities. In the text, the author describes how unfortunate it is that in our society now people want to ignore a certain area of study to move on with their chosen field. He describes how important it is for people to become cultured, and that corporations should hire people more generalized rather than a "narrowly trained specialist". This will better their companies knowing that their employees are well rounded willing to work hard. It is unfortunate that many people may be very smart in one field, but they are awkward to talk to. They may have a 4.0 GPA in something, but will end up working in some cubicle crunching numbers or something while a more rounded person will end up with customer service or management. I am not sure that this author meant what I am saying, but it makes sense to me how it is important to be more generalized.
I especially love what is written in Moroni 7. We need to come to our senses and do things with a real intent. If we go through the motions the act we are doing profits us nothing. We also need to be real and not fake and actually have emotion for what we are doing. For example, giving a gift to someone should be out of love and generosity. It should not be given grudgingly as it is stated in Moroni 7. We have the obligation to judge. To judge what is good is of God and what is evil of the Devil.
In retrospect of the readings, art is what defines our culture. We also can understand our world from our art. Our culture will die if we do not understand where we have came from. We connect ourselves with other people through art whether it's dance, paintings, sculptures, architecture, music, and other things. If we understand the meaning of these things, we will continue to grow.

Manti Pageant

My wife and I went to the Mormon Miracle Pageant in Manti on Saturday June 27. It was about an hour and a half drive. We drove through Nephi and took the highway through Moroni to Manti. In Nephi, we noticed a beautiful rose garden. My wife wanted to stop and check it out. The rose garden is for those who payed the price for freedom in World War II. Next to the rose garden was a monument for other wars, more specifically for those from Utah who paid the ultimate price. We went on our way to Manti.
We arrived in Manti at around 5:00 in the afternoon. We decided to make this experience a day trip. The gates did not open until 6:00. We waited in line with our blankets and jackets to save a seat so we can go explore the town. The sun was beating down on us, and there was absolutely no shade for us while waiting in line. After they opened the gates we saved our seats. We left to go eat and to do other things. We went through an antique store that had a bunch of art that a lady was trying to sell.
The Manti Miracle Pageant started at 9:30 right after the sunset. I would say that the pageant had a great message, but it was very corny. The costumes were awesome, and the narrator and people speaking on the tape seemed like they were recorded in the 1950's. My wife laughing through some of it especially during the part where Mary and Robert were expressing their love.
It had a great message. It was about the whole history of the church and the Book of Mormon fast forwarded. The lighting and props were very impressive, and it is definitely worth attending again. Most likely my wife and I will return with friends or with our future children.
The Manti temple is beautiful. It is very majestic, and it just stands out on highway 89 for miles. It is amazing how the saints in the 1800's built something like that in the middle of nowhere without any major railroads or technology that we have today.
It is neat that many people are willing to do the pageant every year for many people to experience what the Gospel has to offer.