Athens

Most of What Follows is True

It was a gorgeous day last Friday and, as the sun slowly crept away, the Tribeca Film Festival geared up for its second Drive-in of the year; Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The screening was part of a tribute to the amazing William Goldman, who is responsible for Marathon Man, All the President’s Men, and beyond all else both the book and the movie versions of The Princess Bride.

Ever since I first witnessed the sepia toned opening to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, I have been in love with it. I once tried to write down every line that made me chuckle, but found that I couldn’t go 2 minutes without having to pause the movie. It’s funny and witty, but also truthful and sweet. In addition to the writing, the films leads; the impeccable Paul Newman and Robert Redford, created two of the most riveting characters I had ever seen. They engage the audience with every nuance of their movement, smiles, and tone of voice.

However, on Friday, I was really taken aback by the cinematography. The camera acts like an artist framing, highlighting, and blending everything on screen. Between director George Roy Hill and cinematographer Conrad Hall, the choice of what is in focus and how much and from how far things are seen augment the other areas of story telling and really push Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid into being a great film. The writing is brilliant and the acting’s superb, but the camerawork really takes advantage of what make the medium unique.

Adventureland

Usually, the “and” credit goes to the most esteemed non-leading actor in a film; often it goes to an older venerated thespian. In Adventureland, the honor goes to the young Ryan Reynolds. At first, I was irked by this. In my opinion, his previous body of work did not warrant this position, however I was pleasantly surprised by his role in the film. He plays O’Connell, the often needed mechanic of the titular second-rate theme park. Both the way Reynolds crafts the character, and the way the story reveals him exposes a man who is at times enviable and also absolutely pathetic.

O’Connell is a man who, at first, seems to be the hippest of the hip; the kind of guy to swoon for. He doles out advice to the main character with worldly poise. However, as the fresh out of college lead goes through his coming of age, the film’s perspective on O’Connell changes; he becomes pitiable. Ryan Reynolds’s performance is so precise that it is purely the audience’s informed vantage point that changes their opinion.

Let’s see if Ryan Reynolds’s can convincingly play a mutant this weekend in X-Men Origins

Identity by Design

The National Museum of the American Indian currently has an exhibit called Identity by Design, which investigates the culture of crafting Native American dresses. It highlights the evolution of design as Native American women were introduced to European and Eastern materials, and as integration forced American ideals and traditions onto the tribal culture.

The exhibit is expertly crafted with enough objects and text to be meaningful while being limited enough to avoid being cluttered. Objects are finely selected, which leaves the visitor with plenty of time and space for contemplation. The walls are lightly peppered with quotes from Native American women about what dress-making means to them.

“When you wear your dress, you’re carrying the spirit of all the people who gave you the lessons of life, who made dresses before you – dresses that you can look at today and be inspired by.” Keri Jhane Myers (Comanche) 2005

“When I wear the dresses that I’ve made, I feel a strong sense of accomplishment because a lot of work has gone into them.”
Jamie Okuma (Luiseño/Shoshone-Bannock), 2005

“When I create an object that is of our tribe, like a dress, it’s almost like I’m so connected to the past. I almost feel like somebody is guiding me as to what I’m supposed to be doing. It’s a very spiritual experience for me.”
Jackie Parsons (Blackfeet), 2005


While I do not presume my experience crafting sweaters and scarves to be nearly the same as what the exhibit discusses, the comments do reverberate with me. Even though technology has changed the way we dress, the combination of the sense of perpetuating tradition and the time it takes to create the handmade clothes puts a higher significance on the objects than their beauty and functionality. The object is both part of the past and the future; the long-established method of productions infuses the objects with history and the items quality and craftsmanship allow for it to be cherished and used for years and perhaps generations to come.

Exhibit Website: http://www.nmai.si.edu/exhibitions/identity_by_design/IdentityByDesign.html

Museum Website: http://www.nmai.si.edu/index.cfm

Get Your Balls in a Knot

Check out my new blog dedicated to my yarn craft obsession. Here is a brief summer

http://www.getyourballsinaknot.blogspot.com/

Turning balls of yarn into crochet or knit pieces can be daunting, but that’s part of the adventure. Simply knotting string transforms it. My adventure is about creating works that

match my style and growing skill level. I am chronicling my journey so others can find the courage to knit their own path too. When the books aren’t as insightful or the patterns aren’t as inspiring as you’d like, that’s when the adventure begins. When you can’t put your yarn down, that’s when you know you’re hooked.

Never a Bad Word - Bellevue's Finest

Over the past few years, I have consciously avoided all music groups that were not immediately recognizable by the mass populace. However, this past week I was roped into seeing the band Bellevue’s Finest; and was pleasantly surprised.

For me, the pleasure produced by popular art is derived from the music/movie/book’s ability to create a seamless space; to construct a world or sound that is complete unto itself. Bellevue’s Finest has a look, sound, and attitude that is inclusive and unique. It can be best described as Revenge of the Nerds, meets Rooney, meets a bunch of NYC Jewish boys. Their music is quirky, spirited and inventive and I wish them all the best.

A Superbad Exhibit at the Met

A giant phallus being carried through Roman streets in a celebratory parade is not what comes to mind when thinking about the sketches of great renaissance artists. However, the Metropolitan Museum’s exhibit ‘Art and Love in Renaissance Italy,’ and its art object "The Triumph of the Phallus,” focuses on art that would have been used, cherished, laughed at, and generally enjoyed. The objects call to mind contemporary images from film and television. They are not only examples of superior craftsmanship and artistry, but of the representations of sex and love in Renaissance Italy.

Many institutions and individuals distinguish between ‘high art’ and ‘low art.’ So-called low art encompasses items made from mediums of artistic potential, but with the primary intention to entertain or titillate the masses. While some creations of popular art are dumb-ed down to appeal to the lowest common denominator of the populace (aka its audience), they can also be so in tune with human nature that their popularity comes from their ability to speak to everyone. It is odd, then, that popular art, and its position within society, is often ignored in our museums until centuries after its manufacture. ‘Art and Love in Renaissance Italy’ highlights many objects that are valued as high art, even though their contemporary counterparts are not.

While exploring the galleries dedicated to physical love, it is hard not to think of similarities between the subject matter, and at times even the composition of the Renaissance images, and contemporary renderings of physical love. One can, of course, argue for the skill of the Renaissance artist tools in hand. However, it is also undeniable that these images are of the same intention as the penis drawings made by Superbad’s young Evan. The glorifying image he draws of a group of phallus’s raising the flag at Iwo Jima is not far off from the literal depiction of a Phallus’s Parade hung reverently on the Metropolitan Museum’s wall. The same humor and exuberance is in and escapes both.

Through exploring he past, there are ways to evaluate present trends as not new, but part of a recurring, or constant, humanity. A humanity expressed through all art; functional, entertaining, and always enlightening.




http://www.metmuseum.org/special/art_love/view_1.asp?item=23