Author: Sara Olds

The recent 2010 movie, The Fighter, is not one to be passed up.  Nominated for six Golden Globes and nine nominations is not false advertising; this movie is that good.  Mickey Ward (Mark Wahlberg), is kid brother to Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale) the once acclaimed boxer turned coke addict.

Mickey, following in his brother’s boxing footprints takes the ring with Dicky as his primary coach claiming, “Dicky has taught me everything I know.” Only after a fight that leaves Micky badly bruised does he begin to consider changing management.  This is not an easy task because his mother, Alice Ward (Melissa Leo) is his current manager.

Based on a true story, the actor’s characters are based off of real people in life, and this realism makes the audience feel at ease and comfortable interacting with these characters on screen.  This parallelism between the viewer and the characters allows the audience to be emotionally vulnerable with the characters.  Humor, suspense, love, hatred, betrayal and suspense are all conveyed to the viewer through this parallelism.

The acting is powerful because it feels so real and connected to the actual characters themselves.  Each character is respected in his or her own right, therefore a movie with many protagonists instead of one.  The honesty felt within each character is what makes The Fighter a must see.

What gets you most into the holiday spirit?  Do you enjoy decorating your home with lights and small ornaments or are you more of the person who simply enjoys the company of friends and family for dinners and festive evenings?  I enjoy both of these holiday events, but what really gets me into the holiday season is nothing other than Christmas music!

There is something about Christmas music’s cheery tone that I can’t escape.  No matter how wishful or cliché they may be, I merrily sing along to all.  In high school, my sister and I would blare Maria Carey’s All I Want for Christmas is You, every morning and evening on our way to and from school and any other time we got in the car and felt the impulse to listen to it, which happened frequently during the month of December.  Maybe it is those fond memories that leave a weak spot in my heart for Christmas music.

I was in one of my classes recently and I heard someone say they absolutely hated Christmas music.  I was appalled!  It was similar to the way Tinkerbelle felt whenever she heard someone say they didn’t believe in fairies.  Ok, maybe that’s an extreme comparison, but that is what it felt like.

You can bet that I get through finals with the help of my trusted musically talented professionals serenading me in the background.  I don’t know where I would be without them.  I could listen to the entire album of the Nutcracker on repeat for hours.  I even listen to it when it is not the holiday season.  This is telling of how obsessed I am.

My favorites beside All I Want for Christmas is You and the Nutcracker are Dean Martin’s White Christmas, Linus and Lucy, Charlie Brown, and Rocking Around the Christmas Tree.

I get awfully sad when December 26^th roles around and radio stations stop playing my beloved music.  However, it is only December 8^th, so I am in the prime of my Christmas music marathon!

Continuing with my art in landscape blogs, I thought it would be nice to talk about sculpture in the landscape that is on our campus.  Therefore I will focus on the sculptures outside of the University of Michigan Museum of Art.  There are seven outdoor sculptures outside of the museum.  There are six different artists with various backgrounds and impressive histories.

The first sculpture is called Shang by Mark di Suvero built in 1984-85 out of steel.  The sculpture can be interpreted as a Chinese character as well as a Japanese Shinto temple.  A lot of people swing on the moving chair.  The interactive quality of this sculpture makes Shang highly appealing.

Moving on to our second sculpture, there is Orion by Mark di Suvero in 2006 out of steel.  This structure is a play of angles and line seen from any side.  The artist painted the steel red to contrast with the blue sky.  This is the most pronounced structure surrounding UMMA.  People either love or hate this artwork.  I know of people who think this looks like people having sex, but I don’t see it.  Maybe you do.

The third sculpture is called Ternary Marker, by Beverly Pepper in 1988 out of cast bronze.  It is known as a “urban alter” that blends antiquity with modernism.  You can see it behind the museum next to Tappan Hall.

The fourth land art is called Stiff Box No. 12, by Lucass Samaras from 1971.  It appears to be an abstract form of intertwining forms, possibly resembling a figure.  Samaras was interested in contrasting the left side of the sculpture with soft forms to the right side with hard jagged movements.

Heading around the museum to the fifth sculpture we see Requiem by Erwin Binder.  It was made in 1988 out of bronze.  This piece is a memorial to the armed forces and Americans who have served for our country.

The sixth work is called Angry Neptune, Salacia, and Stride by Michele Oka Doner a UofM alumna.  This structure is made out of bronze and appears to be melting figures in dialog.

The last structure is called Daedalus by Charles Ginnever.  The title is after a Greek legend and is molded in the shape of a wind in flight.  Walk around it to get the full effect.

Well, there you have it.  I hope you enjoy your stroll around the museum soon!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I am sure if you are interested in the arts and are reading this blog, then you are well aware of the Heidelberg Project in Detroit.  If any of you read that sentence and now your head is cocked to one side and your brows are furrowed, I am pleased today is the day you stumbled upon the Heidelberg Project.

Now, I was discussing last week the importance of art within the landscape and I left by saying I would bring you examples of landscape art in my future blogs.  Well, I am a woman of my word, and I am happy to introduce landscape art through the Heidelberg Project.

To give you some background, a man named Tyree Guyton and his Grandfather in 1986 started the Heidelberg Project.  Guyton grew up on Heidelberg Street as a child, experiencing the race riots that devastated the city and left many homes abandoned.  In attempts to turn the neighborhood into something the people in the community could benefit from, Guyton worked with his Grandfather turning the empty homes into his canvas.  Using found materials and paint from the area; he began decorating the urban landscape.  His artwork transformed a deserted area into an arena for art and thought.

By using recycled goods and artistic freedom, Guyton set out what he attempted to do even after his work was bulldozed by the city in 1991 and 1999.  After both of these events, he continued to create artwork on Heidelberg Street.  He brought life back into an area where the light was removed and provided people with hope by using the landscape in a friendly way.

His artwork is a masterpiece in my opinion and marries the idea of art and land quite perfectly.  You can actually find a piece of his artwork in the University of Michigan Museum of Art, but experiencing the project on Heidelberg Street is the best experience of all.

I have been drawn to art (no pun intended) since I was in preschool.  I remember I decorated a wood tree that made my teacher think I was some child prodigy.  My Mom still has it, and by the looks of it, I think my teacher was simply trying to boost my self-esteem because my parents had recently gone through a divorce.  Whether it was amazing or not, this signified the moment that I felt like creating and knowing art was my thing.  At five I knew what I wanted to be an artist.  I wish I were as confident now as I was then about my future career.

After a year in the art school at UofM, I decided that was not the path I wanted to follow.  My interest in art led me then to Art History, where I am quite content.  Recently though, I have a great interest Public Health.  When I enter the real world in six short months I hope to participate in some service work that blends these interests.  I believe the battles our generation must conquer are environmental and health issues.  So, I want to get involved as soon as I can to make my difference.

I see myself playing out this tandem through the integration of art in urban settings.  The art can be of any kind; graffiti, urban gardens, and installations, anything to spruce up the environment and to integrate natural and unnatural materials into the landscape.  Art in urban setting makes so much sense; I’m not sure why there is not more of it across this country.  It decorates our world in a meaningful and powerful manner.  Now, I understand how some may see public art as clutter, but these materials would clutter another space, a landfill, so why not integrate them into our society for a purpose?  Public art generates self-expression, illuminates an area that was once shaded and inspires others.  In the upcoming weeks I hope to write about some places in the US that are merging art and landscape.  Look forward to it!

This week I want to step into the shoes of one of my favorite people to ever walk this earth, Julia Child.  My love for her began when I saw the movie Julie and Julia back in 2009.  After the movie, I remember YouTubeing her videos and laughing hysterically with my sister.  One of the videos was her cooking for her husband, who liked to eat his food burnt, so at the end of the video she brought the food out of the oven burnt to a crisp.  The genuine manner, which she presented herself, allowed her audience to know she was being completely serious when she pulled the burnt food out of the oven.  Her husband enjoyed his food burnt, and that was the way she was going to prepare it.  I have never seen another lesson on burnt cooking, which is why Julia was so attractive.  Her absurdity and antics in the kitchen led her into stardom and into my life as well.

She loved to cook and she loved to eat.  What I like about her is knowing she worked hard to learn how to cook and that it was not a process that came over night.  I find this comforting because I am striving to be an armature cook.  I enjoy cooking so much and I especially enjoy eating my own food.  There comes to be a better appreciation for the labor and time spent preparing a meal that you get to enjoy while eating.  Cooking for me is also a time where I can take my mind off my busy schedule and do a mindless activity for a half hour.  It has also provided me with an opportunity to invite friends over and share my home and food for them.  Cooking for or with friends is a satisfying experience.  If you’re trying to get to know someone better, why not have him or her over for dinner?  You have time to talk with them while preparing, eating, and cleaning.

Even if you don’t know how to cook, just pull a recipe from a cookbook or on the web and follow it plain and simple.  Stir-frys are often easy to make, taking little time and tasting great!  Some of my favorite foods to cook with are sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, frozen spinach, tempeh (a soy replacement for meat), couscous, and Indian spices like ginger, cumin, and coriander.

Even if your meal turns out horribly, don’t give up!  Cooking is like anything, the more you practice the better you become.  Plus, I’m not sure much can be worse than Julia’s burnt food!