I want to advocate for freedom of speech in the poster while keeping in mind that we all need to see before we talk. We have the right to speak up, but also we need to remind ourselves how to exercise this right.
Category: Uncategorized
S3 Scribble #22: Everybody Wants to Rule the World
“Help me to decide,”
At a virtual Festifall student organization fair a few weeks into the first semester of my freshman year of college, I decided to join a student organization called MUSIC Matters. I was brand new to the University of Michigan and I knew that I should try my best to get involved, so I went out on a limb and joined a student organization that sounded like fun. As a lover of music and concerts and as someone who believes that music is a great tool for bringing people together, MUSIC Matters’ mission stood out to me: “use the unifying power of music to drive social impact in our community.”
“Help me make the most of freedom and of pleasure,”
I’ve remained a member of MUSIC Matters over the past few years and have held various leadership positions, including Head of Social Media and Head of Public Relations. This semester, I stepped into a role on the organization’s executive board: Marketing Chair. Over the past few months, I’ve worked with the rest of MUSIC Matters to market our annual music and lifestyle festival, Springfest, that took place this past weekend. After dozens of meetings and hours of work, Springfest was a huge success. We had over 7,000 people come to our daytime music festival with student bands and performers, and had a phenomenal night show at the Michigan Theater headlined by Alexander23, who covered the song for this week’s blog. To see MUSIC Matters’ hard work pay off so wonderfully made me feel accomplished like never before.
“Nothing ever lasts forever,”
I went from being a general member of MUSIC Matters going to meetings that were exclusively on Zoom in Fall 2020 to the Marketing Chair at an in-person Springfest enjoying live music alongside thousands of others in Spring 2024. Not only did I get to bring some musical joy to Ann Arbor, but I got to do it alongside many friends who I likely would have never met had I not joined MUSIC Matters. Who knew that what seemed like such a small decision to get involved would result in such a defining part of my undergraduate experience? Freshman year me would hardly believe it!
“Everybody wants to rule the world.”
Listen to Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awoFZaSuko4
Learn more about MUSIC Matters here: https://umichmusicmatters.com/
Wolverine Stew: First/Last Thawing
As the days go on, I can see
Carpenter bees and painted ladies
Fly from one pale blossom to the next
As a chorus of frogs sound in the
Marshes I’m just now beginning to
Wander through
Seeking those new paths from
Picking a direction and wondering
How far I can go with a friend or two
Tulip sunsets blooming from patchwork city soil
And curated reminders of maize and blue
And I’ll go through graveyards and theatres, cafes and Kerrytown
One more arboretum trail, one more crafted carnival, one more night
Walking the same loop, tracking constellations in those
Spaces between lamps, singing together after the stage lights go dark,
Rolling dice and trying out new names
Enjoying that welcome that was always there
With the ones who gave it
Trying to take it in as the clouds start to clear
And it will hurt to miss it all
But that means there’s something worth missing
And I’m glad I get to celebrate it in the sun
Because I know both will be back soon enough
aSoSS 23 | Tongue
One AirPod is gonna be like a hundred dollars so I might as well buy another set.
Absolutely not. Whenever I think of Apple I think of that one show where he says, “oh Apple just came out with a new phone, guess we all have to –“ and then the phone breaks.
Denver International Airport, 4:00PM, 1/8/2024
the phone rings and i let my fingers strum the notes of your ringtone, seeing your face mouth the words that vibrate in the air. you are calling, of course, but the day is just begun and already it seems half wasted. my fingers tremble, holding the backspace key like a pillow over the face. the words disappear, screen stripped to its underside, neon flashes imprinted behind my eyelids. there will be more days and more nights and the creek will thaw and the birds will sing and i will persist. you will persist too.
You’re so opinionated about it!
Well, there’s a lot of opinions to be had…
Dow Building, 10:30AM, 3/4/2024
how can there be new stories without new words? when i was little you told me that each human is unique. i asked what made them human and you did not answer, as if caught in a lie. perhaps you are not human yourself? now i know there is no new dna either. our mouths, conduit of thought, a polymerase of sorts, runs untamed because who is to tame the creator? i smiled and it was easier to observe your reaction, as if a mirror would do an unjustice–we were never meant to see our own faces, after all.
I told her to do her own research and she was like, [growls] “I have!”
Hill Auditorium, 2:30PM, 4/10/2024
the sun does not want to stay. sometimes i see her struggling through the fog, weeding through the clouds, condemned to rise every day. she will smile if she sees the moon, splashed across the blue like a birthmark, calling her name. poisoned tongue, toxic attraction. on earth we soak up brackish water from the roots and spit them out to the sky. the earth spins around and the ants watch from below and marvel at the flatness, the emptiness, the center of the universe visible to only those who wish to see it.
The Indian Artist, Final Year: The Art in Our Cells
Science and medicine are forms of art. They are intertwined inexplicably, and oftentimes, it takes a little bit of a sharper eye to see the connections. Each part of biology is beautiful, and if you look deep enough, if you look with the correct magnification, if you look with just the right stain, maybe you too will see that true beauty lies within…
Your immune cells are beautiful like the sun and its flares…
Your heart cells are beautiful like freshly chopped purple cabbage…
Your stem cells are beautiful like wheat fields glistening under the sun…
Your neurons are beautiful like autumn trees or the perfect lightening storm…
Your fat cells are beautiful like freshly picked berries…
Your skin cells are beautiful like the natural formations of the Grand Canyon…
What do you think? Do you see what I see? Are you looking closely enough?
Sincerely,
Riya
Instagram: @riya_aggarwal.art
Website: https://theindianartist.weebly.com/
Industrious Illustrating #62 – Coming to an End
I almost can’t believe that the school year is almost over already — I feel like the spring of 2023 happened only a couple of months ago! Currently I’m trying to finish a bevy of final assignments on time this week before they’re due, which includes both UX-related coursework and client work. I wonder how it’d feel to balance a full-time job workload on top of making my own artwork for both personal and business purposes… (Also, this is why the column is a couple of days late this week)
What I was definitely able to make time for this past week, however, was driving down to Toledo to see the total solar eclipse. I don’t regret this one bit, as I’ll remember forever throwing off my eclipse glasses when I saw the sliver of sun disappear and seeing a giant void of darkness with a glowing rim of white light looming in the dark sky above me. No wonder why so much mythology and artwork has been inspired by the sight of a total eclipse!
I didn’t get any really good eclipse photos because my phone camera is older and I didn’t think of borrowing a nicer camera from LSA or Stamps’s equipment offices, so this is the best one I have
I also did Con Ja Nai last weekend and made a fairly decent amount of money — several times more than what I’ve historically made at CJN before my art business really started taking off this year. I think the addition of mecha keychains has boosted my con revenue from average to quite good, as they satisfy an under-served niche for small mecha merch. It goes to show that sometimes you don’t know what’ll work best for you and your business until you experiment and eventually hit it off with your customer base.
My setup from last weekend — I definitely feel like I need to simplify this down though, as it’s a huge headache to set up just for a single day of selling even with two people working on it
Also, filing taxes by yourself as a self-employed small business owner is a huge headache — I’m likely going to reach out to a small business CPA (accountant) for next year’s tax season since my taxes are going to only get more complicated now that I do out-of-state events. The difficulty of keeping track of sales, income, and estimated taxes is something that I don’t think enough people warn you about before you try to run an art business.
Anyway, I think there’ll only be one or two more Industrious Illustrating columns this school year before I go on summer break and focus my energy on other things. I’m not sure yet whether or not I’ll bring back this column next school year, as my art business has now taken off a lot this year and my coursework is also becoming increasingly demanding closer to graduation. However, I’m tempted to keep this running until the end of undergrad because it’d be a really nice log of my growth and development as an illustrator and product designer over the course of several years.
If you’d like to see this column come back next year, I’d love to hear from you ^^ And either way, I hope you’ll enjoy the nice weather outside in the upcoming weeks!
