Category: Uncategorized

I am a professional.

Taylor Leave a comment

I came to werq.

Cat eyes? Check. Heels? Check. Hair did? Check. Necklace? Check. Lipstick? Check. Bitch face? Check. Now I sat that Catwalk Extravaganza like I had got the day on to perform. Like I had planned the song, the mood, the scene. But baby that is next year’s tea.

There are a few things you learn at a drag show that you cannot learn anywhere else.

1) How to put it all out on the line: Wigs fly, nips slip, heels break, but you know what? That’s not the point. These ladies strut and vogue and break their ass till it can’t break no more. There is an air of confidence in whatever they do that I have not found anywhere else. There is fierceness in one twitch of the eye all the way done to the point of the toe. And I live and die for that one performance that takes your breath away.

2) How to fail in the right way: Lines get forgotten but faces never do. As long as she strikes a pose, no matter the length, the werq is being done. Every move counts and if things don’t work—and sometimes they don’t—who care? She still has the stage, she still has the audience, she still has the music. Just being with hundreds of people that support her is amazing. Time isn’t over until . . . it never stops. The curtain never falls. Because when it falls she’s done.

3) How to walk like a straight man: There is nothing more ridiculous than the girl that does not do. Her shoulders slump, her legs quake, and all of a sudden I feel like I’m watching hundreds of straight men walk around campus (the horror!). My average party trick is failing to walk in the straight way, honey, but it comes and it goes but it is at the drag show. It . . . can werq too. As long as you own it—success, failure, straight, camp, queen, diva. Plus, it allows for some great social commentary and analysis. The show is a show is show is a performance is theory is everything.

4) How to choose the right drag song: It. is. an. art. form. Science? It can’t be too fast because mmhmm legs do not gyrate well in 7-inch platform stilettos. No they don’t. Can’t be too slow, unless it’s meant to, because the vibrato jaw has to be practiced, there is no winging it ( . . . there’s tape for that . . . ). It can’t be too new because girl is not at Necto and she is definitely not country unless it’s Dolly and she can read poetry, she can just pose, she can dance in silence, but. There’s always one song where you wish you could just turn back time.

Drag shows at the U happen infrequently (cough cough @ the Catwalk Extravaganza, only?). This is a place for everyone. Inclusivity is where it’s at. Children, adults, students, teachers, the whole gamut shows up because entertainment happens at a drag show. It is a time and place to be ridiculous and fabulous and not give a care. Plus, there is some great dancing, lip-syncing, and (t)werqing that is not at the clubs nor the classroom nor the diag.

This is my type of cultural event. These are my people. This is it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hArTHxRpKmM

Off The Screen [A Vlogumentary]

Justin & Ersun Leave a comment

For my final blog post of the semester, I am posting a vlog post. The art lies in the videography documenting the mundane components of daily life and how they are affected by exponentially growing hours before a screen. The documentation of the “off screen” hours is both contradictory and necessary for furthered understanding of human activities.

As we become increasingly more absorbed in technology and social media, the time we spend before screens becomes disproportionate to the time we spend IRL (in real life). We do not document our daily activities that exist off the screen and these, although commonplace, can be the most important. We may live a screen lyfe, but we should not let the book of life gather dust. In this vlogumentary, a shortened attention span is mirrored and the cinematic flow (or lack thereof) plays a significant role in the overall piece–flowing with the “off screen” activities and jumping with a lack of focus over the “on screen” insights.

Watch the vlogumentary here:

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Off The Screen

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New York, I Love You

NicoleNg Leave a comment

“New York, I love You” is a collection of eleven short films created in 2009, about love stories in New York City. Each short film is directed by a different director who places their own perspective about love in the form of lust, companionship, loss, deceit, and playfulness.

At face value, the theory of this film is no better than the 2010 film “Valentine’s Day” or the 2011 film “New Years Eve,” both of which rest of the laurels of their celebrity-packed casts and cheesily connected plot lines. These films lack true ingenuity exhibit exactly what I would expect from a cash cow blockbuster film – recognizable faces, an addictive love plot, and shallow character development. “New York, I Love You” follows this same path by casting the popular faces of Orlando Bloom, Rachel Bilson, Natalie Portman and Bradley Cooper. Yes, the first film with Bilson is awkward and amateur in both acting and writing to a painful extent. However, if you can move past this scene, the creativity, wit, character development, and ambiguity create a viewing experience that is both refreshing and engaging without losing integrity.

What “New York, I Love You” does is create room for dialogue post film, when you wonder more about the characters, their motivations, what was believable and what wasn’t. This kind of conversation is lacking in most blockbuster films with similar casts to these. They leave room for conversation with only regard the quality of graphics, suspense, gore, or crude humor. This is not to say that there isn’t a time and place for each of these in the predictability of most movies, but like a good book, it’s the post experience curiosity that truly makes a work so engaging. Dialogue enables analysis and the ability to truly appreciate a work for the intricacies and thought the writer places into the story line and the characters that live in them.

In the short directed by Shekhar Kapur, Shia LaBeouf plays a severely crippled hotel bellhop that has an ambiguously intimate emotional relationship with Julie Christie. He could perhaps be a simple memory of her once lover, a manifestation of her imagination, or perhaps he is in the present and he is haunted by an obsession with an older woman. In another film directed by Mira Nair, starring Natalie Portland, Nair touches on the arab-jewish relationship, the taboo that exists between these cultures and the ultimate draw of love and curiosity that can also bring them together. These simple unsure yet addictingly fun analyses are what make this movie experience worth watching, as well as the intricacy of the tie between narratives.

The film provides a refreshing audience perspective and thought requirement that is usually not asked of the viewer to participate in. It’s a love affair between us, “New York, I Love You.”

\”New York, I Love You\” Trailer

Moving Life Painting

Sarah Ogar Leave a comment

We’ve all seen still life painting.  Often involving fruit or oysters that look like this….

Or this…

But unlike real fruit on real tables that you can pick up and squeeze with your hands and taste with your tongue, still life rarely has any life to it.  At least, this was what I thought about still life until I came across artist Scott Gardner.

Using a new technology called ‘Unity 3D’ Gardner has mounted television screens that bring movement to still life.  The screen of his art is highly sensitive to movement and the objects inside it move around according to how the frame moves.  Spectators are encouraged to interact with his art.  Touch it, tilt it, move it around to their heart’s content.  And also to watch with wonder as the life inside the frame moves along with the viewer.

The video on Gardner’s website shows how the pieces in his art move around.  Admittedly, it’s not completely true to life.  No matter how many times you spin the frame, the vase never breaks and the fruit never explode.  But until everyone gets their Hogwart’s acceptance letter and can be enrolled in a school where the paintings not only have life to them, but opinions as well, I think Gardner’s art is the closest thing we’ve got.

And as technology develops, maybe in time artistic innovators like Gardner will bring ‘life’ to more than just still life.  Ever wondered what the Mona Lisa was so smirky about?  What if you were able to poke one of those cubby cherubs and see it react? I don’t know what classicists or modernists would say, but I think an exhibition of reactive art would be an exhibition the whole family would enjoy.  And might be a popular gateway into earlier traditions of high art.

Le Dénouement

Erika Bell Leave a comment

This was my first semester at U of M, and I got the amazing opportunity to write for Arts Ink. Going back to my first post I talked of my inexperience in the artistic world (basically I was a wannabe who adored the arts, yet I didn’t know the right way to convey how I felt). I think I’ve grown a little from my experience writing, and I am grateful for that little leap of knowledge that I’ve gained. My idea of art wasn’t fully molded when I started out, but I have begun to understand its mission of enacting thought and change, something that I truly appreciate.

I learned of influential artists that I wouldn’t have otherwise researched if it wasn’t for Arts Ink.

From Left: Nikkey Finney, Christophe Jacrot Photography, Validation/Short Film by Kurt Kuenne

I developed concepts that I wouldn’t have otherwise contemplated on a regular day.

Fashion’s Evolution/ Now & Then/WTF happened

Some weeks I was completely sucked dry of where I could take the readers of Arts Ink that Sunday. I asked myself what would you like read about? What would I feel passionate writing about? And some weeks I felt like a complete flop inspiration-wise, and others I was overcome with intrigue at what I came up with in discussion of the artistic world. It was never easy, not one week of writing; however, it’s a learning experience on both sides.

To end this semester with a challenge (let’s shake it up a bit), I challenge you readers out there to do something positive for the enduring arts movement every single day this summer. Take a class, support a band, create a collection of poems, develop a completely biased and opinionated blog about your thoughts of the intricacy of abandoned buildings, and rant about it to your uncle Larry at the next family function. I’ll do the same, and we’ll reconvene in the fall. Good luck!

An Evening With David Sedaris

Alex Winnick Leave a comment

Today I had the distinct pleasure of sitting in Hill Auditorium with a thousand or so other people for a 2pm book reading, fittingly titled “An Evening with David Sedaris.” This quirky error aptly represents the type of borderline uncomfortable humor that filled the immense halls of Hill for two hours. Although Sedaris was technically reading excerpts from his new and previous publications, it felt as though he were merely delivering an intellectual stand up comedy routine. His writing, strictly creative non-fiction, is littered with his crass and dry humor, and he can hardly get through more than a few sentences without allowing the audience time to laugh. Joke topics ranged from his wacky sisters to oral sex to conservative Republicans, and each one maintained his seemingly innocent charm.

His personality is the reason Sedaris can get away with all of the jokes. His Woody Allen type mannerisms, coupled with his bubbling and genuine kindness gives off a very personable and genial air. Due to a slow seating process, the event started twenty minutes late; but instead of having the audience members twiddle their thumbs and assume the delay was due to Sedaris’ apathy, he came out on stage before being introduced for an impromptu question and answer segment to entertain us. This set the tone for his uncanny ability to give off the impression of being everyone’s best friend, even to those of us on the Balcony, about a hundred feet above him. Which of course only increased the audience’s tendency to laugh openly at his jokes, even the ones that also made us cringe, and there were plenty of those. Twice Sedaris made a joke about having cancer, one focused primarily on performing oral sex on Willie Nelson and another attempted to analyze the components of uterus lining. To reiterate, all of this material came from his published work.

Sedaris’ portfolio is not all inappropriate, however. The bulk of his material stems from stories about his family: his parents and three sisters, as well as his partner Hugh, are mentioned frequently. The art of his craft is so brilliant because he is able to blend candid stories about these people with his tasteless humor in the most hilarious and polished way possible. At some points I had trouble noticing the extent to which how insensitive his jokes were because of how elegantly he writes them. Furthermore his delivery does not change according to the humor; he told a joke about having an intellectual conversation with a college student and one about his penis’ inability to cease urinating in the same breath. I walked out of the auditorium wrangling with this very conundrum, simultaneously chuckling at his last crack and shaking my head at just how tactless it really was. Still, once you learn to overlook the distasteful details, he is an absolute delight to see in person.

David Sedaris