Elektra

This opera (Elektra) is hardcore and raw in its intensity. Honestly, I didn't even care for the music -- I was more entranced by the performers gestures and stage presence. The title actress succumbed to the depths of abjection and horror for this role, and it's mesmerizing to watch. I wish I could see a live adaption of this play, especially since the narrative is one of my favorite classic stories (of revenge, family and womanly anger).

oR-Lan-Do

Orlando (1992; Sally Potter) is one of my favorite films. And it definitely fits into the topic of "time-based media"...a synopsis:

In 1600, nobleman Orlando (Tilda Swinton) inherits his parents' house, thanks to Queen Elizabeth I (Quentin Crisp), who commands the young man to never change. After a disastrous affair with Russian princess Sasha (Charlotte Valandrey), Orlando looks for solace in the arts before being appointed ambassador to Constantinople in 1700, where war is raging. One morning, Orlando is shocked to wake up as a woman and returns home, struggling as a female to retain her property as the centuries roll by.

Also: TILDA SWINTON, doing what she does best ...gender-bending and making me weep from her otherworldly presence. She has my heart.

2D art

A simple illustration I did in Illustrator to figure out how it works. I actually prefer what I can produce in this program compared to Photoshop; I'm kind of tired of digital paintings, so this serves as a welcome break. I love Japanese folklore, so I decided to play with some existing imagery and iconography.

clay, radiohead style

I don't really listen to Radiohead anymore (meanwhile, Blur is eternal)...but this caught my eye. They're currently preparing to release their ninth album, and a day or two ago they mysteriously wiped any trace of the band on social media. Then this popped up. I like it--they always had a penchant for lo-fi designs and sketches. Their art direction served as a great contrast when coupled with their future-facing tunes, so this fits in well with their existing catalog. I'm thinking this album could be a companion piece to Hail to the Thief (judging from the themes I see), which was one of my favorite albums...(I always forget that I've seen them live. Oops).

I'm #TeamKimChi

I'm a HUGE fan of Rupaul's Drag Race. I've watched several seasons live and have even seen a few queens in the flesh (I was not disappointed, unlike my experience with Hamburger Mary's nasty guacamole. What a disgrace!) Every Monday night, like a junkie who needs a fix, I stay glued to my seat as I await a new episode. I bet, I predict, I holler at the screen. It's my humble participation in sports...or the Olympics...or whatever.

LET'S TALK ABOUT SEASON 8 (current season) AND KIM CHI, THE KOREAN AVANT GARDE PRINCESS.



Kim Chi often spoke about drag's diversity problem (where are all the Asian drag queens?) and embracing your flaws (she immigrated to this country as a child and still faces language constraints, much like myself) during the competition. The visibility she represented week after week meant a lot to me, and her talent and success on the show (her makeup is simply art, coupled with her looks) made me an instant fan. I hope she wins in two weeks! Also...fried chicken buttholes. That's all.

I discussed with a friend that I think she has the potential to really catapult drag into a new direction with her emphasis on high fashion, experimental #looks and her strong cultural background. It's very rare to see anyone with this amount of attention who is Asian and in  the LGBTQ community, so I'm VERY glad she's being celebrated (and recognized) for her talents.

AMADEUS

I love this film so much. I was immensely grateful to see it at the Tampa Theater a few months ago (the director's cut, too!) I felt like the theater's architecture and setup (the organ player that rises to the stage! that old world statuary and gargoyles galore!) created the perfect ambience and heightened my viewing experience.

Part of the mass appeal of this film, of course, is the amount of excess involved in its production and story line. From the amount of detail in the set design, costumes and even dialogue (it's all very silly, especially the rivalry between Mozart and Salieri)--it never ends. The universe the film creates is both effortless and endless, and a treat for the eyes.

baroque theater and spectacle

I'm not much of a theater or opera fan-- I never gravitated toward it, mostly because of a lack of knowledge on the subject. Also, I find opera intolerable, much like how I can't stand death metal (unlike most of my peers.) It comes down to a question of taste, which I believe is innate and cannot really be grown.

However, I can appreciate (and understand) the aesthetics that make opera, specifically the mechanics of set design in Renaissance and Baroque theatre (see this link on the exhibition at Museum of Jurassic Technology, completed May 2004: http://rachelmayeri.com/blog/2004/10/14/miracles-and-disasters-in-renaissance-and-baroque-theater-mechanics/).

In our first class discussions, we spoke of a society controlled and dominated by spectacle. Spectacle, art and technology all intertwine and transform over the years, and in a way, reflect the anxieties, moods and temperament of our times. In the retrospective I linked, the author speaks of how seventeenth-century Venice was an "apex point" in the history of special effects when it came to scenic and set design. Patrons and visitors of the stage were awed by the realistic and incredibly life-like structures, which changed and transformed before their eyes with each set change.

A quote:

Baroque opera, scholars have argued, reflected the vanities and anxieties of the European court. Texts on opera and court life in Venetian society underscore the power of theater through special effects to convey messages on the dangers and rewards of social performance. However, it seems, that special effects, like art and social expression in general, change with new technology, representing new events, economic forces and information. This poses the question of how special effects in popular entertainment reflect the anxieties of our society today. Yet the exhibition embodies the idea that special effects signify more than ideology: they create a vocabulary for the marvelous.