Event 1

On Friday, September 24th, I went to the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach to see the Easy Star All-Stars. Going to this concert was a spur of the moment and last minute decision to go to because I was originally planning on going to an event on Saturday September 25th, but some family matters had come up and I was unable to go. Anyways - The show started at 9pm, and me, my boyfriend, and our friend had shown up at 10:30, just in time to see the Easy Star All-Stars perform, which I'm glad I was able to see. The venue was very small, but it had a great atmosphere, and the three of us were easily able to make it to the front of the stage. I had never attended a concert with a dub or reggae genre before, so this was a very interesting setting for me. While I've never heard any of their songs before, I had heard of the Easy Star All-Stars from my boyfriend, who had mentioned "Dub Side of the Moon", saying that it is just like Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" except that there were reggae beats instead of the sythesized tunes. Their band includes a trombone player, a saxophone player, a bass player, a female vocalist, a drummer, a keyboard player, a guitarist, and a male vocalist who would randomly come onto the stage during their performance and sing really fast. When performing their "Dub Side of the Moon", they performed the first several track of "Dark Side of the Moon", which included "Speak to Me/Breathe", "On the Run", "Time", "The Great Gig in the Sky", "Money", etc. They also performed a couple Beatles songs, including "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and "With a Little Help from My Friends". I thoroughly enjoyed myself that night, listening to good music and being around good people.

Stomp

When I hear the term "musical", I usually think of performers reciting lines and singing for a majority of their performance, but "Stomp" was quite the opposite. I found Stomp to be very fascinating because a group of people were able to create different pieces of music with the use of common objects, anywhere from Zippo lighters, brooms, trash cans, and even trash itself. It was interesting that there was minimal, if not lacking entirely, talking during the performances, which reminded me of a clown's performance at a circus because it's their performance, not their dialogue or monologue, which is supposed to keep the audience's attention. It was also interesting seeing how the performers interacted by looking at one another to make sure that they were with the tempo of the song, as well as silently communicate with one another. My favorite of the different performances included the segments with the rubber tubes, the newspaper, and the plastic water jugs. I liked the piece with the plastic water jugs because it reminds me of what I would imagine a bubble's song to sound like, as well as a song associated with water. I also liked the segments with the rubber tubes and the newspaper because they were aesthetically pleasing, but I liked them more for their comedic touch. This movie made me laugh out loud many a times, which is a great thing for me because I love to laugh and not very many movies make me laugh like they should. Overall, I would really recommend this movie to others because the entire process is very intriguing.

Viva La Revolucion

Over the weekend, I went to the street arts exhibit, "Viva La Revolucion" at the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, and I was not in the very least disappointed. I am very glad that having to go to this exhibit was one of our assignments, and it was very interesting seeing all the different styles of types of art. When my boyfriend and I walked into the museum, we were greeted by sculptures, paintings, murals, videos, games, and music.
Shortly after, we were startled by banging and crashing, discovering that it was a trashcan making the music, each piece different from the next.

I really enjoyed all of the art being displayed. Every piece was unique and no two were alike. There were these two arcade-style games that were collection of different pieces of digital art which could be manipulate with the press of a button or a joystick, as well as short games similar to Pong or Frogger, all while listening to strange electronic music playing.

This room of art was very interesting to me because this exhibit discussed life and death and presented itself in the form of an altar, as well as presented several secular images. This room was somewhat of a touchy subject for me and hit me in a way that none of the other pieces did because I am currently dealing with a death in the family. It was nice seeing this section of the exhibit tho.

This exhibit was life changing for me, and has helped me to appreciate varying forms of art, whether it be on the street, in a museum, or both! I look forward to what other street art I will see in the future, as well as future exhibits presented at the MCASD.
Below are some other pieces of art that I appreciated:

Songcatcher

I will say that in the beginning of this movie, it did not look very promising. Roughly 15 minutes into the movie, I even told my boyfriend, who watched the movie with me, that I did not think I could get through the entire thing. Especially since the movie revolved around folk songs with a country and/or blue grass feel to them, and took place in the Mid-West, the genre of music was definitely not my cup of tea. One thing I did not like about the movie, besides how slow it was in the beginning, was the sound the panther made - that was a HORRIBLE sound. Good thing Viney told her what to do in case she were to cross paths with the panther. However, the movie took a surprising turn for the better, and I enjoyed watching Dr. Lily Penleric in her quest to collect as many ballads as she could from the secluded mountain areas. I liked her enthusiasm and love for all types of music, and while I am somewhat selective of what sorts of music I enjoy and like to listen to, I am open to listen to all sorts of music. I can relate to Lily's love for music because I, myself, am a collector of music. Not a day goes by where I have a song on my mind or I'm listening to music. My love for music influences my day-to-day mood, whether it's listening to music while I'm dancing, driving in my car, helping me concentrate while I do my homework, describing how I'm feeling, or listening to a song to lift my spirits. Music has been and always will be an important part of my life. At the end of the film, it made me feel good knowing that Lily was able to change the way others viewed the music of the rural mountain area, and that everything worked out to her advantage. Yay for feel good movies!

Mi Familia

I really enjoyed this movie because, even though a lot of terrible things happened to Paco's family, it was one of those feel-good movies that made me feel like I got something after watching it. I thought it was interesting how an owl was used to represent the river spirit because it presented an omen of something bad to come, which appeared before Maria and Chucho almost drowned in the river and before Chucho was killed by the police officer. I can relate to Maria's belief that it wasn't the police officer but the river spirit that killed Chucho because my Filipino side of my family is very superstitious, and while they are also very religious when it comes to honoring the Virgin Mary and Jesus, they believe in many different folklore and cultural stories. Also, the idea of Cihuateteo, the souls of women who had died giving birth and help the sun set, was very powerful to me. I felt so bad for Jimmy because he had so many horrible things happen to him and he was so full of anger that he wanted to hurt himself by bleeding and being placed in prison for years. I thought it was very selfless of Jimmy to go out of his way to marry Isabel so that she wasn't deported back to El Salvador, which eventually benefited him greatly because he found someone who shared just as much pain over the loss of a family member being shot right in front of her, which helped develop their love for each other. I liked how the director used the idea of Jimmy finding the baseball where Chucho was killed and throwing it back to the kids as a sense of closure for him and the loss of brother, and possibly his wife. It made me so happy when Jimmy decided to go to Texas to find Carlitos's rich cowboy father and invite him along, as well as when Carlitos was finally able to accept Jimmy as his father and go to Texas with him. I couldn't agree more with the ending of the film - Jose and Maria did live a very good life, and that it is wrong to ask for too much in this life. This presents a moral that many should listen to - be happy with your life and enjoy what God gives you.

"Rabbit-Proof Fence"

I thought this was a good movie, but I do not think I would watch it again. I prefer movies with a storyline that I can relate to, and since I have never been forcibly taken away from my family, I can only imagine what it was like for Molly, Gracie, and Daisy as they were taken away from their family and forced to be civilized so as to have their Aboriginal heritage “bread out” of them, like the rest of the half-caste children being held against their will at the Moore River Native Settlement. It was unbelievable how racism against Aborigines was portrayed in this movie, and the native people had every right to call Mr. Neville “Mr. Devil” because of how he was separating families and, ultimately, destroying the Aboriginal culture for the people being affected during this time period. In a sense, I look up to Molly, Gracie, and Daisy’s determination to pull through and get back home because, at such a young age, I’m surprised that they did not stay at the school or give up, especially when the rabbit-proof fence ended in the desert. Overall, this movie made me feel good knowing that Daisy and Molly were able to see their mother and grandmother again and, despite having to deal with the law which began this whole ordeal until the 1970s, the two were able to live out their lives.