Opera

Bravo!!
First of all, let me just say that starting the class off with a cartoon made my day:) I think that we need more laughter in our lives. I also enjoyed revisiting an old Sesame Street clip that I did in fact remember from when I was little. It's funny to think about all of the information that sesame Street packs in for kids in a fun way...come on, an orange singing opera...how cute is that!!?
It is incredible to me how quickly our class flies by... we have already watched so many interesting clips and heard many unique pieces of music. After spending almost two hours on opera alone, I left the class wanting more which is a very refreshing feeling!!
I think something that stood out to me the most was learning about the sexual connotations behind most of the lyrics. When I think about the 1800s it seems very conservative and refined, but in reality a lot of the songs are talking about passion and sexual expression. It was also interesting to know that most people only get married in order to have sex...imagine if we had those standards now?
My favorite clip that we watched was of Cecilia Bartoli, her voice was incredible. I loved how much facial expression she showed as well. It was interesting to learn that she studied the castroti and the belcanto method, which almost made her sound like she was gargling. I don't feel quit as anxious about our opera paper anymore. I'm looking forward to exploring the stories we are going to be re telling and learning more about this soulful and dramatic art.

Steve Jobs artical
It's hard to fathom the imagination and brain power it would take to come up with one of the products that Steve Jobs has created, let alone the numerous technological pieces of work that are breaking innovative barriers. The new apple tablet sounds interesting but it's difficult to say, with people struggling just to make ends meet is another gadget really necessary? I know there will always be the group of people who need the most up to date technology, but as soon as you think you have the latest product that you purchased for a couple hundred dollars the newest "bigger (in this case smaller) and better" gadget comes along. I think Steve Jobs is brilliant and to be able to come back to Apple with so many successful products to back him up certainly deserves definite props. However, I won't be going out to buy the Tablet. In fact, I have an I pod nano which I'm perfectly happy with and will use until it dies... I also am not an Iphone user. I have a Blackberry which I enjoy using but maybe at some point I will make the switch considering Steve Jobs and Apple may well have the best and technologically superior products.

The world is a stage...
Wigs, makeup and amazing voices were some of the memorable things we learned about the baroque period in todays class. By far, I enjoyed the clip from the movie "Farinelli" the most! It was hard to believe that such a high pitch singing voice was coming from a man. It was a little disturbing to find out the way in which a "castroti" was able to hit that high pitch. I couldn't believe how elaborate and colorful the stage and theater was back in that time period. I also would love to see the movie "Amadeus" sometime soon. My Grandfather was crazy about Mozart and always encouraged me to listen to his music. It would be interesting to learn more about his life and music. I have to admit, I'm a little intimidated to write the three page paper on Opera...

First Day...

After so many classes of being confined to traditional learning and "test taking", I'm SO looking forward to this class! I'm really anxious to broaden my views on not only art, but new concepts I might be able to apply to my comm major. I'm also looking forward to how interactive the classs is going to be and that we will be able to access all of the youtube links out of class...very helpful! I'm excited about the new semester and I think we will all be in for some fun but challenging work.