Humn-10: The American Style
Humanities in the United States. Major works of literature, painting, sculpture, architecture, film, music, philosophy, science, religion, and political and social institutions. Particulare attention to values and meanings that reflect the American cultural experience.
Instructor
Dr. Candace Kaschus, Honors Society Program Director
Website: Honors Program Details
Class Journal
This journal is on hold and may not be updated before the end of this semester, Spring 2008; most of my extra time is dedicated to finishing and preparing for the presentation of my honors project, The Doorway
- The First Humanities Classes: 02.04.08
- I was busy building this website for this semester and my future education; so I didn’t have the time or place to log for the first two classes. This log serves as a brief summary of the first two weeks. ¶ I was really looking forward to this class. Dr. Klaschus is the head of the Honors Society Program Director, so I worked under her for part-1 of the Doorway movie honors project and Rob Nilsson’s Citizen Cinema honors project. My current honors project, The Doorway Movie Project part-2, is synchronized with this class, and I couldn’t imagine a better suited course. ¶ The first week was a simple introduction to the course. We went over the syllabus and the major projects: several papers on movies, visits to museums, and etc. The second week Dr. Klaschus lectured on the romantic era, including poetry and art. The lectures are very in-depth, delving deep into the content. It is very natural, and every so often a point strikes a very strong chord. ¶ As a final note. On Thursday we were told to listen to music and write what we feel. Dr. Kaschus introduce a piece by William Henry Fry titled the Niagra Symphony. (American Classics. 1854. Naxos, 1999) We were directed to write down our reactions, whether by words or drawing. ¶ As I listened to the music, I began to draw, and I began to feel something, like I was riding the music, or it was riding through me. I thought, “how long it has been since I felt.” I reflected on how much I enjoy experiencing and feeling work and expressions, and I said to myself, “I want to feel.” I longed for that original passion buried deep within, and it begged me, “Let me breath.” I drew a sort of sunburst with several worded thoughts resulting from a current relationship adversity. This adversity cascaded over the weekend, and it ignited directly into the theme of The Doorway, my honors movie project. Everything is connected, I’m looking forward to class tomorrow.
- I was busy building this website for this semester and my future education; so I didn’t have the time or place to log for the first two classes. This log serves as a brief summary of the first two weeks. ¶ I was really looking forward to this class. Dr. Klaschus is the head of the Honors Society Program Director, so I worked under her for part-1 of the Doorway movie honors project and Rob Nilsson’s Citizen Cinema honors project. My current honors project, The Doorway Movie Project part-2, is synchronized with this class, and I couldn’t imagine a better suited course. ¶ The first week was a simple introduction to the course. We went over the syllabus and the major projects: several papers on movies, visits to museums, and etc. The second week Dr. Klaschus lectured on the romantic era, including poetry and art. The lectures are very in-depth, delving deep into the content. It is very natural, and every so often a point strikes a very strong chord. ¶ As a final note. On Thursday we were told to listen to music and write what we feel. Dr. Kaschus introduce a piece by William Henry Fry titled the Niagra Symphony. (American Classics. 1854. Naxos, 1999) We were directed to write down our reactions, whether by words or drawing. ¶ As I listened to the music, I began to draw, and I began to feel something, like I was riding the music, or it was riding through me. I thought, “how long it has been since I felt.” I reflected on how much I enjoy experiencing and feeling work and expressions, and I said to myself, “I want to feel.” I longed for that original passion buried deep within, and it begged me, “Let me breath.” I drew a sort of sunburst with several worded thoughts resulting from a current relationship adversity. This adversity cascaded over the weekend, and it ignited directly into the theme of The Doorway, my honors movie project. Everything is connected, I’m looking forward to class tomorrow.
- Moonlit Ceremony to Airports: 02.07.08
- I did my presentation for our group, analysis of the painting Sunrise, Yosemite Valley by Albert Bierstadt. I was particularly interested in the portrayal of the paintings focal point and what it could represent. I thought it was interesting how life was accentuated in the foreground; while the jagged and massive earth accented the background. ¶ We also listened to two songs, and both songs had a profound effect on me. The first was Mckay’s From Moonlit Ceremony, and the second was Copland’s Appalachian Spring. ¶ From Moonlit Ceremony reminded me of walking through Martin Creek, to help with thoughts for the Doorway Movie and my education. The music complements the experience very well. The music also complemented The Poetry of Moonlight, by Ralph Blakelock, as presented by Dr. Klaschus. Perhaps I will take pictures of Martin Creek at night, perhaps on a full moon. ¶ Appalachian Spring threw me for quite the loop. At the beginning, as I was listening to it, I thought, “Very beautiful!” I wrote this on the top of the Assignment-4 paper too. Then all of a sudden there was this big break in the beauty followed by higher strings, two distinct tones, that seemed to be fighting or bickering. These tones eventually halted, and the mellow tone return. I felt it was very similar to a relationship, and I hesitantly shared this with the class. I was concerned I was being off the wall; because the title of the musical piece is Appalachian Spring. As it turns out, the musical piece was meant to represent the beginning of a relationship, a new marriage to be more direct. Dr. Kaschus mentioned it was written for a musical play. I was flabbergasted; I spoke with what I felt, and my feeling was right on key for the intentions of the music. ¶ Update: As for the airports, I forgot to mention this earlier, so here it is. Our final presentation is supposed to be the breakdown of a painting, poem, and piece of music; the objective is to explain how they are tied together. There is a song that is very personal to me, titled Music For Airports by Brian Eno. I may do a piece that intertwines Music For Airports, some visuals of an airport as my painting, and a poem written by myself. I will ask Dr. Klaschus if this is OK.
- Moving Into More: 02.12.08
- Nyssa, the young lady from my second group project, sat next to me today. She made a comment about the school making Valentines Day off so we kids could go out and play; I said, “Well it looks like I’m not getting a Valentines this year.” She picked up on the idea about how most elementary school students only exchange/receive Valentines at a school party, and we both had a laugh. ¶ Today we moved into more earlier works of the early US. We were assigned groups, and I met with John, Irene, and Lindsay. Our group work went nice, and I may edit this entry with more details later. ¶ Since we have Thursday off, I will likely make a trip to SF Moma before the weekend; I’m looking forward to this assignment. Rob Nilsson also asked for me to help on a Direct Action shoot, so it may be two birds with one stone before the weekend.
- SF MOMA: 02.17.08
- I visited SF MOMA today. It was nice to drive into the city. The plans were to spend a several hours touring the museum before going to see Nero about The Doorway. I visisted the first floor, some of the classics, and the top floor, featuring Olafur Eliasson. Eliasson’s work was very interesting, and it was more of a physical experience. He plays with atmosphere and light. Some of his work really caught my attention as far as invoking and experience. I am required to write a 500 word paper on the subject, so I will post my paper with more details soon.
- Realization to American Graffiti: 02.19.08
- We started watching American Graffiti and I had two realizations. The first is that I can’t do the my integrated project as expected. I originally indented on using Brian Eno, but we need to use American artists in the presentation, and Brian Eno is from Europe; so I will go back to the drawing boards. I also realized that American Graffiti was the beginning of that range of “coming of age” high school flicks. One of the biggest characteristics is the use of popular music in the movie, and this is rampantly used today. I was taking a lot of notes and was bumped by by Nyssa from behind; she looked at me and asked, “What are you writting.” She then pointed to her paper which was less then half as much. I was taking notes and highlighting the songs as they appeared, but I’m still waiting for something from the movie. I’m not particularly engrossed in it. Maybe I will find this something next week. Also, this is the first time I’ve seen this movie. I did see scenes from it when I attended Fog City Mavericks and the SF Film Festival last year; George Lucas was featured in the documentary, and I believe he was in attendance too; it is mostly a blur, for I was there for Rob Nilsson.
- Announcement & Graffiti: 02.22.08
- I rushed to the library to make copies for a flier and back to class to make an announcement for a Screening of Berkeley, a movie by Bobby Roth. The fliers were apart of the announcement. Dr. Klaschus gave me the floor and allowed me to speak. After the announcement we finished watching the movie American Graffiti. I thought the idea behind the series events taking place through the night were intriguing; but I felt like the theatrical acting took away from this. In the end, I was turned off by the descriptions of what happened to the characters later on in life. I felt the main character seeing the white car of his potential love fling was significant enough, but then again, I’m the same person turned off by the tinsel town persona. I will write a follow-up Bobby Roth’s screening tomorrow.
- Bobby Roth - Berkeley: 02.24.08
- Several days ago, on Friday, I met Rob Nilsson at Bobby Roth’s screening of Berkeley, the same movie I announced in class. The movie theater was packed, and I negotiated with people to move around so I could sit next to Rob; he was on his way.
In addition, the audience was very young, mostly college students. When Rob arrived, we immediately struck up a conversation on how the students may have caught word of the event. Bobby held a similar screening in Los Angeles, and despite a multitude of myspace friends, very few people showed up to the screening, so the large audience was surprising. I questioned some students around me, and they mentioned Facebook; this ended up being the key. During the Q & A I learned most of the students were brought to the screening through the UC Berkeley Facebook network, proving to be much more reliable for events then Myspace. I still prefer building and independent social network.As for the movie, it wasn’t exactly my taste. Regardless, the audience responded very well to it. It had a modern style comedy that steadily pulled interaction from the general crowd. There was plenty of topless women nudity; so it managed to keep the young men despite the sappy love story. All in all, more or less, it was a romantic comedy. Most importantly, Bobby Roth, Rob Nilsson’s good friend, funded and produced a movie himself, and he reached his audience.
Last notes, I didn’t recognize any students from my LPC humanities class, but I’m sure the majority of them would have enjoyed the movie. I was considering doing a paper on one of the movies I’m very attracted to; but as a change of pace, I think I will do a critique on this movie instead. Last, I still have to do a review on my SFMoma trip.
- Several days ago, on Friday, I met Rob Nilsson at Bobby Roth’s screening of Berkeley, the same movie I announced in class. The movie theater was packed, and I negotiated with people to move around so I could sit next to Rob; he was on his way.
- Potential Idea - Mythical: 03.11.08
- When I awoke in the morning, I had an idea to include a song I wrote, Mythical, in a report for class, Humanities 10. The assignment is to do a report on the similarities of a painting, piece of music, and poem, i.e., to tie them together. As a class, we viewed a painting of a young lady in a café; and this painting was in my head when I woke up today. At the time, I thought of my song Mythical and how it could be associated to the painting; this will most notably be a back story association. I will think it over before confirming a decision.
- Across the Universe - Humn. Movie: 03.18.08
- Today we started our courses next movie, Across the Universe Dir. by Julie Taymor. The movie was introduced by Dr. Klaschus as the next step, or an extension, of American Graffiti, and this may be true; although, both movies are substantially different from the aesthetic, style, and direction of my past and current work. During todays initial showing of Across the Universe, I felt like I was watching the cast of the OC sing Beatles songs like the Monkeys. Ultimately, I was having a hard time believing the musical elements in the movie. However, I don’t believe this is solely because it is a musical; I thought the recent film Once, a musical, had truthful elements, and one of my all time favorites is a musical, The Magic Flute by Ingmar Bergman. I will refrain on this for now, for I want to see where the movie takes me. I will finish watching it in class this Thursday.
- Humn-10 Weekly Summary: 04.05.08
- This post will be kept short; a lot of my time is being directed towards the movie, The Doorway. On Tuesday, we did a quick recap on last weeks in class movie, Across the World. On Thursday, we went over due dates on assignments. Again, I’m keeping it short for my busy schedule; I’ve been non-stop the past several weeks.
- Mythical - Humn 10 Final: 05.08.08
- Today I turned in my Humanities 10 final essay, and this included doing a short wrap up presentation for the class. The final assignment was to complete an interdisciplinary project analyzing and associating three pieces of art, i.e., a musical piece, a painting, and a poem. I chose to base my project on Automat, by Edward Hopper.
I worked the analysis and association of Automat to Mythical, a song I wrote in 2003. I uploaded the song to download.com at some point in 2004, and you can listen to the recording here, listen to Mythical. (I found an interesting typo at download.com, i.e., “to” instead of “too” in the bio; my new education is really working.)
I then associated the song and painting to “The One Thing,” a poem by Rob Nilsson from his published book of poetry, From a Refugee of Tristan Da Cunha.
I did a short informal presentation to the class of the concept behind my final essay. I also shared analysis on the painting, performed the song, and read the poem. I made sure to give a disclaimer on the performance and song; I don’t consider myself a performer or musician; if I were to do it again, I would likely play a recording of the song instead. Reading Rob’s poem was my favorite part of the presentation, for I really felt some of the lines when reading.
This concludes Humanities 10. I may return to make additional notes on the course, but for now I will focus on the presentation that really matters, The Doorway.
- Today I turned in my Humanities 10 final essay, and this included doing a short wrap up presentation for the class. The final assignment was to complete an interdisciplinary project analyzing and associating three pieces of art, i.e., a musical piece, a painting, and a poem. I chose to base my project on Automat, by Edward Hopper.
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