Composition in Pure Movement

I am a person far from dancing or composing music or any such thing, but I do, in fact, like this writer's perspective of creating dances. She does not have a set rythym or technique of dance, she just "goes with the flow." I like that because even though I know close to nothing about dance and choreograph, I still think it is cool how she does things on her own and doesn't follow the norm. I think the world tends to be a boring place when everything we do follows the rules and has a set form of doing things, so when a person like this comes along and talks about how she just lets her body flow with the music and the right moves will come to her, I think that is something very special. I think it is very special how she makes each dance separate and unique from one another. I like how she says most dances you can feel an emotion, such as grief, sadness, or happiness, but with hers, it is just a free-flowing movement. Something that has feeling, but no certain emotion attached.

Collage

I loved this project! I love projects in general. I really like making collages, so I enjoyed this assignment a lot! My original collage consisted of many things I like, such as: monkeys, dirt bikes, NASCAR, cars, dogs, my favorite TV show, basketball, food, and much more. It was all about me and I even put my name and birthday on it.

When we had to crop out a part of our collage and make it abstract, that is when it got hard for me. Mainly because I guess I don't really know how to make things abstract, or even that I really don't know what "abstract" means. This was extremely hard for me to try to pick a part of my collage and mess around with it to make it abstract. I am not a very artsy kind of person. I don't like dancing, singing, being creative (because I am not creative), acting, or anything like that. It's just not who I am. So when we had to try to make this abstract, I had the hardest time with it because I felt like I had to be a totally different person for fifty minutes and think in a way I am NOT at all used to thinking like.

I don't believe my piece was abstract at all, really, but I tried my hardest to make it "abstract."

Picasso and D.H. Lawrence

I thought these articles were both interesting, or even different. As I am not used to reading about artists and relating to them. I thought in a way, they both lead to the same overall point, although, they approached it at very different angles.

I liked Lawrences article a bit more than Picassos because I just felt I could relate a lot more to it than could I Picassos. Picassos article felt much more distant and old to me. Where as Lawrences just felt more modern.

These articles didn't hit the best of my interest, but I managed to get through them.

Creativity in Education

I agree with this article in some ways and others I don't. It is totally right how art needs to be a part of education, but I don't believe the schools need to take out other parts of education just for the arts to fit in. I think that Math, Science, and English are the most important parts in education, and history and art/music are sub-groups.

In middle school we had art from grades 5-7 and in eighth grade it got cut due to budget cuts. We also had music throughout grades 5-8, but in seventh and eight, it was an optional course. In high school, only one year of art was required, but many more art courses were optional if one wanted to take art courses. Music was never a required course in high school, but optional if one wanted to take those as well. Other than that, 3 years of math, science, and history/social studies classes were required as well as 4 years of english.

I definetly agree with the part that art needs to be reinforced in primary and middle school educations because children at that age, are at the level where they need visual and hands-on projects in order to comprehend the material they are being taught. Whether we are learners through visuals, audios, hands-on, or any of the others, when we are little, visuals are ALWAYS helpful because we do not have the amount of knowledge that we have now, it helps to have pictures with the things we are learning about.

Overall, art is definetly a neccesity in education. Whether it be to help students learn better, or just to expand their knowledge and appreciation for art.

In the Hands of the Restless Poor

This article made me open my eyes to realize that I am very fortunate to be getting the education that I am getting. Many poor families are unable to pay for their children to go to school, so unfortunately for the kids, they miss out on an amazing opportunity to higher their education and have better possibilities in the "real" world.

Although students less fortunate than most all of us have a hard time finding a way to pay for their tuition or their education, there are definetly ways to work around that, they just need to look a little bit harder than the rest of us. They may need to fill out more grants, loans, or scholarship applications than the average student. Especially if the student is very smart, there is a very likely chance they could get a scholarship for academics, or even sports if they are good at sports. There are endless possibilities to help pay for an education, these students may just have to look further than we do.

Anything in life is possible, so why can't getting an education be one of those things? It can be! A lot of the "poor" students tend to do poor in school because of the lack of support and help from the parents at home. Many times the reason the students are doing poorly in school is because the parents are always working, alcoholics, drug addicts, or never home (whether it be with friends or more.) In this case, students have the opportunity to go to tutoring classes, get extra help from teachers after class, or attend clubs/organizations that promote good grades and help with less fortunate students.

Students have all different kinds of abilities and disabilities, so when in a classroom setting or an educational setting, we all need to be curtious of everyone around us, their ability, or lack there of, and try to help them out whenever possible.

The University Orchestra

Wow! This was a very cool experience! I have never been to an orchestra before and this was something that I probably would have never gone to on my own, but being "forced" to in a sense, was actually good for me. Thank you!

My favorite instruments in the performance were the flute and the trumpet. I felt like peaceful and kept picturing butterflies when I heard the flute and thought about war movies such as "Saving Private Ryan" when I heard the trumpet. For some reason, these two instruments hit me the hardest and I feel like I appreciated them the most.

The first piece was amazing! Lei Weng and Jonathan Bellman are phenominal pianists! It was very cool to be able to see them in person. They played so calm and gentle, almost as if it were something second nature to them (which it probably is.) This piece was very interesting, although this was probably my least favorite, because it didn't have very much trumpet in it. As well as it was played, it came in as number three on my list.

The second piece was great! Natalie's ability is breathtaking! I have never listened that closely to any instruments, but especially the violin. She has great talent and did an awesome job! The "preview" piece the orchestra played on that one was very interesting. I actually liked the third movement, although it was nothing like the first and second movements. It was energetic, chaotic, and full of energy. It kept me on my toes! My heart almost seemed as if it was racing when intermission began because it was so intense. This piece was my second favorite.

The third piece was my favorite! I loved this one! It had so much flute and trumpet in it, that it really kept me interested and excited because it had my two favorite instruments. I liked how upbeat it was. It had a couple quiet, slow parts, but I felt it was, for the most part, upbeat and used all the instruments as much as possible. I loved the flute solos. The second movement was my favorite out of all four movements of this piece though.

Throughout all the pieces, I kept imagining movies. Certain movies and scenes with each instrument and frequencies. One distinct one that I remember was in the last piece, throughout almost the whole thing, it had certain parts that reminded me of someone walking and then a cat (or dog, or some animal or person) creeping up behind them and then when the strings would come in, the animal (or person) would hide behind a rock, bush, tree, or some kind of shelter. Then when the person would begin to walk again, they would jump out and follow them again, and when the person would turn around to look for anybody, they would hide again. (If any of that makes sense?)

Composing a Symphony

Everything comes from inspiration. Whether it be a painting, a workout plan, a poem, or a music composition. So, when composing a symphony, it takes lots of inspiration and time. Like our previous readings said, only good articles come from automatic inspiration and not over time. I disagree with that. When I have a paper due or some kind of project, I try to think about it from the minute the professor tells us about it. In doing that, I am trying to think of something to write about, searching for any kind of inspiration i can. Therefore, inspiration is something that comes and goes. I can't just sit down and write or compose a project or anything of that sort. I need time to brainstorm ideas and throw out the bad ones. That is exactly the point Tchaikovsky is trying to get across. Don't rush things, just let them come to you as they do.

Users on Education

This article was very interesting, being that we are all college students. It states so many different points of views: like how we are all just here for an education, and how the colleges and universities really don't care about us, they just want their money. The more students they get to come to their school, the more money they get from not only the students, but the government as well. If they have a lot of students with a high graduating percentage, the school looks more credible and thus is able to recruit more people for more money. It is almost like a scam, we pay so much for so little. We end up with a degree, yet now-a-days, it seems like almost everybody has a degree or is in college. Thirty years ago, you were set out from a group of people if you went to college, now you are just like everybody else.

We’ve all heard the quote from the well known movie, “Forrest Gump” when Forrest is running away from the bullies in the truck and his girl friend, Jenny, yells, “Run Forrest, run!”
Well, that just so happens to be my last name. Caitlyn Marie Forrest.
Growing up, I was a very big tom boy. I have one older brother with whom I always played with. I was basically his shadow. We’d play matchbox cars, G.I. Joe’s, trade baseball and basketball cards, and even wrestle with each other. If it wasn’t storming or deadly weather, we were always outside, rain or shine. My brother was big into basketball, along with the neighbor boys, which in turn, got me into basketball. More relative to my story though, is flag football.
In 3rd and 4th grade, I signed up for flag football. I was one of two girls in the league out of about 120 kids. It was awesome! I felt like the star of the team! I was very little so I played running back and wide receiver. Many of the kids on my team were a year older than me and had older brothers that my brother knew. They had a lot of fun coming to the little siblings’ games. My most unforgettable memory is when all the older brothers got together at one of our games and as soon as I broke through the line of scrimmage and made my way down the field, they all chanted, “Run Forrest run!” That saying, or nickname if you will, was the beginning of a new decade for me. Even through Soccer, Basketball, and especially in Cross Country.
I was now known as Forrest by all the kids, older, same grade, and even younger, throughout school. Forrest, Forrest’s little sister, “little Forrest” were my 3 main names. Teachers even caught on. When entering a new class for a new trimester, the teachers would do roll call and once they got to my name, it was always, “Hey, you’re Forrest’s little sister, aren’t you?” I guess I don’t really know why everybody caught on and began to use this name, other than from the movie Forrest Gump. But like they say, if the shoe fits, wear it. My last name was Forrest, so I guess it was fitting.
Other than that, I guess I don’t really have any reasoning to my name. My mom was at my cousin’s graduation when she was pregnant with me and was looking through the commencement program and saw a student named Caitlyn and she liked it. Marie is, well I don’t know that either. I don’t think it is any of my grandmother’s names, pretty sure they just thought it sounded good with Caitlyn. And, I obviously took my father’s last name, Forrest.
Caitlyn Marie Forrest, many nick names come with it: Forrest, Kay, KK, Catie, Cait, Caitlyn Marie, Chatty Patty, Pete (after my great uncle) and just plain old Caitlyn. I like my name. It fits me well and I am not ashamed of it at all in any way.