Friday, October 23, 2009

First Chunk of Freshman Year

Hello blog followers, please read the "things I have learned about New York/ College" blog first. Its raining multicolored leaves. My school has a lot of trees and the north likes to loudly announce changes in season. Its a pretty atmosphere which I will hopefully post pictures of soon, (Im waiting for the memory card to arrive in the mail). Thank you again Jamie for the camera. I can either give a photographic or video tour of the school to all those who are interested in seeing my campus. Art will also likely be posted, but, be forewarned that the pieces are a lot of very specific assignments created to teach specific elements. This means some of it could be potentially weird and/or abstract. If anyone is interested, I also have video projects.
I have learned a lot. I am in the center of the world, but more isolated than a Buddhist monk. I am constantly drowning in paint, buried in a book, or locked in the dark corridors of an editing lab. I do occasionally escape to find the artistic and cultural hotspots for New York residents. I have not participated in any of the traditional tourist activities (ground zero, empire state, bus tour, statue of liberty, central park, etc.), but I probably will eventually. There are a lot of free concerts, interesting thrift/vintage/costume stores, and interesting hangouts.
(in this context) Hangout [Ha ng out] n.- A place of interesting cultural interaction. Young and artistic individuals collectively agree to congregate in a typically urban setting. The appeal lies in members wanting to observe and be around other members. For example, a man with dreadlocks comes to interact with the breakdancing asian, who is there to see the trendy art chick, who is there to see the cool writer dude, who wanted to meet a small galleries' curator, and so on. The location is usually adorned with music and either snacks or a bar.
Basically its a cliche, art school kid thing to do, but its fun while its not old. Unfortunately, I have been to busy to spend more than a few hours on things not required for school. The other thing I spend my time doing is watching a lot of movies. I have seen dozens of movies that are mainstream classics, as well as obscure movies that are defiantly worth at least one watch. I recommend Fargo, The Godfather 1 and 2, The Warriors, The Kill Bill series, The Shining, O Brother Where art tho, The Lord of the Rings series, Eraserhead, and a small list of more obscure movies, to those who haven't seen them. The film club is producing a short film, and me and two of my friends are writing the script. I am not sure how we convinced the rest of the club to delegate this task to three freshman, but I think we are doing a good job. We will likely also be involved in the production and post production. I am not sure when it will be completed, but I will be sure to let everyone know.
I camped out for SNL, got tickets (which means they let people in based on the number of non-reserved seats and the order of the tickets). They were letting people in, Hannah went in the elevator, and I was the next in line after her. A few minutes later we got the word that the last group had entered the elevator and they hoped we would try again. It was so sad, but crazy story right? Luckily, in a joking way, me and Hannah had planned for this event. It came in handy, when the unlikeliest of events actually happened.
I am seriously considering switching my major. I am currently Illustration and think I might like Animation. I love Illustration, but I could potentially be even happier with Animation. This would not affect any of my credits, as they have the same freshman classes. It would only affect the direction of my classes from this point on. My favorite foundation class is animation based. I think the major would combine my love of Illustration and Film. I would like feedback on whether or not I should switch.
There is probably a long list of other things I should write about, but I don't remember them at the moment. Thank you for reading this far, and I will post more soon as time allows.

Things I have learned about New York/College

After several thousands of years, I am back with another blog post. I have a lot to say, but I will start with

THINGS I HAVE LEARNED ABOUT NEW YORK/COLLEGE:
Survival of the Northest (Most North)- If someone is from a city north of your home city and/or, in closer proximity to New York City, it is presumed they know more about NYC than you do, regardless of whether or not they have ever been to NYC before. If you find you know a piece of information about the city that they do not, it is best to reveal it to them as if they already knew it.
Example:
Person A (from San Diego) : I just found out the A line on the subway is undergoing repairs for the next two weeks!
Person B ( Green Bay): I know.
Person A: Ahh man, I should’ve asked you before walking all the way to the subway station.
Person B: Don’t worry buddy, you will get the hang of it eventually.

Despite the fact that Person A’s father lived in Queens, New York and he visited several times a year, and person B had never actually been in NYC before coming to school here, Person A respected Survival of the Northest, or the Northest rule. Thus he just avoided a potentially heated debate


The Exact Location of Long Island- looking at the ground could have saved much of my time spent searching for the location of long island. For those of you who don’t know, Brooklyn is on Long Island. People who claim to be form Long Island are generally from one of two counties north of here known as Nassau and Suffolk. Though Brooklyn is on Long Island, it is never really thought of in that way. There is a Hierarchy system in place as you approach the 5 boroughs of NYC. From Nassau and Suffolk there is Prince county, Queen’s county (which contains the borough Queens), King’s county (which contains Brooklyn), and I assume that makes Manhattan some kind of deity in the eyes of those who delegated names to the counties. Along with this we can assume Staten Island is the mute nephew of the region, and the Bronx is the delinquent uncle.

The Exact Location of Thugs, Criminals, and Lunatics- Brooklyn surprisingly is not the hang out place for all the scary people in NYC. There are scary people in Manhattan too….and we have already discussed the Bronx. (the scatter of criminals is true, but it’s honestly not that bad)

Bright Lights, Tall Buildings, and Elegant Shoeboxes- They say everything is bigger in Texas. But to someone who has only ever known that super-sized world, New York often looks as if it were built for elves. It is easy to be thrown off by many things in everyday life that we Texan’s rarely take into account. A New Yorker must consider, “can the subway withstand one more person? Because that big guy is headed our way.” And “Can I make it between those people and the columns, or will this end with me bouncing off that guy in the Giant’s jersey?” And so many other things we do regularly. The microwave, for instance, works very well, but only fits a bullion cube, or a neatly folded piece of gum. Luckily, I fit very well into crevices, so I am doing quite well.


People Smell Bad in Large Groups- that’s really all there is to it.

Upperclassmenn- The upperclassmen in college are surprisingly similar to upperclassmen in high school. They share with followers of the Northest (Most North) theory, an unshakable faith in their area of expertise. They share with High School upper classmen the belief that when talking to freshman, their area of expertise extends over almost everything. This is intensified by the art school vaccine: varying doses of self-importance’ that is apparently required of every art student. Like both Northest and high school upperclassmen they are generally good and interesting people, but require careful approach in certain situations. The main difference between high school and college upperclassmen the amount freshmen listen to them. College freshman are now generally the same size as their condescending counterparts, and are no longer impressed by their cool cars, especially in New York, where everyone rides the subway anyway.


Public Transportation- Would you like to ride the bus? Before you answer, let me help- you don’t want to ride the bus. It is similar to the annoyance of the school bus except the rowdy kids in the very back are now sleeping homeless people. Your best friend that you shared a seat with on the way to school is one of the alternating bus riding regulars who enjoys staring at you creepily through ancient eyes. Taxis are expensive, and in a pinch, they don’t like to come to Brooklyn (my theory is that Manhatteners and mad because Brooklyn Is still friend’s with the Bronx). Walking is impractical; although the whole city is on about 3/4ths of an acre, there are steal and glass mountains blocking most paths. That leaves one golden option, and this leads me to the next bullet.

The Magical Land That Lies Beneath Us- Subways are fun because they are like a circus you get to be apart of. There are often performers trying to earn money -break dancers on the trains, a 12 year old candy salesman I see every few weeks delivering the same speech, people playing the drums on various buckets, foreign people with instruments I have never heard of, theatrical individuals reciting a shockingly universal speech about their subway pass running out to passer Byers (my theory is includes a conartist.com), etc. The atmosphere wouldn’t be complete without those people in attire that have to be some kind of costumes, for they are too odd to be real clothes. There is questionable food from shack venders, a constant humidity, and plenty of unidentifiable smells. Even the train helps. The sound of a subway train coming to a stop resembles the simultaneous combination of all the animals at the circus.