Huzzah...SUCCESS!!!!!

So today was the end of this week's high stresses!  I sang in master class today (and did very well I thought....it was quite awesome!)  And tonight I had the last night of worry in relation to the 4T's concert (a big concert involving the whole school of the arts and their best things to showcase).   It was AMAZING!  There were so many absolutely incredible performances!  I hope I can get a copy of the video...and I hope people post pics and vids up on facebook soon.  It was so much fun and so amazing I wish everyone could've come!  My roommate came and took some pics of us on the stage...and I got some pics of the GREAT dress I was able to wear!

Well, the double quartet also sang and in my opinion, we NAILED it!  We really got into it and I just had so much fun getting to sing with all those amazing singers that are in the double quartet.  Being a part of something like that is really a humbling experience..they're just soooo good!  I occasionally feel like I can't keep up, but then I work and work and work on my music and realize that I can...with a lot of work!  It's so much fun and it's really getting me back into the swing of really LOVING to sing again!

After the concert we all met up with each other and waited for the audience to get out (for girlfriends, boyfriends, spouses, etc.)  It was funny, ok, so apparently I got a lot of face time with the camera because everyone recognized me and a few people came up to me and told me how pretty my face was...and then they touched my face.  That only happened twice, but it was still pretty weird!  (Especially...touching? not my favorite...especially from strangers, but it was an incredible compliment!)  and then we all went to Noodles & Company for a celebratory dinner.

Dinner was good and so much fun!!!  We got a lot of business things taken care of, like we're going to be practicing every Wednesday at 8:30 pm, and we're going to see if Dyanne (our choir director) would like us to take on a few of the pieces that would sound better with fewer voices so that the Chamber choir can have more time to work on our harder (like really really hard) pieces.  Plus, Dyanne's been recovering from a surgery and hasn't been able to be in class all week, so we're hoping to potentially alleviate some of the work...so, that's yet to be seen.

Well, we originally wanted to go to Five Guys for burgers after the concert, but a few people changed there minds right after the concert, so we spur of the moment changed places about 5 times.  Unfortunately that left five of us craving burgers and being completely unsatisfied.  So instead of being content and going our separate ways we decided to do the unhealthy thing and follow our dinner with In'N'Out..yeah, trying to lose weight and I go there...it's celebratory and so it's just fine!  And it was a BLAST!!!!!  We all went totally psycho!!!! (but in a good way...kinda.)  It was fun fun fun!!!

Well, that's all, I'm way tired, and I've gotta get up early for school!  Adios!

~Manda

Phew! (well, I see that being said in the near future anyway)

This week is one of the craziest weeks of my life!!!  I've had so many hours or rehearsal in the past couple of days it's made the days so long to the point where as I'm going to sleep I have to continually remind myself what the next day is going to be.  I'm in a big production for the school of the arts where I'm in an opera scene at the beginning of act 1 and singing with the double quartet at the end-ish of act 2.  It's been so much fun.  I forgot how high energy it is to be in big productions with tons of people involved.  For the opera scene I get to wear this GREAT dress.  I'll have pics soon (I want lots of pics within the next few days.)  It's just gorgeous!  I want everyone to see it!  I'm also performing in the voice master class on Thursday (the performances of the thing I'm in are Wednesday and Thursday nights at 7:30...at the Regan Theater at UVU if you wanna come...it is gonna be that awesome!)

So yeah, I'm freaking out over the busyness of my life right now...mid terms and performances and memorization on TOP of all this wonderful craziness!!!  But good news: I got an AWESOME score on my art history test that I just got back.  I was not at all where I wanted to be preparation-wise for this test and was positive that I bombed it, but I got a 98/100....that deserves celebration (not pizza though...I've had that for dinner the past two nights and my waist, pores, and hair are seriously angry about that...yeah, pizza is no longer celebratory food.)

And one more rushed piece of information before I go and get the much needed rest I've desperately been needing (and shhhh...it's kind of a secret...but honestly, how much of a secret can it be if I'm posting about it...oh well.)  One of my favorite shows, Glee, is having open auditions for three new characters in season 2.  There's going to be more information up on FOX's website soon as to what that entails exactly, but I think I'm gonna try out.  I have no delusions that I'd actually get a part, but I'm going to audition anyway.  I think it'd be fun and a great audition experience, plus when it's all over I'll have an audition tape that I could potentially use for future things.  So, fun fun fun!

That's all for right now, I've gotta go to bed!

Love ya!
~Manda

P.S.  These pics are from a day when my hair actually cooperated (and wasn't all tired) and I had time to get ready and do mu make-up right...and when I had some fun with my webcam....I *heart* my webcam!

Yet another new life plan: High School teacher

So, I'm here at school waiting for class to start...I was gonna exercise while I waited, but I didn't want to get all sweaty before school.  8am is still early for voice, but it's beginning to feel not so early with the sun starting to wake up at a more reasonable hour.  I've recently decided that I need to figure out how to get certified to become a high school teacher fast, cuz I want to do that (I want to teach art and music, so I think I'm gonna have to wait to actually become one till after my Master's).

he plays Will Schuster from Glee...he's the teacher in charge of the glee club. 

So, I've been watching Glee again (boy do I love that show)!!!  Every time I watch it I just want to teach choir and art/art history!  I wish I'd known this before I was a senior in college, but hey, I'm still young (right?  I always kind of feel like I'm running out of time...I really don't like this feeling...like I have to get everything done NOW cuz there's never gonna be time later...yeah, don't like it.)  I know it may seem like I'm flighty with my interests, but I really don't think I am, I think I just change focus...all my interests tend to be the same.  And with every change of my mind I'm just getting closer to what I really want to do with my life.  I guess I kind of had to be away from high school for a while to realize that I absolutely LOVE working with teenagers.  And yeah, I know, I know, I was a teenager just last year, but seriously, people have been thinking I was 23/24 since I was 17.  I just keep seeing reasons I'd love to teach high school!  It fits in with the whole me wanting to be an EFY counselor and how I loved being Camp Director.  I just hope that getting certified doesn't take too long...I really wouldn't like that idea (or spending a load more money on school...ugh!)  So yeah, that's the new plan.  I'm still going to have the options of being a performer (no thank you!) or a curator (which would still be insanely awesome) but I've realized that I love people (k, I've always known that one) and I really do enjoy teaching (duh, but I've always avoided admitting it).  It was funny, I told my friend, Shuey, last night about my new plan and he looked at me like I was crazy and followed that up by saying, "You really liked high school, didn't you?"  I thought about that for a little bit, and yeah, I most definitely did.  I mean, it was really hard for so many reasons, but if you look at my last two years, I had a bunch of friends, I was super involved, I did fairly well academically (for Manda standards...not normal people standards), I worked really hard, went to every dance (and had a date to almost all of them), etc. etc.  High school was good to me (junior high was another story..and the first two years of high school...but that's ok, we won't get into that.)  Yeah, I think I'll stop now...I just really hope that getting certified won't take too long (I seriously wish I could just jump into student teaching right now!)  But yeah, I think it's a good idea (and smarter for me than elementary school.)

And yeah...that's all!  I want to teach high school.  Goodbye!

~Manda

I love fashion blogs!!!

I have fallen in love with a few blogs lately, but especially this one!  It's all vintage clothes and accessories and stuff...and yes, it IS awesome!!!!  And I absolutely ADORE it!!!!!!  Yes, that is all for today!

~Manda

Pretty dress

Such a fun fun fun Spring dress (that I kinda want)  I found a giveaway for it on a friend's blog...too bad I don't look all that great in yellow :(

The giveaway can be found here.

That's all.

~Manda

Valentine pics!

Here are some pictures from the brunch.  (Sorry I avoided my face in them so much...I don't really like pictures when I'm cooking...or not expecting them.)  It was a fun day!

Ok, cutting sausages into hearts might SOUND like a cool idea...but it is soooo gross!!!  These guys helped me crumble up the parts that weren't hearts...they agree with the whole grossness thing!  EWWWW!!!  (they were very tasty though...everything tastes better when it's in the shape of a heart!!!)

Me and my mountain of French toast

Carmen and her pancakes

Hannah and Fernanda...yeah, they didn't help cook at all....fakers!  hahahahaha

Apartment 50 girls (and Hannah)...We LOVE them!!!

ALL the FOOD!!!

Carmen's brother, Pablo, got there late...but he did get food...no worries!

Sooooo...yeah, that was my happy (oh so very happy) Valentine's Day (and my outfit was PERFECT...I didn't wear my scarf in these pics cuz it was awkward with an apron on and I didn't want to get food on it). So...happy pics!!!

~Manda

IT"S FINALLY HERE...but it's over now

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!!

Yes, yes...my fave holiday has come and pretty much gone now.  It was fun!  I sang in Relief Society (Where Love Is from the Primary Songbook) and I had my pretty much awesome brunch.  I invited A LOT of people to come (like really, really a lot) but we had our friends from apartment 50 come and some guys...I can't remember what apartment they were from, and a guy that we a gave a ride home from church.  Yeah, pretty much a party! It was so fun, seriously!  We had pancakes and French toast, heart shaped sausages (it was sooooo gross cutting those in the shape of hearts with cookie cutters and then crumbling the rest...just...ewwww...but they were really yummy!!!), scrambled eggs with sausage in it (those were all gone before I could start eating :( but that means they tasted really good :) and that makes me very happy), orange/mango juice, apple juice (that was from pressed apples...it was some of the best apple juice I've EVER tasted!!!), oranges, bananas...yeah, TOTAL feast!!!  I made everything but the pancakes (Carmen made those...I taught her how to make circle pancakes every time instead of funny shapes...and she had so much more patience than me so they looked absolutely PERFECT: golden and totally fluffy...jealous!)  It was awesome having so many people eating (and loving) all the food I made!!!  I used a carton and a half of eggs, about a fourth a gallon of milk (maybe more), a loaf and a half of bread (really delicious white bread...the heavy kind from the Sunflower Farmers Market...YUMMMMM!!!)  There was mucho mucho good food!  IT was a BLAST to cook it all and have all those people here.

Well, Fernanda took a lot of pics, so I'll probably have those up soon.  I hope you all had a wonderful Valentines day!!!

~Manda

Shopping spree!!

I did end up going shopping today.  I didn't find the beret at D.I. (not too surprising being that I saw it about a week ago.)  Unfortunately there wasn't anything that caught my eye on my trip today.  When you're looking for specifics you generally can't find what you're looking for.  I did, however, find a really pretty navy blue formal that was velvet on top and satin on the bottom with ribbon around the waist and a bow with rhinestones on the back.  It was $25 and one size too small for me tho :(  (I've also given myself the limit of $20 for a formal).  So yeah, I didn't get that either.

After D.I. I went to Susie's Deals (the best store on the planet) and finally found a black button up vest.  It was a lot cooler than what I had in mind (I've been looking for one since about September) and I found a really long, sleeveless hoodie that does just about nothing for my figure, but it's so comfy and feels cute, so that doesn't really matter too much to me.  And I found a red sweater with a big button on the collar for tomorrow (pics are forthcoming).  I wasn't positive if I liked it, so I bought it with the intention of returning it if I found something better.

Then I went to ShopKo where I found something I've been in need of for a while: a plain, says nothing, hearty (y'know, good quality, will survive the apocalypse), just below knee length, straight black skirt.  It was on sale, but it was still more than I wanted to spend by a few dollars...but it was 50% off and I'd been looking for a skirt just like it for FOREVER...so I did end up getting it.  Plus, it made me LOVE the sweater I had just bought.  I also found the awesomest silky scarf on clearance that totally goes with my new sweater and new skirt...so, voila: Valentines outfit!

I then headed toward the mall just to see what sales might be going on.  I got a little girl's red hair bow at Claires and I found a cream beret on clearance at Charlotte Russe.  At Charlotte Russe I found out the most devastating news EVER!!!  They carry my absolute all time favorite scent: Shine!  But they discontinued it about three months ago (yeah, I hardly ever go to the mall now)...it's the perfume I've been in love with since I was 14.  The smell isn't overbearing at all, and not super sweet or musky.  It smells a little like grapefruit, and it reminds me of happy times in junior and high school...farewell Shine...you're still my favorite!  I will miss you!!!

After that I went to the Sunflower Farmer's Market for the last few things I needed for Valentine's brunch after church tomorrow.  (We're having French toast, heart shaped sausage, eggs, hot chocolate, orange juice, apple juice, etc...I am so excited!!!  I'm doing all the cooking...that's why it's all breakfast foods...I never really seem to have any problems cooking breakfast.)

So, happy Valentines Day tomorrow...get excited for one of the most pointless, frivolous holidays of the year that's all about being all lovey dovey and red and pink...oh, how exciting!!!

~Manda

P.S.  Here's a picture with my new scarf, beret, and sweater...I'm a Deschanel wannabe...oh well.

Clothing idea "shopping" + shower = All good-mood-y now!!!

Ok, so after that last post I went and took a shower and feel much better now.

Well, I've been looking for ideas of what to wear on Valentines Day.  For a long ol' while I've just ADORED the holiday.  I decided that it's a great day to dress up and get all cute (and buy a new outfit), bake, make things for friends, etc. etc.  I just love it (it IS my all time favorite.)  So, because I dress up every year I need to keep that tradition alive...but what to wear?!  I'm pretty sure I know what I'd wear if it were a weekday (my red dress)...but as it's on a Sunday this year (and I wear that dress to church a lot) I needed to do some research (and some possible bargain shopping tomorrow).

Well, I enlisted the help of Google and a few of my favorite fashion icons: Zooey Deschanel, Katy Perry, and (of course) Audrey Hepburn.  I just wanted to share a few of my favorite pics I found!

K, first of all I absolutely adore Zooey...she is pretty much just incredibly awesome!!!  I recently saw a red beret at D.I. and thought about getting it...I didn't, but now I'm really wishing I had.  And check out those glasses!  They look SO much like the ones I just bought at D.I., how about that!  (I was pretty much way excited about that when I found this pic...if I can be at all like Zooey fashion-wise, that is a gooood thing!)  I've been really wanting scarves lately and this one here is no exception.  Wish I could pull off sweaters better...but they tend to just make me look bulky and not feel all that pretty...but there's always the occasional one that I love!

K, more Zooey.  I really liked these because of the tights!  I used to NEVER wear tights!!!!  (Pretty much as a rule...I had always considered them to be too much like nylons or I'd associate them with being little...and let's see, who focuses a lot of her energy on not losing the ideals of a 4 year old?  Oh yeah, that'd be me...not sure WHAT I was thinking...hahaha) But my roommate last semester, Debbie (the one from England), she wore tights all the time, so I decided to try it!  They are so comfy and warm and not at all like annoying nylons (they don't get runs as easy!)  But I only have black ones.  I'd love some navy blue, shimmery silver, or redish-purpley ones!  (Also...in the top pic...I want a yellow skirt now...but a longer one.)

Ok, the first one isn't Audrey Hepburn, but it is most definitely an Audrey-y dress.  So I was looking at the two of these and thought if combined (the lacy, asymmetrical collar and bow on Zooey's and the circumference and length of the Audrey look alike) they would probably make an awesome wedding dress!!!!  Especially with a veil kind of like this:

but white of course (and with a normal bow...but big and shiny...and a few beads/jewels in the veil.)

I think it'd be awesome...it'd totally rid me of my Converse idea (which would please my mother greatly!  hahahaha...I don't actually think I'd ever be able to go through with it anyway.)

Yeah, those were a few of my findings (There were tons of Audrey and Katy things that I liked, but people generally know and love Audrey already...and a lot of Katy's things are pretty extreme...love her tho!)...the only real possibility is the top Zooey one (and that's only if I could find a cheap sweater that fit right...oooh, and a wool pencil skirt, and to make it church-y a big red bow in my hair instead of a hat...k, now I want that real bad!  hahaha)...So tomorrow I'm going to go deposit my latest paycheck and visit D.I., Susie's Deals (where EVERYTHING is $6 or less), TJ Maxx, Ross, and then maybe a few other stores if there're sales to see if I can find anything for my favorite holiday...I'm excited (and then the search for either a borrowed formal or one that's under $20 begins!)

Happy fashion!  :)

~Manda

Dejected-feeling, tired, listless...it's just one of those days

So, today I'm very frustrated!!!  I've been working on losing weight: eating healthy, going to the gym, reading my scriptures (because I am TOTALLY convinced it helps!  like really!!!), etc. etc. and yet, NOTHING!!!  I've gained weight back from when I lost 25 lbs. at the end of the summer, and it's really kind of freaking me out!

I love checking out my friend's blogs.  A lot of blogs I follow have to do with fashion and stuff and so I see a lot of pictures of thin, thin girls with awesome clothes.  It makes me rather jealous (which is way bad...I know).

And then there's school.  My opera workshop class is doing a scene from La Traviatta.  It's a party scene and we have to dress up in formals.  It is sooo incredibly EXCITING!!!  We're doing it on the 24th and 25th of this month for a big tribute night thing for the school of the arts that I'm also performing in with the honors double quartet (yay!).  Well, we need to be in formals for this performance...there's one itsy-bitsy problem with this...all my formals are in my closet in Maine.  I honestly didn't think I'd be needing them, but now I need to find one.  There are girls in my class who have many formals (like pageant winners) and are more than willing to share.  Well, they're all size 6/8 or smaller...and it just makes me sad and frustrated...grrrr....sorry about the negativity!

Yeah, that's been frustrating!  And that's today's news...too tired and dejected-feeling to write more.

Other than that life is good!  Love you all!

~Manda

A new favorite artist

So, my absolute favorite class this semester is my 20th Century Art and Architectural History class hands down!!!  First of all my teacher has got this style that is totally lawyer/art historian (which is awesome cuz that's exactly what she is) but she's also one of the coolest, smartest people I've ever met, and she's got the most amazing personality...I pretty much want to grow up to be exactly her!!!  She is sooooo my hero!!!

Other than that, I have totally rediscovered my intensely insane passion for all things modern art!!!  It's probably my favorite thing in the world!  I love all the movements, experimentation, emotion, politics, ideas...EVERYTHING ABOUT EVERYTHING!!!  I love it ALL!!!  I eat it up and absorb it like a sponge!  I have totally remembered why I originally wanted to be an art historian...but I think I've discovered that I want to focus on the modern stuff. It's just so fascinating.  I start reading and studying and all it leads me to is wanting more and becoming completely and utterly obsessed!!!  (Like me with TV...I'm a junkie for modern art...only I actually really want to pursue a legit career in it and that idea doesn't scare me in the least.)  I've already decided that my heart isn't in performing and music.  I've always enjoyed it, and I still do, but I have a fiery passion for modern art.  I'd love to be a curator and design exhibits (cuz that's EXACTLY what curators do!!)  Plus, curators are hard to come by so once a museum finds one and gets them, they kind of hold onto them for dear life.  And just imagine all the knowledge a curator must have?!  Typically an exhibit is all done being planned FIVE YEARS before it ever goes up.  And there is so much research involved and even artistic interpretation...it's like the coolest job in existence!!!  I mean, sure there must be downsides, but I honestly don't see any...but to the point of this blog (I kind of just went on an extreme tangent...sorry.)

So, in class I discovered a new artist that I've just fallen in love with.  I'm gonna give you a little background into my favorite kinds of art to help you understand before I explain Malevich (Russian, properly pronounced kind of like Mah-yeh-vich...but the "ch" more like the "h" in the word "hue") to you.  I love minimalism, Dada, Pop Art (Lichtenstein only though), synthetic and analytical cubism among other things.  I mention these specifically due to their simplicity, ideas of how to treat space, and the way they all seemed to have become simpler and more abstracted through the run of their movement.  Ok, so with that rather uninformative and not well written preface...Malevich.  He invented Suprematism which he believed to be the most supreme (hence the name, imagine that) form of art.  He would take images and break them down into the simplest shapes possible.  Originally he would take the parts and break them down.  As his style progressed he began to break those down even further.  By the end they were so simple that the color would be gone and you got a lot of black and white (and even the occasional white on white).  When my teacher started teaching about him she said that there would be people who loved him and thought him to be a genius and those who would believe him to be a joke and a total disgrace on the art community, and everyone else wouldn't care a whole lot.  From the minute I saw his first pieces and saw how he could simplify to the extreme I believed he was a complete genius!!!  So yeah...what do you think?  Genius or crazy?  My opinion isn't ever gonna change (just like with Lichtenstein...I couldn't care less about Warhol, but Lichtenstein is a hero of mine!!!)

So yeah...Malevich...obsessively LOVE his work!!!  You might see it and think "Ok, looks minimalist...looks like the stupid, random modern art that a kid could do" or whatever...but just hear me out for a minute.  He was in Russia where the traditional art hadn't changed too much since the Byzantine empire (that's way old!)  So when modern art started reaching Russia it wasn't due to too much Western Europe influence (which was pretty much the hub of the art world at the turn of the century).  Art was still extremely conservative in Russia.  You saw a little influence from impression/expression and a little bit of cubism, but not heavy influence and super fast paced change (the Russians liked to keep to themselves...still do...Russian art collectors like all of a Russian artist's work to stay in Russia.)  So, when Malevich started doing this it was not only extreme for the entire Western world, but über extreme for Russia.  It also seems like a lot of minimalist pieces of art...but get this: it was done about 40 years BEFORE the minimalist movement!!!!  (Blows your mind, I know!)  Unfortunately when the Soviet Union came about they didn't like Malevich's "art for art's sake" type stuff.  They wanted all art to have a purpose so implemented a lot of his ideas into graphic design and stuff just so the idea wouldn't be lost and it could have reason and purpose (too bad).

So yeah, new fave!  Isn't art fun?!  :)

~Manda

My yesterday Adventure

So, I was sick in January...started the second day of school.  I went to the doctor, got all medded up, took all the antibiotics, and went on my merry way...singing(tra-la-la). And then one tiny detail got in my way...a cough!  I've had a cough for a month now and it's been making singing very difficult.  During my voice lesson Monday morning (yeah, 8am is still early!) my teacher and I became concerned, so I made the decision to visit the clinic yet again (it's starting to become a second home to me...haha, not really, but close...hahahaha).  I made an appointment for 2 the next day (which was yesterday).

Yesterday after choir I decided I'd get some lunch while I waited.  I ran into three friends from choir, so we all ate together and had a pretty fun time doing it (and being total music geeks, what with the talking about the problems and potential problems in the music dept, vocal vs. instrumental music, composers, musicians, popular styles vs. classical...yeah, geeks, and proud of it!).  By the time we were done eating I still had an hour and ten minutes before my appointment.  I checked in anyway (cuz what are waiting rooms for if not to wait?)  Slowly other people trickled into the waiting room and each in turn followed my example of pulling out his laptop (they were all guys, I am being gender specific...if it was guys and girls I would be grammatically incorrect and have said "their" cuz I like the way it sounds...it's always sounded better to me than "his/her"...ewww...now where was I?) I had expected to have to wait for a while so I upgraded the access agent for the school server and while that was happening I decided that I'd watch and episode of Buffy (yeah, I didn't decide to do homework...I'm bad like that *sad*)

Well this one guy was having problems connecting to the internet, so I went over to help him.  Turns out he was trying to connect to the secured server which doesn't work (you need to connect to the open server and then you download the access agent and sign in through there...so that's what I told him...he didn't really get it.)  As I was showing him how to connect they called me into my appointment (about an hour before it was supposed to happen...sweeeeet!!!)

Well, my doctor was the same guy who helped me when I was sick in January, which was nice, cuz he pretty much already knew what was going on and didn't make me tell him my whole story.  He said that I might have a mix of left-overs from when I was sick, and possible allergies.  So he put me on an inhaler and told me to get some Claritin.  I then left the clinic and headed to Wallgreens for some happy new medicine (to take in addition to the medicine I'm still taking from an earlier thing...yeah, lots and lots of medicines, yuck!)

So now I'm here posting because I think it's a combo of nerdy/cool to have an inhaler. I've always thought they were kind of weird things.  Normally the kids who had them (when I was little) couldn't run too much in kickball (my favorite game as a kid) and they were usually really scrawny and had mousy hair and glasses (and then I look at pics of me back then...yeah, I'm not sure how I thought I was cooler than anyone...hahahahahaha).  But, as a kid there was always a mystery to me of why they had them, what they did, what was in them (I thought it was air...silly me...hahaha)...they were always sort of cool in this incredibly odd sort of way (like how people who don't wear glasses always want to try people's glasses on...that sort of thing).  But yeah, I have an inhaler now, and I take 3 different medicines everyday right now...and that's weird to me (normally I only take medicine when I have a headache...so yeah, this is different).

yeah, me as one of the kids I described above...I've never been super cool...

but I thought it was funny...I read comics (Manga, no less), I wear glasses, 

I wear kind of nerdy clothes a lot (I don't ever wear my hair like that tho) 

and now I have an inhaler...it makes me happy!  I'm a TOTAL, stereotypical

looking nerd now...kind of awesome!

So those are my adventures from yesterday!  Kind of odd, but I enjoy them!

~Manda

The Princess and the Frog....and *sigh* Louisiana

So I finally saw the Princess and the Frog today (my roommate had it downloaded on her computer and gave it to me).  It was SOOOO cute!!!  I absolutely LOVED it!  (I think it'll probably be up there with the Lion King and Beauty and the Beast in my book...which are my all time favorite Disney movies).

I loved the music and the characters, but the thing I probably loved most (besides all the 1920's fashion--dresses, hats, shoes, hair...LOVED that!!!) was how Louisiana it was!  I loved the firefly zydeco band, the alligators, the accents, the food (benyays....yummmmm!!!! and frog legs, and crawfish, and gumbo...I know I didn't get to eat it or anything...but all the food down there is soooo good!!!), the jazz, the Mardi Gras parade, the freaky voodoo stuff (sooo freaky....sooo scary!!!), the trees, the bayou...ALL of it!!!  I just adored the whole thing!  It was so much fun!

So, because of this incredibly adorable movie I want to go down and visit Louisiana as soon as is humanly possible...and re-experience everything (so I'd be able to remember it).  Yeah, I've always wanted to be able to say I'm from Louisiana...cuz that would be the COOLEST!!!  I mean, the pelicans, magnolias, Indian mounds, the moss, the way all the water in the air collects on everything and the fact that when you're camping it feels like the whole world took a shower while you were asleep, the rain (the warm rain), the complete lack of seasons, the green green green, the way you can practically see the air a lot of the time, all the trees, the flowers, the fact that there is so much life everywhere all the time, all the water (even though that gets really gross sometimes), the fog, the FOOD!!!, the people, the music...so yeah...go see the Princess and the Frog...instant classic there!!!

~Manda

Just a few of my favorite songs from when I was 9 and in Japan

Puffy - Mother

Shingo Mama - O-ha

Kinki Kids - Flower

Morning Musume - Inspiration!

Morning Musume - Love Machine

Morning Musume - Renai Revolution 21

So yeah, I was looking at a few of my CDs today and found my old Morning Musume albums...it made me all nostalgic (for first generation DDR, J-Pop, Japanese TV, Hello Kitty, Elementary School, water balloon yo-yos from summer carnivals, my old friends, big pencil cases that I wish I could find and still use, manga, yummy pop-cycles, and Japan in general)...so I thought I should share a little bit of what I love!!!  Enjoy!

~Manda

A new favorite piece of art!!!

Frank Stella, La scienza della pigrizia, 1984

K, so the actual piece...not totally a fave, but the NAME...whoa....it's like an entire (unfortunate) life manifesto on a wall. La scienza della pigrizia (The Science of Laziness) by Frank Stella (he's a minimalist...for a while anyway...he did a LOT with stripes...he was influenced by Pollock and Kline, both abstract expressionists).

I found it as I was doing research for a music/art history project (I'm using the research for both classes, different papers, same research...pretty sweet!)  So yeah, the Science of Laziness...I just LOVE that title!

I had so much fun today with my research.  I got to look at pieces by Mondrian (totally LOVE his stuff!!!), Brâncuşi, and I got to think about Duchamp (one of my absolute FAVORITE artists!!!), and Lichtenstein (an artist I probably won't showcase in my project, but he's my all time favorite artist!!!).  *sigh*  Boy do I LOVE art!!!!

Piet Mondrian, Broadway Boogie Woogie, 1942-43

I got to see this one in New York at the MoMA... LOVE Mondrian...like seriously.  He was one of the founders of De Stijl, a Dutch movement that means "the Style" (and is pronounced surprisingly similar to that).  They focused on using black, white, and primary colors and very geometric shapes.  I thought he was minimalist, but he wasn't, he just really influenced the movement.  This piece was really influenced by the music of the day.  Mondrian loved music (and that's pretty cool!)

Piet Mondrian, Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow, 1930

This is probably my favorite piece of his!  Very quintessential Mondrian (in my opinion).

'Sleeping Muse', bronze sculpture by Constantin Brâncuşi, 1910

"The Endless Column" in Târgu Jiu, Romania, as restored after 2000

Brâncuşi doesn't really fit into much of a solid movement cuz he's mostly into sculpture, but he was also a really big influence on the minimalists.  The column is in this totally random place in Romania.  It's about as tall as a 10 story building and it's in the middle of this totally rural area.  It was originally commissioned for an Indian temple, but the temple was never built, so it just stayed in Romania...all random and everything.

Marcel Duchamp, Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2, 1912

K, this is one of my absolute FAVORITE pieces ever!!!  It's cubist, but I like it so much more than Picasso (I think it's mostly because you don't get to see a whole lot of cubism from Duchamp).  It's in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, so I've never seen it in real life...but I soooooo very much want to!!!  The story behind this is really kind of sad, cute, cool, funny.  It was all ready to be in a display in Europe but the place that was holding the exhibit told Duchamp's brothers (who were also artists) that they needed to tell him to remove the painting from the exhibit.  They said the reason was that he etched the title into the painting (you can sort of see it in this picture...it's in the bottom left), but that's debatable truth due to the fact that text was very prevalent in cubist art.  So Duchamp went to the exhibit, unbeknownst to his brothers, and removed the painting himself, and went back home all dejected in a taxi.  He then moved to New York and displayed this same piece in an exhibit there.  It was so shocking to the public and a lot of people either hated it or didn't quite know what to think of it.  There were so many different reactions to it that it became the most famous piece in the exhibit, so Duchamp decided that New York was the best place for him, so he stayed and kept doing (a lot of rather shocking) art.

Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917

I got to see this one!!!!!  In real life!!!!!  And the picture in real life too!!!!!  It was also at the MoMA when I went...they had a Dada exhibit.  I saw it!  It was just as weird in person!  I saw the "R. Mutt" and EVERYTHING!!!!  Dada art is soooo weird, and that's exactly is purpose.  It's designed to be purposeless, and that's why it is so incredibly awesome!!!!  (yeah, I saw that one!!!)

Roy Lichtenstein, Drowning Girl, 1963

I got to see this one too!  Not quite as exciting as all the Duchamp stuff I got to see.  I love Lichtenstein, but you pretty much always know what to expect: cartoons.  And that's why I love it!  I had an art teacher in 7th grade that said "comics are NOT art!"  I vehemently disagreed with her, but she didn't budge on the topic.  And then...behold: Lichtenstein.  When I first saw his stuff and had to do a report on him (I had to do a report on Duchamp too...hence the total and complete adoration) I couldn't get enough of it!  I looked for piece after piece after piece.  It was pop art, but not Andy Warhol!!!  And it was COMICS!!!!  I love comics!!!!  His later stuff is more abstracted, but none the less awesome!!!  So yeah, LOVE that man's stuff!!!!  (And I got to see two of his pieces in real life!)

So yeah, probably more than you wanted to know about my love, obsession, excitement in relation to art history, but I do love it!!!  Especially the modern stuff (hence the me taking 20th Century Art and Architectural History this semester).  So, hope you enjoyed the little crash course in "Manda's completely trivial knowledge about random pieces of art that don't have that much to do with her project or her class but that she thinks are totally worth while anyway!" cuz I sure had fun today with my long, long hours of research!  Love you guys!!!

~Manda

P.S. check out this awesome quote I found during my research:

"Work like a slave; command like a king; create like a god."

~Constantin Brâncuşi ♥

I loved it!!!