My Final Project

Here it is: THE FINAL DOCUMENTATION
Thanks Theater Group for a fun time!

"Milutis Rode The Subway" Song

A TRIBUTE TO THE SUBWAY SIGN

Project H2O: Reach for the Impossible

Happiness and the Lack of Mental Disturbance

I've always wonder what it means to be happy. According to John Locke, it's "the absence of uneasiness". When you don't have any mental disturbances, you are happy. I don't know if I agree with this definition. The Stoic view of happiness is to be in "a state of "apatheia" which basically means apathy. Later people wanted to make this translation be "tranquility" because...well...it sounds nicer. Apathy to me has always meant not feeling anything at all. When I'm happy, (well, my idea of being happy) I feel all sorts of things. Sometimes I'm tranquil, like when I'm reading a good book on the couch and my cat is on my stomach purring in his sleep. Sometimes I'm excited, like just two days ago when I got the new James Bond Video Game for the wii and went on a technologically bloody killing spree. However, according to John Locke, humans don't have any innate ideas, which means we really don't have any idea what we are feeling unless we are taught. So how do I know what I feel, how do I know who I am? Have I been so conditioned by society and my experiences in it that I have been molded into some common human being that does typical things and has typical feelings? I just don't know. I guess I'll have to be taught that.

AUDIO PROMPT

Here is my audio poem I made in pro tools.
There are a variety of sounds in here on different tracks!!! I actually recorded pulling up a window shade too!!! I thought that was funny.
Enjoy!!!

Novels in Three Lines

It takes an artist to sift through the every-day news and find something a little more bizarre. However, I guess what this teaches us is that the everyday is full of bizarre...and it's all happening all around us.
I added my own little derive to this assignment and dug through people's recycling bins to find the papers I used. That's why the dates are a little sporadic. I think everyone was saving the more recent papers considering the historic landmark of electing an African American president for the very first time ever. The HISTORY in the everyday! It's amazing. Here are my blobs of bizarre-ness:

Because of stupidity of the foot and brain, a local driver of the Lynnwood area, propelled his vehicle through the glass front door of 7-11 by pressing down the gas pedal rather than the brake pedal. Lynnwood Enterprise-10/23

P. Cameron DeVore wrote his own obituary, writing that he tragically died while eating a favorite huckleberry dessert. He consequently died of a heart attack in his Island Vacation Home. New York Times- 10/31

After a vicious, blood-spilling, violent battle costing millions and millions of dollars, politician Dino Rossi conceded the governor’s seat to Christine Gregoire, for the second or third time. Seattle Times-11/5

A rabid dog named Barney, residing in the White House, caused a reporter to seek medical attention for a gaping, bleeding wound where the rabid dog’s teeth met his flesh: another strike for President Bush. Los Angeles Times-11/6

A wild turkey relieved himself all over, in an act of terrorism, and destroyed three rooms in it’s owners New Jersey Home. A particular target: the Abercrombie and Fitch shirt owned by the pubescent teen. Red Orbit News-11/5

In a drunken stupor, M. Schultz stole a car he thought was his own, and drove away from the gentleman’s club he was at. He was later arrested and charged with drug possession. Herald Times-10/16

The Idea of Individual Power in America

I think the great thing about America is that we all think as individuals, we have power. Don't get me wrong, in a way, we do. WE get to vote! But, whoever we elect is essentially going to do what they think is best. This didn't work out too well with our last two presidents( from sex scandals to unprecedented wars).

I just wonder if someone else has a better idea than democracy? Does that make me unpatriotic? I love America. I love the people that live in this country and I love that we have freedom of speech. I don't love that we are chronic users and love material things an emit more CO2 and other toxic gases than any other country in the world. BUT, that's besides the point. I think the only thing we, as individuals, have power over is our own thoughts. This goes along with all the philosophy books I've been reading lately. Thank you, Rene Descartes!

Cameo Writings

Andy Warhol Cameo:
Diamonds are overrated. They last forever? Nothing lasts forever, not to mention the relationship in which a diamond is most often given (as a boon for love which is actually just about sex). The only reason I like diamonds or any sparkly jewels at all is that they look like sugar coated candy that I buy at Sweet Factory. You buy the crystallized sugar on wooden sticks and then suck the sticks until the pieces fall off. It’s a pretty nice process. They come in all colors. I think gold is garish, especially with a pink jewel inset. What is it with women and pink? It’s not even a flattering color. Put pink on the skin and it makes you pinker. It also makes blemishes stand out. A good color to hide imperfections is orange. But then there is the possibility of looking like a pumpkin. Speaking of pumpkins, why do women want to dress like whores for Halloween? Sexy is sexy, but showing everything is whorish. Showing some leg but having the chest fully covered is the sign of a very liberated woman. Showing some chest but having the legs covered is equally flattering. Maybe women just wonder about what it would be like to be a whore…a pirate whore, a maid whore or a promiscuous witch. It is an interesting thought. Throughout the years, there have been many different stages of what it means to be promiscuous. In the 60’s, free love was at a high. During this time, the sexually transmitted disease was beginning to run rampant. Damn hippies. But there was still that remaining little 50’s housewife. Just look at Jackie Onassis. In the late sixties and early 70’s, we saw the likes of Joni Mitchell and Janis Joplin. Not very pretty, but very attractive in their own ways: both unique to a fault. And now there’s just no such thing as unique anymore. Everyone wants what everyone else has, whether it’s straight or curly hair, or a big screen TV. While I would like a big screen TV, I would make it a point to not watch what everyone else was watching. There’s something to be said for blending in, but then taking a stand. Just imagine what would happen to a viewer when the whole 46 inches of the TV is filled with musical theater or hallmark movies…or even episodes of Little House on the Prairie. The old times were the best, in my opinion: the old music, the old dresses, and the old style. Everyone had a certain distinction of class that doesn’t exist anymore. And if you try to acquire it, you are un-cool OR just trying to be different in hopes of becoming cool, which doesn’t really make any sense. But, that’s how life is today. There’s just no one beautiful like Catherine Deneuve or Grace Kelly or even Rosemary Clooney. Britney Spears just doesn’t compare. Especially when she dresses up for Halloween in Lingerie and makes it seem like a costume. Creative? Maybe. Classy? Definitely no. Maybe class went extinct. In that case, I’m a dinosaur.

Kenny Goldsmith Cameo:
Maids have been around forever doing everyone’s dirty work for ages. Uh, the idea of having someone clean, uh, up for you, uh, is a nice thing. Only the rich people, uh, that are real
Really
Really
Really
Rich can actually afford maids and pass them, uh, down through the years. Uh, it’s almost like indentured servants. Really, really rich people can also afford hefty, stainless steel or titanium watches. Coughing. Coughing. Coughing. Coughing. Coughing. Coughing. Coughing.
To get a titanium watch you have to, uh, send away to a foreign country. Don’t trust American titanium.
America the Beautiful
America the Beautiful
Titanium watches. They are an image. A means to an end. A poor man sees a titanium watch on, uh, coughing, a rich man’s wrist and then is nicer to him. Being nice to someone because they are rich, uh, what has America the Beautiful come to?
Sometimes coughing becomes an epidemic and then more and more people cough. It takes on a Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm I got rhythm I got music I got rhythm I got rhythm I got music who could ask for anything more……………………………………………
Music makers sell for 17.95 plus shipping these days in America the Beautiful. When did music become so inexpensive. It comes from the soul, therefore it should be that the very very very very very very rich people have to pay a lot and then give it to the poor, like modern day Robin Hoods, but with music instead of gold and other riches of medieval times. Robin Hood was actually bled to death by the clergy, which is interesting considering he bled for the people every day of his life. Hm. Who knows about history? Who knows about time? Why do rich men like titanium watches so much? They are waterproof. And why do rich women like shoes? Shoes are just made to cover up feet so they don’t look so ugly. They can be waterproof if you spray them with chemicals. People are ugly at heart, I think. At least in today’s world.

The Music and Meaning of "The Last Clean Shirt"

"Brother Bill" or "The Last Clean Shirt", a song written by famous composers Leiber and Stoller, was performed and made famous by The Rockin' Berries. This is a song, who's sound: bluesy, upbeat piano accompaniment and soulful singer- is very contrasted with it's real poignant lyrics. The listener is cued in on "poor brother bill's" sorry life and death. There's an insinuation of murder,--- " I know the girl and the {dew-house} man that done my brother in"...and it's possible that our "brother bill" was into cocaine. The last clean shirt is what poor brother bill is put down into the ground wearing. It's the last shirt he'll ever need. Who knows about brother bill? All the story teller knows is that his brother is dead and a tear is "tricklin" down his face. I find it interesting that Leslie and O'Hara chose this song for their dramatic piece( if that's the right title for the film). When I hear this song, and the song at the beginning of the film, I do think of sadness and how quickly time passes away. Throughout my life I've watched many people grow ill and pass away, and many people die instantly and just all of a sudden be out of my life. We all experience this. Just last weekend I watched my last surviving grandfather suffer a stroke and be rendered helpless. There's no way of putting into words how life really does escape us. I think this is a theme that runs through " The Last Clean Shirt", and that's why at times there are no words and WHEN THERE ARE, they really mean something. Even the ridiculousness of the male passenger's zoo in his head proves that we all want to do something in our lives. I also took notes about how he hoped it wouldn't rain and wash his zoo all away to nothingness (hopefully that's what it was). We all fear nothingness. That's why so many people turn to spirituality and Religion. The fear of nothing after death chills me to the bone.
I was never bored while watching this film, unlike occasional moments of boredom in the "Letters from Home" film.( heck sitting on the subway in New York is interesting if you are actually there FOR SURE, but not so much through a camera. That's my opinion at least). I was bombarded with thoughts about what the little things throughout the film could mean.
All through the ride, we were continually immersed in sound, and this is what led me to believe the music and sound really played a large part and meant something BIG! Though, as a musician, sound rules my life. I was especially annoyed by babbly female passenger twittering on and on, car horns or what sounded like thunder and rain. So much noise and it just made the whole situation so chaotic. Like Life. So many times during the day I just wish I could turn off the noise and hear silence.( yes, silence has a sound) What I really noticed in the film is how many times a bus cuts off their car and almost hits them! This always happens to me in my VW bug, people think they can push me around on the road. These drivers in the film are barely avoiding catastrophe by seconds. I think that really ties in the clock on the dashboard. It just seems to be ticking down the time they have left in their car ride, and in their lives. Isn't that what we are all doing? Just think, from writing this I'm thirty minutes closer to death.

I found these lyrics( which were really hard to find, actually) at : http://www.lyricstime.com/cactus-bro-bill-lyrics.html

Andy Warhol

IN his can of Soup.

CHECK OUT MY NEW MOVIE

I made a new movie and it was very fun to do....except getting all the technological stuff to work right...and actors are so difficult to work with ( lol j/k)...especially when my main star was an animal. :)
Hope everyone is doing nicely.

-AMY NOELLE

Art in Nature

How cool is this!!!!

Mysterious Sound

I'm always finding unique things in everday life!!! Thanks to my dear mother for the use of her arm in this video... he he.

Garden Variety

Look at this amazing lawn ornament my group discovered on our video hunt.
If you gaze deep, deep into it's eyes you can see the truth of your soul..... or just your reflection.

Fact or Crap...

Play a game. Think about how the game structures time. How does the "game" effect or reflect the "real world." What do games have to tell us about "everyday life?" What does your particular game tell us about your "everyday life?"-
I recently bought a game called Fact or Crap. It consists of cards with facts or false facts on them, and you try to figure out which "facts" are true and which ones are plain crap. Not only is it hilariously funny to hear some of the things that are made up, it's even MORE CRAZY when the most ridiculous things turn out to be true. For example, it is actual fact that John Brinkley of Kansas made a fortune transplanting the glands of testicles of goats into human males to improve their sexual prowess. THAT'S A FACT. EW! Another crazy fact on the cards that was true is that it is against the law in New Jersey to annoy others by slurping your soup in a public restaurant. It's against the law! This game tells me that everyday life is just bizzare. Transplanting goat testicles and slurping soup against the law? And why would the celebration of St. Valentine's Day be abolished in Britain? It was in earlier times. It's amazing what I learned from this game. Not only did I learn that I cannot tell the fact from fiction ( because fact is often just as weird as the fictitious lies they make up), I also learned that humanity is hard to understand. Why would the Colosseum be constructed to allow an underground area to be flooded for the sole purpose of staging mock sea battles? I mean, in Ancient Rome, someone thought of that? It's also true that by law, women's underwear cannot be hung outdoors during autumn and winter in Los Angeles. Who makes a law like that? Barbers in Nebraska can not eat onions between 7am and 7pm. It's against the law.
This game, while different than most, really is a true reflection of the real world. It shows we live in a really messed up place.I'll never feel the same way about Goats.

Derive Experience

This should be a link to my Derive Experience on YOUTUBE.

Humanity and Creativity

"It is in everyday life and starting from everyday life that genuine creations are achieved, those creations which produce the human and which men produce as part of the process of becoming human: works of creativity." --Henri Lefebvre, Clearing the Ground--Art and the Everyday

Human beings are inherently creative as a way of expressing themselves. Even my quietest, shyest piano student will speak up if she has an interesting idea to share about music in our studio time, or her life in general as a first grader. Our ideas, even if they are similar to those around us, will always be our own. They may be modified by what we learn or the experiences we have throughout our lives, but they will always originate from our own brain and our own spirit and soul.

The human thinker uses all aspects of his or her mental or physical self. I believe the best intellectuals, artists, scientists, musicians, mathematicians, teachers, secretaries---the best human being of their trade---is often in balance with every aspect of their selves.

The heart is often full of passion for our individual thoughts and beliefs. Our soul and whole fiber of our being is truly behind our thoughts in every which way. If you try telling a man of the cloth he is wrong about his belief and thoughts of God, he is not only offended by your antagonistic and contradicting thoughts,  he is morally offended in his soul. He is utterly connected between al of his intrinsic parts. An individual with a brilliant mind who is not in touch with their heart and soul lacks the most basic, yet important aspect of all human life: humanity. 

An individual with a brilliant mind, yet who lacks humanity, will never have the capacity to reach their fullest potential in a general sense, and a creative sense. Creativity spawns off all our thoughts, feelings and senses. It is when we have distinct thoughts, feelings and senses that we are divinely inspired to express ourselves through art, whether it be perfecting a math problem using perfection in numbers through the Pythagorean theorem, or an abstract oil-painting of a scene only viewed and imagined in the artist's mind.

There is no such thing as conventional art, for there is no such thing as a conventional person. Each action, each step, each word, each thought and feeling is always unique to the individual. These actions occur on a daily basis, and are always more than just an action, step, word, thought or feeling. Such things make up symphonies in the air around us, bright colored picture shots of a world that is miraculous in its everyday-ness. For it is our everyday actions, thoughts and feelings that are interesting in themselves and which set each human apart, yet also bring them together in the most human way possible. We can express ourselves individually with a musical solo piece, or express ourselves as a group in an ensemble piece. Regardless, the two pieces hold creative force: a force that lifts our thoughts and feelings to a higher plane, even if it is just for a few moments. Enlightenment can come in many ways, but I believe it comes through knowing our true selves through our creative works- even if that work is just a doodle on a napkin. 

Special Delivery

How odd to see to UPS Trucks in a Fed-Ex Truck. It's actually mind boggling. 

"Doing Nothing" as a Rewarding Activity

Ironically, sitting for minutes on end "doing nothing" is a very rewarding activity. 

Five minutes in, muscles relax and thoughts about the day decrease and fall away. It is then when the alien thoughts and observations slowly creep to the surface of a quiet brain, filling it with a different kind of "cranial noise" that the monotony of every day life drowns out. Worry is no more-a mood of introspectiveness falls over me like a thin sheet of rain.

Ten minutes in, I start to notice the cracks on the ceiling, and wonder about how they got there. They make a picture on the ceiling that somewhat resembles a flower-a lily to be exact. (At least that's what they look like with the help of a little imagination). Maybe that's what I want the cracks to look like-something I perceive as beautiful. Cracks in a foundation, or a cup, or on a ceiling are so often negative. If they can make something as beautiful as a lily, then they cannot be all that bad. I try to find positive in other things I perceive as negative. 

All the holes in the walls from push pins that held up posters that have been retired to storage stick out as if they were black stars embedded in a pure-white sky. I've been meaning to put putty in them and paint. There's no time. 

Taking a step back from a busy life and engaging in "nothing" makes it seem like the easiest things to notice are the easiest things to overlook. 

Fifteen minutes have elapsed. Equal parts paranoia and fascination set in. What is that hum that seems to be coming from the closet? Have I noticed that before? Is it the light, or a singing ghost? Is it the clothes I don't wear ever? I make them hang there in the dark, gather dust. I knew it, they are mad at me!

Who's walking outside in the hallway?

I've lost track of time. I haven't been checking, just giving it my best guess. I trust myself. 

However, I've undergone so many changes of persona while doing nothing. I've entered and left so many different states of awareness, and they completely altered my perceptions of the world around me, even though it was just my room. I don't think I'd ever want to do nothing in a public place.