Look, I'm dead!

This is what I was thinking for the makeup. It's super simple and not too much. The face isn't white but very pale and the eyes look like we haven't slept for about 50 years. Check it out!

As a possible post-show song...

Black Cat score

Hey guys so this is Black Cat score I know it seems complicated but it will make sense when we walk through it. But look at the Girls and Harem section they will be important to you.

Black Cat score

By the way this will link you to my imgur account so enjoy I guess but you may not like what you see

Hey were totally cool with.....

People not being perfect right, because you know that might not happen thing is there is a lot going on in this project. But if we all help each other then at least if someone screws up then the rest of us won't look so bad.

Anyway I'm at the point where I just want to have fun with this and I no longer care about being stressed. But as soon as 483's are done I'm going to kick this projects ass who's in?

ITS ALL COMING TOGETHER..TRUNK!!

Ok, here is the deal, its not the perfect trunk but I think we can make it work! I got into it and if you crouch down you are not visible to the audience. It is not possible to close it with a person inside but should I bring it in to play with?

We cant wreck it or distress it at all but it is old and antiquey already?

Let me know what you guys think!

Kelsey

From The Desk Of...

This is my dad's desk. He bought it 45 years ago, when desks were made to survive a bomb, but not a fire; I mean to say it is extremely sturdy, and made of wood.

 It is about the height of the box standing in for the desk, and just a bit short of it's length.

And it is quite sturdy

Where might we be able to store it? (In 2 - 48 perhaps? I shall make some inquiries tomorrow, but any other suggestions would be appreciated.)

My father has kindly offered his vehicular and van driving services for its transport, but requires a minimum two young men with middling to magnificent muscles to help with the carrying (it resides in my dad's basement office). The preferable time this might happen would be in the early-ish to mid morning, (preferably Thursday,) but could possibly happen Sunday morning, should this be desirable.

Pre and Post show music

Hey All.

I have found this composer, Fredrik Klingwall, who composed an album of classical piano ballads based on poems by Poe. I found some more of his stuff and it is quite dark and very fitting with the show we are creating.

Here are some links to try out. Let me know what you think!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXOtZA682hU&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjPAStvEXt4&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlMpinzmxAc&feature=BFa&list=AL94UKMTqg-9Cg2jzMr6v5HR4ulSY_AaUN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U31qE8xEX0g&feature=BFa&list=AL94UKMTqg-9Cg2jzMr6v5HR4ulSY_AaUN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FasoocI0jOc&feature=BFa&list=AL94UKMTqg-9Cg2jzMr6v5HR4ulSY_AaUN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWQuCCnb4-M&feature=BFa&list=AL94UKMTqg-9Cg2jzMr6v5HR4ulSY_AaUN

some movement videos

morning!
In order to inspire myself to come up with some movement, i looked up for some dance videos. And i am really impressed by them. We may not capable of doing some of the hard one, but i think we can definetly use the ideas and the images to help with the movements.

this is presented by a  company called australian dance theatre, they have so many theatre based dance performances.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcJdGkZfQfs

this is a piece which comtained many beautiful images
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vje1QWLvpEQ

and since we are using the umbrellas, i think Sing in the rain can be a great inspire subject.
this is the oringinal screen version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1ZYhVpdXbQ

this is an theatre version in 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f-CqwYsyQc


And here is something fun to watch. in case you are stressed by the end of the term. IT IS REALLY COOL!
i am sure you will be impressed 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQeqpcg_WHs

The Black Cat Sings

This is the song we will be using for tomorrow's choreography of The Black Cat. It's actually inspired by The Fall of The House of Usher by you-know-who.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-wd3NimhbM

The Art of handling stress

This morning I was standing in line with every other student in the Drama department waiting for my lottery number to be called to sign up for rooms to rehearse in. This process was taking a long time this morning and someone from near the back of the line got upset and said "Hurry up we all have better places to be".

I am sure this person is under alot of stress and therefore has a short fuse but I just felt that we were all in line for the same purpose this morning and most importantly we are all under an immense amount of stress.

As students who have to attend class, write papers, work, volunteer and on top of that rehearse hours and hours outside of class for all of our classes we have an unbelievably busy next few weeks.

I used to let stress really build up inside of me and then snap on people, roomates, siblings, peers and parents when they had done nothing wrong. I went through a bit of an epiphany last year when I was feeling this stress and my roommate said, this too shall pass. I saw in Nick's post that he had written this and it reminded me of this moment.

We all have stress and deadlines but it shows true character when we take the high road and realize that this too shall pass and that it isn't the world's problem that we live such complicated lives. Positivity has really been key to my ability to manage my stress. If I feel overwhelmed I just remember that I have the oppurtunity to be this stressed out about these things as opposed to being stressed out about finding clean water or affording rent next month.

I wish every person in the Drama department would just keep in mind that we are all in the same boat and take the time to smile at each other to remind everyone that we are here for each other.

I love that our class seems to have a relationship of support where we all realize we have tons to do but also always put the effort in to contribute to the group.

Enough of this peace and love talk, I just want to add that I appreciate all of you and wish you luck in this next few weeks, see you all tomorrow for work time.

Kelsey

When In Rome.

Liam and I have been having a bit of rough and tumble lately. To reiterate everyone's previous statements, we have all been under a lot of stress lately. 

So to make things better, we scheduled a 10:30 am rehearsal today. 

To my surprise  it was probably one of the best rehearsals we have had in terms of focus, saying "Yes and", and being nice to each other. Albeit the rehearsal was very brief, we managed to nail down a couple more key points that we had been missing in our piece. 

I am by no lengths a religious man, nor am I an optimist. But I have faith. So much faith it sometimes makes me look like I'm being apathetic, or lazy (which is sometimes true). When I get in a tough spot, or get stressed about a project or an essay, I realise the following:

In a certain amount of time, this thing (project, essay, what have you), will be done/handed in/performed; although it is scary right now, in the future, it will be over with, and I will get to that place in the future somehow, no matter how hard it is. 

It makes me feel better, knowing that this too shall pass, and I will live and breathe in each moment. We EACH posses the necessary tools and power to break walls, challenge boundaries, push the envelope, adapt, react, create, develop, and understand.

BE THE PILLAR TO YOUR OWN EXISTENCE. 

Know everything you can about yourself, let your skeleton sink into your skin and let the tissue and sinew and nerves and flesh bind together. You are you, and you are solid. 

Lily and my Billy Joel tape: things that sum up my life better than I can

This is riffing off of Lily's last post, which I think sums up my life nicely, because I had a similar thought as I drove home today listening to my Billy Joel tape. I have lost this tape many times in my car, and each time it is under my seat, or crammed in a box in my trunk, and by the time I find it I have forgotten how much I love to listen to it while driving. There is a song on it called "This is the Time". It is horribly sappy and I have embarrassed myself many times singing it as trucks drive past me, but I just love it. The chorus goes something like this: "this is the time to remember / 'cuz it will not last forever / these are the days to hold onto / 'cuz we won't although we'll want to / this is the time / and time is gonna change / you've given me the best of you / but now I need the rest of you".

Yes, horribly cheesy. BUT APPLICABLE! There is something that I forget this time of year, when stress is high and every mountain is a million miles bigger from up close: it will all be over soon. There is nothing worse, I think, than trying to create art without giving 100% of yourself. So although we are not all totally invested in this project (which I think is a shame, because we have such amazing potential) I am still going to throw every part of myself into this process. Be it covered in charcoal, smeared with blood, or screaming at the top of my lungs I will give you guys everything I have, because what point is there in spending this much time and effort on something you only give half of yourself to.

Maybe we crash and burn, maybe we soar, but either way if we go into battle with our heart chakra's open for business there is no way we will fail.

The positive power of problem-solving (or too much decaffeinated tea for one day causes nostalgic rambling)

 So I acknowledge that I am somewhat obsessive about things, particularly things that I commit myself to doing. However, I am very sad to say after many hours of searching I was unable to find a chest for the stage mostly because apparently these things are somewhat hard to come by these days and people like to change several hundred dollars for them. (those jerks) After about 5 hours of unsuccessful searching today I was feeling somewhat beat down, an emotion not aided by the lack of actual homework I have done this weekend. As well, I was feeling somewhat depressed about the amount of physical movement stuff that other groups were doing that I cannot do. So I drove over to the school for a rehearsal and felt increasingly anxious about my lack of box and after meeting with my group for a two hour rehearsal I came to a wonderful realization we are going to do this. We are going to do this and do this piece wonderfully, because we have to. Every semester at this time we all face the same challenges papers piling up, projects piling up, having to be at the university for far to many hours only to realize that we haven't seen our families nearly enough. Still we keep doing it. There has to be a reason for this madness (and it is madness, because we are always surprised when it happens and Albert Einstein said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results every time). We do it because we want to and we love doing it to ourselves. I know every year I age myself about 10 years. This summer I was talking to my German professor Feisal, one of the most amazing people in the entire world, and he asked me what I thought my age was. I of course responded 21. Feisal asked me how old I felt and after thinking I said I felt about 40, which he agreed with me on, but he told me that I am so old because I carry too much worry on me.
 We are all carrying so much worry on us right now that we can't see past the forest and into the trees. We are all worrying about this project and every other like it is the end of the world as we know it. I am not suggesting we shouldn't worry about it, because of course we should a little bit of worry is good for us. What I am proposing is we step back for a minute see the amazing work we have done in almost no time at all and just realize we can figure it out and we will, because we always do. It's too bad the department won't help us, but we'll just work around it, because we always do. I'll write all my papers, because I always do and after that is out of my hands. If we can't find a box we will figure something out, my group and I have already pondered on that and found some possible solutions. Feisal always told me I needed to spend less time worrying and more time "chillen" (for anyone who can't figure that out that is German for chilling). I think we need to just take a step back, look at the amazing work we've done and just chill for a second, because before you know it it might be over.

Here is the final draft! Thanks for the feedback. 

Please send me your abstracts

Hey guys,
 Please please please send me your abstracts by tomorrow (preferably not at 2 am on Monday), because then I can have a rough copy to bring in on Tuesday.

Can this be our poster?

The importance of being a B.A

So last night after my 454 rehearsal I was feeling somewhat over whelmed with the whole thing and was just going to go home and sleep it off. But first I needed to stop by SPS to drop off something for 483. When I got there a fellow classmate was working on her lighting and was struggling with a particular look, so I put down my bag and set off to help her. An hour later her lighting was fixed and I was on my way home.

While driving I had a realization, we’re BA’s in a school that basically only cares about its BFA’s we get low budgets, crap furniture, shit rooms, and nobody trusts us with anything the only thing we do have is each other. Reflecting on this I realized that even if I don’t care, like, or feel particularly invested in our piece that isn’t the point because I care for, like, and am invested in my classmates. I have never been more stressed out over a final in my entire school career which says something because I’ve been in 391 and 331, the difference is in those classes even at the darkest moment I always believed everything would turn out amazing, in this class not so much.

But now I understand that isn’t the point, we as a class are building something and even if it crashes and burns it’s the journey that counts, it’s that as a class we trusted each other enough to put our egos aside and realize that it isn’t about being a star or having every idea you have heard and implemented, it’s about reaching out and just plunging head first into the fray with your classmates.

So what’s the point of all this: I stand next to you people not because I’m forced to but because I want to, I’m here for a grade true but more importantly I’m here for all of you and I will wade through the crap of being a BA so that at the end of if it all I can look back and say to all of you “look what we did” because as the saying goes either we work together or we don’t work at all.

Speaking of which for Black Cat get ready to be lifting and moving so if you are injury prone lets us know because we will be doing some crazy stuff.

Also check out this song it's all about being addicted to drugs and it's told from the perspective of the drug. (the video is really lame but the lyrics are the point.) Baltimore love things

Set tweaking

So while we were playing in the space tonight, we came up with a solution for the piano. We thought we could move it stage left and angle it slightly. This would give us more space to play in, would allow for the use of the brick wall, and it would give us the option of covering it with fabric when it's not being used to unify it with the rest of the set. We could also use it as a way to make an entrance/exit space.

Color pallet

So I made up a very simple pallet, the background color is included as well, as the off-white color. This is what I imagined when Tara was describing it anyway; hope it is in the ballpark with your own images.

Here is also a cool image I happened upon. It was used as a costume for one of the nurses in Silent Hill.

POEster

Hey guys... here's a draft of the poster! Nice n' simple. Let me know what you think. 

The Importnace of Workshopping

Looking back on todays class I am reflecting on the importance the process of workshopping can be. We all want to believe that the art we create is perfect and we are pushing ourselves to our limits but it takes the point of view of the people watching it to help us realize that we can always push ourselves further.

Our piece has made such an evolution in the last week, from text based to movement based and last night I left rehearsal thinking something was still missing from the piece but I couldn't put my finger on it.

While performing the piece today in class, in a not for marks performance, I was able to put aside nerves and just feel the piece. I immediately picked up on parts that were not polished enough or things that were not coming accross clearly. Then when we received feedback people expressed what wasnt clear and it helped me fill in the blanks of the piece.

The process of workshopping allows for a stakes free environment to get feedback and improve the piece without fear of failing. Its comforting to have the chance to bounce ideas off the group and establish things that need more work.

Today was the first time that I felt the environment of true collaboration. We each seemed to have a vested interest into each others pieces and the feedback was given in a way to provide room for growth in each piece. It made me see that we all have a sense of responsibility for each individual group piece because we were all becoming a part of them.

I was really impressed by all of the pieces today, I feel like this is some of the best work I have seen from some of the people in the class and I feel the most invested in this piece than any other this term.

Does workshopping give us the reminder to explore deeper, and if so, when do we know we have explored enough? When is the piece ready for performance?

(Poe's) Prose vs Pose

Since last class, our group has progressed from narrative with occasional presentation through dance to almost entirely dance with daubs of monologue-ing...monologizing? MONOLOGUING from or inspired by the text

Our dance is representative of the metaphysical struggle between "good" (love, society, conformity for the sake of company) and "evil" (Me! wanton indulgence, in our narrators case, addiction to alcohol), in which man is inherently evil, and must strive & struggle to be good, (something which he is more inclined to fail at than to succeed.)

In this degradation or distillation of our narrative into almost entirely dance, I must wonder, what is more representationally important: language or meaning? As we are basing ourselves off of a storywriter/poet, the words of course bear great relevance. However, the motivations of our piece seems to jive with Poe's overlying and underlying themes, (the addiction, the evil, the insanity, the misogyny, and the death) which are after all what is meant to be delivered, be it through words or movement.

In your own piece, what part do your words play? And your movements? Do you find narrative a tool of utmost importance for your meaning, or would you prefer to shake it off completely? Somewhere inbetween?

Literal to Abstract

It was interesting to me this week to reflect on the impact abstracting a piece can have on the overall mood of the piece. In class on Thursday we created a very literal piece that basically told the story of the Black Cat with movement. I think we were getting locked into the text which is hard to pull from as a group because it is written in first person so only the author was doing the speaking.
Tara came by and watched our piece and suggested we abstract it more. I left the class feeling a bit defeated and mentally exhausted not knowing where our piece was headed.

We had a rehearsal later that evening and there was a new energy, all of us ready to work through our piece. I think it helped that we were in the movement studio because all of a sudden we were creating a whole score with beautiful movements and something way more abstract.

We have begun to polish this piece and I am looking forward to workshopping it to see what the class has for feedback.

Kelsey

How Tom Waits Changed My Life

A short essay
by Bevin Dooley

Okay, so by now, all of you have probably figured out that I am obsessed with Tom Waits (Nighthawks at the Diner, anyone?) but it's not a blind sort of obsession. I consider him a poet in his own right, because he has a handle on language that I think is rare; he pins words down, fucks them roughly and then drags them, first into an ice-cold shower, then out for a night on the town that wraps up in a whiskey-induced fog at some 24-hour diner, around 7 o'clock in the morning. If you don't believe me, go listen to Nighthawk Postcards (From Easy Street). You will not be disappointed.

I remember being about 15, and some friend of mine - a musician whose girlfriend I desperately wanted to be - introduced me to Tom Waits. Wanted to increase my chances of hooking up, and having heard down the line that he once broke up with a girl for not liking Bob Dylan, I tried to track down some Tom Waits. I needn't have looked far because my English teacher also happened to be obsessed with Tom Waits, and in anticipation of Halloween, decided to play the Mule Variations for us. This was the track he played:

I have never been so goddamned fucking afraid for my sanity at 9:30 on a Monday morning. Ever. But the pay-off of creeping warily around my house for a week when I was the only one home is that now, not only I have a huge appreciation for Tom Waits as an artist, but I have a potential excuse to use this song.

ps. That musician and I never hooked up. I'm still kind of sad about it.

SCORING

Observations on the Poe Project

By Bevin Dooley

Holy shit balls.

  I have never felt so close and yet so far away from a destination. I feel like I can see all the aspects of the project in front of me and I could just reach forward and pluck them one by one out of thin air, and yet, at the same time, as I reach for them they disappear.

    We wrote a script today, working with text lifted from ‘The Tell-Tale Heart”. Currently, I’m working on refining it, in preparation for teaching it to the class this week. If you guys are reading this, I hope you’re excited, because I sure am.

   This is what I see: a completely dark room. From the darkness, suddenly there is one voice whispering, “I want it”, almost inaudibly. More voices join in until it feels like the whole room is hissing and writhing with whispers. Then – click! Click! Click! Let there be light, as tiny flashlights click on one by one, illuminating the faces of the performers. Because the narrator is assumed to be male, we divided the text up among the 4 male actors in our class, and the women will dance. Paige, Yilin and I are creating the movement score in tomorrow’s rehearsal. In the text, there are interjections and repetitions that we want to build up using choral speech. We will be using this incredible piece of music, spliced together with a recording of a human heart beat.

I’m really excited to be leading the class through this portion of the project. I think that, quite often, we are restricted in performer-creation classes because of the size of groups: our grander ideas fall by the wayside because we just don’t have the people power to execute them. But now, we have no excuse not to test-drive our bolder ideas because we have a whole class backing us up, and willing to put our artistic desires into motion.

A little silliness among the death

Since my group has spent the last three posts raving about our wonderful rehearsals this weekend, 

I will keep this short. 

Play, as Terri said, has been a key part of our process 

and is so important not only for freeing our minds

but also for bonding with one another. 

Here is a little bit of our silliness for you, just for fun:

"All work and no play makes us t-rexes"

Variations on a Theme

I'll be the next to rave about our wonderful rehearsals this weekend... they really were fantastic. Our piece grew out of nothing, had time to change a lot, and now it's pretty great! 

Something I brought to rehearsal today was a piece of music inspired by the tune of "The Conquerer Worm." I tried to do it on my computer and make it sound all music box-ish, and it wasn't working at all. I kind of mashed it all together and listened to a few seconds, and then gave up. But... I brought it to rehearsal, thought I'd show it to the group (though it was not that usable). We all listened to the full thing, tweaked it a bit, and now it's central to our piece! 

We'll show y'all on Tuesday. Very fun process!

Draft A1

  So Terri, Kara, Harley and I had some very productive rehearsals this weekend and are all feeling cautiously optimistic about Tuesday's presentation of our first drafts. Today and on Saturday and even starting on Thursday we have really worked on creating a piece of theatre that the class can be easily integrated into. At the moment we have a piece that has spectacle and is interesting to watch. So far I have been extremely impressed with the work that everyone in my group has done. Harley created a beautiful monologue and some very cool music for us. Terri and Kara also figured out some fantastic choreography for the piece today as well as really neat text to go along with the piece we have created so far. Our piece, as of now, times out at between 7 and 10 minutes. We have all worked very hard over this weekend to create something that we are proud of and are looking forward to present.
 The group of us also have a lot of fun in rehearses which, I think, makes us able to create very easily. Our warmups allow us to feel comfortable around each other and we also listen to everyone else's ideas, because even though sometimes none of them are physically possible something interesting is always born out of further discussion about our crazy mixed up ideas. I am extremely excited to see what everyone has created on Tuesday and I hope everyone shares my enthusiasm for what we can create together.

Productive rehearsals!

Just had a lovely, productive rehearsal with my group and I'd say I learnt two things from it.

1) Don't be afraid to play! If focus is difficult and a creative block has been hit, don't get frustrated but take half an hour or so to just goof off and play around. You never know, something productive may come from it.

2) Don't throw anything away! Just because you might think it's crap, doesn't mean it is. Show it anyway, and something fabulous just might come out of it.



Also,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS1uDnIPTvo

Just saying

Glow sticks.

Liam and I met today and I brought glow sticks. We have been trying to figure out how we could do most of our piece in the dark (as most of the story takes place in the catacombs, and it is also symbolic of the state of Poes mind).

We got some awesome images and some really cool ideas. Such as the following moment: Nick is chained up, Liam seated at the piano playing. Nick screams "For the love of God", blackout. Silence. Beat. Other actors on stage are currently dead bodies lying near the feet of the audience. In the silence, all we hear is the crack of twelve glow sticks in the hands of each actor. The crack sounds like some ones neck being broken.The actors rise and are suddenly very close to the audience, illuminating their faces and the audiences.

Stuff like that.

Common motifs

I was just looking through the posts people have put up so far and I totally agree with Audrey that we need some sort of contiguity between groups otherwise this will just turn into four fractured scenes. This fracturedness could be something we explore, but there are a few things that seem to connect our stories.
1) blood or red liquid- each of our stories have some sort of bloody murder, red wine, or red paint involved and we could use the motif of red ink throughout and what the red ink turns into in each scene could be very different per group
2) Desire- for revenge (mostly revenge Poe is nothing if he isn't consistant), possession, quiet, etc
3) something beyond what is seen on the stage or within the story- Poe really likes to hide things under floors and behind walls

i have the song in my phone!

i am a terrible singer and English speaker. so I do kind of afraid about the thing, but right now, i just figured out  how to put it into my phone, so i can listen it anywhere!!! i am less scared!!! and so happy to figured out the whole "converting song to phone" thing!

The Conqueror Worm Score and MY SCORE

Hey Y'all!
Part One of the Conqueror Worm Score has been sent out and the second part is being worked on as you read this. (yay for deciphering chords) Anyways, I just finished my composition piece for Music 470 and realized the score works well with our topic of Poe. This was originally not my intention however it has worked out. (Maybe I'm beginning to have a dark mind or maybe I'm going crazy but either way....) But yes, I uploaded them for you guys to see.  

Enjoy!

Poe: A Graphic Adaptation

While doing some research on the short stories (The Oval Portrait in particular), I came across a graphic adaptation of many of Poe's short stories. The book includes adaptations of The Raven, The Black Cat, The Oval Portrait, and The Tell-Tale Heart. There is also brief illustrated biography of Poe (which is, perhaps, not the most educational).

I thought it would be interesting to explore as potential inspiration, and it was. Somewhat. As I mentioned, the stories are all adaptations, but some are more loose than others. The Oval Portrait, for instance, is set in 1968 Hollywood where the painter has become a photographer and his wife, some random girl. Even though it's pretty cheesy and retains little of Poe's pseudo-supernatural style, we did like one idead it presented. The adaptation showed the "painter" going through many, many drafts. We think this may be a great fit for our piece! Oh, and the character of the "wife" was named Lily. We though that was pretty great too.

I'll bring it to class on Thursday for everyone to take a look at. Some of the other stories are even more... obscure. Like The Black Cat, where the black cat is a panther in a travelling circus. I never say they were good adaptations!

LOOKIT ME! I'M RELEVANT! (Seriously. Read this.)

Today at our meeting, some concerns arose about unity of thought, theme and/or motif between groups, as we would need to solidify our final project as a whole, class piece. Besides having an open discussion in our next class, we were hoping to hear some ideas from everyone here, on the blog, about things you feel could be pervasive throughout the whole piece, that we could discuss upon meeting.

Currently we do have several solid, (mostly) definite set pieces, (the desk and the trunk,) but besides these, what other things do you think might serve to anchor our pieces together? Concrete real objects? Shared themes? Repeated movements or sounds throughout?

We'd like this post to encourage interaction betweens the groups and the sharing of ideas so that we don't become totally separated.

PS: Is everyone using the umbrellas in their piece? We are currently having difficulty working them in...

Slow-mo inspired thoughts.

Liam and I were shooting some slow-motion stuff for an MFA art student over the weekend, and I had to throw a bucket of water at his face. In between takes we discussed more ideas for our part, and we would like to try and abstract our piece, and potentially screw up the order of the story, doing the last part first and first part last etc... Some of our ideas involved pouring bottles of wine- or blood on ourselves, and having a giant party with the audience (because the beginning on the story is a party), and then suddenly jumping into the action etc. I can't stop thinking about water on stage. I feel like the images/sounds of the cave/catacombs are hard to embellish without water. Anyway, we've done some playing around but still need to solidify some things.

Between water and marbles were all going to die :)

And part 2...

Part 2 All parts

Part 2 Melody

Part 2 Harmony

Listen to many me's singing together!

Part one with both vocal parts

Part one melody only

Part one Harmony Only

YES!! I THINK THIS WORKED!! If not I will be very sad. Kelsey, I hope this helps.

I will never post on a Sunday, I always forget.

I have been having trouble learning the song on my own. I forget the tune to some parts so I am hoping we run it through in class a couple of times. I don't have a problem memorizing the words its just hard to learn the tune by myself because that kind of stuff doesn't come naturally to me.

We are meeting as a group tomorrow during class time to start working on our piece. I am looking forward to seeing what my group members have for ideas. I am really interested to see all of the pieces and how we are going to connect them all together to make a cohesive piece.

It has been hard to get into the swing of this project for me because unless I am under a stressed time period I find it hard to be really productive. I work best under pressure so I am sure things will start falling into place in the next few weeks.

Kelsey

Music therory

You know I feel like I hear music differently then other people, I did 3 years of choir have had 2 music Phds, 3 singers that I've dated all try and teach me to sing and the same thing happens every time.

Step 1) They talk about a bunch of stuff that I know nothing about, harmony, beat, notes, scale, etc
Step 2) they try and teach me these thing by singing notes at me then having me sing them back
Step 3) the get frustrated when I can't hit the notes they want because I have no idea when I have
Step 4) they get angry tell me I'm not trying and give up

I was thinking the other day that the reason for this is that I must hear music differently than other people. Take Thursday for example when we were learning that song all I could hear was people voices, I didn't register a melody or a harmony or what ever it was we were talking about. When someone tells me to hit a note I can hit it I just need to move up and down the scale till they have told me I've found it, but ask me to hit it again I won't be able to without scaling. Tell me to follow a rhythm and I fake it till it seems right, tell me I'm doing something right and I'll take your word for it. I don't hear music like a normal person.

Anyway I'm going to do what I've always done when forced to sing, I'm going to sing really low and in the back and fake it till I make it. As for actually knowing the song yeh that isn't going to happen.

So I Had This Dream

The other night, I must have fallen asleep thinking about our project because I had this interesting dream:

I was dreaming that I was in a photo shoot but every time someone would take my picture, it would capture a part of my body. All I remember is the steam-punk-esque outfit I was wearing and multiple camera flashes. Every time I saw a flash, I was unable to move a part of my body and when my entire body was frozen but my face, I tried to scream but couldn't. I tried so hard to move and get out of the room, but nothing would move! The flashes kept getting brighter and closer but all that I could do was smile and it was so terrifying! Maybe this can be inspiring for our group, and my scary dream can be put to use in a good way?

Hey Techno-savvy people! I finished recording the songs on Garage Band, how can I post them? HELP!

Has anyone taken any time to examine the art outside of our classroom? One of the creations is entitled "The Victorious Worm", and seems like it would be a good contributor towards inspiration.

Preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray

 I was sitting here feeling quite pleased that I finally, thanks to Nick, had access to the blog after many long weeks and I was musing over the final projects. One of my favourite novels on the face of the earth is The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde along with Frankenstein and Dracula. However, what just struck me was that The Picture of Dorian Gray has a completely beautiful opening to it about art. I only thought of this because I was musing over the exercise we did in class on Thursday of writing from the different perspectives within each our short stories. Harley, Kara, Terri and I each wrote from a different perspective and each created very different monologues, each of which were extremely inspiring and really helped launch us into a direction. Harley wrote front he perspective of the art and created an incredibly haunting monologue about possession and the desire of the art. In our rehearsal after class we started talking about the role of the art and I have, in this moment, remembered this preface by Oscar Wilde about art. I hope this preface will help my group and inspire others as much as it inspired me.

The Preface

The artist is the creator of beautiful things.
To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim.
The critic is he whole can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things.

          The highest, as the lowest, form of criticism is a mode of autobiography.

Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.

Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope.
They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty.
There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book.
Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.

The nineteenth century dislike of Realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in the glass.

The nineteenth century dislike for Romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass.

The moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium. No artist desires to prove anything. Even things that are true can be proved.

No artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style.
No artist is ever morbid. The artist can express everything.
Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art.
Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art.

From the point of view of form, the type of all the arts is the art of the musician. From the point of view of feeling, the actor's craft is the type.

All art is at once surface and symbol.
Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.
Those who read the symbol do so at their peril.
It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.

  Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital.

       When critics disagree the artist is in accord with himself.
We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.

All art is quite useless.

Post-Appendix the women of Poe

After the class on Thursday I began researching Poe along with some of his work to get a better idea of who he was as a person. I am fascinated by the actual voice of Poe and not just the voice of the narrator in his stories.  I decided that the best way to do this would be to actually try and find an introduction he wrote for something. However, there has been very little I could find in the way of personal writings of Edgar Allan Poe, simply because of the nature of Poe’s life and the mystery that surrounds it. I managed to find a love letter supposedly addressed to Frances Sargent Osgood. Frances Osgood was another American poet from Boston who was romantically linked to Poe. The two had a rather short affair, lasting about two years, while Poe’s wife Virginia was still alive. There are several similarities between the two women including some physical similarities, but the most interesting commonality was both women suffered from tuberculosis. Osgood died of tuberculosis in 1950 and Virginia Poe died in 1847. Although the true nature of Poe and Osgood’s relationship is not really know, it was reported to be platonic, however, there was some scandal surrounding the relationship. A well known valentine from Poe to Osgood that was published by Poe in the Broadway Journal, which he was part owner of, under a pseudonym. The journal was the medium Poe used to publish several of Osgood’s poems. Within the valentine Poe carefully conceals Osgood’s name within the text. The valentine reads as follows:

Frances Osgood

For her this rhyme is penned, whose luminous eyes,


Brightly expressive as the twins of Leda,


Shall find her own sweet name, that nestling lies


Upon the page, enwrapped from every reader.


Search narrowly the lines! they hold a treasure


Devine - a talisman - an amulet


That must be worn at heart. Search well the measure -


The words - the syllables! Do not forget


The trivialest point, or you may lose your labor


And yet there is in this no Gordian knot


Which one might not undo without a sabre,


If one could merely comprehend the plot.


Enwritten upon the leaf where now are peering


Eyes scintillating soul, there lie perdus


Three eloquent words oft uttered in the hearing


Of poets, by poets - as the name is a poet's, too,


Its letters, although naturally lying


Like the knight Pinto-Mendez Ferdinando-


Still form a synonym for Truth - Cease trying!


You will not read the riddle, though you do the best you can do.[1]

Virginia Clemm Poe 

            What I found particularly interesting with the relationship between Osgood and Poe was, firstly, Virginia Poe did not have anything against it. In comparison she never accepted Elizabeth Ellet who was either enamored with Poe and had been rejected by him or was involved in an affair with him depending on which source you access. Virginia even claimed on her deathbed to have been murdered by Ellet although there is no evidence supporting this final claim. The relationship between Poe and Osgood was short-lived. The two had a falling out in 1847 and never spoke again. However, the termination of the friendship between Osgood and Poe did not end coldly and Osgood continued to defend both Edgar and Virginia Poe claiming, “She [Virginia] was the only woman he [Edgar Allan Poe] ever loved.”[2] Secondly, the relationship was built on mutual respect for each other’s work. Poe commented on several occasions on the nature of Osgood’s poetry and as mentioned earlier published several in the magazine, Broadway Journal, he partially owned. I shall conclude by including a final poem from Poe to Osgood published in 1845. I find these poems illustrate a stark contrast to the harsh image of Edgar Allan Poe created by his other more gothic works and give us an insight into the romantic life of Poe.

Thou wouldst be loved?--then let thy heart
   

From its present pathway part not;
 

Being everything which now thou art,
   

Be nothing which thou art not.
 

So with the world thy gentle ways,
  
Thy grace, thy more than beauty,
 

Shall be an endless theme of praise.
   

And love a simple duty.[3]

An excellent article on “Annabel Lee” and Frances Osgood can be found on Jstor at http://www.jstor.org/stable/30227518 and is titled “Poe, Mrs. Osgood, and ‘Annabel Lee’” by Buford Jones and Kent Ljungquist.

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[1] http://www.zimbio.com/Edgar+Allan+Poe/articles/6/Romantic+Love+Letter+written+Edgar+Allen+Poe

[2] Buford Jones and Kent Ljungquist, “Poe, Mrs. Osgood, and ‘Annabel Lee,’” Studies in the American Renaissance (1983), 276. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30227518

[3] http://www.online-literature.com/poe/2138/