Blog #27: Art & The Artist Organization Chart

REQUIRED TEXT (TYPE IN THE TITLE)	EXPLAIN IN A FEW SENTENCES HOW THIS TEXT WILL HELP ANSWER ONE OR MORE ESSENTIAL QUESTION.	PROVIDE TWO QUOTES (WITH LINE/PAGE #S) FROM THE TEXT, AND EXPLAIN HOW YOU WOULD USE THIS QUOTE IN YOUR PRESENTATION.
Criticism Theatre Of The Community Isn’t Necessarily ‘Community Theatre’	“HartBeat does not look at its Greater Hartford community as potential audience members but rather as an important part of the play-making. Ensemble members regularly spend months researching a subject by interviewing people from whatever the community or neighborhood the subject is about as it develops its works.”	I could not access the full article
“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (p. 1033) by T.S. Eliot	Prufrock is very concerned about his reputation, and he doesn't want to stick out in a crowd. He'd rather people not notice him at all, which is why he seems uncomfortable with doctors and scientists, whose jobs involve examining and taking things about. But he’s also like a scientist himself in the way that he "cuts people up" (yikes) in his mind, reducing people, and especially women, to a collection of body parts. He loves to use the "synecdoche," which takes one part of an object and uses it to represent the whole. He talks about "faces," "eyes," and "arms," but never full human beings. In art we can only see parts of what an artist’s painting means, but without being able to ask for clarification, debate is still open. Take the cave paintings in Europe, who knows what the past was trying to portray, a story, a point of inspiration to record the beauty of nature, or even a hunting list.	“I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker, And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker, And in short, I was afraid. (1036 lines 84-86)” More time passes in the poem, this time on a larger scale. He comes to realizes that "the moment of my greatness," the moment of his big chance at love, has come and gone. His best chance for happiness is over. Now he only has death, "the eternal Footman," to look forward to. This, he knows, is bad news. He expresses his concern so much he is lost in his train of thought as time passes by him faster. His clever outlook on life makes him overly dramatic of what choices will affect him the most in life, but in the end it was his choice to find an answer to his dilemma that affects him the most.
“Videotape” (p. 1090)	The plot of Don Delillo's Videotape is strange enough as it is a twelve year old girl is playing with a video camera while in the back seat of their family car. Thinking it is fun to do so, she points the camera out the back window and starts recording the man driving the car behind them. It is not long before the girl and her video camera witness the man being fatally shot, and her video becomes widely publicized thereafter. Art draws us to it like the news where we see lead titles for upcoming stories that wants us to see what made them. I'm not saying death or killing is an art but in a way it’s almost what an artist tries to portray in today’s society in their work.	“You want to tell her it is realer than real but then she will ask what that means (1093).” Drama has an intellectual and emotional impact on both the participants and the audience.  Sometimes what we see on the screen feels like real life; not acting. “There is a jolting movement but she keeps on taping (1093).” Kids today experience so much drama it’s hard to tell whether something is real or imaginary. The footage wasn't made as a project, it was just something fun for the child to show the world through the lens. She didn’t expect a sudden change in pace as the man she was filming was fatally shot right before her eyes.
Poem The Lady of Shalott	Camelot is like a painting and the island of Shalott is like our world where life isn't like a fairytale. Even in the fantasy world of this poem, Camelot seems far away, untouchable until the very end just like a beautiful painting. When we finally do see Camelot, it's a place of joy and beauty, every bit as social and splendid as the island of Shalott was lonely and sad.	“To many-towered Camelot; and up and down the people go, gazing where the lilies blow Round an island there below. (1.1-4)” Theater takes you into a dream world as the curtain rises and falls. The idea of going to the famous town of Camelot and being happy are just dreams to The Lady as she can never leave her cursed home. “Skimming down to Camelot: But who hath seen her wave her hand? Or at the casement seen her stand? (1.23-25)” While the cast in theater put on a show, the crew that run the lights and props keep the play moving. The Lady of Shallot remains in the background and no one has ever seen her. She’s like the crew for theater, you never see them, but they can see you.
Poem The Century Quilt	Marilyn Waniek’s poem “The Century Quilt” displays an individualized type of inspiration by detailing the persona’s reading process. Although the speaker is neither the maker nor the owner of the quilt, she somehow comes to own a quilt that is symbolic of her past life.   As the character reads her quilt, she puts together different parts of her own mixed racial heritage.	“Under her blanket, dreamed she was a girl again... perhaps under this quilt I’d dream of myself of my childhood of miracles (23-25, 36-38) Within the dream of myself perhaps I’d meet my son or my other child, as yet conceived. (41-43).” The narrator portrays the adult’s hope that her dreams under a quilt that was like her grandmother’s will be the same as her grandmother’s dreams when she slept under her quilt.
Short Story The Myth of Sisypus	Sisyphus is most famously known for his punishment in the underworld than for what he did in his life. According to the Greek myth, Sisyphus is condemned to roll a rock up to the top of a mountain, only to have the rock roll back down to the bottom every time he reaches the top. We react to Sisyphus's fate with horror because we see its futility and hopelessness. Of course, the central argument of this essay is that life itself is a futile struggle devoid of hope. Art can mean many things to people such as hope, love, and happiness, but in reality art can only go skin deep before we find the real meaning.	“You have already grasped that Sisyphus is the absurd hero. […].His scorn of the gods, his hatred of death, and his passion for life won him that unspeakable penalty in which the whole being is exerted toward accomplishing nothing.” According Albert Camus, Sisyphus was at conflict with the Gods and cheated death multiple times, and was forced to replay the same task of pushing a boulder to the top of a hill only for it to fall down again. In theater, we repeat the tasks of mastering lines and body movement to have the audience believe we are the character. “One always finds one’s burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks.” Camus suggests, we can fully appreciate life, because we are accepting it. Therefore, Sisyphus is above his fate precisely because he has accepted it. His punishment is only horrible if he thinks it is. He is aware of his punishment, but if he doesn't think so badly of it, his punishment doesn't sound so bad.
Non-fiction/Essay Why we worship `American Idol'	It's a nexus of factors shaping the "virtual revolution" unfolding all around us, on so many fronts. Think chat rooms, MySpace.com, blogs, life journals illustrated with photos snapped by cellphones, flash-mobbing, marathon running, focus groups, talk radio, e-mails to news shows, camcorders, sponsored sports teams for tots -- and every garage band in town with its own CD. What do all these platforms have in common? They are all devoted to otherwise anonymous people who don't want to be mere spectators. In this virtual revolution, it's not workers against capitalists -- that's so 19th century. In our mediated world, its spectators against celebrities, with spectators demanding a share of the last scarce resource in the overdeveloped world -- attention.	“The "everyday hero" answer reflects the virtual revolution, but what about performers? Why are they so important to their fans?” Because these new kind of heroes create an experience of belonging that their fans would never know. When the star meets the audience's expectations and creates, in song and character, a moment in which each individual feels personally understood and, at the same time, fused with other fans in a larger common identity. "American Idol" takes the next step. It unites both aspects of the relationship -- in the climactic final rounds, a fan becomes an idol; the ultimate dream of our age comes true before our eyes and in our hearts. We watch ‘American Idol’ because we can relate to the contestants. They didn't want to remain ‘mere spectators’, they want to be someone that people will know and look up to.
A piece from a non-literature genre of art (painting, sculpture, music, food, architecture dance, etc):	Theater is where we put on our own masks so to speak and become someone else. These masks and others like them, were worn in the Greek theater to distinguish the different emotions of the characters. The comedy and tragedy masks serve to show us the two aspects of human emotions― the comedy mask shows us how foolish human beings can be, while the tragedy mask portrays dark emotions, such as fear, sadness, and loss. The two masks are paired together to show the two extremes of the human psyche.