Dubstep - Love It or Hate It?

Dubstep seems to be one of those polarizing forms of music. One usually either loves or hates it. I'm probably a rare case because I am on the fence. I don't hate or love it. I can definitely see why people hate it. At first it can be mistaken for techno, which I do not hate, but as it goes on, it just gets weird, and usually dissolves into something that can barely be called music. It usually sounds more like some bicycle chains and a small army of piglets getting caught in the cogs of a giant automobile factory's assembly line. However, it is interesting to watch people dance to it.



As I said, I am on the fence. Why? Normally I would probably be on the hating side. There is nothing about it that makes me WANT to listen to it. I like techno and electronic music that makes me feel like moving or just brightens my mood. Like Owl City :) Something that has an exciting or just happy feel to it, and Dubstep has neither. Why then am I still on the fence? Lindsey Stirling, that's why.



I realize, that this still isn't enough to make a lot of people like Dubstep, but for me it has at least made me tolerate it in hopes that it gets better. I can see the potential. When paired with the violin, and used in a cool video, it becomes so much more tolerable. Plus I just love Lindsey Stirling and I don't think she could do anything that I would hate. :p

Dubstep in and of itself is still quite annoying though, and there is no way that I would choose to listen to it on its own without a video accompanying it. This video that my brother shared on Facebook the other day pretty much sums up what plain old Dubstep sounds like. It was SO funny. I've watched it three times in a row tonight, and I just can't stop laughing.



It's a good thing I don't have a respiratory disease, or I'd probably have some kind of an attack from laughing too hard.

Policeman

My brother James was recently sworn in as a reserve police oficer in town. We were expecting some big ceremony, but it turned out to be completely informal.

There was one other reserve officer being sworn in that day as well.

 This was an officer who was present for the ceremony with his very bored son.

 

I expect that when James finishes school and becomes a full police officer they will make a much bigger deal out of it, and have a much more formal ceremony.

Odyssey

In my last sketch post, I shared a sketch I did of one of the 4 hideous sculptures collectively entitled "Odyssey", that loom over the bridge in Council Bluffs, like Edward Scissorhands' hands if Edward were 500 feet tall, had 4 hands, let them get all rusty, got rabies and went feral.

What I didn't say was that I misunderstood the assignment at first and thought we were also to write some sort of a short essay on why we chose the art we did, and research our choice. It turned out that all we needed to do was write a brief explanation, but since I took the trouble to do all the research and write this thing, I thought I might as well share it with all of you. You wanted to read all about an ugly statue right?

Albert Paley's "Odyssey"

In case you didn't recognize it from my sketch, this is that massive sculpture that is on the bridge as you enter Council Bluffs from Omaha.

I picked this one because I thought it would be more interesting if I did a sketch of something I hated, rather than just do something I really liked.

This piece is just plain ugly. My best description for it is a "hideous eyesore." One good thing I can say for it is that it's fun to insult. For example: "It looks like a scrapyard threw up on the bridge and a half blind chimp welded it all together."

Aside from the pain it causes people's eyes, it has caused physical pain as well, as it was cited as the cause of a car crash about two years ago.

The reaction to it has been overwhelmingly negative from what I have seen on the internet. Comments I found, ranged from people saying it reminded them of a horror movie, to someone who said "It just doesn't look inviting here. 'Come on people, stop in, we're going to stab you.'"

The project was put forth by the Iowa West Foundation who say it is an Odyssey and a gateway to Council Bluffs. The CEO of the foundation, in trying to defend it from all the negative comments, had the gall to compare it to the Eiffel Tower saying that it also caused an outrage when it was built.

Personally I hope that someday Council Bluffs will come to its senses and tear it down.

Owl City = Depression Therapy

Psychiatrists everywhere should abandon the use of prescription drugs to treat there severe depression cases, and just prescribe round-the-clock 24/7 use of music by Adam Young.

Even on my lowest day, if I think about it, and turn on an Owl City song, It NEVER fails to lift my spirits. If music were drugs, I'd be addicted to Owl City. :D

This August Adam is releasing a new album, and I can't wait. To tide fans over he's been releasing singles. I haven't bought any because I'm trying to be patient and wait for the whole album, but it is hard. :)

I think that until today, my favorite of his pre-release songs was Shooting Star. Some people have accused it of being too "Pop", but I love it just the same. :) I may be waiting for the album, but thanks to YouTube I can still watch his lyric videos. :)



Today he just released a collaboration with Carly Rae Jepsen, and it instantly became my new favorite. It was what inspired the thought of treating depression with Owl City music. This song just brought the biggest grin to my face and I couldn't stop smiling. :) I almost feel like buying the single so I can just put it on repeat and stay this happy all the time, but I must learn patience. August will be here before I know it. Until then, I have the lyric video. :)

8 Sketches

In painting class we had a few side assignments where we were to sketch famous artworks. I tried to keep my selections very diverse, and I had a lot that probably no one had ever even thought to do.

My first one was part of the sculpture "Odyssey" Anyone from around Council Bluffs knows what this hideous eyesore is. I chose it because I wanted to be very different and sketch something I hated, rather that something I really liked.

The second one is Norman Rockwell's "The Connoisseur." At first I was looking for a Jackson Pollock painting, one, because it would be pretty easy to sketch what basically amounts to a scribble, and two, because at first my plan was to only sketch art that I didn't really like, or had some kind of a problem with. I don't dislike Pollock's work per se, I just have a problem with it being classified as fine art, and people shelling out massive amounts for it when they could do the same thing on their own. It just seems like a big scam or a joke to me. Anyway, I came across this Norman Rockwell painting of a man looking at a Pollock-like painting, and I decided to do that instead.

 Then since I deviated from my original plan to only do art I didn't like, I decided to just get different, and I decided to do a photo instead. This is one of my favorite photographs from the book, Creature, by Andrew Zuckerman.

The next sketch we were given a specific assignment for. We went on a field trip to the Josselyn art museum, and we were to do a sketch on one of the pieces of art. Again I went in my own direction, and I sketched a decaying relic from the ancient Egyptian wing. It is supposed to be a hippo, but you really can't tell very well.

For the next one I went for something more normal, and tried to do one of the most famous paintings of all time. I don't think I did all that well...

For this one I also went for a more normal choice, Just because I felt like doing one of my all time favorite famous paintings. I love Van Gogh's "Starry Night". :)

Then it was back to being weird, and I chose to do Andy Warhol's "Campbell's Tomato Soup Can." I'll bet no one ever before or since, chose to sketch that as an assignment. :p

For the last sketch I wanted to do a sketch of a sketch, so I chose the Vitruvian Man. I decided to give it a censor bar just to be funny. :p I suppose I could have just drawn it correctly, but I'm pretty sure everyone already knows what's under there, and I was just in a goofy mood that day. :p

And with this post, I think that is the last of my artwork from my 4th semester. I did have one more assignment from Design 2, which I will post in a day or two, but I didn't make any new art for that project. Also, I will probably post more of my Beanie Baby pictures as well, since I still have a lot of them. Stay tuned! :)

Epic Bravery

 Last night I finally saw Brave. After hours of getting lost in Omaha, we finally came to a theater with a late showing, and got there just as the previews were starting. It was worth the wait. :)

Brave was epic. I would have loved it even if it was just the music and the scenes of Scotland. It was so incredibly detailed, that it didn't even need the story to be a work of art all on its own. But it had the story, and it had the humor. Pixar has done it again, and it was amazing.

After Cars 2 came out, Pixar got a lot of flack. They were accused of hitting their high point with Toy Story 3, and that they were pretty much through. Some just flat out called it an awful movie. Where all that hate came from I don't know, I loved Cars 2. It was hilarious and exciting. I found it to be even better than the first Cars. Not every movie has to be a huge roller coaster of emotions to be a good movie. It wasn't supposed to be that kind of a movie. It was just plain fun, so to all those critics: Go soak your heads.

Hopefully with Brave, those critics will be appeased. It had the emotion, it had the drama, it had the humor. It had pretty much everything, and it was great. There are plenty of plot twists if you haven't over-analyzed the trailers and figured them out like I did, but even though I was pretty sure I knew what was going to happen, there was still plenty of suspense, because it's impossible to figure everything out from a few two minute clips. My friends were very surprised by a few of the twists that I had already suspected were coming, so if you haven't been "Spoiled" you'll be pretty surprised by more than one turn of events.

Most people who know what I like in a sci-fi or fantasy movie, know that it's the creatures, and in this case the creatures were of the real variety, rather than the fantasy variety. Horses and bears being the two main animals featured. Merida's horse is a Clydesdale, Angus, and he is just gorgeous. I love horses to begin with, but I really love giant horses like that. :) The other creatures were the bears, and the design on the "Demon" bear was pretty horrific. I expected it to be ugly, but man did its face look hideous. All the better for it to be the "Bad Guy" of the film.
One last thing on creatures, I love a good creature brawl, and the bear fight near the end was just epic. :)

The character of the witch turned out to be an unexpected gem for me. Her role in the film was so small, probably 5 minutes max, but aside from Merida's 3 brothers, she was one of the funniest characters of all. When the witch put on her welding mask, I about died laughing, and her "Answering Machine" cauldron was a hilarious bit of genius. :D

I also loved how they crafted the tension between Merida and her mother. Too often a story will be geared towards one audience, and the stupid adult is proved to be wrong in the end, and the headstrong child is the hero for defying them. Or the disobedient child is completely in the wrong, and if they'd listened to their wise, all-knowing parents in the first place, nothing bad would have happened, proving that parents know everything and you should never question them. Neither one is a realistic scenario, and neither one was the case here.

Instead of making a film to empower rebellious children, or a film to preach to kids to always listen to their parents, the film told a much more realistic story, geared toward both kids and adults, where the parents try their best, but aren't perfect, and the child's disobedience is not praised, but causes multiple terrible things to happen. The trailer seemed to glorify how "Headstrong" Merida is, but by the end of the film, she realized that she had been in the wrong and her tearful apology was heart-wrenching, especially when you consider that it seemed that her actions had cost her her mother's life.

One of the key "Morals" to the story was the importance of communication. You can shout at each other all you want, but that is not communication. It takes listening on the count of BOTH parties involved, with BOTH parties willing to concede that they don't know everything. "Because I said so," arguments are pretty much the height of arrogance, and that never gets anyone anywhere. A response like that only fuels the flames of rebellion. In my opinion that's one reason our country is in such a mess. It's not just a problem with parents acting like they know everything and children are expected to unquestioningly obey, but it's also the government. Politicians act like they know everything and the people are supposed to unquestioningly obey. Neither situation ever ends very well.

Okay, well, that took a very strange political detour that I really didn't intend to make, but I guess it just goes to show that you can get a lot of things out of a good story, even if that wasn't what the author intended. :)

In conclusion, go see Brave. It hilarious, it's exciting, it's gorgeous. In short, it's Pixar. :)

A Brief Guide to Shopper Types

Working in a grocery store, and especially on an express lane, you can see a lot of different types of people who come through the store. There are the really selfish kind, who are extremely impatient and act like everything in the world is only happening to them, and every other person ahead of them is an inconvenience, and the really selfless kind who will see someone with a smaller amount of groceries than they have, and let that person go before them.

There are the ones who play by the rules, who won't go through the express lane if they have 13 items, and the ones who could care less about the rules, and come through the express lane even though they have a cartload of 57 items, because the lines for the other checkout lanes are too long.

There are ones who understand that the sign that says 12 items or less, is not so much an absolute rule, as it is a guideline for how much stuff you can fit on the checkout counter, and there are ones who have a whole cartload of giant bulky items, that count how many things they have in their cart, and if it's around twelve, they'll pile them up there even though someone with the IQ of a cantaloupe can see that there is no way all that stuff will fit there.

This post was inspired by two people who came through my line right in a row tonight. The first was a woman I saw waiting in a long line in a regular checkout lane. She had a small, half-sized cart that was not nearly full. I had no customers at the moment and I called out to her and told her I could check her out at my counter. She looked at me hesitantly and looked up at the sign that said 12 items or less. "But I have at least 20 cups of yogurt!" I just laughed and told her that as long as I had room on my counter for her groceries she could come through with however much she had. So she came over and put her stuff on the counter and I checked her out with no problem.

The woman directly behind her was a different story. She may not have had more than 12 items, but she had many cases of pop, and when my counter can't hold too much more than a twenty four pack of bottled water, you can see why this might be a problem. She piled everything onto my counter except for one case and helpfully explained that I could scan the Cherry Cola twice since she had two of them. Wow. I mean, she was so thoughtful! She saved me so much trouble by only piling up my counter with eleven items. That twelfth one would have just been WAY too much. Anyway, sarcasm aside, I checked her out, and sent her on her way with a smile, but inside I commented to myself about her intelligence level. I guess I'm just a terrible person. Shame on me. :p