Life as I now know it
I had a super busy hectic day today. It's my sister's birthday today so we all woke up very early to say happy birthday to her. We went to Starbucks for a celebratory breakfast and then went on to our separate ways. She had a beauty workshop and I had a MOMA Art Lecture at the American cultural center, @atamerica.
The lecture at @atamerica is part of a series of MOMA classes on modern art. They're 10 sessions of online lectures from MOMA but held at a public forum for free so that we can reap the benefits of the lecture without having to pay for them ourselves. There's a facilitator - a local art lecturer - who explains the topics and elaborate on the lectures in real life, in addition to the online lectures, so we're supposed to be getting in-depth knowledge on the art. Today's theme was "Van Gogh and Post-Impressionism". Next week's theme will be "Klimt and Symbolism".
Today's session didn't go quite as smooth as I thought it would be, though. For one, the facilitator (sorry, his name just eludes me at this moment) didn't seem prepared enough, especially with the technical aspect of the lecture. He kept fumbling with the laptop - playing videos too soon, cutting videos too short, not playing all the videos (which is by far my biggest objection; more on this later) - and most of what he talked about was redundant because he was basically just translating, not summarizing, what the MOMA lecture video was saying.
And speaking of those videos, I suspect not all the videos were played due to time constraint. The event started late by half an hour and then the opening talk was simply too long. Yes, I know it's the first session so there needs to be some kind of introduction to establish the aim, purpose and whatnot of the program. I wouldn't actually mind this, had the facilitator then manage the time for all the videos to be played in the correct order. I also know that this is a free course and, well, what do you expect from things that come for free? But they kept saying how lucky we all were to be there, being able to watch the lecture without paying, etc. Honestly? This is kind of condescending.
Yes, thank you, @atamerica, for being such a generous organization that provides us with great cultural opportunities. But saying that we're lucky for being offered this opportunity and then NOT giving us the entire experience of that opportunity feels a lot like you're patronizing us, really.
What I do hope is that next week, the flow of the lecture and the facilitator's presentation will be much smoother so that we can avoid half of the boredom I felt today. The topics are very interesting and the lectures are quite comprehensive. They deserve to be spread out to the people in a manner befitting their significance, not just in art history but also in the history of the world. There's much to be learned about culture from the arts.
On a more positive side, I loved the content of the lecture. Being a Van Gogh fan, of course I enjoyed seeing his works displayed on screen, even if they're not the real thing. This makes me want to fly back to Vienna and go museum-hopping. I'm glad I went.
I plan to attend all 10 sessions until May. They're all held on Saturdays so they're not supposed to interfere with work or school. I never took formal art education; just the class on Italian art and culture that Unistrasi once offered. But whatever I did learn about art movements, it stopped before the impressionism period. So these lectures would be good for me. I won't be getting a certificate (registration required for this and I missed its deadline) but at least I'll be enriching my own personal knowledge of art.
After the lecture, I spent the afternoon chatting to several friends, including odayski and arancia, reacting to the lecture while having a late lunch. Then fandom talk followed and everything was just off the charts. Hah.
Coming home, I got ready for my sister's birthday dinner. We went to this Italian restaurant called Convivium and WOW. The food is... wow. I don't even know how to describe what I just ate tonight. They're all so delicious. It's homemade cuisine so they're not 'standard' or region-based meals like the ones that exist in other restaurants and this makes the meal very refreshing. Everything from the soup and salad to the pasta to the main course is molto perfetto. Just... amazing. Then I wrote a fangirl letter to the chef, thanking him for the meal, because it was really THAT GOOD.
But the wine that I consumed earlier is affecting my head. It's simply a miracle that I still manage to stay awake tonight, but my Macbook adapter problems are definitely giving me the adrenaline rush I need to stay awake for the rest of the evening. (Yes, there's an adapter problem and I'm secretly freaking out but I've decided not to rant about it publicly because I'm too tired to do that.) I don't think I'm making much sense right now so I better end this entry.
Please wish me luck (on the adapter problem)? Thanks. Anyway. Yeah. Good night, F-list.
The lecture at @atamerica is part of a series of MOMA classes on modern art. They're 10 sessions of online lectures from MOMA but held at a public forum for free so that we can reap the benefits of the lecture without having to pay for them ourselves. There's a facilitator - a local art lecturer - who explains the topics and elaborate on the lectures in real life, in addition to the online lectures, so we're supposed to be getting in-depth knowledge on the art. Today's theme was "Van Gogh and Post-Impressionism". Next week's theme will be "Klimt and Symbolism".
Today's session didn't go quite as smooth as I thought it would be, though. For one, the facilitator (sorry, his name just eludes me at this moment) didn't seem prepared enough, especially with the technical aspect of the lecture. He kept fumbling with the laptop - playing videos too soon, cutting videos too short, not playing all the videos (which is by far my biggest objection; more on this later) - and most of what he talked about was redundant because he was basically just translating, not summarizing, what the MOMA lecture video was saying.
And speaking of those videos, I suspect not all the videos were played due to time constraint. The event started late by half an hour and then the opening talk was simply too long. Yes, I know it's the first session so there needs to be some kind of introduction to establish the aim, purpose and whatnot of the program. I wouldn't actually mind this, had the facilitator then manage the time for all the videos to be played in the correct order. I also know that this is a free course and, well, what do you expect from things that come for free? But they kept saying how lucky we all were to be there, being able to watch the lecture without paying, etc. Honestly? This is kind of condescending.
Yes, thank you, @atamerica, for being such a generous organization that provides us with great cultural opportunities. But saying that we're lucky for being offered this opportunity and then NOT giving us the entire experience of that opportunity feels a lot like you're patronizing us, really.
What I do hope is that next week, the flow of the lecture and the facilitator's presentation will be much smoother so that we can avoid half of the boredom I felt today. The topics are very interesting and the lectures are quite comprehensive. They deserve to be spread out to the people in a manner befitting their significance, not just in art history but also in the history of the world. There's much to be learned about culture from the arts.
On a more positive side, I loved the content of the lecture. Being a Van Gogh fan, of course I enjoyed seeing his works displayed on screen, even if they're not the real thing. This makes me want to fly back to Vienna and go museum-hopping. I'm glad I went.
I plan to attend all 10 sessions until May. They're all held on Saturdays so they're not supposed to interfere with work or school. I never took formal art education; just the class on Italian art and culture that Unistrasi once offered. But whatever I did learn about art movements, it stopped before the impressionism period. So these lectures would be good for me. I won't be getting a certificate (registration required for this and I missed its deadline) but at least I'll be enriching my own personal knowledge of art.
After the lecture, I spent the afternoon chatting to several friends, including odayski and arancia, reacting to the lecture while having a late lunch. Then fandom talk followed and everything was just off the charts. Hah.
Coming home, I got ready for my sister's birthday dinner. We went to this Italian restaurant called Convivium and WOW. The food is... wow. I don't even know how to describe what I just ate tonight. They're all so delicious. It's homemade cuisine so they're not 'standard' or region-based meals like the ones that exist in other restaurants and this makes the meal very refreshing. Everything from the soup and salad to the pasta to the main course is molto perfetto. Just... amazing. Then I wrote a fangirl letter to the chef, thanking him for the meal, because it was really THAT GOOD.
But the wine that I consumed earlier is affecting my head. It's simply a miracle that I still manage to stay awake tonight, but my Macbook adapter problems are definitely giving me the adrenaline rush I need to stay awake for the rest of the evening. (Yes, there's an adapter problem and I'm secretly freaking out but I've decided not to rant about it publicly because I'm too tired to do that.) I don't think I'm making much sense right now so I better end this entry.
Please wish me luck (on the adapter problem)? Thanks. Anyway. Yeah. Good night, F-list.