A,B,C,D,E,F,G, RISD ,H,I,J,K,L,M...

I knew that my grandparents were awesome, but I didn't think that they were this awesome!!!  I called them up last week because I knew that they wanted to come with me when I took my college tour up at RISD--Rhode Island School of Design.  So, when I brought up the request, instead of telling me a date, they invited me to dinner.  This wasn't abnormal.  I frequently attend dinners with my grandparents at cooler and hipper restaurants than I ever go to with my parents or my friends.  They are the essence of cool.  So, of course, I wasn't shocked when they decided on the Japanese restaurant EN downtown in Soho.  It was a beautifully decorated restaurant with incredible food.  We started off with the most unique tofu dish engorged in soy milk and went on to eat thin slices of sashimi, grain and seaweed salad, fried squid (but not calamari), vegetable tempura, and deep fried steak.  The deep fried steak really did it for me.  I have been a vegetarian for the past four years and now, eating meat, is like fireworks in my mouth.  The decor was really zen and cool and every time a new party would walk into the restaurant, all of the waiters would shout some kind greeting that I couldn't understand because it was in Japanese.  Anyways, so after they invite me, they tell me the best news of the phone call.  They are inviting me to a dinner with the President of RISD and our good family friend, Hannah.  Hannah is a graduate of RISD so the President and Hannah know each other.  I almost collapsed.  You know those really cheezy games that people play at lame parties?  The ones when somebody asks you if you could invite any person or people in the world to dinner, who would you invite?  Let me tell you, this was my perfect dinner.  Over seaweed and fried steak, I talked with, in my opinion, four of the greatest creative thinkers of our generation.  John, the President, is a revolutionary thinker and after sitting with him and hearing him talk, I know that I want to apply to RISD.   It was amazing!!  So now, I am sitting on my bed, kind of in a daze.  I can't believe I actually was at that dinner.

Wheres Rothko?

Today I was just going to whine about my report card, which I received in the mail last night. BUT, as I walked into my first period class, I was relieved to find the lights off and the smartboard on, which only meant one thing: MOVIE!  So, for the first 47 minutes of my morning, I watched a documentary on the artist, Mark Rothko.  It was fine, not great.  His son and daughter both talked, as well as his apprentice and some friends and fellow artists.  I was pleasantly reminded of his paintings, which are quite famous, but sometimes flit to the back of my mind.  His most famous paintings are huge blocks of colors, which have been painted over multiple times to have a cool shading effect when placed under the light.  He was a perfectionist, although his paintings are not what you would normally think a perfectionist would paint.  They are not of perfectly formed people and buildings, but they are very abstract and modern.  His most famous paintings, which he started creating in the early 1950s, started out with light and vibrant colors and as the years progressed, started turning into darker shades of eggplant, deep blue, and dark greens.  His paintings seem to be very influenced by Henri Matisse's paintings, and his major use of color.  Like his painting, The Red Studio, which is currently at the MoMa.  Rothko is like a mixed breed of Mondrian and Jackson Pollock, with a little Picasso and Matisse thrown in to the mix.  His paintings are much more influential in real life, as all of them are, so I advise to go out and see them in person.  When standing in front of a Rothko, you truly feel like you are being transported into another place.

mans and guns

In my opinion, one of the greatest photographers in the world is Man Ray.  You have probably seen some of his photos or paintings and have immediately known that it was him or you have seen them and you might have had no idea.  If you are the latter, don't worry, I wont judge.  I accept all.  First step, is admitting you have been in the dark for all of these years.  The second is to listen and see, mucho carefully.  A little boring background is: Born Emmanuel Radnitzky, Man Ray was an American artist who is mostly categorized as a modernist but contributed greatly to the Dada and Surrealist movements.  His incredible and avant-garde pictures are what he is best known for.  However, when he was alive, he did consider himself a painter over all other art forms.