What I did this week (19 jan 2012)
- Didn’t have school on monday, meaning I didn’t have figure drawing or electronic publishing (the worst class of the week). Instead I went thrifting and bought a half-naked Barbie doll for 90¢.
- Began the semester with a 9:30am tuesday morning class (which felt super-luxurious compared to my usual 8am start time).
- The aforementioned 9:30am class is readings in American literature. The teacher is nice but doesn’t seem to value good things. Also: she uses unnecessarily vulgar language while teaching. Lame.
- Kicked off my tuesday/thursday-lunchtime history of 19th-century art class with Ann Shifflet, my freshman art history teacher and one of my favorite people ever ever ever. A bunch of friendship lunch gang people are in the class with me! it’s going to be literally unbelievable and wonderful.
- Reunited with M-Tabs and all the other people in my team class. There are only 16 of us at this point and we’re as tightly-knit as I suppose an ad class could get.
- Got sorted onto a new team for a half-semester-long project. Not excited, but not upset.
- Stayed late tuesday afternoon for a three-hour history of fashion design class. The teacher is kinda boring but it should be a good experience. Lots of weird things on the horizon.
- Brought my half-naked Barbie to the fashion history class because the teacher told me to.
- Resumed my wednesday schedule with the 6-hour-long illustration methods class. There are a bunch of new people in this class that nobody knows.
- Wednesday friendship lunch! Got to see all my food-service friends.
- Drew animals! Ate chocolate cookies! Got reprimanded for speaking too loudly! (all the usual wednesday afternoon things.)
- Had to endure an utterly painful second American lit class on thursday morning, during which I realized none of my peers know anything about American history (“Christopher Columbus? he landed in Massachusetts, right?”).
- Listened to my American lit teacher misrepresent and criticize the Puritans—and argued with her about it.
- Gleefully resumed my thursday afternoon ad class (the best class of the week) and looked at a bunch of super-dated direct-mail things.
- In general: got a lot of knitting done.
I watched Robert Aldrich’s 1955 film The Big Knife last night. A stage play adapted for the screen—but only very slightly adapted—all the movie’s action took place on one set. The plot of the film followed a depressed, philandering Hollywood actor (Jack Palance) locked into a bad acting contract. Speaking of Palance: he had a very funny mid-50s movie-star wardrobe, including double-pleated trousers with a half-elasticized waistband he put on after exercising.
The film itself was pretty macabre, in a reserved, stage-play sort of way. Though this film was somewhat dull, it was pretty interesting A nice antidote to the Capra film from a few nights ago.
Poster Art: Georgii & Vladimir Stenberg/Soviet Russia edition (click on individual posters for hi-res/film info).
“Our primary device is [photo]montage…[but] we do not neglect Construction. Ours are eye-catching posters which, one might say, are designed to shock. We deal with the material in a free manner… disregarding actual proportions…turning figures upside-down; in short, we employ everything that can make a busy passerby stop in their tracks.”
-Vladimir Stenberg (1928)
(via)
Utterly gorgeous. I especially like the bottom middle poster.
Watched Frank Capra’s 1948 film State of the Union earlier this week. It starred Spencer Tracy as an idealistic, down-to-earth businessman who got mixed up in corrupt political system during a run for the presidential nomination. Adolphe Menjou (Tracy’s crooked campaign advisor) was as suave and double-breastedy as you’d imagine. Katharine Hepburn (Tracy’s estranged wife) was surprisingly sympathetic and sweet. Spencer Tracy did a great job with his role, too. In general, the characters were well-developed and enjoyable to see interacting.
The problem with this movie, as with Capra’s other films, is that it was mushy and sentimental. While I appreciated the film’s portrayal of the corrupt political system, its conclusion was unsatisfying and impractical. Perhaps it’s just my anarchocapitalism showing…
Though it’s long, it’s worth watching. If you don’t know what a Sazerac is, you’ll want to look it up.
