This blog is going to become my art blog. so everyday I want to post a new photo of a peice that I’ve created. This piece is one of the most recent paintings in my faces series. I used black conte to create a gestural drawing of the subjects. Then I thin down oil paints to add the color and value. If you have any questions about my work or are interested in purchasing, leave me a comment.
Paintings that I completed this semester were just exhibited at the “See the Need” Exhibit at New Horizon Community Church www.nhcchome.com. I had many positive comments given to me about them. I may have even sold one! Leave some comments and tell me what you think of them. My self portrait is also on exhibit at the artlink gallery in Fort Wayne www.artlinkfw.com until January tenth. Maybe this whole artist thing could actually work out for me.
I just bought this sweet new toy camera off e-bay. Its a LOMO LC-A, a russian camera that has become popular because of its oversaturated colors and dark vignetteing. These shots are some of my favorites from my very first roll. Hopefully there will be more sweet lomographs in the future.
Interesting photo of Mclain
Prof Davis looking amazing
Good ole room mate Cheeto
That’s right its Chuck the Fish! everyone’s favorite late nite Wal-Mart cashier
Pan’s Labyrinth-Cleaned House as it should
Latin Directors(Alejandro,Alfonso,Guillermo)-thank you
Children of Men/Alfonso Cuaron-why no award
An Inconvenient Truth-Why so many awards?
Dreamgirls-robbed by Al Gore
Little Miss Sunshine-Best screenplay and deservedly so
Ryan Gosling-stud
Mark Wahlberg-stud
Leonardo Dicaprio-stud
Clive Owen-stud(even though you weren’t nominated but should’ve)
Alan Arkin-my hero
Forest Whitaker-Scary but amazing
Jack-what’s with the no hair?
Clint Eastwood & Peter O’toole-OLD!
Martin Scorsese-its about time
The Departed-GO SEE IT AT THE DOLLAR THEATRE!!
Ellen-bombed
In keeping with tradition I again attended a concert this Friday. It was just fifteen minutes away from the last concert I went to and it was the same band. The concert at Taylor was a little over priced at eight dollars and the only good band that played was Anathallo. The concert at IWU was only two dollars and it included a two hour sketch comedy show, Friday Night Live (FNL). The sketch Comedy show was an all student led performance that happens once every semester. Anathallo was the musical guest and played two songs during the show just as a musical guest would on Saturday Night Live. At first my friends and I were a bit worried that the sketches wouldn’t be that funny or that they would all be inside jokes that only IWU students would find funny. Thank goodness we were completely wrong. This was the single most amazing student led performance I have ever seen. The beginning started with a parody of the musical “Newsies” with full costumes and choreography! Each sketch continued to be just as funny there wasn’t one dud. There was never any dead time because between set changes there was a house jam band that played cover songs or there was a short video sketches that were hilarious. The ones that stuck out in my mind were the commercials for the college hope foundation which was a mock of the compassion international. During the commercial we were told that we could sponsor a college student for the low price of 2300 dollars a week so that we could fill the students belly with mocha soy lattes and fill their ears with music from their new ipod. By far the best sketch was the office seen where Gary was asked to do something CRAZY! If you were at FNL then you know what I mean when I say “I went to Gary land”. At certain points during the show I am positive that the girls sitting in front of us wanted to kill me because I was laughing so hard. During the whole performance I was thinking I dare Grace College to ever pull off something this amazing. You hear that Grace College I TRIPLE DOG DARE YOU!
The Anathallo concert after FNL was the real reason we came (FNL was still amazing). After FNL we had to walk through the student union to get to where Anathallo was playing. When I think student union I think maybe a bookstore a game room, maybe a small little diner type place to get food, but NO at IWU that have a mall!!! It looks like you are on a city street inside and it has everything from multiple restaurants, coffee shop, hair salon, art gallery and even a movie theater! Of course all of the Grace students felt a little jealous of all the amenities. We ended up waiting till almost 1:30am for Anathallo to play. This made for a fun show because everyone was silly and tired. Even at 1:30 in the morning Anathallo did not disappoint and as I said before they get better every time I see them. The crazy fiery guy was still as fiery as ever and the whole band’s sound was incredible. After the show we just chilled out and talked to people and some of the guys from the band. Marian is an hour and half or so form Warsaw so we didn’t get home till almost 4am, but it was worth it and I would do it again if I had the chance.
P.S. If any one knows of any amazing shows this Friday I would like to go so I can keep this tradition going.
it seems to be regular occurence that I am going to concerts on fridays. This friday I took my first ever trip to the exciting town of Upland Indiana. Now I dont see why anyone would ever go to this town unless there was an incredible band playing there. If you haven’t seen Anathallo yet then what is your problem? They play around here all the time. Every time I see Anathallo they get better and better. You may ask me “why should I go see Anathallo Alex?”. Well let me give you some reasons. First of all their shows are generally cheap, no more than ten bucks. Secondly, There are like eight people in the band and they play every instrument imaginable. Thirdly there is this one really fiery guy who goes nuts and wails on this giant bass drum (its worth it just to see him). If those are not enough awesome reasons then just go see them because you love music like I do. I may even go see them this coming friday at Indiana Weselyan if you want to come let me know.
last friday was an amazing night. Somehow the guitarist from Darkroom, Kyle got us in free to see Ben Kweller at Notre Dame. Now keep in mind this was a student only show, not open to the public, yet Kyle was able to get ten of his friends on the Guest list and he doesnt even go to Notre Dame. Thats right the guest list!I felt like a VIP, we got our hands stamped and everything. I was about ten feet from Ben Kweller and it was incredible. Now Ben Kweller is not my favorite artist but who can pass up a free show by a popular artist, not I. I have to hand it to Ben though his live show sounds even better than his records. It’s hard to say that for most artists. Many times I have been dissapointed by the live sounds of some of my favorite bands. Ben Kweller wasn’y even one of my favorite acts yet I was shocked and awed by the quality of the performance. So cheers to Kyle from Darkroom for getting us all in for free. If anyone else knows how to get into free concerts please let me know.
After the superbowl a group of friends and I watched the movie “Winter Passing”. We should have watched it during the superbowl because the superbowl was lame. Winter Passing stars Zoey Deschanel, Will Ferrell and Ed Harris. I dont want to say to much about the plot because it is a great movie and you should just see it for yourself. The movie had a perfect mix of drama and comedy(I like to call these types of movies dramadies). I think Dramadies could be my favorite genre if there were such a genre. other movies I file into the dramady genre would be High Fidelity, The Royal Tenebaums, and Fargo. I enjoy movies that can make you feel a whole spectrum of emotions. Characters in these movies seem to be more real because they experience all emotion and can make you laugh then cry. To all those dramady directors out there I say thank-you for your enjoyable movies that teach us about life.
I have been growing this beard for awhile now and I looked at myself in the mirror today and realized that I am looking like a big ole’ Jew. A friend at a wedding I went to yesterday told me that I looked like TLC’s “Shalom in the Home” I took it as a compliment.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love the Jew. It is no secret that I wish I was a Messianic Jew. Jew’s have so much history, persecution, and come on they are just cooler. I wish I had some heritage to point to. I basically have nothing. i am just your average male, middle class, white boy.
The term liberal has many varying definitions when used in different social groups. In evangelical circles, most perceive it to have a negative connotation. The reason for this is because of the word being closely connected to the Democratic Party. Evangelicals attribute the word liberal to the Democratic Party, gay rights, and pro-choice movements. Liberal is a word that can be used to describe the Democratic Parties’ views, but it has a much more broad scope. According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, liberal is defined as not being bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or traditional forms, marked by generosity, and not literal or strict.
When we talk about someone being a “liberal” we usually mean they have liberal political views. Liberal often gets used in the place of Liberalism. By declaring someone as liberal we could be saying many things, such as they are very charitable, or open-minded. Yet in the evangelical circles (especially Grace College), when a person identifies someone as a “liberal” we know they are using the term as an insult. The term liberal has become a negative label we use to describe one’s political views that may be unlike our own.
Liberal can apply to many areas rather than just politics. It can be used to describe someone’s views on economics, religion, social issues, ethics, et cetera. Whatever the word liberal is being used to describe, it should always mean, not strict, open-minded, not bound by tradition, and generous. I was always taught that being open-minded, generous and creative were respectable. These lessons I was taught as a child seem to be ideas where being liberal is founded on, but now liberal can be considered an insult.
Along the way somewhere liberal has earned a negative connotation. Evangelicals often use the word liberal to describe things such as immoral entertainment, depraved celebrities, abortion, gay rights and the Democratic Party. Evangelicals view liberal not as a set of ideas but as a type of person, a person they do not like. Being liberal is not unbiblical because it is not a way of life, but a different viewpoint on certain issues. Christ never let himself be bound by tradition. In fact, Christ shattered tradition to bring about new ideas, and Christ rarely judged others but showed them forgiveness. Could Christ have been a liberal? (Is that blasphemy?) I don’t think Christ would have labeled himself as anything other than the Messiah, but I do believe some of his ideas and teachings could be categorized as liberal.
The Democratic Party supports abortion and gay rights. Should we let the Democratic Party cause us to reject all ideas of being liberal? Liberal is much bigger than the Democratic Party. We should shed the liberal’s negative connotations and realize that it is not immoral or unbiblical. Every so often it is good to try new things, break traditions and create change.
