Adventures at the Arboretum

Monday mornings are my absolute least favorite of any mornings. The weekend is over and I have to get up and begin the week, knowing there are five long days of class ahead of me. At 9am every Monday I usually roll out of bed and drag myself on a 20-minute walk to English class. But one day, we went on an adventure to the Penn State Arboretum instead.

I woke up and stumbled down Bigler road in the soggy grass, wet from morning dew. I had never been to the gardens before, so I had no idea what to expect, but as soon as I began to see the flowers I knew this Monday would be better than most. Typically, I am not the outdoorsy type. I don’t like grass or dirt or bugs or outdoor smells at all. Usually flowers aren’t even appealing to me. But contrary to my expectations, I was breath taken from the moment I arrived at this Arboretum.

The cool, fresh morning air and bright sunshine set an optimistic mood right from the start. As I began my walk through the arboretum, I ventured off in a different direction than my fellow classmates. I went straight for the giant sunflowers. They reminded me so much of Halloween at home. Every year my parents, brother and I would go to a farm about 25 minutes away from my house and we would pick our pumpkins to carve. The farm has corn mazes, hayrides, horses and a giant sunflower garden. I remember when I was little, about 7 or 8 years old the sunflowers looked like they were 20 feet tall. Now, seeing the same type of sunflowers at the Penn State Arboretum, I noticed that they were only about 6 feet tall, reaching barely above my head. It was incredible to look at the sunflowers, arched into the blue, cloudy fall morning sky and have such a vivid, warm childhood memory.

As I continued my walk around the arboretum, I was very relaxed and felt alone with my thoughts as I traveled through my brightly colored surroundings. Purple, white, yellow, pink, orange and red, the flicks of color switched every 20 or so feet as I walked. Again, this reminded me of home. I have a large two-acre yard that my family always hand gardens. We make several trips a year to Waterloo Gardens down the road and select which types of flowers and colors we want to surround our home. I recognized some of the flowers from my planting experience at home.

A third spot at the arboretum that really struck me were the two red lawn chairs sitting just off of the pathway. They, too, reminded me of home. I have two similar lawn chairs in my backyard, but they are white. It is very enjoyable to sit out in the lawn, look at the garden and occasionally read a book. I imagine it would be very nice to do so at the Penn State Arboretum as well.
Overall, I thought the garden was very beautiful and it was a great start to my Monday morning. I definitely preferred venturing through the garden to sitting in a stuffy classroom! I hope other students have the experience of going to visit the garden, I’m glad I did.

Arts/Cultural Response: Jack Johnson

Nationally famous singer/songwriter Jack Johnson was recently featured at the Eisenhower Auditorium here on the Penn State campus. The event was called “Rock the Vote” which was a free show sponsored by the Student Programming Association (SPA). The goal of the event was to bring performers who would attract many students because outside of the concert, SPA members were walking around the ticket line in hopes of convincing students to register to vote here on campus for the upcoming 2012 presidential election. Performances from ALO, G. Love and Jack Johnson began at 7pm on Wednesday, September 19. 

ALO

G. Love (Garrett Dutton)

Jack Johnson

The doors opened at 6pm and nearly 2,000 students began trickling into the auditorium. By 7:00, it appeared as if the upper and lower levels of the venue were both jam packed, filling the auditorium to its capacity. I was seated on the lower, stage level section about 30 rows back and slightly left of center stage. First, a California rock band called ALO (Animal Liberation Orchestra) took the stage. I had never heard of them before this, but I ended up really enjoying their performance. Their smooth rock rhythms captured the entire audience, lifelong fans and newcomers alike. Their song titled “Roses and Clovers” was my personal favorite performance by them, as I found my self naturally swaying to this tune.

Up next was Garrett Dutton, better known as G. Love, a singer/songwriter from a neighborhood just outside of Philadelphia (my hometown). He also plays the guitar and is specially known for his talent on the harmonica, which is featured in many of his songs. Ever since I first saw G. Love open for a concert back in Philly in 2009, I began to listen to his music. I have learned to love his hip-hop/blues music and his performance at the Eisenhower blew me away. When he first walked onstage and greeted us in the audience, chills ran through my entire body. His voice live through the microphone was exactly how it sounds in his recorded songs, but better. G. Love was merely 50 feet away from me. All of the songs he performed were captivating, especially the ones in which he played his harmonica, because it is a unique talent that was very intriguing to view and hear. My favorite song performance by him was “Booty Call.” During this song I could really feel his fun-loving personality and sense his passion for his music.

Finally, the main act, Jack Johnson took the stage. When he first walked out the guys in the crowd roared and cheered and the girls screamed and squealed. Jack is a famous, award-winning musician from Hawaii. His acoustic and soft rock songs appeal to a wide range audience, especially adolescents because he sings a lot about young love and youthful fun. Every song he played from beginning to the encore that followed was greeted and supported enthusiastically by the audience. Everyone around me (myself included) stood with a smile on their face, singing along when they knew the words and clapping along even when they didn’t. My favorite song by Jack is “Better Together” which happened to be the final song he played at the concert. It was absolutely breathtaking. The entire time I imagined that he was singing directly towards me and nobody else was around.

Overall this concert was an incredible experience. It was unique compared to other musical performances I have been to in the past, usually I go see country or techno concerts. I definitely enjoyed this experience just as much, maybe even more. It was relaxing and fun at the same time. I would definitely go again if I could, and I’d recommend others to attend as well!

“Roses and Clovers” by ALO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Btm1OFAqn34

“Booty Call” by G. Love

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTCsE8crK0Q

“Better Together” by Jack Johnson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seZMOTGCDag

Palmer Museum of Art

The painting Affirmative Action, 1987 by Jerry Kearns depicts a hardworking woman with a city backdrop. She is painted in black and white, which contrasts with the bright yellow and red city in the back. This piece was created in America in the late 1980’s during a time industrialization and cultural transition from traditional society to a more modern day society not unlike ours today. Music and television became more mainstream and traditional household and workplace roles disintegrated. This piece, Affirmative Action, illustrates the empowerment of women. Previously, women served as housewives to cook, clean and raise children, but in the late 1900’s their roles began to change. They were not only able to hold the same jobs as men, but many wanted to. Women of the late 1900’s strived for gender equality in society and the workplace and the path to achieving this equal treatment was not easy.

         The painting shows a hardworking woman shoveling with a stern, look on her face yet she is wearing a dress and high heels. This image shows the determination of women to break free of traditional values and customs of society. Personally, I think this painting relates not only to the affirmative action and goals of women in the past, but to our present day society as well. America remains slightly male dominant. Our country has never had a female president and even in the common workplace, women are sometimes (not always of course, I am just saying there is a hint of sexism still out there today) viewed as inferior to men. For instance, when I tell people I want to be an accountant, sometimes I get funny looks because accounting was traditionally a man’s job.

         It is definitely appropriate that the image of this woman working in a dress is juxtaposed against the colorful city. The audience is given a direct comparison and can easily understand what the artist, Jerry Kearns, is trying to articulate through his work. He is an American contemporary artist who is very engaged with social issues. The use of the huge canvas and comic book looking artwork of the Affirmative Action painting encompasses many of his personal artistic styles seen throughout his other works of art. Also, his use of a huge canvas for the painting shows that this issue is of significant importance.

         I have been to many art museums before, in Philadelphia, Washington, Italy and Spain, but his was my first time at the Palmer Museum of Art and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is actually one of my favorites so far. I loved the huge variety of different types of art from all different time periods ranging from very old sculptures to modern day paintings. It was difficult to choose just one piece to write about; I walked around for a while first, just exploring my different options. This painting of the woman struck me because I myself am a hardworking woman. It reminded me of myself, the history of my country and made me feel grateful about where I am today and everything I have accomplished thus far.

About My Blog

Template: As I was creating my blog for this course, I think I changed my template and background at least ten times. I wanted to choose something that made my readers feel welcome and at the same time described me as a person. At first I had a picture from my amazing trip to Spain this summer, then I had a garden of flowers, a blue and turquoise pattern and finally decided on this bright red and pink water-color background. Although all of the other templates would have worked out fine, I felt this one captured everything I wanted. The water-color design is abstract and dripping in all different directions, which relates to me because at this point in my life I am not really sure where I am going or what I want to do in the future. The background is bright but not too overwhelming or distracting because I want readers to feel happily welcomed to my page but mainly focus on my writing.

Font: I chose a fun sort of handwritten, less formal looking font for the title of my blog because I wanted it to work well with my template to invite readers to my page. For the post titles and tabs I chose a font called "Crushed" because it looks like my handwriting when I write on paper, a combination of lowercase and capital letters intermixed to create a crisp square look to the type. Finally, for the page text I simply chose a text that strayed from the original "Times New Roman" and "Arial" fonts, but still looked formal and was easy to read.

Title: I think my title says a lot about me as a person. I am a simple, easy going person and I have an analytical outlook on most things. I think the three short words of my blog title are straight to the point describe me well.

Pages: So far, I only have a separate page for "About me" in which I included a few personal facts about me and my life. I hope to add more to that page and create new pages as I expand my blog, maybe photo page or a random facts page.

Miscellaneous: I included a search box, share button and follow options just to give readers different options to access my blog. I also included a photo of myself so readers could put a face to my name and writing.

Thoughts: Overall, I am pleased with my creation, after all this is my first blog. Making it was definitely harder and more time consuming than I thought it would be. There are so many decisions to make and finding the right combination of every little piece in order to create the perfect visual argument is tough. But I do feel like this reflects me well and I am excited to start posting and and continue adding to it as the year goes on!