From the category archives:

TRaC

The author (third from the left) and fellow Music TRaCers backstage with TALIB KWELI and YASIIN BEY (aka MOS DEF).

Growing up I have always known of Mos Def (aka Yasiin Bey) and Talib Kweli‘s rap-duo Black Star. My mother was – and still is – very in love with them. When I asked her if I could attend their show at the Best Buy Theater she freaked out and told me she would make me go. After seeing them perform I now know why she freaked out. [click to continue…]

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The Museum of Arts and Design. Photo credit: Hélène Binet.

The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) is itself  work of art. The somewhat recently redesigned MAD building is modern and does a better job of representing the intensely awesome art that is on display within it than the building it replaced. The architect, Brad Cloepfil, called his work “editing” because the building was worked on while it was still standing (Robin Pogrebin, “Renovation Slowly Adds Some Light to Lollipops”, New York Times, 5 June 2007).One of the most radical changes was the opening up of many rooms by cutting away part of the building. Cloepfil then filled these openings with glass as to create views of Central Park and more importantly shed some of the much needed light on all of the artwork. The old building was ill equipped to be used as an art museum because the inside held little space for large exhibits. Now, thanks to Cloepfil’s work, the building can easily and efficiently function as a museum, with its own restaurant too. [click to continue…]

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Lee Krasner's "Mosaic Table" in "Crafting Modernism" at MAD Museum. Photo Credit: Pollock-Krasner Foundation/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Have you ever thought whether design and art was the same concept? Well, they are not. There are actually many differences between them. Having spent ten weeks at the Museum of Arts and Design (the MAD Museum), I’ve come to some conclusions.

According to dictionary.com, the literal definition of design is to “prepare the preliminary sketch or the plans for (a work to be executed), especially to the form and structure of:” In other words, it can also be defined as to plan skillfully. Designs are in a commercial sense and are calculated. They are more of a problem solving through communication. Communication is a way to figure out what the designer conveys. Some questions you should ask yourself when you come across a design are: what does this mean? or What is the message that the designer is trying to tell us? These questions are made to make you think and analyze the piece.  [click to continue…]

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John Mason's “Sculptural Form”; Peter Voulkos's “Vee”; Claes Oldenburg's “Giant BLT (Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato Sandwich)”; and Trude Guermonprez's “Banner" in "Crafting Modernism." Photo Credit: Kirsten Luce.

I’ll bet the curator of Crafting Modernism at the Museum of Art and Design didn’t intend for her exhibit to look like hipster version of IKEA, but unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened.

It seemed to me that many of the peices there were functional enough for everyday use, but there was always at least one element that made them completely impractical. Take J.B. Blunk‘s “Scrap Chair” for instance. One half of the chair looks rather inviting, but the other half is composed entirely out of multicolored string, making the work interesting to look at, but not much else. Or, take the wooden baby cradle that doubled as a small wardrobe. Surely, you COULD leave your baby in it, but the woodwork was so dark and menacing I don’t imagine any child would ever enjoy rocking in it. [click to continue…]

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A photograph of Maurizio Cattelan hanging in the exhibit. Photo Credit: Jill Krementz.

Coming into the Guggenheim and seeing their latest art exhibit dangling from the ceiling is a bit unusual and overwhelming. Usually when viewing art, people look at every work individually which leaves time to think about it, but with Cattelan’s exhibition you have no choice but to take it all in at once. Maurizio Cattelan’s exhibit, Maurizio Cattelan: All, is on display until January 22nd. This of course is meant for the more cynical art lovers or the more open minded ones (and not the people in the middle) since Cattelan’s work is set on critiquing other artists. After this exhibition he said that he would be retiring, and who knows; maybe that’s for the best. [click to continue…]

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Life Will Always Get Better

by Carla Aguirre January 24, 2012 Teen Reviews

Jordan Harrison’s play Maple and Vine at Playwrights Horizons, directed by Anne Kauffman was a very intriguing story. Marin Ireland plays Katha a woman who has nightmares and hasn’t been the same since she had a miscarriage. That day changed her life, since then she felt empty with no path worth taking, she wasn’t sure [...]

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Nightlands: A Creative Response

by Carla Aguirre January 24, 2012 Editorials and Commentary

These are the Night lands that’s what they said You love someone so much and life takes it away It doesn’t matter what it is, is what you have inside Nobody has the power to discriminate that right When you feel like you are not alive Then that just means you are dead inside

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Can’t Miss New Magic

by Tatiana Valencia January 24, 2012 Dance

“Fast forward, rewind, pause, hit that position…NO, wait, go back a little tiny bit, more, THERE, okay…STOP!” The Martha Graham dancers, busily rehearsing, acknowledge a single TV set with eyes furrowed in concentration. They are attempting to bring to life Graham’s Every Soul is a Circus, 47 years after it was created.  How can this [...]

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Horsedreams at Rattlestick Theater

by Amryll Cummings January 24, 2012 Teen Reviews

Horsedreams by Dael Orlandersmith at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, wasn’t what I expected, but it was a great performance none-the-less. Dragged into the live scene of a packed club, we are introduced to young Desiree (Roxanna Hope). She lives for the night life and self-expression.  Desiree is a woman that can’t be chained, but is [...]

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The Bumbling Escapades of an American Business Man

by Logan Erickson January 24, 2012 Teen Reviews

David Henry Hwang’s new Broadway play Chinglish at the Longacre Theater, directed by Leigh Silverman, follows the bumbling escapades of American Businessman (and former Enron executive) David Cavanaugh (Gary Wilmes) as he tries to win a deal for his sign-making company in China. The story begins as Mr. Cavanaugh listens to advice from his “consultant” [...]

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Alicia Hall Moran + the motown project

by Aaron Kay January 24, 2012 Music

A flamenco guitarist strums rapidly, his hands painted lavender by the overhanging lights and lasers that coat the walls of New York City’s Highline Ballroom. To the beat of this six-stringed accompaniment, a tall woman walks elegantly from the right wing. Slow steps carry her to center stage where she stops before a microphone stand. [...]

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Gretel’s Trail

by Molly Donovan January 19, 2012 Teen Reviews

As is often the case with human beings, we cannot help but fingerprint all that we touch. In the MAD Museum‘s exhibition of Flora and Fauna, the unique imprint of humanity is almost tangible, even amid the foliage. A sea of surreal sculptures and sketches, the array of artwork contains the esoteric air of natural [...]

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Ballet Maribor’s Radio and Juliet

by Lucie Pierre-Louis January 19, 2012 Dance

Edward Clug, choreographer and avid Radiohead fan, did a wonderful job with his 2005 creation for Ballet Maribor, Radio and Juliet.  The performance at the Jack H. Skirball Center for the Performing Arts was set to the music of Radiohead, an English alternative rock band formed in 1985. This is a very odd choice for [...]

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