The Suffering of Frida Kahlo

I found the building of the Day of the Dead alter extremely interesting. Each person took many of the traditional elements of building an alter like candles, water, food but others added other personal details. Ellie had an American flag as the backdrop for her alters which was dedicated to those she lost in the military. Andrea chose to place her candles to represent each of the four corners of the world. This assignment affected me more than I thought possible and after I sought out photos of passed family and friends to keep around my apartment as memoirs, rather than dealing with death by no reminders around at all.

The paintings of Frida Kahlo are filled with recurring themes of death and suffering which overwhelmed her existence. Frida is in an accident in her late teens that leaves her with a severe spinal injury which affects her for the rest of her life and largely influenced how she painted. Frida was unable to have children and took the lost of a baby particularly hard, the painting below reflects the mental anguish that she experience. The Dia de Muertos art shares several characteristics with Frida’s art, including the use of skeletons, skulls to portray death, bright colors, and atmospheric settings.

Henry Ford Hospital by Frida Kahlo 1932

Each painting that Frida completed told a story and one being her volatile relationship riddled with infidelity, with her husband Diego Rivera.

Diego and I by Frida Kahlo 1949

Frida uses hard lines and vibernt colors in her paintings. Serveral of her paintings are often disturbing such as such as the painting below called “Without Hope.” It appears that her very existence is being pulled through her mouth and the title itself tells of the suffering that Frida endured in her last days while bedridden.

Day of the Dead Alter

My Day of Dead Alter celebrates my ancestors from Africa using the African mask, my late friend’s love of wine and the fruit is homage to the apple tree in my late grandfather’s yard.
My alter includes a mirror and a scarf with stars on it. The mirror is there because each time I look at myself, I see my ancestors staring back at me. The scarf represents the beautiful night sky that my friend’s ashes were scattered into from a plane.

My alter uses several of the traditional Day of the Dead Alter elements; I have lit candles, wine for drinking and apples for eating. The plants give a lush garden feel and the palm tree is representative of the palm trees on the Ivory Coast of Africa.

I do not own one white sheet, because all of my sheets are colorful but I do recognize that traditional alter would have a white backdrop.

The making of this alter has been an interesting experience as I searched in boxes for memoirs of deceased friends and family, I realized that I do not have any memorabilia of family and friends. I have moved more than 15 times, since I left my parents house. I once lived overseas and in several states along the east coast, I feel that moving has caused me to lose some sentimental photos and other items. I believe that those from Mexico have a much closer connection with those that who have died and keep anything for creating the Day of the Dead Alter. I am now on a mission to get copies of any photos that I may have lost and keep something to help me remember those that I have lost. People use a variety of methods to cope with losing someone that they love; I find it very hard to keep anything around that reminds me of someone I’ve lost. I do believe that this sentiment has widely affects many in the American culture because we do not celebrate the dead, but morn the dead.

Unit 5, Lesson 2

The documentary called “A Whisper to a Scream” presented the rise of Irish rock in a way I have not seen before. Van Morrison, U2, Sinéad O'Connor, The Cranberries and Boyzone are some of my favorite singers and bands that I discovered when I lived in Ireland in 2003-04. All of the artists listed above, broke through to the National stage, some more well known than others. There was a small pub, near my house and on Thursday nights, a local folk singer would play by the bar.

For fun, I wanted to include an old bar song by T. D. Sullivan I that learned while in Ireland:

God save Ireland ! " said the heroes;

"God save Ireland" said they all.

Whether on the scaffold high

Or the battlefield we die,

0, what matter when for Erin dear we fall ! "

As the music would play, I remember feeling lost in the music, from the sad love ballads to the fast paced jigs. Ireland has a special connection with music.

Millions of Irish Americans live in the United States today and their cultural traditions have influenced many parts of America, from sports teams to dance. I have 3 nieces who live in Ireland and were fortunate to attend a chorus concert. The concert was sung in Irish or Gaelic but I could feel the timeless essence of the Irish tradition even though I did not understand the words.

I feel that Ireland has been true to the tradition of Irish music and has not been directly inflenced by the music of the world. Although, there are Irish artist on music scene of today like Damien Rice, Snow Patrol and the Thrills. All of theses musicians have skillful included the core components of Irish music, including love ballads, violins, harps, and flutes.

Unit 3, Lesson 2

To fully appreciate the depth of influence that Kyogen has on the Japanese culture one must grasp an understanding of the phrase. Kyogen simply put is a form of theater, and the word is defined as angry words" or "wild specious words"[1]. The actions within the plays are measured and as mentioned in one of the assigned videos, actors could follow the steps of others because the steps were marked from previous plays. Speech and purposed movement are a important theme in all of these play.

In contrast, I once visited a play and that was called "the Death of a Salesman" by Arthur Miller. I expected the usual stage with props, backdrops, and lights. I was surprised to see one man come out in the middle of everyone, and asked that we stand in a circle and then he came acted out the entire play using different audience members to complete the cast. The actor presented the play different from any I have ever seen before.

I do not think that freedom of expression is not a viable option in the art Kyogen. Ortolani states that “great importance is given to training and to the completion of this art." (22) Japanese actors study for years to prefect the art of Kyogen. Although American actors train for years, they are given freedom of how to portray themselves. Japanese actors, who study Kyogen, focus on the traditional and the re-training of the art and presenting that art exactly as it was decades previously.

My impression of Japan’s classical comic theatre has not changed because I have been aware of the importance of tradition and culture there. However, I did gain a greater appreciation of Japanese theatre and how it’s crossed over into Western countries.

Laugh at Life

What are your first impressions when you think of Japan or Japanese culture?
What makes you laugh?

My first impression of Japan is that it's a place rooted in culture and tradition. The Noh Plays are a great example of Japanese. When I think of Japan, I think of Geishas, beautiful tea houses, the mystical landscaping and gardens, the villbrant city of Tokyo, Samurai soldiers, Pearl Harbor and a country that leads the world in electronics. Although, our history with Japan has been shaky due to World War II, today we have a strong ally in the region.

I tend to laugh at stand-up comedy, Family Guy, the movie-Friday, Mighty Python, Saturday Night Live (especially this year), Jon Steward and the Colbert Report. I think that politics and the daily decisions that we make in life can often be funny. Having a sense of humor, I feel, is part of being healthy and balanced.

I dont know if anyone has heard of this but there is a growing type of therpy about Laughing Yoga. I took a class once and I enjoyed it. I laughed so hard, I cried and the was even funnier to watch when everyone else in the class laughing or trying to laugh. I have a video from youtube to show anyone that's interested in tying it out!
As crazy as this may sound, I highly recommend this when you're having a rough day.

Unit 3, Lesson 1

Describe and discuss with fellow students your reactions to the Kyogen play Busu. Do you see parallels between the comedy of Kyogen and your favorite sit-coms or comic films? If so, please describe these parallels.

The voices are slow and exaggerated, their movements slow and punctuated, and the storyline was short but seemed long. I feel lost in trying to figure out the intention of the story, due to watching western plays and movies for years; I could not understand the slower and exaggerated version presented in the Kyogen. Kyogen are interludes to Noh plays. Noh plays tend to be more musical and complicated. I suppose that the interludes are simple because they do not want to overshadow the Noh.

There are several characteristics within the Kyogen play that I noticed:

• The stage is very sparse and few props are used.
• The cast is very small.
• The humor is very simple and slapstick.

The Japanese Kyogen play Busu reminds me of Charlie Chaplin movie. The way Charlie would walk penguin style across the stage, the actors of play Busu walked much smoother but did not walk realistically. The humor was 100% slapstick and not very funny in my opinion. I tend to lend more toward Mighty Python and Family Guy so comedic relief. An interesting connection between Chinese Opera and Japanese Kyogen plays are similar. Both are very theatric and exaggerated and both use very “exasperating” vocal tones. Despite, all of my reservations, I am very interested in knowing more about the cultural influences on Noh and the Kyogen interludes.

Hotel of Hope

Describe your response to Hotel Rwanda. How has this film affected your view of Africa and its people?

Hotel Rwanda, in my opinion, is not the best movie in showing the diversity of African culture. I am aware that the genocide between the origins of Tutsi and Hutu is based in the varying of culture, politics, traditions and beliefs. However, the horrifying violence that plays throughout the movie made me feel empty and ashamed. The lack of response and support from the UN and the U.S. was appalling to me and to see it live in a movie, made it resonate more.

However, the sense that some people may approach this movie as unbelievable only due to the fact that everyone was mostly dressed in western clothing. I, personally, think this movie is very believable because Africans, who have assimilated into the cities, do not dress in traditional dress like before. I believe that this movie shows that Africans are courageous and strong people. Despite the chaos, some people in any conflict that are willing to open up their arms to those in need. The Underground Railroad is an example that comes to mind, wherein there were several whites who did not support slavery and were instrumental in helping the freedom of slaves.

I have watched several African movies that show their people in a much more positive and educational light. Princess Trya is a great African movie that brings light to growing conflict of the clash of old traditions of Africa vs. the new more western African youth. I think that Americans often only see one view of Africa because usually only bad news reaches the mainstream media and the only movies that have had any clout at the box office are those telling some terrible conflict or war in Africa. I do think that it’s important to inform the rest of the world the inaction of the international community during the genocide in Rwanda but it would be nice to see a mixture of portrayals of African people in movies. Sarafina! is another great movie, filmed in South Africa about the apartheid, although the subject matter is rather bleak (and true), the use of song and dance would make it a great addition to this class material.

If anyone has a couple of minutes, I recommend watching a clip from "Show Me Heaven." It is a great African movie that once again challenges the traditions of old cultural norms vs western ideals. It's about 8:00min long but well worth it, if you have never seen an African movie before!