Drawing fun

As I've mentioned before, I'm not a fan of drawing.
But class on Monday was super fun.

First thing, my teacher decided that for the rest of the semester we're going to have "bad music Mondays," which means picking awful stations on Pandora and playing it throughout class. The first song was a Phil Collins song (nothing against him, but the song was pretty annoying). Almost every other song was from the 90's-- most of them rap. There were some awful, awful songs. Our class just kept groaning every time a new song started.
I must say that at the end of the playlist it was Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys and N'SYNC. I knew all the words.

Our main activity for the day was drawing each other. We've done it before, but this time our teacher made it fun. We set up the drawing horses in two rows facing each other and one side sat and posed while the other side drew them. Instead of us just drawing for 20 minutes, we had one song (because in art classes, time is measured by songs) to start drawing. Then we moved to the right and drew on the other person's drawing. We rotated again and then went back to our own drawing to finish up. It was really fun because everyone has different drawing styles and approaches, so combining them together made some fun results. Almost all the drawings looked a lot better than one person spending 20-30 minutes on it, and it all has to do with holding ourselves back. As my teacher, Zach said, the biggest obstacle between you being a great artist and an okay one is yourself.
After each side drew, we did the activity again. Except instead of rotating to the right, we stood back and chose which drawing we wanted to add to. I saw a wonderfully abstract drawing and darted toward it. We went back to our own drawing. When we were done, I heard someone across the room say, "who worked on mine? Who worked on mine?! Because it's perfect." Guess who added to it? Yep, me. We both initialed it and I told her to save it forever.

Team Addie and Sarah = win.

The people who drew me did a delightful job. I'm charmed.

At the end of class, Zach said, "So while [so-and-so] was drawing me, I wrote some things on my hand that I need to remind you about."

So-and-so: "Maybe if you weren't writing on your hand you would've actually sat still."

Zach: "Is that why your drawing is so bad?"

Burn.

When I went to 3D design today, this is what I saw:

One of the other classes built a collaborative cardboard robot. I love the attached-by-a-chain hand.

did i get your attention?

Boys! 

Engagement! 

Weddings! 

Did I get your attention?

Now that you're all with me, I'm going to ask a question:

What unconventional bands/songs do you want to play at your wedding (reception)?
As for myself, I'm super determined to have:

• Michael Jackson-- Thriller or Beat It
• Lady Gaga -- anything, really. But Bad Romance, Telephone or Judas (...Jenna) would be optimal.
• Silversun Pickups -- any and all of their songs.
• Rush -- anything. Hopefully something ridiculously over-the-top.
• Flogging Molly -- If I Ever Leave This World Alive, Rebels of the Sacred Heart, Death Valley Queen, Devil's Dance Floor, What's Left of The Flag, Drunken Lullabies... basically all of them. Because who doesn't love Irish Rock?
• Dropkick Murphys -- I'm Shipping Up To Boston. 
• LMFAO -- Party Rock Anthem. My sister played this at her wedding, and I shall as well.
• Phir Milenge Chalte Chalte, from Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
• Dard-E-Disco, from Om Shanti Om

There are probably more that I can't remember. 

Now... TELL ME YOURS OR I'LL GET ALL DRAMATIC.

I will decide whether it's unconventional or not (Journey, Bon Jovi, and Queen songs don't count as unusual).

The funniest answer I've heard was Jenna's "The Mars Volta."

PS, Jenna, you should add Nicki Minaj and Shaggy to your list.

The Cowboys and the Parking War: The Musical

We kind of hate our neighbors.

Prelude: They're really loud. Like, loud loud. It doesn't help that they have a t.v. in their kitchen now, because we hear them all the time. They have disgustingly large and loud trucks, one of which has a weird CB radio/megaphone attached to it (which they use at obscene hours). They get drunk and fight in the parking lot. They do donuts in the church parking lot behind our house. My wall neighbor stays up until 3:00 am talking with his girlfriend (I'm convinced he's gay, mostly because he does about 80% of the talking. What kind of straight guy does that?!). They also play music really loud, and it's terrible music. Like... country music and Backstreet Boys.*

We refer to them as "the cowboys." And when I say "we," I mean Katy, Kate, and I (and possibly Shannon, I'm not sure). And when we say "them" we mean one or two of the neighbors and their friends. Jenna has pointed out that we aren't sure if they're actually cowboys or not, but at least two are hicks and more than one of their friends are.

We have a limited amount of covered parking at my apartment, but plenty of not-covered parking. In the specific apartment building that I live in, each apartment theoretically gets 2 covered parking spots. But there is nothing in the lease or anything in the law that says you can't park in someone else's covered parking. Which brings us to...

Act I, Scene 1: Katy discovered that Kate's car had been booted. When she investigated it, she found that both their passes had been stolen. After Kate explained to the parking people that she did in fact live here, they took off her boot without a problem. I was actually in class when this all happened, but when they told me, my first guess was the cowboys.

Act I, Scene 2: The next day, our downstairs doorbell rang. Katy answered the door and one of the cowboys was there (once again, I was not there when this happened). He asked whose car was in their second spot and told Katy to get the keys and move it. When Katy said no, he said that he had called management, who told him that those spots were theirs, not ours (and that we had to move our cars. This was a lie.). This incident only solidified our suspicions.

Act I, Scene 3:  We're all on good terms with management. They love to use our apartment for tours because we a) have the "nice" fridge and b) we're clean. They're really nice, even if I forget to pay my rent on time (it was once, I swear). The lady in the office told us that when she went to talk to them, the guy who answered the door plead the Fifth. We laughed; mostly because they felt threatened about parking passes.

Act II, Scene 1: We took all their covered parking spots. In the words of Katy: "I just wanted to be a bitch."

Act I, Scene 2: I can hear the parking lot. One of the trucks pulled in a few minutes after Katy got home. Katy decided to check her car, just in case they had done something to it. Lo and behold, hers and Kate's passes had been stolen again. Management was not happy. The next day, they got yet another set of passes.

Act II, Scene 3: We told management about all the things the cowboys have done to piss us off. We didn't have evidence of their illegal activities, but we told them anyway. We hadn't previously delved on how horrible they were, but this week we let loose.

Act III, Scene 1: Katy found an empty can of soda left on her car. No big deal. But she did put it inside the pair of boots sitting by their door, just to return the favor.

Act III, Scene 2: We were eating lunch/sitting around in the kitchen when we saw that one of the cowboys was going into the office. When he got back to his apartment, Katy and I listened (our walls are quite thin) as they called us bitches and blamed us for a missing mirror attachment on one of the trucks. We laughed, because none of us have ever touched their trucks. Apparently management threatened to fine them if another pass went missing. Since then, nothing's happened.

Act IV: WINNING.
(In the words of Kate: "I'm the queen of passive-aggressiveness.")

Since management is on our side, I think we're fine. I should mention that one of the neighbors (not one of the cowboys) was quite nice about the whole thing. But now I'm paranoid about my car getting keyed. And this concludes my biased view on the cowboys and the parking war.


*I do have an undying love for the Backstreet Boys, but when our hickish neighbors play it often, we begin to wonder.

Associations

I can't embed this video, but you should watch it. There are so, so many things right about it. (Petey, you must watch this). The best part is when they start singing, about 0:47.


I want to play a game called Associations. Let me give you some background: in photography right now we're working on building a typology (I chose soda machines, but that's beside the point). We pick one object and photograph it in the exact same way so that the photos become all about the object. But a lot of the time we talk about why an object or place is important and its relevance to our lives. In short: our associations.

One girl did a typology of porches and it got me thinking... about porches. I associate porches with holiday decorations, mail and packages, dirty shoes and cats. But not everyone has those connections, so I was wondering what yours are.
What do you associate with porches?
Alleyways?
Gas pumps?
Mailboxes?
Ivy?
Shopping carts?

This really is just out of curiosity. We have some pretty intense discussions in class, but we're art students--we  don't think straight all the time.


On another note... happy Leap Day tomorrow!
If you haven't watched last week's episode of 30 Rock ("Leap Day"), then you most definitely should. It makes Leap Day seem like the new Christmas. And if you don't want to watch it, at least wear blue and yellow.
Blue and yellow.

[Singing]: "Leap Day William, Leap Day William, bursting from the sea.
Will he bring his bucket of sweets for mom and pop and me?"

"Did you not grow up with Leap Day William?! He lives in the Mariana Trench.
He emerges every four years to trade children's tears for candy."

"You are missing out. Every four years you get a magical extra day.
 A day to do the things you normally wouldn't do. A day to take chances!"

Deal or Steal

Let's play a game called deal or steal.

12 watercolor pencils
Original price: $6
Sale: $2
I saved: $4
DEAL.

Oil paints
Yellow, original price: $11
Green, original price: $8
Black, original price: $4.32
Burnt umber, original price: $6
Sale price, all: $0.99
I saved: $27.34
STEAL.

Watercolors

Original price: $3

Sale: $0.79

I saved: $6.63

DEAL.

Pure squirrel hair brush
Original price: $20
Sale: $0.99
I saved: $19.01
STEAL.

Pure red sable fan brush
Original price: $27.99
Sale: $0.99
I saved: $27
DOUBLE STEAL.

Other brushes

Original price: $40.47

Sale: $0.99/each. 

I saved: $35.52 on five.

STEAL.

And since the lady rang me up kind of weird, I ended up paying a grand total of only $12.40.
I saved $120 on art supplies today. Likeohmigosh! I basically robbed the bookstore.

Obviously this is the highlight of my day. And week. And probably month. I'm so stingy with money that I can't help but pat myself on the back.
WINNING.

Hi. Hello.

Hi. Hello.

I know my life isn't interesting enough to warrant a post everyday, but I s'pose I will tell you random stuff.

I went to the USU-NMSU game last Saturday with Jenna. We lost, but at halftime Jean's Golden Girls performed. You know, that group of 50 to 94-year-olds that jazz dance at halftime. Jenna commented that "watching me watch them was like watching me watch my dreams unfold." She may have said it a little more gracefully, but I have the vocabulary of a Canadian, sorry. (Double 30 Rock reference bonus!)
The best website I've found all year.

If you can't tell, I've been watching a lot of 30 Rock recently. The plus side to project-based homework (drawing, gluing a crapload of hexagon modules together, etc.) is that I can watch TV on Netflix while working on it. I find this magnificent.

On Sunday our ward had a linger longer. The only thing I wanted was grapes. So I got half a plate of grapes and then... everything else.

I've been listening to a lot of Flogging Molly lately. Fabulous stuff, if you're into the whole Irish Rock thing. And because my neighbor stays up until ludicrous times, I put my iPod dock against the wall and put Flogging Molly on repeat (I figured this was on the opposite side of the spectrum from country music).

Have you ever had that elastic string on your underwear that you can't break off? This morning went like this:

• Pull plastic string. It unwinds more.
• Look at dresser. See scissors and X-acto knife.
• Pick X-acto knife up and try to cut string.
• It unwinds more.
• Slash at string again.
• It unwinds more.
• Slash at string yet again. 
• Sink knife blade into finger.

I used the scissors in the end. I also got a paper cut in photography.

A guy in one of my classes not only likes Futurama but quoted Incubus in class on Tuesday. I find this impressive. Did you know that my favorite Futurama character is Dr. Zoidberg? I only mention this because it drives Katy nuts. Whoopwhoopwhoopwhoopwhoopwhoopwhoop!

Eeeeuhhhhharrrrrghhh?

I got my 4x5 film slides today. 

Over and out,

Sarah.