#abby salling

When reading this prompt, the first thing I thought about was the show "Sunday in the Park with George" in which Stephen Sondheim creates a show about the painting of "Sunday in the Park on the Island of La Grande Jatte" by Georges Seurat. Then I thought about a show based on art I'd want to do. 

There is this contemporary photographer Sebastian Bieniek who I really like. He has a series called "Bi-faced" where he would paint faces, usually with one color- black or white, on the faces of his models. 

1. Why does he decided to take on the characters of these films? What signifigance do these characters and films hold to him? 

2. These films show a broad spectrum of ages and genres. Was he a student of film or just an admirer? 

College life isn’t easy, because someone always sees me

Afraid to be loose, to have fun, won’t have that jungle juice.

Won’t subside, so I hide, refuse to find my Mr. Hyde.

  “High stakes, high jinx, and high grittily.”

Here’s the remedy for your chronic whiplash.

  Trying to get the rhythm for living, people smoking for a vision

But the issue is precision and I’ve made the decision to break tradition

By refusing the religion of the serum of the system

  But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Put your booze on the ice shelf, relieve yourself,

Be the little witches and fairies, be an elf.

  You do you, have your fun, but don’t fix me for not.

I’m busy, I’ve got things to do, I’m not distraught.

I seriously don’t care. I’m plain and you have your flair.

  Euntes in mundum, et ego

Qui stat, et nom sum.  

1. A lot of Diggs's poems are written in an almost wave like pattern, ebbing and flowing from left to right and back. Is this meant to compliment her rhythic flow? 

2. Other than the translations, which I understand putting notes in for, why does she include such extensive notes on her poems? 

1. Why in "Clarence Muse as The Magical Negro..." does the speaker describe the mouth so vividly, "toothless tangereine/ gummed click", especially considering after referencing "epicurian prospensity/ for sweets"? Is the subject of the poem unable to attain something that could sustain them?

2. A few of Johnson's poems are written kind of like scripts or stage directions, specifically "On Behalf of the Brotherhood..." and "He Swallowed An Egg". Did Johnson spend time in the theater? If he did, how long?

Having read both the email with the prompt and Wikipedia about what an Ostinato is, I understood the concept- a repeating theme that is important to the piece is about. And, then, Wikipedia recommended listening to Ravel's Boléro, which I did, and that annoyingly cemented the concepts in my head. (Honest to god, is this actually considered interesting music- it's the first minute repeated about 100 times in different keys/ with different instruments with the same tedious drum beat repeated over and over and over, until a barely climactic ending) 

Given that, and being asked to think about it musically and visually, I think I would perform this in a round, which is kind of cheating. Having a person walk out on stage, and say the first stanza, until the like "Ought not act so ugly/ Said-" and so on, every time the first speaker got to the next ".../Said". It couldn't be a perfect round, but the cacophonous sound until the final stanza, would be an interesting way to turn the idea of a Ostinato on it's head, because, in the definitional sense, it is one, there are things being repeated for effect, because, every time a line is doubled the poem starts over again. I think it would be an interesting experiment even if it didn't work.