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  • Publications (documents)
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  • Western Carolina University
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  • HL_WesternCarolinian_2009-05-01_Vol75_No06_14

WESTERN CAROLINIAN ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT Apnil 24 - May 1, 2909 . Page 14 Reertneraet Ae Re SIR A eg ok in Ih Inter#iew: with Mel Chin, Neo Conceptual Artist to participate can fill in with their own drawings a blank one-hundred- -dollar-bill that he has printed. After all 7,000 pounds of these have been filled out all over the country the currency will be delivered via armored truck running on veggie oil to Washington, DC,: where the Congress will be asked for the equivocal $300,000,000- in return. The money will be used to fund the project Operation By Jennifer C. Toledo Arts and Entertainment Editor On Tuesday, March 17, I had the wlcasure of speaking with Mel Chin, neo conceptual artist. Chin is ly known for his collaborative si that often involves the help of the community to restore some 4 facet of their environment, breaking _ down barriers between, what. we _ knoW as art. He incorporates Paydirt, the process of putting maniy unorthodox methods, from phosphates from ground-up fish computer graphics to natural bones in the soil that will bond with scicloe to weaving and animation: the lead and render it harmless. intothis work. Tts just about dirt and the money, dne of Chins most recent works, Revival Field, functions oneal as a sculpture. A plot and was used in the Pigs Eye he says, there are children who are. sick from lead, who cant be taught, because they are uncomfortable. Its in their blood. The Cincinnati till in St. Paul, Minnesota, for bees years. The soil was with, heavy metals. spired by psilocybin expert Lh ai McKenna, who - first ested the idea in a paper, datura pla were grown in the plot. Whete most plants would have died from, the toxins, the datura plants, calld hyper-accumulators,absorbed the Shetals. The plants were then - ested, burned, and sold for pure in Chins talk in the FAPAC. hea thted that this project has now - beenshanded over to scientists as he hops they will perpetuate the work _ he began. He describes his art as a_ constant experimental orp dedicated to conveying a concept. or being so successful, Chin, nat Mel Chin $ latest project Fundred. is a gather humble guy. During hiss: delusions Im speaking of. Historic talk, she mentioned that he does not process can also give an artist ideas substribe to the delusion of the artist about fame or rugged individualism. of s@meone who is above others. I asked him more about his perceived roll A society, and he labora Nhat gsometimes by yost being a part of s8ciety and moving in society and being part of a conversation we in popular culture as well sophisticated culture you can ac an understanding that makes that euest for that examination a. little more elusive. Youre full of stuffithat probably can create the SS By Max Kath Remember back i in the day when MTViwould still give the illusion that , ' they played music videos? Yeah, me neither, but at least at one point they did show these things called music videos and for a brief second they were in fact seen as a new and cool art form that were also the launch pads. for many of our modern day _ filmmakers careers (most notably Spike Jonze and David Fincher). n people hear the song Buddy Holby by Weezer they automatically. think: of the inspired video done by Jonzg, featuring the band playing at Arnolds, the famous diner from the hit 70s show Happy Days. Every timeyNine Inch Nails, play their hit song Closer at their live shows they bave director Mark Romanek (Ones, Hour Photo) to thank for creating the eerie music video that accothpanies the song. The, video... features, among other things, a monkey being crucified and a pigs head being spun around in circles ' on a/gpike, Neither of these songs = have been as popular if they didnt) have some. truly inspired images that accompanied them. It is with a heavy heart that I must officially declare the music, video a: dead art form that does notappearto: be resurrected any time soon. The question then becomes: who. as to blame for this sudden decline in the popularity of the musi video? The obvious answer would; be -MTV and their slow " decliife into the abomination that pe Sh Re DO So, how do you break through that? And how do you come to it Kee, pith, philosophically or _ politically motivated as I might have been at- this one particular instance, there was also this personal or psychological profile that needed to be attended to. I had to reexamine my life. Here | was trying to make is reality television, but to put the blame squarely on them would be a little closed minded on my part. The fact is that we as music fans are just as much to blame for the death of the music video as MTV is. The music video used to be one of the three major ways in which we found out about the cool new song by our favorite bands, the other two being radio and going over to a friends house so he or she can let you hear the new CD that has changed their life. When the concept of being able to go online and download an entire album without having to pay for it changed the game forever. It cuts out the middle man of giving people a sample of what kind of songs appear on an album, when you can go on and download whole albums and just pick and choose which songs you would like to keep. While this does have its advantages it, also. causes our patience for other forms of music marketing _to deplete because. we stop seeing the point in music companies trying to sell us something we can get for free. The negative ramifications that are brought on. by this phenomenon thus become obvious. It has killed an entire art , form which has given pop culture some of its most enduring icons. Most people do not know anything about the people who direct music videos even though they are some of the most talented artists to come out of the late eighties, nineties and on into the early part of the twenty- Pi Dips hg bp are lg like Yet, even as high-minded py this critique about a horrific political situation yet my self was not formed enough to understand my place, my role, as a critiquer. You have to reserve that. extraordinary amoun 2 ty its bode th quality, the MN oe : quality, of the individual. Later he said that into the last twenty or thirty years and we might be looking at a very small concept of the artist and what this role constitutes. Its mutativ e, if anything. The Day The Music Died Michel Gondry, who would go on to direct Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind the best film of 2004. - A couple of his most famous videos were for the White Stripes Fell in Love with a Girl, where. we get to see Jack and Meg animated as, Legos, and the Foo Fighters Everlong, which features Dave Grohl moving in and out of bizarre dreams where his hand grows to the size of a car and has to deal with a giant ringing telephone. Without cutting his teeth on music videos Gondry would never have developed the skills that made Eternal Sunshine such a creative movie in the first place. His videos were like short films in the first place, so his talent was already at a high peak when he first started creating things. Luckily there are now DVDs available that feature the works of Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry and Mark Romanek, among others, so at least the art form will live on in memories. The saddest irony of all is that there really is no reason for the music video to die off. There are still visual artists out in the world who are looking for jobs and can create beautiful images that canbe set to music. Music still needs to | be sold and marketed, even if the | worldwide performances frequently communicates with audiences in theirnative tongue. She has recorded | marketing is radically different from what it used to be ten years ago. Hopefully there will be a turn around in this trend and we will once again be bombarded with images of Christopher Walken dancing around an empty hotel building, there we look very narrowly ' Rodgers. Hlustration Courtesy of Mel Chin _ Chins work is very planned out, as it must be for it to function, though he does feel that his intended meaning is not always the only meaning to come through. There is no specific rity His Yatest project, Fundred, is a largely collaborative piece designed to eventually raise enough money to neutralize the high levels of lead in the soil. He is traveling around the country educating people about the situation in New _ Orleans, and then those who choose Report on Lead and Crime was: conclusive in its capacity for lead to engender aggressive behavior and> ctiminal behavior, so the cultural, poverty argument for crime needs to be reevaluated. : Chin isa humanitarian and anartist interested in catalyzing projects and movements that will help people help themselves and make the world. a better place. Chin often deals with the uncomfortable, dark underbelly . of society and politics because this is what he seeks to reveal about human nature in much of his work. 1 asked him the inevitable: philosophical question, Are you optimistic about the quality of human nature? He replied that: Am | optimistic? No. I am a pessimist. | told you | liked that Beck album, I'm a Loser, and no Im not an optimist. Thats why Im compelled to do | what I do, because if I do nothing | Aa si riworks: {butacl! knowetheatsit/will| be' confirmed. ify: 1fo.1&2- hei saysisi-art is-aicatalytit structure, if there is an option thatdidont know! about Im going to explore it. If there is a meaning to life, I dont know, but it gives a meaning to life to be. actively engaged, : (Find more online at http.// www. westerncarolinian.com) Linda Gentille to Bring American Piano Show to WCU From Staff Reports Entertainer Linda Gentille, whom the late aaa called the piano princess, will perform at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 8, in the Fine and Performing Arts Center on the campus of | Western Carolina University. American Piano Show features music of the great American. . composers, including George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Leonard Bernstein, Hoagy Carmichael, and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Scott Joplin, John Philip Sousa and Neil Diamond. Gentille was just a teen when Liberace selected her fora 1986 tour, and she entertains in the style of the man she considered her mentor and friend. Critics have called Gentille *>. a virtuoso and as spectacular to watch as she is to hear, The China Daily reported that her masterful presentations rival, and even surpass, those of Liberace. Since she was achild, Gentille has impressed teachers and audiences with her memory. Her: repertoire - includes more than 2,000 songs, and. each of her performances features a medley? of audience requests that she plays from memory in the reverse order she received them. | Gentille speaks eight foreign languages and during her more than a dozen CDs and DVDs. Teachers and home instructors are invited to bring children to Gentilles matinee performances at 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., part of WCUs program Learning Live, Photo Submitted to introduce students in the region to the performing arts and to . complement classroom curriculum. | This family friendly show is the . -final installment of FPACs 2008-09 Galaxy of Stars Series. Ticket prices _ are $25 for the general public; $20 for senior citizens and WCU faculty and staff; and $5 for all students. . For tickets and more information, contact the FPAC box office at (828) 227-2479, To. order online, go to www. | ticketreturn.com and select need _ fickets:on the left-hand side. Select the arts & entertainment tab, and. then find FPAC events under the Western Carolina panos. heading. (Individuals interested in Tearning more about the student matinees should call the box office or e-mail, FPAC. director Paul Lormand at; lormand@weu.edu.)

The Western Carolinian is Western Carolina University's student-run newspaper. The paper was published as the Cullowhee Yodel from 1924 to 1931 before changing its name to The Western Carolinian in 1933.

• Creator
  • Western Carolina University
• Format
  • Publications (documents)
• Type
  • Text
• Date
  • Date original: 2009-05-01
• Extent
  • Dimension: 14" x 11.5"
  • Pages: 16
• Subject - Topic
  • College student newspapers and periodicals
  • Cullowhee (N.C.) -- Newspapers
  • Universities and colleges -- North Carolina -- Cullowhee -- Newspapers
  • Western Carolina University -- Periodicals
• Location
  • Jackson County (N.C.)
  • Cullowhee (N.C.)
• Source institution
  • Western Carolina University
• Source Collection
  • WCU Students Newspapers Collection
• Identifier
  • HL_WesternCarolinian_2009-05-01_Vol75_No06
• Repository
  • Western Carolina University Hunter Library