Rich Stemme, a member of the group Brutally Familiar introduced us to his experience in punk rock. He began his journey by creating zines in school, which were small magazines that spread his messages of punk rock and soon created his first demo tape. Stemme explained that to him, punk rock was more about spreading a message than wealth, which was proven by his 7 inch record. He claimed that although each sold for 3 to 4 dollars, they took approximately 5 dollars to create. When I held this record, it seemed very well done. I liked the artwork and packaging of the record, revealing that it must’ve taken a lot of effort to create.
Throughout his journey, Stemme met popular artists and played with popular bands, which I thought was interesting and amazing. Another fascinating fact that he told us was the difference between punk rock bands in Britain and America. In Britain, punk rock is like a culture, the artists dress up a certain way and are expected to act a certain way. In America, artists dress and act normally, they just create songs in the punk rock genre. Overall, though his experience was interesting and entertaining, I thought his music of hardcore punk genre had too much distortion, making it hard to enjoy.

My experience began at the entrance of the Macaulay building. When I entered the building with my peers, we were asked to wait because one of the actors was running late. After a couple of minutes of waiting in the comfortable lounge, we were escorted to another room where the actors that were going to read the play and its author awaited. I sat down at a table and awaited the start of the reading. When I first read the script of the play, I was confused and horrified at the thought of giving birth to a dead rabbit, which ultimately led me to dislike it. However, when I heard the play read out loud, the actors gave the characters a human face in, which allowed me to visualize the play. The passion and effort the actors put into the play was amazing, but the loud screams were startling and unpleasant to the ears. Overall, the reading of the play ultimately improved my perception of the script. After the reading, the author and artists answered the questions that were on people’s minds. One of the questions asked the inspiration of the play. The answer, which I found fascinating, was that it was based on an actual story. I found it hard to believe that this could’ve actually happened. The artist continued answering questions and described their life and the challenges of promoting art in NYC.

     When I entered the Brooklyn Museum, I was greeted by a giant statue of two humanoid figures and continued onward to the auditorium. There I met many Macaulay peers, and we were all seated. A philosopher then explained that a museum is a place where culture is in conversation with itself. After that, we were dismissed from the auditorium to explore the museum in groups. 

     My group went to the fifth floor, which was full of paintings and sculptures of extremely high detail. The first painting that caught my eye was one of a raging waterfall. There you could see all of the fine details of the water crashing down onto the rocks below, how the lighting shines on the sky, and the details of the trees in the background. The crashing waves in the artwork reminded me of my trip to Canada, where I saw Niagara Falls.

      I continued to the next room, where I was greeted by another large and detailed painting. This had a detailed view of the mountains, a lake, and the sky. Additionally, the lighting of the painting also stood out to me, which was applied to the mountains, clouds, and even the small trees. In the middle of this artwork, the artist demonstrated their ability to show depth by fading out the view to a dark and distant valley. Upon closer inspection, I saw that the painting also included a Native American camp and them chasing their prey. This addition to the painting proves the careful attention to detail, ultimately revealing that this artwork took a very long time to create.

     After that artwork, I continued exploring the fifth floor, stopping and inspecting several works of art. It was clear that all of the paintings or sculptures were made by excerpt artists. Then I came upon a room where there were several works of art stored in glass containers. In the center of that room there was a metallic statue of a man looking at his hand. This statue showed all of the slightest creases in his clothes, thus making the statue look extremely realistic. As I continued to the rest of the fifth floor, no other work stood out to me as the others that I observed, and with that, I finished my experience with the Brooklyn Museum.

My experience began outside the Roundabout Theater, which looked old from the outside. When my class and I stepped into the building, we had to go to the basement to get to the theater. We then took our seats, and the play began. It started with two people, Kaite and Paul, in a diner. Kaite is the owner of the diner and serves Paul, a retired firefighter, coffee almost daily in the mornings. The play went on through their conversations and escalated when they decided to share their secrets. Katie revealed that she used to live in a different city but moved when her friend didn’t share her romantic feelings. Paul revealed that he feels his life is meaningless and wants Kaite to poison him. Upon hearing each other’s secrets, they were enraged and wanted to change the other person. The play went on and developed each other’s characters and shared their secrets. Finally, the play ended when Kaite’s friend arrived in town and asked to meet with her.
Overall, the play wasn’t horrible to see; many parts were interesting and funny, but after a while, their talking made me sleepy. I feel that the play needed more action or at least a change in scenery. The play only had three characters and one setting. If they had a larger crew or more settings, then the play would’ve been better; however, the play did well for their resources. Another thing that I disliked in this play is that it feels incomplete; the ending did not show if Kaite got together with her friend or what happened to Paul.

     My trip began when I arrived at Snug Harbor. The layout of the park was confusing, but I managed to find the Art Lab building. When I entered, I was greeted and given a free rubber wrist band and a sheet of paper that depicted what activities were located in what room. I decided to go to the oil painting lab, since I have never tried it. When I entered the room, I was greeted by an art teacher and my peers. The class began with the art teacher showing some of her works made with oil paint, they seemed beautiful and the thought of soon making something similar made me excited. The art teacher continued by setting up the classroom with chairs, easels, and art models. After that the class was handed a canvas, a plastic cup with a paint dissolving solution in it, a paintbrush, a wooden board with paper on it, and paper towels. Then I had a choice of what to paint and I chose a pair of pears on a dark red background. I set up my equipment near the pear model station and chose the oil paints that I need. 

     I began painting the pears by drawing an outline of the pear shapes with a light-blue paint. In order to do this, I needed to dip my brush into the paint dissolving solution then the light-blue oil paint. Then I began mixing colors to match the color of the first pear, which was a brownish-green, a yellowish-green, and a light-green color. After a couple of attempts, I finally made the desired colors and colored inside and a bit over the light-blue outline. Then I moved onto the next pear, which had a yellow-brown and yellow-green color, and colored in the outline. After fully coloring the pears, I went on to create the color of the background, which took me a while to replicate it accurately, and colored it in. With the main details of the painting done, I went on to create the shadows, which was just a darker version of the original color. Finally, I created the stems of the pears and finished. The teacher told me that the painting will take a week to dry and to keep dust off of it. I took my artwork and went home.