FTC4

Sorry I didn't have this earlier. I almost didn't make it to my own Finer Things Club meeting but luckily I was able to leave work an hour early and have in-depth chats with my lovely dinner guests. Ironically at another Chinese restaurant. Main focus was... Olympics, of course. The spectacle that was the opening ceremony. What it means for China's reputation and national identity and people. Ian gave us great awkward hobo restaurant scenarios. Travels. Meaning of life. Sophie said something about Jews being especially slutty. Pokemon versus Digimon. Digimon won BTdubs. 90's cartoons versus "New Millennium" cartoons. What are we going to call this decade in later decades? What's the name for our generation? X? Y? G?

Damn, I forgot to take pictures. Oh, and Ian, send me that stuff about meaning of life email.

More stuff I wasn't there for. What'd I miss, guys?

Reflection

I thought I'd spend some time reflecting on everything that's happened this school year. You know those TV shows about teenagers in high school in all the cliques and drama? Ridiculous. But sometimes I find myself caught in similar drama and think, "You have got to be kidding me. Reality doesn't work like this." And it really didn't until this year. But I think it says something about how close our friendships are, that despite what happens, we're cool.


Here's my top 5 most memorable things about this year.

5. Pink Elephant.

4. Jay's IB-300. This was kind of really brilliant.

3. Pangaea. One of the most fun and successful collaborative productions Rickards has ever seen.

2. Finer Things Club. It's incredibly satisfying to have a serious conversation with the same people who love "Your mom" jokes.

1. Group 4. Great excuse to hang out every weekend, karaoke and spend time with "the family". The actual science part of it was quite a bit of work. I slept a lot and the final video turned out great.

Honorable mentions include going into my IB theater oral prepared for the wrong play (so far, biggest fuck-up of my life), whore cake, spring break beach trip, Dr. Williams' "3 snaps in a circle", Greer's trading clothing week, spending time after school in the parking lot talking with friends, playing spades in class, those Planet Earth videos, spanish with Okey and Halina, skipping school for starbucks, parking lot hopscotch, Traveling Foreign Teenagers, pulling all-nighters to finish essays, inside jokes, Skeert (which is one of those fads you think would blow over by the next week, but skeert), "Sex in a ___", Swissabella, "That's what she said",bunny map, loud sex talks in Sindhu's class partyvan...


What's your top 5?

FTC pt.3

The Finer Things Club last night started off pretty intense. It really has to do with who's there and the atmosphere and the mood that can induce deep intellectual discussions. The group consisted of me, Bella, Jay, Okey, Rosie, and Michael. Ian was too busy doing once-in-a-lifetime stuff like chasing tornadoes. No internet at Sahara so we couldn't skype him in.

We started off talking about art, high art versus low art, what is art nowadays? how can you draw that blurry line between art and bullshit? etc. There was this art student who induced pregnancies and subsequently abortions on herself, then used the blood to make art. She didn't really use blood, but it was meant to stir controversy and promote discussions about abortion. I recently read an article talking about this exact thing, how artists are trying to send a message in their work, but using unethical or inappropriate tactics. There was a man who found a starving dog on the street, chained him to an art gallery and let it die. I can see this as art. I can see this as a very strong and emotional comment on homelessness. The dog might have died anyway on the street but the very fact that each moment of it's death is there in plain view is just so much more direct and effective.

This reminded me of when Ian showed me "Primitive Welcome". It was cool but I didn't get it.The he explained his meaning behind it. It got me thinking; What is the interpretation of art by the viewer? By the artist's intentions? My opinion is, this can be skewed either way, but the artist's intention is so much more valid. For example, in Fahrenheit 451, we were taught that this book was about censorship. Lockhart went on and on about censorship and how it's the cause of all misfortunes for the character and the root of his dystopian community. Alright, I could see that. But I felt as though that was not the focus of the book. Months after reading Fahrenheit 451, there was an article published where Ray Bradbury, the author, insisted that the book was not about censorship, but how television destroys literature. So what is the story about? I hate the idea of a "personal interpretation" because that just opens up too many windows for bullshit.

Then Shakar and Saiem showed up. We were at a total lack of decorum and I gave up trying to bring everyone back to FTC mode. It turned into a fun relaxed dinner so it was still good.

Anyway, art... yeah. What do you think?

The Finer Things in Life

We had another awesome meeting. However, if the object of these gatherings is to appear as mature young adults discussing what is love, how to be happy, fetishes, anonymity on the internet, and the meaning of life in a very sophisticated way, then we failed. Rickrolled. Thanks Bella.

It was fun. I'm really going to miss the graduating seniors though. Let's find time in May for another meeting. Please come back for FTC!

The Finer Things Club

A couple months ago, I was ranting to Couchface about how our daily conversations have become so frivolous. At least compared to last year, we never talk about important issues. Didn't we used to argue about religion and abortion every day last year in History? So taking a cue from my favorite episode of "The Office" we planned to put together a Finer Things Club of our own.

We had a successful first meeting last Saturday at Essence of India. 7 people dining on charged discussions of Hilary V. Obama primaries, Serbia, something else. I'm a little disappointed I forgot to take a picture at the end but there will be more.

We developed a couple ground rules for this.

1. No paper, plastic, school talk.
2. Maintain a civil disposition at all times, no matter how heated the conversation.
3. Extra points for using officious Model UN jargon.
4. Most important: Everyone is alloted ONE "That's what she said." per meeting. Use it wisely.
   

I wonder if I can put this on my college applications...

Community Activities: I created an open forum for young adults to discuss art, philosophy, current events, and pressing issues of our generation.

Something like that.