There's A River In The Valley Made of Melting Snow

The school took a trip to the art museum today to see a Mr. William Dunlap [website here] and we meandered through his exhibit before listening to him "jaw" [as he said it] for nearly an hour. He had a lot of interesting things to say, and I wasn't bored, but he made me want to get out of Mississippi even more so than I already do. If you look at his website, a good deal of his work has a Southern feel to it -- the landscapes, the love of dogs, just the thoughts you get from looking at them. A phrase he said that I took to heart was that he didn't treasure Mississippi until he got out and saw the world. He loved Mississippi so much because he didn't live here all the time; it's far more exotic when you're just visiting as opposed to being stuck here.

He also cursed frequently, which made me laugh, since Mrs. O'Hara, my main art teacher, was not looking too entirely comfortable with it.

We also got filmed by some camera crew, which was interesting. The only problem is, I have no idea where they were from -- probably the Mississippi branch of PBS. They were pretty annoying, but at least my face is on film in some unknown canister. It's a start.

Found a fun website, Music for Robots, nice to check out new music if you're into electronica, indies stuff. They offer mp3 downloads, reviews, and downloads and such of new artists that are trying to break boundaries somewhere.

Also, something amazing, I think it's absolutely astounding that Sufjan Stevens wants to make an album for all 50 of the states, starting with Illinois. I'm halfway through with downloading Come On Feel the Illinoise! and it's phenomenal that he can manage to make every song sound so good. I'm wondering if he can keep this up for so many albums.

Another album I had the fortune to hear today was Idlewild by Outkast. There were a few songs on the CD that had me scanning through to the next song, but overall, the CD had such a great beat to it. With the bluegrass/jazzy guitars mashed together with super bass, I about drove off the road with the way it wanted to make me move.

Marie Antoinette comes out tomorrow, with Kirsten Dunst, who I have grown a lot more fond of recently. After Eternal Sunshine and Elizabethtown she showed that she has some skills that I didn't think possible coming from her. I expected a Bring It On! performance and was delightfully surprised when she gave a stellar piece of work in both of the mentioned movies. And, of course, I absolutely loved Lost In Translation, so I cannot wait to see what Sofia Coppolla has in store for the world this time, especially if she wrote it herself. Self-made creators mean the world to me, and it brightens my day to see them succeed.

Until later.