FA 100 Synopsis

Finally, the chaos of school and working retail during Christmas has subsided. I now get two weeks of relaxed schedule before another semester begins and Daniel starts working full time. Before I post all our fun Christmas happenings I wanted to write on our exciting FA 100 adventures this semester for posterity's sake (in case they care). :) For all out there who have not attended BYU-Idaho and do not what FA 100 is: It is a one credit class that requires you to attend six varying types of events (dance performance, concerts, plays, etc). Really it's an odd concept, but we had some interesting experiences.

We first attended an art exhibit. The gallery was hosting a NY exhibit of Illustrators. We expected to see pictures from books that we recognized, but it turned out to be a collection of random paintings. It was kinda interesting- I thought since this was a class we would have to walk by every painting and hear everything about it, but they just set us loose for 15 minutes and let us go. Not sure how I was really supposed to glean anything from that minimal interaction.

Then we went to see Nosferatu (I've mentioned this one already). We saw the 70s version--based on the 20s original. Creepy vampire, but pretty interesting plot. Unfortunately, the majority of the audience found everything about the movie hilarious (Let me remind you this is a vampire movie, they are usually funny, excepting perhaps parts of Twilight, ha). They were all in such an uproar that the art movie director had to pause the movie and tell everyone to step outside their uncultured bubble, and try the movie again in another perspective. The laughing reduced to a minimum. We liked the movie. We enjoyed watching something a little bit different, and it made us think about the impact culture has on cinema.

Next up was the Halloween concert (I might have blogged on this previously, too). We expected creepy, goth style garb and music only to walk in on overly Western muscial. Not our favorite forte, but the orchestra did well- 60% of it all was violins. We were entertained, but could've gone without the banjos and horrible accents.

Along came Extravadance. The one dance concert the school puts on a semester. Having done dance for some time gives me a critical eye for these things, so I would have given the whole performance a B. There was definite talent on that stage- African theme dances were extra popular and I absolutely loved some numbers. But on occasion I found it to be slightly mediocre, nothing too fascinating or exciting. Still good though.

The thorn in our side of the entire semester: The Marriage of Figaro- A three hour long opera written by Mozart. Now I thought most theatrical performances wrapped up in 3 Acts, so naturally I assumed it would end at Act 3, but then Act 4 gave us an extra 40 minutes of musical pleasure. Thankfully they had subtitles playing on the screens next to the stage or Daniel and I would have been more confused. At its conclusion we decided the production would have been half as long if they would have stopped repeating themselves. It was not our favorite. Historically, I do have to give props to Mozart for his gaul in producing such a forward thinking, audacious opera for his time. He was quite the Enlightenment man.

Ah, Christmas. We were most excited to go to the Christmas in the Snow choir concert. It was festive and cheerful. Too bad the choir didn't have the opportunity to perform in the new BYU-I auditorium (seats 15,000), because they looked a little cramped all up on the stage.

Just for fun, I went to see Handel's Messiah with my friend, Brittany. I loved it. I had never heard all of the Messiah and it was very well done. Music like that- that has survived over so many years, and it so powerful, just isn't as common today. I love taking the opportunity to enjoy such grand accomplishments.

And there we have our FA 100 experience. We are glad it is over, but somewhat appreciative we were coerced into attending some of these events. Oh- we did have to attend a lecture basically chastising our generation for not appreciating the arts. Although I partially agreed with them, I felt as though he was preaching to the choir. I'm only slightly obsessed with those types of things. It's alright though, more people do need to appreciate the value of live performances, arts, and music. If we allow for them to go by unnoticed, we will never see another grand musician or skilled artist rise, and we may lose the grandeur of past masterpieces.