Hey guys, sorry for the late post, exams and stuff got my schedule packed up, but now that they’re mostly over I can finally get backed to my normal schedule. So on Tuesday, my friend Owais and I went to a Baruch theatre production of the play Castle II, as an assignment for our theatre class. We were told it would be extra credit, and supplement what we’re learning in class, so after waiting at school for two hours, we finally entered the school trying to find the Englemen recital hall. We got lost of course, what do you expect out of freshmen? but after finding the very weird location for the elevator into the basement, we entered. The play really wasn’t anything that I could have expected, we had to wait like 25 minutes before they let us in which sucked because the lobby was packed and I was tired. But we finally got in, and it got real emotional real fast. The director of the play, who actually taught at Baruch gave a brief introduction, and it was from there that I learned he actually forced his classes to go, unlike our teacher. Anyways the play started and it essentially was four ex prison inmates who were telling the story of how they had gotten into prison, each of them had been arrested multiple times, and how they eventually joined the castle program, which is rehabilitation and reintegration convicts into society. Each person had their unique back story and they each came from very distinct, different walks of life. Two were from the Bronx, one from Long Island, and one from Queens. There were two African American men, one latino, and one Latina, I think that’s meant to show that anybody can make mistakes, and that people shouldn’t be prejudiced. The play was really stripped down, it was essentially four people sitting in chairs, seen in the back of my picture, with stands and microphones. I really liked the performance, it was really emotional and it provided a really deep insight that I had never really considered before. I’m really happy i got to go to this event, but the one thing i would change is that owais slept through like half of the thing and we were kinda sitting in the front so i was associated with the kid who slept during a play. Thanks Owais. 

As an art enthusiast, it would only be natural that my first blog post for Baruch would be regarding a museum. Students of CUNY schools are offered several choices with museums – most if not all are free, to name a few: the MoMA, Brooklyn Museum, Cloisters, and Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Of the vast options presented to me, I chose to visit the MoMA. Born and raised in New York City, MoMA belonged to the rare category of museums I have not yet visited, therefore I was quite excited, as it was significantly more famous than other galleries I have been to.

Touring the MoMA today was not life-changing or significant in anyway – it was honestly a letdown and for lack of a better word, sellout. Being one of the most famous museums in the Big Apple, one would assume there must be something this place has to offer that others simply lack. However, from my experience today, I learned that there was nothing to take away from this museum. I do not mean to bash art pieces displayed at the museum in any way, I do understand that each piece its own meaning according to the creator, yet there was just nothing on-par to other museums.

One of the only, and most notable pieces in the MoMA would be Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh. Upon arriving to the Fifth Floor where the piece was located, the first thing you would notice is the amount of tourist present, all taking selfies around the famous piece. Undeniably, I did become one of them for the sake for this assignment. Now, if one was to compare the difference in spectators between Starry Night and other pieces present, one would find a considerable difference in quantity. Well, this observation might simply be due to the difference in popularity of the paintings, however I would like to attribute it to the poor quality of other art pieces and terrible structuring of the museum itself.

I do suggest that you experience MoMA for yourself to understand what I mean. With art being subjective, you might like it more than I do however, I doubt my feelings towards the place will change anytime soon.