Exodus 32: Experimenting with Moving Images

I recently uploaded a video to Youtube entitled Exodus 32. When I was filming it I'm not quite sure what I was thinking. I know that I really liked it at the time and I had a certain meaning in my head, but I cannot seem to find that same meaning.

While searching for that meaning, I have found a few others that I really enjoy.

Phone loses value every time I look at it.

Every time I check my phone, it loses a bit of whatever value it had. I check it hoping to find something new, something to combat my boredom, a little dose of dopamine. But every time I check it to find nothing new, it becomes more and more monotonous and dreary.

Wallet maintains its value

The wallet atop the phone is something that I could not really remember the reasoning for. Looking back on it, it makes sense for the wallet to be a juxtaposition to the phone's value. As the value of the phone goes down every time I check it, the value of the wallet stays the same.

Both are false idols

Both objects, the iPhone and the wallet, are worshiped as idols in our society. This where the title of the video comes form. Exodus 32 is the bible passage that has the parable of the Golden Calf. Money and material objects (phones more explicitly) are the "Golden Calves" of our society.

Checking the phone as if praising it

The act of lifting the wallet and putting it back down reminds me of a religious action, such as praising or worshiping. Which fits with the motif of these objects being idols.

In the video itself I chose to make a few stylistic changes. One thing you may notice is that the ominous tone is slightly distorted. This was a deliberate choice to help give a slightly unsettling or 'off' feeling. The apparent monotony of the noise complements the motifs of the video, but if you watch for long enough you may also notice that the pitch goes down, then back up. This change in pitch represents a slow change in demeanor towards the phone itself. As "I" continue to check the phone I slowly start to expect different things from it. Ultimately nothing changes.

The Future of My Blog

It has been awhile since I last posted. I have been very busy with school and such but I've also been busy thinking about what I want to do with this.

I've decided that I'm going to use it to talk about anything in relation to my artistic interests. This will include my talking about my photos, videos, philosophies, or just things that I have been learning in class.

I will most likely be making my first post today about a new short video I've been working on called Exodus 32.

Day 33 - A Month Well Spent

Well, my time studying in Italy is officially over. I went to Milan, Turin, Venice, Cinque Terre, Lake Como, and now im recouping with my parents in the beautiful seaside town of Rapallo. 

The past month really has been invaluable. So many new experiences, new friends, and so much enjoyment. Even though much of my time was spent studying, doing school work, or in class, I really felt that all of the experiences that I have had here in Italy have contributed to my fantastic time abroad. Although to me, my favorite part was noticing the differences in Italian culture and in American culture. In this final blog post I have decided that it would be an appropriate time to go over a few of my favorite culture differences.

Differences​​

• In Italy, almost everyone either has a small econo-car, an estate wagon, or a modest SUV. It is very rare to see a "normal" sedan such as a camry, corrola, or civic. Also there are practically zero pickup trucks or suburbans. I have not once seen a suburban and the only pickup trucks I see are used by workers that necessitate a truck.
• In Italy, a coffee is espresso. In order to get a coffee like you would in America, you must order a "Cafe Americano". Even if the waiter asks you "Cafe?", they mean espresso.
• In Italy, they sell huge 1.5 Liter (0.4 gal) water bottles. These have become my best friends. One bottle usually lasts a whole day and really carry the perfect amount of water for an excursion.
• Italians cut up their pizza themselves. If you order a pizza here, do not expect it to be cut into slices. Most Italians eat pizza using a fork and knife and slicing it like we do in America is not necessarily frowned upon but is seen as very American.
• Italy has a cash culture. MANY places in Italy will not accept card. This even includes restaurants. Although paying in cash all the time and having to split the check ourselves really has upped our mental math game, which is nice.
• Jorts! Jean shorts are huge in Italy, and not even just for women, I see men wearing jean shorts all the time! Usually they come down to mid-knee and are pretty faded. Im not sure if this is just an Italian thing, but I don't quite know how I feel about it.
• Two types of flushes. On pretty much every toilet in Italy, there will be two buttons to flush the toilets, one big and one small. The small uses less water while the big has a bit more 'umph'. I think this is something we really need in America. Especially with the California draught going on I would think more people would be wary to how much water we use, and even just using smaller flushes could help a lot.

Im sure there are many more differences that either I havn't caught on to or are just escaping my mind, but those should give a good taste on what Italy is like!

Also, as kind of a meta-post, I am considering continuing my blog as a sort of journal/photoblog. I will probably decide within the next week or so if i'm going to continue it. If you are reading this, I will keep you updated!

Ciao!

Jamie

Day 26 - Cinque Terre

This past weekend myself and a few friends felt adventurous and decided to head down to the Italian coast and spend a few days in Cinque Terre (Five Lands). Boy was it worth it.

The train brought us from Milano Centrale (as usual) to a tiny three-track train station in Levanto, about 10 minutes from Cinque Terre. The ride was absolutely beautiful and the train view of the mountains from the train station was as good as a post card. 

The piles of gravel aren't in the postcard... 

​From there we had to catch a regional train to the town that we were staying in. Once into Monterossa, the main town of Cinque Terre, we had to situate ourselves and myself and three others had to find a cab to take us to our hotel while the others could simply walk to their hotels. At first I was a bit off-put about not being able to stay at a hotel right on the beach and having to take a taxi to the hotel every time, but after five minutes of being in the taxi my regrets were all forgotten. First of all, sitting in the passenger seat of the tiny cab as it zooms past oncoming cars and through the seemingly single lane mountain roads had me feeling like our driver was Ayrton Senna incarnate. Then after a few more quick minutes we were able to look out the window to see the miniature town of Monterossa in the distance being flanked by lush mountains and with the sea infinitely behind it. 

We finally settled down at our pleasant, apartment-like hotel. We almost immediately got on our bathing suits and caught the hotel shuttle back down to the beach to meet up with the rest of our group and relax on the beach. 

We spent the rest of the day relaxing and then we got some dinner at a nice ocean-side restaurant with quite a view.

View from the restaurant

We turned in early that night, because Ashley and I were getting up bright and early (for me) to go hiking in the hills of Cinque Terre.

I was totally unsure of where we were going, how long we were going to be out, or how difficult the trail would be, but I knew that I would get some nice pictures. Using an actual map (not a phone!) it took us a few tries to navigate from our hotel to the start of the trail. Once we found it, the real adventure began.

Photo creds to Ashley

The trail was absolutely stunning, as expected. The views of the vineyards and the small houses dotting the sides of the mountains were priceless and uncapturable (although I of course tried).

We ended up following the trail for around 16 miles and somewhat accidentally ended up in the colorful town of Riomaggiore.

We wandered for a bit after finding a water fountain to refill our water bottles and after about 30 or so minutes we decided to take the train back. At one point in the ride Ashley suggested that we could get off a few stops (towns) early and hike back to Monterossa. She was obviously in much better condition than I was. 

When we exited the train in Monterossa we decided it would be nice to relax on the beach for a bit. Unfortunately it costs $15 to use the beach chairs, so we ended up with the rest of the freeloaders - laying on a rock sea wall, absorbing the sun into our chests and pebbles into our backs. Although honestly, it was pretty relaxing. The only uncomfortable moments were trying to get up or lay down. 

We caught up with the rest of our group and headed back to the hotel to shower and get ready for dinner.

Even though the trip was mentally and physically taxing at times, I will never regret it.

Day 22 - America the. . . ?

On one of the first days in Milan, one of my classmates made the observation that she has seen a lot of Italians wearing American flag related clothing. I at first doubted her, but once she started pointing them out, i have been unable to go anywhere without seeing an american flag shirt or baseball cap or bag or really anything that can fit an american flag on it. 

I have several theories for why the American flag specifically (I have not seen anywhere near as much clothing with other flags) is so popular here. At our first Italian lesson, one of or assignments was to go up to random Italian people and ask them for their opinions on America. I was expecting opinions such as "obesity", "rednecks", or "racist". In retrospect I guess I was being pretty pessimistic about foreign opinions on America, but in reality we received answers that were more accurate. One of the questions was "What do you think of Americans?". The answer we got was "Tranquilla" or "Quiet". I was not expecting that answer at all. I think that answer alone totally shattered any preconceived notions I had on Italian's point of view of America. Now obviously one person does not speak for a whole country, but the person we had asked seemed to be a young, hip person who could probably at least depict a stereotype of Italian young-adults. 

After having observed the different types of people that wear American flag related clothing and the stores that carry these clothes, it seemed that these people would be considered very similar to "hipsters" in America. I get the feeling that many of these people associate America with freedom and being able to express yourself. They see that American flag as a symbol of artistry and being a "free spirit".

There is no way I can really know why so many people where the American flag without asking them, and even they may not know, but I do think that it is a very interesting trend in Italian society.

Day 18 - A Venetian Recap

This past weekend myself and a few friends from my study abroad program decided to take a trip to Venice for the Festa del Redentore. Il be honest, none of us really knew what the Festa del Redentore was, but we knew it involved a massive amount of fireworks and a lot of happy people. We later learned that it was traditional a feast to celebrate the end of the plague in 1576 that killed 50,000 people, which seems like a worth while reason to have a festival.

The trip started with a bit of drama. The "hotel" that we were going to stay at ended up being a small hostel that really should only fit two people per room when we needed to fit four. it also did not help that this weekend was one of the hottest in recent years and the rooms had no AC. We debated for awhile on whether or not to find a new hotel and we eventually decided to just stay. Well, at 12:30am the power in room went out. The one person that was working at the hotel came up and tried to fix it to no avail. We were forced to find a new place to stay for the night at one in the morning, since our current hotel was full. We also went and asked the man at the front desk how we could go about getting a refund, and he went off at us about how he knows that there is no AC and no power but the management will be there tomorrow, so we would go back the next day. It took a bit of looking but we found a hotel down the street that had one room available. We packed up our stuff and left for our new safe place.

When we arrived at our new hotel the old man at the front desk asked us how many people were trying to room. We said four. He said no. We didn't know what to do. We said we would pay extra but he again denied. Then, a woman comes out of the back room, says something in Italian to the old man and goes upstairs to set up a room with four beds. Thank god for nice old Italian ladies.

The next morning we found a BnB that we could stay at for the next night since our current hotel could only house us for one night. We lugged all of our luggage halfway across Venice and arrived at a very refreshing apartment where we met the owners of the BnB. They led us to our apartment, which was about 20 meters away from the lagoon between Venezia and Murano. We got very lucky. 

We spent a few hours resting and then we went out to see what was going on for Redentore, which started that night. We decided to catch a water taxi to Lido, the strand of land between Venezia and the Mediterranean. The island seemed to be separated into two sects. The west side, which was the non-beach side that faced Venice and was full of family friendly celebrations, and the east side where there was a beach party all along the coast. We did not stick around either side too long because we wanted to make sure we could catch the fireworks. 

We caught the taxi back to Venezia around 11:25 and less than five minutes later the fireworks started. Once we got off the boat we scrambled to find a location where we could see the fireworks. We eventually found a bridge that allowed us to see over enough buildings to see the fireworks. They lasted for about 40 minutes and were spectacular. At 12am the church bells rang, which in combination with the fireworks exploding in the distance was absolutely majestic. Something that truly could not be captured by camera. But I tried.

The next day we checked out, walked around a bit, and ended up taking a gondola ride - because what is a trip to Venice without a gondola ride. Our gondolier had been rowing the same boat since he was 18... he said he is 53 now. 

After the gondola ride we made our way to the train station to end our journey and head back to Milan. The ride back was hot and it took longer than expected, but coming "home" after a busy weekend is worth it.

Day 14

We got off to a rough start today. We did not have class until 3pm so sleeping in was nice, but unfortunately my roommates and I got up at around 1:30 thinking that we would have enough time... which was false. After everyone had showered and gotten ready it was 2:40 and we were sprinting (speed walking) out the door.

We ended up getting to class about 10 minutes late, which is not horrible, but I would rather not be late at all. This ordeal brought to question one of my philosophies, which is "no man left behind". I could easily have left without my roommates and gotten to class on time, so why didn't I? I feel that I just had a lapse in judgement, and honestly should have left without them. They would have made it perfectly fine, its not like I was the only person that knew where we were going. Even though this really wasn't a very severe circumstance, I feel that I can and will use what I learned in the future.

After our three-hour class on Neorealism, which didn't really start until after the break when I had a shot of espresso, we left to go to a symphony. It lasted about two hours and I enjoyed a good amount of it. There was a decent mix of classical music and jazz, which was nice. One thing I did notice was that there was a LOT of clapping. I have been to performances before and I know that a lot of clapping is to be expected, but at the end there was 10 minutes of clapping... which seems like a lot. I guess Italians just really like jazz.

The symphony

Ciao

Day 13

Today we visited the Cinema museum in Torino and took the train back "home" to Milan. 

After not getting much sleep last night it was a nice surprise to see that our breakfast had fresh espresso. Our dorms in Milan have espresso, but it's from a vending machine, so seeing a person there actually operating an espresso machine was a good start to my day. I also learned the phrase "Ciao grazie" which is basically "Thanks bye" but more socially acceptable. I will be using this very often in cafes.

We went to visit the Cinema Museum in Torino which was really pretty interesting. I learned a lot more about the origins of photography and film than I thought I would have.  There was also a large exhibit on Neorealism, which I found very interesting and helpful since it is my topic for my essays. I learned more about the public perception of neorealism and how the Italian public did not really welcome it with as open arms as I previously thought.

The museum also happened to be one of the tallest buildings in Torino and the tallest museum in the world and had an elevator that you could take to the top, which I of course did. 

The view

After the museum we grabbed lunch at Eataly once again, and this time I ordered a hamburger. Il be honest, I was expecting the tradition American hamburger on a bun with lettuce and tomato, but what came out was so much better.  

After lunch we headed back to the dorm and soon after we left to return to Milan. 

The train ride was not quite as nice and was a little bit longer, but I was able to have some good conversation with my fellow study abroaders. 

Ciao

Day 11 - A Review and Thoughts

Well, it has been a bit too long since I have posted a blog here. I think Iw as a bit unsure of what I wanted to post and thus I did not really post anything. I am just going to catch you up on what I've been up to and then I will discuss what I what to do with the blog.

Seeing as how my last post was after we had arrived at the dorms, there is a lot to discuss. I will just briefly describe some of the key events and what they entailed.

Since we arrived we have already been to the Milan Expo, the Duomo, Stresa, and all around Milan. 

The Milan Expo was quite an event. There were exhibits from almost every country and they were all exuberant. We stopped at many of the exhibits (unfortunately not all) including Spain, Mexico, the Netherlands, Belarus, Vatican City, Brazil, Argentina, and Romania. Im sure im forgetting a few but those stand out to me the most. We stopped to get lunch in the Netherlands, where there was an array of food trucks (I guess they re common in NL). A couple friends decided to stop at fhe first one they saw which was meatballs and french fries while I looked around a bit more at the other food trucks. I decided on getting the aptly named "Weed Burger", which was a green veggie burger made with seaweed. It may have looked disgusting but it was so worth the six euros. We then walked around a bit more and stopped in Argentina for aperitivo (traditional Italian pre-dinner drinks/snack). After our drinks we had decided that we had enough of the insane heat and that it was time to head back home.

The next day (at least I think it was the next day, it could have been the previous, who knows) we went to Il Duomo, a huge church and the cultural center of Milan. The Duomo is also right next to La Galleria, which is one of the biggest outdoor malls in the world. It was filled with Versace, Prada, and Gucci stores. The Ferrari store stood right outside of La Galleria, and was an immediate eye catcher to me. I have probably spent at least an hour in the store so far just wandering around and either looking at the F1 car that they have on display or looking at all the model cars that I can never afford. They also had a F1 simulator in the basement, which I most definitely have already tried. Besides the Ferrari store and possibly the store that sells vintage driving gloves and riding gear, not many of the bustling perfume-filled stores have attracted me.

We had classes in the morning everyday last week and honestly they were not too bad. We had lectures on Italian pop-culture, Italian society, and Italian journalism. After most classes I would go to the university cafe and recite my usual "Posse avere un cappuccino e un caprese per favore". The nice old Italian lady behind the counter puts up with my poor Italian skills and by the second day asked me "Coma te ciame?". I did not understand but luckily there was a nice woman waiting for her food that told me: "She wants to know what your name is". I had made my first Italian friend! She is apparently also a post card collector and once she learned that I was from Washington D.C. she asked her coworker, who speaks a tiny bit of English, to ask me to bring her a postcard from D.C.. I don't know where I am going to get one from but I will try and remember!

Today we went to an area called Stresa. We went to two islands, Isola Madre and Isola Belle, both of which were beautiful and with a view of the alps. The first island was filled with green grass, tall trees, beautiful flowers, and peacocks. It was all very beautiful, but it did not really appeal to the aesthetic that im going for with my photography. These islands were more something that I needed to enjoy with my own two eyes and without a lens. Also no matter how many "beautiful" shots I took, they all looked the same and did not even compare to what I was seeing myself. On the second island we toured a small castle and then had lunch on the island. I had tomato and buffalo mozzarella, which as always, was delicious. After lunch we got back on our private yacht (really just a small taxi boat) and were shuttled to a small beach where we relaxed for the next hour and a half or so before it was time to return to Milan. Overall it was a good day, but did not assist with my photography endeavors very much.

Now, to get onto more serious topics, I must decide what I want to do with this blog. I am thinking that I definitely need to post more often, but i dont want each post to be as lengthy as these previous ones have been. I think so far my problem is that I try to cover too much with one post, which is a result of my procrastination. Upon looking at my peer's blogs it seems that the best idea may be to take notes throughout the day and then post them in blog form at the end of each day as a nice closing to the evening. Who knows, I may even attach a picture from the day. 

Ciao.

Day 2 - July 4th (Malpensa Airport/ Milan)

Alright, I have to be honest, I forgot to write a blog post yesterday so I am writing it a day late (its actually July 5th). To try and keep things organized I am going to write as it is yesterday.

Even though I did not sleep at all, my flight from Newark, NJ to MIlan, Italy was not bad. The plane made it in decent time, about 8 hours. The plane had three rows of seats all with three seats. I was assigned seat 21G, so the rightmost seat of the middle row. As we were boarding there was a woman sitting to my left that kept switching seats with what appeared to be her husband, with her child sitting in front of her. I was growing tired of sitting and standing and sitting again and I also felt a little bad about breaking up the family, so I offered to exchange seats with the husband so that he could sit next to his wife. He happily agreed and I took his seat. I ended up sitting between two very nice women. I cannot recall their names but I do recall why they were going to Milan. The woman on the left who appeared to be in her early twenties was a journalist and was flying to Milan to speak at the Milan Expo about Sake! I thought that was very interesting and as I continued to talk to her I learned that she specializes in food related journalism. She told me all about the time she went to the Faroe Islands and tried fermented lamb that apparently tasted like it was stuffed with blue cheese, although blue cheese was not in the recipe. She had many stories of weird foods she had tried and it was slightly disgusting but mostly fascinating. The woman on my right was an older woman, most likely mid 50s. She was flying to Milan but headed to Lugano, Switzerland which is where her husband works. I cannot recall what he does but it seemed a bit hoity toity. She talked of her kids, one of whom studied in a buddhist monastery for 9 years, and the other one she did not really talk about. She was entertaining but luckily after she finished a small bottle of wine she decided it was time to go to sleep. The rest of my flight was fairly uninteresting. I managed to watch all of "2001: A Space Odyssey" and I almost finished "American Sniper", which might I say was much better than I thought it would be. After we landed I ended up waiting about 45 minutes for my luggage, which was unfortunate, but I was also meeting up with some other members of my study abroad program and they had not landed yet, so it is not as if I could have been on my way to Milan anyhow. After I got my luggage I only had to wait about 15 minutes until they found me. We had one more person coming that was supposedly supposed to land at the same time as me. We waited for about an hour with no message from her, and the train to Milan only ran so often, so we decided that we would go and hope she would be able to find her way. The train from the airport to Milan cost about 13 euros which isnt all that bad. It took about 30 minutes to get there and the view from the train was nice but was not really anything special. Once we made our way through the bustling Milan train station we had to find a taxi. There were five (cinque) of us and that was a problem. Cabbies would wave to us, we would put up five fingers and yell "Cinque?", only for them to quickly deny us. We finally found a nice young cab driver that accepted our large(ish) group. The drive to the dorms took about 10 minutes and we left the driver with a generous tip. We were checked into our hotel-sized dorm within about 15 minutes and finally had some time to relax. It was only about 2pm Italy time, and if we were to fall asleep it would ruin our sleep schedules, so we had to make sure we stayed awake until after dinner and then we were free to pass out. I must admit, i feel asleep for about five minutes in the mean time but luckily i was awoken by the program director knocking to make sure we were all set up.

That night we all went to a pizza place about a half mile from the dorm. It was a very authentic little Italian pizzeria which I enjoyed very much. The menu consisted of a few salads, a couple choices of pasta, and about 30 or so different types of pizza. I was in heaven. Although since we ARE in Italy, the menu was also in Italian. This required a little bit of deductive reasoning and vocabulary knowledge. This was also when I learned one of the most important words to know in Italian, "pomodoro" (tomato). I ended up ordering a pizza with mozzarella, tomatoes, prosciutto, and olives: it was delicious.  We finished off the dinner with a shot of Limoncello, as suggested by our advisor. Once we made it back to the dorm, I brushed my teeth and promptly fell asleep.

Day 1 - July 3rd (Newark Airport)

I am starting to write this blog post as I am waiting in the Newark airport. Its about 3 o’clock. My plane landed from Reagan National (or just National, mom/dad) at around 12:30 and my flight to Milan does not board until around 6. This is the first time that I have every flown totally alone, and its not all that bad. Going through security alone was a bit jarring, but not much more inconvenient than normal TSA. So far the Newark airport has been like any other airport - a lot of walking and even more sitting and waiting. As im sitting here… and waiting, I notice that most people are either on a phone, laptop, or tablet (myself included, I have to write this somehow) and then there is the select few that are reading books made out of paper (wow!). I am obviously used to this as America is just brimming with technology and time that needs to be spent, but I am interested to see if the obsession with technology is as rampant in Italy as it is here. To be honest, I assume it is… but it will be interesting to observe none the less. I am going to stop writing here and pick back up either on the plane or in Milan!

Going to Italy!

It's only two more days until I go to Milan, Italy to study photography and Italian film, and boy am I excited! During the month that I will be there I will be taking many pictures and posting most of them here as well as a daily blog post (also here). To see my photos explicitly from Italy, there will be a new tab above labeled "Foto" as not all of them will be added to my front page portfolio. I will be leaving Friday, July 3rd, so my first post can be expected the next day. I cant wait!