Lion King and the Negative Aspects of our Consumption
I saw Lion King today. It was very spontaneous (oh that answers another ENFP question o' mine.. haha one of my roomies is an ENFP too! Ai yah. I sent it to all of them) and we bought the tickets the night before. Being cheap, we got the $50 and sat way up in the balcony (like Sprite zone at the top). But the costumes and the set design were absolutely stunning and amazing. The floor could open up and produce a spiral staircase and slant and curl and move up and down it was insane. When they first sang 'Circle of Life' the intro song, me and Bonnie had tears in our eyes. Hahahahaha. The giraffes are so cool. After the show we decided to mull around Times Square a little longer and headed to Cold Stone for ice cream (you pick a flavour and add whatever you want and they mix it on a marble slab like a salad).
When I was wathcing the musical, I noticed how close it could be to represent our relationship with Christ. Of course it is not an exact symbolic representation of the bible but there are some similar things. We do things against our father's will (like simba wandering to the elephant graveyard and his dad had to rescue him) and then eventually through our misbehaviour, the father dies (Though he never really resurrects but whatever). We run away far from our sins only to be found again (this time by nahla or whatever his future lioness becomes.. which reminded me of the book Captivated in which the woman inspires the man to become driven just like simba was being driven by nahla) and must face satan/'scar' and obtain our rightful place in the kingdom of heaven (the king). Yeah as I was saying, don't take this one too seriously. It just occured to me when they kept telling Simba he was the true king.
So I was looking up jobs in New York within the art and design realm and there are a billion. I ended up emailing a company who wanted interns for the upcoming New York Olympus Fashion Week and I really want to get in so that would require helping them. :P And then I discovered a toronto version of craigs list but they only have about five design jobs per day. How disappointing. As I have said, Toronto's design world will not grow unless the government does something or some miracle happens.
Today at critical reading and writing, our teacher asked me where I came from- if I came from Toronto and I was really confused. So I ended up saying "I was born in chicago, moved to toronto, then moved to hong kong, moved back to toronto and now I'm here". I heard the girl behind me go "wow". I wish I had that talent of being able to adjust to a place very quickly. Then I would not be afraid to move anywhere in this world. Well my teacher then asked where I wanted to live. I answered "perhaps new york but maybe toronto or hong kong". But really, in my heart of hearts, I'd like to stay in Toronto where my family and beautiful friends are. But there is no future there :(
Today I was walking to the bank and to the shop to order my coursepack, the wind blowing on my face and hair, cars honking at one another to the bustle of city life...and I felt so independent for some odd reason. I feel detached from the rest of the world, detached from friends back in Toronto (my normal, quiet life) and detached from my family (no one to rule over me). It occured to me, if I really wanted to, I could smoke pot or drink or go to that club that Allie and Liz goes to do get drugs and get high. Obviously, I would not do such things. But the other night when I was coming back from the airport, the Romanian taxi driver struck up some conversation with me and I found out he wanted to send his 17 year old son to Montreal to learn how to play professional hockey. I told him I was from Toronto and came to New York to study. He ended up asking "Your parents actually let you move to new york by yourself?" I said "they trust me". He's worried that his son is going to party and take advantage of his freedom. But honestly, I'm not going to abuse that. I am here to study and soak up culture and find a way to make a difference in this world.
Back to critical reading and writing class, we were talking about ethical issues in the design world and our teacher pointed out that we buy and buy and buy more clothes that are not necessary. Someone said that you should just 'give it to the Salvation Army'. I was just sitting there and it occured to me that just 'dumping your clothes at Value Village' can have even more horrendous effects on third world countries. What we westerners think that solves our problem of recycling clothing and giving it to 'the poor' actually has quite devastating effects. How? Well first the secondhand clothing industry is a multi million dollar business. First clothes are sorted into different categories. Vintage dealers, buyers and high end used clothing sellers come and snatch up all the good stuff first. Then they are sorted according to their function and its condition. All plain t shirts with some minor repair are sent to third world countries where people buy and sell 'dead man's clothing' (they can't believe us westerners would throw away such clothes in such a good condition so the only time they would think anyone would give those up was when they died). This causes the people to rely on imported American clothes and cripples their traditional local textile factories from getting started and running. See? I can't wait till our last unit on ethical issues of design. I have so many things to say. He asked me what the bad effects about consumerism is today or something like that based on this barbie doll he brought. I was so dumbfounded by the question because I had a million answers in my head. I ended up saying, "if you said the doll was made in China, then I can tell you the Chinese government has very few regulations on the factories that produce them so they dump all their chemicals into the river, from which the people drink from which causes cancers, birth defects etc." An example would be the Yuanghe river (I think that's what it's called. Can't remember anymore from gr 12) Then I wanted to talk about the animals and how they'd be affected and the people who make them under poor conditions and those americans who lost their jobs from outsourcing etc. but I got too lost in my own thoughts to say anything coherent and articulate. He asked us what are the most important things that you should think about as a designer and the girl behind me said "the cost of production and its quality". Is that really it? I think artists have been too brainwashed to think that "art has no cost therefore do anything you can do achieve such results". But we've never really considered the social and environmental implications of such an ideology.
Haha that's it for today!
When I was wathcing the musical, I noticed how close it could be to represent our relationship with Christ. Of course it is not an exact symbolic representation of the bible but there are some similar things. We do things against our father's will (like simba wandering to the elephant graveyard and his dad had to rescue him) and then eventually through our misbehaviour, the father dies (Though he never really resurrects but whatever). We run away far from our sins only to be found again (this time by nahla or whatever his future lioness becomes.. which reminded me of the book Captivated in which the woman inspires the man to become driven just like simba was being driven by nahla) and must face satan/'scar' and obtain our rightful place in the kingdom of heaven (the king). Yeah as I was saying, don't take this one too seriously. It just occured to me when they kept telling Simba he was the true king.
So I was looking up jobs in New York within the art and design realm and there are a billion. I ended up emailing a company who wanted interns for the upcoming New York Olympus Fashion Week and I really want to get in so that would require helping them. :P And then I discovered a toronto version of craigs list but they only have about five design jobs per day. How disappointing. As I have said, Toronto's design world will not grow unless the government does something or some miracle happens.
Today at critical reading and writing, our teacher asked me where I came from- if I came from Toronto and I was really confused. So I ended up saying "I was born in chicago, moved to toronto, then moved to hong kong, moved back to toronto and now I'm here". I heard the girl behind me go "wow". I wish I had that talent of being able to adjust to a place very quickly. Then I would not be afraid to move anywhere in this world. Well my teacher then asked where I wanted to live. I answered "perhaps new york but maybe toronto or hong kong". But really, in my heart of hearts, I'd like to stay in Toronto where my family and beautiful friends are. But there is no future there :(
Today I was walking to the bank and to the shop to order my coursepack, the wind blowing on my face and hair, cars honking at one another to the bustle of city life...and I felt so independent for some odd reason. I feel detached from the rest of the world, detached from friends back in Toronto (my normal, quiet life) and detached from my family (no one to rule over me). It occured to me, if I really wanted to, I could smoke pot or drink or go to that club that Allie and Liz goes to do get drugs and get high. Obviously, I would not do such things. But the other night when I was coming back from the airport, the Romanian taxi driver struck up some conversation with me and I found out he wanted to send his 17 year old son to Montreal to learn how to play professional hockey. I told him I was from Toronto and came to New York to study. He ended up asking "Your parents actually let you move to new york by yourself?" I said "they trust me". He's worried that his son is going to party and take advantage of his freedom. But honestly, I'm not going to abuse that. I am here to study and soak up culture and find a way to make a difference in this world.
Back to critical reading and writing class, we were talking about ethical issues in the design world and our teacher pointed out that we buy and buy and buy more clothes that are not necessary. Someone said that you should just 'give it to the Salvation Army'. I was just sitting there and it occured to me that just 'dumping your clothes at Value Village' can have even more horrendous effects on third world countries. What we westerners think that solves our problem of recycling clothing and giving it to 'the poor' actually has quite devastating effects. How? Well first the secondhand clothing industry is a multi million dollar business. First clothes are sorted into different categories. Vintage dealers, buyers and high end used clothing sellers come and snatch up all the good stuff first. Then they are sorted according to their function and its condition. All plain t shirts with some minor repair are sent to third world countries where people buy and sell 'dead man's clothing' (they can't believe us westerners would throw away such clothes in such a good condition so the only time they would think anyone would give those up was when they died). This causes the people to rely on imported American clothes and cripples their traditional local textile factories from getting started and running. See? I can't wait till our last unit on ethical issues of design. I have so many things to say. He asked me what the bad effects about consumerism is today or something like that based on this barbie doll he brought. I was so dumbfounded by the question because I had a million answers in my head. I ended up saying, "if you said the doll was made in China, then I can tell you the Chinese government has very few regulations on the factories that produce them so they dump all their chemicals into the river, from which the people drink from which causes cancers, birth defects etc." An example would be the Yuanghe river (I think that's what it's called. Can't remember anymore from gr 12) Then I wanted to talk about the animals and how they'd be affected and the people who make them under poor conditions and those americans who lost their jobs from outsourcing etc. but I got too lost in my own thoughts to say anything coherent and articulate. He asked us what are the most important things that you should think about as a designer and the girl behind me said "the cost of production and its quality". Is that really it? I think artists have been too brainwashed to think that "art has no cost therefore do anything you can do achieve such results". But we've never really considered the social and environmental implications of such an ideology.
Haha that's it for today!
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