German Expressionism

Welcome back to school and ordinary life everyone. How are we all holding up? I sincerly hope you are all doing better than me. This Monday was so horible I had to come home and paint my nails chrome to make myself feel better… Im not a nail polish person, much, so this should tell you how bad it was.

Seriously, from waiting for the bus for half an hour, to lugging all my stuff around school… why do even the light books seem heavy after the dog days of summer???

Anyways, I think it’s just that I’ve got a really bad monday schedual… come to think about it I don’t htink I’ve got one good day. I mean who want’s to start off the week with a two periods of Chemistry and then another two periods of Geography (which would be fine if we didnt have the teacher we have… snooze FEST! except you can’t snooze cause he’s HYPERACTIVE!!!) then I have double Art… which could be ok except for two things:

1. The Harpies

2. The Expressionists

Ok so the harpies are a group of girls I have in my class, some of whom read this blog, though its no secret that I call them this and my teacher has actually agreed and started as well… Seee… if you know ancient greek mythologyu and know them, then it makes sense. Because they are so loud and screachy and then shit all over your food.

Ok so maybe thats a bit harsh… let me explain… So there’s this group of girls, who I have no hard feelings against, and can get along with each of them individually very well… but one of them alone is able to reach the decibell capacity of my ears, so I dread having them all together. Ok so four teenage girls. Sociallites, which we all know I’m not, who love to spend their time TITTERING away. Seriously, they even admit it, when I say they screach, they SCREACH!  So I’m in a bad enough mood by the time the first bell rings with a head ache and ringing ears, and then one of them or the other comes over and leans over my shoulder for half an hour before screaching “OMG i LOVE IT!!!” seriously, without fail, those words. Or else, it might be ‘OMG THATS AWESOME! ITS LIKE SO AWESOME!” which, sure thanks for the praise and all, get on my nerves. Or as my favourite Greek saying going “Kanei tsourekia ta nevra mou!” (braids my nerves). Not only is it the lack of elloquence or the invariability of the “compliments” or if its the high pitched tone of the voice or the colloquial manerism in which it is said… I dont know which but all to gether they make me feel as if its not such a compliment. It certainly doesn’t feel sincere, though I don’t know if it is, so who am I to say? That’s the shitting on you food when your starving bit. Because whether you think what you’re working on is utter crap (which for me it is alot of the time) or if you think its actually pretty good for once (which it can sometimes be) it just makes me feel more crappy about the work. Either that they’re taking the mickey out of me by sayin that something that is crap is good as though I don’t know the difference, or by saying that something is “good” (air quotes= not so good… crap) when I actually think it’s half decent for once and not fully worthy of the garbadge can… 😦

Maybe worst of all though is how horrible they seem to know me, after all these years… I mean they KNOW I’m clausterphobic, and I make a point of telling them that and how that’s why I don’t want them to lean over me… Instead all they do is take a step back, which in a way makes it even worse, knowing that their there but not RIGHT there… you know when not knowing is worse than knowing… and second of all… they KNOW that I HATE Compliments because they all seem insincere to me. oK not all… I can tell some real ones, but they still make me feel really self conscious… so all in all I end up feeling like they are attacking me… making me feel bad about myself…  which wouldn’t be entirely possible seeing as there are only about 8 girls in the class and two boys and the boys are both quiet and the harpies make up about 5 of the girls… And incase anyone should read this, you know, I shouldn’t even have to say, that I don’t feel that way about you guys… I just can’t stand being in a room where I’m supposed to be expressing myself but end up feeling oppressed anyways, for two and a half hours a week with you guys…

I don’t think you read this anymore though. I’m not interesting enough. XD

Have you guys ever felt personally assaulted and attacked by a group of people that you used to consider friends? Silly question, I know. How about having been attacked and not having known why? I odften get callled out when I actually voice my oppinion. Any advice on how to deal with people when they treat you lik that? I try to just keep my cool rather than blwoing my top, but then my indifference to their oppinions on my oppinions get me called out as an emo, even though, my love affair with bright vibrant colours and desire to keep my hair out of my face would depict me as anything but…

ok so what makes art lessons even worse right now is that we are studying German Expressionism. I mean, I like seeing it sometimes. I like how it can make me feel what the subject felt, which is moer often than not despair and greif and hunger and such… but I just don’t enjoy doing it. I mean who likes doing something that they know they aren’t very good at and don’t enjoy? As an exercise we took pictures of ourselves in a german expressionistic pose and printed out many copies, tapped them to the windows and drew on the back with bold black lines to eliminate the details and lines we didn’t want (cause our final aim is to transfer the image to a piece of lino and do a lino cute of it, which you know I love…) And so I started off with some pictures of notme 😛 One was this indian woman which I thought was really interesting, though the printer faded the ink on the most interesting section so I couldn’t really do it well, and a piece of Mother Theresa, I think it was… So these two wrinkly old women (no offence…)

And one of them actually looked pretty good… but then one of the art teachers ruined my finally lifting spirits (I had to sit on a desk too, to get to the window 😛 ) by saying that I couldn’t use those in my lino cut because I didn’t take the pictures… And when I told him I really didn’t want to do one of myself, he said, well then go and find someone in the room and get them to pose and take a pictuer of them and do that… NO BLOODY THANK YOU… I’LL SUFFER WITH A SELF PORTRAIT THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!! lot of bloody help he was! I’m not about to ask someone in my art class to pose for me, especially when I’m the one with the camera phobia. I mean its just mean to not like something and so inflict it on someone else… Would you?

So for the time being, since there were only another 30 minutes left in the class and it would have taken longer to take another picture and print it in the dodgy printer… so I stuck with the others that had been printed already. The teacher who had told me off though, had been working on a picture of me since the begining of the lesson. See how come his turned out so good and mine turned out like crap? I’ll have to put up a pic of mine and his. His was much nmroe expressionistic than mine. Mine was just fail line drawing…

Does anyone have really strong feelings on post WWI german expressionism? It’s kinda love or hate so who loves it and who hates it?

Any ideas, other than earplugs, to improve the art lessons?

sigh…

I can’t stand writting such a wholly negative post so Imma change the topic.

Has anybody read the book “Shiver” or any of the “wolves of Mercy Falls” series or any other book by Maggie Stiefvater? I really love her writting. She’s great. I loved shiver. It really touched me. Ten times better than the twilight craze. I actually cried durring the last chapter, and I don’t normally cry for movies… and even though it was just comfortably predictable.

Well even if you haven’t please go on Amazon and read the first few pages and then join the page on Facebook that is trying to get it made into a movie. It really should. It would be an awesome movie, though the book was just plain incredible.

Are there any other books that you would like to see made into a move? I normallyu refrain from wanting a book to be made into a movie, if its good. otherwise i the idea is good but the writter wasn’t all that great, then I say sure, but normally the movies just ruin it. With shiver though, i just think it deserves to be made into a movie! It was so great it deserves the publicity! Kudos Maggie!

OOOhhhh! well this is interesting…

I’ve been a lil’ bit busy trying to revise. Its late now and I’m just about to go to bed, (no school tomorrow but I want to wake up early, do some yoga and then do some other work besides revision before starting on my studies) and I saw some news.

First of all, the blogg is nearing its 150 view mark!! Whippy! Who would have ever thought it’d last so long. I’m very honest with you guys. I thought the world would think I was dead boring and only talked about things no one cared about. Seems like that’s not fully true.

Secondly, I have my first subscriber!!! Haha! Never thought that would happen! Its one person but they have subscribed to two posts, but thats still something! (though I have a suspicion it might be a friend of mine… hmmmm…)

Thirdly, Missy my dear, I got your message but I want to give you my full attention and am a bit spacey and tired right now (this was supposed to be fourth but I forgot what was supposed to be third…). I will respond in the morning and also send you an email to explain somethings. It took me a while to realise too.

OHHH! THats it! FOURTHLY! I will write a proper post in the morning. Perhaps even with some pictures for you guys. THis blogg is awfully blah so I will add some nice pics as well as a profile pic of myself. It ought to brighten it up a bit, right?

THough I like the black background, not only is it… bold but its also ecofriendly!!! (that should help any readers feel a TAD better about using the energy to begin with! Im a bit happy knowing that Im putting out another ecofriendly site). Of course I had inspiration from my FAVOURITE search engine: http://www.blackle.com

Its just google, but in a black verison so all that horrible light isnt lost. Unfortunately you can not search for pictures on it… 😦

Ok, I’m gonna be in trouble if I do not leave NOW (script trailing off cheesily like in a novel when the protagonist recieves a note but the writer of said note has been attacked or taken by surprise and does not finihs the sentence or even word though you all know the rest…)

Athens Burns with Ancient Fever- a moment of silence please

The riots in Athens Greece have been all over the news the past few days. Despite Being the birthplace of democracy,cities around Greece, Athens in particular, have fallen to chaos.

Greece has had many riots since, however yesterdays were the first time that anyone had been killed in one since 1991. And unfortunately when it rains it pours. Four lives were taken, one not even begun.

Some say they shouldn’t have been there trying to open the bank. But they were just doing their job. A day closed for a bank isn’t great for business and nor is spending the day in the street. It isn’t good for the current workers of the city, nor the future workers. All public and Greeks schools were closed. Only Foreign schools remained open the past few days.

Others say that it was fair that they be killed. Some people refuse to call it murder, but they just wont accept the facts. These people were killed because of the actions of many. One individual who threw the Molotov cocktail, and the large horde of protesters who blockaded a street so as not to let the fire engines reach the burning bank, wasting precious moments in saving the victims lives. Most likely they dies of suffocation due to the smoke. If the engines had been there earlier, they could have very easily been saved.

Alas the most infuriating thing is the lack of responsibility and initiative on everyone’s part. Mostly the bank the the victims were trying to open. They say the government should have protected them. Provided them with security. so on and so on. We’ve heard it all before. But why couldn’t the business have closed down, refused to open for the security of its employees in a preemptive strike? Especially a bank, especially in that area, the most notorious for violent riots. The Answer: Greed, but does it have to be? It seems as though since the beginning of time  people have not managed to survive past childhood without being tainted by corruption and greed.

On top of that, are such riots even legal? If we take a glance at what happens every time Greece erupts into a fit of  violent protests, no charges are made. I’m not radical, but I would like to see justice brought to the family of the victims. The point is that murder is against the law. Violent protests are against the law (people have a right to peaceful demonstration, but not riots such as we’ve seen of late). Especially when they put people at danger, let alone take lives. But at least charges could be pressed for the damage done by the rioters, no? why shouldn’t those who participate contribute to paying for the merchandise and property damaged or lost in fires? The Answer: Because no one is willing to call anyone out and have them pay the price. Also, how are you to identify one person among the hundreds of protesters.

Greece’s neighbor  with equally vivacious protesters came up with a witty solution. The riot police would use pressurized water cannons to subdue and control protesters which is highly effective. But when everyone is wearing gas masks and scarves and hoods? Turkey had the answer here too. The water in the cannons are tainted with a highly distinctive dye which is fairly permanent and has an unique molecular structure. The next day, or even week after, those who participated in the riots are exposed for all to see with dyed hands, faces and necks or any other skin that was exposed, as well as their clothes. It doesn’t come out even at the dry cleaners and if they try to throw the clothing out or give it away, its easy to tell that they are the guilty party. The idea stems from a way the ancient Greeks developed at the birth of democracy. All men were expected to attend the forums, the democratic houses of speech and discussion, and it was a great sin not to join. That person would be viewed as disrespectful or unpatriotic. So after the doors had been locked, guards would walk around the agora with a rope held between them at knee length which had been dipped into red dye. Any citizen stranded outside the forums would be spoiled by the dye which served as a form of public shaming. It was highly effective, so why does Greece refuse to implement such techniques now? That I do not have an answer to.

Anyways, more news from Greece today. My cousin who goes to a British School there sent me an email which I just read. She said the trees had suddenly started to pollinate again, with bundles of the white fluffy stuff drifting down from the sky like tears of the trees moving just as slowly as they grow. Everyone who is affected by allergies also cried their own tears again. “All in all” she says, “the attitude was very somber today at school. Almost everyone felt the pressure the crisis had put on them. Everyone felt sorrow for those souls lost and denounced those disgraced figures who took them before their time. Especially that baby. To think a life hardly even begun was affected by the riots, is a true shame. Hopefully he would have made his impression on the people who did this to him.”

I guess that really is all we can hope for. For them to rest, and for the nations problems to be ameliorated as soon as possible.

So let me ask my question of the day before I sign out. One person taking the life of one other is a horrible thing. One person taking the lives of many is even worse. So does that mean that these three live that we taken by many hands, a cynically twisted community effort, is dispersed among them to mean next to nothing in a court of law? I really don’t think it should. But leave your comments or email me at miraella_rose@yahoo.com to let me know your views on whats been happening lately or anything else. I’m all eyes.

One more thing, just to show how crazy things have gotten in Greece; soccer (or football if you prefer) games have been canceled throughout the country. At least one was canceled last night in Thessaloniki, the nations second largest city who also had a lot of riots of its own (cities throughout Greece struggled against the rioters, dont think it was just athens) and at least one other is canceled tonight. Volley ball games have been canceled as well. This is just to put the riots in scale for you. To think about how passionate the country is about soccer and how famous they are for their riots at soccer games (they provide the majority of the Greek riot police’s employment) have been canceled due to political riots. Ah, I guess for some Greeks there isn’t much difference between the two. Even I know how much politics is involved int he corrupt Greek soccer leagues. Entire books have been read about just the past ten years of it!

Paying a moment of silence (to the relief of my brother) for those who have suffered,

Mirella