Outside Cultural Event #1

For my first outside cultural event I decided to attend a German movie with English subtitles called "Die Friseuse" which translates into "The Hairdresser". Before I attended this movie I decided to look up what it was about and I found out that it was about an obese unemployed woman who had a dream to become a hairdresser. When I saw this I thought it was a bit unnecessary to say that the woman was obese. However I did not realize how much her weight played a role in this movie until I watched it.

Because of her weight, she lost her husband, house, and struggles while looking for a job. On top of all of this she is having a hard time keeping a healthy relationship with her daughter because her daughter does not want to be around her. When she applies for a job, she almost gets it until she arrives and the boss tells her that she is not aesthetically pleasing enough for a hairdresser job. When she gets turned down from this job she tries to go about a route of opening her own hair salon in the same mall but because of her weight she struggles to get a loan for the store. When she finally gets the money and clearance to open her store it gets shut down because of a problem with her floors. After all of this happens she also gets diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis which hinders her movement. However after everything that happens to her, she remains positive and keeps looking for her dream job.

In the last 10 minutes of the movie, she secures a job as a hairdresser, has a good relationship with her daughter again, and is overall happy. I really enjoyed this movie because even with all of the odds against her, this hairdresser remains positive and keeps trying to follow her dream instead of just complaining and giving up. This movie made me realize that even though things might not always go in your favor, if you remain positive and stay driven to achieve what you want, you have a good chance of being successful and happy in the end. 

Outside Cultural Event #3

          Last week I had to opportunity to go and visit the 2014 MFA Thesis Exhibition located on the first floor of the fine arts building. When I walked into the exhibition, I got this sense of something dark and gothic. There were projections all over the place of dark and creepy images that at first really threw me off. However, I stayed there and continued throughout the whole exhibition. To me it seemed like the theme was gothic and dark until I got to the section with the plates. One wall in the exhibition was covered in plates from what appeared to be a “gothic lunch”. These plates were colorfully painted and had a bunch of different phrases or sayings written on them. They intrigued me and I enjoyed looking at them and reading all of them.

         When I finished walking around the exhibition, I was puzzled with what it was about and what the theme of it was so I decided to ask someone who was working there. Her response was something along the lines of “Is there a theme? Sometimes you just have to look and try to find something deeper than what is on the surface”. At first this bothered me because it made me feel awkward and like it was unusual that I did not understand, but looking back I am kind of glad that she said what she did. It made me realize that everything is not always tied together and placed under a common theme, especially with art. Overall I am glad that I went out of my way to attend this event because it is not something that I would usually do. It was quite the experience and if presented the opportunity I would definitely attend something similar to this again.