Art Prize 2012

Lights in the Night; Mark Carpenter & Dan Johnson; 2012 5th Place This past weekend in Grand Rapids, it was great to be able to see the fourth annual Art Prize, the largest cash prize art fair in the world.  It's so exciting to see downtown Grand Rapids lively and to watch people take advantage of the great things the city has to offer.   Growing up, downtown was not really a place to spend much time in (it wasn't the safest and there wasn't anything to do, anyway), but now it's amazing to see how much it has grown and improved with brand new businesses and restaurants bringing some much-needed life.   Artist Adonna Khare workings on 1st Prize piece, Elephants Section of 2012 1st Prize piece, Elephants I...

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Posted in: 2L,Art Prize,English,Grand Rapids,J-Mad,Law School,Michigan

Michigan Film Festival

Michigan Theater marquee This time last year, I was attending multiple film festivals (one, two, and three) at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.  With multiple film festivals in DC and the Sundance Film Festival happening right now, I have tried to incorporate a little bit of that into life this semester as a 1L.   The first film I saw in my version of a film festival was Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.  The film, directed by Tomas Alfredson, is set during the Cold War and the protagonist, retired spy George Smiley, is forced out of retirement to uncover a Soviet agent suspected of being in MI6's echelons.  It is a really well-made film that has a subdued tone and not a ton of dialogue, forcing the viewer to really...

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Posted in: 1L,Ann Arbor,English,film,J-Mad,Law School,Michigan,The Artist,Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Offendum

Omar Offendum is a Syrian American rapper and poet whose work is really, really powerful.  He incorporates Arabic music into his songs, and his work speaks to the broader experience of being an American of Middle Eastern descent. Click here for the lyrics. An especially powerful song is his rendition of a Langston Hughes poem, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," as follows below. I've known rivers: I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the rivers. I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young. I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep. I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it. I heard the singing of the Mississippi when...

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Posted in: Arabic,English,J-Mad,Langston Hughes,Law School,Michigan,music,Omar Offendum,poetry,Syria,Washington DC

Obama Comes Back to Michigan

This morning I went with some other 1L classmates to the Al Glick Field House to see President Barack Obama speak at the University of Michigan about college affordability.  I had the opportunity to see him deliver the commencement address for the May 2010 graduating class in the Michigan football stadium, but it was cool to be able to go see the speech about an issue directly affecting me this time.   However, there was a big difference in the venue - the "Big House" can hold about 110,000 people and only 3,000 tickets were given out for the Field House.  People had to get tickets the day before at the Michigan Union and although I arrived by 6:00am, there were multiple tents and groups of people who had slept the entire...

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Posted in: 1L,Ann Arbor,English,J-Mad,Law School,Michigan,Obama,U2

Fly Over Egypt

Today is the first year anniversary of the Egyptian uprising in Tahrir Square that resulted in the ousting of Hosni Mubarak.  There is an Arab American rapper called “The Narcicyst” who released a song called “Fly Over Egypt” and made it available for free download.  I love the refrain – I don't quite know the reason, but it is really moving. In the light of day, you are more than just a knight Seeking for a right of way, asking is it just to fight I feel the winds of change, but everything is still the same Even though I fear the sun, I can only see the reign...

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Posted in: Egypt,English,J-Mad,Michigan,music,revolution

Arabian Nights

Shaherazad and Shahryar To break up the monotony of reading through law school casebooks, I have been reading chapters of  Arabian Nights as translated by Richard Francis Burton.  My friends found this beautiful copy for me at Barnes & Nobel that has beautiful illustrations reminiscent of ancient Persian and Arab art. I've heard some of the stories before and seen countless Western remakes of the stories included in the book, but I have yet to read the story in its entirety.  So far, I have concluded that Arabian Nights is basically the Arab/Persian version of Inception. Each chapter starts off with the main story, between Shahryar and Shaherazad, and then goes into layers of stories within...

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Posted in: 1L,Aladdin,Arabic,Books,English,Inception,J-Mad,Law School,Michigan