Spindrift
showcases work of SCC Writers, Artists
The latest edition of “Spindrift,” SCC’s award-winning art and literary magazine, was released on Tuesday, May 20, at a reading and art show in the Campus Theatre lobby. Photographs and paintings were on display, and several authors read poems and short stories featured in the new edition.
The majority of the magazine’s content is submissions from SCC students and faculty, but it is also open to local artists and writers. “Spindrift” has been published every year since the mid-1960s.
Following is just one of the many poems, along with short stories, paintings, drawings and photographs featured in the new edition:
85 ft bronze artwork
to be installed on campus this summer
Scott McCulloch
A&E editor
“My explanation for my own pursuit of public art is simply that I like to be scared,” writes Deborah Mersky in an on-line artist’s statement.
“…seeing my imagination sprawled about a publicly-used building is perhaps 51% intoxicating and 49% percent horrifying.”
Deborah Mersky will have ample opportunity to feel fear this summer, as an 85-foot bronze artwork by the prolific local artist is to be installed on campus during July and August, according to a PIO press release. It will occupy the long, low cement wall which runs south from the PUB towards the bus stop.
Mersky, who says that she has an ambivalent attitude toward creating public art, has been commissioned for numerous public works in the past. From cemeteries to zoos to railroad stations to government buildings, Mersky’s artwork can be found up and down the West coast.
“Out of Nature,” the title of the piece, will be cut by laser from digitized drawings, and will have a natural looking patina surface that gives the impression of being old, and which is intended to darken with time. Parts of it will have an overlay of etched bronze or copper letters.
“Conceptually, it is an open musing on nature and our place in it, says Mersky. “The physical location of the school, adjacent to a beautiful forested area, and just above the Puget sound, have contributed greatly to the formation of this idea.”
This artwork is just one of several pieces of artwork that have been purchased by SCC through the Art in Public Places Program, which facilitates the acquisition and placement of artwork in public areas in throughout Washington state.
Blockbuster Jr.
SCC library's DVD collection shines, despite small size
Scott McCulloch
A&E editor
The selection of DVD’s at the campus library may be thinner than whatever excuse Bush the Younger comes up with for his next military conquest, but the few films that are there, are excellent. I only mention the junior Bush because two of the great films our library stocks deal with megalomaniacal, self-righteous Americans, and incidentally, were made by megalomaniacal Americans. Unlike our warrior president, however, these guys were talented, intelligent megalomaniacs.
The directors of these two films, Orson Welles and Stanley Kubrick, both had first-hand experience with how the heavy hand of Hollywood can crush an artist’s vision. Welles’ career was destroyed in its infancy by the Hollywood machine, whereas Kubrick decided to flee America just as he reached his prime as a director. His greatest film achievements came while working in England.
Any American who gives two cents about art and free expression should know the stories of these two men, if only to have an understanding of why American films seem to lack any artistic vision. But, you should check out their two best films first (below), and see how modern filmmakers measure up. (P.S: They don’t).
“Citizen Kane”
You might be tired of hearing how this is the greatest damn movie ever made, but if you haven’t seen it, take a look and see what all of the gushing is about. This Criterion Collection DVD version of “Citizen Kane” (1941) comes with a two-hour documentary that examines the clash between the egotistical, 24-year-old Hollywood newcomer and all-around wunderkind, Orson Welles, and the newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, whom the title character in “Citizen Kane” was modeled after.
Yes, “Citizen Kane” is about a newspaper publisher, but it is testament to Welles’ greatness as a filmmaker that he is able to make such a dull-sounding subject matter so watchable. With brilliant acting from all involved (most of them Welles’ radio actors from New York appearing in their first film), “Kane” astounds with its bizarre narrative structure, depth of field camera tricks, and all-around dynamism. It’s probably fair to say that Welles’ career was all downhill from here, but it’s fascinating to see what a young artist with talent to burn, the best film deal ever given to anyone in Hollywood, and an enormous head can do in artistically conservative tinseltown. No one ever again cut a deal in Hollywood which gave a single filmmaker as much power as Welles had making this film, and, consequently, no one has ever matched “Citizen Kane.”
“Dr. Strangelove, or; How I learned to stop worring and love the bomb”
If you like your humor as black as can be, check out Kubrick’s greatest film, “Dr. Strangelove” (1964). The last film Kubrick made before it was necessary to be on hallucinogens to understand his art, (see “2001: a space odyssey”) this film is Kubrick’s attempt to expose the childish, petty, and self-righteous men who dominate politics, international diplomacy and the military.
This is easily one of the funniest films I have ever seen. With George C. Scott as General “Buck” Turgidsen, and Peter Sellers in three roles as the American president, a British RAF officer, and the ex-Nazi scientist Dr. Strangelove, this film features scenes so bizarre and hilarious that the first time I saw it, I had to rewind and watch again to make sure that I had understood correctly.
Oh, and did I say, it’s about an insane Air Force general who starts a nuclear war with the Soviet Union! HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! Stop it! — I’m laughing so hard my stomach’s hurting!
Both of these films can be found in the campus library. All DVDs and videos can be checked out for three days. Student I.D. required.