Time Magazine: November 19th, 1928

I found the right periodicals section of the library after a few minutes of wandering around and a little help from Katy and Hannah, who were already there looking through magazines.  I chose a volume of Time magazine from 1928, with issues from July to December.  I flipped through the book to November, and found an issue actually published on my birthday, November 19^th.  It was interesting to think that I was reading something that was published on my birthday such a long time before I was born.

                The first thing I noticed about the magazine was the ads.  They were different from the ones we see today.  Almost all of the pictures in the ads were hand drawn instead of photographs, and the few ads that did have photographs had small ones.  The ads were also filled with text, nearly as much as most of the articles.  The text gave helpful information about the product in most cases, with feedback from customers that didn’t seem as made-up as most ads do today.  The advertising felt a lot more honest to me.  I enjoyed seeing some of the strange products that the magazine advertised, like the Dictaphone.  It was a huge machine that people placed on their desks to record messages, I think.  It even advertised that it was “up with the times” because it came in ten different colors.  There was also an ad for a company called College Humor, which probably has nothing to do with the popular website that exists today, but I found it funny anyway.

The magazine itself read more like a newspaper than an actual magazine.  There was no cover that went with it, just a front page with the title at the top.  The articles weren’t so much articles as they were small paragraphs that fit into certain categories.  They were split up like a newspaper is, into sections like Sports, National, and Entertainment.  There were several categories I found interesting like “aerospace” and “medicine.”  Overall, the text was written in a more formal style and on a more educated level than most modern magazines. 

I liked this assignment, because I think magazines and things that were intended for the general public can be helpful when trying to get an idea of what another time period was like.  Literature or art doesn’t always appeal to, or express the opinions of, the masses like magazines and newspapers do.  My parents have some old magazines from the 60s and 70s that I enjoy looking at, so it was interesting to see another even older magazine. 

The TCU Bookstore with Pamela

      Today I met with Pamela for the second time.  She told me today that she is on a diet, so we decided to have salads at the TCU bookstore Starbucks instead of going to Fuzzy's and eating tacos.  Karen couldn’t join us this time because she hurt her foot earlier this week.  When Pamela was explaining that Karen hurt her toe, she called them “foot fingers,” which I thought was funny.  Pamela said Karen had a doctor’s appointment today, so hopefully she will be able to join us again in a few weeks.  Pamela was planning to bring pictures of Brazil today, but she was in a hurry to get to class this morning so she forgot.  We both talked about how we are ready for spring break to start.  Pamela’s cousin is moving to California, so Pamela is going to stay with her in Los Angeles over the break.  She is excited to go to the beach and see all of the stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  She also hopes she will be able to go to Disneyland, because it has always been her dream to go there.  We talked about our favorite Disney characters; she loves Minnie Mouse.  We both have a few hard tests and assignments to get through before the break. 

      After we ate, Pamela wanted to explore the bookstore a little bit because she hadn’t been there before.  We looked at all the TCU clothes and agreed that they were all so cute but kind of expensive, especially in the Polo section.  We were both surprised by how expensive some of the Polo shirts were.  We tried on a few hats and looked for a sale section, but there wasn’t one today.  I told her the bookstore was a good place to bring her family if they ever come to visit her, because her parents would probably be willing to buy her things.  She liked this idea. 

      We also looked at some books with pictures of Texas.  Pamela wants to make a scrapbook of her time in Texas, and she said she would bring a camera next time so we can take some pictures together.  After that, Pamela had a class to go to in the rec center.  I walked there with her since I live in Milton Daniel, and I showed her my dorm.  We’re planning to meet again next week on Wednesday, at Dutch’s this time. 

The Modern Art Museum

The Modern art museum is one of my favorite places, so when I found out we had to go there for class I was excited. I really enjoyed the Ed Ruscha exhibit that is on display right now.  I got to go on a guided tour of it when it first opened, so it was nice to go back and see it again on my own.  I love his works that involve the Hollywood sign because I think they are easy to understand and accessible to all viewers, unlike some Modern art.  His book of photography called Every Building on the Sunset Strip that was in a glass case in the exhibit was one of my favorites because it was a fun and interesting idea.  I liked how he put the buildings that were on one side of the street upside down, so that if both of the sides were folded up it would be like driving down the street. A project like that must have taken a long time to finish.  I also stopped to watch the short film in the Ed Ruscha gallery.  It was about a car mechanic who went from being a typical, greasy mechanic to acting like a scientist while he was trying to fix the car.  It was filmed well and I enjoyed it, but I think that film is a different type of art than the paintings and sculptures that are normally in museums.

This time at the museum, there were some works on display downstairs that I hadn’t seen in a while.  There are many different styles of Modern art in the museum.  I think the green candy sculpture is always an interesting one to see.  The way it works is the artist writes down how many candies and what kind of candies the sculpture needs to be made of, and then he lets the museum interpret how the candies should be displayed.  Part of what makes it interesting is that visitors can take the candy, and it makes me wonder how often the museum has to add more candy to it.  It is always funny to see people’s faces when they realize you can actually eat the sculpture.  The candies taste pretty good too.  I was disappointed because the work by my favorite artist, Mark Bradford, isn’t on display right now.  It is a huge collage work made with magazine pages, foil, and posters that the artist finds in Los Angeles.  I enjoyed seeing the Birth of Venus painting.  I love its bright colors, and it reminded me of our discussions of modernism in class because the artist was using an allusion by using this subject, just like many modernist writers do.  Roy Lichtenstein’s painting is another one of my favorites. 

There are some works in the museum that make me understand why Modern art is confusing to some people.  Dan Flavin’s fluorescent light bulb mounted diagonally on the wall is one of them.  A few months ago when my boyfriend and I saw that work in the museum, we joked that we should go to Home Depot and buy some “art.”  That one light bulb is not too impressive, but I’ve seen pictures of some of Flavin’s other work with colored lights and shadows that are much more interesting.  Modern art definitely includes a lot of different things that can be considered art, but I think “art” is something that everyone has to define for themselves.  Personally, I think almost anything can be art if the artist has a specific meaning in mind or a statement he or she is trying to make with it.  Since I love Modern art, I hope everyone enjoyed their visit to the museum!