Postcards at the Met

Today I visited the exhibit "Walker Evans and the Picture Postcard" at the Met Museum. I love postcards in general, and have a box full of them that people have sent me over the years (about half are from Alexandra, who I've known since kindergarten). The exhibit was a display of about 9,000 postcards from American photographer Walker Evans' personal collection. The picture postcard, which the exhibit asserts is an expression of American realism, significantly influenced Evans' photography. It was fascinating to see postcards from the first few decades of the 20th century from all over America, some with messages to Evans scrawled on them. Most of them were produced before color printing, so they were colored in by hand, and the results are very vibrant, unrealistic colors that jump out, even after decades.

There were many amazing postcards of turn-of-the-century New York, and it was fun to see familiar landmarks and intersections as they were 100 years ago.

I thought this postcard was hilarious, so my friend Lael and I managed to sneak a picture of it on her phone before leaving the exhibit.

Many of the postcards were of small-town America - you can see how they influenced Evans' photography. Below is one of his photographs that he printed on postcard paper in the mid-1930s.

Spring is coming, it is, it is!

Even though it snowed yesterday, the sun was shining today, and spring is on its way...it has to be!

These are some pretty blue and purple flowers I saw around campus this past week - signs that spring, stubborn as it may be, is on the horizon. (I took these photos with my phone, so apologies if they aren't the best quality.)

Happy Pesach!

I may be only half-Jewish, but I can still celebrate Passover! I'm going to the Vassar Jewish Union's seder tonight with a friend, and I'm excited because I haven't been to a seder in years. I really hope they have matzoh ball soup! If you need a refresher on the Passover symbols present on the seder table, watch this great video someone sent me:

Kelli O'Hara master class

Sorry I haven't been writing much - there hasn't been much to write about! Spring hasn't quite decided whether or not it's ready to come out and play (high of 46 today with rain and snow showers...) but yesterday was a very exciting day. Kelli O'Hara, a fabulous Broadway performer and also a very great person, came to Vassar to do a performance and master class! She starred in Light in the Piazza and South Pacific, so you might know her from either of those shows, among others. She's a very sweet, open person and has a beautiful voice. And she's six months pregnant!

She began the event by performing for 40 minutes, about 6 of her favorite songs, including one from each of the shows I mentioned above, and one that her friends, two songwriters, had written just for her. It was a hilarious song about a country singer who wants to be an opera star (O'Hara herself grew up in Oklahoma and sang country music until she went to college and studied opera, after which she moved to New York and began doing musical theater). She explained to the audience why she chose each song and performed them all flawlessly - it was so surreal to see a professional Broadway performer on a stage in the music building that I've sung on many times myself.

After the performance, she conducted a master class in which she worked with several students from the music department on theater songs they had prepared. She worked to break them of habits like flailing their arms or making fists while singing, and emphasized the importance of motivation in a song. She was very funny and kept the mood light and the audience entertained throughout. I couldn't stay for all of the students' songs, but I stayed for most. It was such a treat to see her live at Vassar!

This is South Pacific performing at the 2008 Tony Awards - O'Hara doesn't come in until about halfway through, but the whole clip is great!