Review of NBC's V

I don't own a t.v. The old vestiges of my mother's lectures of the mysterious evils of t.v rotting the brain left a somewhat irrational stamp on me. Most of the t.v. series that I am familiar with were recommended to me through word of mouth by friends and tailored to fit my interests and personality. So my introduction to the NBC series V was a random Hulu search and no expectation whatsoever of what the show was about or what it was going to be like. V starts with the usual haunting intro music and a montage of images of different characters at a specific moment in time, 6:30 am to be precise. There is a descent of what appears to be a huge spacecraft over 29 major cities of the world. The viewer is then introduced, along with the unsuspecting characters of the show to the Visitors, supposedly friendly aliens that come in peace. The masses are quickly swooned with the beautiful V's and their charisma and charm. They are decidedly human, except more beautiful and with toned physiques. The V's have the power to cure common human disease and seduce human youth to join their ranks. The arrival of the Visitors swell the churches with people and seem to unite humans everywhere in their zeal for these savvy extra-terrestrials. The tension, at least in the first episode, comes from the main character FBI agent Erica Evans and a small group of dissidents who begin to smell foul play. This quickly leads to a meeting of these doubters and the realization that the V's have long infiltrated business, government, and religious institutions and their arrival of earth is actually the last stage in a take over of the world. The suspense of the show is in the seeming anonymity of the aliens and the paranoia that comes in not knowing what kind of being is sitting next to you on the train or in a bar. The climax in the pilot unravels with a coming out of the V's, and the audience learns that the supposed good guys ( Erica Evans partner) are really reptilian skinned conspirators and that there is at least on V who is out to save humanity.
The show feels like a typical NBC show, beautiful people in expensive clothes battling the forces of good and evil in heels and Gucci suits. Although it is interesting to add the occasional hidden identity or seemingly untraceable murder, the plot is as predictable as the Cubs losing. We all know, that even though the somewhat zealous and naive humans are in it deep, they are going to conquer those aliens, with various romances and broken families mended along the way. The moral was the most interesting part for me, not the spectacular and tacky effects or mediocre acting. The moral of the pilot is that devotion is the most dangerous tool as it breeds blindness and then you have aliens trying to eat you. It is a somewhat scathing critique of people accepting whatever they are told without questioning the source. Although the viewer gets to scorn at the stupid googly eyed people who are about to become lunch meat and identify with the sophisticated elite that knows better and resists the V's, it is more interesting to think about what side of the divide of people you would fit into if your life were a 47 minute episode on tv in which sexy aliens were trying to seduce you. I can't say for certain that I wouldn't buy a V fanny pack and just go with it, those Gucci heels are fierce even if they are attached to a totalitarian space lizard.

Review of Pablo Picasso's "The Old Guitarist"

Picasso's " The Old Guitarist" is one of those works of art that doesn't invite you in for pleasantries. It grabs you, slams you against your psyche and demands that you feel it, all of it. "The Old Guitarist" was painted in 1903 after the suicide of Picasso's friend, Carlos Casagemas. This painting and others were part of a period of time called the "Blue Period" in which it is said that the monochromatic blues in his painting represented an intense sadness. It is also a period of time in which his subject matter highlighted the downtrodden and poor. The "Old Guitarist" is a picture of a man, a beggar most likely, sitting on the floor with a guitar in his hand. His clothes are tattered and torn and he is without shoes. His head is down, and we only see his sallow, hollowed cheeks. The mans head seems weighed down by his poverty, by his sadness as though the guitar in the only thing that keeps him upright. The painting is in various shades of blue, symbolizing melancholy. The only other color is a touch of brown in the man's shirt and the guitar. There is an elongation of his features, mainly the length of his face and his limbs that make the man jarring to look. Various art critics highlight the correlation between Picasso and the man, that the alienation he felt in searching for an inspiration outside the shackles of formal schooling made him able to relate to the alienation of the man on the fringes of society. This piece is so powerful because it is precisely that alienation that is relatable to anyone who has felt like an outcast. There is something so provoking about a piece of work that doesn't try sweeten the human experience, that forces you to face someone else's emotion and your own at the same time.

Review of Monet's "bouqet de soleils"

Claude Monet credits his love of gardening to becoming a painter. In his 1881 painting "Bouqet de soleils" there is a vase of sunflowers on an orange tablecloth. The color scheme is cool and pale with the flowers being the focal point. The leaves drip down, contrasting the reaching upwards the flowers seem to do. The bouqet is the central focal point, and takes up almost the entire canvas.The backround is blue and gray with the staccato brush strokes adding a hazy quality to the painting. The play on light is impressive, although it has no real movement. Although the painting is pretty to look at, it is momentary. The audience gets a distinct feeling that although the painting itself is brillant in technique and in execution, you get no sense of the artist. Beyond the first moment of pleasant admiration, there is nothing, no motive, no strong feeling that it evokes. I suppose this has little to do with the impressionist style of painting, as the focus is one of capturing light and movement. However this is precisely why most of Monet's paintings seem dull and lack imagination. Flowers are pretty but they belong outside, not on a canvas in my dentist's office.