“I wanted to make Oxford a little weird,” said McWilliams.  In this festival, part race, part parade and part obstacle course, anything goes.  Art students here at Talawanda turn old bikes into art for the event.

“Oxford is just too normal,” said McWilliams.  “I got the idea for this event when I saw this boat race, the boats were made out of empty milk cartons and duct tape and I thought we should do something like that here.”

This year will be the third that this event has been around.  “It started as a sculpture race down High St. as part of the celebration of Oxford’s Bicentennial,”  said McWilliams “and it really went from there.”

This year’s festival will be held at Millet Hall on Sunday April 7, from noon to 4pm.  All are welcome to come and participate in the festivities.  Bring your bikes, bring your unicycles, absolutely anything you can think of on wheels.  Even a duct tape and milk carton viking ship on wheels!  For more information visit oxfordkineticsfestival.org

Oak Tree by Michael Craig-Martin installed in the Tate Museum in London. Taken September 2005 by Jim Harper

A sunrise. The end of a disney movie. The mountains. A towering chrome building. A painting. The face of your lover. A poem.

Often, these sorts of things would be considered “beautiful,” possessing some sort of aesthetic pleasurability that almost implies or touches upon The Divine. Beauty, colloquially, is often considered a positive quality, desirable, inherently good.

But what is Beauty? How is it discussed in the art world today? Do artists care about things being Beautiful? Should they?

Well, let’s look at some of the examples in the last fifty years of art:

An Oak Tree, by Michael Craig-Martin, 1973: a glass of water on a high shelf, along with a Q&A formatted textual piece explaining why the glass of water is actually an oak tree….

A 1987 photograph by Andres Serreno, wherein a crucifix is submerged in a container of the artist’s own urine…

The Lights Going On and Off, a 2001 work by Martin Creed, featuring an empty room in which the lights go on and off…

2005: Bits & Pieces Put Together to Present a Semblance of a Whole, a work by Lawrence Weiner literally consisting of the text “BITS & PIECES PUT TOGETHER TO PRESENT A SEMBLANCE OF A WHOLE”…

For the Love of God, made in 2007 by Damien Hirst. Consisting of a gaudy platinum skull encrusted with 8,601 diamonds, more like an gaudy piece of opulence than a serious artwork, sold for fifty million british pounds…

At first glance, these works seem to give the impression that, in the modern art world, the general consensus about the question of beauty as a valid criterion for art is a resounding “No.” That somehow, in this modern day and age, Beauty is irrelevant to the nature of art and, in some cases, has no place in it.

Photograph of “Bits & Pieces Put Together To Present A Semblance of a Whole” by Lawrence Weiner on display at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota

For the last fifty years, modern art world, it seems, has an emphasis on the intellectual over the spiritual, the mind-engaging over the mind-expanding– a trend fully realised through the entire genre of Conceptual Art: art focused not on the visual nor aesthetic nor beautiful, but entirely on the concepts employed in the work, works like An Oak Tree or One and Three Chairs. Ideas have become more important than craft–Damien Hirst employs individuals to do his art for him, commercialises and commodifies his artistic persona.

And this isn’t me simply picking out some of the stranger  trends in the art world– this sort of thing is common in today’s art market. Erased drawings of other people hung up in art galleries. Books of instructions to create art. Musical scores consisting entirely of silence.

Now, there isn’t anything wrong with this kind of art, per sey, and these works really are legitimately engaging and potentially powerful artworks that discuss the nature of important concepts, but something is missing. Something spiritual, something inherently noble: namely, they are missing the quest for Beauty

Now, this is fine for the Art in the first-rate; this kind of art manages to be Beautiful without even trying to pursue it, but when this sort of Postmodern pursuit for “avant-garde” intellectual engagement reaches third- or fourth-rate artists, we get the repetitive work of copycats that fail to create something legitimately personal, lacking any sort of beauty or invention. Sub-par works of performance art body horror shock tactics etcetera turning off the entire world to the legitimacy and vibrancy of the art world.

“In Ancient Greece, the artist’s job was to find the ideal,” said Sean Oswald, art teacher at Talawanda. “Now, in our culture filled with only conceptual artists, all we’re getting is ideas, poorly executed.”

So, the inevitable question: what has become the new criterion for artistic ability in the art world?

For the Love of God sculpture by Damien Hurst. Retrieved from the Daily Telegraph

Oswald says the new criterion has become novelty. “The driving force in the art world is trying to outdo each other, novelty is king, novelty is God.”

Further, the art world has fallen into the pocket of academic circles. “[Academia] has taken the conversation from the actual artists,” Oswald continued.

Not only, that, but Art is in the service of the Art Market, of billionaire buyers and “tends” in art sales. Damien hirst has a team of artists make his dot painting for him for a reason. Art used to be like literature, but now it’s become more like the vain world of fashion. Only the marketable, tabloid-eqsue artists are getting attention from buyers, galleries, and the media. Beauty has stopped being part of the conversation about art because those willing to discuss those ideas have been shut out of the artistic dialogue. This type of nonsense is why the everyday person thinks the art world is a bunch of pretentious nonsense: because, for the most part, it is.

But then there’s the reverse problem, the one the stereotypical postmodernist raises when confront with the Problem of Beauty: “What really is beauty, anyway?”

This, really, is the heart of the problem. The postmodernist says “everything is beauty!” and therefore forsakes the concept entirely, while merely a little over a century ago, the problem was one of too strict of a definition.

That is, in the late 19th and early 20th century, in the infant stages of modernism, the “old world” of art was still very much an institution of power. The popular cultural paradigm of the time informed people what was “good” or “bad” art. These were institutions that were thousands of years old, had birthed generations upon generations of renowned artists. The old world of media had power, cultural power. And, in most regards, it was very conservative with what it considered “art.”

To put it bluntly, they used the idea of beauty in art as a cultural weapon, a blunt instrument to bash away other aesthetic considerations of the world. It was that paradigm that the modernists had to fight, with cubism and surrealism, readymades, new mediums, new ideas, intentionally subverting all the expectations of beauty and art that existed in that time’s cultural consciousness.

And that’s the thing: that trend continued, the art world continually trying to subvert itself, distance itself infinitely from the art academies and Romantic masters, subverting art technique, message, form, and ideals, flowering into the cultural paradigm of postmodernism in the sixties, until finally becoming so subversive that the shock-horror nonsense that the art world serves to itself could literally be feces on a canvas.

Andres Serrano’s infamous pee-themed photo

That isn’t beautiful. There’s a place for ugly in art, but not like this, not this glorification of literal decay, not without and pursuit for the sublime and beautiful.

Cue the postmodernist sneer: “You don’t get to decide what counts as beautiful.” You’re right. I don’t. Neither do you. Each of us, individually, chooses what is truly beautiful.

So, no, I can’t demand preconceptions of what is beautiful to be changed. But I can ask to pull back the facade of pretension, of only half-executed ideas, of an art culture that values ideas instead of hard work, I can ask that the artist not delude themselves in the nonsense of their own ids and egos, that art starts being about pursuing beauty and truth and expression instead of pervertedly exhibiting the inane and self-obsessed.

In this regard, we need to look to the Impressionists and Modernists and their works, despite being strange works fueled by ideas, still represent a continual pursuit for beauty and truth: Van Gogh’s Starry Night, Picasso’s Guernica, Marcel Duchamp’s The Large Glass– all of these works look deeper, search further, and burn brighter than the empty pretension present in our galleries today.

Art is about searching for beauty, about finding it and figuring it out, about displaying honest human emotion back to us. That isn’t trite. That isn’t banal. That isn’t limiting. The pursuit for beauty and truth, that infinite spiritual work bestowed upon everyone who must create, is a personal quest equal parts spiritual, emotional, and intellectual. To inflate any one of these qualities more than the other two is create an art culture full of the fleeting and dumb, soulless, wandering works destined to disappear a thousand years from now.

These two classics films have the same origin: Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel, Dracula. They share a story to the detail, you’ll see. And yet a different atmosphere was gifted to both of these films, showing different sides to the same villain, the same creature. Nosferatu is the terrible creature from the dark mountains. Dracula is the well-dressed and charming child of the night.

Think of the vampire. Do we look for the romantic darkness? The chilling Darkness? Both? Who is this mysterious count in a cape really?

Stoker’s novel started the literary trend, but vampires hit mainstream culture when they hit the silver screen. And even then, within two years of one another, such entirely different adaptations of that very novel appeared to bring us all into darkness as soon as we sunk our teeth in.

First, we examine director  F. W. Murnau’s Dracula starring Max Shreck as Count Orlok. I see that doubtful look on your eyes now: Orlok? WHAT? Isn’t It Count Dracula? You’re lying to me! Not quite. Nosferatu was never authorized as an official adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel, and Stoker’s widow actually threatened to sue Munau for plagiarism. So they replaced the term “vampire” with “Nosferatu” and “Dracula” with “Orlok.”

See the chart below for a list of the characters and their counterparts in both films. While these character roles are the same in both films, they had to be changed. The chart will match the two separate names for characters together, so you’ll understand the similarities.

That being said, a viewer can rely on getting a good film-to-book transition for once. It’s lawsuit accurate.

First seen is a real-estate agent named Hutter , who’s just made a sell to the most wealthy Count Orlok. To seal the deal and celebrate,he goes to visit the count’s mysterious estate (after telling Ellen, Annie, Knock and Harding, of course) despite warnings of superstitious townspeople otherwise. Ah, the birth of a classic trope: The superstitious townspeople give an unheeded warning

So he goes to visit the spooky, off-putting Count Orlok and they have an odd dinner, during which  Hutter cuts his thumb. Count Orlok tries to suck the blood from his thumb, and Huttler refuses. This is the first instance of strange behavior from the count, but beware: it’s not the last.

The deal between the two gentleman is soon sealed, though not before Huttler wakes up in the castle with… bites in his neck! And what’s more: Orlok signs to move into the house directly across from that of Hutter and his beloved Ellen. It’s now that Huttler darling suspects something wrong, reading a book on vampires that sow the seed in his mind that this man is perhaps a “bird of death.”

Terrified and determined to find out the truth, he finds the crypt itself in which Orlok takes his deathly rest, coffin and all. Horrified, he flees the site.  Seeing Orlok piling up even MORE coffins through a window drives him to a near maddened state of desperation to flee, but is knocked unconscious when he leaps out the window and awakes in a hospital.

Next we are taken to a schooner, which is easily among the more disturbing scenes filmed. Long story short,  (and many spoilers and scares to be left to you) no one is left alive when the ship docks. Doctors chalk it up to plague.

Now let’s go back to Huttler’s boss, Knock. He was in a mental ward for a time, but now he has escaped after killing the warden (WHAT? I know, right? Watch the film, it’s super cool).

Now we flash to Ellen, who is a smart lady, and she found out a way to kill this vampire her husband wrote her about. She leaves the window open to lure him in… but faints. (Fill in how and why yourself. A viewer gets it.)

Now they’ve sent for professor Bulwer for help after a dramatic reunion, but as soon as he leaves, with dawn impending, we see the Count enter and… and… Well, I can’t tell you, now can I? That’s the suspense of horror for you!

The film manages to terrify and suck in its readers without a singer spoken word. It does have text screens, which are easier to follow even than subtitles, and the music in the background is a powerful weapon.

But now, we depart from Orlok, move a few years forward: Anew count has appeared for those viewing the silver screen. Meet Count Dracula

Interesting to know is that Bela Lugosi was a second-choice Dracula for director Tod Browning. Originally, he hoped it to promote Lon Chaney (The Wolfman), who died before the film began. All due respect to Lon chaney, it all worked out. Lugosi became an international hit and inspiration for a Bauhuas song.

So, we depart from the original vampire and move onto the vampire romantique!He is the elegant cape-wearing figure of film noir that has immortalized himself in film today. Lugosi played the first of such vampires on the screen that were sinister in deed, not of face.

It’s this snappy count a young man named Renfield travels to Transylvania to do business with despite (gasp!) townspeople warning him that the Count is bad news, his castle cursed! But naturally, he ignores these silly townsfolk and goes on anyway.

Renfield has a pretty nice time with the Count, who’s quite odd (Too many cobwebs for that kind of weath), but altogether very charming and good at keeping his identity hidden.

Renfield is put under a spell by the count, opening a window for a (totally realistic) bat to come through and he faints, after which he’s fed on by Count Dracula.

Skip forward, to a schooner! Renfield is now a raving lunatic, speaking in stereotypical creepy-henchman voice to his master in the coffin whom he protects. The ship arrives with Renfield the only living person aboard, and the warped agent is sent off to the sanitarium.

The count is now London! And he’s met Harker now and now begun flirting with Mina and Lucy, the latter lady of which he charms. This is where the elegance becomes Lugosi’s advantage over Shreck: they’re not initially terrified.

However, it’s not long until Lucy dies from two terrible bits on her neck.

From the sanitarium, Renfield kills and obsesses over insects and starts rambling about vampires, while Doctors Van Helsing and Seward begin to look into this ‘vampire’ ordeal and made a vampire repellant..

Mina wakes up with bite-marks similar to that of her dead friend (and here’s the iconic scene with the bat returning and Dracula leaning over the sleeping lady). Dracula, making a more obvious visit, walks in to see Harker and Dr. Van Helsing talking about vampires downstairs.

This gives an important clue, though, when the two living gentleman notice Dracula hasn’t got a reflection in the mirror, which causes quite the violent response from The Count which  gives him away to Van Helsing.

Mina also runs into Dracula at this time in the garden, and he wraps his luxurious black cape around her and attacks her, where she is found by the concerned men later.

Now, in this film, Lucy has become a vampire, a “Mysterious woman in white” who’s been biting children. This one turns out to be Lucy, now a vampire.

The action progresses with Renfield going even madder now in the Sanitarium.

Dracula soon confesses to having made Mina like himself, and he now owns her. Van Helsing is pretty angry, and a battle involving a crucifix and stake ensues, though Dracula manages still to flee!

Mina now tries to kill Harker, who is saved by Seward and she confesses that she is now, like Lucy, a vampire.

Now this ending is more of a surprise, though Mina and Harker have essentially the same result as Ellen and Hutter, so only that shall be disclosed here.

The similarities show that these two stories have the same origin, though Dark Romanticism versus Noir Terror transform them into different films entirely. The addition of dialogue and slightly better film quality, too, give Dracula a bit of an edge so far as details and what can happen, but the prettiness of it all can take away the sense of fear. In fact, without Renfield, it would probably lose it’s Horror Movie status entirely.

Sinking my teeth into both, I am equally satisfied by either film, though Nosferatu is a tale of fear and a monster; Dracula is about a suave and smooth-speaking killer, both with an immortal edge.

Talawanda Show Choir

Women’s Ensamble

Fermata Nowhere collaborating with The Cheezies

The Cheezies from Miami University

Fermata Nowhere with duet Dillon Lubbers and Kerri Brosier

Fermata Nowhere with soloist Lauren Campbell

Fermata Nowhere with soloist Scott Richmond

The Concert Choir

Talawanda Show Choir

The Chamber Singers

Two new classes are being added to next year’s scheduling, both technology-based and taught by Andy Zimmerman. “This is not like a business based class like other technology classes at the high school,” said Zimmerman.

Two new classes are being added to next year’s scheduling, both technology-based and taught by Andy Zimmerman. “This is not like a business based class like other technology classes at the high school,” said Zimmerman.

In Digital Media, students will be exposed to how the world has been shaped through the digital age, along with the impacts of various forms of media. Students will advance their knowledge by using Twitter, Google Applications, Wikis, Blogs, and others.

“Students will be designing a kind of logo, advertisement, or web-based elements that a marketing company would use for the final project to be presented to the class,” said Zimmerman. He said he  hopes the class will challenge students to not only be creative, but give them essential skills to compete in a digital world.

Students will be introduced to  various methods and practices of photo and video productions. Students will learn about the structure and function of different kinds of image and video capture equipment along with the hardware and software that goes along with producing digital media. “Our goal is to broadcast the morning announcements every day,” said Zimmerman.

The idea behind broadcasting the announcements is that it will be produced the day before and will be up to the teachers in third period to show the video. “The teacher can play the video whenever it is convenient during the class period,” said Zimmerman.

But this may cause conflict with taking time out of third period along with updated events that can happen after the video  is made, such as sport and after school club events. “We would like to have the televisons at lunch scrolling the announcements as well during lunch. We finally got the system set up,” said York.

Digital Media is setup to learn about Mac computer programs. Digital Media has several different angles. Any where from learning apps and mastering them or even designing your own apps and forming your own templates.

With these new additions, the first year will be limited to the amount of people and the way the class is taught. “Digital Media has the potential to become a class with different angles whereas digital production is more straightforward,” said Zimmerman.

Even though Zimmerman is excited for these classes next year, there is also a downside. One of the biggest downfalls to having these new classes next year is that only a few  students are aware of the what the classes actually are. It is a trial and error process. “The first year is going to be taught while we still spread the word. Next year we will be able to get feedback on if the classes are useful and a hit or if we shouldn’t continue them,” said Zimmerman.

School is based off of applying tools to use in later life. Principal Tom York believes students will learn more online where they can get one-on-one access all day “Education is limitless,” he said. “Every student needs to have some sort of device in their hands to help them access school,” said York.

While many career oriented classes are funded by Butler Tech, all funding for these classes is from Talawanda.

“These are our programs and we can teach the class how we wish,” said Zimmerman. “Butler Tech classes have a lot of requirements to be taught.”

The overall goal for to be these classes are to move towards a more 21st century education where technology is used.Almost everything is on the go and mobile based. “We are also hoping that this won’t be ‘just a class’, you can use this knowledge later on in life for other classes and into college,” said Zimmerman.

While scheduling has already taken place, it is not too late to sign up for a semester or a full of year of these new technology-based classes for 2013-2014 school year. Just stop in and see your guidance council.

Baseball has always been one of the more slow and steady games. Rarely ever is there action like that of football and basketball. Home plate collisions give fans a little bit of action relief to sometimes get them on their feet, it also gives major injuries to baseball’s major stars.

Catcher Buster Posey of the San Francisco Giants, the National League’s rookie of the year in 2010, suffered a season-ending leg fracture and torn ligaments in May of 2011 when Florida’s Scott Cousins barreled into him at home plate in the 12th inning of the Marlins-Giants game.

This, along with many other dangerous home plate collisions throughout baseball history have sparked a recurring debate about whether home plate collisions should be banned. This could be done by prohibiting the catcher from blocking the plate and by prohibiting the runner from making intentional contact with the catcher (basically the same rules that apply on every other base other than home plate).

Former major league catcher Mike Matheny, whose career ended by concussions because of his own collisions at home plate, said the hit that knocked out the Giants’ Buster Posey for the rest of the season could have easily been avoided.

“You know what, it wasn’t a dirty play, he didn’t come high spikes, he didn’t come high elbow,” Mathey said according to CBSSports.com “But it wasn’t a necessary play. He was hunting. Buster gave him an option and he didn’t take it.”

Matheny, who won four Gold Gloves, isn’t in favor of rules changes to protect catchers and believes hard contact plays at the plate are just part of the game

A lot of old-school, old-rules people think there shouldn’t be a change in the rules and that the game is how it is and shouldn’t be changed. This is the main reason of why the collisions at home plate may always be a part of the game.

Bates Motel is a physiological thriller series that will premiere on A&E. The show is a prequel to the events of Robert Bloch’s novel, “Psycho”, which was famously portrayed in Alfred Hitchcock’s film of the same name.

“Psycho” is about a middle-aged man named Norman Bates who is completely controlled by his overprotective mother, Norma . Norman’s mother believes that his life should revolve around her and only her. The two run a small motel in the town of Fairvale, but the business is dying down due to a new highway relocation.

At the end of the novel we discover that Norman actually killed his mother and her lover out of jealousy. To maintain his previous lifestyle he would dress up in his mother’s clothes and talk to himself as she had. When he is sent to the metal institute he completely “becomes” his mother.

Bates Motel will start at the very beginning, right after Norma’s husband dies. When Norma and Norman first buy the motel in White Pine Bay. They are said to be trying to “start over”.

Freddie Highmore stars as Norman Bates. Highmore has acted in many movies from the new “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” to “The Spiderwick Chronicles”.

“People will probably start hiding their kitchen knives or making sure that they shower behind many locks.” Highmore told Entertainment Weekly on his character.

Norma is played by 39-year-old actress, Vera Farmiga, who is most famous for her role as the mysterious Alex Goran in the Academy Award nominated film, “Up in the Air”.

A&E decided to skip a pilot for the show. Instead the T.V. channel went straight to ordering a 10-episode season.

The series will premiere on March 18th at 10 p.m.

The third season of “Duck Dynasty” premiered on February 27, 2013. This was A&E’s number one telecast ever and racked up 8.6 million viewers. Topping all other TV broadcasts for the night, “Duck Dynasty” is the most popular unscripted show on television.

The Robertsons, who live in the bayous of Louisiana, became wealthy from their family operated business called Duck Commander. The oldest Robertson, Phil, spent 25 years making duck calls from cedar trees. Willie, Phil’s son, is now CEO of the business.

“Duck Dynasty” stars Phil and Missy Kay and their three sons, Jase, Willie, and Jep. Phil’s younger brother, Si, and all their grandkids also make recurring appearances on the show.

According to A&E Network’s website, The first season finale captured 2.6 million views. The second season finale broke all the records A&E has ever had, with 6,500,000 viewers. On Nielsen’s Top Tens & Trends, “Duck Dynasty” was rated third for the week of March 4th, 2013 with 8,158 viewers.

So what makes this show so popular?

“Duck Dynasty” is nothing less than a typical “rags-to-riches” story, but becoming multimillionaires by making duck calls is not something you see everyday. Remaining a close and moral-based family, even after being in the spotlight, has definitely not gone unnoticed by viewers all over America.

Aside from it being a unique success story, the Robertson family’s humor appeals to more than just people that live a similar “country” lifestyle and uncle Si’s theories on life are bound to make you crack up.

They may all look the part, but the Robertsons do not live the lifestyle you think of when someone says “Southerners.” They give “being country” a whole new meaning.

Rating: 10/10

With weeks remaining until opening day, coaches are rushing to make their team the best for the 2013 season of Major League Baseball.

After having a little more than 100 days off, players work on getting back in the swing of baseball during spring training.  It’s a time where players who were in the minor league last year get the chance to show what they’re made of when they fight for their spot on the major league team.

With decisions made about who is on the team’s season roster and who had to go back down to the minor leagues, the Boston Red Sox kicked off the start to the spring training games on Thursday February 21 with multiple teams following the next day.

Spring training is a time when people start to make their predictions about who is going to win what division and who is going to win the world series in October.  However, these predictions usually are inaccurate due to the trade deadline on July 31.

During the off season a few changes were made in the world of baseball.  The Houston Astros moved from the National League Central division to the American League West.  The change evens out all of six of the divisions so each one now has five teams competing.

Opening day will be on March 31 with the Houston Astros playing the Texas Rangers.  All other teams will play their first game within the following two days.