ZeumMaster Winter Olympic Madness....

The ZMs have been full swing into the annual Winter Olympics. Here's a little sneak peak into the inner world of the ZMs....From the top, Flor shows off her winning creation in the foil hat making competition, Sammi models her hat, Educator Jordan and finally, a group shot.

A World Savvy Tangent

To sort of start off, I'm Dan, and I'm a ZeumMaster. I've gone to Zeum since
I was nine years old, amazed each year with the changes made to each
part of the "museum"...I used to kick the metafield-maze's butt before
they programmed in a level 2. I've been working as a ZeumMaster
for a good seven months now. Done good, made friends and all that.
Everything's been pretty peachy. Capice?

This is also my first time blogging, so don't get too weirded out by whatever
tangents I will quite possibly make.

Yes, it's kinda cheesy, but this is one of the few short video uploads
made by the creative youth at the World Savvy Jam Session whilst informing this generation's long list of intelligent intellects about life changing extremes like poverty, conflict, and peace building in order to prepare a future of great minds.

World Savvy not only encourages a generation of intellectual thinkers, but also challenges people to speak out against unfair situations, promoting natural rights and freedom of individual will, something one could also find at www.youthforhumanrights.org. Look them up.

World Savvy is currently building up for their 2008 theme on Global Health, which, by itself, is one massive topic to cover. But hey, they've done tougher stuff before, and they can do it again, and again, and again, and again.....etc. PBS states in their article on the importance of global health that…

"The world's scientific knowledge, technological expertise, and economic resources are greater than at any point in history. We are capable of applying our collective know-how and wealth to reducing the health risks faced by all nations and alleviating unnecessary human suffering. Many see this as the shared responsibility of wealthier countries. Others continue to raise arguments against pursuing a collaborative approach to the problems of developing nations."

Now, as flawed as the middle sentence is, all countries, be it rich or poor in Resource fulness should be able to touch on a "love thy neighbor" basis. People should be willing to collaborate with each other in order to work towards a common goal, and I think World Savvy brought out global health in order to bridge whatever gaps
they could to help the little guy in this equation.

Poor countries shouldn't have to watch like the lesser sibling while the self appointed favorite sibling gets a bigger slice of the metaphoric cake of good benefits. I know that with every equation, a huge problem has to equal one or more solutions, and that is World Savvy's steps towards a bright future for humankind. I solute your efforts, Savvy.
Keep up the good work.

Those of you who don't know what I'm talking about should go to worldsavvy.org.

Talking about Hip Hop

This morning we had an amazing workshop about gender and power in hip hop.

Hip hop is something I always loved to listen to because not only did I grow up on hip hop, it's a part of my culture. However, what I learned during this workshop was that a lot of mainstream hip hop is controlled by these rich white, old men that have the choice and power on whether to put certain hip hop in the media or not. Also, the media has a way of only showing the public, hip hop that they think should be what the public needs to here. And that the public they are thinking about making money off of is the youth.

There was some great discussion that went throughout the workshop and I was able to give a lot of input on what I thought about hip hop.

I noticed that because a lot of things I see and hear on the internet, such as on youtube and on other cool websites, I think are being held back and sometimes interesting for the public to hear on the radio but are not given that opportunity. To be specific, a lot of music that is always on the radio mostly has the same message...such as talking about the sexuality of both male and female, turf issues, violence, weapons, politics, drugs, and sometimes about where their from and how things set off in their hood/neighborhood.

During this workshop, the group and I were asked an agree or disagree question on whether it matters if you personally care more about listening to the beat rather than the lyrics or vice versa. I told everyone that the beat of the music determines whether or not I want to listen to the rap/song or not. This is because the tone and base of the beat gives me the opportunity "to lean wit' it, rock wit' it" to the lyrics.

Sorry to say, but if I, JJ, don't have the opportunity "to lean wit' it, rock wit' it" to the beat then, something is really wrong with this song because leaning and rocking to the beat gives me a feel to the lyrics and make me want to say, "This song GO"! When I say that, it means that I really like this rap/song/music and when a person such as I, don't know the lyrics to a rap/song, it only frustrates me when I cannot "lean wit' it, rock wit' it" to the beat.

In others people's opinions, they said that the lyrics attract them more rather than the beat because they would like to actually get a message out of the rap/song/music instead of just leaning with it and rocking with and to the beat.

The workshop made me feel open to saying everything that was on my mind about hip hop. It felt like there was no right or wrong answer and that anything I said, other people in the workshop could relate to and speak on more about what I had to say. -JJ

World Savvy Jam Session!!!

Coming to work and knowing that I'm going to participate in a field trip is cool because field trips are rare, and it makes me feel special. Liz, Ari, Joshua, Jule, Wing Yan and myself were the 6 participating in the World Savvy Jam Session. We gathered at Zeum and walked to the SomArts Cultural Center located on 934 Brannan Street. It was a long walk, it took us about 30 minutes. The Jam Session was basically about youths bringing their creative energy and vision to make artworks with professional San Francisco artist while addressing the World Savvy theme: POWER!

Upon arrival we were all hungry, we all signed in and got our name badges. We were all separated into groups; pink, orange, blue and black. We were offered pizza and we all had two slices, they were delicious. After 60 minutes of waiting we were called into a big warehouse art room and we watched 'Kibera Kids.' It was about a young boy who wanted a life of his own because his parent died. He was always forced into doing things that he didn't want to like stealing phones from others and selling them for money. Everyday he would get beat for not stealing phones. Then one day he decided to leave the country Kibera and start a new life. It was about hope.

We got into our groups based on our registration color. I was in the blue group and our main focus is being a POET. Our group was very unique because the other groups did a physical activity and our group did a verbal activity and it was very strong and deep. We separated in two groups the resistant and the non-resistant side. I was in the resistant side and we had to come up with short lines starting with "I am ....... that's why they call me power" and the non-resistant side came up with quotes to support (positive way) the resistant side. My quote was "I am a very smart person and teachers and my peers look upon me for answers and they call me POWER." I had a lot of fun participating in this session. The people that I worked with to come up with different quotes were teenagers around my age and even the instructors were teenagers. Since I am shy in front a huge group a people, this session brought me out of my shell. It made me express my opinion on what I thought about POWER and how I can relate it in a poem.

After preparing for our performance we gathered into the big warehouse art room and group by group we did our presentations. Our group was second to last. I was a little bit nervous because I had to present my quote with the microphone to the big mob of an audience. Can you imagine what you would feel like in this situation? It was ... because I had to say why I was powerful.

The group I liked the most was the Pyramid group and our group Poet group. The pyramid group really showed a lot of self confidence because they had to climb on top of each other and if one person decides to doze off then the whole group fails. If I could change one thing I would extend the amount of time participating. It was very fun and interesting. There aren't a lot of organizations who offer free programs and sessions in San Francisco so I give them a lot of credit for hosting this event. If they're planning to do this again next year I'll indeed do it again.

My Own Powerful Media

My name is WENDY I've been at zeum for about 2 weeks. I like zeum. It's actually really fun - I like seeing the kids have fun and I be having fun too. What I like about everybody who works here is they are really friendly and nice. When i first came I was kind of scared and shy but now that I know everybody and I've worked with almost everybody... its actually pretty fun.

Well this morning we had a workshop with World Savvy and Theo, a photo journalist and Katina from World Savvy came in to talk to us. They talked about Cindy Sheehan how she went to Texas and sat in President Bushes ranch because she was mad that her son died in the war. Theo had taken a lot of different pictures and the picture that was different - the one that ended up getting published - was the one where she was like screaming and she was holding a cross with her son's name up high. We talked about why newspapers choose the photos they choose. They choosed the picture they think is best to one that actually relates to the article they writing about.

All the attention was on Cindy. There was a sign that was against the war and another one that wanted the war to continue. Some one made a poster that said "god bless bush and the troops." There was a chair that had a sign that said "why is bush afraid to talk to cindy?" Then they also showed us another picture where a 9 year old little girl that had another sign that said "thank you Mr. president for staying in Iraq." But in the pictures it seemed like a lot of people were supporting Cindy. After he showed us an article that they used the picture that said "why is this man afraid to talk to Cindy?" and in the bottom it said "i'm so sorry" then it had another picture with a family and Bush they looked pretty sad. Theo told us about a lady that lost her son in the war to and she sent a letter to bush and it said that she still supports him after what happen with her son. Some of these picture were chosen to be in some news papers and some in others. Newspapers have a lot of power -they pick the pictures based on what story they want to tell.

Pictures can be interpreted in different ways. people interpret pictures the way they want. In pictures you can't actually hear or see everything the people do, so that's when they say stuff about the people just by looking at it, even if is not really true.

Then Theo talked about an immigrant family, he showed us a video with pictures. Some girl was talking about how Americans say that supposedly they're taking their jobs knowing that they could get better jobs than them and that they would never do job they do. She also said that almost all Americans think immigrants are criminals when that's not true.

After we finished talking about that we got to make our own article about topics we don't see in the news and that peoples don't actually talk about for example they only talk about teens when they fight or kill somebody but they never say the good things they only publish the negative stuff.

I wrote about how everybody thinks that all immigrants are criminals and that is NOT TRUE. I choose to write about that cause my parents came to San Francisco as immigrants and they are not criminals. They came here because they wanted a better future for my family. The only reason why my parents came here was for more money cause my grandmother was sick and they needed to pay her medical bills cause everything in El Salvador is expensive.

THIS IS SOME OF THE WORK OTHER ZEUMMASTERS WERE DOING THIS MORNING.

My Power In Film

I have always been interested in film making. As a little kid I was always messing around with a video camera. When you’re younger you really don’t know what you are doing but you are just so interested in it that you just keep playing around. As I got older my passion for film was becoming even bigger. I began to watch films that most kids don’t really watch. I paid attention to the methods in which the director portrayed their movie.

When I got into high school I learned the art of editing. I started off simple small little short movies with my friends and I. Then I moved on to creating skate tapes. I never thought I was that good at the process until I was assigned a school project in which I had to use you media to create a story about genocide. I took this project seriously because it was something important to others and not a project that can be half done. When I presented the movie I saw tears in the audience.

Unsure of what that meant I confided in my teacher. He told me that people can speak out through music, writing, and even film. I didn’t really believe until a woman whose grandparents survived the Holocaust told me how power that movie presented. I felt accomplished that I was able to speak out trough film. After that I fell into my slump of writing films and trying to develop new movies but none had that same passion in which I showed in my Genocide film.
It wasn’t until today that I hit point in which I was able to speak out. I was out going to film in downtown San Francisco. I was filming for my online video blog site. As I was crossing the street I heard the sound of a car spin out. As I looked I saw a white truck driven up on to the curb and hearing woman scream. I ran over with my video camera and began to film.

Watch my blog here
http://beta.yourtrumanshow.com/videos/viewVideo.jsp?id=633

Censorship In Our Media

Long time no blog. This morning at Zeum we had a World Savvy workshop about photography, censorship & the media. When I first heard the words: censorship and the media, I immediately thought of human rights, the Iraq war, and Google. The news informed us of China trying to limit search results on Google, and the US government trying to cover up the current situation in Iraq. But today we focused on things a little closer to us, like censorship of our school newspaper or artists we listen to. By seeing censorship in a new light, I got to learn more about how it affects me everyday.

When I got to the workshop, we started doing the agree/disagree activity. A situation was presented to us and we chose whether to agree or disagree. After all the situations were presented, we would discuss each one and why we made the decisions we made. At first, everyone stood firm on their side, but once we discussed each one, "what-if situations" were thrown at us, making us question our choice. In the end, it was clear that it was hard to draw a line between censoring to prevent offensiveness and profanity, and exploiting censorship as a way to manipulate the public. Our next activity was an experiment to see how much of what we see in the media is controlled by one big corporation. The results were mind shocking, showing us that though we may get our sources from a couple different places, most of them are owned by one big corporation that could possibly be just showing us a side of the story that they favor.

Through these activities, I got to see how censorship is closer to me than I once thought it was. Censorship, like most things, has a good and a bad side. It all depends on what you limit and where you draw the line. But once you allow one thing to be uncensored, it opens many other doors and controversies over what else should be uncensored. Often, different people will view one thing differently. Some people may be offended but some may see it as perfectly fine, and wrong to censor. Even at school, you may think it's right to have the school censor things like profanity on the school newspaper, but what if one teacher thought that a certain article was inappropriate and the writer didn't? The battle of censorship rages on, and the decisions towards what should be censored is affecting our view of the world everyday. Sometimes what we think is the truth, could be just one big corporation showing you their favorite side of the story to try to get you to think a certain way. In a world where everything is controversial and the truth is debatable, where should censorship in the media stand?

Inspiration

My imagination grows bigger and bigger everyday. There's always something new to think or write about. My inspiration comes from the mind and it sees, my heart on how it feels.

I like to write about dreams i have sometimes, kids n how i used to be when i was a kid, and what moods i feel through the end of the day.

I also get ideas from music like Marvin Gaye, Al green, Marc Anthony, and other oldies.

I started writing when I was in 5th grade. I was always quiet all the time mostly my whole life cause I was shy so much of the time that i got to used to it. So with my shyness i started writing in class and my teacher look at what I was writing and said that I was good. It keep on going on on through school years, all my English teachers said I was gifted or something. yeah writing is my thing. Later on I am going to do a project here at zeum. like a slide of pictures and have a poem reading out loud in my own voice using the tech tools here. I'll come up with more later.

here is an example of my writing...

It Ends Tonight

My days are going by fast.
They are not going to last.
They is no point on going on.
All I have lived for is done.
Why should I make myself suffer this long.
To stop this heart to keep on beating,
for what I am feeling.
It ends tonight.
falling from the sky.
This is the day I die.
the end

What's up with YAC

Zeum has recently started something called YAC, the Youth Advisory Council. It is a group made up of ZeumMasters, and run by ZeumMasters. YAC was started so that the ZeumMasters, the teens working on the floor, have a voice in their internship program and can have their ideas implemented into their own experience.

I decided to join YAC so that I can contribute to this experience and help bring everyone's ideas or concerns to the table. I like the fact that I am part of a team with other people my age, working together to benefit and satisfy everyone. We discuss issues happening on the floor, and come up with fresh ideas that will hopefully help make the day for our visitors.


Lucky for us, Zeum cares about what we want to get out of our internship. They have created a group that will help support the program and contribue to the changes done to it in the future. YAC will make sure that the internship program can remain as a fun, fulfilling experience for current and future ZeumMasters. I am a member of YAC.

James and the Giant Peach

This past Sunday, I went with my dad and my brother to see JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH, starring Zeum's Jerrod and Perry. Perry played the grasshopper and Jarrod played the earthworm. In the story, James' parents died so he had to live with his awful aunts. He wished for a better life and his wish came true when he decided to run away and live in a peach and made a lot of new friends who were bugs. The peach rolls off the aunts hill and lands in the Atlantic ocean. They used their teamwork and skills to escape the man eating sharks. They had a lot of struggles but survived through the challenges and obstacles.

I wanted to write about this is because Zeum is all about story telling and performance and being creative... so I really felt like it was related. whether its through creating an animation or a production at the production stage and being creative and that's what the play is, creating a story come to life and being creative.

The part of the story that affected me was when James ran away from home because at times I feel like running away because life at home can get hard. A lot of the times I have to a lot of the work like James...I get blamed for things my brother did. The other part that touched me was when James made friends with the bugs and they became really close and became best friends for life. I have a few close friends who are my best friends. I don't know what I would do with out them, that's how close to them. I also have a few close people here at Zeum, if something were to happen to them I would break down and cry. They are like my family.

The play was AWSOME. The actors and actresses did an amazing job especially since they had about 2-3 roles EACH and had to memorize SO MANY lines. They all seem so dedicated and put a lot of time and hard work into making the show ...you can tell. Just watching the play, I could tell that to be in a show like this, you have to have completely dedicated to what you're working on. That's inspiring. If you are not 110% dedicated you wont be able to learn your lines on time for the play. And also if your not 110% dedicated you'll probably not be focused during rehearsal which will determine how you do on opening night

When i talked to Perry and Jerrod after the show, they said it was great seeing someone from work seeing the play. they were excited to see me there and same for me. I was SO EXCITED to see them. the main reason i went was to see perry and to support him.

I can totally relate the experience of going to the theater to working at Zeum. Since we have a music production lab and a production studio, people learn to be comfortable with getting in front of the camera. When you do a play you have to be comfortable being in front of an audience or else you'll freeze up and mess the entire show up.

When I have to get in front of an audience of any kind I get so nervous. A lot of the time I feel so nervous my hand shakes, i feel like throwing up or I feel like breaking down and crying. I feel this way because I am afraid if people will judge me or make fun of me.

Since working here at Zeum, I'm not nervous talking in front of strangers.... for example when I greet them and explain what they can do in the room I am always perky and friendly but I still feel the same way if I'mtalking in front of people i know. I feel a lot more nervous talking in front of people I am really close to like my co-workers or friends.

I totally recommend seeing this show. It's at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts in Berkeley.

"You Really Love Your Job, Don't You?"

Being a ZeumMaster has given me loads and loads of experience working with people and working as a team. I can definitely say that I've learned a lot from this internship.


One of my many lessons was one day in Main Gallery when I was working on a performance with a family. As always I was ready with a positive attitude and a huge smile. I became super involved with what this family was doing. I helped them with ideas for their script and costumes to go along with it. The family requested a whole bunch of background changes and scene transitions that took a lot of work on my part, but I was more than happy to see a family leave satisfied with a DVD that they could watch over and over again.


As they were finishing up, the mother came up to me and said "You really love your job don't you?" I responded "Yes, I do." Then she continued and told me how great it was to have someone helping them who really cared about the outcome of their production.


That mother made me realize that although we probably talk to hundreds of people a day, if we just put a little extra effort into each of those conversations, we can really mean something to them. If we make each experience with our visitors just a little more personal, families can leave feeling like they were in a caring atmosphere and not just being fed mechanical directions.


Seeing families truly enjoying what they have created here at Zeum is one of the most satisfying parts of the job - knowing that my help actually made a difference in a child's, or a family's, experience. My moment with this mother was just a little reminder of one of the many gratifying parts of this internship.

What Does Community Mean to YOU?

Around mid or late July all the ZeumMasters were introduced to a project we chose to participate in. The topic was community. It could be a specific community, school Community, ethnic Community, hobby Community etc and etc.

Since the project was about community, Michelle and I thought why not blog about our schools. Comparing them to see how similar and different they were, and adding photoshoped pictures too. Michelle goes to Lincoln, while i go to Balboa. The schools project didn't work out, since Michelle went on a trip to Boston for awhile. I couldn't write a blog about Lincoln since i don't know much about the school, and I can't compare schools with just Balboa, so we changed the project to a video interview about community.

Our project is about peoples perspectives of community, and their definition of "community." We basically had to interview people from Zeum and people from different areas to get different perspectives from different people. We interviewed Paul, Sammi, Traci, Monique, Michelle Fisher, Michelle(this girl from the library), My friend Diane, and Ryan.

When we were done interviewing people, I had to upload all the files onto my computer and out of my camera. I had to edit the video and everything. It was really fun though, because i like editing videos anyways. so it was all good. Michelle helped with the layout, so it could be pretty. Avia helped me with the layout a bit a couple days before michelle got back from Boston, but the computer froze and i never got to save my work. that was kinda lame. yeah....but i learned that you gotta save almost every 5 minutes, just in case! =]]]]

The questions that i asked were pretty simple and to the point. I asked three questions, and they were. What comes to mind when you hear the word community? What does community mean to you? and What community are you apart of? The answer were similar and different at some points. The answers were surprising, in a way. Because all the answers were similar and i thought it would probably be different.

The fun part of this project was interviewing everyone and editing the video. I think the most challenging thing about the project was the fact that the computer froze and i had to redo it. still lame!

The finished project turned out good. i saved to my e-mail, but i'm gonna try to save it to a dvd. viewing the video from downloading the attachment off of my e-mail kinda went wrong, because the computer made it really small.

TAH DAH!

Why Zeum?

Finally, I, Lilian Fernando, am creating a blog post. It's taken me the whole summer to actually settle on what I should blog about. I've finally decided on TALKING ABOUT THE BENEFITS we ZeumMasters, the teens working the floors of Zeum, get from participating in the internship program. It's NOT YOUR TYPICAL TEENAGE JOB. It's not just a thing to do for the money. It's unpredictable, fun, and nurturing.

Imagine a hands-on MUSEUM FOR VISITORS OF ANY AGE, OF ANY GENERATION. A museum that can change a kid's childhood by opening the door to endless possiblities in the areas of visual and media arts; a place that can help a family bond while creating clay figures, and where parents or kids can discover that THEY CAN STEP OUT OF THEIR BOX and perform on our production stages. It sounds FAR FROM ORTHODOX OR TYPICAL, right? Those are just some of the things that are happening at Zeum every day.

Now imagine being able to EXPERIENCE A FAMILY BONDING at a set, creating a clay animation movie that you taught them how to do. Imagine recording a little five year-old singing, 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star', standing at center-stage all by herself. And WOULDN'T YOU LOVE TO BE THERE when a couple, celebrating their 50th anniversary, become experts at using Photoshop. As a ZeumMaster, those are just some of the things I've been lucky enough to be a part of; BET YOU'RE JEALOUS NOW.

But of course this place is not facilitated by teens alone; in almost every room, you might find the older-looking staff member. That staff member is the 'Educator'. Our EDUCATORS help make sure that rooms are running smoothly. Beyond that, they HELP OUR VOICES BE HEARD. They encourage individuality, they encourage us to develop our interests and talents, and THEY ENCOURAGE US to show ourselves off. This summer, we have been given the opportunity to work on projects, with the aid of an Educator, that will be in a show, that our parents are invited to, at the end of the summer. Each ZeumMaster is creating a project within the realms of visual and media arts. A majority of us are working with Video Production and Clay Animation, so NEVER THINK THAT WE ARE INCAPABLE of answering questions in the Clay Animation Studio, or on the Production Stages.

So, if you become a ZeumMaster, you get to work with people of all ages, you get to see kids overcome their 'safe-zone', and you are encouraged, by the people you work with, to create projects that express you using visual and media arts.

COOL.

Zeum as Community

What makes Zeum a community? There is many things that makes Zeum a community. One thing that makes Zeum a community is that we care about our visitors. This makes Zeum a community center to the general public. We work very closely with our visitors. We greet them and help them when they walk into the exhibit. We take turns rotating and talking to visitors to make sure everything is running smoothly. When a piece of equipment is broken we walkie the tech person as soon as we are notified of the broken equipment so it is running back up as soon as possible so we can please our visitors.

Another thing that makes Zeum a community is that we are open to anyone, not just to people living in San Francisco. You can be from a totally different country and visit here. We had some people from Europe visting while staying on vacation to San Francisco.

I decided to take pictures of Zeum Staff. The reason why i decided to take pictures of Zeum Staff is because we are a community. What I did was uploaded the pictures from the camera to the computer and opened them up using Adobe Photoshop. Once the program was open, I used the different filters to change how each picture looks. Somethings I did was use the paint brush to paint on the pictures, blur filter, wave filter and so much more.

Everyone on the staff has been like family to me. They all care about me and check up and see if everything is going ok. Besides Zeum being a community center for the general public we also have a community within the staff. Everyone of the staff cares about each other. When ever ZeumMasters need help with a personal problem or a problem with a piece of equipment we know we can turn to each other for support. Being part of the Zeum staff community has changed my life. Before I was all sad and miserable because of home life but being here, away from my home is the happiest place I have ever been to. I wait every week to come here on Fridays because I get away from home.

When Fridays come I am happy because I get to see the people who care about me. I truly love everyone on the Zeum ok. When Perry was giving me a ride home after seeing Assassins, the play that he was in I was talking to him about personal stuff that was going on in my home, he was totally supportive and gave me advice about what to do and how to handle the situation. That showed me that he cares and is there for me whenever I need someone to talk to.

I am going to mention a few words i would like to say about how the staff touched me.
Perry, Ari, and Noel touched me by caring about me. When I would have a problem I would then with my problem and they would listen. They are totally supportive and help me with my situation the best they can. They would come to me on occasion and make sure everything is ok and I'm doing well. They truely ment the most to me and I will miss them.

Debbo and Derrek touched me by making me laugh. Whenever I was sad they would always give me a high five or do something to make me laugh. Sometimes Derrek would say someting to make me laugh.

Paul and Michelle F.,Musiliu,Sharon touched me by caring about me and keep saying that they will miss me so much. It's nice to know that they care so much that they keep telling me that they'll miss me. I WILL MISS THEM MUCH because they are like my brothers and sisters.

Learning Here and There

My name is Musiliu Adewunmi, and i am an "Afropean", which simply means that i was born in Nigeria. I'm from the continent of Africa and also mixed with French. I am a capricorn born in the month of December. I love to listen to music especially hiphop and R&B, play video games, watch the T.V. and go to the movies with friends. My favorite holiday is Christmas, it is a special holiday because it brings family and friends together, sharing presents and enjoying christmas cards from well wishers. My favorite style of breakfast is toasted bagel with cream cheeze and fried bacon with orange juice. There is nothing more delicious than having peaches and cream for desert.

I want to write about education.

School is so fun for me I know that some people will think that Musiliu is insane but you know what, I don't care what other people say or think about others. Education is uplifting for every one including myself as an individual. School allows me to be more experienced in community work.

Education in the states is quite different from that of my Nigerian and French education. Back in Nigeria and in France, the teachers really get strict with the students. Students get hands on experience being at school and a lot from learning the hard way which is teachers being strict about our school work and attendance in school. In America students don't get struck by the teacher at school when there needs to be correction, when homework isn't completed it is suppose to hurt the students grade while they get away with only a warning or two. In Nigeria and France, students get more than just a warning but we realize our mistakes through a little bit of discipline.

School is important for teenagers today because it keeps them motivated towards a higher education, leading them to success and enabling to fulfilling their career goals. Going to school i realized the outcome of having a community which helps in areas of group projects, sport teams, after school programs, and clubs.

I see Zeum as a community because it has given me the opportunity to be more flexible, having a cooperative work force with other Zeum masters at including my supervisors, Christian and Raquel. I have gained more communication skills such as answering phone calls, greeting visitors, teaching visitors how to create their own take home art work. I could relate my work experience in the Zeum community to school because working with different people and even multi-tasking usually on busy work days has given me the chance to realize what responsibility is all about, getting my work done in school and in the work place.

Learning in Zeum is different from learning in school because in the worksite, interns like me are taught how to work with technology in music production,video editing and production, mask making, clay animation and even blogging. In school we are taught with computers but without the involvement of music and video production. The task required in Zeum, takes us all interns to a whole new level of experiencing the art work in technology based on hands on experience.

Storyboarding Basketball

Above is my storyboard for animation. (you can click on it to see it bigger) It's for my community project - I chose to talk and create something that relates to me in my community. When I first started thinking about what I would do for this project, basketball was the first thing to come to mind. I'm talking about how I love to play basketball and how its my thing to do.

For my project, I'm going to make two clay male characters and animate them using stop motion animation. Just to let you know, one of the characters out of the two clay male characters is me and I make the basketball go into the net of the court, all net, at the end of my performance.

Also, something cool about my project is that I will speak a rap to the audience and as the two clay male characters move the rap music I say goes exactly to what the characters are doing regarding movement wise. In the end I look forward to seeing everybody who gets the chance to see my work to say, "Cool", after I, the clay character hits the shot and it swishes threw a clay basketball court.

A Little Local Theater....Assassins!

Last night we went to see Perry's show, Assassins. It was fun to see a live performance because everything becomes a lot more real to you since the characters are basically right there in front of you. You may not get the special effects of Hollywood but its fun to have a front row seat (and we did!) to see the action that is going on on stage. It was also great because we actually got to see Perry on stage performing to his fullest. I liked saying that I personally knew one of the actors in the show.

Assassins was different from what I'd expected. I assumed it would be another history lesson on people that have killed presidents. Instead it was told from the side of the assassins in a not so depressing way so it wasn't at all boring. What really kept my interest was all the songs that the characters sang - they weren't so serious, actually they had a comic overtone. They told the story with sort of a carnival background "Win a prize try to kill a President." Instead of just having one person come out at a time and tell their story they made it seem like they were all friends and tied all their assassinations in together with one another.

Seeing the way the actors portrayed the characters was good for me - It was great to see all the different kinds of emotions coming out of each person they played. They didn't have to be sad all the time they could go from mad to even happy or just crazy. It's good to know the different type of acting techniques that people can do on stage. I love seeing different styles and ways people act. It's like a mini acting lesson for me.

I love acting, especially in musicals. When I go see plays it only helps me get more into what I am doing because I have a chance to see how other actors work in their space, with their characters, and in the performance they are doing.

Even though it was a small space, the performers used all the open areas they could find to perform in making us feel like we were involved in what was going on in that scene. At Zeum we could do the same we have a lot of space and its fun to use it all because you get a bigger effect when you take up all you have. We could use things like the spiral walkway to do something fun or the metafield maze to get everyone involved. What if??

An special addition to getting treated to a performance was we got CREAMPUFFS that Ari bought for us. They were vanilla and strawberry and extremely good and we ate almost all of them. Good show and good creampuffs.

Music as Community

Hello fellow BLOGGERS!

I've been at Zeum for 3-4 weeks now... And now ZeumMasters are in the process of starting our own projects.... topic = community. The definitions of community that I took to heart were support and family. My project is about music as community. I find support in connecting with other people who like the music I listen to and especially in my school marching band.

I truly am in a school marching band. I consider a band to be a community because a lot of people gather together and help each other out. Without support from every single person, a band wouldn't function. In the summer before my freshman year, I had to make a decision whether to take a music class, a video production class, or a theater class. After thinking it over, I decided to choose a music class because of my passion for music. I play the trumpet, saxophone, and a little piano.

Just think! What would life or the world be without music? In my opinion, life would be empty and dull. If music was never created we wouldn't have composers or songs such as: Beethoven, Bach, John Legend, Stevie Wonder, Bohemian Rhapsody, Beat it, or High School Musical.

music is my LIFE. It helps me relax, be happy, be sad. Without music, I probably wouldn't be the person I am today. I probably would be lost, and a whole different person. Just listening to what artists sing and rap about is a big thing for me. They rap and sing about their own life experiences and how they feel about things. I relate to what they sing about.

For my project, I want to make a "beat" for a song. I'm going to do this in the "Sound Lab" in the middle of Zeum's Main Gallery. Super Duper Music Looper can help me play all the different types of instruments that all of my band members usually play. I can be the whole community at once.

"MUSIC IS MY LIFE." -- me.

First Job: Under Pressure and Lovin' it!

Time flies! It's my first blog-so be easy on me. Before working at Zeum I was volunteering at the store with Bob, who manages the store. That was a customer service job mostly. But part of volunteering at the store is that you have to "walk around Zeum." I didn't feel comfortable walking around Zeum at the time because I was agoraphobic. :)

I'm a ZeumMaster now....and becoming less agoraphobic!

Being a ZeumMaster is more than just customer service because there are times where you have to sit down and work with kids. The very first day when I started working at Zeum I was really too scared to greet customers because they would come in as a big group lunging at me and asking questions rapidly and I just wasn't prepared.

Zeum is my very first paying job I ever had. I had to get used to a lot of different things such as talking to strangers, having a set schedule, having to soak up so much information at once, and going to meetings. It was sooper hard for me to adjust to real work life.

But with the support of senior ZeumMasters and educators I've been becoming more and more comfortable greeting customers and assisting all kinds of people with different exhibits, and it made me come out of my shell that I was hiding in!

Okay!!! Now one of my favorite movie that I've watched twice is Ratatouille. It's totally incredible. In the movie Remie was helping the janitor to cook by pulling his hair and the Janitor was really scared that his boss would figure out that he had a rat cooking for him. That was a ton of pressure on him. At the end of the movie Mr. Janitor comes out of his shell by telling everyone about Remie, the rat in his hat.

This totally relates Zeum: almost everyday there's a lot of visitors coming in and out and that can be stressful. Like the pressure of working in a restaurant's kitchen with a rat in your hat. But when I actually stood up and told one of the educators how I was feeling about greeting customers and how I was scared of big groups and that I needed help and more support. Now that I've gotten the support I needed I am now lovin' the job!

The Sky's the Limit: Considering Photoshop

So...this is my first entry as a ZeumMaster, but definitely not my first time reading this Blog. I first came across this page when I was applying to become a ZeumMaster back in marchish aprilish. What really drew me into applying in the first place was the opportunity to work with arts and technology. I hail from a long line of photography lovers, and I myself take a photography class at my high school.

Its quite amazing how art and technology can both be meshed together, and I think photography is the best example of that. At school, we mostly worked on dark room stuff (for now at least), and my mother, being from the olden days and all, never worked with digital photography. So I saw Zeum as a wonderful chance to get into different aspects of digital photography, like photoshop.

Basically the only thing I can do with photoshop is open it. ... ok, thats a lie, I can do some basic things on the program. But my experience with photoshop has barely begun and I'm totally ready for 20 more tons of it to smack me in the face. Here at Zeum we have a "space" called Digital Workshop, which is where people can take a picture of themselves on the computer and use photoshop filters and brushes to change it up. ... Sound familiar? Maybe some of you Myspace freaks out there (ugh!) like to go to the apple store and change up your picture too. For those of you who deny you like to take pictures of yourself, don't worry, cause theres plenty of photoshop out there, it's just camouflaged. How else do the stars hide their blemishes? Why do you think everyone in advertisement look sooo beautiful? one word: photoshop (well actually this computer is telling me photoshop isn't a word...).

Photoshop....the root of evil, the reason why we're all living a lie? or a miracle of a program that was the best thing that ever happened? This all depends of course on how you use it. Unfortunately photoshop is used to perfect everyone in the media and set unhealthy goals for 12 year old girls, but this program also holds so many different opportunities! Photoshop itself could be considered a form of art, a way to exercise your creativity. The ability to change the image of reality and beautify everything is so powerful and fun. And that is exactly what I want to do with photoshop here at Zeum.

I want to learn how to use this program to change the ordinary to extraordinary, and I'm so glad that Zeum is providing this program to its many many visitors. This is a chance for so many people to learn about this great program, not just how it can turn people into sticks, but how it can be just a fun tool to use, a tool that could create wonders with a couple of clicks.

I feel like Zeum is giving everyone the chance to see that photoshop is accessible to all , and everyone can be an artist. The sky is the limit, and photoshop is here to help. I am so excited to learn more about the program and I'm so thankful that Zeum is giving me the chance to do so!

Watch out, one day I'll be working my photoshop like no other at some big magazine company, and you'll say: wow, I knew her back when she was a ZeumMaster, look at her now...shes a pro. And I'll be like: thats right....

Working for the Summertime Zoo

I've been a ZeumMaster for two years now, and I have truly enjoyed every day I have worked. The part of my job that I love the most is working with kids, helping them and teaching them how to make clay animation and how to perform.

There is one part of being a ZeumMaster that I don't like - I don't get to see the same kids everyday. A lot of the time, after helping a visitor with the clay animation process, I often feel like I'm a part of their experience, and I begin to miss some of the kids after they leave Zeum.

Throughout my two years as a ZeumMaster, I thought of learning to do other things at Zeum, such as learning how to work the store, but I never thought of working as an assistant at a Zeum Summer Camp. About a month ago, Christian, Raquel and I were talking about summer and Christian suggested that I work at the Zeum Camp. I was really excited because I remembered when I was at camp and how much I loved my counselors.

I really had no idea what to expect. All I knew about the camp was that I had to start earlier (which I hated at first), and get a longer break (which I loved of course).

Then I realized: Now I would be a counselor and kids would look up to me and love me, and I would get close to them and get to know them more than any typical visitor at Zeum.

On the first day of camp, I met all the kids and attempted to learn their names as quickly as I could, and on that first day I ALREADY grew attached to them.

Throughout the two weeks of camp, I used my ZeumMaster skills while also being a Camp Counselor, so I did what I always wanted to do with my job-work with the same kids everyday. I helped the campers with their animation, just like I do on the floor, helping them make their character and assisting them while they made their movie. But by the end of the two weeks, I felt like I was also a mentor to the campers, who at times would come to me with their problems, sometimes in tears. I felt like I had an impact, not only in their camp experience but in their daily lives.

Being a counselor for these two weeks has made me want to work at my summer camp that I went to when I was younger.

On the last day of camp, the campers put on a show for all their parents and friends, showing them their clay animation movies and sets.

I was so proud of my campers, and they were proud of their work too. All the pics in this post are of their creations in the session I helped with "Zeum Zoo".

To all Zeum Masters: I recommend working in at least one summer camp session at Zeum. It is a great experience.

Goal = To be an Artist Even if it Scares Me

Yesterday was my first day working as a ZeumMaster. At first I was nervous but then working with the educators and other Zeum Masters I got more comfortable. When the staff greeted me, I felt like I was important. I had a lot of fun. Working in the animator studio was cool. I love working here.

So last night was also parents night. Parents night was a night for zeummaster parents to come and see what we do. We got to see all the old zeummasters projects they've been working on for a while. The art work was amazing and I want to do one for the next time we have parent night.

They did a fantastic job. The zeummaster projects inspired me. I want to develop my art skills.

I think that working at zeum will help me develop my art skills because here at zeum there are different forms of art like technology, clay animation and so much more. I think I would want to do a poetry piece, a play, a drawing or a clay figure. At the beginning of the event, christian welcomed the parents and thanked us for being there. In the middle of the event, the parents got a tour of where we work. all the old zeum masters and educators work really hard to make the event as successful as it was. parent night was a huge success, we had a lot of parents.

I think I like the idea of having my own art show because then I can chose the art I want to be displayed and it would be a lot of dedication and hard work because you need to be organized and on top of your game. this way if I have my own art show I can put art of of the visitors and zeum masters. I do not consider myself an artist but I would like to try to make art and put it in even if im not that great because this way people can see what i have created and my hard work. Making art scares me because people can judge me and my art and I take things personally and hard even if it is a joke or sarcasm.

What does it mean to be an artist? To me being an artist means expressing your self in poetry, lyrics, drawing, music and so much more. If you express yourself in anyway, you're an artist. The reason why i came to zeum was to get away from all the stress at home and just express myself. Here I've been expressing myself through playing with the clay figures because it calms me down and I can be an artist when working with it.