Penn State as a party school

I have lived here for 8 months and I have not seen "the mayhem thats going on" but I do agree to the fact that there is a lot of drinking going on. I have seen the life downtown and I have not seen much of trashcan throwing or peeing publicly (I am sure it happens though). If I look at it from the "nice guy" perspective I sure dont want that much drinking going on in my college or I dont want that much mayhem every weekend. But I am a very rational thinker and I dont mind people drinking.
College is the 4 years (5 for some) in ones life that they will remember forever and it could very well be the 4 best years of ones life. At the same time it could be very stressful for some because its the first time they would be living away from parents or having to deal with excessive amounts of studying/homework/quizzes/tests so drinking could be one of the ways of dealing with that stress while making it memorable. I am not saying by any means that everybody should get drunk every weekend, but as long as you know your limits and as long as you can control yourself drink all that you want. I think thats what makes Penn State a very special place. People know exactly how much to drink, when to drink, and have fun while studying for their classes. And in my opinion thats one of the reasons why we are ranked #1 in hiring by Wall Street Journal, because Penn State students know exactly how to live their life.
I also think that drinking and partying is also one of the reasons why the alumni have always been so faithful to Penn State because it reminds them of the good times they had when they were in college. The podcast mentioned about how people are so nice around Penn State because just like its name suggest people are always happy around Happy Valley and to my way of thinking I think its because of all the fun activities going around the campus almost everyday.
The one thing that I liked about this podcast was for the most part it was neutral. It talked about drinking, and partying but at the same time it called about people being nice and the pride that is associated with Penn State. To show their credibility they also included Graham Spaniers voice which definitely helped their argument and made it sound a much more reliable podcast.
All in all I think the fact that Penn State is a big party school doesn't change the fact that people come looking for Penn State graduates and recruit them or the fact that it is one of the finest research university in the world or one of the best academic schools in the country. If anything it makes people happier, more satisfied with their college experience and definitely helps them grow.

What is art

Wikipedia defines art as "a diverse range of human activities and the products of those activities, but is most often understood to refer to painting, film, photography, sculpture, and other visual media. Music, theater, dance, literature, and interactive media are included in a broader definition of art or the arts." To me art is anything that someone makes with an intention of it being art. With that said, my definition of art also includes nature and natural beauties on the planet and as an extension our solar system. 

To focus more on the man-made art, I think if a person made something with an intention of it being art, then it would be art. But that would just define it as art, not as good art or bad art. For example, Rebecca Black's song Friday was a piece of art but that doesn't justify it for being a good piece of art. To me it was just some words put together and some music put together with the word Friday so it was bad art. Counter to that, if we take a look at Coldplay's Paradise, or J.K.Rowling's Harry Potter, or Beaver Stadium, its art and also a very good one at that. 

Over my life, I have admired a lot of places, music, paintings, movies, sculptures, murals that it would hard for me to select one so I am going to post some of the stuff that I consider is art, but I am going to talk about one particular piece of art that stands out the most and has been with me throughout my teenage years. It is the books and movies of Harry Potter. 

I have admired Harry Potter more than anything in my life. I have read the books a billion times (more like 23) and seen the movies/clips of movies a  billion times (that might be right). What JK Rowling did with Harry Potter is something that no other person can re-create. Now whenever I read any of the Harry Potter books I would know exactly where I was when I read it the first time or how I was eagerly waiting for that book or which grade I was in and what I was studying(or not studying) as I read the book. The more I read it the more I get the ultimate message of love and friendship that JK Rowling was trying to send out through these books. Two particular moments in (one in movie 7 and one in movie 5) that stand out are Snape's memory and Dumbledore vs Voldemort battle scene where Harry tells Voldemort that he is the one who is going to lose because he doesn't know what love is or what friendship is. Those two scenes bring out the true essence of the book.

Some other pieces of art that I like are:

Beaver Stadium

Most of Coldplay's songs. 

Most of U2's songs.

This dance to dubstep

and many more. 

H W Longfellow

The sculpture at the Museum.

When I saw the sculpture of H W Longfellow, I remembered reading his name when I was in middle school. Immediately I pulled out my iPod to see what poems he had written and what I had read. As soon as I read some of the poems that he had written my entire childhood flashed in front of me. Turns out I had read 7 of his poems that I could remember.

Henry Dexter, the sculptor was a “self-taught genius,” as mentioned in the explanation below the sculpture. The sculpture made out of marble, was made in 1868. The sculpture is an exact depiction of H W Longfellow and shows the expertise of Henry Dexter in an elegant way. The marble sculpture raises Longfellow’s greatness by the classical Roman drape giving a kingly effect to the poet but the hairstyle and the shine on the forehead give a note of humanity to the sculpture.  

As per the explanation provided below the sculpture, both men sat down when they were in their sixties and Henry Dexter created this masterpiece. Dexter used American marble to create the portrait referring to the poems of Longfellow which were distinctly American and the fact that he hadn’t learnt classical sculpture abroad.

My initial reaction to seeing the sculpture was “oh, H W Longfellow. I have read poems that he wrote”. After that my brain blacked out on what poems I had read. In order to satisfy my need to know what poems I had read, I opened H W Longfellow’s Wikipedia and found out that I had read 7 poems that I could remember reading. I read at least one poem from 6^th grade to 10^th grade and parts of my middle school and high school flashed in front of me. I read A Psalm of Life again after I saw this sculpture and remembered how inspired I was when I first read this poem. The poem talks about taking charge in life like a hero and acting in the present and not living in the past or worrying about the future. I remember my teacher telling the class to keep pursuing in the goals no matter what the outcome is. All this took place at the museum and when I was done I realized that I had just been standing at the same spot for almost 45 minutes reading the poem and trying to infer it.

The claim that the piece is making is to not forget the art (literature or artistic) that existed in 1800s and especially to remind students of the great poets and authors that lived back in the day. The claim seems convincing to me to the extent that I stood there and took my time to remember what I know about Longfellow. The claim would be more persuasive if there are more visitors to the museum and not just students asked to go their because of their class.
This was my second time going to the Palmer museum of Arts. The first time I was there was two weeks ago when I went there with a friend to help her find paintings for her Art History class. I loved the paintings that were there; especially Harlem Rose, football sculpture, mother and son and the stone painting. I definitely imagine going back but not anytime soon. I would definitely go there to show the museum to my friends and family but also sometime to just appreciate the art.