Ode to Teen Angst Part 2: Another Mental Art vs. Faux Art vs. Shock Factor Conflict

Allison Klion was a high school friend I doubt I could ever forget. She is one of the most passionate people I know, she is one of the best writers I know, and she is--without a doubt--the most curious, inquisitive, and observational people I know. She sees the world through a lens most people couldn't fathom and she has the additional capability of describing what she sees eloquently. She's a photographer. She's a music enthusiast. She loves poetry.

Though my talents were polar opposites from Allison's, we (disgustingly enough) prided ourselves on NOT publicizing our "artsiness." On the contrary, Allison and I had regular battles with ourselves and our friends surrounding us regarding INFIABSIA.

INFIABSA was, at one point or another, a book and a movie script, a song, a play, and brilliantly enough, there was INFIABSIA: the musical.

We also regularly designed T-shirts with the acronym on it. At this point, you may wonder what, precisely, it is.

I Negate the Fact that I'm Artsy By Saying I'm Artsy.

You see, there were factions of the artsy crowd at The Hockaday School.

There were the 1) "artsy" medically experimental (AKA I actually heard a conversation between two girls that went as follows "Dude, I have my dad's prescription pad--this weekend's going to be freaking awesome") who read Ginsberg and Kerouac, skipped class, wore band T-shirts, and bemoaned their identity-crisis-driven-woes 24/7 (The worst bit was their need to publicize this constantly... because honestly, isn't everyone searching for themselves in high school?)
2) socially concerned "artsy" folk: those who used "artsiness" as an excuse to be anti social. These were usually the types sporting forty pounds of eyeliner, purple hair dye, and growled a lot. No joke. It's a sign of angst.
3) the performers: artsy by activity. you knew who these kids were. They didn't all hang out together, but they're generally type A musical theatre addicts. Usually surrounded by a small army of flamboyant men.
4) the artists: generally more reserved, produced amazing work, generally had an association with vibrato, and the good ones never flaunted their artsiness.

You may gather that there were quite a number of people who fell into one of these four categories. While this was highly beneficial for our arts magazine, Vibrato (which everyone should check out...It's won nearly every award possible. I can't take any credit for it, sadly. I never did anything for it, but it's beautiful!)

Anyway...Naturally, each group secretly believed themselves to be mentally/socially superior to the others. Allison and I snobbishly decided that the top two categories were entirely silly, and we therefore said "INFIABSIA" everytime there was a sighting of faux-artsiness.

This was pure silliness on my part, but at the same time, my sentiments about INFIABSIA and proudly wearing artsiness on your sleeve still bothers me. How can you balance reservations about shock factor and intentionally artistic art (do you know what I mean?) and genuine creativity? They can overlap, can't they?

My point is, I'm confused once again. I'm trying to plan Juxtap'art and while gesamtkunstwerk is brilliant, it's also messing with my head. I don't know that total art is actually a cohesive idea. I mentioned before that I've had some really varied ideas coming at me from all directions. I don't want something cheesey and lame and by the book, but I also don't want something so ridiculous and "shocking" and in your face "HEY THIS IS ART!" that I no longer like it. I need something edgy, but classy. Something with a sense of nostalgia, but that sense of something urban and hip (Not really for me, but to satisfy that NEED on this campus.) I can't just make my dream arts fest. My dream arts fest is something few people on this campus would enjoy, and that's not what this is about. I need to create something that will make me happy--something that excites me--but also something that will get others hyped up about it. Something that will satisfy the "cheese" desire in the musical theatre kids, the "by-the-book" desire in the general populous, the "hip, urban" feel for the arts majors, the "edginess" and "shock factor" for the theatre kids. At the same time, I don't want it to be incoherent. HELP!

I know it will all work out and that it will hopefully be a success, but I'm still grappling with general ideas at this point. Anyway, I still need to work on music theory homework (oops) so I better run. Feel free to comment with words of wisdom, encouragement, or hope!