POST 8: TIM BURTON: A biography

                                          Tim Burton

Fill in the gaps in this biography of Tim Burton

Tim Burton was born in 1958, in the city of Burbank, California.

He remains without question one of the most original film maker working in cinema today.

 Indeed, his talent and originality have kept him at the top of the profession where he occupies a very special place, somewhere between the mainstream and the avant-garde, in that region of cinema occupied by artists which worldview is not unconventional that it attains popular appeal.

In 1989, Tim Burton directed the hugely known Batman which, although his least personal film, was one of the most popular movies of all time and gave him unprecedented success in Hollywood, considering the originality and adventurousness of his previous films (for example Beetlejuice in 1988).

Edward Scissorhands (1990), another hit, saw him at the peak of his directing powers and established a fruitful working collaboration/partnership with actor Johnny Depp who played in his 2005 film version of Roald Dahl’s book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and who became one of his most esteemed partner since their first film together.

In 1992, Batman Returns was a way darker film than the original, a reflection of how much cinematographic freedom Tim Burton had won (producers Warner Bros were reputedly unhappy with the final result).

And even if Ed Wood (1994), his loving tribute to the life and work of the legendary ‘Worst Director of All Time’ Edward D. Wood, Jr., was a box-office disaster, it got some of the best critics of Burton’s career.

In fact, Tim Burton is known/famous both for his dark, quirky-themed movies like Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, or Dark Shadows (2012) and for blockbusters such as Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Batman, Planet of the Apes, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Alice in Wonderland (2010), one of his most successful films, which became the fifth highest grossing films of all times.

Burton has produced 18 feature films as of 2014, and has released 12 as of 2012  (among which the very nice Christmas tale called The  Nightmare Before Christmas in 1993).

All in all, Tim Burton’s films consistently challenge the spectator’s expectations, push forward the principles of filmmaking and bring to life previously unthinkable characters (like Edward Scissorhands).

Taken as a whole, his work is based on the confrontation between the fantastic and the horror, and the consequences of these two worlds intermingling.

Big Fish, Burton’s 2003 effort, is no different. And ___, somehow, it is not really the

_________.

On the surface, it would appear to have all the aspects of a classic Burton film: a magic screenplay, fairy-tale characters, flights of imagination, forces of nature (as well as the supernatural), far-fetched situations and vastly imaginative visual style and imagery. The movie is, in fact, fully packed with fanciful episodes that it begins to feel like a loose adaptation of The Odyssey, told from the mouth of an aging character named Ed Bloom, a story-teller and dreamer who sees the world with beautiful eyes.

                                                                        

 

                                                                  

POST 6: Personal choice of a song in relation with a notion

Same Love - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

This song by Macklemore was released in 2012, one month after the french parlement proposed a law to authorize homosexual mariage (i'm not sure it has something to do but it is a interesting coincidence). Macklemore is an american rapper with irish origins. Though he comes from a christian family, he supports gay rights especially with this song, which is about the subject.

In this song, Macklemore talks mainly about homosexuals in the american society. 

In the first verse, he paints all of the stereotypes built around homosexual in the society, for instance, when he says "i thought that i was gay, cause i could draw (...)". Then, he brings out the problem of american conservatism and the place that church takes in this society.

In the second verse, he explains how society twisted words and expression like "gay" or "faggot" that have a totally negative connotation meaning for young people that being gay is ridiculous, and homosexuals are associated to weakness.

In the third verse, he gives his personal point of view on the question (though he does that during the whole song), defending gay rights through religion, saying that no matter what everybody has the same god, and that gay people are humans, like everybody, born this way, and not chosing to be gay like right-wing conservative people think.
He compares gays to black people before they got their rights and gives the same arguments we could have given for black people at the time, only, using one more argument: love.
We can relate this song to the notion of forms of power because we can see mainly two forms of power facing each other: the power of love, and the power of society, repression and fear.

Also, we can even branch out to the notion of progress with the end of the song since we compares gay rights to black people rights, which was a progress for the time, and when he says "love is patient" at the end, it means that gays will never give up for their rights and that America is, slowly, openning itself to gays because nowadays, 9 states have legalised gay marriage.

(354 words)

POST 7: Art Exhibition Review

Pop Art Myths, Thyssen Museum, Madrid (www.museothyssen.org) from June 10 to September 14 (now over).

This summer in Madrid, weather was so hot you could use a fresh place to hide in the afternoon. The Thyssen museum offered this with additionally a very nice trip back to the 50's and the 60's, or the mythical Pop Art years. The exhibition (which stayed for 3 months) was a perfect resumey of different parts of this innovative art (for the time) and is divided in different categories which show very well the principal values of this movement. It is a very light exhibition with no more then 9 rooms and 4 to 5 pieces by room but the art pieces were chosen so well you do not feel like you are missing anything at the end.

What is very well thought out in this exhibition is how they organized the room and the paintings with themes that are proper to Pop Art: emblems, comics, myths, portraits, urban erotism, history, and of course, above all, everyday objects. Andy Warhol has a great place in this exhibition for his emblematic role in the Pop Art movement and we can see some of his famous work like the Marylins, one of the many One Dollar Bill silk-screen work or an incredible self portrait that correspond to his character and artwork. Of course, Roy Lichtenstein's "cartoons" are obviously a classic in a pop art exhibition and 3 or 4 good pieces are exposed in the first room. A part from theese two, a lot of different pop art artists are represented in this very heterogeneous art show. Although i was quite impressed and very satisfied with the work shown in the exhibition, i still think they were missing Warhol's silk-screen work of the campbell soup and coca cola bottles which are classics of the ideas artists had at the time about the beginning of consumerism society.

I am now in my 2nd year of litterary studies and Pop Art has always been one of my favorite art movement. Andy Warhol, which is a kind of american Yves Saint Laurent and not only his personnality really fascinates me but also his point of view on society and the way he revolutionned painting. Which is why i chose to present S&H Green Stamps, created in 1965 by Andy Warhol:

S&H Green Stamps, Andy Warhol

We can associate this painting of a lot of other silk-screen works by Warhol with Campbell soup cans, coca cola bottle or even the face of Marylin Monroe or Liz Taylor. With the silk-screen technique, Warhol wanted to say how society had made everyone and everything look the same, so plain, but yet with differences, because not a single stamp is the same as his neighbour if you look loser to the painting. It is the same for all of his other silk-screen pieces. I liked the way Warhol painted that society in a what seemed a really deep way of thinking thought he actually didn't have that much work to didn't care that much about each of his paintings. His atelier was more like a factory and yet he managed to provide pieces of art that will stay forever in our culture like myths.

Campbell's Soup Can, Andy Warhol, 1962

Four Marilyns, Andy Warhol, 1964

Green Coca Cola Bottles, Andy Warhol, 1962

Ten Lizes, Andy Warhol, 1963

Also, if you are a Pop Art lover and happen to be in Paris, a nice way to see a few but great Pop Art pieces at le Centre Georges Pompidou, in the permanent exhibition where you can see for instance the Ten Lizes by Andy Warhol.

POST 5 - A R.E.M. song and video

                                                        Everyday is yours to win - R.E.M

 

First review: "It took R.E.M. fifteen albums and three decades but they've finally done it - they've released an album which brings nothing new to the band's sound. R.E.M. are a band who have always looked forward and each album has had something new to bring to the band's repertoire. Even Reckoning, which is somewhat of a Murmur Lite, revealed small glimpses of the band doing things Murmur hadn't revealed. Collapse Into Now on the other hand doesn't add anything unheard to the band's discography. It does it knowingly: as an album it's somewhat of a R.E.M. microcosmos, gathering together glimpses of what the band has pulled through during the decades. You have the acoustic moments, the rifftastic rockers, the introspective and the electronic, and even traces of a little bit of jangle here and there. The keyfocus is still keeping things a bit rocky, a bit loud: Accelerate producer Jacknife Lee returns with his hate-it-or-not-be-bothered-by-it crisp modern rock production and the songs at least sound like their cores have been recorded together as a band rather than assembled like puzzles, and some of the influence of Accelerate lingers constantly in the background. Only now, it's got some friends.

Stylistically diverse albums are always slightly risky. You can go into two ways with them: the album either takes power from being so diverse and turns the slightly schizophrenic sound into a weird sound of its own, or it sounds a bit disjointed and lacking in cohesive nature. I've always been heavily into cohesivity - for many it's not a point they even think about in music, but I've come to genuinely appreciate albums which sound like a full body of work rather than a scattering of individual things. It makes them stronger. Collapse Into Now falls to the latter category. It never really sounds like the unified body of work that you usually expect from R.E.M. albums. I've been steadily playing it quite a lot ever since its release and the feeling persists. The glue that binds together the songs is missing and there's a surprisingly noticeable feeling of something lacking due to that. 

But like said, I've been steadily playing Collapse Into Now quite a lot. The feeling of it sounding like an album where not much thought was placed into the overall build persists. I have however also come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter in the slightest. Why?

Because of the stadium rock crowd-raiser finale of "Discoverer" and the sheer rock n roll joy it eminates.
Because of the spellbinding chorus and flow of "Überlin".
Because of the ever-growing horde of vocal harmonies singing in joyous unison in "It Happened Today".
Because of the chorus in "Mine Smell Like Honey" that offers nothing new to the world of music but sounds rejuvenated, energised and like it's on the top of the world.
Because of the simple, understated yet downright classically beautiful tenderness of "Walk It Back".
Because of the shouting competition between Stipe and Peaches on "Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter".
Because of the way the strings swell and flow on "Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando and I"
Because of the sudden reprise of "Discoverer" that raises like a phoenix from the static ashes of the end of "Blue".

All moments that make my hair on my back raise every time from sheer awe. The sort of feeling you get when you encounter a brilliant piece of music for the first time and get all excited about discovering it, except the feeling persists and comes back each time I hear those moments. There is only a couple of genuinely brilliant songs on Collapse Into Now ("Überlin", "It Happened Today", "Discoverer"), but even some of the 'lesser' songs have a moment within them that strikes with a magic touch, like listening to something with genuine classic value.

I don't think Collapse Into Now will ever climb its way up near my favourites in the R.E.M. discography. It doesn't really sound particularly engaged with itself, which sounds nastier than it is, and what's arguably worse is that Stipe's once brilliant lyrical pen is somehow capable of only vague inanities these days. It sounds like a good, solid late-period addition to the discography: the sort of thing people often expect artists three decades into the game to put out to please the fans, happy in its own world and good by all accounts but not a major gamechanger in general standards anymore. But what makes it a bit more special is that every now and then, or fairly frequently actually, you can hear a moment that sounds downright fantastic and which captures that same magic that have made the band come this far in the first place. Not a classic by any means, but a bloody good album that overcomes its (small) flaws with ease."

Seconde review: "At last! R.E.M. have come up with an album to compare with their 'greats' of the past. Brand loyalty can come at a price, and R.E.M. have tested my patience with a series of disappointing albums, 'Accelerate' promised much but in reality just offered 4 or 5 good tracks and some really poor tracks also. 

'Collapse Into Now' in many ways offers a similar style to 'Accelerate' but 12 of the 12 tracks hit the mark. I am not ready (yet!) to heap too much praise, but this could prove to be a truly great R.E.M. album. I guess my low expectations, might lead me to over state the quality of this album, but I need to go back to albums such as 'Up' and 'Reveal' to hear equivalent quality (and I hold both of these albums in very high esteem). 

What is particularly impressive about 'Collapse Into Now' is the combination between the gentle and the more rocky tracks. This album flows beautifully and will probably satisfy all R.E.M. fans who have stuck with them over the disappointments of recent years. 

So if you are hesitating in respect to this latest album, get out there now and buy your copy! 

PS: This was indeed the final R.E.M. album, at least they went out on a positive note!! 

Key Track: Uberlin"

Source: http://rateyourmusic.com/

  

Biography of the band: R.E.M. was an American rock band from Athens, Georgia, formed in 1980 by singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and drummer Bill Berry. One of the first popular alternative rock bands, R.E.M. gained early attention because of Buck's ringing, arpeggiated guitar style and Stipe's unclear vocals. R.E.M. released its first single, "Radio Free Europe", in 1981 on theindependent record label Hib-Tone. The single was followed by the Chronic Town EP in 1982, the band's first release on I.R.S. Records. In 1983, the group released its critically acclaimed debut album, Murmur, and built its reputation over the next few years through subsequent releases, constant touring, and the support of college radio. Following years of underground success, R.E.M. achieved a mainstream hit in 1987 with the single "The One I Love". The group signed to Warner Bros. Records in 1988, and began to espouse political and environmental concerns while playing large arenas worldwide.

By the early 1990s, when alternative rock began to experience broad mainstream success, R.E.M. was viewed by subsequent acts such as Nirvanaand Pavement as a pioneer of the genre and released its two most commercially successful albums, catapulting it to international fame, Out of Time (1991) andAutomatic for the People (1992), which veered from the band's established sound. R.E.M.'s 1994 release, Monster, was a return to a more rock-oriented sound, but still continued its run of success. The band began its first tour in six years to support the album; the tour was marred by medical emergencies suffered by three band members. In 1996, R.E.M. re-signed with Warner Bros. for a reported US$80 million, at the time the most expensive recording contract in history. Its 1996 release, New Adventures in Hi-Fi, though critically acclaimed, fared worse commercially than expected. The following year, Bill Berry left the band, while Buck, Mills, and Stipe continued the group as a trio. Through some changes in musical style, the band continued its career into the next decade with mixed critical and commercial success, despite having sold more than 85 million records worldwide and becoming one of the world's best-selling bands of all time.^[4] In 2007, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. R.E.M. disbanded amicably in September 2011, announcing the split on its website.

Source: em.wikipedia.org

I personally didn't like the song or the video at all. I am curious though to find out the meaning of this "home-made" video which probably has a secret meaning. As for the song, it is not at all the kind of music i like, and the slow and repetitive rythm iritates me a little. I don't feel any groove at all in this song and i find it boring, but again, this is a personal opinion.

The video is related to the notion of myths and heroes because the song talks talks about how heroes are made. Also, it is related to spaces and exchanges and maybe places to because we see different type of exotic animals that could be living in the 4 corners of the earth and also people from different ages and nationalities. Last, we can relate it to the notion of progress because it captures moments of an everyday life with a camera, thanks to progress, because before the end of the 20th century, you couldn't do that.

Google doc: http://pinkisthenewblack0.blogspot.com.es/

POST 4: CLASSWORK. iRack Video on MADtv

Classwork on a MADtv video

The iRack

POST 3: INDIVIDUAL WORK ON 'THE IDEA OF PROGRESS' VIEWED THROUGH HIGH TECH PRODUCTS

Smart Cities

This document is a video (documentary or campaign maybe) about Barcelona becoming a Smart City. It was published in January 2014, 8 months ago so it is very a very recent project although it is already working. This video is about how big cities in the world (here, the example is Barcelona) use high technology to make the city a nicer place to live in and an easier access to it.

When you first watch the video, what catches the eye at first sight are all the new "connections" that are available in the city. We can see for example some kind of digital box and a ben which is there to show at how many percent it is filled. This, for example, is part of the enviromental progress of the city and also esthetic.

Next, the voice over says that in big cities, 40% of the trafic is caused by cars trying to find a parking place. The solution to this problem has been found and we can see it in the document: inground parkment sentors can comunicate with devices to inform the desperate driver where to find a free parking place, and how many parking places are left in a certain area. This is a big progress for cities because it means less cars moving in the cities. If you think about it twice, finding a parking place fast means using less your car, and if you multiply this by the number of cars that are used in the city, it makes a considerable change for the environment. Less cars, less polution.

Afterwords, they talk about "connecting" the city and its citizens. By installing free wifi in buses, metro, and creating these new "smart bus stops", it is more easy and less stressfull to use metro and buses, and it gives people a reason to use their car less and less. These connections, added to the apps on smartphones that already exist, give you the exact amount of time you need to wait for your bus or your metro, and helps you find the best itinerary to go from a place to another. Also, at the beginning of the video, we can see an app, on a smartphone, that can tell the weather. With wifi connection in almost all the city, citizens can know what is the weather at any time of the day, instead of waiting for the weather cast on T.V in the evening. This wifi connection also makes them feel like their are home because they have the same fast network then in their houses.

Barcelona is installing highly efficient street lights, which makes the city a safer, nicer and more ecological place. This new light technology is saving a great amount of energy, which is one of the most important upsides of these new Smart Cities.

This document shows us how we can use new technologies in the best way we can, not only for pleasure, but for social, econominc and environmental betterment. The Smart Cities give to the citizens an easier and nicer access to the city and a very modern lifestyle, but also works on preserving the planet from pollution and waste.

POST #2: VIDEOS (CLASS DEBATE): WHEN TECHNOLOGY IS TOO MUCH OR... MISSING

WHEN TECHNOLOGY IS TOO MUCH OR... MISSING

Description

This video is structured around two main narrative voices and a character illustrating what the voice-over says while a singer often merely repeats or comments on what's just been said (as in a Greek chorus).

The setting is a Christian home and church, so this particular context is very meaningful.

We can notice on various occasions that the main character is addicted to high-technology products, mostly smartphones.

He is shown as a family man unable to communicate with his wife, except through texting.

He is also shown as a church-goer incapable of attending worship without all his phones vibrating all the time, making him look like he's full of the holy spirit.

Finally, he is depicted as a computer geek whose life has become extremely complicated instead of having been simplified.

Interpretation

Basically, this video means that high technology has become a religion for many people, even Christians who are not supposed to be materialistic.

Then, in a Christian lifestyle, quite a few church-goers and believers tend to focus more on materialistic issues rather than spiritual ones.

We can add that technology reigns supreme for many people who revere it as a God enlightening his followers.

The question is, is this a real progress for humankind ?

The man in the video is building this allusion of an non-existent social life through all of his gadgets that he probably loves most than his wife or fake internet friends because he probably has no frieds in real life for spending so much time trying to connect with his virtual ones.
There is a quote that goes very well with the story of this man, which says "The best things in life aren't things."
Maybe he should turn he cellphone off and "reconnect" with the real world...

Description

Two people are stuck on an escalator in a place that seems literally empty/deserted. The man looks upset/annoyed. He might be an office worker walking to his job. The woman claims that she is already late, so for her, this is the last straw. At one point, she's about to cry and asks for a phone, then she screams for help. In short, they both look helpless, clueless, powerless and even hopeless.

Interpretation

 We can relate this situation to a fairly common one in real life : getting stuck in an elevator. The difference however, is  that in this situation, people have the right to panic/freak out/feel panicky whereas on an escalator, there is no reason whatsoever to be scared.

This video points out the increasing dependence of human beings on technology. If it goes missing, it is as if a crutch had been taken away from them, so these two people cannot even walk up the stairs, which would be the normal thing to do. We could think that technological progress makes humans lazy or at least less prone to take initiative and think by themselves, less inclined to make efforts.

This situation tells us more about this generation Y we are part of, where people start losing their humanity or their abilities to do simple things like walking, for example. They became so used to having every single task completed for them by machines that they completly forgot how to live like normal people. The absurdity of this situation is that it emphasizes very well this world of new technologies addicts we live in although neither the woman nor the man have a cellphone!