Tim Burton

A little of Tim Burton's biography... 

                   

                                       

Hero - Skillet

This song, Hero, is from the Christian rock band Skillet, formed in Memphis, Tennesse in 1996. Currently, the band has four members: John (lead vocal and bass) and Korey Cooper (rhythm guitar, keyboards, backing vocals), who are married, Jen Ledger (drums, vocals) and Seth Morrison (lead guitar). Since its creation, some of its members have come and gone, leaving John Cooper as the only remaining original member. In their musical career, two of their eight albums have received Grammy nominations, which are Collide, 2003, and Comatose, 2006.  Their musical style was described as "alt-metal, hard rock, post-grunge, and soaring alternative rock" by James Christopher Monger, an allmusic reviewer.

At first sight, it might seem that this song talks about Jesus, because its principal meaning is beeing saved by someone when he is lost and helpless "just in time" and this someone is Jesus. Personally, I'm not Christian so I won't be seing the meaning of this song refering to Jesus Christ.
In general, this song talks about someone being lost in himself, losing faith and being completely desperate. This person seems to bear at the same time a great responsability to what he has to be up to, and it's the reason he feels so helpless, because he doesn't feel like he can. In a last moment of hope he cries out for help "Someone save me from the hate" "I need a hero to save me now". In the video we see a succession of people, a firefighter, a doctor/nurse, a police officer, a soldier, who are every day life heroes. These heroes are those people in whom we leave the responsability of preserving our safety and health. In the progresion of the song we see that this desperate person gains confidence and starts to have a stronger attitude, he starts behaving like a hero, fighting for what is right and speaking out loud so he can be heard and do what he's supposed to do. Also, in the video they stand still even in the storm/rain to represent that evene in difficulties they don't back down. Besides, the song talks about the kind of world we live in and we see that he describes things like "war", "family torn" or "kill" with the word "just" so we can get the idea that it is something regular, that our world is losing itself in disgraceful events "Just another day in the world we live". Finally, the song says "who's gonna fight for what's right" clearly asking for a hero to do so, and, as things evolve, he becomes this hero that he is, "I've got a hero Livin' in me", that he needed at the begining.
This person, who could be anyone, changes completly throughout  the song, he strats being a helpless and desperate person and then becomes a hero, someone who is going to do the right things, riskng everything for what is right "I will be ready to die". In my opinion, this song shows what a hero can be and do, that even if it's scary and risky it is worth doing what you think is right.

This song is related to the notion of Myths and Heroes, because it talks about doing the right thing and fighting for what you believe even if that means to risk everything you have, because it is worth it. Besides, everyone want to protect what they have in every possible way, and this song encourages you to do so even if it scares you, because everyone needs a hero. It deals with the aspect of what a hero is or represent and the aspect that everyone ca be a hero.

Pop Art - Art Review

POP ART MYTHS (10/06 - 14/09/2014)

Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Website - Pop Art Myths,

 Paseo del Prado 8, 28014 Madrid, España

Last summer there was a exhibition at the Thyssen Museum in Madrid about Pop Art Myths, like Andy Warholl, Roy Lichtenstein,... This expo lasted the whole summer, it was organized by the Thyssen Musseum in collaboration with Japan Tobacco International.

It is a really complete exhibition, it has artists of different nationalities, and it is composed of different rooms in which  there are different categories of this artistic mouvement, such as Collage, Comic, Myths, Portrait, Still Lifes, ... This exhibition is pretty well-done because it has variety, in all its aspects, and it gives a light feeling, it is not surcharged of works. Everything is worth seeing in this art exhibition although, in my opinion, the most interesting part is the one about Myths and Portraits. It is a quite complete exhibition and I don't think that anything is missing.
Pop Art Myths is an exhibition about Pop Art in general, but is has works of great and well-known artists. It aims to show the purpose of Pop Art, that relates "low" culture with "high" culture and make a break with the past.

As a Terminale stuent, who only has common knwoledge about any kind of art, my opinion isn't really well-based. Cleopatra, by Mimmo Rotella, is a work that catched my eye because it is a simple film poster but that has become a piece of art. It was made in 1963. In this work we can see three characters, in the middle there is Cleopatra, embodied by Liz Taylor, and behind her, at each side there is the two roman generals that fell in love with her, Marco Antonio and Julius Caesar. This "poster" is not in a perfect state, it is ripped in various places. I think that this artwork aims to make Liz Taylor stand out as a beauty icon, and a desired woman, just as the historical Cleopatra who was a desirable woman. The light in the "poster" is upon her and the ripped parts are barely on her, mostly around her. This artwork looks like a real poster that you can find on the streets, being torned like that because of time and people that pass by and you can see pieces of the poster that was under this one, but even if it is damaged the most important part, the representation of powerful beauty, can't be damaged. In this picture Elisabeth Taylor gives the impresion of a powerful woman whose beauty is venerated, and because of that it can't be touched. 

This exihibition has been the first one about Pop Art since the last one at Reina Sofia in 1992. It is an exihibition that collecs several works from different museums all around the world and it seems to be an exclusive one, because there is no information about if it's going to travel around Spain or about any other Pop Art exhibition. 

Cleopatra

Domenico "Mimmo" Rotella

1963

Courtesy of Pop Art Myths, Madrid

R.E.M. - Every Day Is Yours To Win

Cover artwork:

Two contrasting reviwes of the album

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

From: corkie at Rate Your Music

I'm beginning to think previewing most of this album online weeks, even months, before its release was an act of genius on R.E.M.'s part. For me, it meant that by the time Collapse Into Now was officially released into this die-hard fan's hands, I'd got past the need to constantly compare the songs to bits of the band's back catalogue (you know the kind of thing -- hey, this song sounds a bit like "Drive"! This song sounds a bit like "Crush With Eyeliner"! This song sounds a bit like "Losing My Religion!") and could appreciate it on its own terms. And heck, why shouldn't R.E.M. sound like its past selves? For all that Buck, Mills and Stipe have tried to wear their history lightly, the fact is they will still wear it. (As the old saw goes, "Be yourself -- nobody else is better qualified".) 

And the truth is, yes, this is minor R.E.M. I appreciate they wanted to diversify in sound a bit more than Accelerate, but in doing so they've lost focus and impact. And some of Michael Stipe's lyrics are surprisingly silly. There doesn't seem to be any overarching theme to the record, or even a reason for it to be apart from, well, it was time to make another album. So, let me be truthful and rate it 3 1/2 stars. 

But let me be even more truthful and say I love this album, in the same way I love Reckoning and Green and Up -- it's tuneful and daft and heartfelt and brash, it swaggers and it simpers, it has its tongue in its cheek and its hand on its heart. It is, as Peter Buck once famously described R.E.M. itself, "part lies, part heart, part truth and part garbage". It endears itself to me. It's like getting a big hug from an old friend you haven't seen in a while. 

And while great songs are thin on the ground, I'll make a big exception for "Blue" (as so often in the past, they save the best for last). And if this does turn out to be the last R.E.M. album, they couldn't find a better way to go out than with Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye along for the ride. Which does complete a kind of perfect circle, after all; Horses was the album that Stipe and Buck bonded over a mutual love of, and you can see the influence from "Radio Free Europe" on -- in a sense, Stipe and Buck are Smith and Kaye. 

Not a perfect band, but still my favourite band.

From: BradL at  Rate Your Music

Short Biography

R.E.M. marked the point when post-punk turned into alternative rock. When their first single, "Radio Free Europe," was released in 1981, it sparked a back-to-the-garage movement in the American underground. R.E.M. brought guitar pop back into the underground lexicon. Combining ringing guitar hooks with mumbled, cryptic lyrics and a D.I.Y. aesthetic borrowed from post-punk, the band simultaneously sounded traditional and modern. Though there were no overt innovations in their music, R.E.M. had an identity and sense of purpose that transformed the American underground. Throughout the '80s, they worked relentlessly, releasing records every year and touring constantly, playing both theaters and backwoods dives. Along the way, they inspired countless bands, from the legions of jangle pop groups in the mid-'80s to scores of alternative pop groups in the '90s, who admired their slow climb to stardom.
For 2011's Collapse into Now, the band favored a more expansive sound, one that combined Accelerate's rock songs, their previous album, with slower ballads and moody atmospherics. Reviews were mostly positive, and it debuted in the Top Five in America. Unexpectedly, in September 2011, the band announced its amicable breakup after 31 years together. Immediately after the split, the band issued a double disc compilation entitled, Part Lies Part Heart Part Truth Part Garbage: 1982-2011, covering both their years at IRS and Warner.

Record review

When I saw the video, I found it weird, because it showed different people doing random things or short videos of birds flying in a house or a cat. Also the quality isn't a good one, it seems to be all a webcam footage. But even if I found it weird I liked it, excatly because it was a video of different types of people doing random things. I think it has a poetic side, it has a charming side because it shows people doing curious things that maybe you hadn't seen before. Also, it has left me curious to know what happens next in some of the footage, like, for example, a guy who was painting himself in white and you never know what he is doing because you don't see it in full. 

I think that this song and video talks about every day's life and about how to live it, what you can do to live as much as you can by doing things that you like, and living by taking profit of everything around you. Because "every day is yours to win", you have to take profit of every day in whichever way you think is the best.

This video can be related to the four notions studied this year.
   It can be related to Myths and Heroes because this song is entitled "Every Day Is Yours to Win", it can be seen as if the day has to be conquered, which is what heroes do, so we could it refers to people calling them every days life heroes.
   It can be related to Science and Techniques as well as The Notion of Progress, because of the way the video is done. It is a mash up of different footages done by different people, and it seems a really innovative video clip. Also in the video we can see people doing things pretty worked on, which we can relate to Science and Techniques.
   It can be related to the Forms of Power because of the theme of the song, it kind of talks about the power of people in the Do It Yourself, and the power you have when you do things that you like for yourself.

 

Worksheet

iRack - MADtv

Positive Impact of New Technologies

This is a picture that shows the evolution of the prosthetic leg. Its heading says "Perfecting The Prosthetic Leg, how incremental innovation works for patients". It is from Eucomed, which is a company that represents the medical technology industry in Europe.

This picture shows the evolution of a prosthetic leg since 1800, we can see that it goes from wood to a much more modern material. And in between the oldest and the newest there are five more prototypes.

We can see that, in this case, technology has had a positive impact on medical assitance as this prosthetic leg that seems much more comfortable now than before. The continuous innovations that have been made throughout the years has enabled the prosthetic leg to imitate a real leg and its uses. For example, between the first prototypes, that is just a peg leg, and the next one, we can see that there is an articulation, like a knee, that appears. Also the materials of which the prosthetic legs are made have also changed to better and more comfortable ones. We see that little by little the prosthetic leg gets different elements such as a shoe, and it also takes more the form of a leg. The next two prototypes resemble each other except for the materials they are made of and the forms. The form of the second is more leg -like while the other has still the previous form. The next two, which were made after 1920, have tried to imitate as much as possible a real leg but the first one seems to have a less comfortable way of tying it to the leg than the next one, which just has the foot like a real one. The last and newest one is no longer an imitation of a leg but a tool that enables less-than-two-legged people to be able to get over their handicap.

Medical progress are above all done to make, in this case, the loss of a leg less harsh and it also helps to simplify the life of the patients. 

1. The technological progress of the prosthetic leg, nowadays, allows one-legged or none-legged people to walk like any two-legged person. Also thanks to these advances, sport games like "Special Olympics" exist, in which handicaped people can do almost any kind of sport competition. Thanks to the progress of medical technology the limitations of handicaps (not being able to walk, to run, to do sports,...) are being counteracted. 

When Technology is too Much... Or Missing

Mr. Too Much Technology Gadget Guy

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.

In addition, we can say that this video is like a parody of a soof ad, and it can be seen as a caricature.

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 ?

 This is also is quite comic because the guy's life style is presented as the ideal way of living whereas it's the complete opposite.

Stuck On An Escalator

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. And also kind of pathetic due to the ironic situation they are in, unable to find a way out.

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. It's like the use of technology makes us acostumied to it and we could tend to forget even such an obvious things as to climb the strairs when an escalator stops. We could say that, this way we could end up thinking that just because it is supposed to bring us to the top of the escalator the fact that it stops makes it unable to do so, so logically we can't reach the top. And then, we are stuck, forgetting that we can climb the stairs. 

A Cartoon

This document is a cartoon from the International Herald Tribune. It tackles the issue of pirating movies, which is very common nowadays and affects the film market.

In the top left-hand corner we can see the entrance of a building, on which is written "CANNES" under the logo of the "Festival de Cannes", in which people are gathering, and being photographed while entering. In the background, we can notice a big crowd with cameras and papers, which I can suppose are to ask for autographs from the stars entering the building walking on the red carpet. In the foreground we can see a fan asking for an autograph. It includes a balloon in which is written "I love your movies. I've pirated them all!", said by the fan.

We can say that the author, Chappatte, aims to criticize piracy. To make people sensitive of the fact that piracy, aside from being illegal, harms the movie-making industry and instead of helping it to improve it makes them lose money, so to speak means to make more movies.
The author aims to denounce this fact.

In my opinion, this document is carefully thought out because at first glance, we can get a pretty clear idea of the overall message of the cartoon. We can immediately recognise the context and understand its meaning easily. I find it convincing but I don't know if it's really effective, because the issue treated here affects the majority of the modern world. Also, piracy is an easy way of having quickly the movies you want to have without paying, so I'm not sure it is effective because I don't know if people would be struk so much as to stop pirating.

Personally speaking, I think it is really a big issue, that would be nice to be solved soon, but which is far from it. I agree with the author that piracy is bad an also if you want your stars to continue making movies then you should buy they but also other movies that I don't like so much I would maybe pirate them. I mostly think that this piracy problem is something which will not easely be solved.
This makes me think that this issue has not only to do with movies but also with series and music, which is basically the same problem and not only brings a problem to the movie making industry but also to the TV. It even leads the productors of TV channels to wonder what will be the future of the TV, will it continue existing or not?