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