Stop Motion Animation

This song has been stuck in my head since I first saw it on tv at the mall, and the music video I can still remember clearly to this day even though I haven't seen it in years. I felt bad for the teddy bear in the animation.

Memento Mori

At first I thought Memento Mori only applied to artworks. During the Baroque times, there were a lot of paintings about death and how many of the things we hold dear now don't follow us to our graves. After seeing a lot of the photography photos, I'm on a whole new level of creeped out. Aside from the child being dead, there's a very short window for them to take the photo as rigor mortis sets in, the blood accumulates at the bottom, etc. And the smell! Dead people fascinate me, but I would never take a photo next to one.

Stock Market Crash: Then and Now

I feel that The Great Depression and the economic recession we have now are very similar in pattern, BUT there aren't very obvious effects that can be seen in comparison, simply because this time around there are more safeguards to protect the American way of living. While I think hard economic times has a psychological effect on the population (no money? I should rob someone), it wasn't as bad as before, where mothers would sell their own children to give everyone involved a better life. Homelessness is also not as prevalent this time around, even if it is still an epidemic now. The biggest problem that is making this recession harder to get out of is that big business is taking over, getting rid of small businesses and monopolizing the prices. The prices go higher, yet you're still just barely scraping by. You have to pay that bill anyways because you're stuck in a contract with a large business. There will be no competitive pricing for consumers to run to.

Bread and Circus

"Bread and Circus" is basically public entertainment to keep the masses happy. It was a political move to control people. In Rome, the coliseum is a prime example of such entertainment. The technology that went into putting on a successful show was advanced at the time. The coliseum had hidden tunnels underground and raising platforms to get animals on stage. The population of Rome would gather there to be happy. I think the government doesn't even care to use bread and circus. Corporations do, however, and they control the government for the most part. "How can I dumb my consumer down? Make them pay more? Give them less?" Like McDonalds, you're fed crap disguised as chocolate cake. And we fall for it anyways.

Madama Butterfly

Madama Butterfly is an animated story/opera about a woman who falls in love with a sailor, bears his child, only to find that he was an asshole schmuck (typical). She then kills herself I'm assuming, and then reincarnates into a butterfly that lands on her now adult daughter's head, bringing the cycle around again. I thought it was interesting and to-the-point. There were some weird elements, like her pregnancy being a fish tank, but it made the animation somewhat poetic. I like how the plot was relatable. There are a ton of people in the military facing separation because someone on either side couldn't be faithful.

Juan Carlos Delgado

I find Delgado's work interesting. I would've never thought to freeze a sculpture/ make it a built-in function. It's multimedia because it's always changing in time. I would like to see him do the same thing but on a larger scale. An entire room that encompasses the seasons would be absolutely beautiful. Green and bright the first time you come upon it, frosted over the next. I want to see more. But then again, I simply prefer large-scale work over tiny work. Unless it's so tiny you'd need a microscope to see.

Raul Cuero

I find Raul Cuero fascinating. Being (half) black myself, I've fortunately not had to face the discrimination that many do. It's hard to succeed when having to start off at a disadvantage. Like Neil Degrasse Tyson, he overcame racism. As far as creativity, I personally find it easier to be creative when you have less. You need to figure out ways to get around obstacles, because you can't just buy a solution. In the Philippines, the children have nothing to play with. These people have managed to build AMUSEMENT PARK RIDES out of STICKS. Like Cuero said, I have my computer. I don't need to go outside and find something to do in order to be entertained.

Deus ex Machina

Aside from Mirai Nikki (awesome show, great plot line) I've never heard of the term Deus ex Machina. I totally get the concept of random endings as well, but I've never really watched any movies or shows with random endings. Maybe anything Adventure Time related? There was this one shitty horror film I watched where this girl got an std and turned into a zombie, but by the time maggots were falling out of her cooter, one got the sense that the movie was going into that direction. In World War Z, they found out that zombies don't eat sick people.

Neo Baroque?

To get a better understanding of whether or not we're in a new Baroque era now, it's important to understand the old Baroque era. Baroque came out of a need for the Catholic Church to control their existing followers and to gain more. It was a war for pawns against the Protestant Church, which was emerging at the time. The idea was that the flashier the church, the smaller the person will feel. I think this very much applies to today's time, given the increasing wealth gap and this "I've got it all" mentality. It's present even amongst our friends. On Facebook, we tend to only talk about the good things happening to us. It gives others the idea that our lives are just peachy."Look up to me. I've got my life put together. How about you?" In music videos it's about pussy, money, weed. "I've got it all. I live a luxurious life. I own you." It's a facade. Humans are all about making each other jealous over materialistic wealth. We think we can gain respect this way. The Church did, too.