Showing posts with label pop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pop. Show all posts

Saturday, 8 June 2024

Sure you didn't!

We didn't start the fire (History Podcast; 2021-2023)
Hosts: Katie Puckrik & Tom Fordyce

In the mid-1980s, a young person commented to Billy Joel. In the young person's mind, the world of the 1980s was plagued with tumultuous events. In passing, he said, "I bet the world must have been a more peaceful place when you were growing up."

That got Billy Joel thinking. He started jotting down all the significant events from his birth in 1946 throughout his time growing up in New York till the summer of 1989.

Like that, he came up with close to 119 incidences that impacted him at least. He started arranging the list, like a good composer would, and wrote a record-smashing hit that everyone in the 90s would know.

Billy Joel realized as he reminisced about the years that went by that the world had always been a restless place. Looking back on the events, one thing is clear: It was as unsettled then as it is now.

The list he came up with became a narration of all the events that happened in post-war America and even the rest of the world. It even became the history syllabus for many schools in a few states. Katie Puckrik and Tom Fordyce decided to make a podcast out of the whole thing. They interviewed experts relevant to the subject for each of the 119 events, personalities or political events mentioned in the song. What transpired at the end is close to 90 hours of banter and history lessons that are excitingly interlaced with wisecracks and jokes.

Completing all the podcasts makes me feel like I'm in slumber while everybody else is doing the stuff. Many things were below the radar, and time is the best teacher for what happened in the past and will happen in the future. Many more things happened in the background without the rest of the world's knowledge. Some events still remain enigmas, which the world will never know, like whether Oswald's bullet really did kill JFK on the fateful day in Dallas.

Starting with Harry Truman and his questionable decision to drop the nuclear bomb in Japan, the podcasters dissect Doris Day. And we soon discover that her life was not like the 100-watt sunshine smile she flashes in her movies. Her life ambition was crushed when she was involved in a motor vehicle accident early on life. She had to switch careers. Married with a child by 22, life was not easy. Married four times, in the later stage of her life, she had fought court case after court case to retrieve her life savings from her lawyer, who had swindled her.

Like that, we learn about what has been happening in the background beyond the glitz of neon and what is printed in the media. It ends with the late 1980s staged Cola War between Pepsi and Coke—a fake war started to create publicity while the fizzy drink makers laugh all the way to the bank. Perhaps if the song had been written a bit later, he would have written about the fall of the  Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism.
We didn't start the fire, It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire, No, we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

The Imperialists, specifically the Americans, in the post-war era, can deny all they want that they did not start the chaos that is rampant around the world. The sad truth is that the turmoil we are in has its roots deeply planted by the actions of people before us, intentionally or otherwise. For one, the current Middle East Crisis originates from the Imperialists' interference in the regional exploration and usurping of black gold and strategic power control of local politics. They fanned fires to appear as peacemakers akin to pinching the baby's bottom and singing lullabies simultaneously. While they were at it, they decided to sell arms to both warring sections. Why not? And sing 'We didn't start the fire, it was always burning...'


(P.S. Highly recommended for history geeks.)



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Wednesday, 6 April 2016

Everybody is doing it, why don't you?

Panam (noun) பனம் Tamil meaning money. Panama பனமா- expressed as a question or an exclamation of awesomeness. The word Panama is often used in combination with Pasama (love in a question mode) in philosophical circles to ponder upon life - பனமா பாசமா; whether which one takes the precedence over matters of life. Is it money or love?
பனமா பாசமா (Panama Pasama) is also the name of the 1968 tearjerker starring Gemini Ganesan and B Saroja Devi.

In the year 2016, the mention of the word 'Panama' strikes awe in the minds of the plebeians who would hear of the cavalier attitude of leaders who would transfer monies of gargantuan proportions across borders without an iota of guilt or feeling of moral misconduct. If fact, they would claim it to be of their sovereign rights and that no laws were broken in the process. Like the catchphrase of the Little Eva's 1962 hit song. 'Loco-motion', they say everybody is doing it, why don't you? Is it a mere coincidence that loco means crazy in Spanish?



Friday, 12 September 2014

A swipe at McCarthyism

A King in New York (1957)
Many Americans look back at the early years of the 50s with much disdain. They had let the idea of a senator and politics of the time to go on a witch hunt on individuals based on frivolous hearsay. All in the name of nationalism and national security, many valuable man-hours were wasted. After all these, one would think that the general public cannot be taken for a ride anymore or can they? Based on turn of events of late, the hoodwinking continues.
Coming closer to our shores, people are being unpatriotic with same flimsy reasons with a hidden agenda behind them. It seem that we will never learn from history. We will have to endure the whole thrust of its mayhem before we look back at yourselves, in years to come, and hopefully laugh at ourselves!
The post WW2 years in America was tumultuous one. The Cold War had started and US of A had slowly taken the rein as the leader of the free world. Free they may be with their capitalistic market forces stance on liberty, the Government was hot under the collar with individuals sympathetic to the course of the left. Charlie Chaplin was one of the many performers blacklisted for being a member of the communist party. During a holiday trip back to his native England, his return visa was cancelled and lived exiled in UK. Anyway, he had not surrendered his British passport.
This last of Charlie Chaplin's film was a sarcastic look at the times that America was in. It poked fun as its anti-communist stance, the pop culture, the over glamorisation of youth, the invasion of privacy, the media frenzied population and the monetisation of everything. In a subtle way, the story shows how the old European values lose out to the demands of the American way of doing things. Chaplin also in a way, tries to re-live his youthful days in some scenes by trying to re-enact some acts from his 1927 'The Tramp'.
A deposed King Shadov of Estrovia, abdicates his throne and finds refuge in New York. Thinking that he could live in high life with his ill-gotten fortunes from his national coffers till the revolution in his country is over, he checks in to The Ritz with his ambassador. He is lured to attend a party where he is tricked to appear in a commercial. He was such a hit that the advertising industry wants more of him.
When he discovers that his fortune had been squandered by his trusted Prime Minister, he is forced to appear in commercials to pay his bills.
It is here that he takes a swipe at the public obsession with youthfulness and plastic surgery. He undergoes plastic surgery with disastrous outcome and reverts back to usual appearance!
He makes an official visit to a school. He befriends a child prodigy, Rupert, whose parents are being tried for involvement in the Communist Party. This child actor is Chaplin's son, Michael. Even though he showed so much calibre as an actor, he apparently went wayward later, living on dole.
Rupert later is on the run from the police for his parents' crimes. He seeks refuge with the King.
The rest of the story shows how the King is wrongly drawn in to the fiasco but is found innocent. He returns to Paris to be with his Queen.

Memorable quote:
"One of the minor annoyances in modern life is a revolution"

Monday, 12 November 2012

Pop Icon

Andy Warhol

Andrew Warhola (born as), Prince of Pop
(August 6, 1928 -- February 22, 1987)

By Jennifer Rosenberg, About.com Guide

Who Was Andy Warhol?

Andy Warhol was one of the most important artists of pop art, which became extremely popular in the second half of the twentieth century. Though he is best remembered for his paintings of Campbell's soup cans, he also created hundreds of other works including commercial advertisements and films.

The Childhood of Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with his two older brothers and his parents, both of whom had emigrated from Czechoslovakia. Even as a young boy, Warhol liked to draw, color, and cut and paste pictures. His mother, who was also artistic, would encourage him by giving him a chocolate bar every time he finished a page in his coloring book.

Elementary school was traumatic for Warhol, especially once he contracted St. Vitus' dance (chorea, a disease that attacks the nervous system and makes someone shake uncontrollably). Warhol missed a lot of school during several month-long periods of bed-rest. Plus, large, pink blotches on Warhol's skin, also from St. Vitus' dance, didn't help his self-esteem or acceptance by other students.

During high school, Warhol took art classes both at school and at the Carnegie Museum. He was somewhat of an outcast because he was quiet, could always be found with a sketchbook in his hands, and had shockingly pale skin and white-blonde hair. Warhol also loved to go to movies and started a collection of celebrity memorabilia, especially autographed photos. A number of these pictures appeared in Warhol's later artwork.

Warhol graduated from high school and then went to Carnegie Institute of Technology, where he graduated in 1949 with a major in pictorial design.

Warhol Discovers Blotted-Line
It was during his college years that Warhol discovered the blotted-line technique. The technique required Warhol to tape two pieces of blank paper together and then draw in ink on one page. Before the ink dried, he would press the two pieces of paper together. The result was a picture with irregular lines that he would color in with watercolor.

Right after college, Warhol moved to New York. He quickly earned a reputation in the 1950s for using the blotted-line technique in numerous commercial advertisements. Some of Warhol's most famous ads were for shoes for I. Miller, but he also drew Christmas cards for Tiffany & Company, created book and album covers, as well as illustrated Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Book of Etiquette.


Warhol Tries Pop Art
Around 1960, Warhol had decided to make a name for himself in pop art. Pop art was a new style of art that began in England in the mid-1950s and consisted of realistic renditions of popular, everyday items. Warhol turned away from the blotted-line technique and chose to use paint and canvas but at first he had some trouble deciding what to paint.

Warhol began with Coke bottles and comic strips but his work wasn't getting the attention he wanted. In December 1961, Warhol gave $50 to a friend of his who had told him she had a good idea. Her idea was for him to paint what he liked most in the world, perhaps something like money and a can of soup. Warhol painted both.

Warhol's first exhibition in an art gallery came in 1962 at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles. He displayed his canvases of Campbell's soup, one canvas for each of the 32 types of Campbell's soup. He sold all the paintings as a set for a $1000.


Warhol Switches to Silk Screening
Unfortunately, Warhol found that he couldn't make his paintings fast enough on canvas. Luckily in July 1962, he discovered the process of silk screening. This technique uses a specially prepared section of silk as a stencil, allowing one silk-screen to create similar patterns multiple times. He immediately began making paintings of celebrities, most notably a large collection of paintings of Marilyn Monroe. Warhol would use this style for the rest of his life.


Making Movies
In the 1960s, Warhol continued to paint and he also made films. From 1963 to 1968, he made nearly 60 movies. One of his movies, Sleep, is a five-and-a-half hour film of a man sleeping.

On July 3, 1968, disgruntled actress Valerie Solanas walked into Warhol's studio ("the Factory") and shot Warhol in the chest. Less than thirty minutes later, Warhol was pronounced clinically dead. The doctor then cut Warhol's chest open and massaged his heart for a final effort to get it started again. It worked. Though his life was saved, it took a long time for his health to recover.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Warhol continued to paint. He also began publishing a magazine called Interview and several books about himself and pop art. He even dabbled in television.

On February 21, 1987, Warhol underwent a routine gall bladder surgery. Though the surgery went well, for an unknown reason Warhol unexpectedly passed away the following morning. He was 58 years old.

“Be afraid. Be very afraid.”*