Blog Post 6

"Fighter" by Christina Aguilera
Stripped Album

The video starts with a moth walking on the ground. Then it shows her in a glass cage. Someone is watching her from above. The persons’ hands are move like there is a marionette attached to them. The video shows girls in black ballerina outfits eating rotten fruit. When the song talks about making her stronger she frees herself from the glass cage. The song talks about making her skin a little bit stronger and shows her black cape. Then it shows her in a dark alley with pins in her back. During this part of the song she is talking about backstabbing. She keeps trying to walk even with the pins in her back; she’s trying to prove she’s a fighter. She begins to tear out the pins when the song talks about never backing down.
The song mentions how she has became a wiser person and she appears in a white gown with a white mane. She scales up a wall and fastens herself to the side. Moths begin flying towards her and alight on her as the song refers to a person hiding their lies and disguising themselves. The video shows a close up of her eyes blinking and then begins to flash between the batting eyes and the moths fluttering their wings.
When Christina declares that she has had enough the moth combusts. She materializes in an alley wearing black and red raiments, confabulating about how the person transformed her into a fighter, made her wiser, and smarter. When she asserts she is smarter the music video fixates on her eyes. The last time she proclaims that her experiences have permuted her into fighter she bashes in a glass window. The window does not rupture on contact but spider web fractures emanate around her high heel.

The chorus of the song is all about being a fighter and how her experiences have made her stronger and wiser. I decided to try and make my writing gain intelligence as it is read in order to symbolize the increasing wisdom of Christina in the song. An example of how I did this is that in the beginning I use words like talk and made as my writing continues I change the words to proclaim and transformed.

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Blog Post 5

"Footprints" by T.O.K.
Unknown Language Album

There is a poem called Footprints, actually there are several variations of this poem, which is my mother’s favorite poem so I’ve always remembered it. Usually this poem is presented with a background of footprints in the sand, which is another name for the poem. The poem discusses a dream in which the dreamer sees their life as they walk along the beach with the Lord. When they come to the last scene of their life they notice that at the hard parts of their life one set of footprints disappears. This disturbs them and they confront the Lord about leaving them, which the Lord replies that the hard times are when he carried them. In 2005 T.O.K came out with a song and two music videos for the song that were based on this poem. The song was dedicated to a deceased friend.

I like the first video the best because it portrays the group as Angels doing the Lord’s work. The video shows a mother who loses her son, a homeless orphan, and a sister who has lost her brother. All of which are praying for help. In the second video the group is narrators as the video shows a mother being presented the American flag after the loss of her child and a fight in a club that turns into a crime scene.

This video (the first one) is sad but shows white backgrounds, in order to symbolize heaven, and gives a sense of improvement. When a person dies their souls stand next to the group members as they take them to heaven. The video shows a variety of settings including the beach with footprints to represent the poem. It also shows a cliff where the group is singing, and the different scenes of distress in town. The context is definitely religious. I think the chorus portrays the focus point of the piece the lord is with the people.

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Blog Post 4

I found this photograph in Yahoo Images. It is a picture of a sidewalk chalk image. The image looks 3-D, but is only chalk. The chalk drawing is of angels playing instruments and messing around in a pool of water. It looks as if you could step into the pool with the angels.

I like this image because in the focus is the chalk drawing but in the background you can see people looking at the drawing or going about their everyday lives in the town it was drawn in. The chalk drawing really seems to go with what I can see of the city. The city appears to be old maybe even European and the drawing looks like something you’d see in renaissance paintings, so they both seem to have a sense of age.

There are three angels in the chalk drawing but my eyes tend to be drawn to the one sitting on the edge of the pool playing a musical instrument that looks similar to a violin. The pool is a bright pastel blue and the angels are in the sunlight frolicking in the water. But one edge of the pool is in shadow and part of the angel that my eyes are drawn to is in shadow. I think it is the size and contrast that attract my eyes to this angel.

I think this picture was taken at a different time of day than the artist drew the chalk image because the sun in the image is beating down from the right creating shadows on the left, while the sun in real life is beating down on the man in the black suit from the left creating an shadow on the right. I wonder if it took this long for the drawing to be created or if the photographer just took the picture later. I’d imagine art like this would take a while. It is a shame it will be erased as people walk over it or if the weather changes.

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