Across the Universe

This song left some very clear impressions on me. To set the scene, everyone exists simply as paper cut outs. At first I felt like I was on a paper boat sailing through a land of eternal twilight with ever expanding horizons to explore. On the second verse I felt like the singer was in an armchair looking out the window. The chorus of the song is rather somber, in my opinion, the phrase "nothings gonna change my world" is a plaintive hope for the paper world that is so full of wonder and mystery but so fragile at the same time. He does not want anything to change, but he can see the changes that are speeding towards him. He realizes that hes going to lose this world so he is lying to himself  to try to cherish what he knows is the last time he will have there.

Inspiration Information

The song starts out feeling very sensual and funky. It reminds me of walking down the sidewalk as a black man in the 70s. The weather is hot and the world is coming out to say hello. The funky modulated guitar and his laid back voice timbre paired with the soulful organ made me get this vibe. 

Semeadores

I think that this painting shows the hard work and desolation of farming in the desert. It appears to be one consistent landscape the two men are trying to till with heavy use of earth tones to make the subjects blend in with their bleak surroundings. This meshing of coloration makes it seem as though the men are bound to the land. We know the labor they are doing is strenuous because the man with the hoes back is bent under the burden of his work.

Wilco

Wilco worked together as a band to make a rough draft of the song they wanted. then they disassembled it to see if there was one part in specific that needed some fine tuning. My creative process is much the same; I sit down and just start writing to make sure all of my good ideas get down on paper. Then I go back through an polish things off to make it sound presentable.

Attended Woodland art fair today and I'm proud to say I found an artist I really like.
Check him out. http://www.bruceholwerda.com/

Nostalgia

As a kid, I liked to go the park near my house and explore a small patch of trees with a stream running through it  that could scarcely be called a forest, but to my young, open mind it was something more. Infinite possibilities arose and it seemed like I was in the heart of a dense wood instead of in a small grove behind an electrical sub station. Being in this place makes me remember what it was like to be so innocent, without the jading knowledge that the beauty in the world before you is finite. The sound of the stream tumbling its course down to the creek, the hum of the power being distributed to hundreds of households, and the rustling of the wind the bamboo, all of these sounds bring back a deep longing in me to see the beauty in the world once more, to revert to a child-like state of imagination. Nostalgia to me is longing for simpler times, times when not knowing what lay ahead was okay. I do miss the comfort of the weight of the world every day. My nostalgia is all I have of those times. I often return to that grove that held my attention so well as a child, trying to find my imagination that i lost so long ago.

The Pinch of Poverty

1. Unemployment, loss of a breadwinner
2. The daughter is selling flowers to support her mother, who is with child. The poverty is positive in this picture.
3. The artist wants us to know that poverty brings families together and that most poor people don't have dads. Poverty brings people hope.
4. The brightness of the girl's features and flowers show the hope that she has for the future. the children and their mother in one amorphous shape shows their bond that poverty has given them.

Listening Response 1

The retro sound of Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti's "Round and Round" reminded me a lot of some of the music I enjoy from the early 80's, namely Toto. the fact that this song had a prominent baseline and the use of keyboard drove me towards making this connection. The facts about this song influenced the way I comprehended the music and therefor what I thought about the song.