Death and Pixar
by Mark Loewenstern



"Someone always dies in a Pixar film," an 8-year old told me last year, explaining why she wouldn't watch them anymore. This is only a slight exaggeration, as the Pixar body count includes Nemo's mom in Finding Nemo, the Chef in Ratatouille, a blown-up action figure in Toy Story, Carl's spirited wife in Up, and everyone wearing a cape in The Incredibles. The threat of Woody being destroyed hangs over all of Toy Story 2, and the climax of Toy Story 3 shows all the main characters, after struggling futilely to escape a fiery recycling plant, silently catching each other's eyes, joining hands and preparing to meet their fate. That moment reminded me of my mortality like no film I've seen in the past five years.


Don't get me wrong; I would much rather have grown up with these stories than the thin gruel that was the family films of the 70s. But what strikes me is how frequently death comes up in a typical Pixar tale, and how different its role is from the stories that have come before. Generally, it isn't a villain's just punishment for wickedness, or the fate of a boy who cries wolf. Fairness does not enter into it. Sometimes it is the old story of predator and prey, but more generally the deaths are arbitrary and faultless: accidents, disease, the inevitable wearing out of the body.


And if this isn't hardcore enough, the films then go on to ask the *really* tough questions. How do we face death? How do we not let fear of death prevent us from living a full life? How do we move on after we've lost someone important to us? This stuff is not for every kid at every age. But the overwhelming majority seem to have no problem with it. In August, Toy Story 3 became the first animated film to gross $1 billion worldwide. All of those kids are getting some serious life lessons early on.

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Unmasking the Muses
by Christopher Stewart


When Kristen and Motrya approached me in view of featuring me in the « Meet The Artist » series on One World One Art, they also offered me to contribute as a writer. As a musician, I have been involved in numerous online discussions about music wherein the stream of « writings on the walls …
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Contributers:


Mark Loewenstern is an award winning writer of teleplays, web films, plays and musicals. His scripts include "Holiday Rumble," an animated web short that has received over 290,000 hits, "A Doctor's Visit" which won the Samuel French One Act Festival, and a Scriptapalooza "Best Sitcom" script. Mark has studied theater, literature and general storytelling at, among other places, The Juilliard School, Playwrights Horizons, The University of Pennsylvania, and Kings College London.


Christopher Stewart is perfecting the art of blooming late. He has studied for a long time, played football even longer, spent most of his adult life developing software on a full-time basis and invested what remained in the pursuit of his ideal of creating meaningful music in the context of a rock ensemble. He has founded the prolific yet still album-less Quebec-based prog rock outfit Poligraf in 1998 and has never been quite the same since. He has been practising Buddhism dead-seriously since the mid 90s and until he finally awakened to the fact that it teaches living happiness. His interests range from psychology, physics and philosophy, to mysticism, astrology and tarot, the arts and the creative process, and, obviously, multi-tasking and clichés. Pick any task, tag it with the word « impossible, » assign it to him, and he’ll be hard at work for years before the first suspicion finally pops in his mind.

Looking for a new instrument to learn?

How about something unusual, like the kalimba, the aeolian harp, the glass armonica or the bandura or kobza?

According to certain sources, there are between 1500 and 2000 musical instruments in the world, with classical instruments comprising less than twenty-five percent.

The kalimba, also known as the finger piano, is a percussion instrument from South Africa.

It is also known as the mbira or likembe. It consists of a small hollow wooden box with mounted metal keys on it.

The glass armonica (also called the glass harmonica) was invented by Benjamin Franklin, and uses a series of glass bowls that vary in size to produce sound through friction.

The aeolian harp, named for Aeolus - the ancient Greek god of the wind, is played near an open window where the breeze can blow over the strings and alter the sound. They can also be left free standing outdoors to create their own ethereal sounds.

The bandura, and the similar but smaller kobza, are Ukrainian folk instruments. They are in the lute family.

Made famous during the 16th and 17th centuries when the Cossacks fought against the Turks, Poles and Tatars, these instruments played an active role in uniting the people and promoting nationalism through music in a time of great unrest.

"On the Tube" Reviews - Mad Men

On the Tube Reviews
by Mark Loewenstern

Television – Mad Men (**spoilers!**)

episode: “Respect Betty”

Don Draper’s ex-wife Betty has generated so much hatred since the new season of “Mad Men” started, you’d think she shoved a cat into a trashcan. But those who cringe every time she comes on the screen are missing a simple and elegant truth that lies at the core of this excellent show, which is this: Betty was the ultimate victim of Don’s genius for advertising; he ruined her life.

Just as Don has temporarily escaped from New York to California, where he could drop his false identity and as Dick Whitman literally “be himself,” Betty was at her most authentic when she was in Italy…both in last season’s vacation episode and, more importantly, in her previous life as an artist’s model and starlet. But Don convinced her to give all that up to be a housewife in Ossining… literally selling her on the same version of the American Dream that he sells every day at the office, a dream that Betty didn’t know that she didn’t want until it was too late. If she is a terrible mother now, consider that she didn’t want to be one, or at least, not while she was still in her early 20s.

Worse still, Don didn’t actually give her what he was selling. When Betty married him, she thought she was getting a stable provider. Now she knows the truth: her ex-husband and the father of her children may be a master of the world in some quarters, but as an army deserter he is also one phone call away from a long prison term.

And this brings us to the heart of the matter: Betty’s role going forward.

“Mad Men’s” famous title sequence, with a man falling from a disintegrating skyscraper, clues us in that a great fall is coming for Don Draper. And Betty, who both knows Don’s sordid past and also has the motive to do him harm, is uniquely placed to bring about this fall. She is Don’s nemesis, the avenging fury who will one day call him to account for all his past sins.

Prisoner of Tehran

"Prisoner of Tehran" - Review

by M. Tomycz

Marina Nemat's gripping memoir, Prisoner of Tehran, is an extraordinary, riveting and heartbreaking read. It tells of her extraordinary survival in Tehran's notorious Evin prison during the Iranian revolution.

Born during the time of the Shah, Marina was in her teens when the revolution occurred and the Ayatollah Khomeini took power. Her life as an innocent, idealistic youth changed drastically under the new regime. Suddenly everything she loved - books, music, even the color pink - was considered Satanic and against the law.

Her former teachers were replaced by young, inexperienced revolutionary guards - an elite, idealogical military force, established by the Ayatollah. When she asked her new calculus teacher to please teach the subject at hand (rather than government propaganda), she was asked to leave the class. Most of her classmates stood up and left with her. This immediately labeled them as anti-revolutionaries and enemies of Islam.

Before long she was arrested, like thousands of other Iranian teens, and sent to Evin prison - a place synonymous with injustice, torture and death. After being interrogated, lashed, and put on trial - she was sentenced to death at the tender age of 16. Moments before the firing squad ended her life, a guard who had fallen in love with her, was able to save her.

Decades later, after she had left Iran and built a new life in Canada, Marina was plagued by nightmares, despair and survivors guilt. She couldn't make peace with the fact that she had been spared, while her friends had lost their lives. "Closure is a myth. It does not exist." she said in an interview. But by bearing witness to what had transpired behind those walls, she hoped to find healing and forgiveness.

"Imagine if Anne Frank had never written her diary. The human side of history would be lost, " Nemat says. Her memoir does just that - gives a human face to the revolution in Iran. It is both a testament to the spirit of survival, as well as a loving tribute to those young men and women who didn't survive Evin.

Get your festival on...

Get Your Festival On....

by K.Beil

It's summertime good people and that means it's the season of festivals. Whether they be music, theater, jazz, comedy - it doesn't matter. It's a chance for you to experience multiple acts in one place and in most cases, somewhere outside and beautiful.

We've been very fortunate this summer to experience festival-life in and around England. From Glastonbury to Hard Rock, iTunes to the wireless festival - it's been a feast for the ears (and eyes - festivals are a GREAT place to people watch if nothing else!). I mean, hearing Stevie Wonder rock it out while the sun sets...not a bad night. Not a bad night at all.

I urge you to grab your sunglasses, a blanket, a loved one and whatever else you need and seek out a festival near you. It's guaranteed to be a good time. I've taken the care to search out a few, far and wide, to highlight - check them out!


Tanglewood Festival
Lenox, Massachusettes, USA

BBC Proms
London, England, UK

July 16 - September 11, 2010

Edinburgh Fringe Festival
Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Fringe 2010 features 40,254 performances of 2,453 shows in 259 venues

New York Fringe Festival
New York, New York, USA

The New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC) is the largest multi-arts festival in North America, with more than 200 companies from all over the world performing for 16 days in more than 20 venues.FringeNYC will celebrate its 14th Anniversary August 13th - 29th, 2010.

Umbria Jazz Festival
Perugia, Italy

Great jazz 9 July - 18 July

Helsinki Festival
Helsinki, Finland

20 August - 5 September

Helsinki Festival in a nutshell The Helsinki Festival is the largest arts festival in Finland, organised annually in late summer. The festival's aim is to make art accessible for all.

The Buzz about Banksy

The Buzz about Banksy

by M.Tomycz

Know what the hottest ticket at Sundance was this year? It's probably not what you think. Fans and festival goers waited for hours in the cold, cold rain to see the film "Exit Through the Gift Shop", a last minute addition to the festival line-up. "Why all the buzz?", you ask. Because of one two-syllable word: Banksy.

If you haven't heard of Banksy, you probably soon will. But even once you know of him, you still won't know about him. No one really does. And that's exactly how this anonymous British graffiti artist wants it.

What is known: Banksy is from the UK. Possibly born in Bristol around 1974. His work began mysteriously popping up on city walls and on trains in the late 90's. His distinctive images are created using a stenciling technique, similar to that of Blek le Rat (who is known as the pioneer of stencil graffiti art). Themes of his work tend to be political: anti-war, anti-establishment, pro-freedom. He has achieved cult status and has a celebrity following, yet there are many who still view his work as nothing more than vandalism.

Banksy, whose real name may be either Rob Banks or Robin Gunningham, seems to enjoy all the controversy. In 2005, on a trip to the Middle East, he created several images on the Palestinian side of the West Bank barrier wall, ruffling many feathers.

A year earlier, he walked into the Louvre and hung a picture resembling the Mona Lisa, but with a smiley face for the head. He has, in fact, smuggled his work into many of the top museums in the world.

As Banksy's popularity grows, so does his mystique, and "Exit Through the Gift Shop" just adds another piece to the puzzle.

The movie is about French guy named Thierry Guetta who's making a documentary about anonymous graffiti artists. When he meets the secretive Banksy, the tables are turned, and all of a sudden Guetta is the one being documented. In the film, which he also directs, Banksy speaks to the camera - though he's cloaked in a hoodie and his voice is disguised.

As with all things "Banksy", controversy surrounds the film and reactions are divided. Is it really Banksy? Does this "documentary" have any truth to it at all? Does it even matter? By all accounts the film is entertaining and provides a glimpse into an underground art world most of us don't get a chance to see. "Who Needs Truth? This is art", reads one enthusiastic review - and we're inclined to agree.

Million Dollar Quartet

This spring a new musical is opening on Broadway called 'Million Dollar Quartet'. While it contains songs that you already know and love, it's far from the stereotype of that new breed of 'jukebox' musicals. Unlike those other jukebox musicals - in which a thin plot is contrived around an artist's catalog of songs - this 'Million Dollar Quartet' is based on a true event - no need to create any plot or any added drama. It's about artists you already know and love - with their music you already know and love - and about a day that you may not know about, but most certainly have to love.



Million Dollar Quartet is the name given to recordings made on Tuesday December 4, 1956 in the Sun Record Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. The recordings were of an impromptu jam session between Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash.

'The jam session seems to have happened by pure chance. Perkins, who by this time had already met success with "Blue Suede Shoes", had come into the studios that day, accompanied by his brothers Clayton and Jay and by drummer W.S. Holland, their aim being to cut some new material, including a revamped version of an old blues song, "Matchbox". Sam Phillips, the owner of Sun Records, who wished to try to fatten this sparse rockabilly instrumentation, had brought in his latest acquisition, singer and piano man extraordinaire, Jerry Lee Lewis, still unknown outside Memphis, to play the piano on the Perkins session.

Sometime in the early afternoon, Elvis Presley, a former Sun artist himself, but now at RCA, dropped in to pay a casual visit accompanied by a girlfriend, Marilyn Evans.[1] He was, at the time, the biggest name in show business, having hit the top of the singles charts five times, and topping the album charts twice in the preceding 12 month period. Less than four months earlier, he had appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, pulling an unheard-of 83% of the television audience, which was estimated at 55 million, the largest in history, up to that time. After chatting with Philips in the control room, Presley listened to the playback of the Perkins’ session, which he pronounced to be good. Then he went into the studio and some time later the jam session began. Phillips left the tapes running in order to "capture the moment" as a souvenir and for posterity. At some point during the session, Sun artist Johnny Cash, who had also enjoyed a few hits on the country charts, popped in (Cash noted in his autobiography Cash that it was he who was the first to arrive at Sun Studio that day). As Jerry Lee pounded away on the piano, Elvis and his girlfriend at some point slipped out. Cash claims in Cash that "no one wanted to follow Jerry Lee, not even Elvis."

As the session continued, Phillips spotted an opportunity for some publicity and called a local newspaper, the Memphis Press-Scimitar. Bob Johnson, the newspaper’s entertainment editor came over to the studios accompanied by a UPI representative named Leo Soroca, and a photographer.

The following day, an article, written by Johnson about the session, was published in the Memphis Press-Scimitar under the title, "Million Dollar Quartet". The article contained the now well known photograph of Presley seated at the piano surrounded by Lewis, Perkins and Cash.' *from Wikipedia

If not for the actual recordings of that day - it seems too good to be true. Four musical legends in the same room, no agenda but to jam out and play with each other. One can only dream of being a fly on the wall in that room. And what of the musicians themselves? There is proven psychology behind playing with other experts - you become a better musician when you play with people who are better than you. Although forgive me for not wanting to say who was better than who on that day. And who's to say? Four masters like that in a room...nothing less than inspired.

It makes you wonder - in this day in age...the age of Facebook, Myspace, Garage Band, and I'm sure many other programs that I-of-close-to-middle-age know nothing about, are there still musicians out there, playing with the door open? Open to collaboration and jamming with their peers. My gut says - yes of course. But again, I wonder if Elvis, Jerry Lee, Carl and Johnny had lived now...if that day would happen, and if their careers for that matter would have looked different.

On another note - it just goes to show that when you are open to opportunity and new ideas - you never know what kind of amazing things will unfold.