Divine Providence

"The Temptation of Saint Anthony" by Salvidor Dali is an outstanding example of the personalization of story and image. Only through his paintings could anyone even begin to understand what was going in the wild and characteristically urgent eyes of what many believed to be a madman. But in his madness, Dali formulated a very specific and representative roster of characters and images to play out the humanity of what were formerly pius icons. Much like his depiction of the crucifiction and the last supper, Dali signatured perspective in a time where any artists saught refuge in replication.

In this painting, the spectator finds themselves in one of Dali's unmistakeable dreamlike landscapes, witnessing distilled conflict in the folds of elegant distortion and metaphor. Elephants with spider legs, gold shrine build in tribute to the female form, the ominus horizon; given time to work through his entire collection, one would find these and similar elements in all of his work because that is what characterized and made personal his artistic struggle. The figure to the far left plays out an entire scene in one image, rejecting through the aid of faith this horrifying beauty, this grim divine. In something as universal as temptation, Dali found himself and presented a form that none could replicate or would even think to before his time.

Salvidor Dali revolutionized art. Not by taking what was and making it better, but by taking what was his and making it everyone's. He had no face to save as one glance could convince you that he was certifyable. He had no loves except his his art and the world it inhabited and he made true that art remain art for art's sake. What remains of him is the art, a product of divine providence.

The Dense Con

"Referring to himself as a re-creator, rather than a creator, Andy Warhol (1923 – 1987) established himself as a Pop Art icon through his iconic multiple silkscreened images of Campbell’s soup cans." -Art.com

While commonly considered revolutionary in his artistic endeavors through painting, his final product leads to question what he really did for the medium of painting and whether or not his actions signaled more of a political upheaval than an artistic one. In presenting a simple picture of a Campbell's Soup can, did he iconize the American product, or vice versa? Consider too whether presenting it in painting form was even necesary or relevant as anything more than Andy Warhol passing off somebody elses work through his own medium.

Imagine if you will an art gallery. In this art gallery there are several exhibits and each and every one of them depicts a Campbell's Soup can. To your left there is a photograph, to your right there is a mosaic. In the center of this Olympic hall is a twenty foot marble statue lit by the midday sun passing through the glass skyport. Now, if you can, explain where the art is in any of this and why simply leaving a can of soup on a well lit counter wouldn't suffice to send the same message. Moreover, if you were to admire the beauty of the label on the can, why not give credit to the actual creator of the label's design? It's like taking a picture of the Statue of David and taking credit for it as your own art. Warhol latched on to Americana to boost his own position. These images did not require his help to become iconic. Coca Cola? Campbell's Soup? These products were already nationally known and many artists in other medias were already paying tribute. Please refer to Norman Rockwell and Frank O' Hara. The point is that he had gained more than these images did through their relation.

Andy Warhol lived in a time of extreme self-indulgence, so claiming to recreate something as massive as Art would come naturally to him. It is in my personal opinion however that while it widened the definition of art, these paintings did nothing original with it, as is admitted in the original passage, but beyond that they did absolutely nothing for the action of painting. Overall, the moral of this story is credit where credit is due.

Bruce saves the Future (again)

Willis didn't tower this time around in "Surrogates", finding himself second opening weekend with a modest $15 million in sales. It is to be said however that this movie did absolutely everything that a Bruce Willis movie is supposed to do and did it awesomely. Take the half-in-half-out hero who finds himself in the middle of impossible amounts of danger, beat him to within an inch of his life then let him survive and save the day, all while kicking some can.

We find Bruce in the not so distant future, turmoiled by the seperation with his wife through surrogates: remote controlled robots intended to give those with disabilities a chance at a normal life. "What was once the unthinkable has become the inevitable." claims a fabricated interview with one scientists as societies as a whole decided it would be safer and more pleasant if everyone lived vicariously through the surrogates. Unfortunately, Bruce Willis's surrogate looks like a poodle with make-up. In any case our hero rejects the use of his surrogate after a near death experience and proceeds to solve the first murder ever reported through surrogates. This is Bruce Willis, so the world is usually at stake.

Also inevitable are the parallels drawn between this movie and "The Matrix", which oddly enough drags "Surrogates" down instead of boosting it. Apparently the Wachowski Brothers, directors of the "Matrix" invented and now own full writes to "The Machine"and nobody told me. Ordained by their vision of Keanu Reeves in tight leather and cool shades, now any movie in which you enter a computer simulated world is now just a cheap copy of, you guessed it, "The Matrix." "Surrogates" did what it had to do and had a completely different message than the "Matrix". Besides, this film is closer to "i, Robot" than anything else.

Ultimately, I give "Surrogates" a 4 out of 5 and what to bring away from this movie is that in Bruce Willis vs. The Machine, Bruce wins and sue me if you didn't already see that coming.

The House That Rob Built

Hide the children, pour the liqour and dig deep for a movie ticket, Rob Zombie has released a second "Halloween", in theatres now. Let us go back a few steps. In order to gain liscence to remake John Carpenter's horror masterpiece he had to first shock and rock audiences with the creation of "The Devil's Rejects" and "House of 1000 Corpses". Now we come to the inspiration of these two movies, which is directly derived from the horrific scenes depicted in Rob Zombie's milestone album, "The Sinister Urge".

The year is 2001. Mainstream pop and the pseudo-neo rock/rap fusion would have you believe that Rock is dead when from out of the gates of Hell comes Rob Zombie, letting the world know that dead is better. 11 tracks reminiscent of a whipstitched horror film on speed take you through what is best described in the lyrics as "The house built on sin". With hits like "Feel so Numb" and "Scum of the Earth", this album of undead bar anthems is sure to resurrect anyone's lust for senseless violence and gore. Needless to say, Rob Zombie is a musician that has proven he'll be rocking past the grave.

Since "The Sinister Urge", Rob has made a few solo tracks, the stand-out being the collaboration with the band Drowning Pool "Man without Fear" which was written for the Marvel box office superhero film "Daredevil" in 2003. Rob also plans to return to music with his sequel to his original solo album "Hellbilly Deluxe", but as he moves foward, no fan will ever forget the devastating force behind "The Sinister Urge": the foundation of the house that Rob built.

Opeth's "Orchid"- Art in Season

Epicity is not a word and yet Opeth, a Swedish progressive death metal band, has it in spades. Epicity: the quality of being epic; many bands like Dragonforce and Dream Theatre strive for it and yet fall amazingly short due to their shameless, over-the-top musical antics and two-dimensional lyrics.

In their debut album released in 1992, Orchid, Opeth transported listeners to the "Forests of October" in the twilight hour to witness one of the most cinematic deaths ever captured in music. The album challeged listeners to break away from the 3-minute hook-bridge-hook-bridge-solo-hook music cycle to not just listen to music, but to appreciate moments in music and to experience them the way you would a play or a movie scene.

The album begins with the line "Seven milestones under a watching Autumn eye" and that is exactly what they are. It consists of six songs averaging about ten minutes with an interlude piano track (Yes, a piano track, on a metal album) each of which paints a thematic yet unmistakeably distinct portrait of the pain and spiritual awakening of death. The true value of Opeth however is not in the lyrics or the stories they tell. It lies securely in their composition value and unwavering balance of genres. Envision the story of an epic hero composed by Mozart with a power guitar and replace the choir of heavenly voices with a half blues/half metal vocalist, then throw in a couple of acoustic guitars. If that sounds nearly impossible to pull off, it's because it is, but Opeth did it.

Epicity is not for everyone, but if you're the type of person who seeks liquid intensity in the form of music then Opeth's Orchid is one of the greatest albums you've probably never heard of.