Late night talk shows are structured to have humorous monologues, political commentary, guest interviews, comedy sketches, and musical performances. For my final project, I want to script, act, and shoot my very own late night talk show. The project workload will be split amongst myself and Celia. We both have our own personal favorite late night talk show hosts: I take preference over Trevor Noah whereas she favors Jimmy Fallon. Together, we will take the bits and pieces we like the most from their shows, as well as from other late night talk show hosts stationed in NYC like Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers, and create our own spinoff late night tv show. Our show will include a monologue performed by Celia, political commentary done by myself, and a skit in which we will go out in the streets of New York and ask random people questions about late night tv.
As a capitalist country, the American marketplace revolves heavily on money and influence. Both Glenn O’Brien, in “Like Art,” and Virgil Abloh, in his interview, speak upon the intersection between art, commerce, fashion, and advertising. This interplay is quite obvious to me as advertisements use art for fashion to make commerce. However, what was interesting was the idea that this network of success is most greatly achieved by members of influence and power. More so than authentic designers or artists, the American royalty that has become our celebrities have taken over this industry. Rather than a professional or educated designer, consumers today would rather purchase overpriced products made by their favorite celebrities. Rihanna just recently launched her own makeup brand called, “Fenty Beauty by Rihanna.” What makes these products powerful is not the special qualities of the makeup itself, but the name attached to them. Rihanna purposefully puts her name in the brand title because that is what is really appealing to consumers. A small travel sized tube of foundation with Rihanna’s name on it costs $40 and already has 1400 reviews on her website.
This idea of celebrity brand name culture is not new. In the past, the interplay existed for certain designer brands. Today, this interplay has evolved to American celebrities, making them royalty for America like the nation has never seen before. This all stems of consumer’s yearning and aspirations to these celebrities. The biggest example of this is the Kardashian-Jenner family who have created a dynasty on that very belief. Each of the girls have their toes dipped into some sort of fashion business, from clothing to makeup, which they market entirely through their own selves. Here is a promo video of an upcoming collaboration between Kim Kardashian’s makeup brand and Kylies. In the video, they don’t even show any makeup at all, rather they show themselves, which is enough advertisement for the product.
As we walked the halls of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it became very clear to me that I knew nothing about art. If I’m being completely honest, at first glance I couldn’t tell the difference between the Rodin and Michelangelo sculptures beyond the room they were in and that they were both beautiful. However, when I looked closely enough, I saw that it was these subtle differences that made them so unique. Specifically, with both artist’s portrayal of Adam, it is apparent to see Michelangelo’s influence in Rodin’s art as both depictions share similar physical characteristics. These include the striking male physique that was created by Michelangelo and carried on by Rodin as well as the curly hair and similar bone structure in the face. Although Michelangelo’s fresco is painted, and Rodin’s Adam is a statue made of marble, even someone as unskilled as me can note these similarities. The most striking similarity is both Adam’s hands. Each hand is carefully crafted in the same pointing position. Michelangelo’s is toward God, while Rodin’s is to the ground. This is significant because it made me look more closely at the expressions on each of the Adams. Michelangelo’s Adam is curious and inquisitive, reaching toward God. On the other hand, Rodin’s Adam is anguished and appears to be in pain. Perhaps his reaching to the ground is after God punished him and kicked him out of Eden. This would explain Rodin’s portrayal of Adam’s misery in contrast with Michelangelo’s curiosity for life and God.
The world portrayed in Martin Scorsese’s movie “Mean Streets” and Ghostface Killah’s song titled “Shakey Dog,” are both similar and different. They both expose a world of organized crime where innocent citizens will turn a blind eye to the crimes and antics of both groups. “Mean Streets” depicts the Italian-American mob in New York City, specifically Little Italy, while on the opposite end of the city, way uptown, we have Ghostface Killah describing a robbery in great detail with his gang “Theodore,” which was a loose collective of rappers centered around Ghostface.
With “Mean Streets,” the viewer gets a broader look at what mob life was like in general, following Charlie. We see him go to the Catholic church, go to strip clubs, get caught in many shootings, have an affair, and meet with “The Boss.” This kind of view is something only a film would provide, allowing a maximum glimpse into the characters life. Unlike a song, a film has the time to make a compelling piece on mafia life in New York City, leaving the audience wanting and wondering for more.
With Ghostface Killah’s song, “Shakey Dog,” the listener is given a detailed heavy and gritty take on one specific aspect of gang life. We listen to Ghostface rap specifically about a robbery and he describes each detail painstakingly so, the listener can’t help but cringe at his abrasiveness. Ghostface only has three minutes and forty-four seconds to give an accurate portrayal of gang life and he accurately does that by retelling a gritty tale of a robbery.
Despite two gruesome takes on organized crime, mafia and gang. Mafia movies are still extremely appealing and compelling to viewers, yet songs like “Shakey Dog” are too harsh and gritty. This is primarily because the mafia is romanticized in film. We watch Charlie not only commit bad acts but also try to repent his sins and have a forbidden affair with a woman he’s not supposed to love. While all we get with a song like Ghostface’s is straight up real and gritty facts that leave no room for any wandering romantic imagination.
On the short walk to the Studio Museum from my dorm, I was thinking of physical space. In a crowded city like New York, there isn’t much of it. At about 1 PM on a Friday, 125th street was as busy as could be. Going only two blocks, I may have passed 100 people. Just like in Bobby Womack’s song, “Across 110th Street,” so much is going on at any given moment in New York City. He states in the chorus, “Across 110th Street, pimps trying to catch a woman that’s weak…pushers won’t let the junkie go free…. woman trying to catch a trick on the street.” It is so easy to replace the lyric “Across 110th Street” with “Across 125th Street” and probably every street in Manhattan. While the things Womack is mentioning aren’t exactly positives, it all adds to the charm of Harlem. Going back to last week’s blog post, we love it and we hate it. While all my non-New Yorker family members gasp when I say I live in Harlem, I say it with pride because in a one block radius while there is bad, there is also good. I’ve been catcalled one second and then serenaded by a street performer the next, that’s just what you get in New York.
Frank O’Hara uses poetry to take a snapshot of his life in New York during a time where there is a struggle between the ancient and the modern as well as the perfect and the imperfect. To say the least, it seems that O’Hara has quite a love/hate relationship with the city. In his poems “A Step Away From Them” and “Personal Poem,” from his Lunch Poems Collection, this idea of New York City is expressed through extreme detail of personal life, all alluding to different, greater themes.
“A Step Away From Them,” for example, displays a New York in-between the old and the new. As he walks just around the corner on his lunch break he experiences a city that is constantly reinventing and renewing itself, never stopping to focus on the beauty of what has already been accomplished. O’Hara writes, “…and the posters for BULLFIGHT and the Manhattan Storage Warehouse which they’ll soon tear down. I used to think they had the Armory Show there.” O’Hara’s free verse is picked up in speed as the city moves too fast around him, to the point where he can’t keep up, causing the love/hate relationship. Similarly, the song “New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down,” by LCD Soundsystem encompasses this struggle between New York being perfect but also imperfect.
James Murphy, lead singer of LCD Soundsytem, wrote a song that resonates with a lot of New Yorkers struggling to make it. Murphy is disappointed with New York and goes on to list many reasons about why the city is not all people think it is, “…Take me off your mailing list/For kids that think it still exists/Yes, for those who think it still exists.” However, towards the end of the song he admits, he is still undecided about the city, “Maybe I’m wrong/And maybe you’re right.” O’Hara has similar negative feelings about New York in his “Personal Poem,” he writes, “I wonder if one person out of the 8,000,000 is thinking of me as I shake hands with LeRoi and buy a strap for my wristwatch and go back to work happy at the thought possibly so.” O’Hara and Murphy both struggle with New York’s fast changing environment, where both often feel lonely in the big city.
Another song that captures O’Hara’s spirit of taking giant ideas and themes, and turning them into intimate personal narratives is Susanne Vega’s, “Tom’s Diner.” This song purely describes a morning routine in New York City, yet is a popular tune among New Yorker’s for how relatable and telling it really is. All while sitting in this diner with a cup of coffee, the New York lifestyle is just as exposed as O’Hara did in his poems “A Step Away From Them” and “Personal Poem.” In “Step Away From Them,” O’Hara writes, “On to Times Square, where the sign blows smoke over my head, and higher the waterfall pours lightly.” This short and simple line reveals Midtown perfectly to any New Yorker who truly knows, he manipulates every detail is say something more. Vega describes everything she witnesses through the windows of this diner, a true snip it of New York, she sings that the waiter only pours her coffee half way, and before she can complain, he is already gone. Furthermore, she reads the headlines of the New York Post, watches a woman fixed her ripped stocking, and hear the cathedral bells a block away, which make her reminiscent of a past lover. Finally, she ends the song with the line, “I finish up my coffee, it’s time to catch the train.” This line makes the listener reflect on time, as all of this happened during the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee. Even for such a minor morning routine, the detail in her descriptions illuminate greater themes of New York.
Kara Walker aims to take back symbols and stereotypes of Antebellum South with appropriation in her art. The black people are portrayed with the common stereotypes of big noses, flat profiles and bigger lips. Specifically, she depicts black females on the ground, usually with a snake near the body, usually in distress as a white man is above her. This use of symbols and stereotypes is not meant to be deconstructive, but rather constructive in portraying the cruel and harsh reality of slaves during this time. Rather than look at racism through soft scope, Walker takes her art straight to the hard truth in hopes to change the way American’s look at slavery.
The image above is an advertisement from the 1950s for the stereotypical housewife. Where it was sanctioned that a woman’s only purpose was to be enslaved to her family. In this ad, they call it “Specialist in Proper Family Nourishment,” giving the illusion that it is a real job when really all this woman is allowed to do all day is cook, clean, and provide for her children. This stereotype is trademarked by a perfect looking woman, with kempt hair and perfect makeup. She even has a perfect manicure. She is also depicted carrying three large helpings of food. Obviously, this stereotype has been beyond damaging in woman’s strife for equal rights and while we have been moving away from images like this, woman continue to face disparities in the real world with equal wages and fair treatment.
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