Mac Miller and the World

  When Mac Miller dropped his first album, K.I.D.S., the creativity of his samples, unique production style, and optimistic lyrics quickly launched him to fame. However, Miller’s style in future albums changed drastically, and arguably became much more creative (or at least more unique) as his career progressed. Miller’s albums aren’t always cohesive; there aren’t always clear messages in the collections of his songs. Instead, Miller’s goal in his music was to share his experiences with others, and, especially in his later albums, to detail his struggles with maintaining his mental health. He noted that he sought to find a level of comfort in his music, perhaps in the form of cathartic release (Jenkins).

Miller was certainly a big-C creative, because his style and experimentation with music was so unique to him. His creative process can be encompassed by a quest for creative flow. When he wrote his albums, Miller would take trips to places far away from his home, like Hawaii or Chile, in order to give himself new perspectives and environments for his writing process. In this way, he was able to evade the problems with niche thinking that can be associated with expertise in any given field. He said that, during recording sessions, he would live in his studio and singularly dedicate himself to his music-making.

    

    Miller’s most engaging pieces might be the pieces when he was at his most raw, because part of the allure of his work is that his changing attitudes towards life and his mental health are well documented (by him). His earlier work has a lot to do with establishing himself in the rap/hip-hop industry while balancing his personal happiness, but he also metacognitively observes his feelings of inadequacy in an industry made up of other creatives. In his last album before his death, Miller’s optimism was still present, but he had clearly done some deep reflecting on his mental health journey and his battle with substance abuse. Miller’s experimenting with psychedelics probably impacted his creative process, and might be seen as an example of collecting and distracting himself from stress to increase his capacity for creative flow. Miller effectively destigmatized discussions about mental health in the rap community and, thus, transformed the music industry. After his death in 2018, his estate has released two posthumous albums that have been praised for their unique sounds. Mac Miller’s ability to discuss even his most private feelings in his music should be commended, and his honesty about his mental health may be his most lasting (and most creative) contribution to the music industry.

Sources:

   https://www.vulture.com/2018/09/mac-miller-interview.html

https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/mac-miller-15936.php
https://hiphopunrapped.com/articles-hiphop-rap-socialissues/2009-no-more-mac-millers-journey-to-self-acceptance

https://hellogiggles.com/reviews-coverage/music/a-celebration-of-mac-miller-and-his-creativity/

Nyia Luna: Using Graffiti to Spread a Message

 

Nyia Luna grew up on the south side of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She attributes a lot of her art background and inspiration to her father, Tomás Garrett-Rosas. About 8 years ago, she lost her father to suicide and wears a necklace with his picture to keep him close. When her father was growing up in Milwaukee, he spray painted buildings illegally to share his art. She is following in her father’s footsteps, and has worked towards a career in art so that she can share her art legally.

During this past Hispanic Heritage Month, Nyia and another artist, Girlmobb, created a 1,200 square-foot mural of Dolores Huerta. Her art piece is located at 1247 S. Cesar Chavez Dr. in Milwaukee on the same wall that her father used to paint on. Dolores Huerta is a civil rights activist and co-founder of the United Farm Workers Association with Cesar Chavez. She has helped lead several boycotts to drive successful union contract changes. She also created the iconic slogan, “¡Si, Se Puede!” (Yes, We Can!). Depicted on the mural are Huerta’s words, “Honor the hands that harvest your crops.” The piece was created to raise awareness of women who committed their lives to help others and who serve as role models for future generations.

 

When asked about why she created the piece, Nyia Luna said, “We just need to really give thought of who’s preparing our foods and what they have to go through.” She hopes that her artwork will teach and inspire people. 

When learning more about Luna, I thought back to the article we read, “15 Architects On Being Black In Architecture.” One of the architects, Pascale Sabian, notes that “Advocacy work can and should start on your block, in your neighborhood, in your community. See what injustices are impacting your town and take that as a beginning standpoint.” In a similar way, Luna uses her art as a way to advocate, and she creates art pieces in the community she grew up in.

Luna’s creative process stems from her desire to carry out her father’s legacy of graffiti art. Her experiences growing up shaped who she is and have influenced the art she creates. She creates art that will have an influence on the culture around her. She draws from her love of graffiti and the influences of her father. She explained, “I wanna take on what he couldn’t.” Luna continues to develop her artistic ability and honor her father through her art. 

Some of her other graffiti art includes: 

   

 

To learn more about Nyia Luna and her art you can find her on Twitter @NyiaLuna and on Instagram @NyiaLuna.

 

To see a video of her paining the mural, follow the link below!

https://twitter.com/NyiaLuna/status/1423004452143788032?s=20&t=h6X_BOoSbVyzDRN7BoThYg

Sources:

• https://www.tmj4.com/news/local-news/painting-a-legacy-how-a-local-graffiti-artist-is-impacting-the-future-while-living-out-her-fathers-dream

• https://urbanmilwaukee.com/2021/08/04/dolores-huerta-mural-unveiled/

• https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/dolores-huerta

• https://www.culturedmag.com/article/2020/08/06/15-architects-on-being-black-in-architecture

Jason Sudeikis and the Creation of Apple TV's "Ted Lasso"

Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso first premiered on August 14, 2020. The show stars Jason Sudeikis as Ted Lasso, an American football coach who is hired to coach the British soccer team AFC Richmond. The comedy series has won many awards, including Emmys, for its stellar acting, directing, editing, and more.

 

Sudeikis doesn’t just star in the show, though – he also created it. With the help of Brendan Hunt and Bill Lawrence, he was able to craft a three-season show (with the final season airing later this year) that has captured the hearts of millions. Looking at Sudeikis from the perspective of a creative mind can reveal what exactly went into the making of this delightful sitcom.

 

The most essential personality trait leading to creativity is an openness to experience, which Sudeikis seems (from an outsider’s perspective) to possess. He has shown himself to be politically liberal, as he has worn a shirt saying, “My body, my choice” to an awards show, as well as heavily implied a distaste for former president Donald Trump on numerous occasions. Additionally, he has shown to believe in the importance of art – his 2021 hosting of Saturday Night Live (SNL) paying homage with a sincere and reverent speech to his time as a cast member on the show and the institution as a whole.

 

Throughout his life, Sudeikis was collecting memories that would become important later on. Experiences from his real life would eventually make their way into the show; from the relationships he had with his own coaches while playing basketball in high school to intimate moments with romantic partners.

 

Many creative processes went into the creation of the show. One clear-cut example is that in an interview, Sudeikis once stated that the show was created with the concept of, “What if Nora Ephron wrote a sports movie?” This indicates that analogy was a key component of the creative process, as he took the emotional weight and uplifting themes from a Nora Ephron film and translated it into his own work. Another creative process used was incubation; the character of Ted Lasso was first used in an NBC Sports commercial in 2015 but took five years to become a fully developed show. It took time for the concept to evolve from a goofy five-minute commercial to a poignant season of television.

 

While Ted Lasso is on the surface a show about soccer, the characters within it engage with and praise literature, musical theater, and many other compelling art forms. And its core message, that kindness is something we should all strive for, is one that every single creative should take to heart.

Defining Childhoods and Challenging Audiences: Roald Dahl's Work, Motivation, and Questionability

The Witches, The BFG, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda: these titles and many more have found homes on millions of bookshelves since Roald Dahl began writing in the 1940s. The author was born in 1916 in Llandaff, Wales. Following a trend in the lives of other creatives, notably class subject Pablo Picasso, Dahl suffered through childhood trauma including the death of his father and sister at age three and brutal abuse at boarding school. Interestingly, considering that he later went on to become a prolific writer, Dahl did not attend University but instead worked abroad and later served as a fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force until he was critically injured in a plane crash.

He wrote his first novel, The Gremlins, for Walt Disney in 1943, and published a few other works before finding real success with a collection of adult macabre stories entitled Someone like You in 1953. In a curious transition, he moved from adult stories to his famous children’s novels; this switch may be reflected in the dark comedy present in many of his works, indicating that his creative process centers on developing stories out of that theme (possibly due to his dark childhood). His first successful children’s novel was James and the Giant Peach, released in 1961, followed by the most famous work of his career, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Dahl also wrote multiple screenplays, including “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” and the James Bond film “You Only Live Twice.” Considering the wide range of audiences for these works, it is obvious that Dahl had a passion for different kinds of writing and was not limited to just one genre.

Roald Dahl can be classified as a “Big-C” creative, especially in the children’s works genre. The dark and often gruesome nature of his writing, unseen in most children’s books, makes his work stand out. In a 1982 Boston Globe Interview, Dahl said, “I write of nasty things and violent happenings because kids are themselves that way.” He also noted, “my main purpose in writing for children is not to educate, but to entertain, to make a child fall in love with it, to say, ‘There's something to this reading of books. It's lovely. I want more.’” This quote gives insight into Dahl’s motivation for writing: decidedly external, he wrote to make the children reading his work “fall in love with it,” diving into his worlds of nasty parents and child heroes.

While Dahl’s work is beloved by millions, it is important to note that the writer had extremely problematic personal views. He admitted publicly that he was antisemitic and has also been accused of misogyny and racism. Recently, six of his books have been recognized as racist and insensitive and will no longer be published by Dr. Seuss Enterprises; some of his other work has been criticized as well, especially his portrayal of the Oompa Loompas in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. This opens up an interesting conversation about what it means to be a Big-C creative and how that influences the perception of a creator’s content. This situation calls to mind J.K. Rowling’s exposed transphobia, as well as problematic views held by many other creatives. How do audiences reconcile their love of a creator’s work with insensitive views? Is it possible to ethically consume content produced by an unethical creator? Especially today, these are questions that many people have been forced to answer, which will continue to arise in the coming years.

Additional information can be found about Roald Dahl, including all of his published works, on his website: https://www.roalddahl.com/home/grown-ups 

Sources:

https://www.biography.com/writer/roald-dahl

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Roald-Dahl

https://time.com/5937507/roald-dahl-anti-semitism/

https://time.com/5943429/dr-seuss-racist-images/

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/childrens-author-roald-dahl-is-born#:~:text=Dahl's%20childhood%20was%20filled%20with,and%20later%20working%20in%20Tanzania.

https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1990-11-27-1990331210-story.html

https://www.carousell.sg/p/roald-dahl-collection-set-15-children%E2%80%99s-book-204764310/

https://www.vocalzone.com/the-record-blog/music-entertainment/roald-dahls-most-compelling-characters/

“Incoming!” Dem Jointz’s Mark on the Music World

 Music producer Dem Jointz, his real name being Dwayne Allen Abernathy Jr., has made his mark on the music industry. With the iconic producer tag, marked by the phrase “Incoming!,” Dem Jointz’s unique sound is unmistakable. Working with multiple big names in music across multiple genres, Dem Jointz has proven himself to be a force in music.

Originally from Compton, California, Dem Jointz started his path in music by playing the drums for his local church. He found music as an inspirational motivation that led him out of the pressures of the gang and crime culture around him. His first influences varied genres, with rap artists such as NWA, DJ Quik, and CMW as well as classic rock influences such as Fleetwood Mac and The Jacksons. While music has always been at the center of Dem Jointz’s life, he did not start producing music until the age of 34 in 2010, when he decided that office life was not for him.

Dem Jointz has worked with superstars in music, including Anderson Paak, Kendrick Lamar, Janet Jackson, and Dr. Dre. His work on Rihanna’s 2011 album Talk That Talk with the song “Cockiness (Love It)” was a stand out for its unique samples and creative production style. The producer accredits his success in production in being able to think outside the box. When asked about his process, he said, “I came in thinking that you had to do it all. I didn’t know that there was a difference between producers and beat makers. I felt like we all fall into that same category,” he explained. “I didn’t know that was going to actually be the reason why I’m still around, still relevant. My placements are as much because I do more than just make beats.” His ability to create more than just beats has helped him establish himself in the industry. 

As of late, Dem Jointz has been making waves in the kpop industry. He started working with kpop giant SM Entertainment. The first song he made for the company was “Don’t U Wait No More” for girl group Red Velvet. Since then, he has made songs for groups such as EXO, Taeyeon, and N.MIXX, but the group he has worked the most extensively with is boy group NCT 127. His creative direction fits perfectly with the kpop group’s intense sound. While working extensively with the group's discography, 2021 was a great year for both Dem Jointz and NCT 127. Their third full album, Sticker, amassed millions of sales, with the shining star of the album, the title track “Sticker,” encompassing Dem Jointz’s distinctive sound. “Sticker” was undoubtedly the most talked-about kpop song of 2021, proving Dem Jointz’s irrefutable influence in the industry.

The future is bright for kpop’s most sought-out producer. As his career progresses, the memorable “Incoming!” tag will continue to shake the industry.

His Spotify: ​​https://open.spotify.com/artist/2AUT4fNQ2QC0e2f5pIxOCd?si=pE2ugrX4SDKDpVvoZpeONw

Songs produced by Dem Jointz: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5zu3H65uPi33wbTMOxJJxu?si=ec16dd8e26154ce6

Sources:

https://www.envimedia.co/creative-spotlight-how-dem-jointz-found-a-producers-playground-in-k-pop/

https://www.demjointz.com/

Don't Stop Now: Daniel Rojas and the Music of Kipo

 

Daniel Rojas (not to be confused with fellow musician Daniel Rojas) is a Costa Rican composer and producer. Born in 1988 in Heredia, he was raised in a family of many musical traditions: classical piano on his mom’s side, and big band trumpet on his dad’s. Upon graduating from the University of North Texas with a degree in jazz guitar, he immediately got to work as an apprentice composing and arranging music. Ever since, he has worked out of LA’s 506 Music studio taking contracts big and small.

Although Rojas has been working in the industry for over 10 years, composing for Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts was his first main credit role, and to great effect. The acclaim he has received has made it his big break in many ways, and he is now well on his way to becoming more than a simple professional. He has recently reached the point where he has had to begin turning down job offers, and taking on only the ones that he personally connects with. He doesn’t just do it for the love of the craft, though: he writes to share with others. He says, “I get gratification by seeing people enjoy the projects I’m working with…I’m doing this for other people too”. In a field built around building bridges, why wouldn’t he be?

He's having fun, I think.

        At any rate, Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts is a show in which Kipo, a girl from the underground, gets stranded on the surface deserted by humans for hundreds of years. Rojas has played an instrumental role in its development: not only has he composed the score (the instrumental portion, the topic of our discussion here today), he has also composed its original (lyrical) songs and worked with independent artists to work their own music into the show. All in all, a herculean effort. And that is not even to mention the sheer variety of hats he wears as composer alone! From hip-hip to Zydeco to dubstep to folk to metal, he draws upon his diverse background to do it all, and do it all well. No wonder Kipo has become his “calling card” project.

The duality of Kipo

In an aggressively visual medium like animation, visuals are everything. So when he was composing the Kipo score, Rojas took every chance he could get to view animatics, storyboards, and other key visuals. An old piece of advice from veteran composer Klaus Badelt seems to have stuck with him: “melody is visual, and the music should respond to that, taking visual cues as your lead and simply respond to it”. It is no surprise then that the music of Kipo is a masterclass in making the story soar. By letting the story come first, by composing in a largely subdued manner, the big musical moments hit few and far between, and hit hard.

My favorite example of this is in Season 1 Episode 6, where a track called “Scarlemagne’s Waltz” plays. The character of Scarlemagne, the crazy mandrill pictured below, is obsessed with everything French. Specifically, Romantic Era (19^th century). 

See? French.

        Drawing on his expertise with a variety of styles, Rojas fashions his triumphant entrance theme after French composer Hector Berlioz, with a modern twist: the screeching violins and crashing piano are matched with trap drums and booming bass synths. It is a truly electric piece. The first time I heard it, I almost threw my phone across the room. Such are the joys of synthesis. Since this track is but 50 seconds long, I highly encourage you to listen to it yourself.     

This is but one of many examples of all the tricks Rojas has up his sleeve, and I have no doubt he has many more yet.

If you want to check out the music of Kipo, the complete soundtrack can be found here.

JPEGMAFIA: Raging Rap Revolutionary

JPEGMAFIA, real name Barrington Hendricks, is a Baltimore-based rapper and producer who has released four studio albums. Most recently, in October 2021, Peggy (the shorthand for his stage name used by friends and fans) released his fourth studio album, LP!, on his thirty-second birthday. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Peggy spent much of his childhood in New York until he spent his teenage years in various places across the southern United States. These environments came to heavily shape the perspective from which he would make his music. Prior to beginning his career making music in the underground rap scene and directly following high school, Hendricks served in the Air Force, which he describes as the worst decision he’s ever made, and was deployed to Kuwait, Iraq, north Africa, and Afghanistan. After receiving an honorable discharge, Peggy began fully pursuing his music career and chose to settle in Baltimore, a city whose underground and experimental music scene he viewed as being the perfect fit for the music he was seeking to make and would enable him to grow as an artist. Provocative and unapologetically himself, Peggy approaches making music from experiences and a perspective that are entirely his own, giving his music a uniqueness that is seldom found in the mainstream today.

When asked about what motivates him in making music, JPEGMAFIA discusses how both extrinsic and intrinsic factors push him to create and produce the best product possible. In response to being asked if he thinks there is a commercial ceiling for his work, Peggy said: “Originally, my entire goal with music was for it to be my job. When I sit down to make a beat, I wanna know that I’m gonna get paid from it, and that I can pay my bills and still have money left over to be a person…I wanna make my music as popular as it can be, get it to many people, and just be an established force in hip-hop.” Of course, though, Peggy also describes how, whether he’s writing lyrics or making a beat or even performing on stage, that he finds it impossible to write, produce, or perform outside of himself and his true personality. Whether he’s sampling early 2000s Britney Spears or sounds from his favorite video games while growing up in the 90s, JPEGMAFIA incorporates the wholly unique things he enjoys and finds interesting into his creative process. Choosing to produce, write, mix, and master all of his music himself, Peggy is the sole figure present in the creative process of making his music, infusing a tangible individuality into the final product and subjecting his art to no one’s judgement but his own before its release to the world. For JPEGMAFIA, making music began as a release for the negative emotions and experiences he had while serving in the military as a young man. As a young artist, he made music simply for his own wellbeing and for the love he had for the process, not telling anyone he was even venturing down such creative paths. Even as he has gained more notoriety with each album release, Peggy says there is nothing more for him in life outside of making music. He views the process of making music as a necessity and that he is incapable of doing anything else. Peggy understands making music as essential for the preservation of himself and that he would be completely lost without it. Without music, Peggy believes he would be nothing, and he knows that, for himself, nothing is not an option. In an interview with the Cambridge Union, he said: “My music is the thing that makes me. It is the thing I live and die for.”  

As a rapper, he describes his stage persona as simply an exaggerated version of himself. This fact can be seen most presently on his second studio album Veteran, which was the record that first catapulted him to a wider audience outside of fans of underground rap (and introduced me to JPEGMAFIA). Viewing himself as incredibly cynical and as a child of the internet age, Veteran embodies these qualities in JPEMAFIA with its highly satirical and graphic lyrics relating to racism, homophobia, and the rhetoric of political leaders/commentators in the world today. With its head-spinning and experimental beats filled with samples and sounds from quite possibly anywhere you can imagine, Veteran proves itself to be incredibly cutting-edge and a challenging, intense listen. Veteran is a provocative and incredibly original album, clearly channeling so many of the unique qualities of an artist who seeks to give every ounce of his being to the music that is all he has in life. JPEGMAFIA is one of the most prominent artists within the experimental hip-hop genre today, and hopefully his completely unfiltered creativity can not only push his own art further but also expand and reshape the face of hip-hop and music as a whole.

Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UjNTHSIqU8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF4cIXja-EA&t=572s

https://pitchfork.com/features/rising/get-to-know-jpegmafia-the-political-noise-rapper-whos-trolling-the-trolls/

https://www.nme.com/features/music-interviews/jpegmafia-lp-interview-age-britney-spears-rap-3084521

Jonathan Larson: A Broadway Rockstar

     Jonathan Larson was a composer, lyricist, and playwright. 

Larson was creative from a young age. He was involved in musical theater in middle and high school. Larson was a mini-c creative during this time. Public school theater allowed him to learn the basics of piano, singing, and music performance. This time of personal creativity allowed Larson to grow an emotional attachment to the art of musical theater and allowed him to develop the skills needed to advance further in the field. 

Larson studied acting at Adelphi University in New York. While in college, he began experimenting with composing his own music. He wrote the scores and lyrics for multiple small-scale college productions. 

After college, he moved to Greenwich Village in New York City. Larson lived in relative poverty during this time. His music career did not take off after college, so he was forced to work at a diner to make ends meet. Larson was heavily influenced by the culture of Greenwich Village and by the life experiences of the struggling artists that lived there during the 1980s and ‘90s. Larson drafted several musicals during this time, but none of them were picked up by producers. The heartbreak of those failures and of the world rejecting his work inspired tick, tick… BOOM!, a semi autobiographical musical. Tick, tick… BOOM! was a one-man show with a rock band accompanying Larson. The music style was completely unique for Broadway at the time. The show also featured an homage to Stephen Sondheim, one of Larson’s biggest inspirations. Larson and Sondheim exchanged letters while Larson was still in college, and Sondheim occasionally reviewed Larson’s work. This collaboration was a huge source of inspiration and motivation for Larson, especially after repeated failures to make it big on Broadway.

Larson’s most important work was the rock musical Rent. Rent weaves together the stories of struggling artists in New York City and a community endangered by the AIDS crisis, both of which were very personal motifs for Larson. Larson wanted to create a contemporary theater production that reflected real contemporary music. He believed bringing new music to Broadway would be his big break, or the chance for him to finally become a Pro-c creative. Throughout his life, Larson was never able to have his music as a career; he was forced to sustain himself through low-paying restaurant work. His creative compositions were not respected by the mainstream Broadway industry. Unfortunately, Larson never was able to become a professional creative. He died just days before Rent’s Broadway premiere. However, I would argue Larson became a Big-C creative years after his death. Larson received 3 posthumous Tony Awards and a Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Rent became the 11th longest running show in Broadway history. Larson’s work inspired 2 incredible films, Rent and tick, tick… BOOM!, the latter of which could become an Academy Award-winning film this year. Larson’s innovative work has inspired a multitude of modern composers and playwrights, including Lin-Manuel Miranda, and paved the way for a new genre of Broadway musicals. Jonathan Larson also has a collection in the Library of Congress, so his groundbreaking work can be viewed and studied for decades to come. 

     If you’re interested in learning more about Jonathan Larson, I would highly encourage you to watch the 2021 film tick, tick… BOOM!, streaming on Netflix. I have been a lifelong fan of musical theater and Jonathan Larson, and this film reignited my love for him.  

Comics can be anything - Garth Ennis

Garth Ennis grew up in a small, Northern Ireland town outside the city of Belfast. Being so secluded from the comic world as a young man, Ennis grew up reading not the superhero and action comics that held major popularity in the US, but anthologies such as Judge Dredd’s 2000 AD and the readily available Picture Libraries featuring one-shot army stories. When a publication team from Fleetway visited Belfast, the young Ennis confronted the group and offered up his services to write a story about the Northern Island troubles. This story, titled Troubled Souls was the first of many instances of Ennis’s particular honest irreverence, challenging traditional Irish perspectives of the religious turmoil. Ennis would later write the series True Faith for Fleetway, a story about a young man caught up in another’s hatred for God. The release was met with intense backlash from religious communities and ultimately pulled from publication but presented a running theme of Ennis’s work: his atheistic upbringing and immense distaste for organized religion. While not raised aggressively atheistic, Ennis recalls thinking at a young age that religion was simply a stupid idea and felt as though he were an outcast when other kids who had been raised on religion simply accepted the idea of an omnipotent and omnipresent God.

Ennis at a comic expo

By 1991, Ennis had made it over to the United States and was writing for Vertigo comics, where he was given the opportunity to author DC’s Hellblazer. After major success on his three-year run, Garth was given complete creative control on his next project, which would prove to be one of his most well-known works. When asked about the origin of Preacher, Ennis refers to the process as coming “in stages, almost in fits and starts. I put it together instinctively.” The separate elements formed over his last months working on Hellblazer. The way Ennis describes the process is as if the whole thing was incubating in his head as he finished his previous work and the salience network was picking out ideas for characters, such as a hero with a tense relationship with religion, and ideas for the most disgusting villain he could come up with. Here again arises Ennis’s well-documented hatred for organized religion when he describes Preacher as pure, intentional blasphemy.

After writing multiple other successful comic runs for DC, Ennis was brought over to Marvel, where he had the chance to write Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe. The Punisher, an already brutal Marvel character not afraid of killing, was given the Ennis makeover, involving an ultra-violent story and an irreverence towards the Marvel universe that only Ennis’s genocide of superheroes could bring. This type of bold story reflected Ennis’s desire to express that comics as a medium were limitless, and the story deserved to be written because it “was just too much fun not to do.”

Perhaps what most people would know Garth Ennis by outside of the comic world would be the recent cultural sensation of Amazon’s The Boys based off the comic series of the same name. The story follows a rag-tag group of C.I.A operatives tasked with watching over corporate superheroes. Besides satirizing much of the superhero genre, the story is also an indictment of capitalist and consumer culture, portraying an evil, globally powerful corporate entity attempting to force genetically advanced super soldiers onto the US defense market. Ennis says the move to an independent publishing firm gave him the freedom he needed to truly capture the work, as DC remained hesitant regarding the intense anti-superhero tones of the series. Ennis also said that the move gave the story the marketing attention and company focus that got the story the attention is deserved.

Cover of The Boys

Comic creation is a very collaborative process. Writer and artist must work closely together to create a very harmonious interplay between page art and writing. This process takes years and involves constant rewrites and redrawing, but the end results are limitless.

Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyQemZOzEWY

https://web.archive.org/web/20160602083712/http://observer.com/2016/06/preacher-scribe-garth-ennis-talks-faith-blasphemy-and-getting-your-story-on-screen/

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/art-and-design/preacher-to-the-converted-1.608709

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGMWvsFOuZE

The Power of Poetry: Amanda Gorman's "The Hill We Climb"

 The Power of Poetry: Amanda Gorman's "The Hill We Climb"

If you tuned in to the inauguration in January 2021, you heard poetry by the young Amanda Gorman. Gorman recited "The Hill We Climb" and captivated every single viewer, but her spotlight did not start nor end there. In 2017, Gorman was named the first National Youth Poet Laureate and she has plans to recite another original poem at Super Bowl LV. In her poem "The Hill We Climb," Amanda looks at the history of justice in our country and takes a hopeful eye to a future built on unity. She discusses the triumphs of our history and the challenges that still lie ahead with a fierce and heartening tone. To give a glimpse into Amanda's poetry, excerpts from "The Hill We Climb" are added throughout this post.

"We are striving to forge a union with purpose,

to compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters,

 and conditions of man."

In an interview with Michelle Obama, Amanda Gorman discusses the renaissance of Black art. She expresses that art forms express the depict realities of human life and contemporary Black art is reflecting the Black experience in the current "important moment of Black life." When discussing how she prepared for the performance of her poetry at the inauguration, Gorman mentions how she didn't get a chance to really sit down with her poem until the night before the Inauguration. Amanda also mentions her mantra that she repeats to herself before performing to calm nerves and re-center her mind. Her powerful affirmation is an analogy of a song written by Lin Manuel Miranda: "I'm the daughter of Black writers who are descended from Freedom Fighters who broke their chains and changed the world. They call me." Beyond beating the jitters, Amanda has grown immensely in her performance abilities by overcoming a speech difficulty. She describes the effort necessary to overcome this obstacle as a strength and a blessing because that process made her braver and catalyzed her writing career. 

"Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true:

That even as we grieved, we grew;

that even as we hurt, we hoped;

that even as we tired, we tried;

that we'll forever be tied together, victorious"

Amanda is known as a young prodigy but that is not without intense personal pressure. Gorman discusses that for the past six years anytime she sat down to write a poem, she was focused on writing the Inauguration poem, that is, "a poem that is worthy of a new chapter in the country." In her creative process, Amanda was focused on making a massive impact, "on writing something larger than [herself]." All her work stems from a place of brave hopefulness.

"The new dawn blooms as we free it.

For there is always light,

if only we're brave enough to see it."

   

 When asked about the connection between art and social change, Amanda focused on the power of art and rhetoric. She also mentions the use of poetry on signs and banners at Black Lives Matter protests and how poetry can be used as an avenue for racial justice. Later in the interview, Amanda mentions reframing poetry for a young audience as a method to "reflect humanity in all its diverse colors and breadth." Gorman is powered by the lack of conventionality that she finds thrilling in her poetry. While classic poetry by dead white men is still taught in schools, she appreciates work by Black writers and contemporary artists. Although to prepare for her Inaugural speech, she drew inspiration from Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, and Frederick Douglass. 

Amanda's poetry has the power to change minds and touch hearts. Amanda Gorman is an influential and inspirational creative for youth around the world. I am looking forward to her next world-captivating performance.  

Sources:

https://time.com/5933596/amanda-gorman-michelle-obama-interview/ https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2021/01/amanda-gormans-inauguration-poem-the-hill-we-climb/

"Building Problems" with Dodie Clark

 

On April 14, 2009, YouTube user doddleoddle uploaded an original song titled “Rain” from her bedroom in Enfield, London, England. This was the beginning of a meteoric rise to internet celebrity, which eventually translated to sold-out venues across two continents. 

Dodie Clark (pronouns she/they--both used throughout) is a 26-year-old singer/songwriter based in London, England. She received modest internet celebrity in the mid-2010s after releasing a few EPs, including 2016’s Intertwined and 2017’s You. Despite Intertwined being an unsigned record, it reached the UK Billboard #35 during its first week of release, an incredible feat for someone primarily known from vlogs and storytime videos on YouTube.

However, Clark’s crowning achievement has been the release of her first official studio album, Build a Problem. The album has twenty-two songs, including fourteen official releases and a B-side with eight “demo” songs. Clark is currently touring North America and Europe for the album’s release. In this album, Clark writes about social isolation, grief, anger, suppression, and the pressures of being raised in unhealthy environments. 

Phoebe De Angelis from the UK’s Dork writes “[t]he album’s intimacy is like a series of diary entries.” She continues, “Her lyricism’s brutal honesty addresses everyone’s shared fears; that gut-wrenching feeling of speaking the unspeakable makes dodie relatable on a universal scale.”

Clark refers to this honesty when discussing their creative process. In reference to her titular song, “Hate Myself,” she says, “Yeah, I love writing about something complex and maybe not as bright, as the track implies. Because this song is meant to be a little bit playful – I’m not really indulging too deep into the bad parts of this feeling. It’s meant to be like, you’re right, a silly dance I play. And I think I can almost look back on it, from an imaginary older me and see myself in these situations and ask, ‘Why?’”

Later, they say, “I think it’s a result of everything I talk about, but in a far more grounded way. I kind of live in this heightened, denial, chaotic, manic state of like, excuses and blame and then self-blame. It’s not very grounded at all, a lot is in denial.”

As the writer of all of her songs, she tries to balance vulnerability and distance. They cite their creative process as a way of speaking their thoughts but try to distance themself from the public eye on their channel. Their creative process is very personal to them, and they try to not put “all of [them] out there,” like they feel they did in the past.

She pulls inspiration from other musicians in her field. Recently, she has cited Ethan Gruska for his work: “I don’t know what piano he uses or how he produces it – but it sounds so, so pure and so dark and dusty and dank and close. It’s this delicious, muted sound to the piano.”

Clark’s creativity is a perfect example of “Little C” creativity, as we’ve discussed in class. They use their music for personal discovery and introspection. She uses her creativity to work through her life experiences and to express herself. Clark also fits Csikszentmihalyi’s (1997) dichotomies in creative individuals. She maintains passionate objectivity about her work: being able to critique her work and break down her verse structure to the 13-piece orchestra featured on the album, while being proud of and praising her own music.

Harkening back to De Angelis’s review, “‘Build A Problem’ speaks to overthinking and creating problems where there might not be any; it’s what we all do, but don’t want to admit.”

Forethought and Pride: The Creativity of Hajime Isayama

"This world is cruel, but I still love you. Even if I sacrifice everything, I will protect you." 

Hajime Isayama

Hajime Isayama is the author and illustrator for the series Attack on Titan, a story set in a world where humanity lives inside cities surrounded by three enormous walls that protect them from the gigantic man-eating humanoids referred to as titans; the story follows Eren Yeager, who vows to exterminate the titans after a titan brings about the destruction of his hometown and the death of his mother.

This series originally started as a manga in September of 2009 ("manga" being a Japanese comic book/graphic novel). Though this series only became an international hit when it was adapted into an anime in April of 2013 ("anime" being the term for a style of Japanese film and television animation). Since then, this franchise has evolved into one the most well known anime/manga series in the world. With live-action adaptations, further manga spin-offs, endless forms of merchandise, homages/references in other series, and movies being made due to its success. There's even an Attack on Titan theme park at Universal Studios Japan.

The entrance to the Attack on Titan theme park

When asked what influenced him to create Attack on Titan, Isayama noted several reasons. One was his inspiration from other forms of media. The most recognizable of which being Jurassic Park, where he became fond of the idea of being eaten by something huge as a frightening story element. Some other lesser known sources of inspiration were a videogame where aliens fought humans and a series called Jigoku-Sensei Nube, from which he further developed his concept of titans.

A soldier, Ian, rescuing his comrade from the mouth of a titan, sacrificing himself in the process

Another influence for him was his personal experiences growing up on a farm in the mountains. In a BBC interview, he said that he noticed living creatures gain nutrition from other living creatures to survive, and while such a concept seems cruel, it is an undeniable norm. This idea is portrayed in the forms of the man-eating titans and the endless conflict between humans to get what they want. Besides that, he also wanted to escape that suffocating rural area, a feeling shared with the protagonist, Eren Yeager.

“Is it wrong not to be special? I don’t think that way. When it comes to my child, it’s fine if he’s never great. He doesn’t have to be better than anyone. After all, just look at him, he’s so cute! He’s already special. Because he was born into this world.” – Carla Yeager

An additional thing to note is that Isayama was very persistent. He failed numerous times trying to get his story published. Visiting several major publishing companies to get it evaluated, most of them said they liked his story but felt that the quality of his drawings were poor. He felt like giving up and didn't think he could become a manga artist, he didn't think he could be one of the big ones. In the end, the only publisher that showed interest was Kodansha. And at that point, his self-esteem was so low that when the editor said he liked it, Isayama remembered thinking, "What's wrong with this guy?" His drawings did get better, though how much that was due to learning from failure or simply getting better with time is unknown. Regardless, his experience with failure is noteworthy none the less.
 

These creative processes of collecting and learning from failure helped shape the iconic series people know and love today. Though, Isayama also experienced some less conventional means for his creative process. For instance, in the same aforementioned BBC interview, he stated that, "When I first came up with the idea, I had a dream with no limits. In my tiny room, I felt I was connected to the universe, bypassing the ordinary world. In my dreams I thought Attack on Titan was a fascinating, world-changing idea. The structure of the story, that there are walls, and outside the walls there are monsters, and inside the walls there are different classes within the society. I think those concepts are universal. Maybe that was why it became popular." His insight and incubation of the story in this regard certainly stands out, and it is a part of why Attack on Titan became what it is today.

"I see. I think I understand why he did it, after all this time. Everybody I’ve met was all the same. Drinking, women, worshipping God, even. Family, […], dreams, children, power. Everyone had to be drunk on somethin’ to keep pushing on. Everyone was a slave to something.” – Kenny Ackerman"

However, Isayama's pride and love for the series is perhaps one of the biggest reasons Attack on Titan is such a beloved series. His mental imagery when forming the story was incredibly well thought out. Even stating that he had the entire story planned out before drawing it. A story that spanned from 2009 to 2021, totaling 34 volumes and 141 chapters. Such care and forethought is what makes Attack on Titan stand out from almost any other series, even outside of anime/manga. Almost every part of the story has significance later down the line. Time and time again, he leaves the audience in shock upon realizing the scene they overlooked was more significant than they expected or the supposed "plot hole" they noticed was fully intentional and never a plot hole at all. Every twist is delivered so masterfully that it comes as a complete surprise at first, though upon rewatching/rereading the series, the audience notices foreshadowing they had missed before. And in a world seemingly filled with creators that often think stories up along the way and creators that end up forgetting parts of their own stories, it's refreshing to have one who has the whole thing planned out and never forgets a detail.

On top of that, the story itself is simply beautiful and wonderfully creative. With beautiful themes hidden behind its bloody and thrilling setting, Attack on Titan exemplifies the woes and beauty of humanity. It exemplifies the idea that there is no such thing as true freedom, because individual freedoms will naturally clash. So, because of that, conflict is unavoidable, but the answers to conflict are never hate and violence, because hate and violence are cyclical. Instead, communication should always be prioritized because it leads to connection. And that's what life is about, not some grand goal that can be pursued, but the little connections you make with others and the beautiful moments in establishing them. The ultimate form of connection being love, proper love. 

The opening scene to Attack on Titan