Strawberries

Strawberry Fields Forever

With little background information, the song "Strawberry Fields Forever" by The Beatles seems to have little to do with war. In fact, the song's title simply comes from the Strawberry Field Salvation Army Children's Home, which was just around the corner from where John Lennon grew up in Liverpool. This song was first released on the album Magical Mystery Tour, and is seen one of The Beatles greatest hits. This song is filled with nonsensical lyrics that are organized in a stream of consciousness style. The listener is presented with lines such as, "No one I think is in my tree, I mean it must be high or low that is you can't, you know, tune in…" Not surprisingly, this song is associated with The Beatles' heavy LSD use. Drugs influenced many of their songs and melodies as the band sought to create beautiful music out of the fear and hostility of the Vietnam War.

Much analysis of this song is often centered around the Strawberry Field Salvation Army Children's Home. This orphanage obviously played a huge role in John Lennon's childhood as he grew up in Liverpool. During his youth, Liverpool was very much home to the working class. Industrialization was taking hold in the old slave port city and the difficulties of life were very much a reality for its workers. Through lyrics such as "living is easy" and "nothing is real and nothing to get hung about," Lennon references the hardships of this city in this particular song.

Additionally, this scene from "Across the Universe" depicts dripping strawberry juice, an extremely significant symbol in terms of conveying this song's meaning. While strawberries are normally associated with springtime, sweetness, and life, this scene uses the sugary fruit for a much different purpose. In complete contrast, the strawberry juice arguably symbolizes blood. Symbolically, the video depicts fields filled not with delicious fruit, but instead with the blood of thousands of soldiers in Vietnam. Another striking image from this scene occurs as the film's main character, Jude, nails multiple rows of strawberries on a board. After clips of soldiers in Vietnam are flashed on the screen, the camera pans down the rows of strawberries, revealing that they have begun to excrete red juice. As each strawberry begins to give off its juice, a new solider has been killed in war. Then, in perhaps an even more direct approach to this symbolism, the strawberries are depicted as bombs falling towards earth, ready to indiscriminately cause mayhem and destruction.
Without the context provided by the images in "Across the Universe," this song may lack meaning in terms of protesting war. However, when coupled with the striking images of smashed strawberries, dying soldiers, and combat zones, "Strawberry Fields Forever" develops into a much more significant piece of musical art.

Joey and Mia's cool post about war

A rolling pig feels no pain

when it rolls in beautiful fields

filled with the sadness 

of those lost long ago.

The green grass surrounds the pig

as he senses the blood

that once covered the ground 

he stood on.

He remembers...

he remembers, and he weeps.

He weeps for the lives that were lost

in wars that did not have to be fought.

He weeps for the boys to young to understand

what was happening,

too young to say good bye

The devastation of war takes a toll 

on everyone...men, women and children alike...

My response to Battlestar Galactica

I have never really paid attention to sci-fi shows. I have never watched Smallville, the 4400 or this battleship intergalactic show my friend Joey has talked about in his blog with such knowledge and understanding, drawing parallels to real life from what sounds like an interesting show. As my choice of a song and Joey's choice of a tv show demonstrate, we are both influenced by pop culture, as are many people our age who may or may not admit it. I think this actually supports what I tried to claim in my previous post (even though I think the message was slightly cloudy and entangled in my musings) that pop culture is a good way to influence and provide messages to people today. Whether or not everyone realizes it, pop culture influences each individual in some way. Although I have never seen Joey's show, or any of the things he mentioned, I can see the parallels he draws with battlestar galactic car and the real life war that is going on today. Although I have made it sound comical, the issues that sometimes fuel pop culture are less than funny most of the time. I just thought of another show that I actually do watch that relates real life stories and situations through pop culture; SOUTH PARK. This is a show I watch, similar to Joey watching his sci-fi shows, in that both try to relate real world situations and messages to the public, although in very different manners I would think. I don't know much about Battling Galactic Stars, but South Park takes real world things and stories, makes fun of it and then presents a deep, meaningful message at the end. The effects real life has on either show adds greatly to the shows content and meaning. I know South Park would not be the show it is without the events that occur in our day to day lives to make it funny. As I have run off on quite a tangent here I will cease after one final attempt to drive home my point. From songs to tv shows and even more, there are many different types of pop culture that draw on real life. I think the point of including metaphors, allegories and other things in media is to promote communication and understanding. No matter what show you watch, the importance is that you become informed. If it's funny, if it's sad, if it is totally off the wall and you have to dig so deep to even find the relationship to a real world issue, it still makes you think.

The War

"and the houses, 

laid out like targets, 

with the deafening sound, 

we watched them all go down, 

and the families, 

now useless bodies, 

they lay still black and blue, 

a gift from us to you..."  -The War, Angels & Airwaves

This is the link to the actual song on youtube...

Since i have been experiencing a writer's block for the past few days, I was kind of at a loss with what to write about. However, I heard a song when I had iTunes playing on random and realized it had some relation to what we have been talking about in class. Once I looked up the lyrics, one verse (above) stood out to me, and I felt like I could write a little about it and what I think of it. This song is clearly an antiwar statement, with images of war throughout the song and the chorus chanting, "why won't you tell me that it's almost over?" I feel like this song makes a strong statement not only about war itself, but about how widespread war has become as an issue to address. We wrote letters on our blogs a few days ago about how communication about war can be improved and I hadn't thought about using culture (like music) to communicate, but now I see it is an effective way to get out  information and feelings about war. This verse struck me for some reason and the picture it painted sticks in my mind. The sarcastic last line, "a gift from us to you," reminds listeners that we are killing people and leaving them there almost like reminders of what we are doing. Now thinking about it, I feel like through music and other cultural activities that bring people together, the message can be spread about war and the destruction we are causing in today's war. Through different types of music, different people can be brought together to create more understanding of war through a common interest. This song, and I'm sure there are many others out there that are against war, is a way to bring people together over a difficult topic.

Einstein said, "killing under the cloak of war is no different than murder." The more people who realize that can make a difference in what is going on today. No matter how the message is spread, the importance is that it is. Culture of today's youth is a really good way to get the message out. Just some thoughts...

in class assignment- group caption

The Silver Iguanas

A minor chord can only go so far as to compliment the soldier's broken soul

Civil War photo analysis

I chose this photo to analyze because in looking at the section entitled, "Lincoln's Assassination," it stood out to me as a picture that captured the scene of that tragedy. Not that I had forgotten the assassination, but seeing the photographs reminded me of the magnitude of that event, and the great loss our country suffered. I felt moved by this particular picture because it depicts a place that should be remembered and it compelled me to stop and think about Lincoln's assassination and what has become of the Ford Theatre since then. This photo captures Ford Theatre in its originality, before restorations and tourism of today's world. The image is shot at a far off angle, capturing the beauty of the architecture of Ford Theatre as well as the scene that encompasses it. This seems to be a form of documentary photography, working to capture the building as it is in that time to be remembered. The photographer shot the building with a direct approach, slightly from the right to show more than just the theatre. The vertical lines repeated in the image through the buildings and windows direct the viewer to scan the whole picture, up and down, not focusing on any one subject. This is one instance I think the photograph is still very powerful without a central focus because the whole thing works together to create a vivid image of a memory. From the clear sky above the buildings to the pitch black windows, the contrast from light to dark gives the photo an eerie feel, adding to it's documentary feel. The expressive landscape also helps convey a spectral feeling, which might have been part of the author's intention. The whole photo works together to create an image of long ago when an important event occurred.

This is the link to the article I read in relation to this photo.

August 29, 2007-photograph

This photograph expresses a sense of hope in a time where the majority of things heard about the war are negative, depressing and sad. The focus is on the little boy in the center who appears to be shrouded in light in comparison to the burned cars on either side of him. As the photo pans out from the boy it loses its focus, and allows shadows to creep into the scene. The shadowing in the photograph appears to represent the destruction that had been occurring, and the little boy walking through might represent the hope of the cease-fire. The photo is balanced by the cars on either side of the boy, and the center is empty except for the sole subject walking away from the artist. The boy seems to be symbolically walking away from the violence of the war and towards peace and calmness, which could be represented by the stained glass. The lines in the photograph seem to draw the eye towards the center of the photograph and the boy walking. The tire treads on the ground lead up towards the edges of the stained glass windows. The artist framed the photo perfectly to include burned cars on each side of the boy, almost like a border, to show the destruction around him. The value of the darker edges of the photograph to the light that seems to shine on the little boy seems to add to the picture's theme that all hope is not lost, despite the chaos and devastation caused by war.

Here is the link to the photo we analyzed