Steam Powered Giraffe: MK III

The steampunk robot band, Steam Powered Giraffe, has recently announced that their new album, MK III will be released fall of 2013. The band includes three singers/songwriters, David Michael Bennett, Bunny Bennett, and Sam Luke who dress up and act as robots on stage. The great singing and pantomiming act is family appropriate, and are usually found playing at conventions around the US. What is unique about this band is that while they are characters on stage, Bunny Bennett (one of the singers), has also created a whole world based around the three robots, The Spine, Rabbit, and Hatchworth, which is what they base most of their songs off of (interesting happenings of the fictional world.) In creating these characters which are actually more thought out than may seem at first glance, these San Diego performers have sparked a whole fandom (community of fans) who actively participate with members of the band to create more stories about the fictional steampunk world. While you may automatically think that this is a band just for children, their audiences are typically teens to young-adult. To read further about the band, you can visit their official website, or if you want to read about the fiction behind the characters, you can click here.

 

Marina and the Diamonds: The End of "Electra Heart" Era

Marina Lambrini, the Welsh artist of Marina & the Diamonds has had her album, Electra Heart, out since early of 2012, but until last month, Electra Heart was a work in progress. Officially completed in August 8, 2013, Marina released the last part of her 11 part music video. Not only is Electra Heart the official name of the album, but it has also been the name of Marina's latest character for the past year and a half, some even calling it her alter-ego, as she even played and dressed as her character, Electra, for performances and interviews, drawing a black heart on her cheek to signify Electra's character. While many may look at this retro-styled, heartbreaking character as a fun experiment in music, I have come to believe that it may have a much deeper meaning. While portraying this character in several music videos, making all of her fans anticipate the next one almost as if a television show or book has shown me a new way of character development that I had not previously known was possible: character development in music. Through each of Marina's songs and music videos, you can re-watch them over again and notice new things and deeper meanings, similar to books. They tell a story about a girl, Electra, who wanted to be perfect by the standards of modern pop culture and devolves slowly to conform to these standards, watching all of these videos chronologically, the story is that she metaphorically kills her previous self to become what the media wants, but in watching the videos from most recently to the first released video, it tells a story of Electra, who tries to become a different person but in the end, decides that there is more to life than "Fear and Loathing," (the title of her first video). Now that this series is over, after her symbolically smearing the heart off at the end of "Electra Heart," (the most recent music video) Marina will go back to making her regular type of music. In fact, she is already working on her newest, yet-to-be-titled album! Her Electra Heart album was very important to me though; As for the past two years, I have been attached to Electra, and I think it delivers a very important message that music can not only mean a specific thing, but portray a story or lesson as well. Also, in creating this character, it is easy to forget that Marina became this character for a good few years, and shows the dedication that can artist can have with what they do and how much they believe in it.

(To watch the Electra Films, click here.)

Theory of the Universe of Pixar

Pixar has been known to scatter easter eggs (references to other Pixar animations) throughout its films, but what if these so called coincidences were not coincidences at all? Jon Negroni, an online blogger/writer has created his theory on the Pixar universe, suggesting that all 14 Pixar films since Toy Story, released in 1995, through the most recently released Monsters University are all connected and existent within the same universe. I highly recommend that you read the full theory here, as it is much more complex and thought provoking than the brief summary I have included in this post. Jon Negroni has also released a timeline on his website of when he believes each Pixar movie chronologically occurred. The films included are:

A Bug's Life, Toy Story 1, 2, & 3, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars 1 & 2, Ratatoullie, Wall-E, Brave, and Monsters University. 

The timeline of this theory begins with Brave, which explains why animals are developing human characteristics after the witch gives them the ability to talk with her magic. These magical animals went on to breed and create other intelligent animals. This is shown in Ratatoullie and Finding Nemo, where animal intelligence begins to grow. In Up, humans are noticing that animals too are intelligent, and Charles Muntz goes on to harness power from the animals. The timeline then shifts from animals to others things going on in this same universe, specifically, to Artificial Intelligence (AI.) Syndrome from The Incredibles, creates a "kill-bot", who then turns against Syndrome and begins trying to kill all humans. This is beginning to suggest that machines are now forming minds of their own, starting the revolt against humans. Also, Toy Story suggests that inanimate objects are developing minds of their own as well. The Buy-N-Large (BNL) is shown in one form or another in almost every Pixar movie as a worldwide major corporation. BNL begins pushing the industrial revolution, over-manufacturing and causing such terrible pollution that humans are forced to flee Earth. This sets up the story line for Wall-E, where all humans have fled and many species have died. Cars is set at a time where humans had already fled but Wall-E's story had not started yet. At the end, Wall-E finds a small plant growing up out of an old shoe, foreshadowing that nature is beginning to reconstruct itself. After Wall-E comes A Bug's Life, where nature is eventually restored, but virtually no humans still remain on Earth. In the mean time, a new super-species is born: monsters from Monsters Inc. The monsters have an energy crisis, which is solved by way of time travel. In going to the past the monsters could harvest energy from humans in their prime. Leaving them afraid to interact with the children in fear of changing history. But what ever happened to Boo? After traveling into the future, she remembers the monster world growing up, and invents her own time travel using doors, eventually becoming the witch from Brave. Using time travel, Boo goes looking for Sully, passing through many doors and eventually ending up in the Dark Ages. This explains why the witch in Brave was always disappearing through doors. In a brief shot of where the witch lives, a wooden carving of Sully is shown.

Do I believe in this theory?
As a big Pixar fan, I can't see any other way than to believe in it. While there are many flaws and imperfections in this story, Negroni's assumptions have left me dumbfounded and in awe of how the Pixar movies fit together, and has left me convinced that Pixar has been creating this secret universe on the side since the beginning of Toy Story.