Everything Old is Renewed Again

notre dame de paris:

the Notre-Dame cathedral was built between 1160 and 1260. victor hugo refrenced the building with the novel “the hunchback of notre-dame”, which turned it into a place of public interest and fueled several reconstructions. in 2019 the cathedral was burnt, and so now there’s a planned reconstruction for it. it has been suggested to build an entirely new cathedral, though according to the survey the majority of Parisians want the old cathedral to stay, and so the french government obeyed. the reconstruction will end at around 2024, just before the french olympics. “notre dame de paris” in french means “our lady in paris”- the lady being mary, mother of jesus.

last supper:

plautilla nelli was an italian nun, and she was a self-taught artist who built a female-only artist workshop in her convent.  she painted the scene of the last supper, with great focus and detail on accurate anatomy despite not being allowed to learn the subject. the painting was hung on the dining hall of the convent, but during the napoleonic period it was put aside and later bought by santa maria novella, a florentine monestary in 1817 and was later moved somewhere else in 1865. in 1911 it was reported that the painting was rolled and moved into a warehouse. the painting started to be restored in 1939, it sustained light damage from the flooding of 1966, but it survived and now it was restored. the painting also includes lettuce, fava beans and roasted lamb. it also includes pork in jesus’s plate even though pork isn’t allowed in jewish law.

the painting depicts the last supper of jesus and his 12 disciples in passover (a jewish celebrating the exodus from egypt), before the romans captured him. the supper also includes judas iscariot, the guy who snitched on him to the romans for 30 pieces of silver. in the last supper jesus also said “this bread is my meat and this wine is my blood” which is now included in church sermons. judas signaled to the romans he’s jesus by kissing his cheek

plautilla nelli was an incredibly important renaissance painter and sculptor, and her status as a nun allowed her to get the connections she needed to sell and support her work.

edo castle:

in 1457 ota dakan, a samurai warrior poet built the edo castle. during the edo period (when japan was ruled by samurai military dictatorship) it functioned as the military capital and was part of the imperial palace in the meiji restoration (the period when japan started to industrialize and fight back against the west). but in WW2 it got destroyed. as a result, the japanese government tries to preserve the remains and there’s a public campaign to fully restore it. the castle was so big and elaborate that it was divided in various beautifull citadels. now some parts of the castle are in the tokyo railway,as well as in other landmarks. problem is that we don’t have the details to the inner design of the edo castle.

zodiac heads:

the chinese zodiac calendar is based on years, with every year’s zodiac sign being an animal. an italian artist named giussepe castiligone who was a jesuit (a christian religious and missionary order) designed a sculpture featuring a circle of these animal heads in 1860 , which was later looted by the anglos and french during the opum wars, when the british flooded china with opium to force china to sell tea. ai weiei restored and reinterprated the artwork, which also used jesuit mathematicians and was commisioned by a Qing dynasty emperor.(now restored)

ecce homo:

cecilia gimenez tried to restore a withering painting of jesus, located in a church in sierra de Moncayo,Spain. she failed and the result is funny, and led to lots of tourists coming to the area. ecce homo means “that is the man” in latin-the man being jesus. the painting is also called “potato jesus”.

the thinker:

originally called “the poet”,the statue made by august rodin represented Dante in the divine comedy (a book written by dante about dante going to hell and seeing the 9 circles of hell and learning how hell works). it was also originally part of “the gates to hell”,a larger artwork featuring the entire divine comedy, but was than made into its own thing. the thinker statue was orignally placed near the gates and looking over them, as trying to ponder over the situation. it was then exihibited individually in 1888,and was brought as a gift to the city of paris in 1904. nowadays it’s part of the louvre, and part of the museum rodin, so there are 3 versions of the thinker

notre dame de haut in zhengzhou:

originally a french cathedral (though not the well known one in paris, but rather the one built in rochamp), notre dame de haut was copied to zhengzhou,china. it was originally built by le corbusier

the original artists foundation sued the chinese government for copying the exact building and the chinese lost, so it was destroyed and in its place a BBQ restaurant was built

guggenheim abu dhabi:

it’s a futurist building made to serve as a guggenheim museum in abu dhabi. the goggenhim museums are all over the world, in new york, and the netherlands to name a few and they’re built for modern art. this museum used the design of frank ghery (or the style of bilbao’s guggenheim) and will include modern middle eastern art. the first guggenheim museum was built in manhatten and it’s called “the guggenheim”.  emirati construction workers also have terrible working conditions and so it was one if its main criticisms.

the empire strikes back poster:

it’s a rare and scrapped poster that sold for 26400$ the highest cost for a movie poster, and was a trial one made by roger kastel (who also made the poster for “jaws”) , who got inspired with “gone with the wind” posters.

impossible triangle:

it’s a sculpture of some sort made by barti kher, an indian sculptor. it includes a wooden chair that was casted in concrete, along with a cement bar on top. the main point is the change of materials between and how the chagne in materials changes the vibes of the artwork. it could also be said that it’s about modernity vs tradition.

vintage mcdonalds:

in downey,california there’s a unique mcdonalds that wasn’t influenced by modern mcdonalds design. the mcdonalds sign even has only one golden arch,and a chef named speedee on top. it was the third restaurant franchised by the mcdonalds brothers and was owned by the downey franchise, and it’s the oldest mcdonalds standing today. since the franchise didn’t need to apply ray kroc’s new changes it stayed the same, though they abide to the same menu, except having deep fried apple pies. the restaurant includes a little museum with old toys, artifacts and ads.

jaegersburg water tower:

it’s a water tower in denmark that was turned into a mixed use building, with student housing in the upper floors and a youth center in the lower ones, with a nice indoor space in the ground floor that turns it into a playground.

stamba hotel:

it was a soviet publishing house in tbilisi,georgia, and now it’s a hotel. the first communist newspaper in georgia was published there. the space still has the same character and not a lot was changed in the design

tate modern:

in order to subvert the expectations of the viewer, architects herzog and de meuron took bankside power station and turned it into a modern art museum with an open space opening and dynamic galleries. the museum is called tate modern.

zeiitz mocaa:

it was a south african grain silo built with 116 concrete tubes, that got turned into an art museum built around contemporary art, it was also the tallest building in sub saharan africa once, and was built on carving spaces from the silos.

salt building:

it was a building in vancouver, canada made to refine salt water, and now it’s a pub and was a part of the vancouver olympic village and gives light to the history of vancouver. it was also redesigned to preserve the history of vancouver.

ladies celebrating diwali:

diwali is a holiday based on light and is a new year festival. ladies light sparklers with their friends, including an indian princess. the painting was made in around 1760, during the mughal rule over india. the painter for this painting is anoynmous and they used gold for the firecrackers.  and lasts one day

spring lantern festival:

the scene depicts chinese women and children celebrating the chinese light festival, which is around february and involves lighting up lanterns with riddles that the children try to solve. the painting was made in 1944 by zhang daqian, one of the most influential chinese artists of the 20th century. he’s also a renowned art forger. he specialized in buddhist and chinese ancient artwork. the spring lantern festival last for 2 weeks.

giant manure rooster:

a massive chicken made from poop. made to symbolize a chinese zodiac sign and the chinese new year. it was made by a siberian yakut artist from sakha named mikhail bopposov. his famly helped him in making that, and this year’s zodiac sign is the tiger.

android lawn statues:

there’s one for every android version (which are all named after desserts, and are sorted in an alphabetical order for android 1-9 and starting with c). they’re in the google headquarters in california. it also include a statue for the first google phone and they disappeared in march.

the passing of shah jahan:

shah jahan is a mughal emperor who also built the taj mahal, and the painting depicts its death, with his daughter by his side.tagore the painter used old mughal themes , because he was an indian nationalist who hated the west. he ended up creating the modern national indian art style. the death of shah jahan lead to the wars of mughal succession, which destroyed the mughal empire.  his nephew won the nobel for literature

the royal family in 1846:

it made the royal family appear casual, depicted queen victoria, her husband prince albert and children,and was painted by xavier winterhalter, a german painter who served as the court painter for the king of france. winterhalter even got to paint the royal wedding of queen victoria. the painting was placed in the summer house, which was victoria’s favorite place.  

inaguration:

takes a lot of symbols from american political life, with 3 presidents appearing in a mishmash: wilson, truman and eisenhower .made in a cartoonish way, to show how past presidents imitate each other. jack levine was an american social realist painter, who criticized corruption and the government. he’s also jewish.

the article talking about the painting also talked about george HW bush starting to paint as a hobby, painting people like putin

matrix of leadership:

in the transformers universe, the matrix is a powerful artifact capable of letting the transformer access their afterlife and lets you talk to the transformer dead. in the painting, we’re shown lots of powerful transformers from throughout the years, all in the matrix. it was made as fan art because in 2019 the transformers had a lore epxansion.

mural in reactor no.5:

guido van helten, an austrian artist painted a mural inside a dead reactor in chernobyl, ukraine. he used the photos of iigor kostin, a well known photographer who took pictures of the chernobyl crisis and died from the radiation there . since you can’t really see that mural, people asked if it’s truly art.

one spring:

karl bodek (a jew in the nazi concetration camps) and kurt conrad low (a political oppositioner also in the camp)  made a painting that shows the concetration camp which was in occupied france, with a butterfly in the center showing the hope they had. it symbolizes the pain they were through at the time. karl bodek died in the concetrations camp while another survived. it was used as a postcard in nazi concetration camps.

wind powered de-miner:

afghanistan is filled with landmines, and after massoud hassani’s brother lost his leg because of them, he decided to build a de-miner that would move with the wind and activate all the landmines, hence preventing them from being a problem in the future.

geo co lab:

zachary skinner doesn’t like climate change,so he uses recycled materials and leftover parts to creare Geo co lab, which is supposed to be a room where he expresses his desires for geoengineering through art,and a space to feel geoengineering. אני שונא אומנים שחשים את עצמם

detroit industry murals:

henry ford’s son edsel financed a massive fresco dedicated to the industry and the workers of detroit. in the eastern wall there’s a baby with fertility symbols which are supposed to symbolise birth and connection to nature and earth, the north and south wall includes the four races (whites, native americans, blacks and asians) and how they’re connected to four elements needed to produce steel (iron, coal,limestone,sand), the western wall includes a massive fresco of a factory. it was made by diego rivera, a 20th century mexican artist and the husband of frida kahlo.

the last supper:

julie green painted the final meals of US death row inmates on plates . she painted a plate for every state, with a plate for the exonerated. if you’re given the death penality in the us you can order whatever food you want for a last supper.  the plates for the states were painted with blue, while the exonerated one looked normal. it is a criticism for the usage of the death penalites.

gulf of maine temperature variability:

jill pelto used the graph indicating the rising temperatures in the maine gulf as waves in her painting, and as the waves have grown the life in the ocean has died (less and paler fish, less water life in general), as well as a ship in the left which will have to move through the tides (symbolizes us).

titanic:

muhammed ansi was arrested on Guantanamo bay for 15 years during the war of terror and his arrest went against the geneva convention, where he learned how to paint. he painted the titanic from remembering how it looked in the one time he watched the movie during an interrogation. he also painted the statue of liberty. he was unlawfully imprisoned and so had a writ of habeas corpus.

reborn sounds of childhood dreams:

black hellish figurines looking like crescents and african masks are there ,and they represent the childhood ibrahim al salahi experienced before immigrating from sudan . he revolutionized modern african and arabic art and used themes from arabic caligraphy. he founded the hurufiyya movement, which was an arab art movement diedcated to using islamic caligraphy in modern art, thus combining modernity and tradition. instead of using the traditional leather and wood they started using african canvas, and rejected western standards of art, instead drawing (pun intended) from islamic art tradition. it was also connected to sufi traditions in the power of letters (which stemmed from the jewish belif in gematria).

ussuriysk:

the amur leopard was painted on rossyia airlines’ boeing 777 plane in order to bring attention to the endangered animal. it’s a livery, and liveries are covered more deeply in the end of social studies.

And the Band Auto-Plays On

hallelujah:

leonard cohen:

the song incorporates bibilical themes (david singing to saul, his love to bethsheba that almost destroyed his throne, and samson’s love for delilah that killed him),as well as themes about sex and love. leonard cohen’s version was at first largely unknown until bob marely and jeff buckely started singing it as well

jeff buckley version:

jeff talks more about love, and his version is quieter. the meaning is largely the same. also it’s part of his only album before he died in a plane crash.

i will always love you:

originally written by dolly parton to her professional associate porter wagoner who helped her in her journey to become a star. she parted ways with him because of her supposed negative effect on him. whitney houston later covered the song in the movie “the bodyguard”, which brought the song popularity. dolly parton didn’t ask for credit, but for a check

the man who sold the world:

the song was written by david bowie and was originally based on a sci-fi story written by robert heinlein about a tycoon determined to build a colony on the moon, so much so that he couldn’t go there because the company directorate feared he’d die there, though the song deals more with issues of self identity and feeling of not remaining true to oneself,feeling like becoming a doppleganger. kurt cobain and nirvana covered the song which made it more popular, and bowie didn’t ask for more credit. the song was part of david bowie’s persona as ziggy stardust, the hippie alien from mars who came to planet earth, which is based on his real experience coming from britain to america and being another kind of alien. ziggy stardust is also based on another story made by robert heinlein, called “stranger in strange land”  about a human raised in mars and his travels to a post WWIII earth ruled by a world federation and by massive religious organizations, and how said martian tries to understand war, religion, clothes and eventually forming his own religion based on western esotericism and sex magic, all to be eventually killed by the fosterites, another religion which is based on orrruption.  

africa:

originally written and played by the band toto, the song tells the story of a young man who wants to travel to africa, who talks about its beauty ,yet he’s never been there and his only knowledge of the place comes from TV documentaries. the song got covered by weezer, who also featured weird al playing the accordion and the guitar.

can’t help falling in love:

originally sang by elvis presely, the song is a classic romantic song, and it has 2 covers featured here:

justin shandor is the first of the two, he’s an elvis impersonator (a person who imitates elvis,his looks, his singing and his general style) and even won the global elvis impersonator contest. because of that,his cover is an almost 1 to 1 imitation of elvis.

rudraksha on the other hand are a small indian band specializing in indian pop, rock and jazz, and taking lots of inspirations from indian folk music. as a result their music and their elvis cover is more unique and presents a newer non western style

new year’s day:

originally sang by the irish band U2, the song was originally meant for bono’s high school sweetheart, but its meaning changed and became a more political song dedicated to the fall of the martial law in than-communist poland, and the release of lech walesa, the leader of the polish solidarity movement (dedicated to freeing poland from the soviets) from jail. the song also talks about the liberation of eastern europeans from communist rule .

the song was also covered by blood red sky, a U2 tribute band whose name originated from the exact song ( the words “blood red sky” appeared in the lyrics). their cover is a tribute to U2.

Айыптама:

 or “don’t blame me “ in english is a kazakh pop song written in the style of Q-pop, or kazakh pop that takes a lot of inspiration from Kpop. the song talks about the singer’s problem with his past relationship and why he’s decided to break it. the song copies a lot of its music from a kpop song called “sober” by the famous Kpop band “BIG BANG”. sober talks about the same things with a similar style.

i’m yours:

originally a love song by jason mraz about how he is in love with a woman. disney copied the song’s music and written the song “introducing me” which ws sang by nick jonas in the movie “camp rock”. the main difference is the faster tempo in introducing me and the lyrics, but outside of that it’s identical. jason mraz claimed they copied him but he never sued, and so a nick jonas planned show was canceled.

the orville:

it was originally a star trek parody, but it became more than that with more built characters. as a result the orville main theme is awfully similar to stark trek’s .

mr brightside:

a song written about how the band’s lead singer, brandon flowers, was cheated on by his girlfriend. the “sequel”,miss atomic bomb talks about how it impacted him,with the term “miss atomic bomb” coined after how her cheating on him impacted him. Miss atomic bomb has a lot of callbacks to Mr. brightside that indicate it is a sequel. The two main callbacks are the line in Miss atomic bomb, “I was new in town, the boy with the eager eyes” which calls back to this line in the chorus of Mr brightside “open up my eager eyes, cause I’m mister brightside”, and the second one is that in the second verse of the song, the notes of mr brightside are played in the background.

ms peggy sue:

the song was written about the wife of buddy holly’s band mate, jerry allison. in the song he talks about he loves her. since she was married he later relased a song called “peggy sue got married” which talks about how she got married, with every song being written about her.

friday:

originally a song considered terrible by many, known by its terrible lyrics and by having the highest amount of dislikes on youtube. the song was originally removed because of a copyright complaint. rebecca’s mother paid the producer patrice willson to give rebecca an option to record a song for her 13th birthday, and she chose this song out of 2 prewritten songs. they also used a lot of autotune there. 10 years later she relased the more loved song “saturday” as a sort of a sequel to friday,which now instead of talking about choosing the place in the car, now talks about having a party. the producer patrice willson also made an “official” sequel to friday called “happy”.

st mathew’s passion:

it’s a sacred oratorio based on turning matthew 26-27 into music,basically singing the chapters. it was largely unheard from outside of the city of leipzig until 1829, when felix mehndelssion ( a descendant of jewish converts and music writer,  and the great grandson of moses mehndelsson, the founder of the hascalah movement) preformed it in berlin and making it popular. felix also made bach more popular in general,which persisted to our present.  he also wrote victoria’s wedding march.

ding dong the witch is dead:

it was part of the movie “the wizard of oz”, and talked about how the evil witch of the west who oppressed the land has died thanks to dorothy and her friends. when margeret thatcher died in 2011, the song became popular once again, because thatcher made legistlations that treated the british coal miners and poor terribly (like preventing free milk from being given to students in school).

don’t stop me now:

written by freddie mercury and the band “queen”, the song became a hedonist anthem,so much that AIDS ridden freddie was uncomfortable with the lyircs, since they talked about he was a sex machine ready to explode. the song became more popular when the documentary “bohemian rhapsody” was aired, and this was the end credits song.

a new argentina:

it’s part of the musical “evita” which talks about the life of evita peron, the charming wife of argentinian dictator juan peron. the song talks about how juan is worried about his political future, with evita convicing the workers to support peron ,as well as convincing him to take control. peron is arrested but the workers support him so he got freed and took control over argentina.

the future soon/jonathan coulton:

the song uses world of warcraft as the source for their clip. the song is about the frustrations of a socially akward teen who isn’t loved in his class, but he has hope in the future, where he can become stronger thanks to science and engineering ,and defeat the impending robot apocalypse.

big yellow taxi:

a song by joni mitchell about how the earth and nature are being destroyed by greedy coroporations who pave parking lots and destroy paradise. the song also talks about joni’s ex-boyfriends and the difficulty in handling the breakup

who i’d be:

it’s a part of the broadway musical “sherk-the musical”,where shrek signs about what he could’ve been if he wasn’t an ogre, but a human. shrek sings about how he wants to be an hero, a good guy who saves the world and gets bitches.

sorry seems to be the hardest word:

written by elton john, the song talks about how his romantic relationship failed and about his failed attmept to restore it with apologizing and trying to win her heart again.

symphony no.7, 4th movement:

written by dimitry shostakovitch, the symphony was seen by the public as a call against the horrors done by stalin, and the party officials so it as an outcry against global fascism, so in 1941, when the nazis invaded the USSR,it was played all over leningrad to demoralize them.

1812 overture:

written by tchaikovsky, the overture tries to put the entire napoleonic wars in music, the rise of france (shown in segments from the french anthem), the quieteness before napoleon and the revolution (showed in the beginning) and the russian victory (with segments from “god bless the tzar” being added in the end). the piece features cannons, that fire to indicate a battle , and fired when the russians eventually won the war in the end of the overture, with church bells also appearing in the final ceremony. the piece was written in 1882, and despite its positive critics, tchaikovsky saw it as too loud.

hugin and munin:

originally the names of 2 ravens who tour the world in order to bring info to odin, now they got featured in a song by corvus corax. the song talks about their flights and desire to free Odin from his prison. The song is an example of a new genre emerging from the shadows, the “folk metal” genre, and in this song the band uses various nordic instruments, which are bagpipes, a hurdy-gurdy, davuls (big drums), a chello and the main instrument, two binjous. On top of that, the song also has a verse sung by Andris Halla, an opera singer and a good friend of the band. Her and the band’s extremely high (Andris)/ Low(band) vocals give us with the instruments the feeling that we hear a song made in the medieval ages.

cloudbusting:

written and played by english rock singer kate bush, the song is about peter reich (the son of estoric psychologist and sex crazed degenerate wilhelm reich), and his relationship with his father in orgonon , the family farm where wilhlem tries to experiment with cloudbusting (a method explained in the science curriculum). wilhelm is also known as the father of the sexual revolution, and the inventor of orgone theory (which is touched upon in science). kate got inspired by a book made by peter that detailed his relationship with his father.

a rumor in st petersburg:

it’s part of broadway musical called “anastasia”,that’s about anastasia romanov, the daughter of tzar nicholas II, who got killed in the russian revolution, but there’s a rumor that anastasia is still alive, which is what the song’s about. an amnesiac orphan named anya is found by 2 con-men who want to exploit her and convince her she’s anastasia romanov, in order to flee russia, and she’s actually the daughter of the romanovs,and so she reunifes with her family in paris while the 2 con men earn some money. though in our world anastasia died.

amelie:

it’s a french movie turned broadway musical about a socially awkward girl with uncaring parents, so it’s hard for her to connect and have meaningful converstions and relationships. She falls in love with someone, but she manages through giving riddles to her crush, create a beautiful relationship that allows her to open up to the world. the main song in the film uses accordion, while the one in the musical has lyrics and uses the piano.

bladelight:

it’s the trailer music of the last star wars movie: the rise of skywalker. it’s an epic trailer music like many, though it takes a lot of inspirations from old star wars music,such as the main rebels theme.

blake robinson:

he’s a composer for movies and trailers,as well as some games.

new world symphony:

written by antonin dvorak, the symphony is about the new world (the americas, australia and places where europeans colonized)  dvorak was influenced by native american and african american music when writitng this, and dvorak believed that american music should and will be founded on black origins (which it is ,given jazz and rap’s influence).

Qaumajuapik:

sung by riit, an inuit singer from nunavut, the song is sung in the inuit language, uses electro pop themes as well as throat singing.

auld lang syne:

a folk song written in the scottish language, the song talks about friends who have grown more and more distant,but are wishing to reunify. the song is popular in new year’s celebrations. and there are several versions of the song, in thai, english and japaense.

Concluding Questions and Examples

julia margeret cameron:

the first female photographer, julia did a lot of mistakes in her photos by purpose, in order to bring them more meaning, though they were criticized by the press exactly for that. her photos were out of focus, but it was on purpose. critics say that it was a rebellion against the puritan victorian status quo. she used renaissance elements, and the photos allowed us to see how they were made from their mistakes and flaws.

broadway revivals:

musicals aren’t always being shown, so in order to be revived (like what happened to evita), the producer will find who holds the rights and convince him to allow the revival, with the holders getting some revenue out of it. when the original producers are dead their descendants are contacted.

no new christmas songs:

“all i want for christmas”  is 25 years old, so there aren’t new popular christmas songs. as a result, aloe blacc decided to make some new ones, and they didn’t become that popular or known. the reason is that christmas and holiday songs generally tend towards tradition (which is seen everywhere), and so newer songs are greeted with suspicion.

lost music:

a score for franco zeffirelli’s romeo and juliet has been lost to time, so in order to be recreated the writers listened to the movie soundtrack and recreated it from there.

whiffenpoofs:

an acapella group in yale consisting of 14 students , originating all the way in 1909. they replace their singers every year with new recruits, in order to always bring fresh blood. now they’ve added a girl to the group.

band reunions:

older bands who disbanded sometimes reunify after some time in the future. examples such as abba are well known. the problem with reunions is that the people in these bands have changed so much, that a true “get back to the past” is impossible.

abba cgi reunion:

the band members aged, and so to make their show appear more like the olden days, they used CGI to appear like their younger selves. all 4 got CGI’d and all 4 appeared in the show.

when will someone hear:

part of the play “martin guerre”, the song talks about sadness and misery and loneliness. martin guerre is a play about martin being forced into an arranged marriage to preserve catholicism, and betraying his home and wife to fight for the Huguenots. the song was changed to “how many tears” as the play evolved, a song that talks about the same themes.