In the streets of downtown, Limassol can be found a multitude of varied forms of street arts, some are murals, some, are sculptures but between the restaurants and shops of Saripolou square, Limassol, can be found an unusual piece of work. In fact, on a wall hangs a metal grid in which is embroidered the picture of a woman holding a thread on a blue background by the artist Iphigenia Papageorgiou. A work to behold by tourists and locals alike, this artwork is marked by the unique craft through which it came to be, as most people don’t usually think of embroidery as a form of street art. The mystery behind this form of art and Its creator can be somehow dissipated by seeking out answers from the artist hidden behind the art pieces found all over Cyprus.
When asked about the reasons behind her choice to work with embroidery, the artist answered by stating the following: “I have been using threads since 2016 on tulle and other forms of installation doing a line drawing portraits.”
But this raises the question of how she decided to bring this form of art to the streets, despite how uncommon embroidery is in this specific field of the art world. According to the creator herself, here is how it started: “I was influenced by my city’s street art scene as I knew a few people involved.” she said. “They have given me the chance to participate at Street Life Festival and then I turned the thread into yarn and then onto metallic fences producing that result.”
Finally, a lot can be learned about the future Iphigenia Papageorgiou has planned for herself and her artworks through the following: “I aim to achieve a sequence of my own style that would be my final signature and be known worldwide as an Urban embroidery street artist.”
On that note, it is clear that this artist’s craft and works are an innovative way of transforming embroidery into accessible urban art with the potential to make her a worldwide known artist.
The Belgium singer Angèle and the British singer Dua lipa shocked the world on the 6 of November by releasing the single “Fever”. The song released on dua lipa’s album, along with its music video, certainly turned out to be one of the most interesting singles of 2020.
For one, the duality between Angèle’s soft melodious voice and Dua Lipa’s deep timber made for a beautiful contrast. Each of them bought out the telling characteristics of the other and made for a very well textured sound.
The mix between french and English also added to the songs’ charm. It was very interesting to see Angèle and dua lipa sing in languages other than the one we are used to hearing from them. It added another layer of novelty to this collaboration.
Finally, the music video was a refreshing derivation from the extravagant and complex music videos fans are used to seeing on screen. The casual and intimate atmosphere found in the singers’ supposed night stroll in London touches on people’s daily lives. It feels human in its imperfections as well as in the conversations and night sounds let in to make it feel genuine. It doesn’t paint the artists as two international stars but as two friends just having some fun. With the pandemic around, people miss this kind of casual fun they used to take for granted.
All of these characteristics made “fever” a great addition to pop music.
If you, like a big part of today’s youth, have passed some considerable amount of time on the social media app tik tok, you might have stumbled upon some interesting videos. In fact, for today’s youth, tik tok is quickly becoming an outlet for their creativity. While browsing the famous for your page you might have stumbled upon an interesting video of someone, writing on a typewriter some poetry, stories, or quotes. Curiosity led a lot of people wonder, who is behind the typewriter? I got in contact with Alex Caralyen the 16 years old aspiring writer behind the tik tok account @suchalostsoul and she was willing to answer some of our questions:
Q:when did you discover you had a passion for literature?
A:I think I have always used books and literature as a way to escape reality. It helped me find comfort that I was not given in my life. It might sound strange but it felt as if the characters were drying my tears when no one else would. Eventually I started writing my own comfort fiction, giving myself traits and characteristics that I deeply wished I had.while I was doing that, I realized that I was not that horrible at it. That I do have a certain way with words. And I started writing more and more because the positive reaction from my fellow peers gave me a sense of validation and certainly helped my rather broken ego. Then, around four years ago, I realized that this is what brings me joy. This is what I want to do with my life. I want to write, I want to tell stories and from there on, it became my passion and it has been ever since.
Q:what inspires the themes found in your writing?
A:Most of my poems, especially my most popular ones often center around two topics. One of them being wlw(a women loving women), which is inspired by my love for women and many of the topics featured in said poems are based, although loosely, on my relationships. I think back to moments I have experience with my current and past lovers and try to find a way to capture those emotions in a few words. Examples of such emotions are denial, rejection, heartbreak but also happiness, euphoria, a sense of belonging. The other topic is often catholic guilt. I bring this into my poetry because people seem to enjoy it very much and although it might sound shallow, I do quite enjoy seeing my poetry be liked and adored, I think most poets receive some sort of gratification from it. But the topic is also personal as I was raised Christian and grew up in a generally Christian country while being in two groups of people who were very oppressed by the church and still are in some parts of the world. So I carry this so-called catholic guilt or religious trauma. Generally , I just write about topics I experience myself. Anger at the world, uncontrolled rage, painful sorrow, a deep depression, intoxicating epiphany. The poems often are inspired by the emotional state I am in when I pick up the pen.
Q:what would you say is your favorite literary or artistic movement and why?
A:Romanticism. Both in literature and art. I adore it. The painting, and the art in general, just cause a feeling in me that is hard to describe. I find it very aesthetically pleasing and extremely beautiful. It also has many pretty women portrayed which is certainly positive. I enjoy the literature as well because I often find other literary movements dry in a way or rather tiring. I find myself and my style of writing more in romanticism than in anything else. My style is more inspired by texts and novels from those movements. I simply find it beautiful to read and it helps me improve my style further.
Q:What is one ambition you seek to achieve through your words?
A:I seek validation, in a way, a reminder that I do have a talent when it comes to literature because I cannot give myself enough validation, I do not think good enough of myself for that. I also want to just please people. I don’t need them to deeply analyze it or think of some deep and hidden meaning of it. I like Oscar Wilde’s concept on this topic, to just enjoy the art for the sake of enjoying it. Liking a poem because it sounds pretty and makes you feel warm inside. Hanging up a painting on your wall because you think it looks nice. Not everything has to have meaning, you can just enjoy it. I want my readers to like my poems and get some sense of joy out of them. At the same time, I hope that my reader resonates with my poetry, that the ones about heartbreak and denial and sadness make them feel heard and understood. Let the pain be a pain. Feel it. Of course, I don’t want anyone to feel negative emotions but it can help if you read something and no longer feel alone in the darkness that surrounds you.
Q:And finally, why the typewriter?
A:I have found that the typewriter is a good way to present my poems to people in video format. It interests them and the aesthetic effect of it makes them stay longer or, forgive me for the poor word choice, vibe with it more. It is boring for most people to just read it in a picture when you are expecting a video but the unusually beautiful presentation through the typewriter is what they enjoy, so I decided to stick with it. Also, I do love writing on my typewriter. I think it helps me to motivate myself to write, simply because it makes me feel more like an actual author than just a girl juggling around with words.
If you’re curious about Alex’s writing, it can be found on tik tok and Wattpad. All the necessary information can be found in her tik tok account.
Situated at 110 Rue Amelot, 75011 Paris, this circus can easily be found. The moment after stepping out of the metro, the buildings interact and elaborate architecture calls well-deserved attention to itself. This circus’s interest doesn’t limit itself to the outside however. Here are some important things to note:
This circus holds a very old history. This circus,build in 1852, has been initially made famous by the Bouglione family who has owned the venue since 1934.they have since then offered people countless shows every year ranging from specific themed event to 2 casual entertaining shows a day. Many important french icon have since gone and watched one of such shows like edith piaf and charle aznavour.
Another of the circus important qualities is that unlike a lot of circuses it’s fully indoor and in an immovable structure strong enough to protect from the harshness of the elements. Hence the name “cirque d’hiver” translates to winter circus.
Finally, the prices of their show costs from as low as 10 euros. This makes it very accessible for a student, families or anyone on a specifically tight budget.
The louvre museum, similar to every Touristic and artistic center in Paris, is a place highly visited and sought after. As a direct consequence of that, it tends to be crowded during the holidays. Especially the days that are followed by the end of the holiday in question or by a day of the museum closure. For this reason, it is recommended for a person seeking to visit the museum to plan. It is important to choose the dates in which the museum is less likely to be crowded to make the experience more enjoyable.
Research the art pieces beforehand.
The most known painting in the louvre is undoubtedly Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. Because of this painting’s fame, the first-time visitor tends to ignore the other pieces placed in the louver on they’re way to the Mona Lisa. Although, it is not the only notable artwork found in the louver. In fact, many important paintings such as Delacroix’s liberty leading the people, ancient Egyptian artifacts, and many more pieces get overlooked or ignored simply by ignorance of their importance. Henceforth, doing some research on the pieces worth seeing in louver will not only expand the visitors’ knowledge but also win the time lost typically in confusion to what to see next during a visit.
Take advantage of the map and audio guide.
When going to a museum, some visitors tend to overlook maps and audio guides as unnecessary. This assumption can be very harmful to a person’s experience in a museum, especially the louver. In a museum as imposing as this one, someone without the specialized knowledge might get lost and confused and end his visit without learning anything. With the help of the map and previous research, a visitor will know where to look and what to see. Once the art piece is reached, the visitor will be truly able to expand their knowledge and appreciation of the piece with the information provided by the audio guide, making their visit more fruitful.
If planning to see an exhibition, check the museum sites for information.
For certain exhibits in the louvre, it is necessary to reserve a place and buy a ticket separately from the initial ticket that gives access to the louvre museum. These reservations can be done on the official louvre museum site. It is very important to check the available dates and align the available one with the date of your visit. Some visitors visit the museum with the promise of seeing an exhibition only to leave disappointed that they couldn’t enter with no reservation. This tip is currently even more important to note considering the current Le Corps et l’Âme exhibition and the museum itself can only be accessed if a time slot is booked as a consequence of the spread of the coronavirus.
Demi Lovato just recently released her newest song “I love me”.Considering the hype surrounding the teaser of the song released a day prior, it’s no surprise that people were eager to hear demi’s newest creation and that it ended up being currently #21 on trending. I, like any person with a healthy dose of curiosity and love for music, went and checked it out. At the end of the song, I found myself looking at the screen smiling like an idiot. This is due to many reasons.
Demi Lovato address in her newest song her insecurities,and how she’s always too harsh on herself. “’Cause I’m a black belt when I’m beating up on myself” as she put it. Despite this somehow dark theme, we don’t see the sadness in the song or the music video. Quite the contrary actually, it has a very lighthearted undertone. whether it’s the upbeat music or the delightful fight between the different sides of Demi, it’s not a dramatic song as much as it’s just someone wondering about “ when I love me is enough”.Plus, after the inner fighting, we see Demi out in the city, smiling and enjoying things around her, which only adds to that idea.
Furthermore, despite the lighthearted tone, we still don’t forget that the topic at hand is not one to be ignored as shown by the ambulance at the end of the video. Despite all of these experiences the singer goes through in the video, she is always smiling. Finally, the song’s bridge both acknowledge these insecurities and the fact that they are the product of her own imagination. “I’m my own worst critic, talk a whole lot of shit But I’m a ten out of ten, even when I forget” pretty much sums it up. Even Ariana Grande seems to think so as she tweeted “imam ten outta ten even when I forget”.
All of these aspects give us a song relatable and yet somehow light-hearted and fun. We’ve all struggled at one point in our life with our self-esteem and some of us are still struggling with loving our selves, which makes this song so relatable. Yet, Demi leaves us in a feel-good kind of mood. For us who see ourselves in her, she reminds us that we’re a ten out of ten even when we forget. That is why this new musical piece is relatable as well as strongly inspiring.
Recently, Harry Styles released the video of his new song “falling”. Considering that the song attracted a lot of attention due to harry’s live performance at the brit award, it’s no surprise that people have been looking forward to the video that completes it. After taking a look at the long-awaited video, I’ve been thinking about what it could mean and I eventually came up with something.
First, we see harry style, wet and sitting on the floor, then we see him sitting at the piano with a glace before he starts playing the piano and singing as water slowly sips out from the piano throughout the song to eventually submerge the whole room. Sounds pretty simple no? not necessarily. With the song’s lyrics in mind, we can say that what harry style is drowning in, might be his own thoughts and feelings. It clearly seems that he’s at the end of a relationship regretting and rethinking everything. He’s even rethinking his identity, “What am I now? What am I now?”.He’s even scared of himself, almost resenting the person that he might be, “What if I’m someone I don’t want around?”. He’s also heartbroken by the turn of events and his helplessness. “And it kills me ’cause I know we’ve run out of things we can say”. He even goes as far as to beat himself over hypothetical scenarios. “What if I’m down?What if I’m out?What if I’m someone you won’t talk about?”. I think what he’s falling in is the rabbit hole of his own thoughts. Hence the drowning in the video. Thought something doesn’t add up, how did he jump from sitting on the floor all wet to sitting at the piano as if nothing happened? Well, in fact, the beginning of the video shows us the ending, what happened after he’s been completely submerged in water, and that is him, out of the water, tired, but still, he got out. It shows us that no matter the hardships, no matter what may be drowning us, we can still come out triumphant at the end.
Well, after some thinking, we can see that this video sends quite the inspirational message. Harry admits to he’s drowning, and that this song doesn’t show us the bests of times but that still at the end of the day, he can still survive these harsh time.,so can the people who saw themselves in him. It’s a video that gives us hope.
Lady Gaga just released her new song “stupid love” today and the first of her new album along with its video. Being on the internet like everyone else these days, I heard about the song way before I actually heard it. Now that I did hear it though, there are some things that caught my attention
First, talking about the video, we can clearly see gaga’s aesthetic and eccentric style she is so known for. The video is full of interesting vibrant colors, which fit nicely and gives you a very pleasing visual. Furthermore, we can also see the theatricality and creativity usually shown in a gaga song with an interesting story explained at the beginning of the video. Last but not least, we have a lively choreography as upbeat as the song itself to complete the whole visual appeal of the video.
That brings us to our second point, the song itself. It fits perfectly with what we perceive as a gaga song but yet it still is unique and new in its own rights. In addition to its intriguing lyrics and its catchy melody, we can clearly hear the upbeat techno we came to associate with the singer. It is very refreshing considering the latest we heard of gaga was the “a star is born” soundtrack, which is different but as much deserving of praise if not more.
In conclusion whether, it’s with it’s visual or it’s musical appeal, Lady Gaga’s newest song definitely gave us a refreshing start to her new album and left fans waiting for more. This song left us indeed with a lot of expectations for the new album of the same name, will be up to the challenge?
In the movie “Sonic the hedgehog”, sonic joins forces with a human named Tom Wachowski to stop the evil Dr. Robotnik from achieving his plans, all while sonic tries to adapt to life on earth. Now, if you have been on the internet the moment the film’s trailer came out, you’d have realized that people didn’t exactly receive it well. Which makes the mild success experienced by “Sonic the hedgehog” at movie theatres quite surprising. In fact, sonic the hedgehog topped “birds of prey” in the box office and even more surprisingly, “The call of the wild” with an estimated $26.3 million. With these results have risen questions, mainly, why did sonic the hedgehog become such a success despite all the mixed feelings related to it? Well, here’s my theory.
First, it’s a known saying that “all advertising is good advertising” and it shows to be true in some cases, like this one here. Indeed, all this negative talk and speculations surrounded the movie after the release of its trailer, might have played a role in advertising the movie. Whether it’s good or bad doesn’t matter, what does is that all these controversies surrounding the movie clearly made people curious to see whether it will meet the negative expectations put on him or whether the movie will actually be good. Moreover, it’s that curiosity that might have led many viewers to the theatres.
Second, we shouldn’t forget the influence of the actors playing in the movie. Indeed, when you put the name of someone like Jim Carrey on a movie poster, it’s bound to affect people.With Jim Carrey being such known comedian and well-liked by the older generations, more precisely, the generation who’ll be taking their kids to the movies, it is not surprising that his presence might bring people to the theatres. Furthermore, the presence of Jim Carey, might awaken in the generation of parents pleasant memories of his past movies and so, driven by their trust in the actor and maybe a bit of nostalgia they will take their kids to theaters and even enjoy the movie themselves.
Another thing to note is the fact that “Sonic the hedgehog” is based on a long time old school favorite video game so it will obviously attract a lot of the franchise avid follower and loyal fans to the theater or even old fans, driven by nostalgia, and the influence that video game had on their childhood.
On that note, another thing that might have affected the movie’s box office result is the fact that this movie is a comedy adventure movie. Indeed, the story is a bit lighter than “The call of the wind” and would still end up attracting people from potentially varied age category. The lightness and comedy of “sonic the hedgehog“ make it a perfect movie to get entertained on a Friday night, not only the adults and older kids who might be fans of the video game but also younger kids who might not understand “The call of the wind”.
While the story of the call of the wind might be an incredibly known and beautiful story just as deserving as “Sonic the hedgehog” if not more, these small factors might have been what narrowly put “sonic the hedgehog” ahead of call of “The wind” and other movies such as “birds of prey”.
“Jojo Rabbit”, the Academy Award for Best Writing Adapted Screenplay winner, tells the story of a young German boy named Jojo, who finds out his single mother is hiding a Jewish girl in their attic. This event pushes him to must confront his blind nationalism as World War II continues to rage on with the help of his imaginary friend Hitler. Now if you go around the internet a bit, you’ll find two very different opinions on this movie. Some people and critics claim that it isn’t exactly anything new, while some others claim that it’s truly unique and touching. After a trip to my local cinema, I think I can safely try to clear things up on the matter.
First, I have to admit; yes the themes illustrated in Jojo rabbit aren’t exactly all-new. The idea of depicting Hitler in a ridiculing way has been exploited many times, whether by Charlie Chaplin (“the great dictator”) or Disney. The Jew in the attic trope is honestly a classic of World War 2 movies at this point and the German resistance theme isn’t exactly untouched either (see “Sophie Scholl” by Marc Rothemund). Moreover, this movie, putting all these themes together, doesn’t exactly leave room for an in-depth approach to any of these tropes. Personally, if I wanted to watch a movie on any of these themes, there are thousands that would come to mind. A lot of movies depict the Second World War, the German resistance and the horrors experienced by the Jews way better than “Jojo Rabbit”.
Then again, the people who claim that “Jojo rabbit” is a unique movie aren’t completely wrong either. What is new here isn’t the themes of the movie but the perspective from which they are seen. Even though it’s a pretty small percentage, there are movies from the perspective of German nationalists, but never from the point of view from a young child. This film shows us how a young innocent child could get affected by the ideas and doctrines surrounding him. It is only natural that a child, not knowing better, would look up to the “cool club” of Nazis and participate in the discrimination against Jews. Furthermore, the film shows us how a misinformed young child who idolizes Hitler, slowly starts to open his eyes to what’s happening around him and slowly begins to differentiate lie from fiction until he finally learned how to think for himself.
Finally, I wouldn’t say this movie, filled with a healthy dose of laughs and feels, is completely unique or that it’s nothing new. It has overused tropes like it has some generally new and intriguing ones. Now, in my opinion, to say it’s a one of a kind masterpiece would be too much but I think it’s worth checking out for the interesting new approach it took to on the topics illustrated.
golden cult 