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buttonholedlife · 4 years

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Here’s how techno-utopianism decayed into alt-right madness – Alternet.org

New Yorker writer Andrew Marantz put his sanity on the line if you want to take a deep dive into two identical worlds: the reactionary world of the alt-right, and also the technical triumphalist standard of Silicon Valley. The last is in charge of offering our company an optimistic perspective of the net that will (apparently) bind humankind, yet which instead has actually fed political branch and also developed, indirectly, the alt-right. In "Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Talk," Marantz gives visitors an illustration in order to just how socials media made by optimist techies were co-opted through a rodent's nest of bigots, giants, as well as fascists, that made use of the expected "nonpartisanship" of platforms to spread out hate.

Marantz talked with Beauty shop regarding his brand new book as well as exactly how the world wide web is transforming democracy. This interview has actually been actually softly modified for length and clarity.This is actually a manual regarding

just how the advent of social media truly opened the social and political talk in this particular nation to people that Hillary Clinton aptly regarded a" container complete of deplorables. "I think the terrible component was much more likely than the basket part. However, yeah.How much perform you believe tech matters in the rise of not

just the alt-right, yet Donald Trump?Tech matters extremely for the growth of Trumpism as well as for nationalist populism

around the globe. That's certainly not to point out that it is actually the only source of energy for those actions, and also it's additionally not to mention that there aren't large perks to opening up discourse with all type of techniques. I do not intend to coat a monochromatic image or even mention that specialist has actually only resulted in deleterious end results or even unsociable results, but I assume for also long there was this indirect belief among technology bros, and additionally only one of the public, that generally the internet would certainly make the globe more open and connected and specify our company all free and also create it much more reasonable and also tolerant as well as usually be actually pro-social. As well as I believe our experts have actually observed fairly definitively that have not completely held true. What I just like concerning your publication is you really perform refer to a few of the historic antecedents to the surge of social networks. This is something that I've been actually mundane

my good friends along with, explaining, you understand, it's certainly not like the publishing push failed to trigger violence, also. Precisely. It led to many of the exact same kinds of brutality, antisemitism, bigotry, and also misinformation. None of this is actually new. It's just that our team've type of neglected those trainings of history.As you stated, the specialist field was actually extremely radical, advertising the idea that social networks would link people, would help spread out good ideas. The Arab Spring season was actually a major marketing activity for social networks, even as itwas a real thing in the real globe. Why perform you think there was an unwillingness to take a look at the opportunity that it would additionally offer increase to dislike pep talk, violence, bigotry, points like that? Portion of it is only that it is actually unpleasant and unpleasant to consider bigotry and hate speech. Individuals would somewhat not perform it. I've faced that even while reporting this book. I just like to think that guide is actually involving and even darkly amusing

. I have actually possessed people indicate that they are scared to read it, because they will only somewhat not believe regarding this things.

I believe that the only escape is actually via, which is actually why I made use of James Baldwin as an epigraph. Nothing may be transformed up until it's dealt with. I happen to assume this things isn't as depressing as folks stress it'll be actually, yet that is actually a separate

subject matter. Yet yeah, it's certainly not exciting to think about.Also, we have a tendency to receive caught on this dichotomy of confidence versus cynicism, and I assume that is actually only the wrong technique of thinking regarding these things. A more useful structure than either positive outlook or even cynicism is what I describe as backup. Tell me much more regarding that.

I got that concept coming from the philosopher Richard Rorty, that created one of my favored manuals contacted "Emergency, Paradox, and Solidarity."As well as emergency, steaming it down a whole lot, just indicates our team do not understand what is actually going to occur. Our experts can't possess a teleological

viewpoint of the future.

Our experts can't assume that factors are pre-ordained to take place in a particular means. Our company have to examine the truths as they are actually as well as make an educated judgment concerning whether we're heading to inevitably have an extra ideal union as well as inevitably create progress.Often our team just think that those factors will definitely simply happen inevitably. A more contingent sight of history would suggest that they do not occur instantly, and they don't occur at all if you do not benefit them to occur. In this manual, you frequently discover your very own feelings regarding companies versus the "interruption "of the technology sector

, as well as express some wishing I presume for some of the gatekeeping power that old institutions possessed before the opportunity of social media sites. Possessing gone with the whole entire method of writing and posting and currently industrying this manual, where perform you fall on that range immediately? I observe it as a compromise. Rarely perform I wish to pretend that the entire gatekeeper version was actually perfect or perhaps excellent. It was flawed with all type of means. It was actually managed through top middle-class white colored guys who didn't have an incredibly nuanced perspective of the country mostly. There were actually all type of troubles with company control. Nothing about our past times should be actually taken as a gold age. It is actually merely that when you dismantle

all those frameworks, and also do not also make an effort to even claim to think of what's visiting substitute them, or you change all of them with one thing worse, then the problems don't improve. They obtain worse.Before also there was actually a condition, the alt-right, feminists and social justice protestors were actually noting that social media was allowing uglier forms of bigotry to develop. A considerable amount of the blame was sort of placed on the white colored maleness of the tech market, that there was actually a loss of sight of the people managing it. Just how a lot perform you offer support to that? I undoubtedly provide support to it. I believe the simple review that you can't actually quickly feel sorry for individuals if you don't have depiction of all individuals within your firm, I think is actually a likely assessment. I do not think that it would solve every little thing if the specialist companies had diversity and addition statistics that precisely reflected the nation. I think that would certainly aid, however I think the problems are deeper as well as extra systemic than that. The talk around this specific

problem concern possesses frequently been actually of ignorance? There is actually a feeling that a ton of the white male leaders of the specialist market have dynamic values. A number of all of them. Meanwhile, you bumped into Peter Thiel, at the

. Perform you believe that is actually an element of the issue right today? That our experts simply have bad actors in technician management? Effectively, my critique of Peter Thiel in the manual was actually certainly not located on his assistance for Trump, although I discover his help for Trump extremely

regrettable. My assessment of him was actually based on the reality that I attempted to involve him in a dialogue concerning the vital problems at Facebook, which probably can certainly not have come to be as effective as it is without his very early expenditure.

As well as opposed to addressingmy reviews, he merely left and also didn't reply to me at all. And also didn't reply to followup inquiries throughout the simple fact checking process. My critique of him is actually even more substantive. I

indicate there are great deals of Trump fans in the nation, Peter Thiel being among them. I may dispute along with all of them or rap their sights, but really my concerns with Thiel are that he received rich off of Facebook. I'm only curious whether he knew that there would be all these unfavorable effect on our community, aside from the beneficial ones. As well as if he did know, why he really did not perform additional to cease it? Changing over to the step-by-step problem, in this book you assessed the idea of virality, which you mount in a Darwinian feeling. Could you discuss that additional for some of the visitors of

Beauty shop? There's this idea of the old gatekeeper electrical outlets, specifically the New york city Times, that they offer you all the news that's"in shape to publish". It attacked me that word," fit", has the unintended dual significance. They imply "fit"as in what is actually ideal. But social networks formulas, mostly, are actually not worried about what's necessary. They're worried about what acquires involvement. Interaction may be anything. It may be favorable engagement like sort, and it can easily also be negative engagement like hate reads through or discusses for the reason of saying, check out at this butt. Protocols are actually neutral when it come to that. Their task is actually to keep you addicted and also keep your

brainstem ignited in order that you remain on the platform. That's what results in this Darwinian outcome. A Darwinian system, like type, does not look after whether you're a making it through behaving or even making it through by being red in pearly white as well as scrape, as they claim. Everything matters is whether you pass on your genetics.

The exact same is correct in the world of memes, which is a term coined through an incredibly prominent Darwinian biologist to reveal exactly how concepts struggle for domination. These devices make a planet through which the manner in which suggestions struggle for dominance is actually rather red in tooth and paw. On Twitter, if you compose a"examine this asshole ", you obtain chewed out by individuals pointing out don't provide giants interest, that it only raises their profile page. The counter debate to that is, if our team do not take a look at it, we can't slam it.

Exactly how do you kind of feeling concerning the dispute? Exists everything that our experts, as individuals, can do to transform the motivation structures of the net? To take the very first part initially, there stinks response to the concern of just how to react to harmful giants, given that if you provide

attention, even unfavorable attention, then you are actually supplying them air. If you dismiss all of them, then you are actually taking the chance of seeming complicit. In order that is actually why that is actually such a troublesome problem since there definitely is actually no excellent specific response to it. Systemically, there are actually ways to fine-tune the systems to

diminish that type of stuff, but as an individual, I don't truly see a simple technique out. I assume the flippant answer that a ton of individuals property on is to just claim, I am actually only heading to turn off, which is definitely helpful for your mental health and wellness. And also I recommend it for a great deal of folks in a bunch of conditions. But you do not come to log off of the country, right? These systems can easily still be actually affecting that your president is, as well as whether you obtain to stay in a country that possesses environmental policies and all the remainder of it. So you can't pull out of that. Therefore let's speak about a few of those monsters, since they are undoubtedly exciting to speak about. You invest a ton of time in this publication interacting all of them as personalities. You visited the DeploraBall. The correct airfoil trolls, they actually think about

on their own as rebels. It's both their identity as well as their justification. I couldn't aid however presume that their beliefs are actually only outdated racial discrimination and sexism, their actions is actually like out of a bad beer commercial as well as their laughs told me of the ineffective jokes from some higher university closet area. How on earth are they storing themselves out as revolutionists? Yeah, they're truly bad at it. Yet it is actually still actually helpful. It advises me of the sort of comedian that is not a great comic however merely obtains has a good laugh in any case because she or he-- let's be actually true, it's generally a he-- are going to just point out whatever makes the audience uneasy and also receive those sort of annoying laughs from the crowd. It is actually merely low-priced. A considerable amount of this rebel attitude is actually so core to a bunch of these people that" The Rebel "is actually a title of one of their big media firms. This woman, Belief Goldy, got axed from The Rebel. The series she crossed was actually happening a Nazi podcast during the march in Charlottesville. When she acquired fired for that, there were commenters online that were actually stating to the managers of that media firm,"You people ought to alter your labels coming from The Revolutionist Media to The Babbit Media. "As well as it resembles, so being actually a Nazi is actually being actually a rebel? That's simply an actually, truly shitty and also unimaginative method to become defiant, besides being actually distressing and awful plus all the remainder of it. When I consider the Nazis, I do not believe of people that were actually right into rebellion as a principle. [Scoffs] Yeah, totally free feelings. Some of the fascinating paradoxes of the whole alt-right is they commonly receive called contrarian, provocateurs, transgressive, yet the values they defend

don't advise me of disobedience at all. They merely remind me of the customary bias and also racism that was actually socially normative when I was actually developing up. Properly, they are actually transgressive in the sense that they are actually claiming factors that you are actually certainly not intended to claim in well mannered business. That doesn't make it fascinating or awesome or initial. It carries out produce it transgressive in the feeling that you can offend folks. You can easily freak all of them out. As well as then, if you made a set of standards within your own little bit of

subculture that declares that anyone that ever before receives hurt or gone nuts is as a result triggered as well as whatever, then all right. Through the relations to that self-sufficient logic, you may quote unquote"gain", considering that you activated people.Ultimately, you're not serving any quite appealing side other than having a second of notoriety. There is actually a whole lot

of hiding behind the phrase" cost-free speech",

which is actually addressed as a kind of unfilled set worth, due to the fact that no one's truly taking anyone's free of charge pep talk away. Why do you believe that there is actually thus a lot importance on subjects like free of charge pep talk and also expected fault, and also incredibly little bit of about the genuine content of this "cost-free speech "? This belongs to why I thought it was actually so essential to in fact invest hrs and months and also years of my lifestyle awaiting out along with these individuals. It wasn't since I enjoyed it, or because I favored to receive supper along with Mike Cernovich as well as Jack Posobiec instead than associating my spouse and also child. It was actually since the true method to know exactly how these people believe and also speak and interact along with each other is merely to hang around all of them for enough time that they overlook you exist. The cost-free speech thing is actually one instance of that. They may speak about this stuff in the intellectual as well as utilize foreign language that seems truly conscientious, but when you spend time for enough time it penetrates that it is actually merely a device they are actually utilizing. Like anything else, it's a weapon. If they can easily use "free of cost speech"as a talking lead to evolve their schedule, they'll make use of that. If they can easily use something else, they'll make use of one thing else. At no factor did I wish to be therefore in contrast to the contrarians that I ended up being anti-free pep talk. It is actually only that when you see what is actually definitely inspiring all of them, you can easily translucent their video game. That just happens when you set in the opportunity. Having spent as much opportunity as you performed with them, carry out

you possess any sort of advise for viewers on personal care and mental health management when encountered along with this vile things? I carry out believe it is actually appropriate a great deal of opportunities to tip away coming from it as well as log off. Being a computer keyboard fighter twenty four hours a time is actually not healthy and balanced for anybody. However I additionally definitely would not desire to reside in a globe where social media sites were simply populated by nihilists and monsters and chauvinists. So I don't yearn for all excellent people on the planet to permanently leave all world wide web rooms. Yet I perform believe it deserves only

stepping back and also assuming in a slightly more comprehensive means about what is all this as well as what are we making an effort to accomplish? The bigger frame of the book is actually about the hijacking of a nationwide chat. On any type of offered day, you may remain each one of the trending topics and also not register and also not also recognize

they are actually happening and you will certainly be completely alright. The planet will happen without you and you will not really miss everything. In a much larger, more sustained sense, I do assume

that component of the work of being actually a completely engaged citizen of a presumptive freedom is actually to possess a risk in the national chat. If component of that or even a considerable amount of that is taking place online, then thus be it. I think it is actually only worth carrying out along with as a lot of a crystal clear mind

and also a sense of function as achievable. Amanda Marcotte is actually a politics writer for Salon. Her brand-new publication,"Monster Nation: How The Right Became Trump-Worshipping Monsters Establish

On Rat-F * cking Liberals, America, as well as Reality Itself,"is actually out now. She performs Twitter @AmandaMarcotte.

This content was originally published here.

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waterlilyvioletfog · 7 years

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Rhaegar Targaryen was a Dick

Using real life, historical evidence, and based on what we know for sure (and also some speculation on what we don’t) (and also some things that I’ve seen most fans of the series agree as canon ex. KotLT was Lyanna). Oh, and by the way, SPOILERS.

DISCLAIMER: I love Jon Snow. He’s arguably my favorite character, both in the show and in the books. He’s intelligent, kind, honorable, and good (and far smarter in the books by the way) and I do agree that after the life he has had, Jon deserves everything he’s ever wanted. Jon, Sansa, Gilly, Davos, Grey Worm, and Missandei- they all deserve the Iron Throne. They deserve that after having such absolutely SHITTY lives. I am also pretty much a member of the Lyanna Stark Protection Squad. She’s blameless in all of the events in my eyes. She’s a teenager, for fuck’s sake, she goes with Rhaegar when she’s FIFTEEN years old, for Christ’s sake, and she gets WAY in over her head. Cut her some slack- in America, she wouldn’t have been able to vote, smoke cigarettes, or get drunk. She was not in any way responsible for the events that unfolded in her life. This is my stance on BOTH of these characters until there is sufficient evidence disproving my claims. MOVING ON.

This past Sunday’s episode included a crucial scene where Gilly is reading from a book of an old maester, who wrote down everything because y’know, that’s the job of maesters. Fact. She asks Sam what an “annulment” means. He tells her, and it’s clear that he’s not really listening because he interrupts her sharing crucial information for the future of the show: this maester gave Rhaegar Targaryen an annulment on his marriage to Elia Martell, then in a secret ceremony in Dorne remarried him to “someone else.” Gilly never explicitly states the name of the other woman, but we can infer that the “someone else” is Lyanna Stark, who was revealed to be the mother of Jon Snow in the season six finale. Ergo, we can safely conclude that Lyanna Stark found out that she was pregant, told Rhaegar, they got married, and eventually Jon was born. (Actually she might have gotten pregant after the ceremony, but regardless. Something like that.)

While many fans (including myself) were screaming with joy at the thought that Jon is the rightful ruler of the Seven Kingdoms (moreso than Dany, actually, because of the male primogeniture rule that most monarchies work with) others expressed rage at the thought of Elia Martell, Rhaegar’s wife, with whom he had two children, being set aside. And rightfully so.

YES, it is pretty widely understood that Princess Elia of Sunspear and Crown Prince Rhaegar were not in love. It was an arranged marriage, devised by the mad king. They were married at twenty and twenty-three, when all other options (in the eyes of Aerys) were either unacceptable or non-existent. Under ordinary circumstances (hell even in our universe) the annulment would’ve been perfectly acceptable. Their marriage was amicable, but divorce is always an acceptable alternative. I’m not saying that the divorce was bad. Hell no, it was probably a good thing. But the consequences of Rhaegar’s actions mean that the many people see that Rhaegar was a dick who screwed over his wife and kids.

Through out Robert’s Rebellion, the Dornish fought with the Targaryen forces, knowing that if they did not, their beloved princess and her children (three years old and an infant) could easily be disposed of. Yes, the war basically started when Rhaegar kidnapped (we now know actually ran away with) Lyanna, “Shaming Elia” in the eyes of many, but that didn’t matter. Elia was in King’s Landing. Elia, beloved by her people, could not be risked.

And oh, yeah, sure, Elia might have known that she and Rhaegar were divorced, but it is doubtful, but there is very little reason to believe that she was okay with it. Since, you know. She was still a hostage, and you might as well be destined to be queen if you’re gonna be a hostage. (Note that Targaryens were cool with polygamy so actually Rhaegar didn’t have to divorce Elia at all but whatever showrunners, we’ll ignore that for now.)

Remember that whole “Tyrion’s on trial for Joffrey’s murder” thing? And how Tyrion demanded a trial by combat in that awesome scene? And how Oberyn Martell volunteered as tribute to be Tyrion’s champion so he could avenge his sister Elia Martell and her children? And how that got Oberyn killed? And the insuing Dorne plot, which we all hated? Yeah. You do.

Oberyn Martell needed to avenge the deaths of Elia Martell and her children due to Rhaegar’s actions; he and his father started the war, Elia and her children paid the price alongside them.

So, after abandoning Lyanna in the Tower of Joy, Rhaegar proceeded to be murdered by Robert Baratheon. The Lannisters, figuring that “Yeah, the Targs are screwed” decided to march to King’s Landing and clear the way for the Baratheon forces. This was called the Sack of King’s Landing.

Tywin Lannister, hoping to curry favor with Robert, sent on a couple of his goons (including the Mountain, Ser Gregor Clegane) to go kill Elia and her kids. Cause y’know. Tywin was a Bad Dude.

Rhaenys Targaryen, age 3, was stabbed multiple times. Aegon Targaryen, who was even younger, was thrown against a stone wall. Elia Martell, at this point not even the wife of Rhaegar, was raped with the blood of her son still on her rapist’s hands, and had her skull crushed in.

But here’s the thing: Sunday’s episode says that these deaths were pointless. Those weren’t Targaryen deaths.

We can infer this using real life history.

Back up a second, to King Henry VIII of England. The dude who had six wives. Yeah, him.

King Henry’s first wife was Catherine of Aragon. Catherine was the Princess of Spain, and it was an arranged, political marriage. She was beloved by the people, and was certainly the longest marriage Henry had. They were married for nearly twenty years, but she only gave him one living child: a daughter, Mary. Henry couldn’t have that. He needed a legitimate heir. A son.

Henry looked around his court, and lo and behold, his eyes fell upon Anne Boleyn, the daughter of an important emissary. She was feisty, tempramental, and extremely intelligent. She was unwed, and younger than Catherine, and soon Henry came to the conclusion that shit would need to go down so they could be married.

So, Henry split off from the Roman Catholic Church and created the Anglican Church, which at the time was basically the same thing as Catholicism, but whatever, that’s not relevant. Henry could divorce his wife, and so he did. Meanwhile, he and Anne ran off to get married in a secret wedding (NOTE THAT CATHERINE PROBABLY HAD NO IDEA OF ALL OF THIS BEING A THING THAT WAS GOING ON), and she got IMMEDIATELY PREGNANT, so they had another secret wedding, and then finally he and Catherine were officially divorced, so Henry and Anne had NOT secret wedding, blah blah corronation blah blah blah, out pops the baby.

Oh, and while all the secret weddings and pregnancies were going on, Henry made his legitimate daughter, Mary, sign a contract that essentially said “My dad is a certified dick, but he believes in the power of true love to grant him the kid he needs, so I, after being a princess for all thirteen years of my life, do rescind my princess-hood and declare that I am a bastard. I have no (ZERO) claim to the throne, etc etc etc wow my dad was a dick.”

When Henry got bored with Anne’s feisty, intellectual, quick-tempered-ness, he had her beheaded and made their daughter Elizabeth sign the same contract so that he could marry Jane Seymour, the only one of his wives to actually give him a son (though she, like Lyanna died from birthing fever).

So, to sum up: THE PARALLELS BETWEEN RHAEGAR AND KING HENRY, ELIA AND CATHERINE, AND LYANNA AND ANNE ARE UNDENIABLE.

Both Henry and Rhaegar were obsessed with having children (Henry a son and Rhaegar a second daughter) and both, upon receiving the information that their current wives were incapable of giving them more children, turned to the young women who were available. Henry chose the feisty, temperamental, quick-witted ANNE, a daughter of an important emissary, younger than his current wife, and Rhaegar chose the feisty, temperamental, sword-wielding LYANNA (c’mon, you get what I’m getting at with Anne and Lyanna being kinda the same, right?) the daughter of an important lord, younger than his current wife. Both married their respective second wives in secret ceremonies, either immediately before or after said wife becomes pregnant. Catherine and Elia, two “foreign” princesses (many people have noted the vaguely Spanish tinge to Dorne, in the show at the very least) who were beloved by their people, who gave their slightly unhinged husbands legitimate children, and who were set aside due to an inability to give said husband the child he needed. Both were divorced from their husbands, likely largely against their wills and without knowledge of it, and after each had been set aside, it was all for naught: Lyanna couldn’t give Rhaegar his Visenya, just as Anne couldn’t give Henry a son. Considering these parallels, it is not beyond the scope of the imagination that Rhaegar could also have had Rhaenys and Aegon made bastards, especially since we know from the books that Lyanna didn’t like the idea of Robert having children with women other than her! This means that the death of Elia, already being pointless, is now complemented by the pointless deaths of her two innocent children.

That’s my two cents on why Rhaegar is a dick.

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her-culture · 7 years

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19 Years, 19 Films

Works That Were Influential To Me As a Person and a Filmmaker

1997) Hercules (Wonder)

I remember wondering if there really were a bunch of colorful Gods and Goddesses above us after watching “Hercules.” At the time, I was not aware of Greek Mythology at all - and did not really become acquainted with it until high school. It made me more curious about the rest of the world, both on the ground and above it. Some of the most memorable films will always stick with us because they awaken a sense of wonder. Audiences tend to want or even need a fantasy to escape into. This amazement may in turn give them a more positive outlook on reality, or become a way to pique their interest in things they had never thought of before.

1998) Antz (Personification)

“Antz” took me a few years to really grasp in its entirety because though it was presented as a fictional interpretation of how ants lived, it was replicating how our human society functions - maybe to suggest that people and insects share commonalities in terms of survival, or even to highlight how injustice can be wrong even in cartoon form. Even though the oppressed subjects were not human, that thought really rested in the back burner of my mind throughout the film. I saw the characters as relatable since they behaved and communicated like people actually do, which even involved causing pain to others. “Antz” really made me see how life can be unfair to many, but that it offers many opportunities for you to take control of your own destiny.

1999) 10 Things I Hate About You (Emotion)

I was relatively young when I first saw “10 Things I Hate About You” so I didn’t necessarily understand all the mature content that accompanied some of the scenes, but I was able to understand the feelings of the characters very well - and not just in the basic sense like when they were happy, sad or mad, but in the more complicated sense when they were feeling vulnerable, hurt, joy, etc. From this film, I gathered that trusting people can be one of the hardest things for a person to do. Like Kat, I considered myself very antisocial, but because of a lack of faith in people, not just for the point of being rebellious. Like most viewers, that simple scene where Kat is reading the poem aloud made me tear up. The language was simple but it was what was going on behind the words that really struck me. This film definitely demonstrated how vast the spectrum of emotions really is. Sometimes we can’t always find ways to explain feelings, but people may understand what we’re talking about just by the way we show them.

2000) Bring It On (Image)

Most would probably consider this film inappropriate for a ten year old to watch, but I was more than capable of handling its content. At first, I thought that “Bring It On” was just a comedy about cheerleading. Then it became clear that there were parts where the movie was mocking the celebration of arrogance, which made the film seem pretty deep. I had no idea during my first watch that what Gabrielle Union’s character was saying about the way the other team steals from her team had to do with how white people have historically taken things originally presented by people of color as their own. This image of women of darker shades being powerful, fierce and strong without any incorporation of stereotypes in their characters was nice to see. Winning the tournament wasn’t just about bragging rights, but also about making an example of those who steal other people’s moves and cultures as their own.

2001) Training Day (Characterization)

Denzel Washington is a very influential actor in general, but I learned a lot in particular from his character Alonzo Harris in Training Day. Throughout the course of the film, Alonzo is training his protege Jake on how to handle unsavory characters of the world, only to later reveal that he is one of them. It’s not the easiest thing to create a character which manipulates the audience as much as the protagonist and that is what I admire most about this film. Many characters are shown as archetypes and are meant to have one distinct purpose to convey in the film, but the more impressionable characters are ones that play for two or more sides, since people cannot always be categorized as good and bad - most are in that grey area between the two. There is nothing wrong with making a likable antagonist.

2002) Frida (Experiment)

Films based on real people in general can be a very challenging field to play on. In the case of the film “Frida,” I think it was a genius decision to use her background as an artist to help tell the story. Some would say that every film in a sense is experimental. I found this film to be such a wonderful blend of abstract and concrete scenes of Frida’s life. When dealing with the story of an actual person, keeping it factual is very important, but it would also benefit the story if you twist some of the events into something that is widely interpretable. It seems easier to do this when your subject is a very complex artist but I believe this can also apply to people who seem very straightforward. Play around with the fragments of details you are using to create a bigger picture. It is alright if not all things you include are clear right away or even at all. Human beings are messy, therefore their lives shouldn’t be painted so clean.

2003) The Haunted Mansion (Representation)

Horror films of the recent past seemed to fall into a predictable mold for me, even the light scream ‘horror’ works produced by Disney. Though I never really liked movies based around frightening situations, I always felt that I would watch more of them if they featured characters that looked like me or anything different than the typical “supernatural disturbance in white suburbia” display. I watched “The Haunted Mansion” with my father many years ago. I wasn’t brave enough watch anything supposedly scary without my father’s presence nearby. Watching black people on screen without being too enhanced or stereotyped, facing situations they aren’t normally found in was very refreshing. Films starring black individuals don’t need to always revolve around the color of their skin, or the dangers of being black in a prejudiced environment. I loved that I could easily picture myself and even my family in this movie.

2004) Mean Girls (Message)

During my first watch of “Mean Girls” many years ago, I can honestly admit that the deeper meaning behind this comedy wasn’t all that clear. Many films do have very deep messages hidden below the surface level, even those that were purposely meant not to be taken so seriously. After watching this film the second and even third time around throughout the years, I realized that this was such a creative social commentary. As a writer in various mediums, I am always tempted to wrap a serious topic in something a bit silly, not necessarily because I’m afraid to directly talk about an issue, but because sometimes it just makes the information more obtainable to people. I’ve noticed that a lot of screenwriters hesitate to write straightforward dramas because it may be overwhelming for an audience and they may not want the viewers to be completely sad or upset after watching the film. A comedy can be just as effective when it comes to bringing awareness and attention to many on a specific controversial issue - the bonus is just that people will laugh more while taking it in.

2005) The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl (Imagination)

I remember being super excited to watch this movie because it mirrored my desire to explore my dream world while I was awake. I even created and kept a dream journal after I saw this film so I could try to see if any of my random dreams had any common themes, traits or recurrences. Imagination is where most stories come from, even the ones that are true. This movie taught me that I have more power over what goes on while I sleep than I thought. There have been many occasions where the cure for my writer’s block was found within my dreams. Imagination is usually associated with kids, but it benefits us even as we get older. Your imagination is an unlimited world waiting to be visualized physically. Using mine to help create better stories has benefited me tremendously, especially with filmmaking.

2006) Dreamgirls (Music)

One of the most influential films for me growing up was “Dreamgirls.” It inspired me to put deeper meaning into simple words the way people do when they sing them in a song. Music was a huge part of this plot, but even when music isn’t the main focus, it enhances everything about a particular scene or moment, especially when a character is in direct contact with a song or melody. Musicals make the audience very hyper aware of emotion. The moment you hear a song, you start making connections between it and everything that you see. Music is a character that plays a supporting role, and it wants to help the audience piece together these visuals and understand why that specific moment is significant. Overuse of music can take away from its impact in the film, so it is best to only have music come in when the moment calls for it. Is the silence creating a barrier between the audience and the scene? That’s when some music can form a connection between the real world and the one within a particular film.

2007) Juno (Language)

I’m often overly aware of the language I use in my stories, because I worry that the audience might be thrown off if I go by exactly what feels natural, or what feels very abstract, but is done so for the purpose of creating emphasis on a subject. What I loved the most about “Juno” is that the language (passive aggressive yet bubbly) causes the audience at times to have to translate the dialogue in order to reveal what the character is actually feeling. When you don’t want or even don’t know how to visually show a certain feeling or thought, it’s best to have the character(s) come to it with words. Not only does this approach make the film more interesting to watch - it also adds a layer of aesthetic that will make the film stand out. Many classic films are unique because they have a trait that separates them from other movies, such as the way in which they manipulate language.

2008) Slumdog Millionaire (Journey)

There is a common expression about the journey being more important than language and I find this very true, especially in the world of films. Once a destination is reached, not much else seems to stem from this except maybe that your character(s) might not exactly have found what they are looking for. Journeys are meant to be a period of tests and figuring out things that can’t be learned unless you have explored. In “Slumdog Millionaire” it’s shown from the beginning where he is, so the question becomes, how did he get there? Many people dislike the use of flashbacks in films but I feel that flashbacks are most effective when they increase a build up, or reveal something about the character you didn’t quite expect. When retracing the steps a character took, it is essential that you highlight only the moments that fill in large gaps and are hard to introduce into the plot any other way. Over time, the audience shouldn’t be able to see the character or characters, the same way they saw them in the beginning.

2009) Precious (Raw)

“Precious” is the movie I’ve watched the most times in my life, more than any other. What keeps drawing me back is how it creates so much beauty out of so many ugly things that surround this character. We root for Precious not only because she is a dreamer, but because she survives her reality by reimagining it. I’ve learned so much from this film and I always discover something different during each watch, but one of the most valuable things I’ve learned is that rawness can be portrayed by more than just pain or extreme pressure. A raw depiction comes in the form of a strongly accurate feeling rather than a strongly accurate action. Precious is filled with a lot of hard moments as the audience grows to love her fighting spirit, but it is the moments where her spirit breaks that you find yourself forced to grapple with the same reality that she’s been trying to ignore. Occasionally you will have to let go of the safety net in a story. It keeps the character from falling and if we don’t seen the character at their worst, or most vulnerable, we cannot root for them to get back up or break free in some way. There are going to be times you need your character to have no control over themselves, have them be swept by the moment without trying to modify it in a way that makes it less unpleasant for both the character and the audience. Allow the rawness take over once in awhile.

2010) Kick-Ass (Adrenaline)

Many viewers want to feel like they are moving even though they’ll most likely be sitting down the whole time. Excitement in the form of a mental adrenaline rush often happens in action movies where the audience is following characters in extremely and quickly escalating situations. People should not only feel like they are on the edge of their seats while they are watching, but also feel like they have joined in on the action. “Kick Ass” was a movie that made me feel as though I was being pulled into action with the characters. It is funny enough without being fake and serious enough without seeming too grounded in reality. Like many superhero films, these characters give us something to aspire to in terms of what could happen if we had super abilities. The characters are also relying on their own strength and that of other people without external powers. Not all movies with this content need to have lots of special effects in order to be effective at portraying very exciting fight scenes or other moments. Imagine that all you can use to help get your character out of a dangerous situation is what is on and around them - this will encourage them to use creative combat that can make an audience of average people think they would be able to overcome that obstacle as well. The viewers should stay energized even when the action simmers down for a moment. Leave the people watching anticipating the next chance they get to mentally join the battle.

2011) The Help (Adaptation)

I hope to one day adapt a book or play into a film. My biggest concern with that has always been, how exactly do I write and show a piece that has already been published and do it justice cinematically? With the film “The Help,” I saw that one thing that makes this problem more manageable is to find the story within the story. Break apart the original source in a way that keeps the overall vision intact but adds an interesting perspective and/or twist to it. I appreciated that in this film, the main focus was on the events leading up to the making of the novel. When it comes to adapting any story that has already been fleshed out, I feel that it is up to you to retell it from a different angle, so it feels new even to the people who know the story well.

2012) Beasts of the Southern Wild (Performance)

I remember watching “Beasts of the Southern Wild” for the first time and being so incredibly proud of Quvenzhané Wallis. Her performance as Hushpuppy was exhilarating to watch, especially knowing that this was her first major film. She is certainly a natural performer when it comes to portraying a child who has very little to hold onto except her imagination, which becomes our bridge into her vast world. Many directors may find that working with young children can come with many issues, but I would say that it is worth dealing with in the end when a child can so effortlessly show how to be imaginative in even the most dreary of circumstances. If you are patient enough with a child actor, especially one who has never acted in anything before, they may surprise you with a brilliant performance that not even you could’ve imagined.

2013) Short Term 12 (Ensemble)

In my experience as a film watcher, most films have a clear star that either steals the show, or carries the whole film in a way that’s most engaging. It is not often where I find a film that has a group of actors which not only enhance the intrigue of the film but also equally carry its weight throughout the story. In “Short Term 12,” there is no doubt that Brie Larson delivers a strong lead, but without the assistance of the other characters (both supporting and minor), her characterization wouldn’t really keep us fixated on her for long. The film dives into the various relationships that caretakers share with the kids who enter the home and among themselves. There are clear moments where each character given a background story shines and where they share the spotlight. People tend to knowingly and unknowingly pick favorite characters in movies, especially when they see one they can relate to. For me, I adored some characters more than others, such as Marcus, a teen who was aging out and would soon be in the world on his own, but I couldn’t really bring myself to favor one over the other. It was like being given a package deal. Having a strong ensemble (with a wide range of different types of characters) is one of the many ways a film could make a longer lasting impression on audiences, especially those that are very diverse.

2014) The Grand Budapest Hotel (Complexity)

I’ve recently started looking into more of Wes Anderson’s films after I saw “The Grand Budapest Hotel.” I was really shocked with how much I actually enjoyed this film. So much going on, especially within each scene, the whole film can be a lot to take in or enjoy. I’ve noticed that the key to pulling this off, at least in the case of this film, is having some sort of structure align all the commotion. It’s basically like having controlled chaos. The main actions in the scene are pulled into focus by smaller (but still relevant) actions which help build to a climax without looking abrupt or random. In this hotel, so much is going on (as a typical hotel) but as the main characters trickle in and out the frame, our attention goes from the seemingly mundane to something quite hectic. The quirkiness of all the characters becomes normalized almost instantly in comparison to the situation they find themselves in. The important thing in a situation like this if you want to go crazy with the set design and other elements, go all out, but do it in a way that cleverly serves as a guide into each scene that way the audience isn’t too overwhelmed with so much occurring at one time.

2015) Room (Simplicity)

Most people like myself, have a hard time watching anything that takes place in one particular area for a while with no dramatic interruptions. It doesn't just have to do with attention span but also with expectation. Once we think we have figured out the next move in a plot, we gradually lose interest in seeing the reveal. With “Room” they are in a shed for a majority, or at least half the film. I believe that this stays interesting for that long because we are mostly looking at it from the perspective of Jack, a little boy stuck in there with his mom. To him, the shed takes on a whole universe so to us as the audience, we are looking at this universe in so many ways, trying to imagine what Jack sees. A lesson from this film is that capturing reality isn’t always focusing on what’s real and accurate, it can also be about how the characters within the world interpret the same place differently from others. The contrast and similarities between the perspectives can spark further intrigued while watching the film. So much is possible even with a simple setup.

2016) Moonlight (Story)

Traditional Hollywood movies for the most part, have very clear messages. If a character doesn’t directly mention it in some way, we are shown what it is through a climax or resolving action before the end of the film. What stressed many people out about “Moonlight” was that throughout the film, we have watched this metaphoric water boil as Chiron’s life escalates with each given persona he takes on, but then we are left with no over flooding, or even a simmered result. His life when we last see him has gotten more closure, but it very unclear what the result of his newfound comfort would be, unless the audience were to interpret it themselves. I actually love this about the film. Sometimes a story isn’t meaningful because it gives us clarity, but because it gives us obscurity. “Moonlight” is a story that reflects human nature. Most of the questions you may ask yourself about the film probably have existential answers. Instead of dwelling so much on films having a specific purpose for being made, it is probably better to appreciate them for providing another way to interpret our own reality.

2017) Get Out (Plot)

I have never been the biggest fan of movies in the horror genre. It’s usually the overuse of jump scares and gore that turns me away, along with the lack of POC playing important parts in the film. However, I’ve recently discovered that psychological thrillers might be a rising guilty pleasure of mine, since I saw “Get Out.” It’s a narrative that goes along with audience expectation, but also breaks it. This film incorporates the issue of race as a plot device. Blackness in itself becomes a character that we are following along with Chris. We assume only the worst automatically and are right to think so, but what I appreciated most about the role of blackness in this film was that it achieved a dynamic arch, meaning that it changed throughout the course of the film due to growth and newfound strength. The plot encouraged not only Chris, but his blackness to fight back. Even the other black characters who were taken captive were actively given opportunities to resist white supremacy from very subtle to extreme ways.

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Damon Albarn

An English musician born in 23rd of March 1968 in Leytonstone, East London.

First Steps

His mother, Hazel Albarn worked as a stage designer for Joan Littlewood's theatre company at the Theatre Royal Stratford East in London and was working on Mrs Wilson's Diary just before Damon was born. Damon's father, an artist Keith Albarn was mainly involved in TV arts programming and was interested in designing and making modern furniture. He eventually became the manager of art jazz-rock group Soft Machine. Hazel Albarn came from Lincolnshire and Keith Albarn from Nottinghamshire. When they had met each other, they decided to move to London to experience its wide cultural-scene. So Damon came in contact with music from the first day of his life, and never walked out of it. When Damon was growing up, his parents listened mostly to old blues, Indian ragas and African music. Damon didn't apparently like much of them. His sister, Jessica, also an artist, was born in 1971.

Damon was a relatively normal child. He was keen on football and his room was filled with the fossils. Since the age of six he has been wearing the glass beads, which he got from his mother. "They give me luck" he has later said. He was attending the George Tomlinson Primary School and at the later age moved to the Stanway Comprehensive School.

Ten years after Damon's birth Albarns moved to Colchester, Essex, where Keith Albarn had got a new job. Around the time of moving Damon was spending three months in Turkey with family friends. When he came back he began studying violin and piano and got interested in drama. Because of his unconventional background he was considered weird and vain and often got called "posh stroke gay" at Stanway Comprehensive. "I was weirdo", he recalls. At the time he was really keen on drama and took part in many school plays and quickly became one of the school's "stars". Damon was also interested in composing music and one of his compositions won a heat in the nationwide Young Composer of the Year competition. He has later claimed that classical composer Kurt Weill's music had a more effect on his musical development than any pop song writer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJKZyZCIYII&list=PLwDQF_pE3sOW0CEoiFkhpiX1Kd8-rejcP

Beginning of the Creation

At the age of 12 Damon met a year younger Graham Coxon. "Your brogues are crap, mate. Look, mine are the proper sort” were Damon's exact first words to Graham. They both liked The Jam, The Human League, XTC and Madness and soon became the best friends.

One of the first bands Damon was involved along with Graham was The Aftermath, which didn't get anywhere. The Aftermath's follower was Real Lives, where Damon was on the vocals and played the piano. The band made a few appearances in local pubs and clubs without any real success.

In the mid-eighties Damon lost his interest to music temporary, concentrated wholly in drama, and moved to Debden to study at the East 15 Drama School. After a year he thought he was "the worst actor in the world" and decided to go back home. At the time he was very depressed and having a bad time. He took a part-time music course at the Goldsmiths College in South London, where he met Graham again and worked as a barman in London's Portobello Hotel. Later, he worked at the Le Croissaint at Euston Station in London and soon after as a tea boy at the Beat Factory studio, owned by Graeme Holdaway. At nights, he worked on his music at the studio.

Blur

With the help of the Beat Factory he got involved in an odd synth-band called Two's A Crowd with Sam Vamplew. After writing a few songs, Damon withdrew the band and joined Circus in 1988. Circus was formed initially by Damon's college friend Tom Aitkenhead and Eddie Deedigan, who both quit the band later. Soon guitarist Graham Coxon, drummer Dave Rowntree and finally bassist Alex James were picked up to Circus. Due to Damon's accelerated musical development, Circus experienced many radical musical changes. The band evolved into Seymour, which later changed its name to Blur.

Blur were formed and signed with Food/EMI in 1989.

Announcing their arrival with debut album Leisure in 1991,

Birthday

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGFa5_wdRsU ~ Birthdays are generally supposed to be happy celebrations but the lyricist doesn’t view things this way; it only reminds him of age and dying, it’s sort of ironic how actually when you think about it, we celebrate our deaths rather than our births.

Blur continued to revolutionise the sound of English popular music with second release Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993).

Miss America

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maflDjy9dLU ~ Damon Albarn, an outspoken critic of celebrity culture, has an uncanny talent for imagining figurative characters. On ‘Miss America’, he makes a criticism on the commodification of beauty. Miss America herself wears a label and is an artificial champion for American women, especially because modern life is rubbish.

Five successive UK #1 albums followed - with Parklife (1994)

Parklife

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSuHrTfcikU ~ “I came up with the idea for this song in this park. I was living on Kensington Church Street, and I used to come into the park at the other end, and I used to, you know, watch people, and pigeons…” said Damon Albarn

and The Great Escape (1995) helping to propel the band to mass popularity in the UK and beyond.

Ernold Same

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-3_VVcwwaY ~ A straightforward song about the mundanity of modern life, probably referencing Arnold Layne (Pink Floyd’s first single). On some versions of the album The Great Escape, an instrumental reprise of ‘Ernold Same’ appears as a secret track at the end.

The eponymous Blur was released in 1997

Song 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSbBvKaM6sk ~ This song is totally unlike all of Blur’s other songs. It’s actually supposed to be making fun of grunge and some suggest the “WOO HOO!” is a parody of the iconic American Homer Simpson.

and seventh album Think Tank (2003) was Blur’s first as a three-piece after the temporary departure of founding guitarist Graham Coxon.

Out Of Time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRkX1Up1vnc ~ The song is a bass-driven track with minimal drums and acoustic guitar accompanied by eastern and orchestral flourishes. The faint screaming noise at the start of the track is a sound clip from Doctor Who. Since the 2009 reunion, the song has been a staple of Blur’s live sets, albeit in a slightly different arrangement featuring Coxon playing electric guitar.

One of the most successful British bands of the last two decades, Blur have won a total of five BRIT Awards, and were twice nominated for the Mercury Music Award.

In 2009 Blur reconvened as a four-piece to play a series of UK shows including two sold out dates at Hyde Park and a historic Sunday night appearance at Glastonbury. A film about Blur No Distance Left To Run was made that summer and released the following year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN3rdPyjaGY

In 2012 the band received a BRIT Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music and wrote two news songs ahead of their massive sold out show in London's Hyde Park to mark the closing of the Olympic Games. The songs 'The Puritan' and 'Under The Westway' were debuted live on Twitter via a worldwide video stream from a London rooftop. And twenty one years after the release of their debut album, 2012 also saw Blur 21: The Box, the band's body of work compiled and gathered together into one box.

Beetlebum

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAXnqjUfal4 ~ Damon Albarn has confessed that the song is about heroin and the drug experiences he had with his then-girlfriend, Justine Frischmann of Elastica. In the 2010 Blur documentary, No Distance Left to Run, Albarn confirmed this notion on film. The song’s title is a reference to the phrase “Chasing the beetle” which refers to inhaling the smoke from heated heroin, morphine, or opium that has been placed on a piece of tin-foil. Albarn has stated in an interview with MTV that the song describes a complicated emotion, sort of “sleepy” and sort of “sexy”.

The band embarked on a 30 plus date world tour in 2013 which saw them play to fans around the globe, with shows across Asia, Europe, South America, as well as a headline slot at the Coachella Festival in California.

The recordings for the band’s eighth studio album began in Spring 2013 at Avon Studios in Kowloon. Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree spent 5 days jamming together and carried on with their live dates while the recordings were put aside and the group finished touring and returned to their respective lives. Dave resumed his day job as a lawyer and Alex returned home to his farm in Oxfordshire from where he writes a regular farming column in The Telegraph and hosts the annual food and music festival The Big Feastival with Jamie Oliver. Graham, who has released eight critically acclaimed solo albums to date, continued to work on his own material and, in 2014, Damon released his Mercury-nominated debut solo album Everyday Robots.

Then, in November last year, Graham revisited the tracks and, drafting in Blur’s early producer Stephen Street (Leisure, Modern Life is Rubbish, Parklife, The Great Escape, Blur), he worked with the band on the material. Damon then added lyrics and the 12 tracks on The Magic Whip is the result.

The new album from Blur, titled The Magic Whip, started life in Hong Kong when the band had an unexpected break in touring in May 2013. It is released by Parlophone Records on 27rd April 2015 - 16 years since 13, the band’s last record as a four-piece.

Go Out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp1ks7PTzng ~ “It wasn’t a jolly, winking, overfamiliar Blur thing. I realize that a lot of people love below because of those songs, and lots of people hate them because of it, and people from the camp who hate us probably don’t know much about the other stuff that we did. ‘Go Out’ struck me as being somewhere between the two – it’s sort of casual sounding, but it’s also quite powerful. For me, it felt like a place that we hadn’t really done before: it’s mildly familiar because of Damon’s voice, but sonically is quite different from anything we’ve done before.” Graham Coxon

Gorillaz

Gorillaz are a virtual band, comprised of four fictional animated band members: 2D (voiced by Blur vocalist Damon Albarn, and plays keyboard and sings lead vocals), Murdoc (bass), Noodle (lead guitar and occasional vocals) and Russel (drums and percussion). The band was created by Damon Albarn from the Britpop band Blur, and Jamie Hewlett, the co-creator of the comic book Tank Girl.

Gorillaz music videos follow the adventures of the band members, so the music is written around the concept of them being within a certain environment for each album. The band’s music is a collaboration between various musicians; Albarn being the only permanent musical contributor. They style is broadly alternative rock, but with a large number of other influences - to quote one of their lyrics, they have recorded everything from "Rap, Hip-Hop, to Punk, and Ska".

They originally identified themselves under the name "Gorilla", and the first song they recorded was ‘Ghost Train’ (1999), later released as a ‘B-side’ on their single Rock the House and G-Sides.

Ghost Train

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YXbG5UKN_g The band's first release was the EP Tomorrow Comes Today, released in 2000. It was very well received in the UK underground music scene and generated a lot of word-of-mouth advertising, as well as a large shroud of mystery over who was behind Gorillaz and what could be expected from the band in the months to come. Promo outlets circulated a promotional booklet to promote the fictional backstory behind the cartoon band.

Tomorrow Comes Today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiNdcBg3xC8 ~ Wishing for tomorrow to come today demonstrates being both simultaneously optimistic in the impossible happening and faithlessly depressed about the consequences that are to come.

The band's first single, ‘Clint Eastwood’, was released on March 5, 2001. It became a smash hit and put Gorillaz into the global spotlight. Due to this, the fictional band members' Hotmail accounts were abandoned (and later hacked) and the inboxes on the site were never updated. Later that same month, their first full-length album, the self-titled Gorillaz was released, producing four singles: ‘Clint Eastwood’, ‘19-2000′, ‘Tomorrow Comes Today’, and ‘Rock the House’.

Clint Eastwood

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UclCCFNG9q4 ~ The song’s title is a reference to Clint Eastwood, the actor who has portrayed icons of rugged manliness and badassery perhaps better than any other. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and Gunsmoke are alluded to in the song. In the former movie, Clint’s nameless character says that he has “sunshine in a bag”, gold coins.

Each of the singles' videos contained humorous and often ridiculous storylines and imagery, though ‘Clint Eastwood’ and ‘19-2000′ were the only singles to break through the American music scene. ‘19-2000′ became popular after being featured in both an Icebreakers commercial, as well as in EA Sports' FIFA 2001.

19-2000

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq7Ovshz1UI ~ This song is also about the rise in commercialism of the 21st century. Everything but a person’s personality will speak for who they are, so if you want to be perceived better by other’s you’re better off buying fancy things for people to judge you by.

Also the trumpets from the song ‘Rock the House’ can be heard in various MTV shows. The only time the video for ‘Tomorrow Comes Today’ was played in the States was when Toonami broadcasted a Midnight Run special where they played animated music videos from Gorillaz, Daft Punk, and Kenna.

Sound Check (Gravity)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQpclIzUwLk ~ the 8th track included on the self-titled Gorillaz album and definitely my favourite, the segment “Love is breaking” says, in other words, the definition of love is becoming more and more tainted, and he is just seemingly confused about it, (hence the “I don’t know”).

Double Bass

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ONnnlhrM-g ~ “All of which makes me anxious, all times, unbearably so” - Murdoc Niccals

I believe this song is a reference to Murdoc himself. When he was alone on plastic beach, playing his bass, he claimed to begin to interpret the noises the bass made. And we have seen Murdoc has always had bags under his eyes, which anxiety is a symptom of. This leads me to believe he has insomnia. And that this song is him describing the fear and insanity he feels everyday that drives him to be this way. We have also seen him use sex as an escape, and Satanism is him trying to embrace his insanity. So it seems Murdoc is actually a very troubled individual.

M1A1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twao9b_HXp4 ~ ‘M1A1′ is the final track (excluding bonus tracks) from the Gorillaz debut album. The song samples some of the music from the film Day of the Dead as written by John Harrison. This is the first song to sample music from a zombie film, a theme which would show up several times throughout Gorillaz' work, including the “Intro” from the album Demon Days as well as the name of the group Jamie Hewlett put together to help with the artwork, which was Zombie Flesh Eaters.

They were also rumored to work on a movie project which was abandoned later on because there was no script which was good enough for the group. "We lost all interest in doing it as soon as we started meeting with studios and talking to these Hollywood executive types, we just weren't on the same page. We said, f**k it, we'll sit on the idea until we can do it ourselves, and maybe even raise the money ourselves", Jamie said in an interview.

After stepping back from the spotlight for a while, Gorillaz came back in 2005 with another studio album Demon Days, features a variety of guests ranging from Shaun Ryder to MF DOOM. This album is primarily set on a floating island, which is prominent in the videos for ‘Feel Good Inc’, ‘El Mañana’ and ‘Dare’.

The entire album of Demon Days is about (amongst other things) how the general public respects false icons and about what humanity has done, the chaos that we rose out of and recreated ourselves

Kids With Guns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCkFSe3voRc ~ What Albarn is trying to say in the song is that the recent generations that have determined the fate of the world have created a future in which people will have to arm their own children with guns so that they can protect themselves from the chaos and terror that will surely erupt throughout the world if we continue to prosper, as we are too smart for our own good, so to speak. Albarn is trying to say that, now that we have the ability to destroy our entire race (nuclear technology, etc.), and have the resources and equipment ready, we will surely use it, whether we should or should not.

Feel Good Inc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyHNuVaZJ-k ~ It is a dystopian song that mocks herd mentality. The music video features computer generated imagery and 2D animation. The inspiration for the video came from Hayao Miyazaki’s 1986 animated film Castle In The Sky.

For the windmill to work, 4 parts must be working in tandem. There are 4 members in the Gorillaz, so if you take away one part of the windmill, it won’t turn right. Notice that Noodle is separate from the rest of the Gorillaz in the music video. “Is everybody in?” - Is everybody ready to join 2D’s revolution? Is everybody in on the plan?

Probably referring to Noodle’s windmill island. It is interesting to note that at the end of the video for ‘Feel Good Inc’ black choppers are seen flying towards her island. In the video for ‘El Mañana’ we again see Noodle’s island, only this time being attacked by the black choppers. According to the Gorillaz autobiography, Rise of the Ogre, the two helicopters that attack the island in ‘El Mañana’ are actually different designs than the ones from ‘Feel Good Inc’, indicating the possibility of the first two merely tailing Noodle before the other two move in to attack.

El Mañana

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hji4gBuOvIQ ~ El Mañana is Spanish for “the future” or “the near future”. “Mañana” by itself can be translated as “Tomorrow”. In the video for this song, we see Noodle’s island being destroyed, and Noodle presumably dying.

White Light

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFjITwNRGGk ~ After the bright choir and instrumentation of the interlude it looks like alcohol as taken over. The song is getting chaotic and it sounds like our protagonist is in trouble. In the interlude it really sounds like if heaven is close, but all of sudden it falls. I think it’s a metaphor for the protagonist being finally called to Hell, because he has sinned (alcohol). He is doomed because of alcohol and will live in an eternal tourment.

Dare

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAOR6ib95kQ ~ Featuring Happy Mondays' Shaun Ryder. This song, in the overall narrative of Demon Days, takes place after the general depression spanning from ‘Feel Good Inc’ to ‘White Light’. Importantly, it is sung by Noodle rather than 2D. This is likely meant to convey a sense of a second perspective. The voice Noodle is delivering tells that of 2D if he is so distraught over the current state of the world, then he should take action because all he does is whine about it.

Don’t Get Lost In Heaven + Demon Days

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcKzlZHl7PY ~ From the Gorillaz Rise of the Orge book: “An homage to Brian Wilson’s genius for vocal arrangement, ‘Don’t Get Lost In Heaven’ is a gleaming confection of choir, piano, and glockenspiel. If sunshine had a sound, this’d be it; displaying a warm-hearted recreation of the Beach Boy’s signature layered choral sound”.

Demon Days as an album talks a lot about negative aspects of modern life, from the Iraq War and global pollution, to the plastic nature of an overly monetised music industry. It represents today’s era as being the “Demon Days”. The title and ending track off Gorillaz’s 2005 album, Demon Days, is a really uplifting end. It’s making the case that although things are bad, there is always time to recognise the evils of the world and improve your life.

From Gorillaz Rise of the Orge book: “The light at the end of the tunnel, the dawn after the longest night of the soul. Based around the same chords as ‘Don’t Get Lost In Heaven’, allowing the two songs to become one glorious crescendo, a real musical climax that guides the listener into a far more optimistic climate”.

Noodle: “As with the previous track, the vocal harmonies were provided by the London Community Gospel Choir. This is the final relief; the hope, the rapture and the reward for the journey”.

2D (reflective and thoughtful): “You remember when you were a little kid and you would look at the clouds in the sky as the sunlight bounced off them. And something that simple would make you feel a part of everything and all alone at the same time. And that feeling’s not something you can ever put into words so you spend your whole life chasing it; making music, taking pictures, painting… whatever in the hope that other people will understand that sense or… feeling. As creative entities we look for signs of life outside ourselves for a connection to… alleviate the sense of solitude. That’s why we all do what we do. whether we know it of ourselves or not”.

They scored their first No. 1 album in the U.K. with this record and cracked the Top 10 of Billboard Hot 200 by peaking at No. 6. By the end of the year, it had gone five-time platinum in the U.K., double platinum in the U.S. and triple platinum Down Under.

Following their worldwide success, the band planned to go on a holographic 3D world tour which was scheduled to be held in 2007 and 2008. They then previewed the gig during performances at 2005 MTV Europe Music Awards and 2006 Grammy Awards with the addition of virtual Madonna on the latter show. But the traveling show was scrapped later on due to logistical issue. "It was extremely expensive, extremely difficult, a million and one things can go wrong, every second that the thing's playing. We did that thing at the EMAs. That was a test of what it could be like", Jamie said during an interview. "And when we sat and watched that, everyone involved was literally gnawing their fingernails, because we knew of the 65 things that could go wrong any second. And when it finished, when the three minutes was over and nothing went wrong, we all breathed a huge sigh of relief. So we realized that if we did a tour, it'd be a logistical nightmare".

Instead of hitting the road, Gorillaz was busy making a documentary. After around two years in the making, they finally released in April 2009 a film titled Bananaz which was directed by Ceri Levy. This movie covered the antics of the “real musicians” behind the virtual band over the course of seven years and was screened selectively in 2008 at film festivals.

A year after debuting Bananaz, they step up bringing a new album Plastic Beach on March 9, 2010. It features the likes of Snoop Dogg, Bobby Womack, Mos Def, Lou Reed and Mike Jones. The lead single ‘Stylo’ is released months prior to the album and reaches No. 25 on Billboard Alternative Songs chart.

Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0OVD0_YJnU ~ “Snoop’s the grandaddy, isn’t he? ‘Doggystyle’ was for many people the record that got them into rap and G-funk. The track also features The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, a Chicago nine-piece brass group featuring eight sons of Phil Cohran (who played trumpet with The Sun Ra Arkestra). This is a proper soundtrack: brass-laden, pimped out, plastic funk, mixing the organic with the plastic to form something new and shiny. And who better to open up this world than Snoop?” – band member Murdoc Niccals in an interview with NME.

Rhinestone Eyes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYDmaexVHic ~ The song samples the unreleased Gorillaz demo ‘Electric Shock’ and the storyboard for the unmade music video. “This one was recorded in my little submarine. I nicked a bit of my own ‘Electric Shock’ track, and stuck it in here, with a little delay over the top. Came out quite well, don’t you think?” – band member Murdoc Niccals in an interview with NME.

Stylo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhPaWIeULKk ~ “This is a new sound for Gorillaz. An electro-ish “crack funk” sound, with a little bit of politics and a lot of soul going down. With ‘Stylo’, I wanted the music to feel euphoric, whilst still putting across how precarious our tightly packed situation is now, worldwide. Where we’re at as a species on this overpopulated planet (“Coming on to the Overload. Overload. Overload”). Bobby Womack’s chorus, he just explodes into the track. How good is it to get Bobby Womack on the record? This was the first recording he’s made in 15, 20 years, so what an honour. Bobby said he only returned to do this Gorillaz track because his granddaughter said Gorillaz were cool. Which is true. We are.“ – band member Murdoc Niccals in an interview with NME.

Superfast Jellyfish

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6zPvkP5uVI ~ This song is an elaborate metaphor lambasting the music industry. Gorillaz take their time with their music, perfecting it and attempting to put out quality songs with depth and meaning, but the rigors of the industry attempt to force them into making cookie cutter pop songs like the rest of the musicians. According to the industry, the faster they can crank out the low-grade music, the more money can be made, and quality should be ignored. Gorillaz disagree.

“When you think about Gorillaz, it makes sense to have a Super Furry Animal on there, doesn’t it? I’ve always loved them, so I sent a jet over to pick Gruff up and take him over here. A lot of fun, this track. If you turn it up loud enough all the colours start spilling and washing out of the speakers. You could flood your room with a track like this.“ – band member Murdoc Niccals in an interview with NME.

Empire Ants

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-yP9f0gadU ~ Albarn is more natural when working in the kind of ornate Village Green Preservation Society-style pop that dominates Plastic Beach. His collaborations with Little Dragon, ‘Empire Ants’ and ‘To Binge’ are two of the most arresting things here, they’re airy, elusive, and amazingly beautiful.

“A moment’s peace amongst the rush. I sampled a lot of this from the theme music to Tomorrow’s World, and the vocalist is Yukimi Nagano from Little Dragon, an electronic band from Sweden. It was actually 2D who got me into Little Dragon. He played me this lovely song of theirs called ‘Twice’, which he first heard on the TV show Grey’s Anatomy.“ – band member Murdoc Niccals in an interview with NME.

Glitter Freeze

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N30cj9w6rw ~ This song features Mark E. Smith of The Fall and includes some Morse code at the beginning after Damon says “Where’s North from here” and it says “Plastic Beach”

“I’m really glad we managed to get Mark E. Smith on the record. I’m not sure he felt the same, but y'know. He wanted to do his part facing north. “Which way’s north from here?”. We used his question as a little intro, kind of like what we did with Shaun Ryder on ‘Dare’. Sometimes the greatest moments are those little mistakes that you catch in the mix when you’re just warming up. Like ‘Punk’ on the first album, and ‘White Light’ on Demon Days, this is the album’s rawkus section of chaos. Every album’s got to have one.“ – band member Murdoc Niccals in an interview with NME.

Some Kind of Nature

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvjjc18nB14 ~ “I grew up on Lou Reed, and The Velvets. And I loved Lou’s solo stuff, ‘Magic and Loss’ and ‘The Blue Mask’ and ‘Transformer’ of course. It’s funny. This track’s got a good ol’ sunshiny vibe. Like something off Sesame Street. Apparently Lou Reed is one of the only people to never appear, or refuse to appear, on Sesame Street. So it’s quite a coup that we got him on this. I recorded with Lou over in New York and he wanted to do his whole vocal thing in private, on his own. He ordered everyone out the studio. Me too. I love Lou, but y’know: this is my album. I wanna know what’s going down. Still, his track… wow! Solid gold.“ – band member Murdoc Niccals in an interview with NME.

On Melancholy Hill

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04mfKJWDSzI ~ This song is actually said to be about the not so good side of consumerism. The album itself in many ways criticizes society in a number of ways, but it is different from the rest of the songs because it has more of a “pop” feel to it. Lyrically it fits in with the theme of the album but it is more upbeat showing a paradox in the song because it sounds “happy” but is actually kind of sad.

“The melancholy hill – it’s that feeling, that place, that you get in your soul sometimes, like someone’s let your tyres down. It’s nice to break up the album with something a little lighter. It’s good to have something that’s a genuine pop moment on every album. And this is one of those.” – band member Murdoc Niccals in an interview with NME.

Broken

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MgzG2JiQ6Q ~ So, as it turns out, “him” is the narrator, who no longer sees himself from outside his body. He now sees himself as part of the story. It’s his own story, his own relationship that is broken. His lover has left him with no way to apologize, and their “space” is forever changed. They may wish for love, or still be in love, but something has changed and they can no longer go back to how things were.

2D’s and Paula Cracker’s relationship is broken. Paula was caught having sex with Murdoc, by Russel resulting a break up. Their love now is- broken. “Erm….I don’t really know what to say about this track, y’know, like Frank Zappa said “talking about music is like fishing about architecture”. This track just works. I don’t want to talk about it. Is that, OK?” – band member Murdoc Niccals in an interview with NME.

Plastic Beach

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGM8BMqBcTo ~ “It’s a special moment for fans of Gorillaz and The Clash. How did this come about? Well, I had commandeered Paul Simonon from the Good, The Bad And The Queen. And it made sense. Gorillaz were always influenced by The Clash. They were always my favourite band, I loved how they took the heart and soul of punk and reggae smeared it in London graffiti and paint and then sailed it round the world. I don’t think that’s a million miles from what Gorillaz do now.“ – band member Murdoc Niccals in an interview with NME.

To Binge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMnrFiG8FRo ~ This is a song about Alcoholism and how it can ruin relationships. In the video, the liquid seems to look like orange juice, but it is revealed at the end to be beer, which tells you the whole concept of the song.

In both drugs and love, it’s never healthy to binge, feeling too much after feeling too little. She’s expressing that binge-ing doesn’t feel the same as when things were steady. Her feelings are changing and she can’t figure out if she wants to quit. She feels bad doing the drugs/being with him, but she falls right back to how she wants it to be and is once again caught up in the good feelings the drugs/relationship temporarily give her.

In the last verse, 2D by using economy to symbolize his heart is undergoing a sharp decline because of his addiction. His “autonomy” is the free will he possesses, but can’t do much with because he’s so dependent on his alcohol. 2D is in the neverendin cycle of his alcohol addiction, and as hard as he tries to free himeself he always finds himself back with the alcohol in his hand. Again, apply Alcohol to a relationship. This song is a dual meaning.

“Another collaboration with Little Dragon, ‘To Binge’ ends up as a beautiful duet between vocalist Yukimi Nagamo and 2D. A Hawaiian version of melancholy, yeah? You don’t see a lot of miserable Hawaiians, do you? It’s not known for its grim outlook on life.” – band member Murdoc Niccals in an interview with NME.

Cloud of Unknowing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S02Sb_KnndQ ~ “This track’s a mirror of the opener, a final reflection on the Plastic Beach. Bobby Womack’s performance on this song can still bring tears to my eyes. That mixture of hope and uncertainty in his voice – the age and the experience, the fear and the joy… ‘scuse me. This song, like the Who’s ‘Love Reign O’er Me’ is the moment that gathers together the events of the album – and pauses for reflection: ‘Waiting to see what the morning brings, it may bring sunshine on its wings…’“ – band member Murdoc Niccals in an interview with NME

The Cloud of Unknowing is a religious document from the middle ages. Penned by an anonymous author, it urges the reader into believing that the best way to feel god’s touch is through deep meditation. While during meditation, he tells us that we must forget everything we think we know about god. Only then, once you are on “The Cloud of Unknowing”, can you truly experience god in his purest form, and feel his touch. So, the subject of this song may be that state, in which we are less susceptible to bias, and more open to the true nature of experience.

Pirate Jet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xqqb0LGVKiI ~ The plastic eating people refers to how poisoned our foods are. Animals have been eating plastic as it enters the environment. We eat the animals, eating our own poison.

“‘Pirate Jet’ takes the album out swinging, a finale with shuddering jazz hands: “Did you like the show? It was called PLANET EARTH”. We’re finished and now everyone’s evolved into plastic. A new breed of human. But y’know, I want to clear this up. Plastic Beach. It’s not a green record. It’s not a judgement on the world. It’s just a picture. Plastic Beach: it’s another place, another way of looking at the world. And this is its soundtrack….“ – band member Murdoc Niccals in an interview with NME.

Doncamatic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJQyTnD74gk ~ This song is featured on the digital download version of Plastic Beach. The music video is set after the ‘On Melancholy Hill’ video as Gorillaz are waiting for Daley to arrive. The song is named after the first instrument created by Korg, the Donca Matic is “the groundbreaking Japanese-designed drum machine which started the Korg Musical Instrument Company in 1963!”

“Claim back the boy you left behind” is Daley’s way of encouraging people to regain their youthfulness. Too often, children sacrifice their creativity and innocence to seem mature. Daley believes this is where people go wrong as he later encourages listeners to “Close the white book” and “Unplug the brain from the game” where the white book can be interpreted as the rules of society and the games are the acts that occur within society. Interestingly enough, Daley has some scientific backing, as depression and stress has been linked to excessive technology usage according to research done at the University of Gothenburg.

The Fall is the Gorillaz fourth studio album released in 2011, a year after they released their third album, Plastic Beach. According to the story of Gorillaz, The Fall was made solely by lead singer 2D, on his hiatus from Gorillaz between the making of their 2nd and 3rd albums. 2D finished recording when Murdoc gassed him while he was in Beirut in order to kidnap him to bring him to the plastic beach to work on their third album.

Phoner to Arizona

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAeUwuUGSaM ~ Recorded in Montreal, Canada on the 3rd of October 2010. The lyrics are almost impossible to understand as it is an automated computer speech that has been distorted.

Revolving Doors

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePoSILQJeOg ~ Damon Albarn - 2D wrote this song in a hotel in Massachusetts after seeing revolving doors, which reminded him how far he was away from home and how out of place he was. This song is about how the music industry is constantly changing, usually for the worse, and all the stress and depression caused by it or fuelled by it.

2D has come to the realization or is trying to deny the fact that he was born depressed and un-amused with life. That no matter what amount of drugs he takes, how much “sunshine he has in a bag” or whether or not people care for him. He will always have a cynical swing of depression that revolves around in his mind like a revolving door in a building.

Little Pink Plastic Bags

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvqfEURv-P4 ~ Features additional keyboards by Jesse Hackett. Recorded in Chicago, Illinois on October the 16th 2010. People don’t have any goals in life, but are just along for the ride. They don’t know where they’re going, they’re just going to go.

Amarillo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKtNaVaqAKk ~ This song is named after the place in Texas, USA, called Amarillo where it was recorded.

In this moment Albarn was seriously thinking about leaving the Gorillaz project to focus on his group Blur alone , but the choice was quite a hard one , which also explains why it was a particular moment in his life. A single prayer, asking for a response from God. The song is deeply involved with the concept of personal development and change. “I got lost on the highway” signals that the narrator has strayed from his path, becoming something he doesn’t want to be. This is made clear in the next line, “Forgive me for what I’ve become”.

The Speak It Mountains

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXmahzlugdI ~ The lyrics mean that it is the beginning of the day and it is getting harder to live as time moves on even though there is new life being made and the world, although beautiful, can be deceiving and cause death and lack of life.

Bobby In Phoenix

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFgR7js-H3k ~ The Fall was recorded by Damon Albarn on an iPad over the course of a month during a tour through the US and Canada. Albarn said of the recording, “I literally made it on the road. I didn’t write it before, I didn’t prepare it I just did it day by day as a kind of diary of my experience of America”.

It’s a love song by Bobby to his favourite place in the USA. And how in his old age he can feel the dread of death looming over him, and how even his beloved Phoenix can’t quite calm that dread.

California & The Slipping Of The Sun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aHc5Fn5IrI ~ This song features a train station announcement being made when Damon was at the train station talking to Jamie Hewlett, Mick Jones, Tanyel Vahdettin and Darren “Smoggy” Evans.

Do Ya Thing

~ This song, made by the Gorillaz, Andre 3000, and James Murphy (LCD Soundsystem) was part of Converse’s ‘3 Artists, 1 Song’ music series. The song is also the starting point for a limited edition Chuck Taylor All-Star Collection designed by Gorillaz artist Jamie Hewlett. The shoe designs feature artwork from other projects related to Gorillaz.

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

It was released in two different versions: the approximately 4-and-a-half-minute radio edit, and the explicit 13-minute version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn4A0Onfjkg

The former was released as a free download on Converse's website, while the latter was released for streaming on Gorillaz's website.

“Andre 3000 murders this track, but that’s an understatement. He doesn’t just murder this track, he kidnaps it, and he ties it up, and then he brings it to his van, and then he drives it down to his evil lair were he tortures it for like 3 weeks, and then chops it up into little pieces and tosses it into the ocean. Serial Killer style.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfu4j0mILCY

The music video opens to a video of a crocodile scaring a herd of antelope. It then cuts to a scene where 2D wakes up and changes clothes in 212 Wobble Street, London, SW21 7QJ. He exits his room and checks another one, finding other band member Noodle fast asleep. After that, he looks in a bathroom and finds a masked figure representing André 3000, surrounded by light blue-skinned "sweat collectors". Disgusted, 2D looks in another room that turns out to be shrouded in complete darkness with the sounds of sheep, chickens and a man crying, which in turn is a reference to a Motorola commercial which band member Murdoc Niccals appeared in. Murdoc then scares 2D by popping up in the room, and he proceeds to go down the stairs using a stair lift as 2D goes to the living room as the Doncamatic submarine makes a cameo appearance behind him, and finds a previous character from the album Plastic Beach named the Boogeyman reading a newspaper (while the ‘Dare’ music video plays on the TV). He goes down to the kitchen and opens a cabinet, only to find the masked figure stuffed inside it. Calmly shutting the door on him, he cooks toast and puts it on his plate along with, without realizing, a human ear from a bowl of them near the toaster. 2D then opens a refrigerator and finds the masked figure stuffed inside it, who gives 2D a milk carton and jelly. At the dining table, he reads a fictional newspaper comic entitled ‘The Gorillaz’, showing comics called ‘The Funnies’ which features a comic of Murdoc hugging 2D. Murdoc, having finally finished going down the stairs, goes up to 2D and angrily hits him with a Gorillaz Converse shoe, unlike the comic, leaving the former very upset. 2D decides against eating the toast upon realising that it has an ear on it, turns off the radio (which also cuts the song) and leaves the house, while Murdoc starts a transmission from his radio station, playing the intro to the Gorillaz song ‘5/4′. Once outside, he receives a notice of eviction from a baboon mailman representing James Murphy, and smiles, looking relieved. The car from the music video of ‘Stylo’ is "parked" outside. The camera points up, revealing a still-giant Russel Hobbs sleeping on the roof of the house and the remains of the windmill island (nicknamed "The Slowboat") from the ‘Feel Good Inc.’ and ‘El Mañana’ music videos floating in the sky.

Following hints in the media that Gorillaz were back at work, their Instagram social media began uploading updates on each band member as short stories. It’s been six years since Plastic Beach and it would seem that 2D, Murdoc, Noodle, and Russel have a lot of catching up to do.

The Book Of Noodle

“She drifted away from Plastic Beach to safety, or so she thought. years later Noodle is face to face with pure evil ... Will she prevail?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wrYpbV8ft4 ~ On October 3, 2016, Gorillaz uploaded updates on their Instagram page concerning guitarist Noodle’s travels since Plastic Beach (2010).

This is not the first time Noodle has disappeared from the band following an attack. She also survived a deadly attack during the filming of the video for ‘Feel Good Inc’. She was last formally seen in the video for ‘On Melancholy Hill’ where she was attempting to reunite with her bandmates. Storyboards for a cancelled video for ‘Rhinestone Eyes’ show another attack on the band by The Boogieman. This time, her disappearance led her to her home country of Japan.

The Gorillaz Instagram story shows a murdered Maazu with Noodle holding her bloodied sword in a busy Japanese bar/restaurant.

Noodle’s return to England is reminiscent of her original introduction to the band way back in 1998, when she was smuggled by Japanese scientist Mr Kyuzo: After temporarily clearing her memory of the project, Kyuzo smuggled Noodle to the United Kingdom in a FedEx crate and falsely reported her death (along with the other 22 children) to his superiors. Noodle arrived at the doorstep of Kong Studios in 1998. Once the crate was taken inside, Noodle sprung out of the box and performed a guitar solo (which 2D described as “200 demons screaming in Arabic. Brilliant!”). She ended her solo with a 20 foot high karate kick before bowing and saying the word “Noodle”. This resulted with her earning the name “Noodle” (her only currently known name).

The Book Of Russel

“Discovering that life in a glass dome is not all it's cracked up to be, Russel shakes off his mistaken identity but will he ever make it back to safe shores?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMsje5xNW1E ~ One week after the release of ‘The Book of Noodle’, Gorillaz posted an update on the whereabouts of drummer Russel on their Instagram. ‘The Book of Russel’ explains Russel’s imprisonment in North Korea as a literal giant local tourist attraction before his release and return to England.

The posts came accompanied with videos and military music of a stylised North Korea. This drew some criticism for its racist/frivolous attitude to the real-life famine and oppression taking place in actual North Korea.Russel grew to an unnatural size due to all the radioactive fish he ate on his way to Plastic Beach. In an interview with Puss Puss Magazine in October 2016 he said of his giant growth:

“The biggest challenge was people judging me. Because yeah, I get it, I was big – but I’ve got an overactive thyroid. People see a sixty-foot giant and assume they’re up all night crying and spooning cookie dough into their faces. It was my THYROID.”

The hip-hop hard man rescued Noodle during the attack on Plastic Beach, but after being mistaken for a whale and harpooned, Russel was separated from Noodl and ended up in North Korea and achieved celebrity status after locals concluded that he was Godzilla. However, when he shrunk back to normal size (due to meagre food rations), he was released and made his way back to England and ultimately reconnected with Noodle.

It’s clear that Gorillaz are now reunited. “The band was getting back together”, the book concludes. When asked about the new album, Russel replied: “You can expect whatever you like. What is coming will come, whether you expect it or not.”

The Book Of Murdoc

“Murdoc abandoned the pirate-infested Plastic Beach. With only a cyborg Noodle for company, and nowhere near enough booze, what will he do when it runs out?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFxwCuEiNjA ~ Focusing on Murdoc Niccals, the latest story from the band sees the band member leave Plastic Beach after a pirate attack, fleeing on his own in a rusty submarine. The Battleship is named after The Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, also referenced earlier as Muroc navigated through the Octopuses Garden. Packing only a crate of rum and cyborg version of his bandmate Noodle, Murdoc remained safely below the waves until his supply of booze ran out. Upon surfacing, he encountered a fleet of steel ships sent by record label EMI. Gorillaz have a long-standing working relationship with label Parlophone, a subsidiary of EMI (up until 2012) and Warner Music Group (2013-). They have evidently been scouring the world in search of their greatest songwriting asset, Murdoc Niccals. Taken hostage by the label, he was jailed for three years and was freed upon agreeing to write a new Gorillaz album.

The Book Of 2D

“The attack on Plastic Beach forced 2D into hiding, but he wasn't alone. Washed up on a desert island with Massive Dick and faced with starvation, will he go native or find his way back to civilisation?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVJLjRpIrRs ~ Starting once more from the attack on Plastic Beach, the story reveals that vocalist 2D had hidden himself away in his underwater quarters. It wasn't much safer below the waves either: a great white whale known as Massive Dick swallowed him in one bite and swam away into the depths. The story then reveals that a lifetime of eating garbage in the ocean caused Massive's sudden death, washing 2D and the whale's carcass ashore on a desert island. With limited survival skills, 2D had no other option but to eat the body of the whale.

The story isn't all doom and gloom however, as 2D soon finds he isn't alone on the island after following a plane along the coast right into the middle of a beach rave. Deciding to "have a gap year and find himself," he was soon fired from his job as a friendship bracelet weaver and decided it was time to fly home.

There was the announcement that both De La Soul and Snoop Dogg would appear on the new Gorillaz album a couple of months back. “With Damon, it was easy because we love working with him”, Posdnuos told The Guardian. “We’re about to be on the new Gorillaz album. Snoop was also performing on the record when we were over there. He pulled us to the side and said: “Hey man, we’ve never worked together, can we get this going?” Usually the lawyers will say: “You can pay this artist or maybe we can swap?” and then it goes from there.”

Hallelujah Money

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d3yeszApV8 ~ Released one day before Donald Trump’s inauguration. A protest song against the global political atmosphere of 2016 - particularly with regards to the influence of money and race politics in the U.S. elections. It describes the dream-like America that Trump promised his voters, and uses a tree as a symbol of western prosperity.

English composer, poet, and multi-instrumentalist Benjamin Clementine and his fairy tale-like narration add to the sense of wonder surrounding this dream. Clementine hones in on Trump’s plans to build a wall on the Mexican border, a topic that continually resurfaced during the elections.

The video was directed by Giorgio Testi and Gorillaz, and edited by Sebastian Monk. It features stirring images of La Candelaria brethren, African tribesmen, and dancing geishas flashing behind Clementine as he “stands in the gold-plated elevator of Trump Tower”.

Following the 2016 U.S. election, Donald Trump’s ability to win the electoral vote left many voters disillusioned with the democratic process. His anti-establishment platform seemed paradoxical considering his personal wealth and relations with other big money parties in the U.S. Clementine ironically exhorts listeners to worship money—it can be their new god, just like how President Trump worships and uses money for his own personal interests.

The scream at the end of the song is taken from Spongebob Squarepants, specifically from season one, episode fourteen, ‘Karate Choppers’. Spongebob is reacting to Mr. Krabs telling him “you’re fired”, which was Donald Trump’s catchphrase on The Apprentice. While the inclusion of the scream is a playful nod to Gorillaz’s cartoon existence, it’s also a way of expressing genuine fear at the results of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Everyday Robots

Speaking about working with XL Recordings owner Richard Russell on the Everyday Robots album, Albarn told Rolling Stone: “In an ironic way, it’s sort of the most collaborative record I’ve ever done when it comes to songwriting. Some of the songs just came from the two of us experimenting in the studio.”

Russell handled the drum programming while Albarn took on the singing, piano and guitar parts. “We did it in just three months at my studio”, he said. “We’d work five days a week, 10:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m.”

Everyday Robots

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjbiUj-FD-o ~ Starting with a Lord Buckley sample, Damon Albarn’s ‘Everyday Robots’ is an interesting mix of hip-hop production with piano ballad pop rock that’s right in line with his work in the Gorillaz. The track almost sounds like a cross between Radiohead and Jay Z, and this shows how Damon can adapt his creative work to today’s music in the UK, with this “postdubstep” going on (like James Blake or Mount Kimbie).

Recorded in 2013 at the Damon’s West London studio 13, ‘Everyday Robots’ was produced by XL Recordings head Richard Russell. Albarn came up with this song while stuck in a traffic jam in California. He explained to XFM’s John Kennedy. “I was just watching everyone around me and everyone is so lost in their little worlds: on the telephone, listening to music.”

The song’s music video was created by Argentina-born, London-based artist and designer Aitor Throup, who said that he used, “CGI software and actual cranial scans and facial reconstruction techniques to explore and reveal the process of building a uniquely personal portrait of an artist and individual.”

Hostiles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY0LhRZtQIs ~ Damon Albarn told The Guardian that he wrote this song after spending Christmas at his mother-in-law’s house, “spending hours on the sofa playing The Dark Knight video game with my daughter, just zapping these endless characters with no real humanity.”

Written from the perspective of a gamer who is going to spend the day killing digital enemies. “The hostiles are sort of in those shooting games that character that constantly get up on each level and you’re given no character other than they’re hostile to you. They’re completely soulless things and there’s something in that relationship that we have with the world when you’re in a sort of altered state and the blankness of just killing, that sort of passive aggression that exists in computer games.” - Damon Albarn

Lonely Press Play

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9MMJgFKv24 ~ This dirge-like ballad finds Albarn crooning lyrics of isolation and loneliness. It is one of several satirical rants on Everyday Robots against 21st century tech obsession. The video is made up of scenes from Albarn’s travels filmed on the Damon’s iPad. The clip visits Tokyo, Dallas, Utah, North Korea, Iceland, as well as London, Devon and Colchester in the UK.

“That starts really strangely with arrhythmia, which means when your heartbeat is irregular. It’s about accepting that you live with uncertainty.” Albarn explained to The Sun. “The ‘press play’ refers to abstractions in an everyday sense, whether it’s watching a DVD or putting on the radio or passing time playing a game on the tube“, he added. “We live in a world where the symbols like the (press play) triangle has become synonymous with time out”, Albarn continued. “It goes back to the Egyptians and their esoteric take on the whole universe.”

Mr. Tembo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODG3VRkncBc ~ This is an ode to a baby elephant that Albarn met in a place called Mkombozi, in Tanzania. He recalled to Rolling Stone: “It was recently orphaned and walked onto this aerodrome; the people I know took it in and called it Mr. Tembo. I was there, and I met this little elephant, and he was very sweet. I sang it to him. It was recorded on a phone, and in a lighthearted moment, I put it on a list for Richard. He said, “I’d really like you to try that”, so I did.”

The song features backing vocals by The Leytonstone City Mission Choir. “Back in Leytonstone, there was a Pentecostal Church at the end of my road that belonged to the city mission. I remember standing outside with my bicycle listening to the singing, but never being able to find an entry point. But it was a very strong childhood memory that I’ve carried with me. I got in contact with that church, and they’ve still got a small choir, so they very kindly agreed to sing on the record a bit.”

The Selfish Giant

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI8_Jz2SwbE ~ Natasha Khan of Bat For Lashes sings a ghostly echo of Albarn’s voice on this narrative of a night spent at Dunoon in Scotland. Dunoon used to be a nuclear submarine base. Albarn recalled to The Sun: “Blur did a gig there. It was a ghostly place, shrouded in melancholy and had seen better days.” This also samples horns by Kenny Clayton from The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde.

The Oscar Wilde story, the song was named after, is about a giant who doesn’t let children enter his garden, but after a while, he helps one of them to climb a tree in his backyard. The giant smashes the wall around his garden and other children come to play in the garden, but the very boy the giant helped has left. The giant is heartbroken. Albarn’s song seems to play with this story a bit: the narrator feels like a selfish giant, and he let someone get close to him, but he can’t stand the idea of being left.

You & Me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7XdqfD9xSY ~ Damon Albarn shouts out the West London road of Westbourne Grove, which has been his manor for a number of years. It serves as the main road on the route of the annual Notting Hill Carnival in August. He told Uncut magazine: “Always after Carnival, there is this enormous residue of energy that hovers around for a few days. It’s a Post-Carnival Apocalypse song!”

This is actually an amalgamation of two different songs, the first being titled ‘You’ and the other being ‘Me’.

‘You’: Refers to using heroine: the lighter is used to make the heroine dissolve a vapor, and if you inhale that vapor, you’ll get high. This method is often called chasing the dragon. Damon began his relationship with heroin at the height of Britpop. He acknowledged to Q magazine the role that the drug played in his artistic growth. “I hate talking about this because of my daughter, my family. But, for me, it was incredibly creative… A combination of heroin and playing really simple, beautiful, repetitive shitt in Africa changed me completely as a musician. I found a sense of rhythm. I somehow managed to break out of something with my voice.”

Instrumental intermezzo: Around 3:30 some steeldrums kick in, giving the song an estranged feeling, which probably echoes how you feel when you’re on drugs. The steel drums break in the middle of the song was played by a local London musician. Albarn explained on a Reddit AMA that “his pans represent to me the true ghost of carnival”. This middle section is followed by the second part of the song, which sounds more like a distinctive song, though it has the same gloomy feel as the first part.

‘Me’: He is saying the addiction may have been his fault and he should be blamed. He is also using twilight in the sense of light caused by the setting of the sun as well as the other meaning of the decline of his career meaning the addiction has made him not only a worse person but a worse musician thus he quit though it was hard and was several relapses. “All goes round again” could also show how repetitive things can become and the fact that those lyrics were used repetitively adds to the effect.

Hollow Ponds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6q1Uf5Cgac ~ Damon Albarn takes us on a walk through his personal history on this song, taking in key moments that have shaped him such as the drought of 1976, the road he once lived in being severed by the M11 link road in 1991, and seeing the graffiti “modern life is rubbish” sprayed on a wall in 1993 (also the same year Blur released their album titled Modern Life Is Rubbish).

“1976 is a long time ago really. There’s that realisation that a lot of things have been quite interesting in the way I turned out. They seemed to be worthy of some kind of meditation. That’s what I’m trying to do in ‘Hollow Ponds’: go back and then realise that it’s now. In a way, how do we know that we exist other than that beam of light that’s our history?” says Damon Albarn.

The song contains a sample of the Central Line underground train leaving Leytonstone Station.

The History Of A Cheating Heart

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcoR_-4g2Mg ~ This song deals with finding inspiration to write music and how that can be hurtful at times. Albarn explained the song’s meaning to The Sun: “I’d talk about relationships with my family, from childhood to now”, he said. “It’s driven by mistakes, happiness, dreams, expectations. How you find yourself locked in cycles and how you get out of them. I know that my experience is very similar to other people. I’m offering some of the more difficult stuff. I’m posing a question to everyone else as well.”

Uncut magazine asked Damon if he thinks the pursuit of an artistic vision is damaging to emotional stability, to which he replied: “I think it definitely can be. Because, as a songwriter, you need to feel stuff for it to come out honestly. And how do you do that? You do that by being curious, and curiosity is a very open book for a lot of fuck-ups in life.”

Heavy Seas Of Love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCUfitpIsW8 ~ This song is a duet between Damon Albarn and Brian Eno. Brian Eno is better known as a producer than a singer. It was Everyday Robots producer, Richard Russell, who suggested that he sung on this track. Albarn told The Sun: “He said, “No one asks Brian to sing, everyone asks him to produce.” And Brian is such a fan of singing – he has a vocal group who meet every Tuesday. He has such a clear, crisp voice and mine is such a different tone, so it was interesting to put the two together.”

“As above, so below” is an important saying in the Pagan philosophy of Hermeticism. Essentially, your “spirit” mirrors the real world, and the real world in turn shadows a greater spiritual world beyond that.

The song features The Leytonstone City Mission Choir, who also contributed to ‘Mr. Tembo’. Albarn felt that the choir held a nostalgic importance to him and asked the Church if he could record with the collective.

The artwork for the song’s single release features the Palacio Salvo building, which is located in the Uruguay capital of Montevideo. Albarn explained during a Reddit AMA: “I found my whole stay in Uruguay quite affecting – the view from my hotel was completely dominated by the Palacio Salvo. I spent a lot of time looking at it”. The music video was directed by Damon Albarn and edited by Matt Cronin.

Personal Life

Albarn is now in a relationship with the artist Suzi Winstanley. They have a daughter together, Missy Violet, born in 1999. Albarn described becoming a father as "witnessing a life force" and saying that "it massively changes you. It slowly sort of shaves off the unpleasant thorny bits and hopefully creates a nicely rounded... I don't know, having a kid, you just become far more, inevitably you look to the future far more and, you know, it's desperate sometimes when you have a particularly bad few weeks of the newspaper just reminding you about this is wrong, this is wrong. We've got ten more years everyone."

Albarn has been an active supporter of various charities and philanthropic efforts throughout his career as a musician and has been involved in various charity albums and singles. DRC Music, a collective formed by Albarn, released their debut album Kinshasa One Two as a charity album in which all of the money earned is given to Oxfam.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMy4Rzd1cTk&index=1&list=PL0FB6F34A16A6DE1C

Albarn has also formed a collective with Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner, and Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos to make a charity single with the money earned from that single also donated to Oxfam.

In 2013, Albarn alongside fellow Blur bandmate Graham Coxon performed live with former rival Noel Gallagher of Oasis and Paul Weller of The Jam to play Blur's 1999 single 'Tender' in support of Teenage Cancer Trust.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AqMbI3o7Ps

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