Elastic Heart Raising Controversy

Recently, Sia came out with a music video for her song "Elastic Heart." The music video features actor Shia LaBeouf and young dancer Maddie Ziegler interpretive dancing within the confines of a cage. As soon as the video went viral, the controversy over whether or not it was pedophilia stirred up conversation around the world.

 In the video, both Shia and Maddie are in little clothing, and dancing together. There are moments in the video where they are laying beside one another, she is on his back, or he is reaching out to touch her. Due to this, many people quickly wrote off the idea of the video being anything more than some old guy wanting to be with a young girl.
To me, the dance itself wasn't as suggestive as people had made it out to be. The touching between the two is very minimal, and for most of the video it seems that the two of them are in some sort of battle. Honestly, I thought it was a bit strange the first time I watched it, but it deserved to be watched again.
Upon watching it a second time, I listened to the music behind it more carefully and tried to tie the two together.
The lyrics contained phrases such as "You did not break me, I'm still fighting for peace," "I've got thick skin and an elastic heart," and "I want it, I want my life so bad. I'm doing everything I can." Hearing this, I knew for sure that this wasn't a two person relationship struggle, but a struggle that was occurring within oneself.

I think the concept was a lot harder to grasp for most people because it wasn't two people of the same gender playing the part. But, Sia tweeted recently after the controversy began that Shia and Maddie were the only two that fit the role to her, so this was how it was supposed to be. The video could have been completely different if just one of the two were switched out for someone else.

The two Sia's. 

The character that Maddie portrays in this music video would be better known as a younger, care free Sia, while Shia would be what Sia has become, how she is now. I would think that the cage works as her mind, where the two of them are confined. As Maddie dances around and acts carefree and naive, Shia watches her in fascination, as if wondering how this could have been his former self and what has happened. Maddie dances away from him, and you can tell she isn't happy with what she's become. I imagine it'd be terrifying looking into a mirror and seeing that you've become an old, worn down member of society. 

Through Shia's facial expressions and the way he looks at her, you can tell that he is having a hard time letting go of who he used to be.

Does he really want to?

Does he have to?

And Maddie doesn't really want him to be this person either. She hits him and his facial expressions become more childish, almost proving to him that she's still somewhere in there. That maybe they shouldn't let go just yet.

Ultimately, it's just a matter of time before it's too late and she has to go. But neither one of them want her to go without him. She can easily slip through the bars of the cage, but he is too big to fit. They fight to try to get him out until the very end of the video, where he seems to become much more hopeless about what is to be, while she seems to want to fight indefinitely.

I would ask people to look further into the video before writing it off. The concept of fighting and letting go of your inner self is pretty big. My advice is to sit back and enjoy the wonderful performance put on by Shia LaBeouf and Maddie Ziegler with the musical styling of the talented Sia and just relax, not everything in the world has to be something so terrible. If you haven't seen the amazing music video you can watch it here.

American: The Bill Hicks Story

This week I watched American: The Bill Hicks Story for the first time. Several friends had been recommending it to me for a few weeks so one night before I went to bed I pulled it up on netflix and watched it. Coming from a background of limited knowledge about Bill Hicks I was excited to learn about the man who was referred to as the finest comedian America ever produced. The thing about this documentary that stood out to me the most was not the story, which was amazing, but the visual style. All of the narration is done over animated pictures of Bill and his friends throughout their lives. You don't even see the people talking until the end of the doc. Bill HIcks The visual style is stunning and draws you into the mesmerizing story. You feel like you know who Bill Hicks was as a person by the end of this doc. I would highly recommend this to anyone who is a fan of animation or comedy.

The Boondocks

I’m usually not a big fan of anime shows with their explicit scenes of violence and fighting. However, there is one show that is considered in the anime category that I can’t stop watching. This show is called The Boondocks. The show began in 2005 on Adult Swim and continued to make 3 seasons. Currently, season 4 is in the making.

This show consists of two 8 year old’s name Huey and Riley who are polar opposites of each other politically and morally.  Huey is the voice of reason, extremely liberal socially and underestimated by his family and ridiculed for having such radical views and having goals higher then from which he came. He is a strong believer for “Afrocentrism” and is wiser then most 8 year olds. Riley is completely opposite, interested in gangster related activities and committing crimes; he's into modern mainstream hip-hop and living the life of rappers on TV. They are both raised by their Grandad, who is very outspoken and moved his grandchildren to a suburban neighborhood called Woodcrest to have a better life. 

The first thing I love about this show is the social issues that they cover. Because they are one of the only African American families in Woodcrest, the show deals with such issues as African American vs. White Culture (exaggerates each races culture in order to juxtapose them), racial struggle with law enforcement, racism, and current events and pop culture. Obviously because of these issues the show is deemed as controversial. They push the limits with the heavy use of the word “ni***” and was voted as 5th most controversial cartoon of all time in Time Magazine. 

Other then it’s controversial topics, the show is known for it’s music. A lot of the extensive fight scenes in the show are played with hip-hop music over it. These occur in almost every episode and the it is usually underground rap. This music plays a large role in the show and the songs usually have a political theme and were written for the show specifically. There are also many celebrities that voice the characters.

I highly recommend this show to anyone who loves animated shows that push the limits of what is acceptable on TV. You do not need to have watched past episodes to understand what is going on in the show, so you can start by watching Season 4 this year when it comes out!