Author: Robin Russell

Due to the season of fall almost being upon us and Halloween fast approaching, I would like to talk about one of my favorite film makers and artists: Tim Burton. Tim burton is an amazing filmmaker; he often directs movies and shows in the gothic horror and dark fantasy realm. Some of his more popular works include Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Corpse Bride, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Frankenweenie. His latest work was the Netflix show Wednesday, a spin-off of the Addams Family.

Tim burton started filmmaking at a young age. He started in 1985. He became known for a very particular style which combined gothic style, dark fantasy, and specific feelings of macabre quirkiness and eccentricity. He doesn’t just film make or direct. He also draws and imagines these ideas before anything is ever put into motion. He has a very specific artistic view and wants everything a certain way. He also has a very loyal crew. 

His films usually consist of the same actors; once he finds someone that sees his artistic visions and portrays them in the way he wishes then he sticks with them. Some examples of this are Jonny Depp, Helena Bonham, and Danny Elfman (who does almost all the soundtracks for the films). 

Tim Burton has a very blunt personality and due to this he can come across mean and stern at times, but he is really just saying what he thinks and feels. Artists must be truly authentic and real; this is something I think he accomplishes well. He speaks his mind. He doesn’t really care what others think about him or his style. This is what makes his art even better because he is the only one who can see his artistic vision.  

                                                                              Tim Burton is the type of artist that makes masterpieces but it takes him ages to  do projects. His last thing before the new Beetlejuice Beetlejuice movie was the movie Dumbo in 2019 and he worked on the music videos Bones and Here with me for the band The Killers. He wasn’t really heard from a lot from the period between 2019 and 2022. He works in waves. Kind of like hibernation. 

Another thing that is very interesting about Tim Burton is how diverse his selection of films are. His first movie was Pee-wee’s Big Adventure which is very off brand for him. It wasn’t very dark and it a comedy. I have never personally seen this film but it surprised me that he was a part of this film. Another film I was shocked to hear he worked on was a few of the Batman movies. It makes sense but i just wouldn’t have put the two together. He also worked on Mars Attacks and Planet of the Apes (2001). 

My favorite Films by Tim Burton are hard to choose but i do have a list. 

1. All of his earlier short films, (most of which you can find on YouTube). My favorite is a film called Vincent (1982). 
2. Alice in wonderland (2009)
3. Sweeney Todd:The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
4. Corpse Bride (2005)
5. Beetlejuice ( 1988)
6. Charlie and the Chocolate factory (2005)
7. Edward Scissorhands (1990)

Now this list is of the movies I have seen and I love all of these movies so so much but i ranked them by which are my favorites to the ones I just like. 

Recently he has announced he is working on a new project. He said it will be an animated film. I’m really excited for this new release and the possibilities of what it could be. Me personally, I would love to see a film linking The Nightmare Before Christmas, Frankenweenie, and Corpse Bride together, making it a full story. It’s been rumored that the stories are all connected. I do think that if he stays true to his later projects I will be happy with what ever he produces and can’t wait to see it. What are you hoping the new film will be about ? 

I wrote a poem for our persona poem assignment about Jeff Buckley (as most of you should already know). Due to this I found out a lot of you don’t know who Jeff Buckley is, so I am deciding to write a bit more about him in this blog post. 

Jeff Buckley was born in 1966 and died at the age of 30 in 1997. His father was also a musician, but they only met once. Jeffs’ dad, Tim Buckley, died when he was eight. Jeff Buckley resented his dad and wished to have nothing to do with him. He wanted to make his own name, and he did. He was raised by his mother, Mary Guilbert, and stepfather, Ron Moorhead. He went to school and graduated high school as well as attending the Musicians Institute in Hollywood for a one-year course. He often said he found it a waste of time, but he did say that he appreciated studying music theory. 

Jeff Buckleys public career started in the late 90’s. He stared as a session guitarist, but his singing publicly debuted at his father’s tribute concert in 1991. He started out playing guitar for different bands and studios, playing jazz, reggae, and heavy metal. He then, in the early 90s, joined the band Gods and Monsters after moving to New York. Jeff and the founder of the band, Gary Lucus co-wrote Jeffs songs “Grace” and “Mojo pin”, which appear in his first and only studio album “Grace”. 

The album was released in 1994. He left the band in 1991 to peruse a solo career.  At this point in his life, he gained a following by preforming in coffee houses and clubs. His first commercial record was an EP live at the sin-e. Jeff Buckley did many interviews, and you can find a few videos of these on YouTube. 

Jeff Buckley had many diverse inspirations for his work. Buckley drew inspiration from legendary artists like Led Zeppelin, Joni Mitchell, Nina Simone, Leonard Cohen, The Smiths, Patti Smith, Billie holiday, Siouxsie Sioux, Bob Dylan, The Cocteau Twins, and the classical Indian singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Jeff was also inspired by a deeper influence. He drew inspiration from emotional artistic concepts like love, anger, joy, dreams, and the power of literary and musical traditions of the Indian subcontinent. Jeff Buckleys music challenged conventional ideas about genres and sound inspiring many people like Tom Yorke of Radiohead and Matt Bellamy from Muse. He broke the barrier between genres and inspired many to think and feel deeply. He inspired a deeper emotional connection to the music and lyrics being made. 

So, what happened to him? Well in 1997 on May 29th he died. His cause of death was an accidental drowning in the Wolf River in Memphis, Tennessee. His body was found six days later, and they did an autopsy report on his body. No drugs were found in his system. He was found fully clothed. 

The story is that he was in Memphis to record his second album and went swimming in the river with his friend Keith Foti. Keith said that Jeff swam into the water singing the chorus of “Whole Lotta Love” by Led Zepplin. Keith looked away and Buckly disappeared in wake of a passing boat, which is a “common occurrence” for the river. I however find this story odd. It just doesn’t seem right to me. I honestly couldn’t tell you why, but I just don’t think this is the real story. It’s just an intuition thing. Why would he have all his clothes while swimming, including his shoes? He was carefree and seemed to just go with the flow, but I highly doubt he would just swim fully clothed with jeans, a shirt, and a pair of combat boots, due to how excited he was for his second album and how much common sense he seemed to have.

After his death, his mother now handles his posthumous legacy due to him not having a will. Some support her while others dislike her. Some commend her for her effort to protect his work. I however disagree. I think she has done nothing to protect his work or to abide by his artistic wishes. She published excerpts from his PERSONAL diary in a book to the WHOLE world. She released unfinished work. A year after his death, she released his second album he was working on before he died, “Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk”. This album consists of demos and raw sessions he had scrapped and wished to rerecord in Memphis. He didn’t want any of the raw sessions or demos to be released. She turned down numerous biopics about Jeff due to them being “too personal” or “straying from reality”. Many believe this was her way of preventing an authentic story to be told.  It has also been rumored that she asked for money from Jeff after he signed to Columbia Records, and he didn’t want anything to do with her after that. I however don’t know what my opinion is of her, and it doesn’t really matter, but I definitely think she has commercialized her son’s life for her own gain. 

So why did I decide to write a persona poem about him? Well, I wanted to write about someone who I look up to. I also figured it would be nice to write during the time that I did due to a movie being released in movie theatres. Yes, they finally released a documentary about him after 28 years. I won’t rant about that, but I will say how can we have documentaries about some of the more mainstream people come out the day after their death but for Jeff we had to wait 28 years, it just doesn’t seem right. But I will be watching it when it comes out and I will definitely write a blog about it. 

Anyways thanks for reading my blog. 

I have been listening to an album on repeat ever since it came out. I think I’ve listened to it enough to have a good grasp on it and so I want to talk a little bit about it. 

I have listened to all of Conan Greys music (not an over exaggeration). I love the way he writes. He makes words flow and fit together in the best way possible. Now he has had a new album come out. This album is called “Wishbone”. 

He named the album wishbone after the 30ft wishbone in the Dallas airport. I thought this was an important fact due to how it shows this album is personal to him. I think it shows how he let himself be free of others through this album.

His first album I ever listened to was “Kid Krow” (this is also his first album ever also known as a debut album

As soon as I heard his lyrics, I knew i had to listen to more of his music. I went back and listened to some of his earlier singles. He had a second album come out in 2022, called “Superache”.

This album was okay in my opinion. He also released a third album called “Found Heaven”.

I think this album was okay too. I personally think that these two albums weren’t him. I think it was more of what he thought people wanted him to create and not what he wanted to create. He in my opinion was creating for others rather than himself. Don’t get me wrong I love Conan Greys music, but these albums just didn’t feel like him. The new, most recent album, “Wishbone” however is a different store. It feels like he wrote it for him.

Wishbone I feel has more raw and real emotion than his previous two, more in line with “Kid Krow”. His lyrics are deeper and go beyond surface level. His imagery is back on track. He paints pictures and stories with his words in each song.  I don’t want to go too in-depth about each song, but I am going to talk about my favorite song out of the new album, and I will give my ranking of the songs. 

My favorite song in this album is “Eleven Eleven”, closely followed by “Romeo”.  “Eleven Eleven” captures the wishbone aspect of the album. It has imagery of what people wish on like stars, angel numbers, and clovers. It also references to quite a few superstitious actions which add even more to the wishing aspect of this album. This song also has a great beat and his words all fit together and flow. He uses words like puzzle pieces to create a picture; each word is intentionally placed. Each rhyme is thought out. Conan Grey also has a way with creating bridges that is perfect. Most of his bridges are incredible.

My ranking of the songs in “Wishbone” are 

1. Eleven Eleven
2. Romeo
3. Nauseous
4. Connell
5. This Song
6. Caremel 
7. Actor 
8. Vodka Cranberry
9. Class Clown
10. Care
11. Sunset Tower
12. My World 

This list was very hard to make and will probably change over time but as of right now that is my rough list of the songs from my favorite to least favorite. (This is of course an opinion, not everyone feels or will feel the same)

So, I think Conan Grey, just like most people, had to lose himself and explore before finding himself. 

Writing is my way of expression (along with drawing and listening to music). I write because it’s what I do. I picked up my pencil and decided to put “creative writing” on my schedule. After that it was history. 

For as long as I can remember I have written stories. I have progressed a lot. I was put into creative writing class at my old school. I took it for two years (my 7th and 8th grade years). I learned and grew through my writing. My teacher believed in me. This in turn helped me to believe in myself. When I didn’t believe in myself or like my stories, she did. She showed me how to write. She introduced me to writing poetry and helped me understand how to write a poem. She showed me how to write in a way others could understand not just me. 

I write like I speak, or how I speak in my head. I am sometimes not very understandable due to this, but she helped me to realize this. She helped me to fix my errors. She helped me enter and win my first writing contest. 

So, when I write I think of her.

I write how I think. I write my thoughts. I write to clear my head. I write to clear my head of what others think. I write to tell stories. To tell my story. To tell others stories. I write to say what I can’t say out loud. 

I write to have an output. I heard someone (I can’t remember who) say we all have outputs and it’s true. We all have output mine just happen to be writing and drawing. We all have outputs due to how much we have input into our brain. Due to technology, we get a lottttttttt more input than output and it overloads our brain making it harder to think creatively.

A lot of people think writing is boring, exhausting, a waste of time, or even just horrible. This is not the case for me. I have heard how boring and horrible writing is my whole life and I have never really understood the hate that comes with writing. Writing is my release and it’s a great thing todo. It helps you think clearly and see things in your perspective or others. It is also historical in a way. You can read a story written by someone centuries ago and centuries from now people will read our stories. I say that but I don’t write for others I write for myself. I write because it’s what makes me happy.

Hey guys! This first blog is going to be more of an introduction to me and what my blog is for.

My name is Robin. I have always had a love for the arts. I love writing, drawing, and music. I have sketchbook upon sketchbook of drawings that leak from my hands. I have notebooks upon notebooks that are filled with my writings, not a page blank. I have bookshelves filled with great stories, authored by great writers. Calluses from my guitar have become part of my hands. I have sores in my ears from wearing my headphones constantly. My friends have said that I am very calm but most of the time I don’t feel that way. My mind is constantly on, always thinking about something. I have also been told I am a very quiet person, which if I’m being honest makes sense. I don’t talk about things out loud often. So, a few more things about me and some random facts before I introduce my blogspace are:

• I am from Pearl, Ms. I love it there and it will always be the place I consider home.
• I listen to all types of music. I listen to indie, rock, metal, pop (not my favorite but on occasion), Alt., new wave, rap, worship, post-punk, Midwest, anything really. I am a big believer in listening to diverse music. I feel it helps us not only understand who we are as individuals but helps us understand new perspectives and new ideas or concepts.
• I love watching movies and tv shows.
• I don’t like chocolate ice cream.
• I’m afraid of heights.

Now that we have covered who I am. I feel as though I should write about what I want this blog to be. I want this blog to be a space for me to just write and find my voice. I want to write about my opinions on music, movies, and topics or concepts. I would like to share some of my writings as well.

I feel writing is an outlet. Writing helps organize your thoughts and even helps know what you’re thinking or feeling. It helps your mind empty and have a space to output information being input; in today’s society more is being input than what is being output. This can create problems. It hurts our balance of creativity and life, as well as interfering with how we are able to process our own thoughts. Writing improves who you are and how well you know and understand yourself. Writing is improved by practice, and this is a great tool for practice.