I seek and find

Batman Returns Tim Burton to MoMA in NYC

Sweeney Todd 2007 Paramount Photo: Leah Gallo

The career of Batman Returns' director, Tim Burton is the focus of a new retrospective gallery exhibition and film series at MoMA (The Museum of Modern Art) this fall.

The exhibition will present 700 pieces of Tim Burton’s artwork from his childhood drawings, storyboards, puppets, sketchbooks and cartoons, to screenings of his 14 films over the course of the exhibit.
Tim Burton has directed some of the most psychologically revealing and meaningful films of our times: Vincent (1982), Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985), Beetlejuice (1988), Batman (1989), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Batman Returns (1992), The Nightmare Before Christmas (as creator and producer) (1993), Ed Wood (1994), Mars Attacks! (1996), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Big Fish (2003), Corpse Bride (2005), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), and Sweeney Todd among others.

A spiritual hero isn’t only someone who can maintain his connection to spirit on a peaceful mountain top but  who can keep his connection even during rush hour in the middle of Grand Central Station. Tim Burton has maintained this personal connection to his authentic self within the miasma of Hollywood culture; a spiritual warrior in the midst of the mundane.

His strength lies in the fact that he only directed films that meant something to him. In his interview with David Breskin in the book, Tim Burton: Interviews (Conversations with Filmmakers Series) by Kristian Fraga, he says, “People don’t realize, because of the surface way the films look and the cartoonish nature of them, that the only thing that keeps me going through a movie is that these characters mean something to me.”

It is encouraging to know that MoMA is honoring the career of a man whose creative achievements and success arose out of a search for and nurturance of the importance of meaning.

Tim Burton said:

“When I went to see a movie as a kid, I would know a little about it beforehand, and I’d go enter a world that surprised me.”

Interesting metaphor for our soul’s entrance into this movie of our personal lives.

Tim Burton Exhibition MoMA: November 22, 2009-April 26, 2010
For more info: MoMA (The Museum of Modern Art)

Gay Pride Parade Missing Colors

The Rainbow Flag blanketed Fifth Avenue in NYC today with stripes of color. Against the multitudinous grey tones of New York City, the colorful flag stuck out more than the parade, the participant’s colorful floats and costumes combined.

Though diversity of orientation, profession, political stance and music stood out in hand-held banners, megaphone shouts and booming music; diversity of creative and artistic expression (so often a major part of the parades of the past) was sorely missing.

If one examines the history of the Rainbow Flag itself, one finds colors are also currently “missing” as well.

The original eight-stripe version of the flag designed by Gilbert Baker in 1978 had the following colors and associative meanings:




In 1978-1979 the hot pink (sexuality stripe) was removed because of fabric unavailability. Interesting symbolism to note.

In 2001 during the height of the AIDS epidemic, a black stripe was sometimes added that would be later removed if a cure for AIDS was found:

Finally, the turquoise (serenity-harmony) stripe was removed and indigo changed to royal blue (merging blue and indigo), simply so that it could fit to lampposts when hanging the flag vertically.

So, serenity and harmony are lost for something so frivolous as it's size's capability of fitting into a structure of the past (the lampposts). Was Gay Pride too big a concept for our societal structures?

Serenity and harmony were definitely drowned out today by weary-of-the-wait shouts for the gay community's long deserved rights. The indigo stripe of the flag still lost in the fight with the lamppost (city, state and country structures.)

If the indigo returns and new lampposts (laws) are put into effect, will the blue (magic and art) and the pink (sexuality) return to the parade?

Resources: Rainbow Flag LGBT Movement