Monday, January 31, 2011

Aphrodite's Birth in Kylie Minogue's "All the Lovers" Music Video

So, for my Mythology class, I had to write a paper on how a Greek myth is reflected in modern (after 1300 AD) art, so I chose Aphrodite's Birth in Kylie Minogue's "All the Lovers" music video. Actually, it was the day before the paper was due, and I had no idea what to do, and since I'd already written extensively on the music video and its song (which, that paper can be seen here), I was fairly familiar with it. AND as I wrote this paper, I giggled.A.LOT!

So, here's the myth of Aphrodite's birth: Cronus cut off the genitals of Uranus and threw them in the sea, which created foam in the water, and Aphrodite arose from the foam. My professor went haywire with my selection, declaring to our class that he only got through half of his grading during his grading time, because when he came to my paper, he had to watch the video and then look up other stuff. He wanted to show the vid to his classes but felt it was too "naughty." He really liked my paper but said he disagreed on some of the symbolism regarding Uranus's genitals, which is fine with me, because I'm not so sure I agreed with myself. I was mostly grasping at something to say, and what I did say sounded so silly it made me giggle. My professor said he saw symbols of opposites rather than the symbolism I mention. I agree. Opposites would be needed for fertilization. Someone from another section he teaches told me he even brought up my topic in their class. Last Friday, he was late to class, because he was writing a response letter to my paper. He gave me the letter and then spent ten minutes of that class day to discuss his and my ideas on the topic. He was very respectful through the whole thing, and I found it really cool he was so into my topic. Friday afternoon, he emailed me with more of his analysis. COOL!

Here is my paper:


Kylie Minogue’s music video for her single “All the Lovers”[1] symbolically depicts the birth of Aphrodite from the castration of Uranus to her rise from the foam in the sea.[2]  The event is suggested by the symbolic use of objects, environment, and people and helps promote Kylie to a new status in pop music with the release of her fittingly named latest album Aphrodite.[3]
            The genitals of Uranus are depicted in four clips at the beginning of the video.  The four clips include separately falling objects—a coffee cup, a milk bottle, marshmallows, and papers—spilling onto a city street.  The spilling cup full of coffee shows that just as one would get burned from hot coffee falling on them, the spilling coffee expresses the burning sensation of Uranus’s castration.  The white milk spilling from the bottle as it drops represents Uranus’s sperm as it flows across the surface of the pavement to fertilize the ground, while the dropping marshmallows represent his testicles.  This is suggested by their round shape and the sweetness that comes from their use.  Since there are several dropping marshmallows, it is depicting the power and fruitfulness of his loins as a god.  The papers fall from a freely opening briefcase someone is holding.  The briefcase falls open without its owner’s consent, signifying Uranus’s castration was not consensual.  Paper is commonly used to write and share ideas in a communication.  Their significance here is that just as they contain communicational code, their genetic code is spilling on the ground, like the fertilizing milk, to pass that code along.
The setting of the music video is a street surrounded by skyscrapers.  The placement of people in this environment helps the image that they are mere mortals, tiny, insignificant, and influenced by a higher power.  When these symbols of Uranus’s genitals are poured across the ground, their influence is felt by the mortals around.
The mortals strip to their undergarments and passionately kiss.  They are projected as the foam that rises from Uranus’s genitals.  The mortals, as foam, multiply in number and gather to form a mob that raises Kylie—accompanied by doves, an animal sacred to Aphrodite[4]—from within them and, therefore, demonstrating Aphrodite’s creation from the foam.
Later in the video, a white convertible releases white balloons from its opening top, depicting that Aphrodite (Kylie) has arrived and is releasing love into the world.  So many of the mortals gather to the mob by the end of the video that their group grows to be nearly as tall as the skyscrapers.  The people hear her song and flock to her, worshipping her as their goddess and deliverer.
Kylie’s appearance as Aphrodite helps promote her to the status of Goddess of Love in pop music.  From her first single “I Should Be So Lucky,”[5] Kylie explored the theme of love and the vulnerability that accompanies it, as she sang of dreaming that her hidden feelings for her love interest would be returned.  Over years she continued to explore the themes of love and vulnerability, but her peak of the themes came with the release of Aphrodite, a collection of songs solely dedicated to concepts of love, beauty, and the celestial, as they are associations of the Goddess.
Aphrodite helps promote Kylie to a new status among the pop music community, and that status is iconically symbolized as her appearance as Aphrodite in the “All the Lovers” music video, as it demonstrates the birth of Aphrodite and alludes Kylie as a representation of the Goddess. 


[1] All the Lovers. Dir. Joseph Kahn. Perf. Kylie Minogue. EMI, 2010. Film.  Lead single from Aphrodite.
[2] See Hesiod, Theogony 188-195.
[3] Minogue, Kylie. Aphrodite. Parlophone, 2010. CD.
[4] Berens, E. M. A Hand-Book of Mythology. New York: Maynard, Merrill, & Co., 1894. Print.
[5] Minogue, Kylie. “I Should Be So Lucky.” Kylie. PWL, 1988. CD.


Here is the vid. It is INCREDIBLY SENSUAL, so be warned:

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Adventure #5: Check It!

So, funny story!

Once upon a day last month, I wrote a check for a large amount of money but told the receiver of the check to wait a week to take it to the bank, because I didn't know how much money was in my checking account and promised I would be sure there was enough money in it. They complied.

I was SOOOO EXCITED!!! I had written my first check! even though I've had a checking account for about a year....or something. I felt like a grown up! HOT HOT HOT! And plus, now I had the chance to go talk to the fun bank tellers! They're always so nice.

However, my sister told me I could transfer funds from my savings to my checking online, so I tried that but couldn't find my checking account.

OFF TO THE BANK!!!!!!

I explained to the teller (a chill, Hispanic young woman with a sweet, sassy attitude I could befriend) that I wanted to transfer funds into my checking account.  She looked it up but only found my savings.

"Are you sure you have a checking?" she asked.

"Um, yeah," I sassed. "I opened one a long time ago. I've already written a check, so I better have one."

"Nuh-uh, really?" she said.

"Yeah, I have a checkbook."

"Are the checks in your name?"

"Yeppers. It's in my car. Do you want me to go get it?"

"Yeah, let's take a look."

I flopped away and brought in the book full of checks with my name and address on them. She searched again and still couldn't find a checking account.

"So, I've been wandering around with checks in my name but with no account?" I confirmed.

"It looks like it," she replied.

"Nice!"

Finally, the problem was solved when one of the bank managers helped me open a checking....again! Apparently, whoever I originally talked to ordered the checks but forgot to set up the account.

So, the moral of the story today, children, is that you don't need a checking account to write and own checks in your name.