tagged w/ muse
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Muse have revealed the album artwork for their latest album, ‘The Resistance‘. The band’s fifth studio album is due out September 14. The album was self-produced by the band and mixed by Mark Stent.Muse have revealed the album artwork for their latest album, ‘The... more
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"Whatever happened to the Muse? She was once the female figure -- deity, Platonic ideal, mistress, lover, wife -- whom poets and painters called upon for inspiration. Thus Homer in the Odyssey, the West's first great work of literary art: "Sing to me of the man, Muse, of twists and turns driven time and again off course." For hundreds of years, in one form or another, the Muse's blessing and support were often essential to the creation of art.
Poets stopped invoking the muse centuries ago -- eventually turning instead to caffeine, alcohol and amphetamines -- but painters, musicians, and even choreographers have celebrated their actual female inspirers in their work up until recent times. And now, we learn, having a muse isn't a benefit restricted to artists.
According to a recently opened exhibition at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, "The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion," the muse lives on as the fashion model who inspires masses of women to dress in ways that capture the spirit of the age. With all due respect to the Met's curators -- and to the alluring fashion photographs that now grace the museum's walls -- such a definition of the muse would have made traditional muses run for the sacred hills.
Most modern muses were powerful and often creative women in their own right, like Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986) who didn't just inspire photographer Alfred Stieglitz, but influenced the direction of his art. Salvador Dalí's wife and muse, Gala, whom he met in 1929, shrewdly tortured her sex-averse and masochistic husband with her flagrant affairs. Suzanne Farrell, George Balanchine's astonishing dancer-muse, allowed the legendary choreographer to fall in love with her while rejecting his advances, only to marry another dancer the very day Balanchine obtained a divorce from his wife.
There were some famous exceptions to the growing equality between muses and their clients. Picasso met Marie-Thérèse Walter in 1927 on a Parisian street when she was 17 and immediately made her his mistress, sometimes having his chauffeur wait outside her private school to pick her up when school let out and take her to the artist's studio, where she modeled for countless paintings and sculptures. She later bore him a daughter though he refused to marry her, and killed herself in 1977, four years after Picasso died.
Nowadays muses are hard to find. There have been a few celebrated ones in recent years: the photographer Lee Friedlander's wife, Maria, whom he photographed over four decades; John and Yoko Ono (mutual muses); painter John Currin and his Botticellian wife, the artist Rachel Feinstein.
Yet the muse-world has thinned out. Artists may still have a muse, but the once-standard and then legendary relationship is no longer part of our common vocabulary. These days a muse's role as equal partner and/or equal talent now outweighs her or his function as inspiration. Who, in our proudly individualistic culture wants to feel like a valet to someone else's imagination?""Whatever happened to the Muse? She was once the female figure -- deity, Platonic... more
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They've still got it - Oasis has been named the best British band by NME. The awards took place in London, and while Oasis was nominated in seven categories they took home one win. Muse were the biggest winners with three prizes.They've still got it - Oasis has been named the best British band by NME. The... more
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Colin and Justin, of the musical duo Walter Meego, discuss what kinds of music influenced their newest album, Voyager.Colin and Justin, of the musical duo Walter Meego, discuss what kinds of music... more
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Joss Stone is probably not from where you'd expect, but then again, neither is Chris Martin, Muse or Beth from Portishead.
JossStone.comJoss Stone is probably not from where you'd expect, but then again, neither is... more
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Justin realizes we don't have enough time to keep fooling around here on earth with worldy things. Jesus is coming and he needs to spread the word to non believers!
Tthe song is called "Time is running out" and it's by the band Muse.Justin realizes we don't have enough time to keep fooling around here on earth... more
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In this Lonely Planet Blue List installment Toby Amies take us on a tour to see the top 3 places in the world to take the best photos.In this Lonely Planet Blue List installment Toby Amies take us on a tour to see the... more
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