1. 2016 WORLD SCHOLAR’S CUP
An Imperfect World
ART

2. ART Death and Funeral of Cain
David Alfaro Siqueiros - Death and Funeral of Cain
1947
Jubilant throngs congregate as if expecting some miracle, but instead seem to admire a grotesque dead chicken. Their inability to recognise the wierdness of their worship emphasises their credulity or despiration. The composition and colours are somewhat striking and free, and the potential religous allegory could have very provocative implications on theism and worship (or it could simply be a freaky giant chicken, y'know, for laughs). The surreal mix of fantasy and reality seem unfitting to the supposed “Mexican Realism” movement Siqueiros was part of.  

3. Raft of Medusa
The Raft of the Medusa—a major work in French 19th-century painting—is generally regarded as an icon of Romanticism. It depicts an event whose human and political aspects greatly interested Géricault: the wreck of a French frigate off the coast of Senegal in 1816, with over 150 soldiers on board. The painter researched the story in detail and made numerous sketches before deciding on his definitive composition, which illustrates the hope of rescue.

4. Triumph of Death
This large wall-sized painting of the Triumph of Death can be divided into roughly six parts in its overall context of a large garden surrounded by a hedge. In the center (1) a skeletal Death himself invades, riding a pale, emaciated and skeletal horse whose ribs show. Death – with shreds of skin hanging off his ankle bones and a few other places – shoots arrows from a bow and also carries a mostly invisible scythe (its curved blade has snagged on the lower clothes of the man in central upper left).

5. Triumph of Death
A skeletal Death himself invades, riding a pale, emaciated and skeletal horse whose ribs show. Death – with shreds of skin hanging off his ankle bones and a few other places – shoots arrows from a bow and also carries a mostly invisible scythe (its curved blade has snagged on the lower clothes of the man in central upper left). Nearly all of Death’s victims, past, recent or present, bear arrows sticking out of their bodies. At central upper left (2) is a man walking several dogs on taut leashes, the one on the left may be best described as a bloodhound and the dog on the right appears to be growling and barking at what has just ridden by (Death), appearing to be a hunting mastiff. As mentioned, Death’s scythe has just hooked the man’s clothes and one of his dogs may be aware – based on its keen sense of smell? – that its master is about to be mowed down.  At lower left (3) is a mysterious group. Some interpretations posit that this group is imploring Death to end their suffering, but the hypothesis suggested instead here in this article is that they are plague survivors: Death has ridden by and they have been left apparently visually unscathed with no arrows protruding from them. It is possible that plague completely swept by them for whatever reasons. Several of these ‘survivors’ will be detailed shortly. Below the horse at lower center (4) is a group of Death’s victims, all clearly dead and grey in pallor. The range of people from all walks of life and from every level of wealth and their inability to be protected against plague death is striking here.

6. Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
The Lamb of God, or Lion of Judah, (Jesus Christ) opens the first four of the seven seals, which summons forth four beings that ride out on white, red, black, and pale horses. Although some interpretations differ, in most accounts, the four riders are seen as symbolizing Conquest, War, Famine, and Death, respectively.

7. Napoleon Bonaparte and the Visit to Plague Stricken Jaffa
The courage of the general-in-chief
The picture depicts General Bonaparte visiting plague-stricken French troops in the courtyard of a Jaffa mosque being used as a military hospital. The scene took place in March 1799 during the Syrian campaign. Bonaparte, in a shaft of daylight - ignoring the doctor trying to dissuade him - touches a sore on one of the plague victims with his bare hand. One of the officers watching has a handkerchief over his mouth. On the left, two Arabs are handing out bread to the sick. On the right, a blind soldier is trying to approach the general-in-chief. In the foreground, in the shadows, the dying men are too weak to turn towards their leader. The painter is implying that Bonaparte's virtue and courage justify the horrors of war. Gros has given him the luminous aura and gestures of Christ healing the lepers in religious paintings.

8. Victim of Fanaticism Victim of fanaticism.
Painting by Nikolay Pimonenko The painting does not depict a pogrom, but actually documents an event in Ukraine, that the artist read about: a Jewish woman was attacked by members of her community for falling in love with a Christian convert. The townspeople are raising sticks and objects, and her parents are shown to the right, denouncing her.

9. Unnamed Mural at Supreme Court
This scene from a 1941 mural by José Clemente Orozco greets visitors entering the Supreme Court of Mexico. Amidst a chaotic group of evildoers, Orozco has placed two female images, recognizable as “Justice” because one has a sword and the other scales. But unlike the familiar rendition of an imposing woman at center stage, these “Justices” are disconcerting.
One, elevated on a pedestal, lies back—inattentive if not asleep—her sword dangling while disorder surrounds her. Below, a masked Justice is jostled while two men, similarly masked, grab at her scales. Are they common thieves, or judges and lawyers, as the papers they hold suggest? If the Justice above is oblivious, the one below is either overborne by the chaos or a willing participant in the melee.
More commanding Justices, marked by scales and swords, have adorned government buildings from fourteenth-century town halls to twentieth-century courthouses around the world. In the Renaissance, Justice was typically portrayed alongside Prudence, Fortitude, and Temperance, also virtues of governance, but who have since fallen out of the visual vernacular. The legibility of the Mexican imagery is evidence of Justice’s remarkable run as political propaganda.

10. Unnamed Mural at Supreme Court
Court judgments are acts of force, whether transferring property among civil claimants or depriving criminal defendants of liberty. Governments of all kinds aim to demonstrate their ability to provide peace and security and to legitimate such force. In the Renaissance, judges served as loyal servants of the state. But even then, they were publicly instructed to “hear the other side” and not to favor the rich or poor. Democracy radically reconceived the role of the judge by insisting on independence and imposing obligations for open hearings that resulted in shifting power to an observant public. In the twentieth century, new bodies of law emerged, and women and men of all colors gained rights in many countries to be in courts as litigants, witnesses, jurors, lawyers, and judges. Dockets grew, and courthouses multiplied.
But as the Orozco mural suggests, dark undercurrents may flow behind imposing courthouse façades. The Orozco murals tell us that democracy not only changed courts but also challenged them. Deep problems arise when governments neither fund judicial access adequately nor control elites who profit from privileged positions.
The murals offer a display, rare inside a courthouse, of law’s failings. Orozco’s critique was not lost on his audience. The unveiling of the first 1,400-square-foot segment resulted in the rest of the commission’s cancellation. Decades later, however, appreciation for his work prompted the Mexican Supreme Court to adorn its brochure with his murals. Further, when commissioning new art, the Court welcomed painful imagery such as La historia de la justicia en México, by Rafael Cauduro. Completed in 2009, the murals greet visitors with graphic details of “The Seven Major Crimes,” including rape, homicide, and torture.

11. The Music Lesson Date of Creation:1664 Alternative Names:De muziekles
Height (cm):73.30
Length (cm):64.50
Medium:Oil
Support:Canvas
Subject:Scenery
Art Movement:Baroque
Created by:Johannes Vermeer
Current Location:London, United Kingdom

12. The Music Lesson
This work is one if Vermeer's greatest depictions of Dutch culture during the 17th century. In this image we see a young lady having a music lesson playing the virginal, a keyboard instrument. Virginals were commonly played by young ladies and they produced a delicate, fine sound which was appropriate for women of this time. The music composed for the virginal always told of moral values and enlightenment but also spoke of romance, love and happy adventures within the virtues of religious order. The Music Lesson is from a wealthy upper-class scene, as it was common practice for women from affluent families to partake in such activities. Vermeer's idealism is evident in this canvas, as he paints yet another depiction based on women's role in society and what he sees as righteous and beautiful. The viewer is left to imagine the narrative taking place and can create the music filling the scene. Vermeer inserts various other instruments to reinforce a musical theme, such as the viol on the floor. The identities of the sitters are unknown but the gentleman here also appears in The Geographer. It is debatable whether the gentleman is the teacher to the student. This same figure appears again in another of Vermeer's works, The Astronomer.

13. The Cardsharps Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi) Italian (1571–1610)
16th century
c. 1595
Oil on canvas
37 1/16 x 51 9/16 in. (94.2 x cm) AP
Currently On View

14. The Cardsharps
Caravaggio was one of the pivotal figures in the history of Western art. In his short lifetime, he created a theatrical style that was as shocking to some as it was new, inspiring others to probe their subject matter for the drama of psychological relationships. Apprenticed in Milan, Caravaggio came to Rome in the early 1590s. There his early masterpiece The Cardsharps came to the attention of the influential Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte, who not only purchased it but also offered the artist quarters in his palace.
Caravaggio was thus introduced to the elite stratum of Roman ecclesiastical society, which soon gave him his first significant opportunity to work on a large scale and for a public forum. In The Cardsharps, the players are engaged in a game of primero, a forerunner of poker. Engrossed in his cards at left is the dupe, unaware that the older cardsharp signals his accomplice with a raised, gloved hand (the fingertips exposed, better to feel marked cards). At right, the young cheat looks expectantly toward the boy and reaches behind his back to pull a hidden card from his breeches.
Caravaggio has treated this subject not as a caricature of vice but in a novelistic way, in which the interaction of gesture and glance evokes the drama of deception and lost innocence in the most human of terms. The Cardsharps spawned countless paintings on related themes by artists throughout Europe—not the least of which was Georges de La Tour’s Cheat with the Ace of Clubs in the Kimbell. The Cardsharps was stamped on the back with the seal of Cardinal del Monte and inventoried among his possessions after his death in Its location had been unknown for some ninety years when it was rediscovered in 1987 in a European private collection.

15. La Horde: A Masterful Fake Painting of Max Ernst’s original painting
La Horde: A Masterful Fake Painting of Max Ernst’s original painting. Faked by Wolfgang Beltracchi
Studio, you say? Indeed. Wolfgang Beltracchi is making work again, churning out paintings with very little noticeable variation from those that previously commanded millions at auction, except for their signature. That now reads Beltracchi. According to various reports, you can get an imitation Max Ernst for US$30,000-35,000 while a Campendonk will set you back about 15k more. Each allegedly takes him around three days to make, and he claims to be able to do just about anyone.

16. Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife
To show that 15th-century artists used concave mirrors as optical projection devices, Hockney and Falco focused on one of the most famous convex mirrors in all of Western art.
At the center of Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife, painted in 1434 by Jan van Eyck—the “father of oil painting”—is a mirror that has puzzled art lovers for centuries. It’s a shiny hemisphere, bulging toward you rather like the tummy of the (ahem, pregnant?) Mrs. Arnolfini. What makes this mirror so interesting is that if you look into it, you see not only the backs of the wealthy Italian merchant and his young bride, but also two figures who must also be in the room, facing the dour-looking newlyweds.
One of them, some art historians say, may well be the Dutch master himself; the other may be his assistant. By rendering the painting in this way, van Eyck cleverly implies that you, as the viewer, are within the scene, too. For you could not be looking at a mirror that reflected back the entire foursome without standing in the room yourself! The Arnolfini mirror on one level thus becomes a philosophical statement about the nature of reality, the seen and the unseen, and the multiple ways in which phenomena can be perceived and interpreted.

17. Hustler by Arthur Sarnoff
A tense game of pool ensues as a hustler tries to use his magic.

18. HUMANS OF NEW YORK Please read the stories from the following webpage:

19. Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn – Ai Weiwei
The juxtaposition of Ai's words and image over the words of the First Amendment is fitting for an artist whose work and personal experiences have come to symbolize the universal right to freedom of expression. Over the past few years, Ai's political activism has led him to be jailed without charge, beaten by Chinese police, and held on house arrest. His oppression has drawn increased attention to his work in recent years, elevating him to the ranks of the contemporary art superstars. "I've always believed it is essential for contemporary artists to question established assumptions and challenge beliefs. This has never changed," Ai says in one of the projection quotes.
While Ai's association with freedom of expression seems an appropriate reminder of the United States' founding ideals, these particular images of the destruction of a historical object raise interesting questions on a weekend steeped in tradition and pageantry. The act captured by the triptych seems to undermine the value of history and the significance of tradition.

20. Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn – Ai Weiwei
But Deborah Horowitz, director of curatorial administration and publications for the Hirshhorn, pointed out to me that by putting the vase front and center, the work also draws attention to history. Ai's piece evokes the growing phenomenon in China of destroying historical cultural sites to make way for new development. The sight of the breaking of the urn may lead American viewers to ask to what extent America has undergone a similar process.
The piece also plays into the idea that the inauguration of a new administration provides the opportunity for change and new beginnings. Horowitz said that with the Presidential Inauguration, as in Ai's work, "in some ways you're destroying in order to create something new."
"It's a way of looking forward and looking back," she said.

21. Diary of an Empty City - Liu Xiaodong
Liu Xiaodong’s exhibition at the Faurschou Foun­dation Beijing shows a body of work painted live in Mongolia during the summer of 2015 entitled “Diary of An Empty City”.
Liu Xiaodong has long been fascinated by the Chinese phenomenon of the “ghost city” frequently portrayed by the western press and urban planning aficio­nados, and has chosen a propitious location in Ordos, Inner Mongolia to set his latest scene for live painting and reflection on the Chinese dream life and dream city environment.

22. Diary of an Empty City - Liu Xiaodong
Ordos is situated in the center of a region, which has some of the largest deposits of coal in China, and has been transformed in record time from one of the poorest areas of China to one of the wealthiest. Local farmers and miners have become the protagonists of rags-to-riches stories as regional and city governments have built the dream city. Although it is a giant metropolis with amazing infrastructure including condominium towers, shop­ping malls, a museum and high-speed trains,
Ordos remains a place mys­teriously empty with a population of approximately 20,000 inhabitants. A city without residents – an unfinished plan, a paradoxical place where the realization of a modern dream society in terms of urban infrastructure lacks only the inhabitants to live their fulfilled dream life.
Liu Xiaodong investigates the ideal of the dream life within the context of the reality of the current Chinese lifestyle, discreetly asking, “What is our dream? A ghost city or a crowded city, which is better?”

23. 245 Cubic Metres by Santiago Sierra
Santiago Sierra, a Spanish performance artist, pledged on Monday to hold talks with Jewish community leaders outraged by his project to give people a sense of the Holocaust by pumping lethal car exhaust fumes into a former synagogue and letting visitors enter one by one with a breathing apparatus.
Sierra, known internationally for his controversial work, led hoses from the exhaust pipes of six parked cars into the building in the town of Pulheim-Stommeln near Cologne to create lethal levels of carbon monoxide there. Around 200 visitors who lined up for the first gassing session on Sunday had to sign a declaration that they were aware of the risks before being allowed in wearing a breathing apparatus and accompanied by a fireman.
They were allowed to spend a maximum of five minutes in the synagogue, which is no longer used as a place of worship and only survived the Nazi era intact because it was sold to a farmer and used as a storage hall. "The smell of the exhaust may cling to clothing," visitors were warned.
The Nazis used gas chambers to murder many of the 6 million Jews they killed.

24. The Wait by Edward Kienholz
Artist
Edward Kienholz ( )
Title
The Wait
Date
Medium
Tableau: wood, fabric,
polyester resin, flock, metal,
bones, glass, paper, leather,
varnish, gelatin silver prints,
taxidermed cat, live parakeet,
wicker and plastic

25. The Wait by Edward Kienholz
The Wait illuminates the poignancy of passing time and the sorrowful isolation of the elderly in a life-size domestic tableau.
The figure of an old woman, constructed of cow bones and encased in plastic coating, clutches a taxidermied cat and sits beneath a framed portrait of a young man who was presumably her beloved. In place of her face is a glass jar with a photograph of a young, attractive woman on the front and a cow skull set inside. She wears a necklace of glass canning jars containing crosses and gold figurines that represent her memories as imagined by the artist:
“her childhood on a farm and move on to girlhood, waiting for her man, marriage, bearing children, being loved, wars, family, death and then senility, where everything becomes a hodgepodge.” She awaits her imminent death to the song of a live parakeet in a nearby cage, a disparity that renders the melancholy of the woman’s situation all the more evident.

26. Project Dust by Brother Nut
“Brother Nut,” a performance artist, has something solid to show from the acrid smog in the air: a brick of condensed pollution.
For 100 days, Brother Nut dragged a roaring, industrial-strength vacuum cleaner around the Chinese capital’s landmarks, sucking up dust from the atmosphere. He has mixed the accumulated gray gunk with red clay to create a small but potent symbol of the city’s air problems.

27. Dismaland by Banksy
Inside the walls of a derelict seaside swimming resort in Weston-super-Mare, UK, mysterious construction over the last month—including a dingy looking Disney-like castle and a gargantuan rainbow-colored pinwheel tangled in plastic—suggested something big was afoot. Suspicion and anticipation surrounding the unusual activity attributed to fabled artist and provocateur Banksy has reached a Willy Wonka-esque fervor. Well, if Banksy’s your bag, continue fervoring. If not, there’s more than a few reasons to continue reading.
The spectacle has since been revealed to be a pop-up art exhibition in the form of an apocalyptic theme park titled Dismaland (“The UK’s most disappointing new visitor attraction”) that will be open to the public for five weeks.

28. Dismaland by Banksy
The event has all the hallmark details of a traditional Banksy event from its initial shroud of secrecy to artistic themes of apocalypse, anti-consumerism, and pointed social critiques on celebrity culture, immigration, and law enforcement. However, there’s one major deviation: the bulk of the artwork packed into three main interior galleries was created by dozens of other artists.
So just what’s hidden inside the walls of this derelict seaside resort? A demented assortment of bizarre and beautiful artworks from no less than 58 global artists including Damien Hirst, Jenny Holzer, Jimmy Cauty, Bill Barminski, Caitlin Cherry, Polly Morgan, Josh Keyes, Mike Ross, David Shrigley, Bäst, and Espo. Banksy is also showing 10 artworks of his own.

29. Little Monsters by Flora Borsi
Hungarian photographer Flora Borsi digitally “distouches” images of models. After analyzing fashion portraits, the artist took note of the overt emphasis on perfection the images took. She then decided to play with the process to perfect by attempting the opposite. Her images wink to the classic artist portrait, perhaps even take their composition from what looks like could be a model or actor’s headshot, yet instead of aiming to portray women at their most beautiful, her mission was to create something truly unusual. Her portraits highlight distorted faces of women that tend to have three eyes, peculiar brow lines, and lips that droop, giving an almost absent chin. With a thread of shiny hair and dramatic lighting, this body of work almost acts as a portrait series of genuine alien beings.

30. Little Monsters by Flora Borsi
Borsi’s work uses digital manipulation in order to explore her fascination with surrealism. She focuses on issues surrounding identity, relationships, emotions, and dreams with the aim to  investigate the complexity of the human psyche

31. Wabi Sabi
According to Japanese legend, a young man named Sen no Rikyu sought to learn the elaborate set of customs known as the Way of Tea. He went to tea-master Takeeno Joo, who tested the younger man by asking him to tend the garden. Rikyu cleaned up debris and raked the ground until it was perfect, then scrutinized the immaculate garden. Before presenting his work to the master, he shook a cherry tree, causing a few flowers to spill randomly onto the ground.
To this day, the Japanese revere Rikyu as one who understood to his very core a deep cultural thread known as wabi-sabi. Emerging in the 15th century as a reaction to the prevailing aesthetic of lavishness, ornamentation, and rich materials, wabi-sabi is the art of finding beauty in imperfection and profundity in earthiness, of revering authenticity above all. In Japan, the concept is now so deeply ingrained that it’s difficult to explain to Westerners; no direct translation exists.

33. Nonfinito Works (Prisoners or Slaves by Michelangelo)

34. The Awakening Slave
This piece is one of the most powerful and expressive works among the Slaves. It is the first statue one finds on the left along the corridor, the least outlined of the four Prisoners. The figure feels like it is writhing and straining, trying to imminently explode out of the marble block that holds it. The latent power one feels is extraordinary. Michelangelo is famous for saying that he worked to liberate the forms imprisoned in the marble. He saw his job as simply removing what was extraneous. This endless struggle of man to free himself from his physical constraints is a metaphor of the flesh burdening the soul. It is interesting to note the various marks left alongside the block of marble, above all at the back of the unfinished sculpture.

35. The Young Slave
Across from the Awakening Slave is the so called, “Young Slave.” The figure is more clearly defined, but seems almost bound within himself, burying his face in his left arm and hiding the right one around the hips. The contrapposto pose is quite exaggerated by the narrowness of the block of stone and by the slightly bent knees. The profound study of human anatomy is highlighted in the left elbow and the careful lines of the bent biceps and triceps. His face, which is just beginning to emerge, seems so youthful by comparison with his musculature. Michelangelo always chiseled out the image front to back: it clearly shows within the Young Slave, which appears to be emerging from the rock that shows the rough tracks of the large tooth chisels.

36. The Bearded Slave
The third statue on the left of the corridor, is the “Bearded Slave” the most finished of the four Slaves. The figure is almost free, only his hands and part of his arm, probably planned to hold a cloth, are unfinished. The face is covered by a thick, curly beard and the thighs are bound by straps of cloth. The torso is finely modeled, revealing Michelangelo’s deep knowledge of anatomy.

37. The Atlas Slave
Down the corridor on the left is the “Atlas Slave.” The male nude seems to be carrying a huge weight on his head. Hence he is named after Atlas, the primordial Titan who held up the entire world on his shoulders. His head has not emerged from the stone, leading the slave to support and push such a heavy weight, which threatens to compress him. The force of weight pushing down, and that pushing back up, create a vigorous tension. There is no feeling of equilibrium here, only an eternal battle of forces threatening to explode in both directions. This pressure generates a power which perhaps more than the other Slaves, expresses the energy of the figure struggling to emerge from marble.

38. MUSIC

39. Songs about Imprisonment
Please listen to:
How to Make Gravy | Paul Kelly
Folsom Prison Blues | Johnny Cash
Laura Palmer | Bastille
Liberty Needs Glasses | Tupac Shakur
Negro y Azul | Los Cuates de Sinaloa
Schinder’s List, Main Title Theme | John Williams

40. On a Pale Piano Please listen to: The Hurdy-Gurdy Man | Franz Schubert
15th Symphony, 1st Movement | Dmitri Shostakovich
Danse Macabre | Camille Saint-Saëns
4th Symphony, 2nd Movement | Gustav Mahler
Totentanz | Franz Liszt

41. A World of Tears (Songs about Inequality and Injustice)
Please listen to:
Stink-Foot | Frank Zappa
Industrial Disease | Dire Straits
Another Day In Paradise | Phil Collins
The Way It Is | Bruce Hornsby & the Range
City of the Damned | Green Day
Papaoutai | Stromae
Sunday Bloody Sunday | U2
Jenny Was A Friend of Mine | The Killers
I Feel Pretty / Unpretty | Glee Cast Recording
Will I | Rent

42. It Gets Better (Songs about Hope)
Please listen to:
Light (from Next To Normal) | Tom Kitt & Brian Yorkey
Epilogue (from Les Misérables) | Alain Boublil & Claude-Michel Schönberg
Proud of Your Boy | Aladdin
Born This Way | Glee Cast Recording
Glory | Common & John Legend

43. KEY SONG MEANINGS
How to Make Gravy - Paul Kelly: It tells the story of a newly imprisoned man writing a letter to his brother, in which the prisoner laments that he will be missing the family's Christmas celebrations.

44. KEY SONG MEANINGS Folsom Prison Blues: Johnny Cash
The story of "Folsom Prison Blues" is really a play in three acts, neatly tracking the course of Johnny Cash's life. The first act tells of the song's original creation, the second of Cash's descent into drugs and depression, and the third of the song's re-release as a live recording and the enormous success that followed. When he graduated high school, Johnny Cash worked briefly in an auto plant sweeping floors before enlisting in the United States Air Force and getting shipped off to West Germany. During his tenure in Germany, he worked as a radio intercept officer spying on conversations between the Russians, but it was also during this time that he started a band called the Landsberg Barbarians which enabled him to do live shows, teach himself to play the guitar better, and try his hand at songwriting. "We were terrible," he later remembered, "but that Lowenbrau beer will make you feel like you're great. We'd take our instruments to these honky-tonks and play until they threw us out or a fight started. I wrote Folsom Prison Blues in Germany in 1953." The commanding officer of Cash's unit had the men watch Crane Wilbur's "Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison," a film about the California lockup, which inspired Cash to write his song. Folsom Prison is one of the most famous prisons in the nation, notorious for its harsh conditions and dangerous prisoner population. The most controversial and memorable line in the song, by far, is: "I shot a man in Reno/ Just to watch him die." As Cash explained in his autobiography, "I sat with my pen in my hand, trying to think up the worst reason a person could have for killing another person, and that's what came to mind. It did come to mind quite easily, though."

45. KEY SONG MEANINGS
Folsom Prison Blues: Johnny Cash End of Act One. The curtain falls and we are left with several years of Intermission. This is usually the time where you get up, get snacks and maybe a beverage, and then eat and drink as fast as you can before the ushers make you return to your seat. In Cash's case, it was a time of decadence and commercial success followed by several years of waning popularity and increasing despair. During the late fifties and early sixties, Cash released several hit singles with Sun Records that shot him into the national spotlight, including "I Walk the Line" and "Home of the Blues," before switching to a more lucrative deal from Columbia Records where he released "Ring of Fire." It was also during this period that Cash got heavily into drugs, mainly amphetamines and barbiturates and his life started spinning out of control.

46. KEY SONG MEANINGS
Folsom Prison Blues: Johnny Cash Curtain rises for the start of Act Two: The Turbulent Years. As his drug habit worsened, Cash's marriage hit the rocks and he started canceling performances, leading to divorce from his first wife, Vivian Liberto, whom he had met while training for the Air Force in Texas. Soon followed the kindling of a new romance with fellow country singer June Carter, whom he had met a few years before through the music business. Act Two closes with a scene in a cave, in which Cash tries to overdose on drugs and passes out on the floor after trying to die, but manages to stay awake long enough to see a dim trail of light and follow it to the cave's mouth. In many ways, Johnny Cash could be considered a tragic American folk hero reminiscent of a Shakespeare character. (In fact, this cave episode reminds us a bit of the storm scene in King Lear in which the maddened King, at the depths of his despair, rages half-naked at the angry sky and demands to know why the world is so cruel.) Cash is then whisked away to rehab with June Carter and her family, leading to a second marriage. Much like his contemporary Bob Dylan, Cash discovers evangelical Christianity (he claims that God helped save him during his trial in the cave) and pulls his life around just in time for Curtain falls.

47. KEY SONG MEANINGS
Begin Act Three. Backed by the ever-faithful June Carter and her family as well as his original band, The Tennessee Three, Cash launches a prison tour that leads to his most successful album ever. This would never have been possible without the go-ahead from Bob Johnston, the A&R man from Columbia Records who had been put in charge of Cash's material after some internal personnel changes at the label. Johnston was the kind of guy who liked to argue with studio execs and take risks, and when Cash proposed a potentially controversial live album recorded inside a prison, Johnston jumped at the chance. After only two days of rehearsing (and a visit from then-governor Ronald Reagan), the musicians debuted at Folsom Prison in California on January 13, 1968.

48. KEY SONG MEANINGS
The thick cement walls of Folsom Prison were abuzz with excitement while the bands warmed up backstage. After a few moments, MC Hugh Cherry took the stage to introduce Cash's opening acts: Carl Perkins ("Blue Suede Shoes") and The Statler Brothers ("Flowers on the Wall," "This Old House"). Enter Johnny Cash, dressed in his signature black uniform, addressing the crowd of two thousand with his now-famous opening line, "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash." The first song he performed, appropriately enough, was "Folsom Prison Blues" which received a huge response from the crowd. The bands recorded fifteen live tracks in all, including several duets between Johnny and June, followed by June reading a poem, and closing with Cash covering a song called "Greystone Chapel" which had been written by prison inmate Glen Sherley. The musicians recorded a second performance right after the first one, but due to their exhaustion only two of those tracks made it onto the final LP. After four months of studio preparation, in April 1968 the album, At Folsom Prison, was released to nationwide praise. The new live version of "Folsom Prison Blues" steadily climbed the charts to break the Billboard Top 100 and the Country Music Charts. However, the single took a blow when Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in June of that same year. Radio stations stopped playing it due to the "shot a man in Reno" line, since the nation was still reeling from the assassination and all mention of gunshots briefly became nearly taboo. Under pressure from Columbia, and despite protests from Johnny Cash, Johnston re-released the single without the controversial line and it climbed the charts once again.

49. KEY SONG MEANINGS Another Day in Paradise: Phil Collins
This addresses the consequences of ignoring the needy and homeless. It's a rare Phil Collins hit with a socially conscious message.
Collins told The New York Times how the song came together: "It was begun at the piano. I started playing and put it down on a tape so I wouldn't forget it. Then I decided to see what would happen when I started singing. When I began, the words just came out, 'She calls out to the man on the street.' I didn't set out to write a song about the homeless. Those were just the words I happened to sing. It was only then that I decided that was what the song would be about.

50. KEY SONG MEANINGS Papaoutai : Stromae (song in French)
Stromae’s Papaoutai: Brilliantly Shocking
Refreshing flavors appear through unlikely combinations. At times, the contrast can be too extreme, and yet, in others, the effort is simply futile, like that of mixing oil and water. There is absolutely no doubt that the Belgian-Rwandan superstar, Stromae, has created a clever combination of elements regarding techno music. An upbeat tempo, a catchy tune, a video that inspires dancing, and, most importantly, meaningful lyrics that penetrate through the ears of listeners have made Stromae’s latest single, Papaoutai, one of the most remarkable pieces of techno music.
Amidst the party atmosphere and the studio effects that are heard in the track, lies the story of a young boy whose father is never present. Through the electrified beats, Stromae has everyone dancing to the unexpected.
Stromae incorporates wit into his music and lyrics, evoking messages within the song title’s meaning and the video’s imagery. ‘Papaoutai’ means “Dad, where are you?” in French, but it is

51. KEY SONG MEANINGS Papaoutai : Stromae (song in French)
messages within the song title’s meaning and the video’s imagery. ‘Papaoutai’ means “Dad, where are you?” in French, but it is written ungrammatically. While the correct question is  “Papa où t’es?” it is pronounced the exact same way as “Papaoutai.” The spelling mistakes mimic the spelling of a child, showing that Stromae wants the song to stand for the words of children. This perspective is also present in the video, whose main character is a young boy with Stromae as his father.
The aesthetically pleasing video takes the viewer to an alternate reality. Set in an enjoyable, colorful town reminiscent of the consumerist 1950s, various pairs of fathers and sons and mothers and daughters appear dancing in unison. Each pair has a particular dance differentiating them from the others. The children, dressed identically to their parents, learn the moves that represent their family. The diversity of dances demonstrates the plethora of parenting styles, each with its own rhythm, no one style being more correct than the others.

52. KEY SONG MEANINGS Papaoutai : Stromae (song in French)
Interestingly enough, Stromae is a frustratingly frigid mannequin, powerfully representing the sense of abandonment children experience. As other pairs of children and parents dance to Stromae’s music, Stromae remains still, with a pasty, plastic smile plastered on his polished face. As the song escalates, so does the anger in the child’s words and behaviors. The boy furiously dances around Stromae, trying to get a reaction from him. Stromae, however, is hollow, becoming nothing more than a representation of what would ideally be there.
Viewers are tugged and teased given that, for a couple seconds, the mannequin comes to life. In those magical moments, father and son are in sync, proudly displaying their dance and the moves that describe their relationship. The harmony is rapidly shattered by the icy reality. Whatever hope had been planted is yanked, provoking the audience, strategically making us emotionally invested in the fate of this fatherless child. Ultimately, the story does not end the way we want. The beat becomes calmer, the studio noises disappear and the child admits defeat, sitting down next to his paralyzed father. Life escapes from the boy, as he also becomes a mannequin. This transformation leaves the audience in a pensive state of mind, aweing at the brutal truth that a techno song played in bars throughout Europe eloquently revealed.

53. KEY SONG MEANINGS Papaoutai : Stromae (song in French)
The topic itself is no surprise. Stromae was born to a Belgian mother and a Rwandan father he saw no more than 20 times in his life.  At the young age of 12, Stromae received news that his father had been a victim in the Rwandan Genocide. The tragedy left a dark mark on Stromae, but surprisingly it wasn’t as dark as the mark left by the fact that his father, during his life, had abandoned him and started a second family elsewhere. Stromae does not in any way claim to profoundly know Rwanda or to be able to fully empathize with the disaster in The singer remembers being in Rwanda at the age of 5 or 6, plagued by malaria, shivering and with a fever. He faintly recollects the terrifying phone calls and the chaos on the television, but he clearly recalls hearing of his father’s death and feeling “more sad about seeing [his] aunt suffer for having lost a brother, than himself for having lost a father.” Stromae did not see the brutalities of the genocide, instead he saw his struggling single mother, left with five children to care for.

54. KEY SONG MEANINGS Negro y Azul
Negro Y Azul: The Ballad of Heisenberg" is a Narcocorrido song performed by "Los Cuates de Sinaloa" that tells the story of a "gringo boss" named "Heisenberg" and his infamous "blue meth," which has crossed the border into Mexico. The words "negro y azul" translate to "black and blue", which refer to the colors skin turns when bruised and the colors of Heisenberg (black) and his product Blue Sky. It is featured in the teaser of the episode of the same name.

55. KEY SONG MEANINGS
Laura Palmer: Bastille This song is based on the Twin Peaks character of the same name. The early 1990s television drama series centered on the question, "Who killed Laura Palmer," Laura being a beautiful high-school student. As the series progressed, viewers learned that Palmer was not the innocent she originally appeared to be.

56. KEY SONG MEANINGS
Stink Foot : Frank Zappa Stink-Foot, is a difficult one to discern the exact meaning of, but the literal structure involves an outcast being taken to a “place where they keep the imaginary diseases” and sold what the song describes as a very serious case of foot odour.

57. KEY SONG MEANINGS
City of the Damned: Green Day Jesus points out that people don't really care about anyone but themselves these days ("Lost children with dirty faces today no one really seems to care"), and surrounded by this indifference he states that now he doesn't care either.

58. KEY SONG MEANINGS
Born This Way: Cast of GLEE/ Lady Gaga Elton John predicted that "Born This Way" would be the gay anthem for the new millennium, and he was almost right. He missed a few key points, though. The LGBT community has made a lot of headway in terms of visibility in the last couple decades, and they aren't necessarily looking for the sole, unifying, dance-club friendly front-woman Lady Gaga is sometimes perceived as. What's more, the umbrella of "LGBT" identity represents a wide, diverse swath of people whose musical and aesthetic tastes are not easily summed up by drag queens and disco references. Some gay people might have been looking for an anthem—but plenty are chomping at the bit to make it known that Lady Gaga does not, in fact, represent them ("Her songs are too disposable to be highbrow, and her public persona too self-important to be lowbrow or camp," wrote the Advocate, after calling her new single "the latest lump of sequined coal to fall from Stephanie Germanotta's meat diaper into our open ears."

59. KEY SONG MEANINGS Sunday Bloody Sunday: U2
There are two Bloody Sundays in Irish history. The first was in 1920 when British troops fired into the crowd at a football match in Dublin in retaliation for the killing of British undercover agents. The second was on January 30, 1972, when British paratroopers killed 13 Irish citizens at a civil rights protest in Derry, Northern Ireland. The song is more about the second Bloody Sunday.
The lyrics are a nonpartisan condemnation of the historic bloodshed in Ireland - politics is not something you want to discuss in Ireland. Bono's lyrics in the song are more about interpersonal struggles than about the actual Bloody Sunday events.

60. KEY SONG MEANINGS Glory: John Legend & Common
About giving Black and minority groups a voice and to treat these groups equally
Based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery protests by the Black community of Missouri
The song "Glory" is a powerful and poignant anthem with lyrics like "Every day women and men become legends / Sins that go against our skin become blessings," "That's why Rosa sat on the bus / That's why we walk through Ferguson with our hands up," and "No one can win the war individually / It takes the wisdom of the elders and young people's energy." Common's inspiration for writing those lyrics comes down to one thing: offering people a voice.
"To learn more about [Dr. King] and the people of Selma and the people around the country that came and contributed -- just everyday people -- it just was like, 'I'm writing this for those people,'" Common says. "That, connected to what happened in '65 to what's happening in 2014 to I wanted a voice for those people, too."