At The Academy Awards

By Josh Albarran - February 26, 2016

Walt Disney with his four Academy Awards he won in the 1954 Oscars.
(American Broadcasting Companies Inc.)

On the final Sunday of every February, all the stars of Hollywood and television viewers united to watch the Academy Awards. The 89th edition of the Oscars will take place Sunday, February 26th at 8pm ET/5pm PT from the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, California and on ABC hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.

Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios presidnt John Lasstler with Woody and Buzz after winning an Academy Awards for his work on Toy Story at the 1996 Oscars.
(American Broadcasting Companies Inc.)

Since the first Academy Award took place in 1928, it has expanded from an 15-minute non-broadcast event to an three-and-half television broadcast and to celebrate the past year of arts and entertainment in the movie industry, representing from one film to the next. This year's nominates will includes the musical "La Land Land" with Emma Stone for Best Feature and the animated feature "Moana" with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson for Best Animated Feature.

Actress Ingrid Bergman after winning an Oscar at the 1945 Academy Awards, in this photo she delivered her speech that was broadcast on The Blue Network (now the American Broadcasting Company).
(American Broadcasting Companies Inc.)

Past winners in the Academy Awards were led by great talent and leaders dedicated to everyone who love their features and cemented legacies like actors Clark Gable, Tom Hanks and last year's winner Leonardo DiCaprio; actress Ingrid Bergman, Judy Garland and Meryl Streep. They brought in good stories, good performance and good movie every step in the way.

Leonardo DiCaprio after winning an Academy Award for Best Actor at last year's Oscars.
(American Broadcasting Companies Inc.)

What's good in this year's Oscars? Tune in February 26th and find out.

The Art of the Super Bowl

By Josh Albarran - February 2, 2017

The scenes from Super Bowl XLII featuring the New York Giants defeated the New England Patriots painted by an local football fan.
(NFL Enterprises, LLC.)

NEW YORK - On the first Sunday in 2017, the 51st edition of the National Football League's championship game, the Super Bowl. Super Bowl LI will take place inside NRG Stadium in Houston, TX and will be televise on the FOX Broadcast Network. It will feature two of the league's top contenders, the New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons for the Vince Lombardi Trophy. Since the Super Bowl first played back in 1967, it has become an un-official holiday when it comes to the big game including snacks, long commercials and lots of entertainment. Each play from every Super Bowl are made with an work of art.

An painting from Leroy Neiman on Super Bowl XXVIII featuring the Dallas Cowboys and the Buffalo Bills.
(NFL Enterprises, LLC.)

When the game is being broadcast on television, there are cameras from high-def to digital for games including the Super Bowl to national audiences, while others including the National Football League (through its NFL Films division) uses film cameras to every image one frame at a time and those like that would be aired days later on network's sports news programs, the NFL cable network and on their flagship program Inside the NFL on Showtime.

Local resident Malcolm Farley made this painting of Pittsburgh Steelers player Santonio Holmes' last-minute touchdown catch from Super Bowl XLIII.
(NFL Enterprises, LLC.)

Whatever it's either the helicopter dive from Super Bowl XXXII or the "Blackout Bowl" in Super Bowl XLVII or even "18-1" in Super Bowl XLII, oh yes we remember that moment. If you recreate those moments on an painting as they would do to be on display in museums as sports memorabilia or innovations like virtual reality or video games that can be share to remember for years ahead. This coming Super Bowl will bring new memories and new stars to football fans all around the world.

Tribute To Mary Taylor Moore

By Josh Albarran - January 26, 2017

Mary Tyler Moore started in the sitcom "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" on the CBS Television Network from 1970 to 1977. (MTM Productions/CBS)

NEW YORK -- Americans lost an icon in women's television. Mary Tyler Moore (80) passed away Wednesday following an falling health, she was the star (and I mean the star, an first for women on broadcast television) of her CBS sitcom "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" aired from 1970 to 1977, produced by her production company MTM Productions at the CBS Studio Center in California.

Moore started in that show as an single woman and an local TV executive in Minneapolis WJM-TV (likely an CBS station, but unrelated to the existing current CBS station there WCCO-TV), severing as an producer for the 6 o'clock news and living an normal life even thought her funny moments entertain millions of viewers throughout the show's run. Her career on television began in an series of Hotpoint commercials in the 1950s before becoming an co-star with the legendary Dick Van Dyke on The Dick Van Dyke Show on the CBS Television Network in the 1960s.

Actor Dick Van Dyke react to the passing of Mary Taylor Moore on CBS This Morning, January 26, 2017.

The Mary Tyler Moore Show spun off to several television spin-off series that continue the legacy of the most-watched successful sitcom, all of them produced by MTM Productions until Moore sold the company to TVS Entertainment in 1988 and then to Pat Robertson's International Family Entertainment (an separate profit company from his non-profit organization the Christian Broadcasting Network) before Fox brought MTM in 1997 (its library including all rights to the Mary Tyler Moore Show is one of the few proprieties Fox maintain to this day following the sale of Fox Family Worldwide to The Walt Disney Company in 2001).

Mary Tyler Moore with late CBS Evening News anchor Walter Cronkite on the March 1978 issue of TV Guide promoting CBS's 50th Anniversary. (TV Guide)

Moore has been an long-time member of the CBS family, Les Moonves, Chairman and CEO of the CBS Corporation was one of the many who send condolences that MTM "was a once-in-a-generation talent" and 'CBS has lost one of the very best to ever grace our airwaves and our industry has lost a true legend and friend."

Mary Tyler Moore will be remembered by both CBS viewers and her fans past, present and future for all generations to come. Hats off to MTM or should we say in just one word, Mary.

Thank You Mary Tyler Moore.
(MTM Productions/20th Century Fox Home Entertainment)

Remembering Walt Disney

December 5, 2016

By Josh Albarran

Walter Elias Disney was born 105 years ago on December 5th, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois. As an young boy love to draw cartoons while his father owned an small company selling newspapers, Disney would soon began his own business in Kansas City, Missouri producing short feature cartoons through his Laugh-O-Gram company in 1921 including an one of the 10 films that featured both animation and live-action with Alice's Wonderland.

After Laugh-O-Gram was shut down, Walt went bankrupt and moved to Hollywood, California and joined Universal Studios where Disney and Ub Iwerks produced an series of animated shorts on "Oswald: The Lucky Rabbit." But things started to change in 1928 as Disney sold the rights to Oswald to Universal (which they went on to produce more Oswald shorts before selling the character rights completely to Disney in 2006) in exchange, his Disney Bros. Cartoon Studio brought us the world's most beloved cartoon character in cinema, Mickey Mouse with his debut in "Steamboat Willie" in 1928. Mickey became an huge hit for Walt Disney Productions and to the world.

In the 1930s as major Hollywood studios had success on their live-action films, Disney want to expanded his animation studio on making full-length featured animated films. The first of many was "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" in 1939 that would follow by Fantasia in 1940, Cinderella in 1950, Peter Pan in 1953, Sleeping Beauty in 1959 and many more until 1967. In addition to produce several live-action films including the award-winning feature "Mary Poppins."

As the company began to grow, Walt want to built an amusement park near from his studio where the parents and the children can have fun together with their favorite Disney characters. So Disney partnered with the ABC Television Network to built the Disneyland Park in Southern California which opened in 1955, it was an commercial success and his company would go on expanded his theme park business with the launched of Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida in 1971 and most Disneyland resorts all around the world.

Walt Disney passed away in December of 1966 just days after his birthday, but his legacy remain with everyone at The Walt Disney Company and a generation of millions of his fans past and present where the magic of Walt Disney will light up to stars at all times.

Happy 105th Birthday Walt.

Halloween And Art

By Josh Albarran - October 31, 2016

The New Yorker Magazine covers Halloween 1945.

Halloween is the most scariest and un-official holiday of the year, it goes all the way back when its origins started in Europe centuries ago as All Hallows' Eve there (there's also an Day of the Dead event over in Mexico) while the word "Halloween" first existed in 1745 and used as an holiday on the final day of every October. Halloween is an tradition for kids want to trick-and-treat, wearing costumes and create new spooky pages like an work of art.

Celebrating Halloween in 1842, protrait by Daniel Maclise.

Feels like when look at paintings of a dead coming back to life for an once-in-a-lifetime celebration such as zombies, vampires, ghosts among others; it's an tradition that you will talk to your children for generations to come. You may also seen classic horror films airing on TV such as the famous moon scene in The Nightmare Before Christmas or an young Drew Barrymore kissing an alien in E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, when it comes to both TV and film, it scares from your spine, but it also entertains you.

Here's an Halloween poem from Poems In Person:
http://poemsinperson.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-halloween-poem.html

Wishing every an Happy Halloween from The Arts of The World.

50 Years of Star Trek

By Josh Albarran - September 15, 2016

Artwork for Star Trek Generations produced for CBS a few years ago by artist Matt Ferguson features William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk and Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
(CBS Studios Inc./Paramount Pictures Corporation)  

Captain's Log: Earth. Stardate: September 8, 1966. The voyage began on the final frontier of our galaxy and the human beginning of the most popular science fiction series in both television and cinema history. The original "Star Trek" television series premiered on that night on NBC, created by former U.S. militant Gene Roddenberry for Lucile Ball's Desilu Productions.

Original advertisement for Star Trek: The Original Series in 1966.
(NBCUniversal Media, LLC./CBS Studios Inc.)

It was Roddenberry's vision to "wagon train to the stars" when he and Desilu pitched the first pilot to the National Broadcasting Company headquarters in New York two years earlier but NBC's board of directors rejected it as it was "too cerebral" said the network until they finally accepted the second pilot and green-light into the series. The show featured the young and handsome actor named William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Science Officer Mr. Spock led an crew on-board an Federation starship to explore new worlds and seek out new life and new civilizations.

Promotional poster for the first Star Trek film, Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979.
(Paramount Pictures Corporation)

The show broked new high-ground to sci-fi television from its special effects to technology we had now that was likely based on the first Trek series such as iPad's, videodiscs and touchscreens. Although the five-year mission only lasted for three seasons (besides the next two (animated) seasons featuring the Original Series cast), but good enough for Paramount Pictures (who took over the Star Trek franchise and the rest of Desilu's television department by the start of the show's second season) to sell all 79 episodes to syndicated on local stations across the country and begun to produce several successful motion pictures featuring the Original television cast.

The crew of Star Trek: The Next Generation joined forces with the X-Men in an 1998 crossover comic book series Second Contact.
(Marvel Studios/Paramount Pictures Corporation/CBS Studios Inc.)

Throughout the past 50 years in the Star Trek universe, they had travel the galaxy from one generation to the next, encounter species such as the Klingons, the Romulans and the Borg; and saving humanity hoping for peace. Recently, Paramount released the 13th Star Trek motion picture film (and the 3rd straight under producer J.J. Abrams) Star Trek Beyond while the next film will be boldly go to theaters in a few years and starting in 2017, Star Trek returns to television following an 12-year absences with the new series Star Trek Discovery on the CBS Television Network and on CBS All Access which the new service will air new episodes exclusively on CBS All Access (an 1st for Star Trek) after the pilot airs on CBS TV.

The Trek Adventure Continues.

Look for all Star Trek television series and motion pictures re-mastered and uncut on DVD and Blu-ray from CBS Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Media Distribution.

Propaganda Cartoons

By Josh Albarran - May 26, 2016

The famous "Uncle Sam" poster, created by J.M. Flag in 1917 was used for the first two World Wars by the United States army and became an landmark for patriotic emotion.  

When you read an local newspaper that you brought from an newsstand during your morning commute to work and to check in on the day's top stories, you're see an comic strip based on current events such as this year's presidential election, the war on terror among others. It's like an perspective commentary that we called as propaganda.

In 1721, London-born William Hogarth and the now-defunct South Sea Company produced an editorial cartoon on the disaster stock market crash of 1720 which was published in 1724.

Cartoons in politics represents an series of historic events that would changed the landscape of the United States of America and the entire world. Propaganda drawings in newspapers goes all the way back when the first propaganda cartoon was released in the United Kingdom back in 1724. Since then, every editorial cartoon has been printed worldwide.

An poster for Women's Army Corps during the years of World War II where women had to work while their love-ones were on the battlefield in the defense of freedom.

Let's put it for example. What if you can imagine if you can make your own propaganda cartoon (depends if you're working at an media company that owns newspapers and comic books). First watch the new to see what's happening in the world, then think about that relates to an current topic and finally use an material (such as an pen or a pencil) to produced an editorial cartoon with an little background as a detail.

In the late 1990s, newspapers across America cities saw editorial cartoons of President Bill Clinton in a awake of his impeachment scandal.

Editorial cartoons had been expanding to not just only newspapers or magazines, but also on short or long-form films, television, the internet, mobile apps and many more. Whatever an politician, world leaders or critics liked it or not, an propaganda cartoon comes with an story never has an end.