Kolda Batman

  

     The Joker and Batman are like Yin and Yang. Neither exists without the other. We see the Joker and Batman as opposing forces, but could they possibly be complimentary like Yin and Yang? 
     Chinese philosophers see the world as a combination of opposites; light and dark, weak and strong, sweet and salty, Yin and Yang. What would the world be without those opposites? Without one, there would be no other. Humans would have no knowledge of cold without having experienced hot. 
     Tim Burton's Batman is an example of a somewhat twisted Yin and Yang. Starting with the basics, The Joker is white and Batman is black. This is ironic because white is usually associated with good while black is usually evil. Tim Burton uses visuals to force us to question what is absolutely good and evil. The forces move and work together, creating a blurred line.
     Bruce Wayne himself is both Yin and Yang. He has two sides. He is the millionaire party guy, who hangs out with big important people, and he is also the illusive Batman who hides in the shadows and is nearly impossible to catch. But what would one be without the other? It seems that Batman exists to watch over Gotham and keep it safe but also to keep Bruce Wayne sane. Batman is his outlet for being so isolated and different than the rest of the city. Growing up an orphan after having seen his parents killed made a space inside him for his darkness to grow. This darkness is allowed to break free as soon as Bruce puts on his bat mask.

Kolda Beetlejuice

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice!!

            Do our problems end when we die? It clearly doesn’t for the Maitlands. In fact, they can't even solve their own afterlife problems without the help of the trickster Beatelgeuse. And upon seeking his help, he becomes even more of a problem than the Deetzes.

            But Tim Burton turns this tragic world of death into a comic one. When the Maitlands seek help from their after life case worker, Juno, and find themselves in a waiting room in the underworld, we see other characters who are in their situation- recently deceased- who all died in comic ways. One got his head shrunk, one was attacked by a shark but the shark was still biting his leg, and one choked on something large that was still visible in his neck. And now that they all got through their (probably very painful) deaths, they are forced to sit in a waiting room for hundreds of years with nothing being solved because of the jumble of paperwork that is nowhere near being sorted out.

            The receptionist had the most ironic death. She cut her wrists to escape the living world, but when she arrived in the underworld she ended up with a boring job behind a desk. She told the Maitlands that had she known this would be what death is like, she wouldn’t have had her little accident.

            Lydia, the goth daughter of the family who moved into the Maitlands house, has no idea of the troubles the Maitlands face in death. All she knows is that she likes her ghost friends and wants to join them in their world. But we know, from seeing the struggles of the Maitlands, that she would not have a better time being dead than being alive. She would end up in the receptionist’s situation: unaware of the similarity of life and death. 

Kolda Introduction

     Hello! My name is Lydia Kolda. Originally from Austin Texas, I am now studying music industries at Loyola University New Orleans (Obvious? Maybe a little). I am half Mexican on my mothers side, which is in no way obvious because the other half of me is Czech. And somehow I am the only one of my siblings who looks adopted. 

     I recently started a band at Loyola called Lydia Kolda and Work for Hire, in which I play guitar and sing. Check us out, we rock. Go here. Other things I like to do: Breathe (very important), roll around in mud, kick balls at giant nets and yell GOOOOAL!, hula hoop at night, watch dumb shows like The Vampire Diaries, break up with boys so I can write songs about them... just kidding, that's lame. 

     Mostly I just like to sit around and dream up crazy ideas that usually have to do with music. I've been telling my parents I want to be a rock star since I was 10. Before that, apparently I wanted to grow up to be a tree. Yeah that didn't work out for me...

     But the rolling around in mud thing, I was serious about that:

 These are a few of my caving friends from high school, Nicole, Isaac, and Papa Perry. I was part of the Devils Canyon Wilderness Program at St. Stephens High School in Austin. Oh man, that was awesome. Crawling through impossibly tiny holes (my favorite of which is called "The Birth Canal" in Whirlpool Cave), taking cave naps (five minutes of lights out and no noise at all, deep underground), and going the muddiest route possible simply because it's awesome... that is what got me through high school. And a lot of my music and lyric-writing is influenced by my love of nature. 

     I am sad that there are no caves in New Orleans, but I'll be fine as long as I get to play music. At this point, that's all I ever want to do anyway. And I will admit that if I'm not paying attention in class, its probably because I'm daydreaming about some stage somewhere that I wish I could be on. I fully intend to be a good student, however. So... I guess we'll see.