Bourgeon

This article was selected as a finalist in the 2017 DC Student Arts Journalism Challenge, an annual competition designed to identify and support talented young arts writers.

The Flaming Lips have become something of an eccentric American rock staple since 1983, the band has produced more than 25 albums and EPs. Last October, Wayne Coyne, lead guitarist and vocalist, announced that the band was beginning to work on yet another album, which was released this year on January 13. “Oczy Mlody” delivers exactly the kind of psychedelic, dreamy pop-rock expected from the band but not much more.

The Flaming Lips hail from Oklahoma City, Okla., where the band members first met in the early 1980s and continue to record their records. Since the band’s inception, it has garnered attention for its brilliant, over-the-top live performances — and for the impacts the band has had on its hometown, Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City has become an unlikely haven for artists and dreamers, especially since the opening of Coyne’s favorite party venue, the Womb.

Coyne co-started the Womb in the center of Oklahoma City’s bustling and bright Midtown in 2011. Painted and designed to resemble its namesake, the arts complex boasts visits from well-known alternative artists all over the globe, such as Coyne’s friend and collaborator Miley Cyrus. The main murals around the Womb and so-called “womb room” inside are the brainchild of artist Maya Hayuk, another friend of the band. Coyne’s vision of a city of artists and a community in an inflatable dream-space, complete with giant disco balls and life-sized dancing rainbows, has taken root in the city.

“Oczy Mlody” reflects the band’s growing friendship with Cyrus, who is featured in the dense and fairytale-like headlining track, appropriately titled “We a Family.” Cyrus and the band’s relationship has indeed grown to resemble a familial bond. The band toured with her as part of her “Dead Petz” project last year.

In 2014, the musicians collaborated on an updated take on a track from the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” fittingly titled, “With a Little Help from My Fwends.” The reinvention of the 1960s hit featured not only Cyrus and The Flaming Lips but also rock band Dr. Dog, indie-rock duo Foxygen and pop duo Tegan and Sara, among others.

In true Flaming Lips fashion, the album embodies the induced psychedelic sound of classics like “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” to the extreme. Cyrus solidified her role as somewhat of a muse for the band, their physical “girl with kaleidoscope eyes,” after “Fwends” was released.

On the homepage of The Flaming Lips website is a video of Wayne Coyne explaining the new title “Oczy Mlody.” He says that the phrase is Polish and translates to “the eyes of the young”.

“The name of our album, as far as I know, is called ‘Oczy Mlody.’ I’ve never heard an actual Polish person say it yet. Perhaps it’s wrong,” Coyne said. He explains that he liked the idea of young eyes and that “Oczy Mlody” sounded like oxycodone, which is why the group picked it.

The clip epitomizes Coyne’s attitude toward the album. It is nostalgic, and it is asking to be more hip and in-line with Cyrus’s era than a 56-year-old Coyne can muster — even if he had all the life-sized plastic bubbles and confetti in the world. In trying to be something it just cannot, The Flaming Lips lose most of that in which the group excels. The band has not really been a rock band since “At War with the Mystics” in 2006. The Flaming Lips rose by mixing rock and whimsy, but “Oczy Mlody” adds perhaps too much whimsy, covering its signature groove with dense electronica.

Tracks “The Castle” and “Sunrise (The Eyes of the Young)” stand out in “Oczy Mlody.” They are  much less cluttered and tangled than the rest of the songs on the nearly hour-ong album. Both reflect bittersweet themes about youth and innocent love. You can almost see Cyrus as Coyne sings, “Her eyes were butterflies / Her smile was a rainbow / Her hair was sunbeam waves.”

The most popular of the album, “We a Famly,” was written with Cyrus separately, over a year before “Oczy Mlody” was even a twinkle in Coyne’s eye. It sounds decidedly separate, a refreshing quality on “Oczy.” Though the chorus echoes old Flaming Lips work, synthesized, endlessly repeated lyrics like “We a family, we a family” are a nod to Cyrus and a slower electronic sound.

“Oczy Mlody” is a testament to, if nothing else, The Flaming Lips’ ability to reinvent and experiment in its work and as artists. It is lyrically sentimental and fundamentally goofy, all reasons why fans of the band keep coming back for more. It is why we return to their concerts in the hundreds and why someone, invariably, wears an orange wig in the front row. Wayne Coyne is nostalgic, but so are we. And “Oczy Mlody” is a perfect manifestation of it.

Peyton Tempel is a native Texan studying at Georgetown University. She began to write with construction paper novels and hasn’t stopped. Peyton now writes for her student newspaper, The Hoya, in the Arts & Entertainment division. This works well for her concert habit, and as an amazingly supportive creative outlet within the community.

This article was selected as the winner of the 2017 DC Student Arts Journalism Challenge, an annual competition designed to identify and support talented young arts writers.

Although the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center always seems to have thought-provoking and passionate pieces relating to the contemporary cultural climate, there occasionally comes an exhibit that stops you in your tracks, whether from the sheer ingenuity behind it or the thoughtfulness. “Updraft America”, on exhibit at the Katzen Arts Center from September 6-October 23, 2016, is one of those exhibits. Washington D.C. sculptor and former Senate aide Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg’s frustration with our political climate led her to create Updraft America, an exhibit that uses 10,718 paper airplanes made out of a year of the Congressional Record. There is a clear emphasis on bipartisanship in the the piece — red and blue airplanes congregate together in the middle for a lovely shade of purple, the symbol of unity in politics.

As American University is known for its political activism, the exhibit’s message reflects well in the campus culture. Firstenberg first approached American University’s Museum Director, Jack Rasmussen, a respected figure in the D.C. area art world, in December of 2015 about installing the project. Because American University is a university known for its political activism, the exhibit’s message of bipartisanship reflects well in our campus culture. American University students Cory Flax and Maisha Hoque, who also works at Katzen, encourage fellow students to look into the Updraft America movement. Both have played important roles to how Updraft America reaches AU students.

It is important to mention that though the exhibit of “Updraft America” discusses the importance of intersectional discussion, the movement of Updraft America aims to promote a message of unity in the face of political adversity. It emphasizes that your political affiliation does not matter — what matters is a shared exhaustion over gridlock and the need for our political system to unite for a better nation. Each and every voice matters, which is why you can make your own paper airplane when you visit the exhibit.

Firstenberg’s life has been a series of diverse and challenging experiences, but her job as a Senate aide on Capitol Hill was a turning point. “In the summer of 2015, I was working at my Adams Morgan sculpting studio when I heard a news report of yet another threatened government shutdown,” Firstenberg said about her inspiration behind Updraft America. “That was the day I decided to use art to address political gridlock because words no longer seemed to make a difference.”

Soon after, she came up with the idea of folding each page of a year’s subscription to the Congressional Record into paper airplanes. Firstenberg began to reach out to friends, colleagues, anyone who felt similarly about the lack of union within our political system. “People are angry and frustrated,” she said. “This project takes that frustration and transforms it into something positive, something hopeful.” She set a goal of folding thirty airplanes a day to get to the current 10,718, and started to fold everywhere: doctors’ waiting rooms, stoplights, even airplanes. As her project expanded, more people of all backgrounds started to reach out to her, their frustration echoing her own. Firstenberg began to foster a sense of community among the paper airplane folders, creating a website to encourage others to fold their own paper airplanes. “I formed a bipartisan team. We met with former members of Congress to better understand how people could make the greatest impact,” she said on the inclusion of allowing people to make their own airplanes to further bi-partisanship. “The members told us that people must reach out to the candidates to say that they will only vote for those willing to work across the aisle.”

As the project gained more traction, reaction was universally positive. People were eager to fold their own paper airplane in the name of bipartisanship. However, the movement of Updraft America had a few naysayers whose cynicism was broadcast in the mantra of “this will never work.” To those criticisms, Firstenberg had an answer: “My response to naysayers is that cynicism is a vote for the status quo. Everyone eligible to vote holds responsibility for fixing our political system and possesses the opportunity to create positive change.”

Even the name of Updraft America is incredibly significant to the exhibit; Firstenberg wanted the name to define the concepts behind the art. “Stall Recovery” was a preliminary name, as the definition of “regaining positive control by reducing the angle of attack” correlated well with the project. However, she realized that the name lacked a vital kind of positivity that the exhibit wanted to project. Thus, Updraft America was born, a name that could not only represent the exhibit, but the ongoing political movement.

Firstenberg wants to continue to expand the movement of Updraft America in the future, especially among college students and millennials. “Updraft America’s mission is to give voice and visibility to people who are reasonable in their political stances — people who can loosen their grip on their own ideologies just enough to listen to someone with a differing perspective.”

The “Updraft America” exhibit will be at Katzen until October 23, 2016. You can find more information on the exhibit and movement on their website, updraftamerica.org.

Anying Guo is a rising junior at American University, originally from the small town of Latrobe, Pennsylvania. She is a journalism major with minors in transcultural studies and business administration. She writes for The Rival American, where she holds the position of editor, and recently interned at Voice of America. In her spare time, she enjoys critiquing pop culture, visiting museums for hours at a time, and attempting to enact a feasible budget while living in D.C.

Originally published on amlitmag.com on October 15, 2016.