CC0 1.0 UNIVERSAL
I chose the song first, picking “Everybody’s Crazy ’bout the Doggone Blues, but I’m Happy” because 1) it’s a fun tune and 2) it’s relatable in a if-I-keep-saying-it-to-myself-then-it-will-come-true kind of way. This weekend my brother came to visit me. It’s always nice to see him but I was already feeling overwhelmed by other responsibilities let alone having play host. This happens to all of us; the to-do’s pile up and seem to surpass the amount of time we have. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all of the things we have to do and lose sight of the many wonderful things we get to do. I told myself, “You’re okay. It’ll get done.” I put my to-do list aside and had a great time with my brother.
Images of garbage fires, giant stacks of paper, and tiny animals pushing things uphill all came to my mind. Then, I found this print of Vasilisa in the Forest; one of Bilibin’s prints illustrating the Russian folktale, “Vasilisa the Beautiful”. The TLDR is that Vasilisa is sent into the woods to get light from Baba Yaga; overcoming impossible tasks along the way. It’s fun to imagine her singing this song; swaying her hips to this early American ragtime tune as she and her doll outwit the infamous witch, Baba Yaga.
The meaning of the two combined is enhanced. I believe this new creation maintains its status as CC0 1.0 UNIVERSAL because both the image and the audio are public domain. The image was created around 1900 and the song was recorded in 1917. Regarding the spelling of “Visilisa”, there were many spelling inconsistencies between sources. I made the choice to use this spelling because it seemed most common.
The image instantly captured my attention. I instantly noticed the skulls, the variety colors and the contrast. The audio is very catchy and upbeat. The image seems to be kind of grim and dark, but is also very intriguing. Also, the audio reminded me of the jazz clubs and flapper girls. When combined the image and audio it conveys this joyful grim story with the skulls, dark colors and the upbeat ragtime music. On another note, I think more grim, dark and spooky audios would also work with this image as well.
Thank you for keeping it real and for your honesty, Jennifer! It is nice to know that I am not the only one who worries about and overthinks everything under the sun especially tasks. Also, I like your idea of finding an image of a dumpster fire, that would have been hilarious.
Hello Jennifer. The words that come to my mind when first seeing your image of Vasilisa in the Forest are “scary movie”. The dark mood, foreboding sense of bad things to come, and scenery makes me want to tell her to run back into the house. I was surprised and delighted to hear a completely opposite audio matched with this image. Hearing “Everybody’s Crazy ’bout the Doggone Blues, but I’m Happy” brought me straight to her mindset that she knows she’ll be okay despite. Going out into the dark woods. The look on her face also shows me that she’s concentrating really hard on the song playing in her head to distract her from the anxiety of outwitting the witch. Another great song to go with this image would be a royalty-free version of the Pink Panther theme song. Great choices.
When I first saw the picture of the girl and the skulls, I immediately thought of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, the not-so-nice-Disney-versions. After reading your post, I read the story you linked of Visilisa, and it was indeed a fairy tale. I love me some OG fairy tales. The music was an unexpected surprise. I was expecting haunting music or something dark, and instead, there’s this delightful ditty. I can totally see Visilisa traipsing around Russia with the confidence her doll brings her, singing this tune.