Titanic Sinclair is a musician and video director living in Los Angeles, California. He has worked on projects with Mars Argo and That Poppy that mock celebrity and pop culture. His more notable videos are a collaboration with That Poppy that includes minimalistic dialogues where Poppy stands against a single color screen and repeats certain phrases and ideas to imitate the brainwashed celebrity stereotype. These videos have a certain eerie aura, the creepier ones include Poppy spitting blood and talking to robot “producers” off camera. The character “Poppy” is played by a little-known singer whose name is protected in order to maintain a sense of mystery which fits into the enigma that is her character. The lack of background history and information surrounding both Mars Argo and Poppy allude to the dehumanization of pop stars. In the videos, Poppy mentions how she loves her “handlers” and asks,“Will this protect me?” which point to the possible danger she is in if she breaks her contract, or acts out in a way that does not suit her brand.
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The mystery and seemingly cult-like following of these projects spikes their audience’s curiosity into just how deep the rabbit hole goes. This secrecy is carefully protected by Sinclair, who goes to great lengths in order to keep information about Mars Argo and Poppy’s personal lives hidden. In a video entitled Numbers, Poppy recites numbers as a bell dings at seemingly random times. The bells, however, are far from random. Fans of Poppy have recorded each time the bell goes off and it spells out the phone number of someone who had hosted an interview with Poppy before this project gained momentum. In this interview, Poppy breaks her robotic character along with her aura of mystery. It is one of the few recorded videos that portrays Poppy as a real person. The very public release of this phone number is a threat to the interviewer and anyone who dares to reveal Poppy’s true identity or personality.
A video featuring Mars Argo was released 6 months ago on XVTVI’s Youtube channel entitled Everybody Wants it All where she appears to be webcamming with a friend. She says that she is happy to have someone to talk to because she has no one else. At one point in the video, she holds a gun to her head and asks, "this is funny, right?” The video contains a secret message that can only be revealed by playing it backward, reminiscent of the Beatles' famously backmasked songs. The hidden message is revealed to say:
" If you want it all, you cannot be distracted by the illusion you've created. Only when the mind is silent you can see clear enough to enjoy your life and forget about your desires. Your desires are irrelevant.”
While unnerving, slowed down editing occurs towards the end of the video, blood begins to spill from her mouth. Perhaps foreshadowing the content Sinclair will eventually produce with Poppy where the same thing happens? This connection might be a representation of how one pop star can easily disappear from the media and quickly be replaced with another, Mars Argo being replaced with That Poppy. The channel that Mars Argo and Sinclair shared, garbagebagdottv, has been wiped clean with the exception of three videos. Sinclair and Poppy collaborate in unsettling videos on the channel “Poppy” while her music is posted on the channel “ThatPoppyVEVO.” Poppy’s most popular music video, Lowlife, shows satanic imagery as a nod to the Illuminati and the willingness of pop stars to “sell their soul” for wealth and fame. American culture fetishizes celebrities and suggests that fame is the answer to all of our problems. There are tons of videos on youtube that take a stab at getting to the bottom of the Titanic Sinclair, Mars Argo, and That Poppy mystery, however, little true information is found. Mars Argo and Sinclair once ran a Youtube segment called “The Computer Show” which questions consciousness within the realm of social media, the human condition, and the perception of reality in the age of the internet. That Poppy seems to be the continuation of his project with Mars Argo, as both she and That Poppy have a bubblegum pop sound full of catchy hooks and choruses. They have similar aesthetics and are both young, pretty, and blonde- the perceived American ideal. They are carbon copies of each other.
