![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
These days it pays to be so strange
It is snowing lightly outside my window, because this is New England in a time of global warming and who knows how the weather works anymore.
Yesterday![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
asakiyume sent me the link for the music video of Miike Snow's "Genghis Khan" (dir. Ninian Doff, 2016), which I promptly watched about five times in a row. The song itself is catchy dance-pop; the video is delightful textual supervillain/spy slash. Not only has it developed a well-deserved fandom since January, the director is collecting the fanart. It has great dancing, but also great faces. I'll be stunned if no one requests it for Yuletide.
Evangelizing about "Genghis Khan" reminded me that the last time I made a real post about music videos was in 2013 (notes here). They're still not my primary form of engagement with popular music, but I have since managed to acquire some others I like. Have another totally skewed and incomplete list! I've mentioned some of these before, but I might as well have them all in the same place.
Arcade Fire, "Rebellion (Lies)" (2005). This song was the first I heard of Arcade Fire; it was the standout track on a mix a grad school friend made for me in 2005. I used to play it while writing all-night papers, which was almost certainly the wrong way to take the lyrics. I didn't see the video until quite recently. It's simple, but it works, and just as the viewer thinks they've figured out the metaphor, there's the ending.
Bastille, "Pompeii" (2013). It's your standard alien invasion, but it's done really well. The oil-black eyes are only a little more obvious than the smiling affectlessness of pod people.
Beyoncé, "Formation" (2016).rushthatspeaks showed me this video the night before the Super Bowl. The politics, the choreography, and the costuming are as powerful as everyone has been saying. It is also an earworm.
Concrete Blonde, "Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)" (1990). I still don't think I ever figured out who's playing the vampire, but he has the profile for it. I cannot tell if it's an intended effect that he reminds me of Sweeney Todd.
Daisy Chainsaw, "Hope Your Dreams Come True" (1992). It's a short film of Angela Carter's "The Lady of the House of Love." It's very faithful. The Countess' cobwebbed bower is a great piece of silent-era set design. What else do you need to know?
The Dead Milkmen, "Punk Rock Girl" (1988). Why are there zombies? I presume they are some kind of metaphor for the deadening forces of suburban conformity, but I don't care. I love the band blowing the lip-synching and futzing around in the background of the video; I love the one glimpse we get of the punk rock girl herself. I can have this song stuck in my head for weeks on end.
Fiction, "The Apple (For Alan Turing)" (2014). The song is a biographical sketch of Alan Turing; the video sharpens the focus to his relationship with Arnold Murray and the fateful burglary in 1952, which Alan reported assuming—like a right-thinking person or a time traveler—that the police would be more interested in catching a burglar than prosecuting the complainant's sexuality. For all that, the video is not a downer.
FKA twigs, "Two Weeks" (2014). This one also came courtesy of Rush-That-Speaks. I think it's the closest we're ever going to get to a film of early Tanith Lee, especially The Birthgrave (1975) and The Storm Lord (1976). The camera pulls back with the deliberation of monumental things, where the only reason they make sense is distance.
Fountains of Wayne, "Stacy's Mom" (2003). On the one hand, like Kate Bush's "Experiment IV" (1986), the video narrows the possibilities of the song in a way where I prefer the open-endedness of the original. On the other, the timing with which the lawnmower hits the mailbox is perfection. Your mileage.
Jack's Mannequin, "The Resolution" (2009). Unusually for me and music videos, I am basically indifferent to the song, but the storyline features the sea stalking the lead singer, so we're all set here.
Joy Division, "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (1980). It turns out that my preferred version of this song is actually the earlier take from January 1980, known these days as the "Pennine Version," but the process of discovering this fact led to my watching the official music video for the first time last week. The filming is as DIY as it gets. They are all so astonishingly young.
The Killers, "Mr. Brightside" (2004). Look, I don't know if this video is actually any good. It can't count as the first music video I ever saw, because there was some unavoidable exposure in high school via my best friend who actually followed contemporary music, but it marks my adult engagement with the form. I ran into it late one night in New Haven and I am fairly certain it's a parody of Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge! (2001), but mostly you should know that it contains someone angrily flipping a checkers board. I expect to be fond of it forever.
The Pack a.d., "Rocket" (2014) and "Animal" (2015). Maya Miller and Becky Black continue to make short genre films backed with terrifically thrashy garage rock. I really like them.
Shearwater, "Quiet Americans" (2016). I can think of many ways a video for this song could have gone, including science fiction, but the minimalist, political intimacy of this staging works seamlessly with the subterranean electronic sound. Again, the faces are great.
The Smiths, "The Queen Is Dead/There Is a Light That Never Goes Out/Panic" (1986). In hindsight it should really have occurred to me immediately that Derek Jarman would direct music videos for the Smiths. The blurred Super-8 sensuality of "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" reminds me a lot of The Angelic Conversation (1986).
The Spook School, "Binary" (2015). In which the band impersonate binary concepts of gender in silver-spray-painted cardboard robot costumes and then discard and destroy them. The sing-along at the end is fantastic.
Sun Seeker, "Georgia Dust" (2016). I'm not indifferent to the song, but I don't love it as much as the interpreting visuals. They give such good daylight horror. It's a witch song.
Taylor Swift, "Blank Space" (2014). It's like '60's-era Hitchcock with more cellphones and a vague sense of the Gothic supernatural. Rush-That-Speaks was reminded of Mélusine.
Vitas, "Opera #2" (2000). I actually saw this video for the first time about ten years ago, but it took me forever to track down due to an unaccountable failure to make any notes about a short musical film whose stranded siren protagonist sings at glass-shattering pitches, has gills, and lives alone with jars and jars of goldfish. I believe I havegreygirlbeast to thank for it.
White Lung, "Hungry" (2016). What I like most about this video—besides the song—is the way it would be a conventional cautionary tale about the self-devouring nature of fame except for the haunting, which is serial and contagious.
Disagreements? Favorites I've missed? Questions, comments, howls of outrage? Someday I will be rested enough for critical thought again.
Yesterday
asakiyume sent me the link for the music video of Miike Snow's "Genghis Khan" (dir. Ninian Doff, 2016), which I promptly watched about five times in a row. The song itself is catchy dance-pop; the video is delightful textual supervillain/spy slash. Not only has it developed a well-deserved fandom since January, the director is collecting the fanart. It has great dancing, but also great faces. I'll be stunned if no one requests it for Yuletide.Evangelizing about "Genghis Khan" reminded me that the last time I made a real post about music videos was in 2013 (notes here). They're still not my primary form of engagement with popular music, but I have since managed to acquire some others I like. Have another totally skewed and incomplete list! I've mentioned some of these before, but I might as well have them all in the same place.
Arcade Fire, "Rebellion (Lies)" (2005). This song was the first I heard of Arcade Fire; it was the standout track on a mix a grad school friend made for me in 2005. I used to play it while writing all-night papers, which was almost certainly the wrong way to take the lyrics. I didn't see the video until quite recently. It's simple, but it works, and just as the viewer thinks they've figured out the metaphor, there's the ending.
Bastille, "Pompeii" (2013). It's your standard alien invasion, but it's done really well. The oil-black eyes are only a little more obvious than the smiling affectlessness of pod people.
Beyoncé, "Formation" (2016).
rushthatspeaks showed me this video the night before the Super Bowl. The politics, the choreography, and the costuming are as powerful as everyone has been saying. It is also an earworm.Concrete Blonde, "Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)" (1990). I still don't think I ever figured out who's playing the vampire, but he has the profile for it. I cannot tell if it's an intended effect that he reminds me of Sweeney Todd.
Daisy Chainsaw, "Hope Your Dreams Come True" (1992). It's a short film of Angela Carter's "The Lady of the House of Love." It's very faithful. The Countess' cobwebbed bower is a great piece of silent-era set design. What else do you need to know?
The Dead Milkmen, "Punk Rock Girl" (1988). Why are there zombies? I presume they are some kind of metaphor for the deadening forces of suburban conformity, but I don't care. I love the band blowing the lip-synching and futzing around in the background of the video; I love the one glimpse we get of the punk rock girl herself. I can have this song stuck in my head for weeks on end.
Fiction, "The Apple (For Alan Turing)" (2014). The song is a biographical sketch of Alan Turing; the video sharpens the focus to his relationship with Arnold Murray and the fateful burglary in 1952, which Alan reported assuming—like a right-thinking person or a time traveler—that the police would be more interested in catching a burglar than prosecuting the complainant's sexuality. For all that, the video is not a downer.
FKA twigs, "Two Weeks" (2014). This one also came courtesy of Rush-That-Speaks. I think it's the closest we're ever going to get to a film of early Tanith Lee, especially The Birthgrave (1975) and The Storm Lord (1976). The camera pulls back with the deliberation of monumental things, where the only reason they make sense is distance.
Fountains of Wayne, "Stacy's Mom" (2003). On the one hand, like Kate Bush's "Experiment IV" (1986), the video narrows the possibilities of the song in a way where I prefer the open-endedness of the original. On the other, the timing with which the lawnmower hits the mailbox is perfection. Your mileage.
Jack's Mannequin, "The Resolution" (2009). Unusually for me and music videos, I am basically indifferent to the song, but the storyline features the sea stalking the lead singer, so we're all set here.
Joy Division, "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (1980). It turns out that my preferred version of this song is actually the earlier take from January 1980, known these days as the "Pennine Version," but the process of discovering this fact led to my watching the official music video for the first time last week. The filming is as DIY as it gets. They are all so astonishingly young.
The Killers, "Mr. Brightside" (2004). Look, I don't know if this video is actually any good. It can't count as the first music video I ever saw, because there was some unavoidable exposure in high school via my best friend who actually followed contemporary music, but it marks my adult engagement with the form. I ran into it late one night in New Haven and I am fairly certain it's a parody of Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge! (2001), but mostly you should know that it contains someone angrily flipping a checkers board. I expect to be fond of it forever.
The Pack a.d., "Rocket" (2014) and "Animal" (2015). Maya Miller and Becky Black continue to make short genre films backed with terrifically thrashy garage rock. I really like them.
Shearwater, "Quiet Americans" (2016). I can think of many ways a video for this song could have gone, including science fiction, but the minimalist, political intimacy of this staging works seamlessly with the subterranean electronic sound. Again, the faces are great.
The Smiths, "The Queen Is Dead/There Is a Light That Never Goes Out/Panic" (1986). In hindsight it should really have occurred to me immediately that Derek Jarman would direct music videos for the Smiths. The blurred Super-8 sensuality of "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" reminds me a lot of The Angelic Conversation (1986).
The Spook School, "Binary" (2015). In which the band impersonate binary concepts of gender in silver-spray-painted cardboard robot costumes and then discard and destroy them. The sing-along at the end is fantastic.
Sun Seeker, "Georgia Dust" (2016). I'm not indifferent to the song, but I don't love it as much as the interpreting visuals. They give such good daylight horror. It's a witch song.
Taylor Swift, "Blank Space" (2014). It's like '60's-era Hitchcock with more cellphones and a vague sense of the Gothic supernatural. Rush-That-Speaks was reminded of Mélusine.
Vitas, "Opera #2" (2000). I actually saw this video for the first time about ten years ago, but it took me forever to track down due to an unaccountable failure to make any notes about a short musical film whose stranded siren protagonist sings at glass-shattering pitches, has gills, and lives alone with jars and jars of goldfish. I believe I have
greygirlbeast to thank for it.White Lung, "Hungry" (2016). What I like most about this video—besides the song—is the way it would be a conventional cautionary tale about the self-devouring nature of fame except for the haunting, which is serial and contagious.
Disagreements? Favorites I've missed? Questions, comments, howls of outrage? Someday I will be rested enough for critical thought again.
no subject
no subject
I did not manage to see any of them or hear any of the songs besides "'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore" before he died and now I don't know when I will be able to. I almost included "Underground" (1986) in this post even though I know Bowie felt ambivalently about it because, while it is noncanonical, I rather like the idea that King of the Goblins is a profession a rock musician can accidentally fall into while wandering outside for a smoke break after a set.
no subject
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghb6eDopW8I
no subject
No! That was lovely. Thank you. Weirdly, it reminded me of China Miéville's Railsea (2012).
[edit] The song is stuck in my head now.
no subject
Miike Snow is an act I haven't paid a lot of attention to for years. Interesting pop, still, and I agree the video's story text is awesome slash. What does it mean to "request it for Yuletide"?
The Arcade Fire vid seemed very Pied Piper-esque but I totally don't get the ending. What am I missing?
I also love the Dead Milkmen song but no, I got nothin' on the zombies. My best guess is they thought it'd be funny. Which it kind of is.
Anyway, I'm curious how you put together a group of things like this. Do you watch a lot of music vids and tag the ones that interest you?
Are you familiar with London Grammar? I"d be interested to hear your take on "Strong" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6drfp_3823I) which I love very much.
no subject
Neat! Anything that you remember especially fondly?
Miike Snow is an act I haven't paid a lot of attention to for years.
I'd never heard of them before yesterday. If their music is generally in this vein, I will enjoy them, but I admit the video is what I've really fallen for. The storyline matches seamlessly to the lyrics in ways that are not instinctively obvious but which become immediately inseparable.
What does it mean to "request it for Yuletide"?
Yuletide is an annual rare fandoms fic exchange hosted by Archive of Our Own. I've only been following it since 2010, but it's been running since 2003. As I understand the process, participants are matched by offer and request: fandoms and characters they would like to read, fandoms and characters they are willing to write. All matches are anonymous. You write a piece for your recipient, someone else writes one for you, the whole archive goes live on Christmas Day and some time after the New Year authors' names are revealed. I don't participate, because I've written about four pieces of fanfiction in my life ("Lackadaisy Yontif," "Lackadaisy Optometry," "Whatever You Want to Call It," and a flash riff on The Brides of Dracula (1960) forthcoming in The Museum of All Things Awesome and That Go Boom), but I enjoy reading the archives. Given the breakaway fandom of "Genghis Khan," I would be very surprised if it didn't make an appearance at Yuletide this year. So far I've mostly seen visual fanwork for it, but Yuletide authors write fic for songs all the time.
The Arcade Fire vid seemed very Pied Piper-esque but I totally don't get the ending. What am I missing?
Well, the narrator is wrong that sleep is unnecessary: "People say that you'll die / Faster than without water / But we know that's just a lie / Scare your son, scare your daughter." It's a triumphant march, but they bury him at the end.
Anyway, I'm curious how you put together a group of things like this. Do you watch a lot of music vids and tag the ones that interest you?
Nope! I watch very few music videos compared to most of the people I know and I don't use any kind of tagging system. I compiled this list off the top of my head plus a small amount of searching for Vitas' "Opera #2," because the search terms "music video siren bathtub" are almost one hundred percent useless. That's one of the reasons I know it is not even a slightly comprehensive look at the state of the field.
Are you familiar with London Grammar? I"d be interested to hear your take on "Strong"
I'd never heard of London Grammar, but the pyrotechnics are an amazing image. Thank you.
no subject
LJ says I first blogged Miike Snow in 2010 but there might've been an earlier untagged entry. I wasn't very good about my tagging in the early days. Are you generally a vocal-pop kind of person?
Thanks for the explanation of Yuletide. "The Museum of All Things Awesome and That Go Boom" might be the best title for anything all year. It seems very Girl Genius to me.
I hope you like London Grammar and are motivated to seek out more. Her voice is AMAZING and I love their music. Thus I push it on anyone who'll stand still long enough.
That said, the thing that caught me about that video in particular is that they associate "strong" with a man being gentle and tender with a young girl (who I'm guessing is intended to be a daughter). That's not a typical representation of strength and I like how it's handled.
no subject
Not primarily; the genres I have most on my computer are classical, folk, and a decades-spanning spectrum of alternative, punk, and post-punk, with assorted admixtures of other stuff. I find "Genghis Khan" stupidly catchy, however, which augurs well for the band.
no subject
no subject
I'm so glad! I really think it's wonderful.
The rest are all sorts of different things, but I tend to gravitate toward videos with narrative, although obviously there are some exceptions. There are a lot of songs I love where the video is nice but not really the point unless I want to see what the band looks like—Miki Berenyi is a great scornful narrator in Lush's "Ladykillers" (1996) and I find it disproportionately entertaining that the comics character Nemesis the Warlock makes a cameo in Shriekback's "Nemesis" (1985), but I listen to both of those songs much more than I watch their videos, by which I mean almost exclusively. Some songs I love don't have videos at all, or I've never seen them. I adore Arcade Fire's "Black Mirror," but I want to see it vidded to Millennium (1996–99); I checked out the video this afternoon and there are about ten seconds in it that work for me.
no subject
Thanks!
no subject
Here are a few old favorites of mine:
XTC, "This Is Pop" (1978). It's hard to believe Andy Partridge was ever this young.
David Bowie, "Look Back in Anger" (1979). My favorite Bowie video back in the days when these things would show once on TV and then be gone pretty much forever.
Magazine, "Feed the Enemy" (1979). Not a very elaborate video, but it's easy to forget just how alien Howard Devoto came across. Are you familiar with Magazine's albums? I'm such a huge fan of theirs.
no subject
Okay, I love the butcher cutting off slices of vinyl.
It's hard to believe Andy Partridge was ever this young.
When
David Bowie, "Look Back in Anger" (1979).
Thank you. I knew the song, but I'd never seen the video.
Magazine, "Feed the Enemy" (1979).
I recognize Howard Devoto from his brief founding tenure with Buzzcocks; otherwise I've heard Magazine's "Model Worker" and that's it. (It's on the soundtrack to Urgh! A Music War (1981), but the footage was missing from the version I saw.)
no subject
no subject
It really surprised me! I understand why it has a fandom.
no subject
2. I have a certain fondness for Literal Music Videos, in which a video (ones from the 1980s work best) is redubbed with the lyrics altered to a matter-of-fact play-by-play of what's happening on screen. It only works with some songs and videos, of course, and only if the vocalist can do a credible impression of the original artist - Total Eclipse of the Heart is probably the best. The reverse is Misheard Lyrics - visuals of mondegreens.
no subject
I find them technically impressive and fun to watch, but I'm not sure they stick with me the same way. The one I remember best is an elaborate Rube Goldberg machine. After that it gets vaguer—there's one with treadmills and one with dogs?
It only works with some songs and videos, of course, and only if the vocalist can do a credible impression of the original artist - Total Eclipse of the Heart is probably the best.
That's the only literal music video I've seen, but it's brilliant. "And they shouldn't fence at night or they're going to hurt the gymnasts . . ."
no subject
no subject
no subject
That is an adorable thought.
no subject
There is a continuity. They nest. You kind of have to watch them in order. If I'm remembering correctly, you want to go:
Overjoyed
Bad Blood
Flaws
Oblivion
Laura Palmer, Of the Night, and Pompeii seem to be stand-alones.
no subject
I am a fan of I Am Kloot's Proof. And it's one of the most magnificently simple videos I've ever seen.
...um. I watch a lot of music videos.
no subject
Yeah, I was not expecting the Muppet cage fight.
I am a fan of I Am Kloot's Proof. And it's one of the most magnificently simple videos I've ever seen.
Huh! I have seen a Samuel Beckett piece that uses this structure—Eh Joe (1966), Beckett's first play for television, starring Jack MacGowran and the voice of Siân Phillips—but never a music video. That's really neat.
...um. I watch a lot of music videos.
If this trait got "Genghis Khan" into the awareness of my friend group, I don't see how it's a problem.
no subject
no subject
That sounds awesome. I'll be back in twenty minutes.
[edit] Yes, the Mark Frost/David Lynch influence is very clear, especially in the photography of "Bad Blood." "Oblivion" has some of the same feel, although with more demolition derby than I've seen so far in Twin Peaks. Independent of its existence between the other two songs, I really like "Flaws," with its conceit of spending the day at Coney Island with Death.
At this point, if you have not yet seen Beach House's "Wishes" (2013), I feel it is appropriate to introduce it into the discussion.
no subject
Anyway, now I've watched it and I am a believer. Thank you for getting me to take that step. I am such a sucker for people like Goldensinus. Such a sucker, such a pushover, it's silly. But I never want to stop having a Thing for villainous yet relatable disfigured characters. I saw him and instantly something deep in my heart went, "I just want my creepy bald boy to be happy."
The moment when he smiles at the breakfast table and just relaxes and enjoys himself... wonderful, wonderful.
They even got a guy to play Not-Bond who looks a little like Henry Cavill in the "Man from U.N.C.L.E" remake.
The only thing I don't like about "Genghis Khan" is the thing where the [slash writers] creators write Mrs. Goldensinus out of the picture in order to make room for their m/m ship. Is she the same character/actress as the woman watching them on creepy closed-circuit TV? I hope so, since that would at least allow her some options, but I'm having a hard time identifying faces.
no subject
no subject
no subject
I feel that way about Hamilton 100 percent. Will. Not. Watch. It.
AND I FELT THE SAME WAY ABOUT MRS. GOLDNOSE! I said almost exactly the same thing! Let her get hers, please! (I haaaaaaate cast-aside wives. I haaaaaaaaate them. It's not that I want the husband to be unhappy forever--I'm super psyched for Goldnose to find true love--but let's let Mrs. Goldnose have some happiness too please.)
no subject
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!
The movie "Deadpool," which I don't know whether you've seen, is a pretty funny movie with a male-female lead couple. Wade Wilson/Deadpool has been established in the comics as pansexual (I only learned that term recently--it seems to be like bisexual, only more inclusive, correct me if I'm wrong). Apparently he might have a boyfriend if they make a sequel.
There's a post going around Tumblr which says, "I want Deadpool to have a boyfriend but not at the cost of Vanessa's life." That's where I stand, too. I enjoy watching heroes be homoerotic as much as anyone I know, but there has to be a better way to do it than killing off The Girl to make room for my preferred ship. (Vanessa from "Deadpool" is a reasonably interesting/complex person as superhero movie girlfriends go, so it would particularly hurt to see the screenwriters just rub her out.)
There are all sorts of solutions for people like Offbrand Bond/Goldnose and Deadpool/potential future boyfriend. Relationship issues + ill-timed infidelities + actually still caring about each other + taking responsibility for one's own mistakes can = better outcomes than killing off Mrs. Goldnose or banishing her to evil-antagonist-land for good.
They can have a threesome or big poly family. They can not have a threesome but Offbrand Bond and Mrs. Goldnose can actually get to like and respect each other. They can have a sequel where Mrs. Goldnose joins the Soviets and then gets the chance to kill them both and passes it up, whereupon they all reconsider their choices.
As for "Hamilton" a friend made me listen to the whole thing recently. I liked it, but I don't see why so many people are acting like it's the most mind-blowing thing ever. I feel like an ordinary Dutch woman watching tulipomania happen: baffled and a little bit left out. Well, if folks are enjoying themselves, good for them!
no subject
That's generally the definition I've heard: bisexual assumes a gender binary, pansexual assumes attraction irrespective of gender or sex. I do not actually subscribe to this distinction, being a person who identifies as bisexual with demonstrable interest in people of non-binary gender; I don't believe the term is non-inclusive. This argument is part of the reason my preferred designation is interested in people: it's the most accurate and the least terminologically fraught descriptor I have. But bi erasure/phobia is also a real thing, so I make a point of using the word.
They can have a sequel where Mrs. Goldnose joins the Soviets and then gets the chance to kill them both and passes it up, whereupon they all reconsider their choices.
+1.
no subject
I don't like that distinction either, come to think of it. It seems to retroactively define "bisexual" as "only and exclusively into men and women," which wouldn't be fair to the people I've met who use it to mean more than that.
As to Mrs. Goldnose, I'm also concerned that she, Goldnose, and Offbrand Bond all get to spend enough time with the children while modeling healthy adult behaviors for them. It seems like when the kids grow up, this could either be "...and that was the defining trauma of my childhood" or "so he became our Chaotic Good stepfather and after that everybody settled down just fine."
no subject
Yeah. Because the universe is a wide and varied place, it is conceivable that bisexual people exist who use the definition that way, but I've never actually met any.
It seems like when the kids grow up, this could either be "...and that was the defining trauma of my childhood" or "so he became our Chaotic Good stepfather and after that everybody settled down just fine."
I'd like to think chaotic good; it's such a happy video otherwise.
no subject
This one gets my vote.
I feel like an ordinary Dutch woman watching tulipomania happen
Best analogy ever!
no subject
no subject
I didn't see Rent in 1996 because I knew people who were busing to New York every weekend to buy half-price day-of tickets for a show they had seen a dozen times before and were utterly obsessed with; practically my entire high school agreed that it was the best thing that had ever been on or off Broadway and so I stayed away, thus missing both a genuine landmark of American theater and the point in my life when I could have unironically enjoyed Rent.
On the other hand, when I was in London in the spring of 1999 and we were offered the option of potluck theater tickets for twenty pounds a head, my entire friend group declined and I got to see the revival of Amadeus at the Old Vic with David Suchet and Michael Sheen, so sometimes this going against the grain thing works out.
Anyway, now I've watched it and I am a believer. Thank you for getting me to take that step.
You're welcome! I find the whole thing incredibly charming and while Edward Hayes Neary is very good as the agent, especially once he starts dancing and acquires a home life, Adam Jones as the villain (Ninian Doff says they dubbed him "Goldnose" on set) is just fantastic.
The moment when he smiles at the breakfast table and just relaxes and enjoys himself... wonderful, wonderful.
Yes. "Genghis Khan" is quite possibly the most heartwarming music video I have ever seen, which is really impressive under the circumstances.
Is she the same character/actress as the woman watching them on creepy closed-circuit TV? I hope so, since that would at least allow her some options, but I'm having a hard time identifying faces.
Yes, it is. I was honestly much happier with her reappearing as the credits zinger than with her just disappearing from the story. I figure she will have a terrifically supervillainy arc, clash with her ex-husband and the agent, and then reconcile in some emotionally complicated yet satisfying fashion that will leave the kids with three committed parents (we could imagine poly, although I think I find mutual platonic respect more interesting) and a tremendous amount of moral ambiguity in their home life.
no subject
Ditto! And also having her be something more than a vapid and understandably easily erased figure.
"Genghis Khan" is quite possibly the most heartwarming music video I have ever seen,
Same!
no subject
What an awesome collection of videos. I really adore music videos; I have since the 1980s. I hadn't actually *watched* "Formation" until now---excellent. And I do love the video for Taylor Swift's "Blank Space." (In fact--this has nothing to do with videos, but--I really like that album a lot.)
If we're talking videos with fun stories to them, there's always Adam Ant's "Stand and Deliver". What a dandy highwayman :-)
no subject
That video was such an unexpected gift and the fandom keeps on giving.
What an awesome collection of videos.
Thank you! I'm so glad you enjoyed them.
I really adore music videos; I have since the 1980s.
Would you be willing to make a post of some favorites? They really aren't the first way I think of songs, so I am always curious.
(In fact--this has nothing to do with videos, but--I really like that album a lot.)
I will check it out. I like "Blank Space," but it's the only song of hers I actually know.
If we're talking videos with fun stories to them, there's always Adam Ant's "Stand and Deliver". What a dandy highwayman
"The devil take your stereo and your record collection!"
no subject
Hee, well I might do a post about the album. I'd liked song after song from it, and I finally decided I'd get it. She hasn't done videos for all of them, and none of the videos she *has* made are as fully engaging as "Blank Space" one from a storytelling point of view ("Wildest Dreams" comes close, with a story of a a 1940s-style movie star filming in Africa... but the setting/conception is a bit cringe-inducing (no actual black people in Africa, apparently), and "Shake It Out" is just really fun for a feel-good dance video. It's had trouble too for her appropriating styles and costumes, and I can see why, but at the same time, it goes out of its way to highlight actual other amazing dancers--giving them center stage--and includes backing dancers of all different body shapes, which is nice. But you might need to watch "Formation" as a palate cleanser (how awesome that video was).)
I'll think about doing an 80s video post. I feel like it would only be worth it to people if I could call their attention to ones they hadn't already seen, whereas some of the best ones are ones that--understandably--have survived, like the famous Aha one "Take on Me", or any of the Michael Jackson ones.
no subject
It really is. I hope it is receiving the recognition it deserves—and the desired effect.
I'll think about doing an 80s video post.
I'll take favorites from the '90's and '00's as well.
like the famous Aha one "Take on Me", or any of the Michael Jackson ones.
I have seen some videos by Michael Jackson. I think you linked me to "Take on Me"!
no subject
no subject
no subject
I think that may have been the version I saw first.
[edited for more appropriate icon]