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I recently rediscovered this video and was excited to do so. I am a bit of a Sophie Ellis-Bextor fan - her music's okay, her face slays me - and I was as enthralled watching it this time around as the first. This video is stunning, so beautifully shot and framed, at one and the same time evoking both Vogue Italia and, essentially, every single weepy, melodramatic, girly fantasy of love gone wrong. A bit indulgent in its sweeping photography, maybe, but even in that it's divinely overwrought.
Labels: culture notes, music, sophie ellis-bextor
5/24/2010 [2]
I wanted to give you guys one final playlist that gives you a better idea of who I am. It's easy to get caught up in the rhetoric of blog, and I always find it more interesting to get an idea of the people behind the writing. So here goes.
The following is a playlist of songs that have had some meaning in my life, no matter how marginal. If you're interested, I've included a short description of why each song is included underneath the playlist. If you're not, skip down to the video below. Sometimes, it takes more than words....
1) I really enjoy Arabic music, and this song is one of my favorites.
2) This is my idea of perfect music - dramatic, emotional, artsy. I am eagerly awaiting more such music from Adam.
3) I was a huge Buffy fan, albeit lately. I don't think I really got into the show until the last three seasons, just to spend the next couple of years catching up on what I'd missed. I love this song, and I love Spike in the end. Something about peroxide blonde and evil that gets me going.
4) I discovered an ABBA tape in my father's office when I was seventeen. I was lovestruck at the time and must have listened to it nearly every day for a year. In fact, I listened to that tape so much that I wore it out and have even had three replacement CDs in the aftermath. There is such joy to be had in really earnestly cheesy pop, and this song is my favorite from Abba's greatest hits.
5) One of my two absolute favorite songs. It reminds me that redemption is possible.
6) When I lived in Scandinavia, this song was a big hit. Good memories, plus I think it's beautiful.
7) My other favorite song. It's just a beautiful song about drug addiction.
15) Also in Scandinavia, I found this tape (mind you, all tape references occured in or after 1999) that had a recording of "Billie Jean." Like the ABBA tape, I listened to this endlessly. I love how the chorus builds and swells, and I'm pretty sure there's no way to dance to this song and not look cool.
And now for a song that needs more than words to do it justice:
I tell you, I really don't take a lot of joy in irony, passive-aggressive humor, polite conversation, etc., reason being I don't find there's a lot of joy in those things. They're just convenient ways to maintain the status quo. The real joys are in little gems like this that snap you out of your day and trade in a high budget for a hit of giddiness, awe, and fascination. As much as I enjoy my art rock and pretentious little music videos, it isn't thought or wisdom or a good conversation that makes my day. I really only feel alive when I'm laughing, and there's no greater gift I've experienced that to be able to share simple, unadulterated joy with others, even if only through a tv screen.
Perhaps unrelated, I have to work out a way to affix moveable plastic arms to my back, because this is what I want to go as for Halloween.
Labels: culture notes, music
10/05/2009 [2]
As a belated response to Dain's 90s playlist, I wanted to create my own playlist of songs I enjoyed from the decade. The 90s are the first decade I was old enough to fully appreciate and remember; as a result, I spent the majority of this decade thinking the 90s were the only right way to go. Well, this is true and it isn't. The 90s certainly brought about the cultural relevance of rap, the rise of Radiohead, and Nirvana Unplugged. They also brought about Haddaway, Aqua, and boy-pop. The music gods, sometimes so generous, they give until it hurts.
Below is a pretty accurate list of what we were all listening. It's mostly in chronological order, though there might be discrepancies, as I compiled it from memory. I also gave some thought to arranging like a CD, and hopefully it has the variations in mood that any good CD has. Enjoy.
Labels: culture notes, music
9/28/2009 [0]
I've recently gotten in the mood to compile a playlist. I came up with several ideas, including playlists for the 90s, personal favorites (both of which you're likely to see soon), and a playlist that turns femme rock (Ani DiFranco, Tori Amos, Uh Huh Her, PJ Harvey, etc.) on its head. I cannot stand femme rock, but I quite like songs I would consider the male counterparts, hence this playlist. Note that I took the idea of femme rock more seriously than its actual contents. Not every song hits the nail on the head, but the liberties I took in creating this list ("I Heard It Through the Grapevine" reinvisioned as riot grrl breakup song; Sting and Jason Castro's voices as demonstrations of male vulnerability) make for a far more interesting list than mere replicas of the originals. As for the last song, I just needed something whimsical to break up all the misery. I hope you enjoy this list as much as I enjoyed making it.
Labels: culture notes, music
8/25/2009 [0]
CANADIAN CONTENT
The Canadian government requires that a certain portion of radio and TV broadcasts be given over to Canadian content, which means that over the years Canadians have had to listen to a lot of Avril Lavigne, Sarah McLachlan, Feist, Barenaked Ladies, etc. And then there are the less, um, internationally viable Canadian acts:
I hear this song and I'm instantly seven again. (It is still playing in drugstore aisles and waiting rooms across the country, by the way.) I think this might actually be the worst music video I've ever seen, but perhaps I'm just overwhelmed by the mullets.
It's tough to determine which Canadian content is truly a "guilty pleasure", by the way. The original Degrassi Junior High (I have not seen the remake, it looks far too clean and zit-free) was ever so earnest and kitschy, but if Kevin Smith vouches for it, can it really be "guilty"? Probably not.
WHINY BRITPOP
How about some puppy dog eyes and vaguely yearning lyrics? You know you want it.
Seriously, how douchey is this? And yet.
CHICK FLICKS
I admit, I am a sucker for any movie with a makeover in it.
My current favourite in the girly fluff genre is Enchanted. Liking Enchanted isn't such a sin against taste; it's cute, if wildly illogical, and Amy Adams is superb in it — hers is one of those performances that turn a one-star movie into a three-star movie. No, what makes this a guilty pleasure is the ball of mush I turn into when watching this scene:
What can I say? The inner twelve-year-old dies hard. I swear, that kind of over-orchestrated, synth-heavy Disney music is designed to produce a Pavlovian response in women my age. Or, um, maybe just me.
JUNK FOOD
I don't drink pop (soda, Coke, whatever you call it) because I find it far too sweet, but other than that, bring it on. I have a special fondness for things involving cheese: poutine, pizza, garlic fingers (imagine a plain cheese pizza with garlic butter in place of tomato sauce), Kraft Dinner. Oh, Kraft Dinner.During exams I pretty much subsisted on Twizzlers and gummi bears. It helps to gnaw on something.
KARAOKE
Including, oh yes, Rock Band. (Guitar Hero is also acceptable, but in my opinion, Rock Band is a better game.) I recently figured out how to handle the little orange button on the toy guitar: I think this gave me only slightly less pleasure than graduating from law school. I was in an auditioned children's choir when I was a kid and never quite got over it, mentally or vocally (I still sing like a little girl). I get very excited when I score over 95% on Expert vocals.
Toronto has karaoke boxes (noree-bang?) in its Korean neighbourhoods; a former boyfriend and I have spent numerous hours embarrassing ourselves in them.
TAROT
Reading tarot cards (which I do rarely, and not well) invariably tells us what we already know, but sometimes this is helpful. Also, the images are beautiful.
OWNING WAY TOO MUCH LIPSTICK
Self-explanatory.
Labels: culture notes, music, rock band
6/05/2009 [7]
VALLEY GIRL
I once told a co-worker I had Britney Spear's greatest hits CD. She told me that's something I probably shouldn't tell a lot of people. Therein is the truth of the phrase "guilty pleasures" - they're pleasures other people think you should feel guilty for. As for me, I feel no guilt about enjoying Britney Spears's bubble-gum pop or anything else on this list, although I have to admit it's kind of embarrassing looking up Britney Spears picture on your work break.
TRUSTAFARIAN
I went out with a guy once who showed up thirty minutes late and ten minutes in told me that he and I were like thesis and anti-thesis, and that basically, he didn't have to ask me any more questions about me because he already knew the answer would be the opposite of whatever he said. He's still single.
Among the other pearls of wisdom he gifted me with that night, he told me he could "just kind of tell" I was a hippie kid "because I was wearing Chucks." I don't know what Converse has to do with peace and recycling, but hippie kid pegged. One of the few holdovers left from my progressive middle school experience is an enduring love of reggae, and this particular blend of reggae and hip-hop is right up my alley. Plus, I used to fly through Schipol frequently when I lived in Scandinavia, so the video helps reduce homesickness.
TWEAKER
What Not To Wear is not a highly innovative show, either in terms of the makeover format or in terms of individual episodes. Once you've seen one episode, you've seen them all. Also, I am not sure that all the "tough love" doled out by Clinton and Stacey is so much constructive as it is their abuse of their public forum to passive-aggressively bitch. However, there has not been one episode that the end didn't (mostly) justify the means. I get real pleasure from seeing the light come on in the makeover victim's eyes as he (or she) finally gets it - that his cartoonish style has really just been a front, that the sartorial buffoonery has been less a stylistic choice and more a diversion or a hiding place, and that it is actually okay to come out of that shell and look good. I don't know how long these revelations stick with these people. I don't even know if they ever fully take root in them (or care). I am really just deeply and completely satisfied with that moment of "aha" and can more or less take the rest of the show just for that moment.
MEAN GIRL
I've never been a Michelle Trachtenburg fan, but I love her in Gossip Girl. She's the perfect villain - terrible to her victims, but you love to watch her strike. Ultimately, Gossip Girl's real pleasures are not really in the clothes or the styling, but in the perverse pleasure in seeing people dish it out, over and over again. Although the show started out chronicling the (now) good girl, Gossip Girl has become a celebration of mean kids, whether they're girls or boys, and the intelligence, pent-up anger, and lack of suitable releases that turns them into the monsters they are. It's just as thrilling to hear their witty, (sometimes) snappy dialogue as it is to see them assert themselves as King and Queen Bees and knock their opponents down. Most thrilling of all is enjoying the sense of vindication that comes with watching them unsuccessfully stalk their prey, finally reveal them to be the villains they are, and skillfully knock them down to the peg where they belong. These might not be cheerful or healthy role models, but watching the mechanics of how they operate is an enervating way to spend a Monday evening.
CHEER UP, EMO KID
Much as I enjoy Love Story as a kind of time machine, the great joy I get out of it is its sincerity. There is an earnestness in Love Story that isn't present in contemporary films, and dopey and sappy as the movie is, it's that uncomplicated earnestness that hits me like a knife in the gut at the movie's end. Unlike modern films, which insist on promoting "realism" by showing every little difficulty/PC "difference"/moment of self-consciousness in the characters' worlds, Love Story has two dilemmas. That's it. The rest of the movie is just about love, and as simple as that concept seems, try selling it right now. So even though there are cheesy snow angel sequences and one of the worst quotes of all time, in the end, I always end up crying because of the simple, pure truths behind the story: Death hurts. Make the most of your time, because it's all that you get with your loved ones. Love is worth it.
Labels: britney spears, culture notes, gossip girl, love story, music, what not to wear, ziggi
6/05/2009 [2]
This is easily one of my favorite videos of all time. It was released around the start of the current war, when the neo-eighties movement had already begun in Europe and had started to make waves in the States. This video gives a nod to the eighties without that obnoxious, smug, self-righteous quality normally associated with its revival, instead referencing the era's recession and large working class. This video is brilliantly shot, the undersaturation recalling the poor photographic standards of the time and the washed-out quality of photographed memories. At the same time, it's also an accurate depiction of color - in the height of summer, colors can't retain their brilliance.
Both the song and video are also deeply honest. Pharrell and company aren't doing anything grand here, just riding their bikes around and around the neighborhood, because when you're poor, what else are you going to do? There isn't the money available for supermodels, Cristal, or even for just getting out. The location shots and imagery are right on target, with no location having too much money or brilliance, and the casting is great. No one falls into the typical Hollywood trap of playing someone down and out while also, amazingly, having gleaming hair and a Pilates body.
The best element of this video is the song itself. Pharrell Williams wrote beautiful, honest music for N.E.R.D.'s In Search Of..., with this song being one of the album's best tracks. Pharrell managed to capture something in this song very rarely seen in popular culture about the working class - striving. The popular media likes to portray the working class generally as being dissolute, stupid, lazy, and criminal, without thought or deeper meaning, or no deeper meaning than as the butt of middle-class jokes. In this song, Pharell speaks to the common working class (really, human) experience of working for something more from life, striving for it, while being haunted by the demon of, "What if?," or, "Will I find my sanity/Where I find my glory?" Pharell's lyrics reveal a level of self-knowledge and experience that, though rarely expressed in the pop world, make for compelling lyrics, expressing the life experiences of millions who are typically spoken for rather than truly heard.
I can't say I'm crazy about the last bit protesting the war. It's not subtle, to say the least, so I console myself with the fact that Pharrell inverts his peace sign into a rude gesture towards the end.
Labels: culture notes, music, N.E.R.D.
5/27/2009 [0]
To paraphrase, Ryan Gosling once said in an interview that he isn't sure what art is, but he's pretty sure it's not making films. I can understand that: under most directors, filmmaking is too hurry-up-and-stop to truly be a dynamic experience. Still, it took me quite a while to truly get a sense of what he meant. The only understanding I've come upon has been that art is an experience, whether in the conception, actualization, or final appreciation of the event. It's meant to be engaged with, so that a static painting on a museum wall transforms from something stale and static to a vibrant exchange. So with music. Now that everything can be digitally filtered and tweaked, there is less room to leave a song alone and let it simply resonate and speak for that moment in time when it was recorded, much less for the moment you're in. The imperfections are gone, but so is the passion. (Gosling says as much here.)
Enter Dead Man's Bones, the two-man collaboration between Gosling and friend Zach Shields. More interested in experience than perfection, the two collaborated with a children's choir from Silverlake Conservatory of Music's to create their upcoming album. Rather than go on about their highly independent approach to recording, which the linked article nicely outlines, I'd rather just share that their songs I've heard have brought back everything I miss about records - the warmth, the imperfections, and the ability to share an experience with each track. With each listen, I can become more engaged with each warp and distinction until the imperfections themselves take on a resonance beyond the music. Besides that, the tracks sound live, as though they really are experiences in time that have been captured, allowing me to engage in a real event rather than just passively accepting more manufactured beats. I can't say I can get with the visuals, but listen to the song and check out more of Dead Man's Bones. This is great music, and I think it's art.
Labels: culture notes, dead man's bones, music
5/21/2009 [2]
When I cancelled my cable subscription several years ago, I was most upset to have to lose MTV and music videos (this was pre-YouTube). Though there's plenty of drivel out there, music videos can be a great way to see what's next in filmmaking - the ideas, technical innovations, and themes that will be driving the next film and videography movements, as well as cultural conversations. The best among them also serve as lessons in film conception and realization. That said, here's a handful of well-conceived and brilliantly realized videos that have stood out as great examples of music video art.
BAT FOR LASHES, "WHAT'S A GIRL TO DO"
I love the simplicity of this music video. It's basically a straight shot for three minutes, and yet it tells a complete story. The choreography and cinematography are impeccable, as well, the cinematography particularly. This video is a bit like The Hills, in that the photography and lighting serve as pivotal to the storytelling. Plus, you can't knock the Donnie Darko reference.
THE PRESETS, "GIRL AND THE SEA"
This video is an utter heartbreaker and a great example of translating music into a visual medium. The story is visually narrated without obviousness, and I'm impressed with the choice that even the animation should resemble something broken-down and thrown out, like a very bad, poorly preserved late 60s versions of a Hans Christian Anderson tale.
BLUR, "COFFEE AND TV"
This is probably my favorite music video of all time. It takes a truly creative mind to take this song and make it into the odyssey of a milk carton. I appreciate how the carton is characterized in such a way that it's just cute enough without veering into corniness. And let's face it: Blur and the song itself are almost irrelevant when you have such an endearing, watchable character as this.
BAT FOR LASHES, "WHAT'S A GIRL TO DO"
I love the simplicity of this music video. It's basically a straight shot for three minutes, and yet it tells a complete story. The choreography and cinematography are impeccable, as well, the cinematography particularly. This video is a bit like The Hills, in that the photography and lighting serve as pivotal to the storytelling. Plus, you can't knock the Donnie Darko reference.
THE PRESETS, "GIRL AND THE SEA"
This video is an utter heartbreaker and a great example of translating music into a visual medium. The story is visually narrated without obviousness, and I'm impressed with the choice that even the animation should resemble something broken-down and thrown out, like a very bad, poorly preserved late 60s versions of a Hans Christian Anderson tale.
BLUR, "COFFEE AND TV"
This is probably my favorite music video of all time. It takes a truly creative mind to take this song and make it into the odyssey of a milk carton. I appreciate how the carton is characterized in such a way that it's just cute enough without veering into corniness. And let's face it: Blur and the song itself are almost irrelevant when you have such an endearing, watchable character as this.
Labels: bat for lashes, blur, culture notes, music, the presets
4/11/2009 [3]
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