Tag: television

Seen your video, we don’t wanna know, phony rock ‘n’ roll

The 80s music video list that jwz posted today is, of course, a huge pile of crap, but there are some gems.

The Art of Noise’s Paranoimia reminds me how much I loved Max Headroom, and how much Max Headroom is like odradak after a few glasses of wine.

Being arty jerks, Bauhaus made great videos, and their cover of Ziggy Stardust is a lovely piece of desaturated aaaart. It was more impressive on a big screen in a nightclub in 1984 at midnight after some beers, though. Most other things wore, except the goddamn .38 Special video they kept showing at that place.

The big screen rule holds for Cabaret Voltaire’s wonderful Sensoria as well but if you haven’t seen it you must. I want to get a nice big hi-res of this one. The Poltergeist 2 preacher dancing Appalachian style witih the girl. That camera trick. Do right. Do do right.

Good live Gang of Four doing To Hell with Poverty on the Old Grey Whistle Test. Holy crap they’re young.

Invisible Touch was a shitty album, but the Spitting Image puppets in the video for Land of Confusion are wonderful.

There’s some real chestnuts in there, and by chestnuts I mean forgettable stuff that I wish I’d forgotten. Freur’s “Doot Doot”, Animotion’s “Obsession” (my candidate for most coked out insane 80s video), the Lambada…

Mail your child to Nickelodeon

I was at the arrivals level of LAX Terminal 4 today, waiting for my mother to get off her plane. There were some women in brightly colored cheerful clothing there at an information station with brightly colored cheerful signs. At first I thought it said “Kid Check” and I got the phear. On closer examination it was “Kids’ Choice Awards”. I guess there were unaccompanied children arriving to take part in this Nickelodeon event.

The women in the cheerful teachery outfits were rushing about talking on walkie talkies and with stern men in suits and it was all very professional-looking. I guess that’s a good idea so that little Mortimer and Britney-Anne don’t get snatched up by the local CHUDs and ground up into hapless little pedo-burgers.

This is a weird town.

DEAR JAPANESE PEOPLE

More Octopus! TV Show for Japanese Kids includes wacky slapstick skits about the oppression of the workers, dictatorship, torture, the dangers of digging up unexploded bombs, and voodoo!

It’s sort of a Japanese Krazy Kat too: both the octopus and the peanut are in love with the walrus. You know.

WFMU has more and the videos at this link