Tag: video

I’M IN LOVE I’M IN LOVE I’M IN LOVE WITH A WORKING GIRL

Music video blows. Seen your video, we don’t wanna know. But sometimes…

working

The Members released this song in 1982 and it was a minor New Wave hit here. It’s been a mixtape regular for me since. Never did see the video. Now I’ve seen it and I like the song even more.

Effortless raffish charm from the singer. You can immediately tell he’s the kind of guy who makes everyone think “Oh, shit…” whenever he grins, and who shows up and spontaneously causes parties. Goofy overacting. New Wave Girls in 80s Power Suits. HUGE PHONES. The near total inability of anyone to keep a straight face. And in true punk fashion the whole thing dissolves into chaos and hilarity by the last third of the video: people stuffing food into their faces and pushing each other into pools and failing to keep a straight face for any reason whatsoever. I want to visit 1982 so I can party on the set of this video.

I dropped a flash video at http://www.masculinehygiene.com/d/m/workinggirl.html and you can probably find it on youtube also.

DEAR THE PEOPLE WHO PUT VIDEOS ON THE INTERNET

Thank you for capturing so many unique things on video. “Citizen Generated Media” has given all of us new views of the world around us.

We understand that you have choices as you edit and upload your video. One of those choices is to add a soundtrack. This is optional, and we urge you to consider the option carefully.

You may have filmed a raging fire, a funny animal trick, shocking and brutal scenes of hand-to-hand combat, volcanoes, or any number of terrifying military machines and associated havoc. None of these things are equivalent to “music video,” and none of them are enhanced by your favorite tunes by Laibach or Metallica, clips from Tarantino films, or the totally unrelated music you enjoyed when you were 19 years old.

This is true even though every video you see on television is either backed by music or narrated by an airhead. Please trust us.

Thank you,

Everyone who has heard enough shitty 90s pop culture for a while.

maple leaf rag

I just finished watching some video from Canadian Forces of a firefight in Afghanistan. I learned a few things.

First, I would be quite happy to be defended by the Canadian military.

Second, I’m reminded of how terrifying the battlefield is. Soldiers crouch behind a wall and occasionally pop up and try to shoot at something before diving back. More often, they just hold the rifle up above their heads and shoot in something like the direction of their enemies. Veterans had told me this, but there it was again. Pantsfilling fear in action.

Third, there’s always that one person, in this case a couple of sergeants, without whom everything would be fucked. He’s the one saying “No, stop, don’t shoot yet, our guys are there” and “Get behind something right now” and “You got to move that way, no that way, immediately” and most of all “Go over there and reload and be sure the barrel is pointed THAT way while you do so.”

I know that military situations are extreme, but I feel that most groups of 25 people or so should have someone like that. Everyone halt, we’re going to the Chinese place and not Arby’s. Put your credit card away immediately, there is incoming consumerism. No no no, negative on the strip club repeat negative, get your ass back behind this wall.

Finally, one of the guys in the press conference part of the video is clearly mendel. I had no idea that he’d served, but apparently he was in Afghanistan. He looks exactly as I would imagine mendel to look if he found himself in Afghanistan after a firefight with Taliban assholes. Tell us all about it, Rich!

mendel at war

versus

mendel not at war

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…

keep dreamin’, keep believin’!

This is apparently from Apple’s shareholder meeting in 1984, just as the Mac was launched.

It’s a video, maybe a bit worn and torn by transfer from VHS. Just a video, maybe a bit garbled with repeated view, like a well-loved teddy bear.

But it has soul, and power, and spirit. This one will get you out of your seat, pumping the air, saying: today, I am going to be part of the magic. Today, we are Apple. We are all Apple now.