Song of the Day: I Will Show You (by Ailee)


Ailee - I Will Show you

Ailee is the sort of K-Pop artist that would be more at home in the US with the type of music she performs. Sure she dabbles in the dance pop genre that K-Pop is famous for. What she seems to not do is what K-Pop fans would be calling bubble or candy pop. Not cutesy concepts or vocals from this artist.

Ailee’s sound is heavily influenced by Western R&B and late 70’s disco. While those two seem like an odd match, with her powerful voice and vocal range she makes it a match in heaven.

As part of her debut album, the song “I Will Show You” does a great job of letting the listener in at her vocal talent and that she’s not one to be an early flash in the pan success. It would remiss of me to say that her success has been mostly because of her looks. Ailee is one K-Pop artist who has it all. She’s not just beautiful, but her talented voice puts her in the same league as her Western counterparts in the R&B and pop music scene.

As for the video which accompanied “I Will Show You.” It’s an energetic music video which tells the oft-times told tale of the ugly duckling blossoming into the beautiful swan to the surprise of those who ignored her due to her earlier looks. While an entertaining music video, it also has its detractors due to how the video ends with the very man who ignores her when she was in her “ugly duckling” phase suddenly realizing his mistake and tries to woo her.

Maybe it’s a cultural thing, but the video goes the “happy ending” route with Ailee taking back the very man who dumped her in the beginning but now that she’s the swan it’s all better. Again, some have liked the video while others see’s the ending as being problematic.

Music Video of the Day: Swallow My Gum by Lorena B (2011, dir by Ido Shor)


Before Adi Ulmansky went solo, she was a member of the Israeli experiment electronic group, Lorena B.  Along with creating a dream-like soundscape, Lorena B were known for their visceral and challenging music videos, the best of which were like surreal visual poems.

Take Swallow My Gum, for instance.  Swallow My Gum was both Lorena B’s first single and their first video.  (It was also the first track on their debut album, the self-produced Siblings.)  The video starts out as just another drive through the Israeli desert, just to get progressively stranger and stranger.  Is Adi just along for the ride or is she being held prisoner in the back of that car?  Is she traveling or is she being taken somewhere?  Are the answers even present in the video or is it more important that we decide for ourselves?  What are we to make of the child who continually flickers in out and existence?  Whenever I see her atop the power lines, I’m reminded of the scene in Twin Peaks: The Return, where Harry Dean Stanton watched a dead child’s soul disappear into a traffic light.

It’s a video that plays out like a dream of dark and disturbing things.

As for the song itself …. well, gum could be taken all sorts of way, couldn’t it?

Anyway, enjoy!

The Auteur Theory Of Licensed Toy Comics In Action : Michel Fiffe’s “G.I. Joe : Sierra Muerte” #1


Ryan C. (fourcolorapocalypse)'s avatarRyan C.'s Four Color Apocalypse

In point of fact, this is probably the sort of comic that I’m predisposed to dislike : it’s not just that I don’t give much of a shit about G.I. Joe and didn’t even when I was at the age where I was supposed to, it’s that exercises soaked in nostalgia don’t appeal to me as a general rule of thumb, and that there’s quite likely no one and nothing appearing on these pages that I’d have any sort of mental or emotional investment in. No offense to anyone who either dug this stuff when they were 12 or who may dig it even still today, but some books simply aren’t this critic’s cup of tea, and by all rights, this should be one of ’em.

But you know what? I said the exact same thing about Bloodstrike : Brutalists, and Michel Fiffe made me glad I stepped out…

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4 Shots From 4 Films: Happy 88th Birthday, Mamie Van Doren!


4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking. 

The irrepressible sex bombshell of the 1950’s and 60’s, Mamie Van Doren, is celebrating her 88th birthday today, and in her honor, we present 4 Shots from the films of Mamie Van Doren!

Untamed Youth (1957, D: Howard W. Koch)

High School Confidential (1957, D: Jack Arnold)

Vice Raid (1960, D: Edward L. Cahn)

3 Nuts in Search of a Bolt (1964, D: Tommy Noonan)

Happy birthday, Mamie, and here’s to many more…

Mamie in 2018

…you still got it,kid!

Music Video of the Day: Work It by Adi Ulmansky (2013, dir by Diana Grace Windsor)


It’s Adi Ulmansky in space!

I should probably say some more about this video.  Adi Ulmansky is an Israeli rapper and producer and a former member of Lorena B.  I was introduced to her music by my best friend, Evelyn and what can I say other than we absolutely love Adi Ulmansky.  In this video, we get both Adi in space and some appropriately metaphorical animation.  What does it all mean?  I don’t know and it doesn’t really matter.  It’s a good song.  It’s a good video.  In the end, that’s the most important analysis that’s needed.

(I’ve seen Adi described as being “the Israeli Drake,” which is not a totally off description.  Of course, ultimately, Adi is uniquely Adi.)

Enjoy!

Man of the People: John Ford’s THE LAST HURRAH (Columbia 1958)


gary loggins's avatarcracked rear viewer

This post has been preempted as many times as tonight’s State of the Union Address! 


John Ford’s penchant for nostalgic looks back at “the good old days” resulted in some of his finest works. The sentimental Irishman created some beautiful tone poems in his 1930’s films with Will Rogers, and movies like HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY and THE QUIET MAN convey Ford’s sense of loss and wistful longing for simpler times. The director’s THE LAST HURRAH continues this theme in a character study about an Irish-American politician’s final run for mayor, running headfirst into a new era of politics dominated by television coverage and media hype instead of old-fashioned boots-on-the-ground handshaking and baby-kissing. It’s not only a good film, but a movie buff’s Nirvana, featuring some great older stars and character actors out for their own Last Hurrah with the Old Master.

Based on Edwin O’Connor’s 1956 novel, the…

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