Hey, do you remember when MTV used to show music videos and they were scary as Hell?
That’s certainly the case with Setting Sun, an early Chemical Brothers video that is either a celebration of dancing or a portrait of someone who has been possessed by a demon. Maybe it’s both. The video made me want to both go to a rave and go to Confession. So, all in all, I’d call this one a success.
The girl in the video is played Lexi Strauss. This video was one of many Chemical Brothers videos to be directed by Dom & Nick.
If you’re in the States, this David E. Kelley-produced miniseries will be premiering on Hulu on August 21st. If you’re outside of the States, it’ll be premiering on Prime at some point.
This is from 1953. I don’t know how much romance anyone could expect to get when they’re mishandling a pitchfork like that. Even with the sleeve of her shirt pinned to barn wall, she should still be able to turn around to get a good shot at him. Obviously, the handler of that pitchfork isn’t the smartest outlaw in the west.
Yes, I’m a little bit late in posting today’s music video of the day. Sorry, the Texas Office of Through the Shattered Lens got hit by some bad weather last night and this morning! Plus, yesterday, I was going on about 90 minutes of sleep so just the fact that I’m semi-coherent right now is probably something of a minor miracle.
Anyway, allow me to make up to you with this video for Public Service Broadcasting’s inspiring tribute to space exploration, The Other Side! Yes, those are the voices of actual NASA engineers and astronauts, experiencing the dark side of the moon for the very first time. This is from PSB’s album, Race for Space.
Free Guy is due to be released on August 13th. It stars Ryan Reynolds as a cheerful bank teller who discovers that he’s just a character in a ….
“Wait a minute, is The Truman Show?”
No, no. The Truman Show was about reality TV and it starred Jim Carrey, who was kind of annoying in the film, if we’re going to be honest. Free Guy is about someone who discovers that he’s a character in a video game and it stars the always wonderful Ryan Reynolds! So, as you can see, they’re totally different. Plus, The Truman Show was all about Truman trying to reach the real world, whereas Free Guy features Reynolds taking control of his artificial reality.
“So, it’s like The Matrix?”
Well, maybe. But it seems to be a lot less pretentious.
This came out in 1963, proving that quarries have always been a place of danger and sin. I like this cover, despite the “boy without morals” and the “innocent girl” both appearing to be in their mid-to-late 30s. The cover captures a time and a place. It tells a story, even before you flip over to the first page.
Dream On has been one of Aerosmith’s signature tunes since the band’s early days in the 70s but it didn’t get its own music video until 1993, when it was included on the soundtrack for Last Action Hero.
You may remember Last Action Hero as being the notorious box office disappointment that forced Arnold Schwarzenegger to start thinking about what he might be interested in doing if his film career ever came to an end (like entering politics, perhaps). It was also one of the first films to show Hollywood that Aerosmith’s music can literally be plugged into almost any scene in any movie. Despite its reputation, Last Action Hero is not that bad. The F. Murray Abraham cameo alone is worth the price of admission.
This video is made up of footage that was shot for MTV’s 10-year anniversary celebration in 1991. It was directed by Marty Callner, who directed music videos for everyone in the 90s.
Some things just make you cringe and that was kind of my reaction after watching the teaser for the upcoming musical adaptation tick, tick …. BOOM! I say this as someone who likes musicals, though I should admit that I usually prefer to see them on stage as opposed to on film. On stage, it’s very easy to get caught up in the magic of the music and the dancing. On film, it’s more of a balancing act. Just one misstep on the part of the filmmakers can doom the entire enterprise.
Despite my own less than enthusiastic reaction to the teaser, there are quite a few people who do seem to be looking forward to tick, tick …. BOOM! Not only is it the feature film directorial debut of Lin-Manuel Miranda but it’s also based on both the work and the life of Jonathan Larson, the writer and composer of Rent whose tragic death contributed in no small amount to that show’s legendary and rapturous initial reception and continuing popularity.
While I’m sure some people initially assumed that this musical was an adaptation of the 1970s Jim Brown film, tick …. tick …. tick, it’s actually something very different. In tick, tick …. BOOM!, the very talented and guaranteed-to-win-an-Oscar someday Andrew Garfield plays Jonathan Larson, who is portrayed as being nearly 30 and frustrated that he has yet to write a masterpiece. He can hear the time ticking away. Well, you can see for yourself in the teaser below. Now, as I said earlier, this teaser made me cringe but it’s hard for me to explain why. I think some of it is because the trailer has a definite Smash-feel to it. In case you’ve forgotten, Smash was the heavily-hyped and ultimately very poorly planned NBC series that spent a good deal of it’s second season following the production of The Hit List, a show that was obviously very much based on Rent. The scenes of Garfield exhorting the wonders of bohemia have a very Smash/Hit List feel to them. My other problem is that “Boy Genius” line which is just such an obnoxious line.
But who knows! There’s a lot of musicals coming out this year and tick, tick …. BOOM! does look a bit better than Dear Evan Hansen. Here’s the teaser:
tick, tick …. BOOM! will be released on Netflix this fall. Considering the wonders that Netflix did for The Prom, well …. let’s just hope for the best.
“This is a very spiritual song. The listeners have to interpret it themselves – trying to explain it would detract from the song.”
— Robin Gibb on I Started A Joke
“When he passed away we went out, they took the equipment away and we came back in. I picked up my phone and found ‘I Started A Joke’ on YouTube and played it. I put the phone on his chest and that was the first time I broke down. I knew that song and its lyrics were perfect for that moment. That song will always have new meaning to me now.”
— Robin-Jon Gibb, son of Robin Gibb, discussing his father’s death
Of course, this song really isn’t about a joke. Instead, it’s told from the point of view of someone who has unintentionally said something so wrong and/or offensive that it has lost him all of his friends. When he tries to laugh it off, they get upset at him for not taking it seriously. When he gets upset over being abandoned, they laugh at his pain.
This music video, from 1968, features Robin Gibb singing the song while surrounded by laughter, tears, and questions marks. The video was filmed in Brussels by French television director Jean-Christophe Averty and originally aired as a part of the Idea TV Special, a Bee Gees-centered program that aired in Europe.
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