Music Video of the Day: Big On Love by Models (1984, dir. ???)

Posted on July 10, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

Yesterday I noticed that an old review I wrote on Hot To Trot (1989) was suddenly getting hits from a German website. Naturally I went there to find out what the deal was. Apparently they reposted the horse sex doll from the movie. I would tell you what they said about it, but despite having taken four years of German between middle school and high school, trying to read it is like trying to watch a movie through foggy glasses. Even Google Translate couldn’t piece it together. I have no idea what they said. Speaking of which, it’s been awhile since I watched that movie, what did I say about it?

Hot To Trot (1989, dir. Michael Dinner)

That’s right. I let Dabney Coleman review the film for me from within the film itself. I was pretty angry about that movie back in 2015 when I had just started writing here. I understand why as well. That was before things like Shannon Ethridge telling me that not having sex between being a teenager and getting married in my 20s would give me a life of “great sex that I could enjoy with my husband, without guilt, without remorse, without regret, without STDs, without unplanned pregnancies, without infertility.”

Every Young Woman’s Battle (2014)

There have been funny moments too that have kept me going–like watching Ex Machina (2014).

Ex Machina (2014, dir. Alex Garland)

Oh, Garland, you jokester. The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing people a movie that opens with an even worse version of the plot-hole that starts I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998) is one of the greatest films of a century. Brasília is the capital of Brazil (not Rio), and the Turing Test requires at least three human beings to perform. That means in both films the character would know right from the start that they were being lied to and it is counting on the audience’s ignorance in order to surprise them. It’s even worse in Ex Machina since he’s a graduate in Computer Science, so he’s supposed to know this stuff. They even bothered to have some of the code in the movie spit out an ISBN number for a popular textbook called Embodiment And The Inner Life: Cognition And Consciousness In The Space Of Possible Minds if you were to actually run it. I love movies! Even if I have to slog through propaganda such as Every Young Woman’s Battle.

Anyways, in honor of being recognized for a review of a juvenile update of one of the Francis’ movies, I decided I should spotlight the music video by the Australian band Models which features a moonwalking horse.

I don’t know anything about Models except that they have gone through quite a few members over the years, have had some tragic ends, and were inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association Hall Of Fame (ARIA Hall Of Fame). If this song is any indication, then I can understand why.

Aside from the use of black-and-white, and the comedy, I like when it pulls out of the black-and-white area…

to an eyeball…

before running us down a pier.

That’s some 120 Minutes stuff going on there. Not as good as the bit from Bizarre Love Triangle by New Order with the dialog, “I don’t believe in reincarnation because I refuse to come back as a bug or as a rabbit,” which receives the response to the person saying it, “you know, you’re a real up-person.” But I still appreciate the artsy touches this video has by switching the kinds of footage on us.

I wish I could find information on this video. There’s a Wikipedia article about the band. That’s it though.

I’m glad I came across this video. I hope you enjoy it. I need to be off to find a music video where a band breaks into a data center to sing about games in order to make up for going on another rant about computer science in movies.

Music Video of the Day: Red Guitar by David Sylvian (1984, dir. Anton Corbijn)

Posted on July 9, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

Corbijn himself sums up this video in the booklet included with a DVD collection of his work. You can find it here.

David saw the Propaganda video on TV & subsequently approached me for this song, his first solo single since leaving the group Japan. I had photographed him a few times in that setting, he was often seen as a teenage-pinup, poster boy, very striking and introvert appearance. For him to ask me to direct this video was making a statement I think. Anyway, it is again a challenge for me to come up with ideas and I spent a couple of days in Bruxelles in a hotel room to concentrate on that. I found it so difficult to come up with anything worthwhile – I am glad that that part of the process is less of a chore these days. What I came up with was basically lots of images that have no connection to each other and the main image is based on a photo by Angus McBean. Angus was retired by this time but was a great surrealist and I called him up to get his permission to use the photo and we ended up with him in the video. He loved it, he was a great man to spend time with but I recall he couldn’t believe he was on Top Of The Pops at age 80 and David’s voice came out of his open mouth. I did one more video with David the same year and only photographs after that. The little boy in the video I found at the Lycie Frangais in London. Can’t remember the name.

Of course there are things that would be reused later: the leaves in front of the camera, the old man, the steps, and young and old. The only other common thing I can see are the flowers. There are numerous Corbijn videos with them. There are other things too if you really want to break this video down, but I don’t want to.

Below, you can see the picture that Corbijn is speaking of, the reproduction from this video, as well as similar photos that McBean did.

Enjoy!

30 Days Of Surrealism:

Music Video of the Day: La La Love On My Mind by Ann Winsborn (2005, dir. ???)

Posted on July 7, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

Happy homecoming, Spider-Man!

What does this catchy song by a Swedish singer have to do with Spider-Man? Thanks to a bootleg called Spider-Man Motorcycle, the two are connected. If you turn him on, then he plays this song. I’ve included the Bootleg Zones review of it. It will take you right to the part where it is turned on.

I can’t find any other info on this, so just enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: The Ink In The Well by David Sylvian (1984, dir. Anton Corbijn)

Posted on July 6, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

I wish there was more I could share with you about this music video. I needed something surreal, and I felt like doing the less common of the two David Sylvian videos that Anton Corbijn directed first.

Despite not finding anything out there on the video, there are still a few things I can point out. If you’re familiar with Corbijn videos, then you’ll recognize elements that he would reuse later on.

He seems to have a thing for birds.

Dr. Mabuse by Propaganda (1984)

Heart-Shaped Box by Nirvana (1993)

You can also see the singer-laying-peacefully shot in this and Heart-Shaped Box.

Heart-Shaped Box by Nirvana (1993)

Corbijn is known for his use of black-and-white, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t tint on occasion.

Do I Have To Say The Words? by Bryan Adams (1992)

You can go on and on with his music videos. They all seem to connect together through the use of some shot, element, theme, technique, etc. That includes showing up in at least three of his own music videos.

Enjoy!

30 Days Of Surrealism:

Music Video of the Day: Turn The World Around by Golden Earring (1989, dir. Dick Maas)

Posted on July 5, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

A few weeks ago when I did the music video for Twilight Zone by Golden Earring, I mentioned this video and how insane it is. With that in mind, let’s enumerate over the things in this video.

A concentration camp.

Bloodfist.

Our main victim of torture.

Visible camera crew.

A whole bunch of people who have been hung.

A gun to the head.

A child who is most likely going to be killed.

Comedic interruption of someone waiting to die.

Angels.

Fire-breathing as a metaphor for death-from-above.

Soldiers playing American Gladiators.

Belinda Carlisle reference hanging above the group–Heaven Is A Place On Earth.

The Nazi dancers from Twilight Zone.

A black man being beaten by Illinois police officers.

Hitler snapping his fingers along to the music while Jesus receives his crown of thorns in the background.

The comic relief coming out of a jukebox.

Paying a visit to our guy waiting to die.

Making sure we didn’t miss the nuclear weapons reference earlier.

Hitler and Napoleon dancing to the song. It connects someone who annexed the Netherlands from his younger brother–who was the leader of the Kingdom of Holland–with someone who took the Netherlands by force. My memory of Dutch history is too weak to go into any connections between the two as it pertained to Jews in the Kingdom of Holland. I’m sure the whole thing with the invasion of the Netherlands by Hitler and the Maas river wasn’t lost on the director.

Lead-singer Barry Hay looking confused as to what he is supposed to be doing here.

May foreshadowing the appearance of the devil.

I have no idea why they are punching their fists threw glass.

Two guys I’m sure I should recognize, but I don’t want to guess.

Remember, it’s a musical! And there’s an American flag in the background.

The little girl survives, but will always carry the memory–another Golden Earring video that appears to be referencing both the film The Assault (1986) and the book De Aanslag by Harry Mulisch that the film is based on.

We see that there are many numbered rooms where people are being tortured.

Someone executed at the barrel of a toy gun by a Spanish company that made James Bond guns.

Aftermath of a crime scene.

The colors of the Flag of Overijssel, which represents the province of Holland. The center river shaped stripe stands for the river IJssel.

The river was a natural line of defense that had to be crossed by Allied troops to liberate the Netherlands at the end of WWII. I’m sure it’s no coincidence that a river that has to be controlled–like so much water in the Netherlands–in order for the country to exist is in this video.

The last temptation of Christ.

A reminder that things like the Bombing of Rotterdam, Dresden, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki have happened.

Changing the channel from the news to a sitcom.

Hay, Castro, guy I should know, and Napoleon popping his head in to say hi.

Gunshot.

Did you know they did, or maybe still do sell Mussolini cologne? I had an Italian Studies teacher in college who brought it up, so I of course went to her office hours, and she showed me where online they sold it. The site got Neo-Nazi very fast, so we didn’t stay long.

Castro on the drums.

Hitler breakdancing.

Let them know it’s genocide out there.

I think May might be trying to remind us of the video for When The Lady Smiles.

Exit the jukebox and fade to black.

Dick Maas went on to do feature films such as the Flodder movies, Amsterdamned (1986), and the more recent, and apparently controversial film Saint (2010). It’s a killer Santa Claus movie–more specifically, a St. Nicholas killer movie. Bear in mind, this was several years before Kirk Cameron would also include a violent St. Nicholas in Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas (2014). It was still a touchy subject for people who hadn’t seen Christmas Evil (1980); Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984); and Santa’s Slay (2005). Or it was a publicity stunt as IMDb would suggest:

“Upon release the movie poster proved to be very controversial. Various organizations of concerned parents tried to boycott the poster, which features an image of a ‘zombie St. Nicolas’ as opposed to the friendly St. Nicolas the people in The Netherlands are used to. Dutch director Johan Nijenhuis became the spokesperson for the movement that tried to boycott the poster and he even went to court, claiming the poster would damage the festive season and cause trauma with young children.”

“In hindsight, the complaints by Johan Nijenhuis about the movie being inappropriate for young children seem to have been part of a publicity campaign.”

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Talking In Your Sleep by The Romantics (1983, dir. ???)

Posted on July 3, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

Last week’s hospital procedure was to see if they could find anything that could be causing this 20+ year chronic cough. The doctor doesn’t like to discuss the results immediately afterwards since you’d probably be too groggy. I agree with that. However, he did give me an envelope with some results inside of it. I didn’t have any plans to look at it without the doctor to interpret it for me. I was feeling pretty down, so I opened it up. I don’t know exactly what they are going to do, if anything, but they did find several things. I’m very happy about that. It’s really weird to be happy about doctor’s finding something wrong. But if they hadn’t, then I would have been back to square one. This has cheered me up to at least put a short post together. Unfortunately, it’s an example of one of the serious downsides to doing these posts. There’s another version of Talking In Your Sleep by The Romantics–of course there is.

Back when I knew I was going to be starting a several week rollercoaster of antibiotic side-effects, I did a post on Goodbye To You by Scandal. That video looked very similar to this one. It was just more lively. I bring it up because while doing that post I was also looking at other videos by Scandal, such as the one for Love’s Got A Line On You. There’s the professional version with Patty Smyth decked out in her best 80’s prom dress. Then there’s the two versions that just have the band performing against a white background. The only reason they are notable is because you get to see Jon Bon Jovi playing with them. Beyond the, There’s another version?, I would say that this one is for completionists only, like those other Scandal videos. For those people, I felt I might as well do this while I remember it exists.

In general, I have been feeling particularly bad. Lisa may jump in from time to time. If I need to bow out completely, then I’ll say so. One upside to feeling bad is that I blaze through a lot of movies. With that in mind, it means I can tie this post of video for a Detroit, Michigan band to Canada’s 150th anniversary.

During the past week, I watched what may be the worst–non-Hallmark–Canadian film trying to masquerade as an America one that I’ve seen so far. That film being The Masked Saint (2016). It’s a pro-vigilante film about a wrestler turned pastor that moves to Michigan, dresses up like Santo, and violently defends his flock. I knew it was Canadian the second I saw a big American flag on the back wall of his church for no discernible reason. It was also the last film starring Canadian wrestler Roddy Piper. It’s kind of sad that he went out with this film, but considering the movies he made, I get the impression he had a good sense of humor.

Also, The Romantics’ album In Heat, which included this song, did well in Canada and the Netherlands. The first is obvious. The second ties to Canada because they have a special place in the Netherlands since they were some of the first soldiers to arrive to liberate the Dutch during WWII. They also took in the future queen of the Netherlands, Beatrix, during the war. She’ll come up again when I eventually do a certain Golden Earring video–but that’s for another day.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Working For The Weekend by Loverboy (1981, dir. Arnold Levine)

Posted on July 1, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

Happy Canada Day!

What is that? I know what that is. That’s dialog.

I’m sorry, but MTV and VH1 have told me all my life that Love Is A Battlefield by Pat Benatar is the first music video to have dialog in it. I have a few theories about this.

The first is that while I don’t think anyone would say that Loverboy songs aren’t fun and catchy, they and their videos are what they are. I could see MTV wanting something impressive like Love Is A Battlefield to hold such a coveted crown.

Another reason is that they might have just forgotten this had dialog in it. That is the most probable theory I have. That dialog really doesn’t need to be there. It would have been taken care of by having the band introduce a video with a VJ. Based on the comments section on this video, I have a feeling they edited that out so much that people didn’t know it existed till at least 2011 when this video was posted on YouTube. It wasn’t unusual for MTV to edit videos for time. That’s why there are two versions of We’re Not Gonna Take It by Twisted Sister.

The last theory is that this was added in for the post. It isn’t impossible. A lot of bands have had their videos released on DVD. This could have been ripped from that DVD to post on YouTube. For example, the officially posted versions of a bunch of Golden Earring’s videos are from a compilation DVD called The Devil Made Us Do It. I don’t put much stock in this theory.

The dialog, while boring, leads into the song, which lends credence to my belief that this was meant to be the start of the video. If you look at some of the other videos that were shot at the same time–Turn Me Loose, Lucky Ones, Gangs In The Street–then you’ll notice that director Arnold Levine liked to stick something in there to spice it up, when in reality, they just filmed them performing on the same stage over and over again. Take a look at the videos. You’ll notice it’s the same stage without even having to read the quote below from lead singer Mike Reno taken from the book MTV Ruled The World:

We would play the song over and over again, and we’d bounce around like we normally did. Here’s what I thought was kind of interesting: The director would say, ‘OK, we’re going to shoot another song, now go get changed.’ ‘What do you mean?’ ‘You have to put on a whole new outfit, and we’re going to change the lighting a bit.’ But it was the same stage! So basically, we just had to get some other clothes, fix your hair, take a break, and then jump back on stage and do the same thing over and over again. I really felt like I was being abused a bit, but that’s the nature of the beast.

Also, consider it to be a music video or not, he directed You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night) by Meat Loaf that has dialog at the beginning. That was done in 1978. He also did the 1982 black-and-white version of I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts that ends with people chattering at a bar. It seems like something that was already a part of his repertoire.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: So Excellent by Kylie Mole (1988, dir. ???)

Posted on June 30, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

I’m not sure how I ended up on the Australasian side of YouTube music videos. But I’m glad I did. I’m hooked on listening to Big On Love by Models.

Kylie Mole is a character created by comedian Mary-Anne Fahey. The character was so successful that she not only did a couple songs, but even wrote a book called My Diary By Kylie Mole. She is credited with popularizing the term “bogan.” According to Wikipedia, the character of Captain Boomerang “has been reinvented as a bogan instead of his typical garish personality.”

I guess that explains the AC/DC song when they introduce him in Suicide Squad and the poster in this video.

Suicide Squad (2016, dir. David Ayer)

You can also see the gun-toting panda in the background.

Suicide Squad (2016, dir. David Ayer)

What exactly is a bogan? I’m not going to try and classify it. There are sites that do it. There also appears to be a movement to reclaim the term. You can get an idea of what she is making fun of just by watching the video.

Yes, she did do some things with Kylie Minogue, such as the compilation below:

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Sour Girl by Stone Temple Pilots (2000, dir. David Slade)

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

My introduction to Stone Temple Pilots was the album Tiny Music…Songs From the Vatican Gift Shop–not my recommended way to start listening to STP. I remember liking this song, but when I bought the album, it felt generic and instantly forgettable.

The video for Sour Girl on the other hand is still something I remember to this day. Apparently, despite the fact that they look like a creepy version of Teletubbies, they were inspired by a dream that Scott Weiland had. At least that’s according to the Wikipedia article that draws from the Songfacts page on the song and video. The song was written about his divorce from his first wife. I’m assuming this is the same wife who he wrote Interstate Love Song about since according to Scott Weiland’s memoir [Not Dead & Not for Sale: A Memoir]:

[About Sour Girl]: “Everyone is convinced that it’s about my romance with Mary [Forsberg, second wife],” Weiland writes in his autobiography Not Dead and Not For Sale. “But everyone is wrong. ‘Sour Girl’ was written after the collapse of my relationship with Jannina [Castaneda, first wife]. It’s about her. ‘She was a sour girl the day that she met me,’ I wrote. ‘She was a happy girl the day she left me… I was a superman, but looks are deceiving. The rollercoaster ride’s a lonely one. I pay a ransom note to stop it from steaming.’ The ransom note, of course, was the fortune our divorce was costing me. And the happy state, which I presumed to be Jannina’s mood, was because she had finally rid her life of a man who had never been faithful.”

[About Interstate Love Song]: “She’d ask how I was doing, and I’d lie, say I was doing fine.”
“I imagined what was going through her mind when I wrote, ‘Waiting on a Sunday afternoon for what I read between the lines, your lies, feelin’ like a hand in rusted shame, so do you laugh or does it cry? Reply?”

That explains the bleak video, why she is returned to a happy-looking state while in the dark world of the video, and why Weiland is left in the dark world with the creepy creatures.

Considering Weiland’s life and the meaning behind this song and video, it’s interesting that it was directed by David Slade. You might remember him as a producer and director of episodes of American Gods and Hannibal. He also directed The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010).

Yari Schutzer was the production manager. Schutzer seems to have worked on around 25 music videos as well as some movies.

Martin Coppen shot the video. He has worked on at least 25 videos. Since his credits date back as far as 1988, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are many more.

Bronni Bakke was the casting director, which I guess mean she picked out Sarah Michelle Gellar and the people in the suits. She worked on The Bogus Witch Project (2000) and a few other things. According to her IMDb profile, she “impersonates Britney Spears, Marilyn Monroe, Felicity Shagwell and Lara Croft.” From what I can find, it looks like she passed away in 2016 from breast cancer.

Enjoy!

30 Days Of Surrealism:

Music Video of the Day: Comanchero by Moon Ray (1984, dir. ???)

Posted on June 27, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

Back when I was in college, I came across this music video…somehow. It has Italo disco singer Moon Ray (Raggio Di Luna) dancing in an Atari game with the occasional shot of her in a ring of fire.

Seeing as this is Italo disco, there is a French description on the video. Running it through Google Translate gives me the following:

The moonbeam in question (MoonRay) invokes the Comanchero, a character with the sulphurous reputation of the mythology of the far west and films of westerns.
The rhythmic rhythm arrives abruptly with feminine voice with the well-felt climate.
A title of the Italian-dance wave in the mid-1980s that remains a summer 1985 hit.

I didn’t know there was a “moonbeam” in question, but I guess it’s Moon Ray herself. She is invoking the Comanchero by dancing with video game graphics that invoke an unfortunate Atari game into the mind of the viewer. The yellow she is wearing is important to bringing the Comanchero. The Comanchero has a reputation “of the mythology of the far west and films of westerns.”

“The rhythmic rhythm arrives abruptly with feminine voice with the well-felt climate.” That is a line that Google translated for me. That’s all I can say about it.

That last sentence simply isn’t true. This song doesn’t remain “a summer 1985 hit.” This song remains popular today, as the video below shows, people are still doing the Comanchero.