Music Video of the Day: Silent All These Years by Tori Amos (1991, dir. Cindy Palmano)

Posted on September 12, 2016 by Valerie Troutman

Funny enough–I am pretty much at a loss for words to talk about this music video even though I’ve been a big fan of Tori Amos for more than decade and a half at least. You have the child that emerges from behind the piano to connect her childhood to her adulthood, which represents the years of silence. Then we see the child run past her adult-self that is in a box–whether by choice or not. It doesn’t matter. There are other similar framings of Tori that emphasize height and face. You also have the inclusion of the old-lady outfit and breast implants. They are all pressures and conformity that she is walking away from with this song, the album, and literally by getting out of the box in the music video. It’s clever to have her stop lip-syncing at the part of the song where you would do that if you were going to do it anywhere. Then it ends with an uncomfortably long shot of Tori’s face where she looks like she is going to tear-up. There are some other things going on such as the innocent child popping in and chasing her during the video at the right times lyric-wise. You could do more analysis of this music video if you wanted to.

Considering this was Tori’s debut solo album, you would think this would be the first song on that album, but it isn’t. It’s the third one after Crucify and Girl. It all builds to the last song on the album about when she was raped, which is sung a capppella. The music videos seem to have started with this song, then were followed by Winter before getting to Crucify.

It’s a powerful music video, but it’s also a little misleading. I can’t recall the program where I saw it. It was probably a Behind The Music type thing. Regardless, I remember Tori saying that they started off trying to sell her like she was the new Carole King. The girl and the piano thing, which is exactly how she is shown in this music video at the beginning.

It’s funny to think of that in retrospect seeing as I remember being introduced to Tori Amos via the video for Spark. You know, the one where she is bound, blindfolded, and left with rats in the woods. I remember when I fell in love with her music. It was with her album of covers called Strange Little Girls. That’s the one where she took Eminem’s ’97 Bonnie and Clyde and made it particularly disturbing.

All in all, the music video is well-made, and a decent introduction to Tori Amos. You have to start somewhere, and the song is there even if I don’t think the video quite captures the musician you are getting. Plus, take a look at Madonna’s video for her early song Burning Up. You’d swear they thought they were selling a solo female Duran Duran.

Cindy Palmano directed five music videos for Tori Amos. From what I can tell, she hasn’t done anything else in the area of film since that time. Wikipedia says she was a photographer at the time. She’s obviously still around since you can find stuff about her with a simple Google search.

George Tiffin worked as the cinematographer on the music video. He directed a couple of music videos for Morissey. He seems to have done some other work as well in film. He is related to the Fiennes family.

Music Video of the Day: New York, New York by Ryan Adams (2001, dir. James Minchin)

Posted on September 11, 2016 by Valerie Troutman

Music Video of the Day: Fell In Love With A Girl by The White Stripes (2002, dir. Michel Gondry)

Posted on September 10, 2016 by Valerie Troutman

First off–thank you so much for filling in for me this week, Lisa. I was really sick. I’m glad this daily post was kept up. Also, of course Downtown Sasquatch counts. If I said no, then Lisa might revoke my Degrassi fan card. I also have to agree since there are some music videos that will tread that line as well that I have in mind for the future. Onward!

I have mentioned before about the great musical apocalypse of the late 90s. In 2001, The Strokes released their album Is This It. They had bad and good timing. The bad timing was because it was released shortly before 9/11, which meant they had to remove a song that would have gone over like a lead balloon at the time. They had good timing because it meant that the late 90s era was dying. You did had Limp Bizkit trying to get clever with their music video parody for their song My Way. You actually had Sum 41 with their music video for Still Waiting that seemed to be trying desperately to make fun of bands like The Strokes. I even remember that my local Bay Area alt rock station played along and actually aired the song like it was breaking news that the band had indeed changed their name to The Sums. It felt kind of sad. A last gasp. At least in retrospect we can enjoy some of those songs now that we are out of that era.

But we are here to talk about the notorious The White Stripes. They had actually been around prior to The Strokes’ Is This It. They released their debut album in 1999. The Hives had also released their debut as early as 1997. I can’t speak for everyone, but once The Strokes album came out, then there just seemed to be untold numbers of these garage rock revival bands. So many so that The Killers went ahead revived new wave–post-punk depending where you look–while they were at it. I’d say their music is a little bit of both. Sadly, this period got so white hot that it seemed to largely fizzle itself out by the mid-to-late 2000s. Too bad.

In 2002 The White Stripes sort of decided to team up with Michel Gondry to make this music video. According to Wikipedia, Jack wanted to work with Mark Romanek because he directed Devil’s Haircut for Beck. However, the record company screwed up and hired Michel Gondry. Jack remembered he did Deadweight for Beck, which he also liked, so he was find with Gondry.

Aside from one short part that they did with CGI, it was all done with genuine LEGO bricks that they went out and bought to make the music video. The kid at the start of the music video is Gondry’s own kid.

For me, this is right up there with the music video that was done for The Alan Parsons Project’s song Don’t Answer Me. It’s an experimental music video rather than a regular short film music video.

Sébastien Fau did the special effects on the music video. I can find one other music video credit for him where he worked as the director for what appears to be a French music video. He does have a couple of other credits on IMDb, but that’s it.

Romain Segaud worked as an animator on this music video. He did a couple more music videos as a director, but that’s all I can find as far as music videos are concerned. Beyond that, he seems to have primarily done work for French television.

Enjoy!

Film Review: Kidz in the Wood (1996, dir. Neal Israel)

Posted on September 5, 2016 by Valerie Troutman

I don’t know how I come across these things. This was a Disney Channel movie that was filmed in 1994, but aired in 1996 starring Dave Thomas. It also has Candace Cameron before the Bure. The quality is low because somebody filmed this off their TV. Luckily they did a great job. It looks decent and sounded just fine.

Dave Thomas plays a teacher who works at every troubled school from every 90s movie ever. You know this immediately because of the gang stereotypes that walk over.

That’s the big problem with this movie: stereotypes. They are all over this thing. That, and Dave Thomas whipping a Native American. The drug trip is a little weird too.

We meet some of our other main characters such as one played by David Lascher who you might recognize from Hey Dude and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. He’s busy sexually harassing a blonde.

Here’s Candace!

Ah, 90s! She is a bit of a nymphomaniac in this. I am quite sure that at one point she asks if an egg frying on her tongue will turn on a guy. She’ll turn on a dime too once she gets a talking to by a female teacher who gives her horrible advice.

Next we get a guy who is a hypochondriac played by Alfonso Ribeiro.

Bill Clinton then rears his head.

Dave Thomas makes an attempt to connect with his students about history. This includes trying to get the students to remember Robert E. Lee because they have seen The Crow (1994) with Brandon Lee.

Next we meet the 90s strong female stereotype named Ms. Duffy.

Two actors from Stargate SG-1 are in here too, but what it comes down to is that Dave Thomas wants to take his kids on an Oregon Trail type trip. When I was a kid we just had a computer game that did it for us. The principal tells Ms. Duffy (Julia Duffy) to go with them and record Dave Thomas screwing up so they can fire him despite his tenure. There we have our movie.

At the end of the day, these three are the best part of the movie other than the Native American they travel with during part of the film.

They will say every single 90s saying you can imagine. I’m shocked they missed “that’s the way I like it” or “homie don’t play that.”

It’s off to the woods for these kidz. But first we get the mandatory hanging the kid out of the bus window bit.

In my day, we just held up signs for truckers driving past that said “honk if you’re horny.”

They arrive and we meet the hippest Native American I have ever seen in a movie.

This guy is awesome. He is played by Byron Chief-Moon.

Then we are off on the trail where Dave Thomas promptly gets himself flung off the wagon.

During this whole thing we are getting a voiceover narration from Thomas because he has ancestors that are tied to this whole thing. It will barely have anything to do with anything. Then Dave Thomas whips the Indian.

Now Dave Thomas decides it is time to eat a berry. That berry is a hallucinogen, which immediately sends him on a drug trip.

He even starts seeing everyone as if they were in old times. This includes the Indian.

This is immediately followed by morons on the wagon.

This was made for television.

Throughout the remainder of the film, the three gang guys think they are going to escape and go to Vegas.

Around the campfire, Ms. Duffy wants to sing something by Snoop Snoopy Dog.

She seems to think all rap is about guns and violence when she attempts to rap herself. I’d love to say that kind of thinking is only from the 80s and 90s, but I heard this same nonsense in a “documentary” called The Mask You Live In from 2015 that is currently on Netflix. But enough about propaganda.

Oh, and Candace Cameron is thinking about sex.

She even gets into Hey Dude’s sleeping bag before he gets there.

The next day Dave Thomas whips the Indian again.

Then one more time for good measure before he realizes he doesn’t need the whip.

After one of the wagons goes over in the water, the Indian goes on ahead where they are going to meet up eventually. This is done so that the teachers and the kids have their time to resolve their issues together.

Then Ms. Duffy gives Candace Cameron a sex talk. It amounts to stop being slutty and play hard to get instead. I’m pretty sure she actually uses the word “slutty”. Not exactly the right speech to give this girl. Maybe a simple, he’s obviously not interested, so you might want to move on would have done it. She can explore her sexuality as she pleases. She isn’t putting her or anyone else’s lives in danger.

Since all these people are idiots, they soon get themselves attacked by bees. That means it is time to put horse poop on Ms. Duffy.

Even a skunk doesn’t want anything to do with her.

As all this goes on you get the typical stuff you would expect as the kids start coming around, the teachers start to like each other, and the three gang guys get scared by a bear.

This leads right where you expect it to go.

That’s right. The teachers fly off a cliff leaving the kids to think they are dead. I mean dead dead. They have no reason to believe they are alive. Here’s the cliff to drive home the point.

Of course they caught a tree. I have to give Kidz in the Wood this.

I actually believe that Dave Thomas and Julia Duffy are out in nature rather than Robert Redford and Nick Nolte in A Walk In The Woods (2015).

In the midst of all of this, the gang members found a map to hidden treasure, which they promptly light on fire with a magnifying glass.

I mean a real fire.

Eventually they all get back together and it all works out for the best. The kids return to class, pass, and graduate.

Despite some of the inappropriate material and stereotypes, this was actually a reasonably enjoyable one of these kinds of movies. I’d recommend it.

Thank you to whomever this is that filmed their TV.

Film Review: The Year of the Sex Olympics (1968, dir. Michael Elliott)

Posted on September 5, 2016 by Valerie Troutman

I’m only human. I make mistakes. During the past week or so, Jedadiah has been venturing into the wide world of Internet Archive. I happened to spot “Sex Olympics” as I was glancing through things related to our site. I figured it had to be a movie, and found this one. It turned out that he had reviewed a game, and I had just came across a movie that happened to have “Sex Olympics” in the title. I might as well talk about it.

As is often the case, some things appeared before the title card.

That’s when they throw the Olympic Rings at you, which turn into male and female gender symbols.

Apparently, coming sooner than we think is three men for every two women locked together in…I don’t know…an orgy?

It then answers that question with one of the few sexual things you will actually see in this “Sex Olympics” movie.

These legs belong to two people who are having a sexploitation scene. Soon they and another couple are interrupted because they are on camera. We then go to the main set of the movie: Production Pod.

That’s where we meet our main character.

I’m sure he has a name, but I am just going with Eyebrows. I could have called him Crazy Eyes since he does those a lot, but that could cause confusion with this lady.

Then we meet the most important characters in the film: the audience.

They are not happy with the current programming. After discussing how disgusting the audience is, our crew traps the lady above in an isolation booth so she can do the Sports Sex Presents segment which airs “Tonite And Every Nite”.

She says stuff that I couldn’t bring myself to care about because I was too distracted by the theme song called The Year of the Sex Olympics.

We are introduced to contestants who are in heats to compete in the Sex Olympics–such as these two.

The other guy in the Production Pod seems to like what he sees when the sex starts.

They say things with British accents so I have no real idea except that their program is not selling well with the audience. That’s when The Coordinator comes in and takes Eyebrows somewhere else. They get something phallic to suck on called on a “Brightener”. It is supposed to cancel out your appetite. I assume your appetite for experience rather than your need for food.

The gist of their conversation is that people like to watch. People are perfectly happy to live vicariously through others. We also get foreshadowing in the form of dystopian talk about removing things like war. I also managed to catch the older guy with this face.

Now we cut to The Hungry Angry Show.

Today we just call this Twitter and comments sections.

This scene must have been very difficult. They had to have a Custard Pie Fight Arranger.

Mr. Peacock also needed five Custard Pie Experts to get it just right.

It goes without saying that the audience is still not enjoying the programming. Actually, I think they are trying to keep them like that because it keeps them peaceful.

The next important thing is the ArtSex.

This is as good a time as any other to mention that this was a TV Movie. I say that now because you can see I had to black box her breasts. I guess that means in 1968 the BBC allowed bare breasts on television of some kind. This part lasts seconds as the camera pulls back to show us Auto-Chess that I swear uses the same font as the WOPR computer from WarGames (1983).

It’s there so we can have the characters discussing philosophical topics. The guy who is standing at the Auto-Chess machine and directs the ArtSex show is getting rebellious. He wants to make images that make people feel again. This leads Eyebrows into a sex scene.

Then we find out that the other guy’s images are actually stills. I think Eyebrows’ reaction here says it all.

This is basically the movie. Eyebrows gets more and more convinced that he must have actual experience instead of just delivering “Cool the people. Cool the world” apathy till he does something about it. Here is one of Auto-Chess guy’s pictures.

Now the big issue is to make them laugh, so we go to a sad food fight. No luck. The audience still doesn’t change from their apathy. That is, till this happens to the Auto-Chess guy.

The Coordinator thinks they have had a breakthrough, but Eyebrows wonders if that means they are going to kill someone every night. Once again, Eyebrows provides us with great reactions shots.

Then Eyebrows comes up with the idea of doing the TV Show Survivor. He doesn’t actually call it that, but that’s what it is. He, a woman, and a kid are going to go to what I swear is the set of Man of Aran (1934) to live a “real” life.

It feels like it takes them forever to finally get to the island. They call it The Live-Life Show, which will air 24/7.

Here is our set.

Despite the idea being that they are supposed to be trying to survive alone, two people do show up. The Production Pod says something has to happen, so they made sure there would be a story of some sort in the way of challenges.

Been too long since a reaction shot from Eyebrows, so here you go.

Of course things go wrong, and we end up with another dead body as well as the woman being dead too.

The audience loves it!

The people in the Production Pod also burst into laughter. Roll credits.

There you have The Year of the Sex Olympics. It is a cautionary tale that things like the Olympics and the coming Golden Age of Porn would replace actual experience. In other words, reality television will take over people’s lives, and leave them with nothing but an apathetic existence that may be peaceful, but isn’t life any more. My verdict is that it was surprisingly accurate in its’ prediction of the future of television that expanded to the Internet while not being so predictive of how it affected human behavior. People really haven’t become apathetic, but swung to the opposite with outrage culture and a cacophony of participation/sharing. Sometimes we get outraged over the dumbest things imaginable. During the past year or so my Twitter feed has been filled with people throwing custard pie at each other over a movie about people shooting imaginary things at other imaginary things. However, I never once saw outrage over the poster of God’s Not 2 (2016) equating imaginary persecution of Christians in schools with the Holocaust.

Still, it is an amazing time to live in.

Feel free to interpret The Year of the Sex Olympics as you see fit. They definitely saw things coming that we have with us today, but there are certainly different ways you can tie it to the current state of the world.

The Year of the Sex Olympics is worth seeing as one of those Twilight Zone type social commentary movies disguised as sci-fi. Just don’t expect any sex. The title is bait.

Music Video of the Day: No Rain by Blind Melon (1992, dir. Samuel Bayer)

Posted on September 4, 2016 by Valerie Troutman

As a kid, this music video was simple and uplifting. It’s about a little girl who is laughed off stage because she is dressed like a bee and can’t really dance. She wanders around meeting more and more people who don’t really understand her. Then after reaching her lowest, she finds a place with others like herself. Recently I read a comment on the music video. There is another way you can think of it.

A little girl is laughed off stage because she is dressed like a bee and can’t really dance. She wanders around meeting more and more people who don’t understand. Then after reaching her lowest, she finds peace in killing herself. She opens a pair of heavenly gates with other people in an Elysian field like place that is filled with other people the world rejected to the point where they severed their ties with the harsh world as the music video depicts.

Personally, I think it is a bit of both. It is meant to be uplifting in that it does show the little girl eventually finding a place filled with people who accept her for who she is. I also think it is a cautionary tale about how people who are different from some sort of non-existent norm can be so marginalized by the world that they are pushed to an extreme limit where we lose them. They may find a wonderful place where they are with others of their kind, but what makes them unique leaves the world devoid of what they had to offer.

The fact that lead singer Shannon Hoon died three years later of a cocaine overdose lends credence to this interpretation. The timing of the lyrics and the lyrics themselves also point towards this as well. It’s bittersweet.

Samuel Bayer of Smells Like Teen Spirit directed the video.

Heather DeLoach played the little girl. She has done a handful of things over the years such as Camp Nowhere (1994) and The Beautician and the Beast (1997).

Jeremy Stuart edited the music video. He did a handful of music videos. I couldn’t find an entry on IMDb for him seeing as his name is rather generic.

Music Video of the Day: She Bop by Cyndi Lauper (1984, dir. Edd Griles)

Posted on September 3, 2016 by Valerie Troutman

I think this music video can speak for itself, and doesn’t need my help.

I will bring up the crew though.

Director Edd Griles did some of Lauper’s most famous music videos including Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. He was also the executive producer on this one.

Roz Block was a producer on this video. This seems to be the only video Block did.

Mike Negrin shot the video. He seems to have worked primarily on Billy Joel videos, but did a few others as well. Since then, he has mainly done television, which included shooting The Spirit of Christmas (2015) that Lisa reviewed last year.

Norman C. Smith was the editor on this, and only seemed to have edited one other music video, which was Lauper’s Time After Time. According to IMDb he hasn’t done much, but that does include editing Central Park Drifter/Graveyard Shift (1987) that Lisa reviewed last year.

If you look closely then you’ll see wrestler “Captain” Lou Albano who played her father in the music video for Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. I’ll bet Catrine Dominique who played her mom in that video is in here somewhere too, but I’m not 100% sure.

Enjoy!

Scenes I Love: “When You’re Smart People Need You” (Real Genius), “Be Nice” (Road House), “No More Secrets” (Sneakers), “But Does It Make Any Sense” (WarGames)

Posted on September 2, 2016 by Valerie Troutman

I don’t like to condense myself in one place, but today is special. Here are four of my favorite scenes.

Music Video of the Day: Goody Two Shoes by Adam Ant (1982, dir. Mike Mansfield & Adam Ant)

Posted on September 2, 2016 by Valerie Troutman

It’s my birthday today so I chose to spotlight Goody Two Shoes by Adam Ant. Among other ties to the song, I too am a goody two shoes. It also happens to fall in line with the last two music videos I did as something that is so much fun to sing along to while you watch it.

One of the most interesting things to me about this video is the use of repeated actions throughout it. It matches the lyrics and title, but it also fits with theories I have read for why temporal overlaps exist in early films. They say that perhaps it wasn’t a mistake, but a double your pleasure, double your fun thing. I know I enjoy seeing Adam dive across the table, then multiple times across the bed with actor Caroline Munro lying in it.

Munro has been in numerous things, but is probably best known for The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). Of course all things are connected, so it turns out actor and music video director Daniel Kleinman who is this video also happened to direct the music video for Sheryl Crow’s song for the Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) made two decades later.

We also get a cameo from the Jailhouse Rock (1957) set and a clever use of a mirror, which doubles the image. The Jailhouse Rock set can also double as a copy of every set used in an early cinema film called Peeping Tom that was remade endless times. The butler even turns out to be a peeping tom. We also get an iris shot of Adam that is repeated with the shot through the keyhole near the end.

There’s a bunch of interesting stuff going on in this video.

Since it is my birthday, let’s amp it up, and triple our fun with two more performances/music videos for Goody Two Shoes.

Enjoy all three!

Music Video of the Day: I Want Candy by Bow Wow Wow (1982, dir. Steve Kahn)

Posted on September 1, 2016 by Valerie Troutman

For whatever reason, I happened to pick out two fun music videos in a row well in advance. I have up to the beginning of November already planned out.

This is a song like Walking On Sunshine by Katrina And The Waves that probably everyone has heard before. It’s a simple video filled with video effects and plenty of sexual innuendo filling the screen. The band even had some controversy over a picture of the lead singer given her age at the time it was taken. There is a rather suggestive photo of her floating in the water at the beginning and end of the video. Just like I Know What Boys Like by The Waitresses and Centerfold by J. Geils Band, I hope you just have fun listening to it as I am while writing this post.

Steve Kahn directed the music video. He did only a couple of other music videos, but there is still something noteworthy. I Want Candy was in between a video for Lou Reed’s Women and Bad Manner’s My Girl Lollipop (My Boy Lollipop). I haven’t heard them yet, but it is interesting that all three music videos were done in a row given the titles.

Enjoy!