Today is Edgar Allan Poe’s birthday! If he were still alive today, he would be 209 years old. He would probably be the oldest man on the planet. Certainly, I think we would all be rather amazed at his vitality. Unfortunately, Poe is no longer with us. He was only forty years old when he died but his influence lives on.
You would think that there would be a hundred music videos based on the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. Well, you would be wrong. While Poe’s work has inspired countless musicians (and there have been several songs based on his work), there aren’t many “official” music videos of those songs.
(There’s plenty of unofficial and amateur videos, of course. But, for music video of the day, I know that Val preferred to use only official videos and, while I’m filling in for her, I’m going to abide by her rules.)
However, there is a band that was not only influenced by Poe but which proudly displays that influence. Edgar Allan Poets is a Los Angeles band that lists its two greatest influences as being Poe and Hitchcock. Their music has a haunting, rather dream-like feel to it.
HollySiz is the stage name use by the French actress and singer, Cécile Cassel.
As for this video, it’s a journey through not only the history of dance but the history of film as well.
(On personal note, I currently have “better than yesterday” stuck in my head and I look forward to driving everyone crazy today by using that phrase every chance that I get.)
Today’s music video of the day is this creepy, black-and-white video of Flint Eastwood’s Monster.
While watching this video, you’ll undoubtedly notice that it features a hairless cat. I love cats but I have to admit that hairless cats totally freak me out. I guess it’s because the sight of a hairless cat forces you to consider just how much of the inherent cuteness of cats has to do with their fur. Personally, I think that my cat Doc is the cutest cat ever but would I still feel the same way if he didn’t have all of that black fur? It’s a fair question.
Of course, what’s ironic is that cat’s don’t even care or notice what color their fur is. They’re color blind and, for the most part, they hate each other equally regardless of color or socio-economic background.
As long as I’m continuing to make everything about me, I should also point out that I have really bad eyesight and I think it might be getting worse! This video reminded me of how much I’m not looking forward to going to the optometrist next week.
When I saw The Commuter at the Alamo Drafthouse yesterday, this video was shown as a part of the pre-show. It’s actually taken from a 1974 ABC special, Ridin’ The Rails: The Great American Train Story. Apparently, the entire special was Johnny Cash riding trains across America, while singing some of his favorite train-related songs.
I imagine that it was ultimately meant to be something of a commercial for Amtrak, which was only 3 years old when Ridin’ The Rails aired. Myself, I’ve always found trains to be very romantic and one of my most beloved memories of Italy is riding the train into and from Venice. I’ve never been on Amtrak, though. I guess that’s because I’m a Southern girl and, down here, we love our cars too much to ever ride a train.
(I do remember, a few years back, watching a bunch of people from up North having a televised conniption over how little we care about Amtrak in the South. It struck me as being kinda weird and petty but anyway…)
Ridin’ The Rails was directed by Nicholas Webster. If that name sounds familiar, that might be because Webster also directed my favorite Christmas movie, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians!
This is the official version and, while it’s nice to see men getting objectified for once, I have to admit that I still prefer the first version. That version, after all, had zombies.
To a lot of people, this will always be known as the Lifetime song. That’s because Lifetime used to always play this song in their commercials and it always fit in perfectly with whatever melodramatic movie was being advertised. Like the best Lifetime films, Ex’s & Oh’s may sound dramatic but it’s actually very humorous and self-aware.
Just consider some of my favorite lyrics:
Well, I had me a boy, turned him into a man I showed him all the things that he didn’t understand Whoa, and then I let him go Now, there’s one in California who’s been cursing my name ‘Cause I found me a better lover in the UK Hey, hey, until I made my getaway One, two, three, they gonna run back to me ‘Cause I’m the best baby that they never gotta keep One, two, three, they gonna run back to me They always wanna come, but they never wanna leave
Myself, I loved this song even before it became a Lifetime anthem. This is one of those songs that it’s fun to sing off-key to while you’re stuck on Central Expressway.
There’s actually two videos for this song. The video that I shared today is the first version and I like it the best because there’s zombie at the end!
Since today is Mel C’s birthday, I decided to go with a Spice Girls video for the video of the day.
Wannabe was the Spice Girls’s first video and, when it was released, it took only two hours for it to become the number one selected video on The Box, a British cable network. It stayed at number one for 13 weeks and it only fell from that spot because the Spice Girls released another video.
This video was directed by commercial director Jhoan Camitz. According to Wikipedia, this was his first music video. According to the imvdb, it was his third. Reportedly, he originally wanted to film the video at a hotel in Barcelona but, when he was denied permission, he instead filmed at the Midland Grand Hotel in St. Pancras, London.
The video was banned in some parts of Asia, because it was considered to be too provocative.
I’ve taking turns trying to convince nearly everyone here at the Shattered Lens to, at some point in the future, review Spice World. So far, everyone’s refused so I may to do it someday myself.
This trippy video came out five days ago and it’s already a favorite of mine. To be honest, I have a weakness for anything that involves a robot band breaking free and beating up a bunch of drunks.
(Originally, I was going to list my picks for the best in SyFy today. However, I need one more day to work on that so look for that tomorrow! For now, here are my favorite songs of 2017!)
Every January, I list my favorite songs of the previous year and, every January, I include the same disclaimer. My favorite songs are not necessarily the favorite songs of any of the other writers here at the Shattered Lens. We are a large and diverse group of people and, as such, we all have our own individual tastes.
If you ever visited the TSL Bunker, you would be shocked by the different music coming out of each office. You would hear everything from opera to death metal to the best of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. And then, of course, you would reach my office and you would discover that my taste in music pretty much runs the gamut from EDM to More EDM.
Now, usually, I do try to listen to a variety of music. You can go to my Song of the Day site — Lisa Marie’s Song of the Day — and see that I do occasionally listen to other types of music. But, I have to be honest. 2017 was not a year that inspired me to really leave me comfort zone. If anything, music provided me with some much needed consistency in an otherwise chaotic year. 2017 was a year that made me want to dance until it was all over and, for the most part, my favorite songs of the year reflect that fact.
Before I list my songs, I should make something else very clear. These are my favorite songs of 2017. I’m not saying that they’re necessarily the best songs of 2017. I’ll leave that debate for others. Instead, there are the songs that I found myself listening to over and over again. These are the songs made me dance. These are the songs that made me sing. A few of these songs relaxed me when I needed to be relaxed. These are songs that I liked.
You might like them.
Or you might not.
That’s the beautiful thing about art. Everyone experiences it in their own individual way.
Here are my favorite songs of 2017:
14. Shutdown by Joywave
13. Love So Soft by Kelly Clarkson
12. Rainmaker by Sleigh Bells
11. I feel It Coming by The Weeknd featuring Daft Punk
(Technically, this is a 2016 song but I listened to it a lot in 2017 and this is my list so fuck it, I’m including it.)
10. Alone by Alan Walker
9. Byte by Martin Garrix & Brooks
8. You Could Be by R3HAB featuring Khrebto
7. Mirage by Lindey Stirling featuring Raja Kumari
6. Rich Boy by Galantis
5. What About Us by P!nk
4. First Time by Kygo & Ellie Goulding
3. Escape Reality Tonight by Paul van Dyk & Emanuele Braveri ft. Rebecca Louise Burch
2. Look What You Made Me Do by Taylor Swift
It Ain’t Me by Kygo, featuring Selena Gomez
For tomorrow’s look back at 2017, I will (finally) share my picks for the best of the SyFy Network!
Through the Shattered Lens 