Category Archives: music video

Music Video of the Day: Crazy Inside by TAKIA (2020, dir by Jonathan Guttmann)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

This is an especially relevant song and video for our day and age.  I think almost everyone has gone a little bit crazy inside, whether it’s from rage or just feeling a little bit stir-crazy at being shut up inside.

Of course, some people handle the craziness by going online and acting like a jackass.  Other people handle it by creating.  In this video, Keka Martin handles it by dancing.  That, by the way, is how I’ve also been handling it all.  Ever since I realized that this lockdown isn’t going to be ending anytime soon, not a day has gone by that I haven’t found time to dance a little.  It helps to keep me calm and centered and, even more importantly, it takes my mind off of the craziness all around.

“But, Lisa,” you’re saying, “I don’t dance!”

Well, that’s okay.  You don’t have to dance.  Maybe you should write.  Maybe you should watch an old movie.  Maybe you should just listen to music or tell yourself an old joke.  The important thing is to remember that there’s more to life than just worry and anxiety.  There’s creativity and movement and joy.  None of those things have to end just because the world kind of sucks right now.  In fact, it’s important that they don’t end.  Keeping creativity alive is the only thing that stand between us and authoritarianism.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: All Fired Up by Drastic (2020, dir by ????)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Would you prove your love for me by jumping out of an airplane?

Well, fear not.  I would never ask you or anyone else to do so.  What I can also tell you is that there are absolutely no circumstances in which I would jump out of an airplane.  I wouldn’t do it prove my love.  I wouldn’t do it for a million dollars.  I certainly wouldn’t do it for just the experience.  I’ve been told that skydiving is an amazing feeling but, as we all know, I don’t do heights.  Seriously, I have a hard enough time standing at the top of my staircase at home.  (Of course, I should point out that it’s a very steep staircase.)

What would I do to prove my love?  I would stand up in the back of a moving pickup truck.  That may not sound like much but seriously, it is.  It’s at least as dangerous as sky diving.  When I was growing up, all of my aunts and all of my uncles told me stories about people who had made the mistake of standing up in the back of a moving pickup truck and it never seemed to end well for them.  In fact, it kind of left me with a phobia about pickup trucks in general.  Whenever I’m stuck behind one in traffic, I’m worried that someone’s going to suddenly stand up in the back of it and accidentally fall out and crash through my windshield or something.  That would suck.  New windshields are not cheap.

Anyway, enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: The Steps by HAIM (2020, dir by Paul Thomas Anderson)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

I’m the youngest of four sisters and everyday, I’m thankful for that because I would seriously be so lost without them in my life.  I think that’s one reason why I like HAIM.  The Haim sisters remind me of my older sisters and that’s especially true in the video for The Steps.

The song, of course, is about a relationship that, if it hasn’t ended yet, is coming to an end.  The messiness of Haim’s morning routine perfectly mirrors the lyrics of the song, in which the narrator says that every time she tries to move forward, her lover gets mad at her for “making a mess.”  There’s something very liberating about HAIM’s messiness in this video.  It’s not just the fact that they’re throwing stuff all over the apartment and stumbling out of bed (which is the way I think most of us wake up but it’s something you rarely see in movies or music videos, where everyone wakes up refreshed and ready for a photo shoot) but it’s also the fact that there’s none of the fake glamour that you might expect to see in a music video like this.  It’s a song about freedom and being yourself and if that means making a mess then make a mess.  It’s a liberating song and a liberating video.  It’s not a video where HAIM tries to live up to some pop princess archetype.  This is a video that says, “This is who we are and fuck you if you can’t handle it.”

That said, I have to admit that I’m a compulsive cleaner and my natural instinct is to usually tidy up so my room has never looked as messy as my life.  I guess I should be happy about that because otherwise, I don’t think I’d ever be able to find anything.  And that’s okay.  It’s okay to be messy.  It’s okay to be neat.  What matters is that you’re being yourself and not allowing anyone to force you to try to be someone else.

This video, like most of HAIM’s recent videos, was directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.  The film critic Armond White has argued that Anderson’s work with HAIM is actually superior to most of his recent films and I think White might have a point.  (Before anyone starts yelling at me, I don’t care whether or not you like Armond White.  He’s a consistently interesting writer and someone has to be willing to be a contrarian.)  There’s a definitely naturalness to Anderson’s videos with HAIM, as if anything could happen at any moment.

Enjoy!