This music video of the day reminds me of a recurring dream of mine. I’m always in the back seat of a car. I’m always talking. And it’s always a struggle to be heard. Several of my friends have told me that they’ve had the same dream so it appears to be a universal theme of sorts.
Of course, in real life, I usually insist on either doing the driving or, at the very least, being up front in the passenger’s seat. I like to be in control of my own destiny.
Enjoy!
Today’s music video of the day is the story of two Swedish woman, one Italian man, and the city of lights. Just Another Night was filmed in Paris and it’s an enjoyable little 3-minute mini-film. Love, sex, betrayal, cool cigarette smoking, and film noir homages are all present in this video and we’re all the better for it.
This was directed by Marc Klasfeld, who has directed videos for — deep breath: Katy Perry, Jay-Z, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Britney Spears, Kid Rock, Michael Bublé, Nelly, Foo Fighters, Kelly Clarkson, Charli XCX, Little Mix, Nick Jonas, Twenty One Pilots, Avril Lavigne, Aerosmith, and Big Time Rush. So, in short, if you need someone to direct your music video, Marc Klasfeld is one of the people that you call. And if you can’t get him to do it, you can always go down to the local community college and get one of the aspiring film students to do it. It all depends on how much money you have to spend, I suppose.
Enjoy!
Hey, we’ve all been there.
One minute, you’re sitting in a hotel room and drinking from a bottle cheap wine and looking at a bunch of old, black-and-white photographs on the wall. You’re looking and you’re thinking, “When were these photos taken? Why are they in my hotel room? Is that what the hotel used to look like? Are the people in these pictures going to haunt my dreams? Is this like The Shining? Is Jack Torrance celebrating New Year’s in 1921?” And then you look at your bottle of wine and you ask yourself, “Why do I have this? I don’t even drink. Is my life a music video? Am I part of your dream or are you a part of mine? Forget it, Lisa Marie, it is what it is….”
And then, the next thing you know, you’re hanging from the ceiling and you’re singing a song that sounds like it should have been the theme song for an old WB show. It’s happened to all of us. We’ve all been a hot mess. We’ve all been haunted by thoughts of ghosts. And we’ve all held a bottle of wine and used it as a microphone while singing a tragic song.
(It’s kind of like that episode of Degrassi where Craig and Ashley got the hotel room before going to Ashley’s father’s wedding. And then Craig asked Ashley to marry him and, when she said she thought they should wait until they had at least graduated high school, he went back and destroyed the hotel room. It was kind of scary but, because it was taking place in Toronto, everyone was really polite about it.)
This video is universal.
Enjoy!
One thing that I’ve noticed about music videos is that the future is always a dystopia. It’s always full of people scurrying around dark alleys and sneaking into hidden laboratories and clubs. It appears that, in the future, people just decided to stop picking up after themselves. I think that’s what really bothers me about the whole concept of dystopia. I can handle a lot but I can’t stand the idea of being surrounded by garbage. Clean up after yourself and others. I guess that’s my way of looking at things.
Speaking of which, today is Earth Day. On the one hand, that makes this a great day to actually go out and do some cleaning. I mean, you’ve got a perfect excuse and everyone who sees you doing it will be like, “Go Earth Day! Woo hoo!” On the other hand, Earth Day seems to bring out the worst, most sanctimonious of impulses in some people. Whenever anyone starts bragging about how proud they are of themselves for observing Earth Day, I always want to ask them if they’re aware that the holiday was founded by a hippie who subsequently murdered his girlfriend and kept her decomposing body in a trunk for two years before fleeing to France. That’s a true story, by the way. Someone should make it into a movie.
So, I guess my point is that we should all do our part to pick up litter but, at the same time, don’t act like a self-righteous ass about it, okay? And don’t leave dead people in your closet or trunk. That’s just gross.
The other thing that I’ve noticed about music videos is that, regardless of how dystopian the future gets, people still want to dance. That’s understandable. It’s our ability to dance that makes us human.
Oh! And one more thing I’ve noticed about life in a music video dystopia: there’s a lot of neon around. Regardless of how dark the world may be, everyone’s still got a enough neon to light up the night.
Anyway, enjoy!
This is a case where I like the song more than the music video. This video was actually filmed three years after Johnny Cash’s death. As far as “official” music videos are concerned, I always feel like a musician should have some sort of say into how their music is visually interpreted. Obviously, Johnny Cash wasn’t around to have anything to say about the video for God’s Gonna Cut You Down.
Since Cash wasn’t available, director Tony Kaye filled the video with cameos from other actors and musicians, a few of whom (though not many) were previous Cash collaborators. Among the celebs who make an appearance in this video: David Allan Coe, Patricia Arquette, Travis Barker, Peter Blake, Bono, Sheryl Crow, Johnny Depp, the Dixie Chicks, Flea, Billy Gibbons, Whoopi Goldberg, Woody Harrelson, Dennis Hopper, Terrence Howard, Jay-Z, Mick Jones, Kid Rock, Anthony Kiedis, Kris Kristofferson, Amy Lee, Adam Levine, Shelby Lynne, Chris Martin, Kate Moss, Graham Nash, Busy Philipps, Iggy Pop, Lisa Marie Presley, Q-Tip, Corinne Bailey Rae, Keith Richards, Chris Rock, Rick Rubin, Patti Smith, Sharon Stone, Justin Timberlake, Kanye West, Brian Wilson, and Owen Wilson. Some of the celebs — like Dennis Hopper and Kris Kristofferson — seem like they naturally belong there. Others seem so out-of-place that you’ll want to throw something. You know how that works,
God’s Gonna Cut You Down is a traditional folk song. I’ve heard countless versions of it. I prefer Cash’s version to the more traditional gospel arrangement but, then again, I tend to find gospel music to be dull in general. Cash’s arrangement brought new life to an old song.
Enjoy!
It was a year ago today that we learned of the passing of Tim Bergling, who was better known as Avicii. For those of us who loved Avicii’s music and who followed him throughout not only his career but also through his multiple health issues and his widely publicized retirement from touring, the loss of Avicii is one that we have yet to recover from.
On this sad anniversary, I’m thinking about the first time that I watched Avicii: True Stories on Netflix. This documentary, which covered the majority of Avicii’s career — from his rise to his eventual retirement, was released in Europe six months before his death. In the U.S., it was released on Netflix on December 14th, 2018. It’s not always an easy documentary to watch but I recommend it to anyone who loved Avicii’s music or to anyone who is just curious about the pressures that go with being a star.
Featuring interviews with not only Avicii but also his collaborators, the film follows Avicii as he quickly goes from being just being one of the many people posting remixes on online forums to being one of the top and most important DJs in the world. We watch as Avicii maintains a hectic schedule of nonstop touring, often sacrificing both his physical and mental health in the process. Avicii ends up in the hospital, suffering from acute pancreatitis. Later, he again ends up in the hospital, this time to have both his appendix and his gall bladder removed. The film makes no attempt to hide the decadence that goes along with touring but, in its best moments, it also highlights the conflict that arises from having to be both Tim Bergling, an anxious young man who finds a much-needed escape in music, and Avicii, the superstar who has to be on every night.
When we first meet Tim, he seems young and hopeful and enthusiastic. Halfway through the film, an exhaustion starts to creep into his voice and, by the end of the film, he’s become far more world-weary. As we watch Tim struggle with the weight of being Avicii, we’re also aware of the people around him, whose careers and finances are pretty much dependent on making sure that Tim never stops being Avicii, regardless of how much damage it does to him mentally and physically. Throughout it all, one thing remains consistent and that is Tim’s love of music. It’s only when creating and talking about music that Tim seems to be truly happy. It’s his escape from a world that often seems like it’s conspiring to swallow him whole.
The film ends on what should have been a happy note. Tim announces his retirement from touring and the film ends with him, in good spirits, on a beautiful beach. Tim seems like he’s finally found some happiness and a chance at the inner peace that stardom often denied him. Beyond a title card (which was added for the film’s U.S. release), Avicii: True Stories does not deal with Tim’s death but it still haunts every minute of the film. Watching this documentary, it’s impossible not to mourn what the world lost when it lost Tim Bergling. The film stands as both a tribute to his talent and a portrait of a good and likable man struggling to escape his demons.
Tim “Avicii” Bergling, rest in peace.
Happy 4-20!
That’s right, it’s April 20th! Today, some people are getting ready for Easter and some people are celebrating the fact that it’s the 20th day of the 4th month of the year and a lot of people are probably going to be doing both.
(Did you know that if you go over to Mike Gravel’s presidential campaign page and if you click on the donate link, there’s a specific option for people who want to make a donation of exactly $4.20? A lot of that, I assume, has to do with the fact that Mike Gavel’s campaign is being run by two teenagers. Mike Gavel is like nearly a thousand years old so I doubt he knows the significance of it.)
Anyway, my initial plan for today was to share the video for Get Yourself High by The Chemical Brothers but then I searched the site and guess what? I already shared that video! So, instead, here’s the video of Kitty’s Marijuana, which is I guess a more obvious choice for 4-20 but still a valid one.
Enjoy!
I always enjoy the trippy videos.
I hope you do, too.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Through the Shattered Lens 