Music Video Of The Day: Sad Song by Blake Lewis (2009, dir by Ana Veselic)


I can still remember the night when it was announced that Blake Lewis has lost the sixth season of American Idol to Jordin Sparks.  That was when the world stopped making sense to me.  Nothing against Jordin but how, I wondered, could she have won while Blake was so cute and adorkable!?  It just didn’t make sense to me!

Of course, the judges were never on Blake’s side.  During the final weeks, when it became obvious that the finale would be Blake vs. Jordin, the judges went out of their way to nitpick every performance that Blake gave.  It upset me.  I spent a lot of time that March calling and voting for Blake.  When he lost, American Idol lost me as well.  I’ve never voted since and, of course, I’m now actually an adult so it would hard for me to justify still caring about the show at this point.

(My cousin-in-law Ronny used to say that he would only watch American Idol to see the judges be mean.  Once they stopped being mean, he lost interest.  He had the right idea.  Reality competition shows are so positive now that I have a difficult time watching them.  For instance, last year, I nearly threw my shoes at the TV while trying to watch an episode of America’s Got Talent.  The whole thing where the judges are all crying and going, “YOU!  You are what this competition is about!” is just so creepy and weird.)

Anyway, Blake continued to make music even after losing American Idol.  This is his video for Sad Song, which came off of his second studio album, Heartbreak on Vinyl.  The video is meant to recall both 40s film noir and 80s video glitz and I think it succeeds fairly well.  Blake’s co-star in the video is Casey Carlson, who was featured during the 8th season of American Idol.

Enjoy!

(Speaking of sad songs, my vacation’s nearly over!  Boo hoo, says I.)

Music Video of the Day: In Front Of The Alamo by Hal Ketchum (2007, dir by Glenn Sweitzer)


Today is Alamo Day.  It was 184 years ago, today, that 600 men gave their lives in the name of Texas.

That’s one of the many things that I think sets us native Texans apart from the rest of the United States.  Texans believe in freedom.  We always have and we always will.  Some of us may be conservative and some of us may be liberal but what we have in common is a desire to do it our own way.

I don’t think I’ve ever been as moved as I was during the days immediately after Hurricane Harvey.  A lot of people outside of the state seemed to think that Harvey was a disaster of such immense proportions that it would lead to the end of both the state’s reputation for independence and our way of life.   So, what did we do?  We did what Texans always do.  We came together and we helped each other.  We did what we could and, when someone came along who could do the job better, we supported them.  We appreciated everyone who came down to lend a helping hand and we checked on our neighbors to make sure that they were okay.  See, that’s the thing about Texas.  We don’t surrender.  We fight and we help those who need it and, for that reason, we’re the greatest state in the union.

(In fact, if we had never joined the United States, the Republic Texas would probably be a world superpower right now.  Oh well.  In the end, it all worked out.)

Anyway. this music video is about the Alamo so it seems appropriate for today!

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Zemra ime by Mozzik (2019, dir by Mozzik)


In today’s music video of the day, the Albanian rapper Mozzik goes to prison and it turns out that prison in Albania is just as tedious and soul-destroying as prison in America.  Fortunately, he can always escape to his dreams.

Or, at least, that’s what I assume is happening in this video.  I don’t speak a word of Albanian.  But one of the great things about both music and the visual arts is that sometimes, you don’t have to speak the language.  You just have to open up your mind to the emotions and the images.

This video was directed by Mozzik himself and he did quite a good job!  I especially like the surreal scenes of Mozzik thinking about being free.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Waiting On A Friend by The Rolling Stones (1981, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg)


“Just let me be cynical for a moment. First of all, it’s really NOT about waiting on a woman friend. It’s just about a FRIEND; it doesn’t matter if it’s a man or a woman. I can see people saying, Oh, we’re all much older now, Mick’s writing this much more compassionate stuff, must be about a real person. But that’s only in their perception of it.”

— Mick Jagger on Waiting For A Friend

Is our man Mick waiting for a friend or is he waiting for his drug connection?  Since the video features Mick hanging out in front of a building in New York and waiting for Keith Richards to come walking up, I guess both could be true.  Interestingly enough, Keith has often said that he and Mick have a strained relationship in real life, though Keith also wrote in his autobiography, “”I still love him dearly … your friends don’t have to be perfect.”

This video was popular in the early days of MTV.  At a time when many of the big rock bands were still skeptical about the music video format and many were also predicting that MTV would never last, the network was happy to have a video from a group as legendary as the Stones.  The video was directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who was  doing videos even before MTV was a thing.  Waiting with Jagger in front of the building is Peter Tosh.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Ashes to Ashes by David Bowie (2000, dir by ????)


It’s Ash Wednesday!

I remember, when I was like 14, I got up early in the morning and I woke up my sisters by shouting, “It’s Ash Wednesday, bitches!”  My mom was not amused.  That said, Ash Wednesday is one of my favorite days.  I just love the ritual of it all.  Of course, I also usually wash my forehead fairly early in the day.  That’s allowed, by the way.

Now, before anyone leaves any snarky comments, I fully understand that David Bowie’s Ashes to Ashes is not actually about Ash Wednesday nor are the ashes mentioned in the song literal ashes.  I understand that but hey, this is a good song and David Bowie certainly does look happy in this clip.  Around the two minute mark, he takes the time to praise the backup singers, which is a pretty classy move.

This is from a 2000 performance in London.

Enjoy!