I wasn’t kidding yesterday. Here is the music video where a band breaks into a data center to sing about games. To be more specific, they break into the then Control Data Corporation’s North Sydney center. Once inside, we see the games Speed Freak, Basketball, and Star Fire, along with code, a printout of the Mona Lisa, lots of paper, and tape storage.
I don’t think I’ve played any of the games. Although, while Star Fire looks familiar, I think I am confusing it for the Star Wars vector graphics game that a college near me had in its arcade when I did computer camp there one summer in the early 90s.
The band, Mi-Sex, is from New Zealand, and according to Wikipedia, started up just a year prior to this song. Aside from a history of the band, all I can find out about this song and video is that the song was a last-minute addition to the album, and what I already wrote above about the video.
There is one thing to mention about the band since it happened recently. On May 17th of this year, their guitarist and songwriter Kevin Stanton passed away.
If you want to take a trip back in time to late-70s computers and computer games, then this is the music video for you. It certainly makes me nostalgic. I also can’t get the song out of my head. It’s so catchy.
Yesterday I noticed that an old review I wrote on Hot To Trot (1989) was suddenly getting hits from a German website. Naturally I went there to find out what the deal was. Apparently they reposted the horse sex doll from the movie. I would tell you what they said about it, but despite having taken four years of German between middle school and high school, trying to read it is like trying to watch a movie through foggy glasses. Even Google Translate couldn’t piece it together. I have no idea what they said. Speaking of which, it’s been awhile since I watched that movie, what did I say about it?
Hot To Trot (1989, dir. Michael Dinner)
That’s right. I let Dabney Coleman review the film for me from within the film itself. I was pretty angry about that movie back in 2015 when I had just started writing here. I understand why as well. That was before things like Shannon Ethridge telling me that not having sex between being a teenager and getting married in my 20s would give me a life of “great sex that I could enjoy with my husband, without guilt, without remorse, without regret, without STDs, without unplanned pregnancies, without infertility.”
Every Young Woman’s Battle (2014)
There have been funny moments too that have kept me going–like watching Ex Machina (2014).
Ex Machina (2014, dir. Alex Garland)
Oh, Garland, you jokester. The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing people a movie that opens with an even worse version of the plot-hole that starts I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998) is one of the greatest films of a century. Brasília is the capital of Brazil (not Rio), and the Turing Test requires at least three human beings to perform. That means in both films the character would know right from the start that they were being lied to and it is counting on the audience’s ignorance in order to surprise them. It’s even worse in Ex Machina since he’s a graduate in Computer Science, so he’s supposed to know this stuff. They even bothered to have some of the code in the movie spit out an ISBN number for a popular textbook called Embodiment And The Inner Life: Cognition And Consciousness In The Space Of Possible Minds if you were to actually run it. I love movies! Even if I have to slog through propaganda such as Every Young Woman’s Battle.
Anyways, in honor of being recognized for a review of a juvenile update of one of the Francis’ movies, I decided I should spotlight the music video by the Australian band Models which features a moonwalking horse.
I don’t know anything about Models except that they have gone through quite a few members over the years, have had some tragic ends, and were inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association Hall Of Fame (ARIA Hall Of Fame). If this song is any indication, then I can understand why.
Aside from the use of black-and-white, and the comedy, I like when it pulls out of the black-and-white area…
to an eyeball…
before running us down a pier.
That’s some 120 Minutes stuff going on there. Not as good as the bit from Bizarre Love Triangle by New Order with the dialog, “I don’t believe in reincarnation because I refuse to come back as a bug or as a rabbit,” which receives the response to the person saying it, “you know, you’re a real up-person.” But I still appreciate the artsy touches this video has by switching the kinds of footage on us.
I wish I could find information on this video. There’s a Wikipedia article about the band. That’s it though.
I’m glad I came across this video. I hope you enjoy it. I need to be off to find a music video where a band breaks into a data center to sing about games in order to make up for going on another rant about computer science in movies.
Corbijn himself sums up this video in the booklet included with a DVD collection of his work. You can find it here.
David saw the Propaganda video on TV & subsequently approached me for this song, his first solo single since leaving the group Japan. I had photographed him a few times in that setting, he was often seen as a teenage-pinup, poster boy, very striking and introvert appearance. For him to ask me to direct this video was making a statement I think. Anyway, it is again a challenge for me to come up with ideas and I spent a couple of days in Bruxelles in a hotel room to concentrate on that. I found it so difficult to come up with anything worthwhile – I am glad that that part of the process is less of a chore these days. What I came up with was basically lots of images that have no connection to each other and the main image is based on a photo by Angus McBean. Angus was retired by this time but was a great surrealist and I called him up to get his permission to use the photo and we ended up with him in the video. He loved it, he was a great man to spend time with but I recall he couldn’t believe he was on Top Of The Pops at age 80 and David’s voice came out of his open mouth. I did one more video with David the same year and only photographs after that. The little boy in the video I found at the Lycie Frangais in London. Can’t remember the name.
Of course there are things that would be reused later: the leaves in front of the camera, the old man, the steps, and young and old. The only other common thing I can see are the flowers. There are numerous Corbijn videos with them. There are other things too if you really want to break this video down, but I don’t want to.
Below, you can see the picture that Corbijn is speaking of, the reproduction from this video, as well as similar photos that McBean did.
The latest season of Degrassi dropped on Netflix today. Val’s already watched it and I’ll probably watch it this weekend.
In honor of this occasion, today’s music video of the day comes from the Canadian band, Jakalope. Not only was Jakalope’s best-known song, Feel It, prominently featured in the classic Ghost in the Machine episode of Degrassi but Jakalope also performed Degrassi’s opening theme song from season 4 to season 7. Part of my ritual, before watching any season of Degrassi, is to spend an hour listening to Jakalope. It gets me just in the right mood. My Canadian friends understand.
Pretty Life comes from Jakalope’s debut album, It Dreams. (It Dreams was co-produced by Trent Reznor and his unmistakable influence in present in both the songs and the videos.) After watching Pretty Life, be sure to check out the videos for Feel It and Go Away.
As an extra bonus, here is Jakalope performing the Degrassi theme song during season 4:
And here is the instrumental version that was used during seasons 6 and 7. These opening credits are taken from season 7. (If the opening credits seem a bit crowded that’s because, during season 7, apparently every teenager in Canada had a role on Degrassi.)
What does this catchy song by a Swedish singer have to do with Spider-Man? Thanks to a bootleg called Spider-Man Motorcycle, the two are connected. If you turn him on, then he plays this song. I’ve included the Bootleg Zones review of it. It will take you right to the part where it is turned on.
I can’t find any other info on this, so just enjoy!
I wish there was more I could share with you about this music video. I needed something surreal, and I felt like doing the less common of the two David Sylvian videos that Anton Corbijn directed first.
Despite not finding anything out there on the video, there are still a few things I can point out. If you’re familiar with Corbijn videos, then you’ll recognize elements that he would reuse later on.
He seems to have a thing for birds.
Dr. Mabuse by Propaganda (1984)
Heart-Shaped Box by Nirvana (1993)
You can also see the singer-laying-peacefully shot in this and Heart-Shaped Box.
Heart-Shaped Box by Nirvana (1993)
Corbijn is known for his use of black-and-white, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t tint on occasion.
Do I Have To Say The Words? by Bryan Adams (1992)
You can go on and on with his music videos. They all seem to connect together through the use of some shot, element, theme, technique, etc. That includes showing up in at least three of his own music videos.
A few weeks ago when I did the music video for Twilight Zone by Golden Earring, I mentioned this video and how insane it is. With that in mind, let’s enumerate over the things in this video.
A concentration camp.
Bloodfist.
Our main victim of torture.
Visible camera crew.
A whole bunch of people who have been hung.
A gun to the head.
A child who is most likely going to be killed.
Comedic interruption of someone waiting to die.
Angels.
Fire-breathing as a metaphor for death-from-above.
Soldiers playing American Gladiators.
Belinda Carlisle reference hanging above the group–Heaven Is A Place On Earth.
The Nazi dancers from Twilight Zone.
A black man being beaten by Illinois police officers.
Hitler snapping his fingers along to the music while Jesus receives his crown of thorns in the background.
The comic relief coming out of a jukebox.
Paying a visit to our guy waiting to die.
Making sure we didn’t miss the nuclear weapons reference earlier.
Hitler and Napoleon dancing to the song. It connects someone who annexed the Netherlands from his younger brother–who was the leader of the Kingdom of Holland–with someone who took the Netherlands by force. My memory of Dutch history is too weak to go into any connections between the two as it pertained to Jews in the Kingdom of Holland. I’m sure the whole thing with the invasion of the Netherlands by Hitler and the Maas river wasn’t lost on the director.
Lead-singer Barry Hay looking confused as to what he is supposed to be doing here.
May foreshadowing the appearance of the devil.
I have no idea why they are punching their fists threw glass.
Two guys I’m sure I should recognize, but I don’t want to guess.
Remember, it’s a musical! And there’s an American flag in the background.
The little girl survives, but will always carry the memory–another Golden Earring video that appears to be referencing both the film The Assault (1986) and the book De Aanslag by Harry Mulisch that the film is based on.
We see that there are many numbered rooms where people are being tortured.
The colors of the Flag of Overijssel, which represents the province of Holland. The center river shaped stripe stands for the river IJssel.
The river was a natural line of defense that had to be crossed by Allied troops to liberate the Netherlands at the end of WWII. I’m sure it’s no coincidence that a river that has to be controlled–like so much water in the Netherlands–in order for the country to exist is in this video.
The last temptation of Christ.
A reminder that things like the Bombing of Rotterdam, Dresden, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki have happened.
Changing the channel from the news to a sitcom.
Hay, Castro, guy I should know, and Napoleon popping his head in to say hi.
Gunshot.
Did you know they did, or maybe still do sell Mussolini cologne? I had an Italian Studies teacher in college who brought it up, so I of course went to her office hours, and she showed me where online they sold it. The site got Neo-Nazi very fast, so we didn’t stay long.
Castro on the drums.
Hitler breakdancing.
Let them know it’s genocide out there.
I think May might be trying to remind us of the video for When The Lady Smiles.
Exit the jukebox and fade to black.
Dick Maas went on to do feature films such as the Flodder movies, Amsterdamned (1986), and the more recent, and apparently controversial film Saint (2010). It’s a killer Santa Claus movie–more specifically, a St. Nicholas killer movie. Bear in mind, this was several years before Kirk Cameron would also include a violent St. Nicholas in Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas (2014). It was still a touchy subject for people who hadn’t seen Christmas Evil (1980); Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984); and Santa’s Slay (2005). Or it was a publicity stunt as IMDb would suggest:
“Upon release the movie poster proved to be very controversial. Various organizations of concerned parents tried to boycott the poster, which features an image of a ‘zombie St. Nicolas’ as opposed to the friendly St. Nicolas the people in The Netherlands are used to. Dutch director Johan Nijenhuis became the spokesperson for the movement that tried to boycott the poster and he even went to court, claiming the poster would damage the festive season and cause trauma with young children.”
“In hindsight, the complaints by Johan Nijenhuis about the movie being inappropriate for young children seem to have been part of a publicity campaign.”
When I was searching for the perfect music video for Independence Day, I did a google search for “Best Libertarian songs.” After all, as anyone who knows me can tell you, the only thing more firm than my love of cinema is my resentment of authority.
Anyway, as you can probably guess, my search led to me sitting through a lot of dreary progressive rock songs, the type that featured 20 minute drum solos and lyrics lifted from Ayn Rand. However, it also led me to a song called I Can’t Drive 55.
Though this song is just a little before my time, it still feels like it was specifically recorded just for me. I have always considered traffic laws, not just the laws themselves but the way they are enforced, to be the epitome of everything that can go wrong when people blindly respect authority.
Last year, I was mailed a ticket for running a red light. I’ll be the first to admit that I ran the red light but the time to ticket me was when I did it. Furthermore, if I’m going to be ticketed, I demand to be ticketed by a human being and not some machine that is impervious to being manipulated by tears. Sending me a ticket a month later and expecting me to pay it just because some camera recorded me bending the law is the first step to dictatorship. The second step is people passively paying the fine because “that’s the law.” Laws, after all, are man made and obeying them without question is giving mankind more respect than it’s earned through it actions.
As for the video, it also feels like it was specifically filmed for me. It’s actually a fun little video with a sense of humor and who hasn’t wanted to tell a traffic judge what he can do with his gavel?
Last week’s hospital procedure was to see if they could find anything that could be causing this 20+ year chronic cough. The doctor doesn’t like to discuss the results immediately afterwards since you’d probably be too groggy. I agree with that. However, he did give me an envelope with some results inside of it. I didn’t have any plans to look at it without the doctor to interpret it for me. I was feeling pretty down, so I opened it up. I don’t know exactly what they are going to do, if anything, but they did find several things. I’m very happy about that. It’s really weird to be happy about doctor’s finding something wrong. But if they hadn’t, then I would have been back to square one. This has cheered me up to at least put a short post together. Unfortunately, it’s an example of one of the serious downsides to doing these posts. There’s another version of Talking In Your Sleep by The Romantics–of course there is.
Back when I knew I was going to be starting a several week rollercoaster of antibiotic side-effects, I did a post on Goodbye To You by Scandal. That video looked very similar to this one. It was just more lively. I bring it up because while doing that post I was also looking at other videos by Scandal, such as the one for Love’s Got A Line On You. There’s the professional version with Patty Smyth decked out in her best 80’s prom dress. Then there’s the two versions that just have the band performing against a white background. The only reason they are notable is because you get to see Jon Bon Jovi playing with them. Beyond the, There’s another version?, I would say that this one is for completionists only, like those other Scandal videos. For those people, I felt I might as well do this while I remember it exists.
In general, I have been feeling particularly bad. Lisa may jump in from time to time. If I need to bow out completely, then I’ll say so. One upside to feeling bad is that I blaze through a lot of movies. With that in mind, it means I can tie this post of video for a Detroit, Michigan band to Canada’s 150th anniversary.
During the past week, I watched what may be the worst–non-Hallmark–Canadian film trying to masquerade as an America one that I’ve seen so far. That film being The Masked Saint (2016). It’s a pro-vigilante film about a wrestler turned pastor that moves to Michigan, dresses up like Santo, and violently defends his flock. I knew it was Canadian the second I saw a big American flag on the back wall of his church for no discernible reason. It was also the last film starring Canadian wrestler Roddy Piper. It’s kind of sad that he went out with this film, but considering the movies he made, I get the impression he had a good sense of humor.
Also, The Romantics’ album In Heat, which included this song, did well in Canada and the Netherlands. The first is obvious. The second ties to Canada because they have a special place in the Netherlands since they were some of the first soldiers to arrive to liberate the Dutch during WWII. They also took in the future queen of the Netherlands, Beatrix, during the war. She’ll come up again when I eventually do a certain Golden Earring video–but that’s for another day.
If y’all already didn’t already known in which direction my musical tastes tends to run, you probably could guess just by doing a search and seeing who, out of the 18 writers on the site, has spent the most time writing about The Chemical Brothers and the Electric Daisy Carnival. In other words, I’m not going to pretend that I know much about Megadeth.
But I do know that it’s World UFO Day and this video certainly seems to fit with the theme!
Through the Shattered Lens