Music Video of the Day: (She Was A) Hotel Detective by They Might Be Giants (1988, directed by Adam Bernstein)

Posted on April 3, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

This was the first in a series of “Hotel Detective” songs to be performed by They Might Be Giants. The video was popular on MTV, though neither John Linnell nor John Flansburgh were reportedly happy with how it turned out.

The video is split between animated sequences and live action shots of Linnell and Flansburgh performing in a hotel room. The performance clips were directed by Adam Bernstein, who also directed music videos for Public Enemy and Barenaked Ladies (now there’s a double bill) and who is a frequent television director. (He also directed one of the worst SNL films, It’s Pat. We won’t hold that against him because it’s doubtful anyone could have made a good It’s Pat film.) The animated sequences were done by Joey Ahlbum.

According to this interview with Adam Bernstein, the video had a budget of $7,500.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Vote Or Don’t by They Might Be Giants (2012, dir. by ????)

Posted on November 3, 2020 by Dazzling Erin

I went looking for an election day music video and this is what I found. This song first came out in 2008 but the video was released in 2012, a week before the election between Obama and Romney. I think the song is saying that you should vote and you should also convince your friend not to vote because they might vote for someone different from you and cancel out your vote. For instance, I voted last week just to make sure that I canceled out the vote of the one communist in the neighborhood.

There she is.

By the way, did you know that some people claim that St. Chad is the patron saint of disputed elections because of the grace and humility he showed in 669 when he was ordered to step down from his disputed role of Bishop of York? That’s not an official designation, of course but it is something to remember in case things get weird tonight.

St. Chad says, “Behave!”

Back to the video. The creepy mannequins in this video reside at The Royal de Luxe in Nantes, France. The Royal de Luxe is a French mechanical marionette street theatre company that is well-known for performances involving giant puppets. They’ve performed in France, Belgium, England, Germany, Iceland, Chile, Australia, Mexico, Canada, Switzerland, Netherlands and Ireland.

Enjoy!

Jedadiah Leland’s Horrific Adventures Online #26: My Evil Twin (2015, Carl Muckenhoupt)

Posted on October 30, 2017 by Jedadiah Leland

For my next horrific adventure, I played My Evil Twin (2015, Carl Muckenhoupt).

This is a short and clever game about you and your evil twin. You have just pulled an all-nighter and you may want to sleep but you know you can’t. Your evil twin is out there, doing evil things. Not only did he mess up the neighbor’s lawn but he also set up a mind control device in the park. Can you figure out how to enter his secret lair and stop him?

My Evil Twin is based on the They Might Be Giants song. How easy the puzzles are to solve will depend on how much you know about the band’s history. I had to resort to Google to solve one puzzle because it required knowing a certain obscure piece of TMG trivia that was not hidden anywhere in the game. Other than that, I liked My Evil Twin. It was short, to the point, and I enjoyed reading about all the terrible things that my twin did whenever I was not around.