Video Killed the Video Star
If this bad pointless synthetica thing ever takes off and I become musically famous, I hope that I can make videos better than the ones I watched on VH1 Classic this morning.
But before I talk about them, I should probably describe some of the videos I actually like. I'm sure that you'll be riveted by them also.
Devo, "Disco Dancer"
Everyone remembers those fun synth punkers Devo from "Whip It" and stuff from that time, including their truly outstanding video "Beautiful World" (which I should be discussing here, but I'm not). Well, fast forward a few years and you find Devo has become dance artists. This video alternates black and white shots of New York with color shots of El-Lay. The plot? Devo carries a disco ball between the two locales. In the El-Lay portion, they sing the song on stage with two Asian women singing backup and jerking back and forth.
Of course, my love for disco, and the undeniable dance influence on the entire "Total Devo" album, blinded me to other aspects of the video:
Later video Disco Dancer shows DEVO in another light/ destroying Disco smashing the Disco balls in a very smash-mouth style video shoot- things happening way too fast with a camera spinning around like a floppy drunk sorority girl.
For me, this is riveting, but not as riveting as
Depeche Mode, "Useless"
Perhaps it's my admiration for English humour, but this video just slays me. Here's the plot: a car pulls up into a rock-strewn area. Depeche Mode emerges from the car, which is toward the back of the camera shot. Dave Gahan walks up and starts singing the song. After a while, Martin Gore and Andrew Fletcher walk up, then walk back to the car. At one point Martin walks up again and plays a guitar solo. A banner flies through the sky. A man walks by. A cow walks by. Eventually Dave Gahan walks back to the car. A woman looks disgusted at the entire affair.
The video, by the way, was shot in Wales. And Natalie Hart didn't care about the cow:
"Useless" focuses on a very dapper and clean cut Dave, scowling at the camera as if it were the scorned lover that the song is about, while Mart and Fletch brood in the background with their instruments.
OK, so maybe you're not completely bowled over by these great cinematic efforts. But they tower in comparison to
[OE NOTE 3/14/2006 - Please disregard all references to "Black Water" and substitute "Black Velvet" in their stead. Alannah Myles is not the Doobie Brothers.]
Alannah Myles, "Black Water"
Now, back in the day I loved the song "Black Water." I still love the song "Black Water." Myles actually has a voice. The song has some halfway interesting lyrics. But seeing the video this morning spoiled it for me. It alternates between pictures of Alannah on a front porch with a geetar player, and Alannah on stage with her band in front of cheering crowds. The clear message of the video - Sell Alannah. Now whatever else you might say about my two favorite videos, at least the videos tried to do something other than close up focuses on Mark's and Dave's faces. (Good thing.) But when the most creative thing you can say about a video is, "Wow, she was on a porch," you know the video is hurting.
At least they could have put a cow in it.
Update: Alannah Myles' Myspace profile is here. And she has a blog. And she has problems:
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
4:52 PM - IC3 - FBI REPORT COMPLAINT i0602071909474082 RECEIVED
FBI - Internet Crime Complaint Centre - www.ic3.gov
IC3 - FBI REPORT COMPLAINT i0602071909474082 RECEIVED
A report of has been sent by the webmaster of Alannah's Myles guest book address:
http://pub8.bravenet.com/guestbook/671990451/
AS OF 7:10 PM, FEB. 7TH, 2006 A REPORT HAS BEEN FILED TO THE IC3 DEPARTMENT AT THE FBI IN AMERICA TO ALERT THE USA AUTHORITIES AS TO EACH OF THE ITEMIZED CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES LISTED IN ALANNAH MYLES' GUESTBOOK.
There was, up until this original posting a 1980's rusted out white GMC Voyageur van, Ontario Plate number 379 6KH that followed my every move. But no, after my last two swarthy posts it has felt the need for a much higher form of surveillance and has returned to the illegal parking zone at the cul de sac at the foot of my street spotted Feb. 10th 2006 at 12:15 am. I wonder if they feel they will get a more intimate view of the goings on, if they will hear my brain farting at that laser happy, satellite enhanced distance?
There are other vehicles, all of them American, all of them highly discreet so as not to draw my attention. But I am clearly not a stupid woman. I do not use evil tactics to frighten people into submission. Just the truth!
The hand of an aggressive assailant that maps out my every freedom from within the confines of my server and my computer, reported static on my telephone line indicating reported illegal entry by an outside party. Calls made to alert my server are hacked into like some secret service agent, and I am met with face to face exposure with the evil in an attempt to utilize fear tactics to force me into submission.
Mysteriously, on a Sunday, where there is plenty of available parking in the parkade off to the west, where a lesser vantage point to my front window would be, instead, the white rusted out GMC van had parked itself overnight since Jan. 1st, 2006, illegally, and oddly, it never received one parking ticket. The mysterious thing is that precisely at the point of having made this post, it suddenly decided to move itself quick like a bunny out of view so as not to be witnessed by yet another of the many who already have.
Jan. 1st, 2006, when the party hats started showing up on myspace and other's Blogs, I had a lovely photo of myself scanned with a pretty blue party hat on to join in the celebration which was to my utter shock, MANUALLY taken down by the hackers. NOT ME!
There are no coincidences in life. Just truths waiting to be exposed. How fortuitous that the criminal force is aiding us all in it's exposing itself.
This ubiquitous and silent force that rages, particularly when a flair has been set off by anyone wishing to communicate with me has become like a family to me. Never in my life have I felt a force so ominously present, not there to protect, or for any beneficient aid, but there to extract information, to spy on me, and to arrest my freedom of movement in setting up tours overseas and other related business correspondence that will secure me an income and the promotion of my new, long awaited CD, X.
There are witnesses everywhere in my life to account for the mysterious goings on, The Toronto Police have been alerted and are well aware of the misfortune I am undergoing, but no face will show itself for fear it will be exposed and made public enough to reverse the tactic of humiliation it desires to place on my head.
I feel no shame, nor no fear of this force, though it is highly disappointed that I do not. I can tell by the oppression it has placed me under.
What on earth would I be afraid of? What do I, a mere singer possess that would be of any interest to anyone???
Exposing the truth of the matter in the halls of the government?
Exposing the mission of the madness behind such subversively unjust acts?
The attention they have drawn to themselves is undoable, not only in the eyes of God but eventually by a prying public, eager for the knowledge that there exists a mission deployed to silence the truth that may save the world from potential ruin if not from an evil choice.
The only thing I fear is that the choice they have made to unjustly prevail over another's life cannot be somehow corrected, or brought to its conclusion with the knowledge that harmony may be created between all parties involved. That there is a right choice to every wrong one.
"Weak character coupled with honoured place.
Meager knowledge with large plans,
Limited powers with heavy responsibility,
Will seldom escape disaster"
But that is a choice.
Myles has been through depressing situations before, according to this 1998 article:
excessive touring, extremely high expectations, an unflattering reputation and a communication breakdown with Atlantic took a toll on Myles. In a flash, she went from international pop star to a difficult trivia question on VH1's game show "My Generation" (imagine contestants staring blankly after being asked "Who sang 'Black Velvet'?").
"I know I have to explain it, where I've been all this time," Myles said recently from her Toronto home, "because Americans have no idea what happened to me. Like George Michael, I had a fallout with my record company. It was terrible; it kept me in a prison for a year.
"I had mentally broken down from the exhaustion of the year and a half or two years it took touring and promoting the record. I was very close to death's door on a few sobering occasions, and I'm still alive to talk about it. I'm happy, and I managed to turn my life around and felt perhaps maybe this was a calling, if I survived."
Myles not only has survived, she has flourished with the arrival of her debut ARK 21 album, "Arival" (as in, "a rival"), released April 10. Her first album since 1995's "Alannah," "Arival" is typically diverse, filled with passion and driven by skill. Her raw, engaging voice is still there, but it has lost its angry edge, a sure sign that she is at peace with herself.
Unfortunately, Ark21 subsequently had problems of its own.
Ark 21 Records
In development / renovation.
Please Contact the office of Miles Copeland for more information.
(323) 512-4080
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