tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-346017552024-03-08T00:41:14.935+00:00ObtusityA music video and pop culture blogImranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10334100145353318247noreply@blogger.comBlogger280125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34601755.post-10444305162448503372011-01-31T01:25:00.028+00:002011-05-23T03:34:31.121+00:00Masculinity and The Hopeless Romantic<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguSHHXrKW_maCL58jmqATsmk2NXoyWQyAsXpgj8U-lWFzjY5hc5V1A-SzagkCXKwxc4N7sLQDr2bQtNZvAevkyxZJ7YEOQVyR2zkrrbdD2IOrdITJ4s65UWQ8GF8Ixz1vBKUVTqw/s1600/Blue-Valentine-Reviews.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguSHHXrKW_maCL58jmqATsmk2NXoyWQyAsXpgj8U-lWFzjY5hc5V1A-SzagkCXKwxc4N7sLQDr2bQtNZvAevkyxZJ7YEOQVyR2zkrrbdD2IOrdITJ4s65UWQ8GF8Ixz1vBKUVTqw/s400/Blue-Valentine-Reviews.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5568160598388674066" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px; " /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"></span></span></span></p><blockquote><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small; " >"I feel like men are more romantic than women. When we get married we marry, like, one girl, 'cause we're resistant the whole way until we meet one girl and we think I'd be an idiot if I didn't marry this girl she's so great. But it seems like girls get to a place where they just kinda pick the best option... 'Oh he's got a good job.' I mean they spend their whole life looking for Prince Charming and then they marry the guy who's got a good job and is gonna stick around."</span></span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px; " ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">Dean, </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small; ">Blue Valentine</span></span></i></span></p></blockquote><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 17px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"></span></span></i></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">In the chaotic final scenes of <i>Blue Valentine</i>, our male hero Dean (Ryan Gosling) wears a worn t-shirt with a large print of a bald eagle. He himself is worn-out, a pudgy disintegrating version of the spry young man who once fell head-over-heels for Cindy (Michelle Williams), the seeming epitome of the girl-next-door. In that eagle t-shirt Dean finally comes to terms with the dissolution of his marriage and the despair into which he has led himself. Dean leaves behind the only happiness he has ever known, and walks off into fireworks and American flags.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">Derek Cianfrance's film is visually and conceptually complex in a way you don't really expect romance films to be. But therein lies the rub: <i>Blue Valentine</i><span style="font-style: normal">, in case the trailer didn't clue you in</span><span style="font-style: normal">,</span> is not a romance. It is a film about the very idea of “romance,” the idealization of marriage, and how these things influence interactions between men and women. It is particularly interesting in its dissection of masculinity in relation to widely held ideals of love. Dean says in the beginning of the movie, “men are more romantic than women,” and the rest of the picture will attempt to both prove him right, and then uncover the true meaning of that statement.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">One such scene, which occurs just as Dean is about to meet Cindy for the first time, involves him helping an elderly man move into his new room at a nursing home. It, whether intentionally or not, references Gosling's role in the sap-tastic <i>The Notebook</i><span style="font-style: normal">, which only serves to deepen its commentary.</span> We watch Dean as he delicately recreates the glories of this man's life, displaying his items in his new room to reflect only the very best of his past. His military uniform, a picture of his wife and nick-knacks from his worldly travels. It is the picture of the wife which seems to especially affect Dean. In this one brilliantly staged scene Cianfrance establishes his character as one that, almost stubbornly, finds romance in the everyday.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">Yet as we traverse back and forth between the beginning and end of Dean and Cindy's relationship, the fuzzy texture of the transitions into the past give them an other-worldly feel – as if they are bonafide dreams, rather than memories. Thus the romance is immediately called into question, immediately challenged to prove itself. And over the course of the film it will repeatedly succeed and fail to make itself real.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXlE765yN-PpQNCVxh8FA5qylLeC4XVah6Bcbaspe93KCCA5XpkSzS5Ttn6shM2inZ-eZPVwwoSX8xJr25TptUHjH8fnIBOVy3mxdxjhaQs3o6RMBO0ylu2Diy5X1WTDGnl3NZPA/s400/Blue-Valentine-Ryan-Gosling.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5568162315660048530" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px; " /></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">Dean is not exactly living the life when he happens upon Cindy in that nursing home. He works for a moving company and is lonely in a big city. He is looking for someone, or something, to rescue him from the boredom and seeming inevitability of his life. He finds everything he wants in Cindy and does not hesitate. It's as if now he can forget about having to contribute to society in any other way, as he will later so passionately defend, because he is on the road to being a loving husband and father. An all-American man. What more is there?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">This is perhaps the film's most biting observation: the allure of American male heroism is rooted in self-consciousness, a hint of laziness and an overwhelming need for power to justify living in fear. Virginia Woolf once more eloquently observed:</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">“<i>Without self-confidence we are as babes in the cradle. And how can we generate this imponderable quality, which is yet so invaluable, most quickly? By thinking that other people are inferior to oneself. "</i></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">In one of <i>Blue Valentine</i>'s climactic scenes, which takes place at a surreal sort of love shack, Cindy attempts to push Dean to pursue something new in his life – to try and be something more. She not only encourages him but genuinely seems to believe that he has real talent and possibilities. But this support in the eyes of the perpetually insecure man feels like an affront to his masculinity and his ability to control, which is so central to his persona. Thus the immediate reaction is defensiveness, and then later, sexual aggression.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">Dean is not an abusive person – at least not yet. He, on the contrary, takes some pride in the way he treats his wife. When she seems ambivalent to his sexual advances he shouts “do you want me to rape you? Do you want me to hit you?” in order to make a comparison between that extreme and the extent of his love for Cindy. He would never hurt her, because he is the American gentleman. Of course the film contrasts that idea with the actuality of the images – drunk, decayed Dean towering over his wife laid out limply on the floor of this shady motel room. We are terrified that he just might do something. The truth is, Dean has been taking advantage of his wife for a long time now, and for Cindy, giving up her body at this moment is preferable to having to spend another minute pretending to love.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">Dean justifies his lack of ambition through the idealization of the “sacrifice” he made years before. He stuck with the girl, raised the kid and got married. He was told this would equate not only happiness, but acceptance from the outside world. He now has neither and, instead, anger has seeped into his life. This pent up frustration begins to manifest itself more and more often. He reverts to the most basic response to the seeming attacks on his masculinity. Indeed, near the very end of the film, as he physically lashes out at his wife's co-worker, he says “be a man,” as if pleading with his own heart.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGRt8hHO7L1knYabetfMMhzDMNNYpcYp5xIJ8dwRk5iLz4JbcFI5sjomd1gHz5hy8dAB02hcfCx8ni0SCntbEtPsp6u2gtpDk05VleMWwe_sDipOloNqnGD1NKMKFT2jNNIBaI0w/s400/Blue-Valentine-Michelle-Williams.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5568163746625331938" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px; " /></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">This scene is especially powerful as it takes place between Dean and a doctor at Cindy's workplace (she is an aspiring nurse there) who has just recently revealed that his adulation for her work is based on sexual desire and not actual regard for ability. There are no positive male figures in this film – no one who seems to really look at Cindy and see her as a complete person. It paints a sad portrait of our society: the frustrated woman surrounded by males unsuccessfully, and at times violently, trying to be “men.”</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">Cindy has been duped, tricked into this life. How was she to resist prince charming in her hour of peril? She is such a young person when she becomes pregnant and subsequently decides to keep her child. And in such an agonizingly vulnerable moment, Dean is the one who holds her and makes her feel strong. He, in comparison to her horrible jock boyfriend and raging father, is nearly perfect. Even sexually, Dean wants to please her while her ex was only concerned with himself. It's a no-brainer. Thus she jumps into what we are taught to believe, especially women, is the ultimate happiness: love, marriage and parenting. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">Yet there were signs, even then. In the face of love, we often overlook certain things. It is the brilliance of the feeling really, that it can allow us to look past fear. There is Dean punching a wall, then threatening suicide in order to manipulate her, but it is not enough to dissuade her. After all, picture-perfect scenes like the one outside the abortion clinic, where Dean commits himself to Cindy, don't just happen everyday. We are told, these are special moments in our life, worth more than all the rest.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">Throughout the film Cindy stands, sits and lays lifeless as Dean attempts to hug or caress her into caring for him, but there are two amazing scenes in which Cindy shows us just how horribly things have turned out. Once, as they are driving to the motel, Cindy stops the car and runs into the forest. She tells Dean she has to pee, but in reality she just hides behind a tree. She is struggling to breathe – Dean suffocates her. And then once they are at the motel, after she has locked him in the hallway, screaming for her to let him in, Cindy leans against the other side of the door and franticly looks around the inside of her motel room. As if looking for an escape route.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">The commitment – the marriage – is what traps her. Beyond that, everything that the marriage represents. The institution that it is. The force that it is. Do we dare disturb the universe? To walk away from this relationship is to walk away from supposed perfection. This was everything that they wanted, wasn't it?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">Of course, Cindy is not powerless, and in the end, she will remember her own agency and escape. Despite none of the men in her life taking her seriously, Cindy is still able to see her own value. This is a testament to her will power, and her care for her daughter (who floats in and out of the story), but it's devastating that it takes her so long to get to that point.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigauuasTB0_iiEz0A3Q5_6aoG63Yqv9-wVeZhNVsrpJs4ZbM3upXbmJJltWE1TXaLH4ps9lkRkykTNlBh_HbAMp3rucL467WvQkZQLx5jKJlMuVRQef6uR37b4UGvnPS-NKgSyoA/s1600/blue_valentine.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigauuasTB0_iiEz0A3Q5_6aoG63Yqv9-wVeZhNVsrpJs4ZbM3upXbmJJltWE1TXaLH4ps9lkRkykTNlBh_HbAMp3rucL467WvQkZQLx5jKJlMuVRQef6uR37b4UGvnPS-NKgSyoA/s400/blue_valentine.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5568161915422855426" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 319px; " /></a></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">Dean asks his buddies if they believe in “love at first sight.” One says that he does not, but Dean – big surprise – does. He is reflecting on his first meeting with Cindy and he claims “I know her. I know I don't, but it felt like I did.” He isn't convincing, and again I want to say that it is a stubbornness that existed from the very beginning, not romanticism, that led him down this path. It is so much easier to believe that love is easy like that - destined - than to actually work at it over the course of a lifetime (Grizzly Bear provide the soundtrack and poignantly their heartbreaking tune "Easier" is used to reinforce this point). Dean is intentionally opting out of his life at that moment. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">The final scene then, in this context, is especially harrowing. Dean walking away into the flags of July 4th, his daughter running after him – still worshipping him. Is this America? The cycle of hopelessness. Romantic hopelessness. Who or what will save us? In our laziness we answer: Only love. Never ourselves. Never each other. Only love.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal"><span style="font-weight: normal">The end credits appear over a series of images of Dean and Cindy at the beginning of their romance, decorated with fireworks. It's a challenge to the viewer. Of course the </span><i><span style="font-weight: normal">idea</span></i><span style="font-weight: normal"> of it all, falling so desperately in love in the American heartland, is still appealing. We can't deny it. These end images are pretty, they make our hearts leap and in some other movie, they make us cry tears of joy. But here, can we still glorify this stuff when we know it can lead to all the trauma we just witnessed on screen? Can we continue to avoid living our lives, pretending that this is all we want? How do we reconcile it all? </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal"><i>Blue Valentine</i> is a remarkable film that asks tough questions, and it's a film we'll still be talking about years from now.</p> <center></center><center><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=34601755"></a></center><center></center>Imranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10334100145353318247noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34601755.post-20612962255133799052011-01-09T21:05:00.015+00:002011-05-23T03:42:36.952+00:00The Social Network's Stance on Women<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:12px;"><blockquote></blockquote></span></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdUYvbcvjyB6NtyFQGTP_xfFi4bFO0X2a9WEMuN984rvMQyZ7UNe_yjDeCCPlZAJCgvt8ZIDzc9VRQs-reGdD3cmhgPuOm13_m1oC0QIeEsToVEPkN8opzKPdKqrTeOMTQ30c4uQ/s1600/the-social-network.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 226px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdUYvbcvjyB6NtyFQGTP_xfFi4bFO0X2a9WEMuN984rvMQyZ7UNe_yjDeCCPlZAJCgvt8ZIDzc9VRQs-reGdD3cmhgPuOm13_m1oC0QIeEsToVEPkN8opzKPdKqrTeOMTQ30c4uQ/s400/the-social-network.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5560304221345234050" /></a><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In response to </span></span><a href="http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet/2010/10/04/social_network_women"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; ">claims</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> of sexism in his script for <i>The Social Network</i>, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin had this to say in a blog </span></span><a href="http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2010/10/social-network-sorkin-parody.html?showComment=1286682637538#c4027385491195515653"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">comment</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">,</span></span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"></p><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;" >“It's not hard to understand how bright women could be appalled by what they saw in the movie but you have to understand that that was the very specific world I was writing about."</span></span></blockquote><p></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;" >What is the specific world, the real social network, Sorkin sought to depict? Is it computer geeks? Harvard men? Something more?</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">At the start of the David Fincher directed film, which has become the </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><a href="http://features.metacritic.com/features/2011/best-and-worst-movies-of-2010/">consensus</a> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“film of the year," is a scene in which protagonist Mark Zuckerberg, future founder of the world's most popular social network, creates "Facemash" a tool to rate the attractiveness of women at Harvard. He does this immediately after a debate over the importance of exclusive all-male “final clubs” at his school ends with him insulting and subsequently being dumped by then girlfriend Erica Albright. Zuckerberg returns to his dorm and drunkenly (and vengefully) creates the website that will soon crash the servers of the most prestigious university in America. First he finds time to call Ms. Albright a “bitch” and make comments about her bra size on his public blog.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">He ultimately arrives at the idea of ranking the looks of girls after rejecting an initial idea of comparing women to farm animals. The shots of Zuckerberg writing lines of code for Facemash, which introduce us to the seemingly uncontrollable nature of his genius, are intercut with a college party where women are bused in (like farm animals) on something called a “F*ck Truck” (1)</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> to compete for the attention of men via the removal of their clothing. The sequence, shot with the same visual panache that made Fincher's man-tastic <i>Fight Club </i>a hit, begins with a Roots Manuva song titled "Man Fi Cool."</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;" >No one is mistaking this film for <i>The Hours</i>. It's as testosterone driven as the aforementioned <i>Fight Club</i>, and is consistently filled with the kind of imagery we've come to associate with American films about heterosexual men, college and their entrepreneurial spirit. Based on the book <i>The Accidental Billionaires </i>by Ben Mezrich, the film utilizes familiar tropes of Hollywood cinema to tell its tale of ambition and greed. Yet the filmmakers, more so than Mezrich's awkwardly-written novel, make a statement on this specific masculine world, and the role of women in it, that is more obscure, and, by all accounts, more interesting than what we are used to.</span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; " ><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYvitHBdniklpMbNYkRahibS3BWCtZh9AAp4JG3iS-VoQQ5UVdKAsOo_YwAybUhVnd0gjWqij2fqI-GH6sC4apiyUkWsvkymvXua5txrO68tbQck0IDQ2t2LYPas7zsd6miBzQXQ/s400/social-network-640-alt.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5560304440510633042" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px; " /></span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;" >Zuckerberg doesn't create Facemash to demean women - no, his misogyny is much more deeply ingrained. The website is a means to an end, the women who are being compared are simply functions - literally lines of code - which serve his purpose of garnering the respect and attention of "important" men. Similarly, the beautiful women who are invited to that party at the Phoenix club are simply proof to the men there that they are indeed in an exclusive and significant place. Men who aren't important enough to be invited to these parties, are now huddled over their computers rating those same women on Zuckerberg's website. They exercise power over women to gain the respect of men, meanwhile at the party girls make out with each other surrounded by hootin' and hollerin' club members reveling in this confirmation of their manhood. Throughout the film men are in competition with one another for recognition from other men, and the women are objects which get them noticed.</span></span><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;" >Exhibit A: When Zuckerberg and his best friend Eduardo Saverin hook-up with two beautiful classmates in the bathroom of a restaurant after being outed as the founders of Facebook, their proudest moment doesn't come upon completing the act in the stall, but later, when another man totally random, but someone who looks like he could row crew gives them affirmation at the door with a simple “cool.” As in, it's really cool that you two just had sex in the bathroom with groupies. You are now accepted by people like me.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;" >Exhibit B: When Sean Parker first enters the restaurant where he will meet Zuckerberg, Severin and Christine (one of the two groupies from the bathroom), he flirts with a series of anonymous attractive women. Then he flirts with the waitress and Christine. Zuckerberg is mesmerized by the “Sean-a-thon” as Severin puts it, but especially the sexual prowess that Parker displays.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;" >In that opening debate with Erica, Zuckerberg laments how difficult it is to stand out in a place where everyone has perfect SAT scores. The Winklevoss twins, Tyler and Cameron, complain of the time commitment needed to maintain a 3.9 GPA, row Olympic-caliber crew and still invent something on the magnitude of Harvard Connection. In the cutthroat world of college, the men are all attempting to differentiate themselves, and for many, the idea of an elite club with limited membership promises the kind of social relevance they so desperately seek. For others, like the Winklevi (as Mark refers to them) who already belong to the club, it is through further affirming the desirability of heterosexual Harvard men on an internet site which will further cement their status. Zuckerberg pinpoints the brilliance of their Harvard Connect idea to one word: "exclusivity" (you can't help but hear echoes of <i>Fight Club</i> here), and he understands that this comes from both access to the clubs and to the women. Both are key interrelated ingredients in proving oneself, as a man, in the social world of Harvard.</span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; " ><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqP8YBp5Ydbr_FgVZyJvFqTcpij2cSmeHOcuEXZEE00hlLrNS0Teuhb3D6qcW_N5JMQIsFgZCGZCwWoRHpupxPjI4r0oawVXO2KRm0iy_8bTndg2fnisJPKwmVm3kuJjY0OOu_pg/s400/The-Social-Network-movie.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5560304818342227810" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 231px; " /></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;" >As portrayed in this film, “the entire social experience of college,” as Zuckerberg calls it, is a sexist, hyper-competitive and largely unfair place. He creates Facebook as a way in - to the girls, and then to acceptance - for the people who aren't attractive enough to just be in already, or rich enough, smart enough, or "anything" enough. He doesn't make the world a horrible place, he just exposes the structure that already exists and replicates it online. Only this time more people can gain access (namely, himself). Though, since Zuckerberg's genius is the result of a desire to be a part of rather than reject a society that apparently holds him back, his new company still looks very caucasian, well-to-do, and most notably, male.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;" >In fact, the more success he has with Facebook, the more his life begins to resemble that initial final club party. Women move further and further to the periphery, playing games in the background or making dramatic gestures just to be noticed. Parker, the founder of Napster who Zuckerberg idolizes as the epitome of rebellious youth, is in fact just another righteous status-seeking womanizer using everyone around him to augment his own sense of manhood. He is Zuckerberg's inner Tyler Durden. He ends up falling for Sean's spell, and his life becomes "the social experience of college" he once spoke so dreamily of. Except, somehow, he still doesn't feel welcome. He is literally sitting in the office, at the end of the film, while others, Sean included, have their own final club party.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;" >The other character noticeably not at that party is Eduardo Saverin. The co-founder of Facebook has been cut out of the company, and following a dramatic exit, we are inclined to sympathize with him. Yet in many ways Saverin is just as ruthless and weak as Zuckerberg. It's not just that he time and time again gives in to Zuckerberg's increasingly troublesome requests, but he is equally dismissive of the women around him. His girlfriend Christine, who beyond the initial tryst near a toilet, is never shown any kind of compassion, is a trophy to show off and occasionally a tool to gain access to important meetings. She is easy enough for him to get rid of when she, predictably, has a jealous freak out. What's easy to lose in this scene though, amidst the hyperbole and somewhat manipulative comedy, is the parallel between Christine's actions and Saverin's. He just pulled all his money out of Facebook because his best friend has decided that Sean Parker is cooler than he is. Both he and Christine are desperate for the attention of a self-involved man, and neither have enough respect for themselves to realize they don't need it.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;" >Same goes for the Winklevoss twins and their partner Divya Narunda quibbling over their rights to money, but more importantly, prestige and recognition. All these men stuck in a courtroom suing each other for denting their manhood. You almost feel proud of Zuckerberg when he goes on a tirade against them, espousing his own brilliance and the actual work he and his colleagues are doing at Facebook.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;" >Why doesn't success make Zuckerberg happy though? Is it because he loses Saverin? Maybe. But the final scene finds him sitting in a boardroom, making a pass at a lawyer who pities him, and then obsessively seeking re-connection with the girl he used to date. He isn't refreshing Saverin's Facebook page there. Zuckerberg is incapable at this point of connecting with anyone, but especially with women. This is because he has, for the majority of his adult life, completely ignored them.</span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; " ><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj6wgW_LQY-CnxN6FHN_LlkLVlo3yeK195SWzbuqV4Y59WlZ6LvGoKyGxUEQlIAMEQW8wG63EXF8s-vxOXnwkPsAQFPQrHsCARU3AmY52MNAcDaBxZxXz7JujBPlXEXZvHAZNrpg/s400/839170-the-social-network.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5560305636870215250" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 225px; " /></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Earlier in the film Parker tells Zuckerberg a parable about the founder of Victoria's Secret, Ron Raymond. He wanted to buy lingerie for his wife discreetly, and so Raymond created a high-end brand where he and millions of others could do just that. He sells it for a fortune, but for far less than it will eventually be worth, and when he finds this out, Raymond commits suicide. What isn't mentioned in Parker's story, is how any of this made Raymond's wife feel. Or that she eventually left the guy after his second business </span></span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/02/obituaries/roy-raymond-47-began-victoria-s-secret.html"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">failed</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">. To Parker, any information about the wife is irrelevant.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;" >So when he describes the suicide as "all for a pair of thigh-highs" he's actually being facetious, truth is, the founder of Victoria's Secret killing himself, according to Parker, had nothing to do with the woman for whom it was started, but everything to do with being robbed of status, "manhood," and cash. Meanwhile he is sitting there with a Victoria's Secret model who is as equally irrelevant to him; none of the girls in his past matter either, only success and not being someone who misses out on the next big thing. That ultra-competitive spirit, born in the environment of college (which Facebook is now replicating everywhere), is blinding these men to the original motivations for what they do. It wasn't just sex, but a need for connection and love. Perhaps Zuckerberg realizes this in the end, but when he asks Sean if he ever thinks about the girl who he once built Napster to woo, Sean bluntly replies, “of course not.”</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;" >It's easy to despise the privileged men of Harvard who openly dehumanize and degrade women at secret parties. It's even easier to spite the Sean Parkers of the world who are unabashedly misogynistic and profoundly self-centered. We are used to demonizing these kinds of characters in film (even while we idolize them). But we are not typically asked to look at a character like Mark Zuckerberg with the same lens. He is, after all, a man of ambition and genius. Like John Nash in <i>A Beautiful Mind</i> asking a girl if she wants “intercourse” minutes into their first date, it's supposed to be cute when he fails with women. Zuckerberg shows bits of compassion and hints of humanism (Trent Reznor's magnificent score, with the reoccurring piano melody in the middle of chaos, never lets us forget this). He ignored the sexism, casually participated in it, but he didn't cause it, and it was in the pursuit of a greatness which he has, for all intents and purposes, achieved.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;" >Yet in the context of this film, and what is finally its most powerful point, the ends do not justify the means. The character of Zuckerberg and the type of man he represents, warrant closer scrutiny and greater criticism than they are typically given. Since <i>The Social Network</i> pounds us over the head with the idea that this is a male world, how sad is it that in creating his new version of the world online, Zuckerberg does nothing to change the inequities of the real one? Or more importantly, that he doesn't want to. His brand of rebellious youth is rooted in presumptuous entitlement. The social system that exists promises ambitious white men success: he is owed that and could care less that others are from birth more hopelessly excluded. This is what potentially makes him, contrary to the last line in the movie, an actual asshole.</span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPMg1SHd7R6fr6-uWT9rlXU0RVtTKrEScJ957sele6LlZKirZtoxxToJ2weM-X5Xnot6Ftw0yc82z6j12T-sKqHTVACtFh1KXbYSYsTgQkfLN6c6Yg8qPGJB1VH4MAPCMmHmorNA/s400/The-Social-Network1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5560305170456229602" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 193px; " /></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;" >The films critique isn't specific to modern young men though. As Sean Parker puts it (while preparing to do a line of coke) “we lived on farms, then we lived in cities, and now we're going to live on the Internet.” At each stage in the development of human society, genius, up-start, privileged, revolutionary young men just like Mark Zuckerberg and his friends at Harvard made a series of conscious decisions to replicate the systems that already existed, rather than push for something better and more inclusive. Ultimately the film is attacking this specific competitive and blind American maleness which seems to continue to control the general direction of our society.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Does this mean women are helpless in this specific world? Not exactly. Sorkin, in the same blog comment, </span></span><a href="http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2010/10/social-network-sorkin-parody.html?showComment=1286682637538#c4027385491195515653"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">writes</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">,</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; "></p><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;" >"I invented two characters--one was Rashida Jones's "Marylin", the youngest lawyer on the team and a far cry from the other women we see in the movie. She's plainly serious, competent and, when asked, has no problem speaking the truth as she sees it to Mark. The other was Gretchen, Eduardo's lawyer (in reality there was a large team of litigators who all took turns deposing witnesses but I wanted us to become familiar with just one person--a woman, who, again, is nobody's trophy.)”</span></span></blockquote><p></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;" >This explanation isn't completely satisfactory. And there is definitely another story lurking behind the one portrayed in <i>The Social Network</i>, that of the women who, despite the limiting environment of this male world, managed to succeed at Harvard, do their own great things and even contribute to the innovations that actually made Facebook the most popular social network around.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;" >Yet one has to acknowledge that Sorkin and Fincher have, in what is already a widely seen film, released an all-too-rare critique of American male elitism and misogyny. And for that, they deserve at least a "like," but an Oscar or two as well.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;" ><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">1. </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i>The Accidental Billionaires</i>, p. 72, by Ben Mezrich, Anchor Books (2009)</span></span></span></p>Imranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10334100145353318247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34601755.post-23154831285352686932008-07-15T05:55:00.011+00:002008-12-09T14:58:14.844+00:00Voltage Spikes: Radiohead "House of Cards"<span style="font-style:italic;">An elegiac and important vision of human struggle...</span><br /><center><a href="http://chime.tv/u/obtusity/current">[<span style="font-size:85%;">Best New Videos</span>]</a></center><br /><center><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/8nTFjVm9sTQ&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8nTFjVm9sTQ&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object></center><br /><center><a href="http://code.google.com/creative/radiohead/">Radiohead "House of Cards"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by James Frost</center><br />There is an inherent fragility in "House of Cards" - a simplicity which hints at deeper tones of beauty. A gorgeous, soothing ballad made up of humble parts, yet filled with apprehensive ideas. It is precisely this combination of romance and anxiety that director James Frost captures in his revolutionary new video for Radiohead's tune. It's a vision of humanity disintegrating into bits of digital information - albeit with grace and beauty.<br /><br />Thom Yorke and company have continually been ahead of the industry curve when it comes to new technology, whether singing about it (<span style="font-style: italic;">OK Computer</span>), embodying it in sound (<span style="font-style: italic;">Kid A</span>) or utilizing it in new ways to market (<span style="font-style: italic;">In Rainbows</span>). Thematically they've tackled the unnerving and exciting collision between our creativity in industry and classical human self-expression. And with the video for "House of Cards" they (and Frost) present human feeling existing within the futuristic walls of our computers, yet existing on the very edges of extinction.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcThnatOnXgtIasDNoAyOvwjhVoc8V1tparoYCtX2gh1s0t_uuCkYa8SkYKDvOnbZ0IAtm6Ynq2fakLtaXzCRszkO4bnAIiwwSOxBYYYzGZuJIyZf7bnw4nJAUriRHm6XVs1Q_jg/s1600-h/image1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcThnatOnXgtIasDNoAyOvwjhVoc8V1tparoYCtX2gh1s0t_uuCkYa8SkYKDvOnbZ0IAtm6Ynq2fakLtaXzCRszkO4bnAIiwwSOxBYYYzGZuJIyZf7bnw4nJAUriRHm6XVs1Q_jg/s400/image1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223136443911548562" border="0" /></a><br />There is a story of lust, love and emotional detachment told through the 3D graphics on screen. It begins with the distorted image of the singer, as if emerging through television static, struggling to break free from the banality of his current state. In the lyrics of the song he asks for a lover, not a friend - inviting a girl at a suburban soirée to "throw your keys in the bowl" and swing over to his side. They are both tied to other people, but Yorke proposes flinging caution to the wind and diving into lust despite knowing that it will almost certainly end in disaster.<br /><br />This is where the video soars. The images of not only the collapsing lovers, but of the falling world around them, invites the viewer to make larger connections between the small story in this apartment and the broader implications of the pictures. The singer wants us to forget the debility of life and emotion, but the fractured scenes make this impossible. What does it mean to be in "denial," as Yorke croons in the chorus? Are we kidding ourselves to believe true romance is possible; is trying to escape from the futility of loveless nights in itself <span style="font-style: italic;">futile</span>?<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiObIMVZv2jQBVw28Sc3XVowtHFDb1jXiP9yaA9fpU1oXhk6tfrunaJjnUFHG5fD33V6XPrpL_FMIbherv46pyVUt53mBsWVlovFCFcIc2WDx7lULYydpUJGF-IZGTgXVy3XrMuA/s1600-h/image2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiObIMVZv2jQBVw28Sc3XVowtHFDb1jXiP9yaA9fpU1oXhk6tfrunaJjnUFHG5fD33V6XPrpL_FMIbherv46pyVUt53mBsWVlovFCFcIc2WDx7lULYydpUJGF-IZGTgXVy3XrMuA/s400/image2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223136842548306242" border="0" /></a><br />Furthermore, there is the suggestion that as we progress into and become one with our technological creations, we are losing something invaluable. The telephone lines which fade into darkness could mean that the things we invent to further enhance meaning, will actually give us nothing; disconnecting us from each other and leaving the world black, void of color. Perhaps, even in making this video, we risk losing part of the artistic hand in film making.<br /><br />Yet, like the music, the despair is accompanied by serene hope. After all, Yorke's romantic suggestion, despite going against the better judgment of the lovers, is an avenue for escape from the sameness of that party - a momentary surge of energy. Maybe in denial, in letting our house crumble, we actually defeat inevitability. In a way Frost illuminates the world through his graphics, like an infrared lens finding the rainbows hidden in society. Even though we are bombarded with static fuzz, faces push through and make themselves visible - like Yorke's surprising, transcendent vocal melody rising above the repeating tune - we see the unrelenting spirit of human expression. Unclear, uncertain, but <span style="font-style: italic;">alive</span>.Imranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10334100145353318247noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34601755.post-1742716906739486512008-07-10T21:48:00.003+00:002008-07-10T22:05:46.467+00:00Keep Watchin': Nas "Sly Fox"<span style="font-style:italic;">A blogger-friendly rap video...</span><br /><br /><center><object width="448" height="374"><param name="movie" value="http://videos.onsmash.com/e/WXCmLL5pkZhHbSLW"></param><param name="allowFullscreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://videos.onsmash.com/e/WXCmLL5pkZhHbSLW" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullscreen="true" width="448" height="374"></embed></object></center><br /><center><a href="http://videos.onsmash.com/v/WXCmLL5pkZhHbSLW">Nas "Sly Fox"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Rik Cordero</center><br />This video fits well with Shad's "<a href="http://obtusity.blogspot.com/2008/07/into-light-shad-brother-watching.html">Brother (Watching)</a>," which we posted earlier today. It continues the theme of corrupt media and poisoned messages reaching our youth, but Nas aims directly and specifically at Fox News - the poster child for modern news spinning. Clearly Fox aren't the only ones playing that game, but they are a worthy target for Nas and director Cordero to attack.<br /><br />That being said, the video was clearly rushed together, and perhaps intentionally so. The poor sequencing and hokey breakdown (with the Office Space-like smashing scene) embody typical YouTube aesthetics, and are in stark contrast to Nas's more widely released <a href="http://videos.onsmash.com/v/5biVedcRWSC4CyIb">video</a> for lead-single "Hero," but also correspond with rapper's call for citizen journalists to overtake mass media's stranglehold on the "truth." Though it lacks the artistic merit of Shad's video, the message is perhaps more forcefully put forth here: "watch what you watching," or our kids are the ones who will suffer.Imranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10334100145353318247noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34601755.post-40335102245143281222008-07-10T18:28:00.008+00:002008-12-09T14:58:14.872+00:00Hand-Me-Down: Death Cab for Cutie "Cath"<span style="font-style: italic;">Speak now, or...</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://chime.tv/#u/obtusity/current"><span style="font-size:85%;">[Best New Videos]</span></a></div><br /><center><div style="margin: 0pt; background-color: rgb(33, 33, 33); width: 423px;"><embed src="http://www.mtv.com/player/embed/" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" flashvars="CONFIG_URL=http://www.mtv.com/player/embed/configuration.jhtml%3fid%3D1518071%26vid%3D255129&allowFullScreen=true" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" base="." width="423" height="318"></embed><div style="margin: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 2px; overflow: auto; background-color: rgb(33, 33, 33); width: 423px; text-align: center; min-width: 423px;"><ul style="margin: 0pt; padding: 0pt;"><li style="margin-right: 4px; display: inline;"><a style="padding: 0px 4px 0px 10px; background: transparent url(http://www.mtv.com/sitewide/images/u/arrow-links.gif) no-repeat scroll 2px 2px; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; color: rgb(67, 156, 216); font-size: 10px; text-decoration: none; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;" href="http://www.mtv.com/" onmouseover="this.style.textDecoration='underline'" onmouseout="this.style.textDecoration='none'" target="_blank">MTV</a></li><li style="margin-right: 4px; display: inline;"><a style="padding: 0px 4px 0px 10px; background: transparent url(http://www.mtv.com/sitewide/images/u/arrow-links.gif) no-repeat scroll 2px 2px; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; color: rgb(67, 156, 216); font-size: 10px; text-decoration: none; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;" href="http://www.mtv.com/music/video/index.jhtml" onmouseover="this.style.textDecoration='underline'" onmouseout="this.style.textDecoration='none'" target="_blank">Music Videos</a></li><li style="margin-right: 4px; display: inline;"><a style="padding: 0px 4px 0px 10px; background: transparent url(http://www.mtv.com/sitewide/images/u/arrow-links.gif) no-repeat scroll 2px 2px; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; color: rgb(67, 156, 216); font-size: 10px; text-decoration: none; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;" href="http://www.mtv.com/ontv/" onmouseover="this.style.textDecoration='underline'" onmouseout="this.style.textDecoration='none'" target="_blank">MTV Shows</a></li><li style="margin-right: 4px; display: inline;"><a style="padding: 0px 4px 0px 10px; background: transparent url(http://www.mtv.com/sitewide/images/u/arrow-links.gif) no-repeat scroll 2px 2px; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; color: rgb(67, 156, 216); font-size: 10px; text-decoration: none; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;" href="http://www.mtv.com/news/" onmouseover="this.style.textDecoration='underline'" onmouseout="this.style.textDecoration='none'" target="_blank">Entertainment News</a></li></ul></div></div></center><br /><center><a href="http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?id=1518071&vid=255129">Death Cab for Cutie "Cath"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Autumn De Wilde</center><br />"...it seems you live in someone else's dream..."<br /><br />That's the line lead singer Ben Gibbard sings half-way through "Cath," just as director Autumn De Wilde superimposes an image of the protagonist bride over the faces of the band members. In truth, she is exactly that; a dream, a figment of their imagination, a story carved out by Gibbard, envisioned by De Wilde and given further depth by the music of the band. And as the last lines of the song imply, this story is less about a woman turning her back on the possibilities of her own life, and more about the "safe" decisions we <span style="font-style: italic;">all</span> make, everyday.<br /><br />Yet Cath exists in a different sort of dream as well, beyond that of the artist's who created her. Dressed in purity, in a beautiful church (De Wilde emphasizes the cross a number of times) and with a picture-perfect white American crowd (and fiance), she is fulfilling the ideal which has been handed down through generations of women. She looks forward to a cookie-cut life, a flowery backyard and a "well-intentioned" man, and she walks away from the scruffy-haired potential of the world beyond that picket fence.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzu6D3VByNxyyvUFOg9hEdHp53HefCPlPP5czIhKVS_hBLqMl5pKN4RTOMULl2csVx_24jEOJ-GrcqlLemfmOSOjRzPsqHKNNbdItWUv4Stfakai5yw7GsX0uZzS2GQprsMuRU5w/s1600-h/cath(deathcabforcutie).JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzu6D3VByNxyyvUFOg9hEdHp53HefCPlPP5czIhKVS_hBLqMl5pKN4RTOMULl2csVx_24jEOJ-GrcqlLemfmOSOjRzPsqHKNNbdItWUv4Stfakai5yw7GsX0uZzS2GQprsMuRU5w/s400/cath(deathcabforcutie).JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5221478703860466930" border="0" /></a><br />She decides, just as millions of people do each day, to take the beaten path - the sure thing. And who can blame her? As Gibbard says, "I'd have done the same as you." Yet the look in her eyes, the crooked smile she holds, defies the beauty and happiness this moment is supposed to elicit, and we know she is looking in that rear view mirror, towards the church door that is just closing. The realism of the video, matched with the tone of the song, is what makes it such a devastating scene.<br /><br />But there is also the young man in the room, the one with just enough unkemptness to be likable, who doesn't run up to the altar and kiss the bride - as she so romantically envisions. Even if she has decided to reject that moment in her head, the most frustrating fact is that he doesn't even try. He is left outside, on the grass, with the rest of us who've ever let a moment like that pass us by.Imranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10334100145353318247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34601755.post-46374390993351430672008-07-10T17:42:00.004+00:002008-07-10T22:04:36.295+00:00Into the Light: Shad "Brother (Watching)"<span style="font-style:italic;">Look outside, it's a beautiful new day...</span><br /><br /><center><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/oDQ49tLg5w0&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/oDQ49tLg5w0&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></center><br /><center><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDQ49tLg5w0">Shad "Brother (Watching)"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Ed Gass-Donnelly</center><br />Shad is surrounded by black. He is speaking of black people, and thus he is appropriately framed by the color around him. But he is also inundated with images of black people which are confining, limiting and defeated. Images which are emitted by the TV screens everywhere, by the media which continues to pigeon-hole him and his people, and which are consumed by impressionable youth. <br /><br />The Canadian rapper wants to open doors, but rather than consciously breaking the few molds society creates for minorities, he asks his audience to simply be themselves. By ignoring the stereotypes, and simply pursuing your own dreams, he suggests you <span style="font-style:italic;">will</span> be going against expectations. It's a message which is underlined by the images of people struggling to emerge; particularly the piano player who begins inside the TV but ends up outside, on his own, free. <br /><br />Thus Shad continues to "watch," not only to see how the television misrepresents black people, but to also observe how the next generation of black youth grow up - to see where they take us next. The director and Shad are also asking the viewer to look at something other than the TV (which is symbolically burnt), movies and even YouTube - he wants us to see beyond the screen; to seek out the truth about ourselves, and each other. The video ends with the rapper walking out on the darkness, and into the real light of day.Imranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10334100145353318247noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34601755.post-16963147967024937852008-07-08T17:13:00.010+00:002008-12-09T14:58:15.040+00:00The Life-Throb of Ages: Garry Schyman "Praan"<span style="font-style:italic;">The way a music video can remind you of your own humanity, your own beauty...</span><br /><br /><center><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zlfKdbWwruY&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zlfKdbWwruY&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></center><br /><center><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY">"Praan" by Garry Schyman (vocals by Palbasha Siddique)</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Matt Harding and Melissa Nixon</center><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >"Matt, thanks for the hope you're giving! The world is not as bad as it seems so often. "<br />- Comment from YouTube user</span><br /></div><br />Though it has oft been trumpeted as a revolutionary tool for social change and universal connection, YouTube and the Social Networking phenomenon have seldom been used to produce the kind of colossal sea change or global moment of synergy many had dreamed of at its birth. The vast majority of YouTube's all-time "Most Viewed Videos" are pop music videos from Rihanna (which, if you know anything about this site, aren't all void of content), or goofy clips like "Charlie the Unicorn" - almost all of which are primarily American-made, featuring American people and American locales. Yet an article in today's <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/08/arts/television/08dancer.html?ref=todayspaper">New York Times</a> suggests that despite the multitude of junk we post on the Internet daily, Social Networking really has provided us with a platform for global change. We just don't always know what to do with it. Most of the time it takes an artist - yes, YouTubers can be <span style="font-style:italic;">artists</span> - to show us the possibilities of creation. <br /><br />Matt Harding's "Where The Hell is Matt Harding?" (2008) (or more appropriately, "Dancing") is an example, more so than the stateside "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr3x_RRJdd4">Free Hugs</a>" phenomenon, of how one person, with one camera, and one idea can simultaneously - and positively - affect millions of people around the world. To be more exact, it's really a stunning exhibit of what a music video can do in modern times. <br /><br />It's an important distinction to make, that this is indeed a "music" video. Like everything else we review at Obtusity, it's a series of images accompanying and working with a musical track. Yet unlike most music videos we see, it was conceived as an idea independent of the music originally (a far more modest idea, at that). But in Harding's third incarnation of his literal globetrotting, he has really grasped the emotional and engaging element that music can provide. "Praan" was composed by Gary Schyman specifically for this video, and the singer - Palbasha Siddique - was recruited from YouTube to sing these specific lyrics. She croons in Bengali, and it emphasizes the worldly view at the heart of the video.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCiaR9WHHhnDvtyZo9pL17wQGRRh6DZfesHfabf2bFxjpspmf02fCMQK7-2msse03rEQEJobzDgJj96fs2Q26oxKHd5dT5imcgWK0bFyceORvfNZv46e6xaISgK89BWsXjbFAihQ/s1600-h/dancespan.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCiaR9WHHhnDvtyZo9pL17wQGRRh6DZfesHfabf2bFxjpspmf02fCMQK7-2msse03rEQEJobzDgJj96fs2Q26oxKHd5dT5imcgWK0bFyceORvfNZv46e6xaISgK89BWsXjbFAihQ/s400/dancespan.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5220737984527054082" /></a><br />There is also a degree of intentionality in the editing and sequencing which underscores the artistic hand at work. The way Tel Aviv is placed by East Jerusalem, or a scene in New York mirrors the next one in Tokyo, is indicative of the broader ideas behind this particular YouTube video. Yet the specific countries visited are less important than the fact that Harding is going to many different places, all around the world, and unifying them with the oldest of human languages - that of free movement. <br /><br />The lyrics, which are adapted from a Rabindranath Tagore poem, are also very significant in understanding the full scope of Harding's vision. The poet describes an epiphany in which he sees all of existence, from the natural world around him to the entire history of humanity, dancing with the same blood - the same stream of life. Thus in Harding's video we are all tied by this unseen energy, personified in dance, and illuminated by the joy that surrounds us as we watch. In many ways Facebook, YouTube and the rest of the Internet have improved our access to the stream, but it is up to us to follow Harding and continue to make art that ties humanity together.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Stream of Life<br />by Rabindranath Tagore<br /><br />The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day<br />runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.<br /><br />It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth<br />in numberless blades of grass<br />and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.<br /><br />It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth<br />and of death, in ebb and in flow.<br /><br />I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life.<br />And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment. </span></div>Imranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10334100145353318247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34601755.post-77905698654931698372008-01-01T04:00:00.000+00:002008-12-09T14:58:22.110+00:00Step Back: The Year in Review<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZjwMSBmqP9g5LvZ5WC2WJC_pfrJ0oH30M3gzoD9U0dzp46cd4kT7xr0EK6ZcJIjluNqAQouY9eTIUPNqDtAOQ9IpeKiBGXS5AMgxSt_oqK0ZmC4HVpM6PkiB157mjnzxn9IJCJw/s1600-h/25best.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZjwMSBmqP9g5LvZ5WC2WJC_pfrJ0oH30M3gzoD9U0dzp46cd4kT7xr0EK6ZcJIjluNqAQouY9eTIUPNqDtAOQ9IpeKiBGXS5AMgxSt_oqK0ZmC4HVpM6PkiB157mjnzxn9IJCJw/s400/25best.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5150451809795606898" /></a><br />Though Obtusity hasn't been updated in awhile, we never stopped watching music videos. How could we? There were many, many videos to watch this year - more than perhaps any year prior. Yet despite the hundreds of promos we came across each month, the overall quality of the industry was not diluted. Instead this year brought us many of the more creative and ambitious projects in recent memory, from R. Kelly's massive hip-hopera to Justice's ubiquitous D.A.N.C.E. phenomenon.<br /><br />So we return with a year-end compilation of our favorite releases of the past 12 months. It was no easy task whittling our list to a mere 25 (our staff started with a ranking of 100), but in the end we leaned towards those videos which made a significant artistic statement that went beyond pretty aesthetics. These are the works of art that stayed with us - those we imagine will continue to delight for years to come.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIVuk6qd836dhnATkXzkQNmeXQHvtUPo4bGizegshTWD6Xwz32zDqUmGyOJTccAqnVB7r8-fXn_6CvyKemE7Bx3xIVtmb_0LHVnIzjD4hGI5m-jeTzB54S3E0Xv2Ta5nK_LnOkyA/s1600-h/fergie-clumsy25.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIVuk6qd836dhnATkXzkQNmeXQHvtUPo4bGizegshTWD6Xwz32zDqUmGyOJTccAqnVB7r8-fXn_6CvyKemE7Bx3xIVtmb_0LHVnIzjD4hGI5m-jeTzB54S3E0Xv2Ta5nK_LnOkyA/s320/fergie-clumsy25.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5150037246667294722" border="0" /></a><br /><center><a href="http://marcwebb.com/videos/Fergie%20-%20Clumsy.mov">Fergie "Clumsy"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Marc Webb & Rich Lee</center><br />Fergie stumbles into a brilliant concept from Webb & Lee and manages to give a fairly decent, grounded performance (despite the obviousness of her product placement). Yet if the visuals didn't match the tone of the song and its lyrics so well, the entire video would have fell flat. In many ways the self-proclaimed "Dutchess" has a very childish view of love - in the breakdown she talks of constantly needing a boyfriend - and that mirrors the pop-up book concept around her. At the same time the nervousness she displays is a universal symptom of desire, suggesting that even as we grow older, love can make us awkwardly young again.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.thedirectorsbureau.com/media/archive/Liars-PlasterCastsOfEverything%28explicit%29.mov"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqZ0PUoXrUAuJ2LIqYA0DCD7Awu2rWslX8W927xrUtk_ZTC9j2JirQFbFqkOGYfLuqJQKIbYxTfgs8Wojcga5MqJdNOtKMFUSLRUsdalj4dlrDt0gy81B1K20ZIBVoAGbpOzFVCA/s320/Liars24.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5150028703977342930" border="0" /></a><br /><center><a href="http://www.thedirectorsbureau.com/media/archive/Liars-PlasterCastsOfEverything%28explicit%29.mov">Liars "Plaster Casts of Everything"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Patrick Daughters</center><br />The first, but not nearly the last appearance of Daughters on our list:<br /><br />"Escaping from prison into a dark and dreary night, adrift in the desert, this troubled soul is fleeing more than a state institution. He wants to "run away" from the guilt, confusion and fear of whatever it is he's done - or is at least accused of doing. But he doesn't need to look in the rear view mirror to know that these regrets will not be leaving anytime soon."<br /><center><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://obtusity.blogspot.com/2007/07/detour-liars-plastic-casts-of.html">read the full review</a></span></center><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.vicerecords.com/video/justice/justice-dance.mov"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJWyua8FMeXYLncVOM00jGPGgiPVgQZhZHnntUWUiblfpvpL5Z4y_r_Wc6PyJUNMolqAOs4ZMDiKL9Vtfwy_4JPgG92r3KrWQfemJCCQ63sghCmbHgwzT1dzhkvh_hEc_p3lGQDA/s320/dance23.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5150025499931740098" border="0" /></a><br /><center><a href="http://www.vicerecords.com/video/justice/justice-dance.mov">Justice "D.A.N.C.E"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Jonas&François, design by So Me</center><br />The year in music videos will likely be remembered as the year of "D.A.N.C.E." And as Kanye West can attest, So Me's design has been and will be hugely influential in the years to come. As a celebration of hipster fashion, colorful graphic design and skinny indie boys, it's endlessly consumable.<br /><br />Yet in other ways it's strangely pointless. The video's anti-conformist imagery - from loaded guns to overt sexuality - works primarily because it looks so typically "indie." Is the circular and repetitive journey then a comment on the futility of hipsterdom, or is "D.A.N.C.E" actually the ultimate example of the increasingly empty image-based bandwagonism of this culture? Regardless, the fact that people clamored to own every t-shirt on display here is both ironic and proof of the video's infectious quality.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.subpop.com/assets/video/2983.mov"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOErfokWkPaBMDWNINi6eAT17WdpObz12-bnLZ6e2mjIG3cT82rpV-7ditENubKthW-7Hin2ZPycKk_AgDmx9LeKQTJirhaSS_Wx8pjPTqQbfk_AJ5E3gEkQ1eGzh6nn5WrD1JHQ/s320/shins22.PNG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5150023872139134898" border="0" /></a><br /><center><a href="http://www.subpop.com/assets/video/2983.mov">The Shins "Phantom Limb"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Patrick Daughters</center><br />Though originally released in late 2006, this whimsically complex Daughters-directed clip warrants a closer look, and high praise.<br /><br />Here's what we said back in January:<br />"...[Daughters] takes the cutesy undertones of Saturday morning serials and after-school specials and turns The Shins' "Phantom Limb" into a full-fledged morality play for adults. While we can still smile at the adorable performances of the players, there are a series of haunting images which negate any attempt at portraying this as simply a kid's music video."<br /><center><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://obtusity.blogspot.com/2007/01/flies-in-hallway.html">read the full review</a></span></center><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://media.revver.com/qt/304330.mov"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyNuvndugX0Upj1SNlYAbYwIIJN4epdnpbVFVO9JmbqCCG_9It5pXj85O4pG7K-Xa2-APFvAAFMR3memjf-0Z94aCDnBFWuv1SBTcSIsGr3Uj0Nn3ez6zsMgE0RhBxVlwm-3NhrA/s320/dosen21.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5150445547733289298" /></a><br /><center><a href="http://media.revver.com/qt/304330.mov">Stephanie Dosen "This Joy"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Dan Sully</center><br />The first minute is astonishing in its build-up, never failing to give us chills.<br /><br />"Director Dan Sully uses deep close-ups, understated colors and slow motion to really let the beauty of the words fully bloom. The animated wallpaper is also a nice touch, and when it switches from a cage above Dosen's head to a print of leafy vines, it directly connects the singer to the birds who wish for freedom. Yet it's only a momentary experience; a step through doors into the light of an adjacent room."<br /><center><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://obtusity.blogspot.com/2007/04/draught-of-vintage-stephanie-dosen-this.html">read the full review</a></span></center><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.beam.tv/beamreels/play_clip.php?reel_file=dNGWbfcgdH&action=open"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO4-yRyUPPlVTk-QpaqGjCbZG3ZEub-oRH8pAaxnT7j8aVAdPIi-OzVW7eAYcXxnfStfKvYpTvJ14pd3bTYTbyUvs8ptNzIWok2_T62uDnp6DUuT6wJORzPViOpg7M3njjsSCh4A/s320/fionn-regan20.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5149318887617234530" border="0" /></a><br /><center><a href="http://www.beam.tv/beamreels/play_clip.php?reel_file=dNGWbfcgdH&action=open">Fionn Regan "Be Good or Be Gone"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Si & Ad</center><br />A song is a living, breathing thing. And just like the artist who writes it, it has a history - a constantly evolving story. It exists in every space it has ever been played, and carries with it the memories of how it was played that day, how it sounded in that space and who was there to hear it. <br /><br />As Fionn Regan tells us his story of loss, the images present something else - perhaps even hope. It reminds us that a good song, like a strong memory, is never as simple as one idea or feeling. It's a myriad of emotions all beautifully rushed together in melody. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://media.ghostrobot.net/7014_workitout_v2_web.mov"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8_3elHKBa4gZEIwYnWeY1AZLSH44ijAbHIVF9uWgVsufOYtNp9McZxdfoqGD1yO_L80iyab7LGebzLKBqKwplnozmqm4qfKoIWJi_czomE0PIijCZBaanvMQb5-tbpCZg_n4Vqg/s320/WorkItOut.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5149319145315272306" border="0" /></a><br /><center><a href="http://media.ghostrobot.net/7014_workitout_v2_web.mov">RJD2 "Work It Out"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Joey Garfield</center><br />"...in a single continuous take, Bill Shannon (born with a hip condition that requires crutches) expresses uninhibited individuality and freedom - rejecting any notion that he is incapable of beautiful movement. He hops, skates and glides through the crowded city, garnering looks of astonishment wherever he goes. After all that he climbs right back up those stairs - past the stranger who once doubted his ability."<br /><center><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://obtusity.blogspot.com/2007/07/weapon-of-choice-rjd2-work-it-out.html">read the full review</a></span></center><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://miauk.com/boys-main.html"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitH1KK0lTqyMH1xkEbfB9Qy4Cc0aki-xOIabbk4AayI8QhizKXw0qH5sPZq9riVTj11uPpDXljHuv6JvoTRTFLCPNDl3pB8DkfxNslbWqlLuttNwflD02JVoD-bXMAC5_oZiG1xg/s320/miaboyz18.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5149321670756042418" border="0" /></a><br /><center><a href="http://miauk.com/boys-main.html">M.I.A. "Boyz"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by M.I.A./Jay Will</center><br />"Though it's hard to believe, M.I.A. has taken the visual themes of 2005's Arular (seen everywhere from the cover art to the video for "Galang") and created something even more gloriously epilepsy-inducing for sophomore LP Kala. The vibrant collage of neon colors and cheap special effects found in the promo for new single "Boyz" (as well as her fantastic website) is a homage to everything from 80's video games to the advertising and film culture of Nigeria, Southeast Asia and Jamaica. But it's also a completely singular vision, and one that is impossible to pin to any particular movement or region of the world."<br /><center><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://obtusity.blogspot.com/2007/06/dance-lessons-mia-boyz.html">read the full review</a></span></center><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.rokkit.tv/EmilyHaines/OurHell.mp4"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvF0hghjuGYTrL56qt_xBeYY9poANRW_JWIUsR1Gyg-tQ8ETuE5Chxr8k-j1nkBQafZ8Ida1nNlMlv2TUm6O2eIfqE7ZMWM3dr2Siql0GexQQQD2mTpowCmSZuF5NdX_meAUX3Zw/s320/emily17.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5149500517489215218" border="0" /></a><br /><center><a href="http://www.rokkit.tv/EmilyHaines/OurHell.mp4">Emily Haines "Our Hell"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Jaron Albertin</center><br />Albertin uses heatvision to expose the burning underbelly of conformity - the hell that is created by groupthink. Shots of sunbathers and frat boys intersect with portraits of wolves and clowns, with the final image of surrender being the most chilling. Everything from blood to tears is dulled into two sad tones of emotion, all passion and desire drained from the world. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.thedirectorsbureau.com/media/archive/Feist-1234.mov"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWBueFyXwkphOWRUyPLRWMvhiogTlL23I_RE968kBpg5Vq9ZS2Yflx5rhXe0wGDtIVfJvNqXjhuNG7s2-qdEgGAf1dPAWk4gU6WJiRQWIFCJceCMeGajvkqpOMfrviX683EqINBA/s400/fesit16.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5149926861712820114" border="0" /></a><br /><center><a href="http://www.thedirectorsbureau.com/media/archive/Feist-1234.mov">Feist "1234"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Patrick Daughters</center><br />This is the type of video that requires no elaborate description or interpretation. Its brilliance speaks for itself. From the perfectly flawed choreography to the energy of Feist's performance - all shot without a single cut - Patrick Daughters deftly captures the simple bittersweet beauty of the song.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.thebees.info/index.php?cat=4&ID=42"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaX74KJ81PjoDb1xNDeLsSQZ8oruktyS8Q4BZHufoC_HOk7xvlxzs7iBDpZE3u90tsEomDrCNKJa35gpgBzEJhwt7crSfAAq2vPk6zkorFDgWGVOgnTHNasy8HYIY8wSlMyClQOA/s320/ListeningMan15.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5150042589606610994" border="0" /></a><br /><center><a href="http://www.thebees.info/index.php?cat=4&ID=42">The Bees "Listening Man"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Dominic Leung</center><br />The tone of the video is quite light-hearted, but when the quiet scruffy-haired man who dreams of tennis glory takes his talkative girlfriend in his arms and kisses her with all his might, it's as dramatic and powerful a moment as we saw all year.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.jfklondon.com/mov/new/stepbackLg_Prog_43.mov"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGLwwWxZC74n1znNOi4hTZcYIxOYIiatag8sLRRuXCr81ziXnDU1LMSbwawLnJfxj6Dt4ou86vnfvk1cadVA3SaNzM-kgbuOnoJRbGgZrdCvQJMOaJTg2tarNKtwlAp6hymjHx0A/s320/lisa14.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5150041502979885090" border="0" /></a><br /><center><a href="http://www.jfklondon.com/mov/new/stepbackLg_Prog_43.mov">Lisa Lindley-Jones "Step Back"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by W.I.Z.</center><br />"As Lisa Lindley-Jones stands somberly in a nearby alley, holding a bright flare and only partially obscured by shadow, her police officer pursuer walks by without even a glance in her direction. The two are so close at this moment that it seems nearly impossible that he wouldn't notice her, but it appears to be the case nevertheless. Yet perhaps he doesn't really want to catch her. And even if much of the video implies that she may actually want to be caught, here she makes no move to alert him of her presence either. Is she saddened by his lack of perception? Or is the thought of capture suddenly unpleasant and scary?"<br /><center><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://obtusity.blogspot.com/2007/03/thrill-of-pursuit-fear-of-capture-lisa.html">read the full review</a></span></center><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.partizan.us/musicvideos/pa/PA_LUDACRIS_slap_dir_cut.mov"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrk1J0TROFLfmKK_r3LWg5CuduBNe53r5NLYQIZ234SucGPRSzmRkj6V8tfuWNcSeQtYxR4AxXBTi4_1MfW_WbpEi0CoDFmGv5WD6dSRlGSpFtXyWDf_53sAL_z82GM2fzU2T8-A/s320/ludacris13.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5150052635535116386" border="0" /></a><br /><center><a href="http://www.partizan.us/musicvideos/pa/PA_LUDACRIS_slap_dir_cut.mov">Ludacris "Slap"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Philip Andelman</center><br />"It isn't nearly as complex or gripping a portrait as Scorsese's magnum opus, but in its own way it relays the troubles of modern society while mirroring the themes of isolation and paranoia. It's also a monumental video for hip-hop right now. Bill O'Reilly once used this exact song as the basis of a seething critique of the Grammys and Ludacris (who won for Rap Album of the Year), repeatedly referencing the "slapping" as proof of the rapper's promotion of violence. It was clear then and it's clear now that O'Reilly never listened to this track or gave the artist a chance. I'm certain, considering Ludacris's history with O'Reilly, that those words where in the back of his head during the shoot. For this reason alone the video must be counted as an unqualified success; a dramatic affront to anyone who fails to see the potential of hip-hop expression."<br /><center><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://obtusity.blogspot.com/2007/04/i-cant-sleep-nights-ludacris-slap.html">read the full review</a></span></center><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.theclawproductions.com/Kanye.html"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhQt2GZ_eJIA3scVXaqKqQEMT5p3IhGFbeINCtsLSRUJssMcLMyHUKNn1v9Pepr-LkFaGnP0xYxIOgHiusXp_i2zV52GO0uSpT0F8tW2rWbCSYExpqiKU7GuS4tFzVqBA0BruKfw/s320/willzach12.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5150053580427921522" border="0" /></a><br /><center><a href="http://www.theclawproductions.com/Kanye.html">Kanye West (feat. Zach Galifianakis & Will Oldham) "Can't Tell Me Nothing"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Michael Blieden</center><br />It's a joke, but as director Blieden writes on his website, they "took the song very seriously." Galifianakis is phenomenal, his performance providing a seering critique of the hyper-masculine bravado Kanye and others champion so often. The entire video is a send-up of your typical macho rap video - from the dancing girls to the souped-up tractor - while at the same time a comment on the mass consumtion of hip-hop (particularly Kanye West) by numerous disparate groups in America. There's also a slight jab at the abberant or random appearance of overt religion in his music. Yet Mr. West has always been self-aware to a fault, and the irony of his own work doesn't escape him (as his brief apperance suggests). In many ways Blieden's masterpiece is the perfect anecdote to Hype Williams overwrought <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY2Wv4zaGIU">epic</a> commisioned for the same song - bringing Kanye, his mega-stardom and the hypocrisy of misogyny in hip-hop back to reality.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://a1776.g.akamai.net/5/1776/150/4582c54b/1a1a1a0372e851b62957c83cb2e041b1218df22083f25f8efb6ae049ae2150c62f93f867c62958c034a81847b11284fa2a5a8b/jarv001_http_300_300.mov"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitRHSlI8i24w3zIuO5T8NrqQz3XPpFHMXtzKDlLhNlz0n9nbTag6fCuMrji_YJj7L1RO6onjB8saLYgHd6T092AMgMwrY17gYKXDCvbF1bgQXKKY30IccblRs14BzIbzInmhl9sg/s320/jarvis11.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5150211497785460866" border="0" /></a><br /><center><a href="http://a1776.g.akamai.net/5/1776/150/4582c54b/1a1a1a0372e851b62957c83cb2e041b1218df22083f25f8efb6ae049ae2150c62f93f867c62958c034a81847b11284fa2a5a8b/jarv001_http_300_300.mov">Jarvis Cocker "Don't Let Him Waste Your Time"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Dougal Wilson</center><br />"The quality of Wilson's vision is rooted in his ability to capture the appeal of Cocker's songwriting while maintaining his own fresh perspective. From the subtle humorous touch to the extravagant disco finale, Wilson creates a fun ride that matches the song in wit and replay value."<br /><center><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://obtusity.blogspot.com/2007/03/speak-up-director-dougal-wilson-on-dont.html">Interview with Dougal Wilson</a></span></center><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://extreme.colonelblimp.com/directors/dougalwilson/movies/Batforlashes_Whatsagirltodo.mov"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrwRlAnuW8N-GTPR5c-YxLHJ4DzkpVO03AP4NDWFdA1NLhpqVm3-_ve5paqIJE-I_QcyVYbx4qvr5Y3sgITMIBm0HTZ8aKZxxA0TcUgK2IfENSL9iwDlfyH4jeIoEU0eYzVi9omg/s320/DW_batsforlashes.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5150212537167546514" border="0" /></a><br /><center><a href="http://extreme.colonelblimp.com/directors/dougalwilson/movies/Batforlashes_Whatsagirltodo.mov">Bat for Lashes "What's A Girl to Do?"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Dougal Wilson</center><br />"Rolling down the street in the dark of night is akin to playing catch with butcher knives - someone is bound to get hurt. Yet Natasha Khan (a.k.a. Bat for Lashes) can't seem to stop playing Russian roulette with her heart"<br /><center><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://obtusity.blogspot.com/2007/06/dont-look-back-bat-for-lashes-whats.html">read the full review</a></span></center><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.coparck.com/Goodyearsmalllighter.mov"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje_JPwJGc5kjlURB24lM3PgxUKJT1fh-vwQSaLcIGI5C3173F-tnmnZ14v_JcmLOi-DcbfeSq8lZeeLsNPrV4RBhmxezp7wjK2HAu4vaSpLxc-CQE7dyjmEE4x8xxdETpYfOMYiw/s320/alex9.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5150216020386023602" border="0" /></a><br /><center><a href="http://www.coparck.com/Goodyearsmalllighter.mov">Coparck "A Good Year for the Robots"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by COMRAD</center><br />"In the process of becoming "more human" in the video, Alex the robot is exposed to a series of horrific images of chaos and violence, as well as heartwarming footage of lovers and babies. He emerges energized and full of feeling; skipping along the roads he once mechanically trudged. But the majority of his co-workers are less than thrilled by Alex's transformation. They generally preferred the stoic and efficient version that one co-worker called "a retard" prior to the operation. In many ways they liked him as an unfeeling and focused employee because that is precisely what <span style="font-style:italic;">they</span> are."<br /><center><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://obtusity.blogspot.com/2007/03/when-mans-empty-kettle-coparck-good_09.html">read the full review</a></span></center><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://obtusity.blogspot.com/2007/03/speak-up-comrads-behind-coparcks-good.html">Interview with COMRAD</a><br /><br /></span></div><a href="http://obtusity.blogspot.com/2007/03/speak-up-comrads-behind-coparcks-good.html"><br /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.cosmosfilm.tv/movies/capital.mov"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3_2iz4XdIEkURMTQWWFdHG2TUA22VjNTs9cWe0oCo9isnsEETb28oGG4uvVsSewGUPeEJIh6IiX65xhLSH5AExpMfLTvPRWj9KuNuUb2o1MNKYC7D5uNW3cImhBEJ-RFBJ5qnCg/s320/capital9.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5150219593798813906" border="0" /></a><br /><center><a href="http://obtusity.blogspot.com/2007/04/obscuring-sky-lyapis-trubetskoy-capital.html">Lyapis Trubetskoy "Capital"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Alexey Terekhov</center><br />"The video seems to suggest an aversion towards globalism with its crazy 7-headed conglomerate shilling horrible products and ideas from every corner of the earth. But the real problem is any one person, or group of people, attempting to force a single ideology on the billions of unique humans that live on this planet. In the finale the piggy bank-heart is destroyed and put back in the hands of the television viewer - the consumer. Having individual choice and spending money is OK - as long as we make educated decisions."<br /><center><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://obtusity.blogspot.com/2007/04/obscuring-sky-lyapis-trubetskoy-capital.html">read the full review</a></span></center><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://media.imeem.com/v/hfNdxbaFiX/aus=false/"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkmL99tTIXt64KamdKo0gn3_npxQFxvoThPpjVQWGxLFzFf5Jcj8ajw-mt2cEzTzfEOmPspkeKlyXgYywEEq1VWYsLb6mzFYjZ_Sf0ITX9LEr8i0-ztFffhqXk8fRZzQroXEE4xg/s320/strokesyolo7.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5150228205208242402" border="0" /></a><br /><center><a href="http://media.imeem.com/v/hfNdxbaFiX/aus=false/">The Strokes "You Only Live Once"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Warren Fu</center><br />"If machines were to find our relics in the distant future, would they have a positive first impression? What if they found only your artifacts, your time capsule? These are the important questions that linger after watching Warren Fu's beautifully realized music video - you only live once."<br /><center><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://obtusity.blogspot.com/2007/05/danger-stranger-strokes-you-only-live.html">read the full review</a></span></center><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.boardsmag.com/screeningroom/musicvideos/4397/?m_id=4422;startat=0"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-wBmOmfiuMMughQENmZNIGRo2y5FT1r7PvefOjLTF0Ko0zdJf1zfuow79-Dfs3nCl9IqaETs8LlmLpW5PplBbA9j1yMwudn1lUfCs0nSC1ZqUN0hQ5CbYERobqB0AiYKM6VE55w/s320/cornelius6.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5150229016957061362" border="0" /></a><br /><center><a href="http://www.boardsmag.com/screeningroom/musicvideos/4397/?m_id=4422;startat=0">Cornelius "Like a Rolling Stone"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Koichiro Tsujikawa</center><br />"...sometime after the halfway point, Tsujikawa zooms in on a Venus de Milo-type women spinning inside one of the many portal-like doorways. Not only does she seem a unique figure in this redundant universe, but there is something unexpected about her beauty. Now as the director pulls out to show us this world once more, it suddenly has symmetry and grace where it once seemed pointless and stagnant."<br /><center><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://obtusity.blogspot.com/2007/06/all-ye-need-to-know-cornelius-like.html">read the full review</a></span></center><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://streetgangfilms.com/movies/josh_xander/catpower/big.mov"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhec6jwu46kXsqsQv6bDEQgt9h-af1mQAix4SuUbXKGtvrTfkgHMOytkLiufrUNPC7PcP_SzOWckrqnujEhkLbdlokunBwt2T80qPBpICwnf4BXVj38_mjveSJUwvJ-CpUVJz2izw/s320/cat5.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5150298122980854018" border="0" /></a><br /><center><a href="http://streetgangfilms.com/movies/josh_xander/catpower/big.mov">Cat Power "Where Is My Love?"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Josh & Xander</center><br />In one fleeting moment we see it all, from joy to sorrow, love to loneliness. "Where is My Love?" is a devastatingly beautiful video, shot with wonderous warmth and detail. We watch as a women's uproarious laughter - happiness personified - turns slowly into a pathetic and desperate crash to the floor. Each character is so unique and seperate in the bar, yet like in a classic Altman picture, the characters are tied each to each simply via their humanity - their struggle to connect, to live. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://almaharel.com/elephantGun.html"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBxku-6BtA9f-6kyvrZuEKmMeMYwBdDpH70vDXosF0wDqH3OAzfk-yxsc3JeruKXItVXbShqnb50CElj_Xh_sqnTv5xmP5h4Yoxx3OD2SZCq1-GE53q_4gnQpCoH5rFh11lohHyQ/s320/beirut4.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5150299776543262994" border="0" /></a><br /><center><a href="http://almaharel.com/elephantGun.html">Beirut "Elephant Gun"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Alma Har'el</center><br />"There is beauty in this strangely erotic room, and no doubt most of its residents are enjoying themselves. There is something sublime in "letting the seasons begin" and completely embracing the energy of the moment - the lust, the drinks and the music. But the look on Condon's face is the clue to everything he hides inside - the bored desperation of his dreams comes pouring out the weary notes of his trumpet. He can live in distraction or follow the postcards on the wall, but either way a life of escapism will leave one unfulfilled - dragging empty cans along the beach."<br /><center><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://obtusity.blogspot.com/2007/04/we-drink-tonight-beirut-elephant-gun.html">read the full review</a></span></center><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.postodellefragole.com/cera/001.html"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAfpKwUKx1_CH0FaYfFOK4R57UBUreJBs-VRoHsQpcBm78fvjXYGxQMq9xjj5s2_fTA73ZGwbvLMxyfI-vnHPgGGbouxPkewg-X_kkeqriZhmXoh9-mA0ApESlmi7mX5iPyE41TQ/s320/cera3.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5150300884644825378" border="0" /></a><br /><center><a href="http://www.postodellefragole.com/cera/001.html" alt="watch video">Petrol "Cera"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Postodellefragole</center><br />"This may very well be a lonely man watching his love fall apart at the hands of his own indecision and hysteria, but it's precisely the mystery of the narrative which keeps "Cera" such a compelling treat. There is a shot of the women running across darkness as if upon water, subtle effects distort the visuals on close-ups and throughout cuts are hidden in the same black where secrets are kept. The directors create a mood that is as disquieting as it is hypnotically beautiful. An enigma that wants no solution - only to evoke and entice feeling."<br /><center><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://obtusity.blogspot.com/2007/06/viewless-wings-of-poesy-petrol-cera.html">read the full review</a></span></center><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.feltusfeltus.com/"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_aX_Ch-31faPGCg5sZbxr3bi-vMH1K9jLoHA30SXIsABfohq0GYgi3FXCXc6b84hCuOARvtS6IU-yFTyJPb6v8JIlFflw1Zy6RK2NfI6JFkgp4ES3zSUZ22s2HMOGzXtYxGPfFQ/s320/Conscious-Life2.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5150301327026456882" border="0" /></a><br /><center><a href="http://obtusity.blogspot.com/2007/04/silent-music-video-aereogrammes.html">Aereogramme "Conscious Life"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Tobias Feltus</center><br />"Tobias Feltus's "Conscious Life" is a near-perfect example of the symbiosis between picture and sound...They called <span style="font-style: italic;">The Jazz Singer</span> a "talkie" in 1927 because human speech, or a lack thereof, was the real defining quality of the silent films that preceded it. Aereogramme's music contains words, but they aren't directly spoken by any of the characters in "Conscious Life." Rather they serve as our guide through the psychology and context behind the happenings on screen."<br /><center><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://obtusity.blogspot.com/2007/04/silent-music-video-aereogrammes.html">read the full review</a></span></center><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.jfklondon.co.uk/mov/new/dizzeeLg_Prog_169.mov"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvhtGiB-cmZ-5u6590ZRHc67yn5L-2JSdUhx7iM2BJcnbvsgPg_QqWtrm-4Ol5GLy1IYXSR_TJ2m3OFmuFoAOhtA76AvrLpY1g5JR3ifHKSBRMzDwPQLqfQXaE6m9MqDwKSv0KtA/s320/Dizzee-Rascal1.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5150302671351220546" border="0" /></a><br /><center><a href="http://www.jfklondon.co.uk/mov/new/dizzeeLg_Prog_169.mov">Dizzee Rascal "Sirens"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by W.I.Z.</center><br />From the moment we saw it, we knew this one was special.<br /><br />"W.I.Z.'s music video for Dizzee Rascal's "Sirens" is loaded with vibrant imagery, but one of its most quietly potent ideas centers around Dizzee's choice of attire. The hooded jacket he wears (and is forced to remove) is about more than a conflict between young and old, it's the fear of the unknown itself. It's about those in power being afraid of "difference," of what they don't understand and can't see. And it's about exploiting those in a weaker position without concern for the long-term effects it has on society at-large."<br /><center><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://obtusity.blogspot.com/2007/04/fear-of-hood-dizzee-rascal-sirens.html">read the full review</a></span></center>Imranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10334100145353318247noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34601755.post-59722627379202916082007-08-16T07:30:00.000+00:002008-12-09T14:58:22.405+00:00Mirrors On the Wall: R. Kelly "Trapped in the Closet: Chapters 13-22"<a href="http://ifc.com/static/sections/kelly/trapped.html"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQIMI1pp-ow8q7MocFpB6QR6x8OrA2vYSyhdE8JzRQyW4gYw3FrhBdbXzmrr65pR15m7qSzL6jctxAwjx8rzVh8VURZAC0KGyADJNe5Fq7ntckjwdt_AulCPz3r2dxP1SWETrM6g/s400/losttrapped.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5099190752542442962" /></a><br /><center><a href="http://ifc.com/static/sections/kelly/trapped.html">R. Kelly "Trapped in the Closet: Chapters 13-22"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by R. Kelly and Jim Swaffield</center><br />There's a point in Chapter 8 of R. Kelly's magnum opus, as James the police officer is on the verge of discovering Bridgette's bizarre secrets, where the room darkens and bars of light are thrown across the nervous wife's face. In that moment you begin to understand perhaps the meaning behind all these illicit affairs and love triangles. Whether you're a gay priest, a stripping midget, or even a multi-platinum world famous R&B superstar (who just so happens to be amidst a rather aberrant real-life court case himself), we've all got our own skeletons tucked away somewhere.<br /><br />As we watch with rapt enthusiasm as Kelly unveils the latest installments of his hip hopera (daily on <a href="http://ifc.com/static/sections/kelly/trapped.html">IFC.com</a>), we'll save the rest of our comments 'til the complete tale is spun. Check back next week for a full run through.Imranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10334100145353318247noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34601755.post-85012482155858408772007-08-09T07:34:00.000+00:002007-08-09T05:59:29.195+00:00Pretty Girls Make Graves: Candie Payne "One More Chance"<span style="font-style:italic;">Obtusity is in the process of moving, and consequently the blog will be on hiatus for a week or so. But as we pack up and head out west, we leave you with this delightful new video from Candie Payne. </span><br /><br /><center><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/KihwFsTh6Bo"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/KihwFsTh6Bo" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object></center><br /><center><a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=LE7RBl2YfOg">Candie Payne "One More Chance"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Indica</center><br />The English singer-songwriter and her director Indica play against the expectations set-up by the sweet music and the even sweeter appearance of our heroine. As a parade of men are distracted by her long silky legs and batting lashes, the not-so-innocent beauty is masterminding a plan to escape scot-free. Meanwhile a crew of stereotypical "criminal" types walk around in the background, subtly challenging the viewer's own perceptions of what "bad" people look like.Imranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10334100145353318247noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34601755.post-79864922497732105362007-08-07T11:00:00.000+00:002007-08-07T18:40:01.201+00:00Saturday Night Fever: M.I.A. "Jimmy"<span style="font-style:italic;">One of the best songs of the year gets a far-out video makeover...</span><br /><br /><center><object height="350" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/VLPUe9Xn9ZE"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/VLPUe9Xn9ZE" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></embed></object></center><br /><center><a href="http://extreme.colonelblimp.com/directors/nezarkhamal/movies/NK_Mia_Jimmy.mov">M.I.A. "Jimmy" [Hi-Res]</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Nezar Khamal</center><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Disco Dancer</span>, which provides the inspiration for "Jimmy," is one of the great soundtracks of the 80’s, and the Indian musical is exactly the sort of gaudy mess that fits perfectly with M.I.A.’s <a href="http://obtusity.blogspot.com/2007/06/dance-lessons-mia-boyz.html">aesthetic</a> of <a href="http://obtusity.blogspot.com/2007/02/notes-from-underground-mia-bird-flu.html">celebrating </a>the forgotten and marginalized art of the third-world. While the song channels the extravagant emotions of unrequited Bollywood love through dreamy guitars, gorgeous epic strings and her most impassioned vocal performance yet, the video amplifies the effect by riffing on space travel, Buddhism and the "disco" theme.*<br /><br />The final shot is of M.I.A. tearfully calling out to her lover Jimmy, and it initially seems at odds with the buoyant energy of the previous 3 minutes. It's a bit tongue-in-cheek, but it's also a telling moment of sincerity. The artist is, after all, working within a specific style which calls for dramatic gestures and visuals which convey the grandness of human feeling. In the 1983 movie the song "Jimmy Jimmy" is sung by the female protagonist during a dance competition, meant to entice her suddenly hesitant partner to come join her on stage. He never does gather the courage, and she finishes the performance alone. M.I.A. extracts the metaphor from the scene, using it as a mirror for her own struggles with love - dancing and singing in hopes of capturing the wavering heart of her own Jimmy. In many ways her spin on <span style="font-style: italic;">Disco Dancer</span> (which to be honest, is remembered more for its music than its feeble plot) is more romantic and more animated than the original scene - she makes it brilliantly <span style="font-style: italic;">more</span> Bollywood.<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />*Parts of this paragraph are quoted from my own review of the track at <a href="http://stylusmagazine.com/jukebox/?p=752">Stylus</a></span>Imranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10334100145353318247noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34601755.post-5113597456790013952007-08-07T07:52:00.000+00:002008-12-09T14:58:22.821+00:00The Riot is Yet to Come: Kaiser Chiefs "Angry Mob"<a href="http://www.factoryfilms.net/films/quicktimes/KaiserChiefs_AngryMob.mov"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_u6lvH8hdmU22yU6NGkZlMUPqA6V-7go7gfbUkUeVTrwDgJC0iI2AYMBgXgxelxmGQuB2Ww8cqJY62XEVQv4h0dyHK4e3qskEiF6ehTtqw8HZRujaKphiLfKL2chF5cb5o5SJ2A/s400/picture+8.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5095833124815832706" border="0" /></a><center><a href="http://www.factoryfilms.net/films/quicktimes/KaiserChiefs_AngryMob.mov">Kaiser Chiefs "Angry Mob"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by W.I.Z.</center><br /><center><span style="font-size:78%;">[<a href="http://videos.antville.org/stories/1671714/#comments">via antville</a>]</span></center><br />The name of the restaurant - <span style="font-style: italic;">Noblesse</span> - is engraved in the window that separates the outcast women from the diners who excised them. The French word means what it looks like, but is perhaps more widely know as in the phrase "Noblesse oblige" - a concept which implies that those with wealth or prestige have a heightened social accountability. Or to quote <span style="font-style: italic;">Spiderman</span>, "with great power comes great responsibility."<br /><br />Director W.I.Z. has <a href="http://www.factoryfilms.net/films/quicktimes/KaiserChiefs_AngryMob.mov">previously</a> tackled issues of class and discrimination, but here his commentary is laced with a hint of modern political allegory. The privileged patrons of the glossy establishment observe the members of the bachelorette-party with condescending smirks and glances. Eventually they set the two groups of rowdy drunk women against each other, observing the ensuing brawl with glee - simultaneously sharing knowing looks (as if to say "I told you they were uncivilized") while quietly relishing in the spectacle of the physical altercation. The lower "class" fights amongst itself while the upper, protected by the institutions of society, stands back and watches with a sense of moral superiority - a pattern which could apply to a certain war in the Middle East, or recent riots on the streets of Paris.<br /><br />Yet it's the restaurant itself which got half these ladies drunk in the first place. And while they may pretend to be above the crowd, the seated folks have the same human desires and emotions as the skirt-lifting women they shun. While one group expresses their sexuality with blow-up sex toys and racy lingerie, the other resorts to secretive touching under the table. The wine-n-dine crew resent the scantily-clad and loud women across the restaurant precisely because they expose the suppressiveness of their own stuffy mentality. They stand in the window and relish the altercation out there because it releases all the emotion they hold back in the name of everything that is "proper."<br /><br />It's only a matter of time before the mob realize they are being used. And when that happens they will do as they've been trained to do: express their anger through base violence. Sadly only in these moments when the fear comes home do the wealthy and powerful truly understand their social obligations - and hopefully the ersatz nature of "nobility."Imranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10334100145353318247noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34601755.post-7454548756309715862007-08-03T07:49:00.000+00:002007-08-07T06:00:15.667+00:00Still Not Tired of Hypocrisy: 50 Cent feat. Justin Timberlake "Ayo Technology"<span style="font-style:italic;">Classy male cinematic masturbation...</span><br /><br /><center><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/IM3V6k_67j0"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/IM3V6k_67j0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object></center><br /><center><a href="http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1126085229/bclid1125900253/bctid1130906909">50 Cent feat. Justin Timberlake and Timbaland "Ayo Technology"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Joseph Kahn</center><br />Before we get into the obvious criticisms of extreme female objectification, it should be said: this is an exceedingly attractive modern hip hop video. Director Joseph Kahn manages to find novel and visually exciting ways of playing with the cliches of the genre - namely girls, cars and inordinate displays of wealth. As my friend Jason observed upon his initial viewing, it's like the <span style="font-style:italic;">Minority Report</span> of 50 Cent sex-themed videos (which constitutes nearly <span style="font-style:italic;">all</span> of his videos).<br /><br />But now that we've got that out of the way: are there any men in mainstream hip hop who have any sort of regard for females as human beings at all? We've addressed this topic numerous times <a href="http://obtusity.blogspot.com/2006/10/real-shit.html">before</a>, but from 50 literally aiming a sniper rifle at a lingerie model to JT spying on girls with binoculars - this is just kind of ridiculous. What's silliest about this scenario is that the song itself is literally about pornography - and men masturbating to said pornography. Thus it's the epitome of male sexist fantasy to depict what is normally a lonely and self-pleasurable act as an avenue of expressing sexual power over real women. <br /><br />That being said, the video would be somewhat justifiable if we were shown the other side as well. Objectification isn't a terrible thing per se - both men and women enjoy being in control and being controlled at different times - but it's the lopsided nature of power in our society which makes it such a harmful activity. Try imagining the opposite of this video, with popular female artists simulating sexual activities on powerless scantily-clad men...and now try imagining that video ever being made.<br /><br />In mainstream media male pleasure has never been considered "sexy," but it's sad that there are seemingly no directors in the music video community (or Hollywood for that matter) who have the guts to show it - even when the song is actually precisely about 50 Cent getting off far too often to porn. In reality he and Justin are the ones being controlled by women (or at least pictures and videos of women on the Internet), but in the end even the <span style="font-style:italic;">source</span> of this "technology" is shown to be a man playing with his computer in his bedroom.Imranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10334100145353318247noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34601755.post-92117216609756893272007-08-02T08:09:00.000+00:002007-08-07T05:59:56.892+00:00Some Ugly As Well: The Good, The Bad and the Queen "The Good, The Bad and the Queen"<center><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/mKvCEUJfQA4"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/mKvCEUJfQA4" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object></center><br /><center><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKvCEUJfQA4">The Good, The Bad and the Queen "The Good, The Bad and the Queen"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Stephen Pook</center><br />The rising pulse of the music works wonderfully with the brilliantly edited film - splitting apart and turning psychedelic at just the right moment - but it's the content of the images which poses a problem in interpreting this video. On the one hand it seems the director intends to capture the mysterious and mesmerizing spirit of this Sufi religious gathering, using the spiritual experiences of these men to attribute some transcendent power to the music, and subsequently the video itself. Yet as one astute YouTube member so eloquently described it, it also comes off as "Hindu hippies rockin round the Beep man!!!" <br /><br />The director needn't be concerned with correctly representing each person's religious affiliations (it is actually possible that these men are indeed Hindu, as some Hindus practice or incorporate Sufi traditions), but there does seem to be some problematic objectification of the "other" underlining the final product. Would this video work if the men weren't specifically pot-smoking brown-skinned people? The psychedlia of the finale seems to reference the surge in interest during the hippie movement of the 60's in Indian culture and religion. Yet it's a vague and superficial sort of interest - only by keeping the culture at a mysterious ("spiritual") distance can we sit back and enjoy observing these people as symbols or caricatures of the unknown.Imranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10334100145353318247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34601755.post-79207669621654098222007-08-01T22:23:00.000+00:002007-08-01T22:39:02.172+00:00Don't Try This At Home: Dude 'N Nem "Watch My Feet"<center><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/D6vdD5HOSgw"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/D6vdD5HOSgw" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object></center><br /><center><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6vdD5HOSgw">Dude 'N Nem "Watch My Feet"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by ?</center><br />We've already analyzed the decent Down South "<a href="http://obtusity.blogspot.com/2007/07/put-on-your-red-shoes-cupid-cupid.html">Cupid Shuffle</a>" and the more impressive "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFpqJK0klBc">5000</a>" from New York, but the freshest dance craze of the moment comes straight out the dear old Midwest. This modern version of the "Juke" is on full display in Chicago natives Dude 'N Nem's latest video, a journey across the Windy City showcasing kids and grown-ups alike practicing some very fancy footwork. Yet for all the thrilling and captivating dance moves, the most exciting fact here is the emergence of another quality Chi-town underground duo to add to a burgeoning scene spearheaded by the flyer than fly <a href="http://coolkidsmusic.imeem.com/">Cool Kids</a>.Imranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10334100145353318247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34601755.post-92038734020024860932007-07-31T09:20:00.000+00:002007-07-31T14:53:42.015+00:00Tell Me I'm Right, Tell Me I'm Wrong: The White Stripes "You Don't Know What Love Is"<center><embed src="http://www.mtv.com/player/embed/wp/" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" FlashVars="CONFIG_URL=http://www.mtv.com/player/embed/wp/configuration.jhtml%3fvid=165833&allowFullScreen=true" width="400" height="330" AllowScriptAccess="never" base="."></embed></center><br /><center><a href="http://www.subterraneanblog.com/2007/07/30/video-premiere-white-stripes-you-dont-know-what-love-is/">The White Stripes "You Don't Know What Love Is"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by The Malloy Brothers</center><br />Loyalty is not necessarily love. Jack White describes the frustrations of being with, or wanting to be with, someone who blindly and silently sticks in a relationship. It isn't that the other doesn't say "i love you," it's that she rarely says anything else. The lack of criticism or anger comes off as a lack of interest or passion. <br /><br />In the video the Malloys show the couple walking on the beach, but though they begin holding hands they end up separately framed. Jack makes his way over to her side of the duplex, but she remains coy and blank. Yet Meg's reasons for staying away are likely more complicated than he understands, and in one scene she clearly points at him while the chorus of the song plays - implying that perhaps neither of them really know what love is.Imranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10334100145353318247noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34601755.post-30839676075375189072007-07-30T05:14:00.000+00:002008-12-09T14:58:23.055+00:00Dirt Don't Hurt: Bonnie Prince Billy "The Seedling"<span style="font-style: italic;">Click below the trailer to watch full-length video...</span><br /><br /><center><object height="350" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/PDIsfJz2NR0"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/PDIsfJz2NR0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></embed></object></center><br /><center><a href="http://dragcity.com/video/dc420bpb_seed3.mov">Bonnie Prince Billy "The Seedling" [Full Video]</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Aran Reo Mann</center><br />The trailer for Bonnie Prince Billy's latest video is rated "R" for "coarse language and sexual situations." This could very well be a perfunctory detail meant to identify the clip as a preview, or perhaps placed against the red background it foreshadows the horror filminess of the piece. Yet the choice of words, specifically "sexual situations," is hard to ignore when the first verse of a song about making seedlings grow ends with "My full-sized child is fully unclothed."<br /><br />The other, more limpidly vital detail of the trailer is the phrase uttered anonymously by a satirically creepy voice, "god made dirt, and dirt don't hurt." It's a phrase you've probably heard before, the type of thing your grandparents might say, and is generally interpreted as a sort of positive axiom. (It's also often translated on schoolyards as the "five-second rule.") Yet here it sounds reticently sinister, as if the unseen narrator is mocking that second half of the rhyme: "dirt <span style="font-style: italic;">don't</span> hurt." Or it could just be silliness.<br /><br />The actual video is even darker than the trailer promises. After some beautifully scenic and aquatic imagery - which immediately brings to mind life cycles, i.e. "the miracle of birth" - we are shown an ominously empty rocking chair. The exact origins of the rocking chair are up for debate, but it has often been viewed as a symbol of parenting - perhaps a result of its association with the old nursery rhyme "Rock-a-bye Baby" (which itself is rather unsettling, "down will come baby, cradle and all"). Thus this vacancy implies bad, non-existent or perhaps "ghostly" child-rearing.<br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000H0MMKY?ie=UTF8&tag=obtusity-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000H0MMKY"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeQDJHMiWYh8UxS3MZtiuNeQFToD0_HeRlmKnTuW75aZgwrEiR1lA6TVqPUs07pGLh9VvxbdM1KAXsPWdKIW0yhJlML7i7vB1R5O1SgAyAUfEW2IbLFy1zONF4WneP6YkcUiUYkg/s400/thelettinggo.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5092903738307283618" border="0" /></a><br /><center><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:78%;"><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000H0MMKY?ie=UTF8&tag=obtusity-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000H0MMKY"> Buy the album</a></span><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=obtusity-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000H0MMKY" alt="" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" border="0" height="1" width="1" /></span></center><br />When the seat is finally filled, it adds no measure of comfort. A faceless man sits in almost complete darkness, singing his song with his deathly bright lips. Blue lips would normally suggest a voice from beyond the grave, but the fluorescent sea of life in the opening challenges this assumption. There is also something sensually abashing about putting such emphasis on the lips - conjuring images of unfulfilled desire.<br /><br />In a parallel narrative a mysterious character takes his lantern into the forest to steal a bit of nature's beauty for himself (he chooses mushrooms, which can be both nutritious and poisonous). He hordes these living things in his bedroom, and uses them to create his own world. Whether Bonnie Prince Billy is singing of actual "illegitimate" children conceived in secret or making an analogy to songwriting, there is something about this creative process that keeps the artist up at night. The little girls who awake in his test-tubes almost all look to him for guidance, but the final shot of the video features one such exiguous creature stare directly towards the camera - as if cognizant of her confinement and now ready to be released.<br /><br />Director Aran Reo Mann, who may or may not be related to Michael Mann (probably is), worked with the famous director on art direction in his films <span style="font-style: italic;">Collateral</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">Miami Vice</span>. The gorgeous use of color and shadow here is perhaps the biggest link to those movies, yet whereas blue tends to represent either isolation or safety in Michael's films (including <span style="font-style: italic;">Miami Vice</span>), it is used more ambiguously in "The Seedling." There are effulgent jellyfish in that pretty ocean, but it's a beauty that will sting you upon embrace.Imranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10334100145353318247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34601755.post-66313777115937554642007-07-27T08:54:00.000+00:002007-07-27T20:52:27.527+00:00Detour: Liars "Plastic Casts of Everything"<center><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/s-r8HWri41s"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/s-r8HWri41s" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object></center><br /><center><a href="http://www.thedirectorsbureau.com/media/archive/Liars-PlasterCastsOfEverything(explicit).mov">Liars "Plaster Casts of Everything"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Patrick Daughters</center><br />Escaping from prison into a dark and dreary night, adrift in the desert, this troubled soul is fleeing more than a state institution. He wants to "run away" from the guilt, confusion and fear of whatever it is he's done - or is at least accused of doing. But he doesn't need to look in the rear view mirror to know that these regrets will not be leaving anytime soon. <br /><br />In David Lynch's <span style="font-style:italic;">Lost Highway</span> (an obvious influence here) Fred Madison suffers from a psychological "fugue state." This means that Fred creates in his mind a fresh identity (full of new people, places and memories) and proceeds to forget his true self. Yet like the crazed driver in this Daughters' video, Fred can't really erase his memories and begins to subconsciously repeat or relive his mistakes. In fact the protagonist of "Plaster Casts of Everything," who imagines a strange woman in his passenger seat, may very well be haunted by the same guilty demons as Fred - that of his wife's murder. <br /><br />A fugue also happens to be a style of musical composition, one which features multiple parts that come together in a sort of circular form (returning to the opening key). The Liars' excellent single doesn't necessarily follow that style, but there is a connection between the repetition of the pulsating music and the building tension on screen. The final coda implies that rather than an endless cycle of shadows and desert, things may actually get worse for this guy. He's caught in his own nightmarish spiral of horror and self-hatred - and there's no going back.Imranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10334100145353318247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34601755.post-1197804106090518942007-07-26T07:01:00.000+00:002008-12-09T14:58:23.261+00:00Parallel Lines: Slim Thug vs. NYOIL<span style="font-style:italic;">Ridin' dirty and pretty...</span><br /><br /><center><object width="448" height="374"><param name="movie" value="http://videos.onsmash.com/e/s5IdKHktQMNYxSRt"></param><embed src="http://videos.onsmash.com/e/s5IdKHktQMNYxSRt" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="448" height="374"></embed></object></center><br /><center><a href="http://videos.onsmash.com/v/s5IdKHktQMNYxSRt">Slim Thug "Wood Grain Wheel"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by ?</center><br /><br /><center><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/G18IqCnzPnM"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/G18IqCnzPnM" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object></center><br /><center><a href="http://nahright.com/news/2007/07/24/video-nyoil-unreal/#comments">NYOIL "Unreal"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by E-Hab</center><br /><br />The first is a visually stunning mainstream hip-hop video, while the latter is a cheap - slightly corny - indie production. Slim Thug looks cool coasting in his shiny new car with his "wood grain wheel," accompanied by stylish cinematography and a fantastic brooding beat. NYOIL looks awkward in his wife beater, and the silliness of his introduction is distracting and unnecessary. Yet in many ways director E-Hab's low frills and poorly executed video for "Unreal" is an excellent commentary on Slim Thug's more accessible work. Together they provide fresh perspectives on tired subjects and common iconography.<br /><br />Both videos are very much about staying true to yourself and the places you come from. As Slim Thug rides through his hometown of Houston, the pictures are often faded or intentionally worn - implying the laidback rapper hasn't forgotten his roots. In many ways he represents himself as a hero out of the past, like a character in <span style="font-style:italic;">Grindhouse</span>, or an extension of the classic cars he drives.<br /><br />The video works because it tells a story while creating a compelling and beautiful world around it. The tale is very familiar - my neighborhood is rough, baby mama drama and "hey, I'm rich!" - but it's told with such flare and fits so well with the music that it clearly distinguishes itself from the pack. Slim Thug's city, as seen through the reflections of shimmering car doors and rear view mirrors, becomes a surreal vision of typical hip-hop culture.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirSG40oWQ5Nyclhj7YA3V1oYfYyYVf3xs_GJlj_Ws1USDhKLzfS8yQjGmjNA0f30QP8gu7SKTVhCPQKWKWqawx_fR4zBU7kU6eCsE687XHo9zMQMqL1-3_ovNuLYxMXEneX8HJZA/s1600-h/slimthug.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirSG40oWQ5Nyclhj7YA3V1oYfYyYVf3xs_GJlj_Ws1USDhKLzfS8yQjGmjNA0f30QP8gu7SKTVhCPQKWKWqawx_fR4zBU7kU6eCsE687XHo9zMQMqL1-3_ovNuLYxMXEneX8HJZA/s400/slimthug.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5091404756066273938" /></a><br />Yet essentially it's built around the biggest cliche of the genre: the ride. Not only is Slim in his vehicle most of the time, but there are countless shots of tricked-out Cadillacs swerving in parking lots in the background. NYOIL's nostalgic look at coming up in the rap game is also conceived entirely around the rapper's mode of transportation, but it serves a very different purpose. It begins rather predictably: the rapper in his leather-seated car, cell phone rings, and an agent calling. Yet the minute we realize NYOIL's car isn't a super expensive indestructible dream car - but rather one that breaks down just like normal people's - we know this is going to be a unique hip-hop video.<br /><br />The car is made the focus here in order to comment on the vanity and cosmetically obsessed messages of contemporary music. NYOIL wants to say hip-hop is about more than that - that it's about people coming together for a cause, self-expression and the American spirit of hard work. The acting is forced and the finale is cheesy, but the anachronistic image of a rapper pushing his own broke down dreams with the help of complete strangers is more than refreshing. Slim Thug's world is prettier, but NYOIL's has a tangible and important message of self-confidence. Now why is it that these two categories of hip-hop videos always seem to be mutually exclusive?Imranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10334100145353318247noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34601755.post-71150999920159093202007-07-19T07:42:00.000+00:002007-07-19T08:15:10.606+00:00Smiley Smile: Blonde Redhead "The Dress"<center><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/pT7mIQntjZU"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pT7mIQntjZU" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object></center><br /><center><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT7mIQntjZU&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Epitchforkmedia%2Ecom%2Fpage%2Fforkcast%2F44289%2Dblonde%2Dredhead%2Dthe%2Ddress">Blonde Redhead "The Dress"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Mike Mills</center><br />Though not entirely <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9skEZHYxOo&NR=1">original</a>, the video for "The Dress" is a compelling portrait of sadness - and the beauty which lurks in every lonely tear. We see or hear people cry quite often, but rarely do we simply observe a stranger progress into weeping. Normally, especially if you knew the person, you would say something or reach out your hand to comfort. But here you are helpless; forced to be a spectator.<br /><br />What you see, other than anguish, is fear. Lead singer Kazu Makino avers, "fear starts creeping up when you have so much to lose," and director Mike Mills fills the spaces around these troubled folks with foreboding darkness. The black emptiness seems to trap them in their sadness, swallowing all hope of escape. <br /><br />Yet there is something quietly uplifting about watching these individuals sob. Each of them is uniquely distressed and have their own way of expressing that grief, but they are <span style="font-style:italic;">all</span> crying - almost as if they lament some universal tragedy. And in that undeniable connection, one can indeed find beauty amidst the frowns.Imranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10334100145353318247noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34601755.post-70586721145446614722007-07-17T07:13:00.000+00:002007-07-17T06:45:38.796+00:00Weapon of Choice: RJD2 "Work It Out"<center><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0" width="424" height="360" id="dl_flvwidget" align="middle"><param name="movie" value="http://cdn.channel.aol.com/aolexd_widgets/widget.swf" /><param name="FlashVars" value="settings=56156&pmms=1937266&previewImage= http://www.aolcdn.com/spinner-photos/rjd2-still.jpg" /><embed src="http://cdn.channel.aol.com/aolexd_widgets/widget.swf" quality="high" bgcolor="#ffffff" width="424" height="360" name="dl_flvwidget" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" FlashVars="settings=56156&pmms=1937266&previewImage= http://www.aolcdn.com/spinner-photos/rjd2-still.jpg"></embed></object></center><br /><center><a href="http://media.ghostrobot.net/7014_workitout_v2_web.mov">RJD2 "Work it Out"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Joey Garfield</center><br />A man who appears disabled faces a steep set of steps. Immediately a stranger offers to help, assuming the man will have difficulty completing the task on his own. Yet our sharply dressed hero rejects the stranger's help, and seems stubborn in doing so - after all, we also expect him to have some difficulty in descending the stairs. <br /><br />But in a single continuous take, Bill Shannon (born with a hip condition that requires crutches) expresses uninhibited individuality and freedom - rejecting any notion that he is incapable of beautiful movement. He hops, skates and glides through the crowded city, garnering looks of astonishment wherever he goes. After all that he climbs right back up those stairs - past the stranger who once doubted his ability. <br /><br />Simply brilliant.Imranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10334100145353318247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34601755.post-74686063023556301802007-07-16T09:04:00.000+00:002008-12-09T14:58:24.310+00:00No Alarms, Some Surprises<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gZ0dGcLvrsk/RpsoKH_4TYI/AAAAAAAAAZU/yIZnWLvHI9k/s1600-h/pfork.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gZ0dGcLvrsk/RpsoKH_4TYI/AAAAAAAAAZU/yIZnWLvHI9k/s400/pfork.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5087704358455889282" border="0" /></a><br />There isn't a new video to discuss today on Obtusity as we are still recovering from a whirlwind weekend in Chicago spent covering the <a href="http://pitchforkmusicfestival.com/">Pitchfork Music Festival</a>. So in the meantime we've posted some photo and video highlights from the 3-day extravaganza - unfortunately not including any Sonic Youth, GZA or Slint photos (our camera crapped out on Friday night). It was the best P4K event yet, featuring everything from a g-stringed Kevin Barnes (Of Montreal) to the legendary Prince Paul arriving unexpectedly on stage with De La Soul. In between there were multiple appearances from members of Grizzly Bear, a bunch of brand new songs from The New Pornographers and a fence-shaking, insanely crowded semi-nude dance party curated by Girl Talk. Like we said - still catching our breath.<br /><br /><center><object height="350" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/YySvQYCmMZQ"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/YySvQYCmMZQ" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></embed></object></center><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Sam Beam returns for an encore after a ho-hum set, unveiling this gorgeous cover of Radiohead's "No Surprises."</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gZ0dGcLvrsk/RpsqS3_4TZI/AAAAAAAAAZc/4F0kmWexdJ4/s1600-h/P7140104.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gZ0dGcLvrsk/RpsqS3_4TZI/AAAAAAAAAZc/4F0kmWexdJ4/s400/P7140104.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5087706707803000210" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Clipse "Grindin" through an electrifying set that featured hits from both LP's and nearly every mixtape the Virginia duo has released thus far.<br /></span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gZ0dGcLvrsk/Rpsux3_4TdI/AAAAAAAAAZ8/E9goQPnJLjE/s1600-h/jboys.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gZ0dGcLvrsk/Rpsux3_4TdI/AAAAAAAAAZ8/E9goQPnJLjE/s400/jboys.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5087711638425456082" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Though marred by technical difficulties, and only lasting a little over a half-hour, Junior Boys managed one of the more memorable shows of the weekend. They stuck mostly with the new stuff ("In the Morning" sounds even better live), but "Under the Sun," from first album <span style="font-style: italic;">Last Exit</span>, was the real stunner.</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gZ0dGcLvrsk/RpssCX_4TaI/AAAAAAAAAZk/ZUnBoyHxGV8/s1600-h/P7150125.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gZ0dGcLvrsk/RpssCX_4TaI/AAAAAAAAAZk/ZUnBoyHxGV8/s400/P7150125.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5087708623358414242" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Chicago natives Cool Kids had the crowd going wild over their unique blend of indie-style (check Mikey sporting form-fitting acid wash jeans) and hip-hop wit. The new songs sound fantastic, and experiencing "Mikey Rocks" with the crew of rabid hip-hop fans in the front row (including close friends of the rappers) was an unforgettable moment.</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRCYccFUAFBp_IaQpp3KHSDb98nu-amEtYKa90jcnK_uYZjDeqGGXtDMg2Fs80VJwLJgqBD5YrIe0YeQtLuObp_UkUXzLEZ6G6vJ7UoIm6wcbm-iBm54rIKvh1VkVit6BOkFfY6A/s1600-h/P7140093.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRCYccFUAFBp_IaQpp3KHSDb98nu-amEtYKa90jcnK_uYZjDeqGGXtDMg2Fs80VJwLJgqBD5YrIe0YeQtLuObp_UkUXzLEZ6G6vJ7UoIm6wcbm-iBm54rIKvh1VkVit6BOkFfY6A/s400/P7140093.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5087718772366134770" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">We'll get back to talking about music videos tomorrow, promise!</span>Imranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10334100145353318247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34601755.post-5148091065488351862007-07-12T07:25:00.000+00:002007-07-12T08:16:22.955+00:00Heart It Races: Tracey Thorn "Raise the Roof"<center><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/8MiAsbMb4vQ"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8MiAsbMb4vQ" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object></center><br /><center><a href="http://www.video-c.co.uk/newmicrosites/microsite_watchvideo.asp?FileType=ADSLProg&vidref=trac003">Tracey Thorn "Raise the Roof"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by ?</center><br />The girl begins the video in yellow sneakers, a shy cat meowing at her feet. She works a menial job shining anonymous men's shoes, wearing a confining bonnet in a stark and lonely room that must surely reek of polish. Yet there is no despair in her eyes today, she pulls out her red shoes and dreams only of the coming night. Because this evening isn't just another Friday night - this evening she has a date.<br /><br />Across town the boy of her dreams (or at least some guy who had a compelling MySpace profile), has just flown into town and anxiously hails a yellow cab. The fact that he comes from some distance implies their relationship - at least on the Internet - is more than a few days old. Thus the anticipation of this meeting has been building for a while on both sides, despite their mild-mannered appearances. As they each lay on their bed admiring pictures of the other, or practice dance moves in front of the mirror, they expose how truly ebullient - and optimistic - they are about this rendezvous.<br /><br />Normally in these situations the cynic in you might take over, but the two characters here are played with such caution and humor that we allow ourselves to believe. Though the girl is wearing her Dorothy-shoes and the man initially jumps in a cab called "Confident Taxi," neither of them ever appear completely secure. Thus we are in the dance hall with him as he waits - wondering if she'll ever show up - and we are on the bike with her - worrying if he'll be anything like his online persona. <br /><br />But once she finally does step in the room, without speaking a word, they know this is going to work. She crumples the picture in her hands and he waves sheepishly, but they are suddenly caught in the adrenaline of the moment. Their confidence grows by the second, with each furtive glance and every awkward dance move. The potential love that permeates the shrinking space between them is what lets them temporarily "raise the roof."<br /><br />They don't kiss, because the music ends, but they stand inches apart waiting for it to resume. One imagines they don't speak at all in that silent gap. It's all about the dance tonight, finally being near each other and finally being free to express long dormant desire. Their heels kick up in unison - standing in their new shoes.Imranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10334100145353318247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34601755.post-30145457626078643272007-07-10T07:51:00.000+00:002007-07-10T07:54:59.769+00:00Wake Up: The Mint Chicks "Walking Off a Cliff Again"<center><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/MT-QiClpJKU"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/MT-QiClpJKU" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object></center><br /><center><a href="http://www.robbersdog.com.au/clips/Sam/CLIFF_178_QT7_480.mov">The Mint Chicks "Walking Off a Cliff Again" [Hi-Res]</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Sam Peacocke</center><br />The white rabbit is coaxed out of his hole by the Mint Chicks, in hopes that it might inspire the bored and suppressed people of the world. As our speedy hero splashes wonderland all over these previously static characters, they suddenly erupt with emotion and desire - coming to life just as he seems to lose his. <br /><br />Peacocke, who also directed the Mint Chicks <a href="http://obtusity.blogspot.com/2007/03/escape-from-suburbia-mint-chicks-crazy.html">previous video</a>, does an excellent job of capturing the energy and tone of the band - especially here as the protagonist runs with the rising adrenaline of the song. His images of mundane offices and bland classrooms are delightfully composed, and the performances here are brief but sweet. <br /><br />And could that opening shot be <a href="http://obtusity.blogspot.com/2007/06/dont-look-back-bat-for-lashes-whats.html">another</a> indie reference to <span style="font-style:italic;">Donnie Darko</span> (waking up in the middle of the street, rabbits, martyrdom, maybe?).Imranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10334100145353318247noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34601755.post-41096639864503112462007-07-10T07:33:00.000+00:002007-07-10T05:55:02.869+00:00Re-Definition: eMC "What It Stand For?"<center><object width="448" height="374"><param name="movie" value="http://videos.onsmash.com/e/GB4WC7ZnQTrcrh5V"></param><embed src="http://videos.onsmash.com/e/GB4WC7ZnQTrcrh5V" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="448" height="374"></embed></object></center><br /><center><a href="http://videos.onsmash.com/v/GB4WC7ZnQTrcrh5V">eMC "What It Stand For?"</a></center><br /><center>dir. by Rob Alphonose</center><br />In many ways eMC seem to stand for the same things as everyone else in the game, at least thematically. But as they rifle off one clever phrase after another, you begin to hear a lyrical creativity that sets them apart. The video has its moments (the transitions are nice), but it primarily defers to the song to keep things afloat. The beat by Nicolay (of Foreign Exchange fame) is supremely addictive, and the references to "eMC" in almost every line are entertaining - though we were left waiting for the obvious Einstein shout out.Imranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10334100145353318247noreply@blogger.com0