Music video ramble

I wish I knew what was going on in that whole video (see above). It's a really cool music video - the scenes and imagery and the music parts are all really neat. But the only thing I get from the whole storyline, if you want to call it that, is that people set them up to make people go through a house like dominos but, like... tilting the universe of each room or something. And eliminating floors, walls and parts of ceilings. Huh what? It's an abstract video which makes it cool, but it isn't abstract enough to keep me from trying to guess what's going on. Which just dizzies my insecure little brain.

Then there are other videos, such as this one:


Though I love this song, and the video is pretty to look at, I honestly have no idea what I'm looking at. The only part of the video that makes any real sense is that she sings "hands on me" and people are later caressing seemingly random partners. And that Vanessa Carlton is wearing some kind of weird... weird-outfit. I don't even know. But the people change so fast that I can't get a good look at any of their outfits. I only know that a flash of pale legs equals the knowledge that Vanessa Carlton just graced the presense of my computer screen impaled eyeballs.

And THEN there are the "just plain cool" and "mostly abstract but also kind of making sense" videos. Case in point:


This video has the coolest imagery and continuous-shot thingies that I've ever seen. Like, the background changes and the pose stays the same. The whole video flows together in a really cool way. It kind of makes sense with the whole rest of the song, but mostly fitting the whiny-but-not-because-i'm-cool attitude of the songs as well as the artist and his video. This video NEARLY has a story, but not quite... it's still lacking serious storytelling elements.

However... this fits a storytelling bill (finally! a video that would make my creative writing teacher proud!)


The Hush Sound's new music video for their first single from their new album! I do some serious name dropping in this post! Oh well! This video has a definitely storyline and, even more (!), some actually character behind the members of the band that helps push the plot along. It's easy to follow and the song is great and everyone matches and they leave off like you can have a sequel!

(This post was mostly aimless... but I wanted to post a few videos because I like to and so I figured I'd talk about the videos I was posting. Hooray!)

The Wooden Sky

If there's one reason I like the Internet, it's people. If there are two, it is people and their music.

With websites such as Blogger, LiveJournal, Myspace and Facebook there's plenty of social networking going on. What I like most about this networking is the fact I can go to various LiveJournal communities and browse what people are offering to give me in terms of music. One community, Fanmix, has been quite reliable in giving me good music themed to a particular show, book, movie, whatever. I downloaded a LOST fanmix a few days ago and the girl who had made it had a song on it called "The Wooden Sky" by a band called The Wooden Sky. The song was beautiful and amazing and I can't stop listening to it.

So I looked up the band on Youtube and there were a few live performances recorded from MTV or something. So I listened to them, loved them, put them into mp3 format and dropped them onto my iPod. And the four songs I have by The Wooden Sky are now on repeat all day long.

The music is raw and real and passionate. The songs have familiar key tonality (thanks for the term, Pandora!) and the singer is basically amazing. I am eager to obtain the funds to buy their CD, When Lost at Sea, which came out just this month.

They also have a song called "North Dakota" which is basically Chuck Klosterman's life in a song. And the singer guy looks a little, tiny, eensy-weensy bit like CK. So that's funny.

Now enjoy a song:

note to self

This isn't an AP Lang post. This is a list of things to remember for my own use. It doesn't count!

Stuff to Read
On the Road - Jack Kerouac
No Speed Limit - Frank Owen
Suite Francaise- Irene Nemirovsky
Ghost - Alan Lightman
The Devil You Know - Mike Carey
The Gun Seller - Huge Laurie
I Am Not Myself These Days - Josh Kilmer Purcell
Bedlam - Dominic Bosco
Bedlam - Greg Hollingshead
Amsterdam - Ian McEwan
The Cement Garden - Ian McEwan
The Comfort of Strangers - Ian McEwan
Leaving Dirty Jersey - James Salant
A Million Little Pieces - James Frey
Naked Lunch - William S Burroughs
Ready, Okay! - Adam Cadre (Thanks, Michael!)
Rant - Chuck Palahniuk
Survivor - Chuck Palahniuk
The Beautiful and the Damned - F Scott Fitzgerald
To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf
Hep-Cats, Narcs and Pipe Dreams


... this is a crazy long to-read list. Wow. There are probably more that I forgot. These were just ones in my phone or written down in convenient places.

If anyone has any of these books they could lend to me I'd be more than grateful.

Goodbye Blues (The Hush Sound)

From the time the Hush Sound released their first album in late 2005, I've been a fan. I first heard them on the beautiful site that is Purevolume. I was basically obsessed. And then, in the summer of 2006, the Hush Sound released their second album (on 6/6/06). I've loved both their albums but because it's been over a year without any hint of something new, I migrated to other artists (Patrick Wolf... Kate Nash...)

But the other day, I was driving around in the car and thinking, "I wonder what the Hush Sound is up to." So I googled them and they have a new CD coming out. On Tuesday. Two days before my birthday. (Atonement is also coming out on the 18th, as well as Enchanted (I think) so I'm going to need a lot of money this year...)

I've listened to their two "released" tracks from the new album, "Medicine Man" and "Honey" and they are amazing! They've changed their sound a bit, but what's a new album without a trace of reinvention? Greta's vocals are more mature, less lovely and flowy and are instead a little rougher and tougher. I like it, however. I can't find any songs that feature Bob's vocals but I hope they measure up. They usually both exceed expectations so I hope the trend continues.

I am giddy with excitement for this week. A new CD from one of my favorite bands ever, two amazing movies coming out and my birthday. Hooray!