Twosday: Party time. Excellent?

Partying. You've done it. I've done it. But what is it? Pliny the Elder said that partying was the act of going to a party. Of course, he also thought that dog-headed people existed so it is best to take his assertions with a grain of salt.

Anyways, partying is an important part of music. A lot of music is made to party to and a lot of music is made about partying. Today on Twosday we will be looking at two music videos about partying.

The first is Tik Tok by Ke$ha. Let's take a look.



This video is about going to a party. I think it also starts with waking up after a party. It's about living a party-based life.

The video opens with Ke$ha waking up in a bathtub after a party.

It isn't clear if the bathtub is in her house or if she just ended up in someone's bathtub.

She rides her ridiculous gold bike down the street to the delight of some shitty kids.

Naturally some duder tries to pick her up.

She isn't having it, though. She does not want to go to the kind of party that duder would go to.

She wants a real man. A man like this:

Clearly he knows how to party.

They cruise.

Finally she arrives at the party. It is the kind of party where everyone throws their hands in the air in a carefree manner.

It seems fun.

For some people, though, parties are not events that you go to. Partying is something that you do anytime and any place. One such man is Andrew W.K.



This song is about not about partying as fun, but as a duty. The comic Overcompensating has a theory about this:

"And the angel Andrew WK did party until it began to anger God, and God was furious. 

And so like God said unto the angel Andrew WK, "if you like to party so much, why don't you go to Earth and partying is all that you will do." And Andrew WK did smile, for he thought this would totally rock. 

And so the angel Andrew WK was sent to earth to live among the humans and party."

That's pretty cool. (Please note that whole quote is from Overcompensating. All the best stuff on this blog is a quote.) All true, too. I mean, just look at how purposefully these men are partying.

Sometimes Andrew W.K. will just be standing by himself and will start partying so hard that a huge neon sign will appear behind him.

Parties. Man.

-PTD

Twosday: Words and Phrases

Welcome to Twosday here on Another Flavor! Twosday is the day where we look at two music videos with something in common.

I am very enthusiastic about words and phrases. In high school I started saying "whatevs" so much that it was a real problem. I almost had to go to a special school. I try to keep my slang constantly updating, sometimes successfully and sometimes unsuccessfully. I've never been able to work "boss" into my vocabulary, but I was extremely successful with "radical". I also like to make up words or adapt existing words for new purposes.

Some examples:
Hup: To hop up. For some reason it also means to take a shower.
Crate: A mispronunciation of great.
The deep: A nickname for Home Depot.
J'escuse: As in "J'escuse, I just need to get by."

I think a lot of musicians feel that way as well. The lyrics of songs are a great way to promote new phrases and muse on their meanings. I believe this due to the videos for Bizness by Tune-Yards and Rolling in the Deep by Adele.

Let's start with Tune-Yards and Bizness:



This song asks the question we all have on our minds, "What's the business?" According to urban dictionary (I'm not linking to it because I just realized how offensive its name is) the business can mean a lot of things. It can mean something good, "This chili is the business!" It can mean hassling, "Stop giving me the business." It can even refer to a business, "The business is losing money hand over fist."

Tune-Yards wants to get to the root of this baffling conundrum. After attending the best schools money can buy...

She realized that the business cannot be explained using mere human words. Only the sheer power of interpretive dance can answer the question, "What's the business?"

Yeah.

Okay, from an in depth analysis of the meaning of phrase we come to the invention of a phrase from whole cloth. Rolling in the Deep by Adele:


What does rolling in the deep mean? In the lyrics it sounds like a complete non sequitor:

We could have had it all. Rolling in the deep.

 You're gonna wish you never had met me. Tears are gonna fall. Rolling in the deep.

These lyrics don't give us a lot to go on. I believe, though, that rolling in the deep means having a lot of money. I mean like a lot. Like, building a spaceship type of money. Let's take a look.

The extremely wealthy tend to have a lot of glasses, as shown here.

They also are taken to altering their surroundings with money. Here we see Adele contemplating building a whole new, all white city.

I assume that will be her city for day time and at night she will inhabit an all black city.

There are also a lot of shots that show the downside of being extremely rich, namely the loneliness.

Doesn't it remind you of Xanadu?

Man, rolling in the deep is depressing. That really is the business.

-PTD

Twosday: Don't call me Shirley - Airplanes!

Aren't you bummed that the second Airplane! movie wasn't called Airplanes!? I've been thinking about airplanes because I am going on a flight today. As a people, we are scared of flying. I certainly am. Flying is an extremely dangerous way to travel. The only ways to travel more dangerous are by train, by motorcycle, by bike, by foot, and by car. But that's it. Oh, boats are more dangerous, too. Did you know that you are more likely to die in a plane crash than to be killed in a shirt factory fire? Chilling.

Car-related side note: In Chicago after a snow, it is traditional for people save their precious parking spot by blocking it off with lawn furniture. People who are new to Chicago get really excited about this tradition and decide to partake of it immediately. They don't understand the rules, though. In case you are one of these people let me lay it down for you and see if you can pick it up.
1. You must have shoveled the spot out. This is the most important! If all you did was block some of the falling snow with your car, you may not save your spot.
2. You only get to save it for a day. Maybe two, but probably not. Shoveling out a spot once does not reserve it for the whole winter.
3. People are allowed to steal your lawn furniture. Sorry, it's just a fact of life.
I hope these rules allow you to fully enjoy dangerously driving around on slippery roads at 10 miles an hour over the speed limit!

Okay, back on track. So, I know deep down that flying isn't dangerous especially compared to driving. I'm still frightened about it. This Burt Reynolds quote really explains it, "My movies were the kind they show in prisons and airplanes, because nobody can leave." When you are in an airplane, there is nowhere for you to go. You can be in Alfred Hitchcock's favorite situation: You know something bad is going to happen and there is nothing you can do about it. Now, I know I should be approximately 400 times more scared when I'm riding in a car, but I'm not. I imagine that I could just hup out the window at 70 miles an hour and roll to safety. This is why I always recommend practicing jumping out of speeding cars on the freeway. You won't regret it.

Anyways, this trapped feeling shows up in music videos. Did you know that Another Flavor is a blog about music videos? And that on Twosday we talk about two videos with something in common? Well, now you do. You're welcome.

Today we'll be looking at the video for Britney Spears's Toxic and Foo Fighters' Learn to Fly. Let's start with Toxic.



First off, isn't Toxic a great song? It really is.

Spears is addicted to her man. She needs him. But she's on a plane because she is a flight attendant from 1960s space:

So what can she do? She's gotta grab some random dude and drag him into the bathroom.

She has no choice. She's trapped. That's what happens when you get on an airplane.

Unlike Spears's harrowing story of unfulfilled sexual desire, Foo Fighters warn us of the dangers of drinking non-alcoholic beverages in their video for Learn to Fly.



I'm not sure how I feel about this video. I'm not a huge fan of men dressed as women in fat suits.

Disgusting. Fat people are not inherently funny! Neither is cross dressing!

This video does show the trapped feeling of being on a plane well, though. Almost everyone drinks drugged coffee.

This leaves the alcohol-only members of Foo Fighters to save the day. Normally, you'd be able to call for experts in a disaster situation, but when you are in a plane you only have the people you took off with. This is what is so terrifying. Just look at Lost! Imagine having to spend 6 seasons with whoever happened to be on a plane with you! Crazy.

If I don't die in a fiery wreck, I'll be back tomorrow with more music video goodness!

-PTD

Twosday: NERDS! with Skee-Lo and Wheatus

Welcome to Twosday on Another Flavor! Today's topic is nerds.



Revenge of the Nerds always gets me. NERDS!

Anyways, today we will be talking about two songs that feature nerds. One has a bunch of turntable scratching and the other one is a rap song. As we learned from Revenge of the Nerds, almost everyone feels like a nerd. That means nerds instantly get our sympathy. We feel like outsiders. But are we really? Look at just how cartoon-ish movie nerds really are.

I Wish by Skee-Lo:



This video is about a man who wishes things were different. Why? Because he can't get a date and is short. Also he is only able to have sons as children and he wishes he had a girl. If he did, he would call her:

Gotta love the constant "calling" hand gestures.

Anyways, this video is very physical. Skee-Lo feels tiny in a world filled with tall, good looking men. This makes him insecure. He can't play basketball with them, but he keeps trying. I mean, look at him!

He's like a tiny baby. How can he be so small? He has small hands and feet. I imagine his features are small as well.

His clothes don't even fit. Apparently they don't make clothes that fit such tinily proportioned people.

And he is a little dandy who can't even see over the top of a table.

So, the video spends a lot of time emphasizing his smallness. He is much smaller than practically anyone really is. So why does he try to play basketball at all? He doesn't need to. He could get involved in other pursuits, but he wants to play basketball just like the cool guys. This makes him feel like a loser. I think that is what makes him a loser. Trying to fit in even when he really doesn't. Just relax, dude! Don't try so hard!

Our other nerd video is Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus:


This video is a movie tie-in for Loser, which was a non-American-Pie-based Jason Biggs vehicle. I have never seen it but it seems to be in the same vein as Revenge of the Nerds except it is beloved by no one and hopefully doesn't feature a main character raping a woman and having no consequences.

Yikes, Revenge of the Nerds.

The opens with what we in the biz call a "framing device".

These keep your paintings protected and allow you to hang them on your wall. In this case Jason Biggs falls asleep and finds himself... in high school!

He rides a bike because only losers ride bikes. Real adults always drive cars right into a Dunkin Donuts.

So why is this character a loser? It is a little less clear. Random dudes just come up to him and make that L sign at him.

Do people actually do that? This seems very unrealistic.

He gets knocked down.

And, in case you haven't gotten the gist, sits in front of a sign that says "Loser".

I don't care about this guy, though. I don't care about movie tie-in shit. Just like the Skee-Lo video, I want to see what the singer is all about. The singer of Wheatus is this man, whose name is (as far as I can tell) Jose Feliciano Wheatus:

This man is far nerdier than Jason Biggs could ever be. Look at how hard he is trying! That hat! That hat was cool for about 2 days in 1999 due to the New Radicals and his combination hipster glasses/sunglasses don't manage to hit either the right nerdy or cool notes. It's sad really.

Later, he is dressed like this:

Is that a track suit? And still with that hat. This man is a super nerd. Just like with Skee-Lo, the thing that makes him a loser is trying to fit in with the cools.

I'll go ahead and say that he was being a nerd on purpose for this video. I guess he would have to be a nerd to write this song. He listens to Iron Maiden! What a totally obscure band only loved by nerds! I'm sure Iron Maiden lost money on all of their 37 albums, mostly released on major labels, because no one except losers listen to them.

That is wrong (I was using a literary technique called sarcasm because I am a dick). While Iron Maiden is terrible, tons of people like them! I'd say about half of the people you meet like Iron Maiden. Does that mean that 50% of people are nerds? I guess. That's sort of the whole point. Everyone is a nerd. That's why Ogre joins the nerds in Revenge of the Nerds 2. It's just that almost no one is a nerd like the guys in these videos. These guys are, like, super nerds. To the max.

Due to the holiday I will not be posting tomorrow, but I'll be back for Sartorial Sursday!

-PTD

Twosday: Views Inside a Mental Hospital with Melissa Etheridge and Green Day

What is it about mental hospitals that holds such fascination for us? Is it because we all feel like outsiders? Is it because we love the idea of being able to spend our entire day in pajamas? Is it because mental hospitals ceased to exist in the 1980s? All of these are excellent reasons.

I think it is clear, though, that we all have our own, individual reasons for being drawn to them. You can see this in these two radically different music videos that take place in a mental hospital.

First we have Melissa Etheridge's video for Come to My Window:

First off, I just noticed while watching this video that this song has the smarmiest bass playing in the world. Seriously, listen to this song and imagine the bass player smirking and winking at you while playing. I guarantee that it will fit perfectly.

The video is all in black and white and centers on this woman in a room with a window to which you should come.

The black and white video along with her angry and intense matter suggests a gritty reality. I'm a little worried that this video plays into the mentally-ill-women-are-sexy-and-vulnerable stereotype, but it doesn't seem too exploitative in that direction.

We also get shots of Melissa Etheridge playing a 12-string acoustic guitar and singing.

I love how husky her voice is on this song! It's like she smoked two packs of cigarettes, spent an hour imitating Rod Stewart imitating Louis Armstrong, and then recorded this song. It's a little unclear what that amp is doing there since she is playing acoustic guitar and it doesn't look like it is a P.A., but whatever. Gives her someplace to sit.

The worrying thing about this video is the infantilization of the woman in the mental hospital.

I understand that she can't take care of herself and might say things that don't strictly make sense, but she isn't a child. She is an adult woman. What is with this drawing? It looks like the scribbles of a pre-school child with a crazy sun. I don't understand this sun especially since the song refers to the light of the moon. I've never seen the moon drawn like that. Is that the norm? Just draw a sun and then scribble inside of it? Not to mention that the moon doesn't actually have light, it is all reflected sunlight. Astronomy, people. It's important.

Green Day has the opposite approach in their video for Basket Case. Rather than suggesting true reality with black and white, Green Day uses colors brighter than reality to indicate the false world of a person on drugs.



The video opens in a colorful world with the singer alone. It's not entirely clear where he is, but the man in all white standing next to him with his arms crossed gives a hint.

Once the other band members arrive it becomes clear that they are in a mental hospital. They act confused and need prodding to perform their normal societal roles.

The drugs they take give a semblance of reality and normalcy, but everything is not quite right. The singer's eyes are too green and the floor is too turquoise. The video seems to make light of being in a mental hospital a little bit, but I think the song is about feeling numb to the world. The question, "Am I just stoned?" appears throughout the song because they can't separate their feelings from how the drugs make them feel. That seems scary.

I think these videos show two different serious views of the mentally ill. And that's a little surprising. Is this a public service announcement to hug a mentally ill person? Are we the insane ones and they the only truly sane? Is it time to eat lunch yet? Not quite. It is too early.

-PTD

Twosday: A Mechanized Future - Gary Numan's Cars and Yello's Bostitch

Welcome to Twosday on Another Flavor! Twosday is when we compare two music videos with something in common.

Today we'll be glancing at two videos about mechanization. As machines become part of our lives, how does that affect us as people?

First, Cars by Gary Numan:



In cars, Numan states that the only way to live is in cars. His appearance is cold and unemotional.

You imagine he would look the same waiting in line to buy milk, having sex, or killing someone. If you said, "Nice day," to him he would look at the sky to ascertain whether the day was nice or not. The dude has no mercy.

When you see his band it is a bunch of identical dudes playing identical synthesizers.

I love the one guy who plays the hand clap noise. He occasionally just slams on the synth.

Gary Numan becomes the machine. That is his response to mechanization. What about Yello? Check out the video for Bostitch:



Okay, so first off this video is probably one of the best ever made. The guy in the video? He is actually an eccentric German millionaire. If I love anything, it is art made by eccentric German millionaires. If I love two things it is art made by eccentric German millionaires and my wife.

Yello do not become the machine, although they love machines. The words at the beginning are, "Standing at the machine everyday for all my life. I'm used to do it and I need it. It's the only thing I want. It's just a rush, push, cash." The awkwardness of "I'm used to do it," makes me happy. German millionaires don't need to speak English well.

Rather than cold and unemotional, the man in the video is decidedly un-machine-like.

That hat indicates that he is "just folks", not an elitist engineer or a machine. No machine would combine that hat with a shirt, tie, and suspenders. Few people would, either, but that is beside the point.

Rather than being accompanied by a band, the music we hear in the video remains a mystery. We have no idea how it is made, on what instruments or by how many people. The only other person who appears is this woman who is clearly also a mystery:

Her question mark hair is amazing, though.

Eventually the man rebels against the machination of his life. "Everybody needs somebody sometimes," he shouts.

"N'est-ce pas?" he then asks, slyly.

The sheer insanity that went in to the making of this song and video is unbelievable. Yello was on Ralph Records which is the record label owned by The Residents. They are the weirdos pictured here:

That explains some of it, but I don't think the video is weirdness for weirdness's sake. Yello envisions a man who needs to work at a machine, but he also needs somebody. His time with a machine has left him socially inept, not even aware of what clothing normal humans wear. He still needs someone, though. Is it a woman? He no longer knows. It's haunting, really.

I know I'll be thinking of this man always.

I think there is something wrong with me, though, because I want to be just like him. Man, eccentric German millionaires.

I hope you enjoyed this Twosday. I'll see you tomorrow with a post about a single video from the early 1990s.

-PTD