Lady Gaga - Bad Romance

I've never been that into Lady Gaga. I mean, her music always seemed pretty average to me. Granted, her clothes have always been pretty mind-blowing and visionary and epic and such, but I just never paid much attention.

However, after seeing the following video I may have just become a disciple. See why for yourself.

Nancy Ajram - Mashy Haddy

I love Arabic pop most ardently. I love Nancy Ajram most ardently. I love this video most ardently. But still I must ask, "What the hell, Nancy Ajram?"

See why:



I think one of the most puzzling things to me is how westernized this video is. I mean...Lebanon didn't look like that in the '50s, did it? It's very strange for a Lebanese pop star to be making a throw back to the good ol' days of the American '50s. Hmm.

Damn catchy tune,though, Ms. Ajram...damn catchy.

Ummm...

Rachel Brice has a blog...did you know that? Because I didn't. VISIT IT.

And while we're on the subject, here's some footage of her amazingness at work.



And because the troupe she's in, The Indigo, are equally amazing, here's a video of them, too.

Two Star Symphony - Something She Said

I know I haven't posted anything in some time, but what with school and work starting combined with a genuine lack of readers who care whether or not I post anything I just haven't been around much to do so. BUT! I return because I found this video of this band I really adore called Two Star Symphony. I suppose they really are a symphony more than their a band, but whatever. Anyways, here's a live video of them performing one of the few songs I have from them, "Something She Said." Enjoy.

Julian Plenti - Games For Days

I love Interpol. Let's just get that out in the open. I love them and everything they do and I don't care that they appear to be a kind of dull live band (but I don't know, I've never seen them - just vids) because the music they make is just absolutely wonderful to my ears.

That said, I also adore with an ardent passion (redundant? Perhaps.) Julian Plenti, which is Paul Banks' alter musical ego. I think the music he has made on his own has a very clear direction, and a great one at that, and I love just about every song on Plenti's album.

If it sounds like I'm gushing it's because I am. But this is because I have just discovered a music video for Plenti's first single "Games for Days." Now the video, itself, is kind of lame. I mean, I have no idea what's going on in it aside from spray paint and handcuffs in a hotel room (which I guess might be enough depending on who you are), but there are a couple of other factors that far outweigh the generally confusing plot.

For one, Paul Banks (Julian Plenti) is gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous (in my humble opinion). The facial hair, the clothes, the smiles...beautiful. But more importantly it's the other person in the video that makes it so great. And that person is Emily Haines of the band Metric (and also an artist with her own solo album). And now for me to just go ahead and gush about her because the truth is Emily Haines is one of my top female role models. I think she is intelligent, I think she is beautiful, I think she is sexy, I think she is talented, I think she is basically everything a wonderful woman should be - confident, interesting, funny. And she makes some of the most heartbreaking music around.

Now, I never knew Emily Haines knew Paul Banks. I had not been made aware of this. So, I was totally floored to see her in the music video. Being beautiful, sexy, and strong at that, although I suppose that's to be expected of her. And to mix that kind of attitude with Bank's suddenly very apparent confidence and his own particular brand of sex appeal it makes the video one of the most magnetic things I've ever seen, and to be honest I suddenly feel like writing an entire novel dedicated to the characters portrayed by these two artists.

So anyway! Enough yappin! Here's the video I speak of so highly!

YouTube Doubler

So, my roommate is out to the movies and I'm here all by myself just killing time on StumbleUpon when a truly excellent site comes up. It's for some YouTube Doubler Beta, which is simply a place where you can plug two different YouTube video urls in and they'll play them together providing you with a mash-up of the two videos. Here's the link to the mash-up that popped up when I saw the page because it's pretty awesome. I've seen an interview with the guy on the left during an episode of the wonderful show IFC Media Project. If you get IFC you should totally check out that show, too.

About the lack of Cool Comic of the Month...

I have an excuse for that! And the excuse is, the comic I have decided to feature is currently not in my hands. I loaned it out to the best friend and she hasn't read it yet. SO! There will be no Cool Comic for the month of July, I'm afraid. I really want the volume in my hand so I can refer back to its awesomeness, you know? But perhaps I will have it back within the next couple of weeks. There's no guarantee, but you also never know.

In case you're wondering, the Cool Comic is Wormwood Gentleman Corpse Vol. 1 by Ben Templesmith.

Anyway, in the hopes of distracting anyone who cares about Cool Comic of the Month, I present a short clip from the delightfully strange Korean film I'm a Cyborg But That's OK. Now, I know without any context this clip is going to seem VERY BIZARRE, but I almost think it's better that way...

The Route V50 Short Film

I was looking over the blog, particularly at the neat little video bar, which was showing a selection of Wong Kar Wai clips, one of which was a short film he directed for BMW starring Clive Owen, Forest Whitaker, Adrien Lima, and Mickey Rourke. I won't link to that since it'll show up in the bar, but after watching it I remembered another short film for a car company I had seen a while back, and this one starring my favorite actor Robert Downey Jr. I looked it up and watched it again today, and I still enjoyed it as much as I had the first time.

Thus, I thought I'd post it here. I think it's a really interesting, clever little short. It's about a man looking for the town of Confidence. His search takes place in a Volvo V50, and along the way he meets some very interesting fellows. Here's parts 1 & 2.

Part 1:



Part 2:

Chris Clark - Herr Barr

Today I return to this blog with AN INCREDIBLY AWESOME VIDEO. No joke. I was watching Zoe Jakes solo from Tribal Fest of this year and was wondering what one of the songs she danced to was called. After doing some research I discovered it was a song by the artist Chris Clark, who I was unfamiliar with. So I decided to look him on YouTube to check out more of his stuff and stumbled across this music video. It's really something else.

To be honest, I don't really understand what's happening in it. I can gather it's a fight of some sort between what I think is a couple (even though one of them is human and the other is...a bear? A mouse? I don't know - all I do know is they seem to be communicating via a frog). However, despite not really grasping everything that's going on, it looks so wonderful that I don't much care.

Unfortunately I can't seem to embed it. No matter how many times I copy and paste the code, it doesn't want to show up all the way in the entry...I don't really know what's going on. But here's the link to it, so go watch it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oq_kp6rR_ps

ETA: Back on my own comp so embedding is now possible! Voila le video:

"Darkness-Light-Darkness"

This 8 minute animation short was shown to me a while back by my best friend, and I still get a sense of wonder when I watch it now, even having seen it numerous times. Created by Czech film maker, Jan Svankmajer, it's an allegory about the claustrophobic atmosphere of his home country, Czechoslovakia (currently Czech Republic).

However, even with it's less-than-joyous political undertones, it's still a joy to watch as a delightful little bit of animation.