In the beginning there was the text (John 1:1) and immediately thereafter there was the meta-text. While the phrase “that’s so meta” is meaningless and annoying, the fact is that life is a meta activity. I mean, right now I’m writing about life, while living it (in only the loosest definition of “living”, of course) and no one thinks a damn thing of it. But when a piece of art is self-referential, we do think a damn thing of it. What do we think? “That’s so meta.”

The Breeders, in their video for Cannonball had an idea, “What if our video was about us making the video?” Sorry I didn’t warn you to sit down before saying that. Let’s take a brief break while everyone who thought Inception was mind-blowing changes their pants to do some Another Flavor blog meta-blogging.

For some reason YouTube’s video recommendation algorithm thinks that the perfect next video after literally anything I’ve just watched is Mexican Radio by Wall of Voodoo. Like, if I just watched something by Devo, okay, I can understand that. But, if I just finished watching Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus? I’m not sure what Skynet/YouTube’s recommendation engine is thinking.

Everybody good and clean now?

Okay, great. Now, sit down and put a new pair of pants on deck while you watch Cannonball by The Breeders:

The video opens, oddly enough, with a cannonball.

While it does appear periodically throughout the video, the cannonball is a non sequitur.

We also get some cool singing from the singer with her face in the water.

Finally, we get to the heart of the video. Here we see the singer rocking out on her guitar.

Since the band is playing in front of a mirror, you can see the lighting people setting up the lights in the background.

Next, there are some close-up shots of the drummer playing furiously, and you can see the rest of the band talking and drinking coffee in the background.

It’s like we’re behind the scenes or VH1 behind the music or something.

That isn’t to say that there’s no video, only its making, though. We get some sweet head bobs from the singer.

There’s also a very cool effect with hand-drawn frames like this:

The frame isn’t static, it changes rapidly to make a faux-animation squiggle-vision-stravaganza.

Those kinds of shots aren’t the focus of the video, though. Instead, it’s things like the band turning around to play directly into the mirror.

Which, of course, gives a good opportunity to see the people filming the video moving equipment around behind them.

Suddenly, the band is dressed differently and appears to be putting on make-up in a dressing room.

It seems like maybe this is supposed to be their real clothes for the actual video, but instead of seeing them through the camera that they are clearly playing for, we see them through a camera off to the side that shows all the lights and equipment in the background.

This is exactly the kind of shot you get in a “making of” which gives you a glimpse behind the scenes, but we aren’t seeing the making of anything here. This is the actual thing.

I want to note what the drummer is wearing for the “real” video because it is hiliariously incongruous with the rest of the band’s clothing and makes me think they were trying to shame him or something.

The video ends with a plain shot of the band, standing on a mostly empty set.

I really dig the concept for this video. It doesn’t come off as pretentious at all, even though the idea might seem “high concept”. It really seems like the band is just having fun, and fun in videos is contagious.

Join me next week for either a blog post or a blog post about blogging the post.

-PTD

According to Wookieepedia:

The 1990s (pronounced “nineteen-nineties” and abbreviated as the nineties) was a decade of the Gregorian calendar that began on January 1, 1990, and ended on December 31, 1999.

That’s the kind of hard-hitting fact you can expect from a group of pop culture enthusiasts and amateur encyclopedians, but what does it really tell us?

Nothing, that’s what.

As someone who was alive from January 1, 1990 to December 31, 1999 (according to the Gregorian calendar, at least) I can tell you that there was a lot more to the ’90s than just the passage of time. Kosovo? Bill Clinton? Milli Vanilli? And, of course, there was the “slacker” aesthetic given a name by the seminal film and Generation X symbol Reality Bites.

Pat’s Trick, by Helium, is a wonder artifact from this time showing off this “slacker” style. The goal, of course, it to never get caught trying. Take a look:

The video opens with a woman using a ho in a lackluster manner.

It turns out it is the singer and, rather than being black and white as we previously thought, she is actually in color.

We briefly get a shot of the bass player who failed to get the memo about slacking.

That is a guy who is trying far too hard. I think he probably begged the other band members to add this shot to the video so he could impress his friends who probably don’t even believe he’s in a band.

The singer’s hands are full of dirt for some reason, possibly from using a ho earlier? Probably because she just doesn’t care.

Next we see the singer attempting to plant a flower by just jamming a flower into the ground.

That is not the act of a person who tries. It’s a demonstration of the most minimal effort possible.

The singer then sings through a pile of dirt.

Then, we see a shot of the whole band, looking extremely cool.

I love the almost expressionless look on the singer’s face in these shots.

She’s singing, but she’s thinking about something else. Something far more important than me, or the song, or the making of this video. That’s what “slacking” is all about.

Check out out the video for “I Could If I Wanted To” for another view of this general attitude:

Next, we see a bulldozer moving a lot of dirt.

In a shocking twist, the singer is driving the bulldozer.

In what is by far my favorite part of the video, we see the singer playing the guitar solo by just kind of moving the guitar around a little bit while holding onto the strap which is not around her neck.

While, yes, this is a super slacker way to do the guitar solo, I think it’s more of a testament to the kind of thing that is only possible with a woman as the lead guitarist. No matter how “cool” and “hip” a slacker Generation X man guitarist might pretend to be, you better believe he’d want close up shots of his hot licks during the guitar solo.

For some reason, the singer then poses sexily on the hood of the bulldozer.

I’m not sure what this shot is doing in the video as it doesn’t really fit in.

For the final chorus, the singer appears to enter an ecstatic trance.

She does some more dirt singing, as well.

We finally get a wide shot of the band toward the end and I really like the set here. They’re inside a colorful flower pot, standing in dirt amongst the flowers.

Very groovy.

The video ends with the bass player again forgetting that he should be acting cool as he does his best to rock out.

This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about with the guitar solo.

This song is one of my absolute favorites and the video is really an excellent time capsule into what was cool in the ’90s. And I should know because I was cool in the ’90s.

-PTD

The dictionary defines “obsession” as:

a type of cologne

That doesn’t seem right, but I guess its what I get for using a dictionary published by Calvin Klein. My head dictionary defines “obsession” as:

of, or related to, being obsessed

With “obsessed” meaning:

of, or related to, an obsession

I hope that clears things up.

Either way, let’s just say that Animotion has a different idea of what Obsession really means. To them, it means ancient Rome.

Take a look, “Obsession” by Animotion:

The video opens simply and traditionally with some shoulder-based synchronized dancing.

I really appreciate the two singers’ looks here. I think the woman singer’s crazy hair may have been in fashion at some point in the ’80s? That look did not age well. The man’s look may have aged slightly better but it doesn’t look very “music video-y” to my “modern” eyes. More, like, “failing to look professional for a job interview-y”.

We’re suddenly transported to ancient Rome.

Why? No idea.

We get some groovy special effects here where the pool is replaced with another video so we can see the mirror image from the ancient past to the ’80s future.

You can’t tell from this screenshot, but the guitar player and bass player are doing some of the most awkward synchronized moves here that I think I’ve ever seen. Their movements are so exaggerated that you can tell that they are barely even pretending to play their instruments. It’s embarassing for them and for all of us.

Next, we see a (potentially arab? Is this racist? Am I racist?) man with a rakishly raised eyebrow.

I want to note, that, while this man appears multiple times in the video, he doesn’t seem to have any connection with anything else in the video.

See if you can spot the subtle anachronism in the next shot.

That’s right, the underwear he’s probably wearing wasn’t invented until after Roman soldiers stopped wearing those breastplates.

The next section focuses heavily on the bass player for some reason.

He sits bolt upright in bed. Was his sudden prominence in the video only a dream?

Nope! We get even more shots of the bass player.

What is this face he is making here? Do you think its on purpose? It’s almost like he went for duck face and missed. Luckily, when you shoot for the moon, if you miss you still end up making a weird kissy face.

From the bass player, we get a brief focus on the guitar player. For reasons that are unclear, this section features a space man on a bed being serenaded by the guitar player wearing what appears to be an extremely fake looking army helmet.

It’s not exactly on theme with the ancient Roman stuff.

At this point, everyone else gives up too.

This scene appears to have a Roman soldier fake sword fighting with someone dressed all in black. There is a jester-dressed person hitting things with drum sticks. In the background someone seems to be dressed like The Captain.

I don’t think anyone involved with this video knew what they were doing or cared whether anyone else did either.

If you aren’t quite sure if that’s the case, take a look at this:

Now, I’m sure when your band gets a chance to make a music video you have to have in the back of your mind that you might never get to make another video again. But if you decide to cram everything that you ever might want to do in a video (ancient Rome, space, hair) then, rather than a single video to be proud of, you’ll end up with a mess (and probably less chance that you’ll get to make another video anyway).

But, I think this video kind of works? The song is pretty boring and it seems like the members of the band are pretty boring. So, might as well make a head scratcher of a video. Something we can all respect and admire.

-PTD