Brileyyahnt

Lee added a bunch of new videos to the Zune, I see.

I didn't realize George Michael made a video for "Flawless (Go to the City)."

It's absolute genius.

Instead of making a glam video like "Too Sexy" or many of his other fashonista videos, George Michael had the director go the other route. Because the lyrics could easily be misinterpreted as another club diva worship song. But actually the lyrics extol the sexiness of normality and give the great warning, "Please believe me, those things you dream of, they don't fall in love with no one."

Bad grammar okay. But smart.

Oh, where is my Edward Field Selected? And my John Wieners. If you're a gay man and literate, you probably know which poems I would target there lol.

I believe Marlene Dietrich appears in both those poems.

Or let George Michael instead of Stuart Smalley give you your Daily Affirmation: "I think you know you're more than just some fucked-up piece of ass..."

George's lyrics are generous like that as he gets older, even if he is a mess.

He's very likeable as a man as well as a singer. Well, as a singer he's a god so what's not to like lol.

Decidedly average people (like say actual George Michael fans) are the stars in this video.

Everyone's a rock star in their own bedroom, and this video proves it.

It's one of the funniest and most unglamorous videos I've ever seen. And it blows away all those glamorous videos.

It starts with a lumpy not-quite-young man taking a piss in a hotel room's bathroom, admiring how sexy he is in the mirror and then starting to rock out in solitude to his own inner vibe.

The camera stays back so the long hotel room and its alcoved bathroom are in cut-away panoramic.

Then these other characters (both sexes, all different ages and body types) start doing their bedroom diva thing, all oblivious of one another, and just rocking out.

It's like a Peter Milton print, where time is cross-sectioned and people occupying the same space are just ghosts to each other. But funny, not spooky.

Nobody is anywhere near "flawless," which is the point of the vid.

They are all rocking out separately until at one point everyone is suddenly doing a routine together which soon breaks up....but it's not tacky. I know that sounds impossible...that it will collapse the concept of the video...like in Magnolia when the characters all start singing along with that sappy song...which DID collapse the movie into bathos...this actually works!

Probably because a distance is kept with the camera. It's pretty far back.

You can't even really get a good glimpse of George when he's sitting on the bed or later when he gets up and sinks into a chair with its back to us so he functionally disappears from the video.

It's so charming. The way he just gives up the ridiculous mantle of rock star and appreciates the rock star in everyone.

Other videos Lee added....

Frightening how much Sarah Brightman looks like Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard from some angles. Part of it is that thing she does with her eyes. She's nowhere near that age...maybe it's the lighting.

Maroon 5's "Wake Up Call" has to be one of the worst videos made in that year.

It's hard to make Adam Levine look like a tool, but the director pulls it off here.

Tacky use of song lyrics in bright colors stuck over scenes like post-its. Bad ridiculous literal interpretation of the song lyrics in a dumb storyline. It's not a great song, but the video makes it sound like a terrible song. Adam Levine is usually known for his sartorial splendor. Here he looks scruffy. He's definitely one of those joli-laid guys with good and bad angles.

Oooh, "A Different Corner." One of my favorite G.M. songs and the spare video is still perfect. He looks like a kouros in this video. A kouros from antiquity come alive.

Bedtime Story. Written by Bjork for Nelly Hooper NOT Madonna (who sang it) as Bjork will always remind interviewers. I get the sense she doesn't like her. Visual cliches lifted from classic European surrealists make up the video, but it's a nicely mixed track. Works for me. I would know that was a Bjork song even if no one had told me. Just the way English is used alone would have let me know, but the phrasing too. Bjork has a very distinctive sense of phrasing in her tunes. She loves caesura. That's why she can interpret that e.e. cummings poem so beautifully.

Gotta Get Through This. Thanks for adding this Lee! I love Daniel. He looks so uncomfortable in all his music videos and I love that. It's not a pose. You can sense it's just not the guy's element. He's very beefy in this video. Almost on the sauce kinda beefy. But sexy. The video is a yawner but there are lots of Daniel close ups so who cares. TIGER BEAT ALERT...FORTY YEAR OLD TIGER BEAT ALERT....

This concludes the test of the emergency forty year old tiger beat alert. Had there been an actual forty year old tiger beat emergency, you would have been instructed where to send me for a reality check.

Oh, Lee added a Smiths video. "How Soon is Now"...everybody loves that one. I would have preferred something like "William it was Really Nothing" or even "This Charming Man." Isn't Marr's guitar skittish on that latter track! Marr is a genius. I love the way he can make a guitar sound Venetian on tracks like "Please please let me get what i want this time." He can make a guitar sound like anything. Which is why Talking Heads snatched him up for a while.

And I see Lee added that Kylie Minogue/Nick Cave duet. Who could have predicted that pairing in music!

I see the Lady Gaga videos are increasing too.

And Rihanna...next...

Lots of new Scissor Sisters, George Michael and Bjork. And more Goldfrapp.

Lots I haven't watched yet: Colton Ford. I'm surprised you haven't added Sonique yet Lee. I bet he has all seasons of Queer as Folk on here. OOh Drawn Together! I loved that show.

Lee, you must have added about thirty or forty new music videos...I can't even begin to watch all this...lol...or the day's over...

It's snowing again.

Oh joy.