Return of the King
Well, it has been quite a while since I last made a post, or any comments on other blogs. For most of the last two months I have been watching the Olympics and watching movies. I soon want to do a post about my thoughts on the Olympics, even if it is a bit delayed. I watched about 60-70 hours of Olympic coverage, possibly more, and I have thoughts on all of the events.
I also want to write small reviews for all of the films that I have watched. In the last two months, I watched around 70 films, and I want to make sure to get all of my thoughts down about all of them.
Also, in the last two months I have gotten 8 new DS games, and I want to review those on virtualfanboy. I also will be soon getting my virtualfanboy design fixed to include better links. And maybe I will get my wifi working.
For now I want to make sure that everyone has watched Heat Vision and Jack, the tv pilot from 1999 that was directed and produced by Ben Stiller and stars Jack Black, Owen Wilson, and Ron Silver. We just watched it, and it is good, but it may only be available for a limited time if Fox wants to issue a Cease and Desist order. Synopsis: Jack Black is a super intelligent renegade astronaut and Owen Wilson is his talking motorcycle. Fox has lost its soul. In the early 90's, this would have been on right after Married... with Children.
In other Fox news, as I am sure everyone is already aware, the Showtime deal fell through, so Arrested Development is officially dead.
Finally, a reminder to Zack to check out the video for the Rah Band's, "Clouds Across the Moon" over on MTV.com Overdrive. I believe that you were the one who made me listen to "Mexican Radio" in college when even you didn't know why you had spent all of that time trying to find it. Now that stupid song has burrowed itself into my brain. You owe me! And I realize that most people hate MTV, which is really another topic entirely. There are seriously a ton of good videos on Overdrive. As many people know, I am in many ways the personification of the MTV generation. Between Top of the Pops, MTV, VH1, MTV2, MTV Hits, and VH1 Classic, I have watched probably more videos than anyone I have ever met. I am sure that music videos are probably the single greatest factor in how I developed my tastes in entertainment. I was an MTV watcher for all of the best moments: 500 Greatest Videos of All Time (I saw all but 5), the MTV Video Awards of the 90s (especially the 1992 show with performances by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Guns 'N Roses all at their absolute peak), the hours of music everyday, great shows like The Tom Green Show, all the nights of late night videos, and in 1991 on the day when Operation Desert Shield turned to Operation Desert Storm when they played 24 hours of Imagine, followed by Give Peace a Chance (his son's version), and then a random MTV song (for variety). I get Rolling Stone and Blender, and I keep up on a lot of music goings on, but I would say that I learned about more great bands through MTV than anywhere else. I was also there when MTV betrayed their audience, time and again: Starting with a mix of New Wave, punk and music that would eventually become adult contemporary, they moved towards pure pop music, then towards hair metal, then alternative, followed by the crappy alternative imitators, which led to the take over by gangsta rap, followed by bling rap (my own term), which led to nu-metal and TRL pop, followed by a firm rise of hip hop and R&B, then a more recent rise of rock. Most people forget about the fact that by favoring a new era, they were abandoning another. When 80s metal and 80s party rap were replaced by alternative music and gangsta rap respectively, several people felt betrayed. Personally, I probably felt most betrayed when the format abandoned alternative music in favor of rap, even though I have always been a rap fan, and then when they abandoned my generation completely with the rise of TRL culture. Their feelings were that they needed to follow youth, as twenty somethings turned to adults. This is the same problem that the video game industry faced and is facing. In video games, the average and mean ages of gamers has been constantly on the rise, even if the stereotype of a gamer is still a young teen.
The other major betrayal that happened with MTV was when they started abandoning their original all music format in favor of other programming. In their defense, MTV has had some of the most interesting original programming ever: The Tom Green Show, True Life, The Andy Milonakis Show, Wonder Showzen, Laguna Beach, Real World, JackAss, Wildboyz, The State, the Maxx, Aeon Flux, Beavis and Butthead, Loveline, and House of Style. That said, I always wished that there were more videos, and many people did, but that is not the way to keep the ratings up, like it or not. Nowadays, MTV Hits and VH1 Classic show over 90% videos, so you can go there at this point. On a side note, G4 is going through a similar transition where they are getting rid of most of their core programs (they are a video game network) and adopting shows that would typically appear on SpikeTV. G4 feels more egregious because there are already networks that cover non-video game topics in this era of 500 channels, but there is only one video game channel.
Anyway, here a few videos to check out at Overdrive (if you like, I can always make more recommendations):
Rah Band - Clouds Across the Moon
Garbage: I Think I'm Paranoid, Stupid Girl, Bleed Like Me, Cherry Lips
Amerie - 1 Thing (Non Movie Version or Remix)
Beck - Lost Cause, The New Pollution, Guess I'm Doing Fine
Loudon Wainright III - T.S.D.H.A.V.
Tenacious D - Tribute
Weezer - Perfect Situation
Gwen Stefani - Cool, What You Waiting For
Bjork - Big Time Sensuality, Bachelorette, Joga, Hyperballad
Bloodhound Gang - Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo
The Killers - All These Things that I've Done
R.E.M. - Man on the Moon, Shiny Happy People, Star 69, Nightswimming
White Stripes - Seven Nation Army, The Hardest Button to Button
Kanye West - Touch the Sky
Beyonce - Crazy in Love, Naughty Girl
Metallica - Turn the Page, King Nothing
U2 - Even Better than the Real Thing, A Sort of Homecoming
Beastie Boys - Intergalactic
Mystikal - Danger, Shake It Fast
Cibo Matto - Sugar Water
Annie Lennox - Why, No More I Love You's
Modest Mouse - Float On
Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime, Wild Wild Life
Madonna - Drowned World/Substitute for Love, Rain, Deeper and Deeper
Ciara - Oh
Rachael Yamagata - Worn Me Down
Franz Ferdinand - Do You Want To
Queen - Under Pressure
Britney Spears - My Prerogative, Toxic, I'm a Slave 4 U
Some artists are better represented on Overdrive than others: There are almost no videos for Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, David Bowie, the Who, the Beastie Boys, Texas, the Beach Boys, Duran Duran, Michael Jackson, and Guns 'N Roses, even though these are all artists with a large number of videos. Michael Jackson has enough videos that they once had a countdown of his top 50 videos, and even at that time in the early 90s, he had several more videos that did not make the countdown. All that and he has only 2 videos on Overdrive.
Oh, and to answer the question that wasn't asked, I think that the most influential artists in videos (in a positive sense; sorry Puffy) since the debut of MTV were (in order): Michael Jackson, Madonna, Bjork, the Beastie Boys, and Nirvana. It is a shame that even though MJ has received some of their awards, MTV shied away from awarding him all of their biggest awards, because no one has had more of an influence on the genre than he has. (And in case you were wondering what Bjork and the Beastie Boys are doing there, they have both always embrassed the cutting edge directors, and took more video risks than anyone else, really improving the art for everyone.)
I also want to write small reviews for all of the films that I have watched. In the last two months, I watched around 70 films, and I want to make sure to get all of my thoughts down about all of them.
Also, in the last two months I have gotten 8 new DS games, and I want to review those on virtualfanboy. I also will be soon getting my virtualfanboy design fixed to include better links. And maybe I will get my wifi working.
For now I want to make sure that everyone has watched Heat Vision and Jack, the tv pilot from 1999 that was directed and produced by Ben Stiller and stars Jack Black, Owen Wilson, and Ron Silver. We just watched it, and it is good, but it may only be available for a limited time if Fox wants to issue a Cease and Desist order. Synopsis: Jack Black is a super intelligent renegade astronaut and Owen Wilson is his talking motorcycle. Fox has lost its soul. In the early 90's, this would have been on right after Married... with Children.
In other Fox news, as I am sure everyone is already aware, the Showtime deal fell through, so Arrested Development is officially dead.
Finally, a reminder to Zack to check out the video for the Rah Band's, "Clouds Across the Moon" over on MTV.com Overdrive. I believe that you were the one who made me listen to "Mexican Radio" in college when even you didn't know why you had spent all of that time trying to find it. Now that stupid song has burrowed itself into my brain. You owe me! And I realize that most people hate MTV, which is really another topic entirely. There are seriously a ton of good videos on Overdrive. As many people know, I am in many ways the personification of the MTV generation. Between Top of the Pops, MTV, VH1, MTV2, MTV Hits, and VH1 Classic, I have watched probably more videos than anyone I have ever met. I am sure that music videos are probably the single greatest factor in how I developed my tastes in entertainment. I was an MTV watcher for all of the best moments: 500 Greatest Videos of All Time (I saw all but 5), the MTV Video Awards of the 90s (especially the 1992 show with performances by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Guns 'N Roses all at their absolute peak), the hours of music everyday, great shows like The Tom Green Show, all the nights of late night videos, and in 1991 on the day when Operation Desert Shield turned to Operation Desert Storm when they played 24 hours of Imagine, followed by Give Peace a Chance (his son's version), and then a random MTV song (for variety). I get Rolling Stone and Blender, and I keep up on a lot of music goings on, but I would say that I learned about more great bands through MTV than anywhere else. I was also there when MTV betrayed their audience, time and again: Starting with a mix of New Wave, punk and music that would eventually become adult contemporary, they moved towards pure pop music, then towards hair metal, then alternative, followed by the crappy alternative imitators, which led to the take over by gangsta rap, followed by bling rap (my own term), which led to nu-metal and TRL pop, followed by a firm rise of hip hop and R&B, then a more recent rise of rock. Most people forget about the fact that by favoring a new era, they were abandoning another. When 80s metal and 80s party rap were replaced by alternative music and gangsta rap respectively, several people felt betrayed. Personally, I probably felt most betrayed when the format abandoned alternative music in favor of rap, even though I have always been a rap fan, and then when they abandoned my generation completely with the rise of TRL culture. Their feelings were that they needed to follow youth, as twenty somethings turned to adults. This is the same problem that the video game industry faced and is facing. In video games, the average and mean ages of gamers has been constantly on the rise, even if the stereotype of a gamer is still a young teen.
The other major betrayal that happened with MTV was when they started abandoning their original all music format in favor of other programming. In their defense, MTV has had some of the most interesting original programming ever: The Tom Green Show, True Life, The Andy Milonakis Show, Wonder Showzen, Laguna Beach, Real World, JackAss, Wildboyz, The State, the Maxx, Aeon Flux, Beavis and Butthead, Loveline, and House of Style. That said, I always wished that there were more videos, and many people did, but that is not the way to keep the ratings up, like it or not. Nowadays, MTV Hits and VH1 Classic show over 90% videos, so you can go there at this point. On a side note, G4 is going through a similar transition where they are getting rid of most of their core programs (they are a video game network) and adopting shows that would typically appear on SpikeTV. G4 feels more egregious because there are already networks that cover non-video game topics in this era of 500 channels, but there is only one video game channel.
Anyway, here a few videos to check out at Overdrive (if you like, I can always make more recommendations):
Rah Band - Clouds Across the Moon
Garbage: I Think I'm Paranoid, Stupid Girl, Bleed Like Me, Cherry Lips
Amerie - 1 Thing (Non Movie Version or Remix)
Beck - Lost Cause, The New Pollution, Guess I'm Doing Fine
Loudon Wainright III - T.S.D.H.A.V.
Tenacious D - Tribute
Weezer - Perfect Situation
Gwen Stefani - Cool, What You Waiting For
Bjork - Big Time Sensuality, Bachelorette, Joga, Hyperballad
Bloodhound Gang - Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo
The Killers - All These Things that I've Done
R.E.M. - Man on the Moon, Shiny Happy People, Star 69, Nightswimming
White Stripes - Seven Nation Army, The Hardest Button to Button
Kanye West - Touch the Sky
Beyonce - Crazy in Love, Naughty Girl
Metallica - Turn the Page, King Nothing
U2 - Even Better than the Real Thing, A Sort of Homecoming
Beastie Boys - Intergalactic
Mystikal - Danger, Shake It Fast
Cibo Matto - Sugar Water
Annie Lennox - Why, No More I Love You's
Modest Mouse - Float On
Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime, Wild Wild Life
Madonna - Drowned World/Substitute for Love, Rain, Deeper and Deeper
Ciara - Oh
Rachael Yamagata - Worn Me Down
Franz Ferdinand - Do You Want To
Queen - Under Pressure
Britney Spears - My Prerogative, Toxic, I'm a Slave 4 U
Some artists are better represented on Overdrive than others: There are almost no videos for Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, David Bowie, the Who, the Beastie Boys, Texas, the Beach Boys, Duran Duran, Michael Jackson, and Guns 'N Roses, even though these are all artists with a large number of videos. Michael Jackson has enough videos that they once had a countdown of his top 50 videos, and even at that time in the early 90s, he had several more videos that did not make the countdown. All that and he has only 2 videos on Overdrive.
Oh, and to answer the question that wasn't asked, I think that the most influential artists in videos (in a positive sense; sorry Puffy) since the debut of MTV were (in order): Michael Jackson, Madonna, Bjork, the Beastie Boys, and Nirvana. It is a shame that even though MJ has received some of their awards, MTV shied away from awarding him all of their biggest awards, because no one has had more of an influence on the genre than he has. (And in case you were wondering what Bjork and the Beastie Boys are doing there, they have both always embrassed the cutting edge directors, and took more video risks than anyone else, really improving the art for everyone.)
posted by Xryz - kingofallcosmos at
10:56 PM
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