January 30, 2008

Progress?

1953 2005

5 comments:

stexe said...

Cyd Charise is such a Dame. I'm more into her flapper look from "Singing in the Rain", though. And that's some of the weirdest choreography I've ever seen.

To each is own, but I honestly don't understand how anyone can tolerate more than a few seconds of lil' john, let alone buy his records. Whatever there is to get out of it, it doesn't seem very inspiring or life-affirming. But that's your point, so I'm being redundant.

Lance Ehlers said...

"Cyd Charise is such a Dame."

Yeah, I'll say! The initial reveal of the red dress is on the same level of "ho...lee...shit!!!" classic hotness as that first kiss in Rear Window. Man! What a contrast to the obnoxious, adolescent, aggressive sexuality which is consistently offered up as high entertainment now.

This happens all the time: I'll be in some dumb bar in NYC, and I might be talking to a gal who seems like she's got her shit together, and a song like that Lil John one will start gang-raping my ears, and she'll get all excited and start acting like a gangster disciple, throwing her hands in the air. But then I come off like a fuddy-duddy because I want to leave and crawl under a cab and die. People sometimes ask why I don't dance. Well, I do dance, but only when the music moves me. Some dipshit urban hillbilly in sunglasses growling into a microphone while waving a golden cup neither entertains nor moves me to dance. No wonder so many kids are diagnosed with neurological disorders.

2020
"Hey, big famous musician, who were your major influences when you were coming up?"

"That's a good question, motherfucker. Let's see. Lil' John, Mary J. Blige, ritalin, and bukkake videos."

Lance Ehlers said...

Upon further investigation of the scene you mentioned, Stexe, I have to concur.

Here's the video.

Again, ho...lee...shit!!!

hot funk said...

who isn't influenced by bukkake video nowadays?

on a serious note,
why are things from the past so much more appealing?

Lance Ehlers said...

Old things from your childhood are appealing because they are comforting and remind you of times when you had fewer responsibilities. REALLY old things tend to be appealing, I suspect, because they were often created using methods or technologies which are no longer utilized or lost. A big appeal of that dance number for me is the old film stock and the saturated color. The look is so otherworldly that it is difficult for me to imagine that at some time long ago, it was created by real people.

But specifically, in the case of video 1 versus video 2, the appeal is obvious: one is gentler, less caustic, and created by people who actually gave a shit about what they were doing, while the other was belched out in a week for a quick buck and some pussy.