Mary Van Notes

This week, amongst many other things, I fell in love again with the one shot music video.  I was on my MGMT Pandora channel when this super catchy song came on by Vampire Weekend.  Eeeyuuuuck… what is that?  Some teeny booper band?  What a horrid name!

Yes, it may be teeny booper and horrid, but OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!  They’re music video for Oxford Comma got me all excited:

Now, one shot music videos aren’t new to me.   I went on a youtube Michel Gondry binge months ago.  Gondry is one of my favorite directors and he had his start with some amazing music videos.  He did my favorite Bjork song btw (Hyperballad).  The video that most blew my mind of his was Kylie Minogue’s Come Into My World which is located here since it won’t let me embed in a playlist.   I still don’t know how he made it.  To me, it’s just magic!  What I love about it too, is that it reminds me so much of Jacques Tati–which makes sense since Gondry is French.  Surely Tati influenced him (long wide shots and one takes).  What attracts me so much to the one shot is the choreography and the amount of rehearsing and planning to create it, it’s so inspiring to me.  Each action and visual is so calculated like brushstrokes in a masterpiece painting.  So it’s not surprising to me that some of the most watched music videos on youtube are all one-shot: Beyoncé’s - Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) (located here) and OK Go’s Here it Goes Again (located here).

1. Gary Jules - Mad World Dir. by Michel Gondry — The last visual in this video, is so, so stunning.
2. The White Strips - Denial Twist Dir. by Michel Gondry
3. Lucas - Lucas With The Lid Off Dir. by Michel Gondry — Again Gondry blows my mind.
4. Vampire Weekend - A Punk

I’ve been clicking on this video to play repeatedly.  I hope Charlyne makes an album so I can listen to it over and over.

I was introduced to this song twice now, and I think me listening to it over and over again for about an hour deserves a FILF placement.

Miike Snow - Animal (awesome music video, btw)

And now the REMIX! (Mark Ronson Remix)

Ah man, my peoples, life is pretty shitty in Mary Van Notesville.  Got by without crying today by singing Fuck Shit Stack to myself.  Thank you, Reggie Watts:

The one happy thing I’m excited about is that I get to open for Reggie Watts and Jamie Kilstein at the Punch Line Comedy Club in San Francisco as part of SF Sketchfest.  I’ll be there Jan 14-16, click here for more info and tickets.

I’m just dealing with drama right now.   I’m looking forward to when I won’t have drama in my life, but until then, at least I have YouTube.

As most of you know, I’m poor.  My day job cut my hours, and then cut my hours AGAIN.  So items on my wish list will have to stay on my wish list.

Mary Van Note WANT #1

Ugh.   So beautiful it hurts.   Hand tooled leather platform sandals from Remix Vintage.  They’re on sale for $278.   If anyone wants to be my hand tooled leather platform sandals fairy, I’m a size 10.

Mary Van Note WANT #2

The Peter Pan blouse from Urban Outfitters.  Oh $38, I wish I had you.   I swear this blouse would go with everything in my closet.  EVERYTHING!

Mary Van Note WANT #3

This is the BaByliss Thermal Ionic Hard Hat Dryer from Amazon.com but really any hard hat hair dryer would do.  I’ve been keeping my eye on craigslist for some used ones.  But I ain’t got money for even a used one.  I want some killer hair, yo!

Mary Van Note WANT #4

For a while I’ve been complaining to my friends, “Where in the world do you buy old lady rain bonnets? I MUST PROTECT MY DO IN THIS F’N RAIN!”  Well, leave it to Walter Drake, carrier of bunion sleeves and snuggies to carry the elusive old lady hair protector.

Mary Van Note WANT #5

Santogold.  I found this artist while listening to Pandora and fell in love instantly. I really dig this video, in all its gory creative splendor:

I’m stoked about the new Final Fantasy album.  I was super bummed to find out Owen Pallett was playing at Bottom of the Hill the night I was performing at the Punch Line.  I still haven’t seen him live, and it’s a damn, sad shame.  Here’s a single off his new album (I heard it playing at Urban Outfitters.  The dude is blowing up!)

Another song I’ve been playing on repeat is this one by Nat Baldwin.  I’m a sucker for strings!

And I just viewed all the looks from John Galliano’s Dior couture show on style.com via Gertie’s New Blog for Better Sewing. These were some of my favorites:

HOT! WANT!

Into it…

Totally into those mustard gloves.

And how can you not be into a collection when the designer himself gets into it?

Photo from Johnny’s in the Basement blog

Every once and a while I get a song stuck in my head. I had to look up the lyrics on the web, because I forgot the name of the artist.  Then I found him.  Vic Chesnutt.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the song available on YouTube (I was looking for the song titled “Bug”).  When I looked further, I found out he had died on December 25, 2009.  This SF Examiner article does a good job of describing how inspiring and talented Chesnutt was and also the sad state of our health care system.

I first heard of Chesnutt when I took a southern lit class in college.  Our professor made us mixed cds with southern music.  Vic Chesnutt’s song “Bug” was on the cd.  I would play that track over and over again.  I remember loving the melody and his haunting voice, the storytelling lyrics.  Vic Chesnutt, you will be missed.

Laura Weinbach of Foxtails Brigade plays “Long Day” in my room.  Buy her 7 inch at www.foxtailsbrigade.com