Making it Up As I Go

I have read a book since the last time I posted, I’m not completly flaking out on the reading front. It was Nana by Delacorta, which I’ve read a billion times (or at least 30), but it still counts.

Right now, instead of reading, I’m watching music videos from the 80’s, and finding myself really amused by the narratives they told. (You had to know I was going to tie it back into reading somehow!) I haven’t watched a lot of current music videos, but the few that I’ve seen in the last couple of days (I have the TV on while I type for work), have been noticeably heavy on the booty shaking, and less so on the story elements.

Let’s look, for instance, at Cradle of Love by Billy Idol, a staple of 80s MTV, (or CMC, before we convinced our parents that we needed our MTV.) Instead of watching pretty Billy Idol (who was pretty!), we have the story of a sexy teenager who shows up at her slightly shy, slightly bookish neighbor’s door. It seems that her stereo is broken, and it’s essential that she listen to a particular tape immediately. That tape is, of course, Billy Idol singing Cradle of Love, and as she listens, she’s moved by the music to dance seductively. Over the course of the video she is startled and spills wine on her pristine white shirt and has to take it off, and then writhes on her neighbor’s bed in her bra and super short skirt while he watches guiltily. Finally, they kiss, and at the end of the video a guy that we assume is her boyfriend shows up at the door looking for her.
So basically, there’s just as much booty shaking, it just seems like they put more effort into it, don’t you think?

Or what about Erasure’s Lay All Your Love on Me? A sexy (and definitly NOT little) Red Riding Hood runs into the forest to find an equally sexy Snow White lying motionless on the ground. After pulling out a phone and a strange box with men on motorcycles in it, she calls on the boys of Erasure, who are dressed in gold lame motorcycle suits, and appear to be in a large sqaure room. (Like a box?) The “princes” ride through the forest on their motorcycles, stopped only when their motorcycles are wrecked. As one of them fixes the bikes, the other roasts a teddy bear on a spit over a fire. An ethereal woman dressed in white appears over the trees, and they continue on, until they find the girls. Snow White is awakened with a kiss, and the princes take the girls back to their mansion, where all is well. It doesn’t make a whole ton of sense, but where’s the fun in that?

Then you have the videos like Robert Palmer’s, one of which is on right now. I don’t know which one it is because they all blur together for me. He was all about the booty shaking with no story. The girls are pretty, but the video is missing the soul that the “story” videos have.

And that’s why I don’t really watch very many videos lately, they’re just not as much fun as they used to be. Give me a story any day.

Of course the exception to that is The Killers’ video for Mr. Brightside, which is a playful, pretty homage to Moulin Rouge. They win.

Current total: 27
Just finished: Nana by Delacorta
Currently reading: To Reign in Hell by Steven Brust