No one will ever love you- Connie Britton & Charles Esten
Not on repeat or anything. Not in love with this song, or this show, or anything. Not obsessed with Connie Britton, or anything.
To begin with, I love this song… but posting this because the photography and the scenery are both unreal. If you aren’t sold by the peak’s view shots after the first 20 seconds, you’re hard to please, but just trust me on this and make it to 2:41.
Spent (almost all) weekend in the mountains with this song on relative repeat. I’ve spent so much time listening to that Lumineers album surrounded by buildings and couches and strip malls, and it was a treat to trade all that for the scent of rain and firewood and the feeling of wind whipping through car windows (and… of course… the taste of fall’s first pumpkin spice latte).
When I first heard this song, I imagined listening to it while riding the train on the way home late at night after going out with friends or as background noise in a dark coffee shop in the afternoon or tapping through my earbuds while walking along the East River on weekday evenings. I didn’t think about bright sunshine or running through wheatfields or kites or confetti or giant blocks sailing through the sky… so I’m glad I stumbled across the video.
I feel like this is a trend right now, in music videos— the only word I can think of to describe it is “ethereal” (and I’m not 100% sure I’m even using that right). Maybe not just music videos, but creative video in general — commercials and documentaries and programming. You walk away from watching feeling this sense of… inspiration isn’t the right word, it’s too trite… but something. Purpose? Or connection to other people, maybe? I’m not sure. In this case it’s not the kites or the sky-blocks doing it, but the first glance between the couple at the beginning… or maybe the dancing… or, probably the music.
Anyway, my point is, I have to wonder if we can take on some of those qualities in the stories we produce, in a journalistic sense. News is quick — we don’t have the time, production capacities or resources to create complex art every single time, obviously — but I think there’s something to be learned from work outside our field.
The National’s “Conversation 16” video came out last year. I loved it then and posted about it here… but that was before I joined the 21st century and, like everyone else, fell in love with Mad Men and started to see John Slattery and think Roger Sterling. I didn’t think it was possible to like this video more than I do (The National! The references! Scruffy Secret Service agents! Kirsten Schaal! The sheer campiness of it all!)… but here I am. Check it out below:
Calvin Harris’ Feel so close to you right now feels like it’s going to be as much of a “summer song” as Call me Maybe. It’s the kind of song you hear blasting out of speakers at the neighborhood pool or that comes on the radio while you’re driving home from meeting up with high school friends while home from college during the summer. I know that sounds specific, but there are only very specific songs that fit those niches just right, and this is one of them.
So I was excited to see that the music video is the same way. It’s simultaneously friendly and flirty and faithful and fun… it’s tough to fit together as many vignettes as it does but I think it does it right, moreso in the second half of the video. I’m not sure where it’s supposed to be taking place, the UK or the US, though I watched for clues. I don’t think it really matters.
Anyway, the point is, it’s the perfect portrayal of “summer in the middle of the country.” Watch it above!
List of things I need/want to do this summer (or sooner):
- This
(& I’m not going to let the fact that I can’t surf, the fact that I don’t have a car anymore or the fact that Santa Barbara is lightyears away stand in my way.)
…At the very least, I think a camping trip is in the books! (& probably a shopping trip.)
(And maybe I’m going to spend the next hour watching every video I can by George Manzanilla. Just maybe.)
EDIT: wanderlust just got worse.
I know everyone read Gatsby in high school, probably, but it’s still one of my favorite books, and I’m not fussy about it — I can get down with Gatsby-inspired this & thats (bars, clothes, video games)…but I have to admit, I was nervous about the Gatsby movie. Part of me didn’t even want to watch the trailer because Leo’s not how I imagined Gatsby, and so I was just going to avoid the situation altogether, and then one of my friends who also loves the book sent me his thoughts on the trailer and I figured… fine.
And immediately, the first second hit, and “No Church in the Wild” started, and I was like “WHAT. IS. HAPPENING.” It was so far from anything I could have expected that I’m not even upset. Is that Jack White covering a U2 song? Doesn’t the aesthetic feel like a cross between Desperate Housewives and Revenge? That guy looks like Schmee from Hook. This crazy drunk lady needs to stop yelling so dramatically. Why is Peter Parker slicking his hair back like that?? Is there a reason I’m not seeing more of Isla Fisher? What’s up with that car?
And so I watched it again. This time, I hated the narration, which felt like it was coming from Seth Cohen, and couldn’t handle the dancing, and the music just felt silly.
And then I thought about it again… and maybe it’s better, maybe it means something different, something more, when you juxtapose everything that is The Great Gatsby with everything that is “now.” I’m assuming the movie will have period-appropriate music, but if it doesn’t, that might actually be better… a blend of old and new; a way to make the themes translate. Or it could be just kind of absurd.
I guess the trailer did its job, though, because I’ll definitely be seeing it.
For awhile I couldn’t stop listening to the Alabama Shakes. Now, in the same general genre, it’s The Lumineers that all of my co-workers are getting tired of hearing me talk about.
I was trying to figure out when I initially fell in love with them (even though lately it’s been a nonstop affair), and finally came across this:
Why, yes, that’s exactly what you think it is. It’s a video clip from a show on the CW probably meant for high schoolers, but that I cannot get enough of. It doesn’t hurt that it’s created by Josh Schwartz and stars Rachel Bilson (ahem, The OC). It certainly doesn’t hurt that every man is gorgeous (and one of them is Jason Street!) and every one of Zoe (Bilson)’s outfits are to die for. And it definitely doesn’t hurt that the soundtrack is a mix of music I like, music I love, and music I hear and immediately think “I need to look this up.”
Anyway, the Zoe-Wade “will they won’t they” (depicted above) is a constant theme throughout the series, which fuses NYC+Bama (yes please)…and I’m not in the least embarrassed to say that this is where I first heard my (most likely) favorite band of the summer.
Okay, maybe “in the least.”
It is 100% gorgeous — no, 100% perfect — outside here in New York. The perfect balance of beautiful sunshine with a chilly breeze. I’m stuck inside, but with Life in Film keeping me company, and keeping me dreaming of spring (it’s not so far away!), I think those (slight) winter weather blues have finally sailed away.
DJ BAHLER - Semblance of Sound
- Hudson Mohawke - Fuse [Instrumental], Phoenix - 1901 (DLID Remix) [Full], Sleigh Bells - Run The Heart [Various Stems] , Phoenix - 1901 [Various Stems], D4L - Laffy Taffy, [Instrumental], Dead Prez - It’s Bigger Than Hip Hop [Vox], The Beatles - Eleanor Rigby [Vox], Fergie - Glamorous [Vox], The-Dream - Falsetto [Vox], Dem Franchize Boyz - Lean Wit It Rock Wit It [Vox], Drake - Over [Vox], Deerhunter - Helicopter [Percussion], Why? - A Sky For Shoeing Horses Under [Synth], Wiz Khalifa - Make It Hot [Vox], Ludacris - How Low [Vox], Marilyn Manson - The Beautiful People [Vox], Matisyahu - One Day [Vox], Blink 182 - All The Small Things [Vox], Lady Gaga - Born This Way [Vox], Laidback Luke - Break The House Down [Vox], The New Pornographers - Move [Vox], Gucci Mane - Freaky Girl [Vox], Between the Buried and Me - Prequel to the Sequel [Vox], Tyler The Creator - Sandwitches [Vox]
