Music Video: Her Morning Elegance

Her Morning Elegance by Oren Lavie

So I had to write about this music video because it's in my opinion one of the most creative ones I've seen in a while. The stop motion technique was very well implemented and told the story word by word, hence being effective. The song can be interpreted in one of two ways (well, a million really, but for the sake of the argument) either that the girl is a dreamer that spends all her time dreaming and nothing is real hence the "as she goes, nobody knows"
OR one could say that she is battling a sickness of some sort. This is seen by the repetition of "and she fights for her life" as seen in the chorus:

"And she fights for her life

as she puts on her coat

And she fights for her life on the train

She looks at the rain

as it pours

And she fights for her life

as she goes in a store"

An interesting idea is combining the two ideas: Maybe she is battling a sickness that makes her sleep a lot?

Perhaps she's depressed?

"Sun been down for days

A pretty flower in a vase

A slipper by the fireplace

A cello lying in its case"

The first line shows that its night time, this could be taken figuratively or realistically. Maybe she feels like its always night and dark and gloomy, or maybe she's aways just sleeping. The next three lines exemplify her uselessness, what good is a cello lying in it's case, if it's not being played?

Either way either idea could be debatable, the fact that the entire music video takes place in her bed supports both ideas. The fact that the man with her has his eyes open and the girl doesn't throughout the whole video further explains the theories. Also I thought it was interesting how she's wearing white and he is wearing black and there is a point in the video where they kind of intertwine looking like yin and yang.

It's remarkable how well done the video is and how effective it tells the story, in order to prove such assumptions, I also watched the video without music and sound and it indeed reflected the same emotions and provoked the same thoughts therefore making this an amazingly effective music video!

Arcade Fire HTML5

Arcade Fire came out with a cool HTML 5 song/program that mixes their great music with an interactive story dealing with your life, your home. It's really quite ridiculous, I was obviously enthralled!

This is the website: http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/ (must be opened on Google Chrome) When you open it, it asks you for your address and off it goes! Enjoy listening to Arcade Fire while watching a story of a man running home.

To tell you the truth as awesome as I thought it was ... it was a little scary the levels of technology and just how its used it makes me feel like anything can be done... which is a little scary. I mean for the most part I really enjoyed it but the thought did cross my mind.

Its hard to explain. Just try it. It's great.

The Facebook Effect

Today...

We spoke about social networking and how it affects people and how we don't realize it sometimes. Great example: Facebook. The new Myspace. Way back when, Myspace was quite the rage, I mean even new movies coming out in theaters had Myspaces... well now, there's Facebook. In my opinion Facebook is much more user friendly, accessible, and stalkerish. I remember when I first switched to Facebook all I kept thinking was "wow, this is creepy stalkerish". You could see what I commented on So-and-so's picture, what I wrote on that person's wall, and many more other personal things you probably wouldn't want someone else to see.

When we looked up about the book The Facebook Effect and what it dealt with I realized that Facebook isn't just a social networking site anymore. It revolutionized into a new way for business to hire, a requirement even for a job overview. The Facebook Effect affects everyone with one, people are beginning to be judges on their profile pictures and info on Facebook rather than an interview a company would conduct. It's scary but true. I guess this is just a reminder... beware the Facebook effect.

Video game freak

Ever since I was probably like five and the Super Nintendo came out I was addicted. Well, it might have something to do with the fact that I had two boy cousins with me all the time... so their obsession obviously rubbed off on me. Point being, I love playing video games. My most memorable was Super MarioWorld on the Super Nintendo (which by the way is extinct now) Don't remember? This is what I mean. Talk about old school.

I also really enjoyed Kingdom Hearts. It was like the perfect blend: Disney and video games. I remember renting the game from Blockbuster (back when they existed) and staying up for about 4 nights and just finishing the game! The second time around I did the same thing but collected all the little collectibles like the trinities and whatnot to see the secret ending. I also played the Kingdom Hearts 2 and the small Game boy version of the game. I thought it was interesting how dark the game got sometimes. It also had references to the Final Fantasy games which although I've never actually played, I know about them. Overall it was hands down one of my favorite video games.

        
Lastly, I really enjoyed playing Animal Crossing. I know this one wasn't all that popular but I really liked it. It's like a role playing game but you're a human and everyone else is an animal and basically all you do is live life... Sounds kind of boring but it's not. You go fishing and sell the fish you get a job at a grocery store, you furnish your home and you're able to expand it as well and its just a world of endless possibilities! This game was for (or at least I played it in) the Gamecube and looked a little something like this:

Small little screenshot.

This is also very similar to another game I really enjoyed called Harvest Moon. Needless to say, video games were my jam.