Category Archives: music video

Fun Video Friday – I Believe in a Thing Called Love

Fun Video Friday Update

A friend once said, “You know a good song when you can play it on an acoustic guitar around a bon fire and it still sounds good.” I subscribe to that idea and would expand it to say that a good song can survive new arrangements in new styles as well. The folks over at Post Modern Jukebox are regularly doing this with popular songs. I’m not the first to find PMJ (as the kids call them), they’ve been posting great versions of pop tunes for years and they appear regularly in pop culture and geek blogs. In fact they are going on tour! I’m not getting paid to bring that up, I just like in supporting cool creative things.

Back to the song…

Permission to Land was my favorite album of 2003… and 2004… and most of 2005 and ’06. It’s a solid, fun, driven rock album and was the perfect anthem for my late 20’s. “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” is a song I still love to listen too even though I’ve heard it thousands of times. The New Orleans version below gives it a different kind of energy that still fits the spirit of the song and it never hurts to have a strong female voice driving a song.

 

And here’s the original:

 

What are some of your favorite tunes? Pop some links in the comments.

See you next time!

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May 1, 2015 · 8:00 am

It’s Funny What Strikes a Chord…

thrift-shop-large

I have been doing a lot of website building and refining these last three weeks as part of my new year commitment, and things have been going well. When all the sites are completed and ready you can bet that I’ll push them like crazy.

First one’s free: AndelonProd.com

As I’ve been refining CurtisAndersen.com I noticed some glitches in my RSS feed and had to go back to my old Blogger page to check some of the old posts. Imagine my surprise when I saw that, even months after having changed sites with the exact same URL, there were thousands of hits on the old version of the blog! Thousands!! I was shocked. There hadn’t been a new post since August, but that didn’t seem to matter.

Out of curiosity I decided to look and see what the most popular post of all time was and it turns out to be my examination of the Macklemore song “Thriftshop.” So since it’s Friday and it’s an appropriate party night I thought it might be nice to revisit that post:

Hey Macklemore, can we go thrift shopping?

I think this still holds water, even if I would write things a bit differently now. What do you think?

See you next time.

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Filed under music, music video, social commentary, Uncategorized, video, YouTube

Fun Video Friday – Carl Poppa

Fun-Video-Friday

 

This past year has been a focus on creativity for Rene and I. With the successful roll out of Fun Size Horror and the various personal, friend and professional projects we’ve been working on we’ve been able to get back to doing the kinds of things that we not only enjoy but the kinds of things that energize us and that ends up spilling over into other aspects of our lives.

Today’s fun video is not new, it’s a couple months old and comes from the folks that do Bad Lip Reading on YouTube. It’s a song that was part of their Walking (and Talking) Dead series. I stumbled onto it again recently through a flurry of Facebook posts. The song is funny and if you’re a Walking Dead fan then it is even better, but what I find remarkable is that I really like the song, like, a lot. Sure most of the lyrics are silly, but it took a lot of talent and skill to get this together.  And it’s a hit! The song is available on iTunes and is shockingly catchy and easy to dance to.

The running thread between our year of creativity and this video is that it just took a little creativity to make something really cool and there are very few barriers to that as long as you’re willing to put in the work. So enjoy the video and then go out and work on that thing you’ve been meaning to do. It’s time.

See you next time.

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November 7, 2014 · 11:01 am

Fun Video Friday! Weird Al is “Handy”

So Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” feat. Charlie XCX is arguably the song of the summer for 2014 but I would argue that Weird Al should actually take the title. Here is his parody as well as the original, for comparison.

Have a great weekend!



See you next time!

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Filed under fun video friday, Iggy Azalea, music, music video, parody, videos, Weird Al, YouTube

Fun Video Friday! How to Write a Hip Hop Song in 30 Seconds with Jordan

I was worried that I wouldn’t find a video to post today. This week I didn’t see a whole lot that I thought was worth sharing…

…until this morning!

Presenting 5 year old Jordan who has got skilz!

You can see more of his stuff HERE.

See you next time!

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Filed under creativity, fun video friday, funny, kids, music, music video, video, YouTube

New Years Eve Post – Music Stuff I Saw on NPR

I am a big music lover and when I was doing my morning scan of the internet the Facebook post from NPR music caught my attention. They linked to a video that is a video/audio mash-up of 68 of the top hits from 2013. It’s quite catchy!

The creator has been doing this since 2010 and those are pretty cool too. Check out his other videos HERE.

I hope you all have a wonderful, safe night tonight! We’ll see you in 2014!

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Filed under holidays, music, music video, new year, NPR, YouTube

Fun Video Friday! – Happy Holidays!

I love talking animals. If it were possible I’d train Frankie and Charlie how to talk so that we could all sit around and have conversations.

YouTuber TalkingAnimals does some great work with this, as his name implies. Here are the four holiday songs that have been done.

Enjoy!

Happy Holidays!

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Filed under animals, fun video friday, funny, holidays, music video, songs, videos, YouTube

On Miley Cyrus and Wrecking Ball

Image from Trinikid.com

Miley Cyrus has that song Wrecking Ball, the one that has received so much attention because of the provocative video that was released along with the song.

Yes, that one.

The one where she’s naked on a wrecking ball. And licking a sledge hammer.

Yes, that one.

The one that has, most likely, become the first sexual experience for post-pubescent boys who have a computer, smart phone or tablet and have had three to five minutes by themselves.

That one.

I’m not even going to link to that video because I really don’t want to promote any more views on it.

Funny thing, though, the song isn’t actually bad.

I was in the car with Rene and we were listening to the radio and suddenly this sad pop love song came on. Rene said, “You have to listen to this!” So I listened to it and I enjoyed it. I didn’t recognize it and, sure, it’s a pop song so it’s maybe not the deepest most introspective bit of musical poetry in the world – but it’s not a bad song. Like, this is going to be the love anthem for junior high and young high school relationships this school year.

So I ask Rene who it is and she gets excited and her eyes get big and she starts pointing at the radio and the only thing she can get out is, “This is Miley Cyrus! I wanted you to hear this!”

So I’m like, “Is this Wrecking Ball?”

And she nods and says, “Mm hm,” with a big “can you believe it?” look on her face.

This got me curious and Rene and I had a long conversation about it and Miley and… well that’s what the rest of the blog is about. When I got home I decided that it might be worth a look at the video since the song seems to be pretty vulnerable and sincere, even in its poppyness, and that must mean that there’s a reason why she’s getting all crazy on the sledgehammer, right?

No. Not at all. The video everybody knows about really is just sloppy soft core.

However, when I was searching, the first thing I found was a director’s cut of the video and it looked like this:

And here’s a link for those looking on mobile devices: Director’s Cut.

Now this makes much more sense for the message of the song. Here, lets take a look at the lyrics courtesy of AZLyrics.com:

“Wrecking Ball”

We clawed, we chained our hearts in vain
We jumped never asking why
We kissed, I fell under your spell.
A love no one could deny

Don’t you ever say I just walked away
I will always want you
I can’t live a lie, running for my life
I will always want you

I came in like a wrecking ball
I never hit so hard in love
All I wanted was to break your walls
All you ever did was wreck me
Yeah, you, you wreck me

I put you high up in the sky
And now, you’re not coming down
It slowly turned, you let me burn
And now, we’re ashes on the ground

Don’t you ever say I just walked away
I will always want you
I can’t live a lie, running for my life
I will always want you

I came in like a wrecking ball
I never hit so hard in love
All I wanted was to break your walls
All you ever did was wreck me

I came in like a wrecking ball
Yeah, I just closed my eyes and swung
Left me crashing in a blazing fall
All you ever did was wreck me
Yeah, you, you wreck me

I never meant to start a war
I just wanted you to let me in
And instead of using force
I guess I should’ve let you win
I never meant to start a war
I just wanted you to let me in
I guess I should’ve let you win

Don’t you ever say I just walked away
I will always want you

I came in like a wrecking ball
I never hit so hard in love
All I wanted was to break your walls
All you ever did was wreck me

I came in like a wrecking ball
Yeah, I just closed my eyes and swung
Left me crashing in a blazing fall
All you ever did was wreck me
Yeah, you, you wreck me
Yeah, you, you wreck me
Here we have a girl talking about mistakes made in a relationship, one she misses. She’s lamenting how she acted and at the same time she’s standing up to him and facing how he treated her. These are vulnerable thoughts and the director’s cut of the video brings that messages home so much more. In fact, in my humble opinion, this video actually elevates the song above its lyrical content. I am willing to believe this is the most honest Ms. Cyrus has been in front of a camera for a very long time.

Here’s the most ironic thing for me about the fact that this is the director’s cut – the director is Terry Richardson.

Yes, that Terry Richardson.

The Terry Richardson who is a very talented photographer

…but has also been called out as a perv on many occasions.

Many occasions.

This particular article is the one that got the most heat, probably because the stories are the most explicit.

So, when you see all that, the naked video with the licking falls right into form…

…but again I point to the actual raw vulnerability in the director’s cut and suddenly you start to wonder how these two things were made by the same guy.

Here’s what i’m getting at: we have two creatives who are both at high points in their careers. Both have talents that are appreciated by the general public and are looked up to by people young and old – but the story with these two is all about sex. Sex has become the conversation, not the songs or the pictures, and that’s a shame.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of sex. I understand why it is used and exploited and I do believe there are times when using sex and/or sexuality can actually be a strong statement in art. But when it becomes schtick or a crutch it’s very obvious and that, more than any moral reason, is why I think both of these artists – and yes I will use the word “artist” and not feel bad – get as much backlash as they do.

We, as the listening/viewing public expect more because they’ve both shown that they can do better. There’s disappointment when you watch someone phone it in or try to force you to believe them as they flail out of character. With Richardson in particular, I personally believe that he’s let his persona get the better of him and it’s drowning out the actual person who takes good pictures.

So I turn to you, what do you think? I look forward to your comments.

See you next time! 

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Filed under Miley Cyrus, music video, social commentary, video, Wrecking Ball, YouTube

Fun Video Friday – What Does the Fox Say?

I’m not going to try and explain this, GAWKER did a very good job, and it really doesn’t need it.

Just watch and enjoy.

Watch all the way through. Seriously.

See you next time!

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Filed under fun video friday, music video, video, YouTube

Another Music Video Memory – Buffalo Stance

I don’t know what the phrase means (and apparently no one else is all that sure either: Urban Dictionary).

I don’t know that it’s the best written song – in fact I’ll go as far to say that it isn’t.

But the hook is catchy, and the video is 90’s genius.

I mean, seriously, just look at the two back-up dancers…

This is a song I keep on my “dance” playlists and “workout” playlists. Tell me that you’re feet don’t want to move when you hear this!

See you next time!

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Filed under music video, nostalgia