I have heard about this place, but have never managed to make the trek with my brother. It would take a life time to dig through all those crates.

My brother took the reMitch out to The Thing and they shot a little video inside. It’s nice to get a sneak peak. I could lose an entire weekend in this place.

The intro to this song has been stuck in my head for weeks as it is the background to a car commercial I see no less than 10 times a night. I finally googled the song (which was shockingly easy to find despite me not remembering what brand the commercial was for - 2008 Ford Edge - and the fact that the snippet of the song they sampled doesn’t contain any lyrics).

I figured maybe if I put it in your head it would get out of mine.

The first music video I ever saw remember seeing. It’s from 1984, so I must have seen other videos before this. I imagine I am going to lose an evening searching for a video I can remember that came out on MTV before this one.

Can you call it from the still? I’ll take your word for it. Claim victory in the comments.

Turns out, Prince is, in fact, a baller. Apparently he and The Revolution actually aired it out on Charlie Murphy and them.

From an interview with Prince on MTV:

Sway: I wanted to tell you this story first: I was watching the Dave Chappelle show, and Eddie Murphy’s brother Charlie Murphy does this thing on it called “True Life Hollywood Stories,” and he told this story that he was hanging out with you at your house, and you guys were listening to music, and then you came up with the idea to all go play basketball. He said they didn’t have any clothes, so you got them shorts and T-shirts, but he said that your crew showed up to the basketball court with the same wardrobe [as you wear onstage]. High heels, suited and booted. Is that true?

Prince: That part’s not true. But the whupping’s true.

Sway: The whupping’s true. So you’ve got basketball skills?

Prince: A little bit.

Sway: Yeah? What you got? A crossover dribble? Or a jump shot?

Prince: We didn’t call it crossover back then.

Sway: What’d you call it?

Prince: Just speed.

Thanks to Damon for the investigative reporting.

Speaking of Thriller, this video of 1,500 inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center, in the Philippines doing a rendition of the zombie dance in Michael Jackson’s Thriller is awesome. Can you imagine what one has to do to get 1500 convicts to walk around like zombies, much less dance like Michael Jackson?

(via Watch, While Seated)

I have a love hate relationship with the teenagers that stand en masse below my office and scream their hearts out for the guest of the day at TRL. I swear I thought Michael Jackson circa Thriller was visiting Times Square today given the size of the crowd and the decibel level of the screams.

(Michael Jackson circa Thriller)

Turns out, it’s Beyonce. Who knew?

This is new to me. In the intro to Blame it on Me, Akon actually issues a blanket apology for things that might occur in the future.

“As life goes on, I start to learn more and more about responsibility. And I realize that everything I do is affecting the people around me. So I wanted to take this time out to apologize for the things I have done and the things that haven’t occurred yet… and the things they don’t want to take responsibility for.”

So much for responsibility.

My Friend Ryan is DJing his monthly set at Royal Oak in Williamsburg. He’s great, the drinks are cheap, and the company is sublime. Come on out.

Rob Harvilla has a hilarious article entitled Hot Hot Heat -
A graphical dissertation on the number one song in America in the village voice about the breakout hit “This is Why I’m Hot” by Mims.

An excerpt:

The most amazing line in “This Is Why I’m Hot”—and, even at this early a juncture, quite possibly the most amazing line of any song to see release in 2007—is “I’m hot ’cause I’m fly/You ain’t ’cause you not.” Brutal and unassailable in its simplicity. Consider the reasoning, first, of just “I’m hot ’cause I’m fly”:

Mims is hot because he’s fly. But it raises the question: Does being hot guarantee one’s being fly? “You ain’t ’cause you not” would seem to clear that up:

It would appear that fly and hot are interchangable. If you are one, you are both; if you aren’t at least one, you are neither.

(thanks to jono for the heads up)

I haven’t been one for music videos since the mid 80s when my momma turned off MTV one day after she came home and my brother and I were watching MTV Spring Break (I think it had something to do with all of the women in bikinis).

Thanks to my friends Quy and Tony I have been recently introduced to Bjork’s Volumen, a DVD of 14 of her videos. They are nearly all excellent, mini movies really. However, special attention must be paid to the handful of videos directed by Michel Gondry of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Chappelle Block Party fame. His videos on this collection are simply stunning. Spike Jonze takes his turn on this DVD as well.

One video missing from this DVD is the award winning video for All Is Full Of Love directed by Chris Cunnigham. Check it out.