I remember when I first caught this video, I was initially overcome by doubt – the video’s employment of that ‘movie trailer’ concept wasn’t exactly tapping into new territory. But by about the second time the chorus rolled around I was hooked – snappy direction and a few surprises in the action drew me in, and the fact that it’s a pretty catchy song certainly works to its advantage.
If you dig the tune, you can also check out a cool (in the smooth, jazzy sense of the word) unplugged version they performed for AOL Sessions recently.
“Equal parts heavenly and dispensable, “Paris” is throwaway pop at its finest. Guitars be shimmering like it ain’t no thing, the percussion’s all over the place and the chorus is huge (just try to look past the cliche-ass lyrics); this is about as pop as indie gets.”
So the deal is, I’ve been a bit conscious lately about blogging. I know I use this as a forum to discuss and share music, especially recently, and though I discuss things to do with myself and my day-to-day, I’ve been pretty quiet lately on things of a personal nature. Lately, you may have noticed, it’s pretty much been music or nothing at all.
Well, the thing is that I’m still pretty vulnerable, and perhaps a touch emotionally volatile, and though at times I want to disclose things, I can’t bring myself to do it. I’m still fighting something of a depression, and some days are especially bad. Make-me-sick-to-my-stomach bad.
In a genuine effort to make a connection, to share and interact, I’ve decided to branch out just a bit and feature something the likes of which I haven’t in the past, something arbitrary and informative and pure. Well, mostly pure. And coincidentally, I’ve found myself thinking about flip books.
Flip books are a collection of images altered gradually and ordered sequentially, with the premise that when the book is flipped through quickly from one end to the other, the human eye’s natural image retention reflex pieces the still images together to create the illusion of animation. They are not restricted to any milieu, and can be composed of drawings, photographs, or similar static images.
Wikipedia tells me that the first flip book appeared in September 1868 and was patented by John Barnes Linnet. No word exactly on the subject matter, but I have it on good authority that the first flip book porn was patented mere hours later. Oh, and by ‘good authority that,’ I mean ‘I’d wager,’ and by ‘I have it on,’ I mean ‘according to my imagination.’
In 1894, Herman Casler patented what he called the Mutoscope, a device that mounted the photos within a viewer on a wheel. The idea was that someone would come along and insert payment into the device, and then crank a wheel attached to flip quickly through the photos, enjoying a brief show. The Mutoscope was pretty popular, but was eventually crushed by the growing film phenomenon of 1910 and beyond.
Flip books are still around today, although no longer featured as prizes in Cracker Jack or the like. Also, these days they’re aimed more toward children and innocent themes, unlike days gone by when they targeted adults, schilling cars and cigarettes and such. And porn, I can feel it. Ooh, la la!
And now you know just a little more about flip books.
“Now, I think body mod is cool and all, but when it comes to stepping up to it, I’m a touch apprehensive. So I spent a while exploring my options, and since I also like the idea of interactivity, I think what I’ve decided is to shave a basic grid into my pubic hair to form a sort of crossword puzzle.
“Only thing is, the only way I can think to do such an intricate and painstaking thing is with a complicated system of Q-tips, Nair, and tweezers… so I think the first word is going to be ‘masochist’…”
I’ve recently gotten very into this band called The Receiving End Of Sirens, pretty fresh out of Boston, Massachusetts. They’ve only recently released their second album, The Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi, and are currently touring through Europe and Australia.
The most of my personal experience with them comes through their first album, however, called Between The Heart And The Synapse, and I can tell you that it’s absolutely brilliant. They have a very creative and mostly unique sound (as far as the concept applies to rock bands), and to place them somewhere on the spectrum would be very difficult, however I think that saying they represent a fair cross between 30 Seconds To Mars and Brand New would be somewhat apt.
The album is a fantastic offering, with a great application of refraining that I very much enjoy and hails reminiscent of Boys Night Out’s Trainwreck album – a couple of lines of verse sung in different ways on different tracks throughout the record remind the listener of an underlying theme, a score of frustration and lament. And I don’t know how much you know about me, but those are two concepts that melt my bleeding emo core.
Enjoy these two videos, the two strongest singles off of their debut record (for those interested, the refrains featured throughout the record are marked in blue). For more on the band, and to hear tracks from both records and more, check out their profile on Purevolume.
Oh, and Jared Leto, if you’re reading this, you’re welcome for the compliment. In all seriousness, though, you could actually learn a lot about vocals and songwriting from this band…
The Receiving End Of Sirens – This Armistice
(alternate link, thanks to AOL Video)
“Check my vitals – the truth is vile, but vital to this cause
I’ve been held hostage; A captive of this passive shell
Give me gravity, give me clarity, give me something to rely on…
We’re all puppets, we’re all marionettes.
Oh, how I’ve been teething, in light of your misleading;
You caused this collapse between the heart and the synapse.“
The Receiving End Of Sirens – Planning A Prison Break
“Warden’s calling for a lockdown, baby, he’ll call on interim inequities
This is the last night in my body, so assist in the escape…
Warden’s calling on a jailbreak, baby, and he’ll fly like only a jailbird could
He’ll fly like only a jailbird could.
Somehow, for now, this skin will have to do;
This is the last night in my body, yeah…“
At Rachel’s suggestion, I decided to go ahead and download Flock, a new “social” web browser that goes beyond the regular protocols and travels that extra mile to consolidate a given user’s social networking universe together into a single all-in-one browsing environment. And to that end, it’s proven incredibly impressive and useful; one can incorporate most all Web 2.0 gems into their browser and connect that much quicker and easier.
Drag-and-drop file sharing, embedded blogging tool (which I’m trying out right now), and media searching/browsing capabilities the likes of which I’ve never seen. As I told her, I don’t think I really realized how much Microsoft had been dropping the ball until I decided to give Flock a try. I mean, I’ve never had any issue with IE, and haven’t so much as batted an eye in the direction of Firefox or anything else. But Flock is very impressive, and seemingly poised to make a huge dent in Intertubular browsing.
I think even users that don’t have all the social networks would benefit from the browser – it’s very simple to use. My only peeves so far? I think they might as well incorporate Myspace as well, seeing as they have most everything else. And so far it seems as though Flock doesn’t mix with Yahoo! Games. I generally play games there to kill time, and a few attempts at a couple of favourites were met with failure. Is this a Javascript support issue? Hmm…
