Don Mclean, "American Pie": As Don Mclean sings upon that stage so many years ago, he tells of a story of America during his time. With reference to Buddy Holly and the plane crash, the assassination of J.F.K., and the Vietnam war, the words he uses act as symbols to a time lost in history. These symbols like album titles of the Beatles, Buddy Holly and the Crickets, and Bob Dylan, he referenced the music of then and of his now. One specific reference is that of the Chevrolet pickup truck, "Bye, Bye, Miss America, Bye. I drove the Chevy to the levy, but the levy was dry, and the good ole boys were drinkin' wisky n' rye, singing this'll be the day that I die." There we were, my Dad and I parked in our 1990 Chevy pickup, scorching in the heat, but listening to Don Mclean and "American Pie." We both loved the song and that pickup truck. It was a sparkly blue color with silver accents. The cab had only two doors but was made to hold up to six people. With rusty wheel wells, and minor scratches all over from being a farm pickup, it served us well. The odometer was broke around 160,000 back in 1996 and must have three times that many miles on it by now. The back seat had no back support making it hard not to slouch. Dad had already fixed the running boards once but they needed work again. We just sat there drinking our mountain dew listening t0 the story the singer had to tell, the story that was part of my Dad's life and now mine. At times I wondered what he meant by "the day the music died," but now I seem to understand. Recently my dad traded in that pickup truck for a new Chevy Silverado, blue of course. All the times we used that pickup for hunting, fishing, or farm work become memories, new ones never to be made again. I can now only remember the deep rumble of the engine not to be experienced again like DonMclean remembers tossing those newspapers when he was young with print telling of Buddy Holly's plane crash never to hear new music of his ever again.
Gorillaz "19-2000 (Soulchild Remix)": The Gorillaz are an intuitive band that has managed to conceal their true identity and replace it with these cartoon characters like those in video games. This video is reminiscent of video games like Spy Hunter, Grand Theft Auto, and James Bond: Agent Under Fire. Those that have played Spy Hunter on PS2 before see a modified version of it with the vehicle that transforms and shoots missiles except in the video the target it a giant moose! I can remember sitting downstairs in front of the "gaming tube" playing Spy Hunter head to head to see who could shoot or run over the most chickens before the end of the race! Though I grew up on Nintendo and Sega Genesis, PS2 games with their technologically up-to-date graphics remind me most of how a video game would be made. The ability to quickly accelerate and make sharp turns at 60 mph belong in the game world. When they drive under the overpass, I immediately think of Grand Theft Auto because of the cop wearing a helmet in a speedo seems like something Rockstar games would put into an interactive animated world. Even though my brother seemed to "kill" me every time in Spy Hunter i would always re spawn like it never happened and continue on with the chicken slaying. That's exactly what happens at the end of this video. The vehicle transforms in order to shoot two giant missiles at this giant moose only to have them blown back and blow up the vehicle. Of course, in this virtual world the four Gorillaz are still alive only to be shown with a look of disappointment on their faces.
Bananas at Large, "The Turdy Point Buck": "Did you see the thirty pointer, the thirty point buck," the sound of deer season rings throughout my ears every time I here this song. Every hunter dreams of shooting that "Thirty Pointer" but the big one always seems to get away. Funny part of it all, hunters usually are seeing things if they claim they saw a thirty point buck. Unless the deer is some freak of nature like the one pictured for the song, a normal buck around this area has anywhere from two points to the huge fourteen pointer. Any bigger than that and the hunter most likely was suffering from buck fever. "I got down from my tree stand and headed for the truck, and that's when I seen it there, the Turdy Point Buck." Of course, the man in the video claimed to be drunk at the time so maybe his double vision got the best of him. I had the same thing happen to me once with a eight point beauty but at least I wasn't drunk at the time. Antlers are like horns on cows but they are shed every year. They are made up of a dermal layer on the outside, called velvet, which gives rise to the formation of bone underneath. A white tail deer like the one pictured has one main beam with tines that rise off of it. To be considered a point, the tines must be at least 1 inch in length. Depending on the male deer, each tine is usually two inches or more apart from the next tine. A Thirty point buck in this case would have to have a spiralling rack (never happens) in order to balance the weight above his head just so he could lift it. When that eight pointer came into my scope that day I was thinking just that, "How does he manage to keep his head up with that monstrous rack atop his head?!" Now days with newer technology and deer farms, these monster thirty point bucks have become a reality. However, they are locked up behind nine foot tall fences where no hunters are allowed. Even then whitetails with racks like that become talented at evading hunters; so much so that a "combination AK 57 oozie radar laser triple-barrel double-scoped hit-seekin shotgun" won't even get the job done.
My Chemical Romance, "The Ghost of You": From shots of young men dancing with the ladies before they go off to war to those same young men being shot on the battle field, this music video seems to blend clips of the band to that of Saving Private Ryan. We see images of soldiers in their uniforms charging up the beach while being picked off by machine guns like sitting ducks on a pond. These images are quickly recognized by anyone who has seen that particular movie. Those words alone, "Saving Private Ryan" remind me of the day I stumbled across a picture of my Grandfather platoon while cleaning the attic in the house he once lived in. As I remove the large photo from that cardboard tube and unrolled it, a sense of uneasiness swept over me. There he was in the middle row near the far left end. His face was like that of a young man, handsome and clean. I had never seen him so young before but the glow about his face gave him away. He was all dressed up in his green uniform, not a wrinkle to be seen or a button misaligned. All fifty or so of the young men lined up for a picture as if they were lining up on the battle field. Not a single face possessed a smile just that solemn look of not knowing what was to come. Later after making digital reprints we gave the picture back to him. He took it in silence and put it on his nightstand beside his bed without saying a single word. Grandpa looks so different now, a man whose life has been hardened by war, depression, and being bipolar from the memories that still haunt him to this day. However, every so often that same young look comes upon his face as if he was ready to do whatever it took just like the young man in the video who worked up his courage to charge the beach knowing he might be taking his last steps. My Grandpa with only a flame thrower and pistol was like that young boy charging the beach with such courage thinking, "And all the wounds that are ever gonna scar me, For all the ghosts that are never gonna catch me," I'll still press on.
Alan Jackson "Drive": With scenes of a young boy behind the wheel with father in the passenger seat, Alan Jackson is portrayed as the young boy being taught how to drive. When he is in control of the boat, we see images that go from reality to him imagining he is in a sailboat or a race car. All of this stemming from the event of when Daddy let him drive. I still can see myself running the motor to our little fishing boat. The motor was attached to the back of the boat and was steered by a handle on the motor to pivot the motor with prop pushing us right along. It is an aluminum 16' boat green bronze in color. There are four seats, one being the drivers seat, two in the middle with chairs like that of the drivers seat, and then a small piece of metal forming a seat in the bow. It is that front spot which is most advantageous when it comes to fishing because one can cast in spots long before others can improving the chance of catching that five pound bass. Water always seemed to leak from somewhere in the back possibly around screws or rivets causing our shoes to always get wet but never really put us in real danger. I have caught walleye, bluegill, bass, crappie, perch, and pike out of that little boat. At times my whole family would go fishing and we would all fit in the boat but the water would seem to rise up to near a foot of the edge of the boat, making us all nervous at times of quick movement for the net to bring in a big fish. That boat has served me and my family well and still will till the day we forget the plug for longer than 30 minutes after putting it in water only to go eat and later find it at the bottom of the lake!
Incubus, "Drive": As this video starts out one can instantly tell that its is artistically put together. It starts out right away with a hand drawing another hand which then begins drawing the first exactly like the M. C. Escher piece "Drawing Hands." Then it goes so far as the hands drawing the singer himself and then we are shown that it is actually the singer drawing the world around him. However, when it comes to himself he does a piece only to find some flaw and start all over again. In Painting I this semester I just so happened to do a self portrait, each new layer of paint looking better but lacking something. We find the singer drawing himself again and again striving for some perfection in the representation of himself. After deciding a piece wasn't good enough he crumples it up and throws it away to start all over again. One then must wonder , is it because he drew the hands with some flaw so now everything they draw becomes flawed in some way to. The Drawing Hands Piece is really interesting because the wrists are drawn flat and 2D but then begin to rise of the paper to a 3D reality where each hand is drawing the other. How does one draw himself. I've had to ask myself a thousand times especailly when it comes to each new layer of paint. In the end of the video the artist becomes extremely frustrated to the point of tearing himslef apart and giving up.
