Where the Kids Are

I've recently discovered something the kids seem to be "in" to, and really enjoy. It's a wacky sort of revolutionary concept yet beautiful in its mere simplicity. These rock groups combine two mediums, film and radio and make little vignets about their songs. These are called "videos" and there are even some cable stations devoted to showing these mini-movies. Putting music together with visual images goes all the way back to my Go-Go dancin days but this is different. Quick camera cuts, fancy textures are featured over and over as the video becomes separate from the music while adding to it.

Being at the cutting edge, the newsletter has decided to devote time in watching selected videos not really reviewing, but more reacting towards these two minute powerful candy for the senses. I don't have what the kids have come to call MTV (Music Television, a fancy name for one of the cable channels that devotes time to playing this forum), so I may be a few months behind what's hot at the moment but we'll keep as closely in touch with the help of our friend, Jake the Weather guy, who sits in his basement and makes tapes of selected features for us. Please feel free to recommend videos I should keep an eye out for. It must be noted that my favorite video I've seen is Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson's Say Say Say which was about two hucksters, two con men, two quacks selling a magic potion to unsuspecting customers while Michael runs off with Latoya. The video had nothing to do with the song, but the song was about nothing so it worked in a quirky kind of way.

First UP: Catherine Wheel's Show Me Mary. The setting is a cab. A young black cab driver picks up a potpourri of fares including an inter-racial couple, a jazzman, a drugged out woman, the band, and many other colorful, wacky characters. All the while the band plays against the wall crying for Mary. Message: People are strange. Does the video stay with you and haunt you with its flashy images? About as long as the song. B