Germbot's Journals

Hey Portland art & comic lovers!

Wonder Woman Day 4 is about to kick off, September 31st to October 24 in the Lara Sydney Gallery at 1230 NW Hoyt St. Go check it out, and keep an eye out for the blue Wonder Woman water color. That's me! It's an online auction as well, so if you see something you like give it a go-- all proceeds go to battered woman shelters.

No video blog this week

Major personal problems. Not sure when they'll continue, but when things iron out I'll do a double post, promise.

5 Videos Where The Children Are Our (Terrifying) Future

Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children.
- George Bernard Shaw

There's a saying that goes "the children are our future." Well if that's the case in these videos, that future is pretty terrifying. From fist fights to brandishing weapons, and demon posession to frickin' telekinesis. If these kids are our future, I'm not sure anyone is going to live to see it.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Y Control
This is the video that inspired the list. It's so dark and twisted, you can't help but be afraid of all the kids in it. Warning: Simulated violence and dead animals.

Lordi - Hardrock Halellujah
Who hasn't felt ostrasized at some point in their life? High school is particularly lame for some people. Now imagine if you had your own zombie cheerleader squad. Would've been better, right?

Tamar-Kali - Boot
One of the most punk rock little girls around. Check out more of Tamar-Kali in the awesome documentary Afro-Punk.

Operator Please - Leave It Alone
Jackson Pollock meets teenage angst and fiddles.

Box Car Racer - I Feel So
In all honesty, I've heard from more than a few friends that this particular song saved their life. Hearing someone else talk about the same dark feelings you have is intense. But seriously, these kids have telekinesis. That's pretty scary.

5 Videos That Turn Me Into A Sobbing Mess

You think I'm unemotional, isn't it? For Christ's sake! I cried like a child at the end of Terminator 2!
- Tim Bisley (Simon Pegg), Spaced

I'm not afraid to admit that some things make me cry, whether they make me feel sad or really good, or simply because they hit real close to home. It takes a lot of effort to make you really feel something in a three-minute period, below are five videos that do it for me. Now excuse me while I go get some tissues and start doing push-ups.

Foo Fighters - Best Of You
When the videos director, Mike Pellington, shot this video for the band his wife had just recently succumed to illness. To me, the emotion comes through amazingly, and the juxtoposition of powerful imagery and music makes it the perfect example of montage.

Straylight Run - Existentialism On Prom Night
This video feels so ethereal in its handling of a common situation like riding the train. Everyone is in sync, and nobody knows it. This one just makes me feel really good.

Amanda Palmer - Runs In The Family
Having grown up with family dealing with bi-polar disorder, and having had friends with their own psychosocio issues, this video strikes close to home. The mania in the video purveys exactly how it is sometimes.

My Chemical Romance - Ghost Of You
The horrors of war are something we all know too well after the last eight years, and while this oft overlooked video showcases World War 2 it's still a reminder of the realities some have to face.

Finch - What It Is To Burn
Honestly, it's hard not to imagine putting yourself in the place of the main guy and imagine how you'd react in his place.

Bear in mind, these are videos that just make ME cry, so do me a favor and let me know which ones turn YOU into an emotional pile of sobs, and it might show up in a future list!

5 Videos That Give You A Stiff Neck

5 Videos That Give You A Stiff Neck “There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still.”
- Franklin D. Roosevelt

We're so used to watching films that move, and cut, and zoom, and generally feel very cinematic. But there's something incredibly understated about a video that's able to just set the camera down, and let the action play out in front of it. Below are five videos that do just that; the camera stays in one position, and everything else goes.

Jamiroquai - Virtual Insanity
The great thing about this video is not so much how cool it looks to see everything move in the room, but the fact that Jamiroquai can dance the whole time.

Björk - Violently Happy
This video creeps me out not because they're so spastic, but because everything is too cheery!

The Bright Light Social Hour - Back And Forth
I could do to see that guy get a little more nekkid.

I Heart Hiroshima - London In Love
The colors really add to the feel of this video, in their own subtle way.

The All-American Rejects - Move Along
Kind of a cheat, since there's a lot of regular camera movement-- but you have to admit that when the quick cuts jump in, it's pretty intensely awesome.

5 Videos That Bring The World To Life

Animation can explain whatever the mind of man can conceive.
-Walt Disney

I once took a stop-motion class in high school; I had always been a fan, so it was cool to actually try it first hand. After finishing my final project-- a skateboarding Godzilla falling off a bridge, of all things-- I got a real understanding of just how complicated the process is. Below are five examples of people who were crazy enough to make two to five minute long videos in this style, which is definitely nothing to sneeze at

Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal
I absolutely love the subtle beauty in this video. It actually took me a second viewing to really understand what was going on, which is pretty rare for music videos.

Shanandoah Davis - We; Camera
I tried to be friends with a bird once. Long story short, I needed about sixteen stitches.

Bright Eyes - Bowl Of Oranges
Who wouldn't want to grow their own boyfriend? Sure as hell beats meeting people online.

Smoosh - La Pump
As almost-creepy as it sounds, I'm a huge fan of these two teen girls. Especially when they incite revolutions!

Green Jelly - Three Little Pigs
The pigs in this video are just too cute, I want to gobble them up!

9 Videos That Killed Amanda Palmer

What do you get when you combine Tori Amos, Regina Spektor, and a handful of gingersnaps? Amanda (fucking) Palmer. Formerlly of the band The Dresden Dolls, she joined forces with Ben Folds (of all people) to go into a studio and flesh out her solo-project into a full fledged album. Not the sort to stop there, they promptly went about and filmed several videos for the first group of songs meant to be watched in a particular order-- already linked in spirit-- and released them for her fans to view.

Without further interuption, Who Killed Amanda Palmer?

Pt. 1, Intro

Pt. 2, Astronaut

Pt. 3, Ampersand

Pt. 4, Runs In The Family

Pt. 5, The Point Of It All

Pt. 6, Strength Through Music

Pt. 7, Guitar Hero

Pt. 8, Another Year (Credits)

Pt. 9, Everybody's Gotta Live (Epilogue)

BrÃ¼no Is Over The Top And Extreme And I Will Tell You How

What you're probably expecting to see, if you haven't seen it already: A movie about a flamboyant Austrian fashionista trying to strike it in the fashion industry, making fun of celebritards, and making people generally uncomfortable about gay folk. [cut=Bruno not what you expect ...]

What you're going to see:
A movie that's constantly derailed from it's original intentions so much so to the point where you forget how you even got to where you are, and why it really even matters.

Is it a funny movie? Hell yes, it's a funny movie! There are some scenes-- heretoforth known as 'sketches,' since honestly they mostly played out like cracked-out SNL skits loosely connected by a meandering storyline-- that are so painfully awkward, so insanely over the top in their straight-forward'ness, that you can't help but laugh. But for that same awkwardness, this is almost like a horror movie where, even if you hate the people on screen, you want to shout out and warn them about what's going to happen next; because sometimes it's so painfully obvious, you wonder how the person Brüno (Sacha Baron Cohen) is pranking doesn't catch on sooner.

Though the movie does lack in coherence, I have to give it credit. You can see the point where their original plans of making fun of fashion, or celebrities later on, were so bluntly brought to a screetching hault-- they even make fun of themselves at one point over being 'blacklisted' after the Paula Abdul incident-- they just keep pushing on, finding new, more unsuspecting people to torment. Like Middle Eastern terrorists.

There's a lot of controversy over this movie for a plethora of reasons: shining light on peoples ignorances, showcasing what some parents will go through to get their kids in front of the camera, going too far for a joke, et cetera and whatever. But the thing everyone is talking about is "It's gonna piss off the gays!" and "It's homophobic!"

Take it from a gay guy, this isn't really a homophobic movie. It's about a gay character, yes, and plays up peoples ignorance and plain arrogence of gay people-- but it's from a completely extreme point of view. Same thing with Borat on race, and Ali G on class issues. It's social commentary, without being obvious. If Sacha and crew had managed to stick with the fashion aspect of everything, yet kept up the same amount of assinine behaviour, would anyone be saying anything? I doubt it. But he purposely went into middle America, and to other locations that are less than queer-friendly, and purposely pushed buttons to get a rise out of them. Subject matter be damned, he wanted reactions.

In a weird way, this movie (like Borat) shows both the worst and best in people, surprisingly in the same moment. You have people who when you see their reactions to Brüno's behaviour you want to beat them with a brick, but then you have to realize that these people willingly let him hang out with them only to have him act like a buttface. When you think about it like that, the way they react to his antics almost makes sense.

Almost.

Sacha Baron Cohen may very well be the best character actor of our time. No, wait, hear me out! There are a lot of amazing actors, people who can play characters well, and even some who can play a wide bill of characters well. But how many are willing to stay in character even when they're around people with guns that don't like them, are throwing chairs at them, or just generally want to murder them? I honestly can't think of any. He may be an idiot and an ass for the things that he does, but you've got to commend him for sticking to it.

But I digress, is this movie funny? Absolutely. Is it quote-worthy? Not as much as Borat was, but it has it's moments. Will you see it again? I totally doubt it-- at least until the directors cut of the movie comes out, which will probably have a hundred hours of deleted footage. That'll make it worth while. [/cut]

5 Videos Too Cool For School

People will look at the ashes of Westerburg and say, "Now there's a school that self-destructed, not because society didn't care, but because the school was society."
- J.D., Heathers

School sucks. Hard. Everyone, from public schoolers to home schoolers can testify to this. You've got structured learning, crazy teachers, and general freefloating anxiety that infiltrates every aspect of your harmonal life-- let's relive that together!

And, by all means, feel free to buzz these journals, or suggest to be featured.

Missy Elliot, ft. Ludacris - Gossip Folks
I don't know about the rest of y'all, but those dance battles were the only thing that broke up the monotony of every day high school for me.

KillRadio - Do You Know (Knife In Your Back)
In an ironic twist of fate, this is the bands only single off their only label-released album, and it just so happens to perfectly fit what happened to them-- did you know they were on Colombia? No, because they got stabbed in the back and dropped.

Die Ärzte - Unrockbar
It can't be helped that some people really just need some old school schooling on how to be a rocker. No matter the cost. And don't worry if you can't understand them; it's not gibberish, they're German.

Amanda Palmer - Strength Through Music
First of two from Amanda Palmer, off her Who Killed Amanda Palmer video series. Fun fact: the opening narrator is from the flash series Strindberg + Helium.

Amanda Palmer - Guitar Hero
Second of two from the video series. If you haven't seen the rest of them, I totally insist you do. In fact, I may post the whole thing et al next week-- stay posted!

Did I miss any other great videos? Have a favorite video with a great theme? Comment or message me, and they just might show up on a list down the line! I swear, I watch every video you suggest.

Bruno contest winner is ME!

I'm one of the winners of the Bruno Ticket Giveaway!! WOOO! I'm going with my older sister, and like whoever else won the contest. I'M SO EXCITED!

Not about the movie, but about making out with Panasonicyouth. Totally awesome.