A couple of quickie posts, just to get warmed up after the lack of blogactivity the last couple days. I've been finding myself awake lately at the wee hours, watching television and upon occasion checking out MTV and VH1 as I scroll through the channels. This is, of course, the time when they actually show music videos (remember them?), and I've found myself actually liking one or two of them, God help me, especially the new one from No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani's maiden solo effort Love, Angel, Music, Baby, titled "What Are You Waiting For". I've never had much use for beautiful-but-cutesy and petulant-seeming Stefani or No Doubt- their slick ska/punk/funk/rock just never really grabbed me except for two cuts: "Bathwater" and "Hellagood". "Waiting" is catchy and fun electro-pop, dealing lyrically with the pressure she feels upon her to do this solo thing- not the most exciting of subjects but the music gets it through. The video itself is half Lewis Carroll and half studio tomfoolery with a couple of Japanese girlfriends, and does a nice job of enhancing the song. You can see the video here, along with a clutch of other No Doubt clips, unless you have a prehistoric Mac OS9 Mozilla system and internet browser like me. You can also catch the clip on the VH1 Top 20 Countdown right now, it's at #6...saw it there this morning. I think one big reason why I like this cut so much is the presence of Linda Perry- I despised her old band 4 Non Blondes, but as a collaborator with Pink on the excellent M!sundaztood album and fulfilling a similar function here, she is completely aces with me. Nellie Hooper, who did a nice job with Bjork early in her solo career, is listed as principle producer, but I think our old pals Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis are also on board L.A.M.B. for production credit, with maybe even another producer on a couple of other cuts as well...this too-many-chiefs approach often spells disaster, but who the heck knows. I might have to pick this up someday and give it a listen. Update: Which I just did, tonight! I'll perhaps opine more later. Promises, promises.
I also found myself liking a song by a band with what I think is one of the all-time worst band names, Maroon 5, called "Sunday Morning" from their Songs About Jane CD. Words cannot express how irritated I get when I hear of yet another group that combines a random word with a number...Maroon 5. Blink 182. Well, there's the Pizzacato Five, but they're different. I happen to like them OK. I know there are many more, but I'm mercifully blanking on them right now. I know, I know, this is irrational and silly...but still. Eveybody's got things that bug them (some of us more than others), and this is one of mine. Anyway, the song. It's a catchy poppish tune with a slight hint of jazziness, if you can believe that, and while I have less than no use for this kind of band and the majority of its recorded output, I kinda found myself digging this cut. Go figure.
Also, while watching TV this very morning I saw a commercial for Dell Computers that featured an obscure favorite actress of mine, Corinne Bohrer. You know the one- kid tells his Dad he wants a computer for Christmas, Dad says "which one", kid takes all day to describe all the stuff the Dell he wants has. Ha ha, how cute. Anywho, Bohrer plays the Mom, and doesn't get to do much more than roll her eyes and smirk, but hey- it's always great to see her in one of her increasingly infrequent appearances in film or TV. You may or may not remember her as Bobcat Goldthwait's love interest in one of the Police Academy flicks, and is kinda notorious, at least as far as Google image searches go, for her nude scene in the not-bad 1988 Randy Quaid HBO golf movie Dead Solid Perfect, in which she plays a golf groupie. She's had only one starring role on TV that I'm aware of, as Winnie the Witch in the 1989 Nanny and the Professor knockoff Free Spirit, in which she played housekeeper/surrogate Mom to a guy and a gaggle of kids, including a very young Alyson (Willow on Buffy) Hannigan. Not quite must-see TV, true, but she was completely charming as usual with her goofy beauty.
Okay, that's all of this. More to come, as they used to say on the Johnny Carson show.
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