after this post last week, i saw that the dvd set was on sale in some shops here in helsinki. but it was priced at about 27€ each, way over my budget for some self indulgance. yesterday saw the arrival of some packages from home, inside was some cards from relations with some money. so off i went to get one of the three dvds. when the series first came out i was only interested in the chris cunningham one, but the gondry one seemed better value for money. so i got that. its one of the best things ive bought in ages. the videos are top class (and im only half way through so far), the making of../background documentary is just fantastic, funny and intersting. there was one video on it that i remembered from years ago. the “sugar water” video by a japanese band cibo matto was on an irish music show about 8ish years ago and all i remembered was the concept:

essentially “sugar water” is a one-take video, told on two sides of the screen. seems easy: everyone witnessed chris applebaum’s video for “closing time” by semisonic. but what that later video lacked was a clear and concise link between the song, its lyrics, and the characters between each side of the screen. no offense to applebaum: the video is clearly a great achievement, and was worth every penny spent on it

so it was a complete surprise to find that gondry had directed it (more info here). anyway, get the dvd in your local record/video/online store.. two thumbs up! (amazon.com / amazon.co.uk)

side a, 2003-1996: videos: the hardest button to button (the white stripes), come into my world (kylie minogue), dead leaves & the dirty ground (the white stripes), fell in love with a girl (the white stripes), star guitar (the chemical brothers), let forever be (the chemical brothers), joga (bjork), deadweight (bjork), bachelorette (bjork), everlong (foo fighters), around the world (daft punk), sugar water (cibo matto), hyperballad (bjork) i’ve been 12 forever (part 2 age 12-12): a 75-minute film including interviews with michel and the artists and collaborators stories and things: la lettre, one day, lacuna inc, drugstore (levi’s commercial), smarienberg (schmirnoff commercial), resignation (polaroid commercial) side b, 1995-1987: videos: like a rolling stone (the rolling stones), army of me (bjork), isobel (bjork), protection (massive attack), lucas with the lid off (lucas), human behavior (bjork), le me (i am), la tour de pise (jean francois coen), ma maison (oui oui), bolide (oui oui), junior et sa voix d’or (oui oui), les cailloux (oui oui), un joyeux noel (oui oui), la ville (oui oui) i’ve been 12 forever (part 1 age 12-12) stories and things: drumb and drumber, pecan pie (a short film starring jim carrey), three dead people, my brother’s 24th birthday, tiny, spin art, oui oui live concert footage, and more 52-page book of michel’s stories, drawings, photographs, and interviews full-screen format