Writing Project #3- Soundtrack of my Life

Kanye West, "Champion": has an interesting concept for a music video as the star of the video is not Kanye West but a puppet fashioned in Mr. West's likeness.  The puppet is used and interacts with real people throughout the entire video.  This particular style of puppetry is very similar to the style of puppetry used in the children's show, "The Muppets."  This show was a childhood favorite of mine and as a result, had a variety of Muppet apparel and toys.  My favorite was a stuffed puppet doll named, Kermit the Frog.  The Kermit the Frog doll was a very authentic recreation and was identical to the real one.  It featured a green velvety covering over its body and its arms where thin and light so that they could easily be controlled with wiring much like the Kanye West puppet.  The doll's eyes where large and plastic and rattled the tabletops and floor of my house.  Despite his simple design, Kermit was a great toy and an even better companion when watching his show. He was always having love problems with Ms. Piggy or realizing that it is not easy being green.  In his show, Kermit always was teaching some valuable life lesson to children like acceptance or self-respect and in "Champion" there is also some kind of self-empowerment being employed through the use of puppetry.

Serj Tankian, "Empty Walls": undoubtedly has a political message about America's involvement in recent wars and to empower this message the video features children playing war in a Chuckie Cheese style indoor playground.  The children battle with plastic balls, steamers, and toy guns.  It seems that all men growing up play this game of "war" as boys.  During my childhood the game of war was played out in epic scales using Nerf guns.  A Nerf gun was a boy's greatest tool against the onslaught of enemy troops that would storm his bedroom or backyard.  The Nerf Eagle Eye was my weapon of choice.  The Eagle Eye featured a pull-back spring loader for quick and powerful fire power.  It was equipped with a red laser scope for pinpointing enemy targets and had two side-by-side dart holders.  The darts themselves where equipped with rubber suction cups on the tips.  The dart could be shot and stuck to widows, walls, and TVs.  A simple lick to the suction cup would increase the suction power and "gross" factor. These darts were childhood bullets and to be shot with one meant imminent imagination death.  The Nerf guns where a huge part of my childhood play and they allowed a certain connection to war but also keep it separate enough so it wasn't too real.  The Eagle Eye and many Nerf guns just like it were given crazy names and designs to create that separation from real guns. "Empty Walls has obviously utilized this common childhood game to bring to light a disturbing nuance about American culture.

Blink-182, "Always":  Right at the beginning of the Blink-182 video the frame breaks into three separate frames.  The frames virtually display the same music video but with a different band member in playing the lead role.  Throughout the video the frames are often manipulated so that the three band member are mix matched so that one frame contains elements from all of the band.  This manipulation of the images and separate compartmentalization brings rise to a childhood classic of mine, the Rubik's Cube.  The Rubik's Cube is more of a puzzle than a toy but it still captivated my mind as a child and still does to this day. The Rubik's Cube is a puzzle that requires the technique of logical manipulation to complete it.  It is such an intriguing little contraption with it's simple six-sided cube design and color scheme.  The colors fascinated me as a boy, often distracting me from the goal of finishing the puzzle.  Red, White, Green, Blue, Orange, and Yellow squares had to be whizzed around the cube in perfect straight lines to match them up with other corresponding squares.  Half of the fun with a Rubik's cube was just creating different patterns and style through turing the cubes and sides.  Blink-182 must have realized the enjoyment and fascination that can be brought about through the manipulation of simple images.  They then took it to a whole new level that Rubik himself couldn't realize.  

Lil Bow Wow, "Basketball" is about Lil Bow Wow's love for the game.  The video consists of a variety of scenes that depict Lil Bow Wow playing basketball, whether that is street ball or in the NBA against some of the greatest. The video obviously has the theme of basketball so it is not surprising that there is a basketball in almost ever scene of the video.  As a child, many of my summer days were spent hitting ball to pavement as I played basketball with friends at the local court but then when I received my own basketball hoop the games were always played out in the driveway.  The basketball hoop was a simple design.  It had a large plastic bas that resembled a gas can.  The base was filled with water and plugged; the weight of the water created balance for the hoop and prevented it, most of the time, from tipping over.  The pole was thick and black and attached to the base and the backboard.  The backboard itself was clear plastic and had a regulation metal rim attached to it.  The basketball hoop was great and there was even a mechanism that allowed the height of the rim to be adjusted.  This allowed for a slam dunks and allie-oops at a very young age.  Lil Bow Wow probably had a home basketball hoop as a child too.  

Rammstein, "Amerika":  is a very political video that depicts scenes of American influences all over the world.  Throughout the video there are also scenes that reference to the conspiracy theory that the moon landing was fake and the band members are depicted as the fake astronauts/actors.  When I was younger, there was no doubt in my mind that astronauts were real.  I even wanted to become an astronaut.  My parents bought me many toys but one of my favorites were Legos, in particular my Lego spaceship set.  Legos have to be one of the best outlets for childhood creativity and imagination ever.  The Lego spaceship set consumed hours upon hours of my time.  The pieces were small and detailed.  They could be put together to create the original design for the spaceship and then rearranged to create an entirely new space ship.  When built, the Lego set included: the classic white NASA space shuttle, a satellite, and two NASA astronauts.  The space shuttle had twin booster engines and a cockpit.  The satellite could be attached to the space shuttle and then released into orbit.  The little lego men that were the astronauts had white helmets and oxygen tanks.  Rammstein certainly doesn't seem to share the same childhood nostalgia for NASA that I do. 

Dragonforce, "Through the Fire and Flames" is an epic song that features drum solos, extreme guitar picking and is all the while backed by a powerful serenade.  The video itself is a rather basic music video but there is one quite interesting aspect near the end on the video.  There is a mock battle between the two guitarists of Dragonforce that resembles a platform fighter video game.  To this day, my favorite fighter game is Mortal Kombat three or MK3 for the Sega Genesis.  The game was so fast paced and exciting when it first came out.  There were new characters like NightWolf and Stryker and some returning favorites: Sonya Blade, Smoke, and Jax.  The game was great because it allowed player to develop their own style by picking a fighter with attacks that worked well with that player.  Subzero had to be my favorite fighter; with his freeze attack and ninja speed he was unstoppable. The greatest part of the game was the ending of the fight when a voice would call out, "Finish Him."  It's funny how this 2-D platform game captivated me for so many years.  With regards to today's video games, MK3 seems ancient and primitive.  This reference to a fighter platform game in the Dragon force video is very fitting since the song itself is about completing a quest against all odds, which seems to be a common theme in video games.   

Flight of the Conchords, "Frodo, Don't Wear the Ring": is a video that parodies the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.  Throughout the video the members of the band, Bret and Jemaine, are seen in a variety of medieval costumes.  These costumes and the Lord of the Rings theme bring a fantasy theme to the whole video that anybody with the slightest bit of imagination can recognize.  This fantasy world of knights and wizards was played out in my Fisher Price Castle when I was a child.  The castle was the backdrop to many epic battles between knights and invading hordes.  The castle was surrounded by a moat and the only way to get in was by the drawbridge.  There were viewing ports were archers could fire arrows and even a large cannon that could be fired out of the front of the castle.  The castle came with little knights in armor and if their heads were pushed down it would cause their arms to swing in a downward motion.  This is how sword fights could be played out.  The battle that were played out in the castle sometimes grew to immense scales including all the toys in my room as they lay siege against the knights.  Bret and Jemaine probably had a toy castle when they were children.