beccatoria | YouTube Spam!

So, I couldn't get to sleep last night either, but because I didn't have to get up this morning, I actually got a decent amount of sleep over all. So what am I doing to celebrate? SPAMMING YOU ALL WITH YOUTUBE GOODNESS! With associated explanation paragraphs, cos I've never done anything with brevity.

Christopher Lee sings! So, I love Luca Turelli; the dude's like Meatloaf, if Meatloaf sang about epic fantasy instead of devils and motorbikes. And while this video doesn't do justice to Luca Turelli's voice - apparenlty he got Christopher Motherfrakking Lee to sing for him. And dude. His voice is awesome, even though he's like a million years old. Well, at the time, 82.

Yet more proof that Christopher Lee > Peter Cushing. (My boy and I have an ongoing fight about that).

He-Man characters sing Bohemian Rhapsody! Surprisingly hilarious especially the second half. I think the head-banging was my favourite bit:

Star Wars Gansta Rap. Seriously. Dude. Just watch it. But not at work, cos...bad words. And the possibility it will render you speechless for about five minutes. It did my friend, and he's unshockable.

Though I think I like the first bit best.

This man cannot play drums or piano - YET WATCH!

This is a Star Wars vid about Vader. It uses clips from all the films, but I quite definitely say it's about Vader and not about Anakin Skywalker. I don't post about it so often on my journal, but Star Wars is a hugely important to me for many, many reasons. That said, the prequel movies were...disappointing. For my boy, they permanently tarnished the originals; not so much he doesn't love them anymore, but...he doesn't love them as much as he used to. I guess I don't either, but I'm fighting it because I'm so invested in that universe; not just Lucas' stuff but the wealth of extra material that ranges from the attrocious to the breathtaking. I'm slowly figuring out how to integrate the prequel trilogy into my understanding of the Star Wars galaxy, and one of the ways I'm doing that is through music videos. Because I get the visuals in different contexts - textual reappropriation is a wonderful thing. The images without the laboured dialogue or clunky plot twists. I can't remember where, but George Lucas once said that the Star Wars prequels really ought to be silent films. I agree. They should be.

So here's this music video to "Hurt," by the Nine Inch Nails, covered by Johnny Cash. It's not the most technically amazing video I've ever seen, but it really speaks to me on an emotional level and helps turn Darth Vader back into the hollow, angry, nihilistic man of the original trilogy while acknowledging that he was once a whiny little shit. It would be very easy to have made an emo video about Anakin Skywalker; to my eyes at least, that's not what happened here. The cracked simplicity of Cash's voice combined with Vader's perspective bookending the video, makes me think the message is less self-pitying, and more a realisation that nothing he ever did mattered, that he became a monster for nothing, that he feels nothing, and that the last thing he needs or deserves or wants is your sympathy. It just is what it is and what it is is horrifying. But he's long since burned away the ability to care.

This is a Darth Vader I can weep for the tragedy of, and who'd casually choke me for it.

Pulp Star Wars! With unfortunatley terrible sound:

What really happened when Anakin sassed Mace Windu!

This concludes your YouTube Spam Post.