Tales from MVT is a regularly-occurring series of blog posts where I choose one of the videos from our Music Video Theatre sessions and write about it. Music Video Theatre has become one of the most fun and enriching experiences of my current life, and for a multitude of reasons, has sparked abundant creativity. It serves as the inspiration for this series of silly little blog posts.
Song: “Cure For Me”
Artist: Aurora
Director: Aurora and Sigurd Fossen
Appeared in: MVT Vol. 3
Chosen by: Kristin
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Sometimes I wonder what it’s like to be Jason or Jeff in our little crew of music video watchers. I do my absolute goddamnedest to treat every single music video equally and on its own merits, and based on the feedback I’ve received, I do a good job at it. That’s incredibly rewarding because I earnestly want these experiences to be as rich and rewarding as possible for all of us.
But.
Two of us are married to each other and live in the same house. I curate the list. Based on sheer access alone, if I were one of them, it would be hard to believe there wasn’t just a tiny little bit of favoritism, tomfoolery, shenanigans or bias from me when it comes to my wife’s choices. I think about this a lot. You could argue I think about many aspects of MVT a lot. Probably too much.
Anyway, the truth is that I literally have no idea what Kristin is going to pick until she sends her list to me. Likewise, I don’t talk about my own choices and when we’re watching videos with our girls, we both tend to steer clear of anything fixing to show up on the next list. We keep our lists secret from each other, and I can say with the highest degree of confidence this is just about the only thing we keep secret from each other.
“Cure For Me” by Aurora is a video I would likely have never found on my own by any criteria, and Aurora is an artist I know nothing about. All I know is this video rules so hard. And it’s even better after some intoxicants. The song has killer groove, the video a lot of visual trickery, incredible choreography, an interesting color palette, and a bunch of people in freaky looking masks (that feel like Kabuki theater by way of The Purge movie universe). Aurora herself is sexy, playful, and self-assured.
Here’s the thing. When it appeared roughly ¾ of the way through Volume 3, immediately preceding it was Luniz’ iconic “I Got 5 On It” video which featured Jeff telling a hilarious story about a weed dealer, and DJ Shadow feat. Run the Jewels’ “Nobody Speak” an absolutely gonzo video featuring old white diplomats at what appears to be a U.N. meeting lip syncing an insane battle rap and going to war against each other’s crews in an orgy of destruction and violence. Both of those videos are terrific.
I had no idea what was coming next, and this remarkable, but notably more low-key offering by Aurora caught me totally by surprise. It was a perfect palate cleanser and allowed us all to reset a bit. It was thoroughly enchanting. I asked Kristin who this was. “She’s called Aurora,” she replied politely.
Some time elapsed. I had totally forgotten I even asked this question, much less what her response was. So, taken with the video, I asked again. “Babe. It’s Aurora. I just told you that.” Oh, right, sorry. I forgot. (Note: I have absolutely no memory of asking her this the second time.)
More time elapsed. All of that shit flew out of my brain again, and once again enamored with the video, I asked her a third time. Exasperated and incredulous that I was earnestly asking this not once, not twice, but thrice, she barked back at me: “Aurora! Jesus Christ! What’s wrong with you?” (At this point I now remembered asking the second time.)
A beat of conversational silence followed. Then I turned toward Jeff and Jason and said, “Sorry. That was a scene from our new sitcom.”
Everyone laughed, the discoverer of weed rested comfortably in his or her grave because this interaction made me look like Kevin James in some fucking King of Queens episode, and I hope Jeff and Jason felt secure in knowing that I really had no familiarity with Kristin’s videos. I had no memory of seeing this before even though I received it, watched it dutifully multiple times, slotted it where I thought it would be optimized, and was STILL surprised when it came on.
Truly, my wife picks shit I could never in a million years find, saves it until the deadline for video submission is due, and I’m surprised no different than anyone else. I’m slavish to the integrity of the system, and the fact that I am is what I hope makes this whole thing as fun as it is.
