Barffie The Whine Connoisseur

He makes all the pain, anguish and misery go away. He is my special meowmeow although he is not a cat.

I’ve always added this bit to my self description (outside of professional presentations of myself) in most platforms. I love music videos. Maybe even more than movies, but music videos push the boundaries of what is visually possible, more so than films… and maybe even more so than TV Commercials – and that is why I love them. Music videos opened my eyes and my mind to a world of coolness that inspired me in my work to no end.

I have recently discovered the wonders of fashion films and installation art in fashion shows, but that deserves another post altogether.

In our current time, Lady Gaga is one of the most well-known for her stage and celluloid theatrics, and apart from being a really terrific popstar, musician, songwriter, performer… she is a true artist of our era who knows exactly how to exploit her fame to achieve her artistic vision.

But before I go on about Lady Gaga, I would first have to introduce a few of the most groundbreaking music videos of Madonna. She was way ahead of her time, and it was through her work I discovered a world of music videos which hooked me to the point of sheer addiction. This is not the first time I have honoured her music videos in my blog but I guess my writing has progressed to something much more lucid, and back then there wasn’t YouTube, you know.

These few are those that I find truly timeless, reflects a high production value with high regard for impeccable art direction and styling. Of course, they appeal to my sense of aesthetics… so.

I sit around on sleepless nights like this one, looking through YouTube (the amazing resource) for weird, new, fascinating, beautiful, confounding videos as a kind of mental nutrient. I thrive on discovering music videos that I have never seen before, and it pleases me to no end to see new artists constantly challenging our limits and springing surprises on our long-desensitised media consumer minds.

Madonna’s Human Nature
Director: Jean-Baptiste Mondino
Director of Photography: Harris Savides
Editor: Robert Duffy
Choreographer: Jamie King

This one was released back in 1995 (I was… 14?). Still looks as sharp, entertaining and sexually defiant in our day and age. Solid, forward-thinking and the daring choreography, complemented with superb editing… plus the timelessness of latex and leather catsuits never hurt anybody. Forget the social and moral implications of glamourising the deep, dark world of BDSM, this shit is kickass in so many ways, I could go on and on about it.

From the same album, we have Bedtime Story. An artistic, beautiful vision filled with surrealist imagery and art direction in this one is close to being perfect, it gives Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance (disclaimer: it’s a fantastic video) a run for her money. I love Madonna’s subdued sexiness which was a huge contrast to her more overtly raunchy image previously seen in Justify My Love. This track was “coincidentally” written by one of the most cutting-edge artists, Bjork.

Madonna’s Bedtime Story
Director: Mark Romanek
Director of Photography: Harris Savides
Editor: Robert Duffy

Here’s an almost equally fascinating video of a remix of this track for her Re-Invention Tour.

Madonna’s Bedtime Story (Orbital Remix)
Director: Dago Gonzalez
Director of Photography: PJ Lopez
Editor: Dago Gonzalez

Her next album could count as one of my favourites – stylistically and definitely musically. One of my favourite tracks in the album would be “Nothing Really Matters”, especially when accompanied by a really memorable music video. Madonna is such a great performer, she could pull off her oddball dance moves and still look pretty damn cool.

I love her look in this one, especially her red kimono and her stark black hair and harsh red lips. It was designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier and boy, it’s so pretty and luxe. The modern geisha imagery really brought the sexiness back into the traditional kimono.

Madonna’s Nothing Really Matters
Director: Johan Renck
Director of Photography: Gosta Reiland
Editor: Max Vitali

And then I dreamt of wearing what she wore in the “Frozen” music video. Witchcraft never looked prettier than this gothic getup. Love the setting of a putrid desert landscape and strategically created special effects, which wielded the power of both subtlety and style.

Madonna’s Frozen
Director: Chris Cunningham
Director of Photography: Darius Khondji
Editor: Gary Knight

Apart from Michel Gondry (who most recently did The Green Hornet) and Nick Knight (who does mostly fashion stuff, but his work in Bjork’s Pagan Poetry and Lady Gaga’s Born This Way is notable), may I also mention that Chris Cunningham is one of my favourite music video directors?

Ok, so this is my little contribution to revering music videos as the artforms that they are, although they are often under-rated and under-appreciated by many.

Holler in the comments (or write to me if you can be bothered) if you’d like me to introduce more music videos that are truly worth your time.

Had a mad whirlwind of a 2-day shoot last week – which required a mad whirlwind round of casting, planning, storyboarding, copy-writing, decision making and all that mad whirlwind stuff.

After that, it’s a mad whirlwind of editing, approvals, re-editing and planning of VO, booking facilities and begging people, and reworking scripts and I don’t know what else.

Then came school, over the weekend. This weekend. I thought I couldn’t carry on with it, considering how drained my mind was… partly caused by a chronic anxiety about the outcome of the promos that we are about to release.

The house was in a mess… I was always craving for snacks due to the incredible PMS and the stress… I have a huge lump of laundry waiting for me to sort them out in the wardrobe, where they actually belong.

But I am glad I could always count on my trusty husband to ease my worrisome mind… he did the weekly clean up (involving copious amount of washing, cat litter dust, and stuff like that) while I was sitting in class, trying to keep awake…

Yum yummmm…

He even bought me 12 packs of Choco Banana Pocky and 3 assorted flavours of Collon so that I could feed the munchies. I don’t know how I’ll manage all these without him.

And before I did this post, I spent a good 20 minutes packing up the house… by returning stuff to their original positions. Food goes into the kitchen, trash goes to the bin, letters sorted, arranged my shoes back on the racks…

It’s a therapeutic routine that gives me the feeling of… still being in control. It’s important I guess to stay in control of my time, my activities when everything is a mad whirlwind of rushing.

And then it’s Monday again, when the mad whirlwind restarts itself…

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My heart goes out to the victims of the earthquake + tsunami in Japan… no you guys did not deserve the wrath of Mother Nature, but you are a resilient people and you will be back on form in no time at all, I sincerely hope.

P/S Please not let the nuclear reactor meltdown… thank you very much…

A friend of mine recently ended a quite… dramatic relationship. I guess I’ve already told her what I wanted to say… and offered my shoulder and all…

But what I want to say is… I understand how she is feeling right now.
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You are not alone, you know.

The gaping hole in your heart that nothing could ever fill. That uncertainty of the days ahead looms over you… and you feel like you could never open yourself up to accept another man again.

Could you ever trust again?
Could you ever put your heart in happiness if it looked you in the eye?
Could you ever subject yourself to such vulnerable feelings again?

Falling in love makes one vulnerable to all sorts of emotions, but that doesn’t mean we should stop seeking it. It’s what makes us alive.

We are only here for a short while. Live it fully, even if it means going through extreme emotions… however, as time goes by – you may feel yourself getting a little less extreme… slowly.

Many of us have gone through that phase of extreme fear and self-doubt after a relationship fell through. Be strong.

Love yourself so you can love again.
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It’s been 5 months since I’ve last worked out. Oh no. I don’t know if I have put on weight, but I suspect I am back in the 60s zone.

Clothes still fit fine – my collar bones are still sticking out… my face is a little rounder it seems and the tummy is once again protruding in a way that I didn’t like.

OH NO!!!!!!!!!

What should I do? Bored with swimming, bored with yoga. Should I still try out for the dance class?

After all the junk food, good food, sugary fizzy drinks, sugary non-fizzy drinks, popcorn (we caught 2 movies over the weekend – Black Swan and The Greet Hornet), more fizzy drinks and more ngaku chips…

I am glad to report that I didn’t go down in flames.

With work waiting for me come Monday, I am currently trying to finish up my 2 remaining assignments for the semester and hopefully clear my weeks ahead for the big project on my lap.

Meanwhile, I enjoyed watching Latte nap in my cabinet of musky-smelling bags.

Zzz…