Music Video #70 (Day 10 of 2009)

Today's music video is by R.E.M. It's called Imitation of Life.





This video takes place at a party in front of a pool. It's one of those ridiculous backyards that Hollywood celebrities seem to have. The entire video is filmed like a security cam that randomly wonders around and zooms in on people.

We start the video as people dance. They dance, dance dance dance, dance dance dance, until we see one of the singers in a mirror. Awww, don't be shy, R.E.M.! You can appear in your own video. We see various characters like a woman who looks like Venetian Princess if she had a long nose and a redhead who's very uncomfortable with the man putting his arm on her. The camera moves around and shows us one of the gimmicks of the video, which is that it's on a loop which goes forward and backwards. A guy pours a drink into a stack of cups after the cups jump onto the table, and so forth.

The song gives us a list of things that imitate life. Charades, water hyacinths, pop skill... What the heck is pop skill? Is that a skill at making pop songs? Is it something to do with populations? Bing or Google isn't helping me. Neither is urban dictionary. Whatever. Anyway, the singer of this video is addressing a friend or girlfriend who is having problems. He make allusions to fish being stuck or frozen and says he doesn't want his friend to cry.

We start the chorus as a guy's arm is on fire. He puts it out by going backwards in time and panicking towards the grill that started the flame. Innovative thinking, I'll give him. The singer talks about various flavors that he says are a part of Hollywood. So I guess the object of his song is breaking into Hollywood. Hence the reason why we're at a Hollywood party. Or maybe I'm being too literal. Singer doesn't want the person to cry because then they won't be able to make it big.




We next see a cute brunette. I give bonus points because she's vaguely like Selma Blair. Singer tells his friend that she's either wasting her talent or she's so good that she tries to hide them. Oh geez, the cute brunette adjusts her shirt. Redhead doesn't match my reaction; she's shocked. Redhead wasn't much of a character. I hope the vampire at her table drinks her blood.

We zoom to another part of the party. We see singer (or is it another singer? Sorry, but as you can tell, I'm not really learning the names or faces of the band members.) on a television. As some point we can see the lyrics on a scrolling LED marquee. Doesn't help the blind guy with the monkey in his lap. We see the fire arm guy jump into the pool and an unneeded close up of the woman who now looks like ... you know, I'm being too hard on her so I'll stop.

I just noticed that the dork to her right who was dancing is now lip syncing to the song. So it's possible the band has a dork as a member. Singer boasts about things that don't make him cry. Well good for you! How does that help your friend? People dance and mingle and a woman jumps into the arms of a gardener who looks like Torgo. OK, that has to be intentional. Damn, Torgo did alright for himself after he regrew his hand and ditched his cult. Balloons drop and the video ends as...

WHAAAAT?! Suddenly a little Asian girl blows out the candles of a birthday cake with a dead whale on it. Umm.

I guess those people who spam youtube about Japanese whaling are getting craftier.




This is a good song but I feel the same about it as yesterday's song. It's better than Yoshima..., I'll give it that. The video is much better with the backwards/forwards/pan and scan gimmick.

The awesome part of this video is the pool itself. I've always liked pools.