Music Video #94 (Day 3 of 2010)

Today's video marks the return of Annie Lennox. This video is "Walking on Broken Glass." I've heard the song before but wasn't aware that she was the one who sang it.



"Ow! Ow! OW! OW! Because she's walking on broken glass, get it!?"

The video takes place in the fop era. That means the men wear white wigs and the women fan the hell out of themselves. I'm glad I was born in another time period. I'm going to sit next to the air conditioner as I type this in my tshirt and jeans.

Anyway, Annie is dressed in red with her hair wrapped in a towel or something. Some guy she's sitting next to is annoying her. Then we get a quick succession of other people dressed in 18th century fashion. One of the women shows her leg off a little...no wait, that's a man. Friggen late 18th century! Also, calm down with the fan, Annie. Yeesh.

Someone enters the ballroom. He has facial hair that seems out of place and a woman on his arm. Uh oh, Annie is shooting jealous glances at him. The song starts, and more uh oh, because the first line is "You were the sweetest thing..." and we can now see where this is going. She takes a posture that shows that she's in pain and wants to go over to that guy, but is hesitant. The song title is about how it has felt to her since her ex left her.

The chorus plays and we get various people dancing, fanning, joking, fanning, and more while Annie stands there looking upset. Annie returns to her own guy. He apparently lost her despite the fact she didn't move that far away and was close to making a scene. He tries for some late 18th century necking but she isn't having any of it. Annie starts fanning herself even more aggressively as her ex starts kissing his gal gently. That probably means something. Uh oh, a quick cut shows that the ex used to kiss her like that. Notably when they were alone and she was younger and not dressed the socially acceptable way.

Warning! We have a woman scorned! This is not a drill!

Annie has been singing about how nothing else matters. Also, she has an alcoholic drink to go with her sour expression. Not helping is that her guy is chatting it up with the couple. He's trying to be nice but he knows she's about to explode. She grabs another drink before we see more flashbacks of her younger self. She finally goes up to her ex, pushes the bride away, and takes him outside.



What happens next is probably more realistic than you'd expect. She's halfway hitting him lightly and halfway trying to yell at him without breaking down. I'm sure in her character's mind she was going to read him the riot act and then leave him shamed. The man just finally leaves behind the woman who he wronged (and who has had a little to drink) to think about how bad her confrontation went. Meanwhile in her song she's talking about how much in pain she's in.

She pulls it together in the next scene and tries to walk as cooly down the ballroom as she can. She passes several guests until she gets to the other three and...Hmm. She breaks down and grabs her ex's arm and begs him to take her back. This goes about as well as you'd expect. (In fact, I'm curious to see what would happen if the stalkee did immediately accept the stalker. It would be novel.)

Annie's character finally takes a hint after wrestling around with a few women holding her back. She leaves and goes down a long spiral staircase. The song is already done at this point and just rerunning the chorus until it's over. She finally reaches the bottom and a man is there. She jumps into his arms and...it's not the guy she was with but it's her ex. He swings her around and she looks really happy and... really? You're going with a happy ending here?

The moral is don't let go of old crushes/relationships/flings. Push yourself back into your ex's life until they accept you. Or maybe I shouldn't take this video seriously.



I like this song even though I never had a look at what it's about before. I don't think the song is about stalking but the video seems to say, "Hey, what if we take the song to the wrong conclusion?" Not that I'm saying the video is bad or scary. I don't think anybody is going to get the wrong idea from it.

Annie still looks good.

The awesome part of this video is when Annie hits the two women holding her back with a quick move that almost frees herself. Shows how slapstick can help in non-slapstick moments.

Music Video #93 (Day 2 of 2010)

Today we have the return of The White Stripes. This video is called "We're Going to Be Friends." Allow me to illustrate the concept.



Basically Jack White sits on a couch outside a home singing to some Asian chick. Oh wait, that's Meg, isn't it? She sleeps through the entire song until Jack wakes her at the end, so her only action in the video is opening her eyes.

Jack sings about meeting a girl at school. I assumed it was a romantic song but after listening a second time it's more about going to an elementary school and just having fun learning and playing. Between classes they look at bugs and get dirt on their uniforms. In class they sit together and don't notice the time pass by. It's a cute song about two school mates.

At the end of the song he recounts lying in bed and anticipating more of the same tomorrow. Here is probably why I assumed the song was more romantic since usually get a sense of yearning when people are alone singing about others. Nope, here Jack is just some kid singing about a girl he had fun with the previous day. It's an innocent song about school days.


I wonder if I've heard this song before. It feels familiar but I haven't seen any of the movies or shows listed at the wiki entry for this single. I'll admit that it's not the kind of song that will stay in my mind for a long time since it's slow and reflective, but it is a good song.

The awesome part of the video is how low key the music video is for a low key song. There's nothing fancy. There's no need to show anything. It's just a guy with a guitar letting your imagination do the work.

Music Video #92 (Day 1 of 2010)

Welcome to year four of our little experiment. Maybe this is the year my head will explode from being exposed to new stuff.


Today's music video is Rockin' the Suburbs by Ben Folds.





This video reminds me of Weird Al's White and Nerdy, or Offspring's Pretty Fly, but lets just say it's much closer to White and Nerdy, if you know what I mean. (I mean that it isn't garbage.)

The song is about a guy with a widow's peak who wants to be angry at stuff but can't really because he lives a comfortable life. It's hard to have righteous anger when you're well off. But righteous anger is what all the cool people have, so you'll see people like him make up how they're a victim of something too.

This video doesn't really take itself too seriously, so I'm not going to poke too much fun at it.

The song starts with the guy looking at the camera. Immediately you want to ridicule his aging white guy look, but that's what he's going for so he's way ahead of you. He presses his nose against the glass briefly to the music.

Then we see that he's in what looks to be a nice living room. Even though he's in his later 30s, he and several other hims are rocking as if they were teens in their parents home. The opening lyrics tell us that this is a lament of the suburban white guy. Oh, and buy his CD, folks. He's shows it off quickly.

Next he's outside on a skateboard riding around in the neighborhood. (A very nice neighborhood.) This guy has problems just like you! But he's not authentic enough, so you'll ignore him or mock him and that just feeds his pain. We next see him dancing with two clones, and it's as dorky as you'd expect.

We get to the chorus. He's rockin' the suburbs, yo! Just like Michael Jackson. Except the talent...oh, he said that before me. See, he's way ahead of you. Suddenly he's squatting down while the camera is looking up at him. I don't want to be down here. He sings that he takes his checks and knows that his music is fixed in post-production. He's the kind of guy who's given up and is depressed and knows what's wrong with his life yet doesn't bother to do anything.

He's also passive-aggressive. His next verse tells us about he's a wimp who gets pushed around and he blames his parents so...he's gonna say a swear! Take that, somebody! The only person this clown could ever push around is himself, though, so he asks random people for something to break. God, what's next? Maybe he won't use his turn signals! Maybe he won't leave a tip! Civilization is crumbling from his rebellious ways.

We get to the chorus again. Quiet Riot replaces Michael Jackson, but in this case we learn that they're not as talented as this guy. ZING! I'd bet I would agree so much if I knew who they were! But I'm just a ... never mind. We get a neat cameo by Weird Al when we find out that he's the producer who fixes this guy's songs.

Al slides the switches from "sucks" to "rocks". Our protagonist tells us that while driving he had this feeling. He can't really describe it but something doesn't feel right. He hears music that probably has a "screw whitey!" tone to it and it gives him terrible white guilt. Poor guy didn't need this. He was just going to the store for some hemorrhoid medicine.



Next we see him walking down a hallway trying to look like Eminem. I guess he was already popular by the time this video was released in 2001. He tries and fails to be angsty due to the previous established things that work against him.

Next up in the chorus Von Jobi* is mentioned, and is declared more talented than this guy. Then he starts jumping into a pool and grilling burgers in his big back yard. Hey, if you want a crappier life so you can feel better about yourself, I'm perfectly willing to trade for a pool and huge property. Just saying. I'll give you my email if you want.

Oh wait, this is just a character. Anyway, he finally gets to say some of those swears he threatened to do earlier. The song ends with him rocking out in a room with light coming out of several holes in the wall.


This song never takes itself seriously, and my attempts to mock it probably work against me. It's a fun, light song and I can see why Lita chose it for the first day of this year.

I'd say that the awesome part is the pool, but that's just my bias speaking. So I'll say that the white boy dancing is the awesome part of the video.




* - Or Bon Jobi if you prefer the correct way of spelling it.

It's that time of year again!

Tomorrow is July 1st, and while this blog has been dying, we still have our one remaining tradition here. Lita will send me links to music videos and I will watch them. Sheltered person that I am, it's very likely that I haven't seen any of the videos she'll pick.

I will post pictures, give my feelings about the video, maybe provide a commentary, and point out what I think the most awesome thing about the video is.

I will try to do one a day meaning we will see 31 videos before it's all done. If real life gets in the way we may either post several videos on one day or finish this is August. We'll see.

I want one.

Just in case you enjoy this blog and wonder if there's anything you could get me in return.


Just saying.

The Bumblefudge Legacy: Generation 3: Chapter 3

Welcome back!

Previously on the Bumblefudge Legacy, Onil moved out of Bumblefudge Manor and into Bumblefudge Cottage where he attempted to pitch some woo at his future bride to be, Joann. It mostly went ok, except she wouldn't stop crying.


Now it's the next day and Joann is back on Onil's doorstep waiting for him to invite her inside again. Hopefully today's wooing will involve fewer tears.


I have no idea what this pose is supposed to be. Maybe Onil thinks it makes him look rugged and dynamic. Joann, for her part, mostly refuses to come any farther inside than the white tile portion of the entryway.


Yesterday Onil's attempts to win Joann's love mostly involved telling stupid jokes. Today we'll let the two of them actually talk to each other and see how it goes.


Well! What a delightful thing to learn! See where talking gets you? And he learned that from a comment about a tombstone, no less.


Onil decides the talking is a bust and goes in for a hug. Joan gamely allows her face to be enveloped by his pillowy hair.


Whatever you're doing, stop it.


Onil is a grumpy Sim and grumpy Sims don't like to compliment people, but I make him tell Joann she's pretty, anyway.


First kiss achieved!


And now they are going steady!


The message center interrupts this seduction to bring us this important message. BOG and Andrea are out of debt! I knew they could do it!


This, however, is bad news. Onil's little brother Alastair is falling in with the wrong crowd!

And now back to the smoochyfaces, still in progress.


Whenever your Sim is interacting with any other Sim, this little info dealy shows up in the upper left hand corner to tell you how the other Sim feels about the whole thing. When you're trying to get some romance going, the two key words you want to show up there are "extremely irresistible." That's when you know the target Sim can be easily convinced to do something dumb, like sleep with or marry your Sim.


See? Look! She's only known Onil for a couple of days, yet she is powerless to resist!


And because laggy parties can bite me, I force the new couple to wed immediately.

Now let's find out a little bit more about Joann, shall we?


Her lifetime want, as shown by the gold star under her portrait, is to be the CEO of some big company. Her traits are couch potato (like Onil!), excitable, frugal, loves the outdoors, and snob. Not bad at all.

She has no skills at all, but she does have a job in business, which is nice since that's where her lifetime want lies. Of course, she's only in an entry level position, and I could have done that, but still. It's nice.



The next day, I send the newlyweds out to a nearby park. I want Joann to meet people and work on her charisma (a key skill to master on the business career track). Onil is a huge chess nerd, so I want him to play some chess matches and maybe get some logic while he's at it.


The first new Sim to show up is a little kid, but that's ok. Still helps the skill.


Onil did not tell me he needed to pee before he left the house. This might work in his favor, though. That's his chess opponent right behind him. Maybe she will find it intimidating and unnerving if he pees all over her during the match.


Onil! I said during the match! DURING!

You can see his opponent walking away in the distance, flipping Onil the bird as she goes. Not a great way to strike fear in the hearts of the Chess Tournament crowd.

I send Onil home to clean up.

What's that, Message Center? Did something happen?

Oh no! Dedric "Mountain" Broke-Beck tried to mug Onil's Uncle Hero! Luckily, Hero is so awesome that he totally beat the shit out of Mountain in a defeat so humiliating that Alastair saw the light and renounced petty thuggery forever.

I love this Story driver, I really do.



While this was going on, Joann chatted with this guy. I don't know his name. I thought he might be town Cassanova and that Onil's new marriage might be in trouble already, but it turns out this guy is not the Cassanova at all, just some guy with similarly dumb hair.

So... yeah.

A new feature with the Ambitions expansion is the ability to do laundry. Considering Onil's weak bladder, I figure getting a washer and dryer might not be a bad idea. This house is small, however, and there's not much room for extra heavy appliances.

Basements are crazy inexpensive to build now that there's a special tool for them, however, so here's the new basement laundry room, floating in a scary black void. I can't actually afford a washer or dryer yet, but it'll come soon.


And here's how it looks from ground level! I'll put some kind of enclosure or something around the stairs sometime, but in the meantime it'll just have to look dumb like this. That's how it goes.

And on that exciting note, I leave you.

Until next time, take care!

The Bumblefudge Legacy: Generation 3: Chapter 2

Welcome back,
Your dreams were your ticket out.

Welcome back,
To that same old place that you laughed about.

Well the names have all changed since you hung around,
But those dreams have remained and they're turned around.

Who'd have thought they'd lead ya (Who'd have thought they'd lead ya)
Here where we need ya (Here where we need ya)

Yeah we tease you a lot cause we've got you on the spot, welcome back,
Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back.

Awwww, yeah, I'm back with my Legacy, babies! Did you miss me? Tough.

So where have I been all this time? Eh. I don't know. Hanging around. Game got really slow. Maybe I need to put more memory in the computer or something, I don't know.

So why am I back now?

EA put out a new Sims 3 expansion pack that I couldn't resist! Ambitions! Sims with jobs! Way more interesting than Sims on vacation! I also heard some random person comment that they thought maybe their game loads faster with Ambitions, and that was enough for me. I bought it and here we are.

I've played it a little bit. Not enough to have experienced much of the new stuff, yet. Game is pretty slow.

So let's get started!


Here's our current heir, the lovely and beautiful Onil Bumblefudge, eating some waffles at three in the morning. Why is he up so late/early? No idea. It's been months since I played this thing. It occurs to me that you might not remember anybody either, so I'll wait until morning and give you a cast list.


Onil lives in Bumblefudge Manor with his mother, Andrea.


Also present is former heir and Onil's father, the impossible to photograph BOG Bumblefudge.


Here are Onil's younger brothers, Alastair (front) and Rambo (back, pantsless).


Onil's uncle Hero lives elsewhere with his husband, but still checks in via info bubble from time to time. Looks like my story driver has declared him Town Nerd! Congrats, Hero!


Here he is now, leaving his place of work. Rocky cowers in the background because... well, mainly because he's a coward and that's what cowards do.


Evil Aunt Angie died offscreen, leaving everybody a sizeable inheritance. It's the only helpful thing she ever did.



So! Back to our heir! The childfaced, maidenhaired Onil is chatting online before he has to go to work. That's a portrait of his sainted grandmother and original heir, wurwolf, on the wall behind his head there.


And now Onil is back from work, wondering why I told him to get his phone out. Why, Onil? Because it took me like three real-time hours just to get through your one work day. I can't take this lag anymore. You are moving out. Hopefully a smaller lot with fewer people will make this game go faster.

Maybe one day we can return the legacy to Bumblefudge Manor, but in the meantime, off you go.


I hope you had a chance to say goodbye to all those people I just reintroduced you to. No? Oh well.



I have relinquished control of Bumblefudge Manor for about five seconds before the Story finds elderly devoted housewife Andrea a job. Ugh.

Whatever, Story, do what you want. I'm moving beyond these people.

In other news, Super Nerds get to have peons. Who knew? I bet Tork is reading this wondering when people were planning to tell him about this.


Here we are in the nicest home I could afford with the Bumblefudge family's available assets, Bumblefudge Cottage. It's small, but pretty. Overall, it's not bad.

As you can see from the plumbbob, Onil is tired and cranky from the long drive. And the long standing around on the lawn of Bumblefudge Manor for a few hours waiting for the lag to catch up. Hopefully things move faster now.


First look at the inside. The place is mostly unfurnished, except for the (fridgeless) kitchen and the bathroom. Fortunately, Onil brought some of his own stuff from the Manor and will be able to find a place to sit and to sleep tonight.


No fridge, though, and no cooking skills even if he had one. It's late, so I let Onil order pizza tonight. He does not let the poor pizza girl leave without bitching at her about how sleepy he is.


Plenty of open counter space in the kitchen, not to mention an open desk in the study. Where does Onil dump his pizza? Bathroom. Of course.


He disappoints me by not eating his pizza on the toilet, however.

Onil enjoys his first meal in his new home and then scoots off to bed.


I have no idea what the hell happened in that first info box, but am amused by it, nonetheless.

I'm less amused by the second info box, but I guess this is what happens to you when your eldest son runs off with all your money leaving you without a Simoleon to your name. I'm sure it'll be fine, though. BOG is a rockstar and Andrea has a job, and the game found jobs for Alastair and Rambo as well. They should have a few bucks soon enough.


In the previous chapter, oh so long ago, I introduced Sim Onil to several eligible(ish) neighborhood women and asked his IRL wife wurwolf to pick one out. She did just that, and now it's time to meet Joann "Mystery Date" Watson-Traylor.

Joann is Onil's new fiance, though she doesn't know it yet. She's also a teen, which is more than a little bit creepy. It's a fixable problem, though, just hold tight.


The second she comes into Onil's Pedo Palace, she starts crying about some old lady who died. Probably it's her sainted mother who always told her not to enter the homes of creepy older men with long flaxen locks or something like that, who knows.


Anyway, on with the seduction (barf). Obviously I'm not going to throw any flirts her way yet. Even if I did have the proper hacks enabled to make that possible (I don't), it would be super gross. Instead, I have Onil tell Joann lots of jokes. He's a funny guy with the funny trait, so no attempt he ever makes at humor falls flat. Here he's just done that "There's something on your shirt" nose flick thing... and she's laughing! Nobody laughs at that stupid joke! This humorous trait is magic!


Soon the ick-factor becomes unbearable, so I declare it Joann's birthday and buy her a cake. She is now Onil's age!


And although there is birthday cake on the counter, she makes herself at home and raids his fridge for pizza. (Oh yeah, I bought him a fridge.)


Now that Joann is in Onil's age range, I feel comfortable letting him flirt with her a little bit. She responds positively, but it's still too early to push for anything serious.

We'll leave it here for now. Next time, we'll try to make this friendship a marriage! Everybody's happy! Hooray! Take care!