22 August 2011

Music Video By The Decemberists Invokes INFINITE JEST's Eschaton




Sorry we need to digest this so we're not doing anything else for the rest of the day.

Video is directed by Michael Schur of "Parks and Recreation" and Mose Schrute fame. Source: NPR's All Songs Considered.

Notes:
1. The beanies. The beanies!!
2. The bandanna'd one I assume is Jenny Conley, who just returned to the Decemberists' tour after taking most of the summer fighting breast cancer. Don't mess with her.
3. Is it just me or were you also imagining the students at ETA as somewhat older and less conventionally attractive? I mean, the age thing is just a chronological error in my mind but something else is off.
4. For more like this, although without the literary tie-ins, check out the Decemberists' "Sixteen Military Wives" -- probably my favorite song by them.
5. If BHD (bookworm hipster douchebag) could be assessed on a score from 1 to 10, this video would probably get a 9. Agree/disagree?
Posted by Ellen at 10:40 AM
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9 comments:

8yearoldsdude said...

see, this is why I don't like the decemberists. The whole thing just screams "look at me, I read that long book." The vanity of recognition can only take something so far.

As for whether the kids should be older, it seems to me that Eschaton is played by younger kids (maybe 8th-9th graders) and Pemelus merely watches. So I guess that isn't terrible, but maybe they should be a bit older. But they should definitely handle tennis rackets more confidently/skillfully.

11:36 AM
Ellen said...

This is totally their schtick, for better or for worse, including Colin Meloy's note that he hopes that David Foster Wallace would be happy with it. I mean, really. But it worked on me because I was just so delighted to see a depicted game of Eschaton, etc.

I don't know why but I didn't realize until watching this video that I had mentally aged all of the ETA characters till they were closer to "actors playing high school students" than "actual high school students" -- probably because I spend almost no time with the latter. In other words I Dawson's Creeked them. I am ashamed.

12:23 PM
Anonymous said...

I generally agree with Britt - even their name is a little pretentious (assuming it is the Russian history reference for whic I take it). But, in this particular video, their sensibility works for them. I like the little details, like the different-colored beanies (how fun were those?!), the lead singer dressed as Pemulis, and Marathe's ill-fitting women's clothes and bad wig. The children were about the right age, though I agree with Britt that they looked uncomfortable with the tennis part of the role. Also, wasn't the girl who got hit supposed to be really butch? Regardless, I thought it was a lot of fun, and settled for me the question of whether the lyric "the year of the chewable Ambien tab" was an Infinite Jest lyric or not.

4:20 PM
Ellen said...

Anon, I didn't think of her so much as butch (which, I mean, what does that even mean to a 14-year-old boy) as physically imposing in a way that she is clearly NOT in this video. It didn't bother me while I was watching, just somewhat later when I was thinking about it, but it kind of takes the whole game down a notch if the provocation isn't directed at someone who looks as if she should not be provoked... if that makes any sense.

But also this WAS SO AWESOME and in spite of myself and everything I got REALLY EXCITED about it.

(And I always assumed it was a Russian history reference even if they haven't outright stated that. What else could it be?)

11:13 PM
Saint Mooney said...

This was a really good use of the Drudge siren.

9:45 AM
Ellen said...

Thank you. I could probably use it frequently but this is only its second appearance on the blog.

9:56 AM
8yearoldsdude said...

For all the hateration (that I may have started) it was a lot of fun and I am glad you posted it.

10:46 AM
Ellen said...

If it makes you feel better, you aren't the only one who feels it's just TOO precious and showy.

Also I would provide more substantive commentary than "Woo, look at this!" if I had time to reread the Eschaton chapter soon after watching it, which unfortunately was not possible.

7:45 AM
Anonymous said...

I'm looking forward to seeing it (weird flash-related difficulties at the moment). That sequence blew me away when I first read it and remains my fave section of the book.

They need to make a video of the whole Gately/Hawaiian shirt-wearing Canadiens (is that right?) confrontation. That's my second fave. It'd have to be a long 8-minute song and shot at 30fps/overcranked/whatever-they-call-slo-mo-these-days to be done correctly though.

10:13 PM

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