What a lovely way to burn

Fever is a smoldering bluesy song written by Otis Blackwell and Eddie Cooley and first performed in 1956 by William Edgar John (Little Willie John). In 1958, Peggy Lee turned Fever into a velvety and sleek pop song, to wide acclaim of white Americans. Follow-up covers of the song have been based on Peggy Lee's arrangement (even by the likes of Elvis Presley and Ray Charles).
The cover by James Brown, however, went back to black. Brown included it in his Little Willie John tribute album in 1968, for it was then that Little Willie John, merely 30 years old, died in a state penitentiary. Little Willie John's other songs are also well worth a longer attention span than they received so far.

Tales behind songs

Fever, feverishly performed by Elvis Presley (1973)

Movie of tomorrow: Brando and Clift

Switch off the sound and watch this little gem as a silent movie.
The movie of tomorrow will be more personal than an individual and autobiographical novel; like a confession, or a diary. This is a quote by François Truffaut. I came across it on Video Pancakes, where Mary C. Matthews posts her intimate journal films.
Truffaut actually went on to describe the movie of tomorrow, claiming it would resemble the person who made it, while the number of spectators would be proportional to the number of friends the director has.
I will exit this week on a simple note: it is so beautiful that Brando and Clift, as they were, goofing around and laughing, were caught on film. I bet Brando was returning to this little recording of his life more than to his films. Because… all those… moments will be lost… in time… like tears… in the rain… Remember?

The Ze World

The Show With Ze Frank was an independent online video blog that ran for one year. The program was unique, with Ze’s Marx Brothers-style running commentary and actively contributing viewers (the Sports Racers). Then there were Ze's songs and invented phrases... Especially with the latter, the never blinking Ze created an intimate world, where he shared with Sports Racers a common history, code language, inside jokes... and emotions.
The Show was an honest and spontaneous performance by the inhabitants of the Ze World. The Sports Racers even co-wrote the episodes and took equal risks of embarrassment.
“My most popular pieces were the ones I was afraid of releasing. How To Dance Properly I only released to 17 people. My stomach churned before I released it…” Imagine how Ze felt upon learning five days later that his invitation was read by millions.
This process was strangely mirrored in one of his most successful projects: remixing Ray’s song I’m about to whip somebody’s ass. Ray posted it online anonymously. Ze aired it and challenged the Sports Racers to make remixes. Upon a further challenge from Ze, the Sports Racers tracked Ray down – in a mere two days! Enter a puzzled Reverend Ray, suddenly an internet icon.
Among the most popular episodes by Ze are hindsight, work this and austrian arrows. The photographs posted here are from Ze’s recent project Color Wars.

The last Show aired on 17 March 2007. Exit Ze Frank, blinking and very, very sad. Not even realizing yet that the Sports Racers would remain in the auditorium, applauding the empty stage to this day. Encore...

Come to my buduar, jump to my Jaguar

This Russian amateur video is another little gem that only YouTube could bring to us. Pjotr Nalitch (Пётр Налич) has filmed Gitar with his friends on the spur of the moment at his dacha, driving around in his old Soviet car (ВАЗ-2101) with his friends. I have never been clever, because need it never, baby you have a possibility, play it with me... The video with its endearing special effects, broken English, and Russian pathos became an instant success with the internet audience. Users began making their own covers of the song, while Nalitch appeared on YouTube to announce the arrival of YouTube.ru to Russia.
Underneath all the humor Gitar is certainly a good enough song to have made it. Although a fusion of many styles, it strangely works. The recent work of Nalitch is also worth checking up.

Learningtoloveyoumore (LTLYM)

New media tools such as YouTube, Vimeo and Blogger opened the stage to regular joes and sues. This created unparallelled possibilities of interaction between artists and their audiences. As interactive internet art projects emerged, it became increasingly difficult to tell artists and their audience apart. This is evidently the case with the LTLYM project, where artists Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher commissioned the general public to, for example, make and locally post 100 fliers of their typical day (#10), or draw Raymond Carver’s Cathedral (#46). The outcome was then presented en masse back to the audience. How thin the line between the artists and their audience became, is shown best by assignment #44: “make a LTLYM assignment”. It received the highest response and the resulting assignments topped the original ones. Read your parents' favourite book. Take a photo of someone's clothesline. Make a message in fresh snow.
My assignment for the lion-hearted: catch up with a stranger of random gender in the street and reenact Miranda July’s lines and silences, as in the video posted above (from Miranda July's film Me and You and Everyone We Know).

Beginning with a video again

Top Ranking by Blonde Redhead from their album 23 (2007), featuring Miranda July