5 Strange and Wonderful Youtube Videos for the Weekend

Fashion 1984-1985.

Your average high school students interviewed about fashion. I love videos like these, because the eighties styles and editing pulls you in and then when you watch it, the personal life of these teens seeps through the cracks of the answers. "My dad hates it. But I don't live with him, so I don't care anyway." And then the last 7 seconds are just the best 7 seconds you'll spend today.

Lipsynka

"The name Lipsynka tells you what you're going to see. ... But I wanted the name to evoke also an exotic one-name fashion model, i.e. Veroushka, Willemina, Lipsynka." Lipsynka (real name John Epperson) was a drag act in the nineties who famously walked the catwalk for Thierry Mugler. You'll also remember her from the George Michael 'Too Funky' video (You'll find the 'behind the scenes below). I love videos like these because I'm a sucker for people who have one showbizz act that is being honed for decades. You can easily imagine an entire biopic filled with great ambitions, struggles and hopes just by watching the act unfold. The fact that she's doing the whole lipsynching-with-sailors-and-a-dwarf thing (clearly more of a nightclub scene) in a park filled with families on a day out only adds to the emotional layers behind random clips like these.

Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche Advert 1979

I think the reason Alexander McQueen and Yves Saint Laurent are the designers who must intruige me, is that they both have a sense of self-hatred and a disdain for the industry they are in. The duality of that personal struggle and the sleek fashion/commercial work that comes out of it is fascinating. Here's an ad clearly served up by the Madison Avenue ad men of the late seventies. The briefing is: "It's from women who are independent." The (rhyming) copy is: "For the girl who's so contemporary, she doesn't have time to marry." Nailed it!

All I Think About Is You - Harry Nilsson (1977)

I'm new to the Harry Nilsson catalogue. But I love this song and the simple weirdness of the video somehow enhances its beauty. Quote Wikipedia: "When John Lennon and Paul McCartney held a press conference in 1968 to announce the formation of Apple Corps, John was asked to name his favorite American artist. He replied, "Nilsson". Paul was then asked to name his favorite American group. He replied, "Nilsson". Harry later worked with Lennon and Ringo. Keith Moon died in his appartment in London.