SOUNDTRACK: “WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC-”Foil” (2014).
I wasn’t a huge fan of Lorde’s song “Royals.” I liked it enough but it never really blew me away. Al’s parody “Foil” seems obvious and yet it is such a wonderfully twisted take on the song that I think it’s just fantastic.
The video is set up like an infomercial (with Patton Oswalt as the director). And it begins simply enough with all of the useful things you can do with aluminum foil (foy-ul).
What makes this better than a simple jokey song about using foil for your leftovers is that midway through the song, he tackles the more sinister uses of foil–keeping aliens out of your head. The way the video switches from bright infomercial to sinister Illuminati conspiracy show is great. And, amazingly enough he is able to keep the same bright Lorde-isms all the way through.
[READ: June 30, 2014] This One Summer
This One Summer is the second collaboration between Mariko and Jillian Tamaki. In Skim, Jillian’s drawings reflected a very Japanese style of artistry, while in this book, the drawings are far more American/conventional. This isn’t a bad thing at all, as they complement the story very nicely.
This is a fairly simple story (despite its length) about a family that goes to Awago beach “where beer grows on trees and everyone can sleep until eleven” each summer. The protagonist is a young girl, Rose. She is an only child and she looks forward to seeing her friend Windy there–they only see each other on these summer vacations. Windy is a year younger, although she acts older and braver. The girls are thrilled to swim, to watch horror movies and eat all the junk that they can.
But in this one summer things are not idyllic. What I really liked about this story was that although nothing really happens to Rose or Windy, stuff happens all around them, and of course it impacts them as well.
The first thing is that Rose is finally interested in boys, specifically the boy who works at the convenience store in town, Duncan. But Duncan is older–probably 17 and is dating a girl named Jenny. He teases with Rose and Windy but in a dismissive older brother sort of way–exactly the way that makes a crazy crush develop for Rose. Windy and Rose are young, but are not that young–so they are full of misinformation. And when they hear the older girls–Jenny’s friends–in town talking about things–abortions, oral sex–they learn more without learning everything . (more…)
