Jun 04 2008
History Reference? You Decide.
Intriguing video from The Last Shadow Puppets (really Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys and some other guy) submitted for our review by Andrew Hunt. The song is called The Age of the Understatement and since most things in history seem to be overstated (Saddam Hussein’s pretending to have all the WMD and misleading UN investigators as well as British and American spies comes to mind) I’m not so sure this video has anything to do with history at all. The Russian scenes are cool—-I think these guys are channeling the alternative British bands that I used to listen to when I was in High School: Depeche Mode, New Order, Jesus Jones, Housemartins, The Clash and The Cure. Some of the more “random” scenes here are soooooo New Order, imho. Perhaps Alex Turner and friend are paying homage to the 80s bands by employing these Russian scenes since Cold War themes were a big part of the earlier bands’ music. OR perhaps it’s more basic: the song is about a woman that this guy just cannot figure out. Back in 1939 at the beginning of WWII when people weren’t sure which nations would fight alongside Britain Winston Churchill spoke of Russia’s unpredictability in world affairs. “I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” Just like the girl Turner and friend sing about.
The part I don’t really get is what the ice skating is about. The skater in the video is a dead-ringer for Oksana Baiul, the 1992 Olympic gold medalist from the Ukraine. Ok, so I think it’s supposed to be her in the video—-but the video is from Russia not the Ukraine….and the famous story about Oksana was how they were so poor that they had no Zambonis and all the skaters had to clean off the ice themselves. Russia is still pretty cutting-edge when it comes to athletics. I love to swim, but I hate chlorine—the smell just makes me sick. Wouldn’t be a problem if I swam in a Moscow pool…they have a new kind of chlorine that is odorless! And notice that is a very nice rink she is skating on, so maybe it’s not an Oksana reference, but why choose an actress who looks so much like her?
Enjoy and let me know what you think:
