October 2012

Location Specific - The Alexandria Hotel

Doug Stern with a new recurring feature on notable music video locales...

Few locations loom as large in the history of music videos as the decrepit, but perpetually 'soon to be renovated' Alexandria Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. Built at the start of the 1900s, the Alexandria reflected a time when downtown LA was 'the' city, Hollywood was a remote suburb and Santa Monica was a long journey through bean and tomato fields.

WATCH IT: Death Grips "True Vulture" (Galen Pehrson, dir.) - NSFW -

Fair Warning: None of this is safe for anything. Certianly not work, or your sanity.

Artist Galen Pehrson cute, yet creepy animated style — think Jeckle And Heckle meets Fritz The Cat while on a molotov cocktail of drugs — proves to be a nice match for Death Grips in this video supporting LA's contemporary art museum MOCA. --> watch "True Vulture"

WATCH IT: Nicki Minaj f/ Cassie "The Boys" (Colin Tilley, dir.)

This video is billed as explicit and it features Nicki Minaj and Cassie in a pink box, sitting on lips and being involved in blow jobs — which is all true, but only if you're a literalist. Director Colin Tilley clearly has a ball on this one, letting the two girls gallivant through a colorful cityscape while mericilessly teasing the boy viewers. --> watch "The Boys"

Community / Watch It

Lovisa Ståhl "Thousand Miles" (Marie Mattsson, Lovisa Ståhl, dir.)

Cartoonist: Malin Biller (http://www.biller.se) Compositing: Marie Mattsson (http://www.vimeo.com/16877894) Filmed by: Leif Johansson (http://www.xrayfoto.se)  Produced by Lovisa Ståhl (http://www.lovisastahl.com) Cartoonist 2: Annika Börjesson (frog and flying bird) It IS the girl in the movie that's written lyrics and music :)

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