A Mind That Suits What doesn't kill me, makes me laugh... usually.



Sunday, February 08, 2004 :::
 
Ah, it is latish on Sunday, when A Mind That Suits promised that all his friends would see the results of “many thoughts, and many things to write.” But it is not to be. A serious weekend of relexation (including Ye Olde Monthly Poker Game, and Ye Olde Usual Round of Ye Olde Neighborhood Pub and Pool Hall to check in with all the other Ye Olde Older Single People) and of work—including one huge and spectacular party put on by an LA firm—finds A Mind That Suits ready to chill out on a Sunday afternoon.

In other words, whatever he ends up doing, it will not be blogging to any great extent.

However, A Mind That Suits is happy to report that one can now check out his favorite small film of the last few years online. That is the video for “Breathing,”, a song by Lifehouse, the favorite young band of A Mind That Suits. He may enjoy other cultures, and spend most of his time immersed in them, but he must admit that if you really want to grab his attention, “Beatles-esque Brit-pop” will do it every time. Lifehouse is the most successful group to carry that flame, although they are California-based. Songwriter and lead singer Jason Wade (now aged 12 or something) is the child of two Protestant ministers who divorced and left him growing up as the child of a single parent in Asia, so he is not really “California,” although he is definitely of his social class, as the videos to his wonderful songs will testify.

The videos for their first hit (“Hanging by A Moment”),now, alas victim to broken technologies, and for “Breathing,” their second hit, seem to be directed by the same man, although credits are hard to come by. What strikes A Mind That Suits—unapologetic in his Catholicism—is the Catholic nature of young Mr. Wade’s view of sexuality. Particularly with “Breathing,” but also with “Hanging by A Moment,” sex and romance are not shown as some trial where you chose right and wrong, but a part of our existence as humans, and our relations to other humans. Mr. Wade is punctilious in observing Christian moral standards (yay!) by providing euphemisms for sexual desire. And let's hear it for euphemisms!!

But they are not really euphemisms: if you really want the other person, you want all of them, not just their reproductive organs. Whether this is from Mr. Wade, or his director, A Mind That Suits cannot tell. But—again, particularly in “Breathing”—the recognition that sex is not about getting it on but about experiencing the otherness of the other person, and the fact that the need for that experience leaves most of us lonely and wrecked, is most Catholic, and most realistic, and most welcome.

He is, perhaps, a little over confident in conveying his understanding of the suffering of others, but it not when you are 20 (12 was an understatement), then when?

For the longest time, one could view the video for “Hanging by a Moment,” and for “Spin,” their latest hit, but the one for “Breathing” was plagued by technical glitches. “Breathing” now functions properly, as does “Spin,” but somehow “Hanging by a Moment” has gone missing. Ah, the joys of the Internet. The video for "Spin" is very well done, but has nothing particularly to do with the song. How very MTV.

Enjoy, and more Monday.


::: posted by A Mind That Suits at 3:28 PM


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