[vid] Hospital Beds - Generation Kill - Vividcon Non-Attending Premiere
title: Hospital Beds
song; artist: hosptial beds; cold war kids
length: 3:56
fandom: generation kill
description: Once more into the great good night. Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war. [Ensemble vid.]
warnings: spoilers for the entire miniseries
download links: ~24.5Mbs, MP4 [Right-click and save-as.]
If this doesn't work for you, please view at vimeo. [ Password: silentcricket ]
Hospital Beds is really more of an ensemble piece that just serves to highlight some of the best parts of this miniseries. But I thought I'd talk a little bit about why I picked this song.
Generation Kill was not all about the horrors of war, although it definitely has its fair share of that. For me, it was more of a story about the connections soldiers marines make in that kind of environment and the way that they have to disarm themselves with good humor and friendship in order to escape from what they're going through -- whether that be a lack of belief in the conflict itself, the realities of what that conflict means on the ground, the mistakes they might make, the physical discomfort they have to endure day in and day out, the boredom that comes from the endless waiting for something (anything) to happen, and often a general distrust of their less-than-competent superiors (the very people they're supposed to be able to trust). It's about the weird, dysfunctional, pseudo-family they create in order to escape, the way they take care of each other even if it's in a hyper-masculine sort of way, and the dichotomy of emotions that they experience in each others stead. For obvious reasons, there are several passages in this song that convey those relationships, and those feelings of, well... joy and misery.
(Wow, that was even cheesier than I thought it was going to be.)
A word on the boring post-vidding technical stuff: So this is the first time I've ever vidded anything that was going to premiere at a vidshow before premiering online. Apart from being super nervous about this fact, I was also completely clueless about the difference between a web-ready vid and a show-ready vid. Any vids of mine that have played in shows have already been web-ready, and I was used to dealing with the show-ready stuff afterward. So that was a bit of an embarrassing learning experience. As for the size/quality of the download? It's not what I hoped it would be. I could not get a blemish-free AVI to render in Sony Vegas. Something to do with codecs, maybe? Eventually I just had to give up on perfection and abandon the whole AVI idea altogether. Which is funny and very unlike me, because I'm usually so stubborn about technical problems. I always find a way. (And if I can't, I find another way.) But as it turns out, even my stubbornness has its limits. I still did my job, vidding-wise, so I'm happy either way. And that's a little bit of a win right there.
Thank you so much to the fabulous milly for beta watching. And to gigglemonster and slybrunette for all of the support.
there's nothing to do here, some just whine and complain
in bed at the hospital
comin' and goin', asleep and awake
in bed at the hospital
tell me the story of how you ended up here
i've heard it all in the hospital
nurses are fussing, doctor's on tour
somewhere in india
i got one friend layin' across from me
i did not choose him, he did not choose me
we got no chance of recovery
sharing hospital joy and misery
the joy and misery
the joy and misery
put out the fire boys, don't stop, don't stop
put out the fire on us
bring your buckets by the dozen, bring your nieces and your cousins
come put out the fire on us
vietnam, fishing trips, italian opera
vietnam, fishing trips, italian opera
i got one friend layin' across from me
i did not choose him, he did not choose me
we got no chance of recovery
sharing hospital joy and misery
the joy and misery
the joy and misery
the joy, the joy, the joy
misery
put out the fire boys, don't stop, don't stop
put out the fire on us
bring your buckets by the dozens, bring your nieces and your cousin
come put out the fire on us
Enjoy!