Xiu Xiu - So Beautiful
Click to viewI am a complete vegetable from working so hard. I have exactly one hour to myself tonight. Then I work 12 hours tomorrow and turn around and go back at 7 a.m. the next morning. What am I doing in my one hour? I was going to draw my daily sketch, but I'm too much of a vegetable. So I'm blissfully watching music videos (a.k.a. video art). This Xiu Xiu video for FTW is the most beautiful thing. I watched it three times in a row. The beauty of it literally almost brought me to tears. Sure, I'm exhausted so tears are easy, but this video really is tear brimming gorgeous. The music, the words, the visuals, the meaning, all of it. I love it so much.
EDIT: I have now also fallen in love with the Xiu Xiu video for "The Fox and Rabbit." No surprise that I am most deeply affected by the videos that explore gay male identity with such gorgeous visual poetics. (Note: I am a gay man in a woman's body. That's one of my main problems connecting with the world.)
For the record, I am in the process of watching all the Xiu Xiu videos on their Kill Rock Stars homepage, so I may be adding more favorites to this post.
EDIT SQUARED: One more. The last few I watched were about female identity and equally powerful, so apparently I'm also a female trapped in a woman's body. My first thought after watching the two above was that they reminded me of early Todd Haynes. This video for Pox confirms my sentiments (note echoes of Superstar).
That's all for me tonight. Back into the frying pan in the morning and I'll be sizzling there for quite a while.
(Note to self: When you climb back out of your Work Hole remember to write something more extended on Xiu Xiu. They rock -- musically and artistically but also for so boldly interrogating identity. Oh yeah.)