Video magic: "Gypsy" by Fleetwood Mac

I saw this for the first time - or the first time I can remember, anyway - last month on a red-eye from L.A. to Boston, really early on Christmas Eve-Eve morning after a night of fitful sleep during which I kept my ear buds in while The Darjeeling Limited played twice in a row on my little JetBlue seatback screen. I kind of have no idea what the hell's supposed to be going on here, but the video makes me like the song about a thousand times more than I did before. I think it's all the happy twirly dancing: It'd be so hard to pull off happy twirly video dancing these days, and almost no one uses sets with make-believe cliffside forests under cotton-candy-pink skies.

Anyway, a few observations:

-I'd maybe like my entire apartment to look a lot like Stevie's video bedroom. And then I could spend my afternoons staring wistfully into my big oval mirror while doing the splits.

-Thigh-high socks + flowy dresses = yes please!

-The flashback sequences segued into magical forestland really make me want to watch Annie followed by many episodes of Faerie Tale Theatre, if possible. And maybe The Dark Crystal?

-I deeply covet Depression-era Stevie's hat.

-I think the video's greatest strength is its handling of that "maybe once, maybe twice" coda. Stevie's lip-synching at 3:20 is just exhilarating, for instance. And the leaping lovers! But then they sort of lose me when the vocals end and all the stupid flashback choreography starts up.

-Dudes, I'm officially over Lindsey Buckingham. Give me Mick Fleetwood any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

Sofia Coppola, Video Star

A little while back in the city of San Francisco I found a $4 used copy of Teeth by Hugh Gallagher at some bookstore on Valencia and bought it because (a) I'd read nice things about Hugh Gallagher in Sassy, like, 15 years ago; and (b) Hugh Gallagher is the boy responsible for what I'd consider one of the most outstanding pieces of journalism Rolling Stone has ever published. It was this fun/terrifying first-person story in which the author locked himself in a hotel room and did nothing but watch MTV for an entire week, and I remembered it so fondly that I ended up scoring a copy of that issue (published on April 29, 1993; Eric Clapton on the cover) on eBay the day I got back from SF. Written diary-style, the article's as great as I remember and full of moments both beautiful (Hugh talking about riding around D.C. on the back of his big brother's motorcycle while listening to the Chili Peppers' "Breaking the Girl") and gross (Hugh vomiting up his coffee during an episode of Headbangers Ball).

Anyway, the whole reason I'm bringing it up now is there's this entry on the second day of his experiment (3:32 p.m. on December 30, 1992, just two days after my 15th birthday) in which he writes: "Something about the Black Crowes' anti-heroin song makes me want to try heroin." And then about an hour later, there's a much more lengthy rant about Madonna's video for "Deeper and Deeper" (excerpt: "My God, the woman is completely insane. She's a national security threat - you can see it in her eyes, howling orbs of vacant, heavy rotation. One of these days she's going to whip out a Cobray submachine gun and mow down a roomful of fashion freaks at a Jean-Paul Gaultier runway show"). What he doesn't mention is that both the Black Crowes video ("Sometimes Salvation") and "Deeper and Deeper" star a girl named Sofia Coppola, who would've been about 21 years of age back then. Those weren't her only video appearances; she was also in the one for "Mildred Pierce" by Sonic Youth, which probably came out in 1990, and then, in 1997 or so, the one for "Elektrobank" by The Chemical Brothers (directed by the ex, Spike Jonze).

The point it's taken me a thousand years to get to is that: It's kind of mondo bizarro that Sofia Coppola used to be in music videos, and those videos actually got played on MTV. And while I do recognize that maybe she works much better behind the camera, I do miss that moment in time when she turned up not just in videos but in fashion spreads and on her own short-lived TV show, largely just because her dad made lots of big, big movies. It's that whole famous-for-being-famous thing, but wouldn't it be nice if there were more such ladies out there today who leaned more toward dilettante than celubante? I think so.

Anyway, here's a little trip through Sofia's brief but bright career as a video actress. I can't decide which one is my favorite.

1. Sonic Youth, "Mildred Pierce"

Okay, this one probably never got played on MTV, except maybe during "120 Minutes," but it might even be too weird for that. It's Sofia as Joan Crawford, by far the most animated we've ever seen her. (In fact, I watched this about five times before realizing that was her - it's so surreal to see her making so many different facial expressions. I thought she just had the one, that endearing little almost-sneer.) The air-surfing by the Hollywood sign is lots of dorky fun and makes me wish Sonic Youth's L.A. phase had lasted a little longer. However: Thurston, please put your shirt back on!

2. Black Crowes, "Sometimes Salvation"

This makes me feel sad for my highly impressionable 14-year-old self, already subjected to so much heroin-chic imagery (Kurt, those Calvin Klein ads, etc.). But I do love Sofia's coat. Chris Robinson's too.

3. Madonna, "Deeper and Deeper"

Oh, this one's the most fun (though I don't get the whole "Sprockets" thing going on). Yes to the crimped hair; no to that foofy thing around Madonna's neck (Hugh Gallagher calls it "a Muppet frock"; Hugh Grant (in About a Boy) would call it "some kind of yeti costume"). The banana thing is cute but that long-haired boy in his skivvies: not so much. Sofia looks lovely and Debi Mazar = hot hot hot. The video makes me miss her despite the fact that I see her all the time on Entourage.

4. The Chemical Brothers, "Elektrobank"

Sofia as gymnast, and she's very good at the awkward-teenager thing. It really slugs my heart when she hurts her knee. And the scrunchie is just perfection.

Forgotten Favorites: The Red Aunts, "Rollerderby Queen"

"Rollerderby Queen" was pretty much erased from my memory until late last week, when a dear friend informed me that's he's gearing up to referee for his local rollerderby team. And then I went and YouTubed the video, and it's mostly kind of bad. (Starts off really kick-ass, but then why all the slo-mo skating? LAME.) Nevertheless, the song still makes me go "YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH!" over and over (in my head at least, or maybe sometimes to my cat) like it did when a boy put it on a mixtape for me my freshman year of college.

Released in '95, "Rollerderby Queen" was so much more immediately appealing to me than Bikini Kill, whom I discovered via the very same mixtape. I knew I was supposed to want to bow down to Kathleen Hanna, but I had way more fun with the Red Aunts and L7 and Babes in Toyland and other similarly tuff, occasionally ridiculous bands when it came to that mid-90s genre of "girls with snarly guitars who scream a lot." (It's dumb to throw them all in the same category, I know, but my memories of those bands are so inextricably tangled up, probably because I first heard of them all while reading Sassy.) I also wholly appreciated that the Aunts were really into the punk-name thing, each taking on several noms-de-punk throughout the band's lifespan ("Sapphire" and "Taffy Davis" for lead vocalist/guitarist Kerry Davis; "Angel" and "Louise Lee Outlaw" for guitarist Terri Wahl; "E.Z. Wider" and "Connie Champagne" and "Debbi Dip" for bassist Debi Martini; and "Ishino Destroyer" and "Cougar" for drummer Lesley Noelle). I can't really think of any bands that make use of punk names today, except for The Donnas, who win none of my love. (And I just realized that I pretty much bash The Donnas every chance I get, but I can't help it: I think they're so boring and annoying.)

Anyway, watch the video, at least for the first 15 killer seconds. It might make you dream of t-shirts and pleated miniskirts, and high ponytails and red-red lipstick. Which is a hot dream indeed.

La La Love for Courtney

Last time I saw Courtney Love up close, she was wearing devil horns and a blood-red gown while tearing through some really sloppy but goosebump-giving rendition of "House of the Rising Sun" at The Wiltern in L.A. That was Halloween 2004, and ever since then the sporadic bloggy gossip about the Widow Cobain's latest bad news have had me biting my nails to the quick. I love Courtney so much, even when it's hard (and it most often is, because everyone always thinks you're legit bananas). But my favorite thing is how she always comes back to kick ass just when you're sure she's gotta be down for the count - which she seems to have done yet again.

Our most recent glimpse at Miss World, the just-shot YouTube clip below shows her all cleaned up and shiny and very reminiscent of her Golden-Globe-nod-scoring, Edward-Norton-dating, Bazaar-cover-appearing self of 10 years back. It's glammy in this classy, understated way that might seem completely out of place on her if she didn't wear it so well. And the song sounds damn good too.

Apparently Courtney's going to be making an appearance at the Linda Perry show tomorrow night at the House of Blues on Sunset Strip. I'll be on the other side of town, catching the insanely awesome lineup of Matt & Kim, Japanther, No Age, and Mika Miko at The Echo, but a big part of my heart will be with Courtney and what will hopefully mark her next crazy comeback.

Video: Vena Cava, Spring 2006

Excitement! A video of the Vena Cava show, thanks to the hard-working Coutorture crew, where you can see even better how lovely the clothes are.