#93 - The Beastie Boys Video Anthology: Disc 2

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "How in the hell is he watching Disc 2 first? He must be breaking some rule. That can't be allowed! I won't stand for it!! KILL THE MONSTER!!!" Okay, maybe the last part was a bit much, but this is a good example of how dumb Blockbuster.com can be. Sometimes when you put in a multiple disc set, it goes in to your queue in a way that the discs will only be sent in order. For some reason, this was not the case with this set and they sent disc two first. I expected that it might happen here, but I was hoping against it. I had a dilemma on my hands. I have a strict "no sequels first" rule. Along those lines, I have a strict "season 1 goes first" rule for TV DVD's. I was concerned that watching disc 2 first would break some sort of rule. The last thing I need to hear is a bunch of grief about not sticking to the rules that I myself have made up. Well, I consulted with the senior member of my legal representational firm, Fosberg & Chubbs. He told me that I was not breaking any rule since I was not disrupting any kind of chronological production release order. So, if you don't like that I watched disc 2 first, bring it up with him. I have been given explicit instructions that you must fill out all concerns in triplicate, combine it with a self addressed, stamped envelope, and shove them up your candy ass.

Let me start out by saying that I loves me some Beasties. I mean I LOVES me some Beasties. The very first CD I ever bought was Check Your Head and to this day it is my favorite Beasties album. Needless to say, I was pleased that the first video on disc 2 was for Sabotage. Not only is that one of my favorite Beastie Boy songs of all time, it might very well be their best video, EVER. For those of you who don't know, this video is the Spike Jonze directed take off on 70's TV cop drama intro's. Has nothing to do with the song, but what videos really do anymore. Besides, I don't really care because it's top notch entertainment, especially if you like bad wigs and mustaches. And the best part is that the disc has numerous alternate angles that show more video footage than you see in the final product. The video has about three story lines edited in and out. The different angles show the different stories. It's fun to watch. I can't stand it. I know you planned it.

Here's another great use for the alternate angles. The Beasties constantly employ a couple of techniques in their videos. One is that they take one long shot for the whole song and seem to ad lib everything while playing to the camera. They do this in a number of different ways, and then edit them all together. With the angles, you get to see the whole shot, which is very interesting to watch, especially the ones where they are walking along following the camera. The other technique they use is to do one take for the whole video, but they use multiple cameras for that take, and then edit them together. Well, you guessed it, you get to see the whole shot from each angle. Good stuff there.

The DVD also has a number of remixes for the songs. I am not a fan of remixes for anything, but some of the remixes were actually pretty good songs by themselves. The weren't that great and kind of hard to sit through. I watched each angle and listened to every remix individually, which took a long ass time to do. I broke it up into two viewings that were about two and a half hours each. If this was some music act that I didn't like, I don't know that I would be able to do that. In fact, I may have to veto some stuff in the future if it comes up. I vetoed the Al Green gospel music DVD, and I like Al Green. I just don't need to watch a gospel music DVD. Okay, a little off track there. It's a good DVD, lots of songs from lots of albums, mostly Pauls Boutique, Check Your Head, and Ill Communication, but there's even a song from Pollywog Stew. Talk about OLD SKOOL. It's quite enjoyable, and guess what...there's another disc coming.