Note to self: remember that I have a blog. Sorry folks, it's been a whirlwind, and I've just returned from another trade show, this time in Salt Lake City (no, I didn't attend Sundance; that was in Park City). I've said it before, but it bears repeating: as an exhibitor, a person routinely faces sleep deprivation, malnutrition, dehydration, mental and physical stress, and (given the Salt Lake climate) exposure to extreme heat or cold. In short, trade shows violate most of the Geneva convention, yet I sign up for the damn things to the tune of at least 2 appearances per year. I'd also like to point out that my rather dubious streak continues-- I always manage to get sick going to trade shows (it's 21,000 people from over 40 countries in a sealed room for 4 days-- do the math), and this time I got bronchitis for my troubles. A few too many fever dreams and some lovely antibiotics later, I'm on the mend.
So while I'm gearing up for more blogging tales, I'm going to give a quick throwaway. In honor of the Ferris Beuller teaser commercial going apeshit viral right now (spoiler alert: it'll be a Honda Super Bowl commercial), I figured I'd take a trip to my past and post a distantly related song. The song fragment heard in the commercial (and made famous by Ferris Beuller's Day Off) is "Oh Yeah" by Swiss band Yello. Yello are an interesting band-- they are still active, and comprise of musician Boris Blank (cool name) and lead singer Dieter Meier (the third guy in the video, Carlos Perón, left the band after this album, and has enjoyed a very prolific career as a solo artist). Meier has a varied CV-- millionaire industrialist, professional gambler, one-time member of Switzerland's national golf team and artist. Yello have had a few club hits here and there in the States, but are pretty influential in electronic music circles in the rest of the world. Anyways, that's a v-e-r-y long setup for this video, 1981's The Evening's Young. It's skittish, jumpy, never quite settles into its groove, but still makes for some fascinating listening. And the video is, well, a product of its time-- glossy neons, glowsticks(?!), and a budget less than a weekend bus pass. But I recall as a lad being absolutely transfixed by this vid when it aired on the late, great Night Flight TV program which showed all sorts of oddballia like this. Take special note of the vocals-- this cat can give Tuvan throat singers a run for their money. Enjoy the weirdness, Oh Yeah:
Knowing that the YouTubes sometimes do not allow videos to air in all continents, if the screen comes up blank where you are, EU readers can (hopefully) see this either here or here.
