husk.org / blog. chaff. occasional witterings.

Those of you who read the 2lmc spool will know I occasionally mention videos on there, which wouldn't surprise you if you knew how much music television we watch. (We have Sky, which is now verging on two dozen video-based channels, so we bounce through them until we find something good.)

Last week, MTV2 started playing the new Blur video, for Out of Time, and while it was interesting the first time round, by the second time the song had latched into my head. It's a simple enough ballad, but it feels particularly poignant in context with the visuals, which are taken from a Correspondent programme from late last year about a US aircraft carrier's preparations for war. The section that the video takes as its spine merely follows a servicewoman as she prepares for duty and watches a sunset from the deck, but the short section of subtitles together with the lyrics of the song work together incredibly well. (Or at least, I think so.) Although a pop music video might seem not to qualify as something worthwhile, the four minutes or so of the piece really seemed to reinforce the fact that it was real people involved in the Gulf, and indeed that seems to have been the idea.

I hadn't seen the video for a couple of days, though, when Daypop 40 turned up an MTV Europe internal memo which would mean that MTV2 wouldn't be able to show the Blur video (amongst others) any more. While this is probably the least important effect of the war, it still feels needlessly stupid. The Out of Time video is still available online, but it's in Windows Media Player's rather useless format and hidden behind a ton of flash at Blur's official site. Even so, it's probably worth wading through to it.

Of course, the Emap (and, presumably, the independent) channels appear not to have any such qualms; 6he (excellent) Fatboy Slim "Weapon of Choice" video was played on Q this afternoon. Mind you, there's an impression that those channels are run by one bored technician keeping an eye on an otherwise automated playout system, and moreover that the system only gets refreshed on Monday morning.