ode to joy



director spike jonze began his career by making some incredibly wild and creative music videos. this is one of my favorites, a deliberation of bad art perpetrated on an unsuspecting public. jonze is the lead dancer here, richard, and his awful troupe and choreography is just so joyous to behold. fuck negativity. there's been a lot of that lately. i have no idea if this video was indeed a piece guerrilla street art, or scripted. what it is is something i would call generous in its attitude and spirit. the song by fatboy slim, the direction by jonze and the people who are their latent viewing public -- that includes us too -- take pleasure in the hereness and muchness of the act of song and dance. that's not a pejorative, song and dance, as it is usually ascribed. in this instance, it is a plain of wonder.