Audio-Visuals
STAN RIDGWAY'S HOLIDAY IN DIRT
Directed by various
(New West)
A few years ago, underground music great Stan Ridgway released the record Holiday in Dirt, a collection of outtakes, film tracks, etc. that transcended any odds 'n' sods status to stand as an album on its own. What we didn't know at the time (or at least I didn't) was that Ridgway commissioned a bevy of filmmakers to create videos to go along with the songs. There were stipulations, of course. One was that each director would be given total creative freedom. The other was that they had to exercise that freedom with a $500 budget. The results fall somewhere between art films and standard music videos, with the former half of the equation definitely taking precedent. That's not to say some of the pieces aren't quite linear; Rick Fuller's "Beloved Movie Star," Simon Blake's "Whatever Happened to You" and Jim Ludtke's "Operator Help Me" (which is as unsettling as the animation Ludtke creates for his usual clients the Residents) are all fairly straight interpretations of the tunes. Steve Hanft's "Bing Can't Walk" may not be a literal channeling of the song, but it certainly captures its noir feel. Most of the others, though, spring directly from the directors' personal interpretations of Ridgway's songs. Rudi Tuzla takes "After the Storm" to boast anti-war sentiments and films appropriately; Phil Harder moves "Beloved Movie Star Redux" into a place probably unimagined by the song's creator. Dan Brown's "Time Inside," David Moe's "Brand New Special and Unique" and Heidi Frier and Charles Bowe's "Amnesia" definitely feature unique visions that seem involved only incidentally with the songs. But if these are the images that come to mind when the directors hear the tunes, so be it.
Carlos Grasse's piece for "End of the Line" splits the difference by using the song's understated threat as a commentary on deadline pressure. A lot of the images push the personal interpretation warning light into the red, but they're probably meant to. Besides, Stan himself makes a couple of funny cameos, playing off both his prior relationship to the director and his probably real annoyance at the alleged delays in shooting. Finally, the collection ends with a song not on the CD. Ridgway covers Charlie Rich's schmaltz classic "Behind Closed Doors" as ventriloquist dummy Jackie "Teak" Lazar (one of three videos featuring dummies, by the way—it's probably better we not know), as directed by Chuck Statler. Like so many things from the Ridgway camp, it's funny and vaguely disturbing. The DVD also contains a few bonus videos, including failed takes on "Brand New Special and Unique" (obviously put off until the last minute) and "After the Storm" (too much like a standard music video) and clips for "Big Dumb Town" and "Knife and Fork," from his great mid-90s album Black Diamond. A must for Ridgway fanatics, this DVD is probably a treat for experimental film fans as well. Michael Toland [buy it]
