Seeing as how this is the first post in November (with an hour or so left in the month), it seems appropriate to share something I’ve been meaning to share for a long time. Below, please find a video for “Like an Eagle” by Dennis Parker.
There are so many things I love about this.
The lip-syncing is some of the all-time best, and it’s particularly great whenever he walks off screen while holding a note. The first of these moments arrives at about the 1:30 mark, at which point the camera pans up to a giant billboard for The Deer Hunter. Perhaps the best camera move ever. (Plus, a billboard for The Deer Hunter? Can we get ’70s movies culture back, please? Pretty please?)
The video is ostensibly designed to be an ode to the excitement of the city. But at around 1:45, he walks in front of a bunch of pallid New Yorkers who view him with some combination of boredom and derision under a gray afternoon sky.
Then, he stands alone in a parking lot, quietly chanting “lookin’ at ya” and “gonna get ya” over and over again. Like so many other things here, it feels like it’s meant to be edgy, but is just mind-blowingly hilarious.
One of my goals in life now, and I’m not kidding, is to recreate this shot for shot with me lip-syncing it at the same exact spots in New York, and then run my cover version next to his on a split screen. If this ever happens, you’ll be the first to know, of course.
There are also clips on YouTube of Parker’s time on the soap opera The Edge of Night. Some of those are pretty good, too. According to the reliable Internet, he was also an adult-film star under the name Wade Nichols. His first film had the fantastic title of Boynapped!
Enjoy “Like an Eagle”:
A good title for this video would be Wetnapped!
ReplyDeleteHe manages to make NYC look dull.