The National Obsession as Observed by Outsiders

From John Maus - Touchdown - Directed by Jennifer Juniper Stratford

Is it good or bad that what I want to write about just now has nothing to do with RPGs, except maybe Blood Bowl?  Thus decays thematic unity.  Blog entropy ensues.

Making excuses for not posting in a long time is a venerable cliche.  The second most common excuses (behind "I've been swamped at work") are health-related.  Sometimes they are written up in a humorous way, but more often they are serious and the reader who comes to the blog for entertainment comes away that day with a sincere (and not-entertaining) pang of sympathy.

There is a lot of potential humor in the cruddy condition I have not borne with very good humor since Christmas, but instead I'll just go into what I would have written about earlier if I hadn't been afflicted with this dumb thing.

My hometown has been hosting the Superbowl.  We're mopping up from it now.

Later today I'll call my friend to see how her significant other's idea to rent out his downtown condo to out-of-town strangers and football fans worked out.  They shacked up and hid out together in a distant neighborhood far away from the action for a week.  Worst case scenario: he has to replace all the broken or missing stuff and scrape up dried vomit from the remains of their partying. Best case scenario: they were genteel middle-aged Patriots fans and not prone to self-medicating.  In any case, this was a clever way to make money.

So, below is a take on America's national obsession from John Maus a college philosophy professor, composer, lo-fi musician, singer, and friend of Ariel Pink.  Even though he is from Austin, MN, he channels a really alien, outsider point of view. Director Jennifer Juniper Stratford adds her own icy weird elements to the Gesamtkunstwerk of the video. 

As astute commenter ThrashingMadPL on Youtube put it:
"It's like in circa 1981 some West German experimental artist came to the US, and got inspired by the culture of the natives." 

KLICKEN SIE bitte hier unten!

John Maus - Touchdown

This is just some of his latest work.  I really like his 2011 album We Must Become Pitiless Censors of Ourselves.  Here are some of the rest of my favorites, which completely garden-path-divert away from any tenuous unifying Superbowl theme I was trying to set up with this post.

John Maus - Navy Seals

Like a lost Joy Division song, but with newer synthesizers- Dig that bass and the reverb-ed low singing!

John Maus - Quantum Leap

Would pair well with a chilled white wine and a chaser of the Flamin' Groovies' "Shake Some Action":

John Maus - No Title (Molly)

Just a pretty, echo-ey, hypnagogic tune:

John Maus - Do Your Best