Man in a Red Hat

This song, the start of a new series called Songs of the Mundane, was written and recorded specifically for this video.

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posted by flapjax at midnite (9 comments total)

I saw him!

That was great.
Awesome idea.
posted by chococat at 7:55 AM on October 11, 2011

Great song. I love the concept!
posted by arcticseal at 8:19 AM on October 11, 2011

Thanks, y'all!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:21 PM on October 11, 2011

Well, I'll say this for it, Flapjax, it does exactly what it says on the tin.
posted by unSane at 6:03 PM on October 11, 2011

Does this have anything to do with your teaching? All I could think of while watching and listening was how awesome this would be in my wife's ESL class. Red Hat! Es-ca-la-tor!
posted by snsranch at 6:06 PM on October 11, 2011

I didn't mean to be quite so disparaging with my comment! I like the concept but I thought this one was a bit on the nose. I think you need *something* to elevate the mundane. In this case I thought you were going to go somewhere with the 'we're never going to see him again' idea, riffing on the way we have momentary connections and then forget them. Otherwise it seems like a bit of an exercise, even if the execution is (as always) excellent.
posted by unSane at 6:16 PM on October 11, 2011

Interesting critique, unSane. For this one, I think my point was pretty much not taking it anywhere else. Purely existential.

But you might like my next one better, which does actually take something very mundane (can't tell you what it is yet, though!) but moves the discussion into a "deeper" psycho-analytic dimension. i think I'll have that one up in a few days, but it'll involve more intricate video editing, which will take a little bit of time.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:20 PM on October 11, 2011

For my money, it doesn't have to go very far, just give me something to think about. Otherwise I'm having a hard time knowing what I'm supposed to be listening for. Personally I need some emotional or mental payoff from a song.

To put it another way, and this is a line I use all the time when pitching movies -- what's it about when it's not about a man in a red hat?

I need that subtext -- other folk might not.
posted by unSane at 8:28 PM on October 11, 2011

And, no, sns, not related to teaching, but now you've given me the idea, maybe it will!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:33 PM on October 11, 2011