Now the story:

Earlier this month, my brother Gerritt and his wife Melanie hosted a party at their house. Gerritt made a playlist of party music, and I suggested we play a movie to serve as “visual noise” for people to talk about and smile at. I went on Netflix queued up the 1963 epic Jason and the Argonauts.

As we played this movie at the party, we were all amazed at how every scene seemed to sync perfectly with whatever song was playing. When the Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling” came on, it was truly a Pink-Floyd-meets-The-Wizard-of-Oz moment.

We imagined a video: the greatest scenes from Jason and the Argonauts condensed and synchronized to “I Gotta Feeling.” Making that video felt not only logical, but mandatory.

The following week, I attended a panel discussion about Internet video at the South-by-Southwest conference in Austin, at which I heard two film/video artists (Brett Gaylor and Elisa Kreisinger) talk about the creative energy that goes into remixing other people’s work. I felt inspired. People really enjoy creating and watching these mashups. This helped me justify investing some of my spare time in this editing project.

Back at my computer, I started clipping and ordering the best scenes from Jason and the Argonauts. I soon realized that “I Gotta Feeling” is a stupefyingly long song. To make this project as fast-paced and funny as I envisioned, I would need more monsters. This led to a month-long obsession with the brilliant work of special effects artist Ray Harryhausen. I scanned through The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), Mysterious Island (1961), One Million Years B.C. (1966) and Clash of the Titans (1981). One scene at a time, I built this video synced to the Black Eyed Peas song.

I find digital video editing to be good stress relief. I get lost in the positive feedback loop of every scene coming together, getting better with each hour spent. One reason I appreciate the precision of digital video so much (other than that I’m a control freak) is that I learned video editing in college using VHS decks, which were an exercise in frustration and creative compromise. The most basic editing tools on today’s home computers are a thousand times better than the old way.

I made this video for fun, but I think it improved my editing skills, too. I also found a renewed appreciation for the hand-built, analog creations of Ray Harryhausen. His stop-motion models still hold their magic decades later, viewed frame-by-frame on a digital screen.

This post first appeared on the History Eraser Button blog.

1. John Parr – “St. Elmos Fire (Man in Motion)”
2. Howard Jones – “No One is to Blame”
3. When in Rome – “The Promise”
4. Corey Hart – “Never Surrender”
5. Mike and the Mechanics – “All I Need is a Miracle”
6. Steve Winwood – “Higher Love”

This post first appeared on the History Eraser Button blog.

Listen to this mix on Muxtape (while it lasts!)

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1. Proclaimers – King of the Road

2. Alanis Morisette – My Humps

3. Sean Connory – In My Life

4. Tom Jones f/ Ruby – Kung Fu Fighting

5. Fountains of Wayne – … Baby One More Time

6. The Cardigans – Iron Man

7. Paul Anka – Smells Like Teen Spirit

8. Leonard Nimoy – I Walk The Line

9. Richard Cheese – Fight For Your Right To Party

10. Joah Valley – Can’t Buy Me Love

This post first appeared on the History Eraser Button blog.

Inspired by Sheena Beaston, here are my top 10 most underrated songs of the 90s. For no particular reason, I’ve limited my choices to modern rock songs.

Listen to the whole playlist at Muxtape (this link will not work forever).

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10. The Men – Church Of Logic, Sin, & Love (1992)
Anybody remember The Men? I love the lyric about Kennedy in Life magazine.

9. R.E.M. – Strange Currencies (1994)
Michael Stipe channeling Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone.” This was from R.E.M.’s Monster CD.

8. Drugstore – El Presidente (1998)
That’s Thom Yorke from Radiohead on vocals. I got this song on a CMJ sampler, but it was on Drugstore’s White Magic for Lovers CD, apparently.

7. Son Volt – Windfall (1995)
I didn’t discover this song until I went through an alt-country phase in college. From the Trace CD.

6. Oasis – Don’t Look Back In Anger (1995)
From What’s the Story Morning Glory? I once heard a guy playing this song in the subway and it sounded great.

5. Midnight Oil – Blue Sky Mine (1990)
The better of Midnight Oil’s two radio hits. (The other was “Beds Are Burning.”) From Blue Sky Mining.

4. Local H – All the Kids Are Right (1998)
A band apologizes to its fans for a poor concert. It’s an anti-rock song! From the CD Pack Up the Cats.

3. Superdrag – Sucked Out (1996)
Great hook. “Look at me, I can write a melody, but I can’t expect a soul to care.” From Regretfully Yours.

2. Elastica – Car Song (1995)
Elastica songs were so short, they were often the only thing that fit at the end of a mix tape.

1. Freedy Johnston – Bad Reputation (1994)
Listen to Freedy Johnston’s sublime self-confidence: “Don’t you think I’ve heard the talk? Nobody’s gonna tell me who to love.” From This Perfect World.

This post first appeared on the History Eraser Button blog.