Coincidentally on the day I visualised HIDE with the help of some unfortunate kitties, JG Thirlwell uploaded a new video. Here Comes The Rain is an unlikely “single”, neither upbeat like Stood Up, nor poppy like Paper Slippers. It isn’t even a snarling tower of rage like You’re Trying To Break Me. Just slow, mournful, unassuming, even. Making a video for it seems downright perverse.
The video is directed by Daniel Ouellette and produced by Robert Nuell. There’s a Daniel Ouellette credited on IMDB as a production designer on Trust, an indie film I remember liking from 1990. He’d done a few things since I haven’t seen.
There’s someone called Robert Nuell who works for Miramax, who may or may not be the same person. The director of photography is Samuel Chase, it’s edited by Logan Seaman, and then the credits cryptically list Louise Sturcken as “The Girl” and Hershey as “The Goat”.
The goat.
Should I be worried about that?
No, I’m not going to IMDB-search Hershey the Goat (really, I just don’t want to know), and decide to finally watch the video. I like it a lot.
00:00 Moody forest scene with backlight JGT in white suit. It all looks very slick and professional
00:09 People in suits lying on forest floor with their heads bound up in some sort of wrapping. JGT walks among them, showing off his trademark white shoes
00:19 JGT reaches into pockets of dead suit-people where pills are spilling out and pulls out pill-bottle
00:21 I’m fascinated by the rings on his forefingers, which I’ve noticed many times before: it’s such an odd finger on which to wear a ring
00:28 JGT pockets pill-bottle and walks off with some sort of briefcase or medical bag
00:31 JGT pulls another pill-bottle from a dead woman’s fingers and scrapes some more pills off the leafy floor
00:43 I’m hoping at this point that dead people are dummies because it’s hard to see how a living person could breathe through that head-wrapping
01:10 Hershey the Goat makes an appearance, running through the forest and looking fairly unruffled
01:16 JGT approaches goat
01:18 Close-up of goat’s eyes. Goat seems amazingly unconcerned. Really, I would be concerned at this point
01:23 JGT walks past goat and starts whistling. I wish I could whistle. Best I can manage is a weak, practically inaudible “phoo” sound
01:37 Full-length shot shows how flattering white suit is. By “flattering”, I mean in the same way that Bowie’s tights in Labyrinth are flattering
01:42 JGT walks into ruined building
01:48 Opens door into brightly-lit, pristine-looking room. Bedhead-hair reminds me this is indeed the same guy from the Verklemmt video. Brain does not seem to want to accept this. Brain is confused (as well as still vaguely concerned for goat)
02:00 Singing among shelves of pill-bottles. Still confused
02:05 Close up of sombre singing in brightly-lit room
02:10 Wanders into space-age looking room with fast-moving cloud-images on some sort of windows or wall-displays. Someone asleep on bed in background
02:15 JGT opens case on table
02:18 Shower of pill-bottles
02:21 Close-up of singing. It all looks very serious. I wish I knew what the hell was going on
02:34 Close inspection of large tooth, with some false teeth atop a sort of medical case with tiny drawers
02:37 JGT opens tray and inspects rows of teeth in drawer
02:47 I wonder what happened to the goat. I hope it’s OK
02:57 JGT walks into space-age cloud-room and approaches patient. I’m simultaneously thinking of 2001: A Space Oddysey and the Hobbit-hole from LOTR
03:05 Girl on bed reveals she has too many arms
03:10 More whistling. Am still envious
03:11 JGT opens girl’s mouth and holds tooth out on tweezers as if to measure if it will fit. She doesn’t look like she’s missing any teeth
03:16 JGT plays with lots and lots of pill-bottles on table. You could probably do lots of fun craft-y things if you had a ton of pill-bottles. Not sure what, though. Didn’t watch enough Blue Peter as a kid, though I do recall some failed experiments with empty washing up liquid bottles
03:22 JGT administers eye-drops to sleepy many-armed toothy girl
03:23 Microscopic close up of little wriggly microscopic thingies. There’s probably a technical word for them. I’m still wondering about that goat
03:37 After a random sort of psychedelic bit, JGT gives pills to sleepy army toothy girl
03:45 We’re back to dead head-bandaged people in the forest. No idea where the goat is, though
03:51 Trippy kaleidoscopic bit with forest
03:52 JGT continues to sing “Here comes the rain” despite it looking distinctly sunny out there
04:04 More microscopic stuff – little spongey fingery thing that reminds me a bit of the Common Cold plushie from Giant Microbes.com that keeps me company at work
04:05 Spongey fingery things grow all long
04:25 Sleepy girl’s many arms wave about on bed. She’d probably be great fun doing those sit-on-the-floor-and-clap-your-hands dances at 80s discos. On the other hand, fancy dress costumes are pretty much limited to centipedes or the goddess Kali
04:26 Spongey fingery things shrink
04:30 Camera zooms Sam Raimi-style to JGT back in forest with dead head-wrap people
04:32 Oh, there you are! JGT wanders off with Hershey the Goat on a leash. Seriously, now, should I be concerned about this?
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Reinspired 