Luke Bryan’s New Video Isn’t Racist or Gay? Is It Even Country?

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It’s kind of nice that a new country music video is out that *shouldn’t* cause any controversy. In the last few weeks there was Jason Aldean’s racist video and then the gay video from Tyler Childers. At worst, Luke Bryan’s song “But I Got A Beer In My Hand” might be called predictable or shallow (it opens with lyrics about how it’s not a stereotypical country song: a breakup, rearview mirrors, feeling blue, but then it goes on to be a stereotypical country song: beer, hollering at ladies, parties). That’s just a bit of irony, I guess. What’s not ironic is that in the video, the beer Luke holds in his hand is is own brand, Two Lane. Integrated marketing at its finest, folks. Here’s the video, the scroll down for more…

Fuss in Boots. My first question after hearing the song was what the heck is a Lucchese? Luke sings a line about deer stands and Lucchese so I looked it up. If you’re a diehard Luke fan or just love country music, don’t put up a fuss about me not knowing that Lucchese is a premium boot brand. I don’t wear boots. I have big feet and the few times I’ve tried them on made my feet look like they need their own zip code!

One Take Wonder. Luke takes advantage of a very skilled film crew to pull off a 3-minute long shot in this video. Very impressive with so much coordination from cast and crew. Other artists have done this before. Check out a few that came to mind in the videos below.

Taylor Swift “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”

Anna Kendrick “Cup Song”

Randy Houser “Note To Self”

Country On. Although there’s a party going on, this is technically still a break-up song. Here are a few more playful break-up country songs along with the accompanying videos.

Brad Paisley “I’m Gonna Miss Her”

Dierks Bentley “Drunk On A Plane”

Eric Church “Cold One”

Miranda Lambert “White Liar”

Idol. Luke performed his song back a few months ago on American Idol…

Do you like the video from Luke? I think it is probably perfect timing for country fans who might want, or need, a break from the heavy subject matter in those other videos that came out recently.

See y’all tomorrow!

-Out of the Wilderness

Is cheering AGAINST the U.S. Women’s soccer team my patriotic duty?

After the U.S. women’s final group stage World Cup game against Portugal, it’s just too easy to point out how Megan Rapinoe adds nothing to the team anymore. Errant passes, baffling miscues, I won’t even get into that because I’m sure plenty of other people will talk about it today. Today, the day the team *almost* lost, just for the sake of a few inches, to Portugal which would’ve knocked the U.S. out of the World Cup altogether. No one played very well, even golden child Sophie Smith (although I love her in this Nike commercial). What I want to confess here today is how I know I should feel guilty for cheering against my home country’s team but that’s exactly what I’ve been doing… and I feel no guilt.

For my entire life, patriotism in sports meant cheering for, standing with, supporting whatever team was representing the U.S. It was us against the world. It’s always been easy whether it was the Olympics, Little League World Series, World Cups, basketball, etc. But this particular women’s World Cup just isn’t the same. It’s almost as if being patriotic is compelling me to root for whoever is opposing this women’s team.

I’ve always loved the underdogs. That might be another aspect to my disdain for this team. The media has built up the women’s team so much, with comments like “Their game against Vietnam was a glorified practice session,” and the constant barrage of Rapinoe this, Rapinoe that, is making me nauseous.

Could it be our patriotic duty to acknowledge that they need, and it seems to be a desperate need, to be humbled? The way they walk on the field pre-game with their expensive Nike suits and colored glasses, cocky as the king of spades. They way the press praises them. The reputation they cling to. It’s all gross.

Alabama football. Kansas City Chiefs. The Lakers. U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team. I want them all to lose.

When Portugal just barely missed scoring in stoppage time of this morning’s game, it was such a let-down. What a shocker it would’ve been to take out the two-time defending World Cup champions with their arrogance and pride. But I guess the silver lining now is that the U.S. moves on and I’ll have another chance to show my patriotism by cheering for whoever the next team to play them is… Sweden? Are you ready?

-Out of the Wilderness

Loathe Nike, but love the World Cup horror commercial starring Sophia Smith

At the time of this post, U.S. soccer player Sophia Smith has scored half of the goals for the team during the 2023 Women’s World Cup. Casting her as the star of this short horror film makes a lot of sense, especially if you’re a team playing against her and the United States.

I love a good pun. Although, let’s be honest… Lindsey Horan is just as big of a threat, scoring the other half of the goals for the team so far. That header in the game against the Netherlands was killer. I’m sure she’d be pleased to beat you, too.

That GIF right there is Scott Sterling. Nothing to do with women’s soccer but he’s always welcome on this blog! So back to the Nike commercial. I can’t stand Nike… for reasons I’ll try hard to resist sharing as this post goes on. But the commercial is pretty great. It’s a 1980s-style horror mashed up with Jordan Peele type tension. The way she smiles throughout the ad…

…then how her smile turns sinister is the stuff nightmares are made of. In fact, her smile in this ad is better than the hour-and-a-half movie named for that very thing, Smile (review here). But there’s only one other unsuspecting commercial that has smiles more scary than Sophia. It’s from Publix and it wasn’t on purpose. Yeah, didn’t see that coming did you? Check out this Thanksgiving commercial that will haunt you from now till you carve your next turkey.

The horror genre is popular in commercials whether it’s tech — this current Samsung flip phone commercial — or insurance, this GEICO ad from a few years ago. Where does Nike’s commercial land on your top 10 favorite scary commercials? I post every day at 1pm central so I’ll see y’all tomorrow!

-Out of the Wilderness

Shaquille O’Neal Does This, Too??

I was just a teenager when the guy who had feet twice the size of mine became famous on the basketball court. You also might remember him for breaking backboards or missing all the foul shots. But did you know Shaquille O’Neal wasn’t just shooting basketballs in the 90s? He was also shooting music videos. From hand checks on the court to mic checks in the studio, here’s Shaq rapping in a song from the early 90s called “What’s Up Doc? (Can We Rock)”…

But wait, there’s more… When I opened up Spotify to find that song, I discovered Shaq is STILL making music! Gosh, is there anything he isn’t involved in these days? We all know he shows up in commercials weekly and besides that success, he’s a successful businessman. But back to the music, oh before we get to the new stuff, here he is alongside the King of Pop in “2 Bad,” circa 1995.

He’s connected to all the famous Michael’s, huh? Maybe he should sign on to endorse Michael’s, the craft store. 🙃 Ok, now for the newer music. It’s kind of like rock/EDM type stuff and I like it. Here’s a track called “Bodies Freestyle”…

Check out more (he has multiple albums) under the name DIESEL. I knew he did music in the 90s but I was so surprised he’s still involved. Impressive and if I had kids I wouldn’t hate if they strived to “Be Like Mike” “Be Like Shaq”… Heck, I want to, too!

-Out of the Wilderness

Tom MacDonald “American Flags” – An Almost Perfect Music Video

Is there a more patriotic rapper than Tom MacDonald? Sure, there’s Kendrick Lamar with “XXX.” or Childish Gambino’s “This Is America,” but the lyrics of those two are not necessarily pro-America or patriotic in the strict sense of the word. In 2023, it’s in-fashion to criticize the flag and what it represents but Tom MacDonald doesn’t seem to mind going against what’s considered socially acceptable these days. Just check out his new video “American Flags.”

There’s a lot to like in this video. I mean, is there anything more awesome than waving a flag on top of a military tank? I can’t think of a single thing. Tom (and Adam Calhoun) found a great location, too, with the mountainous background along with jets and fighter planes zipping by overhead. Except I kept wondering how they were able to get the military to sign off on that? But after analyzing the video, I’m almost totally sure most were added in the post edit. Maybe video creator Nova Rockafeller can confirm this? 🙂

The only slight mistake I found, because I’m a video editor by trade, is in one of the clips where a formation of jets are flying way off in the background. Check out the still frame below and notice how the jets behind the flag magically fly in front of the flag. The perspective doesn’t add up for the jets to fly in front like that.

Whether you like this video or not isn’t really an issue. Some of you love it. Some of you don’t. It could be that it’s rap music and you’re not a fan. Or maybe you don’t like what the lyrics are about. We all have our likes and dislikes. Nothing wrong with that! But it’ll be nice one day in the future when we can all stand behind the flag, unified even with our differences in lifestyle, politics, and theology. To call upon another new video about patriotism, I don’t think Jason Aldean’s “Try That In A Small Town” is helping to bridge divides (and in fact it might fan the flames of division), Tom is here promoting America in a less disruptive way.

I’ll wrap this up with a few of my favorite pictures of the Old Glory from camping around the country in my travel trailer. See y’all tomorrow…

-Out of the Wilderness