…and I’m Kanye West

Kanye West has been an interesting conversation since he’s become a household name. I didn’t know who he was until I heard “Jesus Walks,” his fourth single off his first album way back in 2004. I remember thinking, “Well, here we go! Maybe there’ll be some entertaining mainstream rap about faith.”


Then he pretty much skidded off the rails. And by that I mean, he’s kinda nuts.


I stopped liking him because of his braggadocious personality. He was still entertaining, don’t get me wrong, but much like those rails he skidded off of, we like witnessing metaphorical train wrecks, don’t we? And there might be something loose upstairs, just saying. But back to train wrecks… well, I’ll also admit here that I watch The Bachelor and Bachelor in Paradise for the same reasons.

Anyway, Kanye annoyed me to no end with his “everyone’s out to get me” attitude.

Then he randomly had praise for Donald Trump last year, I believe it was. I thought, “Well, here we go! Maybe there’ll be some redeeming value to this guy after all!”

So at this point, I still don’t understand him. I mean, he willingly married a Kardashian people!!! He said he was running for president in 2020 yet I see no commercials of him saying, “I’m Kanye and I approve this message.” But somewhere deep down maybe he’s got something we can like about him. I don’t know.

-Out of the Wilderness

GEICO and Jerome Bettis fumble on new TV spot

If you haven’t seen it yet, Geico has a TV spot featuring Jerome Bettis, NFL Hall of Fame running back.


I typically love GEICO commercials for their odd and usually hilarious deliveries. However, I can’t get on board with the bus on this one. You’re going to think I’m taking this commercial entirely too seriously, and you’re right. What can I say, I take everything too seriously, like what happened on the softball field a few weeks ago and perhaps this is embarrassing, watching the Bachelor. But upon further review, I counted 5 illegal moves from the ball carrier plus his flag is clearly tied on, which is yet another penalty, that makes 6.

I can’t help but think the folks that created the commercial haven’t ever played flag football, or just didn’t study up on the rules of the game. To be quite honest, I’d absolutely love for Jerome Bettis to be on the team I was playing AGAINST. He’s big, probably not very fast, and if he kept committing these kinds of penalties, he’d be benched or ejected from the game.

GEICO says getting insurance help is “having Jerome Bettis on your flag football team easy” when in reality if he were committing all these penalties, having him on your team wouldn’t be easy at all.

How’s that for overanalyzing a TV commercial? Maybe I’m still bitter my college flag football team never beat P-Funk. Still waiting on that rematch!

-Out of the Wilderness

 

The dude in Taylor Swift’s “Lover” music video

Everyone in the world knows Taylor Swift‘s new album “Lover” is out. And along with it, a new video for the title track, “Lover.”


The views are rising at a rate of 4.8 million views a day. That’s 200k per hour. That’s over 3,000 views every minute. Craziness.

But after watching the video, you might be wondering, who’s this guy playing the part of Taylor’s lover?

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His name is Christian Owens. And no, it’s not this Christian Owens. There’s a good article here about his history with Taylor and other acts like Beyonce and Normani.

In the video, Taylor and Christian are playing board games, one which is a teaser for another song of hers called “Cruel Summer.” Some of the lyrics are here on this board game, and on a mural painted in NYC before the album was released.


Thanks for stopping by!

-Out of the Wilderness

My heart rate driving by Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee

I was in Memphis the other day for some work, well, actually I’ll be more specific. I left Nashville at 415am en route to Southaven, Mississippi, then to Memphis, up to Osceola, Arkansas, then through Missouri on my way back to Nashville. All that to say, the route from Southaven to my destination in Memphis brought me right past Graceland. I’m a big Elvis Presley fan so I was darn excited to drive down Elvis Presley Boulevard.

Fun fact: most intersections don’t have a street sign for Elvis Presley Blvd because they end up stolen as souvenirs

So yesterday I didn’t have time to stop and take it all in, but thanks to my Garmin VivoActive HR, we can see just how driving by had an effect on my heart rate. Screen Shot 2019-08-24 at 12.02.02 PM

The peak there in the middle was recorded as I drove near the famous home of Elvis Presley, Graceland, as it’s called. My heart rate went from 75 to 105. It’s hard to explain the feeling if you’ve never been there. During my time at my old job with CMT we actually shot a couple of shows inside the residence which was a real treat, but even driving by yesterday without stopping to go inside weighed heavy on me, in a good way. He’s just such a fascinating person and to be so close to his home was really cool… even for the 4th or 5th time in my life.

-Out of the Wilderness

A mustang and a green button in Keith Urban’s “We Were” video

Keith Urban’s latest music video looks smooth and easy, but I can assure you that any video you record as a continuous clip is anything but easy. I wonder how many takes they did before they had a keeper? Where did they record this, anyway? Well, I’m glad you stopped by because I have some answers!


Location…
This “one take” video was recorded south of downtown Nashville. It’s not Music Row, as some might think. There’s another trendy little spot called Berry Hill that’s home to quite a few recording studios. The one in this video is House of Blues. Around 1:45 into the video Keith walks in to “The Cave” as seen below in the music video and a picture from the HOB website.


And what do y’all think about Keith’s choice of drink?

Based on the light shining through and the way this particular cup is handled, I’m making a bet there wasn’t any liquid in the cup. Well, I take that back. Maybe on take 1 there was, but after doing this 50 times, Keith was like, “You know what guys, I’ve had enough water!” 🙂

Did anyone else notice something in this part of the video?

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Keith didn’t press that little button that says “push to exit.” I KNEW IT WAS ALL A SHAM!! After all the times I’ve pressed those buttons because I didn’t want to be the guy who doesn’t and then gets embarrassed when the door doesn’t open! If Keith doesn’t press it, I don’t press it. That’s my new motto.

I call this next part of the video, “true friends.” A true friend is someone who says, “Parking’s a bear? I’ll be here awhile, park behind me and we’re all good.” Good job, Mustang driver!

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The video was also shot in vertical format, and released mid-July. If you’re reading this on your phone, click here for vertical video through Spotify. Spoiler: it’s the exact same video, just edited for your phone, so if you aren’t able to see it through the link, you can scroll back up and watch it on YouTube 🙂

Overall, great song, great job by Keith, and kudos to the steadicam operator for all that work!

-Out of the Wilderness