Rocketman Video hoax = interpretation

[barger@ils.nwu.edu]

I posted this some weeks ago and everyone yawned.  Chris figures we burned
up our credibility with the hoaxing-glut.  For those who haven't seen the
real video, I think this plays better in the mind's eye, and offers a view
of the sad/happy complementarity.  (The Marcus Garvey trap was so that
someone else would make the Neuromancer connection-- a spaceship full o'
dreads smoking ganja...)

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When C&V got their PAL player hooked up last month, one happy discovery was
a few extra minutes of footage from the VH-1 special, on the PAL cassette
(autographed!) I won at the Kon last year.

But over the weekend Chris noticed that the PAL case was engineered oddly,
allowing it to be *flipped*, and on the "B" side was...

A ROCKET MAN VIDEO!!!

It looks like a rough cut, or maybe just an animated storyboard-- the FX
are *really* cheap.

It opens with a closeup of Kate's sad face in comic Elton-goggles, framed
in a space helmet, lip-syncing, zooming out to show she's suited up and
strapped inside a capsule.  There are stars outside the window, and many
cute little decorations in the interior that we'll have to look at
single-frame to identify.  (There's definitely a videoscreen with a Fresnel
overlay, though!)

When she sings "high as a kite by then" a spaceship floats past the window,
the name readable as "Marcus Garvey" (???)

She's sad again, but they dock, and as she boards their ship, there are
Gary and Stewart (and the band in the background, as the reggae kicks in)
all in dreadlock-wigs!  And they're partying, and she tries to join in, and
dances kind of half-heartedly, still looking sad, and silly in those
goggles.

The 'dreads' are funny and try to cheer her up, and she almost gets into
it, but then as "burnin out his fuse up here alone" sounds, the ship
vanishes and she's floating in a vast field of stars (even as cheesy as it
looks, you can feel the awe).

But then the dreads come floating up to her in patchwork spacesuits too,
boogie-ing in the emptiness, and she tries to resist again but gets swept
up, finally cracks a smile, starts to wriggle like Barbarella (!) or
something, and then there's the second strum, and they all freeze, looking
at her, expectantly, waiting as she sings a couple more sad lines, but then
she notices, and grins slyly and starts wiggling again, and there's a
series of cuts showing different dreads doing silly things in space as the
music fades. (Watch for Paddy!)

So what is this, dreads in space?  Is it about "getting high"?  And why
Marcus Garvey???  (Why does this sound so familiar?)

Anyway, Chris has the tape down in KC today, dubbing it to NTSC, so confirm
with your immediate pyramid-superior about sending a blank tape, and you
should all have a copies RSN.
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The preceeding message is a hoax.  Do not send tapes!
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Jorn Barger, Northwestern U., Chicago, Midwest, USA      barger@ils.nwu.edu
   "And crazyheaded Jorn, the bulweh born?"   _Finnegans Wake_ 513.07
          (Ask me about the electronic FW reading project!)
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