A Few Of My Favorite Things is a series that appears most weekends on Driven By Boredom. Each week I talk about three of my favorite things from a specific genre of film, music, or something else all together. Each favorite thing is accompanied by a video and a description of why it is one of my favorite things. Click here for more favorites.

The other day I met this really cute girl who told me she was going to film school so she could make music videos. The only problem was she didn’t really know anything about them. I am no expert or anything but I made a date with her so she could come over and watch music videos with her. I probably have about 15 music video DVDs and get pretty excited about my favorite ones. The be all and end all of music video DVDs are the PALM Pictures Directors Label series. They are releasing extensive DVD’s of the best music video directors around. Although I am still waiting for the Jonas Akerlund and David Fincher ones… Of the PALM discs the one I am most into is the Spike Jonze one. Michel Gondry’s disc is brilliant, that guy is on a whole new level, but Jonze disc has my favorite music, features, and I can relate most to his stuff. If you don’t know Jonez music video work, you know his movies. He directed Adaptation and Being John Malkovich and he just finished a live action version of Where The Wild Things Are. On top of that he was amazing as an actor in David O. Russel’s Three Kings. Anyway, after the jump I am going to give you my three favorite Spike Jonze music videos. I hope you dig them as much as I do.

1. Fat Boy Slim – Praise You
This might be the most brilliant music video that has ever been made. It won MTV Moon Men for Best Breakthrough video, Best Direction and Best Choreography. Spike Jonze got a group of dancers to dance with him out side of a movie theater in California. The video was taped by a few of his friends with hand held camcorders. He went under the pseudonym Richard Koufey and even excepted his MTV awards as Koufey, excepting the award on behalf of the Torrance Community Dance Group. The movie theater owners had no idea what was going on and tried to turn off his boom box. The only person who know what was going on was Fat Boy Slim who is briefly at the end of the video looking in the camera At the time no one really knew who Jonze was and a lot of people thought the video was real. This video is just so great. Read this dancers account for more info.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ULVQOneeZE[/youtube]

2. Fatlip – What’s Up Fatlip?
Fatlip was my favorite member of the Pharcyde who were one of my favorite hip hop groups of all time. Fatlip was sort of the outcast of the group and was eventually kicked out. He got a lot of shit from a lot of people because he once made out with a guy in drag and then wrote a song about it. His solo career was sort of a bust and he was down on his luck. That is when he made this song and video. The video like Praise You was shot on a shitty camcorder and made for almost no money. It just follows Fatlip around his neighborhood acting a fool. I just love that you can make a video this great on 0 budget. That is something that Jonez really has going for him. As you will seen in the next video, he can do the big budget stuff, but making something brilliant with no money takes effort… and hell, he made this thing before the YouTube generation. Watch for Fatlips amazing dance at the very end… I base all of my dancing off it. PS. This song is amazing.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK_WfF6hf2E[/youtube]

3. The Notorious B.I.G. – Sky’s The Limit
Don’t tell anyone, but I am not really a Biggie fan. I know as a resident of Brooklyn I should give a fuck, but I don’t. I was too punk rock to care about him when he came out. The only hip hop I listened to in the mid 90’s was old school or conscious. Anything top 40 I was against. I feel the same way about Tupac. That being said, this video is so fucking funny. Jonze took a big budget this time and made a completely stereotypical rap video… the cars, the pools, the houses, the women… except for one thing: Everyone in the video is about 12 years old. They got a kid that looks exactly like B.I.G. and even a baby Puff Daddy (as he was known at the time). Evidently the two kids became really good friends after the shoot was finished. There are even little fly girls which is only a tad bit creepy. The baby body guards are pretty funny too.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2PBQeQl9A4[/youtube]

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