"Let’s Talk About Clairo"

The Weekly Read #5, "Let’s Talk About Clairo"

Why does time move so fast? How can I slow it down? How can I get out of my head and into the moment?  Do I have enough time to go poop before we have to leave? These are the questions I frequently ask myself.  Sometimes all at once in that particular order.  But today, I don’t want to get all deep and existential with you guys.  I want to have a light-hearted conversation.  

*Side note: I realized this could be a conversation when somebody emailed me back about last week's newsletter. So feel free to respond if you have any thoughts about what I’m talking about.  Let’s make this a two-way street.  I don’t want to hear any criticism, though.  Save that for your friend Greg.*

So.. On Sunday, August 11th 2024, I was infected by Clairo’s new song, ‘Juna’. My goodness it’s good. I don’t know what kind of drug they put into that repeating synth line, but the way she follows the melody with her voice alongside the drum breaks does something very good to my brain.  I can’t stop listening to it.  The video that accompanies the song is wonderful as well.  If you haven’t had the pleasure of seeing it yet, allow me to verbally explain:

The video begins with a slow motion moving shot following men and women dressed in WWE wrestling attire running towards a boxing ring as they jump in and begin fighting.  After these characters pile into the green floored ring, the lyrics begin and we find Clairo leaning against a window, allowing for the (artificial?) sunlight to offer her an angelic backlighting as she twirls her fingers and begins to look into the camera.  Beautiful.  As the lyrics continue to roll, we are brought to a wide flat shot of her on the opposite side of the boxing ring, dreamily mouthing the words as these gigantic human beings perform acrobatic wrestling moves on each other.  The video continues for about a minute down this route, showing different angles of wrestlers jumping over, on, and into each other as Clairo smiles and mouths more lyrics.  

Then, it cuts to what feels like B-roll footage of Clairo now in a crowd of normal looking people all gathered to watch these wrestlers fight.  A total break from the world built in the first minute and a half of the video.  From this new point of view, we see folks dressed in Red Sox jerseys, graphic tees, and name brand clothing all spectating this strange event going on as Clairo laughs and holds a glass of red wine in what looks like a recreation center built in the mid 20th century.  At this point, you begin to wonder what the fuck is going on.  Why are there wrestlers RKOing each other for the video of this indie-laidback-good vibe tune?  What event could this possibly be?  Was this a wrestling match that has gone on before and is merely being filmed for the music videos-sake or was it a concept born from the song and a one time spectacle made to be filmed for this particular piece of art?  Who are these people in the crowd? Hired actors or genuine fans of this hometown version of WWE? I don’t know.  However, I do know that I love the juxtaposition and randomness of it all and how it pairs as the visual companion for this lovely song.  

As the video continues, we are brought to the backroom of the recreation center where these cartoonish fighters are shown stretching and warming up as the shots are timely cut to the beats of the music. After a few moments in the backroom, we get a really interesting zoom out shot of Clairo sitting on a chair with a championship belt slung over her left shoulder as all the wrestlers are staggered around her within the frame, flexing and making silly faces as she mimics trumpet sounds with her mouth.  The song and video soon close out, wrapping up with zoomed in slo-mo shots of pairs of folks from the crowd all mimicking that same trumpet melody.  These shots remind me of a less drunk version of the comradery displayed when “Sweet Caroline” is played at a MLB baseball stadium and everybody bands together with their peers to sing along. Good vibes.  All in all, the entire video is apparently shot in film and the color grading of the whole piece is quite tasteful, so it’s worth a watch.  If you have seen the video, I hope you found my verbal presentation accurate and at least a tenth as entertaining. 

So, yeah.  That’s where we’re at this week.  You’ll be seeing new items from the Read a Book team soon.  We are hard at work over here.  Orders from this past week have been shipped out and we are working on a cool idea we have wanted to make for almost a year now.  

Keep being good and remember that you don’t have to be anybody besides yourself. You’re a cool cat.  Thank you for reading this far. Thank you to everyone that is choosing to:

Read a Book.