Ashes in Your Champagne and Japanese Hendrix: Happy Year of the Rabbit

New Year's Eve is the big holiday for Russians, and the time for one of my favourite traditions. Tonight we write a wish on a piece of paper, and during the twelve strokes of midnight burn it into a glass of champagne and drink it. I genuinely look forward to this because it has been my experience that it does work. I'm not sure how, but I think it has something to do with science.

Other things New Year's Eve is not complete without?  Auld Lang Syne as performed by a Japanese Jimi Hendrix cover band:

Happy New Year to you and yours, and all the best in 2011. I don't do exclamation points, but I really, really mean it.

Television Tried to Kill the Video Star, Failed: The Suzan's Home

Traditional music videos are all but dead. If you hadn't figured that out yet, head to the MTV website where you will see six scheduled hours of The Hills: Thinking is Hard, and back-to-back episodes of things called I Can't Stay Thin/ I'm Addicted to Food. The Russian music channel isn't faring much better, considering I just watched a half hour of c-list celebrities playing charades.

That's not to say I'm getting nostalgic; music videos have just been rerouted to the internet where that they can now benefit from interactive technology. In the fall, there was Arcade Fire's eerily-personalised We Used to Wait.  Last week, I showed you the Team Me's retro video-game-video for Weathervanes and Chemicals. 

Now Pomp&Clout have done up Home, the first video for Japanese all-girl group The Suzan. It's an infectious, energetic whirlwind of colour and xylophones, and if you download it as an app for your iPhone or iPad you can play with the speed, position, and angle of the kaleidoscope all day. And you will do it all day. If any of you just finished getting high, I apologise in advance for the massive blow I just delivered to today's productivity level.

You can get both the video and app here.

The Suzan "Home" from Mr Goldbar on Vimeo.