My AK65 with the Hair of Jet Black

Time to wake up, my love.
Remember that word?

A couple months ago I spent time with Mark Stoermer’s mesmerizing song “Spare the Ones That Weep.” The Killers’ bassist recorded it for his second solo album three years ago. In an interview he said of this song:

What were some of your non-musical influences on this record?
Books and films mostly. “Spare the Ones That Weep” was lyrically based off of Alphaville by Jean Luc Godard. But I’d like to think it’s about more than just the film. It’s about a person watching the film, wanting to be a character in the film, and sort of a tribute to Anna Karina as well. The video inspired by the movie too. It’s kind of the oddball musically.

Foreign to your eardrum,
That noun—sometimes verb.

I watched that video a couple dozen times with the modern model portraying an Anna Karina character, which lead to viewing a few old interviews with AK, and Friday I got around to ordering one of her movies from CafeDVD. Not Alphaville (1965); that one was unavailable. Yesterday I read the obituary printed in this morning’s newspaper following Anna Karina’s death Saturday at 79. I put Stoermer’s thrumming song on loop for the drive to work this morning.

I see the same movies with her at CafeDVD are still available tonight, and the more I think of it, the more I think I should have rented Band of Outsiders instead of, or in addition to, Le Petit Soldat. Some say that Band of Outsiders isn’t very good except for an amazing dance scene, but one amazing dance scene is worth a lot.