An indeterminate number of reflections on Sonic Youth's "Bull in the Heather" video

1. It took approximately 26 years for me to realize Kathleen Hanna was capering about during the video.
2. Kim Gordon should have sung every Sonic Youth song.
3. I hear Kathleen Hanna gave Thurston Moore a bloody lip while this was being filmed. Good.
4. Tamra Davis videos are always great.
5. In a video full of entertaining moments, the one that always stands out is Steve Shelley hesitating before picking up the beat again. It's like taking a breath, and it always gives me the giggles for some unknown reason.
6. This is my favorite Sonic Youth song, from my favorite era of Sonic Youth.
7. There's, what, four different narrative threads in the video?
1. The band playing live.
2. Kathleen Hanna dancing in the burly house.
3. Kim Gordon hopping on the bed, channeling Carroll Baker in "Baby Doll".
4. The kids running through the hazy field.
8. I went to Lollapalooza '95 specifically to see Sonic Youth because I liked "Experimental Jet Set" so much. Two girls from my neighborhood and I drove from suburban Baltimore to a horsetrack in West Virginia at the crack of dawn, stood out in the blazing sun all day, and never saw Sonic Youth because one of them got heat stroke. On the bright side, I saw Superchunk and the Jesus Lizard and Helium, all of which were awesome, bought some fake ecstasy that I now think was just a chewable multivitamin, and swore off festivals for the rest of my life.
9. There are strong links between Sonic Youth and Beastie Boys here, what with Davis directing and Hanna performing.
10. The fact that Tamra Davis hasn't directed a narrative film since 2002's "Crossroads" kind of blows my mind. She's always been one of my favorite video auteurs, she directed both "CB4" AND "Half Baked", and she coaxed a perfectly cromulent performance out of Britney Spears. She's done a ton of TV in recent years, and it's perfectly believable that she prefers that work, but I always thought she had a real strong feminist sensibility that showed through in her films, and that should have been grown more.
11. I'm fairly certain I taped this song onto an audio cassette when the video aired on "120 Minutes".
12. 1994 was the first year I was both into music and had access to MTV, the absence of which probably did more to shape my taste than anything else. Without regular watching of videos after school before that, I ended up buying magazines and zines to find out about what was out there. It meant I all but missed the punk breakout of 1994, viewing from the side of "selling out" and "no UPCs" instead of getting into Green Day. On the downside, viewing availability as a negative is the reason I wouldn't listen to the Ramones or Misfits until well in my 20s.
13. It's been well legislated long before I climbed back in the saddle, but, yeah, I still think Thurston Moore is a dick.
14. Is it appropriate to use "indeterminate" in the title of this blog when, eventually, it's going to end, thus negating its indeterminate status.
15. Am I even using "indeterminate" in a proper way?
16. Why aren't the two Crucifucks records in print? And, for that matter, why hasn't someone done a new pressing of the Crucifix LP? We have all the time and money in the world to tie up the pressing plants with a reissue of "Whipped Cream & Other Delights" (now on 220g vinyl!), but we can't get another 1000 copies of three of the best hardcore records from the 80s? Justice for Doc Dart!
17. I've officially run out of observations and reflections inspired by the "Bull in the Heather" video. Good day.