“Jung Heisst Schön” (translation: “young means beautiful”) is a song by my long-time friend and German singer Justin Balk (formerly of Cucumber Men). In 2003 I went on tour with him and the singer Stoppok (and his band) to film a video for the song. It was an amazingly fun “dream come true” experience. The song & video were released in 2004. This, by the way, was before YouTube and at a time when the music video seemed to be nearing extinction.
While the video had been on our website and on MySpace for a long time, I finally got it onto YouTube (and off the never-ending to-do list, which doesn’t even yet include adding all GHWP videos to vimeo, etc.). It was a great opportunity to revisit the two videos I made for Justin. In the case of “Jung Heisst Schön”, which I always considered to be more questioning than celebrating the cult of youth, it’s almost shocking that another 6 years have gone by and that we are um, yeah, even less young than we were then. But really, has that much changed, really? To continue with the song: “Was am Ende übrig bleibt ist ganz okay” (“what’s left in the end is quite alright”).
The first video we did together, 2003’s “Porridge”, I shot on a Super 8 camera all over New York City (in addition to a commissioned DV sequence of Justin getting on the subway in the red light district of Hamburg, which “takes him to NYC” – cute, right?). It seems perfectly fitting to watch that one again and get all nostalgic, now that I’m getting ready to leave the city for a while…