The West Wing - "Hands Clean"

[mandysbitch.livejournal.com]

Vidder: International Princess
Musical artist: Alanis Morrissette
Pairing: CJ/Toby
Vidder on LJ: intl_princess
Vidder's website: www.internationalprincess.com
Why this vid kicks ass:

I was looking through the previous vid recs on crack_van archive and there's only one. Admittedly I don't recall a whole lot of vidding in this fandom, but it happened. It did!

Anyway, I found a good one to make up for it. It functions effectively as justification for the CJ/Toby relationship. A relationship that has arisen out of the way the actors play the characters - with long looks and meaningful glances. This vid captures those moments that made us jump up and go, 'hey, there's something going on here!'

It's also a good song that, oddly enough, suits them. If you know anything about the song you'll know the lyrics don't reflect the CJ/Toby relationship at all (didn't Alanis write it about her much older lover and what an arse he was?) but here's the thing: vids don't have to be completely literal. In fact, if you watch a lot of pop and rock vids (as I do) you'll know they are *rarely* literal. I've seen vidders go to to stupid lengths to be literal with the songs lyrics and I can't help wondering why? Why, when you could be constructing a far more effective story with images you *do* have. Also, there's a certain poetry in connecting two the story in the song and the story as shown by the vid. It's like riffing on a theme.

The song's refrain, "this could be messy" could be a refrain for so many relationships. Alanis's is one, CJ/ Toby is another. It's something many of us can indentify with.

Vid link: http://www.internationalprincess.com/stories3.html (scroll down to the bottom of the page).

Comments

[aworldinside.livejournal.com]

I was the person who made the other TWW vid rec, and I think I've only ever seen two full TWW vids (I've seen a couple multi-fandom vids that have used TWW clips) online. I am so happy that there are more out there, and that one of them is CJ/Toby!

Thanks so much for pointing this out! :D

[mandysbitch.livejournal.com]

No problem. I remembered a CJ one that was rather good - only for the life of me I can't remember where I saw it. I'm glad I was able to think of this one. :)