Best use of empty Minneapolis streets all summer award goes to Monkey Warhol’s video Times of Your Life!
It’s electronic music – think Daft Punk. Very drum-machine, electronic-chorus forward. It’s easy dance music. More than that, it’s hard-to-sit-down music! While the video is pure Minnesota, the music brings me back to European discos in the 90s. The music is an antidote for the our brutal times.
The video reads like a love letter to Minneapolis. Throughout it we follow Monkey Warhol dancing through the city with his black suit and cartoon monkey head. It’s very surreal. Empty streets throughout downtown and U of M– except for this cartoon head money. I love it because it reminds me of my birthday walking marathon last June when we walked on many of the same spots as Monkey Warhol. It’s fun for anyone who loves the area or wants to visit. It will also serve as a strange reminder of 2020!
As a quick aside, the Minneapolis Star Tribune spoke to Monkey Warhol (aka Todd Millenacker) about his work (writing jingles!), his music and his unusual moniker…
Warhol is a reference to the 15 minutes of fame Millenacker is hoping for. The monkey is a nod to the “infinite monkey theorem,” which proposes that an infinite number of monkeys banging on typewriters for an infinite amount of time will eventually produce all the works of Shakespeare.
It’s a fun approach and that fun shines through the song and the video – and who the heck knows this could be the start of his 15 minutes!
Mostly Minnesota 