rob - just a couple random reactions/thoughts... the original matt & kim video was pretty visually powerful, as was erykah's. sadly, i don't feel any connection between the video and the song, in substance or tone. so, i've watched it a few times on mute and it makes more sense as a statement unto itself. it feels very self-aware and kind of heavy-handed, but what performance art doesn't? the jfk connection isn't subtle, and i imagine if she could've flown to jerusalem to walk the stages of the cross, she might have. conceptually, it touches on a public/private existential liminality thing that reminds me of the radiohead "just" video, where a man decides one day to just lay on a sidewalk, and provokes resistance first from his peers (the community), and then the authorities (the state), kind of playing with the notions of challenging societal norms and constructed authority by just 'being' in public space. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5X7HKxpiQA) anyway, although i love the raw concept of the video, whether M&K's or EB's version, i particularly like the 'rebirth' image at the end of Erykah's video, where she kind of re-emerges as a nubian goddess. what a smile... also of interest to me is that both vids are going for a handheld/super-8/lo-fi DIY thing, but both resort to very seemless production-intensive 'modern' editing techniques. notice how nobody in the erykah video even looks at her? my sense is the entire thing is composited. in both cases, it seems a disservice to the aesthetic project to execute it with slick editing. that's just me being picky though.