Van Nuys New Wave Manifesto?
May 26, 2012 2:35 PM   Subscribe

What's the Van Nuys New Wave Manifesto referred to in this "Government Center" Jonathan Richman video at 2:41? The Google does nothing.
posted by ar0n to Media & Arts (4 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: In a report issued in late 1988 summing up many of his broader ideas, Yardeni wrote the "New Wave Manifesto," a thesis based on the premise that certain trends in the economy were fundamentally both positive and powerful.

Could it be some kind of joke based on that? That's the best theory I can come up with based on some rather esoteric googling. I'm guessing Van Nuys refers to where the video was made or where the filmmakers were from. The credits mention L.A. City College, which is not in Van Nuys, but not too far away either.
posted by drjimmy11 at 3:46 PM on May 26, 2012


sounds like an inside joke. Maybe a jab at self-conscious 'new wave' in LA?
posted by tremspeed at 4:05 PM on May 26, 2012


Best answer: Yeah, that sounds like a joke to me. It's entirely possible this was filmed in one of the buildings in the Van Nuys Government Center. My friends and I would always sing "Government Center" when we drove past a sign for it and I'm heartily entertained that this video exists.
posted by town of cats at 6:09 PM on May 26, 2012


It sounds joke-y to me, too. You probably know that Government Center was a New Wave (or punk, protopunk, whatever--you guys can argue that one out later) song first sung by Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers in 1976 (Youtube).

You may not know that term "New Wave" was also a film style, and one associated with a lot of manifestos and the like. Note the reference in the video, "Filmed in accordance to the Van Nuys New Wave Manifesto".

That seems to imply that it is referring to a type of "New Wave" filmmaking rather than to the New Wave music in the video. Maybe the joke is the conflation of those two different kinds of "New Waves," which don't really have anything to do with each other except for the coincidence of the same name. But people making a video are likely to be well acquainted with the New Wave school of filmmaking and crack jokes about it etc as they are making a video featuring a New Wave song.
posted by flug at 10:52 AM on May 27, 2012


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