In Old Joe music circle, Alex is undoubtedly one of Old Joe people. It's not that he's actually dependent on Old Joe for work; the slums of Southside follow a kind of gangster 'underworld' ethical relationship. In layman's terms, he's 'under Alex protection'.
After chatting with Tony and the others for a while, he went to greet Eric and the others, saying, "Old Joe wants to see you." Eric led him and Hayden into Old Joe's dressing room.
Hey! Aplus!
When Old Joe saw Alex, he pointed to a square cardboard box on the dressing table and said, "Look, this is the single cover that SBK guys came up with. What do you think? Give me some feedback."
"Can't it be changed?"
A+ held the 12-inch cardboard cover in his hands. The image was filled with all sorts of goods commonly found in second hand stores. The photographer cleverly used blurring to hide all the brand and even style information, leaving only a rich array of small, colorful blocks. The store name at the top had been replaced with the song title, Thrift Shop, and the SALE sign on a white discount sign had been replaced with 'Lowry and Joe,' both using a chubby, slightly 'playful' font, perfectly echoing the song's humorous tone. Seeing this level of completion, A+ knew that SBK hadn't even considered Joe's opinion, but Daniel had kept his promise; Joe and Lowry were on equal footing in this single.
"Yeah, I need to have a serious talk with Daniel. The SBK guys need to show us more respect." Old Joe grumbled, but that was all. He was grinning from ear to ear, clearly happy.
"Don't move!" the black makeup artist shouted.
Old Joe shut up obediently.
After a brief silence, A+ and Hayden exchanged a glance, realizing at the same time that they had nothing to do. "Then I..." Hayden pointed to the door, "call me if you need anything."
After Hayden left, A+ wandered around the set, left his pager number with an acquaintance, and then moved a folding stool to a spot behind the director's monitor where he wouldn't interfere with filming. He was ready to observe the MV shooting process, but since filming hadn't started yet, he took out paper and pen and began drafting his essay on the theme of "To Mandela".
As dawn broke, filming officially began. All the lights went out, and a simple loudspeaker played the tune of "Secondhand Shop." Old Joe and Little Lori, using the faint light of the rising sun, began their performance in sync with the music and the director's instructions.
Without the light, he couldn't write his essay. A+ put away his paper and pen, and Ellie, who had finished her makeup, quietly came over and sat on his lap.
The two young people rubbed their bodies together in the darkness through their clothes, their excitement growing. Ellie began to breathe heavily. "After that time, we..." She gently kissed A+ neck.
"Hmm." A+ frowned. It was difficult for poor kids to even find a place to "do their business." He was cautious by nature and didn't want to drive without a license, nor did he want to be a lover at school. He also had El at home who never went anywhere. He had no good options but to keep it to himself.
"Let's just go to a hotel. It's just a matter of spending money, and we have money now," he thought to himself.
As dawn broke, the two had to part ways. Ellie took out her small makeup mirror to touch up her lipstick and joined the shoot. However, this time she, Connie, Emily, and others could only serve as background figures, given that it was a big production. Of course, the word "big" was relative; A+ secretly compared it to the original. The original even had a scene involving a speedboat, which was impossible this time, let alone compare it to the exorbitantly priced music videos of superstars like Michael Jackson from the same era. Of course, it cost much more than Little Lowry's previous first music video.
The director was a very demanding middle-aged white man who kept the entire crew on the go. No one had the time to talk to a bystander. By noon, A+ was bored out of his mind. During a break in filming, he was chatting with Old Joe when he suddenly heard Tony and the others whistling and making a ruckus.
A+ looked over and saw a bus parked not far away. The doors opened, and about a dozen white women stepped off. Whether blonde, black-haired, or red-haired, they were all tall and slender.
She is good-looking.
"They're models hired by SBK." Old Joe put his finger in his mouth and gave a loud whistle.
Led by their agent, the white women headed towards the makeup truck. Tony's ex-girlfriend wasn't there; he'd probably dumped her. He led the way, bringing his single buddies forward to harass each of them.
This time, Ellie, Connie, Emily, and all the other Black girls rolled their eyes.
Black men have a fascination with light-colored girls that's a mix of inferiority and a desire to conquer. Their method for pursuing these women is simple: exhaustive testing, approaching them one by one, moving on to the next if rejected. This frivolous method should theoretically never succeed, but women are emotional creatures. Perhaps one of them in the sample is lonely, heartbroken, or suddenly wants to let loose. With enough samples, exhaustive testing will eventually yield a success. Of course, the consequences of this "sense of responsibility" among Black men are a matter for later discussion.
Even the usually arrogant Lowry was tempted this time. He had high standards and, with his wingman AK, went straight to a white girl who got out of a car behind the bus. Unexpectedly, the girl gave him the middle finger and rejected him instantly, causing a burst of laughter from the crew.
"Bitch." Little Lori lost face and sullenly returned to the dressing room.
"Why does she look so familiar?" Alex stared at the pretty girl, who was about 1.7 meters tall, with jewel-like green eyes and a slightly heroic air about her. The passion that Ellie had stirred in him earlier was inexplicably rekindled.
"Of course, Milla Jovovich, she used to be very popular." An SBK staff member chimed in, "You must have seen her ads."
"Before?" A+ thought to himself, how old is this girl now?
"When she was eleven or twelve, she filmed a lot of commercials and was even voted one of the most unforgettable women in the world. But as she matured, her looks flopped a bit. Two years ago, she became a signed singer with our company, but releasing an album seems a long way off. Looking back, it was a losing proposition. She's still better suited to playing pretty faces and doing print ads." The staff member curled his lip in disdain, clearly having a bad impression of the girl. "She's spoiled, and she's going through a rebellious phase. She's very difficult to please."
Sure enough, a girl's scream soon came from the makeup cart: "I want a VIP dressing room! I don't want to get my makeup done with them!"
The middle-aged white woman next to the girl approached the director with difficulty; judging from her appearance, she was probably the girl's mother.
The director scratched his head and came over to Old Joe, "Joe, look..."
Old Joe was much easier to talk to now. "APLUS, take them there."
"Okay, come with me."
A+ led the mother and daughter toward Old Joe's dressing room. The two spoke in a foreign language the whole way, which sounded like Russian.
"Were you speaking Russian just now?" he asked the girl's mother from outside the door after the girl sat down at the vanity.
"I guess so." The other person clearly didn't want to talk to A+, so they gave a perfunctory reply and prepared to close the dressing room door.
A+ noticed that she was holding Little Lori's album cassette. "Let me introduce myself. I am the lyricist and composer of this song, the one from APLUS." He pointed to the cassette.
"Oh?" This time, the other person's eyes lit up, and their attitude changed drastically. "Wow, I didn't expect you to be so young. How old are you?"
"fifteen."
"She's the same age as my Mila..." The girl's mother hesitated for a moment, but couldn't resist asking for a song: "Do you have any songs suitable for a girl Mila's age? Uh... she really loves to sing, and I can only help her fulfill her dream. For this, we've given up many opportunities in advertising and film... We've been with SBK for almost two years, but..."
"Why tell these things to outsiders!"
The girl threw a tantrum again. She tossed her long hair, shooed the makeup artist away, and strode to the door. "FXXXYOU!" she yelled at A+, who hadn't provoked her, and slammed the door shut.
"FXXXYOU…FXXXYOU…" A+ was struck dumb, frozen in place, the girl's curses echoing in his mind. It wasn't because he was hurt by her attitude, but because…
fxxxyou fxxxyou
fxxxyou very very much
(Lily Allen - F*** You)