Cold Blooded

A Person-By-Person Breakdown Of The People In The Bill Callahan 'Cold Blooded Old Times' Video On Pitchfork.tv

Bill Callahan: He is thinking about how it actually feels good to be barefoot on the rooftop of this building in Chicago on a late September night. At first he focuses on the lyrics and his playing, but his mind wanders. He thinks back to the woman he wrote this song about, and how he wishes he had never left her. He is looking at the violinist across from him and regretting the night that he fucked her even though he didn't have feelings for her, and still doesn't. At the end when he throws in that little extra lick on guitar, he is pretending to be in the Kinks.

70s Rocker Dude Who Takes Fashion Pointers From 'Spinal Tap': He ate an entire 1/8^th of mushrooms before noon, and they are only just now starting to lose their potency while the video is being recorded. He wonders if anyone will be able to tell he's tripping or not. Near the end of the song, he sees Callahan as a giant snowman in human clothing, his coal buttons dropping off of his shirt and turning into the drum that he is playing, over and over. He is pretty sure something is going on between Callahan and Violinist Chick, and considers this as a good sign he might get to stick her, too.

Vaguely Jewish Looking Skinny Dude: Before coming to the roof, he had offered Violinist Chick a beer, which she declined now but never has before. Already a bit dazed by this, he overhears a Pitchfork staffer saying that “Callahan's other dude, the skinny one in the red shirt...he looks like Flea of The Red Hot Chili Peppers...well, maybe his younger brother, anyway.” He has been thinking about giving up music and going back to school. School for what, he doesn't know. He's going to be 35 years old next month and has little to show for it, other than a frequently-something-wrong-with-something loft apartment on the cheaper side of Brooklyn. A minute into the song, he realizes that all he's going to do for the next few minutes is clap over and over, and he decides to quit music as soon as this taping is over. In between the end of this song and the beginning of the next, he sneaks a pull on a whiskey bottle.

Impossibly Beautiful Violinist Chick: She still can't believe she gets to be on a website for a music performance. As she is just shy of 23 years old, she still can't believe a lot of things. She had almost drank a beer before coming up to the roof, but remembered that she had found out a few days prior that she was pregnant. Pregnant with Callahan's kid. She still isn't sure whether she wants to keep it or not; she has a thing for him, but he still seems to be hung up on another woman. Maybe even who this song is about. Near the end when she almost-smiles and then sucks her upper lip in, she is remembering her first sex partner.