Pretender Going Down

So incredibly helpful. It even includes, if you can’t see...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 08:35:32 -0400

So incredibly helpful. It even includes, if you can’t see the fine print, suggestions for what to call your bodily waste. Here they have suggested “tee tee” or “poop”.

Cardiff Giant We have witnessed the demonization of Mother...

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 10:29:52 -0400

Cardiff Giant

We have witnessed the demonization of Mother Elephant and we have watched as Rabbit enters a romantic pitfall from which he is not soon to recover, but in “Cardiff Giant” we will return now to the institution of the circus and to the plight of those who were not lucky enough to escape the authorities. Even with the train destroyed, it seems, the circus has continued on. The animal mutiny and escape, however, has done severe damage to the amount business that can be drawn in. After all, what is a circus without an elephant act?

As the song begins, our first hapless character to bemoan his plight is the vain and indecisive Peacock, who has been returned to his life of nonstop performing in the circus. “They leave bouquets of flowers wrapped up in ribbon on our trailer doors at the end of each show,” he says, and his tone appears to be rather sarcastic [Ragged Robins for the curtain call wrapped in ribbons on the trailer door]. “They carve our initials into concrete statues that stand on false marble floors [Carved initials in a concrete footstall on the imitation marble floor].” Peacock is worn out and views the praise extolled upon him in the form of flowers and monuments by what are essentially his jailers to be a very false gesture, perhaps even one of mockery. Notice what he mentions about his surroundings in these first few lines. The floor is not true marble, but an imitation only. The very notion that these people who hunted him down and are forcing him to perform would honor him with flowers and carved statues is absurd and offensive. Yet this is life in the institution of the circus.

As we will be reminded throughout this song, nothing to be seen or felt in this circus world is the truth. Everything is fake, false, fraudulent, and artificial. It is an environment that directly contradicts everything that Rabbit experienced in “East Enders Wives”. Rabbit may have made mistakes and been embroiled in a disastrous relationship that caused him to be apathetic when he shouldn’t have, but every emotion and event in that section of the fable was brilliantly real and vividly experienced. Rabbit, though he is by no means yet on the correct path, has still removed himself from the institution and is attempting to right his wrongs by the end of the previous track. Despite what many seem to think, making the decision to turn down the narrow path and follow Mother Elephant’s advice will not be easy or safe. Being outside of the circus means traveling through a dangerous wilderness of brambles and enemies. But even the dangers, temptations, and struggles of the outside world are more rewarding than the cruel and exhausting performances that a false world will ask of them in exchange for “safety” from what lies beyond the circus tents.

Peacock continues, “We are nothing but a way to sell tickets for this circus, and can be just as easily discarded along the side of the road [We’re the boxtop admissions and their thowaways, strewn across tobacco roads]. The people that run this place spend their days drunk on absinthe and planning to put on fraudulent medicine shows to deceive the crowds [with their wormwood shots and their snake oil plots]. They are drunks conmen who surround themselves only with people who praise them and agree with them [drunk sheepshank conmen and their sycophants].” The attitude Peacock touts is only natural, considering that he is being overworked by evil men. But it goes further in that they have misdirected his natural talents and the beauty of which he was once so proud, and are using him as nothing but another easy way to sell tickets. One has to wonder, since we can assume that Peacock was in the circus long before the train derailed, whether or not he felt this strongly about these performances and the artificiality of his environment before he had a chance to taste freedom and failed to take it. Is it only once he has stood on that fence just before the nets trapped him, swaying in the wind with so many liberating possibilities before him (albeit none he could bring himself to commit to) that Peacock is truly able to see the circus for what it always was: a sham. Which begs the question: do the institutional expectations that society places on a person only begin to look constricting once you’ve had a chance to see what the world outside of the walls looks like? Peacock ends his song of woe by wondering if perhaps he has already died, and that this is the afterlife and his ultimate punishment [I often wonder if I’ve already died].

Tiger now chimes in, and his response to Peacock is especially interesting in light of how hopeless he was the last time we met him, refusing to leave his cage because he believed that there was nothing of worth for him in the outside world. Something has changed in Tiger, perhaps some reignition of the fiery being he once was, informed by witnessing the sacrifice of Mother Elephant and the escape of his animal friends. “It is true that our costumes are torn and worn out by the time we are asked to come back for an encore performance [Out at elbows by the encore].”

With his next words we get our first tiny glimpse of a complex Hegelian philosophy that will become very important by the end of Ten Stories. Tiger says that “there’s a citadel inside”. He is referring, in the simplest terms, to withdrawing into himself, as one might be prone to do in a situation such as the one he and Peacock find themselves in. This touches upon the idea of self-centeredness versus self-denial and self-sacrifice. Remember that Tiger’s desire to remain in his cage in the first song was the direct result of being blinded by the all-consuming worries of the self, whereas Mother Elephant’s decision to remain and sacrifice herself was the result of her ultimate denial of self. To form a fortress inside one’s own being that you can retreat to would seem to indicate that Tiger has become a lost cause. That, gladly, is not the case.

Hegelian philosophy teaches that self-consciousness simply cannot exist without another living being to interact with. The self would eat its own tail, consuming itself in a pointless circle of meaninglessness without an opposing force to render context to it’s very existence. This is something Tiger has realized in his time stuck in the circus since he denied himself freedom. What he says to Peacock is then rendered quite profound in light of his former statement that everyone he has ever known and loved is dead, and that they live now inside of him in the fortress of memories. Here he does not describe this citadel inside of himself as a dreary place of retreat but as a place of community, where he and Peacock can connect with and understand one another. It is a connection at the soul, where, despite their circumstances, they can find some sense of truth in the falsehood of the circus [But there’s a citadel inside where I’ll go and shape my heart like yours and you shape yours like mine]. The line here about reciprocal heart shaping is taken from the poem “Too In Love to Chat” by St. Teresa of Avila, in which she writes:

I have a lovely habit:

At night in my prayers I touch everyone

I have seen that

day

I shape my heart like theirs

and theirs like

mine.

This reinforces the idea that Tiger has finally come around to an understanding: community is the answer to his loneliness and hopelessness. Other beings with which to relate can reignite his desire to live again, freedom or no. He and Peacock have both been denied their very self-worth, held captive in a world of fraud and made to perform to sell tickets. They earlier made the decision to choose self, in one way or another, over freedom. Now, self is being stripped of them to the point that Peacock, once vain and proud, has begun to spout the same blind nonsense that Tiger did while in his cage amongst the wreckage of the train. Tiger, on the other had, has used this denial of worth to finally understand what it means to deny his own selfish hopelessness and connect with another creature aside from himself. He has begun to sound suspiciously like Mother Elephant.

Tiger continues his response to Peacock, commiserating with his point of view. “The circus is telling us we are nothing unique or special, though in some ways we are almost cosmically beautiful and unique [We’re the spiraling arms of all galaxies and we’re the microscopic sand]. Instead we are being told we are worthless decorations and thus we believe only that of ourselves [suffering from delusions of un-grandeur], as we sit displayed next to a hoax like the Cardiff Giant, with his false eyes made of alabaster [on middling display beside the Cardiff Giant with the alabaster eye].” Peacock and Tiger are being told that they are worth nothing more than any other trinket the circus has on display. The Cardiff Giant is the perfect metaphor for the false nature of the circus institution and the way it has consumed Peacock and Tiger. The “giant” was a famously hoaxed ten foot tall “petrified man” from the 19th century that ended up on display in various side-shows throughout the ages. Here even the Cardiff Giant, once supposedly a real flesh and blood being, is said to have eyes made of alabaster. Everything the circus does is artificial. The tension between what the institution is telling the animals they should be and what some deeper knowledge within their soul is saying has made them both miserable, but whereas Peacock seems to have lost his hope, Tiger has found it in the very self-denial he once rejected. As Tiger ends his response to Peacock, he repeats the existential quandary posed earliey. “I, too, often wonder if I am already dead, he says, “Or, is it simply that the whole question becomes a moot point when you have a completely different perspective [I often wonder if I’ve already died or if the ‘I’ is an unintelligible lie]? This is a far cry from the Tiger who once proclaimed that “All once without now lives within”. He has converted his inner fortress of solitude and pain into a citadel of connection in order to begin forming new and valuable relationships within these horrible circumstances. His newfound peace, with which he is attempting to console Peacock, is a result of his long-delayed decision to deny the self and realize that to bemoan one’s own difficulties becomes pointless when you forget yourself entirely and instead think only of others. The idea of “I” and “me” and “my problems” becomes a lie, replaced by connections far transcending any dark artificial condition they are borne in.

Tiger compares their life at the circus to coating a wasp’s perfectly pristine and natural paper nest with artificial plastic [Off we flew like swarms of hornets ‘woken up’ from winter’s rest to colonize with plastic pulp our neighbor’s perfect paper nest]. Notice that he refers to an awakening from hibernation, as if their former lives at the circus before the train crash was a deep spiritual and mental slumber. Now that they have been woken up, they realize that the world they have always been living and working in all of these years serves nothing but falsehood. It is a realization, sadly, come too late.

Overhearing the conversation from her nest beneath the floorboards, Potter Wasp breaks into the discussion, having long ago learned to fully deny the self [While all year round, Potter Wasp has buzzed her unhinged song. You can hear its creaking in our floorboards]. She sings her song year round, directly contrasting Tiger’s description of themselves as having woken from hibernation. Potter Wasp is always awake to the reality of the circus, always singing her song unabashedly, no matter what spiritual winter surrounds her. What she sings to sooth Peacock and Tiger’s turmoil is “Megalomania’s only mania if you’re wrong”. Megalomania is a psychological disorder that causes delusions of importance, power, or relevance. In other words, exactly the opposite of “delusions of ungrandeur”. What Potter Wasp seeks to tell them is that they are not wrong in wanting to believe they are more than what the circus has told them they are. They are not merely decorations to be displayed for profit alongside frauds and hoaxes like the Cardiff Giant, but are beautiful and wild creatures that should never have been tamed.

It’s only crazy to think such things if they are in the wrong.

#beauty #browneyes #browneye #self #friday #alwayssmile...

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 12:59:56 -0400

#beauty #browneyes #browneye #self #friday #alwayssmile #boyfriendsRdumb #cleavage #goodhairday #everyidiotthatdoesthisistheworst

I look to’ up from the flo’ up

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 07:50:38 -0400

I look to’ up from the flo’ up

East Enders Wives Returning to a theme much explored in...

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 05:04:00 -0400

East Enders Wives

Returning to a theme much explored in mewithoutYou’s first full length album, [A-B]: Life, “East Enders Wives” is a song on one level about romantic disaster. But there is always more than one level to a mewithoutYou song. First we must establish the setting and the characters.

Rabbit is still making his way home, as we learned in “Grist for the Malady Mill”. He has made it as far as the Roe River in Great Falls, Montana and there he has a chance encounter with a Fortune Teller [We met by chance on the Roe River side]. Though no details are given, the two fall for each other, and begin a relationship. Without going too far into the song just yet, let us examine what this alone means in the context of the overarching plot, and specifically what it means for Rabbit’s story.

Rabbit, you will recall, was given explicit instructions by Mother Elephant after the circus train derailed: run on until your “anchor heart takes hold”. Find meaning. Find love. Find what really matters. These are the sorts of things Rabbit should be seeking on his journey home. The fact that his immediate intent on the outset of his flight was to seek his home and family indicates that he feels those are the things that truly matter, and that there his anchor heart will catch hold. This sheds some new light on what is going on here. Rabbit has not even made it out of Montana, where he knows he is being hunted along with all of the other circus animals, and he is already losing focus on his goal to instead enter into a relationship with a Fortune Teller. The fact that her line of work is one usually viewed as fraudulent, misleading, and full of trickery is important as well, and should be enough to warn Rabbit away from the tryst. This whole event is at best a distraction, and at worst his downfall if he goes the way of Peacock before him, captured while focused on the wrong things and again fallen prey to the institution of the circus.

The first lines that describe their time together give us further insight into the ways of the Fortune Teller. She uses salt fires - cheap pyrotechnic trickery - in her act, and she practices the rather questionable method of divination through interpreting patterns in tea leaves [Our salt fire danced as our tea leaves dried]. She plans their time together by watching the movements of the tides [She hatched our plans in the atmospheric tides.] Notice that by using “our” here twice, it emphasizes that Rabbit has been drawn into this new way of seeing things, or at the very least is willing to participate in suspicious means of predicting the future.

Mother Elephant urged the animals before to follow the wind, as we’ve examined. The wind is an unpredictable natural force that will lead you to unknown places. Rabbit has taken up with someone who makes a living by telling others exactly what the future holds, through wholly unnatural means. Already, this seems to be a bad idea, and Rabbit has lost interest in returning home for the present. It is a choice he will regret by the end of his tale.

The first words the fortune teller speaks in the song tell us a great deal about her personality. “Let’s give up sacrifice next Lent,” she jokes. She takes commitments to belief in a higher authority (and commitments in general) very lightly, and thinks of them as nothing more than a joke. Rabbit’s response is to simply remark, “Eh, that joke’s long since been spent.” He should be much more deeply offended at an offhand remark about giving up even the smallest of sacrifices for a noble cause, especially considering the only reason he is able to roam the countryside and fall in love with this woman is because Mother Elephant sacrificed her life to free him. Rabbit has already been blinded by the Fortune Teller’s flashy lifestyle and by his lust for her.

[Quick authorial side note - I say “lust” here not because anything in the song proper seems to indicate that Rabbit and Fortune Teller are necessarily in a sexual relationship, but because the album artwork for “East Enders Wives” contains an image of them engaged what I can only describe as some sort of pre-sex act: the Fortune Teller stands naked while Rabbit paws at one of her breasts. I would like to avoid anyone assuming I’m reading too much into this and incorporating some sort of weird bestial carnality that isn’t in the text. I suppose this is as good a place as any to state that one shouldn’t necessarily read these characters as actual animals, but instead as ciphers for different sorts of people or mindsets. This is an allegorical album. Don’t dwell too much on the idea that a Fortune Teller is probably having sex with a Rabbit in track three. It simply indicates that the relationship seems to be focused on the physical joys, rather than the spiritual at the ouset]

Their relationship grows, and they enjoy it. Rabbit seems content to take in musical entertainment and lounge in the shade with his lover, rather than continue his journey [but as the Fool on the bagpipes played, we kept cool in the parasol shade]. He is growing unhealthily attached to the Fortune Teller, being a naive and young creature as he is [your thumb on my page, at my tender age]. The song refers to them now as “East Enders wives”. While it is unclear exactly what that means, I theorize that this is a reference to the East End of London. In the late 19th century, East Enders became a negative term for those living in the impoverished area, who were considered shiftless, untrustworthy, and responsible for their own poverty. This fits in rather nicely as a description for both Rabbit and Fortune Teller. In the b-side song “Four Fires” which details Rabbit’s final return home (and will be covered at the end of this analysis), Rabbit is indeed in a very bad state, monetarily. It is indicated that his relationship with the Fortune Teller is an almost direct cause for his poverty. As for the Fortune Teller, Aaron Weiss has described her in interviews as “footloose” and “peripatetic”. Both words mean roughly the same thing, but in using the term “footloose” we get the idea that she not only roams from place to place, which no spot to call home, but that she doesn’t care to have such a thing as a home.

Contrast this now with what we know about Rabbit. He was told by Elephant to anchor his heart somewhere, yet he chose to anchor it to a woman who lives her life drifting decidedly unanchored from any single location. He set out to find home, and has forgotten his goal by forming a relationship with someone who refuses to entertain the very notion of having a “home”. This tryst is bound to go south, and in the song it does so very quickly indeed.

In the book of Proverbs, chapter 22, the paths of the wicked are described as being beset by boxthorn vines that cause “snares and pitfalls”. This mistake of a relationship has soured, grown as old as a tree that can live thousands of years, and it has became a snare and a pitfall for Rabbit that he cannot bring himself to escape from [Then hidden in the boxthorn vine, we grew old as the foxtail pine]. For the Fortune Teller, who longs to roam, the relationship has made her feel like a caged sheep and has, from her point of view, become as unnecessary as gilding gold with more gold [sheep in the fold, gilding our gold]. Rabbit, as we will soon realize, is under the delusion that this sour love is still nourishing and fruitful for them both, but the Fortune Teller is already planning to move on. They are both in the same relationship, experiencing the same things, but with two vastly different perspectives on the whole situation. It is as if they are drinking from the same cup, but one tastes milk while the other tastes water [sipping our milk and water lives].

The Fortune Teller makes good on her plan while Rabbit sleeps one night, but Rabbit ignores the overwhelming evidence present of their withering relationship and considers this a merely arbitrary decision on her part [Rabbit: She packed our bags, some arbitrary time… Fortune Teller: By the time he wakes up I’ll be gone]. He catches up to her in time to see her board a ship bound for Australia [Rabbit: …then waved like a flag from the White Star Line. Fortune Teller: Queensland, our next stop, he’ll be gone]. It has been speculated that, since the White Star Line mentioned in the song is the shipping company that set sail the ill-fated Titanic in 1912, that this is a reference to the ruined relationship that has “sunk” like the famous ocean liner. I do not believe it is necessary to look at it that specifically, considering that the lyrics on Ten Stories often include references to companies or cultural specificities of the late 19th century simply to add a certain poetic flavor and detail to a verse (ie. The mentioning of the North Pacific Union rail in “February, 1878”, while interesting, does not have any real implied deeper meaning). I will concede however that there is enough evidence to support such a possible notion here as there are soon to be other references to shipwrecks in the song.

The desertion of the Fortune Teller has left Rabbit depressed, sick, and directionless. He mourns the loss of what he considered a perfect love affair [Rabbit: Unmoored, unwell, though I seldom elegize]. The Fortune Teller recognizes this emotion in Rabbit for what it is: he is still in love with the person she was at the outset of their relationship, rather than the person she truly is [Fortune Teller: You still see who I once was]. She wants to see the world, tell fortunes, visit exotic locales. He was content to grow old by the Roe River with an unhappy and restless lover.

Their relationship turned out to be wrong for both parties, and now Rabbit is slowly beginning to realize it. Both the Fortune Teller and Rabbit denied themselves what they really wanted and needed [We’ve both been untrue]. Her to roam the world, he to find his way back home to his family. Rabbit had even misplaced his sense of faith that was so important to him at the beginning of the song, when he objected to the Fortune Teller’s joke about Lent. Now his false belief in this broken and ultimately fleeting love has become the only act of “faith” he had left [but I’m still counting on you like an invisible rosary].

Rabbit has lost all sense of place in the world, of where he came from, and where he thought he was headed, and he is left in a kind of darkness [As the past and all plans are undone, slowly sank like the shipwrecked sun]. He can not go back to his lover for comfort. That bridge was burned when she set sail, and without his faith to support him in this crisis, he sees no hope at all. It is as if the burnt bridges have now burnt up everything in his world [bridges and boats, burning them both, burned up the sky].

While this is speculation, I believe then next lines preceding the quote from the Fortune Teller may actually be referring to events transpiring at Rabbit’s family home [Choirs sang as the Black Birch fell, sorrow rang like a Church Yard bell]. It is certainly possible that it is merely a poetic way of describing Rabbit’s feelings of loss, but I don’t think so. In the song “Four Fires”, Rabbit arrives home to find that his father has died, possibly while gathering wood. As the final lines of “East Enders Wives” describe, Rabbit returns to his bed to find a note that the Fortune Teller has left for him that predicts the death of his father. The lines seem cryptic at first glance, but if we imagine that the Black Birch crushing his father while he was out chopping wood is the cause of death, the note becomes very clear. Both known species of black birch trees are native only to the eastern regions of the United States - the direction we know Rabbit is heading, though he is still very far to the west. This could indicate, if I am not reading too much into it, that these lines refer to the death of Rabbit’s father. “An axe to the trees, smoke for the bees, all our dads die,” writes the Fortune Teller. She seems to be indicating that his father’s death - caused by a carelessly swung axe - has sent him to his eternal slumber, like smoke intoxicating a hive of bees. Furthermore, she reminds him that everyone’s dad dies, as if he should treat this event as lightly as she treated the notion of faith.

The idea that his father might be dead sets Rabbit on a path that will conclude in the “Four Fires” b-side. While Rabbit has been led astray by carnal pleasures and false teachings, and lingered far too long in apathy, he has now determined to finally return home to his family.

Like the prodigal son in the biblical parable, Rabbit heads home with a heavy heart, afraid of what he might find when he arrives.

Found this on a “free” pile at school. Score!

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 11:17:04 -0400

Found this on a “free” pile at school. Score!

Grist for the Malady Mill The action of our fable now disperses...

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 04:46:34 -0400

Grist for the Malady Mill

The action of our fable now disperses amongst the fleeing animals. Rabbit turns toward the direction he thinks his home is in [Rabbit fled, best guess, toward home]. Fox and Bear wander in the direction of Yellowstone National Park [Fox & Bear toward Yellowstone]. Walrus, longing for even colder climates, heads north toward the Canadian border [Walrus, north to the border towns]. Peacock, however, is indecisive. He cannot figure out in which direction he wants to flee and instead lingers on a fence post admiring his own beautiful style [Peacock swayed like a reed on the fence awhile (with a stalwart sense of style!)]. This proves to be his downfall, as the authorities use this opportunity to capture him in their nets [as the policemen’s nets came down!].

Let us pause here to discuss Peacock. It is interesting to note that the phrases describing his actions seem to bear a similarity to the words of Christ spoken in the Gospel of Matthew 11:7-8: “7 As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? 8 If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings’ palaces.” Peacock’s main concern is about the way he looks, even in such a desperate situation as this, which is a terrible mistake. But his mistake here is not merely vanity, although that is a large part of what ultimately gets him caught.

Faced with newfound freedom, Peacock cannot decide what to do. Remember that Mother Elephant’s advice to the other animals was to follow the wind’s direction and let that take them where it may. But here we have a character swaying in the wind, seemingly pushed in the direction he should go by an unseen force, but unable to decide in his mind what is the right move. He has been given every opportunity to see the Truth of his freedom. Elephant, the very voice of God, told him directly what to do: follow the wind. Then the wind itself comes into play, swaying him on the fence. Still, he can not decide whether to heed the Elephant’s advice or not. His focus is completely off-kilter, and it allows him to be distracted by his own beauty, and thus he descends into a display of vanity that attracts the attention of his hunters. As we shall see, he will suffer the same fate as Tiger.

As the song progresses, we learn that news of the train crash caused by Elephant has taken the countryside by storm [Word of the crash had spread fast and spread far, from Clark’s Fork to Blackfoot Reservoir]. This disease-like spreading of news is called here “more grist for the malady mill”. “Grist for the mill” is an old proverb that basically means something can be made useful or profitable. For example, someone who writes memoirs and essays based on their own experiences might refer to any small thing that happens to them in a given day as grist for their mill. In the case of this song, this dangerous news serves as “profit” for the malady mill. Only evil can come of this turn of events.

We now get a glimpse into the minds and mouths of the local people that are providing this grist-like news. The first line is especially important in light of Elephant’s words urging the animals to follow the untamable wind. “Shepherd the Southwest wind!” and “Shepherd the Northwest rain!” seems to be the prevailing sentiment amongst the townsfolk. This can be seen both as a call to arms, one that calls specifically for the capture of the animals as they flee, but also as something a bit deeper when read in the context of our already prevalent “wind and nature as freedom” theme. They wish to harness the wind, this supernatural force that can not be captured. They demand control, and they think they have a right to do so to the very elemental forces of nature itself. They’ve already seen they can cage the natural wonders of the animal kingdom, so why stop there?

As the news reaches new ears, the devastation of the wreck seems to be seen quite differently than it was when the animals thought of it as a means to freedom. Here the humans are shocked by the violence. “The track itself was torn apart at the seams [railspikes ripped like the seam of a wineskin]!” they cry. “The authorities really screwed up by letting this happen! Isn’t it heartbreaking how much pain this has caused [Brass Hat slept at the helm of that woeful train… Ain’t it an awful shame! And don’t it just break your heart to hear of so much pain?]? Notice that with a different perspective - a very circus-like and institutionalized perspective - the freedom of the train crash instead looks only like the destruction of the “proper” way of doing things.

If one has been told all his life that Freedom looks a certain way, or that Freedom is something to be afraid of and shunned, it will look like chaos and woe when Freedom actually appears in the headlines of his local newspaper.

A new character is now introduced: the conductor, it is to be assumed, of the circus train itself. His name is Casey Jones, and he visits Elephant where she is held captive in prison [Casey Jones walked slow to the prison cell, his face held hard as a scallop shell]. It is interesting that Aaron Weiss chose to make the conductor a specific American folk hero. Whether it is to be seen as an archetypal reference - that any railroad engineer considered a hero could be a sort of “Casey Jones” - or not is debatable. While the timeline of Jones’ life doesn’t seem to quite fit the tale (he would have only been fifteen years old in February 1878, and likely not conducting steam engines), things become very intriguing if we assume that this is the literal Casey Jones.

His words to Elephant are meant to mock and intimidate. Part of what he says even seems to be an outright lie, or at least an ill-conceived assumption, about the other animals that escaped. “I wish that I hoped you would live through this, but I do not,” he says. “All of your friends have been captured or are dead and buried by now. Your big idea of freedom from the circus has died with them [Well I wish I wished you well, but your last friend on Earth now calls from the silent side of the cemetery walls, your great cause to the moths and the rust!].” Casey Jones seems to be diametrically opposed, for now, to Elephant’s ideals. He seeks to scare her and cause her anguish.

If this is the real Casey Jones, however, he may not leave this encounter unchanged. The real-life hero of the rails is a man who would go on to die at the helm of a train while attempting to save the lives of everyone aboard. He will succeed, thus sacrificing his own life so that others might live. It is a parallel to Elephant’s story that should not be overlooked. It calls to mind the Roman centurion that helped crucify Christ in the gospels, only to then come to the conclusion that Jesus really was the Son of God.

It is a realization made much too late to do anything to help the man condemned to die, but not too late to change the soldier at the foot of the cross.

In any event, Mother Elephant is altogether unconcerned by his words [Fanning her ears with a calm in her eye]. “The only thing you are criticizing is the way things work, but I understand that it is something you feel compelled to do [It’s the laws of cause and effect that you criticize, but sir, criticize them you must]. Elephant already understands, unlike young Casey Jones, that death is just another part of life. It’s not as if she didn’t know that there was danger for her and her animal children in this escape attempt. The idea of them being killed and captured, while sad, does not surprise her. Whatever happens will happen, whether she rages against the idea or not. Such is the attitude she adopted in the rejection of self that lead her to derail the train in the first place and give freedom to the animals.

The song now does something still partially incomprehensible to me, and if I am being honest I still don’t quite understand what is going on in the fable proper, nor what themes are present in the selection. I will here submit the lyrics as one of the hopefully few holes that will be present in my analysis of Ten Stories.

[Three miles more ‘til Flagstaff

Follow behind signs toward Badger Pass

Wound like clocks around fretboards

Carved out hands in our basswood body guitars -

borrowed guitars (borrowed hands!)

I’m clearly not as handsome or caring as what you seem to want,

but I’d gladly walk you home, ‘

cause those streets can be dangerous]

In our discussions we seem to be leaning towards this aside being, in general, directed towards Fox and Bear. The reference to carved hands crops up again in another song about these characters, “Bear’s Vision of St. Agnes”, but mysteriously that reference is only present in the recording and is nowhere to be found in the liner notes themselves. “Our wooden sculpture hands” sung becomes “Bear and Fox held hands” on paper. Here in “Grist for the Malady Mill”, two (or more, there is no specification) characters seem to be in a state of perpetual tension, being “wound like clocks”, but the simile then switches to having them wound around fretboards, which would imply that they can make beautiful music. Furthermore the characters seem to then carve images of their hands into the basswood of the guitars they have “borrowed”, thus providing another connection to the similar statement in “Bear’s Vision of St. Agnes” of Fox and Bears “wooden sculpture hands” being “held like a timber hitch”. A further connection is implied in that one of the definitions of a timber hitch is a method of attaching guitar strings to the bridge of the instrument. Even the geographical places mentioned seem stubbornly confusing, as the only city in the United States called Flagstaff is in Arizona, and if Fox and Bear are just leaving the Badger Pass area of Montana, as the characters here seemingly are, then they would be nowhere near three miles outside of Flagstaff. Also, there is the slight possibility that with time mentioned nearby in both song sequences, the hands might also somehow metaphorically describe clock hands. Keep in mind it is quite possible that this section of the song in no way related to Fox and Bear’s plight and instead is more directly connected to what is going on with the spreading of the news concerning the train wreck. It is the final, bashful lines that make us think most readily that this is Bear speaking to Fox, with whom he begins a timid relationship on their journey. In any case, I opted to not assume any sort of solid hypothesis and instead have submitted above what I consider to be the foremost clues. Perhaps if Aaron Weiss ever reads these words, he will be kind enough to offer some insight. Until then, we will return to the more straightforward aspects of “Grist for the Malady Mill”.

The song shifts focus now back to the news being spread as grist for this “malady” mill. The sentiment that the railway was ripped apart is repeated, as is the insistence that the wind and rain be shepherded. But then we see that something is changing about the kinds of things being said by the humans about the wreck. They have moved on from blaming the authorities and have now decided to pin the whole thing on Elephant [frog switch flipped and that reckless beast is to blame! Ain’t it an awful shame! and don’t it just break your heart to hear of so much pain?]. Elephant, it seems, has been condemned by the people.

But not without a proper trial, of course.

Ten Stories Analysis Introduction A little over a year ago,...

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 19:21:53 -0400

Ten Stories Analysis

Introduction

A little over a year ago, mewithoutYou’s fifth studio album, Ten Stories, was released. One thing was immediately apparent: this was not an album that was simply made to be listened to while driving on a spring afternoon with the windows down. But of course, none of their albums really are. Ten Stories, though, is a beast of a different sort. Lyricist Aaron Weiss has always been want to wade out into the river of obscure poetry, religious philosophy, and fable on past albums. The allusions to Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five on [A-B]: Life, for example, or writing a song to a porcupine in a tree on Brother, Sister. Their previous album, It’s All Crazy! It’s All False! It’s All a Dream! It’s Alright. boasted the lion’s share of the fairy tale approach to Weiss’ usual philosophical and introspective wordslinging. Here foxes tricked narcissistic crows and beetle kings became one with the Divine in the form of a lone campfire, all with another layer of meaning spread out underneath it all like a second skin.

Which brings us to Ten Stories, an album as ambitious and beautiful as it is bizarre and at times, rather befuddling. The day the album dropped, I sat down with the lyrics in front of me and compiled what became known as my “Ten Stories Glossary”. Never before had so many strange references, literary allusions, and animal symbolism assaulted my ears on a mewithoutYou record. After I had spend a good couple of hours defining to the best of my ability every word or phrase with which I, as the layman, would be unfamiliar, I sat back and thought to myself, “Gee that was swell. A really very helpful exercise.”

But what’s really goin’ on here?

Because, to be honest, I still wasn’t sure. I’m still not. Was Elephant supposed to represent Christ? Why is a rabbit in a relationship with a fortune teller? Is the “I” really such an unintelligible lie? And for God’s sake, why is there a song about someone who is apparently falling for a basket full of eggplants?

I haven’t a clue.

But, I’d like to try and find out. Thus I come to my small project, a year out from the release of Ten Stories. I seek to explore the rich themes present in each of the songs on the album. What is happening in the plot, to these animals and their circus folk jailers? What do these characters and their circumstances represent?

It’s a challenging task to take on, mostly because there aren’t a whole lot of interviews with Aaron Weiss that really strive to pick the brain of such an interesting songwriter. Also there is the problem of the dual, and often triple meanings present in the songs. In “Fox’s Dream of the Log Flume”, Bear is speaking to his best friend and fellow traveller, Fox, about a past love and a disastrous night they had at a carnival in New Jersey. On the surface, anyway. But what is this saying about relationships? Or about religion? Or something else? And let’s go further. When Weiss sings, “in the past fourteen years there’s only one girl I’ve kissed” is this merely Bear speaking, or is this a more personal revelation stemming from the broken relationship so predominantly explored on earlier albums? Could it at once be all of these? It probably is.

(I don’t much feel like speculating on an artist’s personal life, so I have attempted to leave out any theorizing as to what inner struggles Weiss might be specifically referencing and instead will focus on what the songs say for themselves.)

I have here attempted to wrestle with my own understanding of this incredible work of art. I am a layman and will in all likelihood be wrong about most of the conclusions I come to. The reason I even make the attempt is that, even a year later, not much has been done to really compile a thought piece on what everything could mean in Ten Stories. This is meant to prompt discussion. Disagree with what I’ve found and tell me about it. Find out something new and add to this, please. I’d be fascinated to read it.

One final note: I owe nearly all of the better conclusions I have come to in this project to my long conversations with my friend and research partner Brian Walton over the last twelve months (and more intensely in the past week in preparation to dig into this).

The mistakes were mine.

February, 1878

With the possible exception of the b-side “Julian the Onion”, the first track on Ten Stories is probably the most straightforward song plot-wise. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t some thematic depth to dig into as the song progresses, of course. “February, 1878” drops the listener right into the middle of the action with a clamoring crowd of geographical and railroad terms that are fairly baffling before a Google search or two sheds a bit of light on the subject.

In an unspecified region of Montana, somewhere south of Trout Creek and west of Cedar Lake, a circus train navigates a winding mountain trail on a railroad built by Union Pacific [On a winding mountain trail of the North Pacific Union Rail]. Two problems are immediately apparent: the train is running behind schedule, and a blizzard has hit [the snow arrived on time, the circus train was running late]. The repair track is long behind , and the hooks that link the train cars together are wearing out [rip spot’s past and all the knuckles worn]. The firebox, where the coal is burned to power the steam locomotive is overloading [firebox bursting to the running boards]. The engineer, his heart pounding in his chest, pushes the train faster and faster as it rounds the bend. He holds on to the throttle and leans into the turn as the train almost comes off of the rails [a pounding in his chest, crushing like a cider press, the hogger rode the throttle ‘round the bender like a flank-strapped horse].

An exciting way to begin a fable, no doubt, but we soon move on to a more important area of the ailing circus train: the animal car. It is here that we are introduced to what is arguably the most important character in Ten Stories.

There is much speculation online as to exactly who or what Elephant represents. A safe bet, considering mewithoutYou’s usual subject matter, would be God. More specifically the person or idea of Jesus Christ. Initially I was hesitant to assign a hard line 1:1 ratio of Elephant = Jesus. In a later song, Elephant will display a definite feeling of regret for the way she has lived her life before the events of the story. This seems to indicate she isn’t a completely blameless (or sinless) creature as Christian tradition teaches Christ was. A few things brought me around to the idea that if Elephant isn’t representing Christ, she is representing, at the very least, a Christ-like and almost holy individual.

First is the obvious. As we shall soon see in this song, she sacrifices her own freedom (and, it is to be assumed, her life) in order to grant the animals unlimited freedom. Sacrificing oneself for another is a very central idea to the Christian faith, and it will crop up numerous times on this album.

Second, the song title “Elephant in the Dock” seems to be a direct reference to the C.S. Lewis book, God in the Dock, which we will talk about later. That seems to be a pretty definitive answer if ever there was one.

The third aspect that points to the holiness, if not complete Divinity, of the Elephant character is rather more illusory and requires a bit of digging into past mewithoutYou albums. Here, the animals refer to Elephant as their “mother”. While God is usually referred to as a “He”, the Bible also states in many places that God has feminine qualities. Or, more specifically, maternal ones. Aaron Weiss is no stranger to this aspect of the Divine, and has referenced it numerous times on previous albums. The song “Timothy Hay” is the best example of this because of the very bluntness of the lyrics in which Weiss sings, “Broke the news to Mom: we found a better mom we call G-d, (which she took quite well)”. The motherhood of God is an oft-repeated theme in mewithoutYou’s catalog and Ten Stories seems to be following in that same vein.

My conclusion is that, for all intents and purposes of the fable presented, Mother Elephant does represent God. Now, to return to the story.

The animal car of the train is filled with all manner of creatures, and as the menagerie rounds the bend, Mother Elephant addresses them. “Let’s return now to the dust as dust we are; tonight our bridal fate, the hour’s come to consummate!”

Elephant’s words here are pretty important as they seem to emphasize a certain final decision she has come to that will definitely endanger them all, but may also save them in the end. But before we get to that we have to consider what the animals will be saved from.

In later songs we will learn of the cruelty and “falsehood” of the circus itself, so on the surface it seems the animals mistreatment could be enough of a catalyst to risk everything and escape. As always, there is more depth to plumb in this theme.

Aaron Weiss has stated that the animals are living an “institutionalized” life in the circus. In other words, they have become circus acts, rather than the wild and free beasts they should be. The circus institution, then, could be a stand in for a number of things. The simple answer is a “secular” or God-less lifestyle, but it isn’t really that simple.

Notice the features of the circus train mentioned here. It is on a straight track. It is working furiously toward a goal. When the train derails, the animals are free and the rest of the album has them doing… What exactly? Wandering the countryside. They will meet other characters, most of whom will have vastly differing ideologies and outlooks, and they will struggle with their own long-held assumptions about faith and sacrifice. The subliminal idea presented here seems to be that a lifestyle devoted to attaining fleeting societal and “earthly” goals is an institution that should be wholeheartedly rejected.

Even if to reject it means you will be disgraced and murdered.

And that brings us to Mother Elephant’s rallying cry. They may die, and thus be returned to the dust from which all things sprang, but this would be a noble death. And in death, it seems, there is more hope than even the circus offers. The moment of decision, the sheer act of will required to remove oneself from the institution is here a fate compared to the consummation of a marriage. An act of beauty. Often times, an act that results in the conception of life.

The result of Elephant’s determination to free the animals is quite stunning. She charges into the bars of her cage [and drove her massive body like a truck into the iron bars]. An open top train car loaded down with a cargo of limestone derails first in the wake of the impact [limestone thrown from out the hopper’s back], and the man responsible for fueling the fire is thrown bodily from the engine and against the smokestack [Ash Cat tossed against the diamond stack]. From the front of the train to the back, bolts long frozen in the cold Montana air break free and the animals’ cage spins off of the train car and into the snow [from cradle to caboose, the frozen bolts broke loose, sent that cage spinning like a dreidel off the icy tracks].

The song now switches gears, focusing on the animals escaping the wreckage. The narrator, who seems here almost to be adopting the voice or thoughts of Elephant urges Rabbit to race on into the blizzard before dawn, and to keep running until his heart finds peace somewhere [Run on, Rabbit, run! Before the East sky wakes the sun! Sails set to the dreadful cold, until your anchor-heart takes hold]. Notice that here the emphasis is on setting sail to the wind, which is a freely wandering natural force. This can be immediately compared to the rigid railway of predetermined destination and societal expectation.

A train speeding down the tracks is easily derailed when an Elephant decides to alter its course. The wind, however, can never be tamed.

The narration then turns to Fox and Bear, again urging them to run from the despair of circus life, and let the wind guide them. [Run on, Fox & Bear, from this dismal dream’s despair! Cast thoughts to the open ocean of air, until your thread catch somewhere]. This is the first literary reference we come across and it will certainly not be the last. These lines are adapted from Walt Whitman’s “Noiseless Patient Spider” and a full reading of the short poem is quite helpful for illuminating the extent of what is happening here.

“A NOISELESS, patient spider,

I mark’d, where, on a little promontory, it stood, isolated;

Mark’d how, to explore the vacant, vast surrounding,

It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself;

Ever unreeling them—ever tirelessly speeding them.

And you, O my Soul, where you stand,

Surrounded, surrounded, in measureless oceans of space,

Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing,—seeking the spheres, to connect them;

Till the bridge you will need, be form’d—till the ductile anchor hold;

Till the gossamer thread you fling, catch somewhere, O my Soul.”

The spider in the poem inspires the author to think of his soul casting a net out into a mysterious world in hope of finding some connection. This solidifies the idea that the journey the animals take will not merely be a physical one, but a spiritual one as well.

A journey of salvation, and of ultimate freedom, for the soul.

The animals hesitate, however, because not everyone has chosen to escape as they have. Elephant remains in her cage, despite the animals calling to her [“Mother, please come along!” they cried, but Elephant remained inside]. Elephant refuses to leave. She believes herself to be too old and weak to make good her getaway. Instead she chooses to accept the fate that awaits her. Her words to the animals are fascinating and must be studied closely: “My tusks are dull, my eyes half-blind, too old to run, too big to hide, and have neither friend nor enemy nor that phantom, ‘self-identity’, nor concern for what ‘they’ll’ do to ‘me’. Now, my children, run free!”

There is a lot to unpack here. First, the idea of Elephant’s sacrifice. She isn’t just deciding to accept fate and die in the cold. No, as she well knows, there is an active danger in being captured by men once again. She is choosing, for now metaphorically, to die rather than risk slowing the other animals down in their flight to freedom. Furthermore, she considers no one her explicit friend and no one her explicit enemy. She has divorced herself from such notions of friends and enemies, which is a rather worldy idea. A circus sort of thing, one might say. With her next words, however, we must again cast our nets further into mewithoutYou’s lyrical past.

The idea of personhood as some sort of an arbitrary illusion runs deep in Aaron Weiss’ lyrics. And it is not merely a denial of self, although it seems to begin there. A common refrain on Brother, Sister is “I do not exist”, as in, “I do not exist, we faithfully insist,” and, “I do not exist, only YOU exist!” The idea is expounded on in many of the songs from It’s All Crazy! It’s All False! It’s All a Dream! It’s Alright!. In “Cattail Down” Weiss writes, “You think you’re you, but you don’t know who you are, you’re not you… You’re Everyone Else!” There is even a song explicitly titled “Goodbye, I!” on the album. In fact, the idea of forgetting oneself seems somewhat toned down in Ten Stories as compared to the previous album, in which that seemed to be the theme on just about every song. It will no doubt crop up many times before we are through, though.

For our purposes here, Elephant seems to have completely denied her “self”. She refers to “self-identity” as a phantom idea, and even seems to put quotes around every pronoun she uses, for herself and others. It is as if the idea of individual identity has been completely emptied from her. She sees herself in everyone, and everyone in herself. Thus she is willing to lay down her life for the animals, and has no ill will toward those that would normally be labeled “enemies”. All of her worry is gone.

The narrator chimes in again, this time to Tiger. Tiger sits still in his cage, also refusing to leave as the authorities approach the scene [But Tiger, why sit still, as the officers climb the hill?]. Once again we are treated to a literary reference. This time it is in phrasing adapted from “The Tyger” by William Blake [What stars cast down their spears cooled your fire with their tears?]. The poem is really quite beautiful:

“Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art.
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?”

In the poem, the author extols the magnificence of such a fierce and elegant animal as the tiger. Weiss seems to have appropriated a couple of different lines and thematic elements from the poem and incorporated it into the section of the song devoted to Tiger. The Narrator asks Tiger, in essence, “Why do you sit still? What cosmic force could have even cooled your fiery spirit in the past?”

Tiger’s response is as sad as it is understandable for someone in his situation. The enchanting song of freedom no longer reaches his ears. His family is gone, long dead or long forgotten in his circus life. Everything he once knew now resides simply in his memory and his heart. What is there for him in freedom? Nothing more, he believes, than what the circus offers [Tiger: “Gone that siren sound, it’s a silence now pours down. Gone my next of kin, and all once without now lives within.”]

Fox and Rabbit call to Tiger, in what appears to be at once a warning and a eulogy. “You sit still on display like a tiger cut from an unmoving shrub, and yet once you blazed bright like fire!” [Topiary Tiger once burned bright!] They tell him to receive their wisdom and leave behind this belief that he has received some special fore-knowledge of what awaits them [Save your tales of gnostic sight and take heed on this (most) auspicious night! Topiary Tiger once burned bright!]. Tiger still refuses, and the song here ends.

Notice first the comparison between Tiger’s choice to remain in his cage and Elephant’s choice to remain in hers. For Elephant it was not only practical because of her ailing body, but it was also a determined choice of self denial. For Tiger, it was utter pessimism and hopelessness that caused him to remain. He has ignored his friends and, essentially, God. All have made the case that he is able bodied and was once a truly amazing creature. Tiger should have every reason in the world to leave his cage. Certainly he wont be apprehended, for he can be agile, swift, and dangerous. It is in part his refusal to see the freedom in front of his face that roots him to the spot. Or, rather, that he defines that same freedom as nothing more than a larger version of the circus. This, in turn, is the very definition of an institutionalized life: to become so lost in the sorrows of the institution that you fail to see anything other than that same institution in the idea of freedom. Tiger has transgressed even further, considering his despair wisdom. Despair in and of itself is not wrong. Being so consumed by your situation that you attribute your despair to some holy wisdom is something else entirely.

That, then, is the ultimate difference between someone like Mother Elephant and someone like Tiger. Elephant chooses death because she has sacrificed self and thus ended her earthly worries. Tiger, however, has become consumed by self and the baggage that comes with it. His sorrows and fears overtake him, and he denies himself a chance at the eternal happiness that is right in front of him because, ironically, he is too sad to accept it.

The circus has won, and Tiger will not escape.

I will be posting Volume One of my "Ten Stories" analysis bit by bit this week.

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 19:16:10 -0400

It was just too big to post it all at once, and I need a time buffer to finish it.

Enjoy, and please give me some feedback!

Something I posted on Facebook yesterday.

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 09:58:21 -0400

It seems to me that the capital “P” Problem plaguing humanity is, at its most fundamentally basic level, a lack of empathy. And as with most of our flaws as human beings, this functional error is given a megaphone and license to breed on social media.

Example:

A person of the Christian persuasion posts something on Facebook, attempting to persuade people to “like” or “share” this picture of Jesus if they are not “ashamed of the gospel”. This, at the same time, seems to imply that everyone who doesn’t IS ashamed. Some go so far as to smear talk of hell and condemnation across the note without context or kindness, as if hoping someone who is “God-free” will see that their ultimate fate is apparently an eternal lava-death and turn their life around.

An atheist reads this and responds in kind, posting say, a picture of a rotting zombie Christ with a comedic oversimplified mockery of the Christian faith, equally as misguided and vitriolic.

Both of these individuals have missed the point (many points, actually), and have damaged the reputation of their “side” of the argument. The Christian, while possibly possessing what they seem to think are pure intentions, ends up reducing the act of the death and resurrection of Jesus - the very heartbeat center of the Christian faith - to a trite witticism designed to placate and uplift those they agree with while simultaneously condemning those they don’t. The atheist, on the other hand, attacks the Christian (and thus every Christian), for belittling those who choose not to believe in a God. This response comes across as petty and condescending, and it lowers this probably intelligent and logically minded person to the level of the zealot he or she is attempting to mock.

These sorts of things become an unending public battle, with each side growing exponentially more immature and unendurable. Both believe the other to be some sort of idiotic bigot that needs to be silenced. Neither has taken the time to hear the other out on a personal and conversational basis. It’s all internet screaming by imbecilic children who want to be right. The entire argument is devoid of empathy and becomes a noisy and obnoxious affair.

Meanwhile, I present to you the onlookers of each respective philosophy. One is a man who has read all of the science texts and filled his mind with knowledge gleaned from countless hours of research into the natural world and the evidence - for and against - the existence of a God. He has come to the conclusion that there is no God, and that everything in the universe is part of a great natural order and progression, brought about by chance. However, in order to stay well informed, this man researches the great thinkers who oppose that idea. He reads the Christian apologists. He debates his friends of faith often and amiably. He is always willing to teach and challenge those who disagree with him, and to learn from them.

The other is a man who has read all of the science texts and filled his mind with knowledge gleaned from countless hours of research into the natural world and the evidence - for and against - the existence of a God. He has come to the conclusion, through his research, and perhaps his own experiences with what he considers to be the Divine, that there IS a God. However, in order to stay well informed he reads the works of the great thinkers that oppose that idea. He learns to defend his faith with humility and love, and is always willing to debate his non-believing friends. He desires to be challenged and learn from these discussions, and if at all possible, to teach a little of what he believes as well.

The uniting factor in both of these individuals is that in all of their level-headed empathizing and discussing, neither of them have time to post judgmental, condescending bullshit on Facebook.

So please, if you want to share your faith on Facebook, do so. But don’t reduce such a complex philosophy to a picture, an out of context Bible verse, and a condemnation of people who are different.

And if those sorts of posts annoy you as an atheist, seek that person out and talk to them about how you feel. Posting a condescending, petty, and juvenile attack that seems to reduce every person of faith to blind misguided imbeciles does nothing but create an echo chamber of idiocy.

Remember, there are most likely atheists and Christians watching these exchanges and shaking their heads, wishing for a healthy discussion. None of them are posting propaganda and mean spirited diatribes, so why should they be made subject to that sort of things every time they log on? You aren’t part of the solution, you are part of the problem. So stop it, man. It bugs me.

And if I’ve ever done this, or ever do this, call me on it. I don’t want to be one of those buttholes.

I’m mustache-less!

Sat, 08 Jun 2013 11:01:36 -0400

I’m mustache-less!

did-you-kno: Source

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 23:28:11 -0400

did-you-kno:

Source

I found the best angle and body position to make me look...

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 10:18:34 -0400

I found the best angle and body position to make me look obese-ier.

Ugh. I’m so sticky!

Fri, 31 May 2013 11:54:08 -0400

Ugh. I’m so sticky!

Feedin’ our riding floor scrubber, GOBias.

Tue, 28 May 2013 11:27:33 -0400

Feedin’ our riding floor scrubber, GOBias.

I am eleven episodes deep into Season 4 of Arrested Development, and these are my favorite jokes worth quoting thus far:

Mon, 27 May 2013 09:39:04 -0400

“It’s easy to forget! Stupid, forgetful Michael.”

The constant playing of “Sounds of Silence” over GOB’s depressing existential crises.

ANUSTART

“Daddy needs to get his rocks off!”

“I’m here! I’m queer! Now I’m over here!”

There’s not too much immediately memorable beyond that. We shall see.

Jackie’s making frozen bananas for our Arrested...

Sun, 26 May 2013 13:18:46 -0400

Jackie’s making frozen bananas for our Arrested Development party!

Aubergine may have been one of the most challenging songs to write an analysis for, but it was also the most fun. Thirty pages deep and five songs to go! Have a taste:

Sat, 25 May 2013 14:24:54 -0400

Fish, having been thusly rebuked by Labrador Retriever and Aubergine, re-examines himself in the light of this knowledge. He is a weed growing in gravel, separated from others due to his self-importance that has been disguised as humility and wisdom [Sorrel in the gravel]. He describes himself as wearing a saffron colored robe [and the saffron robe]. Saffron robes are forbidden articles of clothing in Islamic tradition, and thus the wearing of one symbolizes a certain distance and separation from God. It is a realization that will spur Fish to action. He bemoans the fact that he has slept far too long like a shark among the sea grass growing in the shallows [sleeping like a shark in the cord grass]. He sees now that he has become a practitioner of solipsism [until I saw how far I’ve traveled down the solipsistic road]. Solipsism is the direct antithesis to the themes of self-denial, self-sacrifice, and community presented on Ten Stories, which we have already discussed at length. It is the belief that only the self-mind is sure to exist and that everything else is nebulous and illusory, and even possibly false. This flies directly in the face of Tiger’s realization that the one way to really be sure he exists and is alive is through the forgetting of self and the embracing of connections with others. Furthermore it contradicts Mother Elephant’s words about thoughts themselves being mere objects, no more sure to exist than the physical world.

Finally finished my examination of "Elephant in the Dock". Like this whole thing, it's probably going to need a heavy edit before I finally release it, but here is a sample anyway:

Sat, 18 May 2013 15:40:04 -0400

The first line of the song sets the scene. The gallows stands tall over the platform where the accused shall plead her case, surrounded by instruments of imprisonment, like stocks and pillories [Pillory and stocks at the gallows tree dock]. A crowd has gathered and awaits this “trial” impatiently as a storm approaches [the crowd grew impatient, as the clouds threatened rain]. Mother Elephant is led in by the police constable with her trunk and ankles firmly chained [Elephant arrive at the constable’s side, with her trunk locked in shackles and her ankles in chains]. Let us pause now to examine this trial about to take place, and what makes it a complete sham. In any normal circumstance, a trial would be held in a courtroom in order to determine whether or not the accused is guilty. Mother Elephant, despite being innocent of any crime, is already at the gallows when they put her on “trial”. There is no possibility they will acquit her in this case. The trial is all a show, as the song will soon indicate.

The Bailiff announces the arrival of the judge, who arrives to a fanfare of trumpets [Bailiff: “All rise, All rise! His honor presides!” The judge took the bench to the village brass cavalcade.] This fanfare solidifies the image of this whole trial as merely a show to satiate the bloodlust of the villagers, who have worked themselves into a frenzy with their rumor-mongering about the train crash that we witnessed in “Grist for the Malady Mill”. In fact, the word usage here almost brings to mind a certain carnival atmosphere to the proceedings, as if there is a circus in town and the center attractions is the hanging death of a criminal elephant. One can almost imagine children eating cotton candy and tossing darts at balloons while the townspeople string up God Himself. Elephant calls them on it pretty quickly, and refuses to swear any oath they offer her [Elephant refused to swear the oath].

Photo

Fri, 17 May 2013 08:52:12 -0400