Eternal Shadows

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This Blog is hereby resurrected.
I'm still busy with my short story
portfoilo, but when I write, well
now, I write tons. Anything posted
here is a draft and the author retains
full ownership thereof...word to all
the "Vader haters" out there.

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6/13/2008 - To Erato With Love: Blue

Posted in Dark Muse

Ahhh, "Blue" by the Birthday Massacre. What else would be better for the 6-13 edition of Erato? It's not the video I imagine in my head, but it's not bad at all. The thing we get with "Blue" is a dual role on Chibi's vocals: 1. The sweet innocent girl, the lover of tea parties, dolls, and cupcakes. 2. The diabolical demon seed (oohhh, I love that one..*shivers*).

Version one of the song was issued as a demo back when the group sold out their first CD and didn't know what the hell to do next. Can you blame them? It's going fishing with your best tackle and latching on to Moby Dick in seconds. But the band got a handle on success, wrote some really great songs, and published two more CDs.

As a creative force, they are now worried about being type casted on MTV because MTV doesn't understand their music and doesn't know what to do with them. I worry about them to. The music industry has a way of whoring everything (take the alternative movement as an example;
it was doing just fine until Nirvana was "discovered" and then....someone turns on the whore machine, they milk Kurt, and boom, suicide).

The Birthday Massacre is a great example of self-publishing. Three years ago, I could mention the band to friends and get blank stares; today, same thing. But that's not the point, the point is I haved stupid RLFs that live in a cultural cave. But seriously, TBM are fine examples of poets who believed in themselves, their vision, their sound and went with it. Self-publishing is the only answer, and the only prayer for weird dreamers like me and for TBM. Therefore, TBM, wherever you are, I thank you for being the example!

Lyrics to die for in "Blue"

1. Plastic blue
invitations in my room
i've been waiting here for you
reservations made for two"

That's so damned sweet. I want to be there, I want to get invitations, who doesn't? Who the fuck sends invites these days anymore? I think as a culture, my generation missed something. I don't think any of my friends know what RSVP means. But anyway, "reservations made for two" has true love written all over it.

2. sunlight fading

I love you for this TBM. A fading sunlight is so damned romantic, so damned charming because the sun's dying rays matches the maremalade I see on Chibi's table next to the flowered tea pot. But, wait, this is TBM land we are dealing with. "Sunlight Fading" is the opening of the door to twilight, and twilight as a plane of existence within the TBM land is a scarey, often chaotic place of pain, murder, deceit.

3. black tongues speak faster than the car can crash
you supply the rumours and i'll provide the wrath
romance is breaking every heart in two casting shadows
in the pale shade of blue

The smart listener realizes that the fading sunlight has brought forth an accident, an accident that has probably killed Chibi's love interest, the one who received those delightful invitations (I wish I knew what those things looked like). Dying in TBM massacre is a plunge into the phantom zone of the afterlife, and need I say it? The afterlife is a scarey place in terms of TBM's vision. "Casting shadows in the pale shade of blue" is just a stunning turn around of the intened use of the word "blue." The invitations were "plastice blue", and now "blue" is the color of a haunting presence, a shadowy thing that defies description. It's felt more than seen, dreaded more than ignored. That's high hat horror folks.

4. plastic blue
conversations in my room
saving every tear for you
trusting every word untrue
twilight fading

You have to hand it to Chibi's character, a lover who saves tears, trusting every rumor said about her lover to be false, there's a lot to love about her heart--it's impossibly big for we post-moderns to bear; and that's the strength of Romanticism, sentiment is charged with idolatry so it becomes a dimension unto itself. I don't know about you, but "conversations in my room" brings me images of Chibi chatting it up with a shadow, a stain on her wallpaper that turns out to the "presence" of her dead lover. I respect haunts, though I think I could take one on, and I do believe these conversations are possible. But still, there's something harrowing about it, and I don't know why. Ghosts have rights too! At least, I think....wait, no, they don't.

5. fate changes faster than the death of light
you supply the envy and i'll provide the spite

But the relationship isn't two sided, if I'm reading the intent right. Chibi's love and long suffering patience isn't rewarded by the shadow. "You supply the envy and I'll provide the spite" is simply a horrible rule for any relationship, and we've all been there, we've all had those loves, those crushes where you envy the person so much, that in return, all you get is spite back because...they're evil. But of course, I've no evidence my reading is correct. And that's the thing I truly love about TBM. All the usual rules simply do not apply. It's a Looking Glass group, peer into the mirror of lyrics, and you behold what you want to behold. Every experience is different per listener (the video above is a prime example).

This will probably be my last post until next weeked (going away). So, don't miss me too much you little
bleeders.