LIEUTENANT EHREN WATADA

Been wanting to post something about Lt. Ehren Watada for a while, but was hoping to find a video of one of his speeches first. Thanks to the adorable Pinky at the Pinky Show lol, I've finally found a good speech of his to share with you.

If you don't already know who Lt. Watada is, I won't go into too much detail because the video will do that for you, but basically he is the first U.S. soldier to refuse to deploy to Iraq. And he just so happens to be an Asian American...

Sorry to post another super long video tonight, but again, its very much worth your time. Check it out.

THE END OF AMERICA

Arigato to my little brother for sharing this with me...

This is a taping of a speech by writer Naomi Wolf, in support of her book "The End Of America". Basically, Ms.Wolf breaks down the tried and true 10 step blueprint that would be dictators through out history have used when they wanted to close down an open society, or crush a democracy uprising, and then lays out how these 10 steps are being put into place here in America.

Its not hard to keep up on the news and be disturbed by individual things going on, from Blackwater's itchy trigger fingers, to the tasering of outspoken college kids, but to have it be put into clear perspective of how its all not so disconnected and confirm fears that its probably part of a meticulous plan, is really frightening.

By the way, the video is 47 minutes long, but it seriously goes by like 15. Take the time to watch it please.

SHORTCOMINGS

I now have a reason to be back into comic books!!!

Sort of...



I recently discovered the work of Adrian Tomine, a Japanese-American cartoonist from Sacramento. I had heard a lot about him over the years, and even saw some of his illustrations for magazines from time to time, without knowing much about the artist. But it wasn't until he recently released his first graphic novel "Shortcomings", that I really took notice.



"Shortcomings" follows Ben Tanaka, a grumpy, self absorbed, uber-critical young Japanese-American guy. Even though his girlfriend Miko is a gorgeous, sensitive and intelligent Japanese cultural activist, Ben's wandering eye for white girls and his negative attitude cause friction in his relationship, ultimately with disastrous consequences. Ben is the guy who walks into a Korean wedding and says, "Man, look at all these Asians", while Miko programs Asian-American independent films and both are equally skilled in the underhanded art of fighting without fighting. Tanaka's heartbreaking descent into awareness is reading as good as you'll find anywhere. What a relief to find such unprecious intelligent dynamic young people of color wrestling with real issues that they can neither escape nor hope completely to understand.

Strictly from a visual standpoint, I'm absolutely in love with Tomine's black and white, clean lined, simplistic style. Totally fits the deadpan dialogue and semi-tragedy of the story. But the appealing visuals coupled with the fantastic, biting subject matter makes "Shortcomings" especially engaging. Tomine confronts ethnicity and social issues with humor and bluntness.

Kinda different from the ones I read as a kid, but comics have never been so satisfying.

BOSTON TREE LIGHTING

UNDOING

Been waiting to see this film for sooooo long, and now they finally have released the screening dates! Chris Chan Lee, the director, made a film a decade ago called "Yellow", which is an underground but landmark film in the history of Asian American cinema.

------------------------



G. Allen Johnson of the SF Chronicle says:
"It's been 10 years since Lee made his last film, "Yellow," which showed to acclaim at the 1997 festival. His new film is an energetic, visually stunning and absorbing neo noir about a Korean American gangster (the excellent Sung Kang) who returns to L.A. after a mysterious absence determined to rectify the past. Yup, it's got one of those typically pretzel-like film noir plots, but the film works best as a character study of redemption, and Lee's direction is confident, bold and just a bit messy and reckless (that's a good thing)."

LATEST NEWS: UNDOING will have a limited release in theaters starting November 30, 2007. Confirmed cities are New York, San Francisco, and Boston.

SAN FRANCISCO
Starting November 30
Kabuki Theater(http://www.sundancecinemas.com/coming_
soon.html)
Q+A sessions with Chris Chan Lee (Director) and others over the premiere weekend are being planned. See our Events for details!

NEW YORK:
December 5-14, screenings are all at 9pm
Pioneer Theater (Tickets available here: http://twoboots.com/pioneer/#Undoing)
Q+A sessions with Sung Kang (lead actor) and others following the December 5 and 8 screenings See our Events for details about our receptions and parties!

BOSTON:
December 7-9
The Brattle Theater (http://www.brattlefilm.org/brattlefilm
/calendar.html#071207)
Q+A with Sung Kang and the producers is planned for the Dec 7 early screening. See our Events for more details!

--------------------------------

Make it out to these screenings to support if you can!

PORTLAND VIDEOS

Found a couple really cool little video documentary style shorts about my beloved Portland.



^^^ Sandy Boulevard



^^^ Old Town



^^^ Awesome short about the culture of filmmaking in Portland!

JOE METRO VIDEO

AY!

So the video for Blue Scholars' "Joe Metro" is finally out... it premiered on MTVU on the 19th, and was directed by Sabzi's brother Zia.

I gotta say, its Zia's best work yet. Turned out gorgeous.

So check it out:



Ahhhh, makes me miss home.

Anyway right now I'm in Boston for the long Thanksgiving weekend. Too short of a break to go all the way back to Portland, so I'm here kickin it with Cam.

Its crazy I was here last weekend helping Cam shoot his film "The Architect", went back to New York monday for two classes and now I'm back in Boston. Didn't even feel worth it, I shoulda just skipped class and stayed here. But oh well. Hope you all have a good holiday, and please remember that the pilgrims slaughtered the native indians. Celebrate days off work and good food, but not Thanksgiving for what it really is.

BURNSIDE ON AMAZON!

Yessss that is right, BURNSIDE is now available for purchase on Amazon.com!

We crammed some great bonus material on there, so hopefully you'll find that it is money well spent.

Here's a direct link to the Amazon page:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000Z3P27S?tag=ultratalk-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=B000Z3P27S&adid=0A0MSDE6T6V1NGTNEZQP&

JOHN, JIAE, DUMBO

Me and pops hung out the other day with John and Jiae at Theme Magazine. Got to check out their new office space in Dumbo, Brooklyn and got a little tour of the neighborhood... was really cool to see a little community of artists emerging there, I can tell it'd be a inspiring area to come to work every morning. We stopped by and met the good folks at street wear label Kilo Goods/Rocksmith and Sidetrack Films, and strolled the charming little cobblestone streets.

John recapped the day on his blog over at the Theme website already, and took some photos our adventures as well so I'll just direct you over!

JOHN LEE BLOG @ THEME

By the way BIG ARIGATO to Linyee at Kilo for hooking me up!!

EYES LIKE THIS!

Oh Fox News you never fail me!

Check out this former homicide detective pulling his eyes back- the international symbol for "chink"- on national television. I'm sure the audience would be so lost without your demonstration of what Asian people look like, Mr.Wheeler.

Later in the segment he talks about describing a suspect, and uses "Chinese" as a description instead of "Asian". Because of course we're all the same thing right?

Infuriating, but then again, he's a cop! Racial ignorance is part of his job!

THAT MEGAN FOX MOVIE WITH ROBOTS

By the way, my dad and I (actually just my dad) randomly decided to watch Transformers at his hotel tonight... I know I'm like 2 millennia late with this, but I just wanted to say WOW.

It's like Michael Bay has some sort of magic purse containing endless ways to cinematically offend me. I will undoubtedly toss and turn tonight just thinking about how absurd that movie must look in script form.

Now I wasn't a huuuuuge Transformers fan growing up, but I do have fond memories of playing with my Optimus Prime on my grandma's living room floor...so I don't know how the die hard fans felt, but I thought they were done an injustice here. The movie seemed to take itself way too seriously.

Also their usage of that "What I've Done" song at the end was freakin atrocious. How are you gonna use a song like that and not cut out to credits on the musical crescendo?

To me the most enjoyable part of the movie was also like the least important and most superficial reason you could possibly give, and that was-



So again I know I'm hella late on this, but think of this post as being less about Michael Bay's movie and more of a celebration of Megan Fox's existence.

LES CONCERTS A EMPORTER

Now this is one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time.

Les Concerts A Emporter (or take away concerts) is an online video series from La Blogotheque, in which bands or singers are filmed putting on impromptu performances in public or unusual places. It could be on a street corner, in front of an outdoor cafe, or high up in a loft in Paris. A lot of awesome bands have been featured so far like Beirut, Architecture In Helsinki, Au Revoir Simone, The Shins, Of Montreal, Arcade Fire, Andrew Bird, Menomena, and more.

The videos themselves are shot and edited really cool too- super contrasty, often a bit blown out, and with huge bold titles.

I haven't gotten to watching all of them yet, but by far my favorite has been the Arcade Fire video. I wont spoil it, but the chosen locations of their performances were soooooooo cool.

Anyways check it out!

http://www.blogotheque.net/cae_tous_les_concerts.php3

THE TRUTH BEHIND HIP HOP

OHHHHHHHHH.

You have to see this.

You just have to see this.

So I stumbled across some videos on YouTube of some preacher who has apparently made a nice career for himself out of lecture seminars trying to explain how Hip Hop is the devil's music LOL. Not exactly the most original perspective, but as I watched more of his videos in furious interest, I realized how seriously committed he was to trying to prove this.

Before I go on, I'll just post some of the videos for you:


On Jay-Z, and his subliminal messages (HAHAHAHAHA)


On Bone Thugs N Harmony, and more subliminal messages (HAHAHAHAHAHA)


On Snoop Dogg (HAHAHAHA)

So obviously as you can see this man is a lunatic. A hilarious, endlessly entertaining one, but still a lunatic. The saddest thing about it is how much obvious effort - his own time and his own money he has put into seeking out these "examples" of "unholiness in Hip Hop" (LOL x 5). He stated in the Snoop Dogg video that he had been looking for the "Murder Was The Case" movie for "a long time for investigational purposes"... Its like, how pathetic are you? That SO much of your life revolves around finding ways to bring down other people- FELLOW YOUNG BLACK MEN at that. Which brings me to another point: As much as you can't help but laugh at this dude, there is also a very serious side of it as well. And that is this man is shitting on an art form/business that happens to be one of the most instrumental platforms in getting young black and brown people out of the ghetto.

But I saved the best one for last:



I watched this and seriously all I thought was FUCK YOU for even opening your mouth about Biggie. That man is gone, and cannot even defend his name to your bullshit. Are you really willing to stoop to that level? To talk bad and accuse things of someone who has passed away? That's not something a grown man does.

But that isn't what really set me off.

With a little more research, I finally found out this guy's name is G Craig Lewis. And I found his website. www.exministries.com. And on his website I saw this:



And then.......this




I swear if I were like 5 years less mature and younger, I would vow to slap the shit out this man if I ever saw him walking around. I'm not going to go back and recall the unexplained but deep impact of Aaliyah's death on me when I was young, but I will say she does not deserve to be looked down on and treated with that disrespect. NONE of those deceased artists he proceeded to trash do.

"She didn't deserve to die did she? She was so sweet and innocent, right?"

YOU SCUMBAG PIECE OF SHIT.

Oh and of course he sells a DVD box set of "The Truth Behind Hip Hop" for a mere $85.00 plus shipping and handling on his website. Don't forget to put a little more of your money in his pocket by checking out other available titles such as "The Truth About Rock & Roll", "The Truth About Abortion" and "The Truth Behind Teen Dating" HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Well I've spent too much time and wasted too many words talking about this. Sorry I got a little heated tonight, I'll be back to my jolly self after sleeping this one off.

OH BTW Mr.Lewis, you say you get depressed shopping for clothes, well I'm already severely depressed looking at yours. Stop shopping at Burlington Coat Factory you look like a douchebag.

NEW ADDRESS

Heyheyhey!

Just wanted to let you all know that I'm at a new, easier address now - www.mattjayblog.com

Yup, free from the blogspot.com domain name enslavement hahaha. Still the same page you see here, just a quicker way to get to it.

BUILDING A JOURNEY

Ahhhhhh! I just finished watching "Building A Journey", a short documentary following director Justin Lin and the "Better Luck Tomorrow family" from the creation of their breakthrough film "Better Luck Tomorrow" to their most recent "Finishing The Game". Really, really awesome stuff and really inspiring. Check it out:


PART 1


PART 2


PART 3

SUMMER PALACE

So one of the biggest stories to come out of Cannes last year was a Chinese/French collaboration film called "Summer Palace". It first made headlines when the the Chinese government actually banned director Lou Ye from continuing to practice his craft for 5 years (unthinkable). I read that Lou has said the reasoning for the ban was "technical", that the film didn't meet the Beijing Film Bureau's standard for picture and sound quality... But that obviously sounds ridiculous, and once you find out that the film is set against the backdrop of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, and features real rare military footage... you should be able to put the pieces together. The film is also noted as having a vivid and visual portrayal of sexuality that also made waves.

But anyway, the film is now playing at the Austin Asian Film Festival, and was also picked up by Palm Pictures so I'm hoping we get to see it soon.



Synopsis:
At a Beijing’s University, country girl, Yu Hong discovers an intense world of sexual freedom and forbidden pleasures. Yu quickly falls in love with fellow student, Zhou Wei. As tensions rise in China (1987-2001), fellow students begin to demonstrate, demanding democracy and freedom. When protests hit a climax, the two young lovers are hastily separated. Years later, in a small town, Yu and Zhou reunited. But times have changed and so have they. Will they find peace together or drift out of each other’s lives once again?

1 IN 4 HOMELESS ARE VETERANS

Oh... oh hello there! I didn't see you come in. Do you know who I am? Oh you do? No, no please, call me Sam just call me Sam. Well I'm glad you decided to stop by. You look like a strapping young fellow... just the sort I'm looking for! Actually, I'll take anyone that is willing since volunteers have dropped significantly as of late- but I'm getting ahead of myself! I have an offer for you. One that you surely will not be able to refuse. No seriously, I might reinstate the draft on your dumb ass and you really can't refu--OOOPS, UMMM... what I meant was, I would like to give you the opportunity to serve your great nation. To be a hero. How would you like to join the United States Army? All you would have to do is be willing to possibly sacrifice your life, your limbs, your sanity, or at the very least just your basic human survival necessities.

Now I know risking your life for the opportunity to take other lives in the name of what these dirty hippies are calling an "unjust" war... with the possibility of ending up a bum afterwards.... maaaaaaayy not sound like a fair trade. But perhaps you're looking at it the wrong way. Think of how romantic falling asleep under the stars every night could be if you didn't have a house. Food? Pshhh. C'mon. Who does that anymore, honestly? Lindsay Lohan and Nicole Richie look hotter than ever. Those are two petite nubiles that could get your old Uncle in some serious trouble if you know what I mean!

By the way, you kids are all a tolerant bunch these days, I'm sure you've got yourself a couple of them Negros as friends. See if you can interest them in joining along with you, because I'm starting to worry those colored folks don't wanna protect America! I mean, Black volunteers for the Army has dropped 41% since the year 2000! Apparently, according to the Defense Department's Youth and Influencer poll, "the reason why Black military enlistment declined more steeply than other races' is that Black youths, as well as their parents, are more politically conscious and critical of militarism and imperialism..." Aint that some crazy talk!

So give it some thought young man. And here's a totally false article probably written by some Communist at Yahoo news to check out:

----------------------------

WASHINGTON - Veterans make up one in four homeless people in the United States, though they are only 11 percent of the general adult population, according to a report to be released Thursday.

And homelessness is not just a problem among middle-age and elderly veterans. Younger veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are trickling into shelters and soup kitchens seeking services, treatment or help with finding a job.

The Veterans Affairs Department has identified 1,500 homeless veterans from the current wars and says 400 of them have participated in its programs specifically targeting homelessness.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness, a public education nonprofit, based the findings of its report on numbers from Veterans Affairs and the Census Bureau. 2005 data estimated that 194,254 homeless people out of 744,313 on any given night were veterans.

In comparison, the VA says that 20 years ago, the estimated number of veterans who were homeless on any given night was 250,000.

Some advocates say the early presence of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan at shelters does not bode well for the future. It took roughly a decade for the lives of Vietnam veterans to unravel to the point that they started showing up among the homeless. Advocates worry that intense and repeated deployments leave newer veterans particularly vulnerable.

"We're going to be having a tsunami of them eventually because the mental health toll from this war is enormous," said Daniel Tooth, director of veterans affairs for Lancaster County, Pa.

While services to homeless veterans have improved in the past 20 years, advocates say more financial resources still are needed. With the spotlight on the plight of Iraq veterans, they hope more will be done to prevent homelessness and provide affordable housing to the younger veterans while there's a window of opportunity.

"When the Vietnam War ended, that was part of the problem. The war was over, it was off TV, nobody wanted to hear about it," said John Keaveney, a Vietnam veteran and a founder of New Directions in Los Angeles, which provides substance abuse help, job training and shelter to veterans.

"I think they'll be forgotten," Keaveney said of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. "People get tired of it. It's not glitzy that these are young, honorable, patriotic Americans. They'll just be veterans, and that happens after every war."

Keaveney said it's difficult for his group to persuade some homeless Iraq veterans to stay for treatment and help because they don't relate to the older veterans. Those who stayed have had success — one is now a stock broker and another is applying to be a police officer, he said.

"They see guys that are their father's age and they don't understand, they don't know, that in a couple of years they'll be looking like them," he said.

After being discharged from the military, Jason Kelley, 23, of Tomahawk, Wis., who served in Iraq with the Wisconsin National Guard, took a bus to Los Angeles looking for better job prospects and a new life.

Kelley said he couldn't find a job because he didn't have an apartment, and he couldn't get an apartment because he didn't have a job. He stayed in a $300-a-week motel until his money ran out, then moved into a shelter run by the group U.S. VETS in Inglewood, Calif. He's since been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, he said.

"The only training I have is infantry training and there's not really a need for that in the civilian world," Kelley said in a phone interview. He has enrolled in college and hopes to move out of the shelter soon.

The Iraq vets seeking help with homelessness are more likely to be women, less likely to have substance abuse problems, but more likely to have mental illness — mostly related to post-traumatic stress, said Pete Dougherty, director of homeless veterans programs at the VA.

Overall, 45 percent of participants in the VA's homeless programs have a diagnosable mental illness and more than three out of four have a substance abuse problem, while 35 percent have both, Dougherty said.

Historically, a number of fighters in U.S. wars have become homeless. In the post-Civil War era, homeless veterans sang old Army songs to dramatize their need for work and became known as "tramps," which had meant to march into war, said Todd DePastino, a historian at Penn State University's Beaver campus who wrote a book on the history of homelessness.

Read the rest of the article here:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071108/ap_on_re_us/homeless_veterans

JOE METRO EP

Just a quick reminder to all, Blue Scholars just released their new online only "Joe Metro EP" at various music websites today!



I purchased mine through iTunes, as you can see. The EP contains two brand new tracks ("Southbound" and "Town Talk") as well as two new remixes ("Joe Metro remix" and "North By Northwest remix") and all the instrumentals to those tracks as well.

"Southbound" alone makes this EP worth your money... I would love if the next LP sounded like that song.

Here's a list of spots you can get your copy:

o iTunes
o Amiestreet.com
o Amazon MP3
o Napster
o Liquid/Wal-mart.com
o Real Networks/Rhapsody
o Sony Connect
o Zune
o fye.com
o Yahoo
o Buy.com
o ECast
o Helio
o Mix 'N' Burn
o Moontaxi/Puretracks: Univision
o Neurotic Media
o NextRadio
o Ruckus
o Rowe
o SoundBuzz
o Starbucks/HearMusic
o Virtual Music Stores
o Wurldmed

JERRY HSU

Check out this episode of Epicly Later'd, an online show about skateboarding, featuring Chinese-American pro skater Jerry Hsu.

Not just a skate video, Epicly Later'd episodes are more like mini-docs giving you insight into the skaters themselves.





Pretty awesome. Props to Jerry.

WINCING THE NIGHT AWAY

Ok I find this endlessly fascinating, in the same way that my favorite part of watching a David Lynch film is discussing it afterward, and then looking up other people's interpretations.

Someone online, known only as "ladybug87" has broken down song by song the story of The Shins' album "Wincing The Night Away". Whether she is correct in all of her interpretations or not, the cohesive plotline that she has managed to decipher out of the album is soooooooo interesting. I know speaking for myself, that I honestly rarely understand James Mercer's lyrics just by listening. But if you actually read their lyrics, its not just stream of consciousness rambling. Words, lines, verses, choruses, refrains...they're all strung together and written very carefully and there is a story to be discovered within it.

Despite all that, remember this is only one person's interpretation. The fun of it all comes from the fact that no matter what the music is actually saying, the most important thing is how it makes you feel.

My suggestion to best enjoy what I'm about to post is to take the time to put on the album, and pull up the lyrics to each song as you listen. You don't necessarily have to listen through each song fully, but having it playing while you read the song's corresponding interpretation makes it better...

-----------------------

01: "SLEEPING LESSONS"

This album is a complete album, and no song can be taken out of that context except phantom limb.

The album follows a central character, a boy, who has been reading Nietzsche and believes that religion and society have nothing left to offer. I believe it is both the voice of James Mercer telling us that we neither need to swallow the views of this album, and the voice of the male character in the albums plot telling us that the religions of our forefathers can no longer make us feel complete or satisfied with the idea of an afterlife, though you really have to draw from prior shins meanings like your algebra and sphagnum esplanade to get that.

I agree that is has an Alice in Wonderland theme as well, where the boy falls asleep in 'Sleeping lessons', meets a girl in 'Australia,' and they begin their descent down the rabbit hole with Pam Berry.

02: "AUSTRALIA"

In 'Australia,' our ‘hero’ meets a girl and is commenting on her with black humor. "Born to multiply" may be a reference to his mindset that humans just reproduce and die. Although he has the thoughts of Nietzsche and ubermensch, he still is attracted to this girl, and is afraid he may taint her with his bitter realizations about life. "You'd be damned to be one of us girl," is the boy’s observation that this view of life completely agrees with the “Ignorance is bliss,” saying, because it can seriously shake up your idea of how to approach life. Though he cannot completely understand what rejecting every aspect in society is about until the album goes full circle. He will finally realize it in 'A comet appears.'

This boy mentions that the lantern has been dimming for him, so perhaps he thinks he can show the girl what life is truly about, however grim, and so they jump out the window together, falling through Pam Berry.

Even though the lyrics to this album start off darker from the beginning, the album’s feel doesn’t get dark until after Australia.

03 & 04: "Pam Berry" & "Phantom Limb"

"It's about these two girls who fall in love with each other. They're in this shitty town, they're alone and they find each other and feel connected. They have this thing and it frees them from everything around them. It's so positive, because it's about seeing a future." - James Mercer, himself

The only song on the album out of context of the plot.

05: "Sea Legs"

So our two protagonists are finally getting somewhere deeper. They have been, or start to half way through, smoking drugs. Our girl is spacing out, staring at the beauty of nature, 'the trees in the moonshine..." Perhaps the guy does not want to go into why he is so distant, or maybe the girl does not want to talk about the existential things that our male character has on his mind, with "And I can't go into this no more/ It puts too many thorns on my mind."

But either way, the balloon that could have carried them out of this hole has been deflated, and they cannot arise back to where they were before.

He puts the blame partially on her, for her coming to him, he is trying to take off some of the guilt for what he will do to her mentally when she comes to think about some of the life unaffirming things he has has on his mind.

Our boy pulls out drugs from a 'gunnysack for red rabbits,' potentially referring to both the idea of Morpheus' red pill, and alice in wonderland. "Into the crucible," into the pipe, "to be rendered an emulsion." She takes a hit, and is coughing with "hollow cries."

And now perhaps she is ready, to think of the darker things that our guy has been toying with in his head.
Once she starts thinking about life with a much more grim skew, there is no turning back.

06: "Turn On Me"

Our girl starts to resent the guy for infecting her with such a grim outlook on life. Though at first she covers it up, perhaps telling herself that it can work out.

Our male character is immature. He may be angered that she doesn't have the same feelings for him as before, but he is passive agressively saying that it is her fault that it can't go on and that he was only fond of her. He may be acting like he has been toying with her as a defense mechanism.
Either way, he is chasing her away. He may think that he does not need her, because he is under a very nietzsche-esque mindset where he tries to separate himself from the confines of society completely.

By the end of the song, he rids himself of her, and belives that she can make it on her own.
"The worst part is over. Now get back on that horse and ride."

07: "Black Wave"

The boy has finished his relationship with the girl. But he expected to feel more release from it than remorse, and he doesn't. The aloneness is sinking in, and he is left cold and dark. He tries to find the brighter side to this, but has ended up digging himself deeper into this rabbit hole. The grimness of the words that he has been preaching all along start to permeate, and the mood of the album reflects his new desolate mindset.

08: "Split Needles"

The beginning of this song, I think is both from the perspective of the boy we've been following since sleeping lessons, and James Mercer. James Mercer has been clever enough to convey ideas that aren't touched on in many albums because of the sheer gravity and grimness they portray.

Either way, our main character has fallen to a level where he can no longer assess the world around him in a coherent manner.

"This is what you get for pulling pins out of the hole inside the hole you're in." This is what happens when you start questioning life to a point where you cannot find hope for yourself, because it all has become grim and meaningless.
But you are pushed along regardless.

Some decide to go along with the side of angels and gods, gathering with "all their pearly snapping." Those who choose not to belive are closed inside the basement, a cold and dark place. And though the boy may not have realized what this meant when he started rejecting religion at the beginning of this album, he realizes it now, and now it hardly matters.

Regardless he is pushed forward, society asks him to make decisions about life and a career, because the warmth of summer and ignorance is over, and its time to join those who have come before him.

09: "Girl Sailor"

Our boy is reflecting on what he had with the girl in the albums story, and he realizes that she has taken quite a fall, like he has. The song is not just discussing the loneliness of a lost love, but also the existential realities of which the boy tried to convince the girl.

"For there are just so many of, you out there for rent."

Before the girl was able to get over these things easily, but this has stricken a deeper chord, and like the album, it leaves a much more lasting effect if you have actually understoof what is being discussed.

The boy tries to take some of the guilt off himself, claiming to have only been a passenger and that she is the one truly in command. In reality he learned something heart wrenching from this affair as well, and he can no longer show her back to where they were, because neither of them has the power to go back.

He does hope however, that she is able to float on, "sail her don't sink her, this time." Perhaps referring to future relationships or just hoping that she doesn't give up on life. ---One may find this excessive, but not if you take the meaning out of the entire album. The songs really can't be split up.

But our 'protagonist' is awakening, "Just a mokent or two from now, not a mind will retain even a trace, of the thoughts that i struggled to tell." The next song, 'a comet appears,' is the storyteller waking up and reflecting on what he has learned.

10: "A Comet Appears"

So, as our protagonist awakes to a grey morning, complete with birds chirping, he has to reflect on what he has learned from 'wincing the night away.'
He has realized what it feels like to fully accept and understand nietzsche's concept of the ubermensch, in this song cleverly written as uber-man.
The boy realizes his naivete, and is lost, trying to summon up something good in himself, a forced smile, that will make this bitter dream seem better.

He learns that it is naive to try to convince someone else, (in the specific the girl that has been discussed throughout the album) about the lack of an afterlife or faith in humanity, because people are so easily lost and drown by the weight of these thoughts. ("The wind from a wasp could blow them into the sea...")

No matter what though, its stuck in his head, in front of him, that religion is man made, "Every post you can hitch your faith on is a pie in the sky, chock full of lies, a tool we devise to make sinking stones fly."
He has lost a faith that there is a purpose in life, and a numbness to it all is growing.

This album is a description of what happens when we start to think about the realities of life, and the grim thoughts that ensue. There are ways to continue living life, but the boy we have followed throughout this album is unsure what it is he is supposed to do next.

The fact that 'the shins' can produce music that addresses things that we hope not to think about is eerily wonderful. We wonder if other people have had these thoughts as well, and here is a springboard to talk about them. It may not be something you wish to think about, but the shins have painted a beautifully dark picture that was only previously addressed in their songs like "your algebra" and "sphagnum esplanade."

STRAWBERRY MELANCHOLY

Here it is, folks.

The official trailer to the newest feature from your friendly neighborhood film collective, Thunderball Productions:

"STRAWBERRY MELANCHOLY"!