Happy Solstice everyone! Today the sun rose at 7:25 and will be setting at 16:25. Starting on Thursday, the refulgent orb goes to sleep later – at 16:46 that day. For anyone who’s inclined, head over to the Sunrise-Sunset Calendar and you can chart the course towards spring yourself. Also of note weatherwise is the fact that we got our first snow of the season that actually accumulated. Not that there’s much of it but the whiteness of the scene was a joy to behold. Much better than the dingy grays and browns that have dominated things as of late.
Wandering lonely as a cloud
Talking only in the open
Congregation is even now disallowed
I’m listening to a song from IQ’s Subterranea and pondering the storyline. I found a blurb from IQ’s keyboard player that helps: ”The story of the album is about a man who has been confined for an experiment and has therefore been isolated from our society. He gets his food provided but has no contact with the outside world (Provider).
At a certain point in time he is released by his capturer and emerges in our society, where he experiences things which are completely normal to us for the first time (Subterranea). He has to digest all these things (cars, buildings, television, etc) in one overwelming sensation. After some hard times among homeless and hobo's (Sleepless Incidental) he is taken in by a religious cult but refuses to be converted by them (Failsafe).
He meets a girl - this is probably 'Maya', who is mentioned several times at the end of the album - who gives him a name. He has a deep friendship/romance with this person (Speak My Name) but in the end she is taken away from him (Tunnel Vision).
Then he notices that he is being followed by henchman of the man who held him imprisoned for all these years. He captures one of them, forces him to reveal the name of the man who is responsible for his misery (Mockenrue) and kills his follower (Infernal Chorus).
The part of the album which starts with King of Fools and ends with The Other Side is rather vague and I haven't really got a clue what's happening here. All I know is that State of Mine is supposed to represent the protagonist on the run and during the second half of the album he tries to find this Mockenrue and take revenge. Along the way he realises that life in the outside world is much harder than his earlier, controled live (Unsolid Ground).
At a certain point he takes on a 'disguise' to be able to find out what's happening (Capricorn). Then he notices that he's not the only one with this experience; he sees other people who show the same mark/symbol he's been tagged with. Seemingly there are more subjects for Mockenrue's experiment (Somewhere in Time). The mark is the square IQ logo which can be found in various places in the CD booklet.
Mockenrue's victims decide to team up and take revenge (High Waters). The group ends up in a large building to which Mockenrue sets fire (The Narrow Margin). In the end the protagonist manages to get out of there alive (he's the only one) and realizes that he's just a menace to himself and everybody else and decides to go back into his confinement.
The story line is based upon Kaspar Hauser...a boy that showed up in Germany that seemed to be -wild- and never been in contact with people.”
You have got to find it humorous when a band releases a 2CD concept album and most of the band is in the dark about the story. Then again, no one ever accused Peter Nicholls of being normal.
The plan is for Stevie and I to brave the mall this evening to finish our gift buying. I realized as I was walking through the parking ramp this morning that I’d gotten so caught up in that stupid shit that I’d forgotten the giving that I really need to do: to charity. As always, I’ll give some $$ to WORT and the usual coterie of worthy causes but I also want to find an organization that I’ve never given to before. I don’t have the resources of a George Soros but, since our government is going to be fucking over lots of people in the coming 4 years, I thought I’d better find a new way to help. Right now I’m thinking I’ll give some money to Planned Parenthood. I just remembered – last year or perhaps 2 years ago, I can’t recall – I was donating food to the pantry at the Wil-Mar Center on a weekly basis for a while. I can’t remember why I stopped doing this. Was it money? Was it laziness? Or did I just get caught up in more “fun” things? Probably the last.
Part of me thinks I should write a 2004 retrospective to help map out 2005. But I really have to be in the right frame of mind to come up with something that makes any sense. Otherwise it’ll all be superficial blathering about the new jobs, the deaths in my family, Mel’s stroke, dating The Dulcinea, and blah blah blah. While these events are surely important, I’ve written about them before and would want any recap to give a different or fresh view as well as discuss other lesser things that happened over the past year. Or would having all the old thoughts compiled in one spot be handy? I do have another letter to my dad in progress, have more to say about Mel, and had a conversation last night that involved The Dulcinea that I’d like to expound upon.
hehe In a bit of irony, I was going to start writing about how The Dulcinea had once quoted The Tao of Steve: “We pursue that which retreats from us” when I check my email and find one from Laura. I haven’t yet replied to her lengthy missive, which she sent 2 or 3 days ago. So today she writes, “I hope I didn't scare you away with my rantings the other day.” Does 2 or 3 days of no email from a new online friend count as a strategic advance to the rear?
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