Helter Skelter Vol. 8: The Tensor

The Tensor
August 5-8, 2011

Klaus

The most famous line by Tim Leary, "Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out" was once questioned by a reporter who asked Tim, "what then"?  Leary apparently replied, "Find the others".

One great aspect of the Internet has been this exact process of "finding the Others", which on one hand, provides depth and understanding, and a very healthy sense of hope.  It's no wonder Leary was such a huge champion of the Internet, and recognized it's power so early in the game.

I HAVE to believe that Gnosis is the same for every human being on a biological level, but it's the psychological that is seemingly different.  The cover of DSOTM is this concept, with the white light of biology diffracted into the 7 veils of Isis' Rainbow.

The Apes of 2001 are stranded and starving.  Does the Monolith choose the weaker tribe?  Is there intent?  Or is it just a random arrival?

It seems at first that the Monolith evokes Gnosis, but I don't think so now.  The Monolith initiates and indoctrinates, and uses the apes for it's own goals.

LeClair

Bill,

I am thinking about starting a new blog with some of the info we have discussed, specifically related to the tensor and the mash-up timings. Maybe invitation only--to give it a bit of posh.

How do you feel about this idea? It would take some time to compile of course, and I would touch on a great deal of our discussion thus far. Let me know.

Klaus

I am open to discussing this.  It could offer some more structure, and help to provide some direction.  I do like the invitation only angle.

LeClair

OK, cool. My idea at this time is first, for me to get my act together and compile the first part of the "tensor", along with instruction on how to run the mash-ups. I would like to include a brief history of the discovery of these mashes as initiated by our conversation.

The first part of the tensor will cover on the first "suite" of DSOTM, which I have designated as Speak to Me/Breath and On the Run, basically up to the chimes in Time. It will include reference to all plays of this suite in all places it appears in all three films.

I could start to work it right away and post the blog for you only for a read through. We could exchange some ideas and I could do an edit wherever needed. We could then invite a few readers who we dig. The process could then be repeated for the next part of the DSOTM tensor and further through Meddle and The Wall. All the movies matched from the same start with all the albums. Nine total movie mashes. Obviously, the complete tensor will take some work and time.

Regarding credit, I am willing, indeed happy, to advertise this as a full collaboration between you and me. Regarding the final edit, I hope we can also remain equals in spirit, if not in word count.

What do you think?

Klaus

This is where the trust fully comes in.  The key elements for me are to put the priority on quality and focus on honesty.  I firmly believe that my ego is in check, and I sense that yours is as well.  I can get lazy, but it is nearly impossible to offend me when discussions of output arise.  Translation:  the minute you feel I am not living up to my end of the bargain, it is essential you address the concern.

I would like to offer up iAhuasca as a possible working title.  I find that the term encompasses a lot, and is a fantastic ice breaker for discussion.  I envision creative decisions will provide more turbulence than analysis.  Being familiar with your creative spirit and sense of humor, any turbulence seems like it will be manageble.

Before I get too ahead of myself, I have to say that I accept the full collaboration offer, mostly because of your opinion of my value, and my trust in your judgement.  I am honored to have this opportunity.

I have to go to work in a few minutes, but I will formulate some questions I feel should be addressed regarding focus, goals, format.  I haven't created a blog, but I am the proud owner of a new MacBookPro, so there is less reliance on the iPhone. It will make typing much much easier.

I'm excited to be part of this project and I look forward to continuing our exchange of ideas, and opening up the discussion in a productive format.  I'm completely green in the blog production arena, so I am ready to follow your lead.

Just a few questions regarding format, tone, goals.

1.  Introduction:  considering how deep this travels, from where do we begin?  What do we assume that the reader understands?  Are we preaching to the choir or trying to bring people in?

2.  Tone:  Serious?  Satire?  100% accurate, or littered with dead ends and wrong turns (to mirror the Overlook maze).

3.  Goal:  is the primary goal the exegesis of the Tensor, thus inviting commentary on the exegesis?  Or, is our goal to present the exegesis as a springboard for our commentary?  I'm imagining a Book of Lies given to the public with or without the Commentary.

4.  Fair Use:  how much can we present of actual sound/video?

LeClair

I am glad you feel this way.  I have been a bit discouraged of late, that our relationship would disintegrate, but right now I somehow feel quite positive--like we can really give this a go.

Here are some thoughts on your four questions as well as on the blog title and timing questions.

1.  I have some pretty well formulated ideas on how to start things off.  I think I can provide enough background in the explanation of a) how we come to perform these experiments and b) the instructions on how to run the mash-ups.  Leave this to me for now and when I have a draft I'll run it by you.

2.  Regarding the tone.  It is my desire to divest myself, for this project, of my usually cynical and ribald tone for a serious but simple and breezy academic groove.  Regarding the content, I seek only accuracy, because in essence we are "code breaking".  If you and I can not agree on a specific interpretation, we can use it as an opportunity to present some tension, and let the reader make up their mind.

3.  The third question is also answered by the idea of "code breaking".  As we discuss our mutual interps, it is our goal to reveal as much of the Kubrick code as possible, trending toward some finite conclusion.  It may be a while before we reach that conclusion, indeed we may not reach it at all, but I think the widest possible range of commentary and reader comment should be desired.

4.  Regarding video/sound.  I think we can avoid this by a) using only selected images and still captures from the movies and b) providing a timing key so that readers can properly line up small parts of the movies for study against the Floyd.  I have completed such a key for DSOTM and will do so for the other albums as we continue.

About the blog title.  In the spirit of honesty, I must admit that I don't think iAhausca is the best title, because it fails to contain the immediate nature of the project, which is to examine these three films.  Having said that, I agree that  iAhausca is a cool phrase that needs to be mentioned.  As a compromise, I suggest that a short forward entitled "iAhausca" remain at the top of the blog.  This essay can explain the concept and ethos of  iAhuasca.  My demands for the title are only that it include the words "Stanley Kubrick" along with an intriguing description of the process of our exegesis.  I had imagined "Stanley Kubrick and the Physical Tensor", but I am reasonable and flexible on this matter.

In regard to timings, I want to make sure we have reached the same conclusion.  In every part of the tensor, the timings must always be the same start.  3 movies.  3 albums.  9 total film experiences, each with a mountain of data provided by the fixed "rulers" of the Floyd albums.

Finally, I want to add that it is my plan to completely shed any connection with this effort to my various personae on my blogs and at metaphilm.  I want to cut that part of me loose and focus only on this project.  To meet that end, I plan to open a new blogger account under the name of iAhausca.  Our names can appear in the "about me" section.

For now, I am itchy and want to get started.  I am going to lay out a simple blog open to only you and me.  I will work up an introduction of the evolution of the tensor and a section on "how to", along with the timing key for the DSTOM.  Give me a couple of days and I'll have this ready for you to peruse.  We can then discuss edits, your additions, and design matters.

Klaus

Agree on all accounts.  Let's get this started.  Stanley Kubrick and the Physical Tensor is a go.

I'll get to work on some details for a forward regarding how the term iAhuasca came to be.

LeClair

 I have completed an intro for your approval.  As I see it, the iAhausca forward, with your byline attched, will appear at the top, just beneath the title.  I have added my byline to a part of the intro I have composed, which I really hope you like.  I worked my ass of to get it right, but of course, I am open to critique.  As for the rest of the tensor, I think it should all be credited to our mutal byline of "iAhausca".  As yet, I have not competed the instructions, but should bet that done sometime tomorrow.  As of now, the blog is viewable by ourselve alone.

I look forward to reading your intro, and to your feedback.

Klaus

Hey, just logged in.  Before I ever read a word, I saw the still of Floyd and the stewardess.  This is the exact still I would have chosen, and almost knew I knew I would see.  A great sign.I am almost done with the forward.  I'll be sending it shortly.  I would like to tweek it a little, but would value your opinion of the first draft.  I am finding I like the use of footnotes, something that isn't typical of blogs.  Let me know your thoughts.

I like the personal nature of the first entry you posted,  it really sets up the direction and goal of the blog.  It also helped me to choose a tone for the forward.  In all honesty, I always find your writing to be crisp and informed.  "All killer, no filler" as they say. Great shot of Stanley too.

I am hesitant to use my actual name, and would prefer the use of initials WK for right now if that's fine with you.

I need to add a section I think....should finish this afternoon.

Forward by Klaus

At some point in my boring life circa 2002, I decided to check out the old Dark Side of the Moon/Wizard of Oz synchronicity test.  Instructions were easy enough to find on the Internet, and the general word on the figurative street was, "man I was so high, that shit was pretty cool".  An entertaining anomaly, plus a good reason to fire up a joint, get some laughs, and be in on the joke.  It sounded like a sure fire way to forget I had no plans for yet another Friday night.

Moving forward seven years to July 2009.  Boring life still in check.  I had quit drinking and smoking pot in January 2008, but recently had felt comfortable with a few drinks here and there.  I was still reluctant to smoke pot again, but it was summertime, I had a few days off, and absolutely nothing to do.  Inspiration came a calling, and thought it would be funny if I were to repeat the DSOTM/Oz synchronicity test, only this time, I wouldn't be cooped up in my living room, and I wouldn't be watching Oz.

The idea of it is absurd:  go to a movie theater to watch a movie I had never seen before while listening to Dark Side of the Moon.  Not only is it a waste of money, it felt insane, desperate, and just real real goofy.  With these reasons racing through my mind, I set off walking from my apartment to the theater.  I smoked a small joint, and within minutes, rediscovered the beauty of the night sky.  Joy was an understatement.  As I floated along, I remembered to where I was walking, and the above stated reasons seemed even more ridiculous.  Just what kind of thinking would compel me to waste a beautiful night by sitting in a movie theater?  And not just watching a movie, but sitting in the back with headphones on.  Weirdo was an understatement.  But a calmer, more rational voice thought the concept was hilarious, and gently suggested that I at least watch the first ten-fifteen minutes, and if it was as stupid and useless as it now seemed, I could simply leave the theater and enjoy the rest of the night.  The only thought I wrestled with was wasting the money.  But, I reminded myself,  I've wasted more than eight dollars for the sake of a joke before.  So it was settled.  I would follow through with the plan.

As the movie ended, and the credits began, I turned my head to see nearly every row of people standing up instantly and rushing towards the door.  What was the rush?  Where was their energy coming from?  As I was processing the last two and half hours of my life, the entire audience had already moved on, to remembering where they parked, where they were going next, and whatever else was a reasonable excuse to sprint for.  Something had just happened, something more than just good pot had happened.  It wasn't till more than a year later that I began to put it all together and find some answers.

iAhuasca

AYAHUASCA:  a psychoactive brew used in shamanistic rituals, made with the combination of the South American jungle vine Banisteriopsis caapi and the leaves of the Psychotria viridis shrub.

A powerful hallucinogen, ayahuasca's power is only accessible through the correct balance of ingredients.  The leaves of the Psychotria veridis contain DMT, which is not psychoactive when ingested orally.  Only with the addition of the MAOI containing Banisteriopsis caapi can the DMT pass unmetabolized through the membranes of the small intestine, where it can eventually reach specific receptor sites of the brain.

One of the mysteries surrounding ayahuasca is its genesis.   How did the indigenous people of the Amazonian rainforest happen to discover this particular combination of separate plants?  Personally, I am not interested in discovering the specifics surrounding how ayahuasca was discovered.  What is interesting is that although we have no certainty on how it was discovered, we are 100% certain that when this combination was ingested, the content of the experience made the recipe impossible to forget.

In "Into the Valley of Novelty Part 1", one of Terrence McKenna's many lectures available at Lorenzo Hagerty's Psychedelic Salon, he describes the focus for traditional ayahuasca ceremonies, where the shaman and the people involved get loaded on ayahuasca, and sit together as the shaman sings songs, songs that under the influence take on a visual reality.  Which is to say, if you were to approach this group of people without ingesting ayahuasca, you would at first have to take a leap of faith to believe that those around you could actually see what the shaman was singing.  You would have to take an ever bigger leap to something grander to believe that they were all seeing the same thing.  McKenna relates that the German ethnographers who traveled to the Amazon in the early 20th century referred to the chemical in ayahuasca as "telepethine", to reflect this seemingly preposterous phenomenon.

As I had mentioned, in 2002 I synched up the Dark Side of the Moon to the Wizard of Oz, smoked a joint (or was it bong?), and waited for that magical moment when the cash register of "Money" would reveal the psychedelic wonderland of Oz.  As the album and movie played simultaneously, I was immediately struck by how long it had been since i had seen or heard both DSOTM and OZ, and just how much I had forgotten about both DSOTM and Oz.  As the two played, every now and then something relatively cool would synch up, but more than anything, I was impressed and entertained by the pure sound and pure vision of each respective artistic creation.  Then I started to recognize as instantly enjoyable as momentary synchs were, it was the themes expressed in both DSOTM and Oz that synchronized which most intrigued me.   Slowly but surely, DSOTM began to morph into a legitimate soundtrack to the film The Wizard of Oz.  It was a marriage that didn't seem forced, or dependent on drugs.  I erupted in laughter as the long forgotten cash registers of "Money" sounded as the doors of Dorothy's black and white world opened into the blazing rainbow colored glory of Oz.  A true "money shot" as some astute person once said. As I visualized the album cover of DSOTM, I completely lost control of myself and laughed and laughed and laughed…..

So that's it, I thought.   Pretty cool, pretty high, just like they said.  But as the album started to finish, my curiosity, and my state of mind, compelled me to allow the album to start over again, to continue playing with the rest of the film.  I figured, I have the time and I'm not going anywhere.  To make a long story shorter, I ended up watching all the way through to the end of the film.   Which is what I did the next day.  And the day after that.  Which is about the time my roommates began to wonder strange things about me.  Actually, I'm pretty sure they always wondered strange things about me, but I was beginning to scare them I think.  So back to video games, ESPN, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (which one of my roommates proved to me was a great show.

In the years following, I was convinced that I had discovered something truly amazing, a phenomenon that was so much more than a stoner party trick.  I had had small conversations with a variety of people concerning a variety of explanations, trying to discern if anyone could really offer any truth regarding how or why the synch seemed to work so well.  The overwhelming majority conclusion is that it was further proof that people see what they want to see, and that this phenomenon would ultimately work more or less with any movie and any album and a strong desire for it to work.   Since I couldn't make any progress proving that their was any intent, cosmic or mundane, in the marriage of DSOTM and Oz, I would go in the other direction, meaning, i would synch a random movie with DSOTM.  This would force me to consider the majority argument that any movie or any album would deliver the same effect. (1)

So, back to that summer night of 2009.  My inspiration had become action, and I would finally put to rest some nagging thoughts regarding this whole thing.  Selecting the movie was easy that night.  Although I never read past the first half of the first Harry Potter book, I had seen most of the films, and decided that I would go see the latest installment which had just arrived in theaters.  I hadn't read the book in question, I hadn't seen the movie preview, or read a movie review.  I had a general idea of who the characters were, and some sense of where the story was going, but ultimately, I would have to hope that the soundtrack and the visuals would be enough feedback to provide a story entertaining enough to keep me interested, or, I would be leaving the theater and back to the beautiful summer sky in minutes.  With the iPod set up to repeat, I entered the theater and didn't leave until the credits finished rolling. Obviously, my personal experience was indeed entertaining enough to remain interested in the two and half hours of music and story.   I won't get into the exact details of the synch.  What I will do is focus on certain dynamics that mirror a certain psychoactive brew.

I refer to these dynamics as iAhuasca, a 21st century cousin of ayahuasca, that was discovered using different components found in the massive jungle of media that covers the planet. (2)  I know that some capability of recreating this experience was possible years ago with a CD-Walkman, but the iPod offers the perfect  convenience for playing an entire album seamlessly on repeat.   And it lends itself to a perfectly catchy name.  By combining the audio provided with iPod, with the visual provided by the projector, we transform and unlock something new, the value of which is entirely up to our own personal experience.  This can be done at home, through any music source and a DVD or streaming of a movie, television show, whatever,  but there are elements that can only be appreciated while in a crowded movie theater. (3)   In this specific instance, the iPod playing DSOTM, and the theater providing the visual story of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", I slowly walked out of the theater having witnessed something incredibly unique to any other person in that theater.  Or did I?   What if someone else had followed the exact same method, in effect, had mixed up the same ingredients, and had unbeknownst to me, been sitting on the other side of theater.  Would we be so shocked to find out that we had experienced the and witnessed the same story?

The purpose of this blog is to offer proof of a hypothesis, that embedded in the films of Stanley Kubrick and the albums of Pink Floyd is a code that is made accessible through this iAhuasca method.  It is our hypothesis that this code was done with intent, and is not the product of circumstance, synchronicity, or marijuana.(4)

(1)  Let me try to explain something first, the idea of sitting down to watch a movie with no sound, with no subtitles, with a separate album filling in as the soundtrack is very low on the list for a good time.  You have to be very bored, very lonely, or, yes, very stoned to rationalize this activity as "something to do".  Which is why actually following through with this activity is an admission to one's own boredom, loneliness, or devotion to marijuana.  Which is why I never really got around to much actual testing of the experience, because I would force myself to find something else to occupy my time.
(2)  Certain combinations of this electronic brew have already been advertised and utilized for decades, combinations that have powerful effects on their own, which subtly guided me towards my own recipe.  William S. Burroughs with his "cut-up" techniques.  "Mad Movies", a show I saw maybe three or four times as a child, where new dialogue was overdubbed on old movies.  "Paul's Boutique" by the Beastie Boys and the Dust Brothers, a 1980's masterpiece of sampling.  Obviously, the urban legend/stoner magic of DSOTM and Oz.  There are countless examples of media manipulation by people designed to create new experiences out of pre-existing material.  This is exactly how I envision the indigenous people of the Amazon mixing, combining, and consuming the plant life of the jungle that covered their world.  Trial and error, and with only pure experience as the final judgement of the value of each new discovery.
3)  For example, one must experience the thrill of hearing the alarm clocks of "Time" ring out in a crowded theater at a crucial moment, and grapple with the realization that no one else can hear or understand the moment you are experiencing.  Just as the people involved in the ayahuasca ceremony are the only ones who can actually see the colors of the songs of the shaman, you will be in a completely new and utterly unique reality.
(4)  Is marijuana necessary?  I don't think so, as I have taken in most of the Tensor while sober.  I will say that marijuana, for some people, provides a state of mind that provides a kind of patience and willingness necessary to dive in.

LeClair

Yeah, WK is fine with me, although I admit I am a wee bit curious why you desire anonymity. But it's all good.

Footnotes can get complicated to format, but it can be done, by using an off page link to store the notes.

I look forward to reading your forward. In the meantime, I am going to start working on the hard data for the first "suite" of DSOTM. This will include all plays in all movies of the tracks Speak To Me/Breathe and On the Run.

I have divided each album into these "suites". There are four total suites for DSOTM and The Wall and three suite for Meddle. I'll explain the divisions as we go along. I am going to be away for the next few hours, so don't worry if I don't respond to your forward right away. I'll give it a read this afternoon--evening at the latest.

My date bailed on me today, and so I had time to read your forward.  There are quite a few problems.  Many, many repeated phrases, disorganization, doubled information and ellipses.  There is also just a little too much extraneous info and personal reflection, which detracts from the direction of the piece, and the project in general.

I have done an edit that is up on the blog for you to look at.  Being edited can be a bit intimidating, but all the good writers have to face it eventually.

I general, I would like to say that while you have a nice turn of a phrase, you need some practice organizing data.  The trouble is common.  It is difficult to trust the reader, which leads to overly dense writing and repetition.

I have preserved about all of the key data and done very little or nothing to alter your basic style.  Let me know what you think.

Klaus

True, I have been editing all afternoon, and doing a lot of cringing.  I will review your edits, and send over my current copy.

Completely reasonable and a quality edit.  I am happy with it as it stands.   Forward he cried!

Finally sitting down to watch the films side by side. This is honestly starting to freak me out. The Twins/Models "you saved me once" "open your eyes Danny" Jesus man. I'm starting to really believe.

LeClair

I have some troubles I must express that emerge from our discussion and from my reaction to your essay, which you have indicated is unfinished.  I will outline my three concerns and then propose a tough solution.

1. Philosophy

You seem very concerned with the psychology and philosophy of tribal shamanism and the many what-nots of feel-good subject matter that emerge from it.  It permeates much of what you discuss. You seem to wish to promote the personal side of the experience, which in itself, has nothing to do with the project as I see it.  I do not invalidate the nature of your experience, only its value to this endeavor.

2.  Inconsistency

On several occasion you exhibit a disturbing habit of changing your mood and the direction of your own words.  You say you want me to take the lead, but you frequently pose strictures.  You exclaim "forward he cried", and then turn heels to tell me there is more essay material yet to come.  Moreover, these communications are delivered passively.  I do not tolerate passive communication.  It makes me uneasy and unhappy.

3.  Saturn

This is most critical--Saturn is at the very center of the mystery.  Today I discovered a Saturn symbol that proves a fantastic connection to The Shining.  Normally, I would want to share this research right away.  But you have given the cold shoulder on the entire matter, and exhibited your disdain, and again in the passive mode.

Under these conditions, I do not see how we can continue, but I am willing to consider the following guidelines.

First, the iAhasca essay will be removed.  As I have stated, it does nothing to forward the matter at hand, at least as I see it.

Second, I will maintain control of the publishing, and publish according to my own schedule.  The blog will be public.

Third, you will be consulted and credited (by what ever name you choose) as valued research assistant.  I will be credited a sole author.

Finally, I will edit the end of the tensor essay to more properly reflect your actually contribution to the discovery process thus far.  I the last paragraph of that essay, I exaggerated your input.  I did this, as I have done several times in our mails, as an act of friendship.  At this point you have failed to recapitulate that friendship.

I wouldn't be surprised if you told me to fuck off and die.  I do not wish to cause you any distress, but I simply can not continue the blog or our discussion until these matters are resolved.

I hope to hear from you soon.

Klaus

I agree with 90% of your concerns, though  I disagree with the terms "passive" or "cold shoulder".  I really hope that your read on this is due to the distance and method of our communication.

I have tried to communicate the amateur nature of my skills when it comes to the professional level of your work.  I had been expecting this crossroads eventually, but had hoped to maybe fake it til I made it.  I was truly flattered at your invitation to enter this project as an equal, but as we both can discern, is just not true.   My involvement is most beneficial to the project as research assistant, and I would still be honored to participate in this capacity.

I don't know how I have failed in the friendship department, for that I plead ignorance.  I had hoped that I had gained you're trust about my dedication.  If I've failed, I can only attempt to prove you wrong as we progress.

Please respond as soon as possible so that this issue can find resolution, and we can move forward.

Quick note:  the last email I sent regarding edits was this :

"Completely reasonable and a quality edit.  I am happy with it as it stands.   Forward he cried!"

The email I sent BEFORE that one said :
"True, I have been editing all afternoon, and doing a lot of cringing.  I will review your edits, and send over my current copy."

If these were received in reverse order, I can completely understand the confusion.

LeClair

Wow Bill, I am really glad to hear you say that.  You exhibit admirable maturity.  If you think you can accept my other terms, I really want to continue this with you, as a fully credited partner.

Regarding the nature of our friendship and of the passive tone, I am not at all angry, just befuddled.  This may be attributed to the difficult of talk through writing, which allows for misconstrual far too easily .  It is all good, and I hope we move onward together.

Klaus

For the sake of the project, you should receive full credit as Author.  It is your writing that brings this material to life.  My involvement in the road to discovery has already been given credit in the blog.  This is enough for WK right now.  I am confident that you are an honorable man, and any and all input I provide will naturally be credited as it should.

LeClair

Great, but I would still want to give you full credit, as your input will be very valuable. Being a writer, as much as I love it, doesn't mean shit to me. Our partnership means much more.

I just sent you an email. If you agree to what is stated, I want to move ahead.

Klaus

Ego in check, ready to rock n roll.
I accept your terms, and look forward to seeing how far this goes.

LeClair

First I want to ask you quick favor.  From now on, can we keep our research discussion in THIS THREAD ONLY.   It'll make it so much easier to sort out.

Here is the new Saturn data and it is a bomb shell.

Consider the image the flag of Colorado.  Notices how the "C'" shows a smaller circle inside of the "C", and thus the "C" is an incomplete "ring".  When Danny is in the games room, the open part of the "C" points to the floor, because the flag is hanging like a penant.  The open part of the "C" will line up with Danny's head.  I had always thought this connected to the phrase "the sun holds the morning in its mouth".

Well check out this short video.  As you watch it, keep in mind the "Cubs" is a play on words for "Cube".  Consider also the "monolithic" Sears Tower.  Watch the whole video.

Mark

http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/us-co.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZowJ2oOSqs

Klaus

As I was watching EWS with The Shining this morning, I focused in on the Colorado Flag, and pondered the possible reasons for it's placement,  as well as why does the lady on the intercom in DSOTM mention the flight from Colorado Fields to Rome.  I also remebered how I always thought Danny had a Cubs jacket on due to the color scheme, the Cubs being famous for being Cursed, a curse related to a goat.

Also, co-author of the EWS screenplay, Frederic Raphael  "was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Irene Rose (née Mauser) and Cedric Michael Raphael, an employee of the Shell Oil Co.[1] With his parents, he emigrated to Putney, England in 1938".

This guy is also the author of a book called The Necessity of Anti-Semetism.

LeClair

Very interesting data.  I think I may need to read Raphael's book on the production of Eyes Wide Shut.

In the meantime I have edited the blog to reflect our renewed partnership and also written instruction on how to run the tensor.  There is also a complete table of timings for the DSOTM part of the tensor.

Here is how I would like to proceed.  We'll keep the discussion between us for now, until we have finished at least one chapter.

I would like the first chapter to focus on what I have called "Suite 1" in the tensor instructions on the blog.  This consists of all plays in all movies of the combo of "Speak To Me Breath" and "On the Run".

I would like to take two or three days to work on this. And you can do the same.  Please drop a line if you find anything interesting and I will do likewise.  This should stimulate our combined vision.  After a few days I will work up a post on our discussion which you can than read and give me any further research for addition.  After we have this chapter up, I hope in a week at most, we can invite a select group to read the blog.  When a few more chapters are up, we can decide if we want to open the blog to the public.

Helter Skelter Vol. 7: יודע באופן ברור

Grok and Roll
July 28-August 5, 2011

Klaus

I like this student/Master relationship.  2001 must be recognized as a psychedelic/new age Bible of sorts, a rock solid statement of gnosis that transcends all borderlines of definition.  It simply IS.   For a lowly acid rock band musician to even suggest that he was capable of a dialogue between equals, or even a creative partnership, WOULD seem silly.

The placement of the Pink Floyd album in Clockwork Orange would be a clear indication of Kubrick's view on where Floyd belonged.

But the pink stewardess sitting next to Floyd in 2001 is just such a boggling coincidence.

Best to focus on this down the road.  I have done one spin of Dark Shining, and enjoyed it.  I'll have to do a repeat.

Again, to repeat, this method of sound/vision invades my dreams.  I am aware of a split where I am interpreting my dreams as they happen in the moment, as opposed to reflecting upon them after I awake.  Powerful stuff.

LeClair

I agree that Kubrick is the Master.  There are, I suspect, few that reach this kind of pure insight with their sanity intact.  Nevertheless, I don't discount the genius of Waters and Gilmour.  There is an intuition that is very beautiful.  I would add my suspicion that Kubrick found Floyd worthwhile.

I would like to ask you an indulgence.  I have a method of looking at this material that you may disagree with.  I want you to try it for just one section of EWS.  I certainly agree that watching these matches with the movie sound muted is an essential experience, but I think that there is something special about achieving a desirable sound mix.  The effects produced are often startling.  A personal favorite is the moment that Danny utters the term "Tony" to Halloran during the "Meddle" mash.  Creepy and dramatic.

My method is quite simple.  I keep both music and film as loud as can be allowed without a really depraved effect to the Floyd aesthetic .  Mainly, I just turn down the movie volume whenever any movie music interferes with the Floyd.  Ideally, you can catch much if not all dialog and sound fx this way, while you enjoy the full effect of the music and lyrics.

The section I would like you to look at requires no tinkering.  Set the movie volume at 100% and the Floyd to about 65-80%.  I suspect there may be some differences between the media players in use.  Simply adjust the movie volume to achieve the desired level, which will allow most dialog and lyrics to be heard fairly clearly.

To match with the first track of DSOTM (Speak to Me/Breath): start EWS at just a split second after 2:09:02.  You'll have to wait for it, but you'll know you've got it right when "Time" bells chime just as Ziegler says "...you wouldn't sleep so well...".  You can watch through to the end of the film or stop when Bill finds the mask on the pillow.  This is the timing achieved by a proper full synch of EWS/DSOTM starting at 00:17.  I would recommend the entire Dark Eyes Wide Shut, of course.  It may seem to much to believe but it is extraordinary.  I hope to prove it as I discuss the complete tensor, but for now, simply enjoy this amazing little snippet of theater.  As a p.s., I add that I have always found this scene with Ziegler and Bill boring.  Not so much anymore.  "Thrilling" is now the appropriate label.

Also, because of the vast amount of info in the DSOTM part of the tensor, I have decided to break it down into sections as we were doing with The Shining.  A conversational discussion is likely to turn up many gems I have not sussed out.  I will send you my first observations sometime today.

Peace

Klaus

I'm gonna have to give it the full viewing.  I'll admit to being somewhat distracted by movie and album volume, but I do appreciate the effect of the 2001 end as well as the EWS scene you highlighted.

Some quick notes:

The Director of Wizard of Oz is named Victor Fleming.  Victor Z is a yellow brick road layer

In the toy store you can see many Oz/Shining related objects:

-bubbles:  the vehicle of Glenda the good witch
-stuffed lion, stuffed tiger, stuffed bear. Oh my
-giant Teddy bear, ala Danny's room
-red elevators
-Barbie in Glenda's white winged outfit
-hot air balloon

Wow, when the cash register in Money hits as Kidman flashes the diamond wedding ring....beautiful.

Honestly, "I don't keep track of the time"?

SO much going on here.  Harford arrives under the rainbow exactly at the same time in DSOTM as Dorothy.

The "cha-ching" exactly as Milich says "okay".  Obviously, the theme of Money.

It's a masterpiece, from start to finish.  Everytime I think i've seen it all....

LeClair

Hells yeah...

Pay close attention to that cash register as you continue. It introduces Millich twice, and the last time through, he actually cha-chings the cash-register. It looks like it will take me longer than I thought to organize my notes. I am at it full bore.

Oh, I am so glad you are picking up the subtlety of this particular mash. I had worried a little about making my case, but you are tuned in, all right.

I while back, when I was working on my "Hyper Cube" stuff, I got banned from a forum for my politely expressed ideas on Kubrick.  The guy who ran the forum has made another in a series of films wherein he looks at Kubrick.  In this 20 min. film, he looks at the layout of the Overlook.  Two parts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sUIxXCCFWw&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfJ8rK7eJeQ&feature=related

Old Nemesis
July 29-31, 2011

LeClair

I am interested in an anomaly.  The scene of Danny playing with his toys in the Hexagon Hallway.  To my eye, the tennis ball that rolls toward Danny is decidedly "pink" in hue.  The color closely matches with that of two pink dinky-cars among Danny's toys.  This differs from the standard "limey yellow" of the tennis ball bounced by Jack in the earlier scene.  Before sending this mail, I looked at the two tennis balls again to confirm my suspicion.  The first is yellow, the second pink.

Here is the thing.  The guy who made this Kubrick analysis film is from the UK.  In his video he uses clips from his own media.  The same scene is clipped in his film, near the very end of pt. 2, of Danny playing with his toys in the Hex Hall.  I'll be damned if it isn't yellow!  Would you be willing to look at this for me, and see what you come up with on your media.  The difference between the ball Jack bounces, Danny's rolled ball, and the rolled ball in the analysis should be striking.

It is interesting that the Orb Glinda arrives and departs to oscillates between "limey yellow" and "pink".

Klaus

Therein lies my confusion...the tennis ball has always appeared yellow to my eyes.  I could not remember a pink tennis ball.  I'll give it another look for finality's sake.  I'm at a golf outing, won't be home for awhile.

The tennis ball is yellow on my tv.
This scene is jammed full of goodies.
In the Bible, the sun and moon are created on a Wednesday.  The sun (tennis ball) rolls in, man recognizes their place in the solar system, moves beyond terrestrial technology, and takes flight on Apollo 11 into the unknown space of room 237.

Ager does some good work, I certainly read a bunch of his Kubrick analysis, but, like the two videos, he seems to get stuck on seemingly standard stuff.  Personal bias.

LeClair

Thank you for looking into this. This color disparity is a real mystery on my end. The ball and Danny's toys are pink. The scene seems slightly different than the yellow ball scene in Ager's video. I don't know what to make of it.

Klaus

Can you send a picture?

LeClair

I tried a video capture, but the file was too big.  Here are two screen shots.  The first shows the pink ball and toys.  The second shows Jack's yellow ball in the Colorado Rm. (in his hands).

Here is a shot from Ager's video, to show that this is not a color anomaly created somehow by my monitor.  What the futz is going on, Bill?

Klaus

That's a pink tennis ball.  The pink cars as well as the pink splashes of color on Dannys sweater are yellow in my screen.  Odd, very.

Pink and Gold are My Favorite Colors
July 31-August 4, 2011

LeClair

I first noticed this anomaly while watching on my TV set via my DVD player.  I thought it might be a badly tuned set.  I have now tested this DVD on multiple devices.  The result is the same.

To my eye, the starry splotches on Danny's sweater are more of a "deep gold color" in the pink ball scene, not pink.  The same splotches are clearly "yellow" in Ager's video, and your DVD, as you report.

My inner spook tells my that this is connected to "The Gold Room".

Klaus

http://forums.highdefdigest.com/hd-dvd-software-general-discussion/22429-shining-high-def-digest-review-2.html

As far as a simple explanation, this at least proves that it's on other discs.  But the stranger implications are fascinating.

LeClair

Jesus, man, your search techniques are the bizz-bomb! Thank you for helping me solve a bit of the mystery. I must say that I do not believe that Kubrick would have allowed a mistake like this if he were alive. I will puzzle over this for some time, methinks.

Klaus

What a great little freaky thing.  I agree, Stan would not have allowed it.

With all of our speculation, I think we both agree that the film 2001 was the most important film/media event for an entire generation. This album cover was apparently Pete Townshend's idea. Shot in 1971, only three years after 2001 was released, it's a statement of pure rock n roll, but in light of Townshend's failed attempt at the Lifehouse project, I wonder how deep the meaning of this is.

LeClair

I am glad you brought this up.  I have alot I want to say, and here is a good opportunity outline some thoughts.

The key is Clarke's "Childhood's End".  Townsend is into Ascension of Consciousness and Planetary Oneness.  This idea seems nice and fuzzy, but conceals a potentially Saturnine function, namely, the use of human life force as the "food of God".  God = Saturn.  Saturn who ate and raped his children.   "Childhood's End" documents this same event, as a double-plus-good inevitability.  This twin theme of Rape and Cannibalism is also outlined in my stuff on "The Shining".

For me, the sequence becomes clear when one integrates the data that both Clarke and Townsend have a documented connection to pedophilia.  In "Childhood's End" the children become sexually mature, which allows the rapid development of human consciousness and oneness.  The resulting human structure is the ultimate device for the "removal" of human life-force into the domain of the Overlords.

For now, we are interested in the connection to "media".  It seems that practically everyone who achieves great success in the politico-media can be connected without much difficulty to these images of Saturn.  The trouble is that they effectively convey a double-positive value to the influence of Saturn.  This is the opposite of the standard Gnostic view that Saturn is a demented demiurge and master of the BIP.

The influence of Kubrick looms underneath all of this like an eternally active engine of chaos.  There can be no doubt--between the likes of you and me--that he exposes the critical symbols of Gnosis.  I suspect that he is involved in the Saturnine process.  I wonder, and without feeling the least bit silly, that he is the avatar of Saturn, and the designer of the dungeon.  There are many clues of his own deliberation that support this notion.

However, to all of this I add a feeling informed by McLuhan, that we are not talking about events that are happening, or that will happen, but that have already happened.  "The flames are all long gone but the pain lingers on".  Rear-view-mirror.

In spite of the horror of all this, there is also beauty.  I don't know how to make sense of it, I struggle with it every day and quite frankly, it twists the living shit out of me.  And yet for some reason, I love it too.

Here are a few trivial details.  The term "Hu" is the source for Townsend's band name.  It is a noise made by Sufi's as they achieve ecstasy.  Todd Field made "Little Children" (must see).  The movie "Fail Safe" documents an event from "Childhood's End", which connects Kubrick to Clarke by way of "Dr. Strangelove".  Kubrick met with Clarke repeatedly during the production of "Strangelove".  

Klaus

I am not as well read on these themes.  I'll comment as to my less informed opinions:

Saturn:  I do notice that middle class parents derive an extreme amount of positive energy from the joy of children, be it sheer cuteness, reflection upon lost childhood, future economic gains.  The child's existence is a bounty of controlled ecstacy in some manner.  This love is devoured and photographed and held onto very tightly.

Clarke:  I was a big fan of Clarke as a child.  He had a show on public television that delved into aliens, bigfoot, etc.  He also had books that mirrored the tv show.  His involvement in pedophilia is certainly odd, but more odd is its seeming world wide acceptance.

I haven't read Childhoods End, but the plot outline on wikipedia is certainly interesting. There is no discussion of the sexual angle, but the Houses of the Holy album cover connection is certainly powerful.

Kubricks role as avatar, or architect, is difficult for me to understand.  I do not dismiss your views, although I am coming to them with a major knowledge deficit.  I am interested in these concepts, but I need some more specific direction on further research.

Todd Field's films are top notch, I was blown away by both Little Children and In The Bedroom.  The pedophile theme in Little Children is there, but I don't know how to make a connection.

The Hu, Hu Wa is very interesting.  Townshend certainly has the Sufi leanings, but is it possible this name was coincidental at first?  Or is it documented as designed?

Roger Ebert just posted an article about McLuhan, discussing the rear view mirror.  I kinda like Ebert, but not this article.  He begins by saying much of what McLuhan wrote was nonsense, but according to Ebert,  the stuff he personally understands is brilliant.  What a dumb thing to write.

I'm beginning to grasp something lately:  with how cheap and available all of the creative output of the 20th century is, and how much more people are consuming it, that as people live longer, eventually they must confront this mystery that seems to lie in the center of our conversation.  It's unavoidable.  Just what is it that we are approaching?  Is there a dead end or a gate?

I need to dig deeper here, continue to point in the right directions....

Sooo....if I needed to catch up and reeducate myself, there really was only one source.

"Now, with the window at the position of 'north' we can trace thelightning path by spelling out the acronym EWS. North, as the first media, is the empty window/mind and is paired with the topmost house of the tree of life. What resides herein is permanently ineffable and entirely pure. Imagination. Next, at the East, is the second media, which is produced, like video-tape, by the application of magnetic feedback. In the third media, at the Western gate, are the CDs: binary language as the first manifestation of the Logos. At South is Alice's vulva, which as media, acts as the extreme barrier between the material and spiritual realm."  (Emperor's New Clothes)

Cha-ching.

My god man, I know I have read your work twice/three tines through, but retracing this opus, it's ALL there.  I mean, I don't know if anyone has truly captured the Horror as well as you have, but, with wit, humor, detail, and balls.   This work is the proud child of Joyce/Freud/Jung, a maniacal little pissed off guy.  I am left speechless, completely grateful, and ready to start again.

Bravo Mark LeClair.

LeClair

Thank you, Bill, I am touched.  I consider the reward for my efforts that I have been able to connect with one or two people like yourself--which is noticeably more difficult than finding a needle in a haystack among haystacks in a hayfield.  There are deeper mysteries still to be plumbed, and I hope you and I can discover some of them together.

Klaus

I find amazement in how much I thought I understood/recognized in a lot of your essays, but in a third/fourth reading, completely new and detailed layers reveal themselves, exactly in the manner of all of my favorite writers, as well as the subject matter you cover.  I also shudder in recognition of the impossibility of the inability to share a lot of the content with just about anyone.   As clear and lucid as a book like Cosmic Trigger reads to me, I know it is a niche type of tome that just isn't made for a wide audience.  I just like to give praise where praise is due.

Dunce Cap
August 4-5, 2011

Klaus

I've been having extremely vivid, healing type dreams lately.  I almost sense there arrival late in the day, which helps me to abstain from a casual drink, or any urge to smoke.

During the night I traveled to my old bedroom, from around the time I graduated high school.  Much like in Serious Man, where Larry's chalkboard expands to gigantic heights in dream, my collective output of writing, sketches, as well as library of books, records/CD's, was discovered to be greatly expanded in size, encompassing all thoughts from birth to whatever the present moment was/is.  It was a divine gift to have found this missing place, a discovery along the lines of Raiders if the Lost Ark.

To get back to the focus:  I have been suspecting that this project, specifically the method of image/sound seperation, and reintegration, has been having a profound effect on the structure of my conscious as well as unconscious mind ( not to mention non-local perception ).
It is a healing laser--the laser of VALIS that heals Horselover Fat, the method that is blatantly suggested in Clockwork Orange, who's participant is literally forced to participate with Eyes Wide Open.  How completely obvious!!!  Kubrick just gives us the keys to the castle!

I've gotta know your thoughts on either:  a)your surprise that I hadn't already made this connection, b)your surprise that I hadn't made this connection til now, c)your belief that there is no connection.

It's the old Crowley line, about how every discovery in life should be made with it's own personal ecstatic discovery, it's own personal aha, that knocks the dunce cap off, and frees you from the corner.

LeClair

Many challenging ideas here.  I'm not sure where to start.

First, let me comment on the "Dunce Cap" simile.  I literally just had, in the last day or so, a talk with my mom about the symbolism of the dunce cap.  I am fascinated that you also trend into this particular theme.

Regarding the nature of the direct Kubrick/VALIS connections, I guess I am a little surprised that you only just twigged to it.  Given the general excellence of your observations, I thought you would pick up on the Zebra in "2001" and Domino's coat in "EWS" and tie these into PKD's Ubik (described as black and white striped patterns of light).  However, because of the diluvian amount of data in Kubrick, it is hardly shocking that you missed it, just as I missed the conflation of a VALIS download with Alex's general experience by way of Ludovico (excellent call, btw).

The differences in our perception defines quite nicely the dual perceptions of Gnosis.  For the moment, you seem to be taking the best of the phenomena.  Your attitude and the value of your interpretations are admirably positive.  As for me, I remain ambivalent.  I am a man who has very much got what he asked for, namely, to be immersed in mystery--and what a mystery it is!  But at the same time, I feel impotent and frightened by the magnitude and subtlety of its design.  The pressure to evolve is to great for me to bear, I fear.

Now ironically, I am an optimist underneath it all.  I have a happy temper and maintain hope.  But I still feel more in a dungeon than I do a castle.  And I feel pushed in to it, like a kid who can't swim into the swimming hole, by the hand of a father-figure of questionable values.

Klaus

1.  I'm a little confused as to the reference to Ubik.  I've read it twice, most recently six months ago.  I do not associate Zebra or a B/W light to Ubik, these are more manifestations or calling cards of VALIS themed constructs.  Ubik, in the understanding of my reading, would be a ubiquitous source of info/life source that breaks through into the dimension of the dead--through advertisements, trash, anomalous bits of info, sent from beyond by a seemingly friendly ally.  Essentially in plain sight, but hidden to the unobservant (or the unchosen?)   This connects with Kubrick as just such an ally, who provides a link to the beyond, a link that offers salvific possibilities.  These links are established by careful meditation upon his films.  One such meditation is using an alchemical solvent to dissolve away distractive feedback, thus allowing the pure nutritive info to be absorbed/noticed/ and catalyse the comprehension of the viewer.  This particular method is perfectly demonstrated in Clockwork Orange:  chemicals, film image divorced from original and intended  soundtrack, new music source (the solvent), and eyes wide open, perceiving every detail.  This method involves resetting the proper sense ratios of McLuhan, and breaks the magic spell.  Proof of this would be it's effect in the content and quality of my dream state.

2.  VALIS constructs (Zebra, Pink Laser) might be the instrument of awakening, the Eye Opener, the psychic alarm clock that evolutionizes not just the third eye, but all three eyes in unison, thus coordinating the person to the surroundings, and specifically, tuning the person into the Ubik (or Kubrick) that is littered about, elements that now suddenly sparkle and demand attention.

Thus the Monilith would be VALIS, and Hal would be Ubik?
Hmmm....this is all just formulating into clearer thought as I write.

LeClair

Hey Bill,

There is alot of complexity here.  I love your Kubrick/Ubik mix-up.  I want to add that I sincerely doubt to possess anything close to balance of senses.  My life is hopelessly out-of-whack.  Trouble is, I kinda like it that way.  You have been warned.

Re: Ubik.  This is a mistake on my part.  A bit of confusion.  I had remembered the Zebra connection to Ubik but not VALIS.  VALIS makes more sense.  VALIS is HAL and the Monolith.  Here is some data from Kubrick and co. along with some non-local pun-ishment, to support this idea.

Have you read Clarke's novelization of "2001"?  In it, at the dawn of man, the Monolith flashes a Zebra pattern to the monkey tribe.  The final sequence of the novel takes place upon Hephastus, a moon of Saturn.  Hephastus is a refinery, and therefore by metaphor recalls the digestive system.  This is important because Saturn is the demiurge of Gnosis, who is described in Gnostic text as not only a cannibal but also a coprophage.  The implication is of the Oroborous Ring--a cyclical, serpentine system which self devours its self and its ignominy, but also, through the magick of sex, fucks itself in the ass.

The "anal" part of the equation is observable on many levels.  On "Dark Eyes of the Moon", the "thunderclap" transition  in "On the Run" (second play) happens as Bill meets Domino, in her Zebra gear.  A "domino" is a Monolith.  Furthermore, as I point out in "The Emp's New Clothes", because of Domino's price of $150, there is an implication that she offers anal sex as at least an option.  This is foreshadowed moments earlier by Bill's confrontation with the Yalie gay-bashers.

Next in line is "Little Children".  In the very first scene, one of the three women who gossip in the park remarks on the enormous size of her babies "diaper load".  We are then introduced to "The Prom King" (Patrick Watson), who we learn is having trouble "passing the bar".  "Little Children" also openly alludes to an act of anal sex between the protagonists, but for now, hold the "legal" meaning of "passing the bar".

Consider the scene from Burton's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", which parodies the dawn of man Monolith as a "chocolate bar".  The term "Chocolate Factory"  is a pun upon the digestive system--the "bar" is the product thereof.

In "Dark Odyssey", the "thunderclap" from "On the Run" (first play) coincides with the first appearance of the Zebra.  By the connections thus far we can identify this "clap" as the release of the bowels of Saturn and we know just what the hero of "On the Run" is on the run to do.

The final connection is that of the "dunce cap".  There is a certain measure of paper called "foolscap" that is a longer measure than standard note paper.  This is the very size of paper that naturally curls into a dunce cap.  It is also the paper used for "legal briefs".  To add insult to injury, this type of paper is very close in proportion to the flat front of the Monolith.  It is the connection to legal standard that makes it all so clear.

In the dawn of man, it is the Monolith that brings not only the first murder but consequently the first law.  Law which we are instructed gives rise to civilization and tech.  Law is meaningless without the threat of death to back it up and the most profound law of physics is Gravity which, in name, conceals the home of death, the Grave.  Moonwatcher delivers this Law, as instructed by the Monolith.

It is Saturn that is Law Bringer.  Saturn, who is also called Jehovah, in his guise as bio-geneticist.  The Law is his "work-product" and it is pretty shitty.  The Monolith, which Kubrick reveals to posses the aspect of a pyramid, is a solid pile of shit.  And thus the law makes dunces of us all--shitheads every one.    

I was listening to Wiedner the other day and he talked about the Monolith as "...super dense material..." through which we must "...pass..." in order to be reborn.   It seems, by the light of these glaring metaphors, that "the way out" is through the ass of God.  And where are you likely "come out"?  Why Uranus, of course.  Uranus, conveniently "discovered" by a guy named Herschel.  Uranus... the old Herschel Highway.

Back in the day, I was ultimately banned from Ager's forum because I conflated Halloran with Chef from South Park.  I may have also mentioned Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poo.  For Ager, this branch of theory is simply too taboo and/or irreverent.  I find it cosmically funny.  It reminds me of the old joke about the guy who goes to Hell and is given three rooms to choose from to spend his eternity.  In the first, men and women stand on their heads on a floor covered with broken glass.  In the next, the occupants stand on their heads on hot coals.  From the third comes an unholy stench.  In this room, folks are on their feet, standing knee deep in shit.  They are sipping tea and listening to classical music.  Given the suffering he witnesses in the first two rooms, the guy decides this shitty tea room will be best of bad choices.  As he enters, the music stops and a voice says,  "Coffee break is over.  Back to standing on your heads".

What else is there to do but laugh?

I goofed on the name of the moon of Saturn, which is correctly Iapetus, not Hephastus. Interestingly enough, Iapetus means "the piercer".

Klaus

The Zebra pattern on the Monolith in Clarke's novel is a revelation, a tidbit that most certainly didn't escape Phil Dick.  It reminds me of McKenna's description of an Amazonian UFO that took the visual appearance of something familiar from his past.

I really think this dialogue is on the verge of a viconian thunderclap of it's own.  I need to sleep on these thoughts tonight.

Just as I am about to send this, the local news flashes a story line: SALTWATER FLOWS ON MARS.  Ho hum.

LeClair


The audible, piercing signal of the Monolith is directed toward Iapetus (Clarke's novel).

Heywood Floyd is the avatar of Saturn, although, like HAL, he may not be functionally aware of the complete program.  When HAL stops talking, Floyd jumps in without a hitch.  One voice, on digi-tape.

In "Dark Odyssey", Floyd's telephone call is paired with "Money".  In this aspect Floyd is Saturn as Father Time, and he is talking to his Daughter, who is Isis.  By way of seven wavelengths, colors, tones, veils, etc., Isis is the basis of the Matrix--the 4d reality.  This illusion is constructed, according to Gnosis, by Saturn, using his shit as raw material.  Looking down on his daughter (a daughter who by no means coincidentally needs to use the bathroom), Floyd is the exoteric symbol of the eye on the pyramid, as seen on the US One Dollar Bill, looking down upon the Matrix of his creation.  "Isis" is given as a pun both as "International Space Station" and as Money.  ISIS = $$.  

The esoteric symbol of the Saturnine Floyd is as the reborn child.  This is pictured when Floyd visits the Zero Gravity Toilet on his Moon Jump.  This scene is a deliberate inversion of the earlier telephone booth scene.  Floyd is on the opposite side of the image, in a private booth.  The music of "Dark Odyssey" plays--at this point--from "Us and Them".  The exact lyric is "...down and out, it can't be helped if there's alot of it about...".  This sentence describes the passage of feces out of the body and the inevitable mess that must be addressed.  Here, confused by his toilet, as the chaotic child Saturn, Floyd is the image of the esoteric eye on the pyramid, which is reversed (see image).  And so we are given "order out of chaos" or for the simple man, reality out of shit.

Thus, the signal to Iapetus, which pairs to the "On the Run" thunderclap, is the signal that the "new shit" is coming down the pike.  Saturn has grown old and wishes to be reborn.  He is a very willful boy--and turns it all upside down.  This is what is meant in the famous deleted finale to "The Shining", when Ullman meets Danny in hospital and gives him the tennis ball.  Jack, who is Saturn, has successfully "consumed" Danny, and is reborn inside him.  The bourbon that Jack downs is "Jack Daniels".  Jack-Danny-Yells.  "I'm coming Danny, I'm right behind you".

We are talking about Iapetus, so the idea of "piercing" must be addressed.  Because we are down the rabbit hole, I infer a reversed meaning here.  Something is piercing its way out-- and that something is the so called Christmas Poo, and it is a bloody mess.  Saturn must always recreate himself from his ignominious defeat, his fallen self, so to speak.  This is the birth of the Starchild (on Iapetus in the novel) and isn't he a cute little shit.  Just don't piss him off.

During "The Shining Meddle", the rm. 237 bathroom scene matches with the lyric (from "Echoes") "...no one flies around the Sun...".  The mirror is the important clue.  It is where Jack sees the true image of Isis.  There is a movie called "Journey to the Far Side of the Sun", which chronicles the discovery of a planet exactly opposite the Earth's orbit.  When human explorers strike out, they find that this planet is a mirror reality of life on Earth.  They learn that two "other" astronauts. our heroes' twins, have just left the double of Earth to reach the "real" Earth.  The themes and release of the movie are easily paired with "2001".  The final image of the film shows and old man in a wheel chair, sitting in front of a large broken mirror.  Talk about obvious.

Thus we can conflate the "rabbit hole" (oral-anus, alpha-omega) with the looking glass Monolith, which reflects itself into a pointless illusion of cyclical regression.  This becomes, in the magnetosphere, the VALIS feedback loop, which in fact does not reflect a true "circle"  or loop, but a "quarter circle", re-applied at right angles, endlessly in the illusion of Time.  The planet Uranus, just like Saturn, is surrounded by Rings.  The Rings of Uranus orbit at a 90 degree angle to the Rings of Saturn.  90 degrees is one-quarter of a circle.  If you read your PKD exegesis, you may come across a reference to the "...Jewish Alchemists..." who maintain the BIP.  What I suggest here is that when Jews pray at the Western Wall, facing Eastward, they are literally "beating back" the natural progression of Time into a repetition of one quarter of itself, perpetuated into marvelous quadratic fractals, like a hall of colored mirrors.  As the priests of Saturn (YHWH), these dudes hold together the false image of linear Time.  I would add to this that Kubrick's impossibly expert use of Scotch Light Front Projection is a pun on the 90 degree difference between the respective rings of the two planets.  Scotch Light projects the false image at 90 degrees.  Kubrick's imagery, especially in "2001" is literally a pun on a pun on a pun--into a false representation of infinity.    

My present interp is that as the Serpent Ring, Saturn, and thus the Monolith, is a sort of false gate.  You can not escape because you are in a series of tubes that represent the physiology of the Serpent That Digests Itself.  These tubes are cued by Kubrick's rectilinear photography, which produces the feeling of being in a maze with a ceiling.  As beautiful as these images may be, they reveal the cannibalistic and eternally self-digestive process of the Shit-Serpent God called Saturn.  The serpent, who says "don't tread on me", rests in a coil that is remarkably similar to another more common and smelly coil that no one wants to step in.

Uranus is the legitimate gate, and it is falsely named "Uranus" according to a Saturnine pun, to mislead those who seek the legitimate entrance by conflating it with the crudest of exits.  Saturn is naturally baroque, dark minded, and ashamed of his processes--but he is wicked smart.  Using the language he created, Saturn names it own shame (the anus) after the dimensional reality it wishes to murder ad infinitum, ad nausem.  Uranus's proper name is "The Sky".

Klaus

Joyce was charged with obscenity because he chose to incorporate the basest of human functions.  This has always been absurd to me, but upon further analysis (there's that four letter word again) I understand the worries of those who would cry obscene.

Incorporating a rational comprehension and apprehension of all biological processes are a requirement of complete gnosis, salvation.

Saturn is a demiurge trapped in time, correct?  To pass the time, it rapes and consumes the shit of the little children it creates, as well as forcing its children to do the same.  The most popular forms of this are pornography and alcohol I would assume.  Pornography being a rape of someone's true will, and alcohol is fermentation/excretion/shit.

Isis, the female, is both prisoner of the Matrix AND the Matrix itself?

I admit to despising South Park, and most of what Stone and Parker create. I just cannot bring myself to watch, but maybe because they choose to swim in the shit, revel in the shit.  Laugh at the shit.

Could 2001 have had the same story arc for Kubrick as Crowley and The Book of the Law?  That Kubrick did not make complete sense of it till years later?

Just watched Weidner's film Kubrick's Odyssey on YouTube.  He does good work, and paints a good hypothesis.

I always return to Joyce when confronted with apparent answers that point in one direction.  Weidner might preach the Apollo 11 angle, and Ager might reject elements of your discourse, but no one individual in this dialogue owns the Truth.    Recap:  The symbol Joyce used for HCE (four "E" shapes, left right up and down) are all equal perspectives of what is happening in Finnegans Wake.  One for conscious, one for subconscious, one for collective unconscious, and one for non-local conscious.  It's the sum total of these four that inform reality in FW.

This four fold symbol is the only construct that keeps my sanity in check.  It allows room for truths that don't make me reach for something sharp.

So, not only does Kubrick reveal personal involvement in top secret government operations, secret society shenanigans, he also reveals his evolving understanding of his reality in terms of psychology, art, mathematics, science, as well as a completely up to date review of spiritual/religious human experience.  His life's work shouldn't be confined to just one area, and his genius is not confined to one area.  His genius is in his ability to weave it all together.

EVERYTHING should be taken as a whole (there's that four letter word again), meaning completely and totally digested.  This comprehension should prepare the contemporary human soul much like the Tibetan Book of the Dead was designed to prepare the human soul for a Matrix that extends into and through our death.  I truly feel that his body of work is a resurrected body of work.

Joyce remains a Spaghetti Monster, the swirling chaos out of which the shining lights of the 20th century evolved.  It's a cosmos for sure.

I sometimes get a bit nervous, due to the depth of our conversation, that our allied front can sometimes be derailed, and misinterpreted as something other.  I feel we are both on the same page, but also involved in highly personal and individual quests.  I urge you to voice any doubts or concerns regarding angles upon which we disagree, or which I might inadvertantly offend.  It's all grist for a mill, however fucked up that mill might be.

LeClair


Yeah, I hear you.  I am nervous too.  I literally shake with anticipation when I come to check my email.  This is some of the toughest material out there.  Almost nobody is willing to even consider it, and will discard it at first blush.   The fact that we discuss it at all is a victory of sorts.

In your last mail you mentioned the idea of "truth".  I want to say that I disagree that no one person can possess all of the truth.  I would admit that no one person can express the truth entire, but the very principle of Gnosis is to "really know" the awful truth.  Having said that, I try mightily to include detailed factual reference to everything that I interpret.  By "facts" I mean anything that is available to the eye and ear or by easy research.  The resulting interpretation is meant to express the "truth" as closely as I can manage without distortion.  My ego, and the exuberance of discovery may get in the way sometimes, but I am willing to put my assertions on the line.

Regarding the nature of our relationship, it is very rewarding for me.  Before starting our conversation, for many months I felt little or no urge to write or research.  Since that time, I have made several of the most profound discoveries of my lifetime.  It is my earnest hope that you feel the same energy, because there is a whole lot more in store.

Helter Skelter Vol. 6: The Delicate Sound of Thunder

2001 Timing
July 25-28, 2011

LeClair

To do it right with DSOTM, you should listen to Also Sprach at the beginning and end of the movie. The rest is all Floyd

Don't forget to all play repeat. I am working on this match-up right now, DSOTM with all three movies. Should have some cool data in 3-4 days. I hope sooner, but it is exhausting--fun, scary and exhausting.

Klaus

True.  After a few days of playthroughs, my mind goes to jello.

This project has become so normal to me, that I almost forget how abnormal it all seemed the first time I played DSOTM to the Wizard of Oz.  I am, however, reminded of it's novelty aspect any time I find an urge to discuss it with someone.

I hope you have the opportunity to do a live Harry Potter synch in the theater.  It's truly an amazing experience.

I have tried to find a good resource concerning Gauss tensor, but I feel as though I need more info/time to truly grok it.  At this point, this is what I can conceive of it: Gauss needed a mathematical equation to measure a seemingly immesurable object (Ceres).  The tensor equation required three points of observation with which to document consistent statistical points. This trio was beyond the normal singular human perspective.  Through the trio and math, Gauss was able to accurately predict the orbit of Ceres.  The extrapolation of this system hints at larger notions about reality.  

LeClair

If you find the time to do my recommended match up DSOTM/2001 you mind may solidify again.  It is fucking amazing.

Here is a final bit of instruction.  When the fourth play of "On the Run" comes around, just before the ancient Dave enters the Monolith, turn up the movie volume to 100%, with the DSOTM sound at about 60%.  The resulting experience is beyond description.

Regarding grokking the tensor, it is only a metaphorical usage I'm applying. Basically, because of the special way I personally stumbled into these three "mother matches" of 2001/DSOTM, TS/Meddle and EWS/The Wall, I have decided to use each album against all three films as a "metaphorical" version of the tensor. The goal is to co-relate the data to within an inch of its life. To measure three events with three different yardsticks. To "cut it up into little pieces" and put it back together again.

In a few days, when I relay my data for DSOTM, I will also relate just how I got into this mess, and discovered the 4:22 2001/DSOTM match-up. It is interesting.

Klaus

Started the final run up of Dark Side/2001 at 1:30:22 (Not sure if this completely accurate).

  Just might be the most sublime of them all.  Seamless.  I'm always amazed at how I'm repeatedly blown away at the beauty and magic within, and how it's like I've never seen it before with a new combination.  How deep is the rabbit hole???

I can't wait to restart from the beginning and take the entire Dark 2001 in.

Bravo, Mark.

LeClair

You must see from the beginning.  It will amaze.  You are eight seconds to the heavy side for this final run up, an effect produced by the slight inaccuracy of song times in aggregate, I suspect. It can be tricky lining up the time from other than the starting point, so I have made a key list for timings which I will send to you when it is completed.  Nevertheless, for this part of "2001" the effect would be extremely similar.

Here seems like a good place to tell you how all of this started for me.  I will be brief.

In the summer of 2001 I worked in isolation in a town on the border of Alaska/Yukon called Beaver Creek.  At this time, I had no knowledge of the kind that we currently discuss, except some trivial detail in he old noggin.  I was, however, a serious movie fan with a penchant for Kubrick.  One afternoon a fellow employee suggested the DSOTM/Oz synch-up.  I had never heard of such a thing, but I was duly intrigued.  The difficulty was that we were in the middle of nowhere and the availability of movies was scarce.  There was a lady in town who collected videos, and we were off to see if she had The Wiz to loan.  I was amazed to learn she did not.

At this exact moment, something incredible happened.  Without thinking or even having time to form a thought I bespoke the following sentence: "Well, we could do it with "2001", because they are basically the same movie".

I have no idea from where this thought emerged.  It was a kind of automatic speaking, like speaking in tongues or something.  To add to the weirdness of it all, the lady did have a copy of "2001" and we borrowed it.  My co-worker wondered how we would set up the timing.  Because I had devoted my life to classical music, I decided that Strauss's Also Sprach should be heard before the album started... mostly because I wanted to hear it myself.  I hit the play button on the attack of the last note of the piece.

Up to this time, I had never heard any Pink Floyd outside of radio play and random occurrence.

Now, I was hearing this amazing album next to my favorite movie, a movie I would have bet my life that I knew something about, and my world was shattered.  It is fair to say that my study of the occult, media, and related material began exactly when that event took place in June of 2001.  Thing is, I barely survived the resulting psychological injury.  My social and professional life was destroyed.  I withdrew into a cone of silence.  It took me about five years to get to where I could make myself understood to others.

Really Bill, you need to see this from the beginning, straight through the intermission to the end, asap.  How deep is the rabbit hole?  Deep.

In a few days I will have completed my correspondence table for the DSOTM part of the tensor.  Another day to write it up and I hope to have it for you to peruse for the weekend.  

Klaus

Gonna spin it today.

What did your co-worker think?  Were you smoking/drinking?
Did you have subtitles?
Did you watch DSOTM and Wizard of Oz soon after?

LeClair

No subtitles.  It was done on a boom box and a TV.  We blended the sound.  My co-worker was astonished.  He may have wondered if I was on the up-and-up... if I had done it before.  We repeated the experiment several times and as I remember it, there were more than a few people who got the gist of it all.  I have not seen or spoken to any of these people since 2001.  It was more than a year later that I finally watched The Wiz/DSOTM.  The result was an article, my first at metaphilm. 

I had started smoking weed some months earlier (at age 34 no less).  I went quickly from a joint or two weekly to an ounce or so monthly.  By Beaver Creek I was kronik, yo.  I had brought about four ounces with me to last the 4 1/2 moth contract, but had burned completely though it in 6 weeks.  I was drinking about 20 oz. of straight whiskey--all day long, just sipping.  Needless to say, I was seriously fucked-up.  It was, without a doubt the highest, wildest and weirdest experience of my life.  I have tried to recreate it, but have yet to touch again so close to the void.

The great part about it is that as unhinged as I was, I doesn't matter in the least to the profundity of what I discovered and have continued to discover.  I have paid a high price, but so far it is worth it--big time. 

Now that I think of it, it wasn't a year between the two synchs... it may have been merely a few weeks.  It was a heady time for me.

Klaus

Is your article about Wiz/DSOTM still up at metaphilm?

LeClair

Yeah, it's up there. And I was right the first time. It was a little more than a year later than the 2001/DSOTM cataclysm of June/Jule 2001.

BTW. When you do get around to the complete 2001/DSOTM, I hope you do it to the end. I am watching it right now and the timings are a gobsmack. Most delightfully, the melody of Ont The Run and Time mixs fin a mindbending way with the closing Also Sprach and Blue Danube. The melodies are so close that I regard this as potentially purposeful.

Here's a link to the article

http://metaphilm.com/index.php/detail/the-wizard-of-ads/

Klaus

I thought that that was the article.
I could tell from the style, sense of humor.

Quick note:  a pink Floyd site references the words on the intercom of On The Run to be " "Get your tickets and your passports at the ready, we make a brief stop at customs and then we begin. Now boarding flight 215 to Rome from Colorado Fields.". Any thoughts to the accuracy?  If so, ridiculous.

I hesitate to bring up this question right now:  the official running time of DSOTM seems to be documented at 42:59.  This does not balance with the time I have calculated on my iPod, which is 42:51.  For the third run through, I advanced according to 42:59, allowing for 1 second of pure silence in between, leaving 2 X 43:00, arriving at 4:22 + 86:00 = 1:30:22.  In my viewing, many transitions were seemingly perfect.  I am going to start from the beginning and go throughout, but was wondering if you have noticed these timing discrepancies.  Thoughts?

LeClair

Yes, I have noticed these discrepancies. I discovered them last week when I tried to cut up EWS with The Wall Timings. There are two main problems. The first is that the individual track titles do not represent a "to the instant" timing, but rather a rounded off amount that is sometimes nearly a complete second off-time. Second is that the replay function does not overlap "to the instant" either. The aggregate of mis-timing can create a pretty big discrepancy when looking at sections of the mash-up. For this reason, the only accurate timing must be considered the "uninterrupted all-play-repeat with the correct start time". In regard to all three films, I am comfortable, even firm, that the start-timings I have "discovered" are accurate to within one-half second. You have seen the wonders of Meddle and The Wall. When you see the DSOTM/2001 mash you oughtta know fer sher about the timing issues.

As I mention, I have developed a master timing key to allow the movies/music to be broken into smaller sections for study. I have finished the list for DSOTM with all three movies. I'll send it to you when I compile the DSOTM part of the tensor.

Yeah, those words from "On the Run" are accurate. I think we can agree this hole is deep as deep can be. The question is, can we hold our breath long enough to get to the bottom.

Klaus

Quick check:  I find that Us and Them ends just as the light show ends, and Any Color You Like starts just as Bowmans eyeball hits the screen.  This cut destroyed me.  Does this jive with your experience?

"Yeah, those words from "On the Run" are accurate. I think we can agree this hole is deep as deep can be. The question is, can we hold our breath long enough to get to the bottom."

This made me laugh out loud.  Great stuff.

In the Wizard of Oz, Professor Marvel's horse is named Sylvester.  The name of the actor who played Heywood Floyd in 2001?  William Sylvester.

LeClair

I find this cut very pleasing... so pleasing that it is troubling, because it is quite a bit off of my timing. I am a little pissed actually, because this cut is so frickin' awesome that I need to go back now and reconsider my timing after two days of work. FUCK!

Oh well, it is all in the game and I want to get it right. It would be alot harder if it wasn't so fun. I must say that as strongly as I feel about 4:22, this particular cut of yours, with the "white flash" preceding, seems a perfect fit for the moment as you see it.

It's not fair that you should get devastated and not me!!

I will now watch the whole damned thing again. Give me a couple few hours.

I just did your eyeball/Any Color match up.  For a second I was nigh on to convinced you had me, but as interesting as one or two synchs are, I think it falls short of the wonders of the 4:22 timing.  The movie is a good 20 sec. behind where it fits best.  When you have reached the end you will hear '...live for today, gone tomorrow..." just as ancient Dave enters the Monolith for the last time--you will know.

I don't want you to think that I don't appreciate your contribution here.  I desire to be challenged on every and any detail you consider worthy.

Do the 4:22 match from start to finito... you won't be disappointed, but you'll probably be pretty tired.

Klaus

Absolutely bro.  Excited to view it in it's entirety.  I'll report back.

LeClair

OK.  At last we have communication.  I think you have made a mistake in identifying the track-name.  The eyeball cut to multi-cubes begins exactly as "Brain Damage" begins.  This is to the lyric "the lunatic is on the grass".  If this is the timing you have found then we are on the same page.

Klaus

Sorry, i got confused.

Here is what I've been working with:

By the exact numbers of my iPod: start at 4:22, plus two complete plays at 42:59, plus 25:45 for Speak>>Money.   This leaves Us and Them starting at 1:56:05, Any Color starting at 2:03:55, and Brain Damage starting at 2:07:20.

LeClair

And therein lies the problem. For some reason, by the numbers, you come in seven or eight secs on the heavy side of the movie. I noticed these discrepancies and corrected them by carefully watching the movie and recording the exact DVD timecode when certain tracks started. It was time consuming, with many errors on my part. However I have checked and re-checked and somehow it comes out according to the following DVD Key. When you do the full version you can check for this yourself... or just trust me. Here is the 2001/DSOTM Time key for start times on the whole album. I'll send you the trachk spacing later, with my data. You'll find these time lines up with the Brain Damage cut just exactly as you describe it.

Play One Starts at 4:22
Play Two Starts at 47:18
Play Three Starts at Just a split second before 1:30:13
Play Four Starts at just a split sec. before 2:13:08

This gives the final play of Any Color at just a split before 2:03:48, which is seven seconds on the light side of your current timing.

Don't forget to turn up the movie for the final play of Also Sprach. A good spot to turn it up is while Dave has his dinner.

Happy Hunting.

Klaus

Awesome, thanks for the input.  Gonna do this in the morning tomorrow.

Talk to you then.

I'm thirty minutes in.  And, well, I mean, it's just...well, you know.  A skull cracker.

The most amazing thing about this is, I was convinced that I had it, that my calculation and mix was THE mix, and after watching it through, according to your guidelines, it is clear that your mix is absolutely precise.  It provides my mind a lot more confidence in the arena of objectivity.

In Finnegans Wake, the thunderclap that recurs throughout the book is the word of God, the changing of aeons.  In 2001/DSOTM, the thunder is clearly heard as the Monolith lands, the astronauts (specifically Floyd) on the Moon(and one of the most haunting moments), as Dave captures Franks dead body, as well as a fourth and final time as man is reborn.

The first time you experienced this back in, not so oddly enough, 2001,  the thunderclap roared long and loud, and I can understand and appreciate the confluence of variables that ushered in a very long and dark night of the soul for you.

Funny, after watching it completely through, all I want to do now is start it up from the beginning.

  Thank you for your patience on this one, a lesser person could have gotten quite agitated concerning my occlusion.

LeClair

Wow... I am more than pleased that you have enjoyed this as much, it would seem, as I do.  There is no need for your apology (as brilliantly written as the whole mail is).  I am certain about my timings and some of my conclusions too, but not married to them.  Your insight is valuable, in spite of a bump or two along the road.  I have sought a partnership of this quality for a long time.

I am glad you noted the "thunderclap" and am more than tickled that it also appears in Joyce as you describe.  I am of the opinion, given my marginal knowledge of Joyce, that Kubrick intended 2001 to pair with Ulysses; EWS with Finnegan and The Shining with The Dead.  I admit that this is mere intuition on my part, although there are a few clues in EWS (Apt. #5A: Harford's Address).

Klaus

"Delicate Sound of Thunder became the first rock album to be played in space, as Soviet cosmonauts took it aboard Soyuz TM-7. They left the cassette box on Earth to save weight. The members of Pink Floyd were present at the launch. The double LP was also the band's only album to be officially released in the Soviet Union by the state-owned label Melodiya."   from Wikipedia

LeClair

I am impressed.  What is the date of this event?  To my sensibility, this is not plain coincidence, nor is it brilliant creative programming.  I am of a mind that it has an occult nature that Kubrick either knew of or programmed himself.  I have so much I want to say right now, but I am holding back until I can present the complete data on my first pass of the DSOTM tensor.  I will finish watching EWS today.  Tomorrow, I will go through "The Shining", which should be easy, as I have done it before with DSOTM.  It is my ardent goal to get my data to you no later than Saturday... I am shooting for Friday night.

As an amuse bouche, here is some deductive reasoning.  I admit this is very thin, and doesn't really have any meaningful bearing on the research at hand, although I suppose it could do.  Rather, it is just a speculation I entertain as to one small part of how this might have gone down.  I have developed this "theory" thanks to the direction given by our partnership thus far.

Young Roger Waters admires Kubrick and maybe even thinks he "gets" it.  Pink Floyd gets alot of early chops writing music for the movies, and score several films by the late 60's.  Waters wants to score a Kubrick film.  According to the Floyd/Kubrick site, Waters's one regret is that he did not score "2001".  There is an implication that he petitions Kubrick for the opportunity to score the movie, and is denied.

I speculate that when Waters finally sees "2001", his regret is amplified.  Not to be completely foiled, Waters decides to score "2001" anyway and the result is '71's "Meddle".  The trouble is that "Meddle" fails to draw the attention and perhaps praise Waters desires, namely, from Kubrick.  It is a matter of subtlety.  "Meddle" simply fails to attract Kubrick's slightest attention.  Waters decides to turn up the heat and DSOTM is the result.  DSOTM contains direct, even explicit reference to the values expressed in "2001".  Polymath Kubrick catches the hint this time, and checks it out.  He may be either pissed or delighted, but he is certainly curious enough to investigate that "Meddle" is a profound soundscape to his film and that DSOTM, perhaps accidentally, gives away many of his carefully encoded secrets.

For myself, I have decided that mastermind Stan is amused by Waters fascinations and decides to recapitulate with "The Shining"/Meddle mash-up.  Meanwhile, Waters is run down.  Drugs, Fame and Booze have weakened him just enough to receive the final download and he at last identifies Kubrick as not just a Great Artist, but as Adversary, Dungeon Master, and Cruel Cosmic Social Programmer.  Waters creates "The Wall" with its Brick pattern cover, as a declaration of the complete realization of Stan's persona as programmer and of his own failure to rise to the Draconian standard of Kubrick's vision.

Stan responds with EWS, in his persona as "bricklayer" Victor Ziegler.  The message is clear.

I am back to work on EWS just now and promise wonders.   

Bored Games 2: Game On!

Skrabbalah

Madonna's favorite!
Not for beginners, this challenging game requires a deep, spiritual focus.  Ages 40 and up.

Bacon Boggle

A fun twist on Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, this cubehouse stars the most famous faces of Hollywood.  Connect as many as you can in three minutes.  Hours of fun!

PKD&D

When Philip K. Dick and Dungeons and Dragons collide, you and your friends can finally try your hand at building a universe that doesn't fall apart two days later.  Travel through space and time, explore alternate identities and histories, and wrestle through endless transmigrations of spirit and flesh.  Reality is what you make it.  

Bored Games

Board games.  People play board games.  Some by choice, and some only as a last resort.  Some will play anything as long as alcohol is involved.

Great party game isn't it?

You can tell a lot about a person just by asking them what their favorite board game is.

For example, if they say Monopoly, they are boring.
Connect Four?  Mentally ill.
Scattergories?  Alcoholic.
Risk?  Nerd.
Trivial Pursuit?  Blowhard.

Scrabble?  This is a tough one, because no one actually follows the official rules when they play Scrabble.  It is very, very "Catholic" in this way (I think up to 99% of the people that play Scrabble cheat the game in some overt or subtle way).  If everyone actually played Scrabble according to the official rules, no one would actually play Scrabble.  So when someone says Scrabble ask the follow up question, "Do you follow the official rules?" and see how they respond.

Boggle?  Delusional, meaning, this person thinks they are smarter than they really are.  Whenever I play Boggle someone always feels the need to warn everyone just how good they are.  Usually someone else quietly warns the others just how good their quiet friend is:

"Watch out everyone, Jane is really, really good."  

In my experience, no one needs a warning, and Jane is never "really, really good."  Jane is just better than her stupid friend.

It should be no surprise then that Boggle is in fact my favorite board game.  I love Boggle because I like to think I am smart, and I always, ALWAYS destroy Jane.  But am I truly as good at the game as I think I am?

What I know is that I can't remember the last time I ever lost a Boggle session, and for years this was the only criteria I had to base my skill level on.  Honestly, I am not basing this on killing time with the niece and the nephew.  I'm basing this on competition with people I consider to be quite intelligent, and many who claimed to be very good at the game.  And they have never had a higher score than me.  Not even close.

Here's the thing: my opinion is based on traditional Boggle.  Wooden cubes, plastic dome, pencil and paper, and that dinky little timer filled with sand (love that).  In traditional Boggle, the best player in the room may write down 33 words, and the group may collectively write down 50 distinct words, but no one knows exactly how many words were actually on the board, words that EVERYONE failed to see.  

Last year I downloaded the Boggle App for the iPhone.  It is just like traditional Boggle (4x4 square, three minute timer), except it provides something the traditional game does not.

And this something destroyed me.

For the first time in my life I got to see every possible word that was possible.  I was not prepared for this.  It was at that moment that I realized that I was terrible at Boggle.  Terrible.

Very Revealing

Take three minutes right now to study the above Boggle board and see how many words you can find.

Time's up.

Go ahead and take another three minutes.

How'd you do?  10 words?  Terrible.  20 words?  Terrible.  30 words?  Terrible.

If you had to guess, how many possible words do you think are in there?

Would you believe me if I said that there are 75 words in there?  Don't, because I would be lying.

Would you believe me if I said 100 words?  Still lying.

There are 149 words in that 4x4 square.  

ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY NINE.

abele, abet, abets, able, ables, ablest, ably, abs, ace, bas, base, basely, bast, baste, beast, bee, beet, beetle, beetles, bel, belt, bes, best, bet, betel, bets, bey, blest, blet, blets, blue, blues, bluest, bluet, bluets, bluey, blype, cab, cable, cables, cablet, cablets, cabs, case, cast, cast, cease, cee, ease, easel, east, elm, elute, elutes, eme, emes, emeu, emeus, etwee, eye, eyes, lea, leas, least, les, lest, let, lets, leu, ley, lies, lust, lute, lute, lutes, lye, lyes, meet, meetly, mel, melt, mesa, met, mete, mew, pele, peles, pelmet, pelmets, pelt, pet, plea, pleas, pleb, plebe, plebs, plus, ply, pye, pyes, sab, sabe, sable, sac, sae, sea, sel, seme, set, stele, stem, stey, sue, suet, tea, teas, tee, teem, tel, tele, teles, tew, tule, tules, twee, usable, usably, use, useable, useably, ute, utes, uts, web, webcast, webs, wee, wet, wetly, yea, yeas, yeast, yelp, yep, yes, yet, ylem, yule, yules.

It's Tricky

(Right now you are probably thinking, "What the fuck is a 'pelmet'?")

Can you imagine if you sat down to play Boggle with someone who consistently wrote down 50 more words than the rest of the players combined?  After getting out the dictionary to look up the words no one had ever heard of, I think it would be clear to most that they would have to reconsider what it meant to be "good at Boggle."  I think it would also be very disorienting, to realize that Boggle could be played at such a high level, that someone could see so much more.  

"That Boggle guy?  Too much time on his hands…"

Maybe, I don't know.  What I do know is that you certainly would never want to play Boggle for 10 cents a point with that guy, which might be the only reason that guy would ever want to play Boggle with you. 

"Play for fun? Nah."

  Could it possibly be any fun for that guy when no element of competition exists whatsoever?

It reminds me of a short conversation I had about film with someone recently.

 "I LOVE Stanley Kubrick.  He's my favorite director."

"Oh yeah?  What's your favorite film?  2001?"

"Oh, I haven't seen 2001 yet….."

Hmm….she probably didn't have enough time on her hands.