This is what I get for thinking about things.
OK, so. I got slightly quite excited about The A-Team movie because it looked awesomediculous and explodey and had Liam Neeson, fresh from Clash of the Titans. And Patrick Wilson's beautiful eyes. Also, Sharlto Copely!
But I am nothing if not a completist (different from a perfectionist and an extremist, I am lazy and stubborn), so I started watching the show online. This was a terrible idea, partly because that show is pretty terrible, and partly because I just finished a great big interview project with a bunch of policemen and war veterans.
Let me tell you, the A-Team is fucked up. That was all I could read it as. Every one of their quirky characteristics could be read as post traumatic stress disorder or a defense mechanism against it, from overactive libido to hyper-aggression to adrenaline addictions to Murdock's whole thing. The fact that they band together in denial that there's anything wrong, building their own base line of normal that includes things like staying up all night on the roof with a rifle and stacking shoes in parallel lines, the compulsive need to fix things, the staunch refusal to leave the country that fucked them over, these are things I found in the men I listened too and things my messed up brain read into the goddamn A-Team.
This can't have been intended by the creators. I actually shared my observations with some of the guys, Wayne and Wilko and Maxacouplehundred (that's what they call him). None of them ever watched it. Wilko really likes The Big Bang Theory. I think he ships Penny/Sheldon, without knowing what shipping is.
Anyway, I'm sitting there thinking about boys programmed so good all they can do is run and fight, the men they become when there's no where to run and no one to fight, the amazing, disturbing, beautiful, weird, sad and wonderful relationships and lives they make out of the ashes, and because I'm a horrible person, I make a mix about it.
The point is, I'm definitely going to hell.
They turned your head into a rest stop for the dead
A mix for the dark side of the A-Team
or
Songs for being lost in your own country, in your own mind
or
Tracks with a dark chewy center of trauma and co-dependence
Simple X - Andrew Bird
So here we are at the end
The war is over
There's nothing left to defend
No cliffs of Dover
So let us put down our pens
And this concludes the test
Our minds are scattered about
From hell to breakfast
Halfway Home - TV on the Radio
The lazy way they turned your head
Into a rest stop for the dead
And did it all in gold and blue and grey
The efforts to allay your dread,
In spite of all you knew and said,
Were hard to see and harder still to say
One with the Freaks - The Notwist
Have you ever been all messed up?
Have you ever?
You're the pincard
You're the lifeguard
You're the information guide
The One Who Got Us Out - Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
Well what can you say to take that weight away?
I look into the endless bottom, and all I want is what should be.
And I'm damned ashamed to feel this rotten
Can we reclaim what's been forgotten?
The state of the State don't let me feel that safe.
All The Kings Men - Wild Beasts
Watch me, watch me
The belle of the ball
my heart, my hand and everything I own
We are the boys with new shiny shoes
we've seen them all and we've chosen you
Right in the Head - M. Ward
I hope my little brother puts a call in today
I hope he don't forget where he came from
I hope he never has to deal with wronging someone
'Cause I lived with many ghosts when I was younger
And I will live with many ghosts until I go
Month of May - Arcade Fire
I said some things are pure and some things are right
But the kids are still with their arms folded tight
So young, so young
So much pain for someone so young, well
I know it's heavy, I know it ain't light
But how you gonna lift it with your arms folded tight?
He War - Cat Power
I never meant to be the needle that broke your back
You were here, you were here, and you were here
Don't look back
He war he war
He will kill for you
Pirate’s Gospel - Alela Diane
While some folks pray
Their path to Jesus
We're gonna sing
The pirate's gospel
We're gonna sow
Our feet for dancing
We're gonna keep
Our eyes wide open
Escape Myself - Nouvelle Vague
So many feelings
End up in here
Left alone I'm with
Oh, an atmoshere
I'm sick and I'm tired
Of reasoning
Just want to break out
Kick off this skin
I can't escape myself
So Come Back, I Am Waiting - Okkervil River
Don’t you know you can’t leave his control
only call all his wild works your own?
So come back and we’ll take them all on.
So come back to your life on the lam.
So come back to your old black sheep man.
Download the .zip
Still going to watch the movie. Whether it's bad or good, it'll be a kind of catharsis, particularly since I hand in the interview assignment tomorrow. Also, Sharlto Copely!
But I am nothing if not a completist (different from a perfectionist and an extremist, I am lazy and stubborn), so I started watching the show online. This was a terrible idea, partly because that show is pretty terrible, and partly because I just finished a great big interview project with a bunch of policemen and war veterans.
Let me tell you, the A-Team is fucked up. That was all I could read it as. Every one of their quirky characteristics could be read as post traumatic stress disorder or a defense mechanism against it, from overactive libido to hyper-aggression to adrenaline addictions to Murdock's whole thing. The fact that they band together in denial that there's anything wrong, building their own base line of normal that includes things like staying up all night on the roof with a rifle and stacking shoes in parallel lines, the compulsive need to fix things, the staunch refusal to leave the country that fucked them over, these are things I found in the men I listened too and things my messed up brain read into the goddamn A-Team.
This can't have been intended by the creators. I actually shared my observations with some of the guys, Wayne and Wilko and Maxacouplehundred (that's what they call him). None of them ever watched it. Wilko really likes The Big Bang Theory. I think he ships Penny/Sheldon, without knowing what shipping is.
Anyway, I'm sitting there thinking about boys programmed so good all they can do is run and fight, the men they become when there's no where to run and no one to fight, the amazing, disturbing, beautiful, weird, sad and wonderful relationships and lives they make out of the ashes, and because I'm a horrible person, I make a mix about it.
The point is, I'm definitely going to hell.
They turned your head into a rest stop for the dead
A mix for the dark side of the A-Team
or
Songs for being lost in your own country, in your own mind
or
Tracks with a dark chewy center of trauma and co-dependence
Simple X - Andrew Bird
So here we are at the end
The war is over
There's nothing left to defend
No cliffs of Dover
So let us put down our pens
And this concludes the test
Our minds are scattered about
From hell to breakfast
Halfway Home - TV on the Radio
The lazy way they turned your head
Into a rest stop for the dead
And did it all in gold and blue and grey
The efforts to allay your dread,
In spite of all you knew and said,
Were hard to see and harder still to say
One with the Freaks - The Notwist
Have you ever been all messed up?
Have you ever?
You're the pincard
You're the lifeguard
You're the information guide
The One Who Got Us Out - Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
Well what can you say to take that weight away?
I look into the endless bottom, and all I want is what should be.
And I'm damned ashamed to feel this rotten
Can we reclaim what's been forgotten?
The state of the State don't let me feel that safe.
All The Kings Men - Wild Beasts
Watch me, watch me
The belle of the ball
my heart, my hand and everything I own
We are the boys with new shiny shoes
we've seen them all and we've chosen you
Right in the Head - M. Ward
I hope my little brother puts a call in today
I hope he don't forget where he came from
I hope he never has to deal with wronging someone
'Cause I lived with many ghosts when I was younger
And I will live with many ghosts until I go
Month of May - Arcade Fire
I said some things are pure and some things are right
But the kids are still with their arms folded tight
So young, so young
So much pain for someone so young, well
I know it's heavy, I know it ain't light
But how you gonna lift it with your arms folded tight?
He War - Cat Power
I never meant to be the needle that broke your back
You were here, you were here, and you were here
Don't look back
He war he war
He will kill for you
Pirate’s Gospel - Alela Diane
While some folks pray
Their path to Jesus
We're gonna sing
The pirate's gospel
We're gonna sow
Our feet for dancing
We're gonna keep
Our eyes wide open
Escape Myself - Nouvelle Vague
So many feelings
End up in here
Left alone I'm with
Oh, an atmoshere
I'm sick and I'm tired
Of reasoning
Just want to break out
Kick off this skin
I can't escape myself
So Come Back, I Am Waiting - Okkervil River
Don’t you know you can’t leave his control
only call all his wild works your own?
So come back and we’ll take them all on.
So come back to your life on the lam.
So come back to your old black sheep man.
Download the .zip
Still going to watch the movie. Whether it's bad or good, it'll be a kind of catharsis, particularly since I hand in the interview assignment tomorrow. Also, Sharlto Copely!