Monday, October 16, 2006

Let's pretend we don't exist.

Since I rarely listen to commercial radio, I use other media to find new music. Lindsay and Kyle have recently been a very cool source of great new pop music, including the one from last year that I'm listening to at the moment: "Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games" by of Montreal. Thanks, guys! Here's the video by Kangaroo Alliance. Great bass line and cool groove and lyrics. Oh, and the video is fun too. I hope you enjoy it.

If you can get it on your computer (it's higher quality), Here's a link to the QT video on the Kangaroo Alliance website.

Here's the same video on YouTube, in case you can't watch the QuickTime version:



You can download the original song (with better audio quality and added minute of groove at the end) from of Montreal here. Oh, and here's their website.

And the lyrics:
Wraith Pinned to the Mist and other Games by of Montreal

Let’s have bizarre celebrations
Let’s forget who forget what forget where
We’ll have bizarre celebrations
I’ll play the Satyr in Cypris you the bride being stripped bare

Let’s pretend we don’t exist
Let’s pretend we’re in Antartica

Let’s have bizarre celebrations
Lets forget when forget what forget how
We’ll have bizarre celebrations
We’ll play Tristan and Isolde but make sure I see white sails

Let’s pretend we don’t exist
Let’s pretend we’re in Antartica

Maybe I’ll never die I’ll just keep growing younger with you
And you’ll grow younger too
now it seems too lovely to be true but I know the best things always do

let’s pretend we don’t exist
let’s pretend we’re in Antartica

12 Comments:

Blogger vivage said...

Great dittie.

10/17/2006 2:06 AM  
Blogger Jim said...

Thanks Viv; I think so too. They get a good groove going, don't they?

10/17/2006 7:09 PM  
Blogger vivage said...

They do, and tomorrow I think I'll look for some more of their stuff. Tonight I am trying to go to sleep! Hard to tell tho since I'm posting!

10/17/2006 11:45 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Aww! Thanks for posting a QT version! ^_^

Man that's bizarre. Sorta Happy Tree Friends-ish.

10/18/2006 9:11 AM  
Blogger Jim said...

Viv, their website has a few songs under "downloads". I like "Wraith" the best, though. Sorry you can't sleep.

Linner, you're welcome. I'm glad you were able to view it. You can also download the QT from the link I provided just below the player.

10/18/2006 2:08 PM  
Blogger vivage said...

No worries Jim, I actually went to sleep at a reasonable time last night. Good thing too, my circadium rhythm was all out of whack. Off to the website for music fun.

10/18/2006 4:59 PM  
Blogger Jim said...

You literary types my already know this, but...

I was wondering about the line in "Wraith Pinned..." that says "We’ll play Tristan and Isolde but make sure I see white sails"
so I looked up Tristan and isolde. There's a description of the story, which is quite convoluted, epic, and romantic, at

http://www.timelessmyths.com/arthurian/tristan.html


Here's how they became lovers:

Before Tristan and Isolde the Fair left Ireland, Queen Isolde had prepared a love potion for her daughter and King Mark. The Queen gave the philtre to Brangwain, her daughter's companion and maidservant, to administer the potion to her daughter and the king (Mark), because she suspect that her daughter would not be happy with the Cornish king.

As Tristan sailed back to Ireland with Isolde, they became thirsty. Tristan found the bottle of wine containing the love potion. Together they shared the wine, and fell instantly in love with one another. They made love on the ship before arriving in Cornwall.

Brangwain discovered what had happened to her lady and inform the lovers. The lovers realised what had happen, but could not control their passions for one another. Though Tristan knew that Isolde must still marry his uncle, Isolde had already lost her maidenhood to him.

At Tintagel, King Mark welcomed his bride, and fell instantly love with the beautiful Isolde. When they were wedded, they retired to the bedchamber. In the bridal bed, Isolde switched places with Brangwain. To cover Isolde's loss of virginity Brangwain would sleep with Isolde's husband in the dark. Therefore Mark would take Brangwain's maidenhood, but think that it was Isolde's.

Once again, Isolde spent the night in her lover's arms. Before daylight, Isolde would leave Tristan and secretly return to her husband's bed.

According to Thomas, in the morning, Brangwain gave the rest of the wine containing the love potion to Mark, so that the king would be madly in love with Isolde.

And in the death of Tristan, he was betrayed and they both died:

How Tristan received the mortal wound was different in the two poems. In Thomas' romance, Tristan helped a dwarf who was also named Tristan, whom I shall call – Dwarf Tristan.

The Dwarf Tristan appealed to the hero for aid, because Estolt the Proud of Castle Fer had abducted his beautiful mistress. While the two Tristans went to Castle Fer to rescue the dwarf's mistress, they were attacked by Estolt and his six brothers. The Dwarf Tristan was killed in the fighting. Estolt and his brothers were all killed. Again, Tristan was wounded with a poisoned lance.

According to Beroul, Tristan was helping Kaherdin to win the love of married lady. It was her husband who killed Kaherdin and wounded Tristan with the poisoned lance. Tristan managed to avenge his friend before Tristan returned to his wife in Brittany.

In either case, Tristan knew that only Isolde the Fair could heal him. Tristan sent a messenger with a ring that Isolde had given to him or else his friend Kaherdin (if he was not dead) went to fetch Isolde. If he returns with Isolde he should sail back with white sails hoisted, otherwise the ship should return with black sails. This reminded me of the story of Theseus and his father King Aegeus, who arrange the same signals.

When Isolde recognised the ring or Kaherdin and heard the news of Tristan dying, Isolde set out immediately to save her lover.

Tristan health had deteriorated further. The only thing that allowed him to cling to life was the thought of Isolde saving him. Tristan's wife, Isolde of the White Hands was the first to spot the ship with the white sails. The Breton Isolde had become increasingly jealous of her namesake. Out of spites, Isolde told her husband the ship coming in had black sails.

Tristan thought that Isolde the Fair had finally failed him. The hero just gave up wanting to live. Tristan turned his face to the wall and died.

Isolde the Fair arrived to find the people already mourning for Tristan's death. Grief-stricken, Isolde rushed to find that her lover was already dead. Isolde lay down beside Tristan, with her lips against his, and died with her arms around him.

King Mark had his wife's and nephew's bodies returned to Cornwall, where they were buried. In a single night, two grew trees grew miraculously from both graves, with the branches intertwined. The two trees became the symbol of their love.

Out of jealous rage, Mark hacked and burned down the trees. But the trees grew again the following day. Mark tried to destroy the trees again, only to have the trees grow back the next day.

So end the romance of Tristan and Isolde.

So "We'll play Tristan and Isolde but make sure I see white sails" means they'd fall deeply in love but not die at the end. A very romantic and deep sentiment, said extremely compactly, if you know the story.

10/19/2006 9:36 AM  
Blogger Jim said...

Viv, I'm glad you got a good night's sleep; I know that that's been a problem for you of late.

I know you don't like taking sleeping pills, but
I still recommend the prescription drug "Sonata", whose effects wear off in about two or three hours max instead of the usual 8 or more. If I'm awake in the middle of the night, it lets me fall asleep and then (with luck) sleep the rest of the night, with no hangover etc.

10/19/2006 10:10 AM  
Blogger vivage said...

Here's a MySpace site for Of Montreal: Right here Check out the 3 songs up at the top.

Hmmm, about perscriptions: I have some trazadone which does knock me out but yeah, it's like an 8 hour thing. I wonder if my doc would entertain the idea of giving me something less time consuming.

10/19/2006 11:28 PM  
Blogger Jim said...

Redhen, yeah, way kuute, thanks! That's why I keep listening to it! ;->

Viv, Doni has Temazepan (whose name sounds somewhat similar to trazadone, so they MUST be similar ;-> ) which is like that too. It's prescription, relatively cheap, and leaves one groggy after eight hours. But Sonata doesn't. It was recommended to me by my psychiatrist friend who is pretty much an expert on psych drugs (he gives lectures to other psychs) because my trouble was getting back to sleep after waking mid-night (full of anxiety at the time). He said it's pretty cutting-edge (in 2003) and that it has few side effects and wears off quickly. It doesn't knock me out, it just lets me go to sleep. That is, if I take it and forget to go lie down, I sometimes have missed getting to sleep, but if I intend to sleep I can about 30 minutes of taking it. He gave me a bunch of samples, and it really worked for me. I've had a prescription for it (from 2 GP doctors) since. I use it very occasionally, but on those "why the heck am I awake NOW?" nights, it really handles it.

10/26/2006 10:00 AM  
Blogger vivage said...

I am definately going to ask my doc about getting Sonata. Read up on it the other day and the 4 hour window is perfect for me. I also read that Sonata begins to leave your system as soon as you fall asleep (now, how this happens is a total mystery to me) This is what it says: "The scientific research on Sonata shows that it stays active only until sleep is initiated. Then the body clears it from the system naturally."

That is much better than clearning 8 hours since lots of times I don't know I need something until I'm way past my bedtime! And I really don't want to take something just in case I can't sleep.

10/26/2006 10:48 AM  
Blogger vivage said...

clearning is a good word, even if it means absolutely nothing.

10/26/2006 10:49 AM  

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