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Post by skepticatfirst on May 4, 2021 7:47:50 GMT -5
LEAVINGThe ending of the party, after the kids wake from their stupor, is only alluded to in a few essential points, most of which are variant reports of the fact of waking up itself. But we can boil down what's known into a closing chapter. ***The first important point is that Juanita's memory of the assault is impaired (as noted in ROOFIES above, anterograde amnesia is a documented side effect of the roofies): i don't quite know what happened [ILtL] said you might remember pretty soon [PSunglasses] There's a shadow of this LP moment hanging over the opening of THS Banging Camp as well. Mary needs a review of history to learn the part of Holly for their return to the Skins ( heregoes), but there's a secondary suggestion that she herself doesn't remember the metal bar party, even if they've gotten over the trauma in the intervening years: Holly wore a string around her finger She said it helps her to remember all the nights that we got over [BCamp] ***The Narrator starts out HDaD by saying that he doesn't remember for sure what he was hit with: here's everything i remember last dance and somebody must've slipped me a sherman ... that's everything i remember [HDaD] But by the time we get to the end, after all the lines that follow, that final "that's everything I remember" is clearly ironic: he's ended up remembering everything, and remembering it in terrifying detail. This squares with what is already noted explicitly in PSunglasses, that his memory of events comes back to him, whereas Juanita's doesn't; which in turn leads to an important inference. Upthread (see ROOFIES above) we've said that the actual knockout drug in play is ambiguous, in that there are many allusions to spiked drinks, and many allusions to laced joints, and sometimes allusions to the two combined ("roofies in your jungle juice" [NN]). But the information about the Narrator and Juanita's very different amnesiac experiences suggests a particular solution: namely, that Juanita was hit with roofies in a drink, while the Narrator was, in actual fact, given a sherman. There are five strong reasons to believe that this is what happened. The strongest won't appear until we come to the last chapter of the LP story, but the other four are available to us now: - The Narrator states directly that "somebody must have slipped me a sherman" [HDaD].
- The roofied drinks are regularly associated with Juanita individually [SdS verse 1, RtF, NN, TMS], while in THS the margaritas are even more strongly framed as being particular to Mary alone.
- We have indications that Juanita stepped away from the Narrator before drinking the roofied drink ("I'm going to walk around and drink some more" [PP]; see WALK AROUND above).
- Again, Juanita experiences the anterograde amnesia covering a span of hours that's typical of roofies, while the Narrator's confusion is short-lived.
So the descriptions of the Narrator coming "up for a couple of drinks" [SdS], or Juanita looking "like Frampton" [LPvtEotE] with a sherman in her hand at breakfast, or the "roofies in your jungle juice" [NN] muddle, are all poetic license. At the literal level, Juanita drank a spiked drink, and the Narrator smoked a laced joint. ***Another standout characteristic of the aftermath of the party is the kids' ragged state. In Prescription Sunglasses, the Narrator describes himself as black and blue: i woke up, i was black and blue, hey girl what did we do? [PSunglasses] In fact, both of them are hurt; in Touch My Stuff he notes we did the black and the tans into the black and the blue [TMS] where "black and tans" [compare C&N, BCamp in THS] refers to the militia-leaning gangsters --- the kids "did" the gangsters, and in so doing got beaten up, and worse. We know that they have abrasions from the carpet and splinters from the hardwood floor (see ON THE FLOOR: INJURIES above). ***Several songs extend the final tally of injuries with detailed references to head wounds. The first of these is the description of Juanita waking up (see AIRPORT & LBI above) with a bloody mouth: and they all woke up at the airport in the arcade at the western concourse that's when she said that we should do this all over she wipes the blood from her mouth with her shoulder [TLaDiLBI] The Brokerdealer account of the "vision"/"fever dream" Lifter Puller story in If Not For Hipster Pictures describes both the Narrator and his female companion bleeding from the mouth like vampires: i came to in the nude in the cage in the zoo blood drippin from my mouth like i was some sort of dracula wrapped in tattered taffeta this is mid-America this is mid-America wrapped in tattered taffeta we are Minneapolis passed out in a party dress passed out in a party dress well hello miss Minneapolis [INFHP] This tattered vampire imagery is familiar from the THS story, too, for example in Navy Sheets: Sunday morning, sidewalks splattered Feverish in stylish tatters ... Can't get over what's transpired Left home virgins, came back vampires Belt it out like back scratch choirs We're either dead or really tired [NS] As a metaphor, the vampire unites the "half dead" theme with that of drug-seeking, see Back in Blackbeard: vampire fangs for bitin into cellophane bags [BiB] to form a nexus of images that in the THS world yields teeth dreams, needles like fangs, dealer Gideon in a cape, etc.; but it appears that the image of bleeding from the mouth after being gangraped is the original one on which the rest are built. This is further suggested by the "fish hook" metaphor [TMG, TMIT, HCamera, Magic Marker], per which drugs are the bait, and dicks are the hook: he had a red swimsuit and two eyes two miles apart looked just like a hammerhead shark with a hook in its mouth, he was dead in the yard [TMG] The above descriptions of the kids' tattered [NS, INFHP] and ripped [Viceburgh, TGatSD, PRock] clothes remind us in passing to link the Narrator's "red swimsuit" [TMG] with "your swimsuit gets ripped" [PRock], and to conclude that his torn underwear is bloodstained --- like the perizoma of crucified Christ (see CRUCIFIXION above), with the nuance that he got the sword in a different part of his side. The association of these mouth injuries with oral sex is further developed by the end of Back In Blackbeard (possibly in reference to the gangster chicks, see THE QUEUE below; but just as likely in reference to Juanita, in analogy with "your love leaves bright bruises" [GLS], at Party Zero; see SUCKING OFF EACH OTHER and YOUR LAUGH above). and the papercut tongue from lickin on the centerfolds [BiB] ***There are other suggestions of the Narrator finding himself outside in the greenery with a head wound after the party, especially (in THS) in The Last Time That She Talked To Me: I can't even figure out whoever's in the party house. I'm out here on the front lawn with the head wound. [TLTtSTtM] Let's Get Incredible repeats the association of the "lawn," i.e. Swede Hollow park in front of the brewery (see THE EAST and DAWN above), with the kids' sexual activity at a long-running party prior to waking up: we groped on the green golf course lawn and we sped through the 7th straight dawn and we woke up in 7th street [LGI] This waking up in the park is, for the rest, consistent with the reference to the "yard" in the line from The Mezzanine Gypoff quoted above: with a hook in its mouth, he was dead in the yard [TMG] It's also consistent with a retreat from the brewery complex back along the same route by which it was normally entered, as described by OftC (see AIRPORT & LBI above): When there weren't any parties she'd park by the quarry Walk into the woods until she came to a clearing [OftC] ***How the kids got from the bar to the park below is not directly described, unless it's by "falling five flights of stairs" [PRock] (see BREWERY BAR: THE STAIRS above). But it seems that their departure began with a walk, bloodied and shaking, through the park back to the world: she's creepin out of the east end [ILtL] Walk on back [HaRRF]
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Post by skepticatfirst on May 5, 2021 5:24:05 GMT -5
NEWSPAPERSWith the THS rework of the Party Zero material, we get a couple of different stories of characters ending up in the hospital after parties (Charlemagne at Regions Hospital after the metal bar party [TIMT, SN, HSL], Holly-in-Mary at Methodist Hospital after the crucifixion party [FN, AE]). There is no explicit LP mention of the kids being hospitalized after Party Zero, but it's plausible to infer that they were; not only is this the normal real-life consequence of being gang-raped and bloodied, but it's also the most obvious way to explain how the newspapers got ahold of the story. ***We're told in Math Is Money that the newspapers report the assault on the Narrator: newspaper said that some crabs stabbed some rich kid but what's a rich kid doin that far up on jefferson [MiM] with the implication that they report it as a sexual assault (for "stabbed"=raped, see CRUCIFIXION above). ***The Gin And The Sour Defeat informs us that the newspapers *fail* to report on Juanita: the newspapers are suppressing information wanna talk about the chick with the chalk outline on the side of the baltimore beltline [TGatSD] The "chalk outline" here refers to Juanita's half-death after a hit of meth (see HALF DEAD above), familiar from the first appearance of Katrina out of the Party Zero bathroom (see KATRINA above). As it turns out, these lines refer *not* to the Party Zero episode, but to a later reprise of it that takes place literally on the pavement (compare "chalk on the sidewalks" [LQ], and see BALTIMORE BELTLINE below). Still, the theme of useless newspapers failing to report deaths is an important one, reappearing as recently as Denver Haircut: He said he can't read the paper. It's not worth the trouble. Finds out about funerals from the blasts of the bugles [DH] ***This critique of the newspapers has interesting implications for the "breaking the fourth wall" presentation of the Narrator as Craig-on-stage's alter ego. Like the THS Narrator ("So I started a band, man" [PJ], "We like to play for you" [TSPotC], etc.), the LP Narrator is the leader of a band. Our expectation, as the audience, is that he and the band are going to bring us "the entertainment and arts" [TCMamG]. But it turns out that that's backwards. *This* singer wants to talk about what the newspapers are failing to tell us ("wanna talk about the chick with the chalk outline"); the mission of *this* band isn't "art," but news reporting. In Touch My Stuff, for example, this reversal is set out explicitly. What artsy English majors are doing is only music journalism, but what the genuine artists in the band are doing is *reporting the news*: these english majors wanna be some super genius novelists they end up music journalists, chicks ain't that into it we are the troubadours and these are the news reports [TMS] The newspaper report in Math Is Money is followed by a similar rejection of "art" in favor of hard reality: this ain't smart dude, this ain't art dude this is sonic economics and i'll put it on a graph for you to prove [MiM] Slips Backwards is at pains to inform us that the artistic presentation of the Denver slums in Kerouac's On The Road isn't the truth, that reality is something different: i've been thinkin all about what you said about my karma catchin every reference that you make about the dharma bums these denver slums they look so good in text [SBackwards] The world of Night Club Dwight doesn't look so good in real life, and in Space Humpin' $19.99 Dwight himself gleefully tells us how he's disabused the kids of this artistic pretense: they think i'm smart, they think it's art but then i start with a crash i'm just a brash trash talker [SH1999] ***The Narrator is an alter ego character, not Craig Finn; real-life Craig's love of Kerouac ( link) and reference to his own work as art ("You gotta make yourself happy with your art, and I don't see any big resolution or any spelling it out for anyone": link) are well documented. But, like the THS Narrator, the fact that the LP Narrator is a lead singer lets Craig go beyond telling the story in first person voice to actually embodying the role on stage, an identification which will help us work out a puzzle in the story that's coming up. We'll get to that shortly.
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Post by skepticatfirst on May 6, 2021 6:25:56 GMT -5
PARTY ZERO: SUMMARYAt this point we've covered the events of the story up through Party Zero in exhaustive detail; here we want to recap the entire thing in one place. ***- Night Club Dwight takes a shine to Juanita and asks her out, but she declines [ NIGHT CLUB DWIGHT]. - The Narrator meets Juanita. She thinks he's cute. He falls for her when she tells him that she likes hardcore [ CONTRITION, SLIPS BACKWARDS]. - Night Club Dwight tells Juanita that he knows about a special party down in St. Paul (at the brewery bar avatar of the Nice Nice) [ NIGHT CLUB DWIGHT]. - On Friday night, the Narrator and Juanita meet Dwight at the Riverside Perkins to hitch a ride with him down to the party [ DAWN, NIGHT CLUB DWIGHT]. - The party goes on through Saturday night to early Sunday morning [ PARTY ZERO, DAWN]. - As it gets late, the other kids start leaving [ KIDS START LEAVING]. - The Narrator goes down on Juanita (the first half of their first sexual encounter) [ SUCKING OFF EACH OTHER, YOUR LAUGH]. - Juanita leads the Narrator out on the roof on the pretext of a cigarette and blows him (the second half of the encounter) [ SUCKING OFF EACH OTHER, BREWERY BAR: THE ROOF, TWO TWENTIES]. - The Narrator and Juanita are now also ready to leave, but Dwight declines to go. They're stranded [ STRANDED, LANDSDOWNE STREET, THE GREATER TRIP DOWNTOWN]. - The Narrator wonders what they should do. Juanita says "I'm gonna walk around and drink some more" [ WALK AROUND, BIRTHDAY PARTY]. - Dwight spikes Juanita's drink with roofies, and slips the Narrator a sherman [ ROOFIES, MAGICIAN, LEAVING]. - In the background, a mixtape (A/Metallica - B/Metallica+Agnostic Front) is playing on a boombox with autoreverse set up on a milkcrate [ ON THE FLOOR: MUSIC, ON THE FLOOR: VISIONS]. - Dwight approaches Juanita with an offer to get her really high, and invites her to "Meet me in the back by the bathrooms" [ BREWERY BAR: THE BACK HALF, BREWERY BAR: THE VESTIBULE, NIGHT CLUB DWIGHT]. - Juanita goes back to the vestibule, where Dwight and three gangsters are waiting by the coat check [ WALKED IN, BREWERY BAR: THE VESTIBULE]. - The Narrator walks into the bathroom and sees Juanita crowded in the stall with Dwight and the gangsters [ WALKED IN]. - Juanita is blowing the gangsters. Dwight is just watching, supervising the terms of the deal, and getting off on the coughing [ SMASHED HER HAND]. - Dwight, with his pants still on, intercepts the Narrator and ejects him from the bathroom [ A MESSAGE, SMASHED HER HAND] .
- Prevented from re-entering, the Narrator tries, hopelessly, to get a message through [A MESSAGE] .
- When Juanita's done blowing the gangsters, Dwight prepares half a dose of meth at the sink and gives it to her by injection at the base of the neck [SMASHED HER HAND, SHOT IN THE SHOULDER, TWO TWENTIES]. - As the rush hits Juanita, Dwight pulls her out of the stall, props her up against the mirror and fucks her from behind [ SMASHED HER HAND]. - Ecstatic from the drugs, Juanita smashes her hand as she pounds the glass [ SMASHED HER HAND]. - While being fucked, she yells loud enough for the Narrator to hear her outside the door [ STEREO SOUND]. - The Narrator retreats to the far southwest corner of the bar where he doesn't have to listen to her fucking [ STEREO SOUND, BREWERY BAR: THE CORNER]. - Juanita notices the plastic bag containing the remaining half of the dose, which Dwight has set down on the sink in order to fuck her [ TWO TWENTIES]. - When the sex is over, Juanita swipes the plastic bag on her way out of the bathroom. Dwight sees her take it [ A LITTLE BIT, SHORT BY AN OUNCE, TWO TWENTIES] .
- Juanita comes back into the bar looking like a train wreck, with torn clothes, a bloody hand, and dripping wet with cum on her hair and shoulders [THE KISS, CONTRITION, VARIETIES OF PHYSICAL ASSAULT, KATRINA]. - She stumbles sideways across the room toward the Narrator, still recoiling in the southwest corner of the bar [ STUMBLING & RESURRECTION, THE KISS, BREWERY BAR: THE CORNER]. - High as hell and born again as Katrina, and eager to tell him how a resurrection really feels, she kisses him [ STUMBLING & RESURRECTION, THE KISS, KATRINA, BIRTHDAY PARTY]. - In the background, the Narrator hears the hissing dead space at the end of mixtape side B, and the autoreverse clicks [ ON THE FLOOR: VISIONS, NIGHT CLUB DWIGHT]. - Juanita pulls out the plastic bag with the half dose (a little bit) of meth that she's stolen, and puts it in the Narrator's pocket [ A LITTLE BIT, SHORT BY AN OUNCE] .
- Dwight catches up to them in the corner and demands his property back [SHORT BY AN OUNCE, NIGHT CLUB DWIGHT]. - Turning from the empty-handed Juanita to the Narrator, Dwight reaches into his pocket, and grabs the stolen bag [ SHORT BY AN OUNCE]. - He confronts the Narrator, telling him that half a bag costs $20, and he has to pay for it [ SHORT BY AN OUNCE, TWO TWENTIES]. - The Narrator, with only $10 on his person, tries to save his life with words: "We're having such a good time, what's another twenty dollars?" [ THE JOKE]. - The joke falls flat. Dwight takes his ten bucks, then says that if he doesn't have the money, he has to pay for it the same way Juanita did [ SHORT BY AN OUNCE, TWO TWENTIES]. - Juanita laughs, late [ YOUR LAUGH, THE JOKE]. - The Narrator says "I'll do anything but that" [ CORNERED, PARTY ZERO]. - Dwight, who's big and strong and has the Narrator cornered, says, "Do you really want to get your problem solved?" [ CORNERED, PARTY ZERO]. - The Narrator surrenders, and sucks Dwight's dick. Juanita looks on, smiling sideways [ PARTY ZERO, SHORT BY AN OUNCE, THE CRASH, YOUR LAUGH]. - Dwight says "You've paid for it, now you get what you paid for." He bends over the stricken Narrator and injects him between the neck and shoulder [ SHOT IN THE SHOULDER]. - Shot out into outer space and feeling small, the Narrator tries to tell Juanita that he doesn't understand; but he can't make himself understood [ FEELIN SMALL, SHOT IN THE SHOULDER, THE CRASH, ON THE FLOOR: VISIONS]. - One of the gangsters, who's brought cameras along, directs the others to close the shutters of the bar windows [ MAGAZINES & VIDEOS, BREWERY BAR: THE CORNER]. - Overwhelmed by the roofies, alcohol, drugs, and trauma, the kids crash, blacking out [ THE CRASH]. - They wake up in the center of a ring of gangsters [ THE CENTER]. - The gangsters crank up the tunes on the boombox (still playing the Metallica/Agnostic Front mixtape) [ THE TUNES, ON THE FLOOR: MUSIC]. - The gangsters pounce. The kids' clothes and the Narrator's glasses are torn off and they're gangraped, while Juanita drifts off into visions [ VARIETIES OF PHYSICAL ASSAULT, ON THE FLOOR: VISIONS, YOUR LAUGH]. - Both kids are fucked and cummed on. The Narrator is fisted, bloodied, and double-teamed [ VARIETIES OF PHYSICAL ASSAULT]. - The kids get abrasions from being raped on the carpet, and splinters from the hardwood floor [ ON THE FLOOR: INJURIES]. - Under flash and the video camera fill light, the rape is photographed for a magazine, and videotaped [ MAGAZINES & VIDEOS]. - The rape continues for hours to the accompaniment of the music, while the kids, high as hell, shivering, and smashed, are seeing stars [ DAWN, ON THE FLOOR: VISIONS]. - In the afternoon, when it's finally over, they walk back via the park (Swede Hollow) and parking lot, and get themselves to the hospital [ DAWN, NIGHT CLUB DWIGHT, LEAVING, NEWSPAPERS]. - A report about what happened to the Narrator is published in the newspaper [ NEWSPAPERS].
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Post by skepticatfirst on May 6, 2021 7:48:18 GMT -5
I guess I'll insert a question here --- if there's a time to check whether the picture so far is clear or not, it's now.
My *hope* is that the last post's summary of literal events, stripped of poetic decoration, and with links if somebody wants to check the details, is going to be an effective way of consolidating everything we've worked through so far. By the time we get to the end of the thread, we'll have done 6 of these summaries, one for each (semi-arbitrary) "chapter" of the story, plus a calendar. Ideally, someone should be able to skim these and get the entirety of the Lifter Puller story, in clear language, in short order.
As you'll see from the table of contents at the beginning of the thread, the Party Zero section involves by far the most analysis of any of the "chapters" --- it has more than three times as many posts as the next longest. So we're at kind of a crux here: if the summary above is an effective way of consolidating everything before we move on, we're golden, because it gets easier from here on out. If not, I should probably try to address that before opening up the next chapter. If anyone wants to suggest improvement in the interest of clarity, I'm all ears.
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Post by skepticatfirst on May 7, 2021 7:53:05 GMT -5
I guess I'll insert a question here --- if there's a time to check whether the picture so far is clear or not, it's now. The summary does seem pretty clear. One question occurs to me: why does Dwight bother giving Juanita the roofies?
It appears that she jumps at the opportunity when Dwight presents his offer to get her high in exchange for sex. If her thing is to always get with whoever gets her the highest, it seems like he wouldn't even need to resort to date rape drugs.
Thanks, I'm glad to know it's coming through clearly. Your question about Juanita is a really good one. My first instinct was to give an explanation, which I will also do; but after sleeping on it, I've come around to thinking that you've caught me in an error --- a small one, but still real and important. Let me review the evidence we're looking at here: 1) As of the beginning of the story, before Party Zero, Juanita's never done meth. At the beginning of SMASHED HER HAND, I wrote 2) In NIGHT CLUB DWIGHT, I talked about the fact that Juanita and Dwight knew each other before the story starts; the implication of "your guy" [RP], "she's pretty sure that he'd stop by" [40B], etc. is that he's her dealer friend, that she's bought drugs from him --- not meth, but "tripping is for teenagers" [CatCT] stuff. It's also apparent that he took a shine to her, but that she rejected him on the grounds that he's a crack addict: well i like you dwight but i don't like the pipe the things that you put in your pipe like your life [NN] This all happens offstage in the runup to the story; we're only told about it by contrast with the "now" [NN] in which she herself has become a trick-turning meth addict (we haven't actually gotten to this part of the story yet, but it's coming up in the next couple of days). 3) There's a catalyst that turns Juanita from the upper-middle-class girl who won't entertain a crack addict's affections into what she becomes, a catalyst that Dwight applies deliberately: i'm like a pied piper, lead the kids into rats, lead the rats to the water i'm turnin teens into fiends, lead em straight to the slaughter i got the stuff that gets em slippin in the shower [Manpark] Or, for another testimony: and dwight's a magician, he gets sensible people makin' terrible decisions [SSC] ***Looking at all of the above together, there's one piece that doesn't quite fit, and that's the one you called out: She said always remember never to trust me She said that the first night that she met me She said there's gonna come a time when I'm gonna have to go With whoever's gonna get me the highest [HH] If I decouple that passage from (1) above, we get a pretty straightforward story of a girl who wouldn't just rush in and do meth without some serious engineering on the dealer's part. Juanita starts out "sensible" [SSC]; Dwight has to "*lead*" her to the "water"=meth [Manpark]. As a practical matter, it's the roofies that bridge that gap. So on review, I think the direct link of the "whoever's going to get me the highest" passage is an error on my part. I say it's a small error, because the emphasis on the volitional character of the kids' choices in the THS story is so strong ("this is just what we wanted" [RP], etc.) that I am in fact picking up on something deliberate; but in fact it's exactly the same error I made with not seeing the rape implications of "pinned down" in the original Here Goes analysis. Yes, the kids have real ownership in what happens, and the THS story goes way out of its way to call us to witness that. But this is an almost philosophical or mystical framing of a deep ambiguity, not a simple moral calculus that lets Dwight off the hook, if that makes sense. (I actually talked about this same ambiguity in some detail in ROOFIES above.) There's more. At the literal narrative level, the "gonna have to go with whoever's gonna get me the highest" line is spoken by Holly on the night she meets Charlemagne, foreshadowing her fateful departure with Gideon at the end of Holly's birthday party. Leading up to that departure, Gideon is camped out by the coat check and goes behind the building with her, which is pretty clearly a reflection of what Dwight does with Juanita at Party Zero, which is why I made the link. But that's not Holly's only departure in the THS story; a little earlier, she takes off with the Kid From California. And while we don't get a lot of details about that departure in the THS story, it too is a reflection of an original LP episode, one about which we're going to learn a lot more soon. In retrospect, I should have made the primary link of "whoever's gonna get me the highest" to that upcoming episode, and not to Dwight by the coat check, even if Craig's symmetry-framing and volition-highlighting hand does draw a secondary connection there as well. I feel like that's a lot of words, written way too fast. I hope it makes sense, or at least that it will make sense when we get to REAR VIEW MIRROR in a couple of weeks.
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Post by skepticatfirst on May 7, 2021 9:20:13 GMT -5
DO THIS ALL OVERIn the aftermath of Party Zero, Juanita says: and they all woke up at the airport in the arcade at the western concourse that's when she said that we should do this all over she wipes the blood from her mouth with her shoulder said i just need a little diet cola, or maybe just a little lifter puller [TLaDiLBI] It was terrifying and traumatic. But she wants to do it again. This is how the season of the Return Parties begins. ***Juanita's "do this all over" is an accurate summary: the essence of the Return Parties is that they are a dazed and bleary rerun, again and again, of the events of Party Zero. It's exploitation, rather than rape, at this point: the transaction of sex for drugs is voluntary, or something like voluntary. [*1] But every other aspect of what happened is up for repeat, and in fact the baseline presentation of the Return Parties narratively is as a continuous present version of the original party (see PARTY ZERO VS THE RETURN PARTIES above). Against that hazy baseline, we can distinguish a few important characteristics of the Return Parties, and even some quiet plot developments. ***First, unlike Party Zero, which was a special "weekender," the Return Parties as such take place on Wednesdays, when the new speed shipment comes in from St. Cloud (as discussed upthread; see NICE NICE above). To be specific, Candy's Room states that these parties occur *every other* Wednesday night: baby ain't you heard about the night club called the nice nice they got the dry ice and the knife fights on every other wednesday night [CRoom] At first blush, Solid Gold Sole seems to describe *weekly* Wednesday parties: one week ago she wouldn't have missed one wednesday night for all the gold that you're holdin in your hands now these discos make her sad [SGS] But that need not follow, if "now" is a Wednesday night in one of the "discos," and "one week ago" a reference to a time during a week between parties, just before something happened to make her sad about them. As we'll learn, this is in fact what happened. ***Second, the Wednesday night Return Parties are not held in the brewery bar, but in different locations around the Twin Cities. These are the "clubs" or "discos," the "nightclubs" of the "nightclub fires" (see NIGHTCLUBS above). We've looked at the addresses suggested by the LP lyrics for these other locations already, and have concluded that they're really metaphoric ways of referring to the brewery bar (see again NIGHTCLUBS, THE BEARS, THE CITY, and THE EAST above). [*2] But there's evidence that such underground party spots really did exist in the Twin Cities of the mid-90's. On the Turned Out A Punk podcast ( link), Craig mentions a quasi-club called "Tarantula Gardens" where he went to a show that broke out into a melee. A discussion of this space on Facebook makes it sound like it checks all the boxes ( link): Viceburgh's description of sad ravers in freight elevators sucking off skyscrapers, living on lifesavers baby [Viceburgh] resembles this closely: that "sucking off skyscrapers" (bjs) in exchange for "living on lifesavers" ("lifesavers"=heroin; see LISTED above), whose continuous-present framing is an indicator of the life of the Return Parties, also transpires at parties ("ravers") with "freight elevators." So there's a faithful sketch of the real world being drawn here, wherever it is exactly that the parties take place. ***A meth addict can't wait two weeks between fixes; while the Wednesday night parties are the main events of this period, at some point the kids slide into a daily habit that leads them to look beyond the parties: and it ain't that sweet workin six nights a week and your swimsuit gets ripped and it's dripping wet with frosting [PRock] And it ain't no fun flirting five nights a week With some weird pierced hipster [PRock alt lyrics] I went through a razor blade phase I guess I went through a hundred dollars a day [SM] Me and Magdalena used to go out every night [M&M] We were up the against the miracle, maxed out every night [HCamera] Goin' on a hike Trying to reach the peak of the euphoric heights That's right We do it almost every night [GoaH] Where they go to indulge that habit on the off nights isn't clearly stated, but the mention of "thugs" [PRock], "weird pierced hipster" [PRock alt lyrics], "questionable folks" [SM], "boys that we'd been twisting with" [M&M], "fishermen" [HCamera], "soldier" [HCamera], and "our hosts" [GoaH] in association with the above passages all suggest pretty strongly that they're meeting up with gangsters: When there weren't any parties Sometimes she'd party with townies [OftC] ***In any case, the reason for Juanita's desire to "do this all over," and the main-event attraction of the Wednesday night parties, is obvious; she wants to go back for the drugs. But what about the Narrator? Looking past the obvious fact of his own developing addiction, why exactly does he, whose memory of Party Zero (and presumably trauma) is much more vivid, go with her? [*1] To call the transaction "voluntary" is technically correct; still "that's a pretty heavy covenant/ To make with someone powerless" [HCovenant]. [*2] Now that we've been through the details of Party Zero, we can say with certainty that the events of the "4th and 14th incident" [Bears] take place there, in the brewery bar; before we're done, we'll tie the things that happen at the "Northeast bar" [BBender] and "City Center/Nankin" [Manpark, 4Dix] to The East/The City around the brewery as well.
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Post by star18 on May 7, 2021 11:55:50 GMT -5
"They got the dry ice and the knife fights on every other wednesday night" might be my fave LP lyric.
I'd always heard it as an absurdist sort of hyperbole, not a literal schedule. "Every other wednesday" is how a bar would advertise a legit promotion, say, pub trivia, or singles' night. So it sounds like someone telling his friend, essentially, "hey that place is pretty sketchy" but the speaker is being funny in the sense of "it's so sketchy they have a regular schedule for knife fights."
Your point of tying it to drug shipments makes good sense, too! Just another fun way that these lyrics work on so many levels.
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Post by skepticatfirst on May 9, 2021 15:29:42 GMT -5
"They got the dry ice and the knife fights on every other wednesday night" might be my fave LP lyric. I'd always heard it as an absurdist sort of hyperbole, not a literal schedule. "Every other wednesday" is how a bar would advertise a legit promotion, say, pub trivia, or singles' night. So it sounds like someone telling his friend, essentially, "hey that place is pretty sketchy" but the speaker is being funny in the sense of "it's so sketchy they have a regular schedule for knife fights." Your point of tying it to drug shipments makes good sense, too! Just another fun way that these lyrics work on so many levels. Coincidentally, the opening of Candy's Room was the first thing out of the Lifter Puller catalog I ever heard. This was after an endless amount of THS listening, and already knowing from written references what the Nice Nice was; so I came to it with no confusion or uncertainty, just a huge buildup of THS-driven expectations about style and power that got smacked on their head in an instant. I totally agree, it's one of the best lines in the catalog. Still gives me a certain kind of "whoa" down the back of the neck.
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Post by muzzleofbees on May 10, 2021 1:55:38 GMT -5
"They got the dry ice and the knife fights on every other wednesday night" might be my fave LP lyric. I'd always heard it as an absurdist sort of hyperbole, not a literal schedule. "Every other wednesday" is how a bar would advertise a legit promotion, say, pub trivia, or singles' night. So it sounds like someone telling his friend, essentially, "hey that place is pretty sketchy" but the speaker is being funny in the sense of "it's so sketchy they have a regular schedule for knife fights." Your point of tying it to drug shipments makes good sense, too! Just another fun way that these lyrics work on so many levels. Coincidentally, the opening of Candy's Room was the first thing out of the Lifter Puller catalog I ever heard. This was after an endless amount of THS listening, and already knowing from written references what the Nice Nice was; so I came to it with no confusion or uncertainty, just a huge buildup of THS-driven expectations about style and power that got smacked on their head in an instant. I totally agree, it's one of the best lines in the catalog. Still gives me a certain kind of "whoa" down the back of the neck. The entire first verse of Candy's Room is just some magnificent writing. It's so much rythm there, and a constant rollercoaster of rhymes, assonance, alliterations and criss-crossing.
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Post by skepticatfirst on May 10, 2021 10:54:33 GMT -5
ROMEWe never get an as-it-happened account of the Narrator's first decision to return to the Scene. But the motives which lead him to go back are still very much in force a little later in the story, when they are described in explicit terms. Three songs with representative views of the Narrator's mindset from around the end of what we're calling the Return Parties [*1] are Sherman City, Nassau Coliseum, and Hardware. ***The Narrator's main motive for going back is simple. Referring to the brewery bar as "Rome" (see THE CITY above) in Sherman City, and the "Coliseum" and "Long Island" (see THE CITY and THE EAST above) in Nassau Coliseum, he says: this ain't no place like rome i know that rome's the place she always goes down on me [SCity] i wanna fuck you i wanna fuck you out in long island [NC] Juanita goes back because she wants to get as high as she got on that first night; the Narrator goes back because he wants her, and wants to have sex with her again (see SUCKING OFF EACH OTHER above). ***There are a lot of negatives and subtler attractions to weigh with that one main inducement. A fuller accounting for his motives would include the following mix: - He still likes The City, in spite of everything ("angel have you ever seen the way these city slickers look/ i think they look incredible" [Sublet]; see THE CITY above).
- He's got a jones at this point ("i sell myself/ this ain't no place to jones" [SCity]).
- Weighed against everything else, he doesn't mind the gay sex very much ("i must admit i felt a little bit aroused by it" [RtF], "i'm just used to it so i deal with it" [LE]).
- His sense of self-worth is fucked up ("let me treat you like a queen, it could boost my self esteem" [LE], "love is just an ego boost" [DStraps]).
- He really, really likes Juanita.
***We get a close-up view of this mix of motives at work in Hardware: [*2] took the handjob at the hardware store made me feel just like a man it only took me eye contact to make him understand swinging from the porches, your dorothy outfit's gorgeous your costume party's awesome just some guys being anonymous dressed like a pirate with a head full of amyls and a gun full of ammo, key to the bathroom you were dressed like a viking, skintight biking shorts looking for a metaphor, hoping for a quick divorce discofied suicide, everyone's a friend of mine there's war against euphoria, we're up on the battle line that didn't seem like fifteen beers [Hardware] Note, to begin with, that this clearly refers to a later party than Party Zero: - Unlike Party Zero, the Narrator thinks this party is "awesome"; rather than being the victim of a gangrape, he's assumed a dominant role in the sex, taking a handjob from another man.
- Party Zero was Juanita's "birthday" party (see BIRTHDAY PARTY above), not her "costume party."
- Far from being new to meth, the Narrator is maintaining: fifteen "beers"=meth (see LISTED above) don't pack the punch they used to.
These are, in short, the events of a later point in the story, a point at which the Narrator's willing participation can be examined. Most of the above-listed motives for his return are clearly in play in the lyrics: - There are drugs available ("key to the bathroom," see BATHROOM STALL above; "euphoria"; "beers"=meth, see LISTED above)
- He doesn't mind the gay sex too much ("just some guys being anonymous," "everyone's a friend of mine")
- His self-esteem is a mess ("made me feel just like a man," "discofied suicide")
- He really likes Juanita and is wrapped up in thoughts of fucking her ("gorgeous," "skintight")
***So that, in context, is his motivation for going back. Whether it works out for him is another question entirely. [*1] We're going to be able to reconstruct a calendar for all of this, but we'll need to work through Part 3 of the story before we can start to put it together (see CALENDAR: FIRST PASS below). [*2] That Hardware describes a party with the Scene is self-evident, but the slang meanings of "hardware store" provide rich confirmation of this: - "hardware store"='a male homosexual brothel' (gdict): this sense is directly applicable, and clearly intended.
- "hardware"='isobutyl nitrite/inhalants' (see LISTED above): makes "hardware store" another "drugstore" euphemism (like "junk store" [Emperor], "pawn shop" [SBackwards], etc.).
- "hardware"='guns/ammunition' (gdict): that this sense is also intended is confirmed by the lyric "a gun full of ammo"; but we have to hear that in the "male homosexual brothel" context to understand that "hardware store" is a "gun store" in the sense of being a den of dicks (see PARTY ZERO above).
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Post by skepticatfirst on May 11, 2021 9:01:28 GMT -5
EAST VS MIDWESTThe problem with the Narrator's strategy of following Juanita back to the Return Parties, is that it's only effective on the wrong fronts: while waiting for his chance to get with her, he advances his own drug habit, sucks a lot of dick, and patiently endures the sight/sound of her fucking gangsters; but he never actually gets laid. The most insistent evidence for this disappointment appears in the context of an East-vs-Midwest framing, where again "East" is The East (the "east end" of St. Paul, i.e. the brewery bar and environs), and "Midwest" is the Narrator's smalltown suburban Minneapolis home turf (see THE CITY, THE EAST, TENNIS COURT, and FEELIN SMALL above). [*1]This framing adds further color to the Narrator's desire to return to "Rome": it's not merely that he wants to fuck Juanita again, it's that he wants to recapture the sexual/spiritual connection they made at Party Zero before it went bad, and then get back with her to "Kansas" (to lean on the Oz metaphor; [*2] see THE CITY above), where they can be a proper couple in a transformed smalltown life. Several songs detailing events from shortly after the end of the Return Parties (see discussion of calendar in ROME above) utilize this framing, most notably Emperor, Nassau Coliseum, Bruce Bender, Jeep Beep Suite, and Sherman City. ***1) EmperorEast: the girl is on the East Coast (for Massachusetts references see GEOGRAPHY: FIRST FIVE TRACKS above), "lit up" with "beers"=meth and "ropes"=roofies (see LISTED above), and getting a "ride back to Connecticut" [Emperor] (to another gang gathering, a place where kids "connect" in both a drug sense and a sexual sense; see SEX FOR DRUGS IN METAPHORS above). Midwest: the Narrator, on the other hand, is "here among the windmills" in the Midwest, drinking "clear beer" and pitching a chance to be "friends again," with "rings." ***2) Nassau ColiseumEast: the Narrator "want(s) to fuck" the girl in the Coliseum "out in long island" [NC] in New York. Midwest: the Narrator doesn't situate anything in the Midwest per se; but implicitly, he's speaking from a place that *isn't* out East, a place where he's stopped doing the "heavy stuff," and yet is still thinking about being out there and fucking her. ***3) Bruce BenderHere the contrast of East vs. Midwest is drawn explicitly for the first time: took you to the corner of a northeast bar kissed you goodnight once or twice in my car i detest the midwest, but the east is a priest and all these greasers are creeps, throwin rocks at my jeep [BBender] East: The East is a "bar" with a "corner" that's full of "greasers" (see HESHERS above); "creeps" hints at unsavory motives for their offer of "rocks"=meth (see LISTED above). It's now stated openly that "the east is a priest": some kisses notwithstanding, the Narrator and Juanita aren't having any sex. Midwest: the Narrator's come back to the East ("northeast") because the Midwest doesn't have what he wants; without Juanita, it's smalltown, it's boring [SH, etc.]. But if he could get her to go back there with him, he'd be happy. ***4) Jeep Beep SuiteBacked by the explicit "midwest/east" terms of Bruce Bender, we can now read the geographic opposition of Minneapolis' "india/liquid soap" to New England's "stop-n-shop/cvs" as an example of the same contrast (see GEOGRAPHY: SELF-TITLED ALBUM above): and i was so impressed with your sequin dress go out to the stop n shop, stoppin by the cvs grab onto my elbow, walkin down the aisle with the shiny shiny hair and the colgate smile, we get up to the register i said mister, can i please just have this paper i think it's got my picture entertaining the soldiers, makin eyes at the sailors and we walked between these velvet ropes, went straight for the bathroom soap tried to make ourselves clean tried to make ourselves sparkle, i mean india seems just like a dream i left with five bucks and i lived for five months like a queen and these nightclub scenes aren't ever what they seem liquid soap won't get you completely clean [JBS] East: "Stop-n-Shop" and "CVS" are (East Coast) drugstores, the "nightclub scenes" where the girl is wearing her "drugstore dress" [Emperor] for "entertaining the soldiers, makin eyes at the sailors" [JBS], where "soldiers"=gangsters, and where there's "ropes"=roofies and "soap"=meth (see LISTED above). Midwest: "India" (a reference to Minneapolis' Aveda) is the place they "left" to come East, a place that seems in retrospect like a dream, a place that "liquid soap" (a reference to Minneapolis' Softsoap, as well as "liquid"=GHB and "soap"=meth; see LISTED above) can't get them back to. ***5) Sherman CityJeep Beep Suite has the Midwest's "India/liquid soap" vs. East Coast's "Stop-n-Shop/CVS"; Sherman City has the Midwest's "Rainbow" and "eagle" vs. the East Coast's "Friendly's" and "seagull." Here for the first time we learn that Juanita herself is encouraging the Narrator to believe that he's going to get to fuck her: she says we'll wake up tomorrow in the parking lot at rainbow but every time i see an eagle, it's a filthy fucking seagull grab my clothes and tap my toes i tell myself this ain't no place like rome i know that rome's the place she always goes down on me ... she says we'll wake up all bloody in the parking lot at friendly's but every time i chase a squirrel it rips apart my world i grab my clothes and blow my nose i sell myself this ain't no place to jones [SCity] East: The Narrator is drawn by her promise that they'll be together once more in The East (Friendly's), because it's a promise of sex; the fact that it means signing up for the whole package again, including the accompanying exploitation/drugs/violence ("we'll wake up all bloody"; compare "friendly friends who'll love you like a brother" [KP]) is fine with him, as long as they have sex. So he "chase(s)" her, enduring all the bad things ("i grab my clothes and blow my nose/ i sell myself ... jones"), only to find that he doesn't get to fuck her after all. Midwest: Juanita's explicitly promised him that she'll come back with him to The Midwest (Rainbow) and sleep over after the party, with the implication that they'll be able to recreate the "great gettin high" [PRock] life without the "fried" [PRock] downside when they get there ("rainbow"=LSD/barbiturates, see LISTED above). [*3] But again, she reneges on her promise; the "eagle" of the Midwest turns out to be "a filthy fucking seagull" of the East, [*4] and he ends up going home alone ("tap my toes" refers to the Wizard of Oz' ruby-slippers "no place like home" scene, a reference cued also by its opposition to "no place like Rome"; see THE CITY above). ***A couple of factors conspire to make this framing look more complex than it really is, the most important of which is that all of the lines above contemplate specific plot points that we don't yet know about. Looking back with the perspective of the full story, it will be evident which passages are describing expectations, and which specific experiences; even the crazy metaphors of Jeep Beep Suite and Sherman City will settle into much clearer focus. For now, we only want to show that the East-vs-Midwest pattern exists, and to use the contrast between them to throw the tension of the Return Parties period into relief. [*1] This emphatic East-vs-Midwest framing is already familiar from THS' Certain Songs, in which Charlemagne warns roughly-twenty-years-old Jesse about what happens to kids "out on the East Coast" [CSongs], where they get "coaxed out" ("meet me in the back by the bathrooms") by the "warm beer"=meth and "smoke"=crack (see LISTED above), and where "certain songs get so scratched into our souls" (see ON THE FLOOR: MUSIC above). Of course, Certain Songs also proposes a second contrast in symmetry with this, namely, West-vs-Midwest, where similar things happen: "screwing in the surf and going out to shows" (see THE FOAM above), "they get high," etc. Charlemagne draws both contrasts for Jesse because he's warning her about what happened in the past to Holly, including, on the Western side of the ledger, the "California" trip where she ended up doing porn. As a casual glance at Mick's Tape and The Langelos will suggest, there's a West-vs-Midwest contrast in the LP world, too. In fact, the entire West/Midwest/East framing in THS is owed to Lifter Puller; we haven't touched on it yet because it doesn't figure in the story so far, but we'll get there soon (see THE WEST below). [*2] Oz aligns with The East in the East-vs-Midwest framing: it's the exotic Emerald City ( wikipedia) standing in contrast to Dorothy's home in the boring, smalltown Midwest (see THE CITY and THE EAST above). In an Oz context, the Midwest/"home" is technically Kansas, not Minnesota; but we have evidence to show that Craig locates it in Minnesota after all. Speaking of Judy Garland, the actress who played Dorothy in The Wizard Of Oz, in the 2005 MAGNET interview, he points out ( link): Judy Garland was in fact born in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. We have the evidence of Craig's Feb 1994 I've Got Drugs mixtape to show that he was familiar with Frances Gumm for other reasons as well ("Frances Gumm" is the name of the band whose "I Will Not Be Destroyed" is the first track on Side B; see instagram link below, and youtube); but his gratuitous observation here indicates an emphatic investment in her Minnesota origins, and strongly suggests that the Frances Gumm : Judy Garland :: Juanita : Katrina parallel is not lost on him. http://instagr.am/p/B-Zo3qejYJx [*3] The vanity of the "parking lot at rainbow" dream is further underscored by Southtown Girls, in which the THS kids drive there for a score, only to find themselves again in the presence of a threatening gangster dealer. [*4] The Juanita-as-bird metaphor is bizarre, but not unique to Sherman City. Mary's a "songbird" [LID]; the solo songs have a girl who's "a bird in the backyard" [GiGalena], and another who's a "hawk" [Wild Animals]. The girl getting "peck[ed] at" by the guy in assless chaps is a "peacock" [TPProcedure]. The kids in The Most Important Thing are "baby birds" (the couple in Birds Trapped In the Airport, with the obvious LP/THS suggestion of "airport"=gangster den, are "birds" too; see AIRPORT & LBI above). They're "grackles" fighting over drugs at the bar ("popcorn"=marijuana, "potato chips"=crack cut with benzocaine, "chips"=joints laced with PCP; see the DEA and ONDCP documents linked in LISTED above). They're the "pigeons" [Feelers] being preached to by Shepard (see NICE NICE above), and the "city pigeons" [Brokerdealer INFHP] being feasted on by the gangsters (see RATS & CATS above). Like in Sherman City, they're the "seagulls eat[ing] cigarettes" [UBreakfast], i.e. eating dick. Even the eagle/seagull split in Juanita is repeated with reference to Mary and resurrected Holly: Mary's songbird "rustle thrush" is displaced by Holly's "hawk" [A&H] looking around for something that just died [MoC]. The Narrator keeps hoping to connect with eagle Juanita, and keeps finding himself stuck with seagull Katrina instead.
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Post by skepticatfirst on May 12, 2021 8:57:58 GMT -5
THE QUEUEIt's during the Return Parties that the brutal life of meth addiction is established as the Narrator and Juanita's new reality. One of the more graphic and disturbing features of this life is "the queue" [HaRRF] --- their habit of methodically working through crowds at gang parties, blowing dudes one after another in search of a hit. ***1) "Queue" = inverse "linedance"At Party Zero, it was the gangsters who double-teamed their way through the kids with a "linedance": the linedance starts, it pounds along with your heart and you're stranded [Bears] But as of the Return Parties, the situation is inverted: now it's the kids who go through the gangsters like a baseball lineup (for the baseball context, see LANDSDOWNE STREET above): The H and the K, the way we get with every guy that we meet [LDoL] Positive Jam charts the same progression, from the "crash," and the possibly literal "twenties," of the first stage (see THE CRASH and TWO TWENTIES above) to the "queue" of the second: Woke up in the '20s and there were flappers and fruits in white suits It was right before the crash We got thrashed throughout the '30s, queuing up for soup with scabby sores [PJ] "Soup" is slang for semen ( gdict, backed up by several definitions referring to sexual service in urbandictionary); "queuing up for soup" means that the kids are lining up the gangsters to suck their herpes-scabbed cocks. [*1] Compare to this: this one goes out to all the white druggie ravers, hey savior, your soup is on [LGI] Again, "savior"=dealer: "your soup is on" is the kids declaring themselves present and ready for service. Or again: we did the goats head soup into the tattoo you [TMS] The kids went from sucking dick (not only "soup" but "head": gdict) to getting "tattooed" --- here connoting both getting pricked with needles, and embracing the gang lifestyle (the THS gangsters are explicitly described with tattoos [Knuckles, SPayne, HF, AHfA, ASD]; compare "walk like a panther" [Viceburgh]). Finally, this explains the previously obscure line in 212-Margarita, when Holly tells Jesse: and maybe if you're feeling better then maybe we could get some soup together, we've been sick together before. [212M] It's not a coincidence that the "St. Paul Saints" baseball allusion in HaRRF is again connected with the image of the lineup: St. Peter had me on the queue, the St. Paul Saints they waved me through [HaRRF] Like the LP kids, the THS kids have all done time working the queue (trying, like Holly, to get to "heaven," and to get saved with a "wave"; see LISTED above). ***2) "Stars" of the "sequel" partiesBesides "star"=speed (compare "your stars are shootin up and down my arm" [SBackwards]; see LISTED above), the ONDCP document records another definition of "star" that's exploited in the lyrics ( ondcp): Rock Star -- Female who trades sex for crack or money to buy crack The gloss goes out of its way to specify "crack" and "female," but in the LP world "star" applies to both of our meth addicts. In BiB, it's used to describe Juanita: you're the star of every single afterbar the condescending host to the post-game interview blowin smoke in the post-show afterglow rubbin up against the radio [BiB] Here "afterbar," "post-game," and "post-show" refer to what happens at the end of the parties and after, like Holly going back behind the building with Gideon; "condescending"='going down'; "interview" because she works the "mic" (compare "this mouth's got mic skills" [LGI]); "blowin smoke"='giving blowjobs for drugs" (see CASH MACHINE above); "rubbin up against"='hands (and mouths)'/'fucking'; "radio"='tape machine' (see TWO TWENTIES above). But "star" is also used to describe the Narrator: guys drive by and shoot at me because im a star [SBackwards alt lyrics] where "guys drive by and shoot at me" refers, again, to getting jizzed on by the gangsters in the queue (compare Juanita "ducking," i.e. going down, "for the drive by" [SBackwards]). Compare also the implicit "star" framing in Double Straps: you look so cute like that, i want your autograph [DStraps] where "like that" means down on his knees and sucking dick (see COMMEMORATIVE PLATES below). [*2] The hidden-in-plain-sight character of the Narrator's service alongside Juanita is a constant source of dark-humor double meanings, from the examples catalogued upthread (see THS REVISITED above) to the recent opening of Me And Magdalena: Me and Magdalena used to go out every night. They thought she was the pretty one. They thought that I was nice. But the boys that we'd been twisting with ... [M&M] That "me" is the Narrator, not another girl. Magdalena (Mary, i.e. Mary Magdalene) is the pretty one; but the boys think he does a nice enough job "twisting" (compare "all the dances we learned/ the twist ..." [TCMaMG]; see DANCING above). [*3]***3) Blowjobs for nothing: "misses"In looking at LDoL (see LANDSDOWNE STREET above), we took note of the baseball notation "H"=hit and "K"=strike, and the "hits"/"misses" line later in the song: [*4] The H and the K, the way we get with every guy that we meet [LDoL] ... the rock band bitches hitched to the hits and the misses gettin hitched to all those scumbags [LDoL] This emphasizes a particularly ugly aspect of the queue: often, the kids aren't even striking a proper deal, they're just throwing themselves on cocks, hoping to get something afterwards, and moving on to the next in line if they get nothing. There are lots of references to this dynamic, for example in MPADJs: It's going down right now in Lowertown They're skipping off the good ship U.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.S. Sexuality Searching for the merchant with the five second delivery [MPADJs] Here the kids are "going down ... searching for the merchant" who'll come through with a hit, with the implication that most of them don't. LiaL is more explicit: she put those lips like a leech up to the sex on the beach sandy, sticky, baby mickey did the miss you [LiaL] This describes Juanita sucking cock only to get a "miss" on the drug end of the bargain ("beach"=cocaine, "sand"=heroin, "stick"=joint laced with PCP, "mickey"=knockout drug; see LISTED above). Viceburgh expands the picture to others besides Juanita: tiger can't talk he's got shoes to shine, said it's pretty dry we could try the guy up on first and fifty-ninth if he's still alive [Viceburgh] What's described here is another addict in the gang orbit, "Tiger" (see RATS & CATS above), telling the kids he's had no luck getting a hit; he "can't talk" while he's "shining shoes" because in fact it's dicks he's polishing to get at the drugs in those shoes (see SHOES AND SOCKS, and, for the conflation of dicks with drugs, CASH MACHINE above). The Narrator, too, keeps getting a miss, despite getting a lot of "high fives" that end up "drippin down all over" him (for "drippin" of cum see VARIETIES OF PHYSICAL ASSAULT above): yeah these hesher guys are trying to give me high fives but they don't stick the sugar packets inside ripped and drippin down all over the barfly [Viceburgh] Further trouble getting that hit is reported in The Smidge: we used to want it all, now we just want a little bit [Smidge] And again in Denver Haircut: I've kissed and I've cackled with half of these jackals. Still couldn't get any jet fuel [DH] The "cigarettes"=dicks metaphor (see EAST VS MIDWEST above) is used regularly in the context of the kids' search for a hit, from their begging to suck dick: wont you share your cigarettes with me and my friends [SdS] to their exhaustion of the queue of dealers: we're all out of cigarettes [SdS] and the general hopelessness of their search: heaven is a place you can never find your cigarettes [FB] ***4) "Memorizing" the lineupThe final characteristic of the queue that comes in for repeated mention is *the kids' maniacal focus in keeping track of who they have and who they haven't already blown.* In doing this, they don't even look at the gangsters' faces; the only thing they're paying attention to as they scan the room is the *clothing* in which they suspect drugs to be concealed (see SHOES AND SOCKS above). There's one example of this that we hear about several times: namely, a pair of gangsters wearing an American flag bandana and a Canadian flag bandana, respectively. To go back to the last lines of Black In Blackbeard, the kids are described with vampire fangs for bitin into cellophane bags wasted on red, white and blue and the american flag and the maple leaf rag [BiB] where the "rag" is one of those bandanas that they're tracking so carefully: memorizing the rock rags [LDoL] This accounts for the connection of the "red white and blue" with drugs and blowjobs in the Swish (the original "shoes and socks" party): I blew red white and blue right into a tissue [Swish] and of the "national anthem" with the same in Viceburgh: she's takin off her tavern jacket last night swear i saw your face up there in the footlights she was mouthin the words to the national anthem and she was liftin her skirt just like a three dollar dancer [Viceburgh] The American/Canadian flags account for the characterization of the Scene as "the National Zoo," again with the mouth and the dress, and with emphasis on the purely functional animal sex ( wikipedia): The amphetamines did what the amphetamines do. And she was chewing through her cheek at the National Zoo And the dress she was wearing Made a nice case for natural selection [Star18] Finally, this anecdote explains the bizarre line from The Smidge: when we couldn't get a hit we used to cruise to vancouver [Smidge] Like in the BiB passage, they tried the guy with the American flag first; then, when they couldn't get a hit, they moved on to the guy with the Canadian one. [*1] To the "scabby sores" [PJ] of herpes, compare the genital warts of "did a couple favors for some guys who looked like Tusken Raiders" [Swish]. [*2] For other uses of "star" in reference to the drug-addicted kids, see "sidewalk stars" [Langelos], "talk about the stars and the upcoming sequel" [YCMHLY], "Someone said she’d been a star as a kid" [3Drinks]; in this sense, "star wars hips" characterizes the LP story as, not just a war over drugs (see LISTED above), but a war waged over, and by, the kids themselves (compare "they sent us off to war" [PJ]). [*3] The unexpectedly equal-opportunity going-down-for-drugs trade works the other way, too. The gangsters' "crusty girlfriends" (see ORIGINS OF IMAGES above) --- the "chesterfield chicks" [LiaL], "those chicks" who "were just so dumpy" [TFatBR] --- occasionally offer their own reward for service. Sometimes it's Juanita who takes them up on it: virginia slept with the sketchy chick she was sick, they still clicked [11AF] Sometimes it's Juanita and the Narrator together: and it ain't that sweet workin six nights a week ... it's the shit they stick in liquor makes us lick the chicks that we don't even love [PRock] The note that Juanita "was sick" [11AF] refers to her symptoms of withdrawal; compare "gettin sick tryin to kick" [LiaL], the account of being "sick together" [212M] leading to "get[ting] some soup together" [212M], etc. [*4] The lines "bitches/ hitched to the hits and the misses gettin hitched to all those/ scumbags" [LDoL] give us another impressive case of 'both/and syntax' (see CONVENTIONS above): a) "the misses"='the failures to get a hit' in "the bitches getting hitched [in the sense of 'bound'] to the hits/misses queue," *and* b) "the misses"='the girls' in "the girls getting hitched [in the sense of 'married'] to the scumbags."
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Post by skepticatfirst on May 13, 2021 6:22:57 GMT -5
FRONTAGE ROADSo the Narrator follows Juanita to the Return Parties, but he doesn't get laid; instead he gets used and addicted, and gets to watch her go full Katrina and blow the gangsters for drugs. That's bad; but there's more. ***The kids still need a ride to and from the parties, and Dwight (see NIGHT CLUB DWIGHT above) is still into fucking Juanita, who's now conveniently enslaved to his merchandise. I Like The Lights alludes to a ride home from one of these parties (we know it's not the original Party Zero, which ends with the kids walking home bloodied and their clothes in shreds, see LEAVING above): and i like the lights and i like em pretty bright and he pulled out a pipe in the taxi and i like the lights and i like em pretty bright and he took off my tights in the taxi [ILtL] We're treated to a much more elaborate account of this incident in Nice Nice (the song): remember jenny back from i like the lights she said well i like you dwight but i don't like the pipe the things that you put in your pipe like your life now jenny missed her ride and she's takin off her tights in the back seat of some taxi we went from upstairs at the nice nice up to franklin up by 15th and jenny got dressed as they circled the block they did the secret knock and stuck their hands through the mail slot and one, two, three, four, that's the way that jenny scores [NN] We've already been over this passage once, but let's take a closer look at the details of the drive being described. ***As we noted in that earlier treatment (see NIGHT CLUB DWIGHT above), the route from the Nice Nice/brewery back up to 15th and Franklin is a straight shot west up I-94 into Minneapolis and Franklin Avenue. But I-94 is an interstate highway and Franklin Avenue a busy thoroughfare, which poses a logistical challenge: If Dwight wants to park his "taxi" on the way back to fuck Juanita in the back seat, where's he going to do that? Once again, asking Google Maps for the best route answers the question. See this image: The destination on the left is 15th and Franklin (note that the avenue continues offscreen via "Franklin and Portland to Clinton" [LGI] past Electric Fetus and into the beginnings of Uptown. For context, the red X on the right is the Riverside Perkins; their route back retraces their original route down, see NIGHT CLUB DWIGHT above). The route leaves the interstate at exit 234C and runs south a few hundred feet along Cedar Avenue to Franklin Avenue. In so doing it steers around a little one-way block sandwiched in between the commuter rail and Franklin Avenue. What's there? What's there, along the southernmost block, is a stretch of road with no businesses or residences, elevated above Franklin Avenue, and flanked by windowless walls and greenery to offer privacy. It's all one-way, so cars have to "circle the block" [NN] to get in and out. The name of the road is Franklin Frontage Road. Substitute Dwight's car for the grey Honda on the far side of the No Parking sign, and you're looking at the Motel Mariposa. ***Confirmation that Franklin Frontage Road is the place that Juanita "scores" is found in the "shadows" cast by this event on the THS story. [*1] Don't Let Me Explode mentions the "frontage road" where (THS drug dealer) Charlemagne tries to hook up in the backseat of his car with (THS alpha girl) Mary: Saint Barbara, don't let me explode I can feel the whole scene Starting to corrode When we're fooling around on the frontage roads [DLME] ***Further confirmation appears in the following line of Almost Everything: The bus it rolled up into Franklin at dawn and everything seemed super slo-mo [AE] in which we recognize a double allusion to the sketch of Jenny drawn in Nice Nice, namely - in "bus" [AE] as analogue to "taxi" [NN] (two documented versions of the missed-her-ride vehicle, see THE GREATER TRIP DOWNTOWN above. There's a "subway" version in "and now i've done it on the d-line" [BiB], too); and
- in the "dawn" hour [AE] as analogue to "the end of the night" [NN] (see DAWN above).
The fact that the bus "rolled up" to a halt as it comes "into Franklin" lets us know that this is a special stop: it's neither 15th and Franklin (which lies well past the point at which they come "into" Franklin Avenue), nor the exit from I-94 (at which point they "rolled up into" the intersection with Cedar, not Franklin), [*2] but something evidently corresponding to the LP situation described above. And with that, the comment that "everything seemed super slo-mo" becomes deeply disturbing. This remark isn't omniscient description; it's an experience related from the perspective of a character who was present. And though the words come from the mouth of the THS Narrator, the "shadow" lets us understand them as reflecting the experience of the LP Narrator, which in context means this: 1) The Narrator, Juanita, and Dwight ride back from (one, or more than one, of) the Return Parties in Dwight's car. 2) They take the Cedar Avenue exit off I-94 and roll up into Franklin Frontage Road, while everything gets super slo-mo for the Narrator. 3) The Narrator waits outside the car (staring at the skyline, see below) while Dwight fucks Juanita in the back seat. 4) Juanita gets dressed while they complete the circuit of the block. 5) They continue on to the drug house at 15th and Franklin, where Dwight gets Juanita her reward. This is consistent with the implication of Mick's Tape ("so hike up your hitchhiking shorts, we're roadtrippin" [MTape]), that the Narrator, Juanita, and Dwight go to the parties in his car together. [*3] It's also consistent with the THS episode referenced above, in which the THS Narrator, Mary, and Charlemagne all flee the crucifixion in Charlemagne's car, and at some point wind up on the frontage road with the Narrator out of the picture while Mary and Charlemagne try to hook up in the backseat. [*4] In short, the "shadow" of that "super slo-mo" feeling is the Narrator's cresting horror at what, per the pre-announced terms of Juanita and Dwight's negotiation, is about to happen. He's enduring things that are deeply fucked up. Next we'll see what happens when he snaps. ***At this point, it's hard to say that Juanita is still the Narrator's girlfriend; Juanita is now Katrina, and Katrina's not the Narrator's girlfriend, but Dwight's. Dwight himself makes the same boast when he points out the switch from "your girl" to "my girl" in Space Humpin' $19.99 (the song is related from Dwight's perspective): [*5] and i saw what your girl did last summer ... that's when she said she says it's great gettin high i want everybody who's been eyeing my girl to slowly close their eyes she said it's great gettin high i want everybody who's been eyeing my girl to slowly close their eyes and think about what you've got compare it to what i've got and ask yourself what do you think my girl wants? [SH1999] ***For me, working out the location of the frontage road with the help of Google Maps and "circled the block" [NN] was a first-class aha-moment, to the extent that I was a little disappointed when Heavy Covenant came out and stole my thunder. But on the upside, it clearly confirms that this is the correct reading: That's a pretty heavy covenant To make with someone powerless He said he'll ask about that other stuff If you're still prepared to pay for it I know the perfect place to go Slide your little phone into the airplane mode Motel Mariposa A little south of downtown on the frontage road ... It's a pretty heavy covenant In the taxi to the airport I was hoping for Tucson around ten Staring at the skyline Then right back at my phone to find a friend It seems a single body is a couple different people in this one life [HCovenant] Breaking this down: - The "heavy covenant" is a reflection of Dwight's deal with Juanita: he'll "ask about that other stuff" when they get to 15th and Franklin if she's "still prepared to pay for it" (compare "She said, You know I'm down to pay for it/ She said, Just grant me some indulgences" [BCrosses]). And by "pay for it," he means that he gets to fuck her in the backseat on the drive over.
- It's a "heavy covenant/ To make with someone powerless" because she's an addict, and literally enslaved to the drugs.
- He knows the "perfect place to go" for them to fuck: namely, a place "a little south of downtown on the frontage road." That's unambiguously Franklin Frontage Road; nothing else matches the description.
- "Motel Mariposa": it is, after all, technically a "motor"-hotel they're fucking in; "mariposa" (Spanish 'butterfly') conceals a reference to alpha girl Mary, being derived from the phrase "Maria, posate!" meaning "Mary, alight!" (wiktionary; for Craig's use of Spanish and girls' names, see LACED SUBSTANCES above; note too the butterfly graphic that accompanied the single on release).[*6]
- "Slide your little phone into the airplane mode" refers to the fact that they're not going to want to be disturbed for a little while; he's telling her to slide into her druggy-vision-while-fucking mode ("airplane"=drug reference, see LISTED above; "phone"=her senses).
- "In the taxi to the airport": again, evidence that this is a reflection of the scene in Dwight's taxi [ILtL, NN]; they're going to the "airport," a gang distribution center at 15th and Franklin (this is a different gang, but the metaphor is consistent; see AIRPORT & LBI above).
- "Staring at the skyline": while waiting for them to finish, the Narrator is standing outside the car, staring at the skyline.[*7]
- "Right back at my phone to find a friend": as soon as it's over, the Narrator is back trying to get in touch with the real Juanita, buried somewhere inside Katrina. "It seems like a single body is a couple different people in this one life."
***As shown by its persistence even in the ODP era, this is a fundamental event in the original story, and needs a handle for easy reference. At risk of confusion with the location itself, I think the Frontage Road (Frontage Road Incident is crisper, but unwieldy) is the most natural name for it, and that's what we'll use going forward. [*1] There's another "shadow" in The Stove And The Toaster: Said she slept with the driver [TS&tT] Here the connection to a character in the story has been lost, but the original framing remains. [*2] To be clear, it's the specific line "rolled up into Franklin" that references a location past the exit from I-94, but the exit itself is still very strongly associated with the backseat-fucking stop, as is shown by THS' "hook up with an exit ramp" [CiS] and "made love to the interstates" [PJ]. Note too that their route from the exit to the frontage road to 15th and Franklin back to Uptown is fixed, anchored by Uptown as the kids' ultimate destination; regardless of where the Wednesday night party in question (a moveable feast) took place, Dwight would have brought them back by way of I-94 and this same exit. [*3] Compare also fallin off the flatbed wasted and dancin holdin hands and speedin into scranton [LPvtEotE] The "flatbed" that takes them, "speedin" and only "holdin hands," not more, into Scranton (The City in The East) is Dwight's taxi. It's transportation, but it's also a bed. The basis for the "Scranton"=St. Paul metaphor is most likely Scranton's identity as the eastern half of a different pair of "twin cities" in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Pennsylvania; but even if that's not the origin of the metaphor, the evidence for this reading is very strong: - "too late for liquor" [LPvtEotE] and "liquor lasts a little later" [HDaD], combined, locate the deadly party at the end of the kids' trip to "Scranton" (1) "across the river" [HDaD] and (2) down at the bottom of "lake street" [LPvtEotE] (see GEOGRAPHY: THE FIRST FIVE TRACKS above)
- "Scranton like it's 1999" [EC] links "Scranton" to Juanita's $19.99 transactions (see TWO TWENTIES above), and to the "1999 up in windows on the world" [SPUD] of the brewery bar (see BREWERY BAR: THE ROOF above).
We'll meet with more evidence for this identification downthread (see BACK TO THE CITY below). [*4] In the Here Goes discussion of Mary and Charlemagne trying to hook up in the backseat ( heregoes) I made a mistake, concluding that the car was Mary's; as the LP parallels help us to see, it's Charlemagne's car, stolen [MoC] in the sense that his body has been killed and left behind at the scene of the crucifixion. [*5] Rather than being literally delivered from the perspective of a year later, Dwight's "i saw what your girl did last summer" [SH1999] is an allusion to the 1997 slasher film "I Know What You Did Last Summer" ( wikipedia); but the events of the Frontage Road do take place during the summer (see CALENDAR: FIRST PASS below). [*6] The name "Motel Mariposa" may be borrowed from the 1983 film Tender Mercies ( wikipedia); between that, the alliteration, and the subtle Spanish reference to Mary, I don't think there's room for a "butterfly" reading like the one in OftC (a reference to the bladeless knife via a creeping thing without fangs), especially as there *is* a drug transaction in play here. [*7] "Staring at the skyline" confirms that Dwight's car is parked at the western end of the frontage road, like the Honda in the Street View shot: it's the southwest corner of the block that offers a view (past the windowless warehouse) of the Minneapolis skyline.
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Post by star18 on May 13, 2021 9:02:31 GMT -5
This continues to be an extremely impressive endeavor. Your ability to constellate ideas and images is unbelievable. One minor note on yesterday's post. In Craig's introduction to this song at the Brooklyn Bowl album release party, he did specifically say that M&M was about two women. Of course, Craig likes to obfuscate and misdirect. Just thought it was worth mentioning. Link: theholdsteady.bandcamp.com/album/open-door-policy-live (Note that the talking comes at the end of the "Riptown" track.)
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Post by muzzleofbees on May 14, 2021 4:44:39 GMT -5
This is excellent! Do you think "motel" in LP/THS in general refer to a car? I buy that motor-hotel reading, and given that pretty much everything in these lyrics takes place within Twin Cites, it's probably more likely that people spend time in a car than to pay for accomodation.
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Post by skepticatfirst on May 14, 2021 6:07:44 GMT -5
This continues to be an extremely impressive endeavor. Your ability to constellate ideas and images is unbelievable. One minor note on yesterday's post. In Craig's introduction to this song at the Brooklyn Bowl album release party, he did specifically say that M&M was about two women. Of course, Craig likes to obfuscate and misdirect. Just thought it was worth mentioning. Link: theholdsteady.bandcamp.com/album/open-door-policy-live (Note that the talking comes at the end of the "Riptown" track.) Thanks man! About M&M, he did say that, but like you say, it's misdirection. There's lots of other stuff in the song that'll let us map the narrator of M&M to the Narrator before we're done. (Actually, I just went and listened to the live intro to double-check; technically he did what he does in songs a lot, which is to say something noncommittal at the beginning of a story --- "I had an idea for a song about two women" --- and then let you infer the rest. But I don't want to lean too heavily on that argument --- better to just stick with the lyrical evidence, and with clearer examples of interview "evasion" supporting a general "take it with a grain of salt" policy. Today's post actually brings up a pretty good example, although I don't call it out until a couple posts later.)
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Post by skepticatfirst on May 14, 2021 6:36:50 GMT -5
This is excellent! Do you think "motel" in LP/THS in general refer to a car? I buy that motor-hotel reading, and given that pretty much everything in these lyrics takes place within Twin Cites, it's probably more likely that people spend time in a car than to pay for accomodation. Great question. I don't think it can *only* refer to that --- offhand it seems like the carpetburn rape reference in "the carpet at the Thunderbird/ has a burn ..." [SN] pretty much has to point to a building --- but there's also a lot of waking up in parking lots in both LP/THS worlds (in fact I have an IN THE PARKING LOT coming up later). It's one of those things that I'd have to take a deliberate fresh look at to be sure I hadn't missed something here. An interesting example is the combination of Shepard showed up when we were wrapping up the counting up [SShoes] with they counted money in the motels [SN] It seems totally plausible that a drug distro gang would meet to close out accounts at the end of the day, and that the head of the gang would show up to supervise. The "motel" is the place they meet. What place is that, actually? I've been thinking about this for a couple of minutes with fingers frozen on the keyboard, and in fact I can see enough evidence for both readings --- evidence that they're meeting in temporary lodgings, like the temporary locations they use for the Wednesday night parties; and evidence that they're meeting in parking lots --- to not be able to exclude either possibility off the top of my head. Could be both, of course, but I should think about this more.
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Post by skepticatfirst on May 14, 2021 6:44:21 GMT -5
UNDER WATERSo the Narrator follows Juanita through every kind of personal abuse and degradation in the hope of getting her back, and succeeds only in hanging onto a front row seat while she blows or fucks everyone at these parties except him. This is reflected, famously, in the THS world, where Mary puts Charlemagne in exactly the same position: She said I ain't gonna do anything sexual to you I'm kinda saving myself for the scene [YLHF] How this impossible situation finally blows up is illuminated by a different reflection, from a different angle, in the THS story. ***We know that Juanita went down on the Narrator early on, before Party Zero got druggy (see SUCKING OFF EACH OTHER above). If she had sex with him then, why won't she have sex with him now? The difference now is meth. She doesn't care about sex any more, except as a means to acquiring more speed. This is the same point that Night Club Dwight, who sees the Narrator hanging on without a hope all summer (while he himself enjoys Juanita in the bathroom and the backseat), lays out for him in SH1999; with "everybody who's been eyeing my girl" [SH1999], he's specifically addressing the Narrator. Juanita's only fucking the gangsters, and Dwight himself, to get to the drugs; and once she gets the drugs, she has no further interest in sex. [*1]In this we clearly recognize the profile of THS' Holly ( heregoes). As long as Holly still needs Gideon for drugs she "don't have a problem" [YCMHLY], since she's fucking him and keeping him happy. But when something happens to interrupt their transactions --- when she's already got her drugs from fucking somebody else, and now just "want(s) to [be] high alone" [YCMHLY] --- then there's a problem, since when Gideon decides he wants to fuck, she's already withdrawn into her "awkward silences" [BCamp], and is unavailable for sex. [*2] THS Gideon | wants to fuck Holly | can't because she's already got her drugs and is done with sex | LP Narrator | wants to fuck Juanita | can't because she's already got her drugs and is done with sex |
***How this ends for Holly, we know. Gideon "can't stand it when the banging stops" [BCamp] ("banging stops"=both 'awkward silences begin' and 'fucking stops'), and so he kills her, in a murder effected via baptism: luring her into the river, he tells her, "Hold your breath and I'll dunk your head" [BCamp], but then he never lets up, holding her head under water until she drowns. [*3]The raw material for this episode too is taken from Lifter Puller: just as Gideon snaps and drowns Holly, the LP Narrator snaps and tries to drown Juanita. The drowning is mentioned at the end of Sherman City, the same song that describes Juanita's repeatedly broken promise to wake up with him back in Minneapolis (see EAST VS MIDWEST above): if we're really gonna wait, baby can't we take a shower look just like an otter when i push you underwater [SCity] (Here "if we're really gonna wait" means "if you really mean 'i know i promised but not now, wait, we'll have sex later.'") We can infer from the rest of the story, in which Juanita is not drowned, that this is a momentary rage, and that the Narrator doesn't actually drown her; but the image of him holding her head under water and not letting up is graphic and violent, and it's evident that they both experience it as a moment of real trauma. ***This episode is the climax and focal point not just of Sherman City, but of Nassau Coliseum, too. There, though the story is veiled by a reference to events at a historically real concert at Nassau Coliseum on Long Island, the Narrator describes what we recognize as the same pent-up rage, arising from the same jealous causes, leading to the same violent outburst: the girl selling t-shirts was kind of a freaker, first she gets handcuffed they started to beat her, i was so angry, you had just left me they had her pinned down, it was so easy, gotta admit it i can't forget it, i don't regret it that i got some kicks in [NC] The Narrator is clearly a mess about it. He sets out the tangled justifications for his anger ("didn't think that you'd diss me/ did you sleep with that hippie?"; "you had just left me"; "i wanna fuck you"), and asserts that he "do[es]n't regret it." But at the same time he feels the need to distance himself: "it was so easy"; to confess from a position of inner turmoil: "gotta admit it/ i can't forget it"; and to vow, without admitting it, that he's changed: "haven't done any heavy stuff since the nassau coliseum" [NC]. ***The other place where we see him twisting himself in a knot over this is in The Gin And The Sour Defeat: i met this girl underneath the stairs she says she won't come up for air [TGatSD] He's the one who literally held her head under water; but he can't pass up pointing out (in backhanded self-justification) that *she's* the one who won't break with the party scene, in spite of his attempts to pry her away from it. ***Juanita's not really herself these days, but she still has enough self-possession to call it quits with someone who tried to kill her. Putting a capstone on a relationship that's been going south for a while now, she dumps the Narrator, hard. We'll come to the direct evidence for this breakup soon (see MAILBOX below. While "you had just left me" [NC] points to more than a mere shift of allegiance to Dwight, the strong reframing of events for the NC concert narrative makes it hard to lean on this alone). For the rest, the unfolding of the story from here on out will make it plain that she's done with the Narrator for good. He probably wasn't going to get what he wanted anyway; but now he's really gone and destroyed it. [*4] [*1] It appears that this is the point of and don't you think the dancin is a waste of time and i expect you to move if you expect me to apologize for all the things i said about your man and i'm sorry if i treat you like a maintenance plan [SBackwards] The Narrator is arguing with Juanita about this same situation, about Dwight ("your man"), and about the fact that she won't have sex with him (for "move"=fuck, see Langelos, TLaDiLBI, HJ); he apologizes, sarcastically, for treating her like a "maintenance plan," as if he were a car owner who expected to get *serviced* for free. [*2] This account of what happens in Banging Camp is straightforward, and consistent with everything we know about Holly from the rest of the story. The one apparent difficulty with it is the fact that Gideon also calls her "sweet recovery" [BCamp], as if she were refusing him because she's trying to get clean, rather than because she's already high and withdrawn. It's easy enough to read "sweet recovery" as irony on Gideon's part, and at the literal level that's surely the correct reading. But from the point of view of the evolution of the story, there's a more nuanced explanation for how these two framings of the scene come together, which we'll get to shortly (see JEEP ENCOUNTER: ORIGIN below). [*3] Mary, who's glad to have Holly out of the way, describes the murder afterward: "She said it's funny how true love [Gideon's lust] gets troubled by still water [awkward silences]/ And washed up in the Mississippi River" [YLHF]. [*4] Besides Gideon's drowning of Holly, the THS lyrics sketch at least two other scenes of boyfriend-on-girlfriend violence that are consistent with an origin in the LP Narrator's assault on Juanita. In the recently released Beer On The Bedstand, it's the Narrator who admits that he's been too rough with Mary ("Saint Theresa" [BotB], "Mother Mary" [BotB], etc.): She usually keeps her distance He's too rough when he's all the way up [BotB] If we look past the arrows-taped-on-the-wall question of POV perspective in Yeah Sapphire ( heregoes), what's left is, again, the straightforward plea of a guy who's gotten too "rough," to the girl who's left him because of it: Yeah, Sapphire I know the last time we touched I came on a bit rough, please forgive me Yeah, Sapphire After you left, it was a big sketchy mess, they almost killed me [YS] Note in both of these the implication that the girl's left him because of the violence: "she usually keeps her distance" [BotB]; "you left" [YS]. Still, in both songs he's angling for a chance to meet her again; BotB even alludes to specific circumstances of their seeing each other on the bus, with a planned rendezvous in a park. No spoilers now, but we'll come to a very similar scene in the LP story a little further along.
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Post by muzzleofbees on May 14, 2021 8:17:59 GMT -5
These last few posts are really, really good, and I was just walking around humming that last part of Sherman City the other day, thinking about that specific "push you under water" scene. It's always sounded weird to me, but now I feel stupid not to have connected it with the drowning in the THS story. It's pretty obvious now, hah.
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Post by skepticatfirst on May 16, 2021 12:01:44 GMT -5
These last few posts are really, really good, and I was just walking around humming that last part of Sherman City the other day, thinking about that specific "push you under water" scene. It's always sounded weird to me, but now I feel stupid not to have connected it with the drowning in the THS story. It's pretty obvious now, hah. Thanks man. Tomorrow is the summary of the Return Parties, and then we're done with the second chapter of the story already; things are going to start to move a little faster from here. Bunch of good stuff coming up this week. Rereading the next few posts, I'm reminded of something I should add about the Frontage Road, namely that, like the brewery bar, we have evidence that Craig has actually seen the location with his own eyes. You can't go to a show at The Cabooze without "circling the block" on Franklin Frontage Road; the guys in the band are recorded talking about Cabooze shows in "Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash: Storming the stage with postpunk pirates Lifter Puller" ( link). The article is a good read for other reasons, too, if you haven't read it already.
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Post by skepticatfirst on May 17, 2021 5:50:40 GMT -5
RETURN PARTIES: SUMMARYIn the interest of keeping up a clear summary of the story, here's what happens during the Return Parties. ***- In the wake of Party Zero, and in spite of what they experienced there, the kids return to the Scene for what we're calling the Return Parties [DO THIS ALL OVER, ROME].
- Juanita goes back for the speed [DO THIS ALL OVER, THE QUEUE].
- The Narrator goes back for a few reasons, mainly:
- because he wants to fuck Juanita again [ROME, EAST VS MIDWEST].
- because he wants to leverage a renewed sexual connection to get her back to his normal "smalltown" world [EAST VS MIDWEST].
- because, at this point, he too is now a meth addict [ROME, THE QUEUE].
[/ul] - The Return Parties take place on every other Wednesday night, when the local gangsters receive the regular speed shipment from St. Cloud [DO THIS ALL OVER].
- At these parties, the Narrator and Juanita work their way through the queue of gangsters, blowing them in hopes of a hit of speed [THE QUEUE].
- On the nights when there aren't any Wednesday night parties, they find other ways to party with the gangsters [EAST VS MIDWEST].
- The Narrator, whose hopes of sex with Juanita don't materialize, gets increasingly frustrated [EAST VS MIDWEST, FRONTAGE ROAD, UNDER WATER].
- On at least one occasion [FRONTAGE ROAD]:
- The Narrator, Juanita, and Dwight get a ride back to Uptown from one of the Return Parties in Dwight's car.
- En route, Juanita and Dwight strike a bargain.
- They take the Cedar Avenue exit off I-94 and roll up into Franklin Frontage Road, while everything gets super slo-mo for the Narrator.
- The Narrator waits outside the car, staring at the skyline, while Dwight fucks Juanita in the back seat.
- Juanita gets dressed while they complete the circuit of the block.
- They drive on to the drug house at 15th and Franklin, where Dwight gets Juanita her reward.
[/ul] - Eventually [UNDER WATER]:
- Juanita puts off the Narrator, who's already angry about what he's forced to witness at the parties and in Dwight's car, for the nth time.
- He snaps, holding her head under water with murderous intent, but relents before she drowns.
- She's a mess, but not enough to put up with almost being murdered, and quits him for good.
[/ul]
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Post by skepticatfirst on May 18, 2021 7:12:16 GMT -5
EYEPATCH GUYFinally, the guy with the eyepatch arrives. ***The Narrator's assault on Juanita is only one expression of a fury that's been building throughout the Return Parties; dark as it is, it pales in comparison to his rage against the gangsters and Night Club Dwight, the first author of her enslavement. Now, having finally lost Juanita, his anger begins to turn toward a plan for revenge, which will be delivered at the full by the hand of a well-known figure. This was my second major breakthrough after the epiphany about the kitchen corner: the Eyepatch Guy, it turns out, is actually the Narrator in disguise. As we'll see working through the next chapters of the story, this twist takes time to come to a head. Leaving the narrative aside, for now we just want to establish that the Eyepatch Guy and the Narrator are the same person. Below is an initial series of indications that that's in fact the case. ***1) Analogy with THS storyIn the THS story, it's the Narrator ("the band"; see NIGHT CLUB DWIGHT above) who's out for revenge on the "club" [Ambassador]: if you came around the back, we could take them by surprise [Ambassador] the band played Screaming For Vengeance [HSL] In this, he stands in clear analogy to the Eyepatch Guy, who says "I want the Nice Nice up in blazes" [TFatBR] and enlists Juanita as his accomplice [CaAoC]. ***2) Shared viewpointIn Summer House, on a moony phone call with Juanita (he's "here," she's "gone," and at one point he exclaims, "what do you mean you ain't never comin back to the city" [SH]), the Narrator tells her, "the first time that i scored was at a tennis court": My parents never got me a summer house we'd just sit here in the same house and we'd sweat it out the first week you were gone i got so bored the first time that i scored was at a tennis court and it was green and empty, now it's a total party and when you get home monday, then you'll barely know me cause i'll be green and empty, and it's a total party and when you get home monday, then you'll barely know me [SH] Then, in Mono, Juanita is again on the phone with someone ("we were talkin on the hall phone") who tells her "you said your boyfriend finally scored" [Mono], obviously referring to the news which the Narrator has shared in Summer House: we were talkin on the hall phone you said your boyfriend finally scored now i've got something they call mononucleosis but i'll stay up if you wanna talk some more [Mono] Who's the person on the other end of the line? He's moony and pining for Juanita, just like the Narrator. He's fucked up after a kiss, just like the Narrator (mononucleosis="the kissing disease": wikipedia; see THE KISS above). But the fact that the Narrator is referred to as her boyfriend in the third person means that he must be somebody else. If he's not the Narrator, who is he? The answer is that he *is* the Narrator, only Juanita doesn't know it, *exactly as the Narrator himself wryly notes in Summer House: "you'll barely know me" [SH].* He's assumed a double life, as himself on the one hand and as the Eyepatch Guy on the other. Juanita, whose contacts with the Eyepatch Guy become habitual: he always takes his calls at the megamall he left me by the phone at the metrodome [Bloomington] he just puts his instructions into my mailbox [Bloomington] penpals ... spend your days just waitin on the mailman [TPatP] doesn't recognize that she's actually talking to the Narrator. And while it serves his purposes not to be recognized, since she's done with him and doesn't especially want to talk to him (see UNDER WATER above), he can't resist repeating "you said your boyfriend finally scored" back to her, to see what else she'll tell him. What confirming evidence do we have that this is what's happening? There are two songs on the self-titled Lifter Puller album named after medical disorders, each with both a scientific name and a common name: Scientific name | Common name | Mono[nucleosis] | The Kissing Disease | Amblyopia | Lazy Eye |
Both of these songs are told from the perspective of the Narrator posing as the Eyepatch Guy, and both make allusion to the Eyepatch Guy in their names: Mono: besides referring metaphorically to "the kissing disease," abbreviated "Mono" alludes to the monocular vision of the Eyepatch Guy, and to the fact that her conversation with him is actually coming from a monaural source ("mono": wikipedia), though Juanita experiences the sounds of the Summer House and Mono phone calls in stereo. Lazy Eye: the treatment for amblyopia, i.e. lazy eye, is to wear an eyepatch ( wikipedia). The song Lazy Eye opens with the Narrator's same complaint, already observed in Summer House/Mono above, that she doesn't recognize the real him under the darkness of the Eyepatch Guy disguise: let me lick your windows clean, take a clearer look at me get up off your lazy eye and look into my brighter side [LE] We'll see more evidence of this tension as we fill out the actual story around it later. ***3) Never see them in the same room togetherAbsence of evidence is not evidence of absence. But consider, in the following songs which we know (or have reason to believe; see #2 above) to have the Eyepatch Guy in the picture, that he and the Narrator never appear in the same place at the same time: - Bloomington (Juanita's POV, see FIRST CONNECTIONS above) addresses the Narrator, and refers to the Eyepatch Guy offstage. - The Flex And The Buff Result (Juanita's POV: compare "the false starts make me jumpy" [TFatBR] with "jenny's pretty jumpy" [TCMamG] and "her dress was still on/ she ... said jesus i'm jumpy" [SdS]) brings Juanita together with the Eyepatch Guy in the Narrator's absence (for more on "we all" see WE ALL WENT DOWN below). - Cruised And Accused Of Cruising (Eyepatch Guy's POV) addresses Juanita, with no extraneous mention of the Narrator at all. - Manpark (Dwight's POV) describes the reappearance of the Eyepatch Guy; at the time, the Narrator is nowhere to be seen. - Mono (Eyepatch Guy's POV) addresses Juanita, and refers to the Narrator offstage. - Lazy Eye (Eyepatch Guy's POV) addresses Juanita, with no extraneous mention of the Narrator at all. ***4) The getaway carThe status of the eyepatch-wearing pirate as a meme going back decades ( wikipedia) gives us confidence that the "pirate" sightings in The Pirate And The Penpal and Hardware both refer to the Eyepatch Guy. (TPatP provides confirmation of this in its description of the pirate's criminal activity and communications with Juanita by mail, a firm link to the events described in Bloomington and CaAoC; see FIRST CONNECTIONS above.) The Pirate And The Penpal goes on to provide us with interesting information about the outcome of Juanita's conspiracy with the Eyepatch Guy: we made it to the getaway but there were highway barricades [TPatP] It also informs us that Juanita's favorite song is Dinosaur Jr.'s "Forget The Swan" ( link. The lyric that "gives her hope when those guitars kick in" is "they fly at dawn"; see DAWN above). These two facts establish a connection to the *other* song in which Juanita and a male companion listen to Dinosaur Jr. on an aborted car ride, namely, Rental: pulled over when it looked a little residential ... sang along with the radio playin in a jar [Rental] where "In A Jar" is the seventh track from Dinosaur Jr.'s 1987 You're Living All Over Me ( link). Suspend for a moment questions about the other particulars of what we're told in Rental, which have to wait until we get that far in the story (see RENTAL below). The voice in Rental is the same moony, pining voice that belongs to the Narrator in Summer House, Mono, and Lazy Eye. If it's the Narrator in the car with Juanita in Rental, then who's in the car with her in TPatP? The three verses in TPatP are delivered in the voice of someone talking to, and then about, Juanita. In the first two verses, besides "you"=Juanita, there's also reference to the Eyepatch Guy in the third person (verse one "postmaster," verse two "mailman/criminal"). But in verse three, that third-person "criminal" becomes first person: "*we* made it to the getaway." There's still only one POV per song (see FIRST CONNECTIONS above); in a reversal of the Mono situation, the Narrator speaks about the Eyepatch Guy as a different person when he's speaking to Juanita directly. But when he shifts to objective description, the truth is revealed: he *is* the Eyepatch Guy. ***5) Dealer servicingWe know that the Narrator's regular attendance at the Return Parties involves blowing gangsters for drugs. The Eyepatch Guy's presentation is, for the most part, markedly more dominant: he's the one on the receiving end of service ("took the handjob") in Hardware, and he orchestrates sweeping acts of revenge in TFatBR and CaAoC. But then there's the bizarre episode in Manpark, related almost in passing, where he goes down on Night Club Dwight: hadn't seen the eyepatch guy since the LBI yeah 1999's comin up on a cool corvette she put her fingers on my neck just like a tourniquet he popped me in his mouth just like a cigarette and then he split [Manpark] Not only does the Eyepatch Guy go down on Dwight like any other addict: he does it reflexively, which is to say that he's used to it, a fact supported by the description of him as "drippin wet with gin fizz" [TFatBR] ("gin" being the usual drug-dealing gangster identifier, see LACED SUBSTANCES and LISTED above; the suggestion is that he's been cummed on, see VARIETIES OF PHYSICAL ASSAULT above). He is, in fact, the Narrator. ***6) Back In BlackbeardThe title Back In Blackbeard describes, literally, a *return in pirate character.* The reference is to the Narrator, back for revenge as the Eyepatch Guy. ***7) Cool CorvetteOn the day before Halloween 1999, in the same week that Fiestas & Fiascos was released, Lifter Puller played a costume party at the Soap Factory dressed as pirates. They were accompanied to the gig by Keith Harris, who wrote an epic article on the evening entitled "Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash: Storming the stage with postpunk pirates Lifter Puller," which can still be read at the archived Lifter Puller website ( link; for confirmation of the F&F release date, see the website discography page: link). Quotes from this article provide rich background for Craig's handling of the pirate material in Lifter Puller. I include the comments of the rest of the band as context for his second remark: Craig's first remark establishes that Blackbeard --- the headliner of Back In Blackbeard, and the figure of whom the Eyepatch Guy is an avatar --- is associated in his view with the premeditation of terror-inducing slaughter. (Harris is, unwittingly, correct about Craig hardly having had time to research the topic that day; in fact, he'd read up on it long before, during the original construction of the Lifter Puller story.) His second remark illuminates the effect of that terror on its intended victim. Night Club Dwight, the chainsmoker "with the pipe in his face" [KatKH; compare ILtL, Manpark, CRoom, NN], has a premonition of what will happen, and is scared: well the chainsmoker he called the stockbroker he said hell i hate to sell we've been doin really well but i need a little liquidity you know i think they might be onto me [TFatBR] Coincidentally or not, Steve's four-word sketch is right to the point: "Oh shit. They're coming." And hearing this echo of the album they've just released, Craig expands on it, drawing the pirate ship itself into the image: "Those big pirate ships moved really slow. Imagine looking out, seeing a Jolly Roger on the horizon, and thinking, 'Those guys are really going to kick our asses in two or three days.'" It's a joke, but it's not a joke: this is precisely the effect that the Eyepatch Guy has on Dwight, and the proof is in the lines of Manpark quoted above: hadn't seen the eyepatch guy since the LBI yeah 1999's comin up on a cool corvette [Manpark] The two Prince references in the second line, to "1999" ( link) and "Little Red Corvette" ( link), have the same implication: - 1999 is the moment in the party ("party like it's 1999": link) before the Apocalypse and Judgment Day arrive;
- a corvette is a small warship, used by privateers and pirates in the Age of Sail (wikipedia; example).
Seeing the Eyepatch Guy, Dwight senses the approach of retribution, "comin up" slow like Craig's pirate ship on the horizon. ***8) Hidden faceThe Eyepatch Guy's face is never seen. Juanita says so explicitly: i never saw his face, don't know who the man is [Bloomington] but it's the exhaustive description of his appearance in The Flex And The Buff Result that makes clear that his face is really hidden: finally the guy with the eyepatch arrives ... with ... a big straw hat and a liquid orange suntan he cooled himself off with a japanese hand fan [TFatBR] He's wearing liquid orange suntan, under an eye patch, beneath a big straw hat, behind a japanese hand fan: all that can be seen of him is a single eye in shadow. The straw hat and liquid tan have additional implications (see LASER SHOW below); it may be that the hand fan does too (see discussion in context of #10 below). The key point is that no one sees his face, so no one identifies him as the Narrator, vindicating his prediction in Summer House: and when you get home monday, then you'll barely know me [SH] ***9) InvestingThe last two points turn on Craig's assumption of the role of the Narrator as an alter ego on stage. One of these is that the Eyepatch Guy is described by Juanita as "questin through investin" [Bloomington]. The only actual investment activity we ever hear about is the alleged loan to Night Club Dwight: dwight was pretty nice when he took out that loan from us now dwight don't got the courtesy to pick up the phone for us [TFatBR] This story is a lie for Juanita's benefit; the Narrator needs to give her a plausible reason for the Eyepatch Guy's vendetta against Dwight that doesn't expose his real identity. But the *idea* of investment as a plausible path to power is one fitting Craig himself, who while in Lifter Puller was working as a financial broker for American Express (see BREWERY BAR: THE STAIRS above). ***10) FrontmanThe second of these alter ego connections is that, just as the Narrator refers to himself in TMS as the lead singer of the band recounting the LP story (see NEWSPAPERS above), so too the Eyepatch Guy is compared to the "frontman in some grunge band" in The Flex And The Buff Result. Anchored by this link, the end of TFatBR reveals a fabric of subtle connections to the Narrator: [*1] finally the guy with the eyepatch arrives, he was drippin wet with gin fizz he was half dead and dynamite with the needle-marked arms like the frontman in some grunge band ... you know this clown they call the night club dwight he's got a place called the nice nice that he won rollin dice dice ... made a joke and leaned in close and then he spoke [TFatBR] Breaking this down, we get: - "drippin wet with gin fizz": he's been servicing the gangsters, see #5 above.
- "half dead and dynamite": we've already identified the subject of the song Half Dead And Dynamite as the Narrator (see HALF DEAD, KATRINA, and THE JOKE above). What it means for him to be "half dead," we know; he's "dynamite," not just in the sense of being high (interview; "those purple drinks were dynamite" [PSunglasses]), but also in the sense of being enraged and ready for vengeance ("Scoping out some dynamite and seeing if it detonates ... I don't wanna dick around. I just wanna devastate." [CitM]).
- "with the needle-marked arms like the frontman in some grunge band": in alter ego, he's the lead singer, the frontman (see NEWSPAPERS above); in character, he's also a drug addict.
- "he's got a place called the nice nice that he won rollin dice dice": "rollin dice" is not only a reference to Dwight pushing drugs ("dice"=crack, see LISTED above), but an allusion to the soldiers casting lots for Jesus' garment after the crucifixion (compare "the dice game" [TMG]); the Narrator is here referring to his own Party Zero crucifixion (see CRUCIFIXION above).
- "made a joke": an allusion to the Narrator as "comedian" and "jester" (see THE JOKE above), and a dark insinuation that the joke that was turned on the Narrator in Party Zero, is now about to be turned again on Dwight.
[*1] It's not certain, but possible, that he cooled himself off with a japanese hand fan [TFatBR] is also connected to the Narrator via his service in the bathroom. A "japanese" allusion with a better-attested link is found in the Brokerdealer song The Dead Ones Look Like Dolls; this song, keeping up the Brokerdealer pattern of "vision"/"fever dream" references to the LP story, starts with an easily recognized view of the Party Zero gangrape: took an Irish car bomb took a Mexican quaalude it took a French farce and a Japanese tea room it took Swedish fish in a rowdy Roman bath before I got to get called international took real balls [TDOLLD] Here, "Irish car bomb" is the spiked drink, "Mexican quaalude" the roofie; "French farce" refers to the alpha couple's open sexual betrayal, "Japanese tea room" to gay bathroom sex ( gdict); "Swedish fish" refers to hard drugs (see CANDY and LISTED above), and "rowdy Roman bath" to the homosexual gangrape in one of the "domes" of "Rome" (Roman baths had domed ceilings to prevent condensation from dripping on the bathers below: wikipedia; see NIGHTCLUBS above). The subject of final "took real balls" is not "it," but "I"; the meaning, powered by darkly amused "real," is literal.
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Post by skepticatfirst on May 19, 2021 6:41:13 GMT -5
CHARLEMAGNEWe've noted that Blackbeard stands behind the Narrator-as-Eyepatch-Guy not merely as the archetype of a pirate, but specifically as an avatar of violent retribution (see EYEPATCH GUY above, points #6 and #7). It turns out that Blackbeard is only one of several such vengeful figures appearing throughout the LP and THS lyrics (and occasionally in the solo stuff as well); examples from the THS universe include - St. Peter (drawing his sword to attack the enemies of Christ in the garden: heregoes; see also solo track Saint Peter Upside Down)
- William Blake (offering "violent red visions" [CatCT] of the Apocalypse: heregoes)
- Jesus himself (driving the merchants from the Temple with a whip: wikipedia; referenced in "the part where the traders get chased out from the temple" [CatCT], and also "confusion in the marketplace/ I don't wanna dick around. I just wanna devastate" [CitM], where "dick around" is strictly literal, and "devastate"='mete out violent retribution')
Three examples first appearing in the LP universe are ***1) The HulkThe title of the track Bruce Bender is a Party-Zero-inflected allusion to Bruce Banner, the steady and cerebral alter ego of the Incredible Hulk ( wikipedia). [*1] We've already noted (see SINCERITY above) how the final verse of that song dials in on the Narrator's jealousy and rising anger; certain details of the first verse (which we'll look at soon; see LAZY EYE below) show that he is in fact appearing to Juanita ("you" [BBender]) there in the guise of the Eyepatch Guy, and that, like Bruce in the title, he is soon to be transformed by rage in the manner of the Hulk. Three other references to the Hulk are found in the lyrics. The first is in Summer House: and when you get home monday, then you'll barely know me cause i'll be green and empty, and it's a total party [SH] He'll be green and empty, not just with jealousy, but in analogy to the Hulk; she won't recognize him when he's transformed (see EYEPATCH GUY above). And he offers her "a total party," something that for now is just a boast, but will prove prophetic as the "[party like it's] 1999 ... comin up on a cool corvette" [Manpark] closes in on Dwight (see EYEPATCH GUY above). The second reference is from the THS world, in Teenage Liberation: 'Twenty nine' was the end of the line He stayed up for sixteen nights at a stretch, he was wrecked You could see all the veins in his neck when he flexed [TL] Those "veins in his neck when he flexed" are characteristic of the enraged Hulk: We're familiar with that sleepless sixteen-night stretch from the THS story as the period in which the kids rejoined the Skins, waiting for them to return to the Party Pit for the crucifixion ( heregoes); the LP story too features such a stretch ("two weeks, maybe we should sleep" [TGatSD]), and it too comes right before the end of the line, when the Eyepatch Guy arrives for the final "total party" [SH]. The third reference, related to the second, is in the title of the song that explicitly relates his arrival and plans for violent revenge, namely, The Flex And The Buff Result. ***2) NeroEarly on in this thread (see THE FIRST FIVE TRACKS above) we reviewed the evidence for identifying the "emperor" of Emperor with (on the one hand) "Nero Augustus Caesar" [SPUD]. We know now how to connect this up with the story: Nero, the author of the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD ( wikipedia), is another avatar of violent retribution, embodied in the Eyepatch Guy as the mastermind behind the nightclub fires. [*2] ***3) CharlemagneIn the same upthread discussion we reviewed the evidence for identifying the "emperor" of Emperor with (on the other hand) Charlemagne, legendary prosecutor of the "holy war" [Emperor, TMS] against the Saracens and Moors ( wikipedia). That this violent retribution is one point of the identification of Charlemagne with the Eyepatch Guy is shown by the Narrator's reference to "holy war" itself. But there's a second episode from the life of Charlemagne referred to in these lines, one equally relevant to the progress of the Eyepatch Guy's revenge. The full quote from the song reads: i am the emperor that is what the crown is for that is what the throne is for that is what the robes are for that is what the gloves are for this feels like a holy war [Emperor] We've linked the "holy war" to the Eyepatch Guy's war against the gangsters, but what about the "crown ... throne ... robes ... gloves"? These things serve to identify historical Charlemagne as the point of the allusion (see THE FIRST FIVE TRACKS above), but how do they contribute to his function as a model of the Eyepatch Guy? Charlemagne first donned these Imperial trappings on Christmas Day, 800, when he had himself crowned Emperor ("i am the emperor") in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome ( wikipedia): Just to emphasize the themes in play here: Charlemagne - returned to Rome after long absence (he had visited in 774: wikipedia);
- entered St. Peter's, the dome of whose basilica is the tallest in the world (wikipedia);
- asserted his dominion over those present with the assumption of the title of Emperor.
The setting of this dominant return under the dome of St. Peter's in Rome is the primary motivation for the elaborate Rome/dome metaphors in the Lifter Puller story (see NIGHTCLUBS, THE CITY, and ROME above; strictly speaking, the dome of the basilica was only built after Charlemagne's coronation, but even if Craig did know this, it's hard to see him letting it get in the way of a perfect metaphor). The Eyepatch Guy returns to seize power in The City itself, scene of his original humiliation. We'll review the particulars of his coronation when we come to the "total party" downthread. ***Another trace of this handling of historical Charlemagne is found in Sherman City, the most important source of the East-End-as-Rome and clubs-as-domes metaphors. In the 2004 Cloak and Dagger interview ( link), Craig said something curious about this song, which I'll highlight by visually separating his comments into three parts: Craig is frequently evasive in interviews; he is quick to offer superficial information about his work, like the meaning of "Rainbow" and "The Mountain Song" [2], but shies hard away from revelations about the real story underneath, to the point of saying things that are actively dissembling. We know with certainty, thanks to Gideon drowning Holly in the THS story, that "I think it just rhymed" [3] is an untrue statement. I include [2] and [3] in order to suggest that "can't remember the name" [1] is untrue as well. We know that rewriting songs with alternate rhyming lyrics is something that Craig did frequently: we have the liner notes evidence of alternate rhyming lyrics for Slips Backwards, Nassau Coliseum, Star Wars Hips, Plymouth Rock, The Candy Machine And My Girlfriend, Sangre De Stephanie, Roaming The Foam, and Let's Get Incredible to prove it. There is every reason to believe that the rest of the statement in [1], apart from "can't remember the name," is true. So what was the original name of the song, if it rhymed with "Sherman City"? Sherman City was recorded, and presumably written, in 1997; a "years later" calculation likely dates the original to 1994, seeing that "years later" suggests more than two years, while more than three would scroll back past the beginning of Craig's Lifter Puller songwriting in 1994. 1994 is also the date that Emperor was recorded ( link). In view of the Rome/domes themes, then, I'll hazard that "Sherm-" is a replacement for "Vatic-" in an original, phonetically rhyming title of "Vatican City": the place of Charlemagne's coronation, and a locale known, thanks to Emperor, to be on Craig's mind at the time of writing. ***The fact that the name of Charlemagne is reclaimed from a metaphor in the margins of the LP world to be bestowed on a central character of the THS story is pretty cool. The fact that it's surgically removed from its association with the LP Narrator and grafted onto a character who's largely based on Night Club Dwight is something different than cool; it's seriously intriguing. We can see the fitness of it: like the LP Narrator, THS' Charlemagne too is filled with thoughts of vengeance ("revelation songs" [CF], "driving around with Walter" [CF]) before his eyes are opened by Gideon's message of non-violence ("revenge exists outside of space and time" [Ambassador]), and of course "Charlemagne" is, as Craig notes ( link), a proper name for a pimp ("running girls between the cars" [CiS], etc.). But we still haven't got down to the real motivation behind this slice-and-dice reconstruction of the characters in THS, nor, crucially, behind the rehabilitation of Dwight. We'll return to this question after bringing the story full circle (see THS CHARACTERS below). [*1] This is further evidence (adding to the list in EYEPATCH GUY above) that the Eyepatch Guy is the Narrator: like the Narrator and the Eyepatch Guy, Bruce Banner and the Hulk are two people (the "brighter side" [LE] and darker side, respectively) in a single body. [*2] This is further evidence (adding to the list in EYEPATCH GUY above) that the Eyepatch Guy is the Narrator: it's the Eyepatch Guy who arranges the fires; it's the Narrator who declares "i am the emperor" [Emperor].
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Post by skepticatfirst on May 20, 2021 6:22:42 GMT -5
LABOR DAYBack to the unfolding story. With the advent of the Eyepatch Guy, we put the Return Parties behind us. But when exactly does he first appear? Cruised And Accused Of Cruising (which, as already established, is told from the perspective of the Eyepatch Guy; see FIRST CONNECTIONS above) supplies the answer: she said hey my name's juanita but the guys they call me ll cool j cause i been here for years and you can't call it a comeback if you never even been away and i ain't never been no place she said these sea-side towns they get pretty grey after labor day and could you be the boy who takes me away into fortune or fame? [CaAoC] Juanita's been partying all summer (implied in the contrast to "after labor day"; see note about the summer in FRONTAGE ROAD above, and CALENDAR: FIRST PASS below); but now, getting bored ("gets pretty grey," compare "bored on the boardwalk," and see BORED below), she's willing to be cruised by the Eyepatch Guy, who she's here meeting for the first time. Put together, the implication of all this is that the Eyepatch Guy first appears on Labor Day weekend. ***What additional evidence do we have for this? The other song that most clearly describes Juanita being cruised by the Eyepatch Guy, To Live And Die In LBI, contributes an important piece of supporting detail: we stepped out of the jersey pines, headed straight for the neon signs and they like the way she types underneath the fluorescent lights and she lives in the brooklyn heights, she came down on a friday nights and they all wanna meet some guys, and we all wanna meet some guys friends like the beach patrol, they got the muscles, you can hold the soul she says she's waitin on the steady type, then she disappears with the eyepatch guy they stepped out of the neon signs, headed straight for the jersey pines [TLaDiLBI] By now we can break down most of the incidental detail in this passage: - Like CaAoC, TLaDiLBI takes place on the "jersey shore" [LSifL], which we've already identified as The East, i.e. the brewery complex and environs (see AIRPORT & LBI and THE EAST above). In particular, we've connected the "jersey pines" with the woods of Swede Hollow (see AIRPORT & LBI above), and have demonstrated that the foot path from the brewery bar back to the parking lot goes by this route (see LEAVING above).
- The "neon signs" are glossed one line later as "the fluorescent lights"; these are the fluorescent lights of the bathroom in the back of the brewery bar.
- Relatedly, "they like the way she types" is a joke about how she works the "keys": that is, they like the way she gives blowjobs (see the expression "jingling the keys" in BATHROOM STALL above).
- The fact that "she lives in the brooklyn heights" again identifies Juanita as a rich girl slumming (compare "credit card chicks takin cash advances" [TCMamG], "the camel lights girls/ with their filthy mouths and their long strings of pearls" [LiaL], "her parents are in Paris" [Epaulets]).
- The history of the Narrator's addiction and the Return Parties makes clear why his "they all wanna meet some guys" morphs into "we all wanna meet some guys"; he's followed Juanita to the party for the same reasons as always, including the chance to blow gangsters for drugs.
But the really important detail in from this passage is the note about the day of the week: "she came down on a friday nights" [TLaDiLBI]. In other words, this isn't one of the Wednesday night parties (see DO THIS ALL OVER above), but a special occasion for the Labor Day holiday weekend, which offers the Scene another opportunity for a "three day rave" [PSunglasses]/ "three day bender" [MTape]. This will be the second and final LP instance of what in the THS world are called "the weekenders" (see NICE NICE above). [*1] ***As with Party Zero and the Return Parties, we want a name for this special bash (having to refer to the "Lifter Puller Labor Day Weekend Party" isn't going to cut it). Fortunately, in later recalling the TLaDiLBI party as the occasion when the Eyepatch Guy first appeared, Night Club Dwight supplies us with just the name we need: hadn't seen the eyepatch guy since the LBI [Manpark] "The LBI" is a perfectly calibrated handle, and that's what we'll use from here on out, both for the party specifically and Part 3 of the LP story in general. ***To return once more to the story: The LBI kicks off on Friday night, and, like Party Zero, is set to run all weekend. But this three-day bender gets cut short, as we can infer from the fact that Juanita and the Eyepatch Guy "stepped out" [TLaDiLBI] of the brewery bar and disappeared into the woods of Swede Hollow together. From the reflection of this event on the THS story, we know their escape doesn't end well: Wandered out of Mass one day and faded into the fog and love and faithless fear [HM] But what exactly happens to them? And what were the circumstances of their departure from the party? [*1] Note that in THS we get no information to suggest that the metal bar party takes place on a weekend, nor is there a clear distinction between the metal bar and crucifixion parties as weekend parties and other, regular parties that take place during the week. The meaning of the THS term "weekender" can *only* be appreciated in the light of its LP shadow.
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Post by muzzleofbees on May 21, 2021 2:25:31 GMT -5
So much to take in here. I love the mapping of how The Narrator corresponds with The Eyepatch Guy, and especially the intriguing tease about how and why the characteristics of them are mixed up when we get to the THS story.
I've been thinking about a thing this morning, which is a little bit outside of the story as such, but I'll pop in with it anyway: It seems pretty obvious that "dance" is a sexual metaphor, and that it's usually used to describe someone performing sexual favours for drugs. The very first time I heard Craig sing "dance" was when I first heard Chips Ahoy!, back in 2006. And the chours of that song is a little confusing to me in the light of all this.
"How am I supposed to know that you're high if you won't even dance?"
I know this refers to Mary, and how she's not letting Charlemagne touch her. But I think it's fair to say that this is mirrored in Lifter Puller as well, the way The Narrator returns to the parties to have a shot at getting laid with Juanita.
Still: At this point, it should be pretty clear to the two narrators (The LP Narrator and the THS Charlemagne) that for these girls, dancing is strongly connected with doing drugs. Juanita dances in order to get drugs, and Mary takes drugs and then wants to dance.
Is it just that this isn't all clear to Charlemagne at this point? And if we translate it into the LP world, shouldn't the narrator be painfully aware that Juanita -not- dancing, is the best way to tell that she's actually high?
I might be mixing up storylines and applying different characteristics onto different characters here, but still.
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