“I draw from heaven like a star-crossed crucifix, and built it back again with splinters in my fist.” The symbolism here is rather intense, but it’s meant to be. The narrator is reaching for language to attempt to describe from God’s point of view how in the world we went from the world of the old testament characters to something like a nuclear bomb. “I found a soldier and told him to follow orders.” The musical composition and the musicians follow the narration with whispers and build-ups to enhance the experience of listening. As intense as this all sounds, it is also danceable and a pleasure to participate in as an audience. I can imagine a guy who invented the atom bomb looking up at the sky as it explodes and exclaiming, “if the radiance of two thousand suns were to burst into the sky it would be like the splendor of the mighty one”. Not that I particularly agree with the assessment, but something had to be driving those guys who wanted so bad to create these types of weapons. In their hearts they felt they were little gods with the power to destroy the beauty of the world and the people in it that were created by the same mighty one they felt they could re-create through science. The narrator of the song does not lead me to these thoughts; he simply supplies a palette for these thoughts to appear on my canvas. You may fill your canvas with other thoughts. Well done. The Mirror Stage
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
The Mirror Stage - Ten Thousand Tongues
“I draw from heaven like a star-crossed crucifix, and built it back again with splinters in my fist.” The symbolism here is rather intense, but it’s meant to be. The narrator is reaching for language to attempt to describe from God’s point of view how in the world we went from the world of the old testament characters to something like a nuclear bomb. “I found a soldier and told him to follow orders.” The musical composition and the musicians follow the narration with whispers and build-ups to enhance the experience of listening. As intense as this all sounds, it is also danceable and a pleasure to participate in as an audience. I can imagine a guy who invented the atom bomb looking up at the sky as it explodes and exclaiming, “if the radiance of two thousand suns were to burst into the sky it would be like the splendor of the mighty one”. Not that I particularly agree with the assessment, but something had to be driving those guys who wanted so bad to create these types of weapons. In their hearts they felt they were little gods with the power to destroy the beauty of the world and the people in it that were created by the same mighty one they felt they could re-create through science. The narrator of the song does not lead me to these thoughts; he simply supplies a palette for these thoughts to appear on my canvas. You may fill your canvas with other thoughts. Well done. The Mirror Stage
