new years eve, eve. lying in bed during yet another strange visit to moms. i’m barely here at all anymore. absurd.
headphones, laptop, christmas on mars.
review.
review before your review. i’ll watch it every christmas time till i die. and sometime (somehow) in that one last year, i’ll write my proper.
review.
until then:
steven is just compelling to his core. i’d watch him wait in line and be entertained. great casting.
did steven have some martian in him? or something … other? it seemed like he was the only one outside who didn’t wear a space suit (excepting wayne, the martian, and wayne’s suicidal brother in the santa clause suit). but was that outside? and why did his character’s name not have a number after it?
an homage to the drill sergeant in full metal jacket vis-a-vis the captain brings lovely lightness to psychedelic existentialism. hilarious, too.
check this out! marching bands with vaginas for heads! pussies and pussy symbolism throughout! a material, feminine, colorful, bloody, real, human emphasis. hope against hope for the believers and the skeptics both. thanks wayne! you have a gift for the universal in the universe. and duct tape will hold it all together for eternity.
michelle makes a lovely mary. smokin’ hot, too.
at times, the score melts with the visuals and belief is suspended and you’re on the ship (not in wayne’s backyward in okc) and it’s just fucking lovely. makes you proud to be in the same corner of earth in the same historical moment as the flaming lips.
what the hell was michael doing in the end? i thought he was somehow symbolic of a negative force on the settlement at first, but he might have been behind the curtain all along pulling the levers for good. and what was his one line close to the beginning? was it significant? fuck. gotta wait a whole nother year to find out.
vacuums being pushed by workers down a narrow suspended walkway. that’s an air filter from a 1978 chevy caprice classic around that guy’s head. is that the lining of a hot tub mounted to the wall? now i wanna assemble mars in my backyard and make a movie.
why didn’t i think of that?
the headshrinker was brilliant. truly a great scene.
(they pulled this thing off.)
the last words of the credits were:
to all flaming lips fans
thank you for believing in us and for giving us such a wonderful life.
we will always love you.
we love you, too.
Tags: flaming lips · Illinois10 Comments
10 responses so far ↓
Thought you’d like this…
http://www.thetyser.com/
Oh and yeah the movie was good too. The whole time I kept thinking “man heroin really fucks up your teeth.” The only disappointing thing was no waterbugs. After I saw Wayne’s brother in the first Santa suit I was sure we would see some.
“My brother’s at the morgue
he gets up off the floor
he contemplates his escape
but a guard waits at the door
he feels his powers soar
he pools all his resources
and he calls out the insects he commands
and the waterbugs attack the policeman”
If ever a better story was put to song, I sure as hell don’t know what it is…
dude, i just heard stern talking about this yesterday. that is amazing! thanks for that …
i remember when we saw the lips at that mini-festival at the fillmore (very early when they first started using the screen … sebadoh played, too) it was that show where they handed out fm radios to wear and they were broadcasting some of the show over the airwaves. anyway, remember when the power went out and lou barlow, wayne and steven came out and played acoustic, casio keyboard, and megaphone? they played waterbug … seminal version.
hope alls well. just got back from a two week illinois tour. saw the hooch (twice), my mom, chicago mel (lsu stock), todd, geiser. all are well and miss you terribly. except for mel because she doesn’t know you.
come on down south(er) anytime you like. how’s that house hunting going?
Yeah that was the “sonic Boom E.A.R.” Not that I actually remember that but nina found a handbill for that show somewhere and I got it framed in the basement.
Things here are good but am tired. Would love to make it down there sometime. U Gettin adjusted to the South yet? Yah never get too used to it, but that’s a good thing… Stopped the house hunt. Thinking about moving to DC. I’m a Northern Aggressor, what can I say. Think I need to get back to living with the winners of the war.
Sounds like ILL was good. I miss those guys too. we need to have an ISU reunion or something. BTW – Wore my “Don’t mess with me, I’m with the Combo!” Shirt the other day. Made sure to point you out to Margot.
shit! i forgot about that shirt entirely. completely forgot that you were in possession of it now. amazing. we should have an isu reunion sometime before one of us dies! i’m still enjoying the south, although baton rouge is kinda isolated from the south proper. been to nola a few times. playing with a band that gets gigs that pay real money. that’s nice. new semester starts monday. i still have to plan my class. oy. talk to you soon … how’s the little one doing?
hey hey: just wanted you to know i’m still lurking all over your blog and this post inspired john and i to decend into the flaming lips vortex for an evening…god, i *love* this band. revisited our favorite tracks, watched _fearless freaks_ documentary, told our various concert/wayne coyne stories and scoured the internet to discover whether or not steven has stayed off of heroin (seems that he has). _christmas on mars_ is on our netflix queue for next week! can. not. wait.
and: we. miss. you.
hi lt. it feels lovely when the flaming lips are shared. i’m so glad. you will thoroughly enjoy christmas on mars and will want to immediately start building something. anything. i played some readers music sitting in on my buddy hooch’s community radio show in southern illinois over the break. of all my stuff from l.a. that i played, he dug the readers above all, and you are now in regular rotation. his show is on 2-4 on thursdays. wdbx.org. listen in and i’m sure you’ll hear something that sounds just like you. miss you guys.
well, then. you want more? you got it!!!!!
http://www.yeswepuede.com
go there and you’ll see a couple more readers tracks, all patriotic and shit. under the licence, all the tracks can be used and remixed. how about it?
cutting edge per usual, lt. brilliant. hooch, get on this! southern illinois needs more patriotic shit that is open to remix. they need some remixing down there. but then again, don’t we all …
great tunes, lt.
my show is actually called music for activists ala kc’s older album, so it will be perfect, especially this week.
people often call and complain about my lack of activist/patriotic themes, citing my show’s name, so this should get them off my ass for a while.
i have actually been inspired to ‘act’ towards ‘change,’ something involving greater networking through the show and all, so if you have anything else online or put out new tunes, you’ve always got a venue in so ill.
i really am digging the taste of lala that kc left me over the holidays.
he manages to find incredible musicians wherever he goes.
i just got out of practice with some great musicians. and woodworkers. i forgot my stick bag at flatbed honeymoon practice. no sticks. rural louisiana. problem. luckily, denise’s husband, jimmy, has a huge fully functional wood shop on the premises. little piece of maple. planer. belt sander. chop saw. drum sticks. viola! now i have to take a bath and read plato. toodles.