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#Post#: 118--------------------------------------------------
An overly long interpretation of the RCB trilogy, from Ye Smalle
Admin.
By: moleshow Date: November 5, 2016, 2:13 am
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Feel free to contribute!
It's serious-talking time. Time to stop playing around. Thus,
capitalization.
Before this most recent Gio entry, I dismissed the "life in
reverse" concept to a certain degree. The way in which I saw it
was that Talking Light was the "death" of previous concepts and
notions of what we, as consumers of the variety of things they
produce, considered to be The Residents. They took all previous
incarnations and interpretations of how the group operated, and
flipped them upside down. But not without throwing their own
spin on it. The concept of Randy, Chuck and Bob is an exercise
in how identity functions, and how far the border between their
created fiction and manipulated reality could be pushed, blended
and blurred. The concept toys with how we differentiate between
what is real and what is not. This is largely due to their use
of comedy. But more on that in a second.
The concept is a singular thing in three parts - obviously. But
it stretches out something that could be and is usually done in
a quick and precise manner. While it may not look like their
material from the Eskimo era, the concept within the context of
The Residents does something so quintessential and classic. It
chews up and spits out an idea. The idea here is a broad one,
and is simply applied to the concept of a celebration that is
almost ceremonial in nature. It also causes a massive amount of
discomfort, generally, for those with a concrete idea of The
Residents. Who they are (or in this case, aren't), what they do,
how they do it, how often, etc... All of these ideas are
rendered null and void. They take quite fondly to breaking
formed attachments to self-made ideas that go against what they
do, or so it seems. I wouldn't know. I'm not a Resident. (Or I
am, but only to the extent that everyone is a Resident by
existing within a culture, or being inspired, or even having an
idea.)
So how does this concept of taking what they appear to do in a
singular project and stretching it out work? From a personal,
and mostly unaffected by outside ideas sort of perspective, it
is the birth, life and death of a concept. And it works both
ways, oh-so-wonderfully enough. Talking Light kills an idea,
and creates a new one. Wonder of Weird is the life of that
concept, no matter which way you go. Shadowland both revives a
somewhat familiar concept and also cuts the idea's head clean
off. It is the act of making the process, or the appearance of
the process, visible. Relating to the concept of conceptual,
figurative nudity, it is not that they have revealed the depths
and details, the nakedness of what they do, to us. They have
created an image of what that could look like. But the
discomfort occurs to the same extent, and raises the question of
"how much can we see before it is 'too much'?" The issue there,
is that as consumers and as people, we adapt or reject. More
often than not, we adapt. A situation, a set of circumstances,
an event. All of those are presented to us. It is easier to
reject on a surface level, but adaptation allows for more
long-term success than rejection does. So we see them present to
us this nudity, and we adapt to it. And thus, we survive through
it. But not without confusion, fear, worry, despair and the
myriad of other consequences that clutch on to the coattails of
unfamiliarity.
I would go as far as to say that this discomfort is
intentionally forced upon us. The pushing, blending, blurring of
the boundaries of what we are willing to accept and adapt to
manifests in this way. One eventually begins to question things.
The question worth focusing on is this:
How much identity can be attached to something before it can no
longer be considered anonymous?
This sort of questioning is what makes Wonder of Weird so
undeniably Residential in nature.
Randy is a variety of things. (Particularly beautiful is not one
of those things. Or maybe it is. I'm not you.) He is a character
as much as he is a person. He is a third of a work in depicting
levels of identity and personal exposure in three parts. He is
uncomfortably revealed. He is an example and an exaggeration of
the way in which people act.
There is a certain saying about never meeting your idols. That
saying is often used in reference to musicians. The Residents,
to a certain degree, are those. With the lack of a character
that could be idolized, an individualized idea of what a
Resident could be like could be created, even if this kind of
daydreaming betrays the basis of The Residents. Randy is not
someone who can be idolized easily. He is pitiful, he is afraid,
awkward, stubborn and excessively emotional (to some). He is not
even "normal". He stands out. But this is what allows the
blurring of the reality The Residents present to us. He is over
the top to an extent that allows the observer to be able to step
back and say "this is a character," allowing them to believe
what they want to believe. Having something to believe in is
comforting. But they pull us right out of that comfort with an
instance of tragedy during Wonder of Weird, when Maurice is hit
by a car. They create empathy through these moments. It is an
essential example of the "hypothetical exposure of internal
workings" idea, put into action by the blurring of reality
through a weaving between honesty and extremes.
This is specifically emphasized with the contrast between Randy
Rose and Charles Bobuck. (And to a further extent, Lionel Bob,
because Randy explicitly states that no one knows what he does.)
Charles is open about the most mundane of things, but it is up
to the individual observing and consuming the writings and music
he offers to believe in and trust his word. It is believable
through its simplicity. Randy's Tumblr has a specific style to
it. Only the most important (although I use that term loosely)
and "plot"-relevant events are mentioned; a story that becomes
unrealistic through its exclusion of the mundane. When Charles
left (cry break goes here), Randy mentioned it in a Randyland
months after it occurred. The delay could convince someone that
he would not mention it. But after episodes of detachment from
actual occurrences, it all starts to hit at once. There is
something inherently realistic about that delay, but the
precision with which the acceptance of the events being realized
is presented to us keeps us out. The exposure is only skin deep.
They reveal as much as they hide. Nothing is truly a "slip-up".
They show what they want to show.
Shadowland is the closing of those doors, if the trilogy is to
be taken in the order in which it is presented. Randy hardly
speaks to the audience. He has said what there is to say. In
reverse, he has not found a reason to speak yet. He has no story
to tell yet, minus the exception in which he has to explain
Charles' departure (which proved to be genuine in nature and not
only a point of plot). It is classically "Residents" in nature.
They are presenting songs that fit a theme, and stories come
along with it. They do not reach out. They strip away the
comfort and confusion given in Wonder of Weird, where Randy has
a moment of vulnerability. There is no tenderness here.
Talking Light is similar in nature, but creates the illusion of
them reaching out. Randy tells stories. The songs tell stories.
The videos tell stories. And within the concept of revealing the
birth, life and death of a project, a planned step away from the
constant flow of the story of the show itself, when Randy is
replaced by a mirror person. This is scarcely mentioned.
Sometimes things happen, and no one ever finds out why. This is
another instance of the stripping away of comfort, although
disappointment and loss require expectation, and at that point
in time, there was not much comfort being given, and there was
not much to take away.
They both frame Wonder of Weird similarly. While the stories
were not reserved to the shows, both those following Randy's
blog and those who weren't could enjoy (even if those who
weren't simply got less of the goodies). He creates an absurd
openness, but one that normalizes absurdity in what he tells of
his life. He shows that no, he does not lead a normal life
punctuated by peaks of oddity - the occasional ups and downs. He
describes a life of constant, polar extremes. And the stories
are all deeply personal, in a different manner than the stories
told in Talking Light. There, his stories relate to him, but
have a constant theme of abnormal experiences. He simply
experiences them. In Wonder of Weird, the stories are
fundamentally about him and The Residents (hardly two separate
things, but it's hard to be sure). He only speaks about himself
because of the 40th anniversary, but The Residents are not
nostalgic. Quickly, the stories turn into broader topics, and
then move from there to Randy speaking about the recent past,
then to current happenings, although this is by force of
requirement. But in a subtler way, he speaks about the future in
the Marching to the Sea/Intermission track.
"We will die pretending to be a band," he sings. This theme of
taking old songs and making new songs from them and placing new
meaning to them, giving new context is condensed and represented
strongly in that singular line. Within the context of a show
about life and their 40th anniversary, they say exactly what
their intentions are. They march forward with that statement.
One foot in front of the other. Marching to the sea. And
hilariously enough, it is not even the last song on the setlist.
That within itself represents a way in which even when things
logically should end at a certain point, they can be pushed
forward past what one would assume to be the right place to end.
They take everything a step further, and that's kind of fun.
Re-contextualizing, reshaping, redoing, constantly. Never quite
done. There is a humor to how the show ends with Santa Dog...
And Dead Wood. Santa Dog essentially belongs more than anything
else, but they push it so far back to make one question if they
will fulfill that expectation. They do, but then follow that
with a song that is tonally and lyrically on a whole other side
of the spectrum. It is solemn, unexpected, and has a feeling to
it that seems to speak to the feeling of unfulfilled
expectations. It's about wishing for something, anything.
Something else. Anything else. There is an uncertain tone to it
finishing with that. One is inclined to wonder if that is the
end? Not only of the show, but to the concept as a whole? And of
course, it isn't. Musically, the show ends on a groovy, upbeat
tone. It gives hope.
To the disenchanted, the excluded, the odd, that is what The
Residents do best.
The RCB trilogy is not the largest diversion from the earlier
workings of The Residents. It behaves similarly. It's an act of
adaptation. Rejection of change has no place in their works.
They adapt, and they move forward because of that. That's what
they've done all along.
(Let me know what you think of all this!)
#Post#: 129--------------------------------------------------
Re: An overly long interpretation of the RCB trilogy, from Ye Sm
alle Admin.
By: FrenesiGates Date: November 13, 2016, 8:26 am
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i feel like the 'cover band' thing probably isn't common
knowledge:
"The Residents are currently a singer, a guitarist and a drum
programmer/special effects coordinator. And here’s the twist --
as if there needed to be another one -- the conceit this time is
that The Residents are performing under the auspices of being
“the world’s best Residents cover band.”
So explains Hardy Fox, who along with Homer Flynn, shares
official spokesmen duties for the group. Officially, Fox and
Flynn helm Cryptic Corp., founded in 1976, handle business and
design aspects of The Residents. They claim to have nothing to
do with the music-making/touring aspect of it.
Hardy explains the super-meta concept employed this time: “The
band is Randy, Chuck and Bob -- although Chuck has retired. He’s
not touring anymore, so he’s been replaced by Rico. The
Residents had to reinvent themselves to survive and I think what
we’ve got going on right now with this cover band approach is
just another reinvention, another way of seeing The Residents
and another way of them seeing themselves as what they may have
been like if they had been a [traditional] band at the
beginning.”
HTML http://www.wbur.org/artery/2016/04/21/the-residents
#Post#: 130--------------------------------------------------
Re: An overly long interpretation of the RCB trilogy, from Ye Sm
alle Admin.
By: moleshow Date: November 14, 2016, 10:38 am
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i think that that adds into it, as it kind of gives them the
creative room to do whatever they want since they are still "The
Residents" while being able to say that they are simply people
playing their music in a different way. they reinterpret their
own concept. that's kinda fun.
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