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#Post#: 249--------------------------------------------------
FREAK SHOW (Project of the Week for 30th of January)
By: moleshow Date: January 30, 2017, 8:55 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote]Everyone comes to the Freak Show
To laugh at the Freaks and the Geeks
Everyone comes to the Freak Show
But nobody laughs when they leave.[/quote]
Go Nuts.
#Post#: 251--------------------------------------------------
Re: PROJECT OF THE WEEK (30th of January): FREAK SHOW
By: Meisekimiu Date: January 30, 2017, 12:17 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Freak Show was one of the albums I listened to early on in me
being a Rz fan. Probably because the concept was pretty easy to
grasp or something. Let's dive into this, shall we?
First off, I think the album sounds pretty great. The MIDI
instruments do sound a bit dated, but they're processed enough
by studio magic or whatever to not sound like they're just raw
MIDI sequences. Plus they create some pretty interesting sounds,
which I think go well with the tone of the album. I do think the
songs sometimes drag on a bit too long in certain places, but
that's not really too big of a deal.
As for the album itself... well, I don't really "get" it. I
mean, I do get it. It's about a bunch of "freaks" and the things
they go through and feel... but when I listen to this album I
always feel like there's another layer to the whole thing that
I'm missing out on. Maybe it's because I haven't played the
game, or read the comic book (I did manage to find the stage
show on Youtube though!). Maybe I'm just searching for meaning
where there isn't any at all. Probably. But there are some weird
things in this album which feel out of place for a project
that's just simply describing the freaks with a small message at
the end about how we're all freaks or whatever. I feel like this
album might in some way have a deeper meaning connected to how
The Residents perceive themselves and their art, but I'm not
sure about that. Anyway...
First off... I have to admit that this album has some pretty
weird rhymes. I'm not saying they're neccessarily bad rhymes
(but I kind of am), but rather that The Residents have set a
pretty high standard for great rhymes in lyrics. Or in the case
of GI3P, occasionally just dropping a rhyme for the sake of
saying something important to the story. Wanda the Worm Woman in
particular has the painfully awkward rhyme "I love the soul I
see inside her but I just can't love her / Folding fat that
rolls around like bowling balls in butter...". The line from the
same song "I like to watch their faces fall as we disgust and
shame them / Seeking suckers is my game-- no longer lion
taming." also sounds so weird to me. Maybe it's just the way
it's sung?
But there's one line in particular which really just confuses
me. I don't even know how to react to it. It's the line from
Mickey the Mumbling Midget:
[quote]“Lassie looked at something shapeless lying on the lawn
Scratching at some scabby sores and stretching as it yawned
It seemed to be uneasy as it looked up at the moon
She sensed the tension in the air and smelled a sweet
baboon.”[/quote]
Which definitely seems to be a reference to Loss of Innocence
from The Commercial Album:
[quote]“The eyes of horse faced women
Watch the few who wander through
They sense the tension in the air
And smell the sweet taboo”[/quote]
I don't get it. Is it a joke? Is it part of some weird
meta-meaning I don't get about this album? I truly just don't
understand the point of that line. Some people may tell me it
doesn't matter, it's The Residents, but that line is just so odd
I have to wonder if there's some point to it being there. Coming
back to what I said earlier, these weird little lines like this
just pop out to me and make me wonder if they're somehow part of
some greater design to this album... or if they're just weird
little isolated oddities... kind of like the freaks themselves.
Anyway, [s]Jello[/s] Jelly Jack is a truly amazing song, and the
WoW version of it is one of my favorite Rz songs. Harry the Head
is a catchy little tune which is a really great way to open up
the album, and similarly Lillie is a good "twist" as well as a
good climatic way to close the album. I do truly love this album
and it's probably high up in my list of favorite Rz albums, if I
could ever attempt to make that list.
#Post#: 253--------------------------------------------------
Now if you would ask me why I would continue on like this...
By: CheerfulHypocrite Date: February 1, 2017, 8:44 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[center]Freak Show is something strange[/center].
I know I do not really recall it the way I should. Memory is, to
all intents and purposes, not the recollection of events now
past but the reconstruction of events that may or may not have
happened. It is one of the plagues that visits upon eye witness
testimony. Eye witness testimony is unreliable. We reconstruct
events we witness through the prism of our life experiences.
Sometimes we have memories which have no grounding in real
events whatsoever.
The only thing I am absolutely convinced of is that the lyric
[quote]
[left] Everyone comes to the Freak Show
To laugh at the Freaks and the Geeks
[/left]
[right]Everyone comes to the Freak Show
But nobody laughs when they leave.
[/right]
[/quote]
Was sung by Lillie as the Barker shouted out the words
[quote]
Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!
Step right up and you will see on display
a collection
of some of the stranges specimens
ever gathered together
both LIVE and preserved.
[/quote]
Not after the Barker but at exactly the same time. Which makes
sense because, at the time, I was watching Play by Samuel
Beckett. Adulterous people up to their necks in urns in some
Circle of Hell simultaneously yattering. Like the Dada Poetry of
Hugo Ball and Raoul Hausmann. Play and Gadji Beri Bimba and
Freak Show and Karawane melt together. Events and memory really
are the test tubes of tomorrow. When I hear the introductory
Barker's speech I invariably think it is wrong. As though I am
hearing it for the very first time. By the time I get to the
Everyone comes to the freak show... line the illusion is
shattered.
Which is what Freak Show does best. It shatters the illusion
that the performers are as they appear. Harry, Herman, Wanda,
Jack, Bennie, Mickey... Lillie make a story in my mind. It is
not a peaceful story. It could be biography. It is sad and not
terribly long.
Once upon a time, there was a tight knit group of friends who
pledged themselves to each other. To mutual defence and
protection. To ensuring each other's health and wellbeing and
safety and that there would always be asylum for those who need
asylum from the world. To provide the specie sufficient for such
a project, they undertook to present a show. In the show, these
friends presented sketches and performances portraying freaks.
Harry and Herman and Wanda and Jack and Benny and Mickey
entertained the world with freakishness through the narrations
of the Barker. In many ways, it is a parallel story to Bad Day
On The Midway in the sense of being from that same kind of
world. This impression was reinforced by me playing Sam & Max
Hit the Road from Lucasarts when I first heard Freakshow.
Sam & Max visit things such as The World's Biggest Ball Of Twine
HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biggest_ball_of_twine
and Bungee
Jumping at Mount Rushmore
HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Rushmore
while hunting a
missing Bigfoot. Bruno the Bigfoot, is free and fleeing the
Carnival with Trixie the Giraffe-Necked Girl. This is the same
world. The same kind of workd where a group of friends could
hide out, in plain sight, pretending to be freaks.
The stories in Freak Show are all narrated indirectly. A kind of
hyperkinetic sotto voce the obscures as much as it reveals. As
though the Ringmaster or Barker are capable of manipulating the
Performers like puppets. The kind of power that keeps the world
outside the Show away from the tight knit group of friends. The
friends dance ever more frenetically under the words of the
Ringmaster. Performing ever more intricately for an Audience
that does not understand the Show is not simply a cheap exhibit
for reward. It is survival for the Freaks.
Lillie Is the embodiment of all that the Performers fear.
[quote]
[center]
I saw a great big guy who had a little gun;
He pulled it out and smiled and then he sucked his thumb
His wife was standing by with a leather leash
Fastened to a child who cried beside their feet.
[/center]
[/quote]
Not as simple as the the thumb sucker or the merely incapable
[quote]
[center]
I saw a woman chewing with nothing in her mouth;
Her teeth were in her hands and her tongue was hanging out;
Then she started drooling and caught it in a cup,
The cup was full of pennies; it spilled when she got up.
[/center]
[/quote]
But the truly terrifying. Lillie is not a freak performing a set
piece like Benny or Herman, she is simply there. In the
Audience. Not for the first time and not for the last.
[quote]
[center]
Lillie with her white face.
Delicate Lille is stainless lonely and
She is too white
[/center]
[/quote]
Which is where my memory conflates Lilly with a picture by Otto
Dix, of Sylvia von Harden,
[center]
HTML https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/tr/thumb/5/59/Otto_Dix_Sy_von_Harden.jpg/200px-Otto_Dix_Sy_von_Harden.jpg[/center]
and a real person in Frankfurt am Main Airport in 1989. Her face
was plastered with white Leichner Facepaint. She had a circle of
White on a face that must have seen the best part of the
Twentieth Century and perhaps some moments of the Nineteenth.
Her cheeks were red circles. Like a bizzare poppet. It was all
the more bizzare because she was very, very, very dark brown.
Not black skinned but between brown and black. She sat in the
Macdonalds in the Airport drinking a cup of tea at about four in
the morning. She was, without doubt, terrifying. She had the
air of doing the same thing every day. As though a fast food
place in an Airport was her regular opportunity for tea. They
were obviously used to her as the person clearing tables waited
patiently as she decanted the tea into a porcelain cup which she
whipped out of her bag. Her dress was the most vivid red; and,
yes, she was terrifying. This, to me, was, is and always will be
Lillie.
In my mind it is the Performers who come to the Freak Show to
laugh at the Audience. Not callously or maliciously but as part
of the unspoken exchange. The Audience reciprocates with
laughter at the Freaks. Which the entire work trades on. The
Computer Game and the Prague Performance capture other aspects
of the trade between Audience and Performers.
[center]Prague
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=216VCL9tcvs[/center]
But none of these capture the horror of having the memory of a
real Lillie. Whose entire presence simply imposes a story onto
the scene. There is no exchange or negotiation with Lillie. The
story she is imposing is horrifying. Unlike the babble of
Beckett's Play, Lillie is closer to the disembodied mouth of Not
I. Which is the beauty of Lillie's song. Delicate Lille is
stainless lonely is the eptiome of what Lillie brings to the
Freakshow. Her presence terrifies the performers in a a way that
destroys their confined - or even comfortable - universe. Lillie
is not simply that she rattles out a stream of consciousness
[quote]
He.. he... he hated me... he hated me... and hate is white...
and hate is hot... but I'll not even have disdain for him... not
even a stain... on a memory looked up to, lacking all respect
for him... I am blacking out the specks of decent thoughts that
linger in me... and leave only white... white... peaceful
white... calm white... swans silently flying in the snow... look
down and see the bleached bones... of a noble knight who died
trying to save his lady... his lovely white lady... who brought
her man milk in the moonlight... but it was too late... too
late... too late... he said
[/quote]
But that she is telling a story that is far more freakish than
anything taking place inside the tent. it is as though Lillie
comes for respite from the world torturing her with the half
told story of her stream of consciousness. Perhaps Lillie was
raped or assaulted by a white supremacist - the recurring
'white' and knight imagery suggests this could be plausible - or
was simply florid and delusional. She is not manipulated by the
Ringmaster or Barker. She arrives with the stainless lonliness
and that is as profoundly frightening to the performers as
anything. She is not simply troubled but genuinely hurt and
crushed by some experience. The asylum that the good friends had
is not simply shatter by her presence but made into something of
a prison. What if they are all nothing more than their
freakishness?
She has not simply blundered in, she is a regular. The
Ringmaster cannot ameliorate her presence. She is the reason
[quote]
Life is a lot like a Freak Show
Nobody laughs when they leave.
[/quote]
Before Lillie it was always possible to leave the Freakshow
behind. But like an Airport stopover in Frankfurt am Main, it is
always possible to blunder into the Freakshow of real life and
let memory construct it for you. There is no respite from the
utter reality of ordinary people. Those whose existence ensures
that
[quote]
We are all equal
In the grave and in the dark
Said a man whose head
Was halfway eaten by a shark
Now if you ask me why
I continue on like this
I doubt that I would know
I can only make a guess
Half a mouth may not be much
but it's still half a kiss.
[/quote]
When we leave the Freakshow there is no laughter because Lillie
has made us all horrifically aware of how we are all equal.
Listeners, like the Performers, know it and that means there
will be no more laughter.
#Post#: 254--------------------------------------------------
Re: PROJECT OF THE WEEK (30th of January): FREAK SHOW
By: moleshow Date: February 1, 2017, 10:42 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote]Someone said that nothing hurts you
Like a vice without a virtue;
That may be but is it worse than
Life when it becomes so certain
That your eyes cannot be open
To the twisted and the broken?[/quote]
Freak Show is a project I feel very, very strongly about.
(capitalization is inevitable in this “review”.) It is a project
that reaches out across media, manifesting as an album, a comic,
a CD-Rom, three live performances (one containing other
material, another containing parts of it exclusively… and the
Prague show).. What this indicates, from my perspective at
least, is they care very deeply about the concepts and ideas
within this album. Opportunity arose and allowed them to
communicate the ideas within the project in a variety of ways.
Truly a concept executed almost as fully as possible (although
they didn’t manage to get the cartoon, cereal and toy line
aspect). So let’s dig in.
The key concept in the album is “freaks as people” (eventually
followed by “people as freaks”). Expanding upon their ideas,
behaviors and stories in a way that goes beyond what is used to
attract the public. Bringing out the humanity in the freaks
occurs again and again in the album. Harry’s desire to be
preserved eternally along with his difficulties in terms of
loving and being loved, Herman’s fear and rejection of people
after being used and betrayed by two of the only people he
trusted (one being the only woman he ever loved), Jack being in
a position where love and lust exist in his mind and become his
God, Mickey’s love for Lassie, Wanda becoming a freak after a
loss of love, Benny’s dream girl. Love has a reputation as being
the most natural, beautiful thing of all. A standard experience.
None of those words fit freaks (within a certain mindset) at
all. From a cultural perspective, the freaks are unnatural, ugly
and unusual. But they are people. And what better way to get
this point across than through the freaks living through, trying
to come back from, longing for... love?
The characters that strike me as particularly worth discussing
as Wanda, Herman, and Jack.. Wanda, in her heart, where the
audience cannot see, is deeply normal (if not perhaps a little
inclined to finding mentions of worms in the Good Book - but we
all have Our Thing, no?). Only within the context of Christ was
what she experienced unusual. Sinful. Freakish. Within the
context of a society, deviance, inherent freakishness is the
conventional equivalent of sin. Freakishness exists on a similar
plane. Perhaps the standards are changed, but the intent
remains. And from this, we are lead to Herman. He was born a
freak. He found his chance to escape the fate of a freak -
isolation. But he learned, unfortunately, that a life of
normalcy would never be within his reach. The illusion of it
would hover before him, but it would only be that. An illusion.
So through the fear of ever trying again, he embraced isolation.
It became his ideal state of being. And who could blame him? His
first and only experience with love and with “normal” people
(who through the act of having an affair, became different kinds
of freak) was strange and hurtful. He hides not only from
people, but from a world that he knows all too well is out to do
him harm. The one that cannot hide is Jack. His physical body
serves no purpose to him. He resides within his mind - but he is
never alone. He has his God. That God would just happen to be
the concepts of lust and love manifesting with a practically
tangible presence within him. His wishes of what-if’s and
if-only’s become nothing in the radiance of his God who tells
him of all that he cannot know. He is a freak inside and out.
But he is seen as an object - so what relevance do his thoughts
have to his observers who simply look at him and grow bored?
The two “normal” people we have are Tex and Lillie. Tex is a man
who has lost what he believed characterized him and descended
into longing and bitterness. He longs for a freak. Though he
denies himself of the desire he has for Wanda as a person due to
the parts of her that make her a freak, he himself inevitably
becomes freakish for loving any aspect of her. But he holds the
potential to be a freak. He stands in a position where he has
lost what he took pride in. He stands on the border. Who stands
within, is Lillie. She is the true freak - terrifying,
definitely not amusing, traumatized, somewhat incoherent. She
stands in the audience. She watches. And the freaks watch her.
Her strangeness is violent and vengeful. The ones she pays to
come and see are not freaks at all. They intend no harm. She
holds onto a rage that almost goes over the barriers of her
closely guarded interior to shift into action. But from her
song, it sounds as if she implodes. Every aspect of her is odd.
And she exists as a reminder to the freaks - they may pretend to
be anything but normal, but she needs not pretend. It is natural
to her. Her position as an audience member makes her stick out
like a sore thumb within the tents. The freaks notice her
because she lives what they act out. Her deformity, her
strangeness is within her and leaks out, manifests on the
surface. She is simply too white.
What can be said about the freak show? It displays deformity.
Exception. Deviance. Very little of which is willing or genuine.
But it connects those who exist on the outskirts (of town?).
Within the Freak Show of the album, they all acknowledge
(perhaps silently) that the space they share is theirs, and
unlike many things, it cannot be stripped away from them,
because what has placed them there cannot be taken away. It will
not be taken away. It is theirs to clutch to and build upon,
because it is what (from an outside perspective) characterizes
them. But the stories told show that what characterizes all of
them… is exactly what characterizes those who are not displaying
their deformities. Their personhood. Their experiences. The
playing field is forcefully leveled when the confines of “freak”
become less tight. They become visibly loose and vague.
As those confines become loose, the spaces in which those
deformities can be displayed become innumerable. The singular
summary for those spaces is life.
[quote]Everyone comes the to Freak Show
To laugh at the Freaks and the Geeks
Everyone comes the to Freak Show
But nobody laughs when they leave.[/quote]
But even when the playing field is leveled, we cannot say that
the mentalities enforcing the feeling of “us v.s. the other” are
not present. But the freaks exist unavoidably. Most just don’t
get paid for it. The ones that live the experience of being
freaks are the ones who see through the idea that equivalence
can and does exist in spaces where it does not. In the
experience of living on “the outside” of normalcy, they see the
similarities. They see the freaks within those who believe
themselves to be anything but, and they see conventional people
within themselves.
In modern scenarios, the presence of the freak show has not
dissipated, but shifted. We gather online en masse to view
deformity. But the deformity is no longer simply physical. We
request and desire social deformity. We observe and make fun of
those engaging in behaviors that simply do not align with what
we believe to be normal. Things that we may well enough may
do... that nobody sees. And thus, the line between a "normal"
person and a "freak" become dangerously blurred. Dangerous for
the observer.
[quote]We are only equal in the grave and in the dark
Said a man whose head was halfway eaten by a shark
Now if you ask me why I would continue on like this
I doubt that I would know so I could only make a guess
Half a mouth may not be much but it's still half a kiss.[/quote]
The freaks must live with and work with what they are presented
with. No one chooses where and how they start off. But everyone
chooses where to go from the starting point. Even if what they
have is not the most or even the standard, it is what they have.
And because it is what they have, it is enough. Due simply to
the fact that it has to be. They realize from early on what some
may only realize when it is too late.
[quote]Life is a lot like a Freak Show
Nobody laughs when they leave.[/quote]
Once you realize what you have seen, you must carry the weight
of having laughed at those who you reduced to deformities. You
must carry the weight of your own deformities.
And they grow to be unspeakably heavy.
#Post#: 255--------------------------------------------------
Re: PROJECT OF THE WEEK (30th of January): FREAK SHOW
By: TheSleeper Date: February 2, 2017, 12:25 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=Meisekimiu link=topic=59.msg251#msg251
date=1485800259]
I don't get it. Is it a joke? Is it part of some weird
meta-meaning I don't get about this album? I truly just don't
understand the point of that line. Some people may tell me it
doesn't matter, it's The Residents, but that line is just so odd
I have to wonder if there's some point to it being there.
[/quote]
I'm pretty sure it's just a reference to the fact that "Loss of
Innocence" is also about a freak show. I know I'd do something
like that too, just for giggles. It's not supposed to mean
anything, even the line itself doesn't say much. Personally I
get a big smile every time I hear him sing that line.
#Post#: 256--------------------------------------------------
Re: PROJECT OF THE WEEK (30th of January): FREAK SHOW
By: dunwich Date: February 2, 2017, 10:39 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=moleshow link=topic=59.msg254#msg254
date=1486010560]
Freak Show is a project I feel very, very strongly about.
(capitalization is inevitable in this “review”.) It is a project
that reaches out across media, manifesting as an album, a comic,
a CD-Rom, three live performances (one containing other
material, another containing parts of it exclusively… and the
Prague show).. What this indicates, from my perspective at
least, is they care very deeply about the concepts and ideas
within this album. Opportunity arose and allowed them to
communicate the ideas within the project in a variety of ways.
Truly a concept executed almost as fully as possible (although
they didn’t manage to get the cartoon, cereal and toy line
aspect).
[/quote]
Freak Show for me is almost entirely about the concept,
particularly because 90s MIDI can get on my nerves a bit. If I'm
in the mood to listen to a record conceptually, then the album
does it for me. If not, the music can get monotonous and grating
(with some exceptions!). It's why I enjoy so much the Icky Flix
rendition of Benny - you get the mix of concept and improved
musical execution. In the midst of some clunky rhymes, you also
get some beautiful moments like "Nobody Laughs When They Leave".
I also think it's worth talking about how successful the project
was at exploring different forms of media. For me, with the
other CD-ROM projects their subsequent albums have something
missing. While I think this can be forgiven pretty easily - they
were made as soundtracks to a game! Plus, I've played the Bad
Day game many a time and thoroughly enjoyed it. I've more to say
about that project, but I'll leave it alone for the moment! My
point is, Freak Show alone seems to be successful in making an
album convey its theme and keep attention (even if I'm critical
of the sounds used), as well as having successfully reproduced
its story in comics, in CD-ROM form (which I've also played and
enjoyed, although BDOTM is even better). Ideally in my head, the
Lynch/Rez project would've been based around this record.
Despite my sonic criticisms, I'm a massive fan of the CD-ROM
era, and I'd love to see them dip a toe into those waters again,
particularly with the increasing prevalence of 'walking
simulator' games.
...That's my 2 cents anyhow. I wrote a bit on the record (among
others) a few years back too:
HTML http://in-disciplined.com/?p=106
HTML http://in-disciplined.com/?p=106
P.S. Hi!
#Post#: 260--------------------------------------------------
Re: PROJECT OF THE WEEK (30th of January): FREAK SHOW
By: moleshow Date: February 2, 2017, 4:55 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
interesting writing on the album there. i, personally, find the
MIDI to be okay. it just marks where the album lies in time. the
rhymes also have a charm despite being unconventional. i think
the roughness of those strange strings of words is meant to
invoke a sense of discomfort in the listener by exposing them to
things that, from a standard perspective, just dont work.
#Post#: 261--------------------------------------------------
If There Were Only One Freak
By: CheerfulHypocrite Date: February 2, 2017, 8:49 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Once upon a time, a group of friends ran away to become the
circus. To begin with there had been four of them. They were
outsiders. Slightly different but not social exiles.They needed
to care and provide for themselves and wanted to keep a life of
relative freedom. So they created a Freak Show. Their idealism
led to them welcoming others into the Freak Show and accepting
those who chose to leave.
They could all perform the stories of Freaks. They had the
talent to take on the persona, even the appearances. They would
never be profoundly cruel or vindictive. They were friends,
after all. They were becoming the circus.
The comings and goings went on for some years. The constant
Ringmaster knew all of the stories of all the society of
friends. Never passing judgement upon exactly what each person
portrayed. The Freak Show portrayed strangeness and
eccentricity. The Crowd, would always pass over some money to
enjoy the oddity. There was never any horror. There was never
anything so extreme that dreams were lost to the night hag.
As the years trundled on, the Ringmaster became increasingly
empathic. Not merely introducing the performances but telling
the stories from the personas the friends had etched inside
their skulls. The Ringmaster was gradually becoming perfectly
attuned with all of the friends. So empathic as to be incapable
of bearing the loss of any of them. Harry the Head would live
forever in formaldehyde, ensuring the empathic balance of the
Ringmaster. Such became the need of the Ringmaster for the
presence of the Friends.
On the one side there was always the Audience. Fripperies and
inconstancies that never really intruded into the consciousness
of the Ringmaster. Until Lillie. On the other side there were
the Friends. Compassionate and willing to project Freakishness
for the greater good. In the Freak Show, the Ringmaster is
increasingly overcome by apparent telepathy. Increasingly
capable of narrating the tales of mute freaks. Giving voice to
the internal monologues of even mumbling midgets.
And the Audience: so insipid. Not horrors that visit upon the
calm of introspection. Not monsters whose presence tears
humanity away from the world. The Audience play their part.
Laughing at midgets or sighing sentimentally at the stories.
Everything channelled through the Ringmaster. But not Lillie.
Lillie was a freakish human hurricane.
In the past. In the past the Freakshow had welcomed new members.
Friends. People who were outsiders like the Friends. People who
knew the need for mutual support and aid. Freaks who were not
freaks. Which all made sense before Lillie. Lillie arrived and
immediately the Ringmaster sensed that she was one of them.
Lillie was of the tribe or caste or community of freaks. Lillie
had a natural home under the big top. Lillie could be a
companion for Wanda; a confidante of Benny; or even an audience
for herman. Lillie was the eye of a huge and destructive
hurricane.
Since the friends ran away to become the circus, Lillie had
always been in the Audience. Calm and waiting. The Ringmaster
had never understood that she was, along with them, at the eye
of a terrifying, destructive hurricane of horror, misery and
terror. The Friends had been lulled into a false sense of
awareness. As the psychic connection between the Ringmaster and
Lillie became more complete, he anticipated that he could
channel her story to a new Audience. That Lillie would be a new
Freak. Part of the group of friends.
Yet the moment it happened - the psychic connection - the eye of
the hurricane passed and suddenly the entire, complex collapse,
destruction and reconstruction of Lillie tumbled into The
Ringmaster and then into the other Freaks. No longer insulated
from the entire story of Lillie, the Freaks all become utterly
aware of the tragic and obscene pains of Lillie's life. Not
merely knowing what happened but all of them experiencing every
moment empathically. Their bond of friendship linking them into
a single pool of experience. Experiencing every moment of the
degradation and destruction and humiliation and finally absence
of Lillie. Her being gone. Evaporated. Leaving only traces of
who she really was. The Hurricane grinding Lillie out of
existence left behind the story for all the Friendly Freaks to
know for themselves.
It then that they know what the Ringmaster has done.
#Post#: 262--------------------------------------------------
Re: PROJECT OF THE WEEK (30th of January): FREAK SHOW
By: dunwich Date: February 3, 2017, 4:25 am
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[quote author=moleshow link=topic=59.msg260#msg260
date=1486076129]
interesting writing on the album there. i, personally, find the
MIDI to be okay. it just marks where the album lies in time. the
rhymes also have a charm despite being unconventional. i think
the roughness of those strange strings of words is meant to
invoke a sense of discomfort in the listener by exposing them to
things that, from a standard perspective, just dont work.
[/quote]
It's obviously a product of its time, and should be treated as
such. It's purely an aesthetic judgement of mine that prefers
the odd warmth of those weird Mole Trilogy synths and the more
elaborate instrumentation of the Mute years to to the MIDI of
the CD-ROM era (and sections of Wormwood).
#Post#: 264--------------------------------------------------
Re: PROJECT OF THE WEEK (30th of January): FREAK SHOW
By: eggoddleo Date: February 5, 2017, 3:35 pm
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Hello Rz fans. I'm not sure I can muster a cohesive piece on
Freak Show, but I'll try to compose a loose assortment of
thoughts and observations, despite the weight of winter
depression on my shoulders. Thanks for being such cool, lovely
people. Y'all have so many interesting things to say about The
Rz. I look forward to participating in future projects with you
angel-headed creepsters.
I think it is worth noting that the first proposition of this
album is false. If life is a freak show, then some people do
laugh when they leave. Just take the Greek philosopher,
Chrysippus, who laughed himself to death. According to
Wikipedia, the philosopher saw a donkey eating figs and
remarked, "Now give the donkey a drink of pure wine to wash down
the figs," before dying in a fit of laughter. I guess you had to
be there. Now, the philosophers of Ancient Greece are subject to
great speculation and hearsay, one might say to a point where
their life stories are closer to allegory than fact. It's
doubtful that Pythagoras had a golden thigh, and there are
conflicting accounts of the death of Chrysippus. What does it
really say about Stoic philosophy that one of its most prolific
proponents died of good humor?
What do The Residents mean when they say that everybody comes to
the freak show, but nobody laughs when they leave? Perhaps
they're warning us against laughing at the expense of others
when, after all, we're all freaks in some way. Few people are
natural-born Stoics. When faced with our flaws, or the
inevitability of the death, laughter doesn't come so easily.
Listening to this album in the shower, I couldn't help but think
about the freaks of today. Donald Trump, Kanye West, Caitlin
Jenner; the laughingstocks of pop culture. The Freak Show really
hasn't gone anywhere. We're still laughing at the expense of
others, and learning so very little about ourselves -- failing
to see, once again, the freakishness of humanity. Everyone comes
to the freak show, everyone is subject to abasement and
ridicule.
It's clear from the outset of this album that the freaks
represent more than physical deformity. What makes Lillie a
"freak"? It's not a bump or a mole or anything about her
appearance. In my opinion, she is a "freak" in the sexual sense;
a groupie who takes pleasure in the degradation that comes with
submitting to the needs of the "real freaks". Indeed, many of
the freaks in this album have sexual quirks. I can't think of an
example more endearing than Benny the Bouncing Bump's
infatuation with women in the ring.
Sometimes the freaks seem like stand-ins for aspects of the
human condition. In some cases, this goes so far as to make a
freak nothing more than a personification of a human body part.
What does Benny's large, flaccid, vascular bump remind you of?
Of course, the eloquent, mouthy, abusive character who longs for
immortality is a head. Then you have Jello Jack, the eyeball in
a pool of flesh surrounded by some hair, who seems to be an
embodiment of every human orifice, longing to feel fingers up
inside of something sticky, sweet, and wet.
Herman the Human Mole could be a personification of agoraphobia,
reclusion, hermeticism, etc. Wanda the Worm Woman is a clear
exhibitionist -- the classic geek. And, Mickey the Mumbling
Midget? Well. . . I don't know. . . the point is that the
external, superficial qualities of freakdom aren't the only
things denied by society. Sure, we place the handicapped, and
the derformed, into homes where nobody sees them. I've worked
with the developmentally disabled for years. Few people know
better than I how your tax dollars goes into pushing unsightly
human refuse to the far outskirts of society, into care homes in
suburbs, out of your sight, and out of your mind. But we don't
end the denial at the superficial. We deny the freak within. We
hide, rather than celebrate, that which makes us different. We
alienate ourselves and others, continually failing to console
the freak within, and I think that's what the Residents are
ultimately lamenting when they say "nobody laughs when they
leave".
EDIT: I wanted to cite the comic book w/ visual examples to
support my argument but I'm lazy. Anyway, I did want to mention
one thing. Freak Show is technically not the first comic book
the Residents have adapted into a live performance IMHO. Some of
the stage props for the Mole Show featured comic book-style DPI
a la Roy Lichtenstein, so I have always considered Mark of the
Mole something of a musical motion comic modernization of The
Book of Exodus (or Grapes of Wrath) adapted to the stage;
thereby, using modern pop formats to express the timelessness
and eternal relevance of the Exodus story. Derp. That is all.
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