Dark Thoughts

The Batman “The Dark Knight” edition of the trilogy movie series that proved to be a box office sensation in 2008 leaves some suggestions as to why with the clever advertising exhibited here. The poster is a multifaceted marketing tool and is yielded quite admirably by the makers of the poster. It is clear that the poster is being used to evoke several specific emotions. The “Joker’s” imprisoned gaze comes only second to the sight of smeared blood in the overall attempt to draw fear into the viewer. These two elements coupled with the presence of textured glass leaves a nothing less then eerie feeling in the observer’s heart and brings forth in the viewers subconscious pathos response. The mirrored glass serves additionally to “cloud” the future, as if to draw the observer’s interest, and even goes further perhaps in offering up hope with the symbol synonymous with Batman himself. All of these elements appeal to the viewer’s senses and tingles the metaphorical “taste buds” to find out the next chapter of the saga. Language also comes into play in the advertisement. Although simple, the words “Why so serious?” are too being used to create an heir of uncertainty regarding the situation exhibited and looks in fact to personify the villain in the tale as a less than absolute evil once again appealing to the inquisitive nature of humanity and serves again to appeal to the ever-present logos subconscious of the world. 

Song Lyric Explication

It is often among our most downtrodden, poor, dilapidated, and deserted that the weakest voice rings true. In a world where high priced dreams and aspirations lead to a predictable demise all too often artists curb their creative instinct in pursuit of the unattainable goal. Underground freestyle rap artist “Atmosphere” provides a polarized view on the life of an unsuccessful and underappreciated performer struggling with the vices and troubles of a torn musical conscious. His song “Trying to Find a Balance” fosters some of a young man’s frustrations, dreams, and struggles along the path to notoriety. The particular piece is interesting in the sense that the artist operates in three different phases during the production and encompasses the emotional effect of the choices made into a complete entity in perfect union with the three phases of the song. Sean Daley (AKA Atmosphere) is best interpreted on an emotional level in this performance and as an extension of his actual words themselves.

            Daley wastes no time in the piece of identifying his discontent with the treatment he and his band had received over the years, as can be identified in this excerpt of the first four lines: “They love the taste of blood, Now I don't know what that means, but I know that I mean it, Maybe they're as evil as they seem, Or maybe I only look out the window when it's scenic…” In this short four-line phrase Daley sets forth several issues worth discussing. While Daley is apparently condemning his critics it is important to concede that the artist identifies his own potential for flaws in the line “…Or maybe I only look out the window when it's scenic…” This admission of human nature comes from the life obstacles the now 32-year-old rapper has been forced to overcome and these experiences themselves are the key element to the autobiographical characteristics of the piece. We also stop to study the first two lines of the phrase which, when looked at closely allow for an interesting perspective on the mindset of the critics referenced. “They love the taste of blood…” is a pure image invoking statement. The taste of blood alludes to the critics as bats attempting to stifle the life of a budding career by the sucking of the metaphorical creative blood. The artist continues to state his own vulnerability, in the line “Now I don’t know what that means, but I know that I mean it…” he concedes the fact that he does not know his critics on a personal enough level to determine the actual degree of malicious intent associated with their actions. This rather optimistic reaction to the vibrant imagery of the “blood loving” critics serves as a dual paradox in the sense that it is both contradictory and complementary in nature to the song as a whole.

            The next segment of the work focuses on the frustrations Daley harbors over the commercialized and largely industrialized state of the music industry. “See, I’m not insane, in fact I’m kinda rational, when I be asking {“Yo where did all the passion go”}” these lines lay down a first hand look through Daley’s eyes and magnetize the relationship the listener and the artist share. In this phrase Daley’s vents over the lack of creativity associated with his craft, the second line in particular “…where did all the passion go?” exemplifies the call to a purer trade and a renaissance in ingenuity within the music business. We again see Daley showcase his emotional angst later in the piece when he says, “Emcees drag their feet across a big naked land, with an empty bag of seed and a fake shake of hands”. This excerpt approaches Daley’s perceived fallacies within the trade from a different point a view, this one on a more personal level. This is the first time within the piece that Daley directly accuses his counterparts of being in someway fake. The most obvious example of these feelings can be found when Daley exclaims “…and a fake shake of hands…” this of course alluding to the fact that he believes other artist construct a facade around those who haven’t yet sacrificed creative integrity for monetary gain. This segment bears special importance in the sense that the artist is making a concerted attempt to distance himself from the “corrupted” of his profession. This in turn is also a call to other “original” artists to condemn the actions of a sold out vocation.

            Daley is not shy about his aspirations to become a successful musician, however he is sure to make the distinction between the ways to do so. As we see in the lines “…You can't achieve your goals if you don't take that chance, so go pry open that trunk and get those amps (You know!)…” The artist is attempting to convey the essence of hard work and staying true to his roots. Although not in a traditional manner, Daley is attempting to convey the importance of hard work and an exhibition of fortitude on the pathway to stardom. We see this idea evidenced when we pair the first phrase of the segment with “…So go pry open that trunk and get those amps (You know!)…” The language used by Daley is meant to be in some ways a dialectal appeal to his audience. The amps referenced should be thought of as a goal, while “prying open the trunk” is the figurative term for overcoming obstacles. Atmosphere’s ability to relate to his audience in unorthodox manners has made the performer more adaptable to his audience and in this particular piece gives the listener a real life example of the figurative “struggle”. This same general idea can be seen in a different way when Daley says “While everyone was trying to out-do the last man I was just a ghost trying to catch someone's Pac-man…” The same principals apply although in this particular phrase the artist replaces the goal with “Pac-man” (the classic video game) and compares his quest for success to the playing of the game.

            Throughout the piece Daley exemplifies his abilities to both relate to his audience in real world ways and to communicate his ideas successfully to his listeners. The union between the three emotional aspects of the work creates a whole foundation for the production. Success is a fleeting entity and through Daley’s eyes can, and should only be achieved through hard work and ingenuity. These and many other ideas are set forth in Daley’s work and the perpetuation of these ideals is the key to the overall accomplishment of the work.

"Trying to Find A Balance" Lyrics

They love the taste of blood

Now I don't know what that means, but I know that I mean it

Maybe they're as evil as they seem

Or maybe I only look out the window when it's scenic

"Atmosphere finally made a good record."

Yeah right, that almost sounds convincing

The last time I felt a sinking contradictive as this

Was the last time we played a show in Cinnci'

"Get real." they tell me

If only they knew how real this life really gets

Doesn't take much and that's messed up

Because these people do a lot of simple stuff to impress us

While everyone was trying to out-do the last man

I was just a ghost trying to catch someone's Pac-man

See, I'm not insane, in fact I'm kind of rational

When I be askin', "Yo, where did all the passion go?"

East coast, West coast, down South, Midwest

Nowadays everybody knows how to get fresh

Somebody give me a big yes (YES!)

God Bless America, but she stole the B from "Bless" (Accept it)

So I'ma sit with my hand down the front of my pants

You can't achieve your goals if you don't take that chance

So go pry open that trunk and get those amps (You know!)

 

[Chorus x2]

In the days of Kings and Queens I was a jester

Treat me like a God, oh they treat me like a leper

You see me move back and forth between both

I'm trying to find a balance

I'm trying to build a balance

 

So now I keep a close eye on my pets

Because they make most of they moves off of instinct and sense

It's eat, sleep, shoot in self defense

So straight you can set your clocks and place bets

Wait, let's prey on blind, deaf, dumb, dead

Hustle, maybe a couple will love what you said

Emcees drag their feet across a big naked land

With an empty bag of seed and a fake shake of hands

Gotta journey the world in a hurry

Cause my attorney didn't put enough girls on the jury

Guilty of droppin' these bombs in the city

But I'm innocent, love is the motive that's why you're killin 'em

Guilty of settin' my fire in all fifty

But I'm innocent, blame it on my equilibrium

 

[Chorus x2]

In the days of Kings and Queens I was a jester

Treat me like a God, oh they treat me like a leper

You see me move back and forth between both

I'm trying to find a balance

I'm trying to build a balance

 

I gotta find my balance

I gotta find my balance

 

Now all my friends are famous

It's either one thing or another

They all don't know what my name is

Probably know both of my brothers

The one is a hard workin' savior

The other's a hard workin' soldier

I'm just your next door neighbor

Workin' hard at tryin' to stay sober

Varying Regard

Varying regard for what lies below

And with it comes a slight respect

So break the galley open wide

With endless souls they set a tow

Into horrors not soon expect

Varying regard for what lies below

But not it fret till cock may crow

For until doth sun does finally regret

So break the galley open wide

If sails don’t on horizon show

And for the god Poseidon must fee collect

Varying regard for what lies below

So in less regret than we now know

The beast of beauty came with no select

So break the galley open wide

For in thy darkest hour the furthest doth may grow

Against the darkened sea every truth is not correct

Varying regard for what lies below

So break the galley open wide

In Happiness and Gin

It was a strange type of voodoo that night in late July

Where birds of feather strange and cerebrums did fly

Yet not of silver ice or magic hand did this night come

But of your daily tangerine joy’s setting of a ruthless sun

For now for slight moments pace the light is out the door

So let us now be merry to roll across the floor

No more light does shine where perfection lacks

And with this lads get merry and take burdens off their backs

“Reload the pint!” they all do sing, in happiness and gin

For the dreaded light hath gone away, replaced it with the din

Calvin Klein and Hugo Boss are not the custom here

For when the night does come around they’ll be met with smear

For allegiance true to night itself in its true domain

Only the men of black, shall conquer and remain

Call them crooks but none of fault

Try and catch them they’ll surely vault

For feast or famine the job’s compressed

By those of body and mind possessed

In motion is the only option for this well taught custom

From hand in hand to hand in coat

The next one might in deception float

It was once for means is all they’ll say that day

When the man of provision is finally dragged away

We’ll not know now but only then, what heeded the dismay

Was it the men of law or bandanas adorned with red

In the end it is all too simple, the man you knew is dead

Taken not by fires grip or bullets awesome tear

But rather an addiction to the night and what was hidden there

For behind the shadows an enemy does appear

Her sides shine bright with heavens leer

For what damnation is hidden here

Behind the clouds on roosters call she’ll rise above the mist

Take a taxi from the other side and pump her ragged fist

Live jazz does sing its classy tune and drinks do fill the air

But time is fading quickly to everyone’s despair

For when the calls been made real and clear the morning now begin

And boys do sing their moaning cheers, in happiness and gin

Memories of the Sea

The mephitis of rotting flesh, an aroma not striven for. Yet this is where I find my pacification. All around is cerulean. In the sky the birds twirl as if manipulated puppets on the wind’s whim. Below only water and a sunken bateau, and so I sit, the descent is not the challenge. It is indeed the task at hand once you have immersed, wholly, under the ocean’s mighty force. For below the perils of the surface die, and new emerge. Gripped with mighty spear in one and feeble bag in other we begin our journey, every moment deeper, every moment darker, every moment descent. Our words do us no good below the surface, here only the fish declamate, and talk they do. Not in word but in dynamism, ever fretful. Take it only one to spook the masses, take it only one to draw the hunters. Spear in hand the dance begins. It cannot be dispatched. All moves must be calculated in great detail. The trigger pulled, the spear released. Blood fills the water. In to the bag the trophy. By my side it will sit twitching, moribund, calling. A drop amongst a million they can sense. From the blue and without warning, silhouetted against the surface. Hunter becomes hunted. If I run I do so against evolutionary perfection, spurn, I stay the fate none the better. Eye to I we tango in the labyrinth of King Poseidon. Neither I nor eye to be outdone by the other. Primal instinct cannot be suppressed; the need to feed is millennia in the making. One flutter of the tail does me in, and in he comes. Only one option. Release the trophy in exchange for freedom. Never turn your back on the ocean, never belittle.

 

Dynamism- noun; movement

Mephitis- noun; a foul odor

Pacification- noun; to harmonize

Cerulean- adjective; shad of blue

Bateau- noun; a medium sized vessel

Declamate- noun; to speak in a distinct dialect

Dispatch- noun; to hurry or rush

Moribund- adjective; dying slowly

Spurn- verb; to disregard or ignore

Belittle- verb; to detract

Music Review: Slightly Stoopid

The mainstream music industry has a way of corrupting once artistically inclined performers with the riches, fame, and vice of the business. All too often we see artists compromising their creative flow in order to please record labels, radio charts, and adoring tweens who covet the conventionality of Britney Spears-esque persona coupled with cookie cutter beats and lyrics that run skin deep. Rarely into today’s high-risk high reward industry do we see a true message delivered in any song “worthy” of radio airplay. Of course there are some exceptions to the rule but as a general trend the music industry has forsaken the once revolutionary artists of old in favor of commercial success. Fortunately there are still performers that gather such a following off the airwaves that it is almost impossible to keep them off of it, one of these bands is an Ocean Beach, California mainstay called “Slightly Stoopid”. The self-described “fusion of acoustic rock and blues with reggae, hip-hop, and punk” sounds of Stoopid cover a large genre of music listeners and allows one of the more versatile bands going a chance to cross lines and perform essentially what they want when they want. But to understand the success behind Slightly Stoopid in turn you must understand the success of the band’s mentor, “Sublime”.
In 1995 the lead vocalists (Miles Doughty and Kyle McDonald) of the band now known as Slightly Stoopid were still in high school when the got their first big break. The band was offered a record deal by “Skunk Records”, owned and operated by Sublime lead vocalist Bradley Nowell. Shortly there after the band released their first album self-entitled “Slightly Stoopid” which carried with it an unpolished form of punk infused reggae. As the band developed under Nowell a definitive style began to emerge somehat in adherence to the renderings of their mentors and mega-success, Sublime. Stoopid released two more album under the “Skunk” label each once with progressively more reggae influence. As the band began to create their own identity the music of Stoopid also began to take on a life of its own which can be seen in their 1998 album entitled “Longest Barrel Ride” where the band can be seen shirking the punk rock inspired music of their early days in a concerted effort to take the group in another direction. The 1998 release featured acoustic creations in the mold of a toned down Sublime and carried the band to regional prominence in the surf inspired Southern California coast. After the release and moderate successes of “Longest Barrel Ride” and the unexpected death of record company president Bradley Nowell the band split ways with Sublime and defunct Skunk Records in favor of self production, however Stoopid acknowledged the experience and confidence that came along with touring with Sublime and in turn drawing off the massive crowds brought in by the front page notoriety of the band.
After splitting with Skunk the band began writing new music in anticipation of their next album set to be released in 2001 entitled “Live & Direct: Acoustic Roots”, a live album that would be compiled from various tour destinations the band had booked in the coming months. The album was immediately recognized for its creativity by critics at its release in 2001 and included several tracks with a distinct call for world peace, the most notable of these pieces called “If This World Were Mine” where front man Kyle McDonald declares “…the killin’ must come to an end my friend, and unite the nations with one flag…” world peace was not the only thing the band emulated in their third album in coherence with the “Sublime-way”, there is also a substantial call for the legalization of marijuana within the work. The most overt call for legalization takes place in the song “Officer” and coincided with a community effort in Southern California to legalize the cannabis plant. The lines “I said don't go lock me up because me smoke sensi
Yes, this is the ghetto but I live 'cross the sea” and the laid back nature of the band’s music immortalized the crew in So-Cal drug culture and essentially catapulted the group to national prominence in the emerging “reggae crossover” genre.
Just after the release of “Live & Direct: Acoustic Roots” the band picked up a new following, a new identity, and a new apprentice, a band called “The Expendables” fell into the good graces of Stoopid front man Kyle McDonald upon playing a show in Santa Cruz, California. McDonald used The Expendables to open the band’s own label in the mold of Skunk Records called “Stoopid Records”. McDonald also signed a Hawaiian based band called “Pepper” to the label in 2002. Both bands began (much like Stoopid had with Sublime) to emulate their mentors and have both since released five albums in the very “surf reggae” mold pioneered by Sublime and Stoopid. In 2003 the band released their much-anticipated fifth album, “Closer to the Sun” which included compilations with both Pepper and the Expendables. The record was the bands greatest success thus far in their career selling more than 100,000 copies throughout the nation. The record boasted a Billboard Top 100 hit in its namesake song “Closer to the Sun” and solicited major record deals from Capitol, Virgin, and Columbia Records. However the band rejected all three of the offers in order to continue a pursuit of creativity in their music. Kyle McDonald once explained in an interview with “Surfer Magazine” the following: "Everything really starts with acoustic guitars with us, I mean that's what we're jamming on when we're sitting around smokin' weed and watching T.V. and we weren’t about to sell out to the big boys just for more money”.
The band continued work on their record all while continuing their efforts to advance world peace and legalize marijuana. The band began a concert series in an effort with NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) in 2005 to raise awareness about cannabis in an attempt to pass a resolution on the 2006 ballot in California to legalize medical use of marijuana. The group also began to fundraise for several non-profit groups committed to the advancement of world peace and unity. The group released two more albums one entitled “Chronchitis” which was released in 2007 and their most recent compilation called “Slightly Not Stoned Enough To Eat Breakfast Yet Stoopid” in 2008. The band also continues to actively tour with both Pepper and the Expendables and have inspired several other upstart bands including “880 South”, “Current Swell”, “Stone Senses”, and “Burn Unit”. There is no question that the guidance provided by Sublime allowed Slightly Stoopid to evolve into what they are today, a cutting edge, multi faceted, attention-grabbing machine. But Stoopid has in turn given a path for many other bands cut into both their and Sublime’s image to come to prominence through their independent thinking and independent record label. Although often controversial the group has a proven record for standing up for what they believe and not curbing to the lure of commercial successes in favor of having their voice heard by the many who will listen.