If you guys have been holding out on me about Andrew Bird, I’m on my way to beat you up. I stumbled across the song below while looking for something totally different, and forget the subject matter (as pertinent as it is), it’s my favourite sort of ballad. He plays the violin, his latest project has been recording in canyons etc to explore the acoustics … you might possibly find the music depressing, but it makes me happy. Leonard Cohen does too; I never understand why he’s sometimes called Leonard slit your wrists Cohen. Erm. If melancholic jazzy blueness is your flavour, you’ll like it. It’s one of those rare things, a lovely earworm. The link about Dr B is well worth a read; though not pleasant, it’s as objective an article as possible.
The backstory
“I observed a man hunched over a cup of Mountain Dew and a chimichanga at a public cafeteria in Arkansas. “I bet he’s been in a mental institution” I thought. As it happened. I was correct. My brother, who is autistic, had his art supplies taken away from him by health care workers, Ostensibly as a means of discipline.
Dr. B (Bruno Bettleheim) godfather of Autism and its diagnosis, concluded that autism is instilled by The mother. He was, in my opinion, a bad man.”
Andrew Bird – Tea and Thorazine
I can tell by the way you take your infusion
you’ve spent some time in a mental institution
oh what a dream life would be if only…
they let you keep your etch-a-sketch
you laugh like a banshee gesticulate your delirium
they treat you like a corpse keep you full of candy lithium
what a dream life would seem if if you could see
the world from inside an etch-a-sketch
I can tell by the way you reach your conclusions
you’re the director of a mental institution
oh what a dream life would be if only…
it hadn’t been for Doctor B.
animate yourself an alternate reality
consummate a self-pleasing artificiality
you can have yourself a tea
animate yourself an alternate reality
consummate a self-pleasing artificiality
you can have yourself a tea
I can tell by the way you take your infusion
you’ve spent some time in a mental institution
oh what a dream life would be if only…
they let you keep your etch-a-sketch
More of my waffling
What is it about Mountain Dew? Daniel Johnston wrote a song to/about it while he was hospitalised. A cursory google reveals a lot of panicky info about it, largely about Brominated Vegetable Oil and the neurotixic Phenylalanine (present in Aspartame) – but that shit is in pretty much all the hyper processed junk food available. I’m going to spare you that rant, but I will say this: Mediterranean diet. It’s not a weight loss fad, it’s the way people tend to eat round the Med. Follow that even vaguely and Dr Oz will never pester you again.
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