The Dirty Diaper Remora and Other Windshield Visions

The Dirty Diaper Remora and Other Windshield Visions

This morning, while driving to the gym down the lonely, predawn streets of our fair city, I noticed a Remora, of sorts, clinging to the right windshield wiper of my minivan. Said “suckerfish” was actually a plastic bag, knotted at the handles to enclose a dirty diaper. This noxious parcel clung tenaciously to the windshield wiper’s knuckle, streaming from this anchor like a bulbous kite while I sped down the road. My one thought for this wind-buffeted poop tote was “Hang on, little buddy” as I didn’t want to retrieve this stink bag from the street if it lost it’s grip during my short drive to LRRC. Thankfully it held. Upon reaching my destination, I deposited it in an appropriate trash receptacle and went about my day.

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Two days ago, Upfull texted this music suggestion to me: “try to check out Marijuana Deathsquads.” I did. And I like this band. One of their videos especially. Much like driving a minivan at dawn with a Dirty Diaper Remora, the official video for “Crazy Master” is a suspenseful, absurd, and funny road story. But most importantly, it holds.

Musically this song is full of internal clashes. In the first ten seconds, a twee guitar figure is overrun by a small Moog squall. Distorted sub-synth figures burble above kraut-rock drum-offs. Electronics squeal. The singer shrieks. The music claws at itself, struggling into form.

The video, itself, is what draws me in. It’s a road movie. But after being established as protagonist, the road is duplicated and inverted. Through some editing trick the road is mirrored on the horizontal axis of the screen. Mirror symmetry. The visuals of the video are balanced where the music is not. It’s a powerful juxtaposition. A fearful symmetry. And then it gets silly. You’ve got to see it to believe it. Hold on…

By: TotallyGNP
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrn-T9TuAMk

Marijuana Deathsquads – “Crazy Master”
http://marijuanadeathsquads.com

taken from the LP entitled “Crazy Master” via Totally Gross National Product.
http://totallygrossnationalproduct.com/store

Filmed, directed, and edited by Isaac Gale /// 2012
http://isaacgale.com/

MDS Twitter: https://twitter.com/M_Deathsquads
MDS Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mrjna.dthsqds?sk=app_178091127385

I don’t know what it is about road footage that is so entrancing. Is it the illusion of movement for the viewer? The feeling that this is your road? As I said, this video has holding power. I kept thinking about it. I even felt compelled to shoot some road footage of my own on my way into work. I didn’t feel like buying the visual symmetry app to get that mirror effect but I did dump my video into Instagram for coloring and cropping (I forgot to film in landscape, duh). The music here is off the Wire Tapper 33, which is getting a lot of air time in my car. It’s a fragment from “Liars Tired” by Tangents. Tangents is an improvisational group, too, though they seem to have less percussive drive than Marijuana Deathsquads.

For me, the highway strip allures. I think it’s from all those years driving a van back and forth across the country when I toured with Stella and then Peter Searcy. That and all the long summer car trips K and I have made from Arkansas to South Carolina and back. Following those painted lines… Also, road cycling draws those highway lines into my eyes. So whether it’s hauling a trailer full of music equipment at 3am from Birmingham, Alabama to Fort Myers, Florida or taking my turn pulling during a training ride in the flats outside Scott, AR, I’ve spent lots of time with my eyes trained to the highway lines. They are hypnotic. Entrancing. That dotted center line has a pulse and a power. It’s like Om morse code. Especially when cycling. Heart rate, breath, pedal stroke. Hold your line. Clear your mind. Go.

What else to say.

K attached that diaper to the windshield to remind me to put it into the trash.

Upfull should blog more.

Try to check out Marijuana Deathsquads.