The Stars Are Projectors

This song, to me, is clearly about God, religion, and how we interact with these concepts.

"In the last seconds of your life, they'll show you how, how they run this show, sure, they run it into the ground."

 This line pretty much kicks off by saying that if there is some sort of god or higher power, then he probably isn't a bubblegum-fairytale sort of guy. Because the unequivocal fact of life is that he lets our miserable lives all get run into the ground at the end.

"The stars in the sky are projectors yeah..... they want to be their own damn teacher."

 This line seems to be saying how people come up with religions. The "stars" hold the answers to so many of our questions about God and our purpose in this cosmos, yet rarely do people actually look at the universe and see what it has to tell us about our existence. Instead, so many people come up with some great hypothesis to life and then "look to the stars" to prove they are right.

"You've got the harder part..... I've got the harder heart."

 These lines seem to be a digression. It is almost as if the singer is admitting that he is a worse person than the person who he is speaking to. I interpret this to mean that he is basically saying that despite the earlier lines of this song, many religious people are truly better people because of their beliefs. 

"Right wing, left wing, chicken wing, its all about finding the easiest way through."

 This adds onto his previous digression. He is being sarcastic with the "chicken wing," saying that it really doesn't matter what the hell sort of path or belief we take, but we generally try to cope with our lives in the easiest way possible. God and religion are clearly primary ways of doing this.

"God is a woman... that is you."

 This line seems to me to show how we sort of just fit God into all these boxes that fit our needs and purposes, and eventually we end up thinking that we are God. At least that is my interpretation.

"Was there a need for creation.... Where do circles begin?"

 The ultimate question as to the existence of God. Where the hell did all this come from? We can explain seemingly everything in the universe with math and physics, and yet we still aren't sure how all of this came to be. Why does math work? Is creation hidden right in front of us, in the fabric of reality itself? These questions are just too massive for our mortal little minds to handle, which is why he equates it to the question of "where do circles begin?" We simply cannot comprehend why we are here, because every answer to one of these questions leads to another one, and we aren't omniscient enough to know all the answers.

Phew, I'm done. Just my interpretation. This is one of my favorite modest mouse songs :)

I swear there were more comments here before-- when I posted my comment before, there were two pages, huh.

I think a big line to pay attention to is people wanting to be their own damn teachers. When they're about to die, people don't really want so much to find out the truth of everything, but rather to reinforce their own beliefs in life. If you think everything's one way, you'll try looking for proof of it, and then you'll see whatever the hell you want in the ambiguous stars above to prove it.

They took down the other page 'cause this is the right title.

Pretty much the centerpiece of M&A, its about the universe and connects the first half of the album with the second. Really cool song.

If you look at the last few lines, you can see that he's trying to solve the mystery of God through logic. Science is logic, and science is the foundation of our universe. I think he sees life and the universe as a circle or an abstract concept, so when he asks WHERE DO CIRCLES BEGIN? it's like asking HOW THE UNIVERSE BEGAN. I think he sees the question of the universe as ridiculous as a question on the beginning of a circle. It's not logically possible because there is no start point on a circle, as there is no start point in a universe (in his POV). The universe is simply an intangible concept that we can't understand because we're bound by our own concepts about reality.

Get it?

wrong. isaac explains here in this interview (long but worth it!) that he's only wrote songs on pills, not hallucinogens or psychedelics.

http://www.avclub.com/content/node/23015/

O: Can you talk a bit about "The Good Times Are Killing Me," and how it touches on the band's reputation for over-indulgence?

IB: There's been a lot of drug abuse. The only drugs I've ever actually written any music on are pills, pot, and alcohol. Acid or coke, you can't write songs on that shit. I kind of regret how much I did drugs. There was a point in time when it seemed like a good plan, but it probably wasn't. Especially inhalants, and shit like that—I think I was a bit brighter before I did that. Inhalants and meth were probably the two things that totally fucking screwed me out of some brain cells.

WHERE DO CIRCLES BEGIN? Where they end. Great song.

I swear there were more comments here before-- when I posted my comment before, there were two pages, huh.

I think a big line to pay attention to is people wanting to be their own damn teachers. When they're about to die, people don't really want so much to find out the truth of everything, but rather to reinforce their own beliefs in life. If you think everything's one way, you'll try looking for proof of it, and then you'll see whatever the hell you want in the ambiguous stars above to prove it.

Anyone saying that the "Was there a need for creation" line is criticizing creationism needs to listen to more Modest Mouse.

Isaac Brock would never make something this obvious.

The question of "Was there a need for creation?" is the same question of "Is there a reason we are here?"

He tells you, quite frankly, where you can find the answer.

All you need to do is answer another question to find the answer.

Where do circles begin?

A question which cannot be answered.

In other words, he is saying that we will never be able to know why we are here, and all that stuff.

Quite simple, really.

this song, this band, their music, modes mouse they have become a part of my life, that at one point was much larger during a time i did a lot of chronic and dirt weed, the mix was amazing and the trips to this song have definitely brightened my view on life and helped me understand that issac was free from anything and everything except his own li fe which he could not under stand. he hated it so much, but the emotions that came with it brought with it a feeling of peace maybe, eurphoria. I'm not sure but from feeling so bad = feeling so good to him. their is beauty in destruction, beauty in pain, bad is good. good is bad. there is no difference everything is one only varying in degree. love is love and hating his live he miss understood howo he was feeling and didnt like that. it was luv ultimately.

movie Stars, movie Projectors, double features, I know issac is never that “on the nose” like this but I think part of the song is about instilled impressions that come from somewhere else, manmade perhaps and then this song goes political/religious yet if there’s ever two things that big brother wants instilled in us it’s surely those two things, how much better can you control someone then with politics and religion....

Are you serious? A great song by MM with no comments? pretty self-explainable song to me...