The phrase "How To Be" sounds like the title of an existential tome... And here KB is exploring how to be invisible... At various stages in life and in certain situations people might feel invisible, e.g. old people speak of social invisibility; people get drunk or intoxicated or go on holidays to forget themselves, to disappear; mythological heroes (and villains) seek invisibility to achieve certain goals, etc; and of course the dead are invisible (unless you possess the sixth sense!)... Then again, some people feel terribly visible, e.g. the paranoid, the socially awkward, the famous and the infamous...
Is KB wanting to be invisible so that she might blend in with the everyday or achieve a greater, heroic goal? ... The song is full of gothic, narcotic, classic and literary imagery… Spells, potions, dares… The Sorcerer's spellbook found in a dusty attic… A pinch, not too much, not too deep; the eye of the seer, the hem of balance, the stem of tranquility, the hair of home... But the quest for invisibility has its dangers, temptations and warning signs... The Sorcerer's Apprentice could not control the magic that he tried to use... This is a hero's quest and not to be undertaken lightly... Maybe the Minotaur stalks the labyrinthine corridors? Or maybe the pitfalls of suicide and introspective madness? ... Yet the Romantic wild wind and leaves dead speak of ghosts, spirits and the Fantasia of 'being' invisible...
'fold... cut... line...' - These could be instructions found in a Woman's Fashion magazine. And everyday fashion patterns and coupon offers strive to make us all alike, all following the same pattern, all lost in the same invisibility...
'fold... cut... line... blister and burn... mirror...' - These also suggest drug use paraphernalia, losing oneself in the blur of forgetting...
'Is that a storm in the swimming pool?' - Now, does this line reflect 1086 Sunset Boulevard? :o)
Norma Desmond is essentially invisible. But for Max, she is completely forgotten. Her fame is as dead as the monkey under the veil. She has become fixed at the moment of her greatness, and now lives in the past with her 'waxworks'. Like Dracula, she and Max live in gothic decay, with Max feeding her with phoney fan mail to reinforce her self-deluded visibility and dreams of "return." Each time the mirror cracks, she attempts suicide... "Oh, wake up, Norma. You'd be killing yourself to an empty house. The audience left 20 years ago!" ... The arrival of Joe Gillis prompts her "return" to the outside. But the outside grows too loud for Norma and she shoots it down. Her fantasy to escape invisibility leads only to the very visible storm in the swimming pool! ... As a moral tale, Sunset Boulevard (1950) is like a book on how to be invisible which every would-be Hollywood hero should read before attempting a deluded Salome-esque comeback...
Aerial is indeed a wonderful sunset and a wonderful sunrise... It is as never-ending as the cycle of death and rebirth... Aerial captures humankind's fascination with the sun trip by day and at night... From Egyptian Nut arching across the sky, to Newgrange and Stonehenge solstices, to eclipses, the everyday and the beyond, Aerial is indeed a timeless and Classic masterpiece...
December will be magic again.
Don't miss the brightest star.
Kiss under mistletoe.
I want to hear you laugh.
Don't let the mystery go now...
The phrase "How To Be" sounds like the title of an existential tome... And here KB is exploring how to be invisible... At various stages in life and in certain situations people might feel invisible, e.g. old people speak of social invisibility; people get drunk or intoxicated or go on holidays to forget themselves, to disappear; mythological heroes (and villains) seek invisibility to achieve certain goals, etc; and of course the dead are invisible (unless you possess the sixth sense!)... Then again, some people feel terribly visible, e.g. the paranoid, the socially awkward, the famous and the infamous...
Is KB wanting to be invisible so that she might blend in with the everyday or achieve a greater, heroic goal? ... The song is full of gothic, narcotic, classic and literary imagery… Spells, potions, dares… The Sorcerer's spellbook found in a dusty attic… A pinch, not too much, not too deep; the eye of the seer, the hem of balance, the stem of tranquility, the hair of home... But the quest for invisibility has its dangers, temptations and warning signs... The Sorcerer's Apprentice could not control the magic that he tried to use... This is a hero's quest and not to be undertaken lightly... Maybe the Minotaur stalks the labyrinthine corridors? Or maybe the pitfalls of suicide and introspective madness? ... Yet the Romantic wild wind and leaves dead speak of ghosts, spirits and the Fantasia of 'being' invisible...
'fold... cut... line...' - These could be instructions found in a Woman's Fashion magazine. And everyday fashion patterns and coupon offers strive to make us all alike, all following the same pattern, all lost in the same invisibility... 'fold... cut... line... blister and burn... mirror...' - These also suggest drug use paraphernalia, losing oneself in the blur of forgetting...
'Is that a storm in the swimming pool?' - Now, does this line reflect 1086 Sunset Boulevard? :o) Norma Desmond is essentially invisible. But for Max, she is completely forgotten. Her fame is as dead as the monkey under the veil. She has become fixed at the moment of her greatness, and now lives in the past with her 'waxworks'. Like Dracula, she and Max live in gothic decay, with Max feeding her with phoney fan mail to reinforce her self-deluded visibility and dreams of "return." Each time the mirror cracks, she attempts suicide... "Oh, wake up, Norma. You'd be killing yourself to an empty house. The audience left 20 years ago!" ... The arrival of Joe Gillis prompts her "return" to the outside. But the outside grows too loud for Norma and she shoots it down. Her fantasy to escape invisibility leads only to the very visible storm in the swimming pool! ... As a moral tale, Sunset Boulevard (1950) is like a book on how to be invisible which every would-be Hollywood hero should read before attempting a deluded Salome-esque comeback...
Aerial is indeed a wonderful sunset and a wonderful sunrise... It is as never-ending as the cycle of death and rebirth... Aerial captures humankind's fascination with the sun trip by day and at night... From Egyptian Nut arching across the sky, to Newgrange and Stonehenge solstices, to eclipses, the everyday and the beyond, Aerial is indeed a timeless and Classic masterpiece...
December will be magic again. Don't miss the brightest star. Kiss under mistletoe. I want to hear you laugh. Don't let the mystery go now...