INSTRUCTIONS
High School Stoners Rejoice
There comes a time in every good kids life where the bad kids begin offering them pot. Some may embrace it and buy the required 60’s Rock T-Shirts while others may simply pass through a phase and never return. Either way…there’s a good chance that right around this time someone tried to convince you that Dark Side of The Moon was created to compliment the Wizard of Oz. (Dark Side of The Rainbow) We call those people stoners for a reason right?
In the early 2000s I decided all of my art school friends were way too hip for their own good. In between existential bouts of depression and Whiskey/Budweiser combinations I convinced them that they should at least check it out as it is somewhat interesting. Dark Side cued up to the third lions roar…done. Great album, great film, paired together they are curious and then, 45 minutes into the film…over? You’re incredibly high and have nothing left to do but maybe play Dark Side again (failure) or turn up the volume to figure out why and what Dorothy is so worried about (annoying). We instantly expressed our amusement, gave it a good art school critique and then decided we need to at least sober up before we headed home. The easiest solution was to continue the film and put in the album we all obsessed over at the time. Radiohead’s Kid A.
Kid Oz: Flawed, sure? Intended by the artists, of course not. But from my mid-twenties stoner perspective, Everything In Its Right Place. The songs Kid A, National Anthem, How To Disappear Completely, Optimistic, and In Limbo all have great moments and place a very sinister and somewhat danceable mood on the second half of the film. The overall theme, the track sequencing and mood of the album are surprisingly in sync. Especially with lyrics such as “I’m not here. This isn’t happening, You’re living in a fantasy world, Release me and Help me get where I belong.” The album even ends with the song Motion Picture Soundtrack. Which in the future will help people to theorize that Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood indeed created the album to finish off some stoner kids disappointing experiment with synchronicity.
That said, my true goal here is simply to debunk the myth that Pink Floyd obsessed over the Wizard of Oz, create a lasting Wikipedia entry and hopefully to receive a cease and desist request from Radiohead. (At this point I will also give a shout out to Animal Manufacturing Company as their attempt has been pointed out to me. Amnesic is the wrong album for this and the 3 minute gap between Dark Side and Kid A is key. Likewise, to the folks at Cineforum for thinking Nosferatu has any reason to be paired to anything other than a live score.)
THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING
WORLD PREMIERE – FRIDAY JUNE 13TH
7 – 12pm (The film will project on two screens at 9pm)
