wandering the greenwood

I've had an onslaught of assignments this month, I'm almost delirious with the anxiety, so naturally my brain has jumped on a couple of fixations. Because what better time to adopt a new obsession.


SPIRIT PHONE
Almost anyone who has experienced the internet is familiar with Neil Cicierega's work in some capacity — be it through The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny, Bustin, Ariel Needs Legs from the important videos playlist, Two Trucks,  or naturally the Potter Puppet Pals — but most people don't realise it's all by the same man.

But I did.

And then I dug further and discovered that he has three entire albums of mashups that are insane. I mean words cannot express how bonkers these combinations are or the finesse that he pulls them off with. He uses motifs from All Star by Smash Mouth and Wonderwall by Oasis and manipulate them until they're broken shreds of what they used to be, and then mashes up Pop Corn and Let the Bodies Hit The Floor and makes it work?? Not only that but he makes it sound good. My current favourite is Wow Wow, which is Will Smith's Wild West vocals over a synthpop beat. It's so damn catchy. Not only that, but all these albums are available for free download straight off his website.

But I couldn't stop there, I had to give his original music a try. In 2016, under the name of Lemon Demon, he released Spirit Phone in which every song has an X-Files/paranormal undercurrent — a man's whose death becomes more and more creepy & comically absurd; a song from the perspective of an arcade game that makes people go crazy & kills them; a love song from Ronald Reagan — all over 80s synths. The lyrics are so good, I really love the double entendre of writing a song that works with both the surface level and the metaphorical. A song about someone possessed with the idea of building a big tower is both kinda scary & paranormal, and about the futility of the capitalist/neoliberal idea of Progress. And every single song is a killer dance beat.

So Neil Cicierega is a man who exists and makes art (even, in my opinion, good art) but I really think the fact that so few people know about him, even though he's been behind a number of memes, is really interesting. In an era of Instagram Influencers being paid thousands to advertise, and the push of an idea of a personal brand, Neil Cicierega isn't trying to commodify himself. And as an intervert and a commie, I have so much respect for that.


MCELBOYS
Almost in contrast to that, we have the McElroys, whose presence have been pervasive on the internet (at least in the corners that I lurk in) that it's surprising it's taken me this long to catch on. But catch on, I have.

The McElroy brothers started a podcast for bad advice some years ago called My Brother, My Brother, and Me; and since have branched off to have their fingers in many other pies. I'd actually tried to listen to get into MBMBAM before but Justin & Travis have strikingly similar voices, there was no way I could figure it. That was months ago, if not a year or two. On a whim just less than a fortnight ago, I decided to try listening to their D&D podcast, The Adventure Zone and what a slippery slope that is. Since then I've listened to 21 episodes of that, watched their short-lived TV show, listened to a couple of episodes of MBMBAM properly, and listened to The McElroy Brothers Will Be in Trolls World Tour which is honestly some of the best story-telling I've seen in a long time. Because (spoilers) they actually did fucking get roles in Trolls World Two and the journey is so absurd. The hubris. And now I feel like a fool because I actually want to see Trolls World Tour now. I'm sure I won't enjoy anything else in it, but I want to see the conclusion to this story.

Each of the three brothers also run a separate podcast with their respective wives which... blows my mind. How can someone bare to show so much of themselves to the world? Is that not draining? I suppose it's a fill-time job, so they don't have to juggle much else on top of the recordings & editing, but I know I would not be cut-out for it.


Listening to a podcast again has also got me wistfully missing Welcome to Night Vale. I liked it a lot, but I lost momentum and now don't really know where I was up to. Somewhere around ep. 40 I believe. But such a backlog is so intimidating.

Today, whilst listening to a new favourite podcast of mine, Maybe We'll Learn Something? (itunes; soundcloud), I discovered Stoicism. If you, like me, are new to this, Stoicism is a Hellenistic philosophy about accepting that the worst things in life will happen to you and learning to lie with that. It sounds incredibly grim and perhaps it is but it's not altogether depressing because Stoicism teaches that bad shit will happen but you'll be okay. You could go to prison and it would be bad, but you'd still get through it, as others have before you. 

Stoicism is an extremely practical practice, too. Stoics often face what they dread head on, such as leaving the comfort of a home and good food to see that what they fear really isn't that bad. I often find that the anticipation of pain is far worse than the pain itself.

For some time, I've had the motto "adapt or die" as I've gone through personal hardship, but this mindset doesn't have the confidence that Stoicism offers. Honestly, I don't know how much I like it. It has some elements from Daoism which I've come to appreciate (to stop trying to enforce your control on forces greater than you; exempting political issues of course) but I like the spiritual side of Daoism and I find Stoicism somewhat nihilistic. That being said, I have had experiences where changing my perspective from one of fear to one of determination has been tremendously powerful. So perhaps this will be complimentary to my study of Daoism.


Side note: I had some gift cards that were to expire this month so I used them to order a copy of The Tao of Pooh to get me started and my current favourite translation of the Dao De Jing (Stephen Mitchell's) along with some make up brushes and some calligraphy pens. I can't wait for them to arrive!