The Jack Noodle Journal

Biting off your own tongue.
Blistering boils, stumps of burnt hair.
Chopping your hand off with a dull axe.
Drowning in a swimming pool of blood and piss.
Drinking dog puke from a brown paper bag.
Eating the intestines of your uncle three months dead.
Falling into barbwire covered in skunk fat.
Pulling out your fingernails.
Pulling off your eyelids.
Shattering a wine glass of lemon juice on your bare back.
Shattering bones, compound fractures poking through skin.
Sitting on a nail.
Sleeping on a pillow filled with possum roadkill.
Snapping off your teeth and chewing them to dust.
Sniffing steaming swine semen.
Sticking a tree branch too far into your nose.
Sticking a tree branch too far into your ear.

Where does this come from?

We watch his film and wonder.
Distinguished older gentleman seemingly pleasant, shy, charming, joyful, peaceful, kind.
Crafter of bizarre, horribly confused, disturbed, demonic and vile images.
Are we witness to a cracked brain at work on screen?

Is there a secret here?

Purging of the ugly, for focusing on the beauty.
Outing of the hurtful, making room for the hopeful.
Spewing of the darkness, letting in the light.
Bloodletting of the artistic, exorcising the disgusting.

Extracting the weeds so the daisies can breath.

Rats can tread water for three days
Not sure how it was discovered or how they measure
Legs kicking, arms thrashing to stay above the waves

Struggling to stay afloat the pressure on my chest weighs
I can tread water like this for months maybe longer
Rats can tread water for three days

Tomorrow is the same as yesterday when today fades
Popping back up, now sinking down under
Legs kicking, arms thrashing to stay above the waves

A fit of fights over and over on the screen plays
Having trouble speaking, mouth fills sinking deeper
Dirty rats tread water for three days

Can’t see the shore, still any bit of hope saves
Breathtaking, the taking of breath is murder
Legs kicking, arms thrashing can’t stay above the waves

At least there’s this and perseverance pays
It can’t be like this forever, soon it will get better
Some rats tread water for three days
Legs stopping, arms resting sink under the waves

I have been keeping myself fairly entertained over the last couple of weeks. That’s what we are supposed to be doing right? Keeping ourselves in a constant state of entertainment? As stupid, fat, lazy, Americans I would say staying entertained is pretty easy to do. Staying entertained with material of a quality worth blogging about seems to be getting more and more difficult though.

I am in absolute love with the album, “Embryonic” by the Flaming Lips! Yes, yes, I know Mike had mentioned to me that there was some Flaming Lips action worth checking out a few months ago. Their version of “The Dark Side of the Moon” is pretty awesome as well. The Flaming Lips is one of those bands that I want to really like. They are often hit or miss with me. Embryonic hit all of my buttons. Some really good sounds and trippy psychedelia.

Hmmm… Now I wonder if this stuff is just catching me at the perfect time and matching my mood?

For example: I watched “Avatar” in the movie theater the other day and thought it was spectacular! Maybe the movie caught me on the right day? I did go and see it by myself so I didn’t have any friends or family nay saying anything as I left the theater.

It’s so funny. Everybody bemoans the poor storyline and cheesiness of Avatar. Really? I thought we were done with good storylines? Didn’t everybody just give up after the Matrix sequels? Why does everybody think they deserve master storytelling now when it comes to Avatar?

You go to see Avatar for the amazing visuals!

I will say, don’t bother seeing it if you don’t see it in a movie theater in all of it’s 3D glory. The visuals and the 3D effects really are mesmerizing. I can’t imagine ever renting it for home viewing. You could probably really see the thread bare storyline if you get the DVD from Netflix and don’t have the stunning 3D to hypnotize you.

Whoa… sidetracked there… Back to the music:

I have been listening to the albums from the top 50 of 2009 list on the Hype Machine website. I have been discovering some great stuff that I missed from 2009! Full disclosure, or from the credit where credit is due department, I think the Shelton Twins were the first ones to turn me on to the site’s 2008 list.

I put the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s CD, “It’s Blitz!” on hold at the library. That album gets more awesome with every listen.

Also I am really digging “Fever Ray” by Fever Ray. Check out the crazy gorgeous videos here. I put that CD on my library holds list as well.

An album not on the Hype Machine top 50 list but on my library holds list is the newest Kings of Convenience album, “Declaration of Dependence” . I love those sweet Norwegian lads. Their video for “Boat Behind” sums it up nicely for me.

Maybe in the right mood.

On the TV front we have the major, major news story of the final season of LOST finally hitting the small screen! Yep. Pretty exciting for us here at the Noodle compound.

I don’t know though… I’ve seen the first 2 episodes (3 if you count the first night as a 2 parter) and I think I’m going to have to wait and see. I think that the show has been so magnificent at their gut wrenching season finales that their season premiere openers can’t really keep up with the hype that the viewers build up for it in their heads.

I am a tad underwhelmed at this point in the season. Actually, I think I felt the exact same way at the beginning of last season.

We’ll see.

Come on though, more new characters? New other other others?

It is the last season of the series and I’m sure they’ll wrap it up nicely.

Maybe LOST hasn’t caught me in the right mood yet this season.

the end of the hall
no more to see here today
head back and reflect

When they put you under
we were waiting in the hall.
Filled with worry but also wonder.
Legs trembling thought I would fall.
Doctor came to get us set.
Everything was going as planned.
Said you were telling how we first met
to all the surgeons who were on hand.
Please stop. Don’t tell me this.
Doctor’s words punched me in the chest.
Real emotion too sudden to dismiss.
My aching heart shocked from it’s rest.
Those tears were honest then.
Now I know they can come again.

“I am still learning!”
He bellows into his microphone.
He peels an apple on stage.
The razor sharp knife sparks in the light.
The audience is startled then amazed.

His words spray the page like a shotgun blast.
One day the words will form an order.
One day the words will make a rhyme.
One day the words will make a meaning.

For now he practices.
The words spill out.
He will pick up speed.

“Distaste for the well dressed man doesn’t level with my desire for a three hundred foot yacht.”

In the audience a whisper. A chuckle. A cough.

“You will covet my coat of many colors!”

“This is not the joke.”

“One day you will waddle in the shadow of my magnificence.”

He loves that they look at him.
He loves to stare right back.
He looks them all in the eye.

“I am everything!”

He takes his notebook and pencil out.

He writes:
“I will destroy you.”

He erases it.
Pauses.
Then rewrites:

“I will fucking destroy you.”