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AEW - JUNE 2022


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9 hours ago, Casey said:

so what you’re saying is that Orange Cassidy needs an Ashlee Simpson song for his theme

but, seriously, nothing about the Pixies or Where Is My Mind? screams out “cool” to me.

The Fight Club association is what brought it to the mainstream and made it "cool." For me, it's been so overplayed at this point if I never heard it again it would be too soon.

As far as OC, I don't know what exactly his character is supposed to be other than "too casual to care". 

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It cannot be emphasized enough: “Where Is My Mind” is a goofy song that it is literally about Frank Black scuba diving.

Like many things about FIGHT CLUB, it has been massively misunderstood for the past 25 years.

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11 hours ago, Casey said:

so what you’re saying is that Orange Cassidy needs an Ashlee Simpson song for his theme

but, seriously, nothing about the Pixies or Where Is My Mind? screams out “cool” to me.

Ha, well that's cool! The Pixies are a nostalgia act in 2022, which may be where you're noting the screams. In their prime they were kinda the quinessential word-of-mouth-in-the-know band in North America. Late in that run Kurt Cobain provided a seismic shift in 'cool' popular culture with the song 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' which he claimed to be a Pixies re-write. David Fincher thought the song in question to be a cool score to the explosive conclusion of his popular Fight Club. That ending was considered pretty 'cool'. Tho, subjective tastes will argue in whatever direction you want. Ashlee Simpson would be a huge leap from 'Jane' and the classic rock stylings of Starship, and not at all what I was suggesting, but perhaps you know something in Ms. Simpson's catalog I've yet to absorb.

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2 hours ago, EVA said:

It cannot be emphasized enough: “Where Is My Mind” is a goofy song that it is literally about Frank Black scuba diving.

Are you sure 'literally' is the word? There's defintely some references to swimming there, but I don't think there's much of anything of that Pixies era that's 'literally' about any one thing. They were 'slicing up eyeballs' in the surrealist tradition of their heroes.  

EDIT: looking over how much this song has been farmed out for use in TV and movies I further get how this song in the post-Fight Club era has lost it's 'cool'.

Edited by HarryArchieGus
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5 minutes ago, HarryArchieGus said:

Are you sure 'literally' is the word? There's defintely some on references to swimming there, but I don't think there's much of anything of that Pixies era that's 'literally' about any one thing. They were 'slicing up eyeballs' in the surrealist tradition of their heroes.  

I mean, Frank Black has directly said that was the inspiration for the song. He has described the lyrics as “wacky” and “cute.”

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1 minute ago, EVA said:

I mean, Frank Black has directly said that was the inspiration for the song. He has described the lyrics as “wacky” and “cute.”

Nah, it's fair. He's always been pretty self deprecating in whatever press he does. Especially post-cash-in. I will say tho, I never really thought Pixies lyrics were meant to be read as narrative. 

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28 minutes ago, HarryArchieGus said:

EDIT: looking over how much this song has been farmed out for use in TV and movies I further get how this song in the post-Fight Club era has lost it's 'cool'.

Best/worst use: Mr. Robot ripping off Fight Club's twist and plot, then using a piano version of the song when the the twist is revealed.

Edited by Technico Support
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We do digressions in these AEW threads, so I’m gonna go here…

I think it’s important to remember that Fincher always intended FIGHT CLUB to be more of a comedy than most audiences tend to think of it as. The inclusion of a silly song like “Where Is My Mind” over the final scene of destruction was supposed to be a punchline. But, as will happen, rather than picking up on the irony, most people just started interpreting it as a dark, edgy song about mental illness. (Which has only been reinforced by decades of other shows/movies similarly misinterpreting that scene and using it to soundtrack their own scenes of mental illness.)

While I won’t attempt to interpret Frank Black’s reasoning for telling this autobiographical scuba diving story in a song, I will say that between the frivolity of the lyrics, the relatively simple repeating two-note melodies, and the unfussy recording, this song seems to be attempting to evoke the feeling of being carefree. It’s not “where is my mind” as in I’m crazy, it’s “where is my mind” as in I don’t have anything to worry about and my mind is free to wander.

Which lines up perfectly with where the Narrator is at in that final scene: (spoilers for a 25 year old movie) finally free from Tyler and trying to convince Marla that everything is gonna be fine now. But as you can see through the windows, it is CLEARLY NOT. That’s the joke.

It’s one of the greatest uses of a pre-existing song in cinema history. Just interesting that it’s resonated for completely different reasons than intended.

Edited by EVA
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33 minutes ago, EVA said:

We do digressions in these AEW threads, so I’m gonna go here…

I think it’s important to remember that Fincher always intended FIGHT CLUB to be more of a comedy than most audiences tend to think of it as. The inclusion of a silly song like “Where Is My Mind” over the final scene of destruction was supposed to be a punchline. But, as will happen, rather than picking up on the irony, most people just started interpreting it as a dark, edgy song about mental illness. (Which has only been reinforced by decades of other shows/movies similarly misinterpreting that scene and using it to soundtrack their own scenes of mental illness.)

While I won’t attempt to interpret Frank Black’s reasoning for telling this autobiographical scuba diving story in a song, I will say that between the frivolity of the lyrics, the relatively simple repeating two-note melodies, and the unfussy recording, this song seems to be attempting to evoke the feeling of being carefree. It’s not “where is my mind” as in I’m crazy, it’s “where is my mind” as in I don’t have anything to worry about and my mind is free to wander.

Which lines up perfectly with where the Narrator is at in that final scene: (spoilers for a 25 year old movie) finally free from Tyler and trying to convince Marla that everything is gonna be fine now. But as you can see through the windows, it is CLEARLY NOT. That’s the punchline.

Intention of art is a bit of tricky conversation. The violence in Fight Club for one suggests simplifying it to the Comedy genre is a bit limiting, but it's clearly full of dark humour. I don't know that we should be reading so heavily into press junkets and interviews where an artist/creator throws off an easy answer. I've read enough Black Francis press to know he's a playful subject. More importantly the Pixies catalog, at least the portion I know (the Kim Deal years) is heavily rooted in surrealist imagery. The songs are not narratively driven - at least for the most part. The idea of Where is My Mind being a dark edgy song about mental illness is no more than somebody's opinion, but it's not wrong to the concluder. It's all up for interpretation. Your reading of the Fight Club ending and the reaction is certainly fair, but as you know it doesn't make it an actuality or literal meaning. The work stands on its own and is free for the viewer to expound upon. All that said, I think we have a similar reading to that film.

EDIT: that bolded line feels like the on the nose reasoning for licensing the song for Orange. Which is totally fair. As I said, I was just a bit more enamoured with OC's 'Jane' as a symbol of something kinda arguably uncool that that character preceives as 'cool'. Not unlike the other cliched cool tropes that he furnishes so beautifully. 

Edited by HarryArchieGus
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My hope here is that they wouldn't do this sort of thing so soon after the Punk announcement and would have just done a twitter announcement if he couldn't compete and this is kind of a swerve and he's announcing he's cleared.

But maybe that's too hopeful by far.

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Be a big blow to both AEW X NJPW Forbidden Door and Blood & Guts if Bryan Danielson can't compete. Really big blow. Read the injury came from Anarchy in the Arena. Such bad timing getting injured. I'd have 100% put the Interim AEW World Championship on Bryan. When you have the best wrestler in the world on your books, you put him in main events with the top title.

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I would love to see Kingston get the Shingo "everyone else is dead so let's put the belt on our most over guy" push. Except unlike Shingo I would want him to mow through all the top guys once they're back instead of dropping the belt to Okada/Punk. What I just described is also what they should have done with Ishii several times over the past decade. 

 

Edited by Belgian_Waffle
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6 minutes ago, Dog said:

Is that a death metal record?

Another Pixies song.

Also fuck off to anyone who doesn't think the Pixies aren't cool. There's literally a song called "Cool as Kim Deal"

Edited by elizium
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4 minutes ago, Casey said:

Sonic Youth is better, fight me.

Yeah the Daydream Nation-Goo-Dirty run is so amazing. Pixies haven’t aged particularly well for me although I don’t dislike them.

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11 hours ago, elizium said:

Another Pixies song.

Also fuck off to anyone who doesn't think the Pixies aren't cool. There's literally a song called "Cool as Kim Deal"

Yeah, there’s no denying the authenticity of Kim Deal’s cool. And the Breeders carry on tremendously even today. Pixies 1987-1991 catalog is a timeless treasure. Even the B sides comp was as strong as most bands albums of that or any period. Uh yeah, Sonic Youth is a great band. I’ll roll back a couple years and say Evol to Daydream is the era I most celebrate, but dig that goo too. Thankfully music isn’t a competition and the youth and the pixies are sweet apples and delicious oranges. But to each their own just save the competition for the tv talent contests.

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