regions of light and sound of god

[sweatboard]

In the past of the future....people don't know what to do with knives other than trade them with each other.

In the past of the future....there is no red and blue just two canidates that love you. 

In the past of the future....Dogs don't bark, they just blow kisses.

In the past of the future....

[LeanneP]

Sweatboard, if there was a LIKE button, I'd push it 10 times 

[sweatboard]

I love our family.   

[MamaKel]

In the past of the future, there is no sorrow...
'cause yesterday is just today, tomorrow.
 

[sweatboard]

In the past of the future....you truly feel that long last deep breath of sleep.
That tiny subtle glimpse of YOU....NOW.   

[sweatboard]

In the past of the future....Before the brainshowers and sunstorms, and after all the confusion and regret.  We all finally woke up, but none of us were hungry or upset.

In the past of the future...We somehow made some progress........... Is This It?

[sweatboard]

Jim James - Know Til Now

[sweatboard]

In the past of the future, there is no sorrow...
'cause yesterday is just today, tomorrow.
 

I Love the way you think

Let's make it happen 

[sweatboard]

Pearl Jam - Present Tense

[el_chode]

Is that omnichord in the outro?

[MamaKel]

I've been thinking a lot lately...about the idea of following one's heart in a world that is programmed to be counter-intuitive...most people behave like domesticated animals who've lost all connection to their instinctual nature. And it makes me think about survival...about the ability to adapt to one's surroundings...about following that intuition, in order to avoid catastrophe, and at the same time, in order to be nourished.  And while this all seems grounded in the physical paradigms of survival, it is also true of our spiritual survival.  That we must be so in tune with this intuition that we are ever present of the forces that have the power to overcome us AND sustain us. And often, these forces are one and the same.  And often times, in order to survive, and furthermore evolve, you must be willing to take calculated risks.  That you must be willing to see beyond what things seem.  For in a moment's notice, everything can change.  And what has the capacity to kill you, by way of awareness, can also make you stronger and more capable of handling what appears to be certain defeat.  And I truly believe, in both a spiritual and physical sense, that this comes by way of practice.  You only know by acting upon what you feel...until it is simply a natural extension of your senses.  I have been confronted by so many things that have had the ability to knock the wind out of me spiritually...but when I learn to examine these things from a variety of perspectives, it's like you're in a mental version of The Matrix, and can see it all unfolding before you...

This album has produced one song...and I swear to God I've lived a lifetime since it dropped. 

I guess I see you next lifetime. I'm looking forward to it.

[br00ke]

I dig the song but really can't wait to hear it in context of the whole album. I haven't really been on the boards since summer tour and was sorta dreading coming in here to see what everyone had to say about Regions (thus far), but I must say that I'm pleasantly surprised. I guess I should give ya'll more credit eh? 

[MamaKel]

"Heinrich Faust, a learned scholar, feels that none of his many achievements has provided him with satisfaction or a sense of fulfillment. He yearns to gain knowledge of absolute truth and the meaning of existence. Faust turns to magic in the hope of finding a solution and finally makes a pact with the devil. He agrees to sell his soul if the devil can give him one moment of experience which is so rewarding that his sense of alienation disappears and he calls upon that moment to stay as it is forever.

In Part One of the poem, Faust attempts, with the devil's help, to find happiness through emotional involvement. His tragic love affair with Gretchen ends in her death, but Faust is much chastened by this experience. In Part Two he tries to satisfy his craving through temporal accomplishments and exposure to all that the world can offer in terms of ideas and externalized gratifications. He attains an important position at the Imperial Court, learns much from the figures of classical antiquity, woos Helen of Troy, wins great victories, and is renowned for his public works, but none of these things gives him lasting peace of mind.

Faust dies bitter and disillusioned. He is finally admitted to heaven by God's grace, in reward for his endless striving after knowledge of goodness and truth, and his courageous resolution to believe in the existence of something higher than himself."

God's Love to Deliver...?

[MamaKel]

Dondante - My Morning Jacket Live at Red Rocks 2012 Night 2 Morrison Colorado HD

P.S. Faust wanted the experience to stay the same forever...

"Everything Changes"

[GO4IT]

Like many of you, I was intrigued about Gods' Man so did the old school thing and ordered it via interlibrary loan a week or so ago at my local branch.  The only copy they could find in the region was at Baltimore's venerable Enoch Pratt Library which dates back to 1886.  I picked it up yesterday and it turned out to be from the fourth printing in 1930 (82 years old!) and in very good condition except for a bit of wear on the hard cover.  I "read" it last night (no words, just woodcuts, except for the section headings).  I didn't count but it must have had over a 100 woodcuts to tell the story.  Pretty cool.

If you read the Spin interview, Jim reveals that certain songs are related to particular parts of the book....

"Gods' Man is kind of a Faust-like story. What did that book unlock for you?
It's one of those things you can look at over and over because it's so beautiful. When I saw it I felt like I was electrocuted, that I knew it from a past life. I was like, "Woah, here it is again!" I read it and read it. The message of it is . . . I didn't feel like I was selling my soul to the devil or anything but there was a time a few years ago when I wasn't listening to my heart a lot and I was traveling a dark path and it resulted in a physical injury. I fell off the stage [at a 2008 MMJ show in Iowa City] and not following my heart led to me being physically injured, which was a very horrible experience and very psychologically traumatic. I thought that might be the end of me.

So you saw parallels in the book?
Well, I'm not going to tell you about what happens in the book because I think you should just experience it yourself, but there's a section where the main character is chased out of town and he goes down a dark path and he falls off a cliff. Then he's injured and laying in this field and this woman finds him and rescues him and nurses him back to health and they fall in love and all this kind of stuff. And that happened to me: I fell in love and I fell off a cliff. The book started to become this record. Music started pouring out of me. Like, the Devil's in the book — I like to call him "the dark man" because he don't look like the Devil — but the song "All Is Forgiven" on the record I wrote as his theme. I wrote that song for the end when the devil comes back to take his due. I wrote "Dear One" for when the guy meets the girl and they fall in love. "A New Life" is for when that love is consummated and they have a child together. "Know 'Til Now" I wrote for when the guy is progressing in the city."


I don't think I should post all of the pix that relate to the songs he mentions in case you want to read it yourself but, as a teaser, here is the cover and the woodcut of the main character falling off the cliff a la Jim in Iowa.  Most of the woodcuts are more interesting than this one.

[MamaKel]

I think if we can take anything from God's Man it is this:

Do not put your faith in man.  Do not look for answers in man, nor for love in man...for to do so will only result in illusion.  Do not fall into the traps of falsehood that man offers...for he only offers what he wishes to gain/take.  But most of all, if you convince yourself that any of what happens in this strange web of existence is real...that there is something to figure out...that any of it has meaning...you have already lost.  The temptation is to believe that art and music can save us from the grip of death.  The corruption is in believing in the vanity.  None of it is real. None of it was real.
Art imitates life. It is not a substitute for it. I have spent my life chasing art, and I know less now than I ever have.  My life is the embodiment of Faust. Perhaps I have not sold my soul, but the quest for satisfaction via emotional involvement in transient matters has proven an exercise in futility.  If you take anything from this book, you are already living it.

"In the end, you'll be what you are." -Mephisto

Down in the city, the flames gathered round.
Churches and buildings in ashes on the ground.
They think they're goin to hell.
Out in the hollow, it drown out the crowd,
And i think my other would kill me.
If she knew what i was about.
I think im going to hell...
Devils and Demons are comin.
Lovers and children beware.
Devils and demons are comin...
To take me to hell. to take me to hell. to take me to hell.

[MamaKel]

 

[MamaKel]

God's Love To Deliver.

Mephistopheles tries to seize Faust's soul when he dies after this moment of happiness, but is frustrated and enraged when angels intervene due to God's grace. Though this grace is truly 'gratuitous' and does not condone Faust's frequent errors perpetrated with Mephistopheles, the angels state that this grace can only occur because of Faust's unending striving and due to the intercession of the forgiving Gretchen. The final scene has Faust's soul carried to heaven in the presence of God as the "Holy Virgin, Mother, Queen, Goddess...The Eternal Feminine". The Goddess is thus victorious over Mephistopheles, who had insisted at Faust's death that he would be consigned to "The Eternal Empty".

"Oh oh oh you had me
Wrapped up in your mystery...
When the light vanished from on high
Oh, I'll never say I knew you
But my heart can't wait
To meet you on the other side."

[GO4IT]

It's actually Gods' Man not God's Man.

Apparently the placement of the apostrophe is very important according to some posts I can't find right now.

Discuss.

[LeanneP]

THe moving apostrophe takes that word from literal to figurative.

God's = belonging to God, that old bugger up there in heaven beloved by many. Gods' = owned by vices, those vicious gods of lust, fame, success (without effort), etc. Eventually those gods demand payment for what they've given. If it's Gods' Man, it implies he's enslaved to his unchecked desires.