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Mean Letters

by Collapsing Opposites

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1.
Gonna write a letter to the editor because I’ve got some things I’d like to say about the problems with the public transportation and something about that poor lost little whale. Gonna write a letter to the editor. Gonna tell you people what I think. I am going to fill up your inbox with unwanted messages just by clicking on this hyperlink. Gonna write a letter to Mcluhan because I think he might have made a small mistake. When you wrote about the importance of television, I think you meant the internet instead. Look it up on the internet. We’re so into our inner net. Important signs signing meaning – deferential layering. We make meaning mean. We make mean meaning. Meaning makes us mean. Meaning means we make. Cell phones getting smaller and smaller every single year – it won’t be much longer ‘til they're implanted right inside your ear. Cell phones getting smaller and smaller every single year. Then we will have telepathy. Then, I/you will know just what you/I think. Microchips implanted in your brain. Microchips implanted in your brain. It won’t be much longer ‘til they're implanted right inside your ear.
2.
Sunshine 02:32
Sunshine and rainclouds and those in between. Some people are nice, others are mean. Favourite number’s always two. All you/I could think about was you. Yellow and green on the colour wheel. Ten million flies are having a meal. If you cut them they’ll be gone: dandilions on the lawn. Some things are different with the name of your year. Say a lot of things and drink a lot of beer / listen to your ear. Its really very/not that interesting, I see / don't know why you’re interested.
3.
Mirror Stage 02:47
There is a mirror stage. In you, I see all the little parts of me that I rate. Reading Jacques Lacan in a car in a parking lot in Anacortes, Washington, right outside of the church. Sometimes you only see the parts that you’d like to purge. There is a super-ego. You tell me all the things I like to do are illegal. Such a nice haircut, clean shaved face, you’ve got the glasses too, oh my, and the shoes! What did you do? Did you go to the university of indie rock? You forgot about all that other stuff. This is not a reference to ‘We Dance’ by Pavement. If you thought that, pat yourself on the back for being so significant. But that’s not what we’re saying now. These are different times now. When I wrote that other song, I hadn’t discovered The Fall yet. Ooooo, oo oo…
4.
When I look to the sea, my eyes look and they see grey, blue, green and it’s shallow. Then I turn to the deep and I sure do believe this means more than its shadow. I know these symbols are real because I made them that way. They take shape in my mind like the lines on a road. And there are systems and signs that tell you how to go, and that’s good, because we like to go out to the show sometimes. When you look to the trees you see more than just weeds that were printed on paper. Then we turn to the breeze; this is making me sneeze. Won’t you build us a shelter? We are embarking on a mission to colonize nature. We’re armed with machine guns that are loaded with meaning. I’ll fire and then rebuild these objects as structures and systems of metaphorical things. I know that they’re real! I know that they’re real!… I know that it’s true! I know that it’s true!… When I look to the scene I see everyone meaning to see what to think about. And since there’s going to be judgement, please won’t you give us something just to talk about. I’m going to throw up some flags. I hope that you catch them and tell all your friends. This is marketing these mean letters. I hope you reply. And I know this song it sounds a bit grungy, and I bet that's probably not what you thought that it ought to be. But that's okay, because we're looking back to the nineties.
5.
Looking Back 03:45
Waves crash on a shore. They aren’t just waves, we’re something else altogether. Boats working away – we’re not really working, just looking back. Looking back into illusions, there’s something that’s soothing about oceans and soft light. Looking back to your favourite movie and everything’s moving, but not today. Clouds reflect fiercer architect because space was cold before it got sold. And ozone layer is in your prayer, because ultraviolet light might restore your sight. Shells cover your skies – block out your eyes – with visions of salty sea air. Lips distract you with diss. It’s hard to persist with what we were just talking about. Looking back into the future. And time will calm me down as waves heal these rocks. Looking back into our lives: there'll be a time when we will both die. Concave? Convex? How should you frame it? Photograph won’t express what’s in your… Brains aren’t important anymore. Brains aren’t important anymore.
6.
You ordered a veggie burger from a fast food restaurant. You crossed international borders. Everything that you trust was imported. You’ve always known/thought you’re so important. Coffee ordered with three sugars inside. You asked for ashes in your fries. Since you’re going to die someday, there’s no need to floss or take multi-vitamins. You chased the cop car until there was nothing else to do but get your own cop car. If you can’t beat 'em, join 'em. They say two stones are better than one bird anyway. Late modern commuter polluters… Since there’s no center, we'll drive all day. Freedom reigns. And national flags…
7.
So Important 03:38
So important… So important… So important… so important… So important… Tearing up molehills. Building up mountains: two giant mountains. Writing in clouds. Monuments and fountains and paragraphs about clowns… So important… so important… So important… so important… So important… so important… So important… so important… Waiting for breaking, and I know I probably shouldn’t be writing right now. Hyper-personal, emotional confessional, yes, I know that the situation's probably not sustainable. Breathing or reading, a man can only do so much sleeping now. Meta-personal, try for universal and maybe these things can/will also apply to your world. I am fire. You are water. He is earth. I am so much hotter. Critical elevator, reader-writer penetrator, I am God: my voice inside your headphones. Engines burning, smoke is streaming, we will meet or there will be disaster. Such an important meta meta meta letter, I ’d better go get ready for the pending critical disaster. Falling, falling, faster, faster – I am going to crash into your ocean. Falling, falling, faster, faster – pages burn and ashes fall to the ocean.
8.
You can never kill me, because I will never die. You can stick a needle in my eye. You cannot erase me, because I’m not gonna hide. It’s just downhill from trying to explain why. You can spit in my face! I will learn from that! If you spit in my face, I will be back / be assured of that.
9.
Riding on the night train (all day and night train). I don’t wanna - I don’t wanna go back to Bahrain or write another quatrain. I don’t wanna - I don’t wanna go. “This world is a sham. This show is a fucking scam. I want my money back. I expected a band, instead there’s just some hack, and he don’t know how to play guitar that good either. Well, I am a fish. I live in the ocean. When I go to the surface the air breathes me poison. Hey bartender, I want a refund! This beer tastes like ocean!” “Well, you’ve been lost in your world of thoughts and you only emerge to see a band play. So you go to the venue and you sit in the back room, and the people recognize you from the pictures in the news. And you recognize them too. But they don’t know what to say to you, and you don’t know what to say either, so you leave the show early and walk home alone in the rain. And when you get in, you climb back in your fish-ball. You are a reverse scuba diver.” “Well, I’ve made some big decisions. This is what I’m gonna do: I’m gonna roll around in my fish-ball, Yes, I’m gonna move. I’m gonna move so fast that I will surpass the speed of light squared and then all my mass will drip right past. I exist in time but not in space. And I have no body and I have no face. I am pure energy. I am dark matter, surely. You cannot see me. I move faster than seeing. I am an electronic medium, meaning I will enter your brain, and when you click send I will pass through Dallas then appear on your friend’s monitor’s field of vision. Now he changes his mind, when he walks down the street. He likes the graffiti when he gets something to eat. I am media letters. And I aim to make things much better.”
10.
Pure Energy 02:46
I wanna be pure energy, so please set me free from this ugly body and then cut off my head to leave only pure meaning with no underlying form. Well, we went for a walk and wrote our name in the trees and then conquered this world to proclaim its meaning. But I tripped on my heels, landed flat on my knees and skin burns and lungs still bleed. I want to be a spark of energy. I’ll move in through your ears and then out through your teeth. And I’ll make you rethink all these crazy ideas like space is preferable to time.
11.
Mean Letters 01:47
This is one-way media, this ain’t no chat room. We have not met yet, so let’s start with a letter. I’ll write you a mean letter to think about things. You leave me a message on the answering machine. We both want to go and listen to our ears speak. Trees are cocks are guns are men and cars and power. So much signs, I can’t stop trying to signify them. Let’s go conquer some free space, that’d mean so much to me. The letter’s been sent. The deed has been done. Now we just wait for the reaction. The vote has been cast. The bomb has been dropped. Now we just wait for what’s going to come.

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released April 10, 2005

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Collapsing Opposites Victoria, British Columbia

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