The Cuntry as Fuck version contains a banjo and a quicker tempo, and generally I like it better, except that I have to listen to that weird vomiting noise at the beginning of the Bacon video to get to the actual song.
As a sort of compromise, I've been going to Youtube to watch matthiasheuermann's remix of "Polar Opposites" with footage from Béla Tarr movies:
Two things:
1) The use of Modest Mouse's music over Béla Tarr's work is controversial for several YouTube commenters, but not controversial enough to engender "flaming":
Muzakconcrete: Man. I just can't believe you're doing this to parts of bela's movies. Conside the lack of music in his films. What does that tell you?
matthiasheuermann: funny you should mention this, as the other day we watched Werkmeisters Harmonies and someone pointed out that the use of music (especially in the scene where the ransack the hospital) is the weakness of this film, as it is not very subtle.
Muzakconcrete: It's not the use of the music which is weak. It's the music itself, it's not great in Werckmeister. But anyway, I was referring to the use of ambience as a device, the very absence of music in most scenes. It just seems a bit reckless to throw modest mouse songs over his film. Surely part of his genius is that he uses sound in the way he does?
[By the way, does it ever bother anyone else when someone who comments online or blogs relentlessly follows rules of punctuation and caps but then falls off on the "that/which" rules? No half steppin', doggies. Grab an MLA and get in the game.]
matthiasheuermann: You're absolutely right. It's a bit reckless, but hey, that's the kind of chap that I am. And frankly, I hardly do Tarr's genius justice by exploiting his visual imagery for todays pop music, but if I get merely one viewer interested in watching the films of Tarr, I consider myself redeemed.
Muzakconcrete: What can I say? It's cool.
Arguments on both sides are oddly formulated, but rather than get into that, I'll leave you with this prelude to the above dialog:
karelsidorjak: You had no idea what you are watching,sorry!!!!
According to my prejudices and lack of knowledge about Hungarians, I'm assuming that Karel Sidorjak is a Hungarian friend of Béla Tarr (whom many commenters on this video know on a first-name basis, apparently).
Zooming out a bit, karelsidorjak's admonishment is, almost quaintly in its Hungarian way, true in any situation and also tempered with a condescending false intimacy contained in the ",sorry!!!!."
Maybe I will learn more about "Béla Béla eh eh" at a different time, and at that point we can discuss Hungarian film. But unless he did skate vids, we're probably going to leave him where he is: on wikipedia.
2) As I said, I've been listening to this song upwards of twenty times daily for several weeks. Starting Wednesday of last week, I began internalizing the message, thinking "Drinking away the part of the day that I cannot sleep away" would be an interesting approach to life.
I started to drink at work, about five beers early on in the shift, and ramped up my PBR consumption back home. At work, I gave slow service. At home, I was simply drunk. By Sunday, I'd reached a level of toxicity that made hiking up Tiger Mountain less than an entirely pleasant experience. I've since decided to take a break from the Isaac Brock approach, and have even quit smoking (kind of).
It's a bit crazy to me that I am outwardly so critical of the "debauche" approach to literature and art. I claim to myself at least that I find drugs and sex uninteresting at their fundamental levels. Yet, I still internalize the message that drinking and drugs are awesome and there is some kind of authenticity achieved by means of their consumption.
Or maybe I just like to drink and need to stop making a thing of it (with myself).
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