posted December 02, 2005 05:11 PM              

These ******** stole their power from the victims of the Us v. Them years,
wrecking all things virtuous and true.
The undermining social democratic downhill slide into abysmal
lost lamb off the precipice into the trickle down runoff pool.
They hypnotised the summer, Nineteen seventy-nine.
Marched into the capital brooding duplicitous, wicked and able, media-ready,
heartless, and labeled. Super U.S. citizen, super achiever,
mega ultra power dosing. Relax.
Defense, defense, defense, defense. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ignoreland. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ignoreland.

The information nation took their clues from all the sound-bite gluttons.
Nineteen eighty, eighty-four, eighty-eight, ninety-two too, too.
How to be what you can be, jump jam junking your energies.
How to walk in dignity with throw-up on your shoes
They amplified the autumn, Nineteen seventy-nine.
Calculate the capital, up the republic my skinny ass.
T.V. tells a million lies. The paper's terrified to report
anything that isn't handed on a presidential spoon,
I'm just profoundly frustrated by all this. So, **** you, man. (**** 'm)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ignoreland. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ignoreland.

If they weren't there we would have created them. Maybe, it's true,
but I'm resentful all the same. Someone's got to take the blame.
I know that this is vitriol. No solution, spleen-venting,
But I feel better having screamed. Don't you?
They desecrated winter, Nineteen seventy-nine.
Capital collateral. Brooding duplicitous, wicked and able, media-ready,
heartless, and labeled. Super U.S. citizen, super achiever,
mega ultra power dosing. Relax.
Defense, defense, defense, defense. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ignoreland. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ignoreland.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ignoreland. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

posted December 02, 2005 08:38 PM              

"the Us v. Them years"
Presumably the Cold War. [Ron Henry]

"The undermining social democratic downhill slide"
Social democratic refers to a left wing political party (socialist). [Ron Henry]

"into the trickle down runoff pool"
"Trickle down" is an economic theory of the 1980's conservatives that huge profits by the very rich would "trickle down" to eventually benefit the working class. [Ron Henry]

"Nineteen seventy-nine"
The year of the start of the Presidential election campaign between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. [Ron Henry]

"Defense, defense, defense, defense."
A play on a football cheer (Reagan played the Gipper, a football coach, in a movie role), as well as national military Defense, which Reagan advocated strengthening in winning his election. [Ron Henry]

"The information nation took their clues from all the sound-bite gluttons."
A major economic shift of the 1980-1990s is from an industrial economy (one based on primarily on manufacturing) to one more based on information and service economies. A "sound-bite" is, colloquially, short clips of news events that convey no substance of a political issue. [Ron Henry]

"Nineteen eighty, eighty-four, eighty-eight, ninety-two"
These were election years. [Ron Henry]

"How to be what you can be"
"Be all that you can be" is a recruiting ad jingle for U.S. Army. [Ron Henry] * Stipe sang the "Be all that you can be" theme just before Orange Crush on the Green tour. [Joshua Hall-Bachner]

"How to walk in dignity with throw-up on your shoes"
President Bush fell ill during a visit to Japan and vomited at a state dinner. [Ron Henry]

"They amplified the autumn"
The autumn is the presidential campaign season. [Ron Henry]

"Calculate the capital"gfvhyujg
"Capital" is economic wealth. [Ron Henry] * It's also "capital" as in a seat of government, i.e. Washington, D.C. [Chris Piuma]

"I know that this is vitriol. No solution, spleen-venting"
"Vitriol" is harsh criticism. [See also It's the End of the World...] "spleen-venting" refers to ridding oneself of ill-moods since the spleen was believed in medieval times to be the source or repositiory of foul moods and substances in the body (for a poetic echo that Stipe no doubt is aware of, c.f. Baudelaire's "Spleen et Ideal"). [Ron Henry]

"They desecrated winter, Nineteen seventy-nine."
Winter is the season in which Presidential election is held. [Ron Henry] * Except of course that the Carter/Reagan election took place in 1980. [Chris Piuma] * Actually, yes, Reagan was elected in 1980 but the failed hostage rescue attempt was in 1979. I always figured that they were talking about the grass roots movements (The Moral Majority, etc.) which led right up to Reagan's election. It doesn't strike me that someone as well-read as Stipe would get a simple year wrong. Actually, if you dig deeply enough (and/or are paranoid enough) there is a good deal of evidence to support the hypothesis that the rescue [of Americans taken hostage in Iran in winter 1979] attempt's failure wasn't entirely accidental. The CIA supposedly suppressed a weather bulletin which warned of the impending sandstorm, and someone "mysteriously" forgot to put the sand shields on the helicopter engines, the use of which is standard practice in a desert operation. Then there is the curious fact that the hostages were released on the SAME DAY that Reagan took office, causing much speculation as to what kind of "Deal" was cut. If you ask people who were old enough to vote back then (I was 11 in 1980) many will tell you that the failed rescue attempt, and the subsequent perception (I imagine it was mostly in the public's head) that we were "weak in the world" lead directly to Carter's defeat and the subsequent multi-trillion dollar military buildup of the 1980's, and also the accompanying deficit. [billg3man]

"Capital collateral"
"Collateral" is [property] used to secure a loan. [Ron Henry]
http://www.flim.com/remlafaq/aftp/ignoreland.html

posted December 02, 2005 07:53 PM            

I was going to ask you who Ron Henry is, but I guess he's the source.

posted December 15, 2005 03:14 AM              

That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and
snakes, an aeroplane and Lenny Bruce is not afraid.
Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn - world
serves its own needs, dummy serve your own needs. Feed
it off an aux speak, grunt, no, strength, Ladder
start to clatter with fear fight down height. Wire
in a fire, representing seven games, a government
for hire and a combat site. Left of west and coming in
a hurry with the furies breathing down your neck. Team
by team reporters baffled, trumped, tethered cropped.
Look at that low playing! Fine, then. Uh oh,
overflow, population, common food, but it'll do. Save
yourself, serve yourself. World serves its own needs,
listen to your heart bleed dummy with the rapture and
the revered and the right, right. You vitriolic,
patriotic, slam, fight, bright light, feeling pretty
psyched.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

Six o'clock - TV hour. Don't get caught in foreign
towers. Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself
churn. Locking in, uniforming, book burning, blood
letting. Every motive escalate. Automotive incinerate.
Light a candle, light a votive. Step down, step down.
Watch your heel crush, crushed, uh-oh, this means no
fear cavalier. Renegade steer clear! A tournament,
tournament, a tournament of lies. Offer me solutions,
offer me alternatives and I decline.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

The other night I dreamt of knives, continental
drift divide. Mountains sit in a line, Leonard
Bernstein. Leonid Brezhnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester
Bangs. Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom! You
symbiotic, patriotic, slam book neck, right? Right.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel
fine...fine...

(It's time I had some time alone)

posted December 16, 2005 12:31 PM              

thanks for posting that song, Salome