Here Is No Why, 1979, and the Cherry Belt Buckle

In the very beginning I thought I had figured out something everybody already knew, I was just able to do it on my own.  Obviously I was very, very wrong...  Not only was I very, very wrong but what I was dealing with gave no indication that I was already playing with something out of place.

It was said that Edgar was timing the actors in this film very specifically.  He clearly had defined goals he was trying to reach, making every moment count.  He was in on every set directing the timing of each scene (and I emphasize timing) much unlike most directors would do.  Cera even mentioned this.  Because no one else has seen this, there is no way to express how much thought has to go into a work this solitary.  The timing element has to be consistent and exact enough to effectively punctuate the sounds of the album, not to mention keeping the root of the film in tact with the story line.  Once you throw MCIS on top of it, it almost abandons the film's version.  It pushes it into a different space.  The movie becomes the music.  Yes the "story" is still there, but it's depth has new levels, and I can't tell you what that does to such a soulful masterpiece like Mellon Collie.  So Kudos to Edgar Wright, he did what no one else has ever even attempted.  Well... that's probably not very true... at least that has been any big deal.  Now on to the sticky situation...

My first experiment was simple and amateurish.  Put my Smashing Pumpkins MCIS playlist of mp3s into my foobar player and play it with the movie.  From the upstart I was mesmerized about the idea.  When I noticed something out of sync, I would incrementally pause and start either the movie or the music depending on which it was that was ahead of the other.  It was so confusing because I really didn't know why it would flop back and forth, and I knew something was happening just ahead, or just behind, and I would start tapping the space bar repeatedly to inch it into the framework of what I was seeing.

By the way, did you know that Knives has a cherry belt buckle?
I know everybody likes to pick out stuff in the record shop like the "SAD-CORE" genre but I think that's obvious...

I'm not even gonna try to make you think too hard about this one but, certain symbolism like this are good for a laugh.  Understand that there are plenty of inside jokes going around, but you are not to be fooled by the innocence of it all.  Actually this one has nothing to do with the music, but I thought I would point it out for bonus points :)

It turns out, Knives actually has some of the most dramatic parts throughout the movie that emulate major landmarks along the way of the film.  Whenever I began to doubt the structure, there was something big happening just around the bend, and Ms. Chau brings unmistakable roles within the sound scape.  Her parts are so obviously, and freakishly, poignant of Billy screaming or James wailing that they "jump out at you".  She's a REAL fan (lol).

So I put 2 and 2 together.  Music with the movie.  Everything seemed to be going along great.  I was excited first, then I had to get into perfecting it, and this, my friends, is when I found out the most misleading quality of this entire mad game.  The fact that I was seeing things come together so flawlessly was a perplexing oversight.  It was not until after screwing around long enough by playing the two side by side that I found the missing link.



First, when dealing with "Zero" I was searching for the gaps.  I took my MCIS album to my car to test my theory.  Sure enough I found the gap track counting down to the beginning of "Zero".  It gave my assumption affirmation.  Then I went on to find even more gaps later on through the complete work.  I jotted down the countdowns for each gap and where they went, and how long.  Later on, I got a video editor and began mimicking the original track layout as if it were being played on a disc, but this was not the only discovery I made.

During this analysis-adventure in my car, I found something strange indeed.  When the fifth track came on, "Here Is No Why" started playing.  It was startling, because I was sure "1979" was about to play.  Why?  Because that's what was playing as the 5th track on my computer this whole time...  I turned the case around in disbelief... yep, sure enough, there it was printed on the back, Dawn to Dusk - TRACK 5, Here Is No Why.  Something finally Dawned on me.

I had been using an out-of-order album that matched up with the movie.  For the past few months, or years, or however long I've had this particular version of MCIS stored on my hard drive, the album was actually playing in a non-traditional order, unbeknown to me.  It became apparent that this was the order that was used to comprise the movie as its alternate theatrical drama.

THIS IS THE SECRET THAT UNLOCKS THE FILM AS WHAT I CAN ONLY DESCRIBE AS
SCOTT PILGRIM AND THE INFINITE SADNESS (THE MOVIE)

Imagine my revalation at this point.  It didn't occur to me that I was listening to a different version of the album this whole time.  I might as well have considered myself a lunatic, because now I was faced with this weird paradox.

This trashed the whole concept of everything.  Who would do such a thing like this?  The only way anybody would be able to figure this out is by accident.  And if I was simply imagining all this, the chances of these two things coming together randomly is a phenomenon on its own.  If that's how Edgar masked this whole bitchin facade, all I can say is, "W.T.F.?" ...The fifth track on both discs flip-flop, which puts "Here Is No Why" on Twilight to Starlight, and in it's place, on Dawn to Dusk, is "1979".  How the hell would anybody know that?

I've been known to believe in crazier shit, but this one inspires a bit of retort.  I don't believe this is a coincidence.  This is not Dark Side of the Moon meets The Wizard of Oz.  This is mapped out with intention, and very specific.  So much that it's difficult to believe unless lined up precisely.  Trust me I've done the work, and the only thing keeping me from opening up this whole can of worms on you is that it's impossible to hand over without instructions.  A ploy like this needs leverage to support what's happening on the technical side of it all, and there's no way to get it unless this information has been passed on, or luckily trounced upon as in my case.

A conspiracy is not the shadowy figure it seems to portray so much in legend.  It simply means there's something you don't know.  More accurately, it's something you don't know about what a small group has conspired to do.

Now here's the beauty of it all.  On Dawn to Dusk, 1979 is the perfect switch for the movie.  Honestly, the scene is so gracefully united with the song, you would have never known the two to be separated before.  In retrospect, I can see why E.W. did it.  And you will too if you figure it out.

While it is astonishing to behold, the method in which Wright defined his silent project has continued to evade all public knowledge of a doubled theme for quite some time.  It's absurd, and I had to ask myself, "Could it be that Edgar seeded a MCIS copy with an alternative track listing for an alternative version of his film into the "internet village" just to see if anyone would figure it out?  And could it have been the same tampered copy that I received?".  Or was he just relying on random chance that someone poked around or messed up the right way to discover his hidden agenda?  Wouldn't Edgar want somebody to find out?  The knowledge of this is a well guarded secret at the end of the day, and since the key to it all is invisible, this is why I call it a conspiracy. (for kicks)

I hope that the fans of either Scott Pilgrim or Smashing Pumpkins take a look into what a strange yet beautiful tale this is.  It's something that truly transcends age and art.  With the posts that I've blogged, or the blog that I've posted (not sure how to correctly define that), I wish to give both the fans of the movie and the music a chance to experience a thrilling exploit of mixed media, one that will no doubt have a profound impact if this were to be publicly realized.

As screw-ball as it is, there is a silver lining here, but it's one that will take effort to understand.  Edgar Wright has never been one for normalcy.  This will surely prove him to be unique as an artist in a way of the story is itself, let alone the endeavours brought on by a multifaceted adoration for the Smashing Pumpkins shared with Bryan Lee O'Malley's telling.

What you're gonna get after this is up to you in a way, but I will keep posting as I see fit about the film and its sister sound, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.  If you want to know how to set it all up, keep listening...