Building of the Heartbreaker Pyramid

thislifestartsnow:

Songs With Meaning

This song is called 11th Dimension by Julian Casablancas, it is the single off of his solo album “Phrazes for the Young”. It is an awesome album and worth checking out. Definitely solidified my love for the Strokes and their talented group members. So not only does this video embody cheesy video graphics from another time, but I love the phrases or rather subliminal messages that are featured throughout the video. Here is a list of them:

1. Anger is weakness, Patience is strength
2. Sin is honouring desire above what you know is right
3. Every Positive action has a reward

If you continue on to Julian’s website, you see a retro looking songbook that lists a few of the songs on the album and some more inspirational phrases.

1. Try not to give advice you can’t follow
2. Art is the image of life, it’s purpose simply to enhance it
3. Being nice is most important when others are not
4. Drunkenness is cowardice, sobriety is loneliness
5. People don’t want to be greedy, they want to be happy…but they’re often too greedy to notice
6. Talk about those absent as if they were listening in
7. Unlocking life’s mysteries is the responsibility of dissatisfied people

With that being said, 11th Dimension itself has some pretty interesting song lyrics that is often a lot of what I am feeling. Here are the lyrics:

11th Dimension

I’ll just nod, I’ve never been so good at shaking hands
I live on the frozen surface of a fireball
Where cities come together to hate each other in the name of sport
America, nothing is ever just anything
I looked up to you, but you thought I would look the other way

And you hear what you want to hear
And they take what they want to take

Don’t be sad, won’t ever happen like this anymore
So when’s it coming, this last new great movement that I can join?
It won’t end here, your faith has got to be greater than your fear

Forgive them, even if they are not sorry
All the vultures, bootleggers at the door waiting
You are looking for your own voice but in others
While it hears you, trapped in another dimension

Drop your guard, you don’t have to be smart all of the time
I’ve got a mind full of blanks, I need to go somewhere new fast
And don’t be shy, oh no, at least deliberately
‘Cause no one really cares or wonders why anymore
Oh, I got music, coming out of my hands and feet and kisses

That is how it once was done
All the dreamers on the run

Forgive them, even if they are not sorry
All the vultures, bootleggers at the door waiting
We’re so quick to point out our own flaws in others
Complicated mammals on the wings of robots

If you believe in this world then no one has died in vain
But don’t you dare get to the top and not know what to do

- Julian Casablancas (Phrazes for The Young)

That line, “Forgive them, even if they are not sorry” really stood out to me. It saddens me to think that there are certain people in my life that I will probably never interact with, but I truly want to believe I have forgiven everyone and yet I harbour such a sickly negative feeling towards them. It is really saddening and maddening that I have such conflicting wish-washy feelings. I sometimes wish things were simple and just black and white, yet this grey area in life is where all the confusion stems from. However, as much as I complain, I love the grey area, that is where I thrive. It is in the unknown, where all of life’s mysteries lie. And I don’t mind at all if they stay mysterious, I think it is charming and part of life’s allure. 

Other lines in the song that stand out to me, “Drop your guard, you don’t have to be smart all of the time.” I feel like that a lot in university, and most definitely in certain aspects of my life. I always tell people I want to be with an intellectual on the same level as me or beyond. But when I really think about it, I don’t know how well I would handle an intellectual with a capacity that surpasses me because I don’t like feeling dumb. It makes senes when I think about it, this is probably why I am usually attracted to intellectual lessors but they may be that way in the academia part of my life, however I know they surpass me in other areas. Everyone is smart in different ways and areas of life and I am a firm believer of that. 

And again that word, believe…means so much to me, it is so nice to believe, in yourself, in others, in life, in the world. Oh how I yearn to believe…and for my tattoo. 

If you believe in this world, then no one has died in vain.