fuck. every time i look into the precise nature of these squabbles, i'm just appalled by how idiotic they always are.

it took me five minutes to learn that the site is neither the tomb of david nor the site of the last supper. it was a byzantine church. they found a tomb in it during renovations and decided for no compelling reason that the tomb must be david's. nobody's ever opened it to find out what's in there. so, you're dealing with two entirely contrived narratives...

....but it's religion. nobody expects it to actually be true. it's symbolic in both cases. so, why hold so ridiculously to the symbols?

then, you listen to the explanations and they're just astounding. what kind of remarkable doublethink is this, where jews are banned from entering a place of idolatry in order to pray to an idol? for what is praying at the tomb of david, that is only a symbol, if not idolatry in the first place?

i can't help but question the premise. if your religion is so intolerant that you can't enter the same building as people of other faiths, your religion needs to evolve. and, if your religion will not evolve, it must be eradicated - because that kind of extremism is a threat to others.

but look at what they fight over: competing false claims. i've seen more worthwhile arguments in a kindergarten class....

clarity (redone original instrumental mix)

i'm going to need to run the final version through some buses and eqs to get it to really come out, but this is a reasonable approximation of how i would have wanted the instrumental mix to sound in early '02.

i've added the two ftaa tracks to the clarity single because they're playing around with a similar guitar riff. it's an idea that got recycled, so there's a thematic unity tying it together. i guess it gives the "single" (it's 62 minutes) a little bit of extra variation and playability, as well.

strung out was done about the same time as i was playing with clarity. it was the initial source of the riff, which i then used in clarity, thinking strung out was just going to sit on my computer. i constructed "through the looking glass" out of files from 00-02 in 04 for the ftaa disc; that is, all the original files existed when clarity was being written, but i didn't actually put the collage from those files together for a few years. tacking it on here is thematic, if slightly anachronistic....

recorded in late 2001 and early 2002. reconstruction date is oct 18, 2014.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/clarity-redone-original-instrumental-mix

through the looking glass

in 2004, i found myself tasked with compiling some ideas i had into a collection of end products. one of the ideas i had had kicking around since late 2001 was that of combining harsh noise with anarchist politics, which i wanted to complete under the name "fuel true anarchy in the americas" (jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/ftaa). i had just about enough for a full length concept record, but went looking through my hard drive to see how else i could fill the cd up to 80 minutes.

the story of the curious george suite, now released in incomplete form, is at the inri019 page:
jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/the-curious-george-suite

at the time, though, i perceived of the suite as completely dead. so, i pulled the end section out and did some things to it in a wave editor, which included taking a guitar part out of the track strung out and looping it through the track. the same guitar part was also used in the bridge of clarity. strung out and through the looking glass can consequently be thought of as remixes of clarity, so their inclusion here is necessary to explore the thought in full.

initially created in the spring of 2000. expanded in the spring of 2004.

http://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/through-the-looking-glass-2

strung out (clarity mix)

so, the pun here is that it's a lot of guitars going off out of tune, representing how the government is stringing us out to dry by taking away our rights in the (not so) chaotic aftermath of 9/11. there are versions of the track with thematic samples, but i've removed them for this release.

the sample version is available here:
jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/give-em-hell-harry-strung-out

the reason i'm including the file as a lead-in to the clarity single is that there is a guitar riff with an ultimately celtic sort of sailor folk theme running through this track that i ended up reusing in the bridge of clarity (and a third time in "through the looking glass"). this track was completed first, but the ftaa project (jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/ftaa) that it was connected to didn't have release dates or anything. i really considered it mostly disposable at the time. yet, it's a necessary inclusion if i wish to comprehensively explore clarity as an idea.

created in the fall of 2001. the file was edited into this form on october 18, 2014

http://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/strung-out-3