Magnum opus

  Yesterday I got two new Pink Floyd albums: Atom Heart Mother and The Dark Side of the Moon. Naturally, I immediately listened to both (right after Joe's Garage was over).

  I wasn't moved by them as much as I was moved by Animals and the bits I saw from The Wall (which moves me so immensily I nearly cried), but they were still very good.

  Now, I disagreed with what Roger Waters had said about Atom Heart Mother. He said it wasn't really about anything. According to what I saw, that's not accurate: the whole album did not have one specific theme (which ruined the effect of building a powerful mood, like in Animals), but each track had a good theme of its own. Here is my own interpretation of the album:

1. The suite Atom Heart Mother spoke very harshly about how, as I put it, 'everything failed': the national English music on the trumpets was played very dissonantically, the religious organ sounded horribly mechanical, the triola rhythm which (I assume) mirrored Mondscheinsonata's first movement's rhythm sounded more frightening than enchanting...
2. If was about several things: communication between people, self-deprecation (apparently because of society's attitude to the speaker), and something else I must've missed. Anyway, it was beautiful.
3. Summer '68 seemed like a picture of the decadence of the time through a one-night stand, but when I looked it up, it turned out to be a lamentation of Syd Barrett's leaving the band (which was at 1968). I should listen to the records he made with Pink Floyd.
4. Fat Old Sun was a perfect example of breaking society's concensus: the sun is regarded as 'fat' and 'old', while the evening and night are regarded as joyous; the singer asks his beloved to 'roll him up and lay him down', id est take the active roll; synæsthesia is used here...
5. Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast stumped me. Ah well.

  The Dark Side of the Moon was different, much more explicit in its messages. As was shown on the cover, they broke down the depressing mentality of their time to different parts and causes of it. I liked the final verse of Money, which reminded me of S. Y. Agnon's A Simple Story, in which the well-known Socialist has to marry a wealthy woman so he can go on spreading his Socialist ideas. This was a really good criticism of greed and the Capitalist method, having quite a few good insights (for instance, it is hinted that the speaker decides to disregard his health or just well-being to save his money in a twisted way: 'I'm alright Jack keep your hands off of my stack'). It's nice to hear something new, after hearing too many people around me chanting the same old mantras again and again: we must acheive peace, the education should be saved bring back Gil'ad Shalit (we're even having a rally on June 4th at our school to show solidarity with him!)... At least they (like myself) are saying something new, even if it doesn't actually do anything. But this is irrelevant.

  Recently I started listening more to Pink Floyd and Bob Dylan. I got the impression that Bob Dylan is a King of Bards (if I ever meet him, I shall bow and say, 'Hail to thee, O King of Bards!'), and he is really amazing (Hurricane got stuck in my head, after I listened to Desire that my most endeared relative gave me). But Pink Floyd go somewhere deeper: they're like singing prophets.

  I can't really explain what they are to me. They speak of something very deep, something I can't describe with words... They reach several plains, so to speak, though it seems their later albums reach them deeper. That's what makes me shiver.

  Tell me if you feel the same.

  I saw the play Oh, God by Anat Gov. It shows how the Old Testament God comes to get psychological treatment. It has very interesting insights, though I doubt the writer actually bothered to do a proper research about God in Judaism (well, that would've taken ages...), and I have some doubts she researched psychology well enough (though I pretty much had the impression she researched both).

  I didn't agree with everything said there, for instance blaming God for everything bad that happens and not thanking him when things go well. When I still believed in God (I confess: I once had a very deep-rooted Jewish state of mind) and didn't think He's malevolent, I did thank him for things. Later on I noticed I'm not very balanced on the credits I give God, and that was one of the things that made me become an atheist. Also, I frowned upon her complete lack of reference to the 'modern' forms of religion: UCC, Progressive Islam, Jews Reformed, &c., who are much more open and don't go to wars over religion.

  Nevertheless, it was very funny and I highly recommend watching/reading it.

  ...Hmm, I wonder what it would be like had it been the Christian God...

  My literature teacher proved her idiocity in a whole new level: she said yesterday (as we were discussing Bialik's poem And When the Days Prolong) that 'the cat molts its hairs to make them healthier and more appealing', or something to that effect.

  I am so glad I don't take notes. IDIOT! If the cat molts its hairs, why does it need them healthy and appealing?! You're a teacher, for fuck's sake, you're supposed to know a cat molts hairs so it can defend itself from the cold and to rid itself of dead cells!

  At the end of the year, once I'm done with my literature Bagrut, I'll tell her just what I think of her in the face.

  Hanuka is here. There are two good things about Hanuka: latkes and the vacation. The vacation is marred; I have too much to do. Let's hope the latkes are alright; the Sufganiyot (a.k.a. Roman cookies or Beliners) are already made with cheap, disgusting jelly. חנוכה שמח!

  Unum diem...