Wakey Wakey, Rise and Shine

It took several listens for me to feel confident enough to even attempt to comment on Radiohead's new album, In Rainbows. With my 5:30 am listening this morning, I knew it couldn't wait any longer. It's been many years since a collection of songs has inspired me to think so deeply.

Earlier this week, I turned off all the lights downstairs and trekked groggily upstairs for bed at the end of the evening. After realizing I left my phone on the dining room table, I stumbled back down in the dark. A copy of Chuck Palahniuk's Haunted rested on the table near my phone. I did not realize until that moment that the disturbing image on the cover glows in the dark. I was quite surprised to be face to face with such a shocked looking ghost.

One morning this week I went out the front door prior to dawn to walk the dog. One of our neighbors, a retired hippie who drives a Park Avenue, was walking down the street alone in the dark. Why? Where was he going and why was he awake at that hour?

And Radiohead released In Rainbows on October 10th. It doesn't sound much like something representative of sunshine and bright colors. To me it represents the uncomfortable surprise of something you knew was there, but it was always hidden during the daylight. And strangers wandering in the dark for some unknown reason while most of civilization is safely sleeping indoors.

I have not yet finished Palahniuk's Haunted, and I have not formed all the opinions I someday will about Radiohead's latest release. But both are beautifully disturbing and disgustingly pleasing to the senses.
Late in his life, Timothy Leary published Chaos and Cyber Culture where he proposed that the PC was the LSD of the 1990's. In many ways, this is even more true today. There is no way to expand your mind today like the immediate accessibility of information on the internet. And In Rainbows seems to be a perfect soundtrack to that trip.