“You better think about tiling again.”
BB:
Thanks Carrcassonnee. Tiling comes in three flavors, like vanilla, chocolate, strawberry. Instead we have what I call silver, gold and platinum tiling. Silver tiling is album dominated like the one-play Dark Side of the Rainbow dominated by the album Dark Side of the Moon. We have the entire album within the synch. We only have 2/5ths of The Wizard of Oz movie, and that even without its soundtrack, since that’s dubbed over by Dark Side of the Moon. Then in a gold tiling we shift the emphasis from album or audio source to movie or video source. The movie begins to act as the template for the synch. A perfect example of this is SID’s 1st Oz, which tiles the entire Return to Oz movie that acts, in turn, as a direct follow-up, as it were, to The Wizard of Oz.
Carr.:
You forgot Rainbow Sphere.
BB:
Yes. Thanks for that. And a gold tiling can contain several silver tilings or equivalent silver tilings within it, like SID has 3 within it. I’m not sure anyone else was doing that at the time, however. Then we can shift to platinum tiling, another jump up. Platinum tiling favors neither album or movie. Both have to work together, one with the other, to form something higher — a meta-movie in effect. No, not a meta-movie, as I’m checking the definition. A hyper-movie. And a hyper-album.
Carr.:
You better explain it better than that to Karl (!)
BB:
Yes. Thanks again for that. A platinum tiling has links between involved movies and involved albums. Specific examples are needed. Let’s take Uncle Meatwad (again).
Carr.:
Good. I always liked that one the best of your examples.
BB:
Thanks. Uncle Meatwad has four video sources and also 4 involved musical artists. What are the links? How does it all fit together? First we have to understand that the synch is dividable into 3 logical parts with the overall pattern A-B-A. That is, the first and last parts are matched, or, better, reversals of each other. This same pattern appears in a lot of my synchs, and in PB, perhaps the best of all of ’em.
Carr.
I haven’t watched that one. I haard it is good.
BB:
Then the middle part is separate from both. In Uncle Meatwad the middle part is overlapped with Firesign Theatre’s Everything You Know is Wrong album from 1974, one of my favorites from them. You have maybe 6, 7 or 8 tiles using this album in this central region. “Everything” does not appear, however, in parts 1 and 3. It is exclusive to Part ii, and lends itself to its uniqueness as opposed to the other parts. Instead in parts 1 and 3 we have use of one other Firesign Theatre in Uncle Meatwad, and this would be “2 Places”. 2 tiles using it appear in part 1, and another in part 2. And that’s it for Firesign Theatre within the synch. And, in fact, that’s it for Firesign Theatre in any of my synchs so far… past this one. Overall it’s used in 5 others, and all date from 2004-2007, or this peak creative period of mine in terms of a/v synching. This is when the platinum style of synching was strongest. Uncle Meatwad was the final synch of this period as I’m figuring it.
Carr.:
What are the synchs from this period? Can you say? Do you feel comfortable saying? Because I want you to feel comfortable saying. If you feel like it. Do you feel like it? I’m just saying. Only if. Only.
BB:
Billfork, Head Trip, 4orrin1, Frank’s Moving Mountain, Pretty Bunnies, W4N1, PB, 1Pink, and then Empire Strikes Brak and Uncle Meatwad to close it. That’s 10. But there’s also [the smaller] 3 Friends of Belleville and Pumpkintwisters between Billfork and Head Trip. So: 12. 12 from this period.
Carr.:
There, that wasn’t so harrd.
BB:
No. Firesign Theatre is found in Billfork, Head Trip, 4orrin1 — the first three of the period. And then again in Pretty Bunnies (skipping over Frank’s Moving Mountain, where they aren’t used), and then 1 Pink and also Uncle Meatwad. 6 synchs like I said. And they can also be paired in 3 sets of twos. Billfork and FT within are most like Uncle Meatwad. That’s the beginning synch of the period and the ending synch. Both have Firesign Theatre as the primary audio source, with a primary album to draw upon but also a secondary album figuring into the mix. Billfork and Uncle Meatwad are close in size tile-wise, with 32 for the former and 37 for the latter. Billfork and Uncle Meatwad are twins. Both employ the music of John Lennon in a larger way. Lennon is not used in any other synch apart from Beatles’ music. There’s a pattern to that as well.
Carr.:
You better stick to Firesign Theatre or you’ll never get out of here (!)
BB:
Then Head Trip and Pretty Bunnies are also twins. They contain the same exact number of tiles: 47. One Firesign Theatre album in each: “Dwarf” for the earlier Head Trip and “Bozos” for Pretty Bunnies coming along about a year and a half later. In Firesign Theatre chronology, “Bozos” is the album coming directly after “Dwarf”. The members of “Firesign Theatre” considered “Dwarf” their best album if I remember correctly, but “Bozos” is top notch as well.
Carr.:
How are all these Firesign Theatre albums synched up to movies?
BB:
Well, to complete this we have “Rat”, the album after “Bozos”, used in 4orrin1, a massive synch composed of perhaps close to 200 tiles, if you include dialog tiles and I do. And then about 6 tracks of a later album from 2000 I believe is found in 1Pink, a second massive synch of similar size to 4orrin1. These are my 2 largest synchs tile-wise by far, outpacing PB and w4N1 by an almost 2:1 margin, I would suppose. But the use of Firesign Theatre within each is somewhat contrasting as well. 4orrin1 represents my most extensive use of the comedy group’s work in a synch. 1Pink represents the least use. It’s interesting to me that “Rat”, considered by some a secondary work, fits this role and not, say, “Dwarf” or “Bozos”. But: there it is.
Carr.:
Movies, though. Keep going.
BB:
For Billfork there’s only 1 movie and that’s Northfork. So Firesign Theatre in that synch is obviously tiled to that movie. For Head Trip it’s *almost* exclusively the movie “Head” by The Monkees, but spilling a little into “The Trip” at the end. “Head Trip” is solely composed of these 2 movies, and represents my first true platinum synch I suppose you could call it. Then in 4orrin1 “Rat” tiles many movies, perhaps 12 or 14, or most of those in the synch. 4orrin1 is the platinum synch extended to its logical conclusion in many ways. A peak work, like SID is a representative work for a gold tiling. But I don’t think it is the best platinum work, which I would reserve for PB or 1Pink. But anyway, Firesign Theatre in Pretty Bunnies mainly uses the cult sci fi/surrealist flick Donnie Darko. And then in 1Pink it’s several movies again, “Lulu on the Bridge” for one, but also Mulholland Drive and LOST. The use of Firesign Theare in 1Pink is interesting, and connected to matching hatches of LOST. In fact, they are the same hatch or station. Then we come to Uncle Meatwad again. I believe “INLAND EMPIRE” is the main video source tiled in that case. Oh, and the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie of course. Both of those. That answer your question?
Carr.:
Oh suppose so. What is the point of all this?
BB:
Rehearsal.
Carr.:
You will not say anything of this in the interview. Anything. What will you say instead?
BB:
I will have to explain some of 4orrin1 or all will be in vain. I’ll call it Foreign One.
Carr.:
Good. You can mention Head Trip. You can mention Billfork. And Foreign One. And that’s it. That’s it.
Sunklands 