We Have Come to Drug Days

So.....I just found out that Hollywood is re-making, re-imagining, one of my all-time favorite movies, The Wicker Man. Nicholas Cage will be playing the conservative christian cop who travels to a remote Scottish island to investigate the disappearence of a local girl, only to perish in the flames of a burning effigy as a sacrifice to pagan gods. Will they give this a happy ending, and if so, how?

This quandry led me to watch the the film again. And something in it's creepy,subliminal, pacing, prompted me to watch it a second time in one sitting. The movie is filled with an overwhelming sense of paranoia that makes it purely terrifying, even though the body count is limited to a single person....or could it be an acid flashback. I can't say I used LSD more than a handful of times in my collegiate days, but one trip I remember included a viewing of The Wicker Man with my old friend Tom. For him it provided a cosmic awakening, he was hooked, inspired to craft paper-mache masks (similar to those used by the pagan townies), seek out the soundtrack, and take frequent psychedelic journeys alone in his room.

Where is this going you may ask? I have no idea. This is dedicated to Tom. Soon after, both Olivia Tremor Control and Elf Power camped out at our house after playing the Ohio Union (anyone remember this show?). They were fascinated with Tom's masks, his beanbag chair, his infinite library of video games and systems, and his tiny room on the third floor. As the festivites wound down that night, I found myself alone downstairs. Where on earth were the eleven people lodging at the great mansion on 10th Ave.? I began searching, then saw a patch of fog drifting down the hall and followed it up to Tom's den. There Tom and every member of the band were packed in and tripping out to, no lie, this album:


All I remember is Bill Doss toking one of Tom's gigantic joints and saying it was one of the most amazing records he's ever heard. From Christopher Lee to Tinky-Winky, from Tom to the Cubist Castle, I blame them all for my damaged psyche.