From this meaningful discovery, an intuitive linkage of Eyes Wide Shut with Wilco’s Yankee
Hotel Foxtrot made sense due to their shared connections to 9/11. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot's connections are widely documented,
including the initial planned release date of the album (9/11/2001), the cover image of
two towers, and lyrical allusions in songs such as “Ashes of American
Flags” and “Jesus, Etc.” (which includes lyrics such as “Tall buildings shake, voices escape singing sad sad
songs…”).
The possible links between the film and album were
immediately suggested by their running times. With a recorded length of 51:51 (IS:IS) minutes, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot resonates with “Isis”: its running time can be inverted and converted from a numerical 5151 to an alphabetical ISIS like an Eyes Wide Shut mirror image. This Isis inversion also reinforces the album’s symbolic connections to 9/11:
for nearly a decade, many online commentators, including Goro
Adachi, link Isis (and by extension, Magdalene and Venus) to Sept. 11th, the
twin towers, and the Statue of liberty. The connections between Isis and 9/11 are also explored symbolically on posts at Look at
All the Happy Creatures and the Mask of
God.
The 51:51/ISIS running time of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot fits 3 times in the 159 minute play length of Eyes Wide Shut. The repetition, of course, becomes a key part of the
process and highlights numerous cycles of “three” in the film that might otherwise
escape attention. For example, “Jesus, Etc.” cues exactly at the start of the bedroom mirror sex scene, again at the moment Dr. Bill enters the mansion's door to the masked
party, and again when he enters the hospital. Because the same song starts at the beginning of these three scenes, it creates an
otherwise unnoticed link between them and connects them through images of mirrors/glass, sex/death, and doors/entry.
In other cases, lyrics that comically don’t fit the
first or second time through are meaningfully synchronized when they show up the second or third time. For example, during an ornate dance scene at Ziegler’s
party, the line from the first track, “take off
your Band-Aid cause I don’t believe in touchdowns,” stands out almost awkwardly. By the
second time it plays, however, Alice and Bill have shared a scene where football
was on the television, they’ve gotten into Alice’s weed stash she keeps in a box of
Band-Aids, and Bill is walking into a bar with a television showing a football
game the exact moment the line about “touchdowns” happens again. Until I encountered
this uncanny football sync, I wasn’t aware that Eyes
Wide Shut had any references to football at all, but it actually has three, if Tom Cruise’s association with 1983’s All the Right Moves is included (and how can any sports film made
by Michael Chapman, the cinematographer for Raging Bull,
be discounted?). Once again, as Hollywood scribes would have it, Tom “has everything at stake. He can't afford to lose. He's got to make all the right moves.”
Based on this harrowing journey of madness and
procrastination, I present the following walkthrough for this kinky spiraling rabbit hole.
A Radio Rainbow Walkthrough:
THE FIRST CYCLE: “I AM TRYING TO BREAK YOUR HEART”
(00:22) Cue (Track 1): (other “Cue:” points below can serve as markers to re-synchronize if necessary). Start the audio (ideally, with no pauses between album tracks) after the
black and white Warner Bros text fades (not the initial WB graphic) so that the
music starts with the “Tom Cruise” text on the screen.
Hit play at 00:22 after this screen fades...
“I am an American
aquarium drinker”
Track 1 plays and the
“I am an American aquarium drinker” lyrics happens when Alice (who refers to herself as “American” a few minutes later) flushes the
toilet, which is disturbingly hilarious in light of the discussion on Always
Record ep. 59 about
Stanley Kubrick, blue, yellow, and toilets.
“Disposable Dixie cup drinking” 
New melodies of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot's many pianos play
when Nick Nightingale is introduced and he shares a champagne toast with Dr. Bill just after the line
“disposable Dixie cup drinking.” After he is forcibly made to disappear, Nick Nightingale as N.N.= 44 (in numerous numerological ciphers) is the Disposable Dixie as D.D. also = 44. This same forty-four
= 4+4 = 8 infinity lyric/toast pairing is reinforced when it happens for the second
time during the scene with N.N./D.D. at the Sonata Café).
Glitch contact with the Vampire 
The most prominent squelches at the end of the first track
happen when Count Sandor Szavost drinks Alice’s champagne (7:11), which Mark
LeClair argues is part of a menstrual vampire thing. These glitch squelches are repeated during two
other key secret society contact points that follow (the second when
Nightingale gets a call with the password for the masked party, and the third when Dr.
Bill opens the “cease and desist” letter when he returns to the party’s closed
gate).
“my mind is filled with silvery
stars” 
Track 3: “Radio Cure.” During this song, Dr. Bill is
separated from the two women at the party by one of Ziegler’s servants during
the lyrics about “electronic surgical
words” and they ascend the staircase covered with thousands of white
Christmas lights during the line “my mind is filled with silvery stars.”
“Picking Apples for the kings and queens
of things I have never seen” 
13:00 “Picking Apples for the kings and queens of things I have
never seen.” Red-Haired Beta programmed “Mandy” is the apple
being picked by King Ziegler in his bathroom.
“War on War”: Now II Ziegler’s Bathroom
Cue (track 4): “War on War.” Alice says, “Not just…now” and the
song starts and the second scene in Ziegler’s bathroom starts.
ATU XX Glitches: The Aeon
There is another prominent
audio glitch or squelch effect in the song linked to bodily fluid contact
with Count Sandor Szavost as Alice kisses her fingers, touches his mouth, and then holds her finger to her lips again in the secret styling of the Crowley Aeon tarot
card.
Baby did a Band-Aid thinG
Cue (track 5): “Jesus Etc.” starts at the beginning of the bedroom scene (with “Baby Did a Bad Bad
Thing” on the original soundtrack). Alice’s
joint, rolled from a supply in a Band-Aid box, are her “Last cigarettes, all
you can get, turning your orbit around”: a last smoke that turns their orbit around an endless argument.
“I would like to salute the ashes of
American flags” 
During the extended stoned argument scene, Bill puts his hand
on his heart during the line “I would like to salute the ashes of American
flags” from the song of the same name.
As the scene winds on, the Hollywood ex-couple may or may not be “playing
Kiss covers,” but they are definitely “beautiful and stoned” during “Heavy
Metal Drummer.” Tom actually says, “…got
a little stoned” at the same moment the lyrics “beautiful and stoned” play.
Poor Places (Track 11): Monitoring
Cue (Track 11): Dr. Bill puts his hand on the forehead of Lou Nathanson's corpse
accompanied by a medical heart monitor sound sample at the beginning of “Poor Places.”
The Second Cycle: Room Five 237
The album can just play through on repeat and things work
fine
(Track 1 starts when Alice calls Bill in Domino’s bedroom),
but with a 33 second delay before starting the
album over, things get even more mind-bending.
Hit play again on track one at 52:37…
To manually add the 33 second delay, start the recording again at 52:37 (an Overlook Hotel homage number beginning during the second
appearance Alice at the kitchen table) at the scene transition just
after Dr. Bill says “Is everything all right?” from Domino's bedroom.
“I am Trying to Break Your Heart” II
Wearing a blue bathrobe, the “American aquarium drinker”
lyrics during the first song become Alice's theme, especially now that she identified
herself as “American” to Count
S.S. This sets up a heavy sync starting
at the Sonata (an anagram for “O Satan”) Café.
“You were so right when you said, I been drinkin’”
Piano in this first track, “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart,” is
once again prominently linked to the photograph of Nick Nightingale outside of the café.
“I want to hold you in the
Bible-black predawn”
An African American doorman is clad, like Dr. Bill, in a
black overcoat and is paired with the lyrics about “the bible black
predawn.” The next lyrics, “You're quite a
quiet domino, bury me now” (with its
silent buried 2001 domino-monolith on the moon connotations) now make more sense in
light of the previous scene with Domino,
the doomed prostitute.
“I don’t believe in touchdowns”
Dr. Bill enters the bar with a football game on in the
background exactly synched with the word “touchdowns”
from the line “take off your Band-Aid cause I don’t believe in touchdowns” (in
previous scenes Alice keeps her weed stashed in a Band-Aid box which is
revealed just after Dr. Bill watches a football game in the apartment). A repeat of the Nick Nightingale/Bill Harford toast happens before the line “disposable Dixie cup drinking.”
More Glitches in the Matrix: Contact
with Central HQ
Another secret society contact glitch/squelch happens (the first happens when Count S.S. drinks Alice’s champagne, which resonates with the second glitch effect and Alice's Aeon XX finger) when Nightingale gets the call from the
Illuminati party HQ (at the “Rothschild enclave,” Mentmore Towers).
Cue:
N.N. answers the phone when track 2: “Kamera” starts. Just another night at the Sonata/O Satan Café, the Overlook Gold Room's basement franchise...
“Picking Apples for the kings and queens
of things I have never seen” II
The majority of track 3, “Radio Cure" plays at the Rainbow rental
shop (with another “picking apples for the kings and queens of things I’ve
never seen” synch as Milich forms a triangle with his arms on the glass).
During
Track 4, “War on War,” Dr. Bill is driving outside of the city in the cab to
the party in the woods during the lyrics “Just watching the miles flying by.”
“Jesus, Etc.”: Enter the
Rothschild’s Mentmore Towers
Cue (track 5): “Jesus Etc.” starts just as Dr. Bill enters Illuminati
party HQ.
“Last cigarettes, all you can get,
turning your orbit around”
The red-clad ritual High Priest circumambulates
anti-clockwise with burning incense surrounded by a circle of women during the
lyrics “Last cigarettes, all you can get, turning your orbit around.”
The asses of American Beta-Programmed
Monarch agents
A classic Kubrickian pun happens at during “Ashes of American
Flags” as a masked woman, revealed later as Amanda “Mandy” Curran, climbs the stairs with her ass centrally featured during the lyrics, “I would like to salute,
the ashes of American flags.”
Cue (track 7): “Heavy Metal
Drummer.” The dark sexual comedy continues as
a three girl sex act occurs when the song starts. Watching the unedited orgy scene while this
song plays is rather hilarious…and then depraved…then funny again…and then
sort of sad.
The Arch Man Who Loves You
Cue (track 8): “I Am the Man Who Loves You.” The song starts
just as Dr. Bill walks through the arch.
Black Kettle Black
Cue (track 9): “Black Kettle Black.” The naked black-feather
masked women (later revealed as the former beauty queen Beta Kitten Amanda “Mandy” Curran) says
“Stop!”
“Poor Places” of the unconscious upper
class
Cue (track 10): “Poor Places.” Dr. Bill enters the bedroom where
Alice is laughing in her sleep just as the song starts. The Naval
Officer fantasy scene is shown during the lyrics “they cried all over overseas.”
Piano Man: The disposable dixie knight of the
Black and White Keys
During track 11, “Reservations,” Dr. Bill returns to the
Sonata Café and piano plays on cue
again for Nick Nightingale’s photograph.
The third Cycle: “No, Not a Clue”
The album can just play automatically through on repeat. To manually start from this point, start Track
1 (“I Am Trying to Break Your Heart”) again during the scene at the Hotel Jason
where Dr. Bill talks to the front desk clerk after the line “No, not a clue.” Hit play at 1:44:28…
Another Domino
The lyrics “You're quite a quiet domino, bury me now” (again with
its 2010 buried monolith on the moon connotations) happen during the closeup of
Milich’s silent daughter while he is hinting that she could be hired as a prostitute, which
connects her to the doomed “Domino.”
The next-to-last glitch: “Cease and Desist”
The third cycle’s secret society contact squelch during “I Am
Trying to Break Your Heart” happens at the moment Dr. Bill opens the letter
addressed to him at the front gate of Illuminati party HQ.
Cue
(track 2): “Kamera” starts with Dr.
Bill standing under the surveillance
camera at this gate. The lyrics, “I
need a camera to my eye, to my eye, reminding which lies I have been hiding,
which echoes belong” become blatantly relevant during this climactic sync.
The Doctor’s Radio Cure
Cue (track 3): “Radio Cure” starts as Dr. Bill makes a call on
his black office phone. “My mind is filled with silvery stars” is again paired with Christmas lights at 1:57:32 (fifteen
237).
“Picking Apples for the kings and queens
of things I have never seen” II
This time, red-haired “Sally” is referred to by the “Picking
Apples…” line highlighted in the King Ziegler bathroom scene.
Cue (track 4): “War on War” starts when Sally reveals that
Domino is HIV positive at 2:00:01.
An alternative delay - starting track 4 at 2:01:42, just after the scene transition when Dr. Bill, in a profile shot, is
back on the street - produces further mindbending results:
“Demon moving through flaming doors”
While Dr. Bill is being followed by the intimidating bald guy, the lyrics “you could be my demon moving forward through the flaming doors” play and they
walk by a restaurant with many Christmas lights that look like “flaming doors.”
“You have to learn how to die if you
want to be alive”
Dr. Bill buys a newspaper with the headline “ALIVE” simultaneously with the lyrics “You have to learn how to die
if you want to be alive.”
“You have to die” (x3)
The guy following him stands in the street during the
repeated lyrics “You have to die. You
have to die. You have to learn how to
die if you want to be alive. Okay?"
"tURNING yoUR ORBIT AROUND"
Track 5: “Jesus, Etc.”
The massive set of double hospital doors are rotating and a guy stands outside probably smoking during the lyrics,
“Last cigarettes, all you can get, turning your orbit around.”
“You were right about the stars, each one is a setting
sun” plays while Dr. Bill is investigating the death of the star New York beauty queen Amanda “Mandy” Curran at the hospital.
Cue: The maudlin piano theme of track 6 begins with a close-up
moment in the morgue.
“Wears a magic wand. Empty out your pockets”
Track 9: during “Black Kettle Black” and the line “Wears a magic wand. Empty out your pockets”
Ziegler, the Magus, is crotch level in front of Dr. Bill with his hand in his
pockets. The line, “It’s become so
obvious, you are so oblivious to yourself” continues to intimately resonate with Dr.
Bill Harford.
“Poor Places” of the unConscious upper class II
Cue (track 10): “Poor Places.” The original
script suggests in a voice over that Bill thinks Alice found the mask and put
it on the bed to represent how she perceives him:
He
thought he must have dropped it in
the morning when he packed the
costume away, and Alice had found it
and placed it on the pillow beside her,
as though it signified _his_ face, the face
of a husband who had become an
enigma to her.
“How They Cried all over overseas”
The tearful consequences of Dr. Bill’s confession during the
line “And it makes no difference to me how they cried all over overseas...”
The Magic Circle: “Yankee Hotel
Foxtrot”
The looping radio signal sample, from a short wave radio numbers station transmission, “Yankee...Hotel...Foxtrot” cues
during the display of “Magic Circle” board games in the toy store.
“None of this is real.”
During track 11, in “Reservations,” many lines are relevant: “I’ve
got reservations, about so many things, but not about you.” And, of course, “None of this is real.”
A final Piano chord tones simultaneously with
Alice’s final line, “Fuck” (at 2:33:33).
“I MISS THE INNOCENCE I'VE KNOWN.”
Of
course, there are endless variations and alternative loops beyond the
Radio Rainbow walkthrough suggested here. The strange magic keeps
happening with a standard “play and repeat” runthrough, with the minor
variations suggested here, or with the unexpected and inevitable glitches encountered when trying to play the film and album simultaneously. One of the most compelling aspects of this film/music sync is the preclusion of intentionality, since the album was written and recorded more than a
year after Kubrick's death. What is represented here is the symbolic
merger of two artistic achievements organized around similar themes. The results are magical. In a reoccurring example, Wilco's piano progressions highlight Kubrick's obsession with the white and black spatial battle of
the chess board, and the ambient carnivalesque sound effects of the album enhance the dreamlike qualities of the film's imagery, including the anonymous dread of its Venitian carnival masks. The merger of these two
artistic statements results in something fantastic, a visionary project joined in sublime perfection and standing on its own terms
despite the cracked chasm of intentionality that should separate its two constitutive elements. This is audio-visual alchemy.
There are so many synchronicities I've left unrepresented, particularly emerging from the deeply human themes that the album and film address with so much subtlety. The second song, “Kamera,” exemplifies these shared themes of relationships, deception, perception, dreams, etc. Lyrics such as “Deciding which lies I've been hiding...Phone my family, tell em' I'm lost on the sidewalk., and no it's not okay (x3),” not only interact directly with the film, they also embody it's primary level of meaning. This “level one” narrative of the familial dance of fidelity is often lost in interpretations of the descending levels below the surface narrative, which link the film exclusively with exposures or revelations about Monarch programming and spiritual vampirism. Kubrick's swan song certainly exposed underlying secrets of how elite networks and bloodlines operate, but this delicate secret soundtrack also reveals how his last film was a fundamentally human and poetic enterprise.
If Kubrick died or was eliminated based on what he committed to film, he was “right about the stars...each one is a setting sun.” Kidman and Cruise, the Hollywood Queen and King of the waning millenium, were embroiled in the same desperate carnival that Jeff Tweedy and the tragically-talented Jay Bennett struggled with when their Chicago Loft recording studio became a potent warehouse of genius and jealousy during the production of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot in 2001. Of course, these stars are only distinguished from the rest of us in their relative luminosity: “Our love is all of God's money, Everyone is a burning sun.” Kubrick's supernova can only illuminate the tragic sadness, careless destruction, and endless potential that fades, radiates, or hibernates in an infinite sea of silvery stars and radio cures.
