Wide Foxtrot Eyes Yankee Shut Hotel

Surfing the spiral as it spins, forever outward, inward, and onward, I drew inspiration from recent discussions on Always Record and MK Ultrasound's “The Secret Silent Film Society of Sync.” I journeyed from A.R. episode 59 (“HAL is Other People”) to the far reaches of cyberspace where Mark LeClair from Wrong Way Wizard asserts that Eyes Wide Shut occurs after 9/11 and that one of the central purposes of the rituals depicted in the film is to slow down time, keeping humanity trapped in an eternal HAL-based monolith nothingness (as depicted in LeClair’s post “The Emperor’s New Clothes”). In the past, my desire to simultaneously entertain and know myself through the visual and audio synchronization of films and millennial rock music soundtracks led me to combine Metropolis with the Smashing Pumpkins’ MACHINA/The Machines of God, providing many successfully configured revelations.  

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. 11^th, 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.  

Image by Jake Kotze from “The Brave New World Order,” based on Manly P. Halls' “Saitic Isis” image in “Secret Teachings.” 

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.

"War on War" 2001

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:

V.O.

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.