First, lets get this out of the way, I’m not exactly very knowledgeable of Radiohead’s history or style. Now that you know this, let’s talk about one of their music videos, Lotus Flower. The music itself is enchanting, with a soft sweet lullaby like quality. It’s for easy listening, a song you can chill to. The video itself is simple, displaying the lead singer seemingly enjoying the psychoactive properties of the Lotus Flower he must have consumed before the cameras rolled.
A paranormal music that captures you in its catchy beat, giving off a hippie environment-like, the same feeling weed does to the mind. It’s smooth, soft, and slow, just the way a dream comes and goes. Radio head’s retro-feminine voice found it way into my heart, in an odd way.
Recognizing how aggressive the beat to “Lotus Flower,” a single of Radiohead’s latest album The King of Limbs, lead singer Thom Yorke seizes and convulses at the beginning of the black and white music video but when his voice comes in, so soft its sharp, he places his hands in his pocket as if restraining the anger. Later we see the echo of his voice drive him mad and we are allowed to observe him, lost in maniacal behavior, like a performer on stage with high angle shots and theatre like lighting. It’s work well, self reflective, of music as a performing art.
Radiohead isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but Radiohead’s music definitely takes everyone somewhere, whether the listener likes where he’s heading or not. “Lotus Flower” is that kind of song, a ride that purports to be a smooth one but ends up rather bumpy when you see frontman Thom Yorke gyrating like an electrocuted human lotus flower.
Physical performance aside, the music is not short of electrifying in itself. A fast-paced slow song that has the potential to be the soundtrack to a heist film during a particularly calculated operational scene, “Lotus Flower” instantly plants a plethora of sounds from a techno-like, beeping undertone accompanying a steady drum beat, spots of a piano and some essences of low-key jazzy instrumentals. What the song lacks in strings Yorke makes up with his vocals, reaching a high pitch at the songs climax, but maintaining a consistently smooth quality along the electric minor chords.
With the release of Radiohead’s newest album, Kings of Limb, Radiohead released a music video for their single, Lotus Flower. The video features Radiohead’s lead singer and ex-lead singer of Soundgarden, Chris Cornell. Throughout the black and white video, Chris Cornell basically pranced around like he smoked a lotus flower. Just like a classic Radiohead song, Cornell was just “Being Himself.” Unfortunately “Lotus Flower” is not a classic
This is the type of song that you either love or hate. I think the artist was making a point to show his personality in both the song and the video. While his dancing is more like drunken convulsing, it’s entertaining to watch. I admire him for making such a bold move and exposing himself to the criticism that I’m sure he anticipated. He sings in a high but soothing voice. It’s a catchy song and it’s one of those beats that gets stuck in your head easily.
The synthesized beats played in harmony of the high pitch sounds spewing from the Radio Heads lead singer, Thom Yorke. The weird movements added to the increasing high, that the audience seems to experience while being taken on journey of some confusion and playful illusions. While the background was very bland and empty, the quick jitters and fast movements of hands and arms, created color to the video.
Ever listened to those sleeping aid tapes? The ones with the ocean or rain in the background? Radiohead’s “Lotus Flower’s” melody is that soothing sound you listen to when relaxing, especially with Thom Yorke’s high-pitched and mellow vocals on the track. However, the alternative rockers went wrong with the beat, which was as distracting as Yorke’s spastic movements in the video. It simply did not balance well with his voice.
The kind of music you would hear in a mental institution. A slower and more horrible version of the music of Fatboy Slim and their song “Praise You.” The music that would accompany a deranged dream that was brought on by an acid trip. By the end it will leave you with a headache that leaves you thinking “why in the hell did I listen to that?”
At 5:30 pm, in the pattering drizzle of the approaching month of April, a crowd emerges from the subway at West 4th Street rumbling like a train onto Avenue of the Americas. Among them are residents of the area, those who have come for the films at IFC, and the happy-hour-day drinkers that gather around downtown for “thirsty Thursday”. A group of 30 people linger on the sidewalk, spread out between Golden Swan Garden’s short black fence and “the Cage.” Some are standing alone, checking BBM’s or playing on their Nintendo DS 3Ds, while others are paired off, but there is something uniting this diverse mix of adults. On March 31st, a food truck would bring in food from Pentos, a fictional land from the “A Song of Ice and Fire” book series by George R.R. Martin, and these fans are hoping to be the first to get a taste.
If the books don’t sound familiar, “A Game of Thrones,” might. It is the name of the first book of the series, but moreover, the newest show in the HBO lineup set to premiere on April 17th. Since the announcement of the show, Martin’s book sales are approaching triple digit growth in year-to-year sales, according to “Thrones Tomes Selling Big” in Variety. In the United States alone the books have reportedly sold 4.5 million copies, according to the publisher, Bantam books, in the article.
The promotional food trucks were, in the tradition of an Easter, set up as a scavenger hunt. The rules were simple: check the “Game of Thrones” Facebook or Twitter page between March 28th and April 1st, show up to the destination by 6:00pm, find the cart, and be among the first 300 in line. The location of the trucks and the food varied daily from Astor Place on Tuesday, where “The Riverlands” green goodness came to life, to Lincoln Center on Wednesday, where food from “The Wall” could be sampled.
By 6:30 pm on Thursday, the Pentos truck had yet to arrive at West 4th. The HBO crew, identifiable only by their “Game of Thrones” t-shirts, had already ushered the masses, now numbering in the hundreds, into a four-person-wide line that wrapped around the corner of the garden. The grumbling was almost audible by the time the truck arrived, and talk of the week’s meals started simultaneously among the crowd.
“Of the three that I’ve tried, my favorite dish has to be the squab,” said Kat Baek, a sophomore at Baruch College, now on her third hunt for the cart. “The lemon cakes were served every day [but] the taste never got old,” she added, taking refuge underneath a Burberry patterned umbrella.
When the black truck was parked, the day’s menu was handed out. The more hardcore 
fans on the line attempted to decode the puzzle embedded in it. “Apples to oranges,” announced a crew member.
“It means you have to fold the apples to oranges in the menu to find the hidden message,” said Joseph DeSimone, an avid fan of the series and Senior at Baruch College. “I’m not even going to try,” DeSimone added, worn from the hour long wait in the rain.
The first dish was the spice roasted duck with dates, buttered turnips, cabbage and juniper. The second option was the Lamb Flatbread with chickpeas and purple olives. As usual, the dishes were to be accompanied by the “famous” lemon cakes. The books themselves are refered to as “tomes” for good reason, as they are detailed accounts of this fictional world, even when describing the meals.
“In the book they talk about this buttered cabbage and turnip dish,” said the meals architect Tom Colicchio (Top Chef)in an interview for the ‘Thrones’ Facebook page. “Pentos is an area more east, sort of a lot of spices are there, and so I want to use a lot of spices,” added Colicchio. This was evident in the duck, which mixed coriander, fennel seed, red/white/black pepper, and cardamom in its spice sauce to awaken the taste buds. The lamb flatbread was just as full of flavor. The thin piece of flatbread was surprisingly not brittle but more suprising was how well cooked the shredded lamb was in a food truck. The combination of its spices mixed the coolness of the chickpeas and the tartness of the olives gave the dish a perfect balance.
“I wish there was a permanent one,” commented Baek, referring to the food truck as she enjoyed her free lemon cake in the shelter of the subway.
