[EPILEPSY WARNING] This LSD makes me think I'm on this video
February 15, 2015 2:30 PM Subscribe
The video for composer and electronic musician Dan Deacon's new single "Learning to Relax" is a dazzling display of pulsating colors.
It was directed by Alan Resnick, who previously collaborated with Dan Deacon on his videos for "Guilford Street Bridge" and "Woof Woof" (codirected by Benjamin Beast and Erin Gleeson). Resnick recently directed Adult Swim's "Live Forever As You Are Now With Alan Resnick" and "Unedited Footage of a Bear" (previously). More previous Dan Deacon and Alan Resnick?
It was directed by Alan Resnick, who previously collaborated with Dan Deacon on his videos for "Guilford Street Bridge" and "Woof Woof" (codirected by Benjamin Beast and Erin Gleeson). Resnick recently directed Adult Swim's "Live Forever As You Are Now With Alan Resnick" and "Unedited Footage of a Bear" (previously). More previous Dan Deacon and Alan Resnick?
Never have the tiny screen caps below the video failed to be representative as much as they do here.
posted by Going To Maine at 2:53 PM on February 15, 2015
posted by Going To Maine at 2:53 PM on February 15, 2015
I couldn't make it more than a few seconds before my brain started to hurt.
posted by armacy at 2:59 PM on February 15, 2015
posted by armacy at 2:59 PM on February 15, 2015
That was a full-on synesthetic effect for me. There's so much going on in the track with pinging, panning vocals darting around, the visuals were a perfect compliment. This is probably the best track I've heard from Dan Deacon, the album may very well be a masterpiece!
posted by naju at 3:17 PM on February 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by naju at 3:17 PM on February 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
Alan resnick also directed one of those infomercials for Adult Swim recently too. Anywayyyy Im freakin out man
posted by Potomac Avenue at 3:36 PM on February 15, 2015
posted by Potomac Avenue at 3:36 PM on February 15, 2015
This reminded me of getting my first migraine
posted by billiebee at 3:37 PM on February 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by billiebee at 3:37 PM on February 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
this reminds me of my last migraine
posted by robbyrobs at 3:46 PM on February 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by robbyrobs at 3:46 PM on February 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
reminds me of a big screen backing vid at a 90s U2 show.
Song's not bad though.
posted by philip-random at 4:03 PM on February 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
Song's not bad though.
posted by philip-random at 4:03 PM on February 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
I love it! Reminded me a bit of those golden days toying with the equalizer settings in Sonique media player and Winamp, trying to achieve something similar.
posted by bigendian at 4:59 PM on February 15, 2015
posted by bigendian at 4:59 PM on February 15, 2015
Man, those guys always have to show off the full Amiga palette.
posted by benzenedream at 6:42 PM on February 15, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by benzenedream at 6:42 PM on February 15, 2015 [3 favorites]
This looked like a typical boring screensaver plus higher speed and motion blur. I'm underwhelmed. The song's ok, though.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 6:55 PM on February 15, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 6:55 PM on February 15, 2015 [3 favorites]
I am not going to watch this, I just needed to thank you, thank you, thank you for warning-tagging it.
posted by equestrian at 7:18 PM on February 15, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by equestrian at 7:18 PM on February 15, 2015 [5 favorites]
Hmm, screensavers don't typically feel as psychedelic as that got (but admittedly, I had to sit with it a bit before it really hit).
posted by idiopath at 7:25 PM on February 15, 2015
posted by idiopath at 7:25 PM on February 15, 2015
I think that I would like this a lot more if it were half as long.
But I say that about a lot of things that aren't sandwiches.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 8:02 PM on February 15, 2015 [5 favorites]
But I say that about a lot of things that aren't sandwiches.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 8:02 PM on February 15, 2015 [5 favorites]
Meh. I've seen much better when I actually took acid.
posted by lester at 8:31 PM on February 15, 2015
posted by lester at 8:31 PM on February 15, 2015
Next time I see the Queen of Diamonds I may take a shot at the candidate.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 9:36 PM on February 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 9:36 PM on February 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
High def, full screen, blink minimally.
I made it to about 2:30. There's a break built in at 3:45ish.
posted by sibboleth at 10:23 PM on February 15, 2015
I made it to about 2:30. There's a break built in at 3:45ish.
posted by sibboleth at 10:23 PM on February 15, 2015
Kind of neat, but I kept crossing my eyes trying to see the 3-D picture.
posted by TDavis at 10:34 PM on February 15, 2015
posted by TDavis at 10:34 PM on February 15, 2015
If you download it and play it on your puter it doesn't have the epilepsy warnings, it has "Learning To Relax" across the bottom of the screen, which is comical, or seems so to me.
I watched it full screen, from fairly close, headphones turned to 11. It's lots of fun -- if you hold out toward the end it gets into this whole like barrel rolling thing which is majorly eyeball seductive, likely if I'd have been thrown it'd have been there, though the whole of the ending of it is interesting. Though I wasn't sure that it was the end or not; I didn't want to move the mouse to see how much was left; that's too easy. Just sat with it.
I have temporal lobe epilepsy. It's the kind of epilepsy you're going to want to have, were you to want to have any type of epilepsy -- I've never gone into full-blown seizures thank goodness. (That I know of.) ( !! ) It's like I get a peek over the edge but never fall in all the way, and it's very weird in how it presents to me -- I get this thing in my sense of smell, like it's a portal into somewhere or something else.
I haven't had one in over a decade -- turns out that anti-convulsants are often great mood stabilizers for those of us with manic depression, so when I *finally* found one that worked for me as a mood stabilizer it seems to also have taken out the TLE seizures. It's great stuff -- divalproex extended release, divalproex being the generic name for depakote, which is one of the old-line anti-convulsants, used pretty much since the dawn of time in treating eplieptics. I'd tried it as a mood stabilizer before but never in the extended release formulation, because they didn't *have* the extended release formulation, not that I'm aware of anyways.
I put that shit in my mouth and it pretty much leveled off the mania (such as my mania ever has leveled off) and it also took away the temporal lobe seizures. Which I miss, because they were cool, but they were distracting, too, because you (I) always felt I was going to fall through some portal into "somewhere" through my sense of smell, and if you (I) was thinking about falling through portals etc I'd not be thinking attentively about what I was doing, like for example driving and stuff.
So anyways, tonight I thought "Alright, let's see if this thing sends me over the edge or not." but it didn't. Close but no cigar, as they say. Cute. It was cute. Divalproex ER is good stuff, wouldn't you say? I would. I'm glad I'm on it, I'm lucky as hell to have it available and here in my hot little hands.
I pretty much downplay the frontal lobe epilepsy thing with any shrink that I've had over the years because the only anti-depressant that I have ever found to work for me is Welbutrin. The max that Welbutrin should *ever* be pushed to is 450 mg per day, and at that level it's a danger for sending someone into seizures. (I can scarce imagine what'd happen to me if I took any of the stuff without the divalproex on-board -- Disneyland, here I come.) So the shrink gets told about my sister one that has epilepsy and they get into a sweat even about that, and the most Welbutrin I've ever been written for is 400mg, and that only after a lot of pushing on my part, and a lot of not mentioning the TLE thing I've got going on. I took 400mg this morning, for example -- putting Welbutrin in my mouth keeps me from wanting to put guns in my mouth, which I really like about it.
If you're reading this I sure hope you're not my shrink -- I'm pretty sure she'd get all jumping up and down about what I just told you. So I downplay it there. Therapists I tell. My sponsor. My sister. If I had a sweetie right now I'd (probably; depends on how jumpy she was) tell her, but I don't have one going just now and may never again -- I'm pretty goddamn gunshy over here.
My last sweetie -- Kelly -- she knew about it. Kelly is not at all jumpy, she's like a big valium, with a capital V, truly a level woman. I miss her.
I didn't know, for years I didn't know what it was, I just thought it was more lunacy, maybe somehow related to the whole manic depression routine, but then one night I'm in my favorite manic depression support chat room and I mention it to an online buddy and she's totally casual about it, says "Oh yeah, that's real common symptoms of temporal lobe epilepsy." Like as if she'd just told me her favorite color or whatever -- no big deal. (She's Canadian, from a town with the ridiculous name of Guelph; maybe that had something to do with it somehow. No telling.) But anyways, she could be casual or not but you can bet your boots it was an awfully big deal on this end of the line, I got to reading everything I could about it.
Lots of "regular" epileptics have temporal lobe seizures, too, and they get the sense that they're getting ready to go by having temporal lobe seizures before the real show starts.
Pickover called it The Light of the Storm, called temporal lobe epilepsy The Light of the Storm. After reading him, and plenty of others, I know how lucky I am in that I'm not put into a fearful (or terrified) state by the whole thing and instead I just get the seductive bit of it, almost intoxicating in its way, interesting at the very least. Fun to talk about if you're with another wack-job say, or a therpist.
I lost my sense of smell (long story) and only in writing this here, now, only here and now have I ever wondered if that would affect how the seizure would present if I were to have one today. Or even if it would present -- would it show up at all now that I don't have my sense of smell for it to ride in on? Or maybe if I had one of those seizures I could have a phantom sense of smell, like people who have lost a hand or foot feel an itch or an ache in it. Do you think maybe I ought to keep taking Welbutrin and quit taking divalproex for a day or two and then watch that video again so I can see what the hell happens?
Now I *really* hope you're not my shrink if you're reading this; she is tiny but she is a fireball, and she can get awfully fussy awfully fast.
ANYWAYS. A cool vid. I'm going to send it around -- thx for posting it.
posted by dancestoblue at 1:40 AM on February 16, 2015 [6 favorites]
I watched it full screen, from fairly close, headphones turned to 11. It's lots of fun -- if you hold out toward the end it gets into this whole like barrel rolling thing which is majorly eyeball seductive, likely if I'd have been thrown it'd have been there, though the whole of the ending of it is interesting. Though I wasn't sure that it was the end or not; I didn't want to move the mouse to see how much was left; that's too easy. Just sat with it.
I have temporal lobe epilepsy. It's the kind of epilepsy you're going to want to have, were you to want to have any type of epilepsy -- I've never gone into full-blown seizures thank goodness. (That I know of.) ( !! ) It's like I get a peek over the edge but never fall in all the way, and it's very weird in how it presents to me -- I get this thing in my sense of smell, like it's a portal into somewhere or something else.
I haven't had one in over a decade -- turns out that anti-convulsants are often great mood stabilizers for those of us with manic depression, so when I *finally* found one that worked for me as a mood stabilizer it seems to also have taken out the TLE seizures. It's great stuff -- divalproex extended release, divalproex being the generic name for depakote, which is one of the old-line anti-convulsants, used pretty much since the dawn of time in treating eplieptics. I'd tried it as a mood stabilizer before but never in the extended release formulation, because they didn't *have* the extended release formulation, not that I'm aware of anyways.
I put that shit in my mouth and it pretty much leveled off the mania (such as my mania ever has leveled off) and it also took away the temporal lobe seizures. Which I miss, because they were cool, but they were distracting, too, because you (I) always felt I was going to fall through some portal into "somewhere" through my sense of smell, and if you (I) was thinking about falling through portals etc I'd not be thinking attentively about what I was doing, like for example driving and stuff.
So anyways, tonight I thought "Alright, let's see if this thing sends me over the edge or not." but it didn't. Close but no cigar, as they say. Cute. It was cute. Divalproex ER is good stuff, wouldn't you say? I would. I'm glad I'm on it, I'm lucky as hell to have it available and here in my hot little hands.
I pretty much downplay the frontal lobe epilepsy thing with any shrink that I've had over the years because the only anti-depressant that I have ever found to work for me is Welbutrin. The max that Welbutrin should *ever* be pushed to is 450 mg per day, and at that level it's a danger for sending someone into seizures. (I can scarce imagine what'd happen to me if I took any of the stuff without the divalproex on-board -- Disneyland, here I come.) So the shrink gets told about my sister one that has epilepsy and they get into a sweat even about that, and the most Welbutrin I've ever been written for is 400mg, and that only after a lot of pushing on my part, and a lot of not mentioning the TLE thing I've got going on. I took 400mg this morning, for example -- putting Welbutrin in my mouth keeps me from wanting to put guns in my mouth, which I really like about it.
If you're reading this I sure hope you're not my shrink -- I'm pretty sure she'd get all jumping up and down about what I just told you. So I downplay it there. Therapists I tell. My sponsor. My sister. If I had a sweetie right now I'd (probably; depends on how jumpy she was) tell her, but I don't have one going just now and may never again -- I'm pretty goddamn gunshy over here.
My last sweetie -- Kelly -- she knew about it. Kelly is not at all jumpy, she's like a big valium, with a capital V, truly a level woman. I miss her.
I didn't know, for years I didn't know what it was, I just thought it was more lunacy, maybe somehow related to the whole manic depression routine, but then one night I'm in my favorite manic depression support chat room and I mention it to an online buddy and she's totally casual about it, says "Oh yeah, that's real common symptoms of temporal lobe epilepsy." Like as if she'd just told me her favorite color or whatever -- no big deal. (She's Canadian, from a town with the ridiculous name of Guelph; maybe that had something to do with it somehow. No telling.) But anyways, she could be casual or not but you can bet your boots it was an awfully big deal on this end of the line, I got to reading everything I could about it.
Lots of "regular" epileptics have temporal lobe seizures, too, and they get the sense that they're getting ready to go by having temporal lobe seizures before the real show starts.
Pickover called it The Light of the Storm, called temporal lobe epilepsy The Light of the Storm. After reading him, and plenty of others, I know how lucky I am in that I'm not put into a fearful (or terrified) state by the whole thing and instead I just get the seductive bit of it, almost intoxicating in its way, interesting at the very least. Fun to talk about if you're with another wack-job say, or a therpist.
I lost my sense of smell (long story) and only in writing this here, now, only here and now have I ever wondered if that would affect how the seizure would present if I were to have one today. Or even if it would present -- would it show up at all now that I don't have my sense of smell for it to ride in on? Or maybe if I had one of those seizures I could have a phantom sense of smell, like people who have lost a hand or foot feel an itch or an ache in it. Do you think maybe I ought to keep taking Welbutrin and quit taking divalproex for a day or two and then watch that video again so I can see what the hell happens?
Now I *really* hope you're not my shrink if you're reading this; she is tiny but she is a fireball, and she can get awfully fussy awfully fast.
ANYWAYS. A cool vid. I'm going to send it around -- thx for posting it.
posted by dancestoblue at 1:40 AM on February 16, 2015 [6 favorites]
This is probably the best track I've heard from Dan Deacon, the album may very well be a masterpiece!
I see the subliminal fnord advertising is working perfectly. fnord
posted by eriko at 6:42 AM on February 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
I see the subliminal fnord advertising is working perfectly. fnord
posted by eriko at 6:42 AM on February 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
If this is the kind of thing you see when you take LSD, I'm sorry but you got burned.
posted by doctor tough love at 7:59 AM on February 16, 2015
posted by doctor tough love at 7:59 AM on February 16, 2015
Sweet. I'm going to see Dan Deacon later in the month, and I'm entirely stoked.
posted by kaibutsu at 11:35 AM on February 16, 2015
posted by kaibutsu at 11:35 AM on February 16, 2015
I put it on full screen and listened and watched and I'm a lame person who doesn't have LSD experience (partially on advice of friends who said I was likely to have a bad trip), but that was definitely a little reality-altering.
posted by immlass at 1:05 PM on February 16, 2015
posted by immlass at 1:05 PM on February 16, 2015
If you haven't taken LSD before: this is nothing at all like the closed-eyes visuals one experiences while on the drug (or any other hallucinogens, unless someone has managed to concoct some 4TD-EDM thing in the lab recently. It's been so many decades since I've tripped, I've never even tried MDMA (affectionally - and affection is the point of this one, no? - named Molly, like Raggedy Ann).
Visuals on LSD etc. are slow-moving and beautiful. The only thing this one matches, visually, is the symmetry. Flashing epilepsy-inducing visuals like this one: no.
If there is a website that accurately represents acid visions, I'd be interested. Haven't run across one, though.
A lot of people think that hallucinogenic drugs make you see things that are just not there at all. Well, some do, I hear. But the open-eye effects of LSD tend to be more along the lines of seeing patterns in things. (For example, tiny red letters in the texture of white bread, beautiful symmetry in the otherwise more fractal examples of natural beauty such as tree leaves. Once, after eating a morning glory seed sandwich, I saw the stars in the clear night sky as perfectly symmetrical. I also perceived the stars as being holes in the night sky. In other words, the sky was black, and a brilliant radiant light - felt as a divine Text - shone through the punched out holes in the fabric of the night sky.)
The first time I took the drug was at a house with a lot of original oil paintings. I saw them all melting, although I knew, at the time, that the visual effect was a result of the drug I had taken. I also remember, walking up the steps to the art museum, feeling the vibrations of each step running up my musculature-skelatal structure in my body: stuff you usually filter out, because it happens every day.
Taking shrooms again, after the spiritual work a lot of us did in the 70's/80's (and onwards: it can't hurt!), ingesting the stuff made me feel like my brain was scrambled, but my essential Identity was not altered.
Sorry, this account really belongs on Erowid, but I'm feeling nostalgic tonight.
posted by kozad at 7:34 PM on February 16, 2015 [2 favorites]
Visuals on LSD etc. are slow-moving and beautiful. The only thing this one matches, visually, is the symmetry. Flashing epilepsy-inducing visuals like this one: no.
If there is a website that accurately represents acid visions, I'd be interested. Haven't run across one, though.
A lot of people think that hallucinogenic drugs make you see things that are just not there at all. Well, some do, I hear. But the open-eye effects of LSD tend to be more along the lines of seeing patterns in things. (For example, tiny red letters in the texture of white bread, beautiful symmetry in the otherwise more fractal examples of natural beauty such as tree leaves. Once, after eating a morning glory seed sandwich, I saw the stars in the clear night sky as perfectly symmetrical. I also perceived the stars as being holes in the night sky. In other words, the sky was black, and a brilliant radiant light - felt as a divine Text - shone through the punched out holes in the fabric of the night sky.)
The first time I took the drug was at a house with a lot of original oil paintings. I saw them all melting, although I knew, at the time, that the visual effect was a result of the drug I had taken. I also remember, walking up the steps to the art museum, feeling the vibrations of each step running up my musculature-skelatal structure in my body: stuff you usually filter out, because it happens every day.
Taking shrooms again, after the spiritual work a lot of us did in the 70's/80's (and onwards: it can't hurt!), ingesting the stuff made me feel like my brain was scrambled, but my essential Identity was not altered.
Sorry, this account really belongs on Erowid, but I'm feeling nostalgic tonight.
posted by kozad at 7:34 PM on February 16, 2015 [2 favorites]
Visuals on LSD etc. are slow-moving and beautiful.
As with most things involving LSD, that depends entirely on set and setting. I remember tripping as a teen at Rocky Point Amusement Park and riding the roller coaster over and over. The closed-eye visuals during and after that were like being in warp drive - rushing, intense, and positively thrumming.
posted by jammy at 6:19 AM on February 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
As with most things involving LSD, that depends entirely on set and setting. I remember tripping as a teen at Rocky Point Amusement Park and riding the roller coaster over and over. The closed-eye visuals during and after that were like being in warp drive - rushing, intense, and positively thrumming.
posted by jammy at 6:19 AM on February 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
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