So I thought I'd post another blog considering I've pretty much gone AWOL since Christmas. And I thought what better to post about than a mish-mash of my two favourite pastimes? Slobbing out on the sofa and blipped-out psychedelic eye candy!
As some of you may know, I'm quite the connoisseur of psychedelia. Ever since a young age I've been fascinated by everything psychedelic- from intense surreallism in art to the chemical components of psychedelic compounds and the unique relationship they have with our human minds. Combine that with a low-key addiction to chinese food from the takeaway next door and a preference for spending most of the waking day sprawled out across the sofa in my pants over regular human interaction and you'll find I've racked up quite a few hours of trippy TV time. I'm not exactly painting a glamorous picture of model life here, am I? C'est la vie and all that.
So, I present to you, my (entirely subjective) list of the most bizarre psychedelic television and film!:
In no order....
- Dream Corp LLC.: This is one truly strange egg of a creation. Spanning over 6 episodes, the recurrent theme of the programme follows patients who have submitted themselves for treatment under the care of a mad scientist with questionable morals and his virtual reality-esque consciousness exploring machine. Patients are hooked up to the machine where they receive a dose of an unknown drug that sends them into a completely animated, mind-bending dreamlike portrayal of their unresolved traumas. Both beautifully fascinating and more than incidentally terrifying, the visuals in this alternate consciousness are like something you'd expect to find fresh out of a drug-induced coma. All the while, the patient's experiences are manipulated by the professor with near sadistic abandon, the borderline between bliss and insanity entirely in the hands of the dosage syringe. Even if you're way too dazed by it all to understand the underlying messages of this warped virtual world, if you're looking for something tripped out to gawp at for 11 and a half minutes, this is it baby.
- Waking Life: This one is very similar to Dream Corp. In fact, I'm convinced that it was created by the same animator (don't quote me), except Waking Life is it's slightly more intensified, yet narratively more coherent, feature length psychedelic sister. I've only actually watched this once before as although it's simply too magnificent to miss from this list, watching it under the influence was a mildly horrifying experience to say the least, especially considering that I'd just finished watching that horrible poverty/slaughter/man-made hell on earth scene from Samsara (up next) before turning it on. Teetering insanity aside, from any other perspective, Waking Life is captivating. The animation is eerily realistic, yet blatantly man-made. Characters seem to 'float' rather than walk and objects flow into each other. There are talking ghosts built out of clouds and snapshot moments of zero-gravity. Character's faces morph, distort and change colour as they talk- it's almost as if the entire animation is in a state of moving between liquid and solid and back again. And this isn't just some hazy acid-fuelled recollection of a Louis Theroux documentary, Waking Life is truly odd and certainly beautiful.
- Samsara: Now this differs massively from any of the other things on this list, because: a) Samsara is entirely made up of real-life filming of natural landscapes and events, and, b) There is no commentary, acting or voice-overs. Just the sound of soft eastern pipe music over insane, breathtaking HD imagery. Now that may sound more like a David Attenborough get-up than a spiritual mind-bender, but you'd be surprised. There's just something about the combination of the visuals and the hypnotism of the soundtrack that make you feel like an alien visitor, gawping in awe at this new, strange planet called earth.
- Alice in Wonderland (original version): None of that hollywood Tim Burton crap. We're talking the original and the best 1960's trip fest. Although Alice in Wonderland was obviously designed for kids, the numerous references to psychedelic drugs are blatant. I mean the whole demise of the film is a kid eating laced tea and biccys then running round the forest talking to woodland creatures. But aside from the obvious connections, the film is really a pioneer for its time. The animation is beautifully hypnotising and stunning, and this was made in the days where films were animated painstakingly by hand, remember? The whole film is a whirl of morphing, mind-bending visual trickery, whilst still maintaining a heartwarming plot that adults and kids alike will love, and it's very hard to draw your eyes away from for one second. Yes, it's a cliche choice. But sometimes things are cliche for a reason.
- Jam: Chris Morris has been renowned for making strange comedy for a while now. But Jam just takes the twisted, fucked-up biscuit. What makes Jam psychedelic differs from the rest on this list. It's not rainbows and fractals and distorted visuals that make it as uniquely psychedelic as it is. Instead, Jam's storyline is fuelled by complete emotional detatchment. Throughout the show you're left with the uncomfortable feeling that something is not quite right, much like the ego loss you might experience in a deep psychoactive state. Dark, heart-wrenching situations are met with indifference. A mother's daughter is found dead and she calls a taxi to transport the body back to her house so that she can continue with her evening undisturbed, discussing the situation jovially with her partner over a glass of wine. The characters' lips move at a different pace to the words that they speak, which sums up the tone of the whole programme. Everything is under control, yet completely and utterly out of it. It's dark, disturbing and provoking and the only way to do it justice is to watch it.
- Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy: Now, this one has a lot of bad press. Unjustly, in my opinion. When Noel Fielding came out with his own solo sketch show, people were expecting the new Mighty Boosh- Odd, slightly surreal, but palatable comedy. But Fielding himself even admitted that the show is quite contrary to it's name. This isn't comedy. This is luxury comedy. Jokes are encoded in utterly surreal metaphors- this isn't a programme that you can expect to sit down and laugh at easily. You have to think. Luxury Comedy, when you boil it down, is not actually comedy, it is Art. Sketches are experimental and expressive. At first watch some may brush it off as being crap, being ridiculously strange and nonsensical for the sake of it. But it does make perfect sense, as soon as you look at it as a performance art rather than a casual laugh-fest. Characters range from a manically depressed zoo lion pondering the meaning of life to a snake shaped like a spoon with eery human eyes that can only say 'am I nothing?'. Is it your thing? I don't know. But I, for one, love it. It was a staple of my teenhood and my introduction to the world of psychedelia and surrealism, and I strongly suggest you watch it with an open mind. Even if you don't understand it, you'll be sure to get lost in the visuals and art work.
So there we go! I know it's not a definitive list by a long stretch, but I'd be here forever if I were to list every inspirational psychedelic programme or film. But I may revisit again someday! Thanks all for reading, and stay trippy guys! <3
Opal x