Figure eight as double four,
Figure four as half of eight.
If you skate, you would be great
If you could make a figure eight.
...That's a circle that turns 'round upon itself.
One times eight is two times four.
Four times four is two times eight.
If you skate upon thin ice,
You'd be wise if you looked twice
...Before you made another single move.
Figure eight as double four,
Figure four as half of eight.
If you skate, you would be great,
If you could make a figure eight.
...That's a circle that turns 'round upon itself.
Place it on its side and it's a symbol meaning
...Infinity.
Please excuse me for my question, but, are you Grant Morrison, the excellent scriptwriter?
Regards from the Mediterranean! :)
Posted by: James Queen on October 28, 2003 11:21 AMThat was nice! Where is it from?
Posted by: Elton (Jade) on October 31, 2003 09:43 AMJade: Ah, this is a bit of American pop culture that may not have translated itself over to Brazil.
Hmm. OK, in the 70s, there was a federal regulation that Saturday morning TV on the major networks had to have a certain amount of educational programming. So one of 'em (ABC, I think) made this great series of short cartoons called Schoolhouse Rock. Every one was a rock song about something you'd learn in school. There was a Grammar Rock series, a Math Rock series, a Science Rock series, and one on politics.
*Every* American my age knows at least one of the songs, because the things were on every Saturday morning. In the mid-90s, they put out a tribute CD with various indie bands doing covers of the songs. Lou Barlow did one of the best songs, "I'm Just a Bill" about how a bill becomes a law.
Anyway, out of this whole wealth of material, only ONE song that I know of was ever written in a minor key. "Figure 8". It's about the eight times table (in the lyrics above, I took out the part in the middle where they actually run through the whole multiplication table). It featured a little girl skating on a snowy pond by herself as evening was falling. At the first link, you can see the rest of the kids going to the schoolhouse to do the whole times table.
Being a morose and melancholy child, and a natural lover of the obscure, this was by far my favorite Schoolhouse Rock song.
It was also, apparently, the favorite of Elliott Smith -- his last album was called Figure 8. The import version has him actually singing the song... it probably wasn't on the regular release because of copyright problems. (His version is the second-to-last link up there).
So in addition to the mystical sadness of the original song, and the layer of nostalgia for childhood, there's also that layer of loss because, well, Elliott isn't with us anymore. Which is what some of the other links are about.
So, this is a memorial disguised as a song for children, I guess.
Make sense?
I practically grew up on Elliott's music. I live in Vancouver Washington which is right across the river from Portland. There is something mystic about Elliott, he grabbed me at a very young age, i must have been eleven. Those haunting words, "i'm never going to know you know, but i'm going to love you anyhow," captured my young imagination, haunting me from now and then. It was only a couple of years ago that i remembered that song and how it spoke to me, so i tracked Elliott down, and found out who he was. I picked up the album Figure 8 and instantly fell in love with his music. I'm a very insecure person and that album which revolved around losing love spoke to me. I practically died when i heard what happened to him. You know, there is something he left with his rendition of "Figure 8" it was as if he left a part of himself into those meloncholy piano chords that dance like shadows from the courners of our hearts.
Posted by: Elliott Bennett on December 22, 2003 02:07 AM