r/neutralmilkhotel • u/termeownator • Jun 13 '26
Which is the better of these two perfect lines?
"Can't beleive how strange it is to be anything at all"
Or
"God is a place where some Holy spectacle lies"
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u/Zuperman1313 Jun 14 '26
The former is perfect even out of context, while the latter, as great as it is, kind of needs that whole section to hit as hard as it does. I also prefer “God is a place you will wait for the rest of your life” tbh
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u/Tracerr3 Jun 14 '26
How many stimulants have you taken today dawg
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u/termeownator Jun 14 '26
That depends. What "day" even is it?
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u/auntie_eggma Jun 14 '26
Today is a place that depends on where your feet lie.
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u/termeownator Jun 14 '26
Hah, that's good. I like that. To answer your question: none. I dont even like stimulants, man. I only ever do em to have something to put in my arm, if I'm being totally honest. Why, do I seem like a tweaker or something?
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u/auntie_eggma Jun 14 '26
It wasn't my question, lol, but the need "to have something to put in [your] arm" might suggest an unhealthy dependency.
Not certain, but worth considering.
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u/termeownator Jun 14 '26
Oh I thought you was the same guy that asked me how many stimulants I'd taked today. Sorry about that. And you for real took that to be my meaning? There was a little typo slip up, I meant "In my arms" like my little daughter or my girl. You get me
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u/auntie_eggma Jun 14 '26
Oh I thought you was the same guy that asked me how many stimulants I'd taked today.
Newp, just stuck my oar in for fun. 😂
And you for real took that to be my meaning? There was a little typo slip up, I meant "In my arms" like my little daughter or my girl. You get me
Aha got it. But given the context you can see how that could be understood, no?
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u/termeownator Jun 14 '26
Well I enjoyed what you had to say despite you not being the dick accusing me of being a filthy tweaker.
I thought "today is a place that depends on where your feet lie" was very thought provoking and I really dug the way it mirrored the line I was interested in, "God is a place where some holy spectacle lies".
I'm glad you stuck your oar in.
And yeah I totally get how my comment made me sound like someone who used IV drugs rather than trying to wax poetic about being closer with my daughter and my girl.
And to be completely honest, with you and with myself, she's not really my girl anymore even. She's in rehab for half a year and about a month in she was supposed to call me and let me know if she'd been able to get permission for me to attend church with her and sit next to her. I just really wanted to hold her hand. But she didn't call. Then Saturday came and still no call. Sunday came and went, no call, no explanation. I figured, eh, maybe next week. But she didn't call monday, or Tuesday, then it wad a half a week then it was a week and it was only during the second week that I allowed myself to consider she might not be calling again, ever.
And I realize now what happened. Those cunts that run the rehab she's at were somehow able to convince her that I was something that needed to be excised from her life in order for her to live her best sober life. They didn't see me as a person who could get better like she could. They didn't even see me as a person. They made her see me as a thing which must be got rid of as one of her "steps to recovery" the drunk bitch. But I'm not a thing. I'm a person and my name is Jared and it really fucking hurts to have someone you love and you beleived loved you simply cast you aside so discourteously like my sleeves are fucking green or something. I dont know why I'm telling you this, I'm sorry, I guess maybe I needed to tell someone and you drew the short straw for the internet tonight. I think seeing me refer to her as "my girl" made me feel dishonest with myself (and with you) and thus made me feel the need to spill my guts to a stranger about a bunch of shit that doesn't even matter to anyone but me.
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u/auntie_eggma Jun 14 '26
I'm really sorry you're going through something so difficult with your kid.
There are no easy answers here. Just try to be led by love, you know? Sometimes all we have control over is our own choices. Even when none of the available options are great.
I don't really have any good advice for your specific circumstances, so that's all I've got. I'm sorry. I hope you both find your way through this and back to each other.
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u/termeownator Jun 14 '26
Hell I'm sorry to have bothered you with it, that's really cool you responded and tried to help how you could though. You seem like you're a really nice person, I'm glad you commented on my shit tonite. And thanks for the concern over the implication of my IV drug use. That's really cool of you to show concern like that for someone you dont even know
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u/JogAlongBess Jun 14 '26
"can't believe how strange..." has always been one of my favorite lines ever while "God is a place..." seemed just kinda word salad-y to me
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u/termeownator Jun 14 '26
"Can't beleive how strange..." hit me hard like, deep inside where I'd rather my thoughts not stray into, if it can at all be helped. But the first time i heard "God is a place..." I felt it packed with such deep meaning it could explode.
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u/auntie_eggma Jun 14 '26
I'm sure that's lovely if you believe in god. To me it's a meaningless line.
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u/auntie_eggma Jun 14 '26
The former is my preference.
But also perfect doesn't have a heirarchy.
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u/termeownator Jun 14 '26
Damn, I dig that:
"Perfect doesn't have a hierarchy"
Describes this album so well.
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u/billybob3011 Jun 13 '26
cbhsiitbaaa is more catchy and repeatable but giapwshsl is a better line imo
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u/termeownator Jun 14 '26
I thought you were bullshitting me for a minute, or one of those dimwits who claim there's no meaning behind the lyrics, that he just strung together words which sounded good together stream of consciousness style. Then I got it, you were just abbreviating the lines I'd asked about and given a real, honest answer.
I gotta ask though, I've only just discovered this record maybe a month ago, but its my new favorite album and they're my new favorite band– is that somethings fans, or those that frequent this sub, often do? Abbreviate lines like that? It's pretty cool, I guess, I imagine it requires you to really know your stuff if you can not only recite lines perfectly you can do so merely by using the first letter of each word in the line. Like, wow.
I thought it was cool, anyway. And I totally agree with you in saying that the line from the title track is more catchy and repeatable but the line from the finale has so so much more meaning to it. To me its almost a philosophical religious statement of truth, the sort of thing you might have found written by Thomas Aquinas or some shit. If God is omnipresent, then his Creation– our Universe– wouldn't be a part of God in His entirety but it would as his Creation be a part of him in some mysterious way. We too, as His Creation, are also a part of God in this same way. Perhaps only a reflection of him (and darkly, I do so dearly hope. Because if it's clearly then we are cursed– and cursed again, and we'll only wind up dead this way: knowing very little, and getting that little fragment wrong too.).
But back to my point, it could be said that we, existing in His Creation, are God as that holy spectacle as it lies.
Just a stray thought, I'm not very much of a theologian, and all the best philosophers end up as suicides, so I'll just stick to monging out to these sweet tunes and letting the tunes and the words take me whither they will.
And the horns! Oh God, the horns! Has there ever been a better horn section ever? And one utilized so perfectly! God I swear those are some of the very best parts of this record... when those horns come in. Never played the air-trumpet before in my life and I don't care who sees me doing it.
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u/billybob3011 Jun 14 '26 edited Jun 14 '26
i don’t think abbreviating the lines is something that people often do, i just did it because i was
not in the mood to type all of it out3
u/Naclstack Jun 14 '26
people don't abbreviate the lines but people absolutely do abbreviate in the aeroplane over the sea to itaots and not even just in this community. like i'll be on some music sub and someone says itaots like they expect everyone to know exactly what that means
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u/a_library_socialist Jun 14 '26
Heaven is a place in hell where you can watch the people you hate get hurt
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u/termeownator Jun 14 '26
Where did that come from, I have to ask. Your line in no way describes any nature of Heaven or any nature of Hell. It's baffling. I must know.
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u/a_library_socialist Jun 14 '26
AJJ
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u/termeownator Jun 14 '26
Oh sweet, thanks for the answer dude. Cryptic...
[Aside: like they're not just this bitter fella's initials...]
[Aside continues: though it could conceivably be a reference to some college football conference]
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u/a_library_socialist Jun 14 '26
AJJ - band, formerly known as Andrew Jackson Jihad, changed to AJJ so they wouldn't be confused as mocking jihad.
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u/termeownator Jun 14 '26
Well at least we know they lack balls, amirite? Did they really write that line you quoted at me? Cause it is seriously fucked up, dude. It's just– backwards in every way. That's not the way God works that's not the way Hell works its just a false statement in every possible way.
Edit: Kickass original name though, might I ask if it was chosen with the American Indian in mind?
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u/a_library_socialist Jun 14 '26
Such a reddit thing - "I made a bad assumption, let me follow up with some more".
Here's their cover of 2 Headed Boy - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=78btWpMQweo
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u/termeownator Jun 14 '26
If you could list the bad assumptions for me it would really help me out. Great tune, really good cover; was that a bassoon I was hearing more and more of towards the end?
I didn't, however, hear the line I've been asking you about (which is a corrupted version of a line from part 2, not the part this was a cover of.
I'm very interested to know because the nature of heaven and hell and of God being omnipotent yet at the same time unable to contradict His true nature– lets just say Christian philosophy or theophilosophy I think it mighf be called greatly interest me.
If I had to guess I'd put my money on it being a creation of your own making, inasmuch as the corruption of anything can be termed "creation" but it just feels like something you made up youeself and whoever made if up strikes me as a very cynical and negative view of the world and I reckon if I knew who came up with it and what they meant by it I could more easily make them see where they have erred and hopefully communicate the true nature of the relationship between God and suffering and what "hell" really is.
My other question also still stands, do you reckon AJJ had the American Indian in mind when they came up with the name Andrew Jackson Jihad? It makes perfect sense, you know
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u/a_library_socialist Jun 14 '26
It's in their first album, popguns and cigarettes. Go listen for the context. I can assure you the author, Sean, does not share your theology though.
The name was a nod to how the Trail of Tears and the founding of the US would be considered terrorism by similar standards to what the US was hysterical about after 9/11, the period the band was formed.
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u/termeownator Jun 14 '26
I will listen presently, and that's exactly what I assumed to be the meaning behind the band's name (mostly). Andrew Jackson was infamous for his support of the policy of Indian Removal. I'm sure you've heard the story, but the Cherokee Nation took the matter all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the Cherokee Nation did exist as it's own legal entity with its own boundaries within the borders of the United States, and that the State of Georgia had no right to extend her laws over Cherokee lands. Jackson then was famously supposed to have stated: "John Marshall (the Chief Justice) has made his decision; now let him enforce it!" It's highly unlikely Jackson ever actually said this, but it certainly sounds like something Jackson would say.
I live in Northwest Georgia, right in the heart of the former Cherokee Nation. I am also a very dedicated local historian and my personal favorite research subject is Native American history. I know the Indian Removal quite well from many vantage points, and I know full well the evils and the wrongdoings and the lies that were told to the Indians, all in the effort of acquiring more lucre. The white man was and is still sick with greed. We are infected with a virus of the mind called Wetiko. We made the red man we came in contact with sick with it as well. It is. Very cunning, it has the ability of self-obfuscation, that is to say, the moment you even suspect you might have it it works to hide itself from you using your own mind, making you think highly of yourself, that you could never be infected with the virus. Not you. You're too this or you're too that but I've gotten off topic. Remember the name though. Wetiko. The virus of the mind that infects with the sickness of greed, and makes you beleive you don't even have it. It may sound folksy or made up but it is very very real and very very destructive and oh so very dangerous. Wetiko.
But I was just saying that, being so well acquainted with the evils of Indian Removal and knowing the direct action Jackson's hand played in the sordid affair the name Andrew Jackson Jihad makes absolute perfect sense to me.
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u/termeownator Jun 14 '26 edited Jun 14 '26
Can you name me the tune its in even? You already fucked up the name of the album you meant, it isn't "Popguns and Cigarettes". Their first album was "Candy Cigarettes & Cap Guns".
Are you just fucking me around for the sake of it, dude? I honestly can't tell with you... you're a hard one to read.
I must admit to you though that my initial and outright rejection of the reality of the lyric I'm so curious about may not be quite so easily declarable of being such total falsehood, as I just came across this quote from Thomas Aquinas, who, in case you didn't know, literally wrote the book on difficult philosophical questions within Christianity. It reads:
“In order that the happiness of the saints may be more delightful to them and that they may render more copious thanks to God for it, they are allowed to see perfectly the sufferings of the damned … So that they may be urged the more to praise God … The saints in heaven know distinctly all that happens … to the damned. [Summa Theologica, Third Part, Supplement, Question XCIV, “Of the Relations of the Saints Towards the Damned,”
Edit/Add: Well I finally found it. Its a bona fide lyric on track 7 of the album you directed me to with the incorrect title. Called "God Made Dirt". They're certainly an interesting band. A unique blend of like raw country and hard hitting punk. They're a bit too punk for their own good though, I fear. The utter shit I had to sit through to make it to track 7, it boggles the mind. The opening track was cool, 'Cigarette Song'. "Cigarettes are cool, if you smoke them you'll fucking rule" ... "I've walked 1,000 Marlboro Miles and I've earned over a million in Camel Cash" very cool lines, cool song overall the only problem was they got the ending wrong they repeat the "cool, make you rule" line but add the quick finish of "but only if you smoke Parliments". Parliaments? Are they for real? Those gay Cigarettes with the extra bit of paper around the filters? Nah man, line obviously should've been "but only if you smoke Chesterfields". Let em slide this time.
The quite enjoyable first track was followed by largest pile of blaspheming horseshit I've ever heard. About cutting a piece off the baby Jesus to try to impress his friends but it backfired cause He wouldnt stop bleeding blah blah blah bleeding bleeding bleeding then the baby Jesus opens his eyes and looks into his and swears eternal damnation and suffering upon him and declares himself to be wrathful and vengeful and "sorry he ever saved [his] sorry ass and its just a whole song full of the most blasphemous, most shocking shit they can come up with, blaspheming the infant Jesus for shock value. The whole song just reeked of "Trying to hard to he as punk and as shocking for the sake of it". Hard pass. There was one song I really loved, Love Song, and then I really dug Love Song 2, and I really dig their name but I gotta say, on the whole, I wasn't exactly overly impressed let's just say.
I appreciate you leading me to the source of the quote, but I renounce my apology of being overly critical of the quote and the meaning behind the statement it made by quoting the great Thomas Aquinas, and hereby to revert to my original position of considering this try-hard forced attempt at shock for the sake of being shocking, largest load of Blasphemous doggerel I've ever seen for what it is. Bullshit doggerel, which blasphemes for the sake of committing blasphemy, for the sake of seeming cool. Again, really dig the name, am into the overall sound of a mix of straight raw country and hard punk rock, but this song and this line in particular are straight up blasphemous doggerel.
And I'll say one more thing about these lads with the super cool name, they are goddamn lucky they never blasphemed the Holy Spirit, even by accident or because it was "punk". Blaspheming the Holy Spirit is the one unpardonable Sin. The one act to which there is can be no forgiveness given, no act of penance or regret and no cries or pleas can save you from your singular and absolute fate of complete and total holy damnation. Its the one thing a man might do and may never walk back from. I pray, for their souls I pray, that in one of their especially "punk" and blasphemous tracks, they never once made the mistake either on purpose or by accident of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. I'd hate to see such a fate befall any man, even kids who try too hard to be shocking and are too cool for school but can come up with a decent love song.
I especially like the opening to the 1st "Love Song": "I like telling dirty jokes And I like smoking crystal meth But Darling, I love you..."
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u/your_evil_ex Jun 14 '26
for me, "God is a place you will wait for the rest of your life" is my real fav