{"id":2396,"date":"2021-10-10T12:21:02","date_gmt":"2021-10-10T17:21:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/?p=2396"},"modified":"2021-11-22T11:11:50","modified_gmt":"2021-11-22T17:11:50","slug":"lx-commentary-16-the-mummy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/lx-commentary-16-the-mummy\/","title":{"rendered":"LX Commentary #16: The Mummy"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p>One of my favorite things about Chuck Klosterman\u2014besides <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/?p=1665\">this coincidence<\/a>\u2014is his glowing judgment of an album by its cover <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esquire.com\/entertainment\/music\/a5674\/benji-hughes-review-0409\/\">review of\u00a0<em>A Love Extreme<\/em><\/a> for Esquire.<\/p>\r\n<p>One of my favorite parts of his novel\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/a\/56387\/9781439184479\"><em>The Visible Man<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is a scene where he&#8217;s clearly talking about <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lost_(TV_series)\">a certain television show<\/a>, but dances around the specifics just enough to let you figure it out for yourself.<\/p>\r\n<p>&#8220;The Mummy&#8221; was the first Benji Hughes song I fictionalized into a short story, but that story isn&#8217;t this chapter. As I said in the <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/?p=2088\">first origin story post<\/a>, I wrote a dumb little ditty starring Frankenstein, Dracula, and Benji Hughes that inspired the core cast of the full length\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/books2read.com\/b\/lx\"><em>L Extreme<\/em><\/a> novel but ultimately landed on the cutting room floor.<\/p>\r\n<p>It took a real long time for me to figure out what a second attempt at &#8220;The Mummy&#8221; chapter would be. A few reviews speculate the song is (duh!) about a Halloween party. The fictional Benji character slept through a Halloween party we never saw way back on Side A, instead having a trippy <em>Quantum Leap<\/em> themed instrumental dream tribute parody type thing.<\/p>\r\n<p><em>Ohhhhhhhhh,\u00a0<\/em>I thought.\u00a0<em>Maybe these parties don&#8217;t always end the same way&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\r\n<p>Other tidbits:<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>Rereading that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esquire.com\/entertainment\/music\/a5674\/benji-hughes-review-0409\/\">Klosterman article from Esquire<\/a>, &#8220;He&#8217;s nice to animals and waitresses&#8221; possibly inspired the importance of the waitress character from &#8220;You Stood Me Up&#8221; in some subconscious way. (But then again, maybe &#8220;Jubalee&#8221; &amp; &#8220;You Stood Me Up&#8221; influenced those line&#8217;s in Chuck&#8217;s review.)<\/li>\r\n<li>\r\n<figure id=\"attachment_2411\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2411\" style=\"width: 156px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-04-at-11.47.46-PM.png?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2411\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-04-at-11.47.46-PM.png?resize=156%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Headshot of Thurston Moore from the film Slow Century; headshot of Benji Hughes from the Appetizer EP.\" width=\"156\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-04-at-11.47.46-PM.png?resize=156%2C300&amp;ssl=1 156w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-04-at-11.47.46-PM.png?resize=207%2C400&amp;ssl=1 207w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-04-at-11.47.46-PM.png?w=308&amp;ssl=1 308w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 156px) 100vw, 156px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2411\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#8220;I never understood why Thurston Moore&#8217;s interviews are filmed like an Andy Warhol painting.&#8221;<br \/>&#8220;It would make a good cover for a solo album with a different background color.&#8221;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\nEarly drafts had C &amp; Frank trading off narration duties, but something felt off. Towards the end of the Heartman &amp; Songstress extravaganza I started modeling the omniscient narrator after the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.charlotteobserver.com\/entertainment\/arts-culture\/article61084247.html\">Jeff Bridges character from <em>LILILIL<\/em><\/a> and was hesitant to break from his voice here. Figuring out who Frank\u00a0<em>really<\/em> was unlocked my answer and let me have it both ways via Frank&#8217;s ability to &#8220;synchronize with the theta rhythm for narration&#8221; at the end of the previous chapter.<\/li>\r\n<li>We&#8217;re flashing back to the unseen conclusion to &#8220;Waiting For An Invitation,&#8221; hence referencing the apology letter from that song.<\/li>\r\n<li>A guitar magically appeared in Frank&#8217;s hands much like it did for Carlos Santana in the opening chapter.<\/li>\r\n<li>Outside of the three characters, the\u00a0<em>Slow Century<\/em>\u00a0Pavement documentary is the only other thing in common with the original Mummy short story.<\/li>\r\n<li>Props to Jenny Owen Youngs (who has no association with Benji Hughes that I know of) for the lyric &#8220;TV light glowing blue&#8221; in her song &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/track\/1bybP9hRFNSewsw6lDc1J6?si=adc7feb2b0aa4b32\">Living Room<\/a>&#8221; inspiring me to add the blue light here without too much of a leap.<\/li>\r\n<li>This is the eighth chapter to feature at least one scene set at the small apartment on an okay side of town, but the first time the floorpan and contents are described in any detail. Earlier on the &#8220;white room&#8221; vibe was intentional; breaking that mold in this chapter is also intentional.<\/li>\r\n<li>\r\n<figure id=\"attachment_2417\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2417\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2417\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/sqq0gsfdcclq4biuk5y0.webp?resize=300%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/sqq0gsfdcclq4biuk5y0.webp?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/sqq0gsfdcclq4biuk5y0.webp?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/sqq0gsfdcclq4biuk5y0.webp?resize=400%2C400&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/sqq0gsfdcclq4biuk5y0.webp?w=700&amp;ssl=1 700w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2417\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Watercolor by Nancy Hollinghurst<br \/>&#8220;Benji emerged from his room as a hipster wolfman. Sunglasses. Unkempt beard spilling into his open blue shirt. Red cape. Fangs similar to C&#8217;s fake teeth, but not the same.&#8221;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\nAs long as I&#8217;m intentionally describing intentional things, the head-hopping here is also by design\u2014made possible via Frank&#8217;s aforementioned ability to sync with the narrative rhythm (along with other mystical Lon powers.)<\/li>\r\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/78167070\">Everybody knows zombies love a party.<\/a><\/li>\r\n<li>One of the bigger hints as to what&#8217;s going on is in this line: &#8220;C chatted up the DJ while she set up the brains of her operation in front of the living room windows.&#8221;<\/li>\r\n<li>Electroencephalography (aka EEG) is a cool word, albeit a little hard to pronounce.<\/li>\r\n<li>The DJ has 12,744 cover songs\u2014the same number Brian Ibbott from the podcast <a href=\"https:\/\/www.coverville.com\">Coverville<\/a> had as of 2008.<\/li>\r\n<li>Check out the <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/playlist\/0YENFePny6hT9q5BMMGHZ9?si=bbde43bdfef045f4\">LX Halloween Party Playlist<\/a> on Spotify.<\/li>\r\n<li>The line &#8220;The DJ raised her eyebrows. C raised the roof&#8221; is mostly for Nate Pepper&#8217;s benefit, but fits the scene well.<\/li>\r\n<li>Unsaid business: Frank tore the upper right corner of his business card into individual letters and mixed them in with the voting slips that turned up in Benji&#8217;s pocket in &#8220;Why Do These Parties Always End the Same Way?&#8221;<\/li>\r\n<li>&#8220;You leaped into Benji, but you&#8217;re not Benji&#8221; makes more sense on a reread.<\/li>\r\n<li>The final line &#8220;<em>And that was how a werewolf, Dracula, Frankenstein, a mummy, and a ghost saved the DJ from certain death on fake Halloween&#8230;&#8221;<\/em>\u00a0accurately sums up this chapter, and also invokes the characters from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=r_LA-eNaAb8\">the General Mills Monster Cereals<\/a>.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/books2read.com\/b\/lx\">Check out <em>L Extreme<\/em><\/a><\/p>\r\n<p><div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9I3lIVXdx0I?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of my favorite things about Chuck Klosterman\u2014besides this coincidence\u2014is his glowing judgment of an album by its cover review of\u00a0A Love Extreme for Esquire. One of my favorite parts of his novel\u00a0The Visible Man\u00a0is a scene where he&#8217;s clearly talking about a certain television show, but dances around the specifics just enough to let&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-behind-the-scenes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3pfx3-CE","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2088,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/lx-origin-story-part-i\/","url_meta":{"origin":2396,"position":0},"title":"LX Origin Story, Part I","author":"LBDG","date":"April 28, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Before I dive into chapter by chapter, song by song commentary for L Extreme I wanted to provide a little background on how this came to be. Let's start at the beginning... July 2009: I purchased the special music issue of The Believer magazine at Skylight Books in LA. It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Behind the Scenes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Behind the Scenes","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/behind-the-scenes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Believer Issue 64, July\/Aug 2009","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/200907.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2227,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/lx-commentary-8-where-do-old-lovers-go\/","url_meta":{"origin":2396,"position":1},"title":"LX Commentary #8: Where Do Old Lovers Go?","author":"LBDG","date":"July 4, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The song may be about going away, but ironically it helped pull the musical concept of the book together. It was also one of my favorite chapters to write. The lyrical breadcrumbs showed me connections to other Benji Hughes songs so clearly it made me start seeking them elsewhere. Benji\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Behind the Scenes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Behind the Scenes","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/behind-the-scenes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/SpacelandSetlist-149x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1026,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/someone-else-is-rediscovering-pavement\/","url_meta":{"origin":2396,"position":2},"title":"Someone Else is Rediscovering Pavement","author":"LBDG","date":"September 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The best love letter to a band disguised as a letter to your past self (or is it vice versa?) that I have ever read: Wait, You've Never Heard: Pavement \u2014 Brighten The Corners My favorite quote: \"There's a magic to the moment you finally love a band, and anyone\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Music&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Music","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3223,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/i-went-with-some-friends-to-see-dinosaur-jr-the-flaming-lips-weezer-jon-lindsay-benji-hughes-and-soul-coughing\/","url_meta":{"origin":2396,"position":3},"title":"I Went With Some Friends to See Dinosaur Jr., The Flaming Lips, Weezer, Jon Lindsay, Benji Hughes, and Soul Coughing&#8230;","author":"LBDG","date":"October 8, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"...and it might've been the greatest music weekend I've ever had. Feeling a little underwhelmed by the 2024 ACL Fest lineup (no offense -- I still went Friday), I accidentally built my own 3-city fester the weekend before when the stars magically aligned. How'd it come to be? Bought tickets\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Music&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Music","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/IMG_2907-scaled.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/IMG_2907-scaled.jpeg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/IMG_2907-scaled.jpeg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/IMG_2907-scaled.jpeg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/IMG_2907-scaled.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/IMG_2907-scaled.jpeg?resize=1400%2C800 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2083,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/new-novel-l-extreme\/","url_meta":{"origin":2396,"position":4},"title":"New Novel: L Extreme","author":"LBDG","date":"April 17, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"It's been awhile but we're back with style... Announcing the new novel by JL Civi: L Extreme! Readers of this blog know I've been a huge fan of Benji Hughes for years. Somewhere along the line I decided to write a novel based on his album\u00a0A Love Extreme. For a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"L Extreme Book Cover","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/LX-Space-Painting-Cover-FINAL-188x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2092,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/lx-chapter-commentary-1-i-am-you-you-are-me-we-are-one\/","url_meta":{"origin":2396,"position":5},"title":"LX Chapter Commentary #1: I Am You, You Are Me, We Are One","author":"LBDG","date":"April 30, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"As referenced previously, the first chapter I wrote for L Extreme was about the song \"The Mummy\" starring Benji, Count & Frank and referencing additional Benji Hughes songs from other albums. I did a few of those in random order and had a rough idea of how to loosely segue\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Behind the Scenes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Behind the Scenes","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/behind-the-scenes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/LoveDevotionSurrender-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2396"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2532,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2396\/revisions\/2532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}