"There's a Hole In the Sky" - an Angels In America fanmix

[flowrs4ophelia]

If my English major never gets me a decent job, at least it will be worth it as the reason I was ever introduced to Angels In America. Last semester I just studied this play in a lit class for the second time, and reading it and watching the HBO miniseries again has affirmed for me that it's one of the most powerful and brilliant works of writing I've ever read—heartbreaking, hilarious, so ridiculously big and epic, compellingly compassionate even in its treatment of its most detestable characters, and still very relevant to the problems in my country today even though it depicts and comments on the state of America during the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. If you've never seen/read it, I can't recommend it enough.

So obviously, when revisiting AiA recently I was struck by the mixing muse. Then I was a little shocked to find, unless I'm not looking in the right places, that apparently nobody's ever done a fanmix for this before, and knew I had to do one. Or...two. LOL. Since this accompanies a story so huge it had to be a two-part play, I guess it's not surprising it turned into a super epic two-disc set.







Disc 1:
Millenium Approaches

1. Monkey Gone To Heaven - The Pixies

The creature in the sky
Got sucked in a hole
Now there's a hole in the sky
And the ground's not cold
Everything is gonna burn
We'll all take turns
If man is 5
Then the devil is 6
And God is 7, God is 7
This monkey's gone to heaven

HARPER: I heard on the radio about holes in the ozone layer. Over Antarctica. Skin burns, birds go blind, icebergs melt. The world is coming to an end.
part I, act I, scene III
———————————————————————————————
2. Threshold of Revelation - Thomas Newman

instrumental

PRIOR: Are you one of those "Follow me to the other side" voices?
THE VOICE: No. I am a messenger. I am on my way. When I am manifest, our work begins.
part I, act II, scene V
———————————————————————————————
3. The National Anthem - Radiohead

Everyone around here
Everyone is so near
What's going on?
Everyone has got the fear
It's holding on
It's holding on
Turn it off!

BELIZE: Louis and his big ideas. Up in the air, just like that angel. Big ideas are all you love. "America" is what Louis loves.
LOUIS: So what? Maybe I do.
BELIZE: Well I hate this country. Nothing but big ideas. The white cracker who wrote the national anthem knew what he was doing. He set the word "free" to a note so high nobody can reach it. That was deliberate. Nothing sounds less like freedom to me.
part II, act IV, scene III
———————————————————————————————
4. I Want Wind To Blow - The Microphones

There's no black or white
No change in the light
No night, no golden sun
I want wind to blow
But there's no hope for me
There's no breeze
There's no ship on my sea

PRIOR: One wants, but one so seldom gets what one wants, does one? No. One does not. One gets fucked. Over. One dies at thirty, robbed of decades.
part I, act I, scene VII
———————————————————————————————
5. Capital G - Nine Inch Nails

I'm sick of hearing about the haves
And the have nots
Have some personal accountability
The biggest problem with the way that we are doing things is
The more we let you have the less that I'll be keeping for me
You're only angry cause you wish you were in my position
Now nod your head because you know that I'm right

ROY: I am not moved by an unequal distribution of goods on this earth. It's history, I didn't write it.
part II, act III, scene II
———————————————————————————————
6. What Makes a Man - City and Colour

What makes a man spend his whole life in disguise
What makes a man want to break a heart with ease
What makes a man pray when he's about to die
I think I know
I think I might know

JOE: I knew this when I married you. I thought maybe that with enough effort and will I could change myself, but I can't. I try to tighten my heart into a knot, into a snarl, I try to learn to live dead, just numb, but then I see someone I want, and it's like a hot spike right through my chest, and I know I'm losing.
part I, act II, scene IX
———————————————————————————————
7. Metal Heart (2008 Version) - Cat Power

It's damned if you don't and it's damned if you do
Be true 'cause they'll lock you up in a sad sad zoo
And you will be changed, and everything
Metal heart, you're not hiding
Metal heart, you're not worth a thing

PRIOR: You can't even say it.
LOUIS: I love you, Prior.
PRIOR: I repeat. Who cares? We have reached a verdict, your honor. This man's heart is deficient. He loves, but his love is worth nothing.
part I, act II, scene IX
———————————————————————————————
8. Wraith Pinned To the Mist and Other Games - Of Montreal

Let’s pretend we don’t exist
Let’s pretend we’re in Antarctica
Let’s have bizarre celebrations
Let’s forget who forget what forget where
We’ll have bizarre celebrations

MR. LIES: The International Order of Travel Agents. We mobilize the globe, we set people adrift. We are adepts of motion, acolytes of the flux. Cash, check, or credit card. Name your destination.
HARPER: Antarctica, maybe. I want to see the hole in the ozone.
part I, act I, scene III
———————————————————————————————
9. God - Tori Amos

God sometimes you just don't come through
Do you need a woman to look after you
God sometimes you just don't come through
You make pretty daisies, pretty daisies
Love I gotta find what you're doing about things
I gotta find why you always go when the wind blows

JOE: I think we ought to pray. Ask God for help. Ask him together.
HARPER: God won't talk to me. I have to make up people to talk to me.
part I, act I, scene VIII
———————————————————————————————
10. Hide and Seek - Imogen Heap

Spin me round again
And rub my eyes
This can't be happening
Hide and seek
All those years, blood and tears
They were here first
Oily marks appear on walls
Where pleasure moments hung before
The takeover, the sweeping insensitivity
Of this still life

PRIOR: If I could get up now I'd beat the holy shit out of you. You have no right to do this. It's criminal.
LOUIS: That's ridiculous.
PRIOR: I'm dying, you stupid fuck! Love! Do you know what that is? We lived together for four and a half years, you animal! You idiot!
JOE: Harper. Please listen. This is really hard. We have to talk.
HARPER: Mr. Lies, I want to get away from here. Right now. Before he starts talking again. Please, please . . .
part I, act II, scene IX
———————————————————————————————
11. Sodom, South Georgia - Iron and Wine

Papa died Sunday
And I understood
All dead white boys say
God is good
White tongues hang out
God is good

JOE: I had a book of Bible stories when I was a kid. There was a picture I'd look at twenty times every day: Jacob wrestles with the angel. I still dream about it. Many nights. It's me. In that struggle. Fierce, and unfair. The angel is not human, and it holds nothing back, so how could any human win, what kind of a fight is that? Losing means your soul thrown down in the dust, your heart torn out from God's. But you can't not lose.
part I, act II, scene II
———————————————————————————————
12. Moon River - Henry Mancini

source music

PRIOR: Are you a ghost, Lou?
LOUIS: No. Just spectral. Lost to myself. Sitting all day on cold benches and wishing I could be with you. Dance with me, babe.
part I, act III, scene V
———————————————————————————————
13. Quartet - Thomas Newman

instrumental

PRIOR: I hurt all over. I wish I was dead.
part I, act II, scene IX
———————————————————————————————
14. Seven Swans - Sufjan Stevens

I saw a sign in the sky
Seven swans, seven swans, seven swans
I heard a voice in my mind
I will try, I will try, I will try
I saw a sign in the sky
Seven horns, seven horns, seven horns
He will take you
If you run, he will chase you
I heard a voice in my mind
I am lord, I am lord, I am lord

PRIOR: This drug she is serious poisonous chemistry. I hear things. Voices.
BELIZE: Voices?
PRIOR: A voice.
BELIZE: Saying what?
PRIOR: . . . I'm not supposed to tell.
BELIZE: You better tell the doctor or I will.
PRIOR: No no, don't. Please. I want the voice; it's wonderful. It's the only thing keeping me alive.
part I, act II, scene V
———————————————————————————————
15. The Information - Beck

Looking for a lost transmission
A heaven that we left behind
She's the sister of avarice
The wife of a poisonous tide
She's the eye of a battle of storms
That sees where the atoms collide
When the information comes
We'll know what we're made from
And the skyline rising
Highrise eyes see through you

THE ANGEL: Greetings, prophet. The great work begins. The messenger has arrived.
PRIOR: Go away.
part II, act I, scene I

download.

Disc 2:
Perestroika

1. Me, My Yoke and I - Damien Rice

My drum, my drum gonna make you come
My book, my book gonna make you look
My hand, my hand going under
My fall, my fall gonna break your wall
Cause my God, my God gave me a rod
Won't you break my fall

LOUIS: You smell nice . . . Smell is an incredibly complex and underappreciated physical phenomenon. Inextricably bound up with sex.
JOE: I . . . didn't know that.
LOUIS: Smelling. Is desiring. We have five senses, but only two that go beyond the boundaries of ourselves. The nose tells the body, the heart, the mind, what it wants.
JOE: Um . . . Louis?
LOUIS: Words are the worst things. Let's stop talking. Breathe. Smell.
act I, scene V
———————————————————————————————
2. Nietzsche - The Dandy Warhols

I want a god
Who stays dead
Not plays dead
I, even I
can play dead


THE ANGEL: Bored with his angels, bewitched by humanity, in mortifying imitation of you, his least creation, He would sail off on voyages, no knowing where. Then the King of the Universe . . . He left.
PRIOR: Abandoned.
THE ANGEL: And did not return. We do not know where He has gone.
part II, act II, scene I
———————————————————————————————
3. Staring At the Sun - TV On the Radio

Note the trees because
The dirt is temporary
Be what you will
And then thrown down your life
You're staring at the sun
You're standing in the sea
Your mouth is open wide
There's lightning in your teeth
You're staring at the sun
You're standing in the sea
Your body's over me

THE ANGEL: You are mere flesh. I I I I am utter flesh, density of desire, the gravity of skin: what makes the engine of creation run. Not physics but ecstatics makes the engine run.
The body is the garden of the soul.
part II, act II, scene I
———————————————————————————————
4. The Man That Got Away - Judy Garland

The night is bitter
The stars have lost their glitter
And all because of the man that got away
The man that won you
Has gone off and undone you

BELIZE: "Abandoned." I smell a motif. The man that got away?
PRIOR: Well it occurred to me. Louis . . .
part II, act II, scene I
———————————————————————————————
5. The Seer's Tower - Sufjan Stevens

In the tower above the earth
There is a view that reaches far
Where we see the universe
I see the fire, I see the end
I go to the deepest grave
Where I go to sleep alone

THE ANGEL: You know me, prophet: your battered heart, bleeding life in the universe of wounds. Vessel of the book now, on you in you in your blood we write have written: Stasis. The end.
part II, act II, scene I
———————————————————————————————
6. The Grudge - Tool

Wear your grudge like a crown of negativity
Calculate what we will or will not tolerate
Clutch it like a cornerstone
Otherwise it all comes down
Defining, confining, sinking deeper
Let go, let go, let go, let go, let go

BELIZE: We're going to thank him for the pills. What do you call the Jewish prayer for the dead?
LOUIS: The Kaddish?
BELIZE: That's the one. Hit it.
LOUIS: Woah. Hold on. I'm not saying Kaddish for Roy Cohn. No fucking way am I praying for him.
BELIZE: Louis, I'd even pray for you.
It isn't easy, it doesn't count if it's easy, it's the hardest thing. Forgiveness. Which is maybe where love and justice finally meet. Peace, at last.
part II, act V, scene III
———————————————————————————————
7. On Your Wings - Iron and Wine

God, there is gold hidden deep in the ground
God, there are guns growing out of our bones
God, every road takes us farther from home
All these men that you made
How we wither in the shade
Of your trees, on your wings
We are carried to the sea
God, give us love in the time that we have

THE ANGEL: You cannot understand, you can only destroy. You do not advance, you only trample. Poor blind children, abandoned on the Earth, groping terrified, misguided, over fields of slaughter, over bodies of the slain. Hobble yourselves. There is no Zion save where you are!
part II, act II, scene I
———————————————————————————————
8. Run On - Moby

Michael spoke and he sound so sweet
I thought I heard the shuffle of angels' feet
He put one hand upon my head
Great God Almighty let me tell you what He said
You might run on for a long time
Run on, children, for a long time
Let me tell you
God Almighty gonna cut you down

PRIOR: You know the Bible. The prophets in the Bible, do they . . . ever refuse their vision?
HANNAH: There's scriptural precedent, yes.
PRIOR: And what does God do to them? When they do that?
HANNAH: He . . . Well, he feeds them to whales.
part II, act IV, scene VI
———————————————————————————————
9. Sleep To Dream - Fiona Apple

You say love is a hell you cannot bare
And I say give me mine back and then go there
For all I care
Don't you plead me your case, don't bother to explain
Don't even show me your face 'cause it's a crying shame
Just go back to the rock from under which you came
Take the sorrow you gave and all the stakes you claimed
And don't forget the blame
So don't come around, I got my own hell to raise

PRIOR: There are thousands of gay men in New York with AIDS and nearly every one of them is being taken care of by a friend or by a lover who has stuck by them. Everyone got that, except me. I got you. Why? What's wrong with me? Louis? Are you really bruised inside?
LOUIS: I can't have this talk anymore.
PRIOR: Oh the list of things you can't do. So fragile! Bruises? Come back to me when they're visible.
act I, scene V
———————————————————————————————
10. Don't Let It Bring You Down - Annie Lennox

Blue moon sinking
From the weight of the load
And the buildings scrape the sky
Dead man lying
By the side of the road
With the daylight in his eyes
White cane lying in the gutter in the lane
And you're walking home alone
Don't let it bring you down
It's only castles burning
Find someone who's turning
And you will come around

HANNAH: Just lie still. You'll be all right.
PRIOR: No. I won't. I really fucked up. I'm scared. I can't do it again. Oh God, I want to be done.
HANNAH: You shouldn't talk that way. You ought to make a better show of yourself.
PRIOR: Stay with me. You comfort me, you do, you stiffen my spine.
part II, act IV, scene I
———————————————————————————————
11. Do What You Have To Do - Sarah McLachlan

Every moment marked
with apparitions of your soul
I'm ever swiftly moving
Trying to escape this desire
The yearning to be near you
I do what I have to do
But I have the sense to recognize
that I don't know how to let you go

HARPER: I don't understand why I'm not dead. When your heart breaks, you should die. But there's still the rest of you. There's your breasts, and your genitals, and they're amazingly stupid, like babies or faithful dogs, they don't get it, they just want him. Want him.
part II, act I, scene II
———————————————————————————————
12. Eternal Life - Jeff Buckley

Eternal life is now on my trail
Got my red glitter coffin, just need one last nail
Racist everyman, what have you done
Have you made a killer of your unborn son
There's no time for hatred, only questions
What is love, what is life, where is peace
Where is the love in what your prophet has said
It sounds to me like a prison for the walking dead
I've got a message for you and your twisted hell
You better turn around
and blow your kiss goodbye to life eternal, angel

PRIOR: We can't just stop. We're not rocks. Progress, migration, motion is . . . It's what living things do. We desire. Even if we go faster than we should, we can't wait. God . . . He isn't coming back.
I still want my blessing. Even sick, I want to be alive.
THE ANGEL: You only think you do. Life is a habit with you. You have not seen what is to come. We have. Let any being upon whom fortune smiles creep away to death before that last dreadful daybreak when all your ravaging returns to you.
PRIOR: But still. I want more life. I can't help myself. I've lived through such terrible times, and there are people who live through much worse, but . . . you see them living anyway. I don't know if it's braver to die. But I recognize the habit. The addiction to being alive. Bless me anyway.
part II, act V, scene IV
———————————————————————————————
13. Dudley - the Yeah Yeah Yeahs

You'll pass me by, you'll take it over
Then you want it, want it, want it again
I'm breaking the news
Love nearly beat us
I'm thinking like you
I'm thinking of you
Well love follows near us
Can love really steer us
Oh can it be true

LOUIS: I really failed you. But failing in love isn't the same as not loving. It doesn't let you off the hook, it doesn't mean . . . you're free to not love.
PRIOR: I love you, Louis. I really do. But you can't come back. Not ever. I'm sorry, but you can't.
part II, act V, scene VIII
———————————————————————————————
14. Stop Crying Your Heart Out - Oasis

Hold on, don't be scared
You'll never change what's been and gone
'Cause all of the stars
Have faded away
Just try not to worry
You'll see them someday
Take what you need
And be on your way
And stop crying your heart out

BELIZE: Listen to your girlfriend. I think the time has come to let him go.
PRIOR: That's not what the angels think. It's all gone too far, too much loss is what they think, we should stop somehow, go back.
BELIZE: But that's not how the world works, Prior. It only spins forward.
part II, act II, scene I
———————————————————————————————
15. Our Hell - Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton

First went wrong is hard to find
We’re paralyzed, we apologize
We’ll be on the road
Can we stop?
What I thought it was it isn’t now
What I thought it was it isn't now
We’re moderate, we modernize
Coloring in the black hole
Till our hell is a good life

HARPER: Night flight to San Francisco. As close as I'll ever get to the ozone. I dreamed we were there. The plane leapt the tropopause and attained the outer rim, the ozone, which was ragged and torn, patches of it threadbare as old cheesecloth, and that was frightening. But I saw something only I could see. Souls were rising, from the earth below, souls of people who had perished, from famine, from war, from the plague. And the souls of these departed joined hands, clasped ankles and formed a web, a great net of souls, and the souls were three-atom oxygen molecules, of the stuff of ozone. And the outer rim absorbed them, and was repaired.
Nothing's lost forever. In this world, there is a kind of painful progress. Longing for what we've left behind, and dreaming ahead.
part II, act V, scene X
———————————————————————————————
16. New Year's Prayer - Jeff Buckley

Fall in light, fall in light, fall in light
Feel no shame for what you are
Feel no shame for what you are
Feel no shame for what you are
Stand absolved
Behind your electric chair, dancing
Fall in light, fall in light, grow in light

PRIOR: Bye now. You are fabulous creatures, each and every one. And I bless you all: More life.
The great work begins.
part II, epilogue
———————————————————————————————
17. Prophet Birds - Thomas Newman

instrumental

ROY: Let me ask you something. What's it like? After?
BELIZE: Like San Francisco.
ROY: A city. Good. I was worried it'd be a garden. I hate that shit.
BELIZE: Big city, overgrown with weeds, but flowering weeds. Windows missing in every edifice like broken teeth, fierce gusts of gritty wind, and a sky full of ravens. Prophet birds. Piles of trash, lapidary like rubies and obsidian. And voting booths. And everyone in Balenciaga gowns with red corsages, and big dance palaces full of music and lights and racial impurity and gender confusion. And all the deities are creole, mulatto, brown as the mouths of rivers. Race, taste, and history are finally overcome.
And you ain't there.
ROY: And Heaven?
BELIZE: That was Heaven, Roy.
part II, act III, scene V

download.

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Comments

[almightychrissy.livejournal.com]

I cannot take Jeff Buckley + "you are fabulous creatures" in any kind of sane emotional manner.

Lovely work.

[flowrs4ophelia.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :D

[adiva_calandia]

Oh my god.

<33333333333.

Snagging, clearly.

[flowrs4ophelia.livejournal.com]

Thanks, enjoy! :)

[dodo31.livejournal.com]

This is just. ♥. Snagging. Thank you.

[flowrs4ophelia.livejournal.com]

Thanks, enjoy. :)

[evrdream33.livejournal.com]

I've read the play. I liked it, but found it emotionally draining. I haven't seen the miniseries, but would like to eventually.

[lanternsdance.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen the play, but I've read the script and watched the mini series. As far as I can tell--there are only one or two changes from tv to script, and I assume stage to tv. In my opinion it was really, really good.

[dodo31.livejournal.com]

Perestroika was more mauled by the miniseries than MA, though perhaps I only see that because I'm much more familiar with that half. There are some pretty amazing scenes, one in particular involving Prior and Harper at the visitors center, that were cut from the miniseries.

[flowrs4ophelia.livejournal.com]

The play's definitely pretty long and intense to get through. I actually saw all of the mini before I was able to finally finish reading it. The miniseries is missing a few parts that are unfortunate to lose, but it's incredible.

[menotwriting.livejournal.com]

WOW... Seriously, this is amazing. I'm in awe that you put this together. Perfect choices. TY!

[flowrs4ophelia.livejournal.com]

Thank you. XD

[cafe-gourmande.livejournal.com]

Beautiful. I love the play to death and it's great how much work you have put into creating this :)

[flowrs4ophelia.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :)

[violacoye.livejournal.com]

I love you.

No really. Best play/miniseries/musing on modern life ever. And a great mix to go along with it.

[borderlinetruth.livejournal.com]

OMGGGGG!!!! I LOVE YOU!!! =DDD

Seriously. You rock.

I just watched the miniseries again recently for the fiftieth time. I first saw it a couple of years ago and I of course loved it right away, but it is SO EPIC that every time you watch it, it gives you more awesomeness.

BELIZE: Well I hate this country. Nothing but big ideas. The white cracker who wrote the national anthem knew what he was doing. He set the word "free" to a note so high nobody can reach it. That was deliberate. Nothing sounds less like freedom to me.

One of my all time favourite lines EVER! and Jeffery Wrights preformance is one of my favourites things EVERR!

(*is needing an a/a icon right now*)

[flowrs4ophelia.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :D

I just watched the miniseries again recently for the fiftieth time. I first saw it a couple of years ago and I of course loved it right away, but it is SO EPIC that every time you watch it, it gives you more awesomeness.
That's one of the things I love, that even though I usually remember all of movies so well AiA is soooo long that I can still benefit from watching it many more times and always go "OMG I forgot about this awesome part." LOL.

Belize is easily my favorite character (well, besides Prior) because he gets pretty much some of the best lines ever written, and Jeffrey Wright is just incredible in that role. He needs to be in more movies because he's amazing.

[thewayoutis.livejournal.com]

Oh my god I squeed when I saw this on fanmix. Taking EVERYTHING. ♥♥♥

[ladywilde80.livejournal.com]

I don't know you but I'm gonna hug you anyway! ;) *hugs* This was like a gift from the heavens. THANK YOU!!!

[comedykitty.livejournal.com]

Holy shit there are no words for how EPIC this is. Definitely downloading right now.

PS, I don't know if you've heard of this great Broadway show (which is now sadly gone...) called [title of show]. They recently wrote a BRILLIANT skit called 'My First Time' about two of the cast member's experiences seeing their first Broadway show, and Susan's was 'Angels in America.' I must recommend this video to you because it BRILLIANTLY mixes AiA with the musical Annie.
http://www.broadwaycares.org/media/GYPSY08TitleofShow/gypsyTitleOfShowVideo.cfm

But seriously, YOU RULE. You just reminded me how much I need to read AiA again. The great work begins indeed :)

[bspalek.livejournal.com]

I don't know Angels in America, but this is an awesome mix. Taking, thanks!

[ticking-empathy.livejournal.com]

OH MY GODDD!

Angels in America!

Love This

Snagging btww!

[court-jesster.livejournal.com]

HOLY SHIT. THIS IS GENIUS. GENIUS GENIUS. I LOVE IT AND YOU. <3333333

[kissingdaylight.livejournal.com]

Beautiful work.

[erode.livejournal.com]

i love you for this, thank you thank you thank you ♥

[gonadsgo.livejournal.com]

Favoriting this post! Found it randomly on Google of all places :)

[lytab5.livejournal.com]

I only watched AiA for the first time this weekend.
And you have no idea how happy your post has made me! ♥
I thank you so much!