Warning...I am writing this in the heat of Tool passion and, hence, am in "I become a transparent eyeball" mode. (sorry, my little Emerson idolism there)

OH................................................MY.

This journal entry is dedicated entirely to my utter adoration for the new Tool album, Lateralus.

I really am going to have a hard time capturing with mere words how this album makes me feel, but I'll try my best.

Okay...~thinking~...Lateralus captures every single type of passion known to man...or at least makes me feel every passion I could possibly ever feel. I never knew that it was possible to simultaneously feel love, anger, lust, hunger, ecstasy, and oneness with God. (And the list of passions goes on.) But someone, with the help of Lateralus, could simultaneously be at the heightened state of an orgasm, washing the feet of Christ, having a fist fight with his/her lover, and eating the best piece of chocolate cake ever. (I love the word "lover" because it reminds me of Jeff Buckley.) THIS is how GOOD Lateralus is. It's this intense build up of feelings too strong to explain...too strong to be HUMAN! Okay, I'm human and am having these feelings, so maybe not...but you get me. Lateralus brings about longings too urgent to possibly satisfy with anything of this realm, possibly unable to truly be pacified until one is reunited with his/her Creator. I think it's SO nearly impossible to even bring such extreme passion out into the open, so other people can experience it too...that passion you think only YOU can feel. But somehow, Tool does it. I always try to do it via my poetry...share that intense passion...but after it's over, and after I've come down from the high by writing my poetry, I read over the thing, and it's so diluted and insipid and not even a fraction of the feelings that were dwelling in my psyche. The only people I've found that can express that great passion are Tool (okay, I'm thinking Maynard in particular, but I guess I shouldn't fail to give the other guys credit) and Jeff Buckley...Tori Amos maybe a little bit, during her helpless yet powerful screams...and Anne Sexton possibly, for her poems are so muttled that they make sense of things that are impossible to make sense of.

I am amazed that people can actually say things like, "Britney Spears is the most talented girl out there!" Can Britney bring people to the heights that such experimental, out-of-this-world (for lack of a better adjective) music like Tool's can? Isn't the world in a sad state because of the fact that people are satisfied with such shallow music as that which is on TRL's top 10 countdown? Don't get me wrong...I listen to some of that stuff, but because it's catchy...not because I get any spiritual fulfillment from the music. ANYWAY, grr, I'm done.

And now that I have gotten all of my confusing, frantic Tool obsessive adoration out of my system, I'll do some homework. Have a good night!

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