Tag Archives: Stay detuned

1/10: Was/Is this all a w.a.s.t.e. of your/our time? Stay detuned.. .. .. .. .. .␄

Posted on by Muggs

Oct 7, 2011:

@ChieftanMews: 1/10: Was/Is this all a w.a.s.t.e. of your/our time? Stay detuned.. .. .. .. .. .␄

This was the last of the #10 series of tweets from Chieftan Mews sent out each Thursday for 10 weeks. On the same day as this tweet Mew’s sent a second message stating that he was ‘free’ (Like you, once again, I am a free fugitive of life.) assuming that the quiz had lead to him escaping from the Ziggurat from where he’d been trapped over the previous months.

w.a.s.t.e stands for We Await Silent Tristenro’s Empire and is the name for Radiohead’s official online store and fanclub since 1992. According to Follow Me Around it is from a 1966 novel written by Thomas Pynchon titled The Crying Of Lot 49.

Wiki gives a brief description of the book as:

The shortest of Pynchon’s novels, it is about a woman, Oedipa Maas, possibly unearthing the centuries-old conflict between two mail distribution companies, Thurn und Taxis and the Trystero (or Tristero). The former actually existed, and was the first firm to distribute postal mail; the latter is Pynchon’s invention. The novel is often classified as a notable example of postmodern fiction.

Time included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005

The novel follows Oedipa Maas, a Californian housewife who becomes entangled in a convoluted historical mystery when her ex-lover dies and designates her the co-executor of his estate. The catalyst of Oedipa’s adventure is a set of stamps that may have been used by a secret underground postal delivery service, the Trystero (or Tristero).

According to the historical narrative that Oedipa pieces together during her travels around the San Francisco Bay Area, the Trystero was defeated by Thurn und Taxis – a real postal system – in the 18th century but went underground and continued to exist into Oedipa’s present day, the 1960s. Their mailboxes are disguised as regular waste-bins, often displaying their slogan W.A.S.T.E., an acronym for We Await Silent Tristero’s Empire, and their symbol, a muted post horn.

( Source: Wikipedia )

Amusingly according to a interview with Thom and Jonny in 1995 the band started their own church titled ‘The Holy Church of Waste’ while on tour in the US.

Jonny: (cutting Thom off) No, we’re reverends…..

Thom: (Cutting Jonny off) Oh yeah, we’re reverends…we’re all reverends.

Jonny: We started our own church.

Thom: The Holy Church of Waste.

Jonny: Well, we can legally marry people and bury people in 13 American states, including California.

Thom: So if anybody needs, you know, to get married, we can do it for them now. (to Jonny) How much did it cost us? Twenty dollars?

Jonny: Ten dollars or something. So we are going to conduct a mass community-style wedding at our LA show, that’s tomorrow.

You can read the rest of the interview on Follow Me Around here.

While we do not yet know if this was ‘just a waste of our time’ on November 9 Radiohead announced on Dead Air Space that they would be releasing a Bluray/DVD edition of The King of Limbs – From the Basement with Supercollider ‘added as a bonus track’.

We’d love to hear what answers other people sent to Mew’s ‘quiz’!
Let us know in the comments or email muggs@ersmenoo.com.

Coincidence // http://i43.tinypic.com/2e4ki07.jpg // κατάχρησις // http://www.the-ziggurat.com/ / Jello Spider // Stay detuned. ? //

Posted on by Muggs

Feb 6, 2012:

@ChieftanMews: Coincidence // http://i43.tinypic.com/2e4ki07.jpg // κατάχρησις // http://www.the-ziggurat.com/ / Jello Spider // Stay detuned. ? //

Mew’s tweeted a the following photo taken of the Amnesiac special edition book released in 2001.

He had used what appears to be Microsoft Paint to remove the words RADIOHEAD, Amnesiac with the spray paint tool.
The modification date on the image tells us that it was done at 7:55 AM(GMT) on Monday the 6th of February 2012.

Below where it’s printed Radiohead, Amnesiac there are two date stamps for ’06 FEB 2012′ matches the exact date the message was tweeted. No doubt a co-incidence that the band was still together on the date in question.

This was one of a number of ‘fake’ return/due dates stamped on the book borrowing slip. According to Follow Me Around the day and month was chosen to signify someone’s birthday.

The key word however is found above the photo where ‘REQUESTED/CARACHRESIS’ is written in ink. You can see it here:


(Source : Bucketoffive on Flickr )

Carachresis comes from the greek word ‘κατάχρησις’ included in the tweet. Wiki provides the following definition:

“misapplication of a word, especially in a mixed metaphor” according to the Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. Another meaning is to use an existing word to denote something that has no name in the current language.[1]

Compare malapropism and solecism, which are unintentional violations of the norms, while catachresis may be either deliberate or unintentional.

(Source: Wiki )

He once again makes a reference to the Ziggurat (www.the-ziggurat.com) along with ‘Jello Spider’

Catachresis College is the name of a school invented by Stanley Donwood and set to be in ownership of the Amensiac book. The name also appears as part of the Zigguration Tests taken by the band that was awarded to the winners of the Waste Game which are copywrited c. 2002 W.A.S.T.E. Board of Catachresis on the last page of the test.

Catachresis also appears as part of the title of the Autechre song ‘Lentic Catachresis’ from the album Confield released on 30 April 2001 a little under two months before Radiohead released Amnesiac.

Jello is an American brand name for what in the UK is called ‘Jelly’ (and to answer the obvious question ‘Jelly’ in the UK is called Jam or Preserve).

or simply a ‘Catachresis’ description of what the Ziggurat looks like ( A spider made of Jello ).

The use of a American rather then English word could be a reference to what was Radiohead’s upcoming Tour which started in America on the 27th of February 2012.


( Vintage Jello ad of Miss Muffet & The Spider from : Write_Light’s Livejournal )

He signs off the message telling us to “Stay detuned. ?” however the use of a question mark instead of the usual EOT is suggestive that he isn’t sure of what is to come.

Interestingly I managed to quickly tweet Mew’s back with the meaning of Carachresis,

@ElMuggs: @ChieftanMews Catachresis (from Greek κατάχρησις, “abuse”) is “misapplication of a word, especially in a mixed metaphor

within seconds he had deleted the post on both Twitter and Facebook.

It’s possible he found the correct answer he was looking for?

I got pushed aside because of @clivedeamer. Go on, follow him. Tell him I sent you. I will disappear into the foggy forest until needed.

Posted on by Muggs

Oct 14, 2011:

@ChieftanMews: I got pushed aside because of @clivedeamer. Go on, follow him. Tell him I sent you. I will disappear into the foggy forest until needed.

@ChieftanMews: Stay detuned. ␄

@clivedreamer
Clive Deamer is of course the newest additional member of Radiohead who is touring with the band in between his usual gig with Portshead (cue Two Head jokes). Mew’s certainly would not be resentful of this, nor would he tell his followers to bother the poor man would he?

Foggy might be a nod to Fog which was a song on the Com-Lag E.P.

forest is one of the reoccurring themes in The Universal Sigh and The King of Limbs.

True to his word Mew’s didn’t do anything for two months after this tweet.

Seasons Greetings: http://i.imgur.com/zG5X8.jpg

Posted on by Muggs

Dec 16, 2011:

@ChieftanMews: Seasons Greetings: http://i.imgur.com/zG5X8.jpg
@ChieftanMews: Stay crazy. Stay detuned. ␄

A straightforward holiday tweet? .. not quite.

Chieftan Mew’s tweeted the following image with ‘Seasons Greetings’ followed by a message to Stay Crazy and the usual Stay detuned / End of Transmission


(Source: @ChieftanMews on Twitter)

Thanks to Google we know the image is of a Photomontage by John Heartfield titled “O joyful, o blessed, miracle-bringing time.” made in 1935.

John Heartfield originally coined the phrase ‘The Most Gigantic Lying Mouth of All Time’ as Thom explained during a online Q&A in response of a fan asking for the meaning of TMGLMOAT:

It’s after a John Heartfield collage. He was a German artist in the 30s and 40s he changed his name to disown himself from the rise of the Reich in Germany. It is a title of one of his collage paintings which were all cut up, subverted propaganda from the Third Reich.

You can read the rest of the interview from 2003 Here.

Art for a Change gives us a interesting rundown of what the ‘Christmas Card’ Mew’s tweeted is about.

The anti-militarist Christmas message from John Heartfield published on December 26, 1935, in the German magazine, Arbeiter-Illustriete Zeitung (AIZ, or “Worker’s Illustrated Paper”).

The title of the photomontage, O du fröhliche, O du selige, gnadenbringende Zeit (O joyful, o blessed, miracle-bringing time), was taken from one of Germany’s most popular Christmas carols.

Heartfield made a number of photomontage works that touched upon Christmas and how its message of peace was being subverted by the forces of war and fascism.

For instance, in the 1934 Christmas edition of AIZ, the artist published his photomontage, O Tannenbaum im deutschen Raum, wie krumm sind deine Äste! (O Christmas tree in German soil, how bent are thy branches). The artwork depicted a Christmas tree with its branches twisted into the shape of a swastika.

The cover of the 1933 Christmas issue of AIZ featured a photograph of an American battleship with the headline, “And Peace on Earth!” When opening the magazine the reader would see a Heartfield photomontage on the first page – its message read, “Peace on Earth? No peace on earth, as long as the poor become poorer!” Heartfield’s artwork depicted hungry Germans peering into an upscale shop window that was bursting with Christmas merchandise they could not afford.

This morning I consumed a Grand Mimosa with Croustades and Honey Almond Polenta. I will post a picture of my plate shortly

Posted on by Muggs

24 February 2012 – 01:41 AM

@ChieftanMews: This morning I consumed a Grand Mimosa with Croustades and Honey Almond Polenta. I will post a picture of my plate shortly. Stay detuned ␄

Posted on Feb 24 it was one of 5 Tweets sent on the same day of which 3 where deleted within 24 hours.

A Grand Mimosa is of course a cocktail, Croustades is another name for ‘Elegant Eggs’ and Honey Almond Polenta is a type of warm cereal. Yum!

All three are currently the feature breakfast on MrBreakfast.com under the heading ‘Featured Fancy Breakfast Recipes’.

If you’re in the mood for cooking here’s the links:
Grand Mimosa
Croustades (Mmm… Pasteurized Delicious Cheese Food..that sounds delicious!)
Honey Almond Polenta

I Wonder why he skipped the pancakes?