FACS: “North America Endless”
The actor in the video lights up her cigarette at around the :36 mark. Shout out to the video for our highlighted track “North America Endless.” The actor, the concept, the execution, all of that. The visual aesthetic captures the artful minimalism of FACS to a T.
Do you buy that the actor is or was a smoker though? Roll the clip back to around :36. Get real Zapruder on this motherfucker.
How the unlit cigarette hangs on her lip doesn’t feel right. Her lips are clenching it too tightly like she’s afraid it’s going to fall. A real smoker knows how to let it hang off the lip with minimal effort, secured mostly by spittle.
Doesn’t make sense either that she’s using a book of matches to light the cigarette. What sort of committed smoker is going to fuck with a book of matches. You’re not going to be able to light up on a windy day with a goddamn book of matches. Get a lighter.
Finally, once she lights the cigarette and transfers it to her left hand, she chokes up on it way too high at :38. The handle is corrected in the next shot at :40, but a true smoker wouldn’t have fumbled the handle in the first place.
Maybe she’s supposed to be a novice smoker? Maybe that’s part of the story?
No way. What sort of novice smoker wakes up in the middle of the night and lights up while still in bed? That’s some hardened cancer stick jockey shit…
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Piano-forward spiritual jazz on that Alice Coltrane grind.