u/Naclstack

A year ago, I was ranked #3 in the world, but then I stopped playing because that's a very fast way to burn out. Around 50-100 levels completed per day. Let's see where I'm at now..

So I (36 M) was at work (I am a barista) with my AirPod Pros on and my cute (25 F) coworker asked me what I was doing. I was masturbating (as many of you may know, masturbation is a popular activity invented before 9/11). I was distracted by Julian Casablancas sexy-ass voice, so I asked “What?” And she repeated “what are you doing.” I stammered and said “I’m stroking it” and laughed cuz I thought it was a cool joke. Stroking it, like jerking off haha. She looked at me weirdly and said “what” and I said “I’m masturbating, haha, I’m stroking it. Not like the Strokes band thing, I dont do that at work.” And she said “Okay haha.” So my question is, do y’all think she thinks I’m cool and funny? I heard a lot of Gen-Z likes masturbation and funny people so I think I might have a shot with her

Hi all,

I am new to Radiohead so forgive me if this has been discussed previously. I did search but did not find anything. My friend showed me In Rainbows several months ago, and while I was never into Radiohead previously, I did really like this album. So, I have been exploring it on my own more and more. I asked him at the time whether Weird Fishes could have been written about an actual fish and he was convinced it was not. But, I think it lines up perfectly.

Background: Deep-sea anglerfishes inhabit, well, the deep sea. Many of these fish live their lives in total darkness. They exhibit an extreme form of sexual dimorphism where the females are much larger than the males, are predatory, and often possess a glowing lure to attract prey. In contrast, the males are very small and lack the ability to hunt on their own. A male will spend his life in search of a female, and when he finds her, his fate is sealed. Quite literally, as the males of some species permanently fuse into the female, withering into sperm-producing reproductive appendages.

How it fits: The lyrics first make it clear that the environmental context is the deep sea. Then our male anglerfish spots the glowing lure, functioning like an eye in the total darkness: “I'd be crazy not to follow / Follow where you lead”. He would be crazy to not go towards it because his entire biology is wired for this moment. But, he has a devastating choice to make as he will be losing himself completely if he engages her: “Turn me on to phantoms / I follow to the edge of the Earth / And fall off”. He is doomed either way. Option A is losing himself by merging into her and Option B is certain death as he cannot feed on his own. I think that is what he is thinking about with, “And this is my chance”. He spends the rest of the song contemplating which option to choose and we are left with him leaning towards biological death as the escape from the self-annihilation that would come with fusing into another.

Maybe this isn’t what they intended when they wrote the song, but it just fits too well to be a coincidence in my mind. Would love to hear everyone’s thoughts. Like I said, I haven’t explored the full catalogue so I have no idea how this fits with their other works.