Velvet Underground's The Gift--Eyes in the Box--Self-mailing

Self-mailing has always been one of the primary subjects of this blog. Or at least that was one of the aims of this blog in the foggy days of its creation.

The Velvet Underground has been an abiding interest of mine.

Now, how is it that I never made the connection between these two?

Lyrics from The Gift (off of White Light/White Heat):

It was a New York company. You could go anywhere in the mails. Then it struck
him. He didn't have enough money to go to Wisconsin in the accepted fashion,
true, but why not mail himself? It was absurdly simple. He would ship himself
parcel post, special delivery. The next day Waldo went to the supermarket to
purchase the necessary equipment. He bought masking tape, a staple gun and a
medium sized cardboard box just right for a person of his build. He judged that
with a minimum of jostling he could ride quite comfortably. A few airholes,
some water, perhaps some midnight snacks, and it would probably be as good as
going tourist.

How is it that I never made this connection before?

Notice that both subjects make it into this post. It's taken me four and a half years to make the connection. Sheesh.

I guess I never listened to it very carefully before. I just like grooving to it's funky noise jimjam. It's actually kind of annoying to listen to the words--it's distracting.

Wings of Hope: The Self-Mailing Anecdote

I have acquired the Herzog Documentary Boxset, and yesterday I watched the first disc. The highlight was a doc called "Wings of Hope," about the sole survivor of a plane crash that happened in the Peruvian jungle in 1971. This happened at the same time that Herzog was filming Aguirre. And so, 25 years later, Herzog did a doc about this incredible woman who fell from the plane in the sky--that basically just disintegrated--and somehow landed in the jungle alive. And then she wandered, almost unconsciously--because of her concussion, and almost blindly--because her face was so badly bruised she could barely only see out of just one eye, for 10 days until some locals found her. The movie is very good; I think it's superior to Little Dieter Needs to Fly. (Note: I have not seen Rescue Dawn yet.)

The heroine of the movie, Julianes, is German by birth, but her parents lived in Peru because her father was a biologist studying the jungle ecosystem. Julianes grew up in the jungle, and that fact is evident in the movie because of how comfortable she seems to be in the wild. (She herself is a Phd biologist expert on jungle bats.) But when she was a child, her father was so desperate to get to Peru that he, a la Charles D. McKinley, shipped himself there. Well, actually, he sneaked on board a plane; packing himself in a crate of salt. So another man in a box. And overseas. And in salt. But I guess that was in another time; a time of heroes and villains. And maybe Herzog made the story up. So, who knows. I'll look into it.