What Exactly is “Furious Balancing”?

Good question.1

First, the short answer: “It’s Furious Balancing” is part of the lyrics to R.E.M.’s Daysleeper, from their 1998 album, Up.2

Daysleeper

Receiving department, 3 a.m.
Staff cuts have socked up the overage.
Directives are posted.
No callbacks, complaints.
Everywhere is calm.

Hong Kong is present
Taipei awakes
All talk of circadian rhythm

I see today with a newsprint fray
My night is colored headache grey
Daysleeper

The bull and the bear are marking their territories
They’re leading the blind with their international glories.

I’m the screen, the blinding light
I’m the screen, I work at night.

I see today with a newsprint fray
My night is colored headache grey
Don’t wake me with so much.
Daysleeper.

I cried the other night
I can’t even say why
Fluorescent flat caffeine lights
It’s furious balancing

I’m the screen, the blinding light
I’m the screen, I work at night
I see today with a newsprint fray
My night is colored headache grey
Don’t wake me with so much.

The ocean machine is set to nine
I’ll squeeze into heaven and valentine
My bed is pulling me,
Gravity
Daysleeper.

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The video below3 is supposed to be jerky and stop-action-ish. The blurb from ifilm.com says: “Suffused with sadness that life is passing him by, Daysleeper Michael Stipe gets in touch with his inner business wonk, who works the Asian markets while everyone around him sleeps. Herky-jerky cityscapes in fast-motion Koyaanisqatsi-style telegraph the predicament of this man out of time.”

So there.

I’m also quite amused that Koyaanisqatsi was tag-lined as “Life out of balance.”

*******

That was the short answer. I don’t know if I’m up for typing in the long answer today. Eventually. Let’s just say that I over-identify with the themes of insomnia, alienation, and a symbiotic relationship with my computer, and leave it at that.

*******

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  1. And, no, the question mark goes outside the quotation marks because the quoted phrase “furious balancing” is not a question in and of itself. See here for punctuation rules. [↩]
  2. Lyrics are copyright R.E.M. [↩]
  3. I have to put the video at the end of all of this text, instead of smack-dab in the middle, because embedded videos make the formatting on this page go seriously awry [↩]