the cost of pleasure revealed

Welcome to the “Director’s Commentary” section of this DVB (Digital Versatile Blog) where I, Blog Marley, breakdown the elements of Aida. First off, let me start by thanking you all for stopping by and taking in this edutational (figure it out pimpin’) piece. I really appreciate it. I got a lot of interesting feedback (both published and e-mailed) and it appeared that everyone got the overall gist of it but most of you seemed to miss the curveball thrown in there. That was what I was actually going for but I expected more people to get it (five at last count, of whom 4 are fam). All the requests for a sequel were really funny but the story is done and this “Director’s Commentary” will reveal all. The most interesting comment (not published) was from a friend who says the write up was ‘too didactic (look it up) and was pretty much accusatory instead of being amoral.’ I actually loved that comment because it showed one of/or two things: (either) he clearly didn’t get it or/and I clearly can’t write. Oh yeah; and that he’s a twat! (SMILE). Anyway, for whatever reason the seemingly obvious was missed, all will be revealed in:

Aida Uncovered

Here is the intro again, incase you needed a reminder:

This was originally a story about infidelity but things changed as I was writing, so I decided to kill two birds with one catapult and edutain like I like to do. It is now a story about infidelity gone wrong. (Like it was right in the first place). Enjoy… or not!

There were clues (maybe not so glaringly obvious) dropped throughout this post but it was written in such a way that it was just meant to be a story. The opening line:

This is the story of four great friends who grew up together, did everything together and always looked out for one another.

…was deliberately dropped to throw you off because you immediately focus on there being four characters. Then it continued along that path to further throw you off:

They were very different in character which is what made their relationship special and kept things interesting, ultimately sustaining their relationship.

The next bit was 50/50 as it appeared to throw you off more but conversely, the answers were right there in their names and occupations:

Brian was Head of a Human Resources firm; Sean, a reporter for The Observer; Hertz (Father Solomon to his congregation), a Reverend at the “House of Blessed Hearts” Church and Richie, a cocky actor.

Then it was back to throwing people off:

They were a bunch of numskulls who could never agree on anything, which they clearly knew, but they still always consulted each other regardless, on everything, before making a decision. They had made a pact to never let anything come between them and they had kept to it, sacredly, until now…

The word “numskulls” was another clue but I’m sure that one would have gone over everybody’s head but I put it in regardless. I will come back to that later. Then, the introduction of the subject matter:

The straw that finally broke the camel’s back was five foot seven inches of lady loveliness named Aida. She was, as The Mask would say: SMOKINGGGGGGGGG!

There were subtle (probably not all obvious) clues in here too from her name to the mention of The Mask and one of his catch phrases. About The Mask, it signified mischief and a hidden personality, while the SMOKINGGGGGGG bit referred to the fiery nature of the affliction. How were you ever meant to guess that, right? Keep up fam’ly. Then I put it out there (kinda) with the next bit, detailing the flow of information:

Sean saw her first (he always spotted things first, maybe due to his journalistic instincts) at the media launch of some new product and as always, he passed on the information to Brian first, who would in turn brief Richie and the Preacher would always be last to know because they felt they could do without his ‘wise words.’

The ‘suspect’ grammar in the next sentence also served as an off clue as it jumped from singular to plural as opposed to following the same pattern:

They all had a woman in their lives…

More clues given away based on the reactions of each character:

She had noticed Sean taking notice of her at the earlier event… She liked what she saw and she was the type of woman that took what she wanted. She approached the crew and Brian tried to get them to compose themselves and play it cool. However, Sean couldn’t stop staring, Hertz thumbed his Rosary beads nervously and Richie couldn’t hide his excitement. Aida had them right where she wanted.

I was getting blatant with the clue dropping here as her actions in this paragraph pretty much give away the characters. Or so I thought:

A few drinks, shameless flirting and pointless banter later, Aida grabbed Richie and invited him over to her place; and his friends too. He almost spat out his entire drink at the sudden unbridled sincerity and suggestiveness of this temptress. He did dribble a bit and stain his pants which brought a naughty smile to her lips. “We’ll have to clean that up when we get to mine,” she teased. “Let me just dash to the little girls’ room real quick then we can blow this dump.” She kissed Brian’s forehead, stroked Sean’s temple and pinched Hertz’s chest; as if to re-emphasize her desire for all four, and then shimmied her pretty tushy towards the rest rooms. It gave them the opening they needed to have a quick huddle.

The next paragraph, pretty much summed it up, that is, if you had been catching it slowly from jump street:

Their huddles were always the same, with Brian, the smart one, always disagreeing with the brash sensibilities of Richie, at which point Hertz, the voice of reason, would try to play mediator, while the observant (no pun intended) Sean would try to put things in perspective.

Then, the general flow of the conversation, from what was said, by whom and how, shed further light on what type of character each was, no? I seem to think so but as I said, maybe my writing skills need a touch up. I however felt the dialogue had to be very descriptive of how those characters would most likely talk because some parties expressed concern with the explicit nature of some of the dialogue. I try to go for authenticity at all times. I am of the mind that if it helps tell the story, put it in. When all is revealed, I hope all will agree:

Brian: I won’t even sit here and try to lie to you guys, that lady is a fox and I so want to go back to hers but let’s think about this for a second.

Richie: Think? What the fuck is there to think about? She wants to fuck and that’s all that matters. Actually, I wanna fuck too!

Brian: I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to as well…

Richie: So what the fuck we having this conversation for then?

Brian: Two words – girl & friend.

Richie: Oh, nigga please! What the fuck you gotta bring her up for?

Brian: Are you listening to yourself? You see a piece of ass and you forget her like that? Pastor, I think you need to pray for your friend.

Hertz: I understand from whence thou both spake, but tis not enough to fester ill feelings towards one another. She doth appear like the fairest of maidens but I sense a demon spirit within her…

Richie: See what you done smarty pants? You’ve let the loony Pas’a go off on one of his diatribes now. Talking demons and shit. Damn, if she got any, I need to be exorcising her ass; you know what I’m saying? Sheet!

Hertz: Mine friend, thou art right. Demon or angel spirit is not the case hither. However, I must concur with Brother Brian. Your love doth belong to another. Is it worth throwing away o’er a foolish pleasure?

Richie: I can’t believe you guys! I saw how you all looked at her, now you wanna get all righteous and shit. Sheet!

Sean: I have to agree with Dicky boy on that one though. Did you see how she strategically hiked her dress up to expose those spotless, hot legs? Or how she kept leaning in till we shared the same breaths? Tingling all over dude, for real! If y’all are seeing what I’m seeing, I say tap that and never look back.

Richie: Can I get an Amen Father Sol?

Hertz: Oh dear…

Brian: Listen to yourselves… you don’t even want to think about this thoroughly? She’s the hottest thing ever but do you want to throw a good thing away with Yvette?

Richie: Nigga, I ain’t gon’ tell Yvette shit and neither will any of you sorry ass mu’fuckas! We all took an oath and y’all know you want it! Am I lying, yo?

Hertz: The mind is strong but the flesh is weak…

Sean: You know I see your point and now, I see her walking back.

Brian: I do too but shouldn’t you…

Richie: Look nigga, that fine piece of ass is coming back this way and she wants us over at hers to do the nasty. That’s all that’s on my mind right now and I’m going, whether you coming or not. And that’s that mu’fucka. So who’s with me?

Hertz: I need to watch over you my easily excited friend. That is all that is e’er on your mind.

Sean: Yeah and I need to see this.

Brian: You just never listen. You are such a jackass! But we are boys and all in together, right? I don’t feel good about this but I guess I’ll have to go along with it. But Yvette man…

Richie: If you call her name one more time I’ma sock ya!

Aida: Shall we?

Another clue, I feel, is the mention of only Yvette, when the whole crew is tagging along. I felt it may get picked up on. Then the unfolding events of the next paragraph seemingly take you further into my twisted mind:

So, they all go back to her place. Richie gets into character and dives into it head first. Hertz can’t watch but he hears it all and cannot forgive himself. Sean looks at the episode unfold in front of him but often stops, as if to store the moment in his visual memory banks. Brian still doesn’t feel good about it but he has come along for the ride and has to live with the decision he has made… for the rest of their life.

The last line of that paragraph did it again. A singular pluralization. Coming from my head, I obviously know what’s up but just figured others would get it too with all the giveaways. Then the following paragraphs unraveling their travails, I felt, should help seal the deal. I guess this is where everybody made (or at least started to make) the Aida and AIDS correlation. I was hoping more would be discovered though, especially based on terms used in the narrative, especially in Richie and Brian’s paragraphs:

Everything is normal for the first few months after Aida but the drama slowly starts to unfold. It starts with Richie. Work isn’t going too well. Usually a rock solid performer, recently he just hasn’t been able to rise to the occasion when required and stunts he has pulled repeatedly over the years with the greatest of ease become more difficult and even painful. Mr. ‘Cock Diesel’ isn’t so cocky anymore.

Hertz is having problems with the congregation. He finds it hard facing them and speaking righteousness since the Aida incident. He feels like the scum of the earth and undeserving of his position. The effect on him is traumatizing. The group’s conscience has lost his. He has constant nightmares and doesn’t know who to turn to as he is afraid to look to God.

Sean has lost focus. He doesn’t see things like he used to and his work is affected. He misses things that are right there and keeps bumping into problems at every turn. He can’t explain it but he knows he doesn’t feel like he once did. The work is too strenuous and the bosses have started to notice his lack of insight all of a sudden. The point man is now walking blindly.

Brian begins to question his position. If he cannot manage his dearest friends, people he knows everything about, is he actually capable of dealing with total strangers? Is he really good at what he does? Self doubt and guilt overtake him. He cannot shake the events of that night… and these constant headaches.

Then I guess the closing paragraph was rather anti-climactic but I believe that’s the way I needed it to be, for that, “Oh no he didn’t!” or “What the …?” reaction and I did get it apparently, what, with all the sequel requests? At this point, some probably scoffed like, “Oh, it’s about AIDS!” or like my good friend who said I was preaching against ‘cheaters’. A pang of guilt, maybe? Ha ha. On a serious note though, I believe it was laced with clues all through but I will still uncover all in a second:

They have ignored the obvious for too long and decide to face their problems like they always have in the past – together. They seek professional help to look into their collective plight, as they all identified the same source of their problems – a fox named Aida.

They were prepared for bad news but instead, they got the worst…

Then the cinematic ‘opening credits’ touch seemed to do the trick as it threw people off even more, HOWEVER, it gave it all away! Even if you had missed it all the way through, there was no way you didn’t catch it after the opening credits were run! Allow me to explain after you go through them one more time:

BLOGSPOT
presents

A
DON CHI PRODUCTION

A
BLOG MARLEY
post

FALL OF MAN

Starring
THE BRAIN
THE EYES
THE HEART & SOUL
THE PENIS

and

Introducing
ACQUIRED IMMUNE DEFICIENCY SYNDROME
as
AIDA

So are you with me now? No? Okay. Well, I have titled it the Fall of Man which can signify mankind in general but I am talking about one man because there is only one man in this story and not four as the opening has led you to believe. But you knew this, right?

While the story touches on a possible consequence of infidelity, the initial premise and what I was really trying to present was the inner conversation a man would likely have with himself before straying; or even just approaching a female, period. So, as an inner conversation, it was broken into the main parts of the man that would likely have this discussion. This is where the numskulls bit comes in. Like I said, it probably went over everyone’s head but it was the name of a comic strip in The Funday Times (I believe) about the beings (numskulls) that lived inside a man, controlling his everyday activity.

Anyway, the dead giveaway in the opening credits highlights the parts involved and when you correlate them with the story, it should all be clear to you. Just in case, here is how the cast list would read:

CAST

THE BRAIN
as
Brian
(close spelling correlation)

THE EYES
as
Sean
(a play on ‘seen’)

HEART & SOUL
as
Hertz a.k.a. Father Solomon
(a play on ‘Sol’, short form of Solomon)

THE PENIS
as
Richie
(short for ‘Richard’ as is ‘Dick’)

With this VIVID picture (not the porn company you perv) now painted, revisit the story and replace each character with the corresponding body part and then, the mystery of Aida should finally be uncovered. I hope. Here's the link again so you do not have to travel far: AIDA.

Have fun and thanks once again for viewing my DVB.

Blog Marley out like unprotected sex. Stay strapped ya’ll.

Peace.