First, there was Mike Gravel’s “Rock.” This was followed by “Fire.”

“Rock” became the subject of much discussion and contemplation. Meditative surreality seemed an odd choice for a pair of campaign commercials. What did it mean? Is this some kind of Beckett-esque take on the current state of American politics? Is Gravel telling us that he’s some kind of latter day Howard Beale, just one rock short of becoming mad as Hell? Is David Lynch funding the Gravel campaign? Were any waterfowl harmed during the filming?

To sum up, we all just had one simple question.*

And yesterday, we got our answer, right from the candidate’s mouth. It turns out that these spots were not campaign commercials. Not really. They were art films, developed and directed by Matt Mayes and Guston Sondin-Klausner. The explanatory interview is just beyond the cut, but there is one bit around the 3:15 mark that made me smile a bit (bold mine).

And boy, when I hear about the reaction that you see … What is it? I’ll tell ya … people don’t even understand Shakespeare, they don’t understand what a metaphor is, because they’re so used to seeing all this stuff that’s going on in politics … when all they’re trying to do is to convey one simple message: here’s an ordinary citizen called Mike Gravel, and what he’s doing, he’s trying to make a change in society, and then he’s going on with his life or to death. Who knows? But this is beautiful, this is very artistic and beautiful, and if some talking heads don’t have enough artistry in their hearts to understand what these kids were doing, that’s their problem.

So there. Now we all know. And we all feel terribly ashamed. Don’t we?

* – Thanks for asking for us, Shelby.

[tags]Gravel, Rock, 2008[/tags]