Categories
Blue, Black, Silver, Water, Moons, Death & Ghosts Music & Songs Nashville The Odyssey

Telemachus’ Realization

 

Painting of statues and cathedral. Man with sword and dagger.

Another song from the Odyssey… Telemachus visits Menelaus who treats him like a king- far different from the way his mother’s suitors treat him (in fact they are planning to murder him on his trip home).

I remember playing this song in Nashville at “Coffeehouse Survivor”. Two musicians would play a song, a panel of three judges would score them, and the winner would go on to compete in the next round. I didn’t want to participate in something so savage and degrading, but since it was my philosophy to say yes to everything, I went anyway.

Treating art as something that can be scored and judged like that is… well, it is beyond ridiculous in my opinion, and harmful to everyone involved. It is like ranking people’s souls. Not to mention that art frequently deals with perspectives that are new, while judgments tend to stem from the values of days gone by.

But at any rate, I played this song in the first round, and lost by a landslide to a man in a cowboy hat. One judge even gave me a zero. Ouch.

Download MP3: Telemachus’ Realization

 

Categories
Blue, Black, Silver, Water, Moons, Death & Ghosts Music & Songs Nashville The Odyssey

Run Rabbit Run

 

Painting of nude man with fortune telling rabbit. Checkerboard grass and pink cloud.Another song from the Odyssey… Odysseus’s encounter with the witch Circe… in the background you may be able to hear the snow plows & I really wish I could run away from New England at the moment… it is not the snow or the coldness that bothers me but the fact that they last forever. Two short months of spring/summer and then the struggle to survive starts all again. Plus, there is the lack of sunlight, which has the positive effect of making the thoughts and judgments of other people seem far away, but the negative effect of making your spirit feel like it is gasping for breath.

The prevailing philosophy on how to handle winter here is “Don’t fight it, embrace it.” When I press people for details, they generally recommend skiing. Which is a costly embrace. I think waging an all out war on winter may be a better idea for me, though I haven’t decided how to go about it just yet. If money were no object, I would buy hundreds of lamps and keep them turned on all day long, turn up the heat to 80 degrees, and fill a humidifier with the scent of ylang-ylangs and grapefruits, so I could live in a sunny and moist paradise.

As it stands, my best winter survival tips are tons of vitamin D and long car rides to ward off the dreaded cabin fever.

Download MP3: Run Rabbit Run

Categories
Blue, Black, Silver, Water, Moons, Death & Ghosts Music & Songs Nashville The Odyssey

Immortals

 

Another song from the Odyssey… Odysseus leaves Calypso’s island where he could have lived forever as an immortal sex slave in order to face probable death on the ocean, hoping that he can make it back to his wife and son on a pathetic homemade raft.
Painting of lonely nude man with football, and sign that says, "I'm lonely!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Download MP3: Immortals

Categories
Blue, Black, Silver, Water, Moons, Death & Ghosts Music & Songs Nashville The Odyssey

Star of Telemachus


Painting of flame orange girl with blue eyes.

One of the last Odyssey songs… I was so enamored with fire at the time, that I would sometimes light up to 100 candles in a single room of my house. The air would get all hot and swirly and it felt like sitting in an oven. In addition, I was addicted to the fiery stimulation of performing. I couldn’t go one day without it, and if I had to, I would find some kind of trouble to get into to make up for it. Soon after writing this, I decided to move to Las Vegas so I could be free from the dampening, depressing effects of water once and for all.

But, in this song, are already the first cracks of doubt that fire is really the answer to everything.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Download MP3: Star of Telemachus

Categories
Blue, Black, Silver, Water, Moons, Death & Ghosts Music & Songs Nashville The Odyssey

Sacrifice to the Gods

 

Downtown Nashville Night Skyline 2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another song from the Odyssey, featuring the two elements that weighed most heavily on my mind at the time- fire and water. Water was, in my mind, the root of all evil, so it seemed fitting that Odysseus’ exile was spent wandering and lost in a watery hell. And fire was, to me, the most wonderful element, so it seemed fitting that the offerings the Greeks made to their gods were offerings of fire.

Living in Nashville, I saw the big black bat building that towered over the downtown as being emblematic of the element water, splashing its black liquid over everyone to extinguish the light of their individuality, and turning us all into slaves and clones.

 

Download MP3: Sacrifice to the Gods

Categories
Blue, Black, Silver, Water, Moons, Death & Ghosts Music & Songs Nashville The Odyssey

Black Balls

 

Another song from the Odyssey… and  a picture of Bill Gates. This is one of the pictures I used to hang on my wall when I lived in a tiny one room apartment. I found his presence very reassuring, like a guardian angel.

 

Painting of Bill Gates: The Dick that Lured Investors. Detractors credit "personal size" with recent Gates success.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Download MP3: Black Balls

Categories
Blue, Black, Silver, Water, Moons, Death & Ghosts Music & Songs Nashville The Odyssey

Wild Wild Seas

 

Painting of mystery animal made of colored dots

Another song from the Odyssey… Odysseus washes up naked on a foreign shore after barely escaping Calypso’s island where he has spent seven years crying for his wife (while working nights as a sex slave). Poor Odysseus! Why did life have to be so challenging for such a nice and clever guy?

 

One thing I like about the Odyssey is Odysseus’ constant fluctuation from king and hero to helpless beggar. Even his appearance fluctuates from that of an oily muscle-bound god to a shriveled, smelly weakling. In a world where people are treated so differently based on wealth and status, it reminds us to be careful, because you never know who may be a god in disguise or a king in distress.

 

 

 

Download MP3: Wild Wild Seas

Categories
Music & Songs Nashville

Cream 4 You

 

Ring of Fire: Painting of man and woman falling in love with leaves and flowers flying

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A song about frustration with unmanliness. Maybe due to the shortcomings of the person I was dating, or maybe from having spent too much time in big cities, where people can have different ideas of gender roles.

When it comes down to it, though, I don’t necessarily think there is one set of traits and virtues that all men have to have- I suppose it okay for some men to be afraid of mice, and some to stay home and watch television all day. But I do think every man should have SOME virtue, even if it is a feminine one. What I dislike is when men want to have feminine advantages without developing feminine virtues. For example, they don’t want to pay for dinner AND they don’t want to be a good listener. That is too much to bear.

Really, I think people can either care about their reputation, or their character, but not both. People who only care about their reputation will be a drain on those around them, and people who care about their character will be upbuilding to those around them, whether their character is a big, masculine hero, or a sensitive, feminine empath.

Download MP3: Cream 4 You

Categories
Music & Songs Santa Fe

Sit & Spin

 

I wrote this song while living in Santa Fe, a city run by women, including a few mean ones, such as the one who inspired this song.

By the way, when I mention a black man in the song, I don’t mean an African-American, but a being whose skin is pitch black, similar to a human, but with legs that are 5 feet long and as thick as an elephant’s.Painting of nude woman (brownie) with orange cape and brown egg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Download MP3: Sit & Spin

Categories
Los Angeles Music & Songs

Lonely Town

 

Recently, I watched the movie Mulholland Drive, and felt it perfectly captured the two sides of Los Angeles. On the one hand, you have people full of dreams, hopes, and ideals, who are open-minded and open-hearted. But, on the other hand, the naive, trusting, and generous nature of these people leaves them open to exploitation by the cunning and unscrupulous, leading to perversity and debasement.

Goodness is good, but no substitute for wisdom and power. You can have the best intentions in the world, but without intelligence and discrimination, somehow you still end up working for the Devil.
Painting of Russel Crowe doing cartwheel, clown, and cute animal holding sign that says "L.A. Sucks Cock"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Download MP3: Lonely Town