Note Interim

I completed the RPM Challenge on February 26th with -=solvet saeclum in favilla=-, an album with 23 tracks with a total duration of 45.9 minutes. I created this album by recording song of the day lyrics from the current project (songs 642 - 664, written February 1st - 23rd) accompanied by music created somewhat randomly by one of the stranger pieces of software out there, Voice of the Goatcactus. I used a very crude recording technique, recorded everything live (no overdubbing) and generally permitted a single take. This is a very quick and certain way to generate tracks, but by necessity they are also very rough and contain mistakes. As a whole I would call the album practically unlistenable, although I have listened to it in full several times (so I won't subject you to anything I haven't gone through). So be it: I chose a method and I stuck with it. The lyrics aren't bad, I think. All the lyrics are up in my RPM project blog, the first link up there, though I don't know whether they are going to maintain those indefinitely.

Over the next few weeks I will post a few of the most successful songs over at Metafilter Music: my profile linked there has a few other songs I've posted previously, all lyrics from songs of days.

(An ellipsis gone awry...) (below) is the last song of the first "volume" of the first song of the day project. I originally wrote these songs longhand in a series of hardcover journals, and gave each one a volume number and title. This, the first, bore the title "Vicious Cycles Revisited."

As I noted previously, I've decided to take a break and return in April. I was going to start in March but being the ending of the first volume has arrived as so convenient a dividing point, I'll just start now. In this interim I plan to spend some time transcribing songs from volume two, being titled "Record," into digital format, ready for posting, and wrap up a couple of other projects that have been languishing.

If you wish to receive an email when I resume operations drop me a line at visionaryATNESSSYMBOLgumptionPERIODDOTNESScom. Otherwise, when the date arrives at which one would naturally think of fools, think of me.

Can't figure out what this madness is about? Click here, which might help... and please check back again in April.

129 : 8/17/98 : (An ellipsis gone awry...)

Why do I always mistime my pauses
get sick or go get a job?
Every time a thing ends
I’m looking for some new thing to rob
I’m beat I need a break
But I will not slow down
And it doesn’t seem like courage to me
Seems like I’m just bein’ a clown
But clowns only pretend to fall down
When I fall down it’s for real
Clowns never really step on each other’s faces!
Myself I’ve eaten some heel

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

128 : 8/16/98 : Fire

Fire should be raining from the sky
to torch these evil bastards where they lie
where is your mighty fist of vengeance
for all the evil souls without repentance
They lie in wait full of venom
give me the word I’ll gladly end them
Give the word I’ll punish them in kind
Sure to God it would ease my mind
There is no justice here on earth
There is no valid scale of human worth
They are so bad, they’re beyond wrong
eradicate the brutes, the rest of us will get along
without them we’ll make a proper world
without them and the chaos that they hurled
I’ll even take my medicine as well
For every test I failed for every time I fell
I wouldn’t ever claim to be untainted
Still compared to them I’d probably be sainted
Don’t tell me I can’t see enough
Don’t tell me that you told me it’d be rough
Don’t tell me they deserve a second chance
They’ve had a thousand shots to make amends
They’re laughing at you laughing at you Lord
Send your angel send your flaming sword
Judge not judge not if I don’t will you
“Vengeance is mine,” is that still true
Guess I better back off of a job too great for me
Still it is a sad estate to see
Cut your losses burn them now
Okay I’ll shut up stop darkening your brow

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

127 : 8/15/98 : Sick, Weary

Sick weary the card turns up once more
I’m on my knees my head is resting on the floor
May not be holy but at least I’m poor

Flesh is mortal flesh is weak
I’m 27 I feel like an antique
Wanna retire to Chesapeake

Raise trout and jimson weed
Make letter bombs and bathtub speed
Really make the fuckers pay me heed

Stay fucked up on belladonna and monk’s hood
Strike a blow or two for the common good
Nothing matters so maybe I guess I should

Maybe with the morning the mood will pass
Be satisfied with a day job and some decent grass
Can’t think right now my head’s at critical mass

Maybe if I wasn’t so weary and sick
I could choose a method and make it stick
Embarrassed by how hard I find it to pick

It’ll probably be the same anyways
Who the hell really decides things these days
We’re all blindly running this endless maze

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

126 : 8/14/98 : Cloth of Gold

660 ?


I’m standing on this platform
I’m right at center stage
In cloth of gold I’m ready to perform
I’m shining preaching earning my wage
I was a holy man of God
No sinful word would pass my lips
I gave my money to the poor
I preached on all the seamy strips
Las Vegas old Times Square
Detroit and Bourbon Street
Wherever sin was I would stake a claim
Preach to each lost soul I’d meet
But I gave it all up
for cloth of gold
I had a native talent
and the barefoot profit bit was getting old
I don’t see things changing anyway
You can’t be reached anymore
For a few moments your eyes will focus
Then you go along no better than before
If I’m so smart why not be rich
Why not live like a king
Why cast my pearls before you swine
Why should I give you anything
Now the people come to see me
and buy a little sweet salvation
In my cloth of gold suit smiling
Now I’m going to preach to a nation

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

125 : 8/13/98 : The Kingdom Come Institute Press Release

657 ?


And so in the month of
August, the point when you
realize the midpoint of the
year has gotten quite away
from you. Time for midterms.
On an inauspicious Thursday
Looking right down the barrel
of 27 years old.
Time to recap.
I’ve unaccountably managed
to run out of cigarettes. I’m
just astounded with myself.
This does not happen. But
there it is, damnit
So it goes. Least, I got some
fucking money, jesus, what
a putz.
And so I Launch
the Kingdom Come Institute.
Totally. In this moment.
The crazy turnarounds all
the strange reversals, the moments,
the cracks in the pots we play
and beat our drums to
enchant great solemn bears
hoping they will dance down
the stars for us. They will.

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

RPM Challenge and Other Tidbits

On the urgings of Mr. Cortex of the Metafilter Compilation Album fame I've agreed to take the RPM "record a whole album in the month of February" challenge. I'm in the thick of it. I plan to blog the lyrics, all piping fresh songs of the day from February, at my profile site there, so you'll probably want to bookmark that and check it obsessively five times a day. Don't get all excited, given my methodology (see the second blog entry, titled "I like sure things") it is going to be pretty weird and pretty rough. I don't expect to be posting anything more about that here until it is complete.

I'm going to try to keep up at least fairly regular posting on the increasingly not secret song of the day blog through February. I'm thinking about taking March off, though, to work on getting up a backlog of transcribed lyrics again. I still haven't quite managed to get into a habit with that. I also just need some offline time to ponder the eternal verities and my so not eternal part in them. If I decide to go through with that hiatus I'll make a posting about it at the time including soliciting a mailing list for anyone who wants a heads up when I get back to blogging. Otherwise, you know, just check in around April 1 and see who the fool is.

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

another aside

_
Sorry for the patchy posting and asides but I've got something new (and song-a-day related) in the works, give me a couple of days to sort out some specifics and I'll be posting details here. Or search for the hidden clue for a preview of what's percolating. I've also eaten up my backlog of transcribed songs, so I need to get another batch of the archives digitized, then I'll get back to posting songs. Stand by.