397 : 5/12/99 : The Flowers of Inertia (The Inertia Machine 31/36)

1,429 : 12 ?


The flowers of inertia
gunmetal petal unseen
from here to ancient Persia
It is written what will be has been
Nonetheless they grow
No surprises monstrous sizes they attain
With nothing to stop them on they go
Need no sunlight need no rain
Beware don’t smell that flower
Intoxicating it’s baiting you leading you astray
They designed it in the same secret tower
It’s designed to suck your color till you’re gray

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

Transition

The last posting marks the completion of my blogging of Song of the Day volume 1.3, The Functional Notebook. I'll shortly begin blogging volume 1.4, Blank Book.

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

396 : 5/11/99 : Perilous (The Inertia Machine 30/36)

We all walk a line a fine line
in this world it’s perilous
Devils and angels that are mine
It's quite a show it’s dangerous
Voices that whisper in my ear
I know the devil is me in disguise
I know I’m a devil in a bad year
The natives call me angel eyes
Talk to your left shoulder check your right
check your blind spot and check the boxes
Check to make sure you’re not in the line of site
they’ve got you set up to release the foxes
All the devils and angels around
Quite a crowd in the waiting room
I searched long but the evidence I found
was nothing but a tract that said boom, boom, boom

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

395 : 5/10/99 : Devils Inside (The Inertia Machine 29/36)

1,416 : 0 ?



Devils inside angels outside
never thought that I'd take this ride
through this hectic modern age
that strives so hard to write its own page
hammering against my noggin
so what if I'm just a cog in
some gig past my comprehension
cooked up in some high dimension
by the angels we presume
the cat stares at the corner of the room
And I assume that on some plane
I'd see them too if I'd just strain
my poor brain hard enough to pry
the devils' hands off from each eye
but until then I'll have to trust
if things can balance then they must

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

394 : 5/9/99 : Cardamom (The Inertia Machine 28/36)

There he sits the smooth talker
cracking cardamom seeds
A three piece jumped up gun
stocked with virtual recall and satellite feeds
tucked up somewhere back behind his jaw
ain’t he the coolest thing you ever saw
Hyped up tuned up glory my cup
runneth over packed with rhymes and reason
always the seductive argument
and comes in every color for the change of the season
the weave of his tie is hypnotic and he talks so good
‘bout all the things you want to do but don’t think that you should
Boy walk away if you see him
cracking jokes and seeds and tiny skulls
of the the tiny friends who tried to warn you
ain’t you sorry you never listened to their parables
you never take advice from anyone
don’t come crying to me when you run afoul of that gun

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

393 : 5/8/99 : The Worst Thing About the Devil 2 (The Inertia Machine 27/36)

The worst thing about the devil
he knows how to play the angles
he knows how to hide in the cracks
of situations that are moral tangles
He’s a tricky devil yes it’s true
Almost by definition
It makes my head spin
I just get by by intuition
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

392 : 5/7/99 : Caravan (The Inertia Machine 26/36)

Dreaming of turquoise blue oceans and
shores of white sands, dreaming of destiny
Dreaming hand in hand
Drifting away on the wind of the fantastic
reality’s so plastic when you drift
oh the change so drastic
Eternal vacation dreaming by the sea
Is that what I call free, forever with nothing to do
Just you and me
Life’s not a day dream a bright shining jewel
it takes a sharp tool to dig it out
and the result is sometimes cruel
so we all dream all we can
with little plan of realizing
our dreamy little caravan

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

391 : 5/6/99 : Devils and Angels (The Inertia Machine 24/36)

1,409 : 4 ?


My devils and angels are cheek to jowl
I give up the ghost and let out a howl
Fight it out between yourselves; I’ll sit it out
I roll up the carpet and give out a shout
There’s an angel on my right, there’s a devil on my left
I see cherubim marching up the treble clef
I see them flying everywhere I see them in my sleep
My devils and my angels dear lord my soul to keep
I went to a shrink to knock my head down a size
I said I can’t distinguish between angel truths and devil lies
look me in my eyes doc and set me straight
is it the angels or the devils that keep me up so late
I’ll make it without therapy I’ll make it without pills
Even the valley of the shadow of death has its thrills
I am working my way upstream I am working my way back
I’m working with my devils and my angels on my back

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

390 : 5/5/99 : Engines of Paradox (The Inertia Machine 23/36)

Engines of paradox
are you gonna calculate
our asses out of the slings
we knocked ourselves into
Everybody talks
about how long they had to wait
in their fine fancy dresses and diamond rings
to get inside the clubs you been to
We worry about the stupid lies
We’re drawn to it like shit and flies
The equations the engine’s persuasions
can’t convince us
We’ll dance until the floor caves in
We’ve learned to hate life and crave sin
The engines’ persistence and quiet insistence
Is no evidence to us
Engines of paradox
are you gonna clarify
our sad history of failing
To work out our problems alone
Everybody always stalks
But the closer you get the air seems to rarify
And leaves you clutching the railing
trying to remember where you saw a telephone

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

389 : 5/4/99 : 4th (The Inertia Machine 22/36)

The fourth level of operations is transcausal
overall patterns emerge which are collated
In the level three cycle
of loop driven paradox engines
Most people have seen projections
of the results of these equations
but few truly comprehend that
what they are seeing is but a shadow
cast by an object that cannot be visualized
an eventuality
At the fourth level of operations
the indigents are unconcerned
with questions of metaphysics
or personal salvation
From the perspective of timelessness
their positions afford
they focus what can only be called minds
on the patterns that seem
always different but always
equally aligned

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

Combo Breaker

I noted with chagrin this morning that I'd unthinkingly omitted to write a lyric yesterday, breaking my longest chain of continuous on-time songs since I started tracking continuity - 40. This is not a number that is very impressive to me, but it's hard to sustain an uninterrupted chain of attention and intent.

As opposed to the first project - the one you're reading now - there's no way in the new one to determine whether a song was written on its appointed day or later (I still don't permit working ahead, i.e. banking). Aside from a temporary, ongoing tally for the online status updates I don't keep a permanent record of the continuity figures either. Only the songs remain. I can't decide whether I think that's better or not or irrelevant.

The relevance of any aspect of it is of course arguable.

There are two ways songs get missed: yesterday I fully intended to write one in the evening and simply forgot somewhere along the way. Otherwise I skip it willfully. I feel like I do more of the latter since I stopped highlighting late songs. Sometimes I just decide that I want to relax or whatever and elect before the fact to not write one day, but usually it is a snap decision made in the duress of what I feel I need to accomplish as the day approaches its end. I guess a putative third scenario would be one where despite my best intent and attention I am detained beyond reasonable expectation - chained to a stone, perhaps, left for the eagles to pluck out my liver.

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

388 : 5/3/99 : Palindrome (The Inertia Machine 22/36)

Only this, more nothing
everyday dealing with
what anyone can see
and moment by moment and
see, can anyone, what
with dealing everyday
nothing more, this only

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

387 : 5/2/99 : Chaosium (The Inertia Machine 21/36)

1,401 : 38 ?


Welcome back to the chaosium
Gee it’s like you’d never gone
Everything’s just as it was before
the truth seems stupider these days
guess it’s my old fashioned ways
I never knew I was such a prisoner
That’s an old story boy
Fate can make a man a toy
Fate can make a man renounce his creed
our works are wrapped around our wills
One man reaps what another tills
And the social bargain is fulfilled in another filthy deed
Welcome back to the chaosium hotel
Here are all the old friends you knew so well
Such a crew of ragtag rulers just like in the movies man
And if we want it all to change it can

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