The end of the beginning

The first songs of day project is nearing the end, just five songs to go. I'm trying to remember how I felt about the whole thing at the time. Ten years ago is a long time, though, and I was no longer keeping a journal at the time so I have no record appeal to. I recall being pretty caught up in my work situation, a condition that persisted for another couple of years. My never particularly robust aspirations to make some kind of a serious go at making music had definitely been pretty well cracked up on the rocks at that point. I think I was satisfied with my final songs. I don't think I felt much if any conflict about the project ending.

It is a weird, other world viewed through a lens of historical distortion, both personal and societal history. Before marriage, before child, before a gang of suicidal monotheistic zealots attained some fundamental change in this country, or maybe just better exposed a rot, a flaw that had been there from the beginning. Or maybe just opened my eyes more thoroughly to this thoroughly rotten world, I don't know. Before the world changed, again, and definitively not for the better. Before the turn of the century, and the beginning of this unpromising and fragile new one, in which I have been so thoroughly disappointed, now poised to commence the start of its tenth year. And me hoping as always for a better path, a better plan, some new philosophy, but for now left only with the one borrowed from another, to push on.

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

996 : 12/31/00 : 5 to 1

Five to one and one to five
maybe the less blessed survive
Easy enough to slip off the coil
free of the misery heartache and toil
12 of one, half dozen another
maybe it’s like what I heard from my brother
the dice are loaded and the fix is in
The world is doomed and drowned in sin
five four three two one and none
Father holy ghost and son
counting down an uncertain fate
Certain to finish what’s on my plate

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

995 : 12/30/00 : Coming Down

One Billion billion unique crystals
suspended a mile high
coming down as soft as breath
all caught and frozen in my mind’s eye
Turn it all around an axis
skyscrapers, streets and cars
people shopping kids in strollers
Girls in shops and guys in bars
Coming down on all of it
in a soft and yielding pile
pushed around and off the streets
to linger for a little while
transformation comes so easy
with the seasons with the days
with the hours the world’s turning
it comes down and never stays
more than half a planet’s journey
since the question the reply
now it’s coming down suspended
caught and frozen in my mind’s eye

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

994 : 12/29/00 : Go To the Mountain

I went to Buddha and then
back to Jesus Christ
I went to Mohammed asked him
how he pulled the Mountain heist
The Buddha made a secret sign
And Jesus smiled and shrugged
Mohammed didn’t say anything
when at his hem I tugged
And I said guess I better go to the mountain
Guess I better go there myself
No point waitin’ for the Lord to
pull another miracle off the shelf
Guess I better go to the mountain
and argue my own case
Guess that I’ve exhausted the potential
of staying in one place

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

993 : 12/28/00 : Violence

A crucible constructed for the temperance of silence
the mode of execution was a whispered dream
the solitary method that came through was violence
the product of the process was the silent meme

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

992 : 12/27/00 : Resin

The residue burns easily and
leaves a resin in the bowl
That wise men mix with paper fortunes
light it with a burning coal
The resin the rosin the sap the blood
That flows all through the fire
settles on the back of my throat
seems to stimulate the wire
And when the pile’s been consumed
it leaves a residue behind
that powdered up and drank with wine
Blows wise men’s wise dogs’ minds

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

991 : 12/26/00 : Drill

When you drill into my head with pain
is that something
does that mean anything?
Sick to death and lying in the dark
is it supposed to do
anything but bark?
The drill is evil, the drill lets me down
you use the drill too much
it locks me in a frown
the drill detracts from my quality of life
but if it isn’t the drill
it’s the knife
I fell asleep and saw
the drill was in it’s hand
I came awake and saw
the writing in the sand
let he who has no sin
forsake the drill and what it means
the rest of them must stand in line
the drill waits too
behind the scenes

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

990 : 12/25/00 : Hello Kitty Kat

Hello Kitty Kat
howdja get to be a kitty like that?
Hello Kitty Kat
Howdja get to be a kitty like that?
Hello Mousiekins
Could I bother you to die for my sins?
Hey there Mousiekins
Is this where it all begins
Good day Malcolm Kay
Only 19 letters to judgement day
Good day Malcolm Jay
Good grief, going backwards, this could take all day
Hello Kitty Kat
What exactly do you make of that?
Good by Kitty Kat
dunno what it means but it ends like that

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

989 : 12/24/00 : Anticipation

Heaven’s gonna be like
sitting at the station
A permanent vacation
Waiting to traverse a nation
coast to coast
from last to most
there’s nothing quite so good
as the anticipation

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

988 : 12/23/00 : Rome

As the trains rattle the wall
I follow another ordinary call
I’m going home but it’s not my home
So to wrap it on the sixth line
I prepare to greet what’s half mine
What would be true wherever I may roam

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

987 : 12/22/00 : Couplet

Racing through oblivious not hearing
listening or seeing what you’re fearing
the rush of senses makes it seem okay
To write another couplet song today
Circularity betrays awareness
less’n you are dealing with His Freakness
even then you always used the loop
and there was even lower you would stoop
The technique calls for linkages via phone
the final proof we’ve never been alone
for every socket there’s a plug to fit
for every drive a spare to slave to it
despite a fear of landing on my feet
I’ll race ahead to couple with the beat

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

986 : 12/21/00 : Moon Water (Reprise)

Is this the enlightenment?
No more water in the pail
No more moon in the water
The moment I think I understand
it’s already out of hand
tied with a bamboo strip
fall through the crack in our lives
where one man falls another strives
And on the moon the water is
nowhere there is no water on the moon
there’s no pail in the mind
the moon and all are left behind
Another theory proves suspect
another paradigm reject
It’s all it’s nothing anyway
that’s all there is nothing else to say

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

985 : 12/20/00 : The Grim

The grim slow dragging
of days one like another
The endless cavalcade of
this and that and the other
The endless disappointment of
the phone that never rings
the endless meaningless parade
a thousand useless things

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

984 : 12/19/00 : Led Astray

Led astray
led astray
we’ve all been led astray
by
the biggest lie
the world had
ever known
Apparently they told us
that the world was
twenty inches wide
And if you want the
truth my mind
was blown

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

983 : 12/18/00 : Money Factory

Shake that
gingerbread box
baby
Act like you
don’t know what talks
maybe
You need a
lesson taught
Don’t you
you think you’re
clever but you’re not
Won’t you
Open up your eyes to see
that you’re
nothing but a money factory
a whore

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

982 : 12/17/00 : Simply

Simply brilliant in a
minute simply
plain as light
plain as
light
in a dark room
I will solve it
in a moment
with the first
glimmer
the spark
that lights
everything
the illuminated
void
simply becomes
a
bright
white
light

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

981 : 12/16/00 : One One Three Three

Eyes open upside down
read one one three three
half an hour to
another hour to
the witching hour
Another day done
didn’t finish
half of what begun
There’s nothing left
to this night
it got used up
But watchin’ Doctor Who
Late night channel 2
far past primetime
Saturday Night Live
No longer worth my time
Spinning out
no regeneration for this one
another life might wait
there’s only this one now so
I say only in my sorrow
there’s always tomorrow

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

980 : 12/15/00 : Prevention

An ounce of prevention
for a pound of cure
Sometimes our decisions
just can’t be pure
or can they?
another fine mess
up in smoke
Guess I should learn
to take a joke
what can I say?
I scarcely like to
Say the word aloud
admit that I had
Broken what I bowed
today a jar but what about the next Day?

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

979 : 12/14/00 : The Interlude

Dizzying heights
to either side
this is a smooth spot
in a Wild Ride
The rapids left behind you
the climb that looms ahead
It’s very little wonder
that you spent the week in bed
The interlude?
say what’s your question, dude?
This is just a
placid creek
But that mountain’s
got a mean streak
So close your eyes
be here now
lean close to me
I’ll tell you how
The interlude just comes and goes
and of its function no one knows

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

978 : 12/13/00 : Tempus Fugit

2,049 : 1 ?


Time flies like an arrow friend
fruit flies like a banana
Ain’t it just like they said
it would be back in Louisiana
Tempus fugit all the time
it never pauses or rests
and nobody seeks nothing more
than all the tempus one invests
Don’t look now the wheel is whirling
sure seems faster than before
Don’t look now it’s catching fire
Don’t look now it’s at the door
Don’t look back lest ye become
a pillar on the wastes
any man not worth his salt
will blanch at how his portion tastes
but if his wishes were like larks
in harness to a slender chain
and somehow all hooked up to time
We’d check time’s flight in vain

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

977 : 12/12/00 : Gauss

The measurement of action at a distance
extension, mass and time, the rhyme of resistance
The unbearable burden of being
of singing, writing, breathing, and seeing
Give me an inch, an ounce, and a second
A centimeter or a gram’ll do I reckon
Give me a magnet, give me a gauss
There’s a chemist rocking the acid house.

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

976 : 12/11/00 : The Package

The package is prepared for takeoff
the freon’s been topped off
not gonna worry ‘bout the ozone layer
It’s headed far beyond the atmosphere
Carl said there must be a billion
like us except they made it past the first million
years or so and so survived
to inherit the stars their birthright
Let’s hope they find the package and
have mercy on our warlike land
I fear that based on current trends
it’s that or soon the human genome ends
We prepared the package with
the best that we could come up with
I personally deposited seven times
once for luck and six for my crimes
It’s drifting now past Jupiter
this song couldn’t get much stupider
and as it surfs past Saturn’s rings
I’ll wisely move on to wiser things

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

975 : 12/10/00 : Attempted

Fifth
suspected
attempted
communication
from the future
was
interpreted as a
self actualizing
lexical
feedback
response loop
manifesting
as a
pseudo-idiopathic
semi-autonomous
syntax
generation
engine

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

974 : 12/9/00 : Clutter

What at first appeared to be
a random heap that rose
from several thousand pointless tasks
not one came to a close;
the clutter rose a story high
and scattered over a block
seen from a distance with a squint
composed an ironic clock
which told time backwards starting from
when chaos ruled this all
a whirling maelstrom from which
appeared the primordial wall
the clutter gave birth to a gate
that passed between the planes
of corporeal clutter and spiritual decay
as little as that explains;
suffice to say as usual
there’s consequences and sides
sometimes you just take what you’re dealt
be grateful that the earth abides

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

973 : 12/8/00 : The Mushroom Grace

The mushroom grace’s tale is told
How yesteryear in days of old
the people found a mushroom that could talk
Men ate its fruit and spoke to god
a few remained forevermore odd
murmuring and casting wildly as they walked
its presence was ubiquitous
some claimed its spell iniquitous
a priesthood was arranged to guard its heart
The mushroom grace remained aloof
regarding one, defying proof
and proving in a sense the whole
appeared in every part.

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

972 : 12/7/00 : Beginnings and Their Ends

No this is not the end
oh ends and their beginnings
Typical me still standing in line
and already I’m counting my winnings
at the beginning of the end of the beginning
I can only see dimly what it means
just that I rose an inch above the swill
and saw the great soul-harvest machines
Yes this still is the beginning
it comes with all the love he sends
Oh nature of the long journey
oh beginnings and their ends
Wake me with the early risers
pour my cup with theirs
it is not my nature but
no beginning quite compares

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

971 : 12/6/00 : Thirteen Minute Waltz

2,043 : 25 ?


One
two
three
four
five
six
seven
eight
nine
ten
eleven
twelve
thirteen minute waltz

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

970 : 12/5/00 : Fetish

The fetish for a
fresh shake baby
left a generation
shakin’ they head’n sayin’ “maybe”
nobody felt cool anymore
and mostly it was a bore
like fetishes always get
so it seemed
and whether or not the
video streamed
when she
screamed
we were dreamin’ of
the heart beating beneath the ribs

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

969 : 12/4/00 : The Early Riser Haiku (Haiku 5)

The early riser:
Haiku bent, brilliant and strong
declaring: no loss

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

968 : 12/3/00 : Suffice (Haiku 4)

Suffice it to say
I am so sorry I’m late
better than never

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

967 : 12/2/00 : Wurm Haiku (Haiku 3)

Wurm haiku goes like:
one two three, so to seven
frontwards same as back

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

966 : 12/1/00 : Haiku Too (Haiku 2)

real millennium
gestation, the child is born
this is haiku, too

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