Upper room
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
the dreaded enigma of the two word songs
In a move sure to fail to impress we now arrive at a period of 27 days in which each "song" I wrote contained 2 words.
I vaguely recall having at the time some half-baked ideas of fitting these substandard efforts into larger projects of music and recording that never materialized (any idea that you can only vaguely remember and came to no fruition is by definition half-baked) but as I view it from a decade's perspective the real underlying narrative is pretty clear. I'd decided by this point that I was going to stop at 1,001 songs (unlike the second project an endpoint was not built into the original conception of the first, its scope was completely open-ended for quite a while), and the end was in sight but still well off, and I wanted a vacation. This was the closest I could come up with while keeping to the letter of my self-imposed guidelines.
At some point in the past I developed the false memory that I'd initiated this series under the influence of that "Cellar Door" thing I first encountered in the movie Donnie Darko (I have since been modestly surprised to learn that there is apparently some provenance, although an ambiguous one, for this idea), but since I'm certain that I was introduced to the lore of that particular phrase by said movie, and since the movie came out in 2001, this clearly wasn't the case. However weak the effort of this near-month may have been in terms of the overall project, I do recall attempting to draw up two word phrases with a certain resonance.
I have now no doubt written more words about these songs than are comprised by the lyrics themselves. Bonus for feed readers is that up through the tenth of November, once you've read the title you've read the song. Onward and upward.
I vaguely recall having at the time some half-baked ideas of fitting these substandard efforts into larger projects of music and recording that never materialized (any idea that you can only vaguely remember and came to no fruition is by definition half-baked) but as I view it from a decade's perspective the real underlying narrative is pretty clear. I'd decided by this point that I was going to stop at 1,001 songs (unlike the second project an endpoint was not built into the original conception of the first, its scope was completely open-ended for quite a while), and the end was in sight but still well off, and I wanted a vacation. This was the closest I could come up with while keeping to the letter of my self-imposed guidelines.
At some point in the past I developed the false memory that I'd initiated this series under the influence of that "Cellar Door" thing I first encountered in the movie Donnie Darko (I have since been modestly surprised to learn that there is apparently some provenance, although an ambiguous one, for this idea), but since I'm certain that I was introduced to the lore of that particular phrase by said movie, and since the movie came out in 2001, this clearly wasn't the case. However weak the effort of this near-month may have been in terms of the overall project, I do recall attempting to draw up two word phrases with a certain resonance.
I have now no doubt written more words about these songs than are comprised by the lyrics themselves. Bonus for feed readers is that up through the tenth of November, once you've read the title you've read the song. Onward and upward.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
918 : 10/14/00 : Circle Round the Sun
Draw a circle round the sun
with your finger trace the bend
draw a circle in your mind
no beginning and no end
look at my face through a circle
made with your finger and thumb
here’s a circle made of light
assured to make your heart succumb
3-6-5 world makes another
circle round the sun
trace once again the circle
where it ends is just where it’s begun
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
with your finger trace the bend
draw a circle in your mind
no beginning and no end
look at my face through a circle
made with your finger and thumb
here’s a circle made of light
assured to make your heart succumb
3-6-5 world makes another
circle round the sun
trace once again the circle
where it ends is just where it’s begun
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
917 : 10/13/00 : Witchglass
I couldn’t resist a little look
into the witchglass
I couldn’t stand missing a glimpse
of what would come to pass
So when the witching hour
had rocked halfway across again
I rolled it over one more time
and contemplated mortal sin
the witchglass so the tales go
can’t be created without death
the preference being an infant son
killed by a cat stealing his breath
but long gone and done is done
the glass remains to taunt
cursing all you did not know
or fearing fates, that known, must haunt
I couldn’t resist a little peek
into the shadow realm
looks like we’re in for four more years
of straw men at the healm
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
into the witchglass
I couldn’t stand missing a glimpse
of what would come to pass
So when the witching hour
had rocked halfway across again
I rolled it over one more time
and contemplated mortal sin
the witchglass so the tales go
can’t be created without death
the preference being an infant son
killed by a cat stealing his breath
but long gone and done is done
the glass remains to taunt
cursing all you did not know
or fearing fates, that known, must haunt
I couldn’t resist a little peek
into the shadow realm
looks like we’re in for four more years
of straw men at the healm
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
916 : 10/12/00 : Friday
On an inauspicious Friday
close to getting carried away
by the moon
by the full moon
realized a simple pattern
saw a glimpse of the wheels that turn
on the moon
on the everfull moon
I was making vows and wishes
Dreaming up exotic fishes
on the moon
on the bright full moon
on that bad luck day of plenty
nude al fresco and al denté
in the moon
slumbering in the moon
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
close to getting carried away
by the moon
by the full moon
realized a simple pattern
saw a glimpse of the wheels that turn
on the moon
on the everfull moon
I was making vows and wishes
Dreaming up exotic fishes
on the moon
on the bright full moon
on that bad luck day of plenty
nude al fresco and al denté
in the moon
slumbering in the moon
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Monday, October 11, 2010
recent history and other strange phenomena
So I've transcribed all the extra-curricular songs from distant past to just the other day (as per this rumination and these two).
I mined out everything I could find of songs I'd written outside the structures of the daily projects. I've noted along the way that I have indeed definitively lost at least a few lyrics - songs I can remember the existence of but can no longer remember enough of the words to recreate. I wrote this crazy embarrassing song in high school that addressed the topic of some girl who shot me down in a D&D kinda knight in armor on a horse metaphor that I'm fairly disappointed is apparently lost to the ages. I can only remember a few fragments of it but it still makes me laugh. No record of the songs I wrote for my first college band - with whom I won the annual college Battle of the Bands one year. Somewhere out there is a videotape of that award-wining performance and I recall not that long ago ripping the audio from said cassette so I suppose I could reconstruct the missing lyrics if I could track down the audio file, which did not yield to cursory investigation. It's been a couple years which contained a couple different computer issues and transitions in which some amounts of data were irretrievably lost so who knows. Nothing I couldn't live without though again there is at least one song in the bunch I pine for, a little. One or two songs of more recent provenance (of my mid-twenties, say) that I recreated from memory but can't shake the feeling are missing at least a verse each. And of course the unknowable lost AND forgotten songs which may or may not have existed, remaining only as a vague memory for someone for whom I played them once upon a time, or perhaps as a scrap of recording on a tape that is slowly expiring in a box somewhere. So it goes. Even my finest efforts now will probably not survive the increasingly seemingly inevitable collapse of modern civilization.
The total on those came out to a surprising 80-ish songs, I was expecting to find rather less. Posting during the interim will not be so sparse after all, though I may indulge myself in taking weekends off for a few months. I was expecting at best a few dozen. Of course 80 seemed like a lot more before I started measuring these things in the thousands...
Anyway. Having done all this it comes now finally to start transcribing the second project. I have this dream of one day getting to the point where I am actually transcribing the songs I'm writing within a day or two of their creation, and I suppose now that I have saved material to carry me through next May I am closer than I have been before to this ideal, but it remains to be seen whether I'll manage the long-term persistence.
It is interesting though - I have read the songs of the first daily project a lot - I re-read them a fair bit when I was writing them, and during the 4+ year interim when I did no daily writing (and virtually no songwriting at all). I started blogging these songs in earnest not much more than a year after I took up daily writing again and the upshot of all this is that while I was pretty well acquainted with the material of the first project I have barely read the material of the second project at all. It is only 5 years old but it is pretty much all coming up as a complete surprise. I have no idea what the next page will bring.
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
I mined out everything I could find of songs I'd written outside the structures of the daily projects. I've noted along the way that I have indeed definitively lost at least a few lyrics - songs I can remember the existence of but can no longer remember enough of the words to recreate. I wrote this crazy embarrassing song in high school that addressed the topic of some girl who shot me down in a D&D kinda knight in armor on a horse metaphor that I'm fairly disappointed is apparently lost to the ages. I can only remember a few fragments of it but it still makes me laugh. No record of the songs I wrote for my first college band - with whom I won the annual college Battle of the Bands one year. Somewhere out there is a videotape of that award-wining performance and I recall not that long ago ripping the audio from said cassette so I suppose I could reconstruct the missing lyrics if I could track down the audio file, which did not yield to cursory investigation. It's been a couple years which contained a couple different computer issues and transitions in which some amounts of data were irretrievably lost so who knows. Nothing I couldn't live without though again there is at least one song in the bunch I pine for, a little. One or two songs of more recent provenance (of my mid-twenties, say) that I recreated from memory but can't shake the feeling are missing at least a verse each. And of course the unknowable lost AND forgotten songs which may or may not have existed, remaining only as a vague memory for someone for whom I played them once upon a time, or perhaps as a scrap of recording on a tape that is slowly expiring in a box somewhere. So it goes. Even my finest efforts now will probably not survive the increasingly seemingly inevitable collapse of modern civilization.
The total on those came out to a surprising 80-ish songs, I was expecting to find rather less. Posting during the interim will not be so sparse after all, though I may indulge myself in taking weekends off for a few months. I was expecting at best a few dozen. Of course 80 seemed like a lot more before I started measuring these things in the thousands...
Anyway. Having done all this it comes now finally to start transcribing the second project. I have this dream of one day getting to the point where I am actually transcribing the songs I'm writing within a day or two of their creation, and I suppose now that I have saved material to carry me through next May I am closer than I have been before to this ideal, but it remains to be seen whether I'll manage the long-term persistence.
It is interesting though - I have read the songs of the first daily project a lot - I re-read them a fair bit when I was writing them, and during the 4+ year interim when I did no daily writing (and virtually no songwriting at all). I started blogging these songs in earnest not much more than a year after I took up daily writing again and the upshot of all this is that while I was pretty well acquainted with the material of the first project I have barely read the material of the second project at all. It is only 5 years old but it is pretty much all coming up as a complete surprise. I have no idea what the next page will bring.
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
915 : 10/11/00 : Early Riser (II)
1,886 : 38 ?Could another silence pass
still leaving him no wiser
as to fate or how to act
nonetheless the early riser
Walks on eggshells three past noon
noon in this case being midnight
roaming the streets with an honest man
look for a dim dim light
If you get passed by the early riser
so early it’s almost tomorrow
say a little prayer for the ones like us
who’re haunted by another’s sorrow
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Sunday, October 10, 2010
914 : 10/10/00 : Hold Out
I am a hold out
I’m waiting for the big score
Not gonna cash my option
not gonna sell the store
I’ve got a hold out
I’ve got something tucked away
Something better for times of no money
Something for a rainy day
don’t search for the hold out
don’t find it tucked into my jeans
when you force my hand at last
I’ll show you what it means
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
I’m waiting for the big score
Not gonna cash my option
not gonna sell the store
I’ve got a hold out
I’ve got something tucked away
Something better for times of no money
Something for a rainy day
don’t search for the hold out
don’t find it tucked into my jeans
when you force my hand at last
I’ll show you what it means
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Saturday, October 09, 2010
913 : 10/9/00 : False Spring
False spring
Don’t be deceived
by a fragment unremembered
Mayed Juned or Decembered
Don’t let the hot flash
Make you think you’re on fire
don’t let the perfection make you
think your fates are not dire
don’t be fooled by the false Spring
don’t be fooled by anything
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Don’t be deceived
by a fragment unremembered
Mayed Juned or Decembered
Don’t let the hot flash
Make you think you’re on fire
don’t let the perfection make you
think your fates are not dire
don’t be fooled by the false Spring
don’t be fooled by anything
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Friday, October 08, 2010
912 : 10/8/00 : All Good
What can I say
I’ve no complaints
every day’s a good day
Simple as can be
what a picture it paints
All good is all I see
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
I’ve no complaints
every day’s a good day
Simple as can be
what a picture it paints
All good is all I see
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Thursday, October 07, 2010
911 : 10/7/00 : Welcome Paradise
Welcome paradise into your life
wherever you find it
don’t try to spindle or bind it
Leave everywhere you go
a little more paradise than you found it
Spread a little paradise around it
Welcome to paradise my friend
it’s just a dream that need not end
throw your windows open and
say welcome paradise
Each day has got its twists and turns
And with each bend the wise man learns
tracing a path out straight
to paradise
And if it never hits the top
Well everything that rises must drop
See you on the flip side
I’ll be waiting to say
welcome to paradise
with your ride
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
wherever you find it
don’t try to spindle or bind it
Leave everywhere you go
a little more paradise than you found it
Spread a little paradise around it
Welcome to paradise my friend
it’s just a dream that need not end
throw your windows open and
say welcome paradise
Each day has got its twists and turns
And with each bend the wise man learns
tracing a path out straight
to paradise
And if it never hits the top
Well everything that rises must drop
See you on the flip side
I’ll be waiting to say
welcome to paradise
with your ride
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
910 : 10/6/00 : Painful Exercise
Getting sick of painful exercises
no prizes
he who early rises
writes on the first page
Any hero of the modern age
would tell you
for whom the bell tolls too
Forced verses are on my last nerve
maybe they serve
to temper my reserve
no freestyler no
7 minute miler
just a writer with a block
a rock to
contemplate
a proof of fate
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
no prizes
he who early rises
writes on the first page
Any hero of the modern age
would tell you
for whom the bell tolls too
Forced verses are on my last nerve
maybe they serve
to temper my reserve
no freestyler no
7 minute miler
just a writer with a block
a rock to
contemplate
a proof of fate
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Tuesday, October 05, 2010
909 : 10/5/00 : Event Horizon
The possibilities are a spherical wave
and something’s always coming around next
and no one knows for sure just what we lost and what we save
and this mystery unsolved leaves us perplexed
on the edge of happening now
before the moment’s moment came
the ship got placed before the bow
and stem to stern was crossed the same
The vessel of the present time
is rearranged, the course reversed
Edgewise there the moment’s prime
event horizon there dispersed
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
and something’s always coming around next
and no one knows for sure just what we lost and what we save
and this mystery unsolved leaves us perplexed
on the edge of happening now
before the moment’s moment came
the ship got placed before the bow
and stem to stern was crossed the same
The vessel of the present time
is rearranged, the course reversed
Edgewise there the moment’s prime
event horizon there dispersed
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Monday, October 04, 2010
908 : 10/4/00 : What Must Not Be
1,980 : 31 ?Deliver me from the valley of decision
my minds collapsing out like nuclear fission
What must not be has been opened wide
look what’s down inside
I sit and wait for fate to
turn me up another card
hopin’
you’re not just another thing
I wind up taking hard
But whatever the card might say
wind takes the words away
Finally in the end
Left behind before the final bend
Deliver me to realization quick
I like my cookie but I don’t like the stick
I don’t like to study and I
don’t like to work
you must think I’m some jerk
but what must not be
Kept hold on me
living somewhere in the middle
cloaked in darkness silent riddle
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Sunday, October 03, 2010
907 : 10/3/00 : Smoke
Our spirits are like silver smoke
in crimson jars and it’s no joke
that when the vessel’s broken smashed
and seems a shell all futures dashed
against the rocks of circumstance
the great toll sounds to end the dance
goodbye to romance and dreaming
still in absence there’s a seeming
something lingers in the night air
could have sworn that you were right there
Thinking that you might spare me from
this fear of my spirit’s freedom
You said my spirit’s always free
and you said what will be will be
And now I truly see your face
the smoke your spirit in this place
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
in crimson jars and it’s no joke
that when the vessel’s broken smashed
and seems a shell all futures dashed
against the rocks of circumstance
the great toll sounds to end the dance
goodbye to romance and dreaming
still in absence there’s a seeming
something lingers in the night air
could have sworn that you were right there
Thinking that you might spare me from
this fear of my spirit’s freedom
You said my spirit’s always free
and you said what will be will be
And now I truly see your face
the smoke your spirit in this place
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Saturday, October 02, 2010
milestone
As of a couple minutes ago I finished transcribing the final song of the last volume of the Songs of Days, project one, which (all things going according to plan) will be blogged January 5, 2011, ten years after its writing. So I've been working on a substantial backlog of transcribed material to blog, not to mention all of the songs written outside the daily structure I'm currently rendering to digital in service of the coming inter-project interim. I'm currently mining the notebooks of college days, which is, uh, well let's just say it's a trip down memory lane. And so it goes.
906 : 10/2/00 : Early Blues
It’s so early in the evening; I got them early evening blues
Oh it’s so early in the evening, got those early evening blues
Oh I don’t have a guitar or my blue suede shoes
I get up early in the morning, I get those early morning blues
Yeah so early in the morning, get me those early morning blues
makes me feel like a drifter like I got nothing to lose
oh early blues in my blue suede shoes
Nothing to lose but that’s no excuse
get down early in the morning get down early in the night
everything will turn out right
When it’s so early in the morning, get those
early morning blues
Oh so early in the morning
got those early morning blues
Oh it can’t be nothin’ it
can’t be nothin’ that I choose
I get those early early blues
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Oh it’s so early in the evening, got those early evening blues
Oh I don’t have a guitar or my blue suede shoes
I get up early in the morning, I get those early morning blues
Yeah so early in the morning, get me those early morning blues
makes me feel like a drifter like I got nothing to lose
oh early blues in my blue suede shoes
Nothing to lose but that’s no excuse
get down early in the morning get down early in the night
everything will turn out right
When it’s so early in the morning, get those
early morning blues
Oh so early in the morning
got those early morning blues
Oh it can’t be nothin’ it
can’t be nothin’ that I choose
I get those early early blues
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Friday, October 01, 2010
905 : 10/1/00 : Thin
My excuse is getting thin
ready or not: time to begin
one last interrogation
of the last empire nation
While our brothers drop like flies
they’re binding us with pretty lies
the magic picture tells the tale
and we toe up to the line without fail
and my patience is wearing thin
with or without me out or in
I’m not gonna watch another friend go down
as long as I’ve got some pull in this town
there’s a thin line between safe and dead
a little birdie came to tell me pull out my head
and start fighting back today
you can ignore it but it won’t go away
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
ready or not: time to begin
one last interrogation
of the last empire nation
While our brothers drop like flies
they’re binding us with pretty lies
the magic picture tells the tale
and we toe up to the line without fail
and my patience is wearing thin
with or without me out or in
I’m not gonna watch another friend go down
as long as I’ve got some pull in this town
there’s a thin line between safe and dead
a little birdie came to tell me pull out my head
and start fighting back today
you can ignore it but it won’t go away
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
OCR
I've said something to the effect before elsewhere but one of the pleasures of being a late technological adopter is taking delight in some technical sleight of hand that is utterly old hat for the world in general. I ran optical character recognition for the first time this morning and Great Scott, my computer can read hard copy!
This shows up here because lately I have been digging into my files in search of all the songs I've written outside of the daily projects, in service of having something to post during the interim - the current project I'm blogging ended on January 5, 2001 and the second daily writing project started on May 4, 2005. I've become attached to posting songs on the same date they were written, hence there's going to be a 4 month gap. I'm pretty sure I don't have anything like enough extant songs to post daily but it will at least keep the thing alive. For all its millions of avid readers.
Anyway.
So I've gotten through the easy stuff, organizing the songs I'd written on the computer in the first place or transcribed earlier for some reason, and then through the less easy stuff, cleaning up the songs I'd transcribed in the distant past and existed in file formats that had been mangled by subsequent technological drift. Leaving a substantial file of handwritten hard copy and a small stack of printed songs for which the originating files have apparently been lost.
There's nothing for the former but to get them transcribed, same as the Songs of Days books - humans can barely decipher my handwriting, let alone computers. But the latter is a source of irritation. I typed the damned things into a computer at some point, and furthermore I have gone to a certain amount of trouble and expense over the years to drag all my files kicking and screaming through the various shifts in computer technology. The hoops I jumped through when Apple abolished the floppy disk (and my next most recent computer had neither an optical disk writer nor a USB port) was ridiculous. And yet here are files that clearly were, their physical manifestation undeniable before me, yet gone. I have to retype the things.
But wait, I think, what about this wonderful Optical Character Recognition technology I've heard so much about? Now, commercial OCR has been around for decades, and consumer-level OCR has been around for, well, decades... I just never bothered with it. My current plight inspired me though, I fired up the scanner and started translating the pages into TIFF files, found a free service online (albeit with a Captcha requirement and a ten upload per hour limit) and literally like a minute later there it was, a paper document rendered to copyable, pastable digital text. Magic.
Easy as it was (the source material was ideal for OCR - clean, first generation print-outs on single pages), ironically I suspect that, between setting it up and figuring it out and (now) choosing to go online and write about it, if I'd just sat down and typed the things I'd probably have been done with this whole thing half an hour ago. But that wouldn't have been cool (even if it's only cool to me at this point).
This shows up here because lately I have been digging into my files in search of all the songs I've written outside of the daily projects, in service of having something to post during the interim - the current project I'm blogging ended on January 5, 2001 and the second daily writing project started on May 4, 2005. I've become attached to posting songs on the same date they were written, hence there's going to be a 4 month gap. I'm pretty sure I don't have anything like enough extant songs to post daily but it will at least keep the thing alive. For all its millions of avid readers.
Anyway.
So I've gotten through the easy stuff, organizing the songs I'd written on the computer in the first place or transcribed earlier for some reason, and then through the less easy stuff, cleaning up the songs I'd transcribed in the distant past and existed in file formats that had been mangled by subsequent technological drift. Leaving a substantial file of handwritten hard copy and a small stack of printed songs for which the originating files have apparently been lost.
There's nothing for the former but to get them transcribed, same as the Songs of Days books - humans can barely decipher my handwriting, let alone computers. But the latter is a source of irritation. I typed the damned things into a computer at some point, and furthermore I have gone to a certain amount of trouble and expense over the years to drag all my files kicking and screaming through the various shifts in computer technology. The hoops I jumped through when Apple abolished the floppy disk (and my next most recent computer had neither an optical disk writer nor a USB port) was ridiculous. And yet here are files that clearly were, their physical manifestation undeniable before me, yet gone. I have to retype the things.
But wait, I think, what about this wonderful Optical Character Recognition technology I've heard so much about? Now, commercial OCR has been around for decades, and consumer-level OCR has been around for, well, decades... I just never bothered with it. My current plight inspired me though, I fired up the scanner and started translating the pages into TIFF files, found a free service online (albeit with a Captcha requirement and a ten upload per hour limit) and literally like a minute later there it was, a paper document rendered to copyable, pastable digital text. Magic.
Easy as it was (the source material was ideal for OCR - clean, first generation print-outs on single pages), ironically I suspect that, between setting it up and figuring it out and (now) choosing to go online and write about it, if I'd just sat down and typed the things I'd probably have been done with this whole thing half an hour ago. But that wouldn't have been cool (even if it's only cool to me at this point).
Thursday, September 30, 2010
904 : 9/30/00 : Rush
Feel the rush the feeling that
feel the stutter shudder in your hat
feel the instant that you smash into
the glass ceiling so near above you
It is true that life is fragile, frail
and the rush can make a strong man fail
on the new year’s day we all must pause
check our worst conundrums for an escape clause
strapped into the wicked chair
soon to be no longer there
spent too long inside the rush
and caught up in the usual crush
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
feel the stutter shudder in your hat
feel the instant that you smash into
the glass ceiling so near above you
It is true that life is fragile, frail
and the rush can make a strong man fail
on the new year’s day we all must pause
check our worst conundrums for an escape clause
strapped into the wicked chair
soon to be no longer there
spent too long inside the rush
and caught up in the usual crush
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
903 : 9/29/00 : Eve
Eve of a question mark
another age arisen
and we’re still so badly organized
getting fired and put in prison
Who are the leaders these days
college boys in daddy’s suit
Dogs will never understand
the piping of the magic flute
and as an evening creeping in
I ponder what I must achieve
breaking through the strange dominion
of the twilight to the eve
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
another age arisen
and we’re still so badly organized
getting fired and put in prison
Who are the leaders these days
college boys in daddy’s suit
Dogs will never understand
the piping of the magic flute
and as an evening creeping in
I ponder what I must achieve
breaking through the strange dominion
of the twilight to the eve
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
902 : 9/28/00 : Machine
I am a machine
an animated thing
no living being
soulless and clean
I fulfill a role
dig the deeper hole
a vein of blacker coal
I’ll eat the world whole
another coded spiral
the pill’s construction viral
the slightest twist of chiral
key unlocks your firewall
and I’m feeling half machine now
when I asked why I didn’t mean how
give me a sailboat with a clean prow
I’ll leave with a libertine bow
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
an animated thing
no living being
soulless and clean
I fulfill a role
dig the deeper hole
a vein of blacker coal
I’ll eat the world whole
another coded spiral
the pill’s construction viral
the slightest twist of chiral
key unlocks your firewall
and I’m feeling half machine now
when I asked why I didn’t mean how
give me a sailboat with a clean prow
I’ll leave with a libertine bow
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Monday, September 27, 2010
901 : 9/27/00 : You Do
1,971 : 24 ?Once more before the cube
the maze of the Machine
versus rube
and the final scene
Whole thing
blowin’ up very slowly
all my favorite memories
are just some movie
or an idea I got off the teevee
is that really true
I guess the answer’s up to you
I hope I know what you will say
I try to say it every day
and always always turn to you
yeah just like you do you do
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Sunday, September 26, 2010
900 : 9/26/00 : Quasi
Quasi: not quite there
meta: around somewhere
para: alongside by
as I quasiparametamorphosy...
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
meta: around somewhere
para: alongside by
as I quasiparametamorphosy...
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Saturday, September 25, 2010
899 : 9/25/00 : Docta Faustus (II) (Faustus 25/25)
Docta Faustus
Original ghost in the machine
dealt with the devil and
got out clean
living or dead
it doesn’t matter any more
when the doctor
rolls in another score
Paging Docta Faustus
on the universal hip hop phone
since he committed upload
we don’t ever feel alone
Dial up
ghost signal in the night
carried on the microwave
or visible light
That’s it
just a little yarn we spun
a ballad of days to come
just now begun
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Original ghost in the machine
dealt with the devil and
got out clean
living or dead
it doesn’t matter any more
when the doctor
rolls in another score
Paging Docta Faustus
on the universal hip hop phone
since he committed upload
we don’t ever feel alone
Dial up
ghost signal in the night
carried on the microwave
or visible light
That’s it
just a little yarn we spun
a ballad of days to come
just now begun
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Friday, September 24, 2010
898 : 9/24/00 : Mephistophelis/Lament (Faustus 24/25)
Hey Mephistopheles
what d’you make of these
new fangled contrivances
is the doctor still there like he tried to convince us
Did you win the software or the shell
what exactly gets dragged down to hell
the flesh is alive but there’s no one home
the rest of him lives wherever it may roam
leaving you with a slip of paper
the doctah lit both ends of the taper
leaving you with a twist of ash
the coma case and a million in cash
Hey Mephistopheles
lament your unwatched q’s and p’s
the doctah it seems slipped through your hands
resides now in strictly virtual lands
Hey devil what’s the new deal
sign up or back out or do what you feel
The doctah claims that it’s all new now
I saw him on the teevee he was showin’ me how
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
what d’you make of these
new fangled contrivances
is the doctor still there like he tried to convince us
Did you win the software or the shell
what exactly gets dragged down to hell
the flesh is alive but there’s no one home
the rest of him lives wherever it may roam
leaving you with a slip of paper
the doctah lit both ends of the taper
leaving you with a twist of ash
the coma case and a million in cash
Hey Mephistopheles
lament your unwatched q’s and p’s
the doctah it seems slipped through your hands
resides now in strictly virtual lands
Hey devil what’s the new deal
sign up or back out or do what you feel
The doctah claims that it’s all new now
I saw him on the teevee he was showin’ me how
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Thursday, September 23, 2010
897 : 9/23/00 : Birth (Faustus 23/25)
It’s hard to see the pattern through the pain
hard to believe in mind without a brain
And something giving birth to its own self
while seeming to sit silent on a shelf
what seemed at first a pattern nothing more
an odd job getting in on the ground floor
and now maintains a semblance greater than its parts
from humble origins evolved in fits and starts
and finally in a moment thick and blue
the world gave birth to this conclusion true:
a bit of Faustus wound up everywhere
leaving the shell to rock and sit and stare
And leaving Faustus where? Well none can tell
It seems he’s everywhere yet gone as well
a different take on immortality
the sea gives birth, a new modality
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
hard to believe in mind without a brain
And something giving birth to its own self
while seeming to sit silent on a shelf
what seemed at first a pattern nothing more
an odd job getting in on the ground floor
and now maintains a semblance greater than its parts
from humble origins evolved in fits and starts
and finally in a moment thick and blue
the world gave birth to this conclusion true:
a bit of Faustus wound up everywhere
leaving the shell to rock and sit and stare
And leaving Faustus where? Well none can tell
It seems he’s everywhere yet gone as well
a different take on immortality
the sea gives birth, a new modality
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
896 : 9/22/00 : The Sea (Faustus 22/25)
The sea of information rises
restless, full with strange surmises
something is at work within
it’s almost ready to begin
what seems at first a lexicon
waits for a word to turn it on
while Faustus’ body rocks and drools
the strange sea deconstructs its own tools
watch it rising like the great wave
watch it duplicate and save
a million digital file clerks
delete the chaff and dupe what works
the thing is loose upon the net
ascending every parapet
it’s telling lies and telling time
it’s even learning how to rhyme
the sum of it infects the sea
and none know what that sum will be
knows only that it must break free
knows only that its name is Me
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
restless, full with strange surmises
something is at work within
it’s almost ready to begin
what seems at first a lexicon
waits for a word to turn it on
while Faustus’ body rocks and drools
the strange sea deconstructs its own tools
watch it rising like the great wave
watch it duplicate and save
a million digital file clerks
delete the chaff and dupe what works
the thing is loose upon the net
ascending every parapet
it’s telling lies and telling time
it’s even learning how to rhyme
the sum of it infects the sea
and none know what that sum will be
knows only that it must break free
knows only that its name is Me
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
895 : 9/21/00 : Blank/Whisper (Faustus 21/25)
Nothing saying says the blank
whispers: No word No word
Nothing moves behind the eyes
no one said and no one heard
nothing written on the wall
whispers many, many, take that
nothing moving there at all
nothing underneath that hat...
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
whispers: No word No word
Nothing moves behind the eyes
no one said and no one heard
nothing written on the wall
whispers many, many, take that
nothing moving there at all
nothing underneath that hat...
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Monday, September 20, 2010
894 : 9/20/00 : Annihilation (Faustus 20/25)
1,966 : 17 ?Teeth chattering with the glory
Is this the end?
or beginning of the story?
my mind’s tuned into the Big Sound Station
signal seems to whisper:
Annihilation
something’s arising
in an electron sea
looks a lot like my thoughts
but it is not me
and as I suspected
the price of its creation
is nothing short of Annihilation
Feel my memories stripped away
Game over
no time left to play
ready for the final revelation
see what really waits behind
annihilation
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Sunday, September 19, 2010
893 : 9/19/00 : The Chair (Faustus 19/25)
Strapped into a chair of
my own devising
electric current sparks and
the fields are rising
nuclear resonance
fields and spin
‘trodes are strapped across
and sockets plugged in
got my hand poised
ready on my own switch
the goal is deliverance
but the transfer’s a bitch
I’m strapped in the chair
of my own design
experiment’s a risk
but the choice is mine
teeth clenched hard
on the electrode
make my mind blank
get ready for the upload
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
my own devising
electric current sparks and
the fields are rising
nuclear resonance
fields and spin
‘trodes are strapped across
and sockets plugged in
got my hand poised
ready on my own switch
the goal is deliverance
but the transfer’s a bitch
I’m strapped in the chair
of my own design
experiment’s a risk
but the choice is mine
teeth clenched hard
on the electrode
make my mind blank
get ready for the upload
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Saturday, September 18, 2010
892 : 9/18/00 : Hole In My Head (Faustus 18/25)
Gotta speed to make it in time
velocity scares me and reason’s my rhyme
the playback trick’s eating holes in my head
and if I take it all the way I’m dead
Why does everything start out small
and turn into a monster ten stories tall
why does every taste start out sweet
when kicking it will turn into an almighty feat
a little hole here a little hole there
I told myself I didn’t miss it or care
but I am nothing without memory
maybe someone but someone’s not me
painful dilemma because it’s not a drug
it ain’t a habit I ain’t no thug
and if I give it up I lose my soul
but the pill I have to swallow is a burning coal
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
velocity scares me and reason’s my rhyme
the playback trick’s eating holes in my head
and if I take it all the way I’m dead
Why does everything start out small
and turn into a monster ten stories tall
why does every taste start out sweet
when kicking it will turn into an almighty feat
a little hole here a little hole there
I told myself I didn’t miss it or care
but I am nothing without memory
maybe someone but someone’s not me
painful dilemma because it’s not a drug
it ain’t a habit I ain’t no thug
and if I give it up I lose my soul
but the pill I have to swallow is a burning coal
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Friday, September 17, 2010
891 : 9/17/00 : Playback (Faustus 17/25)
Nothing more frightening than a mirror babe
Don’t scare me with the sound and the furor babe
I’ve screwed in my courage, ready to attack
No one will expect this tactic this playback
I’ve found out that experience can be recorded
I’ve found a way to replicate what memory has hoarded
I’ll hide my mind in the silicon stack
release it through the medium of playback
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Don’t scare me with the sound and the furor babe
I’ve screwed in my courage, ready to attack
No one will expect this tactic this playback
I’ve found out that experience can be recorded
I’ve found a way to replicate what memory has hoarded
I’ll hide my mind in the silicon stack
release it through the medium of playback
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Thursday, September 16, 2010
890 : 9/16/00 : New Tricks (Faustus 16/25)
The devil is trying to turn my page
I signed my soul away for wisdom and age
I bought myself time to pursue a hack
and I thought I could buy the whole thing back
but this hole is deeper than I thought
and I can’t figure what I really bought
I’ll keep trying solutions till something clicks
but I think I’m gonna hafta learn some new tricks
I studied language I studied verse
I studied for better and for worse
I studied the nature of the unexamined life
truth was my torment study my wife
So I found an answer or what looks like one
But it seems to preclude a walk in the sun
there’s only one direction on this road I flog
I guess it’s just how tricks are for this old dog
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
I signed my soul away for wisdom and age
I bought myself time to pursue a hack
and I thought I could buy the whole thing back
but this hole is deeper than I thought
and I can’t figure what I really bought
I’ll keep trying solutions till something clicks
but I think I’m gonna hafta learn some new tricks
I studied language I studied verse
I studied for better and for worse
I studied the nature of the unexamined life
truth was my torment study my wife
So I found an answer or what looks like one
But it seems to preclude a walk in the sun
there’s only one direction on this road I flog
I guess it’s just how tricks are for this old dog
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
889 : 9/15/00 : The Path (Faustus 15/25)
Get on the path get on the bus
you found your row to hoe
so don’t make a fuss
Accept the connection
The path and it’s direction...
Is there a way to set the mind on fire?
Yeah uh huh uh huh Yeah uh huh
Is there a way to turn it all to wire?
Yeah uh huh uh huh Yeah uh huh
There is a method if you do the math
Yeah uh huh uh huh Yeah uh huh
There is a method but is it the path?
Yeah uh huh uh huh Yeah!
I’m goin’ down it
I’m gonna drown it
Face the final upload
No way around it
I’m gonna do it
Punch in straight through it
Follow through
or face the fate
of all before who blew it
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
you found your row to hoe
so don’t make a fuss
Accept the connection
The path and it’s direction...
Is there a way to set the mind on fire?
Yeah uh huh uh huh Yeah uh huh
Is there a way to turn it all to wire?
Yeah uh huh uh huh Yeah uh huh
There is a method if you do the math
Yeah uh huh uh huh Yeah uh huh
There is a method but is it the path?
Yeah uh huh uh huh Yeah!
I’m goin’ down it
I’m gonna drown it
Face the final upload
No way around it
I’m gonna do it
Punch in straight through it
Follow through
or face the fate
of all before who blew it
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
888 : 9/14/00 : To Know More (Faustus 14/25)
In the race to know more
what’s true and what’s in store
I’m standing here perplexed
mind fixed on what’s next
the rocks and the ages
and all the turned pages
the lords and the bounties
the counts and their counties
make no misapprehension
I’ve thought past these few dimensions
pierced into the perspex prism
healed with mud divined with jism
raised the dead ideals up high
raised up old Vug and asked him why?
just to know more
more than before
more than ever
falter never
just to arrive
cut through the jive
and hook up the connection
to the people’s insurrection
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
what’s true and what’s in store
I’m standing here perplexed
mind fixed on what’s next
the rocks and the ages
and all the turned pages
the lords and the bounties
the counts and their counties
make no misapprehension
I’ve thought past these few dimensions
pierced into the perspex prism
healed with mud divined with jism
raised the dead ideals up high
raised up old Vug and asked him why?
just to know more
more than before
more than ever
falter never
just to arrive
cut through the jive
and hook up the connection
to the people’s insurrection
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Monday, September 13, 2010
887 : 9/13/00 : Ergo Sum (Faustus 13/25)
1,959 : 11 ?I think therefor I am
thinking about you
thinking of what’s true
making a mind up
circuits or wind up
therefor I am
automaton man
Is the mind composed of thoughts?
are the thoughts composed of words?
are our minds tied to the flesh?
or could they leave and fly like birds?
I think therefor I am
making a mess of things
deadlines duress that brings
the sharper understanding
I am standing
at the brink of how the
revolution will come
I’m building my replacement
ergo sum
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Sunday, September 12, 2010
886 : 9/12/00 : What is Truth? (Faustus 12/25)
What is truth?
What’s truth mean?
is it full?
is it clean?
is it tuned?
does it spark?
come in braille?
leave a mark?
is truth cruel?
is truth hard?
does it knock?
leave a card?
what is truth?
does it come?
does it stay?
is this some?
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
What’s truth mean?
is it full?
is it clean?
is it tuned?
does it spark?
come in braille?
leave a mark?
is truth cruel?
is truth hard?
does it knock?
leave a card?
what is truth?
does it come?
does it stay?
is this some?
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Saturday, September 11, 2010
885 : 9/11/00 : Knowledge (Faustus 11/25)
Now I will seek knowledge of the
nature of the mind
And I will chart the architecture
of the tangled web’s unwind
knowledge is a purity
hustled enough to set it free
dance with me baby
let me show you the way of the
knowledgeable man
Look at me just doing
What I can
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
nature of the mind
And I will chart the architecture
of the tangled web’s unwind
knowledge is a purity
hustled enough to set it free
dance with me baby
let me show you the way of the
knowledgeable man
Look at me just doing
What I can
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Friday, September 10, 2010
884 : 9/10/00 : Piece of You (Faustus 10/25)
Hey man just checkin’ the clientele
did the money man thing it’s just as well
It’s a power of a sort I guess
Do we still own a piece of you? Yes
Mephistopheles at your service
allow me to compliment your biz
congratulations ain’t you the man
swear your meteoric rise was more than I could stand
You’re still in bed with the Devil son
You’re still stuck with me nowhere to run
Wealth can always disappear
like fairy gold leaving you here
We made you we can tear you down
We’ve got your bankbook and your golden crown
Settle back stop making trouble
pray for a world to rise from the rubble
after we finish your power trip
and beam back to the mothership
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
did the money man thing it’s just as well
It’s a power of a sort I guess
Do we still own a piece of you? Yes
Mephistopheles at your service
allow me to compliment your biz
congratulations ain’t you the man
swear your meteoric rise was more than I could stand
You’re still in bed with the Devil son
You’re still stuck with me nowhere to run
Wealth can always disappear
like fairy gold leaving you here
We made you we can tear you down
We’ve got your bankbook and your golden crown
Settle back stop making trouble
pray for a world to rise from the rubble
after we finish your power trip
and beam back to the mothership
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Thursday, September 09, 2010
883 : 9/9/00 : Cash (Faustus 9/25)
Platinum, diamonds, on seven fingers
diamond fob watch - glasses for the opera singers
titanium frames - designer - Italiano -
Jap switchblade and knucks for the mano a mano
black pearl cufflinks platinum studs
quartz pipe stuffed with hydro buds
eelskin wallet stuffed with cards and cash
foil wrapped bricks of turkish hash
German lighter cutter and case
Cuban cigars everything in its place
Egyptian cotton an eelskin belt
pants look like poplin and feel like felt
cell and pager digital attaché
and a plain black case to carry the booty away
and also inside the requisite gun
only one setting and it ain’t stun
caseless ammo through a floating breach
cluster fuck bad luck sponges and bleach
I got to protect my investments
I gotta find a life less bent
cash out while I’m still ahead
before me and the thrill are dead
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
diamond fob watch - glasses for the opera singers
titanium frames - designer - Italiano -
Jap switchblade and knucks for the mano a mano
black pearl cufflinks platinum studs
quartz pipe stuffed with hydro buds
eelskin wallet stuffed with cards and cash
foil wrapped bricks of turkish hash
German lighter cutter and case
Cuban cigars everything in its place
Egyptian cotton an eelskin belt
pants look like poplin and feel like felt
cell and pager digital attaché
and a plain black case to carry the booty away
and also inside the requisite gun
only one setting and it ain’t stun
caseless ammo through a floating breach
cluster fuck bad luck sponges and bleach
I got to protect my investments
I gotta find a life less bent
cash out while I’m still ahead
before me and the thrill are dead
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Wednesday, September 08, 2010
882 : 9/8/00 : Desire (Faustus 8/25)
I’m feelin’ the root of all evil...
(What did I wish and what did I desire?...
what did I wish and what did I desire?...)
I’m... feeling confusion in my mind
confess the bizness drove me blind
I left some key or code behind
some strange twist back on the road’s unwind
What did I wish? What did I desire
a fast way past the perilous fire
that rises as a barrier to all who aspire
to turn aside the reign of this dark empire
and gagging on the taste of evil’s root
I wonder if I’ve been none too astute
I saw the devil in a three piece suit
Church shoes and a fat diamond ring to boot
Where’s my title where’s my contract
Where is it written down to which wall I’m backed
and the way I let the odds get stacked
by my heart’s desire and a salesman act
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
(What did I wish and what did I desire?...
what did I wish and what did I desire?...)
I’m... feeling confusion in my mind
confess the bizness drove me blind
I left some key or code behind
some strange twist back on the road’s unwind
What did I wish? What did I desire
a fast way past the perilous fire
that rises as a barrier to all who aspire
to turn aside the reign of this dark empire
and gagging on the taste of evil’s root
I wonder if I’ve been none too astute
I saw the devil in a three piece suit
Church shoes and a fat diamond ring to boot
Where’s my title where’s my contract
Where is it written down to which wall I’m backed
and the way I let the odds get stacked
by my heart’s desire and a salesman act
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Tuesday, September 07, 2010
881 : 9/7/00 : Ways & Means (Faustus 7/25)
Scratch a sharp glissando on the ol’ harp strings
Sittin’ back and talkin’ ‘bout the ways and means
I see a straight path to a fast incline
but I’ve got consequences on my mind
do I dare subversion in the first degree
should I really make them like me
Write it down on a scrap of tape
there is a bigger picture we cannot escape
And if I fear the ends don’t justify the means
and ways we make these scenes
The way of meaning is the secret path
but it doesn’t come free of wrath
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Sittin’ back and talkin’ ‘bout the ways and means
I see a straight path to a fast incline
but I’ve got consequences on my mind
do I dare subversion in the first degree
should I really make them like me
Write it down on a scrap of tape
there is a bigger picture we cannot escape
And if I fear the ends don’t justify the means
and ways we make these scenes
The way of meaning is the secret path
but it doesn’t come free of wrath
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Monday, September 06, 2010
880 : 9/6/00 : The Money (Faustus 6/26)
1,951 : 3 ?It’s all about the money, scratch
ounce for ounce and batch for batch
filthy lucre silver gold
I got to be ruthless and cold
I’m all about the money, juice
dimes for dollars or an ace from a deuce
expedience my only moral
no time to get sentimental or rest on my laurels
Money is a shiny trap
Get caught in the illusion you’ll taste the strap
easy to get pulled into the game
forget your real treasure’s name
I’m all about the money true
but it’s not for the money I do what I do
my higher purpose is to set myself free
escape from the lion the devil has on me
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Sunday, September 05, 2010
879 : 9/5/00 : Tha Life (Faustus 5/25)
I can’t resist but it can’t be right
livin’ tha life forever night by night...
The deal’s signed in blood and locked away
what have I sold what did he give away
did I offer him the coffer or the keys
What went home with Mephistopheles
I can’t resist but it can’t be right
Livin’ tha life forever night by night...
Now I’ve got time to run down the juice
to buy me time to set my thoughts loose
create at last my master stroke
an ifreet a name I invoke
I can’t resist but it can’t be right
Livin’ tha life forever night by night...
by the time the deal comes back to me
I’ll have another card, get out of jail free
I’ll demonstrate the new technique
The evidence the proof I seek
I can’t resist but it can’t be right
Livin’ tha life forever night by night...
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
livin’ tha life forever night by night...
The deal’s signed in blood and locked away
what have I sold what did he give away
did I offer him the coffer or the keys
What went home with Mephistopheles
I can’t resist but it can’t be right
Livin’ tha life forever night by night...
Now I’ve got time to run down the juice
to buy me time to set my thoughts loose
create at last my master stroke
an ifreet a name I invoke
I can’t resist but it can’t be right
Livin’ tha life forever night by night...
by the time the deal comes back to me
I’ll have another card, get out of jail free
I’ll demonstrate the new technique
The evidence the proof I seek
I can’t resist but it can’t be right
Livin’ tha life forever night by night...
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
878 : 9/4/00 : Drawn In Blood (Faustus 4/25)
The line is always drawn in blood
The downpour that precedes the flood
and crossing it accept a prize
that bars the doors of paradise
signed in blood and sealed with tears
the poison forced into our ears
the sickness for the sickening prize
a mad spark behind jaundiced eyes
that grasps the pen and taps a vein
and leaves behind a crimson stain
seal the deal prepare the plate
and servants offer up my fate
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
The downpour that precedes the flood
and crossing it accept a prize
that bars the doors of paradise
signed in blood and sealed with tears
the poison forced into our ears
the sickness for the sickening prize
a mad spark behind jaundiced eyes
that grasps the pen and taps a vein
and leaves behind a crimson stain
seal the deal prepare the plate
and servants offer up my fate
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Friday, September 03, 2010
877 : 9/3/00 : Terms (Faustus 3/25)
There’s always terms and
there’s always a catch
there’s always payments and
it’s always a stretch...
and I’m a dealer with a history
but the terms of this deal are new to me
you say my soul’s the asking price
but here’s a twist so let me ask your advice
if by chance I didn’t believe
in the commodity
should I reconsider my beliefs
or figure that the deal is free
should I put it in a box
and send it U.S. Mail
do you have a contract or a bill of sale
there’s always terms and
the offer’s not what it appears
but if it’s true I have a soul
I haven’t used the thing for years
so show me the papers
show me the line
show me the goods and show me where to sign
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
there’s always a catch
there’s always payments and
it’s always a stretch...
and I’m a dealer with a history
but the terms of this deal are new to me
you say my soul’s the asking price
but here’s a twist so let me ask your advice
if by chance I didn’t believe
in the commodity
should I reconsider my beliefs
or figure that the deal is free
should I put it in a box
and send it U.S. Mail
do you have a contract or a bill of sale
there’s always terms and
the offer’s not what it appears
but if it’s true I have a soul
I haven’t used the thing for years
so show me the papers
show me the line
show me the goods and show me where to sign
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Thursday, September 02, 2010
876 : 9/2/00 : The Offer (Faustus 2/25)
Hey I got something to offer
proffer what you want to
get your hands on
know there’s high demands on
Don’t act surprised
my office says you had a call in
stop your fronting and your stallin’
let’s get down to business
or on to whatever
choose it yes or no
you really want to live forever
trust me Docta I can arrange it
Man of resources saw your chance
and chose to change your fate
let’s step into your office
let’s talk about the terms
or hey stick with the deal you got
to sleep forever with the worms
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
proffer what you want to
get your hands on
know there’s high demands on
Don’t act surprised
my office says you had a call in
stop your fronting and your stallin’
let’s get down to business
or on to whatever
choose it yes or no
you really want to live forever
trust me Docta I can arrange it
Man of resources saw your chance
and chose to change your fate
let’s step into your office
let’s talk about the terms
or hey stick with the deal you got
to sleep forever with the worms
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
875 : 9/1/00 : Docta Faustus (Faustus 1/25)
Paging docta Faustus
caller at the office
the gentleman with the horns
says he’s here to meet you
says he’s sure you’ll see him
here to discuss some crown of thorns
or something or the other
the moors or heights that wuther
or the corruption to which flesh is heir
it seems he’s a solution
an oath or institution
some contract or time share
paging docta Faustus
careful thought you lost us
You better come and choose
to send him back wherever
or hear out his endeavor
an offer he say you can’t refuse
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
caller at the office
the gentleman with the horns
says he’s here to meet you
says he’s sure you’ll see him
here to discuss some crown of thorns
or something or the other
the moors or heights that wuther
or the corruption to which flesh is heir
it seems he’s a solution
an oath or institution
some contract or time share
paging docta Faustus
careful thought you lost us
You better come and choose
to send him back wherever
or hear out his endeavor
an offer he say you can’t refuse
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Hide it under the mattress
The provocatively titled Pornographic marks the end of the 6th volume of the Songs of Days, "Before the Wave." Tomorrow will begin the 7th and final volume of the first song of the day project, "The Mushroom Grace."
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
874 : 8/31/00 : Pornographic
You’ve got a pornographic laugh
it excites me incites me
to reveal a slender shaft of wit
You’ve got a pornographic mind
surprising so mesmerizing
I’ve got to slip inside of it
oh baby talk to me the way you do
I’ve got to get inside that mind I’ve got to find
the secret to that kinked charm
I’ve got to make you laugh again
and make you give it up that laughter fills my cup
I’ve got to hear it with you on my arm
You’ve got a pornographic heart
Can’t look away I’ll stare all day
Oh baby won’t you pin it on your sleeve
I’ve got a sentimental bent
I’m listening to that heart glistening
with love so pornographic I cannot believe
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
it excites me incites me
to reveal a slender shaft of wit
You’ve got a pornographic mind
surprising so mesmerizing
I’ve got to slip inside of it
oh baby talk to me the way you do
I’ve got to get inside that mind I’ve got to find
the secret to that kinked charm
I’ve got to make you laugh again
and make you give it up that laughter fills my cup
I’ve got to hear it with you on my arm
You’ve got a pornographic heart
Can’t look away I’ll stare all day
Oh baby won’t you pin it on your sleeve
I’ve got a sentimental bent
I’m listening to that heart glistening
with love so pornographic I cannot believe
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Monday, August 30, 2010
873 : 8/30/00 : Immortality
1,943 : 23 ?It is written:
Immortality shall
come from the nano
infiltrating through the ears
that’s the secret plan-o
some may try
resist the change
the nano will not spare them
don’t you know the sole cure for
our miseries is to share them
aren’t we gonna get bored daddy
aren’t we gonna crack
aren’t we gonna break down
when that monkey’s on our back
they say we’re afraid of dying
I say most still fear to live
careful what you ask for
what the nano has to give
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
872 : 8/29/00 : Cassiopeia
Cassiopeia I thought I’d see you
when I let my mind go free
you would descend and speak to me
Pale Andromeda love to get my hands on ya
Why not reach for a star
From wherever you are
And there’s Orion always Orion
Far past the Autumn sky
this year is not yet passed by
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
when I let my mind go free
you would descend and speak to me
Pale Andromeda love to get my hands on ya
Why not reach for a star
From wherever you are
And there’s Orion always Orion
Far past the Autumn sky
this year is not yet passed by
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Saturday, August 28, 2010
871 : 8/28/00 : Unintentional
Unintentional’s the
only way to slide into the
Waking sleep the
big hibernation
along winter’s sleeping
my own counsel I’ll be keeping
fiddling while the forest burns
the season turns
and I’ll be waking soon
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
only way to slide into the
Waking sleep the
big hibernation
along winter’s sleeping
my own counsel I’ll be keeping
fiddling while the forest burns
the season turns
and I’ll be waking soon
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Friday, August 27, 2010
870 : 8/27/00 : Intentional
If you feel a closeness to me
If I seem to understand you
I assure you the effect’s intentional
If you found from time to time
that I was not far from your mind
I assure you I strive to be three dimensional
with you
If I’m smarter more accomplished
if I have surprising charm
I assure you it was my aim always
stretching back nine years or more
a chance encounter so much in store
waiting for encounters in chance hallways
Intentional I aimed at you
and though you seemed untouched by me
I never really wavered in the end
And when I knew the time was right
brought my intentions to the light
trusting that somehow you’d comprehend
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
If I seem to understand you
I assure you the effect’s intentional
If you found from time to time
that I was not far from your mind
I assure you I strive to be three dimensional
with you
If I’m smarter more accomplished
if I have surprising charm
I assure you it was my aim always
stretching back nine years or more
a chance encounter so much in store
waiting for encounters in chance hallways
Intentional I aimed at you
and though you seemed untouched by me
I never really wavered in the end
And when I knew the time was right
brought my intentions to the light
trusting that somehow you’d comprehend
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Thursday, August 26, 2010
869 : 8/26/00 : Fifth Principle
Under the thumb of the fifth principle
out of excuses or out of my skull
just trying to find a place where I may rest
but everywhere I go I’m put to the test
This is the wild card that goes anyway
the fifth principle that does not lead or obey
written in water or traced on a stone
it doesn’t appear till it finds us alone
the concept the blueprint the marker the map
and beyond all that a big bucket of sap
and I’ve got a bucket for every tree
and the fifth principle it means nothing to me
but there in the last run I’ll see it arise
and the error of my ways revealed to my eyes
then we shall see what we save what we cull
laboring in the sun of the fifth principle
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
out of excuses or out of my skull
just trying to find a place where I may rest
but everywhere I go I’m put to the test
This is the wild card that goes anyway
the fifth principle that does not lead or obey
written in water or traced on a stone
it doesn’t appear till it finds us alone
the concept the blueprint the marker the map
and beyond all that a big bucket of sap
and I’ve got a bucket for every tree
and the fifth principle it means nothing to me
but there in the last run I’ll see it arise
and the error of my ways revealed to my eyes
then we shall see what we save what we cull
laboring in the sun of the fifth principle
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
868 : 8/25/00 : Sister Strap-On
Here I am in this Post Modern age
Hey uh sister strap-on
Won’t you rattle my cage
I need a shock to shake me free
I need someone to punish me
Uh bend me over sister
make me your wife
I beg you sister strap on
revolutionize my life
Just take me round the final bend
round to where the road won’t ever end
Here I am on this rack of sin
Dear god sister strap on
When does our session begin
Educate me to your ways
I plan to be down here for days
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Hey uh sister strap-on
Won’t you rattle my cage
I need a shock to shake me free
I need someone to punish me
Uh bend me over sister
make me your wife
I beg you sister strap on
revolutionize my life
Just take me round the final bend
round to where the road won’t ever end
Here I am on this rack of sin
Dear god sister strap on
When does our session begin
Educate me to your ways
I plan to be down here for days
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
867 : 8/24/00 : Choose
Virile, sterile, puerile, hung
choose to choose the song that’s sung
Led by Plato, Proust or Jung
clever, sever, lever, lung
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
choose to choose the song that’s sung
Led by Plato, Proust or Jung
clever, sever, lever, lung
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Monday, August 23, 2010
866 : 8/23/00 : World Fever
1,937 : 16 ?Fever the descending moment
falling back into the same old
Try so hard to step up to a
new horizon in from the cold
The whole world has got a fever
caught it back in fifty one
Used to think just I could see it
now I know I’m not the only one
what is causing this affliction
that has kept us up at night
brooding over past mistakes
and waiting for a hint of light
Fever an ascending chorus
rising to a different, new
way of seeing acting being
step up stand up follow through
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Sunday, August 22, 2010
865 : 8/22/00 : Arcana
Unrecorded in the lesser Arcana
after twenty years of eating manna
and wandering in a crazy style
I got an urge to settle down a while
The spirit hovers over the water
Reveals the pattern with a vector plotter
no surprises to get wild about
it’s all circles and they all move out
In the lens the all-seeing eye
ups the magnification high
enough to see on the head of a pin
what seems to be an angel counting him
It’s a mad religion true
obsessed with fives and the color blue
The Greater Arcana records not a word
and this is all just things I heard
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
after twenty years of eating manna
and wandering in a crazy style
I got an urge to settle down a while
The spirit hovers over the water
Reveals the pattern with a vector plotter
no surprises to get wild about
it’s all circles and they all move out
In the lens the all-seeing eye
ups the magnification high
enough to see on the head of a pin
what seems to be an angel counting him
It’s a mad religion true
obsessed with fives and the color blue
The Greater Arcana records not a word
and this is all just things I heard
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Saturday, August 21, 2010
864 : 8/21/00 : Credit
Slide the card through the slot
come on slide it
make the magic machine
Shower you with gifts
For being just the
great thing that you are
the great hand of the marketplace
invisibly through all the human detritus sifts
Oh yeah
that’s right
the foundation of a new day
oh yeah
that’s right
we’ll build a great society on top of it
Uh huh
it’s true
I gotta be crazy
sliding it through
their filthy slot
crazy for giving what
I haven’t got
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
come on slide it
make the magic machine
Shower you with gifts
For being just the
great thing that you are
the great hand of the marketplace
invisibly through all the human detritus sifts
Oh yeah
that’s right
the foundation of a new day
oh yeah
that’s right
we’ll build a great society on top of it
Uh huh
it’s true
I gotta be crazy
sliding it through
their filthy slot
crazy for giving what
I haven’t got
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Friday, August 20, 2010
863 : 8/20/00 : The World Soul
Am I imagining the world soul
aching and groaning
under the weight of all our irate
pissing and moaning
could it be there’s a true place
where the spirit arises
where the world soul wells up
and silently baptizes
Walking the spiral for the world soul
diminishing spirals
is there a vector of renewal
truth retroviral
And at the center what I’ll find
is not a mind is not a stone
a chamber without door or walls
a place where no one is alone
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
aching and groaning
under the weight of all our irate
pissing and moaning
could it be there’s a true place
where the spirit arises
where the world soul wells up
and silently baptizes
Walking the spiral for the world soul
diminishing spirals
is there a vector of renewal
truth retroviral
And at the center what I’ll find
is not a mind is not a stone
a chamber without door or walls
a place where no one is alone
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Thursday, August 19, 2010
862 : 8/19/00 : Loving the Question
Loving the question
easier said than done
We all want answers
to our postmodern cancers
embracing the technique
seeking our natural peak
the valley behind us
the sun that may yet blind us
in difference and scorn
have set us back and left us torn
And those of us who still care
We better be there
I’ll love the question true
make my way back to you
and write it in the stars
on Jupiter and Mars
The answer’s in living the question
no sooner said than done
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
easier said than done
We all want answers
to our postmodern cancers
embracing the technique
seeking our natural peak
the valley behind us
the sun that may yet blind us
in difference and scorn
have set us back and left us torn
And those of us who still care
We better be there
I’ll love the question true
make my way back to you
and write it in the stars
on Jupiter and Mars
The answer’s in living the question
no sooner said than done
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
861 : 8/18/00 : Burning Coal
What began as a digest of regrets
of so many things beyond all control
what began as a manual of hedged bets
is turning into a burning coal
I dreamed I smoked a joint with the President
and talked about trying to change the law
that had come to be so diseased and bent
it looked to collapse under the weight of a straw
and I dreamed that I was the President
shouldering a burden I didn’t want
trying to stand up for the innocent
wielding a tool so heavy and blunt
this is a digest; I regret nothing
I stand behind every goddamn word
so ask not if the coal is still burning
of that you may rest assured
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
of so many things beyond all control
what began as a manual of hedged bets
is turning into a burning coal
I dreamed I smoked a joint with the President
and talked about trying to change the law
that had come to be so diseased and bent
it looked to collapse under the weight of a straw
and I dreamed that I was the President
shouldering a burden I didn’t want
trying to stand up for the innocent
wielding a tool so heavy and blunt
this is a digest; I regret nothing
I stand behind every goddamn word
so ask not if the coal is still burning
of that you may rest assured
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
860 : 8/17/00 : Sickness
When we’re sick of the sickness
the sickness shall cease
and finally pick up the final piece
a relic of days long past gone by
the sickness in my hand, my eye
and though they offend me
in their sick way
confess I couldn’t pluck them out
cast them away
they say I’m not fit
for the Kingdom to come
and they may be right
I’m no sicker than some
who say that they’re already
riding the rail
that will take them straight through
this illusion this veil
I’m not sick of my sickness
I’m getting there quick
but I live in today
and today I’m still sick
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
the sickness shall cease
and finally pick up the final piece
a relic of days long past gone by
the sickness in my hand, my eye
and though they offend me
in their sick way
confess I couldn’t pluck them out
cast them away
they say I’m not fit
for the Kingdom to come
and they may be right
I’m no sicker than some
who say that they’re already
riding the rail
that will take them straight through
this illusion this veil
I’m not sick of my sickness
I’m getting there quick
but I live in today
and today I’m still sick
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
859 : 8/16/00 : The Lost Thought
1,931 : 10 ?The lost thought the lost verse
the lost art such a curse
what it was is gone now
what’s left is the long bow...
it glimmers and dances
but spins past the chances
of chance recollection
evading detection
it’s gone now we must yield
and harvest a new field
set free from the lost thought
content with what’s fresh caught
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Sunday, August 15, 2010
858 : 8/15/00 : Admit Defeat
Admit defeat avert my eyes
there is no consolation prize
dying for the slimmest hope
hoping God will give me more rope
throw the towel in I’m all through
at least for now at least that’s true
I can’t wait fifteen minutes more
trying to stare a hole through the floor
in a one way tie for last
not much of an iconoclast
no not much of a hero true
so paint my little wagon blue
I might as well go on the road
let all the rubes watch me implode
a tent revival kind of thing
for which this last short tune I sing
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
there is no consolation prize
dying for the slimmest hope
hoping God will give me more rope
throw the towel in I’m all through
at least for now at least that’s true
I can’t wait fifteen minutes more
trying to stare a hole through the floor
in a one way tie for last
not much of an iconoclast
no not much of a hero true
so paint my little wagon blue
I might as well go on the road
let all the rubes watch me implode
a tent revival kind of thing
for which this last short tune I sing
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Saturday, August 14, 2010
857 : 8/14/00 : Microscope
Ah: Microscope
look a little closer
reveal the structure within
Up periscope
rise above the posers
look across to where it might begin
things that are tiny
things far away
there’s a scope for every point of view
don’t think me whiney
but I have to say
I wish I had a scope to look inside me too
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
look a little closer
reveal the structure within
Up periscope
rise above the posers
look across to where it might begin
things that are tiny
things far away
there’s a scope for every point of view
don’t think me whiney
but I have to say
I wish I had a scope to look inside me too
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Friday, August 13, 2010
856 : 8/13/00 : Past Due
I’m past due
for a little rain on my Garden
past due for a pleasant surprise
don’t you think it’s time for
an unexpected joy to be revealed to my eyes
It’s long past due for my
ship to come in
loaded with glory and wealth
Still I sit around and wait to turn the corner
on work on happiness and health
maybe we live in a world of order
Where nothing can occur
before its time
and my sense of being past due’s
an illusion
I just can’t understand the reason
or the rhyme
maybe my time is already come
has been hear all along
waiting for me to unlock its secret
and talk about it in a
song
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
for a little rain on my Garden
past due for a pleasant surprise
don’t you think it’s time for
an unexpected joy to be revealed to my eyes
It’s long past due for my
ship to come in
loaded with glory and wealth
Still I sit around and wait to turn the corner
on work on happiness and health
maybe we live in a world of order
Where nothing can occur
before its time
and my sense of being past due’s
an illusion
I just can’t understand the reason
or the rhyme
maybe my time is already come
has been hear all along
waiting for me to unlock its secret
and talk about it in a
song
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Thursday, August 12, 2010
855 : 8/12/00 : The Magnet Part One
Crystal clear and filled with light
the end of ignorance and night
slightly convex bent and straight
the magnet man can you relate
watch it bend the point of view
of me of anyone of you
watch it bending gravity
part one is over now we wait and see
the magnet is an artifact
produced by the union of a secret pact
its manufacture lost in mystery
and here’s the trick of how this could be
in the background of the story told
there lies a riddled waiting to unfold
where did it go when it disappeared
yet was not destroyed as they had feared
it went to where the magnetism
goes after crossing the causal schism
action at a distant explained at last
the magnet pulls the present from the past
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
the end of ignorance and night
slightly convex bent and straight
the magnet man can you relate
watch it bend the point of view
of me of anyone of you
watch it bending gravity
part one is over now we wait and see
the magnet is an artifact
produced by the union of a secret pact
its manufacture lost in mystery
and here’s the trick of how this could be
in the background of the story told
there lies a riddled waiting to unfold
where did it go when it disappeared
yet was not destroyed as they had feared
it went to where the magnetism
goes after crossing the causal schism
action at a distant explained at last
the magnet pulls the present from the past
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
854 : 8/11/00 : The Magnet Part Two
Baby sometimes we’re just
Like magnetic dogs
we spin to meet or
flip like plastic frogs
In the grips of forces
we scarcely understand
the magnet part two
has us in its hand
The great Magnet’s will
cannot be superseded
But though we have a fate
we are not yet defeated
the poles we inhabit
Our opposites attract
mediated by the magnet
leaving us the will to act
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Like magnetic dogs
we spin to meet or
flip like plastic frogs
In the grips of forces
we scarcely understand
the magnet part two
has us in its hand
The great Magnet’s will
cannot be superseded
But though we have a fate
we are not yet defeated
the poles we inhabit
Our opposites attract
mediated by the magnet
leaving us the will to act
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
853 : 8/10/00 : It’s Not Working
Is it working yet
I still feel pain
It’s not working
please try again
It would have worked by now
it would have done the job
but I don’t feel a thing
I’m getting every throb
Help me get me through
give me just one more
can’t I please I know
God I know what’s in store
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
I still feel pain
It’s not working
please try again
It would have worked by now
it would have done the job
but I don’t feel a thing
I’m getting every throb
Help me get me through
give me just one more
can’t I please I know
God I know what’s in store
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Monday, August 09, 2010
Favorite Songs Archive
All the favorite songs that have appeared in the sidebar.
Volume Two Point Seven: Seven
One
Brass Ring
Nothing Virus
Onion
The Magnificent
Volume Two Point Six: The Axis
To the Bridge
Slow Time
The Moment
I'm Not Sick
Bake
Volume Two Point Five: The Creative
This is Your Brain
Narcissus
Lists
Host
Heart Worm
Volume Two Point Four: Not Another Bridge
Paraphrase
Cilantro
Factions
It's Harder Than You Think
More Light
Volume Two Point Three: Persist
Strong As Death
Fog
Siren, Banshee, Shrike
Guess What I Did
Overture
Volume Two Point Two: The Catch-Up
Dogs
Peril
Stone
Job
The Price of Freedom
Volume Two Point One: Log Book
Step
Tomorrow Never Comes, Again
Plank
It's Rome, Baby! (Intro)
Parliament of Owls Brigade
Favorite Songs from the Interim
Let it Ride
Pennies from Heaven
Poison
Kaligula
Three
Volume Seven: The Mushroom Grace
Drawn In Blood
What is Truth?
Early Riser (II)
If I Don't Burn
My Masterpiece
Volume Six: Before the Wave
Obsession
Magic Bullet
Parabola
The Dive
Black Angel
Volume Five: Untitled
Obedience
If You Love
Departure
No Water No Moon
Eat the Blame
Volume Four: Blank Book
Pentagon Files (Day of Inception)
Random Walk
Reiteration
Big Bell
Reason for a Song
Volume Three: The Functional Notebook
World for Sale
Function Ghost
The Last Night
The Last Shattered Verse
Jonestown
Volume Two: Record
Doomsday
Plinth
Heaven Won't Help You
Her Majesty's Fools
Queen of Heaven
Volume One: Songs of the Days (Vicious Cycles Revisited)
The Center
Manual Transmission
Telemeter
And Necessity (explains the tagline)
Sisyphus’ Reprieve
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Volume Two Point Seven: Seven
Volume Two Point Six: The Axis
Volume Two Point Five: The Creative
Volume Two Point Four: Not Another Bridge
Volume Two Point Three: Persist
Volume Two Point Two: The Catch-Up
Volume Two Point One: Log Book
Favorite Songs from the Interim
Volume Seven: The Mushroom Grace
Volume Six: Before the Wave
Volume Five: Untitled
Volume Four: Blank Book
Volume Three: The Functional Notebook
Volume Two: Record
Volume One: Songs of the Days (Vicious Cycles Revisited)
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
852 : 8/9/00 : Sludge Cup
1,923 : 1 ?The race is the sludge cup
so race for the bottom
the vast sewage cistern
of power’s dark flotsam
The price is a full cup
of dark liberation
the freedom of power
and its machination
I stand on the sidelines
and watch them all lie
I’ll vote in the sludge cup
though I scarcely know why
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Sunday, August 08, 2010
851 : 8/8/00 : The Oh’s
Some day forty years from now
We’ll be rocking on the porch
having made it through somehow
Saying:
Hey homes d’you remember back in the oh’s?
Oh’s, oh’s oh’s
My friends laugh know knowing it’s true
We can’t help but be amazed
at the craziness we do
It’ll all go
Just like it looked t’go
back in the oh’s
oh’s oh’s oh’s
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
We’ll be rocking on the porch
having made it through somehow
Saying:
Hey homes d’you remember back in the oh’s?
Oh’s, oh’s oh’s
My friends laugh know knowing it’s true
We can’t help but be amazed
at the craziness we do
It’ll all go
Just like it looked t’go
back in the oh’s
oh’s oh’s oh’s
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Saturday, August 07, 2010
850 : 8/7/00 : Tale of 33
Thirty three
can never be
an even path of anything
remotely round
the normal curve
the order that
the numbers serve
they have a soul
they have a voice
they have a past
but we the choice
at thirty three
cut back the lines
the hour is late
the woodbine twines
cut to the chase
the final part
a tale of threes
a woeful art
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
can never be
an even path of anything
remotely round
the normal curve
the order that
the numbers serve
they have a soul
they have a voice
they have a past
but we the choice
at thirty three
cut back the lines
the hour is late
the woodbine twines
cut to the chase
the final part
a tale of threes
a woeful art
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Friday, August 06, 2010
849 : 8/6/00 : Decade
It’s been a long time since I felt like
the kid I was so long back
In the day gone gone forever now
Another decade nearly on the rack
what’d I learn in the first one
I ought to’ve figured it out by now
But when I try to trace back I can’t relate
and it all seems a dream somehow
A little clearer on the second ten
at least the last five of that
even so it’s a long time gone
From when I stepped off that railroad flat
And the last ten years of hard truth
seems too short uncertain too
I can only feel sure of one thing
I spent it searching after you
And since I found my baby yeah
This third pass seems worthwhile
guess I’ll have to face the first year
of the fourth one with a smile
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
the kid I was so long back
In the day gone gone forever now
Another decade nearly on the rack
what’d I learn in the first one
I ought to’ve figured it out by now
But when I try to trace back I can’t relate
and it all seems a dream somehow
A little clearer on the second ten
at least the last five of that
even so it’s a long time gone
From when I stepped off that railroad flat
And the last ten years of hard truth
seems too short uncertain too
I can only feel sure of one thing
I spent it searching after you
And since I found my baby yeah
This third pass seems worthwhile
guess I’ll have to face the first year
of the fourth one with a smile
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Thursday, August 05, 2010
848 : 8/5/00 : Speed Demon
Speed demon claws in my back
demon monkey crystal smack
meth and monkey dust supreme
please don’t mind that I scream
If my eyes look like piss holes
in the snow I’ve walked the coals
of methamphetamine collapse
just trying to burn a synapse
that keeps tweaking me to the fact
that I’ve invoked a deadly pact
to ride this comet where it may
and see again if it ends me today
don’t try to slow me down my friend
don’t try to circumvent my end
I always like things short and sweet
Creator or no I must be complete
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
demon monkey crystal smack
meth and monkey dust supreme
please don’t mind that I scream
If my eyes look like piss holes
in the snow I’ve walked the coals
of methamphetamine collapse
just trying to burn a synapse
that keeps tweaking me to the fact
that I’ve invoked a deadly pact
to ride this comet where it may
and see again if it ends me today
don’t try to slow me down my friend
don’t try to circumvent my end
I always like things short and sweet
Creator or no I must be complete
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
847 : 8/4/00 : Half Hour
A half hour is nothing no
time to brew a storm, fill a sky with snow
but no time to sit and wonder why
maybe when I’m inside looking at a snow filled sky
How many do you suppose I’ve got left
before I am reaved and my kin bereft
If I had to guess I’d say about a million man
All that I have left to make my master plan
Yet if two friends told two friends
every half hour who says where it ends
before I count all my fingers twice
I’ve got my million one day no price
We could do it all ourselves
no leaders no aliens no damn dirty elves
a collective agency of will
watch the blind spider move in for the kill
just a lovely story friend
all good things must come to an end
with an encryption elegant and small
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
time to brew a storm, fill a sky with snow
but no time to sit and wonder why
maybe when I’m inside looking at a snow filled sky
How many do you suppose I’ve got left
before I am reaved and my kin bereft
If I had to guess I’d say about a million man
All that I have left to make my master plan
Yet if two friends told two friends
every half hour who says where it ends
before I count all my fingers twice
I’ve got my million one day no price
We could do it all ourselves
no leaders no aliens no damn dirty elves
a collective agency of will
watch the blind spider move in for the kill
just a lovely story friend
all good things must come to an end
with an encryption elegant and small
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
846 : 8/3/00 : Weird Worm
There’s a weird worm gnawing at my entrails
between my navel and my pineal gland
It seems to move around from day to day
today it seems to be ensconced in my right hand
the worm is guileless it eats without spite
guess I must have brought it on myself
I’m guessing that the way of purging it
is nothing I’ll just pick up off the shelf
I felt it curled around my ear today
it was listening in on my life
it made me sigh it could be worse I guess
a minor annoyance in a world so rife
with parasites and predators
trying to get a healthy piece of you
an undemanding tenant should not bother me
but dear little weird worm you do
I could expunge it with a cold black draught
or catch it near the surface of my skin
draw it through the membrane with a heated glass
extract it and impale it on a pin
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
between my navel and my pineal gland
It seems to move around from day to day
today it seems to be ensconced in my right hand
the worm is guileless it eats without spite
guess I must have brought it on myself
I’m guessing that the way of purging it
is nothing I’ll just pick up off the shelf
I felt it curled around my ear today
it was listening in on my life
it made me sigh it could be worse I guess
a minor annoyance in a world so rife
with parasites and predators
trying to get a healthy piece of you
an undemanding tenant should not bother me
but dear little weird worm you do
I could expunge it with a cold black draught
or catch it near the surface of my skin
draw it through the membrane with a heated glass
extract it and impale it on a pin
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Monday, August 02, 2010
845 : 8/2/00 : French Connection
1,916 : 9 ?I dreamed I was a driver on the French Connection
Running smack and guns for the insurrection
Fast money rough trade guns and blow
cops in my pocket and a truckload of dough
I was an enforcer in a factory
making human growth hormone and DMT
making methamphetamine and PCP
I couldn’t believe that motherfucker was me
dreamed I was a smuggler on the Ivory Coast
my eyes were glazed and glossy and my mind was toast
making midnight runs in a cigarette boat
golden chains at my wrists and throat
dreamed I was the kingpin of a mighty ring
pushing something that was worse than anything
Something dark and deadly but I didn’t care
I looked into the mirror there was no one there
I dreamed that filthy lucre was my only kick
mercenary merciless unmitigated prick
when the dream was over and when I awoke
I was very happy to be clean and broke
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Sunday, August 01, 2010
844 : 8/1/00 : Begins With One
what begins with one
ends with twenty nine
and a few days
If I’m not the same
as the one that was before
where is it the one left behind stays?
open a door
pass through a door
am I a different man
problems the same
persistence and pain
trying to do all I can
Here’s the message of the mission vision
Here’s the goal of the Big decision
Everything begins with one
and where it ends your guess
is as good as anyone
So if I live to see another sun
I’ll call that one
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
ends with twenty nine
and a few days
If I’m not the same
as the one that was before
where is it the one left behind stays?
open a door
pass through a door
am I a different man
problems the same
persistence and pain
trying to do all I can
Here’s the message of the mission vision
Here’s the goal of the Big decision
Everything begins with one
and where it ends your guess
is as good as anyone
So if I live to see another sun
I’ll call that one
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Saturday, July 31, 2010
843 : 7/31/00 : Bargain Basement
Bargain basement evening prayer
try to seek there’s no there there
Four line gospel nothing sacred
Watch me kneel down watch me break bread
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
try to seek there’s no there there
Four line gospel nothing sacred
Watch me kneel down watch me break bread
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Friday, July 30, 2010
842 : 7/30/00 : jen meme
generate the generation
Use genital in polite conversation
genesis of the genetic code
another meme virus on the Glory Road
jen meme jen meme means create
bring forth draw up conjure causate
genuinely programmed to
create an impression of a thing we have to do
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Use genital in polite conversation
genesis of the genetic code
another meme virus on the Glory Road
jen meme jen meme means create
bring forth draw up conjure causate
genuinely programmed to
create an impression of a thing we have to do
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Thursday, July 29, 2010
841 : 7/29/00 : Stick to It
“We can do anything we want to
if we stick to it long enough”
sometimes it seems like God just punts you
nobody told you it wouldn’t be rough
no more of the trying to hide them
eyes of dancing spinning fire
no more hiding the agenda
no more sneaking past the Wire
so stick to it babe stick like glue
babe stick to me I’m going there
to where the sense of purpose is true
can’t be seen or heard but somewhere
in the infinite divides
twixt style and substance coarse and fine
I’ll bring whatever coincides
inside of me and call it mine
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
if we stick to it long enough”
sometimes it seems like God just punts you
nobody told you it wouldn’t be rough
no more of the trying to hide them
eyes of dancing spinning fire
no more hiding the agenda
no more sneaking past the Wire
so stick to it babe stick like glue
babe stick to me I’m going there
to where the sense of purpose is true
can’t be seen or heard but somewhere
in the infinite divides
twixt style and substance coarse and fine
I’ll bring whatever coincides
inside of me and call it mine
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
840 : 7/28/00 : Helen Keller
In a dark and silent world
a helen dark and silent curled
unknowing name or voice or light
and seemingly a helpless plight
and yet the song remains the same
though it may not know its own name
imagine yourself like her
what taste or touch you might remember
mind waits silent mind waits dark
leaps up before the eternal spark
Writes in a neat if flaming script
words fit for the wall of your crypt
“Remember Helen Keller, boy
What I create I too destroy
but nothing of true value’s lost -
who else accounts the final cost?”
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
a helen dark and silent curled
unknowing name or voice or light
and seemingly a helpless plight
and yet the song remains the same
though it may not know its own name
imagine yourself like her
what taste or touch you might remember
mind waits silent mind waits dark
leaps up before the eternal spark
Writes in a neat if flaming script
words fit for the wall of your crypt
“Remember Helen Keller, boy
What I create I too destroy
but nothing of true value’s lost -
who else accounts the final cost?”
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
839 : 7/27/00 : Das Wampur
There is a thing
that moves
like a pool of oil on water
a shadow
refraction
a dark stain
It can take your form
so easy
soak into you, acid, blotter
replace you
dark reflection
in a golden rain
They live in stone
a crystal mind
no one’s son and no one’s daughter
stay clear
and mark well
a few remain
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
that moves
like a pool of oil on water
a shadow
refraction
a dark stain
It can take your form
so easy
soak into you, acid, blotter
replace you
dark reflection
in a golden rain
They live in stone
a crystal mind
no one’s son and no one’s daughter
stay clear
and mark well
a few remain
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Monday, July 26, 2010
838 : 7/26/00 : Nature/Minion
1,909 : 2 ?Nature sings a separate song
It has its yes and no and so long
A fractal hymn a harmony
it sings to a minion like me
And me I’m just a minion man
I try and try to do just what I can
I try but nature has its way
it’s just another minion day
reiterate the endless theme
rise and repeat I’m nature’s dream
a minion of the higher cause
another thought that gives me pause
mark it well its number’s five
as long as this minion’s alive
I’ll hold the fractal banner high
Its balance lives though I may die
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Sunday, July 25, 2010
837 : 7/25/00 : In the Beginning
In the beginning
life was in the universe
very powerful
but afflicted with a curse
An impulse to
try to bend the rule of law
a self destructive
impulse was the fatal flaw
God made physics
in the beginning
math made man
it seemed order was winning
but the beginning
is a long way gone today
and the way things are going
it seems this thing could go any way
In the beginning
life was before all things
it was called almighty
what hope there is that brings
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
life was in the universe
very powerful
but afflicted with a curse
An impulse to
try to bend the rule of law
a self destructive
impulse was the fatal flaw
God made physics
in the beginning
math made man
it seemed order was winning
but the beginning
is a long way gone today
and the way things are going
it seems this thing could go any way
In the beginning
life was before all things
it was called almighty
what hope there is that brings
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Saturday, July 24, 2010
836 : 7/24/00 : Permanent
A shift in attitude
adjustment of the mood
everything is different now
and the change is permanent
like a fat black marker writing bird lives
like a businessman that takes just what he gives
the purpose of the business
is no less
than the redistribution of what heaven sent
Your permanent vacation
begins just at the moment
that you choose to be
no more a slave
And when the world
is reaved and torn
we’ll find out that next
chilly morn
there really wasn’t
anything to save
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
adjustment of the mood
everything is different now
and the change is permanent
like a fat black marker writing bird lives
like a businessman that takes just what he gives
the purpose of the business
is no less
than the redistribution of what heaven sent
Your permanent vacation
begins just at the moment
that you choose to be
no more a slave
And when the world
is reaved and torn
we’ll find out that next
chilly morn
there really wasn’t
anything to save
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
835 : 7/23/00 : Waste
Wasted youth wasted days
everybody’s talkin’
but nobody says
what’s going’ on
outside the walls
in the Waste Land
Meanwhile at the right
or left hand
the decree laid down
was the cross and the crown
to raise up our wasted youth
The word unheard was the final truth
positive proof and
the end of questions
the curtain was uncertain
we were open to suggestions
ends of days
the waste of life
We know the vorpal instrument
Occam’s blade Damocles’ knife
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
everybody’s talkin’
but nobody says
what’s going’ on
outside the walls
in the Waste Land
Meanwhile at the right
or left hand
the decree laid down
was the cross and the crown
to raise up our wasted youth
The word unheard was the final truth
positive proof and
the end of questions
the curtain was uncertain
we were open to suggestions
ends of days
the waste of life
We know the vorpal instrument
Occam’s blade Damocles’ knife
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Thursday, July 22, 2010
834 : 7/22/00 : Haste
Haste make waste
take a look at my life
take a taste
of the vorpal knife
It’s a theme
of sorts I guess
the viroid meme
that I must confess
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
take a look at my life
take a taste
of the vorpal knife
It’s a theme
of sorts I guess
the viroid meme
that I must confess
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
833 : 7/21/00 : Odin’s Eye
Glimmer of a notion of a paradox
the pendulum of parametrix ticks and tocks
I look into the great pool of great Odin’s eye
And ask a question known to only him and I
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
the pendulum of parametrix ticks and tocks
I look into the great pool of great Odin’s eye
And ask a question known to only him and I
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
832 : 7/20/00 : Brim
This cup is brimming
it’s ready to spill
guess I’ve had about enough
of the bitter pill
oh if momma knew
that I’d come to this
I wouldn’t be here trapped
in my paralysis
fill me to the brim
overflowed and overwhelm
I’m ready to begin now
ready to take the healm
It’s been twenty years and more
since I set myself a task
not knowing what I had in store
not knowing really what to ask
but here I am again
I’m not sinking I am swimming
my moment slowly turns to view
this cup is brimming
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
it’s ready to spill
guess I’ve had about enough
of the bitter pill
oh if momma knew
that I’d come to this
I wouldn’t be here trapped
in my paralysis
fill me to the brim
overflowed and overwhelm
I’m ready to begin now
ready to take the healm
It’s been twenty years and more
since I set myself a task
not knowing what I had in store
not knowing really what to ask
but here I am again
I’m not sinking I am swimming
my moment slowly turns to view
this cup is brimming
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
Monday, July 19, 2010
831 : 7/19/00 Vorpal
1,903 : 54 ?Vorpal cut through anything
here’s the quandary see what you can do
Slice through the Gordian knot
that ties my hands from reaching out to you
snick snack slice through seemingly
inseparable matters of high regard
no diamond too rough
no hard place too hard
vorpal blade oh sword of legend
buried in your crimson stone
could the holy task of freeing
you from your place be mine alone
almost anything that you could
think of can be divided
the vorpal solution to the dilemma
and curse of the uninvited
You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here
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