Epic fantasy, film and life
Here’s my latest song. Gone Wrong. My usual cheery perspective on the world. I have to say, issues of moodiness aside, writing and recording music is just about the most enjoyable thing. Much more fun than base-jumping off the Empire State World.
Anyway, Gone Wrong is part of my Skypilot project. Typical guitars, bass, drums, layered vocals. A good friend of mine, Rene Astorga, added the synthesizer.
EchoEcho is my latest song. It’s about death (of course). Our shadows in this life are already stretching across the divide, waiting for us with all of their implications and consequences and echoes. What we do here will last. Or not.
I hope you consider your own mortality every once in a while. Not in a morbid way, but in careful consideration of what it might mean.
Echo is typical of my usual approach to songwriting and recording: seat-of-the-pants. I have some pretty rough tracks, clipping, mixing pop and rock and a little bit of punk anger. Considering death does make me angry at times, the supposed casualness of it, the loss of what-could-have-been, the supposed lack of meaning. I have to be careful to use that word “supposed” as a qualifier, because I think we’ll find out a lot of what we’re not understanding here, once on the other side. Things our forward-reaching shadows have already figured out.
Death is a drearily common fixture of our world, whether its a drunk-driving accident from last night on tonight’s news (if it bleeds, it leads), cancer, a gang-shooting (all too common in my town), ISIS beheading Christians in Iraq (wtf is up with US foreign policy?), or Planned Parenthood offing mini-humans in their dark Satanic mills (wtf America?). Sorry, some death is needless and evil. Some death is pushing the boat off from shore and sailing away into that good night with a brisk west wind.
Little ZombiesLatest tune, courtesy of me, my guitar, Garageband, some midi and a little time. Time. That’s the most valuable part. Time. I’ve been realizing more and more that we have limited time. Hardly any at all. And we don’t know how much.
Time is kind of like a wrapped Christmas present that we don’t get to open until the millisecond before our death. We get whacked by the drunk in his car and–bam–we open the present as we sail through the air, check inside the box and think, “Hmm. Okay. I get 48 years, 3 months, 16 days, 2 hours and 37 seconds. This is the last second.” And then we hit the pavement.
Or we open the box while in bed at the cancer center. Tubes and monitors hooked up everywhere. The monsignor or pastor or rabbi just gave you the last rites. Your heart monitor begins to flatline as your disease has the last say, and…we get to open the box, peer inside and remark “Aha. I get 82 years, 5 months, 29 days, 1 hour and 12 seconds. And this is the last second.” Flatline.
So where am I going with this? Nowhere, really. Just that…well, be careful with your time. Don’t presume.
Speaking of presumption, this song, Little Zombies, is about the presumption of life. Some people feel entitled to it. Some don’t even get to be part of the discussion, whether they’re alive and enslaved somehow (sex trade, human trafficking out of Africa and into Muslim countries, kids in sweatshops, little baby humans who haven’t been born yet, whatever and whomever). This one is for all the little zombies who never really got a shot at life.
ManInTheMirror Here’s the latest song. Man in the Mirror. Guitars, bass, drums, vocals upon vocals. Lots of fiddling around and having fun. The verses were particularly fun, as I kept on layering harmonies. Hopefully you can tell that the third verse has more harmonies in it than the 1st and 2nd (and the 2nd more than the 1st). I wish I had more time to write and record songs. Very therapeutic.
Whether you subscribe to the chaos theory approach to life, the universe, etc., or a more theistic approach, both philosophies are comfortable with the idea that life is made up of various yarns that tend to come together into one rope.
Sure, they might wander off in random directions, intersect, diverge, re-route, whatever and whichever and however you might imagine, but they tend to converge. The road in the yellow wood that split into two will one day emerge from that wood as one road again.
That said, we’ve all our various yarns weaving together into the tapestry of our lives. For me, that includes the Rangers film having had its first screening last week in Virginia. Next, it’s off to Fandom Fest, August 7-9, in Louisville, Kentucky, as well as at Gen Con in Indianapolis, July 31. Rangers is the second script I’ve written that’s actually been made into film (Rise of the Fellows Hip was the first–same production company: OAP); I’m not expecting it to be the last.
Speaking of film, I’m trying my hand at shooting a music video for a song called Little Zombies (local band called Skypilot, from their upcoming Galactic Holler album). Should be interesting to see what happens with no budget. Could be a trainwreck or could be awesome (as in: eliciting some awe). I think I’m going to go for a horror film approach, plus kids on bicycles.
Other yarns? Slowly (see: glacial) chipping away at another Tormay book. I refuse to divulge information about it right now, as that would be akin to opening the oven door to look at a cheese soufflé mid-bake. Never a good thing.
What are your threads these days?