Blog

Rip the Movie

Just saw the film, Rip! A Remix Manifesto, last weekend. The movie explores new creative modes of music-making (and other art forms) enabled by present day technologies and cultural interests. It also uses this path into the creative world to cover most of the present day struggles with copyright and notions of ownership of “intellectual property.” Continue reading “Rip the Movie”

Mighty Radio of Halifax

UnKindness Of Ravens recently may have been heard by way of CKDU 88.1 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Ron Bates’s The Threat is an “eclectic show of noise, jazz, indie rock, and other avant garde weirdness,” which presented (among exciting bits of thumb-piano joy from Konono No.1 and well-placed rock) some UKOR too. Fortunately for those who missed it, there is a podcast (episode 35 from 19 Aug 2006). It’s not just back-scratching that I’m recommending downloading the The Threat podcast (more like skin flaying), Ron’s put together a solid history of interesting music.

From the Mess of Our Orgiastic Heavens:

Splinter me out the jewel of a juicy black lime, lime, lime… (as it echoes off) this eruption came–brought us running, red-footed, across a molten earth, which bloomed in motion. We could see the pregnant future and drank to our loosening legs. We could youtheneyes our impulses and telekinized the seedling smokes hovering above our homes. We could architect monuments to melt back into their molten beginnings. After all, we vibrated a circle which revealed itself.
Continue reading “From the Mess of Our Orgiastic Heavens:”

Drink Friends Drink

Drink friends, drink,
and friends let's drink again.
The bottle will be empty,
But not before the end.

I've traveled near and far,
and now I'm back to stay,
Had enough travelin',
enough of the wanderin' way.

I saw the stars o'er Mexico,
'neath her thighs spread wide.
She said, "Stay!", Lord I had to go,
Though in her belly grew my pride.

Drink friends, drink,
and friends let's drink again,
the bottle will be empty,
but not until the end.

Waking somewhere in the East,
I couldn't see nor feel,
Drinking hard, sans surcease,
With the devil I made my deal.

"Son, be careful what you ask,
take care with what you say,
You might try to fit the mask,
But the truth gets in the way."

Drink friends, drink,
and friends let's drink again,
though the bar be empty,
there's more 'fore the end.

"You can leave 'em in the alley,
You can leave 'em in the night,
But there ain't no son o' Sally,
Won't let you go without a fight."

Well I heard those words and they rang true,
Though the goat himself had said it,
I wanted out; to 'scape my due,
And profferred my soul for credit.

Drink friends, drink,
and friends let's drink again,
the promise may be empty,
a bargain without end.

The goat just smiled -- winked one eye,
Which kind of made me shudder,
"The answer's easy -- stay a while,
The end could be another."

When he was done and satisfied,
and we had shaken hands,
to his work he fled and hied,
to still my sired bands.

Drink friends, drink,
and friends let's drink again,
their bellies will be empty,
but thus it is an end.

I've got my hidden pleasures
hidden sorrows, hidden truths,
and nigh forgotten treasures,
that the whiskey never soothes.

Haunted by their ghosts,
and their long aborted cries,
though forgotten are their hosts,
yet remembered are their eyes.

Drink friends, drink,
and friends let's drink again.
The bottle now is emptied,
and so we're at the end.

Track Twelve of the Obsidian Smoke Rings Album.