Sunday, February 6, 2011

More Lyrical Doodling…

Folks,

This might lyric might make some sort of sense to somebody, so I toss it out as a message in a bottle.

S


On a Black Ship © Solomon 2011
I am on a black ship
sailing with a flag of heresy
with skull and bones adorned
and little else to boast
On a red wine, broad sea
I sail for you with another flag
a white flag on the mast
my heart still open to you
Friends are a burden you must retain
Yes, I seen it coming
Yes, it comes and it goes
I don’t know what this wind is portending
It just goes, it just goes
So, you took a'plenty
I’ll take mine fruit freely a'fallin 
from boughs of Witness Tree
bearing for what all shall be

Friends are a burden you must retain
Yes, I seen it coming
Yes, it comes and it goes
I don’t know what this wind is portending
It just goes, it just goes
Life, Love, and Freedom
Not a promise but a dare to live
Ghosts throwing stones thru shadows
in the dark everywhere
Broken ships and black flags 
Lips painted violet on a dare
Let my courage free and be
I owe what all was lent
Friends are a burden you must retain
Yes, I seen it coming
Yes, it comes and it goes
I don’t know what this wind is portending
It just goes, it just goes



Saturday, February 5, 2011

Making Love in Words and Music…

Folks,,

Some of you may remember this old tune. We used to make music like this, where two friends could pretty well fornicate in public, and somehow keep their clothes on. Us hippies were not so sophisticated as these cats in those days.

Let's give a big hand to the folks on the bandstand and perhaps make more music like this tune in time. These time sure could use it.

S

I'm Gonna Make You Love Me

Country Style…

Folks,

Another bit of drivel, kind of country style. I pulled this out of my virtual desk drawer today, polished it up just a bit, but I wrote the basics back in 2006. There then was this girl, you see, now out of prison and doing well without my company. I did care much for her in those days, and got my skull well busted for that affection. So it goes.

I trust my friends in the glorious, notorious Hooligan Family to shepherd this nonsense into something that the kids can dance to.

S


Rough and Ready Angel © ssol 2011
Rough and Ready Angel
Some kind of lady
I’d rather be about you
than without you any day
Kiss me now forever
Send me to my dreams 
being with you, forever
never leaving your side
Eyes open, livin’ for love
well earned and well learned
Smiles broad on imagination
will never fade away
Rough and Ready Angel
Some kind of lady
I’d rather be about you
than without you any day
It’s been quite a ride
for a many good years
riding on the Dragon’s tail
running through the Garden
dodging raindrops from Heaven
catching snowflakes on the fly
drinking from the Chalice Well
the very Truth that Time will tell
Rough and Ready Angel
Some kind of lady
I’d rather be about you
than without you any day
any day, any day, every day, all the time, for all of Time



Friday, February 4, 2011

Late Nite Meandering.

Folks,

 The following does not scan for meter nor rhyme. Still it is close enuf to a finished product, timely to my sentiments, to put forth. After some polishing, I trust my good friends in The Hooligan Family, will know what to do with this nonsense.

S

Rattlesnake Wine © Solomon 2011
Free, my girl, let us be standing 
on the top of the world together
seeing the future in the shapes of clouds
where we share a cup of rattlesnake wine
Nothing seems so very easy 
yes, water tastes like rattlesnake wine
but, winter is not so hard to go today
as may have been, but now not for forever
My beloved, you’re dealing stolen lighting 
cutting the cards with silver hands
throwing all caution to the diamond winds
where it all comes around and turns again
Calamity and distraction
silken chains of satisfaction
the sacred cows and gilded calves
where everything is for not for certain
Flawless beauty born and torn in half
but, all that’s lost is again regained
as perfect love that dies and still remains
yes, still, nothing ever remains
Hey, savage beauty, tell me how and why
tell me where the fire dwells
how the golden flowing river stills
Tell me that you love me still.
We are seeking fortunes writ upon the sky
a future perhaps writ upon on the heavens
let’s go, let’s go, let’s go, to the sky
where crazy angels are throwing laughing bones

Everything is so very quiet at this moment
the water tastes like rattlesnake wine
summer is now not so very brief
as may have been once, but not for you
My beloved, you selling stolen lighting 
throwing the dice with loaded hands
throwing caution to the diamond wind
and love to love and all to lose
Hey, savage beauty, tell me how and why
tell me where the fire dwells
how the golden flowing river stills
the crazy angels throwing laughing bones
Angels seeking fortunes writ upon the sky
looking to the future up not explained
seeking the way to play their next hand…

let’s go, let’s go, let’s go, to the sky.



A Message to My Fellow Citizens…

Folks,

I was all set to post about some techie stuff, but life happens. I heard the news today, oh-boy…

I am an American boy,  grown up in the '60s. It is interesting and inspiring, also troubling to see the deal going down in Egypt. I feel the resonance of some events in our history in the USA. A couple of them are surprising, even to myself.

Of course, my nation's founders had some experience with firing a tyrant, then soldering together a fragile democracy brimming with very opinionated folks of conflicting philosophies, different walks of life and station in society. Somehow, we went on to a place, two centuries later, to fire two of our own Presidents in short order, stop a horrible war, and threw a great party. Another was not so good.

The weird parallel that I see between the initial protest in Egypt is to the Woodstock Festival. The third biggest city on our continent, at the time, was a three day hoot for peace and music. That was Woodstock. It was entirely self organized by a bunch of mainly middle class kids without day jobs, no food nor even toilets at hand. Much fun had all, and nobody got hurt. Sounds like day one and two of the events in Cairo, but those good folks on those streets added a call for justice to the music.

But, the comparison continues. Those Woodstock kids went home and kept the party going, tho along a different path, and they did so with their moms at their side. We filled the streets in the old cities (old by American standards) and faced down two lunatics with atom bombs. It took about fours years from Woodstock to running Johnson, then that depressive maniac Nixon to ground; that is not a long time on the tide of history. Along that path, we stopped a war.

Then, there is Woodstock's terrible alter ego, Altamont. Here again is a preceding echo of the trouble in Cairo. Hired thugs, the Hell's Angels, came on the scene to "keep order". Those Angels, mainly veterans who did service to their nation in 'Nam, but many of them kick-ass criminals, trained killers by their service, were not a bona fide bulwark against chaos. Peace and love and healthy politics dissolved into murder.

Peace and polity fell swiftly into chaos and killing at that gig. The killing got done in the name of keeping order. Even hippies can screw up in such regard. Worse, what we do to our children by sending them to war was richly demonstrated right here on our own turf in December of '69.

Egypt, in the past two days, has seen its little Pharaoh, that fat little punk, Mubarack send out into the peaceful demonstration of Human fidelity his own hired thugs. They wield their sticks and throw their bombs. They make a fine mess of the party. The greatest pity, is that they torture their own who have been spared the sorry wages of war until they came to the streets for jobs, peace and justice.

Think about it, and what you might want to do in speaking to your neighbors, wherever you happen to be on this pale blue dot in the Void. 

S


Thursday, February 3, 2011

Folks,

A tide of spirit is washing over the sands of time and tyrants in Egypt, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, the governments of so-called democracies like Israel and my home, the USA, are pondering how to react to folks who simply demand food, jobs, and dignity from their so-called leaders, The "big men" in China are in a very fine mess, a muddle, tonight.

This Egyptian flag is an emblem from when the folks who fired their King put an emblem of an Eagle, much used by folks across the world to express power and prowess. The red expresses blood spilled in valor. Black… draw your own conclusions.  For myself, this image is a fine equation told in an picture.

S


Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Risky Business…

Folks,


I just noticed that is was forty years ago, almost to this day, that three crazy people put their butts on top of a piece of government issue hardware with the explosive power of an atom bomb, and sailed to the Moon. Fortunately, the rocket that they rode on worked pretty well, and they made a clean get away from the home planet.


What is not well understood is that the flying outhouse, Apollo 14, that they would live in for nine days was, like all of its predecessors, an experimental and fragile piece of machinery. Of all the guys who had flown in that program, one in ten had already died. Three more almost perished in the almost unimaginable cold of airless space on the mission proceeding that of  Commander Alan ShepardCommand Module Pilot Stuart Roosa, and Lunar Module Pilot Edgar Mitchell.


Now on the way down to the Moon in a contraption that was about as sturdy as the foil wrapper on a stick of gum, a couple things went awry. First, a piece of solder came loose in the control computer. This jammed the circuit and the first fix was banging on the thing's front panel. Every kid who has done 7th Grade shop class knows both the problem and the remedy.


Alas, the computer, with less brains then your cell phone and dumber than a cockroach, then got its software in a twist. It decided to automatically abort the landing, but that would have sent the plucky crew back into lunar orbit with no engine. There they would likely die before their mother ship, the flying outhouse, could pick them up. Frantically, with seconds before doom would surely arrive, Pilot Mitchell clicked eighty key strokes and told the little computer to shut up and listen to the Humans.


But, not so fast! The "improved" computer, could no longer be trusted to tell the craft where to land. Commander Shepard took control. Well, the guy was a pilot, a sailor of the skies, and a steely eyed missile man; what else to do? With the ragged surface of their destination zooming towards them, certain death at hand, Shepard got his bearings and made a safe landing, almost right where they had intended to go.


Whoops! The pluncked down in the right place, but the maps were not quite right. The little bug that they road down in was now sitting at a twenty eight degree incline. The men were safe, but everything was off kilter. For the next couple of days, Shepard and Mitchell got no sleep, as they were always about to fall out of their little hammocks when they tried to rest.


Still, they did pick up some useful souvenirs to bring home. The science instruments they left continue to teach we on Earth somethings about our neighborhood, today. The Commander took in a round of astral golf. The snap shots they took impressed the kids back home. Roosa had brought along some seeds for redwoods and pines, and other trees. When he came back with them, they got planted and grow today across the USA. Roosa is gone now, as is Shepard, but somewhere, some kid is sitting under a tree that came back from the Moon.


S