Saturday, March 31, 2012

Solar System Poems 1: Two Faced Orb



Two-faced orb, more Janus than Janus,
light and heat separate soot from frost
in a place where tons are pounds
and Roland's song still echoes 
from Laurentia to Baltica.

Around its world in eighty days,
its showier sibling spits salt to gain fame.
But he, a mystery from Cassini to Cassini,
can wait a while longer for someone to crack the walnut.



NaPoWriMo 2012

It's that time of year again, so once again I'll be participating in National Poetry Writing Month.  I've done this for a couple of years, with the 2010 theme being baseball teams and the 2011 theme being chemical elements. I've been struggling a bit to come up with something for this year, but I think I'll do what comes natural and have the theme be solar system objects. I'm not sure if I'll restrict it to the subset of non-planetary bodies or if I'll keep everything in bounds.  Regardless, first poem should be posted here sometime today, along with poems every day thereafter (in theory)!

I may also still post some songs here through the month of April, though it's more than possible the poems will keep me plenty busy...

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Another cover!

I was listening to the Jayhawks this evening, and got in the mood to record something.  So I thought I'd tackle one of my favorites of theirs. Only twice in my life have I bought an album because it was playing in the record store where I was browsing-- the first time was an REM album I was on the fence about.  The second time was in Flagstaff, where I was spending the summer of '95. Tomorrow The Green Grass was playing in the background, and when this song came on, I immediately asked who the band was (I was vaguely aware of the Jayhawks from their sort-of hit a few years earlier) and bought the album.

Bad Time was originally by Grand Funk Railroad, but the Jayhawks version is much better in my opinion.  The Science Diet version was based on the Jayhawks', not surprisingly.

Anyway, after several tries I got through a correct version live with the Rover and then overdubbed the (weak) guitar solo.  And here it is: Bad Time by Yours Truly (sans Gedankenband)