8:00

So this little nugget comes from a ways back. It's a simple 3-chord tune, really, with a little flavor added. The title "8:00" was given to it by a friend of mine--the drummer in my group at the time--Andrew Wilshusen. I was never very good at deciding on titles, and Andrew named most if not all of the songs for the band.

Other than that, I have little to say about it. The first line is a quote from William Faulkner. I'm not sure anyone knows for certain what he meant. I'm not certain what I meant. Unlike some of my originals, I don't think I've ever disliked this one. Others...

"8:00"

I drink for the pain. I've got bad blood in my vein and in my heart.
I smoke what I can. I've got yellow hands and a space between.

I need a little wound. Everybody needs food to stay alive.
I need a paper hole brought up from my soul, so I can write.

But Mary doesn't want to know it's true.
Every song I write belongs to someone new.
Fallin'...fallin' through.

She says I lie. I can go away and die.
Then her eyes look down. She begins to turn around and apologize.
I just play this song. It don't take too damn long, not to sing.

chorus

You know my name...

So, my first musical selection, "You Know My Name," comes from Chris Cornell of Soundgarden fame. And of his own fame in his own right. The tune was the theme to the last James Bond Film, Skyfall.

I've played a few Cornell/Soundgarden songs in the past. Often I don't care for his solo work quite as much. It's a bit too pop at times, even a little cheesy maybe (I'm thinking "Sunshower," for example). I'm more of a Badmotorfinger fan.

Anyway, my wife suggested my last band learn this, but we never got around to it. I think this iphone recorded version turned out just fine. The opening vocal is a bit flat, but you know--my guitar was probably out of tune anyway. As it is, I'm not trying to emulate Cornell (but you can find plenty of that garbage on YouTube). Just trying to play his cool song in my own way.

And now for some music...

Wow. It's been over a year since my last post. It's not that I wouldn't prefer  a more literary life. I would. But until I finish the great American novel, I don't see that happening. And then I still don't see that happening.

So anyway, prioritizing means the blog gets shoved by the wayside most of the time. When I do have good ideas or when I run across poems I'd like to think about a bit in prose, I'm usually too tired too worry about it. But lately I've been asked by North American Review blog to blog a bit for them, which was a cool, thoughtful, and appreciated offer. And yesterday for Valentine's Day my wife gave me a cool leather-bound journal

and requested I fill it with haiku. I had taken up a similar project a few years ago when my mother gave me a small notebook made from (not with) recycled elephant poop. I called the collection "hai-poo" and returned it to her when every page was filled. That was actually a lot of fun, and I learned a bit about haiku along the way.

So with the NAR asking me to write a "The Art of Ecstasy" for their site and with my wife asking me to persistently keep a record of haiku, returning to the blog seemed a natural addition. But since I don't really care to invest the time to blather on about poetry, I think instead I'm going to periodically post some music. Some new, some old. Some covers, some originals. And of course I'll embed YouTube.

Now I do have some philosophical problems with this. I really hate most of the stuff on YouTube and much of what such a site entails. I mean honestly--most of what anyone needs to know about human existence can be gleaned from the annals of scatalogy past, present, and future. Very little needs to exist ad infinitum per the multitude of hard drives on which the internet survives. I do like all the education YouTube offers, but seriously--most of us having nothing to say or show. It's not true that everyone has a voice and that it should be heard. I don't exclude myself from this predicament.

But as a poet and a musician I am foremost an exhibitionist (aren't we all?). And so I find myself occasionally posting my foolishness online: YouTube, a blog, the infrequent and quotidian Facebook post (I fear how much energy is wasted in its various forms to house Facebook posts until eternity).

And with that being said, I intend to update "Present Everywhere" with regularity again, not with highfalutin pomp about poetry, but with semi-decent music, mine and otherwise.

Cheers.