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Hollow Weenie


I am traveling today because my religion does not allow me to travel on a double holy day tomorrow. Nov. 1 is both All Saints Day and my sainted mother's birthday. And while that is not as significant as April 1st being my wedding day, well you get the idea.

Halloween plans include giving sugar infused trinkets to cold, wet youngsters and imbibing hot, alcohol infused toddies for the adults. But not until I make yet another geographic move. So short and distorted is the blog today. I need to build my Wii holiday avatar before I hit the open road yet again.

Shadows of a thousand years rise again unseen,
Voices whisper in the trees,
"Tonight is Halloween!"
---Dexter Kozen


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Lisa Scream from Simpsons.com; The Scream by Edvard Munch
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Tenebrous Audio

I have to thank my good friend David for this dark musical interlude. This CD compilation is justly called Going Down. I offered them as my penultimate wrap to this dark week (w/ appropriate videos where available).

-when I saw the opening song, I knew this was going to be a great mix
2. Moody Blues Melancholy Man
-the standard rendition with some uplifting but dark winter scenes for mood(y)
3. Three Dog Night Easy To Be Hard
-1970 version with long hair and no smoothed out big band trappings
4. Police King Of Pain
-reunion tour version from Rio 2007
5. Van Morrison Melancholia
-a real hidden gem but hard to find on the net, only a thirty second snippet
6. M*A*S*H Theme Suicide Is Painless
-video is the funeral scene from the movie
7. Steppenwolf Desperation
-from the album Rest In Piece
8. Natalie Merchant Break Your Heart
-I know that it will hurt, I know that it will break your heart
-with apologies, but the video is nearly the point of no return Otis
10. Sting Fragile
-listening to Sting and watching him are different experiences colored by gender
11. Peter Gabriel Don't Give Up
-if he had never left Genesis, you wouldn't know who Phil Collins is
12. The Who Behind Blue Eyes
-for something a little different, the Limp Bizkit cover
13. Van Morrison Underlying Depression
-the best I can do is the lyrics; too bad because the two Morrison songs on this list are brilliant
-a truly great cover by Annie Lennox
15. The Doors The End
-from the iconic opening of Apocalypse Now
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photo credit: archives


Main Entry: ten·e·brous
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French tenebreus, from Latin tenebrosus, from tenebrae
Date: 15th century
1 : shut off from the light : dark, murky
2 : hard to understand : obscure
3 : causing gloom
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A Late Night Double Feature Picture Show


The darkness must go down the river of nights dreaming
Flow morphia slow, let the sun and light come streaming
Into my life, into my life.

There's a light over at the Frankenstein Place
There's a light burning in the fireplace
There's a light, light in the darkness of everybody's life.

Thirty-three years ago, on a wet winter's eve at the Bijou in Hermosa Beach. She simply said I had to see this film and she was to taking me; nothing more was offered nor needed. I suppose there are people who find Rocky actually dark, not campy dark or artsy dark but dark dark. I have no truck with such humanoids but for the rest. . . It's just a jump to the left.

On a personal, but widely unremembered bit of trivia. This was not Susan Sarandon's first film role. She was by this time a 25 year old veteran actor, having appeared in several movies and some television, including a role on Search for Tomorrow. Her debut, was at nineteen, as the young hippy, drug-addict daughter of the killer in Joe (1970). Joe being the break-through performance for Peter Boyle.

But enough of that, back to the dark...

Eddie's Teddy

From the day he was born, he was trouble.
He was the thorn in his mother's side.

She tried in vain, but he never caused her nothing but shame.
He left home the day she died...

From the day she was gone, all he wanted
Was rock'n'roll, porn and a motorbike
Shooting up junk
He was a low-down, cheap little punk.
Taking everyone for a ride...


Rocky Horror Picture Show Official Fan Site.




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photo: Meatloaf as Eddie
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Days of Future Passed Revisited

Sometimes the darkness is all in our heads or our fogged memories.

I came across the lyrics to the Moody Blues Days of Future Passed and found the opening spoken verses tinged darkness. When the album first came out (1967-68) I do not remember it being so dark, but then again, darkness and light, indeed darkness and love were a swirling mix in those years; at least where I was hanging my psyche.

Cold hearted orb that rules the night
Removes the colours from out sight
Red is gray and yellow, white
But we decide which is right
And which is an illusion

Pinprick holes in a colourless sky
Let insipid figures of light pass by
The mighty light of ten thousand suns
Challenges infinity and is soon gone
Night time, to some a brief interlude
To others the fear of solitude

I began to wonder if Days of Future Passed was indeed as dark as my memory hinted or was this another case of time and place where lyrics were refocused by the listener. Would this be an appropriate offering for Halloween week or another muddled memory. You decide which is right, but I would offer than this feeling does justice to the dark week.

First, I read the lyrics for the entire album and discovered that I had never done that before. I wondered why such a seminal album that had a huge impact when it was released never got a liner notes read from me. Most albums back then certainly were so inspected and resurrected. It turns out that it may have been the orchestration that had the impact and not the words.

This from CDUniverse.com:

Days of Future Passed is the Moody Blues' true contribution to rock history: the most cohesive integration of rock songs with orchestral music ever produced. Asked by Deram Records to create a rock reworking of Dvorak's "New World" Symphony, the Moodies instead wrote their own symphony, a song cycle that describes the emotions that accompany each part of the day, from dawn ("Dawn Is A Feeling") to night (the classic "Nights In White Satin"). The songs are connected by lush orchestral passages in which the basic musical themes are reworked.

The Moody Blues: Justin Hayward (vocals, guitar); Ray Thomas (flute, harmonica); Mike Pinder (keyboards); John Lodge (bass); Graeme Edge (drums). Additional personnel: London Festival Orchestra. Peter Knight (conductor).

Not so dark, these many years later. It was interesting to me to discover that the album really didn't hit big time until five years after its release (1967-1972). My memories are of a dark, rainy night on Lovell Street. Warm and snug in the attic with the album, several joints and fine friends from days of future past.

Maybe I should have gone with Slippin' Into Darkness as the anthem for this week, but you gotta remember, Timothy Leary's dead. He's outside looking in. All of these thoughts on a Tuesday Afternoon.
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Original Album Art
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Darkness in Democracy and Other Fictions

My Halloween week of shadows continues with some video presentations from the dark recesses of the interweb. Life is so much better now that we can instantly view the full spectrum of human lamentation. Or not, you be the judge.


This post got started with this little bit of mental floss uncovered by the good Dr. Pauly. Here is Life Inc. or How the World Became a Corporation, a tad oversimplified but great fodder for my whining liberal friends, except for the final dig at Obama.

Fake Democrats, a graphic represenation of the far left's view of how Amerika has moved toward Fascism. Not at all the same as the way the far right view the move to Fascim, as they blame Obama, no in this clip the paranoids blame Bill Clinton.

The Myth of the Liberal Media. A weak ass and I mean weak ass refuting of the accepted view of the media by the formerly assertive Noam Chomsky. Even those who agree with him will find themselves doubting their own mind's when hearing this limp presentation. America is not a democracy, nor was it intended to be is a much more strident and typical Chomsky presentation and worth a listen, if only for knowing either who your enemies are or how far your friends have fallen. Oh and for a fair and balanced view of the Liberal Media Myth, here is a little chew for your political cud from that bastion of fairness Bill O'Reilly.

I stumbled on a whole mosh pit of videos labled: Why Do They Hate America, well why not? Bananas, American Soldiers, and Perfect Paranoia.

Since there is always light, even in the dark of darkness and as these videos illustrate there is also darkness even in places that are full of light or at least full of something; but rather than plummet into the bottomless pit of despair (brought to you by Hasboro) or dash our ships of life against the shores of everlasting anguish (permit needed from California Coastal Commission for all dashings). Rather than go there, there or there; here is some Darkness at the Edge of Town from the Boss.

On a personal note, you know all those great YouTube videos that your friends send you to watch. Makes you think that YouTube is a wonderful repository of witty, funny and pertinent video observations on life and, of course, the live performance of rock anthems. But, in reality, if you spend just a bit of time clicking on those other "suggested links" and then on their links and so on and so on; it takes about four degrees of separation for you to find the real visual whack jobs of the universe. It's not just that they have no opinion but they have little or no video skills either, it's just drivel all the way down. The internet makes everyone a movie director and everyone else a writer. Yes, I know that leaves me wide open to the tiny slings and arrows to be lobbed my way at 140 characters or less.
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Art Credit: Jackson Pollack
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End of the World


The suggestion has been made that my last blog was a bit dark, perhaps even atypically dark for at least one sentence. Rather than deny, I shall embrace. Leading into All Hallows Eve, I shall endeavour to purge my daemons and delve into darkness. I start today, inspired by a review in the NYTimes suggesting alternate lyrics to R.E.M.'s The End of the World As We Know It. Way down below are the complete lyrics if you want to play along, but the ones twisted by all the news thats fit to print were:

The other night I dreamt of knives, continental drift divide. Mountains sit in a line

Leonard Bernstein. Leonid Brezhnev. Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs.
Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom!
You symbiotic, patriotic, slam book neck, right? Right.

And, of course, the NYTimes lyrics weren't dark at all but we can certainly can get there.

The other night I dreamt of lives, mind melts collide. Tin soliders sit in line
Richard Speck. Rich Ramirez. Raul Castro and Randy Newman.
Halloween party, Betty Page, tic-tac, splat!
Me defected, resurrected, uptight, insight? Wrong.

A live performance that holds a grittier essence of the words.

All are invited to toss out words from your own dark reaches of mind, heart, soul or other.

Full Lyrics (I may take on the whole song before next weekend:

That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes,
an aeroplane - Lenny Bruce is not afraid.
Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn,
world serves its own needs, dummy serve your own needs.
Feed it off an aux speak,, grunt, no, strength,
The ladder starts to clatter with fear fight down height.
Wire in a fire, representing seven games, a government for hire and a combat site.
Left of west and coming in a hurry with the furies breathing down your neck.
Team by team reporters baffled, trumped, tethered cropped.
Look at that low playing!
Fine, then.
Uh oh, overflow, population, common food, but it'll do.
Save yourself, serve yourself. World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed dummy with the rapture and the revered and the right - right.
You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, bright light, feeling pretty psyched.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

Six o'clock - TV hour. Don't get caught in foreign towers.
Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn.
Locking in, uniforming, book burning, blood letting.
Every motive escalate. Automotive incinerate.
Light a candle, light a votive. Step down, step down.
Watch your heel crush, crushed. Uh-oh, this means no fear cavalier.
Renegade steer clear! A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies.
Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it. (It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it (It's time I had some time alone) and I feel fine.
(I feel fine)

It's the end of the world as we know it. (It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it. (It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it (It's time I had some time alone) and I feel fine.

The other night I dreamt of knives, continental drift divide. Mountains sit in a line
Leonard Bernstein. Leonid Brezhnev. Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs.
Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom!
You symbiotic, patriotic, slam book neck, right? Right.

It's the end of the world as we know it. (It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it. (It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it (It's time I had some time alone) and I feel fine.
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photo credit: archives
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Autumn Leaves



One of the great pleasures of autumn in a temperate climate is the turning of the leaves. While I am not going to experience the true warmth of an Indian Summer this trip, I did get my one blissful dose of nature's color yesterday. Early frosts, high winds and rain can severely foreshorten the fall color experience, this year falls somewhere in the middle of the color enjoyment experience.

I was out running errands yesterday, when I ducked down a side street and there were five or six blocks of brilliant yellow maple trees. Interspersed every block or so was a burst of red or a still fading green tree. The browns of late fall have yet to appear, so we have peak colors or at least what will have to stand as peak for this autumn in lower Michigan.

I particularly have noticed quite a few trees that seem to blush with a reddish-pink as opposed to the usual dark red maples of most fall palettes. Some combination of summer heat and fall rain has produced more of these light red patterns than in my memory of past autumns. It was cloudy yesterday but a weak sun broke through while I was on that side street, so I got the full experience of the color and light. There is a feeling of bliss that hits the spectrally attuned at these times. A light and satisfying experience that all is right with the world. It mimics that first blush of warmth that comes with a new lover. Before the heartless shrew defiles your heart and leaves you alone and barren as the trees shall be in just a few weeks.

I know, I know but sometimes these things have to be said. Besides she still owes me money and she took my parrot. Meanwhile back to our autumnal musings...

Today, the wind and rain have come and the lawns are littered with thousands of yellow leaves. Time to put up wood for the winter, get those last few storm windows snugly in place and in my case, consider heading south.
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photo credits: the interwebs

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