From the middle,
each end is far away
Somewhere in-between,
we learn how to pray.
In every story
there is a hint of truth
Behind every lie
is a mountain of proof.
It’s always during the cold lonely nights
That you find out what you’re missing.
I am missing you.
(c)
The moon is high
The river is wide
The feeling is right
Everything has its place.
Gorgeous colors
From Spring to Fall
Changes year to year
Each at their own pace.
The sky is blue
The sun is hidden
The grass is growing
Everything has its place.
We miss so much
Turning in circles
Looking for fortune
Everyone makes mistakes.
It’s easy to do, I’ve done it too.
Everyone makes mistakes
It’s easy to do, so will you,
Everyone makes mistakes.
Lack Of Concern ©
You look from behind me, Baby
At what I’m going toward.
Seeing what you want to see
And then you look no more.
Tease me with the truth baby
Don’t tempt me with a lie,
So if you want to play games
I’ll just walk on by.
It’ a lack of concern
Or a lack of control
Is it in the heart,
Or deep within the soul?
You’re not making love with me
You’re just wasting time
Always taking theirs, aren’t you
But I won’t give you mine.
My tears are in your hands
My heart is open wide
But everytime I look, I see
There’s nothing left inside.
Tease me with the truth, Baby
Don’t tempt me with a lie,
So if you want to play games
I’ll just wave bye-bye.
I was recently speaking with some friends and the topics floated around like they normally do. We finally spun into accomplishments and major things each of us have done. As each of us look back on our lives there are things we have achieved and successes we are proud of.
I would like to tell you something I did that may have been the most important and long lasting of any. My family and group of friends love to camp. We go to parks and national forests, friends get-a-ways and even in our back yard. In fact one of the local county parks uses our camp sight as the background picture for their web site. One night we had just finished cooking for everyone over a controlled fire and had a feast. The sun was down and we built up the campfire so it was going pretty good. Many of the campers were stuffed and sitting in deep chairs and settling down for good company and conversations. I was standing with my back to the fire talking with someone and enjoying the evening. I sometimes refer to having eyes in the back of my head or getting the ‘spider-sense tingling’ that something is wrong. What in memory seems like the same time, I heard alarm and excitement from the group of people sitting close to the fire. It quickly rose to a definite panic. Not really knowing what the concern was, I turned around facing the camp fire. I saw that my youngest granddaughter – very young at the time – had been standing near the fire facing someone in the chairs and did not realize she had backed up too far and had tripped backwards into the center of the fire pit. People watching were unable to get out of their seats and you could see the panic in their eyes. I turned quickly and reached down. I grabbed her shirt in a bunch with one fist and pulled her as hard and as fast as I could. I slammed her into my chest and gave her a great big hug before she even realized what had happened.
The group relief was ear shattering and was more alarming to her than me plucking her out of the pit. I think back and consider escape from the amount of pain and suffering for a life time to come. I thought for a while that this is why I was put on this planet – my work here is done. Of course it is not and there will be many more stories to tell, but maybe none that made the world a better place like that one quick knee-jerk response.
I would like to hear your most remembered action that made a huge difference to someone else. Let’s celebrate and share those accomplishments in this post.
I could write a letter.
Or sing a song.
I could read a book
fix what is wrong.
I could go for a swim.
Or watch the stars.
I could change all the strings
On my old guitars.
First I will tell you I love you
You know it’s true.
And the next time I can hold you,
is long overdue.
There’s always that mountain.
Or just beyond.
Become a teacher
create a bond.
I could go on a quest.
Or sail the seas.
Think the impossible
And do as I please.
I could learn to play games.
Or learn a craft.
See how far I could run
sail on a raft.
Maybe just volunteer
Or start a meme.
There are a million things
and more in between.
First, I will tell you I love you.
Although you know it’s true.
For the next time I can hold you,
is long overdue.
(c) 2011
Back before it was the thing to do, my wife and I took this picture. Literally. One of us aimed it and the other one snapped the photo. But this was a special occasion. This is one of the few photos of our wedding. We got married in the winter in a local park overlooking the city. It was an extremely small wedding, but we did have a few uninvited guests. There were a couple of reporters looking for something to write about on a day when there is nothing to write about. They saw my wife and myself, with our daughter Alisa in hand, as we were reading the wedding vows that we had written to each other and exchanging roses. We were standing under the small gazebo in the freezing cold; as calm as you please.
They came up and started a conversation, I figure they thought we were just a couple of crazy people that wanted to know what the heck we were doing. When they realized it was a wedding ceremony, they decided this was something to write about! They took our pictures – the only others taken of our wedding – and wrote an article that ended up on the 1st page of the People – Events section. The article was warm and friendly and captured the humor that you can see in our selfie. If it is true that the bigger and fancier the wedding, the shorter the marriage will be…. we got it made!
I guess I never really came up with a name for this tune. Sometimes I will write lyrics and give it a working title. I do the same thing with musical pieces I am working on before there are dedicated lyrics assigned to the tune. As I continue to work on a piece, the name often changes when chords are matched with a set of lyrics. On rare occasion it happens at the same time, and that process is a little different – and easier! This is one of those weird situations where I never got to either, and this has always been referred to by the date….. March of 1990.
March in this case also has a double meaning. It is the pull away from the Winter season where I live. The steady movement of new life. The pace of growth that cannot be stopped. The instrumental tries to match that drive and frantic pace of the season. Driving rhythms, collage of melodies, bouncing themes – and then to dynamics and a reflection of what is now past. Then back to driving growth. That is what I think about as I listen to this tune. Even now, heading to Winter, I feel that March pushing forward.
Back to the Atari 1040 ST, I am sequencing all parts for this tune. I believe I added a new tone module from EMU called the Proteus 1. This was an amazing machine and I have not found anything as good and simple to use as the Proteus series. It was really cool for two major reasons in my opinion. 1) the sounds were just awesome for the time and there were lots of sounds on board. 2) the operating software used was just made for MIDI geeks like me. It was very simple and allowed the Proteus 1 to create splits, layers and zones, but it easily allowed you to access all 16 MIDI channels at the same time. I could write a few articles on this alone, but for now it meant you could assign a different sound to any or all of the 16 channels independently. As described in the MIDI series, this was great because you could use channel 1 for piano, channel 2 for organ sounds, channel 3 for strings, channel 4 for brass or orchestra sounds, 5 for flutes, 6 for sound effects, 7 for guitar sounds, 8 for solo instruments, 9 for the bass guitar sound, 10 for the standard drum channel and still have channels left over. Playing out in bands and in the studio with this was just a dream.
MIDIMike
In frequent conversations with my family we talk about articles and posts from fellow bloggers and how glad we are that we have met an amazing group of talented people. Many of us have challenges to deal with and we use creativity to describe and/or deal with those challenges. You never fail to amaze and inspire me. From articles that are so funny I can’t stop laughing to personal experiences that are so moving I try not to cry, I look forward to your blog posts and comments. There are those in this community I will keep learning from. The more we learn of each other, the more natural it would seem if we could actually meet.
That is when our conversation shifts to what would you do if you won the lottery or big inheritance (the latter is not possible for me – but still more likely than winning the lottery!!)? We discussed that it would be really cool if we could arrange a common time and place on the globe where we could all meet. Or travel the globe and meet you each one at a time. It would be amazing for me to compare my internal images of fellow bloggers and compare them to actually meeting you. I feel like I know many of you already and I do not think that I would be very surprised by the ‘person’ you are. But I’ll bet in spite of my internal images, I would not recognize any of you if I met you on the street! I would love to record and document the entire meeting. Interview everyone, even have you sing on a few of my songs if you are up for it. Create a community blog of the event. Give promised hugs to a number of you. To see the eyes behind the words. To hear you laugh.
Don’t get me wrong. I love the blog and the openness we can achieve by that same separation. I don’t want a bunch of you knocking on my door at all hours – though I might want to knock on yours!!
Gotta go now and buy my lottery ticket!
I would like to post another set of pictures from a Maui trip years ago. It reminds me again of the power and force nature puts behind everything on this planet. As an observer, viewer or bystander, we sometimes miss the true impact. But when you are in its presence the impressions can be astounding. My wife and are were standing on our porch a few nights ago watching a lightning storm pass over our house. Heavy rain at times kept us close to the house. We watched the storm move – pointing out lightning strikes and the strength of related thunder We noted of their distance. I had just said something about bolts traveling a good distance before going to ground as the last distant thunder receded.
As we looked in the direction of the storm, we were both immediately jettisoned into hyper-awareness as a bright ball flared and jumped between the rain clouds and a huge oak tree in our yard. We were frozen by a sound I cannot describe and the combined impact of thunder and electricity so close to us. It looked like the massive trunk of the tree pulsed or absorbed the bolt. The next day we saw long strips of bark blasted out in front of the tree, which otherwise continues to appear as if it was not affected at all. I wish I had my camera at the time but the odds are poor and it would not describe the event. Our ears were ringing for a along time.
These pictures also try to show you the force behind the waves hitting the rough coast line. Caves and then chimneys are created over the eons as water blasts against the walls of the cave and the resulting giant water gun looks like a geyser spouting out of the rock. From above, I thought the water was inviting and almost gentle. As I stood on the top of the cave next to the chimney spout, it was calm and peaceful and I let my guard down. Every rock and terrace suddenly underwater created a wide pool, with a huge drain in the middle! Difficult to show in pictures or describe here, but when a strong wave hit inside those cave walls It forced a small lake of water up in the air directly above me. As it returned to earth with me in its path, it rose from a stream to a tidal wave and I barely had time to crouch down and get a good solid stance. It almost toppled me over and for all I know could have washed me back into the blow hole or over a wall that might as well have been to oblivion!
Pictures can only remind us of that power. Predictable and gentle events are mild and you can prepare for them, and learn.
Thinking about a recent post where we shared our first concert experiences, I was reminded about my first concert to see The Grateful Dead. I was fairly young and the environment was overwhelming and exciting.
We used to play one of their songs called “Mr. Charlie”. The Grateful Dead are off beat by nature and this is one of their songs most people have not heard. I recorded this cover song a couple years ago and decided to pull it out of the ‘deep-freeze’ and post it for the fun of it.
When I was in cover bands, we were pretty much forced to play main stream or currently airing songs. I would suggest the unknown songs often but understood when we played only a few. This one never got the approval either, but the core group used to warm up on this one and I just like the flavor of the song.
Credits to The Grateful Dead. This is my Ovation 12 String guitar and I do a little harmony. Hope you have a little fun with this as well.
MidiMike 