And the real world keeps getting more like a video game

Bruce Sterling pointed to this article.

Yesterday the pinball games came home from Victoria.  They are Xenon and Star Trek.  Xenon needs a lot of work a diode, Star Trek needs a diode is functional.  We’re going to get a brass plaque that says, R John Caspell Memorial Pinball Palace, seeing as how the pinballs will be in his old room.  More furniture came into the house, including my room, so I now am overstuffed with solid wood furniture, just the way I like it.

Chipper, you will remember that Xenon was a game you and Steve B useta play on downstairs from your place on King St.  Colin and Catherine, you will remember the Star Trek game as the game that went to Rhino – the same con where Jeff was Robert Bloch’s gofer.  Ah, the good old days.

Margot keeps trying to be trodden on.

I am contemplating the pile of work I’ve undertaken this year with some sadness. It is, after all, work.  But at least I don’t have to commute.

Watched the 25th Hour. Really, really great film; Spike Lee did an awesome job, and the cast is brilliant.  Lee is SUCH an actor’s director.  If you’re in a Spike Lee movie, you may not like him, but he WILL get a good performance outta you or die trying.  I am considering reviewing it.  My review is up on imdb.com

Hotter than the hubs of Hades.

Yesterday I brought 20 beers home on a bicycle.  Mike, you will be amused to learn that I bought 12 Bud Light Lime, having become addicted to them at your place.  (Mike, knowing that I’m a beer weenie, didn’t expect me to like them.  But Jeff and I both do, as it is lime flavoured beer water, and a damned fine thing on a hot day.)  I only had one bungee cord, so getting it all home was a challenge, but the house is downhill from the beer store, at least.

Song for today is All the Con Men I have Known.  A brilliant tune; it’s the one that gets me the most “That sounds like Joni Mitchell” comments (which frankly I find irritating while understandable) and I personally think the lyrics are among my best.  It’s just not an easy tune, and OF COURSE every goddamned verse has a different tune, because that’s just the way I crawl moaning across the floor.

Progress

46 songs are finished.

95 – give or take – remain.  Of those, about ten have been started, but they presented difficulties so I let them slide.  No more for today, I’ve been revising and reprinting songs since 6:30 this morning and my brain is fried.

Anyway, I’m one third done the writing the songs down part.  Next is getting all of them recorded, however badly, in MP3 format.  Then, getting such of them are worthwhile, into youtube format.  Like I say, maybe it looks to you that I’m frolicking and playing on my time off, but this stuff is a) hard and b) boring.  Like, at least as boring as going to work.

Writing songs is easy.  Playing them is easy.  Writing them down is hard, not least because once they are written down they are ‘fixed’ and songs are organic and change all the time.  Here’s the list, with notes.

An evening of serious drinking (Written for Jerome’s bday_
Bela Lugosi is the king around here (Mentions Alan, whose mother lived next door to Bela Lugosi)
Bruise (I think this is one of the best breakup songs of all time)
buy me  a beer (an instant classic, also on youtube)
Catnip on my shoes (I wrote this the same day as Some Words Before We’re Through)
Chance met (wrote this walking around the oval at Cariboo with Peggy and Paul)
Didn’t he die? (written in honour of Dennis Rivett – a very lively jig)
Don’t put too much sugar in the bottles (Remembering the time pOp put too much sugar in the Root Beer)
Erica’s Song (a love song I wrote for somebody else.  Tellingly, the two lovers are no longer on speaking terms, but the song remains…)
evening news (I was told by Paul Schmidt this is a classic folk song)
Freedom (John’s second or third fave song of mine)
F]ck You Jack (I wrote this on the connector coming back into New West from the ferry)
Give me five – give me ten (wrote this during my year in the Cornerstone building)
Happily Married Song (Wrote this for Tom and Peggy but sung for many other couples since)
homeon the derange (The theme song for a western show)
housewife’s lament (My tune, post civil war lyrics)
I must admit it troubles me (I didn’t know I was writing this for Glenda, but I was.  I found out afterwards that she died while I was writing it)
Imagination (I left the lyrics off…. it’s just a tune now)
John’s Song (written May 9 2009)
Just call me Clem (written for an underappreciated character on Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Lady of Komarr (I am VERY fond of this filk tune – and it covers the story well, too)
Lifeline (wrote this for Paul during happier times)
Like a Drum (written in Toronto when we were living on the Lakeshore)
Miss Manners has her say (I love this song…. it’s so… rude.)
Mother’s Day (unabashedly feminist and anarchist)
Mr. Nippleoff (a little rhyme for when Keith was a nurseling)
My version of the golden rule (extremely brief, and rude)
one of these days (extremely brief, and has never gone out of style)
She (My one attempt at classic arena rock.  NOT to be played by me, to be played by guys with big electric guitars and even bigger hair)
Slimfast and methadone (on youtube.  I love how “and the story isn’t over yet” is so so true)
The cairn (Why angry women stay in crappy marriages)
The dream in fragments (an instrumental)
The Exchange I Make (A hymn to depression)
The Merman Lover (a traditional folk song, wait, let the ink dry)
The pirates to do list (debuted on LJ.  V Cute)
The Tapioca Song (we all cotched infectious tapioca)
The tickle song (a rhyme to allow kids to control how much adults tickle them so they don’t feel overwhelmed)
Wear a Condom or Beat it (a cute song pretending to be by the owner of a condom store)
weekend’s over (written for ScaryClown’s bday)
Welcome Sophia (otherwise known as ‘wisdom’)
Whatcha gonna do (an irresponsible song hymning multiple drug use)
When are we going back to the moon (20 July 2009 – my latest)
Willie P’s Lament (an instrumental on the mandolin I wrote after his death)
Words fail (This is the instrumental version, I haven’t done out the lyric version yet – AKA the Telecom song)
World’s bright edge (brief little tune)

The housewife’s lament

Those of you who have heard me sing more than a couple of times will have heard me sing this song – I wrote my own tune for it because I was so struck by the lyrics.

Well, I found the original tune!  It sounds like a cross between a dirge and a hymn and it sounds like this.

Thanks, I prefer mine.

I am in the process of proofing and reprinting all of my previously entered songs.  By noon today I should have a final count for how many are finished, how many are incomplete, and how many remain.  … excepting the ones I remember after I’ve done the count, because I’m still tripping over tunes.

Friends and family news.

Cousin Alyssa is a year old.  Pictured here is her interpretation of “Pebbles”.

alyssa at one year

Jerome and Shannon have named their son.  He will be Braden.  Fine name, wot say ye?

ScaryClown is drinking his way across – and being ejected from bars across – Western Europe.  In his defence, it’s the guy he’s with that’s getting thrown out all the time.  Must meet this fellow.

Jeff texted me this morning to remember the garbage. I was just cleaning up after a nasty recycling related spill when he messaged me, having completed the task, so I feel all happy that I remembered.  To be fair, it is on the calendar.  He will be back in town – with PINBALLS – later today.

I saw Keith briefly yesterday.  He got over here to try to avoid waking his dad up, and by the time he got settled at the computer, his dad called him home again to pack.  It is not always easy, to be the dutiful son.

The official story vs what I saw

Last night’s storm.

From my perspective, it looked a little different.  It lasted three hours; at its height, lightning strikes were happening 4 – 6 times a minute; I had an unimpeded view of all the clouds across a 180 degree arc; the closest to where I was standing on Mike’s 14th floor balcony was a thousand meters, possibly less (an air strike and that was the point I squeaked the Lord’s name in vain and booked it back into the living room); Mike recorded the second hour or so before his camera battery packed it in.

I grew up in Ontario so I am pretty blasé about thunderstorms. This one was completely different, spectactularly beautiful – like, MYTHIC – and very very quiet.  There were only two or three loud cracks.  Often times spectacular strikes, less than a couple of miles away, would be accompanied by no sound.

We saw a lightning strike hit the cement plant.  There were a number of ground strikes in Surrey, and the lightning strikes over downtown were pretty much continuous around 10 pm – right when the fireworks were supposed to start.

As Mike remarked, who needs the fireworks downtown when we can drink beer on the balcony and avoid the rush?  And happy birthday to you, Mike, and a spectacular start to your new year!

Anyway I’m sitting on my own back deck right now in the beautiful fresh breeze and having coffee and full fat yogurt with Tom’s delish blackberry jelly mixed in for breakfast.  The cats seem to have withstood being alone for the worst of it with no probs.

Everything is deeply intertwingled

I got a sudden urge to look up Big Rude Jake on Wikipedia.  The article mentions that he’s recorded with Gary Justice.

So have I!  Isn’t that a strange coincidence? Dr Filk, who was a fan of Big Rude Jake’s, would have been amused.

I really liked working with Gary, he was very sympatico, and he told cool stories about working with Daniel Lanois.

Yellow-Yellow goes for the gusto

The story of a clever bear.

What happened yesterday?  I wrote down two songs (Home on Derange and the Pirate’s To-Do List).  Lost my purse for about half an hour – found it where I left it, in a shopping cart outside Rona.  Lucky me. Got replacement keys to the landpeer and Paul and the kids.  Got my massage table back, w00t. Purchased a mirror which I can’t actually use in the bathroom, so I’m going to hang it in the bedroom instead.  I also viewed Paul’s new apartment, which is much smaller and much darker, so I’m very glad he and Dan got in to paint the new place off white (it was slate grey green and the kitchen was red, if you can believe it).

I learned that both the kids have job interviews… join me in wishing them success.

Watched The Emperor’s New Clothes. Very enjoyable costume drama and Iben Hjejle was awesome.  The whole “we will assault the melon-selling bastions scene” was very enjoyable.

Today I help Mike celebrate his birthday.