../melody in chaos
20240521.1803
One final ride on the Q, to and from my Brooklyn apartment of 17 years, through my home city of 30 years. On to the next, now, far away.
Recorded a bunch of tracks in the almost-vacated apartment leading up to my final departure, as I readied the space for a final showing and handoff to new owners.…
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my most spun track on Spotify from my former days as The Reflectors. Written in 2008. Released in 2009 on my record Goodbye Monday Blue.
It’s all still true lol.
https://thereflectors.bandcamp.com/track/long-road-ahead
we got a long road ahead
settle down. settle back. settle in.
don’t you know that we’re gonna have to work until we’re dead?…
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all the things you love, recorded live this past quiet Saturday magic hour.
Been on a ritual Nick Drake dive in the last couple weeks. Lol can you tell?
I find a watercourse way through life in Nick Drake’s songs – the paradox being he never found that way for himself.…
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Arms Length In Dreams
20220421.0744, 20220424.2258
(G) I’ve seen good luck
I’ve seen bad
i’ve crashed (Em) big, i’ve (Cmaj7) stood tall
(G) but most days
just stand still
and don’t (Em) see much (Cmaj7) luck at (G) all
risks i (Em) take
sometimes time (G) out
What else can I (D) do?…
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_street
“A paper street or paper road is a street or road that appears on maps but has not been built.”
“Beware! Paper Streets” cautions a sign hung by the Kirkwood Bowl Foundation towards the base of Laurel Canyon, LA, where I lived for most of 2018 (Inside Track 002 dives more into why I was there).…
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Written 20200418.1020
C F G
F C G
C F G
these days i wake in the same dream
F C G
where living is the flip side of life
Am. Adim7 Am7 D
where the future’s a memory of plans ahead
F G Am
where sometimes dying doesn’t mean you’re dead
F C G
gone gone gone goes the day
F C G
back back back all the way
Am Adim7 Am7 D
to a far far far off place
F G C
goes the day
empty streets, distant echoes
footsteps, indifferent neon signs
sirens, silence, lonely traffic lights
sounds of a world waving goodbye
Em F C
today aches for yesterday
Em F C
tomorrow’s just a someday place
Am G F
where the only answer, somehow,
Am G F G
is we all take the same exit out
Austintown, OH, is the driving midpoint between New York City and Chicago. Written election season 2004 in Austintown at the Best Western off Rte 80, in view of the Quaker Steak ‘n Lube across the highway.
performance recorded Jan 2021 at the old Hood’s Sarsaparilla Soda Factory in Lowell, MA
from Hola, Sayulita (2010)
LYRICS
When they dig us up – they might never know
We dug deep – left our evidence as far down as they will go
They might even think we were older than dinosaurs
Arrogance thinks we’ll see the end of the world
That we’d be last ones – to ever see
the truth/the truth
it’s just funny how much
truth
you
find
½ way between here & there
so many secrets you can’t begin
to dare to leave
escaping only in dreams
looks like it comes down
tonight to AustinTown
They’re gonna say we went backwards – all the way back
Before we went forwards again
Here it comes around again
And there goes the
the truth
ah, the truth
it’s just funny how much
truth
you
find
½ way between here & there
so many secrets you can’t begin
to dare to leave
Escaping only in dreams
looks like it comes down
tonight to AustinTown
Set 1 ended w/ some transmission glitches, so an impromptu second set righted the wrongs.…
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My heteronym daydream cowboy Stryker West said it was high time for another country-fried set, so who was I to refuse?…
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A fav song took on new resonance in late May when I escaped NYC for a few days, for the first time since December 2019. Performed in Bridgehampton NY, interspersed w/ footage from the heaviest part of NYC’s (1st?) lockdown from March to May.
Original Version on Sunrise Highway (2015)
Lyrics
I set out walking, just to find a friend,
Make a human connection in a world of pretend,
To share faith in the future, in the face of decay,
‘Cos when you can’t escape the night, every dawn is the end of days.…
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Final song in my 30 April performance beta-testing the new Limelight.live music app. Happy always to work out a few kinks, and bring some melody to the current chaos.
well I’m climbing up this Canyon drive
high enough to see across time
to the days where you and I
had nothing to leave behind
up here, on this Canyon drive
a thousand feet up in the sky
on a one-lane two-way graded switchback ride
we opened up and saw ourselves from outside
and knew we wanted no other life
up here, on this Canyon drive
down in the Valley a relentless pursuit of dreams
in every shadow a sorrow and a scheme
a world designed to keep you from coming alive
far away from all the light that shines
up here, on this Canyon drive
what price wouldn’t you pay
to let nothing get in your soul’s way
to quiet dark echoes of unlived lives
at least up here there’s hope you’ll find
peace on this Canyon drive
chaos meets melody
September 18, 2018 at 05:05PM
via instagram
From January to June 2018, my wife Cat costume designed the Amazon series adaptation of the podcast Homecoming that shot in L.A., so we decamped Brooklyn for a 1930s cottage aerie perched halfway up Laurel Canyon. I bought a knock around Seagull guitar at the perfect scaled All-In-One guitar shop in Koreatown, and recorded a couple dozen tracks in our Gould Avenue house.…
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this one’s for the ones who stop to think
this one’s for the ones who always knew
this one’s for the ones who see the absurdity
this was a place we lived in peace
a place we lived in silence
a place we lived together in light
the last time
is cloud nine
and you won’t know
you’re dead
but the saddest time
is the first time
you see
the last time
up ahead
how many days can you see through things
how frayed is a soul made of string
how many ways can a memory bring you down
what happened all the power burned out
what happened all that’s certain’s in doubt
what happened all the love turned it back on us
there’s no one around who doesn’t think they know
nowhere you’re left to be, no place left to go
i believe in my dream
I believe in my dream
in my song, i believe you’ll see
all the lives we are to lead
searching for answers
is a waste of precious time
destiny doesn’t ring the bell,
doesn’t tell you you’ve arrived
songbird on an electric line
only knows he’s incomplete
caught up in a lookout for love
all his faith on endless repeat
may never know magic
of a returned call
but he never sounds tragic
never sounds small
You came a long long way
just to find nothing
on the other end of a promise
from the other side of the sun
the road was mapped but never real
still the dream of a long gone man
now foxtails push up through cracked cement
and long abandoned plans
Paper streets always burn.…
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all you’ve got is a feeling
and what i got won’t show
b/c our visions of love
only intersected long ago
gonna go where every light leads
if it only takes me round the block
i don’t care
at least i’m searching
at least i’m driving
where you’re still aching
to get somewhere
first time i knew luck was
the first time we laughed at the same truth
but there’s only so many lies
you can sell yourself and still pull through
“burning a bridge” burns one ahead,
not one already crossed.…
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the smarter you are today
the more you live in shadow
never giving up all you know
‘cos it’s
quiet nowhere
la la la la la la la la la
it’s quiet nowhere
to long for someday soon
is to long for days gone by
they’re both parallel paper streets
through a
quiet nowhere
the sound of things falling is the same sound
as things rising into the air
time spent afraid of what you might hear
well, that’s a quiet nowhere
that feel when the world lets you down
that feel when old friends freeze you out
when you’re seen as wrong when everyone’s not right
it’s quiet nowhere
“Creating is living doubly.”
Jean-Paul Sartre
This was the third Disquiet Junto project that revolved around Bassel Khartabil Safadi, a coder, artist and free-expression pioneer wrongfully jailed by Syria, his home country, for “harming state security.” In October, he was transferred to a secret location, and his whereabouts as of this writing are unknown.…
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every once in a while, country-fried.
…One fine day
They’re gonna take me away
To that land of peaceful songs
And on that day they’ll hear me say
“I finally found a place where I belong!”It’s been a long life and a long time comin
Too many heartbreaks in fair times
I’ve done a lot of hurting & I will pay the price
But I saved myself from a worthless lifeOne fine day
They’re gonna take me away
To that land of peaceful songs
And on that day they’ll hear me say
“I finally found a place where I belong!”