I got a video of a Coachwhip Snake (Masticophis flagellum testaceous) swimming in the irrigation ditch. I know a lot of people have trouble with snakes, but they are really quite beautiful. It’s not often I see a Coachwhip Snake taking a swim. After we got back from checking on the owls and walking in the bosque this morning, I wrote a song to go with the video, appropriately named Coachwhip Snake. I recorded the song and put it all together in the above video this afternoon. Enjoy!
There seems to be all kinds of challenges in the blogosphere, mostly photo challenges, and writing challenges. Here are a few challenges I recorded.
The first challenge was the song that started out as a drum track that Joel put together. He sent me the track and gave me the challenge to make a song out of it. I laid down a bass track, followed by a rhythm guitar track. I made up a vocal track on the spot, so I have not written down the lyrics, then I laid down the lead guitar track. One take for each track. I named the song Joel’s Beat.
The second challenge was when I was finally able to get my car washed (car washes had been closed under the lockdown). I washed my car and what did I get? Dust and muddy kitty prints all over the lid.
The third challenge was for Big Baby Owl who had flown over to another branch on the cottonwood tree, then decided to climb the trunk of the tree to get up where Mama Owl was perched high above her. Big Baby Owl climbed and climbed, flapped her wings over the more difficult parts, and finally got into a fork in the tree about 10 feet from Mama Owl. She looked up at Mama Owl and Mama Owl flew off. Big Baby Owl was devastated. She just stood in the fork of the tree with her head bowed (click on the photos for an enlarged slide show).
The fourth challenge was photographing black Irises that are bleached purple in our intense sunshine. The irises look almost black to the naked eye, but properly exposed photos show how purple black really is.
The fifth challenge was doing super wide-angle photos of Spunk and living to write about it and post the photos.
I have a series of photos taken in twilight at the Salton Sea that I was trying to decide how I wanted to present them. I finally decided to write a song and create a music video with the images. I took advantage of this wet, rainy, muddy Black Friday to record the song and put the video together.
Red Cape on the Edge of the Salton Sea Lyrics and Music by Timothy Price
Standing on the edge Of the Salton Sea Dancing in the darkness Destiny
Wrapped in a cloak Releasing red Wakening spirits From the salty beds
Twilight glows Off the shore Cape swirls Disturbed forlorn
Ceremony’s twilight Apparitions conjured Silhouettes dancing in the night Dusk turns on A golden somber Silence calls Ghosts asunder
My latest song is about the ever present use of acronyms in our never ending search of ways to communicate with as little speaking, typing, mousing, tapping, clicking and swiping as possible. The meanings of the acronyms are in the video and at the bottom of the post.
Acronymphomania Lyrics and Music by Timothy Price
I’m without the gift of tongues Speak in letters One by one
Nouns and verbs Cloistered like nuns Instead of words Acronymphomania
AAMOF WYSIWYG TOPCA in TAR JBOD ISAR Communication’s FUBAR
Archnymphomaniacs HAVE NO VERBS USE NO phrases
Archnymphomaniacs Puzzled looks Empty gazes
Monosyllabic KISS KWIM BLOB IOW Like a SLOB
AYSOS MIA? OMI BAD BUN SOTD BIA ISO TIA Achronymphomania
FWIW IMHO LOOK OUT FOR THE WORS Communication’s Syllabic VERSE
Archnymphomaniacs HAVE NO VERBS USE NO phrases
Archnymphomaniacs Puzzled looks Empty gazes
AAMOF WYSIWYG TOPCA in TAR JBOD ISAR Communication’s FUBAR
Since many of the meanings of the acronyms go by very quickly in the video, below are the lyrics with the meanings of each acronym:
Acronymphomania Lyrics and Music by Timothy Price
I’m without the gift of tongues Speak in letters One by one
Nouns and verbs Cloistered like nuns Instead of words Acronymphomania
AAMOF WYSIWYG (As A Matter Of Fact What You See Is What You Get) TOPCA (Till Our Paths Cross Again) in TAR (The Amazing Race) JBOD ISAR (Just a bunch of disks Information Storage And Retrieval) Communication’s FUBAR
Archnymphomaniacs HAVE NO VERBS (Haptic Audio Visual Environments Natural Orbital Ventricular Endocardial Right Bifocal Stimulation) USE NO (User Support Environment Neurotic Obsession) phrases
Archnymphomaniacs Puzzled looks Empty gazes
Monosyllabic KISS KWIM BLOB (Keep It Simple Stupid. Know What I Mean? Binary Large Object!) IOW (in other words) Like a SLOB (Super Lazy Organic Blogger)
AYSOS MIA? (Are You Stupid Or Something? Missing In Action!) OMI BAD BUN (Oocyte Maturation Inhibitor Bipolar Affective Disorder Bike User Network) SOTD BIA ISO TIA (Speak Of The Devil Ball Image Analyzer In Support Of That Is All) Achronymphomania
FWIW IMHO (For What It’s Worth In My Humble Opinion) LOOK OUT FOR THE WORS (Lazy Object-Oriented Kernel Outline Flippin’ Over Rated Technology and Home Economics Weighted Operative Risk Scale) Communication’s Syllabic VERSE (Verbal Expressions Rejecting Society’s Expectations)
Archnymphomaniacs HAVE NO VERBS (Haptic Audio Visual Environments Natural Orbital Ventricular Endocardial Right Bifocal Stimulation) USE NO (User Support Environment Neurotic Obsession) phrases
Archnymphomaniacs Puzzled looks Empty gazes
AAMOF WYSIWYG (As A Matter Of Fact What You See Is What You Get) TOPCA (Till Our Paths Cross Again) in TAR (The Amazing Race) JBOD ISAR (Just a bunch of disks Information Storage And Retrieval) Communication’s FUBAR
Chile season is upon us. We put up a sack a green chile from Wagner’s Farm here in Corrales this afternoon, and while we were waiting for the them to steam after bringing the freshly roasted sack of green chiles home, I got inspired to finish the music video for my Capsaicin Cub song. The video is meant to be funny, so some aspects are a little different.
Below is a photo of the chile guitar and chile bass I used in the video. They are built by Dean, but I had a photo of chiles printed on a skin by Curtis Osborne at The Village Printshop here in Corrales earlier in the year, and we stuck the chiles skins on the guitar and bass. I got the guitar and bass on eBay at very good prices; therefore, I was expecting to use them mainly as props. As it turned out, the guitar and bass are very good instruments. I played the chile guitar on the recording of Capsaicin Cub used in the video, but Ron Blood played the bass line using his own electric bass guitar. However, I have played the chile bass on many of the recordings I have posted this year.
After pealing, cutting off the heads, and removing the seeds and veins from the green chiles, we normally put them in quart-size Ziploc bags, flatten the bags and freeze them. Since we have a lot of recipes that take three quart-size bags of green chiles, we decided to freeze some of the chiles in gallon Ziploc bags with the same amount of green chile as three quart-size bags in each gallon bag.
Resa, who has Graffiti Lux Art & More and Art Gowns, commented on my post Now For The Rest Of The Story earlier this afternoon with “Well, that’s something I’ve never seen. The food chain ……. is freaky.” I replied “Freaking On The Food Chain. I might have to make a song out of that phrase.” Resa, not missing a step, said “You go for it! Waiting to hear it.” After I got all my outdoors work done in the late afternoon, I came in and created Freaking On The Food Chain. It’s pretty much an improv on all tracks. Below is a photo of a couple of beavers on the opposite bank of the Rio Grande after sunset you can ponder while listening to Freaking On The Food Chain.
Today’s video is original music I wrote using a prayer by fellow blogger Michelle Marie for the lyrics. On December 7, 2018, Michelle Marie posted Still… Small… Voice on Tell Me About Itat https://tellmeaboutit.co/2018/12/07/still-small-voice/, and I had a feeling there was an issue with her daughter, Alex, who has serious health problems. I commented that her prayer was beautiful, but sad, and asked how Alex was. Michelle Marie responded that she had been very sick and in ICU the week before. Michelle Marie mentioned that Alex just wants to lead a normal life. I could certainly relate to that having had a lot of health issues myself over the years. I didn’t realize the gravity of the situation until Michelle Marie emailed me with details. Alex almost died.
After getting the full story, I was inspired to write a song using Michelle Marie’s prayer for the lyrics. I was trying to imagine what is was like for Alex to be in ICU clinging to life, and started working on creating an etherial lullaby. I finished recording the song on December 15, 2018, and sent it to Michelle Marie. When I learned that she plays piano, I transcribed a short version of the flamenco guitar into piano and sent her the sheet music. She sent me images to use in a video, but I had to think for a long time how to do a video to go with the music. I finally came up with what I believe is a suitable video. Here’s my version of Michelle Marie’s Still… Small… Voice.
Off Center & Not Even 