Marble taking a blue break.
Tag: guitar
Oh My it’s Mothra
While I was standing on the sidewalk in front of the office talking to Jim, he noticed a moth on the front door. I picked it up and it sat on my arm fluttering its wings really fast. I did photos of the moth. In “Live View”, the wings fluttered in slow motion. I converted the “Live View” photos to gifs and then to video and put the above video together with guitar accompaniment. After the moth futtered on my arm for about a minute, it flew over to the wall by the door.
“Up against the wall you red neck…” Mothra†
†Mothra is a fictional monster that first appeared in the 1961 film Mothra, produced and distributed by Toho Studios. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothra to learn more.
Feline Matchmaking
Resa, who has the Art Gowns blog, and Spunk have had a thing going for a while now. When I posted The Persistence of Spunkery a couple of weeks ago, Holly and Marina got confused and thought that Resa’s cat Jeep* and Spunk had a thing going. With inspiration from Holly and Marina and collaboration with Resa, I wrote a song about our feline matchmaking and creating a modern, virtual, long-distance romance during these times of Covid cooties between Jeep and Spunk.
Feline Matchmaking
Music & Lyrics by Timothy Price
Inspired by Holly and Marina
Collaboration between Resa and Timothy
Intro
Can we have long-distance love
For kitties locked down, locked in, Zoomed?
Verse
Jeep’s up north to the east
Spunk’s down south to the west
Jeep says meuw, not meow
Spunk says mew followed by a growl
Jeep is four dimensions in three
Spunk’s dimensions? Egyptian eyes
Jeep is a sweet girly whirly
Spunk has his destructive manly ways
Bridge
Girly/Manly ways attract
Equals
Virtual romance for a matter-of-fact
Chorus
Feline matchmaking during Covid cooties
Long-distance love-making, feline beauties
Purring, growling, rubbing screens
Jeep and Spunk have hit the scene
Bridge
Virtual love and Covid Cooties
Modern romance oh so beauti…
Full of screen-time Zoom Zoom Zoomed
Chorus
Feline matchmaking, Covid cooties
Long-distance love-making, feline beauties
Purring, growling, rubbing screens
Jeep and Spunk have hit the scene
*Jeep is named after Eugene the Jeep in the Popeye comic strip[1]. The vehicle we know of as a Jeep was also named after Eugene the Jeep by soldiers during WWII who thought the Willys MB light utility vehicle was “small, able to move between dimensions and could solve seemingly impossible problems”[2].
Sphingidae — Sphinx Moth
A Sphingidae — Spinx Moth, AKA Hummingbird Hawk-Moth, was fluttering around feeding on our Purple Salvia with the bees and the butterflies. I made a short video of it and added one of our recordings of Caña for background music (I’m playing and Laurie’s dancing). The only sound on the original video was the wind.
Challenges
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.
Flying Felines
While people are wringing their hands, gnashing their teeth, and hoarding toilet paper over all the happenings in the world right now, our kitties headed for the sky and did some feline flying to stay above it all. Kitties know how to have fun in times of trouble.
Flying Felines
Music and Lyrics by Timothy Price
Guitars: Timothy Price
Bass: Timothy Price
Percussion arranged by Timothy Price
Felines flying one by one
Felines in the sky today
Here they come having fun
Felines flying
Felines walking on the air
Flying up, down and all around
They found a way to fly away
Felines flying in the air
Going high in the sky
Going nowhere
They’re going nowhere fast
Felines flying in the air
Through the sky they walk on air
Felines flying in the sky
Felines in the air so fine
They know where they are going
Up with the birds in the air
Felines flying in the sky walking on air
In the air they are so fine walking on the line
Space Herpes
With all the attention on the Coronavirus, everyone seems to have forgotten about space herpes (https://news.sky.com/story/nasa-issues-space-herpes-warning-as-virus-reactivates-in-astronauts-11669335). Space Herpes is a parody of Deep Purple’s Space Truckin’ off their Machine Head album released 48 years ago this month.
Space Herpes
Music: Deep Purple
Lyrics: Timothy Price
Guitars: Timothy Price
Bass: Timothy Price
Drums: Ian Paice
Well we lip locked with the Vals on Venus
We were making out a lot on Mars
We’re smooching with the groovy aliens
Kissed across the universe a far
We messed around with Borealis
We got space herpes from the stars
Oh no oh no oh no
we got space herpes
oh no oh no oh no
space herpes
Remember when we kissed the moon rocks
Swinging around the Milky Way
We found Uranus was a rude shock
Pluto doesn’t see the light of day
We’re messin’ round in the solar system
And got space herpes along the way
Oh no oh no oh no
we got space herpes
oh no oh no oh no
space herpes
The Fireball we drank was burning
And now we have a new routine
Yeah yeah yeah yeah Marline said
They can kiss, but they cannot sing
We’re messin’ round in the solar system
Swinging around the Milky Way
We messed around with Borealis
Got space herpes everyday
Oh no oh no oh no
we got space herpes
oh no oh no oh no
space herpes
Oh no oh no oh no
we got space herpes
oh no oh no oh no
space herpes
Extended Version: Red Cape on the Edge of the Salton Sea
Here’s an audio only, extended version of Red Cape on the Edge of the Salton Sea, which is a collaboration between me (vocals, rhythm guitar and percussion tracks), Ron Blood (bass guitar), and Joel Lewis (lead guitar). Ron came up with a super cool bass line, but Joel is the real star of this version.
This was Joel’s first foray into remote collaboration on a song, and recording. I was on the phone with him when he recorded the lead track (Joel lives in Las Vegas, NV), and he did it in one take (I could hear him playing through his monitors as he recorded it), and then he emailed me the mix-down while we were still on the phone so I could see how the mix came out. It was really quite amazing — he improvised the entire track.
Joel and I grew up together, and we both started playing guitar when we were teenagers. Joel joined the Navy when we were in our late teens, and he was stationed in various places around the world. We had been out of touch with each other for 40 years.
Ron started playing bass at the same time that Joel and I started playing guitar. Joel and Ron had stayed in touch over the years, and Joel got the three of us together while he was in Albuquerque last year. All three of us have done vastly different things over the years, however, we kept up with music, and we all three ended up working in computers and information technology.
Anything On The Tele?
Red Cape on the Edge of the Salton Sea
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
Off Center & Not Even 