Dawn
On my way to light a pilot, I saw a pilot light a balloon.
Spunk: “Hey Paparazzo! Hold your stupid camera level! I’m feeling The Moody Blues trying to hold on to this post!”
Paparazzo: “Oh! Are you feeling like ‘Ride My See-Saw’?”
Prickly Pear
Sunset
I remember being outside one morning at the end of January when the temperature was 7º F (-13.8 C) at 7:00 a.m. I was wishing for summer heat. Now that the summer heat is here, I started thinking about that cold morning in January, and the song I wrote about it.
After reading a short piece about Russian soldiers riding motorcycles toward the Ukrainian forces, running over mines, getting shot by drones, and Ukrainian soldiers, I wrote a song and made the above music video about it.
Spunk is shocked
Teagan’s vocals on White Rabbit are flawless. Click on the image to see her video.
Teagan is celebrating her birthday with a tribute to Grace Slick by singing a cover of Jefferson Airplane’s White Rabbit, the iconic song based on Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland and associated stoies set to a relentless Spanish Paso-doble (Spanish march) rhythm. It is probably one of the best known songs from the psychedelic 60s.
I was nine or ten years old in 1968 or 1969 when I first heard White Rabbit played on a local radio station. Not being an avid Lewis Carroll reader at the time, I had no idea what the lyrics were about other than tripping. I actually thought it had something to do with Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant, which was released in 1967 a few months after White Rabbit, but I had heard Guthrie’s album before I heard “ White Rabbit” played on the radio.
White Basket
Song and animation by Timothy Price
As many of you know, I love motorcycles, and pretty much everything related to motorcycles. I haven’t ridden much over the past 40 years, as I had switched to racing bicycles to get my thrills on two wheels. However, I rode motorcycles for 13 years in my youth, and I was a terror on two wheels, outrunning our local crooked crop by taking out across the desert, leaving him in my dust, trying to jump like Evel Knievel, and riding motocross like a madman. I still have the scars, and so many great memories from riding motorcycles in my formative years. So when a representative from Viking Bags asked if I could do a feature post about them, I was more than happy to.
Viking Bags is the go-to place for motorcycle luggage and aftermarket parts. They’re based in California and make the best and most variety of luggage bags for specific motorcycle makes and models in the USA. They have top-notch motorcycle luggage items, including saddlebags, tank bags, and backpacks. They also have top-quality ADV touring hard side cases, top cases, and soft panniers for adventure touring motorcycles.
In the motorcycle aftermarket parts segment, Viking Bags makes touring-oriented parts that help riders turn their bikes into better touring motorcycles. Viking Bags is known for the best sissy bars, crash bars, and luggage racks, bar none. Viking Bags makes motorcycles more valuable, practical, and versatile by adding the best-suited parts to enhance their functionality. If you’re a motorcycle touring lover, Viking Bags is the place for you.
Explore Viking Bags website with the Adventure Wheel Game I wrote for this post. Click on the image below to go to the game’s website, and click on the Spin button. When the adventure wheel stops spinning, see where you landed on the link that appears below the Spin button. Click on the link and explore the bags you landed on. Go back and spin the adventure wheel again, and again, and again…
Viking Bags Social Media Links:
Viking Bags
By Timothy Price
[Verse]
Hit the road in style for adventure
Bag yourself some fun with room to spare
On the open road through rain or shine
Protected in style when you are on the go
[Chorus]
Live to ride, ride to live in style
Live to ride for a long long while
Ride to live, live to ride the miles
With Viking Bags
Where adventure meets with style
[Bridge]
Answer the call of the West
Like heavy metal’s thunderous appeal
Be the envy of the motorcycle scene
With a functional, adventurous appeal
[Chorus]
Live to ride, ride to live in style
Live to ride for a long long while
Ride to live, live to ride the miles
With Viking Bags
Where adventure meets with style
[Outro]
A hardshell case or leather
Adventure meets style with Viking Bags
You know you can’t do much better
Than Viking Bags when you go
To where adventure meets style
Lately, when I write a song, I make a version of the music for me and a version for Teagan. Teagan’s version of The Storm is difficult because it has a wide vocal range and requires a powerful voice. Teagan nailed the range with her powerful vocals.
The Storm
by Timothy Price
[Verse 1]
Riding on the edge of night
Rainbow storms play on left
Sun shines on the right
[Chorus]
Light bounces off gray clouds
Shadows cling to the ground
Dead trees stare at useless rain
Much too late to ease the pain
[Verse 2]
Standing against the wind
Vultures circle overhead
Wishing my demise
[Bridge]
Angels ride
On lightning bolts
The gods argue
Their thunder rolls
Primary colors
Come undone
Trying to calm
The violence
Of the sun
[Outro]
Light bounces off gray clouds
Shadows cling to the ground
Dead trees stare at useless rain
Much too late to ease the pain
After I finished intensive chemo in 2010, I complained to my oncologist about not having feeling in my fingertips or toes. I asked when the feeling would return. She said probably never. I gave her a disappointed look and grumbled about it. She said, “It’s better than the alternative. Stop complaining, you’re still standing above the ground!” She was right. I had no right to complain. She had saved my life, and following her instructions, I never got sick or had any complications that I’d heard so many people had with chemo. After my second bout with cancer, and even more intense chemo than I had with the first bout, there was no chance of regaining much feeling in my fingertips.
As one might imagine, playing the guitar with numb fingertips is challenging. I started relearning to play the guitar in 2018. I wrote the lyrics to Standing in 2019, but never got a tune or music worked out that I liked. I gave AI Music the lyrics and the parameters for the music, and I finally got a song I liked.
Søren knows what it’s like to be standing!
Standing
By Timothy Price
Verse 1
Numb and swollen fingers
Fumble on the strings
I can’t feel the music
I’m Lost in sonic spaces
Verse 2
My guitar rings in my ears
I struggle with the sound
I’m trying to make some music
A joyful noise is what comes out
Chorus
But I won’t complain
And I won’t shed tears
It’s a miracle
That I’m still here
I won’t go down
Or get torn usunder
Becase I’m still standing
Above the ground
Bridge
Errant notes dangle
Then they Fall
Slipped off strings
And fingerboard
They lie scattered
Across the floor
They’re silenced
Under foot
Otro
Numb and swollen fingers
Still fumble on the strings
I still can’t feel the music
I’m still lost in sonic spaces
It’s like eeEEeeek!
The storm is one of my recent songs. It has some really high notes that are held out. It took many takes to get them right, but I managed.
The Storm
by Timothy Price
[Verse 1]
Riding on the edge of night
Rainbow storms play on left
Sun shines on the right
[Chorus]
Light bounces off gray clouds
Shadows cling to the ground
Dead trees stare at useless rain
Much too late to ease the pain
[Verse 2]
Standing against the wind
Vultures circle overhead
Wishing my demise
[Bridge]
Angels ride
On lightning bolts
The gods argue
Their thunder rolls
Primary colors
Come undone
Trying to calm
The violence
Of the sun
[Outro]
Light bounces off gray clouds
Shadows cling to the ground
Dead trees stare at useless rain
Much too late to ease the pain
May’s Flower Moon
Dusk
TnT’s latest musical collaberation is a version of Moments I made for Teagan. While I was trying different animations for the video, Teagan created a happy image of a singer and musicians for me to animate. Of the many problems I encountered creating animations for the a video to go with the song, the main two issues were 1) getting a consistent singer and musicians through the entire video, 2) syncing the singer’s mouth to the lyrics.
Using Teagan’s image, I was able to keep the singer and musicians the same all the way through the video. I gave AI the lyrics and incuded timing and prompts in attempts to sync the singers mouth with the lyrics. I do not have an AI subscription that allows me to upload the music in an attempt to sync the music with the animation, so I have to do a lot of trial and error to get things synced up the best I can. I got the mouth syncing moderately close to the words in the video, but they are still off.
I know a lot of people don’t like AI imagery and animation and are put off by it. However, it’s getting better all the time. It also gives artists like me and Teagan a way to create images and animation that we could not afford to do in the traditional ways of creating images for animation and video, or paying someone else to do it for us. Teagan has really polished her use of AI to create images, and I am getting better at the animation for video. We are really psyched about the possibilities that lie before us.
Dawn
Lyrics and Music by Timothy Price. Vocals by Teagan Riordain Geneviene.
I reworked the melody and music for A Blue Psalm that I wrote several years ago with the help of AI to create My Voice Goes Unheard. I had Teagan, at Teagan’s Books, in mind to sing it for me, and she graciously agreed. The song works much better with Teagan’s vocals.
First Butterfly
Off Center & Not Even 