I irrigated on Thursday. A gopher hole created an unwanted lake that was draining water that the plants needed. After 30 minutes of trying to plug the hole where it was flowing out of the ground, which I knew wouldn’t work, I finally found two holes that were the source and plugged them. Not before getting a significant-sized lake. The whole thing reminded me of how the Salton Sea was created.
Loki was practicing his cat tree ballet.
White neon iris
Sunset
Sadly, the cranes are gone. They flew north for spring and summer. I did find some flowers blooming.
For the first evening that we are trying to save the daylight, which, by the way, is not endangered out here, the Painter went a little wild jamming with the clouds.
Venus and Mars showed up at 6:30 am, the time formerly known as 5:30 am.
Daddy Owl enjoying the colors
A few days before Christmas, Tristan asked if I had any extra guitar cases for acoustic guitars. I had a gig bag I told her she could have. The next day she said she didn’t need the gig bag after all because the guitar they were going to give to Craig’s nephew for Christmas was broken. I told her I’d donate a guitar for them to give him for Christmas. Of course, that meant I needed to replace the guitar. A few weeks before Christmas, Marina “adopted” a wolf for us at the Wolf Conservation Center in New York as a gift. His name is Mosby. When I was looking for a replacement guitar I remembered that Luna made a Wolf guitar. I found a Luna Wolf Guitar and ordered it.
The Wolf Conservation Center sent a video of Mosby howling with two other wolves who are off-camera. I recorded music to Mosby’s howling in the video yesterday using a jazz guitar and my 7-string guitar for the rhythm guitars. As luck has it, my Luna Wolf Guitar came in today, and the full Wolf Moon rose tonight. When I got home from work, I recorded a track with the wolf guitar and replaced the jazz guitar track with the track I played on the Wolf guitar. Then I went out to the river and photographed the Wolf Moon rising.
The Lobo Lunatic playing the Luna Wolf Guitar with the Wolf Moon rising behind him.
A full view of the Luna Wolf Guitar. It has Rosewood back and sides and the collage on the top is made with Rosewood, Zebrawood, Paduk, Bird’s Eye Maple, Koa, and Flame Maple. The neck markers are the moon phases with the full moon at the 12th fret. It has Fishman electronics and a built-in tuner. It’s a really beautiful guitar. It plays well and sounds great.
Sunset
With all the hoopla about Omicron, we must not forget about other diseases that run amok like Space Herpes (you can learn more about space herpes at https://news.sky.com/story/nasa-issues-space-herpes-warning-as-virus-reactivates-in-astronauts-11669335). I brought Space Herpes to the attention of OC&NE readers in March of 2020. While the video I put together in 2020 was decent, the parody, which I originally recorded in 2018, was really bloody awful. I completely redid the music and recorded new vocals between a dentist appointment at dawn and shopping for ingredients for New Year’s black-eyed peas in the afternoon. The parody is now a much better PSA. Lyrics are at the end of the post.
1st photo: Dawn from the dentist’s office. 2nd photo: Moon peeking through the clouds at the dentist’s office. 3rd photo: Sunrise through the bedroom window by Laurie.
Sasha showing us her belly. I don’t think your allergies are space herpes, Sasha.
Sunset from the grocery store parking lot. I thought I was going to miss sunset tonight, but the painter made sure we got a good showing from the store. She didn’t want to disappoint Marina. Marina doesn’t need withdrawals from her daily OD on New Mexico’s Naturaleza at the end of the year.
Space Herpes
Music: Deep Purple
Lyrics: Timothy Price
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 afar
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 every day
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
I ordered an Ibanez multi-scale 5-string bass in the middle of August. I just got it last week. I was thinking the fanned frets on the fingerboard would help my poor arthritic fingers. Why not get a fretless bass, you might ask? I did consider that, but I like having frets. I’ve been practicing with it and I finally got time to record two new songs this weekend. The one I recorded today I’m calling “The Bass” and I put it together with video of Jake chasing a stick and rolling in the dirt. It’s a jazzy piece. The other song I named “Black Widow” is very hard and dark. I don’t have a video for it unless I do a visualization. I’ll post it at another time after I figure out if I’ll at video or go with the audio.
The multi-scale fingerboard is a lot easier for me to play and my fingers and hands are not hurting or swollen beyond normal after hours of playing and recording. I played the Ibanez multi-scale 7-string guitar on the recording.
In trying to come up with a solution for video when I can’t be literal, I got the idea I could use a music visualizer to create psychedelic allegorical images. I tried a couple of different music visualizers and I liked the one I found on a gaming site called Animus. I decided to use my five-movement song called T.U.L.I.P. for the test. Some of you might remember that I posted T.U.L.I.P. on Tuesday back in early January as five separate short songs. I put them all together into one song with 5 movements. The five songs are more coherent as a single song.
T.U.L.P
Five-Point Calvinism in five movements
By Timothy Price
Total Depravity
Sitting shivering
In the heat of night
Sliced by rays
In the dark of light
Soul lies frayed
So depraved
Every thought a mortal
Every action a mortal
Every thought and action
A mortal Sin!
Unconditional Election
Some are elected
Others left in sin
Punished and damned
For their many transgressions
They can never win
Those few saved by grace
Unconditional love
Receive salvation
They are the few
Elected from above
All others
All the others
All the others get
All the others get damnation
Limited Atonement
Limited Atonement
Didn’t die for all
Elected are saved
Reprobates fall
No prevenient grace
Jeopardy double
Only the elect
Will make it through
Without any trouble
Redemption certain or
Redemption none
It’s predestination
Foreknown by
The One
Irresistible Grace
Irresistible Grace
Efficacy calls
Only some
But not all
For salvation
It could be me
It could be you
It may be neither
Grace for the few
Is Irresistible
Perseverance of the Saints
One saved always saved
No more death by
Trespasses and sins
Security of sanctification
Condition is secure
Eternal justification
Salvation for the
Saints persevere
Glenda doing the TULIP
This is the second parody I made back in 2017. I hadn’t upgraded my darkroom to double as a recording studio at that time, so I recorded it in the dance room using the mics in my computer. The recording wasn’t too bad other than being very tinny. I imported the original sound file into Studio One and clean up the vocals. I think a lot of writers who follow my blog will appreciate this parody.
Saturday Night’s Alright for Writing
Music by Elton John
Lyrics by Timothy Price
It’s getting late I found my PaperMate
I’m procrastinating sitting here
Seventy lines that I gotta pine
I have modifiers dangling near
My old Mac’s bonkers and it’s acting kind of funky
And my old adage is to be clear
My writing is cute like a guy in army Boots
A cowboy hat in his hair
Ohhhhhh
Don’t give us none of your imagination
Write facts be on your discipline
Cause Saturday night’s alright for writing
Let’s get a little action verbiage in
Let’s get about as riled as an op-ed rage
Let’s try to set this page alight
Cause writing on a Saturday night I like
Saturday night’s alright
to write to write
Ooooo oo-oo oh
A lot of words are getting packed in here tonight
I’m looking for a phrase that will seem alright
I might use an antecedent to get what I need
I might bare an infinitive and shout out “conditionally”
Some of the words that I really like
Are future perfect voicing that are out of sight
I’m a high school dropout from the ergative class
Who’s passive voices, dangled modified and got a pass
Ohhhhhhh
Don’t give us none of your imagination
Write facts be on your discipline
Cause Saturday night’s alright for writing
Let’s get a little action verbiage in
Let’s get about as riled as an op-ed rage
Let’s try to set this page alight
Cause writing on Saturday night I like
A Saturday night’s alright
to write to write
Oooooo oo-oo ooh
I stepped down onto the sandbar at Beaver Point last night and found myself in the middle of a coyote convention.
Click on a photo in the gallery to enlarge in a slide show.
This one took off on its own stepping over piles of trees and sticks left by the beavers.
He had to take a break to eat some grass and make silly faces while chomping on the grass. Click on the gallery for to enlarge the photos in a slide show.
…GREEN CHILE!!!
I got our first sack of green chiles for the 2021 green chile season at Wagner’s Farm this afternoon. Anyone who has followed this blog for any time knows we eat green chile on almost everything. Chile is addictive and goes well with anything as you can see from the drinks above. I wrote and recorded The Capsiacin Club song in early 2019. I acquired the guitar and bass that I put the chile skins on at the same time. Ron Blood recorded a new bass line for the song and added his touches on mixing and mastering the recording. I made and first published the video in September 2019.
Flaming. Roasting. Roasted.
Pealing. Pealed. Stemmed and de-seeded.
Bagged. Boxed. In the freezer with rats.
Off Center & Not Even 