Tag: original music

The Dreaded DST

Timothy Price72 Comments

When the time changed to Daylight Savings Time, Marina at Marina Kanavaki — Art Towards a Happy Day, made a comment about “the dreaded DST!” I told her that was a good song title. I had intended to write and record the song a couple of weeks ago, but DST got in the way. It seems I’m always coming up an hour short. I did the calculations to answer the question about how much daylight we save each year, and address them in the song.

The Dreaded DST
Lyrics and Music by Timothy Price
Inspired by Marina Kanavaki

Daylight blinds fools who have no skills
They create silly rules they are so unreal
Daylight’s scarce, why don’t we care?
We save it eight months out of… every year

Bedtime at ten feels like nine
Don’t feel sleepy? Have more wine
It’s midnight damn, the bottle’s empty
I’m still awake… I’m feeling pretty cranky

Now we’re on the dreaded DST
Body clocks are broken why can’t we see
That hour we save every single day
Is two-hundred forty hours of daylight that we have… stashed away

Alarm at five it feels like four
Like a zombie, I hit the door
Preparation-H on the old toothbrush
Toothpaste up my… Whew! What a rush

No time to shower, sleepin’ on the job,
Stinkin’ up the office, what a slob
Head bobs up and down, fishing at the screen
My boss is cranky… making quite a scene

Now we’re on the dreaded DST
Body clocks are broken why can’t we see
We can look forward to falling back
We get one-hundred twenty hours of daylight from… our stash

We’ve changed to DST for 56 years
That’s six-thousand seven-hundred hours, my dear
Of daylight, we’ve been banking away
So let’s go spend it on our… sanity

Now we’re on the dreaded DST
Body clocks are broken why can’t we see
That hour we save every single day
Is two-hundred forty hours of daylight that we have… stashed away

Marina’s Incognito Pear Tree

Morning contrails

Butterflies on Charlotte’s blooming Plum Tree

Mama Owl was sowing her head last night. The Owlets might have hatched.

Afternoon clouds

Jaywalking

Timothy Price57 Comments

The lyrics for my latest song came to me while I was jaywalking across Jefferson Blvd. by the office. The style of the song came to me while I was changing the light fixtures from fluorescent to LED in the men’s restroom at the office. When I removed one of the fluorescent bulbs from one of the fixtures, the end of the bulb burst into flames. It was really bizarre. Both sockets the bulb’s pins were in melted in the few seconds it took me to twist the bulb out of the sockets while it burst into flames. The flames went out before I could get my phone out of my pocket and do a photo or video. I was standing on a ladder with a burning bulb in my hand, so I wasn’t in a good position to get to my phone. Mark came into the restroom a few seconds later to tell me he had come in to get stuff together to go out to the field tomorrow. I showed him the melted sockets and burned bulb, we talked about his fieldwork, and I forgot to photograph the melted sockets and burned bulb. Anyway, the burning bulb reminded me of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire”, which gave me the idea to very loosely write the song in a similar style.

The Jazz Age

Resa posted The Jazz Age on her Art Gowns blog. It’s a fantastic post well worth a visit.

The crows are inspiration for the song, also. There are thousands of crows in flight to nowhere.

Jaywalking
By Timothy Price

Jaywalking
Code talking
Walking round in women’s stockings

Jabberwocky
So shocking
Minor keys we’re really rocking

Shaking booties
Tutti fruity
long-legged exotic beauties

Masked cuties
Black hoodies
We’re all getting COVID cooties

We’re all on our way to nowhere
We once thought we’d go somewhere
We’re on our way to nowhere
But now we’re neither here nor there

We’re all on our way to nowhere
Downtrodden, fallen from grace
We’re on our way to nowhere
Still stuck in the same old place

Pipe dreams
Lost steam
Hogtied, so it seems

Inbred
In the red
Can’t seem to get ahead

Lost time
sublime
No, you’re not on my dime

Not fine
Green slime
Flat tire? It doesn’t rhyme

We’re all on our way to nowhere
We once thought we’d go somewhere
We’re on our way to nowhere
But now we’re neither here nor there

We’re all on our way to nowhere
Downtrodden, fallen from grace
We’re on our way to nowhere
Still stuck in the same old place

YouTubing
KY lubing
Don’t you know we’re really grooving

Zoom bombing
Face palming
We’re out of sync. Why you calling?

Youth aging
Folks gaging
While the culture wars are waging

Been raped
No probate
It seems like there’s no escape

We’re all on our way to nowhere
We once thought we’d go somewhere
We’re on our way to nowhere
But now we’re neither here nor there

We’re all on our way to nowhere
Downtrodden, fallen from grace
We’re on our way to nowhere
Still stuck in the same old place

I’m A Lobo Lunatic

Timothy Price70 Comments
Video of Mosby singing with my accompaniment. I added footage of wolves playing in the snow.

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

Car Song Sinking Sunrise

Timothy Price76 Comments

Socratis at Oannes has been posting songs about cars. I keep commenting: “I had that car! Oh, I had that car, too. You are not going to believe this, but I had one of those cars, also!” From Oannes I was inspired to put together a spreadsheet of all the cars that have been in the family, and I had driven since I got my driver’s license at age 15. We still have some of the old cars that were bought new. The stats break down as follows: 33 cars over 48 years. 25 Model years from 1955 to 2017. 14 different carmakers. 26 different models in 10 different colors with green, yellow, brown, and red the predominant four colors. We’ve had more Mazdas than other cars with six. Volkswagon came in second with five. We still have two Mazdas, a Volkswagon, a Ford pickup, and a Datsun 280ZX on the property.

I was also inspired to write and record a Car Song about some of the cars that stood out over the years. I played the bass lines on my 5-string, multi-scale bass. I played my black Strat I built a few years ago for the rhythm guitar, and I played my 7-string, multi-scale guitar for the guitar solo (the song is above, lyrics at the end of the post).

Marble Sinking

Sunrise

Car Song
By Timothy Price

This is a story about a few of the many cars that graced my life

My dad, he was a Rambler man
1964 classic I learned to drive
Three on the tree with no air
Bench seats without belts

The ’55 Cadillac was a tank with tits
Big silver bumper boobs oh they couldn’t be missed
Slushbox tranny liked to bump and grind
Lumbered down the road in style

1960 Rambler in Pepto Bismol pink
Nearly cost me my life and limbs
A boy driving a pink car in 1975
Was worthy of a beating, so the other boys thought

[Chorus]
Thirty-three cars have graced my life
Over two score and 8 years
From green to pink to yellow to blue
Red sports cars are the final two

’66 American in canary yellow
The cubic inches under the hood wouldn’t do
I cut and bent to retrofit a power plant
I lost traction, tickets, I paid for my sins

’65 Corvair. Yep that’s the one
It was “Unsafe At Any Speed”
That car was fun to drive I never rolled it though
Not to say I didn’t try.

The Volkswagen Thing was a Thing of wonder
As I wandered from here to yonder
Weirdly shaped, like a Jerrycan on wheels
It did nothing for my sex appeal

[Bridge]
Cadillac, Chevrolet, Rambler, and Ford
Volkswagens, Honda, Triumph, were never bored
International, AMC, Renault, and a Datsun
Dodge, Kia, and best of all is always Mazda

Eldorado, Americans, a Classic, and a Bus
Travelalls, beetles, and a Triumph GT6 Plus
A Sun Bug, Pickups, Hornet, and a Le Car
Taurus, Rio Cinco, N600, and a Corvair
Granada, Dart, ZX, Five, RX, and a Thing
323, Speed 3, my Miata is really mean

[Guitar Solo]

’79 Renault Le Car was one of my
All-time favorite cars
Smooth ride, canvas-covered sunroof
That got Swiss-cheesed in a hailstorm

The RX-8 was as exotic as I got
A Wankel whining under the hood
Demanded high revs lots of speed
Suicide door, it seated four

My MX-5 is beautiful to drive
Small, responsive, quick, and sassy
A hot profile and racing stripe
It’s total fun and fantasy

Jake & The Bass

Timothy Price72 Comments

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.

Psycho-Delic

Timothy Price48 Comments

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

Coyote Convention

Timothy Price118 Comments

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.

Lots To Look At

Timothy Price55 Comments

Bazooka’s fist Dragonfly

Major Tom Peepers, Sleepy and Mona Lisa.

Finch

We finally got Laurie’s new MacBook Air M1 so I could have my MacBook Pro that I use for recording back. The first thing I did after I got Laurie’s new M1 set up yesterday was to go into the studio and re-record the lead guitar parts and cleaned up some parts with the bass and rhythm guitar where I was out of compás in Wood Duck Daze. Then I put the new track with the video. I think there are still one or to rough spots, but overall it’s much improved and the lead guitars are really wild like those crazy Wood Ducks.

Tabatha Towhee gave us her rendition of Habanera from Carmen by Bizet.

Bravo! Bravo! Tabatha Towhee.

On the flip side.

Well done Tabatha.

Major Tom Peepers and Mona Lisa.

Lizards looking for love. The male, above, was chasing the female, below. He was doing a bobbing lizard dance for her.

Larry Lizard

Lorena Lizard

All three owlets snoozing.

Altisimo in profile.

America

Mama Owl

Lady Banks in her massive Glory.

Honeysuckle

Mona Lisa and Major Tom Peepers. Sleepy is, you guessed it, sleeping.

Lilac

A pearlet on Marina’s Incognito Pear Tree.

Mona Lisa and Major Tom Peepers posing.

“Hey Mona. I think we need to get that stupid Paparazzo to build us a shade structure.”

Dancing Daze

Timothy Price45 Comments

The Dance Floor Lyrics and Music by Timothy Price

The Dance Floor is an original song I wrote and recorded recently. It’s a song reminiscent of the days when people could gather together, dance, and put on whatever charm they could muster in attempts to go beyond the dance floor. Maybe Dancing Daze will make a comeback.

After another long day of dismantling the old office, configuring VPNs, and breaking into the WiFi units in the new office building and configuring them, I did manage to get out to see Mama Owl and Daddy Owl after I got home at sunset. I couldn’t see Mama Owl in her hole when I got in view, but I called her, and she gave me an ear tuft up to let me know she was still steadfast on her nest. Daddy Owl was gazing out at the bosque and gave me half eyes over his shoulder for my calling out to Mama Owl.

Speaking of chicks, I did see a few on my way to and from my visit to the owls. Our mini daffy’s bloomed.

Towhee

Sparrow