A few days ago I had a conversation with a friend regarding songs whose meanings are different than the popular culture. For instance, "Born In the USA". Instead of a rip roaring ode to the US America, it is a bitter song of lost promise, failed dreams and decay. Not exactly what the Reaganites believed it to be. I know because I read the liner notes.
My personal fav? The Police's "Every Breath You Take." Instead of a song of insane love as played at weddings, it's an even creepier song about a stalker and his (definitely him) prey. I've been told that I'm no romantic and bitter who can't find love (true) but I retorted to them, "Sing it while imagining yourself lying down on the ground with your eye in a scope as you look at your target while grasping a sniper rifle ." Not so romantic, eh? "Every breath you take, I'll be watching you."
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
Glory Daze (Sorry Boss)
I had a friend was a Navy pilot guy
Back in Indian Country
He could crash that Skyhawk so fast
Make you look like an ace, boy
Saw him the other night at the Sturgis rally
I was walking in, he was offering Cin
We went back inside sat down had a few drinks
But all he kept talking about was
POW days well they’ll pass you by
POW days in the wink of the first wife’s eye
POW days, POW days
Well there’s Cindy that lives up the block
Back in school she could turn all the boy’s heads
Sometimes on a friday i’ll stop by
And pop a few pills after she puts her old man to bed
Her husband Johnny well he calls her a cunt
I guess it’s gone on twenty years by now
We just sit around talking about the old times,
She says when she feels like crying
She starts laughing thinking about
OxyCon days well they’ll pass you by
OxyCon days in the wink of his first wife’s eye
OxyCon days, OxyCon days
Her husband worked 8 years in the ‘House
And they beat him up
Now everywhere she goes out looking for support
They just tell her that she’s too old
I was twenty two years old and she was “working” on the
White House Healthcare cluster fuck
Now she just sits on a stool chugging boilermakers
But i can tell what’s on her mind
Glory days yeah goin back
Glory days aw she ain’t never had
Glory days, glory days
Now i think i’m going down to the DNC tonight
And i’m going to drink till i get my fill
And i hope when i get old i don’t sit around thinking about it
But i probably will
Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture
A little of the glory of, well time slips away
And leaves you with nothing mister but
Boring stories of glory days
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Relections on the Intro
Gahhh. I hate ripping apart my own work, but I feel I need to if I'm going to improve.
This was one of the first sections of the manuscript I wrote. To tell you the truth, I tried to make it exciting but with 10 year older eyes I think it's pretty weak on a writing technical point of view. This is what happens when you think you are more clever than you really are.
Fuck.
This was one of the first sections of the manuscript I wrote. To tell you the truth, I tried to make it exciting but with 10 year older eyes I think it's pretty weak on a writing technical point of view. This is what happens when you think you are more clever than you really are.
Fuck.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Friday, August 8, 2008
Sympathy for the Cheney
Sometimes I have a habit of "writing" filks. It doesn't take me more than 20 minutes to pump one out. Usually only do when a song I remember fits the situation/person I want to mock and inspired. Makes sure that the syllable and rhyming (for the most part) line up.
This one is a personal fav of mine (Based on the Rolling Stone's Sympathy for the Devil.) Also one of the RW's "Conservative" Rock Songs (aside from one line about the Romanovs-who were a bunch of inbred dumb shits anyway, not much conservative about it at all.)
Please allow me to introduce myself
I’m a man of wealth and waste
I’ve been around for a long, long year
Stole two elections and their faith
And I was round when Al Gore
Had his moment of doubt and pain
Made damn sure that Scalia
Washed his hands and sealed his fate
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name
But whats puzzling you
Is the nature of my game
I stuck around Washington
When I saw it was a time for a change
Let Enron brown out California
Tom Daschele screamed in vain
I rode a tank
Wore a pretend generals rank
When Iraqi Freedom raged
And the bodies stank
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name, oh yeah
Ah, whats puzzling you
Is the nature of my game, oh yeah
I watched with glee
While your Main Stream Media
Fought for two decades
Over stupid labels they made
I shouted out,
Who hiked up oil prices?
When after all
It was just old me
Let me please introduce myself
I’m a man of wealth and waste
And I laid traps for ambassadors
Who get leaked before they reached Niger
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name, oh yeah
But whats puzzling you
Is the nature of my game, oh yeah, get down, baby
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name, oh yeah
But whats confusing you
Is just the nature of my game
Just as every Dem is a criminal
And all Republicans saints
As war is peace
Just call me Cheney
cause I don’t need of some restraint
So if you meet me
Have some courtesy
Have some fresh human blood, and some babies
Use all your well-learned politesse
Or Ill shoot you in your face, um yeah
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name, um yeah
But whats puzzling you
Is the nature of my game, um mean it, get down
Woo, who
Oh yeah, get on down
Oh yeah
Oh yeah!
Tell me baby, whats my name
Tell me honey, can ya guess my name
Tell me baby, whats my name
I tell you one time, you’re to blame
This one is a personal fav of mine (Based on the Rolling Stone's Sympathy for the Devil.) Also one of the RW's "Conservative" Rock Songs (aside from one line about the Romanovs-who were a bunch of inbred dumb shits anyway, not much conservative about it at all.)
Please allow me to introduce myself
I’m a man of wealth and waste
I’ve been around for a long, long year
Stole two elections and their faith
And I was round when Al Gore
Had his moment of doubt and pain
Made damn sure that Scalia
Washed his hands and sealed his fate
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name
But whats puzzling you
Is the nature of my game
I stuck around Washington
When I saw it was a time for a change
Let Enron brown out California
Tom Daschele screamed in vain
I rode a tank
Wore a pretend generals rank
When Iraqi Freedom raged
And the bodies stank
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name, oh yeah
Ah, whats puzzling you
Is the nature of my game, oh yeah
I watched with glee
While your Main Stream Media
Fought for two decades
Over stupid labels they made
I shouted out,
Who hiked up oil prices?
When after all
It was just old me
Let me please introduce myself
I’m a man of wealth and waste
And I laid traps for ambassadors
Who get leaked before they reached Niger
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name, oh yeah
But whats puzzling you
Is the nature of my game, oh yeah, get down, baby
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name, oh yeah
But whats confusing you
Is just the nature of my game
Just as every Dem is a criminal
And all Republicans saints
As war is peace
Just call me Cheney
cause I don’t need of some restraint
So if you meet me
Have some courtesy
Have some fresh human blood, and some babies
Use all your well-learned politesse
Or Ill shoot you in your face, um yeah
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name, um yeah
But whats puzzling you
Is the nature of my game, um mean it, get down
Woo, who
Oh yeah, get on down
Oh yeah
Oh yeah!
Tell me baby, whats my name
Tell me honey, can ya guess my name
Tell me baby, whats my name
I tell you one time, you’re to blame
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Novel Intro
About 10 years ago, I actually finished a novel manuscript of around 600 pages. Not bad for a then 28 year old man still struggling to work in the profession he chose.
What the hell made me do this? Like most things in my life, ignited by a fit of anger and boredom. I started writing this in 1995 when I was looking for work in one of the more difficult recessions in Canadian economic history. Took about 2 years to write and about a year to edit it into readable fashion and then a mere 3 months to get an agent.
"Enough about the fucking process, asshole! What's the goddamned story about?"
The story is about two nations, one on the upside and one on the downside and how things go very bad when they collide.
"Big fucking deal. Spare me the geopolitical shit."
Well, it's in a genre that is almost dead these days with comic book adapations and Harry Potter books, the technothriller as popularized by Tom Clancy, Stephen Coonts et al. I figured that I could be an awful writer as well as engineer.
Anyway, As you might have gathered from the label, The Eagle and The Dragon is about the US and China going at it over Taiwan and oil (big shock) found in the South China Sea. The idea of the book is not unique as USAF loving Dale Brown wrote a novel that covered that, but done without any context of history and put more emphasis on the victory by bombing from 25000 crowd (who I've always thought were about as realistic as the Grandmaison French generals of WW1 who believed in willpower over firepower.)
Unlike most technothrillers, I tried to focus in my own stilted way on the human element as much as the weapons.
What the hell made me do this? Like most things in my life, ignited by a fit of anger and boredom. I started writing this in 1995 when I was looking for work in one of the more difficult recessions in Canadian economic history. Took about 2 years to write and about a year to edit it into readable fashion and then a mere 3 months to get an agent.
"Enough about the fucking process, asshole! What's the goddamned story about?"
The story is about two nations, one on the upside and one on the downside and how things go very bad when they collide.
"Big fucking deal. Spare me the geopolitical shit."
Well, it's in a genre that is almost dead these days with comic book adapations and Harry Potter books, the technothriller as popularized by Tom Clancy, Stephen Coonts et al. I figured that I could be an awful writer as well as engineer.
Anyway, As you might have gathered from the label, The Eagle and The Dragon is about the US and China going at it over Taiwan and oil (big shock) found in the South China Sea. The idea of the book is not unique as USAF loving Dale Brown wrote a novel that covered that, but done without any context of history and put more emphasis on the victory by bombing from 25000 crowd (who I've always thought were about as realistic as the Grandmaison French generals of WW1 who believed in willpower over firepower.)
Unlike most technothrillers, I tried to focus in my own stilted way on the human element as much as the weapons.
Welcome?
Welcome to those who found this place.
This blog is just going to a dumping ground of sorts for various things I write.
One feature I will try to upkeep is release a chapter of my unpublished (45 rejection letters through an agent, yeah!) manuscript once a week with notes (mostly of the "What the fuck I was thinking?" variety.) Critiques are welcome (even the ones crapping on it, especially those.)
This blog is just going to a dumping ground of sorts for various things I write.
One feature I will try to upkeep is release a chapter of my unpublished (45 rejection letters through an agent, yeah!) manuscript once a week with notes (mostly of the "What the fuck I was thinking?" variety.) Critiques are welcome (even the ones crapping on it, especially those.)
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