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The Soundtrack Continues

Solitary Shell
– Dream Theater

He seemed no different from the rest
Just a healthy normal boy
His mama always did her best
And he was daddy’s pride and joy

He learned to walk and talk on time
But never cared much to be held
and steadily he would decline
Into his solitary shell

As a boy he was considered somewhat odd
Kept to himself most of the time
He would daydream in and out of his own world
but in every other way he was fine

He’s a Monday morning lunatic
Disturbed from time to time
Lost within himself
In his solitary shell

A temporary catatonic
Madman on occasion
When will he break out
Of his solitary shell

He struggled to get through his day
He was helplessly behind
He poured himself onto the page
Writing for hours at a time

As a man he was a danger to himself
Fearful and sad most of the time
He was drifting in and out of sanity
But in every other way he was fine

He’s a Monday morning lunatic
Disturbed from time to time
Lost within himself
In his solitary shell

A momentary maniac
With casual delusions
When will he be let out
Of his solitary shell

Soundtrack for today

Catapult
– Counting Crows

All of a sudden she disappears
Just yesterday she was here
Somebody tell me if I am sleeping
Someone should be with me here
Cause I don’t wanna be alone

I wanna be the knife that cuts into my hand
And I wanna be scattered from here in this catapult
What a big baby won’t somebody save me please
You won’t find nobody home

All of these quiet battered voices
Wait for the hunger to come
We got little revolvers and stupid choices
And no one to say when we’re done
Well I don’t wanna bring you down

I wanna be the light that burns out your eyes
Cause I know there’s little things about me
That would sing in the silence of so much rejection
In every connection I make
I can’t find nobody home

I wanna be the last thing that you hear when you’re falling asleep….

Whedon vs. Ellis

This is fantastic: two of my favorite writers are having a verbal battle of wits over on Warren Ellis’ blog.

Temporary fix

I’ve got the broken archives patched until I can get an official fix. They are a little clunky, but hey, at least you can read them.

Listening to Haughty Melodic

Tremendous Brunettes
– Mike Doughty

All them tremendous brunettes around…

Slow down, don’t fuck with my high
I want to be left alone here with my monsters and
Say, now it’s time to ride
To see lovely girls and to not put the moves on them

Praise now the baby genius
She skips in the shade of the lonely sour apple tree
While she snaps on her gum
Her gleaming teeth bared and the shine that she shows to me

All of your ill-gotten gains
That you have whipped up to a rich, foamy lather, girl
Nameless gnaw of my pains
Like three hundred trumpets, and just one is out of tune

Anonymous Comments

Because I think anonymous comments are cowardly and create a built in dead end to any kind of dialogue, I’ve instituted comment moderation. Any post where the poster is unidentified/unfamiliar will just get deleted before it appears on my blog. The alternative is making all my friends sign up for an account here, but I don’t want to do that.

Since I Gave up Hope I Feel a Lot Better

I’ve been looking for a song to serve as a soundtrack for these musings, for this week. All the old standards just didn’t suffice. But then it came to me.

Here lies the answer and end to the quest.

Bad
-U2

If you twist and turn away
If you tear yourself in two again
If I could, yes I would
If I could, I would
Let it go
Surrender
Dislocate

If I could throw this
Lifeless lifeline to the wind
Leave this heart of clay
See you walk, walk away
Into the night
And through the rain
Into the half-light
And through the flame

If I could through myself
Set your spirit free
I’d lead your heart away
See you break, break away
Into the light
And to the day

To let it go
And so to fade away
To let it go
And so fade away

I’m wide awake
I’m wide awake
Wide awake
I’m not sleeping
Oh, no, no, no

If you should ask then maybe they’d
Tell you what I would say
True colors fly in blue and black
Bruised silken sky and burning flag
Colors crash, collide in blood shot eyes

If I could, you know I would
If I could, I would
Let it go…

This desperation
Dislocation
Separation
Condemnation
Revelation
In temptation
Isolation
Desolation
Let it go

And so fade away
To let it go
And so fade away
To let it go
And so to fade away

I’m wide awake
I’m wide awake
Wide awake
I’m not sleeping…

Narnia

I simply cannot be objective about this movie. I have *always* wanted to go to Narnia and those books are forever imprinted on me. They are important and formative works for me. Even as the opening credits started, my eyes were already welling with tears. As best as I can recollect, nothing was left out. Several dramatic sequences were added, but they seemed entirely appropriate. The movie took its time to tell the story. All the perfect, holy moments were unchanged. And there were gryphons! My heart filled to the brim with joy for the entire movie. At the end I had to go to the restroom to compose myself. And then Stavros asked me what I thought of it and I just started blubbering, unable to speak. I eventually managed to say, “I can’t talk about it right now, but it was perfect.”

The movie spoke to a part of me that doesn’t often get to come out so fully and express his deep childlike wonder and innocence.

RSS Feed

Special thanls to Dave at Chub Creek for pointing out that my RSS feed was broken. If you were subscribed that way, you haven’t been getting new posts for quite some time!

An extraordinary evening

The other night I went to this local board gaming group and had a completely unprecedented experience. First of all, this guy has a whole guesthouse just for games. His library contained pretty much every Euro game I had ever heard of. At least 150 games. Then he introduces me to one of their regular members, the owner of Rio Grande Games. I got to playtest two games, one that was a prototype, one that isn’t available here yet. They were really fun. There was also a stack of games that debuted at Essen (the big German game expo) that you can’t get here yet. Just sitting there!

And get this: when Jay, the owner of Rio Grande, found out I was a graphic artist, he asked me to bring him samples of my work next time because he needed a graphic artist for an upcoming game. It was like a weird dream. I didn’t even push for any of it to happen, he was just there and he asked if I did graphics for game design. I would not mind doing graphics for a board game that would be published by one of the most recognized publishers in the world.