90s Off, Special Edition: This is Halloween

Well, this came out rough, but I have to follow the code of the 90s off. Turns out this tune has more chords than... something that has a lot of chords in it.

Here is Danny Elfman's "This is Halloween," and me being a big loser. Happy Halloween everyone.

Welcome to My Apartment - Believed to Beautiful

My good friend Yellow has a pretty awesome series going on on her blog right now, and you should check it out. Something happened today that made me want to copy her approach, namely this guy:


Here I am, doing some "Sunday" cleaning (it's my Sunday anyway), and I find this guy sitting next to the stove, in a sealed baggie, in the ladle dish. Clearly he does not belong here.


On closer inspection, it turns out he's a snowman. So really, on Halloween Eve Eve, he doesn't belong anywhere. But here he is. I haven't been using the kitchen at home much lately, that's what happens when you work full time in one, so I have no idea how long he's been there. So here's to awesomeness that doesn't belong, neither temporally nor culinarily. In a day of tedious housecleaning, I have to call this guy the bright spot.

Lyrics: Listless

Here I orbit round a thought
in gravity's ellipses
I am trailing off.
I can will the time to pass away
drifting listless through the day
but what to say to you?

And in this satellite I bide my time.

Let's pull the covers overhead
poke hole into the sheets
and fall asleep
counting all the shapes
the constellations that we name
for all the people
in our dreams

And in this satellite I bide my time.

There's always a distance between
the things I say and the message received
but even light years can't change
the time it takes until your ear's in range.

90s Off: It's a Celebration

Hoffie pointed out several days ago that it was the first anniversary of the 90s Off when he posted this video, a medley of every song off Radiohead's OK Computer:

OK 90s Off from Susie Derkins on Vimeo.

I was humbled and so proud of our little baby for reaching this milestone (in this region, the infant mortality rate is exceptionally high). So, I decided to do a medley as well, playing a song from each year of the 90s:

90s Off - Anniversary Medley! from Choppyrocks on Vimeo.

Stay tuned for Halloween. I can't speak for the rest of the crew, but I've got a good one coming.

Bored Bartender Haiku

So I was bartending a wedding tonight, and it was boring, though not unproductive. Enjoy:

Stand behind bottles
cork flakes floating in the wine
brush fruit flies away.

*

Bubble toast unburnt
transatlantic applause, pause:
corkscrew, pigtail, cake.

*

Time of the fruit fly
kept by the bartender's hand
watching plastic dry.

*

Beware of squirrels
dumpster ninjas raiding rinds
from buffet snack line.

*

In public houses
ghosts avoid the memory
collectors' snapshots.

Frankenstory

Yellow and I have written yet another Frankenstory, and methinks this one is pretty good:

Space provided but left open is not space wasted. You should take heed of this, and you should forget what I told you last: a man who scares goats can't fight lobsters. You should forget, if you can, the wisdom of the ages spelled out in odd scenes - the scruff of the barnyard and the cool tank of the ocean, both hoarding light for the coming winter. It's not that something has to illuminate the empty spaces, just that someone has to appreciate them. You were the first to make me appreciate that. I offer you: the man who dances with lobsters dances on the shore. But you should forget that, too. It's all leftover lyrics - you taught me that. Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, won't you join the dance?