Cecil Vortex

x-post: and the vortex and the John. And the Paul, George, Ringo of it all.

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Welcome to another Monkey Vortex Monday. Congratulations on getting here. And most especially, on evading the many traps I set before you these past seven days. Particularly the thing with the stick. And the one with the swinging gate. And the bottle of rum, half-reflected in a shallow pool of just-fallen rain water. Did you stoop to quench your thirst, old friend? Of course you did.
Now, to your reward: the answer to a pair of age-old questions. Questions about John Kerry. About George W. Bush. About the remaining Beatles. And about the thin line what separates the two. The four, I mean. The two pairs of two, I guess. Is what I mean. Anyways, it’s all based on a wee radioplay penned by yours truly, with voices by me also, plus Benson Hurst, John Kerry, and the aforementioned GWB. And you can play it for yourself right here.

x-post: and the monkey, and the POTA, and the pathos of it all

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It’s another Monkey Vortex Monday. Now playing: two minutes and twenty seconds inside the mind of the most powerful human being on the face of the earth. It’s a Bill Cassel / Christian Crumlish script, starring the aforementioned Christian Crumlish, plus Eileen Dahl and the infamous M. Smith. And it all adds up to an all-free, all-mp3 experience the kids call: Sympathy for the W.

Zach Braff vs. Yu-Gi-Oh!

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OK, OK. So I haven’t written a feature-length movie about returning to New Jersey. But I ask you this: has Hollywood bigshot Zach Braff ever written a song about Yu-Gi-Oh!? And more to the point, has he ever written one in both the faux-classical and faux punk-folk traditions?
No? I didn’t think so.
Now me, on the other hand….
Lyrics:
Everybody’s playing Yu-Gi-Oh!
Yu-Gi-Oh! is what folks like to play
and when the cards are —
— the cards are flying
folks are playing
Yu-Gi-Oh!
Yu-Gi-Oh!
Yu-Gi-Oooooh….oh!
Faux-classical and faux punk-folk recordings…coming soon.
ed note: turns out, not everyone is Yu-Gi-Oh! savvy. So in case yer excessively puzzled by this here entry: Yu-Gi-Oh! is a card game, much like Pokemon. Or pinochle. But more like Pokemon. Now Zach Braff, Zach Braff I explain to no one. He can go to hell.

trash

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At every gas stop along the way, he pulls out trash with his wallet.
A scrunched up sheet of off-white paper
and a smaller one – a post-it.
Out, up for air and then he
bends over to close a hand on them
and pull them back up
off the shadow stained concrete where they fell.
He straightens himself out a bit.
He slaps his pants.
And then he pushes them back down.
Back down deep.
Into place.

From out of the whispering past: Mac Davis

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Back in high school I was lucky enough to have two excellent friends who were also great musicians — Heroic Imp and SKP. They’d jam, and I’d make up some words — insta-tunes, written and recorded in one night. And that right there was my introduction to the idear that writing and recording music is good for the brain.
Post-high school, sometime around 1987, Imp and I were at his Jersey City pad, most likely suffering an MSG hangover. He took out the 4-track, guitar, bass, and drum machine, and we wrote up a little homage to country-singing-legend-and-sometime-movie-star Mac Davis.
When we were done, musta been after midnight, we switched on the tube and there was the man — Mac himself — in North Dallas 40. Imp recorded a sample on the spot and then went back to his Tascam to work it into the tune.
The result has been on a cassette in various closets for 17 years or so. But this weekend I finally figgered out how to turn cassettes into MP3s — surprisingly easy once the plug is in place. Easy and kinda like magic.
Thus it is, that all these years later, Mac Davis rides again. Giddyap!
Press Play to play.
playtime: 2:07
file specs: a scant 1.9 MB