Month: May 2015

Space Cowboy 5-play

~ Cave_Guy ~ 10 Comments

wayne-spaceman

After I visited Geoff @ https://1001albumsin10years.wordpress.com/2015/05/27/odyssey-to-2001-top-5-space-tunes/ and briefly chastised him for leaving out Flock of Seagulls with his post —-I thought: “Hey, I got a blog, why not riff off what my Canadian friend is doing and write my own post?”—-and then I saw https://gigisrantsandraves.wordpress.com/2015/05/31/supernova-and-an-unexpected-universefrom-astronomy-picture-of-the-daybeautiful/  over @ Rethinking Life with a cool galaxy pic and thought: “Hey, why not put yourself in space and go for it? – you blogging fool you!”

So here we go!  Space 5-play

  1. Flock of Seagulls –Space Age Love Song

This one sounds spacey more that is spacey – like if I was flying between galaxies test driving a new star cruiser – I would crank this up and drink some tang.

  1. After the Gold Rush – Neil Young —sung by Dolly Pardon and friends.

The abstract imagery of Neil Young’s song writing allows for many interpretations – The core of the sci-fi genre is us getting off this earth and into the stars – sometimes with aliens helping us. Yeah,…mostly they are trying to make us extinct, but sometimes, as in this song, they are our friends.

  1. Space Boogie – Jeff Beck

Jeff Beck always gets forgotten – too jazzy to be rock – too rock to be jazzy. Fusion? Is that what they used to call it? You are not forgotten on the cave my friend. (Using friend for dramatic effect-I have never met the man or seen the man in concert – but he seems like he would be ok and drink a sensible mid-range beer like a Sam Adams or Newcastle Brown Ale).

  1. Rocket Man – Sir Elton John – hit by William Shatner with phaser not set to stun.

Does not matter how much it has been played – as a serious chronicler of popular music I am contractually obligated to include it. It is a great song (even after this fiasco) – which makes the task not difficult

  1. Space Oddity – David Bowie

David Bowie is a space cadet with no equal and this was written at the birth of the space age. We saw the brilliance and he saw the isolation. He was/is ahead of his time.

I challenge all the other bloggers out there to do a space themed blog!

This could be the start of something good.

And as always.

Cheers from the cave!

Pokey LaFarge

~ Cave_Guy ~ 13 Comments

Any parent with a teenager knows that you will sometimes hear strange sounds coming from their room, and unlike what all the TV programs and magazines say about parenting —We do not want to know what is going on!

So when I heard THIS — This tin pan alley type music blaring one day from behind the mysterious-door-of-quickly-dissolving-childhood – I broke my “don’t ask don’t tell” policy and yelled through the door.

“Son, what the hell are you listening to?”

“Dad – This is Pokey LaFarge”

“Pokey LaFarge?”

It’s old and it’s new – it’s really old and really new – even the name is too quirky to be quirky.

Is quirky the new cool?

Pokey Lafarge?

What can I say – the boy has great taste in music.

If you go to the band site there is a free download of his new song – Something in the Water—although the file does sneak into your system like a virus – so good luck finding it after you play it.

http://www.pokeylafarge.net/

Karma 3-play

~ Cave_Guy ~ 11 Comments

Disclaimer: I am not a Buddhist, I am a Christian – but like the cowboy that stumbles into the hipster bar by mistake and takes a drink or two — I did tarry some in this establishment.

And these are great songs:

Radiohead – Karma Police

Crystalized and purified arty dark angst in small easy-to-open packages.

John Lennon – Instant Karma

My first introduction to this concept- as I understand it: the cosmic something is keeping track of all your transgressions and making sure you answer for each one how it sees fit (again, I just hung out in this bar for a little while, so I am fuzzy on the details).

Sooooo – stop doing stupid sh*t!  And trust in love.

And what is so funny about peace love and understanding?

Culture Club – Karma Chameleon

Guilty pleasure or am I a closet Boy George fan?! Yes and Yes. The dude can sing – Yeah,… he had this “androgyny on crack” and really big need of narcotics. BUT – the dude can sing – the songs are smooth and well crafted. This is great pop music.

Wishing all a great day.

Cheers from the cave!

Middle Age Angst

~ Cave_Guy ~ 15 Comments

I had a road rage incident recently that scared me.

Mainly because after all the years of driving and experiencing every kind of foolish transgression possible to experience

I thought I was immune.

I am not immune and I harbor deep wells of anger

What?

Bad day – happens all the time – it doesn’t matter what I was doing or where I was doing it. Enough to say that on this day I was giving it all I had and seemed to be getting nothing but aggravation back.

But this does not make me special or unique- many people have tougher paths to walk and life is not fair

I know this – I embrace this – I live this

There is nothing I can do about it

So somebody passing me on the road just to pass me should not bother this beat-down hombre

But it did

I punched the pedal to catch up to the offender – I did not know that my poor engine could respond like that – I am surprised that it did not blow up –

Then when he/she (I don’t know who was in that pick-up truck of doom) pulled in to a convenient store I almost pulled in right behind them (thankfully, I did not).

So I could go eyeball to eyeball with the offender.

This would have been bad – logically I knew that nothing good could come from this

Logically, I knew that there was nothing I could do about all the bad stuff that happened to me earlier in the day

But on the road I could –  two vehicles going mano a mano – I have control and I do matter.

This scared me – because I have not felt this anger for 30 years – not since I was a young nerd/punk at a Clash concert – not since I started to know better.

But when we are beat-down and unable to express it we lash out in other ways —–

I get pro-wresting and looting now – I am not above both if my situation was different.

And all of this got me thinking about Paul Westerberg  and how he proclaimed on one summer night when no one was listening.

“Here is one more song —–  if anyone cares”

And The Replacements played this classic.

the crowd was not impressed.

But I was.

And still am.

They were just the warm-up band for Tom Petty – who would follow and play for the faithful and I left early. To this day I still don’t like Tom Petty.

I have angst.

seagull

~ Cave_Guy ~ 5 Comments

seagull-44
Sometimes you just need a simple image to make you feel better –  I spent all of Saturday editing photos for a little book about my Mexico vacation —- And I found this gem among the pile – Seagulls get a bad rap because of all the scavenging they do combined with them being just common folk – I can relate to that —- Doing what they have to do to get by.

I like the calmness here without any retouching – no color adjustment – Just a simple bird on a beach.

What is wrong with that?

WordPress World – Mach 2

~ Cave_Guy ~ 4 Comments

Jamming on the sketch with some color

wp-world-55

Yeah, it is flawed but I am going with it – I wish I could say it was fun to do – but, I learned a bunch about cartooning in the digital age where there are few rules to follow. I spent a couple hours making a vector me that was really bad and then thought —- “Hey- just throw yourself in the image” – which took 15 minutes—that was fun!

Here is the original sketch:

wpworldThere will be a follow up in which I explain what the things in this strange world mean to me.

Feel free to speculate.