the marble tea webthing

Zombie Love

It’s Halloween, do you know where your zombie is?

As I was waffling about what song to offer you this month – something new that I’d need to bring to life, or something old that’s dressed in cobwebs – I was thinking about all the spooky Halloween-type songs of the rock era and kept coming back to this one: Zombie Love by the Jazz Butcher. (more…)

Painting A Cat (Earwig Version)

Years ago I lived in a big old house on the outskirts of downtown Montgomery with two magnificent artists and an eccentric and delightful landlady. We were all pretty much the same age, so calling her a “landlady” seems a little misleading…let’s just say she owned the house, then. I’ve fallen, sadly and completely, out of touch with her and one of the artists, but the other one I still consider one of my best friends, even though we haven’t spoken in a few months. Friendship is a funny thing like that.

I wish I could remember and describe all of the house-owner’s wonderful eccentricities, but you know how those times can be, fueled as they are by thrills of the moment and then stowed away in dusty closets of memory. A few things I do remember: she would sleep for days at a time and then signal her awakening accidentally at four in an unexpected morning with the crash of something metallic in the kitchen…and then she’d be awake for several days before finally resting again for several more. (more…)

Meet Me at the Gulf of Mexico (iPhone Demo)

[Click the image above, or use the widget at the end of this post, to check out the new single!]

I feel a special connection with the Gulf of Mexico, particularly that stretch of shore along Florida’s panhandle. My grandparents had a house on the beach in Panama City, so my summers growing up were filled with white sand and blue-green waters, as well as all the adventures of my mischievous father and his brothers and clan.

Teenaged and college summers were spent predominately in Destin-Ft. Walton with an eye toward drinking and bikinis rather than the natural magic of the place, but by my settled-in adult years that sweet body of water had whispered the memories and promises back into my ear, planting the rhythm of its undulating waves firmly alongside my heartbeat.   (more…)

Petri Dish

Here’s an old recording I found lying around on my hard drive. I was hesitant to put it up here because, even though I like the song very much, the vocals really bother me and my intentions to re-do them never fully materialized (and probably never will). But then I realized that’s kind of like the time Jonathan Richman said he didn’t like one of his recordings because it sounded like he had a cold when he sang it (he always sounds like he has a cold!)…questionable vocals have never stopped me from posting a song before, so why start now right? (more…)

The Buddha or The Bomb

Stanley Francis Baconstrip had just finished reading the sentence, “The discoveries of modern science have no doubt given their own verdict of opposing alternatives – of either the Buddha or the bomb, for instance – and it is up to each of us to decide which path to follow [1],” when the old tea kettle began its gurgling, pre-whistle throat clearing.

“Better get to it before it screams and wakes the missus,” he said to no one including himself, being the only one at the early morning kitchen table. “Don’t want to send any sirens into her dreams.” (more…)