Doves - Black and White Town

Howdy folks -

THURSDAY! Part of the joy and ludicrousness of doing this blog every day is that I genuinely don't have much to say about what's going on in my life, and yet I blog anyway! I'm excited about what I have on tap for Friday...because it'll be time to get lucky. But until then, I think that Doves Black and White Town is a great Thursday track with a boppin' Northern Soul beat to get you through the day (hey - aren't we all living for the weekend?) Music and Lyrics below! Let's jam.

Here comes the action
Here comes at last
Lord give me a reaction
Lord give me a chance

You should follow me down
In satellite towns
There's no colour and no sound
I've been ten feet underground

I gotta get out of this satellite town

Here comes some action
First time in my life
I gotta get up to get compensation
I gotta get up to get this to light

Whether you live alone
Or you're trying to find your way in this world
you better make sure that you don't crack you're head on that pavement, man
My God! what a shock!
It's been preying on me and mine
This is a dangerous place man
This is a dangerous place, there's nothing here.

You should follow your way down
In satellite towns
There's no colour and no sound
I've been ten feet underground

In A Black and White Town

You should follow me down
There's no colour and no sound
In the Black and White Town
I've been ten feet underground
In Black and White Town

The National - Green Gloves

Howdy folks -

Yes, that's officially a thing. I hope you're having a lovely Wednesday wherever you are. Not much to update with today - it's been a fairly banal week compared to the insanity that was last week. And, perhaps in that vein, I have chosen a beautiful song by The National for your aural pleasure. I absolutely adore this song - it was the first song of theirs I ever heard, and I was instantly taken with how sublime it is. It creeps into your soul in slow-motion. I hope you'll check it out! And I think Matt Berninger is one of the better lyricists in indie rock.

Green Gloves - The National


Falling out of touch with all my
friends are somewhere getting wasted,
hope they're staying glued together,
I have arms for them.

Take another sip of them,
it floats around and takes me over
like a little drop of ink in a glass of water

Get inside their clothes
with my green gloves
watch their videos, in their chairs.
Get inside their beds
with my green gloves
Get inside their heads, love their loves.

Cinderella through the room
I glide and swan cause I'm the best slow dancer
in the universe

Falling out of touch with all my
friends are somewhere getting wasted,
hope they're staying glued together,
I have arms for them.

Get inside their clothes
with my green gloves
watch their videos, in their chairs.
Get inside their beds
with my green gloves
Get inside their heads, love their loves.

Now I hardly know them
and I'll take my time
I'll carry them over, and I'll make them mine.

Get inside their clothes
with my green gloves
watch their videos, in their chairs.
Get inside their beds
with my green gloves
Get inside their heads, love their loves.

The Now

Howdy folks -

Maybe I'll go with "Howdy folks -" as my de riguer opener from now on. Because hell, for all I know, I'm not even talking to anyone! After a few days of bringing you choice cuts from my collection of favorite jams, I'm offering up a humble poem for you today. Please note that I will never explain these, as I don't feel that's the point of writing. If I wanted to be explicitly understood, I'd tell you explicitly what I meant. I hope everyone's week is going OK thus far - only 3 days left in the work week!

If you ever want to comment on the lyrics/poems/music videos/musings of the Ramblin' Man, feel free to do so either here or on my Facebook page. Nothing is too outlandish, so say what you feel (if not what you mean)! Let me know if you like it - let me know if you hate it - let me know if you have constructive criticism - let me know if you like my haircut. Whatever! And so I bring you The Now:


Here and now
forevermore
Always waiting
to see what's in store
Around the bend
More dead ends
Turn it off

Obssessive/compulsive
Yet always propulsive
Only moving forward
To digest backwards
Can't stop

Without reflection is there really any meaning
To now??
Without introspection can there really be any meaning
To now??

The Now
The Now
The Now

Perhaps you've heard
Stirke that
You are the herd
Rumbling towards a conclusion never defined

Upward and onward
Faster and stronger
With a useless past
And unclear future!

But

Without reflection is there really any meaning
To now??
Without introspection can there really be any meaning
To now??

When tomorrow comes there will be
Another tomorrow

Without reflection is there really any meaning
To now??
Without introspection can there really be any meaning
To now??

Spanish Sahara

Howdy folks -

How was your weekend? Mine was excellent, but as always Monday comes creeping up on you like a stranger in the night, forcing my hand again. Not to mention that last week was pretty draining for any American. So, in this most foul of spirits I submit that you check out the lyrics and music video to Foals "Spanish Sahara".

The beauty of these lyrics is that they envelope you with images, feelings and emotions. There's a story in there somewhere, but gennerally this song is about mood. And, as a teaser from their 2010 second album Total Life Forever, redefined their sound for the second decade of the 21st century. I promise I'll post some of my own stuff soon, but dedication requires recycling as well as original content. Besides, this is a great song and well worth your 7 minutes.

So I walked into the haze
And a million dirty ways
Now I see you lying there
Like a lie low losing air, air

Black rocks and shoreline sand
Still that summer I cannot bare
And I wipe the sand of my arms
The Spanish Sahara, the place that you'd wanna
Leave the horror here

Forget the horror here
Forget the horror here
Leave it all down here
It's future rust and then it's future dust

Forget the horror here
Forget the horror here
Leave it all down here
It's future rust and then it's future dust

Now the waves they drag you down
Carry you to broken ground
Though I find you in the sand
Wipe you clean with dirty hands

So goddamn this boiling space
The Spanish Sahara, the place that you'd wanna
Leave the horror here

Forget the horror here
Forget the horror here
Leave it all down here
It's future rust and then it's future dust

I'm the fury in your head
I'm the fury in your bed
I'm the ghost in the back of your head
'Cause I am

I'm the fury in your head
I'm the fury in your bed
I'm the ghost in the back of your head
'Cause I am

I'm the fury in your head
I'm the fury in your bed
I'm the ghost in the back of your head
'Cause I am

Forget the horror here
Forget the horror here
Leave it all down here
It's future rust and it's future dust

I'm the fury in your head
I'm the fury in your bed
I'm the ghost in the back of your head
'Cause I am

A Design For Life

OK folks -

I threatened to put up song lyrics that I find powerful, interesting, enjoyable, quirky, cool, etc. in lieu of my own words when I felt like it, and today is one of those days! Below are the lyrics to my favorite song by my favorite band, and a YouTube of the great music video they made for the song. If you want to learn more about the song itself, click here. I will make sure this blog has content on an almost daily basis, so hopefully you'll discover some great music you haven't heard before!

Libraries gave us power
Then work came and made us free
What price now for a shallow piece of dignity

I wish I had a bottle
Right here in my dirty face to wear the scars
To show from where I came

We don't talk about love we only want to get drunk
And we are not allowed to spend
As we are told that this is the end

A design for life
A design for life
A design for life
A design for life

I wish I had a bottle
Right here in my pretty face to wear the scars
To show from where I came

We don't talk about love we only want to get drunk
And we are not allowed to spend
As we are told that this is the end

A design for life
A design for life
A design for life
A design for life

Poetry please?

I've decided that writing simple poetry is the best way for me to communicate my thoughts - I don't love writing longform and am probably too self-conscious to blog anything remotely interesting for fear of offending anyone or exposing too much of myself.

So, without further ado - 1 poem a day keeps the readers away, right?!


You've got so much ambition
Like you're on some kind of mission
It better be important
If it's all for personal glory
Then no-one will care about your story
But if you're trying to make history
Make sure your life doesn't contain
The word "me"

So, about The Ramblin' Man....

I am not a big fan of The Allman Brothers, Waylan Jennings, et. al. I am a big fan of music, pop culture, politics and, let's face it, a lot of other random things. So when I decided to finally put pen to paper (hand to keyboard), coming up with a title was the least of my worries. And thus was born The Ramblin' Man.

I have thought about writing a blog off and on for the better part of 10 years. And in those 10 years, I've started two. I've written a few posts for each, posted them, figured I wasn't going anywhere with it and then quit. Quitting was even easier than starting, so it literally took no effort on my part to give up.

This time, it's different.

As I near the ripe old age of 30, it's become incumbent on me to find a place for my stray thoughts, untested ideas, petty recriminations and the milieu of minutiae that fills my brain while I work, play, think or otherwise. Part of what has consistently held me back when it comes to writing has been my desperate need to avoid the personal. And yet, the writing I most enjoy is almost always deeply personal. I dare say that there's perhaps not much of a point in blogging if it's not going to be of a mind and of a time. So in this space, I'll post everything. I have a variety of interests, so I'm not going to limit myself to one, two or even ten subjects. Life is complicated, messy and, most of all, extremely broad. So why not run a blog in the same vein? I'll link to posts that thrill me, sadden me, stimulate me or madden me. I'll post what's on my mind, what's on others minds, or why our minds should be focused on something they're not. But most importantly, I'm going to write like no-one's reading because if I don't, no-one will.

And that's the final point - blogs have become big business since I was a jejune freshman back in 2001. People that I started reading back then have gone on to become famous writers for respected outlets or proprietors of their own respected outlets. This has happened in all walks of life - politics, sports, music, movies, television - the list goes on. I don't expect nor desire commercial success with this vanity project...after all, I'm not sure it'll appeal to anyone other than me. But a writer needs to write like so much oxygen, and on a certain level, I've always been a writer. Even if those words never left my own jumbled mind, they were always there.

Perhaps it's time to let them out and see what they can do.