The Taxman Trusts in God

The taxman, here in Tarrant County, TX, wants your money ... and he also wants to tell you about God.

On the front the letter looks like a normal business letter from the tax department.  On the back it reads 'In God We Trust.'  This is confusing to me as which side do I believe.


There's a store just down the street that advertises CASH 4 GOLD.  The store is owned by the Love Brothers and that's on the front of the store as well.  I really, really meant to get a pic just now but there was too much traffic to break out at the right place.


Just down the street there's an aqua ... or maybe it's chartreuse, I don't really know ... Statue of Liberty and she has a sign saying Free $50 (for going to a tax service, crack dealer, donut shop or something).  I guess if she charges for taking her picture then I can tell her to take it out of the fifty bucks.


Every state has stuff like this.  Rhode Island has a Giant Blue Bug on top of a business where it can be seen easily from the highway.  I have never determined whether the business kills the bugs or sells more of them.

Welcome to New England.

We don't get it with the hat, tho.  Maybe it's a New England Patriots hat but my first thought on seeing it is Pittsburgh Pirates.

Tip:  never wear a Yankees hat in New England.  Just don't.  Ever.

Gabriel is Playing Name That Tune

"The End of the World in Fort Worth" shows a huge carving of a trumpeter on the side of a building.  I figure if he's not Gabriel then he must be Louis Armstrong and either way he needs to play something cool.

There's a very short riff I recorded and I'm highly hornswoggled over it.  I keep thinking it's a sax from a gangster movie and I should know the movie but it's not clear.  Maybe this will mean something to someone:  Bb - Ab - G - F ... Eb - Ab - G - F.  Half, eighth, eighth, quarter X 2 should be about right.  This is bugging the living hell out of me.

It's an obvious riff but I'm damned if it's coming to me where I have heard it.  Maybe it's a hook from something in "Love Story" and that association would be completely nauseating on two counts.  The first is that it makes the association with "Love Story" and the second is that it reveals I have watched the movie.

The concern isn't plagiarism as any riff has been played before so the question is how strongly is it associated with any particular thing.  If it was a theme for the movie about marauding Mars bats then that may not work so well for Rockhouse musical salvation.

In other news:  yes, apparently there was a movie about marauding Mars bats.  I'm sure I would have enjoyed it more than spending an hour and a half to watch Ali McGraw croak in "Love Story."


The next problem is that a riff from a gangster movie may not be so avant garde.  That's not too concerning as the space-filler song in the video to show the cut to the Rockhouse is getting pushed more and more out of it.  The music coming out of it will not be chainsaw guitar as many synth voices have been tried and that's where it will begin.  The question to me is whether to make tracks or to use the looper.  It can be much more prog rocky with tracks and that's close to impossible with a looper.


So that's where it stands for right now.  Likely when it comes it will come quickly and will explode forth with the power of ten billion butterfly sneezes.

(Ten points if you had Moody Blues on that one.)

States America Just Doesn't Need

The list of States America Doesn't Need now includes Missouri for its indifference to human life in executing a man with brain damage.  (NBC: Missouri Executes Cecil Clayton, Cop Killer Missing Part of Brain)

Oklahoma, Arizona, and Ohio have been on the list for some while for their inconceivably amateurish execution programs in which each of these states has taken thirty minutes or more to execute at least one man.

The Hippocratic Oath forbids any medical people from taking place in executions so most of them are run in much the same way as Karaoke Night at the local bar.

Alabama isn't mentioned much largely because there's nothing in the state worth keeping.  This is the home of Judge Ray Moore who advised all Alabama judges to ignore the Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage.  He's the same one more made a big deal of a statue of the Ten Commandments on state land ... and then his own son was busted for dope while committing a burglary.  When Judge Moore couldn't even teach the Ten Commandments to his own son, it's a good chance he hasn't taught them to anyone.  (Rant Political: Alabama Chief Justice And Notable Homophobe Ray Moore’s Son Arrested On Drug Charges)

In terms of judicial and human incompetence this might seem enough but Alabama goes for the top prize in that it was two thousand dams requiring inspection ... and it doesn't have a single soul to go out there to inspect any of them.

While all of these states have proven themselves inhabited by willfully callous savages, Alabama has surpassed all of them in its total contempt for just about everything.  At one time the state's economy was based on agriculture but now it uses the Texas model in milking military contracts.  (WIKI: Alabama)

Gabriel's Horn Wasn't Blowing

Without masochism, you can't edit video as you have to watch the same thing a lot.  There was something missing from Gabriel as the light brings him to life a bit and that looks kind of cool ... but ... he plays the horn without making any sound.

Of course it has to make sound.

Then some actual musician stuff occurred to me as how about if there's a riff from that horn that gets restated in the coming Salvation tune.  It's just a hint of a riff and you realize later where it started.

This isn't entirely online vapor as I've tried many, many voices and found a lot of things that don't sound like the song.  There's a lot of experimentation happening but there's no way to watch this part.


(Ed:  Gabriel is not religious?)

I see him as a symbol and I mean no disrespect.  Regardless of the context, he trumpets the return of something good.  If you foresee him trumpeting the Second Coming then maybe look at what I am doing as a whisper of the future.

Of one thing I'm sure, Gabriel's trumpet does not lead to a chainsaw guitar as exists in the current video.


Yevette said she thought the volume comes up too loud and too fast and I like that as it should sneak up on you.  Here you are driving innocently driving into Fort Worth and you slowly realize where the hell is everybody.  I changed it and I do like it better.


... after recording Gabriel's trumpet ...

That turned out to be surprisingly pretty.  It's a short riff and I probably stole it from somewhere but there isn't any other song coming to me so I'm going on with it.  The trumpet fades away and the F minor drone under it continues so the trumpet riff needs to be restated with another voice only now more toward the beat and getting ready for some salvation in the Rockhouse.

Maybe I should use a tuba so I've got an instrument Voodoo doesn't play.  Ha!  There's a reason.  There must be a good reason as a tuba must be such a bitch to carry around so whomever chooses to play one must really, really dig it.


... more experimenting ...

Big fat synthy chords.  There's a lot of salvation in those for sure.  This is growing.  I'm not sure if I have anything tonight but there's definitely something developing.

Painting the Town Dead

Fort Worth is chosen as the city for the End of the World and regular readers have seen I don't consider the location all that photogenic.  Cat said what she saw of Fort Worth in the video looked pretty good and I hope so as it's not my intention to insult or disrespect the city.  It's a shame the end of the world happens here but, hey, I just shoot the video.  I need a few minutes up-front of this looks kind of cool but wtf is happening.  The timing worked as I had hoped as it's only a few seconds over two minutes for the cut to the Rockhouse.

Painting Fort Worth as a drag wouldn't be hard as it has no more topography than a Rick Perry brain scan but it serves no purpose to paint a picture like that.  These Texans are flatlanders.  Dunno why but they like it.  That kind of image wouldn't tell the story I want so find something else.

So now to the music.  There's some more I want to shoot but the intro music is established strongly enough to play the piece that comes out of it.  The intro is mostly a drone on F minor so that's the slam down chord to light the lasers.

Or not ...

The lasers don't have to get immediately in your face as the last scene on the road gets all sci-fi with green lights all over the place so that either flows into what happens in the Rockhouse or it gets up in your face with everything at once.  I have the ability to change the laser patches live so why not use it.  Start out with green lasers and then ... ka-boom.

There's not much to be said beyond that other than do it.  What's driving me the fastest to get this done is I really don't like at all the match with the song that follows in the draft version.  It has the lights but it is so much not the music I want.  Therefore ... make some.

I'm Tired of the End of the World

If you go to a kindergarten these days, you will probably find the Kinder fretting their little selves over the end of the world.  It comes at you from everywhere and the result is people stuff their faces with pies as displacement activity and the consequence is they don't die from a nuclear bomb but rather from a myocardial infarct due to obesity.

It seems everyone has that lonesome feeling ... like their father or their dog just died.  It's crap but that doesn't stop people from feeling it.  (Reference to "Everybody Knows" by Leonard Cohen)

So what if the Big One comes to California.  It would really piss off the people who lived there but in the geographic history of the planet, it's hardly significant.  Besides, listen to the music they make.  How much do you really need California anyway.  The cartographers change the maps and life goes on.

The purpose isn't to bash California, no matter how deserving it may be, as there is one Grand Cause after the other and if we don't address it then we're all going to die.  The flaw to these arguments is I've been hearing them for over sixty years and then there's one salient aspect I notice:  I ain't dead.  I've also been hearing all that time that Russians are going to kill me ... but I've still never met one.  I've met a lot of people from many countries but, so far, no murdering Russian thugs.  I think the GOP hates them because they're envious of Russian women, actually.  After all, how many GOP women ended up as Bond girls ("From Russia with Love" w/Tatiana Romanova).

"The End of the World in Fort Worth" isn't some Silas joke about marijuana-eating rabbits as I will explain this one because it's important to me to understand it for what it is.  Even if it is the end of the world ... and I seriously doubt it ... come back to the music and find yourself there.  Everything else is something you're told and you can see from the video it's trickery so tell me again what's real.  For me it's music and I hope this song / video will take you there.

"End of the World in Fort Worth" - Intro - Take V video w/audio

The next step after this one is to record the End of the World song but that part isn't difficult as you play the song or you don't, there isn't any stop/start thinking about whether I need a clip of a hot air balloon, a dancing elephant or so.

Adding audio to the intro has given it the continuity I had hoped although I will probably tangle with it more.  In recording it, I can't monitor the existing audio I have already created so I have to play the synth and imagine what might be cool if I stuck it in there somewhere.  So far that technique, while unlikely to be preserved in school music books, has been satisfactorily effective.

But ... I can say that all I like ... whether you think it is satisfactorily effective is what counts.


The walking around clip bugs me and nothing is going to solve that other than shooting it again and possibly even some more as I'm not entirely satisfied with how our hero gets back to the car to drive.  There's a scene of Gabriel blowing his horn and then our hero is driving a car.  That may be your vision of the Lord returning to Earth but it's not mine so there's likely to be some change in that bit.

Human Sacrifices at the Water Gardens

There's something calming and peaceful about the sound of running water and this makes a novel meeting with the future when the water comes from fountains in a modernistic setting.  Naturally, this suggests one thing to me immediately:  get some Aztecs for a human sacrifice.

(Ed:  another farking editorial on the death penalty?)

Sure but it won't be the same ol', same ol' editorial.  Who else has Aztecs chopping out a human heart with an axe.

(Ed:  Oklahoma?)

Well, not yet but maybe soon.


Cat doesn't believe there is music in this but I hear it as I think of scenes.  There are A,B,C segments to the music as you can't go straight to bloodthirsty gore so there is at least an A segment to set the scene ... and so on.  As the story grows, what music will best tell it and not just creepy organ sounds when a door opens.  That sounds like developing a soundtrack rather than music purely for its own sake but I really don't see the difference.  Any music is making a movie.

Voodoo mentioned the other day he doesn't like going much into what a song means and I suspect for the same reason I don't:  people use their own imaginations while they listen.  This is where the conflict with video comes as, on the surface, that takes away the listener's right to imagine but my view of it is that it suggests a direction to imagine.

(Ed:  you want people to imagine human sacrifices?)

Yes because the state does so much to hide them.  I will make a spectacle of them in the most beautiful place possible.

(Ed:  way, way the hell too obvious)

Good point but the art is making it cool.  Maybe that's not possible but, for now, I'm diggin' the idea and it would look fookin' exceptionally wild.  Cat and I have Carnival outfits and we can look as Aztec or whatever as you like.  I don't know where I could find an animation for chopping out someone's heart with an axe but I'm sure some Second Life perv wouldn't mind making one.

(Ed:  that's because some Second Life perv wants to buy one)

Welcome to capitalism.


I wonder if Merry Gildea is around.  I've killed her so many times in my videos that it's only fitting to make her the virgin sacrifice.  (Seems to me if I were a female virgin in a primitive tribe, I would seek to become a non-virgin as quickly as possible but maybe they chop your heart out for that too.)

End of the World in Fort Worth - Don't Panic

In summary, the end of the world in Fort Worth sounds like a stunt ... and it is ... but there is more to it than that.  The premise there is salvation in music is based on an event that may just show in the finest way possible the style humans are capable of achieving.

When the Titanic was sinking, the conductor said to the orchestra, "Be British."

And so they played.

"The End of the World in Fort Worth" is my interpretation of that.  There's no need for editorials on running out of water or getting eaten by wild-eyed ISIS people as the people in the video are getting poofed by demons from another dimension.  No-one cares about global warming while you have to deal with demons from another dimension.

The purpose isn't to forecast some terrible thing happening but rather to say even if it does the salvation in music remains the same.  What salvation lies beyond the end is for you to discover but that's not the same thing ... or maybe it is.  Your call.


While, if I'm lucky, you may look at a video once, I look at them over and over and over, always looking for what would go better.  I finally hit what bugs me just now and it's the walking around part.  It has some coolness but mostly it's weird.  I did it because there's an outstanding mural of some rampaging steers but you can't see that so well in the video.

(Ed:  so shoot it again)

Right you are.

With that one done, I believe the intro end of the world part will be complete.

Netanyahu without the Comb-Over Hairdo

It will put the bribe money in the top right drawer of the desk and then it will leave or it gets the hose again.

"The Netanyahu Election Theme Song" (sung to the tune of "Mercedes Benz")

Oh Lord, won't you buy me a nuc-u-lar bomb
I don't mean to be pushy, I don't want to be rude.
I just need some Dagwoods to bomb Iran for me
As then I'm a hero and your ass is screwed.


Oh Lord, won't you buy me some dumb right-wing symps
I just need some killers and they must never think
So go do my dog work and I'll sit back to watch
I'll be your close friend, like a bug in your crotch.


So now I've got millions, the Ones treat pawns well
The more problems I cause, the more bombs they sell
So which one's the patsy and which one's the tool
does not really matter when the whole lot are fools.

"Mercedes Benz" - Janis Joplin

End of the World in Fort Worth - Take II

There was no additional video but the clips I used in the one I uploaded earlier were normalized for approximate time of day by playing with various lighting effects.  The flow through the end of the world part is novel and now it's generally consistent.  The length is holding at two minutes and there's always the temptation to go off to get better clips but the words about it were pretty swell from the only actual Fort Worth resident I know who has actually seen it.  This version may hold just as it is.

There was a suggestion earlier that I need lasers and a puff of smoke or some type of visual for when the innocent people of Fort Worth get vaporized.  I'm not convinced as it's highly mystical if something disappears right in front of you, so long as the music tells it right.  Conversely, gratuitous visual whizbang sells a lot of popcorn so why not give those cowboys a blast of heavenly laser and fry those damn sinners.  I'm mixed as it would look cool but I lean toward the mystical for now.  It depends on how it goes with the music and it's about time to get cracking on that.


The object isn't to try to compete with Werner Herzog but it would be pretty cool if this were anything close to an Ed Wood video.  Werner Herzog is a major and respected artist but so is Ed Wood in a bit of a different way.  I respect both of them and equivalency really doesn't mean anything to me, they have visions and they make them happen.

Take Ed Wood back to those lasers and what would he do.  I don't want to imitate him but my budget is the only video budget that was ever less than his so I'm interested in his approach.  I'm not going to do spaceships on strings, tho ... or ... well ... why not.  There's doing things because they're cool for what you're making and then there's overtly retro ... the latter is guaranteed to be crap.


Take II has got an older video with big laser effects tacked onto the End of the World part to show me how this Wizard of Oz bit really goes.  I was satisfied with the visual bang as that is spectacular.  In the last segment of driving down the road there's now a growing Twilight Zone effect that makes the road become something of The Matrix with a similar green.  From that ... boom ... big lights, lasers, and lots of noise.

The change is not satisfying as it doesn't make sense without the intro to build up to it.  As a schematic, you drive quietly down the road, it turns green, and suddenly everything blows up.  Well, ok, but wtf just happened.  There needs to be some musical 'tension' that's resolved by the big bang or it becomes philosophically the same as the actual Big Bang.  Yeah, it looked really cool ... but what did it.

(Ed:  physicists just need a better soundtrack?)

Right.