April 2016 Poem A Day #14 Avoidance Syndrome

Temporary Avoidance Syndrome

Decades ago I sang in noisy bars
a couple times a month
four forty-minute sets
songs of my own construction.
Between sets, for
15 minutes, I'd hide
outside in the car
or in the restroom stall
to think or read a book
too shy too introverted
needing to gather
my strength
to navigate the next set
and during each song
break the social contract
take off the daily mask

SONG: Elves On Expresso! (a fractured Xmas song)

Elves on expresso! was my Facebook status on Dec. 23rd. Someone commented that it sounded like a song title. So I agreed and wrote the song. 

ELVES ON EXPRESSO
- mad mar writes a new song on Dec 23, 2011

1) Kids are getting greedy
shopping lists are getting dense.
Everyone's fretting and getting tense.
Break out the eggnog, break out the rum,
when they ask you what you want
just play dumb dumb dumb because
the ELVES are ON EXPRESSO
OH NO they're over the top
ELVES ON EXPRESSO
NO NO NO
they just can not stop!

2) The sesason is unreason, expectations and illusion
buying, wrapping eating, salesmen in collusion.
Kids are full of GIMMES. Bills are all unpaid
parents under misletoe hoping to get ___ (you know!)
ELVES ON EXPRESSO
OH NO they're over the top
ELVES ON EXPRESSO
NO NO NO
they just can not stop!

3) So The relatives are coming, so the bank will soon foreclose
put on your santa hat and sparkly reindeer pantyhose
sweep out those killer dustballs, let that brick of fruitcake shine
you could always lock the door and drink holiday wine!
the ELVES are ON EXPRESSO
OH NO they're over the top\
ELVES ON EXPRESSO
NO NO NO
they just can not stop!!

Song from the Molten show: I bet it all on you

Well I can't say I was in good voice here - NOT. But it seemed to go well, nonetheless.

SONG from the Molten show with weird visual effects

This performance by Mad Mar Walker (me) was filmed at the Molten Java send-off benefit on Dec 18, 2011, in Bethel CT. Since it was filmed in portrait rather than landscape AND since my head looks like a bowling ball with bad hair - well, I thought I'd just distort the heck out of the picture and give people something slightly less disorienting to look at.... 

METHOD: In iMovie HD - I used the Crystalize effect to make large cells, followed by the Edge effect, mirror effect, bloom, then n2 and exposure adjust. I exported it from there as an .dv file and used the new iMovie to turn it into an M4v file. whew... I left the sound naked as the day it was born. No effects there at all, gravel old age and all.

THE SONG:

This one dates back to when I was going out with my future husband and I was in my early twenties.

Lay On Down And Die

a song by Mad Mar Walker


Verse 1)

My love rents from a cold water baroness who
sticks to his pay check like gum (shit) on a shoe
on payday, she stalks him like a bloodhound dog
but after lunch why she'll be lost in a corn mash fog

REFRAIN:

So you and me go down to our favorite spot
in the grave yard beneath the pine trees
where it never gets too hot

We'll read the tombstone poets smell the flowers, get a little high
and when were too happy to move
why we'll just lay on down and die

Verse 2)

You had yourself a rusted out Chevrolet car
you drove it one night right thought the window of a bar
Then they could not find you for 17 days
when they did were mumbling dirty words
and your little eyes were still glazed.

REFRAIN

Verse 3)

For your birthday I brought you buttered rum, Jamacian red
You smoked and you drank till I was sure you was dead
but when it comes to chasing round after me
you're ever ready like that famous flashlight battery....

REFRAIN

Dan DeRosa - good memories linger

Tonight at Weds. Night Poetry we will be remembering a local poet, and a former WNPS host Dan DeRosa - funny warm young man. I kidded him once that he had a dangerous smile which if trained on the polar ice caps would melt them right away.  That was after he had smiled at someone sad at Molten Java and they lit up like a Broadway marque. His smile told people it was okay to be themselves. He was everyone's friend or brother. Had an uncompromising positive attitude and great compassion towards the autistic and everyone else too.


When he graduated from Western CT State University in 2009,there was a graduation party (see photo at the right) and then at the end of the summer WNPS held a good-bye party for him, as he was off to grad school in Florida. For his going away present - he got to be the poetry feature for the evening. During the open mike portion we roasted him with poems and stories.

For my part, I wrote him a song, "Dangerous Dan" I had it up on Youtube at that time but later took it down because I was a bit horse the day I taped it and hoped to make a better version. I never did naturally. So here is the original verison once again from YouTube. The lyrics are posted below also. Dan died suddenly of cardiac related problems at only 33 years of age. He was a man who embraced life, took it on his own terms, who cared for everyone around him. May we all live even half as well.

 Dangerous Dan 

Dangerous Dan is going away to Florida
Dangerous Dan is leaving this cold state behind
He's going where the water's rising
he'll do well and that's not surprising
Dangerous Dan is a man still in search of his life.

Dangerous Dan is driving the road to his future
and being a poet, he's mapping it out verse by Verse
Life's a poetry slam of four score ten
Practice, edit, the do it again
Blend it into something inspiring no matter the score

Dangerous Dan has a smile like a bright summer day
His smile tells the world You can be who you are
He'll poem on some other page,
Dangerous Dan is turning the page and we'll see
what he will be

Dangerous Dan is going away to Florida
The King of Haiku will soon be expanding the form
We'll miss his wit and that dangerous mouth
 Think of us when you're in the south
Let wisdom guide all your rhyme
You can come back anytime.

Wishing Stone (Long Pond is Cold)

Every so often I like to post a song of mine.
This one is available in two versions. One with just myself and the guitar and pictures of Maine via YouTube video. The other is via BandCamp and on this version Dickie Tilton is playing the electronic keys. He also did the digital recording - which at that time, was a brand new thing to do and the equipment was not readily available.

Melody with slide show

This is a tranquil melody or that is how I envisioned it.

While brandishing a set of wind chimes and ringing them occassionally, I improvised this melody to a video of my cat. When I watched it afterwards, the tune didn't really fit the pictures. So I took some old stained glass-like early digital paintings of mine and made a slideshow of them. The slides overlap which makes new colors as one fades into a another. The last slide is a low res pic of a painting of mine. Hope you like it.

A Song: It's love that makes you free

Here is yet another song resurrected from my past. I am testing a new mic on this recording and it looks like it's a move in right direction. The mic is a Blue Snowball. So far so good. For other recordings I have had trouble with distortion on loud or high notes and had to jump through technical hoops to minimize it. This mic seems to handle it all well.. Just a bit a reverb added to this one no noise control needed.



Just a note: It's NOT romantic love nor religious nor spiritual love that I think sets anyone free -- it's the aspect of love which is accepting self and others as they really are - as full human beings with both virtues and vices - with a rational mind, a slippery core of emotion from the rat brain too.....

It's love that sets you free
by Mad Mar Walker

Stubble-Bearded Papa
What have you got to say?
We never did that much talkin' anyway
Half of what you tell me
I know it is a lie
The other half is guaranteed to make me cry

Refrain:
Love won't grow that easily
It's raging up like the sea
Love it is that pains your heart
And It's love that makes you free

Weather can be sunny
Weather can be mean and bad
Love can be sweet
it can be sour and sad
Try to start a fire in the pouring rain
You can light the body
Buddy, can you light the brain?

Ref.

I've known my share of stubborn old men
One or two I'd like to see again
Faces like sand paper
hearts like stone
Breathing fire they burn you
right to the bone

Ref.
coda: It's love that makes you free

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