I'm unsure how many of you have heard of this band, I first was introduced to them in the early, early 90's when Jeff Martin of The Tea Party listed them as one of their major influences. I went out quick as I could and picked up the album "Within the Realm of a Dying Sun", only about 45 min's long and 9 songs but worth every cent of the 25 dollar price tag it carried. Since then I've gone out of my way to get all I can from these guys...I thought it may be nice to expose some people who may have never heard of them, or have just forgotten about them, to this amazing, brilliant musical duo. So, a few links for y'all...unfortunately some of the links are showing up as smilies, so for Gloridean and the other some that wacky you'll have to copy and paste the url...sorry 'bout that...I'm not spectacular with coding.

Rakim

The Wind That Shakes the Barley

qhbfL2uET8&feature=related"Gloridean

(check at about 1:09 when her eyes open, I swear she looks so, so into the music, really picks up about 3:30)

Don't Fade Away

(I've played this so often on my guitar I can do it with my eyes closed, stunningly beautiful)

Sanvean

(with Tristan intro)

Absolutely stunning...and the male singer (the core of the group is Lisa Gerard and Brendan Perry, the rest rotate from album to album tour to tour) started out in a harder line punk band believe it or not...damn amazing musicians. I also stumbled across this, anyone remember that little ditty by Outkast "Hey Ya", I'd found this cover some time back but forgot about it, check this out...DAMN...one of the best acoustic performances of a song like that, and I'm totally not into Outkast or that style of music most of the time but this guy actually makes it feel like something.

Here's the original Outkast version:

WgvGjAhvIw"Original

And here's the beautiful acoustic cover

Acoustic Version

damn different...this Obadiah Park also does an astoundingly beautiful version of Radiohead's "Idioteque" if you look around, same idea...check out the brilliant piano bit that slides right into this staccato riff...just brilliant interpretation...

Idioteque

Anyway, hope everyone's Christmas went well...and a happy New Year to all, hope you all manage to keep your resolutions have a great day all...

Thought this would fit given the season, I wanted one of an Atheist bent (since I'm an atheist), but while there's a few atheist "night before christmas" versions out there, almost all are really nasty towards anyone who isn't an atheist...so, in the interest of inter-religious relations, I found and chose this wonderful little ditty...similar idea but it appeals to my little Lovecraft kick

--------------------------------------
'Twas the Call of Cthulhu, all the stars were right
Every artist was stirring was odd dreams all night
Elder signs were hung at Miskatonic U
In hopes it would save them from Great Cthulhu

The Deep Ones were gathered on the ocean beds
While dreaming of feasting on raw human heads
Our schooner on the South Seas, on her maiden cruise
Had just battened down for a long drunken snooze

When out on the sea the waves started to splatter
I jumped from my bunk to see what was the matter
Away to the porthole I tripped and I fell
I jumped up and looked out and cursed "What the hell!"

The moon on the beach as a new island rose
Gave more light than I wanted; I looked and I froze
When what to my gibbering sight should appear
But an old eldritch city with angles so queer

With a mountain of blubber, green viscuous slime-goo
I knew by some instinct it was Cthulhu!
More rapid than serpents his tentacles came
And we heard in our heads as he called out some names

"Now Wilbur! Young Whately! Lavinia! Yog-Sothoth!
Come minions from Innsmouth and Fungi from Yuggoth!
From Mountains of Madness to this humble blue ball
Now slash away, crash away, smash away all!"

As dry leaves before the wild hurricane fly
My crew beat a rapid retreat and so did I
Then out of his prison called Great Cthulhu
With plans for all of us that we somehow all knew

And then in a twinkling I saw mankind's fate
All dancing and bowing on his dinner plate
As I ducked down my head and was turning around
From the mongrel ship's engineer came an odd sound

He walked up to a star hanging on this big door
But the angles were all wrong, it might have been floor
A matter of seconds, he ripped off the seal
He had done it so quickly I had no time to squeal

My eyes, how they gibbered! My screaming, so eerie!
Great Cthulhu was loose, what could be more scary?
His bright angry eyes, all his tentacles loose
My first mate disappeared down an angle obtuse

The rest of the crew made it back to the boat
Cthulhu, he followed us as we set afloat
He had great bat wings, the head of a squid
I can't even describe the next few things he did!

He was chubby and plump, head big as a villa
And I knew when I saw him, he'd eat Godzilla
A wink of an eye and a twitch of his head
Grabbed him twelve crewman, all better off dead

He spoke not a word but came straight on fast
And ate all the others and left me for last
Him chewing his dinner, I reversed my ship
And crying a curse rammed his gigantic hip

He burst into a fog and his island went down
But he reformed again before I could turn around
Then I heard him exclaim as he sank out of sight
"This ain't the last time all the stars will be right!"
---------------------------

You can find all sorts of great ones on

[link]

Though some are kind of...er...messed up. Newsgroups aren't around really anymore (well, they are, but they tend to be so buried in spam that the groups are all but useless now), but I have fond memories of being on them, I used to frequent the alt.religion forums a lot years back, good conversation. Sadly the September that never ended kind of heralded the downfall of the whole thing, it wasn't the end, there was good conversation up to nearly '98 or so, but it gradually faded away. Besides, I must admit, the "alt.sexuality.spanking" night before christmas is pretty hysterical...

Merry Christmas everyone, hope it goes as well as it can for ya.

Damn, Rollins always seems to be real "on" for me...maybe we just grew up as the same type, I thought there would be quite a few who find this (or at least parts of it) pretty spot on for themselves as well. Intense poem, but surprisingly simply and straightforward in it's delivery...

I Know You [link]

I know you
you were too short
you had bad skin
you couldn't talk to them very well
words didn't seem to work
they lied when they came out of your mouth
you tried so hard to understand them
you wanted to be part of what was happening
you saw them having fun
and it seemed like such a mystery
almost magic
made you think that there was something wrong with you
you'd look in the mirror trying to find it
you thought that you were ugly
and that everyone was looking at you
so you learned to be invisible
to look down
to avoid conversation
the hours
days
weekends
ah the weekend nights, alone
where were you
in the basement?
in the attic?
in your room?
working some job?
just to have something to do
just to have a place to put yourself
just to have a way to get away from them
a chance to get away from the ones that made you feel so strange and ill-at-ease inside yourself
did you ever get invited to one of their parties
you sat and wondered if you would go or not
for hours you imagined the scenarios that might transpire
they would laugh at you
if you would know what to do
if you would have the right things on
if they would notice that you came from a different planet
did you get all brave in your thoughts
like you were going to be able to go in there and deal with it
and have a great time
did you think that you might be "the life of the party"
that all these people were gonna talk to you
and you would find out that you were wrong
that you had a lot of friends
and you weren't so strange after all?
did you end up going
did they mess with you
did they single you out
did you find out that you were invited
because they thought you were so weird
yeah, I think I know you
you spent a lot of time full of hate
a hate that was pure as sunshine
a hate that saw for miles
a hate that kept you up at night
a hate that filled your every waking moment
a hate that carried you for a long time
yes I think I know you
you couldn't figure out what they saw and the way they lived
home was not home
your room was home
a corner was home
the place they weren't- that was home
I know you
you're sensitive
and you hide it, because you fear getting stepped on one more time
it seems that when you show a part of yourself that is the least bit vulnerable
someone takes advantage of you
one of them steps on you
they mistake kindness for weakness
but you know the difference
you've been the brunt of their weakness for years
and strength is something you know a bit about
because you had to be strong to keep yourself alive
you know yourself very well now
and you don't trust people
you know them too well
you try to find that "special person"
someone you can be with
someone you can touch
someone you can talk to
someone you won't feel so strange around
and you found that they don't really exist
you feel closer to people on movie screens
yeah, I think I know you
you spend a lot of time daydreaming
and people have made comment to that effect
telling you that you're "self-involved" and "self-centered"
but they don't know, do they
about the long night shifts alone
about the years of keeping yourself company
all the nights you wrapped your arms around yourself
so you could imagine someone holding you
the hours of indecision
self-doubt
the intense depression
the blinding hate
the rage that made you stagger
the devastation of rejection
well
maybe they do know
but if they do
they sure do a good job of hiding it
it astounds you how they can be so smooth
how they seem to pass through life as if life itself was some divine gift
and it infuriates you to watch yourself with your apparent skill,
and finding every way possible to screw it up
for you, life is a long trip
terrifying and wonderful
birds sing to you at night
the rain and the sun
the changing seasons
are true friends
solitude is a hard won ally
faithful and patient
yeah, I think I know you
--------------------------

Sure do Henry...I also thought I'd mention that I've got a spot with a great group called #project-improve doing Critiques and as a Poetry Feature Admin, if you get the opportunity take a gander, the name I posted there is a link so click away. I'm pretty excited about the opportunity to do this, I enjoy critiquing anyway (it's the main reason I got the paid account, though there's other nice bonus's as well), and it seems a great group of people from those I've met. I'm sure I'll have something new to post soon, I'm working through a bit of a backlog so there's a couple of you I've got to respond to yet, my apologies if it takes a bit of time...hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, it's that magical happy time of year right? happyhappyhappy

OK, so a bit of an outburst before, my apologies...I'm not sure if I'm in shit or if everything's OK and it's understood. I had a girl over to help her study some, so she calls (unfortunately I wasn't expecting her but that's no biggie) so she comes over. I todd on a movie as background noise and go over a couple things. We order pizza, all good. My problem was I hadn't slept, and when I couldn't I took a clonazepam to help. So through all this I can sort of drifting in and out, eventually she left, not in an angry huff, but just saying the dog needed walked and such. Now I've got this paranoid bent, just got over all this shit to do with this as is and I'm freaked out I really screwed up. Unsure if any take sleeping meds but you know they make you physically almost unable to stay awake.

I feel so, so bloody awful, I'm the type who, if I say can do something I will for a person and I screwed up, I tried her cell, no answer, sent a text and posted on here....I guess that's all I can do. It's hard, I tend to take things real serious, she couldn't be thinking nothing of this and I'll still be freaking out 'till I know it's all good. I'll just have to wait and see, I gotta grab something for her on Thursday anyway, so if it's still an issue we can talk about it then. So, for the record...I am a complete and utter idiot. And I just hope everything's cool...

I feel fucking awful...I had a friend over and I didn't get to sleep 'till about 10 AM...as such I fell asleep, when I woke up I think they were really mad...I feel really, really bad. I apologized byt they left...shit, shit, shit...and I can't get them on their phone...Dammit...I didn't mean yo, if I fall asleep wake me...dammit...I hope I'm not in ssit.