Ocean Rain

(got me soaked wet a few moments later)

Today - III

(Monsaraz and Alqueva reservoir)

Today - II

(View from Monsaraz, Portugal)

Today

(Monsaraz, Portugal)

The vertical airports - II

"The vertical airports" is a concept that has been on my mind for some time now (at least since I watch the storks, as in the image of my last post). I was curious and googled it. Result:

The vertical airports

"Sunriver"

(Mondego river, near Choupal, in Coimbra)

New Song

This is a song about the way Nature can surprise us and amaze our lives.

.

"Lord, teach me 

That I must have an end, 

And my life has a purpose, 

and I must accept this."

(from Brahms' Requiem)

.

"Everyone suffers; life is pain; and death is the final punctuation at the end of that sentence, so deal with it."

(Sufjan Stevens, here.)

New version

Other versions:

• A Purpose for Mankind
• A Purpose for Mankind (testing possibilities)

New Song

New Song

New Song

New Song

Manoel de Oliveira

He was 106 years old and left us today. Life as a movie.

New version

Let there be light today.

It's coming... slowly... sounds great...

Lyrics

Like the songs, the lyrics presented in this blog are mere snapshots of something that is in a developing process. They grow, stop, grow again, change, fade, eventually die and/or generate offspring. A bit like life itself. Here is a snapshot:

To Explore!

----------------------------

Oh to explore!

The universe and beyond!

Life on Earth and elsewhere!

To search and research!

Infinite Multiverses!

Infinitely!

Oh Awe!

What's the time?

No! What is Time?

And God?

What are we?

And why do I wonder?

Oh to Discover!

You, in verse

And to uncover

A universe of you. 

-----------------------------

You are welcome to explore further the song/lyrics...

New Song

So long, Mr. Spock

Steve Strange

One of the earliest influences of this blogger. Rest in peace, Steve.

New video

Just now. (New Song)

Just feeling the moment... (unprocessed)

Yesterday.

(Coimbra, Portugal)

New song

Every thing is connected

I was going to say that this garage band blog is getting very hermetic, because even I could not understand my last post written just a few hours ago. Then the idea was to google a picture from Moebius' Garage Hermetique as an illustration and what did I find? Moebius drawing Titeuf, whom I saw every day for years (it was drawn on my mousepad). And what is the drawing's title? And what is my last post's title? And do I really need to link my last post everytime I mention it? Yes: everything is linked!

P.S. - And, oddly enough, the images in the two posts are also visually and semantically related. OK, here is the secret, less hermetically put:

joining multiple pictures of a city's "Titeuf's hair" (glass reflections at sunset), taken in different days and/or from slightly different places, in a single picture or movie, should be a pretty sight.

It may not be the first of a few great ideas, but what the heck... tell it to your friends, tell it to your father, tell it to your sister too...

Shhh, I'll tell you a secret:

Different every time, every day and every place. Join them.

Oh, I completely get it (i think... I will... in March...)

Precious Beauty

The same old song

"Affraeedom" (originally released in 6 Feb 2006). 

Je suis Charlie

New Song. Happy 2015!

A few days ago.

Today.

Just now.

New Song

News ong

Justice, as is. Made just now, unpolished. It already crashed my computer.

Where am I?

... I don't know where I am.

...that sometimes...

So strange...

Places are strange

New Version(s)

Related songs: Stupid Walk and variations, Paraboloidal March, Happy Halloween
A slightly different mix is available in Soundclick (minor changes - essentially, some changes in volume).

New Song

("P:" stands for piano.)

The Look-at-Me Society

Sometimes it is difficult to find a title that fits the ambiance of a certain song. So, when a moderately interesting combination of words appears randomly in my head, I sometimes add it to a list of potential song titles. One of those was "The Look-at-Me Society".

I googled it just to see what appears. I came into this link, where several things that I often think are said. Some of them are related with premisses of this blog and to recurrent thoughts of this blogger. For instance:

"When I look around at the number of bloggers, tweets, wikipages, Facebook friends, and outlets for expression, it seems we've hit a crescendo of ‘look at me' activity, a striving for attention enveloping the globe. I often find myself caught in that web of self-promotion [...]"

Why do we do this? Where does this need for recognition/popularity come from? Why is everybody trying to shout to the world, trying to get his attention? It is not just "the economy, stupid", is it?

One of the premisses of this blog was to not spend any money in self-promotion. I would like this blog to become a sort of serendipitous finding, lost in the internet jungle, eventually to be discovered by some archeologist, much later, like Angkor. Yet... I do repeatedly post links to new songs in internet forums (or fora?) and I opened an exception to the rule of not spending money with advertising when I opened a Google Artist account (25$ - with unlimited uploads, it seemed reasonable). Why? From the same link:

"Why is seeking recognition so prominent in the West today? [...] Perhaps this striving has escalated because our numbers have grown so large. Being unique among 6 billion people requires a lot of work. Perhaps it is due to our praise of children for their uniqueness that may back-fire in adulthood when we notice how very much alike we all are. Perhaps it is merely our media access and newfound means of sharing ‘who we are' to everyone who will listen."

Another recurrent thought of this blogger is related to the effort of self-promoting: isn't it a waste of time? Shouldn't an artist concentrate on creating art? My feeling, for many years has been yes (especially if you are not a professional artist and do not have much time to develop art), despite my occasional posts in forums. Since the beginning, I also wanted to publish anonymously so as not to limit my process of creation. I was thus quite pleased to read the following in the same link:

"I once read a quote by a South American shaman who said he was ‘practicing the art of invisibility'. When queried by the writer as to why, he said that he could accomplish so much more from an invisible position than one of fame. I've wondered about that quote for a long time but think that part of the reason is that there is greater freedom to act when action is not tinged with attention-seeking. There is likely more energy available to effect change if one is not expending it on promoting oneself. [...] I think we all need to value anonymity a bit more. Perhaps if we do, we may find ourselves a little bit more content, happy and kind."

New So

New Song

 

"Leaving Childhood"

New Version

Insomnia. Pick a song, change it and publish. Now go to sleep.

A Stupid Walk at Night 

The first version appeared in the TRA album (freely available on Google Play): Stupid Walk

New Song

It's funny how these songs suddenly happen in my keyboard... Some weird chord experiment makes a twist that totally changes the song spirit. It could be a mistake, or... a new branch for the song (which I view as a growing plant). I left it as it was: untrimmed, still growing.

New Song

Beautiful Azores

A garden with cows. And volcanos. A piece of paradise.

(view from Ilha do Pico, Azores)

In Memoriam

New Song

A feeble attempt to tell a story without words...

New Song

New Song

Sure, it has errors, but "frankly my dear, ...". Happiness is also this.

New songs and video

Thanks!

(Thanks Google, for your Doodle reminding this blog it's his birthday! I had totally forgot...)

New Song and Video

New Video

New song and video

Coimbra, Portugal (yesterday)

New Video

New Video

Lost in time...

...but found again.

Happy Birthday!

This blog grows songs. Songs grow old.
The New Boss has turned 10 years old. Happy Birthday (and Worker's Day)!

New Song

STOHSPANS 13-14

To put some order in the chaos, or maybe not, I am announcing the release of STOHSPANS 13-14 in Google Play. It is a collection of the songs released in this blog during 2013 and 2014. It is not mixed or mastered properly, but it eventually will be, I hope... Anyway, here it is (free):

STOHSPANS 13-14

New Song Version

Another version here (from the "TRA" album).

Chaos

This is a chaotic blog, in the sense that music production follows some weird mood of the author and not some wise marketing decision, such as "finish it and present it properly to the public". I keep repeating this, I know. For instance, I could believe more in my capabilites, try my best to really turn some specific song into something as beautiful as possible, get some lyrics, sing it, get someone to mix and master everything to perfection, invest in packaging and marketing, etc.

It sounds like a lot of trouble, not suited to my life's rythm. So, I will just continue watering my song garden, adding some seeds, watching them grow and occasionally sharing some snapshots, when the mood arrives.

Everyone is invited to modify and create something different from these growing plants. In a way, this blog is pollen. And it is spring, after all.

Everything is connected, VI.

I recently discovered this english word, "cagey". This should be a funny discovery to any portuguese speaking person and no, I am not telling you why, all you few non-portuguese speaking folks that visit this humble blog, because one of the meanings of this word is exactly "not willing to say everything that you know about something".

I have also been watching, in awe, to Bernstein's 6 Harvard classes on "The Unanswered question". After explaining us the marvels of the connections between music composed by different authors (e.g., the derivation of Wagner's Liebestod from Berlioz's Romeo and Juliet in episode 4, starting at 59:45), episode 5 starts with Ravel's Rapsodie Espagnole which, to my ear, bears some resemblances to Bernstein's "I feel pretty". Yet, Bernstein's says nothing about this, when he could have used that as another example of his point in previous classes. Perhaps he wanted to tell us something about that other pillar of beauty, subtelty? Not telling us everything? Or was it subliminar, unintended?

Now I feel pretty cagey myself.

Everything is connected, V.

Yesterday, just after lunch, I realized that Liebestod's climax (1:34:40 in Leonard Bernstein's version) is in yet another of my dearest memories: John Lennon's Imagine. Yes, it is there, almost everywhere, in the fast and higher pitch piano part that connects to the repeating motiv (48'', 54'', 1'00'' etc in the video below). Did a bunch of Liebestod-fan neurons in my brain influence my preferences in music, films, etc all my life? And how does this connects to my lunch yesterday? And how come John's expression in the image below reflects so well my surprise?

Addendum: The period of Liebestod's climax repetition is the same as the repetition in Lennon's Imagine or am I imagining things?

Oh well. 4 posts in the middle of the night when all I wanted was to turn off the computer that was left on...