Birds.

New Song

Sufjan

Two of my favorite Sufjan songs. Together, in new clothes. Sure, the voice failed at times. Of course: it's real. Music as it should be: continuously recreated, moving, inspirational, emotional. 

(It is a pity he is not coming to Portugal this time. The last time he did a great concert.)

New version

The endless quest to improve sound quality... it's like the holy Grail: I never get there.

New Song

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)

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"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. 

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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