I'll See You On the Beach in better days

Show Do Tell: A Reading Series & Art Review

My new album. ‘When The Saints’ was written during the pandemic. It imagines the inner-lives of citizens of a stopped culture, while also ruminating on the healing power of love. A note on the songs: New York Rain -- Reinvention is always a statement of power. But true identity is more complicated. We live in our contradictions -- the characters in this song may not be morally pristine -- but they are also willing to love within their contradictions. True lovers are the champions of the world. Untroubled Summer: Virginia Liston sings the 'Titanic Blues.' I'll See You On the Beach in Better Days: This was the first song I wrote during the pandemic. The character is a vain failure. He disregards safety measures, takes a cynical position on science even as his existence hinges on the cure, and frequently embarrasses the woman he loves. But he's also a true romantic. And there's something admirable about his devotion to individuality. An unaffiliated man -- accomplishes nothing and breaks nothing. A Free Citizen Sleeps: “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.” -- Henry David Thoreau Cold Twilight: Apathy must be investigated. Not immediately rebuked on moral grounds as a show of sincerity. Civic responsibility may feel grounded in assumption when compared to the abstract quality of individuality and memory. Broken State: The coda is a prayer. Often, it is up to us to answer our own prayers. At the End of This Earth: The testament of one roadie's life and times in the twenty-first century. Except much of his life has been spent gazing at the singer whom he services. One person's burdens are another's blessings. The Watchman Reflects: One professional's life stored in the eyes of a painted woman on a wall. When the museum is closed, he goes alone to look. Intelligence: You may notice several songs on the album reference the world stopping. For a brief moment last spring, before it all went mad, there was an existential angst amid the fear and anger. One could actually see the system stopping -- almost like the sidewalks had reversed -- so we walked forward to get backward. Temporarily, loss and gain were negated. All had become theoretical. I actually was not what I thought I wanted. I was less, so therefore more. Such a mentality seemed to suit a character who'd done extremely consequential things in a highly conscious way, for a specific end. To fool them he had to fool himself too. Hidden Green: As society inevitably revolutionizes itself we must find ways of strength which cannot wear out -- changeless as the world can seem when we are in love in it. Night Driving: Holy headlights, guide us safely on our journey through evening's mystery. The imperceptibility 'tween 45 MPH and 50 -- dark matter where sound becomes song. (Night Driving was inspired by Sylvia Plath's poetry) New Year's Dream: Inspired by my love. Presiding: Ultimately the quietude of space was rather lost on me until I was looking *up* with the one I love. Finally Tonight: Waiting, finitude, forever -- these great forces we graze against in our simple little lives animated by love. Luck & Love: This song was never supposed to be this song. It was supposed to be something which I now do not remember. These lyrics I believe to the fullest.