Baltimore Blues

Baltimore Blues No.1 - Deer Tick

Kiss all your saviors goodbye

Offer them up to the dead

No kidding you know who's right

And whose got a price on their head

No doubt I'd sell you all out

For a pocket full of silver and gold

Way back when, when they made me one of them

Don't you know they're gonna' save my soul

I can't hang around with you like this my friend

Our time has come to an end

I can't play around with you no more

No, I'm seeing this open door

And I know you saw right through me

Afraid I'm taking you for a ride

But when you're dead you're dead

When you're gone you're gone

I got my conscience at both of my sides

I set out to disappear

And out there I found a new home

But listen Jack, you're on the wrong side of the tracks

At least now I don't have to walk it all alone

Can you hear the sound of the crawling flesh?

Now can you smell the burning desire?

This place is too small to hide

All the ghosts that's kicking around inside

What this town was entirely built upon

You can find it right between the eyes

Its a bullet hole that'll steal your soul

And roll you for your money and your diamonds

Chemistry, a bewildering force. Such a chameleon in its demise to appear out of the depths of life. To take over. To take over thought and dive. The depths of chemistry are not known. When you notice it, you’re already too far gone. It’s the attraction that needs no words, no cues, no hesitations. Yet here we are with all of those. There is no denying, the reason as to why, it’s a love that can’t stay. To be attainable is to defy time, fate and consequences. Enough with the logical truth, enough with the pretenses. What if you weren’t stuck on thought, what if you weren’t trapped by preservations, what if you let it unfold. There is a way to go about this, it’s unclear, it verges on uncontrollable. It seems distant, destructive and driven by selfishness. It’s wanting what you shouldn’t have. Not what you can’t, but what you are arguing yourself against. Free from morality, free from insanity. This type of self-corruptive denial is unforgiving. It plays on your mind like a Shakespeare story. Tragic makes the body of the story. The beginning is curiosity, the end. 

thoughts

There are almost 7 billion people on Earth. About 50 million in south africa. About 14 million between 20 and 34 years old. 14 million minds, hearts and possibilities. 

What makes a generation? Thirty years. Wars. Fashion. Music. Anti-establishment movements. Yes. All of these. However it depends on the individual to get involved. I fear for our "generation", in the sense that we've adopted the "someone else will do it" mentality. It is extremes, personal or political or both, that teach us the meaning of life. Without them, the excesses of the young provide a little of the excitement otherwise lacking. The outcome is a growing shallowness. An adolescent culture is one that lives on the surface, unencumbered by memory, light on knowledge and devoid of wisdom.

"Suburbia" and all it stands for, albeit standing on ant hills, is what is halting our opportunity to make history. 

Go back 50 years:

And now: We are so comfortable living day to day in a selfish shallow manner. That puts success down to what car you drive, what clothes you wear, what you did on the weekend? What music do you listen to? Are you"cultured"? Did you hook up? Did you get wasted? 

Instead we should ask:

What movement were you part of?  Or did you get drunk while you were protesting against a war? Perhaps the only war you know is the one with yourself.  There is little hope in a culture that bases their successes or failures on how many likes or comments they get on a social networking medium. If someone thirty years from now could see your life, would they "like" it? Would it be reminiscent of times of purpose. A new technological dynamic, manifest in the internet, mobiles and the like, which has left older generations feeling a little left out, and lent credence to a misplaced technological determinism among the young.

It sickens me to acknowledge that this "suburbia" is a trap. A catch 22. What lead to the youth of today being so eager to shock purely for shocking sake and not any kind of substance? Why are so many people outraged by a political situation, so outraged they share it on Facebook? Was its precursor the 60's, the very thing that lead to revolutions, peace, love and The Beatles? Did the pop culture of the 60's get so warped into this generation of today that has forgotten where it came from?
It's a catch 22 because vintage photos are deceiving. They appear idealistic almost ethereal in nature. However, the very same photo's you share online are our generations photos of a time, just 40 years away from now. There is nothing stopping you from taking a photo with meaning behind it. I don't remember seeing any pouting pictures in my parents albums. So the 60's brought media to the forefront. In a good way. However in time media has created facades. These facades have created fallacies in society. These societies have become our generation. And you're caught. In a shallow pit of denial, Jersey shore media and this ever present, don't quite know what to do with it, feeling in your bones and heart - there is way more than what I'm doing. 14 million South Africans are capable of much more. Surely Facebook cannot replace home made placards, mass crowds and the truth with a simple click of a button and "you've done your part for society" It's a tad lazy. It's not even a petition. We can say it shares awareness, sure. But if you're not willing to DO anything after you've become "aware"... it's all just a a fallacy. 

welcome to the... what do we even call our time?! the millennium 10's? sounds far too corporate.. but that's a whole other thought. 

all i was searching for

KEEP YOUR HEAD UP - Ben Howard

I spent my time watching

the spaces that had grown between us

And I cut my mind on second best

the scars that come with the greeness

I gave my eyes to the boredom

still the seabed wouldn’t let me in

And I tried my best to embrace the darkness

in which I swim

Now walking back down this mountain

with the strength of a turning tide

The wind so soft at my skin

the sun so hot upon my side

Looking out at this happiness

I searched for between the sheets

Feeling blind, to realise

All I was searching for was me

Oh all i was searching for was me

Keep your head up, keep your heart strong

Keep your mind set, keep your hair long

Keep your head up, keep your heart strong

Keep your mind set in your ways

Keep your heart strong

I saw a friend of mine the other day

And he told me that my eyes were gleaming

I said I’d been away

and he knew the depths I was meaning

It felt so good to see his face

the comfort invested in my soul

To feel the warmth of his smile

when he said ‘I’m happy to have you home’

Oh im happy to have you home

Keep your head up...

Because I’ll always remember you the same

Eyes like wildflowers with your demons of

change

May you find happiness there

May all your hopes turn out right

Kepp your head up...

Because I’ll always remember you the same

Eyes like wildflowers with your demons of

change