Tag: poetry

Good Time

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Hola, friends and lovers. Recently I did some research on AI generated music to find out how long it will take before flesh and bone musicians are completely replaced by a neural network. I may not be a big fan of EDM and the like, but I am obsessed with learning the process of how other composers create even if that composer is an algorithm that uses random models to deliver lo-fi beats and lush soundscapes. It was fun to play around on websites like Loudly and Soundful and you should check them out, too. Even if you have no aptitude for music, and I think that is one of the selling points, you will be creating exciting background music for your next tik-tok with a few mouse clicks.

If you are purist, you will be happy to know that this new recording titled “Good Time” is 98% non-AI. In fact, I collaborated with another genuine human guitar player who played his parts on a real guitar through a real amplifier right in front of me.

I cannot say the same for the image above. That was created by typing a string of words into an image generator. It should stand as proof that we are at least a year away from being replaced.

Hello how do you do, let me introduce myself to you
I’m a good time, I’m easy to find

We can burn like a flame, we can chill like ice
We can ignore all that good advice

We can live on credit, we can pay by cash
We can live like kings or just poor white trash

24 7 call me day or night
All you have to do is do what feels right

I can climb on top, you can slide beneath
I can be that gristle stuck in your teeth

We can do a day, we can do a year
We can make a plan or play it by ear

24 7 call me night or day
Everything you want is just one call away

24 7 three hundred sixty-five
All you have to do is be alive

We can stay, we can go 
No one ever has to know

Swan

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swan

I have nothing against the duck

They are very well and good

The emerald sheen on the mallard head

In the flesh or a decoy of wood

Yet sometimes they hint of discarded old shoes

On the banks filthy and wet

Then in glides the swan and all that is foul

We are obliged to forget

Why Dogs Love Snow

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ZakAnyone who owns a dog has witnessed their reaction to snow and has probably wondered why they get so get excited.

The recent blizzard that rolled through the Northeast U.S. last night, leaving behind several inches of the stuff, has the dogs in my neighborhood in a special type of euphoria.

Here is a simple villanelle that I think does a good job of explaining why all the fuss.

Why Dogs Love Snow

This is why all dogs love snow
They were once angels like Gabriel
Dog reversed spells God, you know

Who will protect man if we go?
They have no claws, teeth or sense of smell
This is why all dogs love snow

Man’s wits its true are keen, although
They’re often led astray to Hell
Dog reversed spells God, you know

Winter sky; lonely howls come from below
Send news divine in an epistle
This is why all dogs love snow

On every crystal flake words flow
From quills dipped in seraphim’s inkwell
Dog reversed spells God, you know

Frozen to his fur, dog plucks a folio
And reads aloud to man this sacred mail
This is why all dogs love snow
Dog reversed spells God, you know

9 Word Football

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“Dynamism of a Soccer Player” by Umberto Boccioni

I have always enjoyed “Dynamism of a Soccer Player” by Umberto Boccioni. I have visited it many times at the MoMA here in New York.

In the painting Boccioni breaks down the form of a soccer player into pure energy that moves out into the surrounding atmosphere.

I have never been very good with a paint brush, as many an art teacher and the dingy walls of my apartment can attest. I did, however, attempt to deconstruct a soccer game I saw recently. Here’s to all you strikers out there who like to keep your game simple.

9 Word Football
Kick, Kick, Kick
Head…Head
Kick, Kick…Foul…Card
Throw…Head…
Kick, Kick, Kick…
Miss!
Frustration.
Exultation!
Kick, Head…Kick
Score!
Exultation!
Frustration.
Kick, Kick, Kick