Jan 31 2020

Colors (Ten Years?!?!)

 

I woke up to the morning sky, first
Baby blue, just like we rehearsed
When I get up off this ground, I shake leaves back down
To the brown, brown, brown, brown
‘Til I’m clean

Then I walk where I’d be shaded by the trees
By a meadow of green
For about a mile
I’m headed to town, town, town
In style

With all my favorite colors, yes, sir
All my favorite colors, right on
My sisters and my brothers
See ’em like no other
All my favorite colors

It’s a good day (To be)
A good day for me (A good day for me)
A good day to see (A good day to see)
My favorite colors, colors
My sisters and my brothers (My sisters and my brothers)
They see ‘em like no other (See ‘em like no other)
All my favorite colors

Now take me to the other side
Little bitty blues bird flies
And gray clouds, or white walls, or blue skies
We gon’ fly, feel alright

And we gon’
(Ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh)
Yeah
It sound like
(Ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh)
Yeah
The least I can say, I anticipate
A homecoming parade as we renegade
In the morning, right on

With all my favorite colors (All my favorite colors) yes, sir
All my favorite colors (All my favorite colors) yes, ma’am
My sisters and my brothers (My sisters and my brothers)
See ‘em like no other (See ’em like no other)
All my favorite colors (All my favorite colors)

All my favorite colors (All my favorite colors)
Right
All my favorite colors (All my favorite colors) yes, ma’am
My sisters and my brothers (My sisters and my brothers)
See ‘em like no other (See ’em like no other)
All my favorite colors (All my favorite colors)

It’s a good day to be (A good day to be)
A good day for me (A good day for me)
A good day to see my favorite colors (A good day to see my favorite colors)
Colors
My sisters and my brothers
They see ‘em like no other
All my favorite colors

What’s this, a new piece? I was just looking, and it’s been ten years since I started this blog. Ten years. Wow. Granted, not a lot has been done with it in the past few years, but I have been creative. I’ve been working on a novel, which morphed into two novels. The first is finished and in the early stages of proofing. I’ve almost finished writing the second. Stay tuned for info on that, or follow me on Facebook here for updates.

But I just felt like knocking out a little old-school, Eating Peaches art. Honestly, the tragic death of Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and seven others in the helicopter crash this week kind of woke me up a bit. Life is short – do the things you love while you still have time to do them. He was an amazing storyteller after basketball, and a great motivator. I have listened to a ton of his motivational talks. A very sad day for me. Anyway, so here it is – a piece based on Colors, by Black Pumas. They are incredible – a new duo out of Austin, with a sweet, 60s/70s Motown inspired sound. Good stuff!

As always, all Eating Peaches artwork is best viewed while listening to the song that inspired it, so do that, mmmmmmmkay?

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Jan 29 2018

Little Wing (revisited)

 

 

 

Well, she’s walking through the clouds,
With a circus mind that’s running wild,
Butterflies and Zebras,
And Moonbeams and fairy tales.
That’s all she ever thinks about.
Riding with the wind.

When I’m sad, she comes to me,
With a thousand smiles she gives to me free.
It’s alright, she says it’s alright,
Take anything you want from me,
Anything.
Fly on little wing.

This piece is a redo of an older piece I did WAY back in 2010…wow, literally almost eight years to the day. Truth be told, I was never really happy how that older piece turned out. I thought it was a little muddy. This new version is closer to my original thought I had when I came up with the concept. Here’s the older one for comparison:

Why did I redo this eight years later? Well…I’ve got an art show coming up the month of February 2018 at the EagleMonk Pub and Brewery in Lansing, Michigan. I’ll be selling framed copies of my work. An artist reception is being held Sunday, Feb. 4th from 3 to 5 p.m. If you are in the area, feel free to stop by!

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Oct 5 2016

All the Rowboats

All the rowboats in the paintings
They keep trying to row away
And the captains’ worried faces
Stay contorted and staring at the waves
They’ll keep hanging in their gold frames
For forever, forever and a day
All the rowboats in the oil paintings
They keep trying to row away, row away

Hear them whispering French and German
Dutch, Italian, and Latin
When no one’s looking I touch a sculpture marble,
Cold, and soft as satin
But the most special are the most lonely
God, I pity the violins
In glass coffins they keep coughing
They’ve forgotten, forgotten how to sing, how to sing

First there’s lights out, then there’s lock up
Masterpieces serving maximum sentences
It’s their own fault for being timeless
There’s a price you pay and a consequence
All the galleries, the museums
Here’s your ticket, welcome to the tombs
They’re just public mausoleums
The living dead fill every room
But the most special are the most lonely
God, I pity the violins
In glass coffins they keep coughing
They’ve forgotten, forgotten how to sing

They will stay there in their gold frames
For forever, forever and a day
All the rowboats in the oil paintings
They keep trying to row away, row away

This piece is inspired by the song All the Rowboats by Regina Spektor. She’s probably most famous for the theme song to Orange is the New Black on Netflix. I don’t know that the song is really as dark as the image ended up being, but it was the inspiration. And hey, it’s October, so… I love this song, as well as pretty much everything she’s done. Check out her version of While My Guitar Gently Weeps…excellent! I remember the first time I heard this song – I loved the haunting melody, but the lyrics were outstanding. As someone who has frequented many an art museum, I get it. Sometimes they can be a scary place. The images used are rights free from the Library of Congress website. Pretty cool place to check out! (it’s been so long since I posted that I forgot my password…I need to remedy that!)

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Jan 30 2015

Istanbul (Not Constantinople)

Istanbul was Constantinople
Now it’s Istanbul, not Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Now it’s Turkish delight on a moonlit night

Every gal in Constantinople
Lives in Istanbul, not Constantinople
So if you’ve a date in Constantinople
She’ll be waiting in Istanbul

Even old New York was once New Amsterdam
Why they changed it I can’t say
People just liked it better that way

So take me back to Constantinople
No, you can’t go back to Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Why did Constantinople get the works?
That’s nobody’s business but the Turks

Istanbul, Istanbul
Istanbul, Istanbul

Even old New York was once New Amsterdam
Why they changed it I can’t say
People just liked it better that way

Istanbul was Constantinople
Now it’s Istanbul, not Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Why did Constantinople get the works?
That’s nobody’s business but the Turks

So take me back to Constantinople
No, you can’t go back to Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Why did Constantinople get the works?
That’s nobody’s business but the Turks

Istanbul

This piece is based on the song Istanbul (Not Constantinople) by They Might Be Giants. There are many versions, and they covered it…their version is my favorite. This is an old version, and I really like this one. Anyhoo, the song was a comic response to Turkey renaming the city of Constantinople in 1930 to the new name of Istanbul.

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Jan 5 2014

When The Tigers Broke Free

It was just before dawn
One miserable morning in black ’44
When the forward commander
Was told to sit tight
When he asked that his men be withdrawn
And the generals gave thanks 
As the other ranks
Held back the enemy tanks for a while
And the Anzio bridghead was held for the price
Of a few hundred ordinary lives

And kind old King George sent mother a note
When he heard that father was gone
It was, I recall, in the form of a scroll
With gold leaf and all
And I found it one day
In a drawer of old photographs, hidden away
And my eyes still grow damp
To remember
That his majesty signed
With his own rubber stamp

It was dark all around
There was frost in the ground
When the tigers broke free
And no one survived from the Royal Fusiliers, Company C
They were all left behind
Most of them dead
The rest of them dying
And that’s how the high command
Took my daddy from me

 
This piece is inspired by the lyrics to the Pink Floyd song When The Tigers Broke Free, which is in the movie The Wall. It’s the story of the British Army company that Roger Waters’ father served in during World War II. This song sets up the premise for The Wall movie. This song always gives me the shivers a bit.

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Dec 26 2013

Dreamboat Annie

Heading out this morning into the sun 
Riding on the diamond waves, little darlin’ one 

Warm wind caress her 
Her lover it seems 
Oh, Annie 
Dreamboat Annie my little ship of dreams 

Going down the city sidewalk alone in the crowd 
No one knows the lonely one whose head’s in the clouds 

Sad faces painted over with those magazine smiles 
Heading out to somewhere won’t be back for a while

 

This piece is based on the Heart 1976 song Dreamboat Annie. The song is really short (2:02) but I love it. I actually remember the first time I heard it and where I was. I think a good song has the ability to affect you that way. I’m really happy with the way this one came out. Funny how pieces come about…I was listening to Sirius XM in the car the other day, and heard another obscure Heart song (Dog and Butterfly) and I thought, “I should do a piece to Dreamboat Annie.”

And so I did. :)

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Dec 23 2013

Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came earlyThe ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most
With a crew and good captain well seasoned
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
Then later that night when the ship’s bell rang
Could it be the north wind they’d been feelin’?The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
When the wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the captain did too
‘Twas the witch of November come stealin’
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the gales of November came slashin’
When afternoon came it was freezing rain
In the face of a hurricane west wind

When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck
Sayin’ “Fellas, it’s too rough to feed ya”
At seven PM a main hatchway caved in
He said, “Fellas, it’s been good to know ya”
The captain wired in he had water comin’ in
And the good ship and crew was in peril
And later that night when his lights went out of sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searchers all say they’d have made Whitefish Bay
If they’d put fifteen more miles behind her
They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man’s dreams
The islands and bays are for sportsmen
And farther below, Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed
In the Maritime Sailors’ Cathedral
The church bell chimed ’til it rang twenty-nine times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early

This piece is based on the song Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot. I’ve loved this song since I was a kid. My dad is obsessed with it. :) It’s about the true story of the (you guessed it) wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, a large Great Lakes freighter that sank in November of 1975 in Lake Superior, killing all 29 aboard. Having lived in the Midwest, I spent a lot of time around and on the Great Lakes…this song always pops into my head when the big waves come crashing in the late fall, accompanied by slate gray skies and the Witch of November.



				


				


				

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					Dec
					19
					2013
				

				
				
Fixing A Hole


								
				

				

					


I’m fixing a hole where the rain gets in 

And stops my mind from wandering 

Where it will go 


I’m filling the cracks that ran through the door 

And kept my mind from wandering 

Where it will go 


And it really doesn’t matter if I’m wrong I’m right 

Where I belong I’m right 

Where I belong. 


See the people standing there who disagree and never win 

And wonder why they don’t get in my door 

I’m painting my room in the colourful way 


And when my mind is wandering 

There I will go 

And it really doesn’t matter if I’m wrong I’m right 

Where I belong I’m right 

Where I belong. 


Silly people run around they worry me 

And never ask me why they don’t get past my door 

I’m taking the time for a number of things 

That weren’t important yesterday 

And I still go 


I’m fixing a hole where the rain gets in 

And stops my mind from wandering 

Where it will go




This piece is based on The Beatles song “Fixing A Hole” off of the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album. I think this is now the fifth song I’ve done off of that album. It’s definitely one of my favorite all-time albums.



				


				


				

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					Oct
					18
					2013
				

				
				
Undun


								
				

				

					


She’s come undun

She didn’t know what she was headed for

And when I found what she was headed for

It was too late


She’s come undun

She found a mountain that was far too high

And when she found out she couldn’t fly

It was too late


It’s too late

She’s gone too far

She’s lost the sun


She’s come undun

She wanted truth but all she got was lies

Came the time to realize

And it was too late


She’s come undun

She didn’t know what she was headed for

And when I found what she was headed for

Mama, it was too late


It’s too late

She’s gone too far

She’s lost the sun

She’s come undun


Too many mountains, and not enough stairs to climb

Too many churches and not enough truth

Too many people and not enough eyes to see

Too many lives to lead and not enough time


It’s too late

She’s gone too far

She’s lost the sun


She’s come undun

Doe, doe, doe, doe, doe, doe, un doe, doe, doe, un doe, doe, doe

Doe, doe, doe, doe, doe, un doe, doe, doe, doe, doe, doe

Doe, doe, doe, doe, doe, doe, doe, doe, doe, doe


It’s too late

She’s gone too far

She’s lost the sun


She’s come undun

She didn’t know what she was headed for

And when I found what she was headed for

It was too late


She’s come undun

She found a mountain that was far too high

And when she found out she couldn’t fly

Mama, it was too late


It’s too late

She’s gone too far

She’s lost the sun


She’s come undun

No, no, no, no, no, no, no

Doe, doe, doe, doe


I once read that Stephen King was so disturbed by the manuscript he had written (Pet Sematary) that he wasn’t going to publish it. Then he finally did, and it was a huge success (but still very disturbing – a definite read if you haven’t).


This piece is kind of the same way for me. It’s based on the Guess Who song Undun. On the surface it’s not that disturbing…unless you know the story behind my other inspiration for the piece. It still haunts me – you can read about it here if you’d like. It literally happened the next street over from us – about a block away.


I had an extremely hard time finishing this piece. I guess maybe it was kind of cathartic, in a way.


The style of this piece is an homage to one of my new favorite artists, Daniel Danger. Check him out – he’s fantastic.


 


Rest in peace Liam and Madigan.

				


				


				

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					Jun
					30
					2013
				

				
				
Major Tom (Space Oddity)


								
				

				

					


Standing there alone, 


the ship is waiting.


 All systems are go. 


“Are you sure?” 


Control is not convinced, 


but the computer 


has the evidence. 


No need to abort. 


The countdown starts.


Watching in a trance, 


the crew is certain. 


Nothing left to chance, 


all is working. 


Trying to relax 


up in the capsule 


“Send me up a drink.” 


jokes Major Tom. 


The count goes on…


4, 3, 2, 1 


Earth below us 


drifting, falling. 


Floating weightless 


calling, calling home…


Second stage is cut. 


We’re now in orbit. 


Stabilizers up,


running perfect.


 Starting to collect


 requested data. 


“What will it affect 


when all is done?” 


thinks Major Tom.


Back at ground control, 


there is a problem. 


“Go to rockets full.”


 Not responding. 


“Hello Major Tom. 


Are you receiving? 


Turn the thrusters on. 


We’re standing by.” 


There’s no reply.


4, 3, 2, 1


Earth below us 


drifting, falling. 


Floating weightless 


calling, calling home…


Across the stratosphere, 


a final message: 


“Give my wife my love.” 


Then nothing more.


Far beneath the ship, 


the world is mourning. 


They don’t realize 


he’s alive. 


No one understands, 


but Major Tom sees. 


“Now the light commands


this is my home, 


I’m coming home.”


Earth below us 


drifting, falling. 


Floating weightless 


coming home… 


Earth below us 


drifting, falling. 


Floating weightless 


coming, coming 


home… 


home…..


This piece is based on the 1980′s song Major Tom, by Peter Schilling. But strangely, it’s also kind of based on the David Bowie song Space Oddity, which is, of course, the original Major Tom that Peter Schilling used as inspiration. When I first started the piece I was thinking the Bowie Space Oddity version, but then the Schilling Major Tom lyrics seemed to fit better. You may listen to either song when viewing this piece. :)  I used photos I took at the Abrams Plane-arium. Bonus points if you get that spelling/reference.


The Bowie lyrics:


Ground Control to Major Tom Ground Control to Major Tom Take your protein pills and put your helmet on 

Ground Control to Major Tom Commencing countdown, engines on Check ignition and may God’s love be with you 

Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven, Six, Five, Four, Three, Two, One, Lift-off 

This is Ground Control to Major Tom You’ve really made the grade And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear Now it’s time to leave the capsule if you dare 

“This is Major Tom to Ground Control I’m stepping through the door And I’m floating in a most peculiar way And the stars look very different today 

For here Am I sitting in a tin can Far above the world Planet Earth is blue And there’s nothing I can do 

Though I’m past one hundred thousand miles I’m feeling very still And I think my spaceship knows which way to go Tell my wife I love her very much (she knows!) Ground Control to Major Tom Your circuit’s dead, there’s something wrong Can you hear me, Major Tom? Can you hear me, Major Tom? Can you hear me, Major Tom? Can you hear…  

Am I floating round my tin can Far above the Moon Planet Earth is blue And there’s nothing I can do?

				


				


				

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