This was the first 'laptop folk music' piece I did. Tae Hong Park
had put together another
Listening
in the Sound Kitchen
mini-conferences, and I had to come up with a piece. I decided to try
doing something performance/interactive instead of bashing away at another
tape-piece, because I had been doing readings from my
book
and I had been enjoying being a performer again -- plus I remembered
that I actually liked connecting with an audience. The audience-performer
model I think works best for me is the 'folk' thing, maybe because
it's a part of my cultural background. I like the feeling of sharing
rather than declaiming.
I'd also contemplated a set of uilleann pipes during a family trip
to scout out colleges for Lian during the previous summer; suffice it
to say that I am far far better typing on a laptop than trying to make
the pipes sound like something other than demented sheep. [note:
there's a whole story about this that I use as preface to "fog"; part
of the show, ya know.] Instead of working to learn a Real
folk instrument, I figured I could fake it on a laptop instead.
So this piece is the result. I wrote it with three people specifically
in mind, but they will probably have no idea who they are. The initial
idea for the song came while driving my family up to visit my sister in
Massachusetts. Here are the words:
Driving at night, they're all asleep
lights against the shadowed sky
Down the street, a voice on the phone
the signal's dying, cut the line
Sometimes I have moments of clarity,
but I don't want to see
take them away from me -- take them away
Sitting down, the news comes slow
the words I hear, the meanings change
What was once I place I knew
different now, so vaguely strange
sometimes I believe I can touch the universe,
but I don't want to try
take it away from me -- take it away
[CHORUS]
Lying in bed, the wall intact
no touch can span the distance there
I think of time, I think of those days
the dream is gone, the room is bare
sometimes the world just overwhelms,
and out loud I want to cry:
get it away from me -- leave me alone
[CHORUS]
CHORUS:
When the fog comes down, all my friends -- they fade away
When the fog comes down, all these things -- dissolve to grey
When the fog comes down, family --
such a beautiful scene, such a terrifying thing
The performance interface code is available for downloading
here.