Episode 33-Green River Sing

 

http://ia601002.us.archive.org/1/items/CeskyLivesEpisode33-greenRiverSing/Clep33-greenRiverSing.mp3

 

This weeks song is about the Green River Killer, Gary Ridgway. Randomly looking up news items to write about I came across this fella confessing to more murders than he's confessed to originally back when he was caught, put on trial and given something like 48 consecutive life sentences. The guy horrified me, he was bland about what he'd done, kinda lifeless. The audio at the start of the song is taken from an interview with him where he's explaining how he used his son to fool women into thinking he was a harmless, regular kinda guy. His childhood was a horrific mess, his mum was abusive in excessive ways and amounts, and as a child he went around killing peoples pets. I guess what I've tried to do with song is capture some of the creepiness and the desperate situations some of the women were in that he picked up, (prostitutes and runaways). Also, if anyone's heard the song John Wayne Gacy Junior by the great Sufjan Stevens, I guess in a way I'm nodding to that as well, that song blows a hole in my chest every time I hear it.

Episode 32-With Your Eyes

http://ia801000.us.archive.org/15/items/CeskyLivesEpisode32-withYourEyes/Clep32-withYourEyes.mp3

This weeks tune is about emotional honesty. I heard a story about a lady in the Bible who wept at Jesus feet and wiped them with her hair and poured perfume on them that she'd just bought and was probably about to take home when she heard that Jesus was about and then stopped by to have a listen and a peek like loads of people were. I've heard this story a lot of times but this time it was pointed out to me that what she did was not some cultural norm, she broke down and did some crazy stuff right there in front of a whole lot of people, Jesus was told he shouldn't let het touch him because apparently she was a little dodgy but he said what she'd done was good, she showed him how she felt, that she was broken, and he healed her. So the song is about that, as well as being about honesty in general and not pretending that you've got it all together, not necessarily being a huge self defeatist wreck, but nor being super bright when you're really not. I think you can read fakeness from a mile off and this song is an encouragement to just be yourself, even if that hurts some, because it's a better way to be. Not that I have a handle on this myself, but I try at least.

Episode 31-Young Men Throw Rocks

http://ia601202.us.archive.org/0/items/CeskyLivesEpisode31-youngMenThrowRocks/Clep31-youngMenThrowRocks.mp3

 

This weeks tune, "Young Men Throw Rocks", comes from a mix of War of The Worlds imagery from early on in the story, the imminent threat rather than the actual invasion, which to me is the best part, and also the heftiest. It also is a mix of a whole bunch of other images and ideas about machines and such that my brain has gathered over the years, one such image being from the Japanese animated film, Roujin-Z where a machine designed to care for old folks, in which lives an old man, (sort of alive, but not really, the film is very much on the side of not submitting old people to inhumane treatment, the machine being I think a sign of things to come, or maybe of a terrible care system for old folks in Japan at the time?), is inhabited by the spirit of his dead wife and goes on a rampage, collecting bits of other machines and things on it's way to the ocean, where it's taking the old man, growing larger and large as it goes. Great film it was, I recommend it, has a lot of heart. Anyhow, the image of the hulking, foreboding robot from that film is definitely an image my head was attaching itself to while I wrote this song. There's a hint of steam punk in there too, the machine in the song is old, cogs and such, spurting steam, rusty and clunky and slow. Hope you like it anyways. Be back next week with more.

Episode 30-Vedi

http://ia801001.us.archive.org/10/items/CeskyLivesEpisode30-vedi/CLEP30-Vedi.mp3

 

The 30th episode folks. Feel like a big number but I hope to keep it up and bring you some bigger ones. Anyhow, this song originated from the fact that I sometimes listen to ASMR videos on YouTube to help me get to sleep, these are videos of people who talk softly and calmly, they help you relax ,or if you have what they call ASMR, (Autonomous Sensory Modular Response), you get a but of a head tingle from the sound also. Point here is though, I listen, I don't watch, headphones in, eyes shut. Recently however I had a look at who was talking at me and it was a girl with a black eye, so I made up an abusive relationship for her, gave her a name and put her in a song. She was a little down on herself in her introduction and such so I extrapolated quite a large amount. So, probably she's just a boxer or something? But anyway, this doesn't illegitimate the tune, abuse exists, and that's what the song's about. It's kind of a futility view on things I guess, people put up with a lot for a little because they don't feel they deserve more, or that more exists. "We accept the love we believe we deserve", (Stephen Chbosky, The Perks Of Being A Wall Flower).