"The Twilight Zone"

-created by rod serling
1959-1964
Crap.
Okay, that's not fair.
Crappy?
Yes, that's it. "Crap" would imply that its very essence is fecal, whereas "crappy" implies that shittyness is simply one quality. There were good episodes, maybe even a few that qualify as great. I say maybe because i couldn't watch it all. I'd been saving that supposed pleasure for decades, but the shittyness of the show slaps you in the face almost instantly. I was soon reduced to cherry-picking only the most attractive-looking episodes (mostly based on cast juiciness...and by that i of course mean shatner...nah, just kidding - sort of).
I am sure there are many out there who worship at the altar of TZ as the greatest sci fi show ever. Do NOT procreate with these people! To love TZ, you have to love dipsy wipsy magical wagical mumbo jumbo. To even call it science fiction is a stretch, as it's often an insult to the very notion of science. Maybe i always intuited that, and that's the subconscious reason it took me decades to get around to watching? For a devotee of the genre though, there is much here to love. FORBIDDEN PLANET is where modern sci fi was born, but TZ took it one important step further, in humanizing its characters. FP + TZ = STAR TREK, sort of.
I didn't watch nearly enough to offer any "best of". I might get around to that someday...

failed song 2

(This one at least had the decency to die in utero, before music was written. That was part of the problem - i stared at the lyric sheet for weeks, and couldn't escape a melodic rewrite of "Makin' Whoopee/I'm Your Angel" for the main refrain. Finally, the words just struck me as too disjointed and weird. Three people in the crowd would probably love it, but most would scratch their heads. I may try to resuscitate the name-check section somewhere down the line; i had fun putting that together.)

CHEEKS & LIPS
You kissed my hand, and made me blush
You kissed my face, and made me flush
My mind is melting, i'm just a mush
So pucker up, and don't you rush

Kiss my cheeks, kiss my lips
My love flows, come take some sips
We don't need chains, we don't need whips
Kiss my cheeks, and kiss my lips

Kiss my cheeks, kiss my lips
Saddle up, i've got good grips
This pretty rose between my hips
Kiss my cheeks, kiss my lips

Everybody loves a bawdy, lusty song
Bounce that booty, let's all sing along
But this is also an empowerment trip
A sanctification of goddess worship
I'm all for equality, with one exception of note
When it comes to abortion, no man gets a vote

Simone to sojourner, ida to gloria
Emmeline to eleanor, madonna to malala
Liz cady to susan b, the alices - walker and paul
Angela to lucy stone, margaret sanger most of all

I'm not reducing us to sexuality
I'm reclaiming body autonomy
It's hard to write a feminist song
and make everybody sing along

You kissed my hand, and made me blush
You kissed my face, and made me flush
My mind is melting, i'm just a mush
So pucker up, and don't you rush

Kiss my cheeks, kiss my lips
My love flows, come take some sips
We don't need chains, we don't need whips
Kiss my cheeks, and kiss my lips

Kiss my cheeks, kiss my lips
Saddle up, i've got good grips
This pretty rose between my hips
Kiss my cheeks, kiss my lips

Riptide 12

Two new songs, "Jiggle" and "The Hug Song". A bit fumbly, but almost all these Riptide performances are the first public playing ever...in that light, it's impressive that they usually go really well. Sometimes stage fright and newness get the best of you, other times first performances go much better than they should. Such a strange dynamic, getting in front of strangers and trying to entertain. If you think about it deeply, there's something counter-intuitive to it. But amazing things can happen nonetheless.
Of course, alcohol helps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMuuBxyGXBA

Riptide 11

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txTyED_gRmw
Two new songs, "The Yoni Symphoni" and "Smiling Blues". The first has an alternate version in which i solve all the world's religious problems...it's a good song, and has the potential to kill the right crowd, but it's probably not good enough to make my concert. I'm at a funny point in my creation of the "perfect" 27-song concert - with over seventy songs written, it's becoming very hard for any new song to crack the list. And it can be brutal dismissing one i've nurtured for over a year.
The second song will almost certainly make the concert, and there is a curious irony in knowing that this song about death might live longer than i. It just felt so beautiful and powerful as i created it. It's about death and cruelty - the greatest horror of all, and the horrible way we all treat each other. Instead of being a perpetual comfort in the face of our own frailty, we exploit and damage each other from cradle to grave. Yet the song is sweet. You can cry, you can laugh, so let's laugh.
As a songwriter, i'm at the point where i'm striving to not create songs that sound like each other, understanding that too much sameness in lyrical structure impacts that. I'm constantly seeking different chords, which is fascinating as i don't know proper chord names, i just find string combinations that evoke a certain feeling. This approach might make me both a weaker and stronger songwriter. When i found the four chords of "Smiling Blues", my first thought was that of COURSE i would discard them for something more exotic. But the more i play it now, the more poignant and perfect it sounds. Did i almost outwit myself as a writer, by fearing simplicity? The strange thoughts that pass through one's mind...
This first-ever performance is embryonic...i fumble some words, and i've already figured out a way to re-structure the lyrics so the narrative arc is more seamless...but it's amazing that this poignant song turned a bar crowd into a pin-drop experience. That's not supposed to happen.