Casino Royal, Rama, Whatever...the dice is right

Reds and oranges and greens and blues and some purple all combine to make the garish flashing marquee type of lighting, not so much attract in it’s intensity and pervasiveness, but, to distract the brain. If that were not enough, the air conditioning whir is rounded off by the ping-ping, clang-clang, ching-ching, bling-bling of the myriads of gaming machines. Second hand smoke looks over shoulders and clings to arms both bare and jacketed. Bitter taste of third or fourth complimentary glass of booze, competes with the overhanging anti-bouquet of all those people.

It’s an interesting contrast of concentration and competition for attention from the machines. It’s a tie. You’ve heard the stories of certain level of gamblers wearing diapers so they would not have to abandon their post. Rather play craps than take one.....Wonder what the Queen’s Guards do in their stoic position. Small children crawling about their legs, teenagers pulling their mouths into grotesque shapes with sweaty fingers and multi-coloured parents swirling around viewing the scene through a camera lens. Bump. “Oh! (chuckle) Sorry didn’t see you”.

Zoom into a gambling table. Thin, well dressed young couple stand shoulder to shoulder. Perhaps holding each other up. New to gambling, they’ve taken in the adds and come “for the show”. Next is a rumpled jacket holding up a middle aged man. Tie is a loose noose near the middle of his chest. You would not think there would be enough material to keep it so long. Can you guess the condition of his shoes? A little space and next is a gaggle of elderly oriental women with a lone male companion. They’re silently chatting with their agitated body language. And so on around the half moon of the table.

Clicky-clickity-clackety like short hail burst on a car roof. The clear sound of the thrown dice prepares for the declaration. Some leaning forward or rolling shoulders; some breath held and mostly sweaty palms; all eyes fixed on the two white and black spinning cubes. A silent collective will summons up “Yes” from the universe. That cosmic energy bounces back out into a far away galaxy as fodder for the next new star. So the excitement in suspended animation goes. House wins.

Thin couple, still holding each other up at their shoulders, grins sheepishly. She fingers the strap on her pale bare shoulders. He fingers the wallet deep in his front pocket, visualizing a second mortgage.

Angelic Pierre

Always cool; a remotely angelic Pierre.
No one stares while he dances with chairs.
He then picked a woman, neither tall nor too short,
Through the rest of the night, they were bottle and cork.

Falling Leaf

Blow your hat off wind. Leaves bang into each other like a shaman’s rattle. Many break off. They’re pushed to the ground like diving pigeons after breadcrumbs and swept up again in little tornadoes. Nose alert! It’s the threat of sneezing time as the Nature’s broom releases the molds.

Sidewalk is glistening from a fresh polish of a recent shower. Dark red-orange fragile remnants under foot, veins in surrender. Watch your step; a slippery mat.

The trees have nowhere to hide, unlike bears and gophers. Both awakened again by the incessant buzzing of the spring sun’s alarm. Awakening from the Rip Van Wrinkle winter. What? Where am I? Who am I? What Am I doing here? I am so hungry. I’m so stiff….

Ice Cream Cone

Heavy set summer evening lifting the three-day old t-shirt off its sweaty belly to get some fresh air.

Grey hair, red hair, purple hair, shoe-less kids, strollers, dog sniffing and wagging, all mill about the low rough wood window seat outside the Buff; DVDs and ice cream.

Down 4 steps into the low ceiling, shadow lighting, elbow conking, "excuse me" isles of display cases. Beaucoup bouquet of summer skin. Familiar tunes hang above my head. Want to hum along. Dodge and glide through the loose collection of rickety tables and chairs in front of the ice cream case. Low reverent voices of "Vanilla is fabulous. Atomic Chocolate outrageous".

Plop... Whaaaaa...Lime green melting frog makes a quantum leap to the floor. Knee high kid frozen in place, eyes glued to the oozing green spot. One hand still trying to fight gravity pulling on the empty waffle cone. Mom and Dad closing in to comfort.

I'm sure all the kid hears is the distorted super slow motion sound..."iiiiit's ooooookaaaaay, hoooooneeeey. Youuuuu caaan geeeeet anoooother oooooone".

Fun Making a Metaphor

A great exercise is to make a list of interesting nouns and adjectives and try to match them up in metaphor. Use "x" is "y", "x" of "y" and "x"'s y".

The spoon is a perky catapult as it launches a piece of cheese cake towards the rosy laughing cheek on the other side of the table.

The spoon of perky jelly is carefully floating towards the joyful meeting of peanut butter and brown bread.

The spoon's perky shine screams into tarnish from the torture of melting powder over the open flame.

The economy is now a thin shoe. We all feel the sidewalk ever closer.

The beer bottle was elastic as it kept bouncing back from the table to his mouth.

The cheap straw hat's a "Wet Paint" sign. It made him stop in his tracks. She looked that good.

The straw hat of wet ideas collapsed on to his face and shoulders. His colleagues chuckled. He wasn't embarrassed. Better a bunch of crazy ideas than no ideas.

First off...

The posts will be about song writing and lyric development.

To be a writer is to be a diamond miner; dragging up a lot of sludge for the little gems - tough work.

Some writers write in their head and then commit to media. I do both, with an emphasis of doing a little writing every day during a concentrated time. I write on paper as I find it too easy to erase or edit ideas digitally.

Part of my artistic training is in visual arts so I write as if I were sketching with a lot of doodles in the margins. Pages become tangles of ideas.

So this is my very first blog to the whole world.

Future posts, if not frequent, will be regular, depending on the sludge I'm shoveling and digging through.

HINT: Click on the picture to enlarge it to see more of the process :o)