Back in Bible Black

Tea: Mandarin Green with Honey

Music: Robert Fripp, "Starlight I"

Time: Night.

As you might have noticed, I like mismatching musical references. If I quote a song in the post title, there's no way I'm using that song as the soundtrack for the post. This is sort of an unusual situation, though.

Tonight's title is an AC/DC - King Crimson mashup. Why? Eh. Just felt like it. Did you know, by the way, that Crimson's "Starless" -- whence comes the lyrical line "Starless and Bible black" -- isn't on the Starless and Bible Black album? It's on the subsequent album, Red. And to add to the confusion, "Starless and Bible Black" is also the title of an instrumental on Starless and Bible Black -- and sounds nothing at all like "Starless."

Sometimes I am a bear of very little brain, and the ways of prog confuse me.

All of which, to keep the musical theme going, is just so much vamping until the caffeine from a third steeping of Mandarin Green (It's been a long day.) kicks in, and some sort of groove takes shape.

Fripp recorded "Starlight I" during a performance in St. Louis. I wish I could have been there. Anyone who's ever been in Crimson is on my "to see before I die" list, but Fripp and Adrian Belew co-head it.

The solo piece incorporates the melody from the guitar intro to "Starless," which was performed live well before it went onto vinyl as the closing track of Red. (That line was originally played by violinist David Cross, who quit the band between Starless and Bible Black and Red. He came back as a session player on the latter album, but by then Fripp had made the intro line his own.)

(Yes, I like trivia, if you hadn't figured that out by now.)

Anyway ... I wish I could have heard this live, but part of me wonders if I would have been disappointed. Would it have been enough to hear those opening notes -- and then not hear the rest of "Starless," which is one of my favorite songs of any genre? Could I have appreciated "Starlight I" for its own sake, right out of the gate?

I don't know. I suppose I would have been ambivalent -- multivalent, even.

Yes, I'd love to hear "Starless" live -- ideally with the 1974 lineup of Fripp, John Wetton, Bill Bruford and guests -- all former members -- Cross, Mel Collins and Ian McDonald (part of King Crimson's original lineup and later a cofounder of Foreigner.) But there's no chance of that happening. Still, I have to give props to Fripp for not playing the laurels card, for continuing to move ahead and make new music that actually sounds new.

I wouldn't want my writing or photographic style to be frozen in time. They have grown, through solo work and collaboration, and -- Lord willing, as they say, and the creek don't rise -- they will continue to do so for years to come. I can't, without being a hypocrite, expect my own work to evolve while demanding that my favorite artists stagnate.

Sure, the paychecks are probably better for nostalgia acts. They're safe. But so long as I can keep a roof over my head and food on the table, I'd much rather keep evolving. And someday, if I'm able to drop in a snippet of something I did more than 30 years ago -- and it still resonates with people -- well, how cool would that be?

Hello ... Hello Again

Tea: Chinese Melon Seed

Music: Bob Walkenhorst, "Life Can Turn"

Time: Evening.

Yeah, I thought about the Cars song, but it seemed way too cliche.

So ... let's try this again. I stink at keeping anything up day to day, but here goes.

Since I last blathered at you, here are some things that happened:

I had a photo show end because Nighthawks -- my home away from home -- closed. I'm still a bit shell-shocked, two weeks later. Probably will be for some time to come. The regulars there were a family ... here's hoping we don't lose touch.

I ate the best duck I've ever had at The Vineyards in Weston, Missouri, and tried -- and loved -- sturgeon the next night at Justus Drugstore in Smithville (also Missouri).

I blew the water pump on the Ford. It still isn't fixed. Heck of a big paperweight, that car.

I've seen fire and I've seen rain ... no, wait. That's James Taylor.

Anyway. I'm not going to play catch-up. Too much gone by for that. But I'll try to do better at checking in each day.

Stay tuned.

Cup XXI: The Skin of the Earth is Moving, and the Continents are Adrift

Tea: Arctic Storm, ginger added, with honey

Music: Bruce Cockburn, "Lovers in a Dangerous Time"

Time: Afternoon

I'm still stuffed up, but the tea is helping. So are my Reed's Ginger Chews, a long-distance gift from a dear friend.

As I'm sure you've noticed by now, musical references in post titles don't always match the musical selections in the posts themselves. Such is the case today, as it was here and here and here. Here, too.

Today's lyric is borrowed, slightly adapted, from the Rainmakers' "A Million Miles Away" -- not to be confused with the (also excellent) Plimsouls song of the same name.

Tomorrow will mark one month since I left my old job. Today would have been my tenth anniversary there. The fact that I wrote "tenth" instead of "10th" is an indication that I'm already comfortable with shedding some of the old ways.

Freelancing is a challenge. The hunt for story ideas, and for people who will pay me to put them into words, is a daily effort. But I'm glad I am where I am now. I've met good people, some of whom already have become part of my life.

Today's story:

J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Carmilla

Just because.