Weekend morning blues . . .

Purplerays

“Nothing is sad on a beautiful morning
save to look down and realize
you just had the last sip of coffee and
the mug sits indifferently empty. ”

~Terri Guillemets

Artist~Svetlana Berdnik
Text & image source:Remember ღ Once upon a Time?
Page Liked · June 13 ·

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Should I Feel Guilty? – Game of Thrones Finale

I guess I’m a little behind. I just finished watching Season 6 of Game of Thrones. Spolier alert! Don’t read any further if you haven’t seen the final episode.

So after finishing up the series, I wondered:

Should I feel guilty for enjoying it when Cersei blew the High Sparrow sky high?

I don’t know.

Some Christian blogger argued that we have it all wrong. We like the bad guys in the show and don’t like the good guys.

I thought that was a silly take because, if anything, Game of Thrones is about the grey areas (Grey Worm?) and doesn’t deal in absolutes.

Only the most childish of cartoons and comics do that. Adult fiction is about portraying life as it is. And because nobody is perfect, this seems more genuine than many whitewashed, Christian-approved media productions.

True, Cersei is quite evil. But at least she knows it. The High Sparrow and his violent crew reminded me of those religious phonies – we’ve all met them – who prance around pretending to be holier-than-thou when really they are just total creeps.

For the record, I didn’t enjoy it when Cersei insinuated that she planned to torment, possibly torture, the High Sparrow’s angry stooge, Septa Unella. And I didn’t like seeing Queen Margaery get trapped, the only one recognizing the imminent danger.

As I say, Cersei is evil.

But I did enjoy seeing the High Sparrow get his due. For me, religious phonies are the most odious type of all.

The High Sparrow (right) and a fanatical convert (left)

She’s Got Dragons

Who me? Game of Thrones freak? Naah. That’s only part of the story.

I did like Khaleesi and thought that Jason Momoa nailed the ancient conqueror role. But they are only depicting things that, more or less, really happened. Alexander the Great. Cyrus the Great. Cleopatra.

Dragons may be fiction but we have a pretty heavy inheritance we have to face.

ET phone home…

Image via Tumblr – Click for large size

This was taken May 3 2017… I figured pay phones are not going to be around much longer… so wanted to chronicle them as part of our ever changing history…

Beyond the Night

Here’s a cinematic, atmospheric one that I worked pretty hard on. It began as a slightly chaotic assemblage which slowly came together. My main learning point was how to use a sequencer for drum samples, making it sound less robotic than sequencers can sound.

The sequencer I used (Megababy) allows for manual timing changes (called “humanization” or possibly “swing” when using midi). So I spent some time on each note, trying to imagine myself as a percussionist and how he or she might actually drum. To me, the kick drum sometimes sounds like it could use a bit of editing, other times it sounds okay.

Not exactly tearing up the SoundCloud charts, it was, as I say, a great learning experience.

As to what this composition is about, just follow the link to SoundCloud if interested.

back in the groove

Earthpages has taken a back seat the past few days as I really wanted to get this out asap.

My little blurb at SoundCloud says it all:

You guessed it. I was thinking of Paul McCartney and other 70s feelgood love songs a bit when mixing this. But the tune was written in the late 80s / early 90s. Originally called “Karma Destiny,” it has a melody but I didn’t like my vocals so went with sax improv instead.

Today I question the whole idea of karma. So that title isn’t really me any more. But the music still is!

© 2017 Michael W. Clark

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It snowed today

Walking home after doing some shopping