Throwing Rocks at the Sun

"Throwing Rocks at the Sun"
01-The Morning Show - Opening Theme    25:10
02-Dewdrops Don't Descend     15:13
03-Grey Clouds Approach      8:34
04-Albert's Train      10:23
05-Fried Samosa       5:17
06-Minimalambience 1      17:28
07-Skipping Stones Stoned     41:29
08-The Warm Pond      14:48
09-Mirror rorroM      4:01
10-The Fun House      30:00
11-Laugh With Us      7:22
12-rorriM Mirror      8:11
13-Minimalambience 2      28:09
14-Variations on a Loaded String    16:33
15-sin(r2)/r2       24:51
16-The Ripple Tank      21:00
17-Minimalambience 3      13:35
18-The Morning Show - Closing Theme    7:59
Total Time   5:00:11
Subtitled "and other acts of futility"

It's dfficult for me to write about this one, because every time I lisen to it, the explinations get buried in the music itself.  The title "Throwing Rocks at the Sun" is similar in language to Patti Smith's "Pissing in a River".  Exercises in futility.  I was at this point in the world of Oenyaw that I believed that it no longer had a purpose, so I just impoved.  I was playing with no preplanned ideas for the music, practicing for gigs that might never come.  What happened was that the music was better than anything else I had ever done.  There was an apparent fact that I didn't want to accept:  That when I planned out every step of the way, the journey was quite boring.  But with this one, I planned nothing and the music, from the direction of plaing and recording to listening, was much more enjoable.  I wasn't about to ditch planning enirely, but this project was very liberating.  One person up against the universe, feeling that insted of finding an area in the shade or retreating inside to a shelter, he'd rather stand out in the middle of the desert and throw rocks  the sun, hoping to send it away.  Any sane person knows that this is a totally insane idea, but from the viewpoint of the person throwing the rocks, the sun does eventually go down, and he wins his private battle every day.
"The Morning Show"  begins as a happy morning soundscapes, which ends as an self-inflicted withdraw into anger.  The sounds and playing of the Opening theme was made using a clear guitar sound through a "Growler" filter".  The closing theme is made up of the same loops, but closed into an infinite echo shell.  Overtaken by it's own creation.
"Dewdrops Don't Descend"  Illiteration is something I aspire to.  So much for the title.  The music is made by using a loop while playing a minor scale.  Which one, I would have to go back and figure that one out, and since sometimes I play more than one at the same time as well as throwing chromatic runs in on top of it all, it may be difficult to state.   To further complicate matters, I start with a loop, play in G minor, and the switch to D major, starting to throw notes into the loop that are contained in both scales, and when the first loop begins to fade, the new loops take over, and the notes that differ are then played.
"Grey Skies" approach is a small, dark soundscape which uses the same patterns used in "Dewdrops "Don't Descend" but have a few different filters thrown in.  I let things get out of hand at the end, which led to some of the sounds used in the ending of "Albert's Train."
"Albert's Train" is a psychedelic train ride, named after Albert, the inventor of LSD.  "Fried Somasa" is an Indian inspired soliloquy to the piece.  I hope someday to travel to India and ride on top of a train.  The train sounds in "Albert's Train" contained heavy reverb and flanging, to give a very heavy feeling of the the steam engine struggling to turn the wheels.   The train is a scary way to travel when you feel the pain of the train.
The background loop in "Fried Somasa" is played like a sitar, one finger playing up and down strokes across the chord without using a misharab.  The lead on top is an improved jam, using a muffled filter and a U-Vibe modulation.  But the world is beautiful when you leave the box and step outside.
"Skipping Stones Stoned" More illiteration.  Not as much in the area of loops as usual.  The loop eventually sneeks in, but is then pushed into the backgound, the overcoming loop changes the mood from a riff to a drone.  Happiness to the anticipation of the upcoming event, and then stress to the event in the emotion which questions "will I get it right?"  In the end, all walls are torn down, and I just start trhrowing the stones.
"The Warm Pond" is another continuation.  Starting once again witht the "Minimalambiance" theme, but then allowing it to be washed away in the echoes and reverbs which define the piece.  After the stones are thrown, just dive in.
"Mirror rorriM", "The Fun House", "Laugh With Us, and "Rorrim mirroR"  are a set of pieces which combine in a Psychedic Carnival sort of way.  The bookends, "Mirror rorriM" and "Rorrim mirroR" are done with a short loop piece which is doubled, reversed, and then separted into two reversed tracks: track one A, A reversed, track 2 A reversed, A.  "The Fun House" is a piece which starts out scary, but then you realize there is nothing to be afraid of.  "Laugh With Us" is a much happier side insanity.
"Variations on a Loaded String", "sin(r2)/r2", "The Ripple Tank".  I didn't want to name these "Jams 1, 2 and 3".  They are improve pieces, but as my improv pieces go, they are a bit more involved than playing box runs over 12 bars.  (I don't mind the blues, I just detest people who think blues musicians in the 21st century are in anyway creative or relevent.)  The titles are taken from a website which occupies a significant amout of my time.  It is a set of mathematical aplets in which a digital artist with a knowledge of physics a mathmatics I will never prentend to even touch has set up on the internet for anyone to view.  I copped the titles based on the feelings of which applet best fit the music which was playing.  It was one of the most enjoyable time consuming afternoons I have ever spent.
There are three pieces called "Minimalambience", which are similar in musical structure and delay/modulation, but the differences distinguish the separate pieces.

Old quotes

I found a notepad of some quotes that I posted on a website I used to attempt to maintain.  After time, some are still usefull.

Life is too short to spend it working.

There is no special place in heaven for those who work through their lunch break.

Replacing time with family and friends with time to make money for strangers who don't even know your name could in no way even come close to be considered a rewarding experience.

"I've been fired from better jobs than this!"  Wayne Higgins to a restaurant owner 1982

Even God took a whole day off.

Time is an illusion in which we have been imprisoned by some superior force that is using us for research.

There are many ways to waste time.  Explore as many as possible.

Leave behind that world of standard formats, programmed answers, impersonal relationships, products which exits only for the sake of selling themselves.

It always confused me.  How can a God that represents infinite love and mercy endorse any organization that would practice the torturing, of any kind, of individuals that do not conform to the principles of that organization?  It's just plain stupid.

If heaven is infinite, than a fence around it would have to be infinitely huge. 

The logic breaks down when you consider that fences are built for containment. 

Infinity cannot be contained.

"What if you go to heaven where all illnesses are cured, but your illness happens to be schizophrenia?  Your problem is that you always hear the angels talking to you.  So you go to heaven and angels are always talking to you."  

The Oenyaw Mission Statement:
"Brain cleansing music for brain numbing times in a brain dead world"

Oenyaw's Comedy Divine

Oenyaw's Comedy Divine!
01-Entre-act       11:14
02-The Terraces of Purgatory     15:04
03-Zephaniah's Lucky Day     7:25
04-I Felt My Heart Awaken     14:47
05-The Song of Cerberus      24:32
06-Pazuzu and Captain Howdy Meet Again    8:01
07-Status Meeting of the Second Hierarcy   22:51
08-Eternal Intermission      30:08
09-Malacoda Awaits      34:54
10-Lunch on the Banks of Cocytus    44:43
11-Satan's Calliope      50:05
Total Time  4:24:07
The thought is not to do a musical version of Dante's Inferno, but an album based on a trip to hell by Oenyaw.
01-Entre-act is an overture.  24 really loud orchestral "bangs".  A loud that slowly fades as one is entering the gates.
02-The Terraces of Purgatory is explained as those guilty of the seven deadly sins.  I look at it as the difference between doing time at county as opposed to state.  You're in jail, but it could be worse.  The terrace looks out over hell, not the prettiest view in the universe, but definately interesting.
03-Zephaniah's Lucky Day is a story from The Apocalypse of Zephaniah, an ancient apocryphal work attributed to the Biblical Zephaniah. In the canonical Book of Zephaniah there is a prominent amount of mystical and apocalyptic imagery, and the Apocalypse takes a similar subject to it.  The narrative consists of Zephaniah being taken to visit Heaven and to Sheol, though it is the account of his vision of Hell that is the more notable of the two. In Sheol, Zephaniah witnesses two giant angels, one of which is named Eremiel, and described as the guardian of the souls. The other gives Zephaniah a scroll containing a list of all his sins, but a second scroll is presented and the text is missing at this point. Zephaniah is judged to be innocent is transmuted into an angel.
04-I Felt My Heart Awaken
A poem by Dante, and a break in all the hot action.
I felt a loving spirit suddenly,
past a long slumber, in my heart arise;
from far away then Love I seemed to see,
so glad, I could his face ill recognize.
He told me, “Do your best to honor me,”
and laughter in each word I did surmise.
With my lord there, I was still eagerly
watching his steps, when I, to my surprise,
saw lady Vanna and lady Beatrice
coming towards me, where I still was standing—
one bliss pursuing still another bliss.
And—here is what I am reminded of—
Love said, “The first is Springtime, but the second
resembles me so much, her name is Love.”
05-The Song of Cerberus In Greek mythology, Cerberus or Kerberos was the hound of Hades, a monstrous three-headed dog with a snake for a tail and snakes down his back like a mane, whose analogs in other cultures are hellhounds. Other hell hounds included Orthus, his two-headed brother. Cerberus guarded the gate to Hades and ensured that spirits of the dead could enter, but none could exit (additionally, no living person was to come into Hades). Among his siblings are Chimera and the Hydra. He is the offspring of Echidna and Typhon. In Dante's Inferno, he is described as having a human head. This symbolizes the possibility of Cerberus being more human than animal.  I love dogs, and wonder how I would do with this one.
06-Pazuzu and Captain Howdy Meet Again In Assyrian and Babylonian mythology, Pazuzu was the king of the demons of the wind, and son of the god Hanbi. He also represented the southwestern wind, the bearer of storms and drought.  Pazuzu is often depicted as a combination of animal and human parts. He has the body of a man, the head of a lion or dog, eagle-like taloned feet, two pairs of wings, a scorpion's tail, and a serpentine penis. He is often depicted with his right hand pointing upward and his left hand downward. Although Pazuzu, himself, is an evil spirit, he drives away other evil spirits, thus protecting humans against plagues and misfortunes.  I thought a happy reunion like this may occur in hell all the time.
07-Status Meeting of the Second Hierarcy  The Second Hierachy consists of:  Carnivean - obscenity; Carreau - cruelty; Oeillet - greed;Rosier - lasciviousness; Verrier - disobedience
08-Eternal Intermission, time for a snack.
09-Malacoda Awaits  Malacoda is a character in Dante Alighieri's Inferno, part of The Divine Comedy. He is the leader of the Malabranche, the demons who guard Malebolge, the eighth circle of Hell.  Malacoda is mentioned in Bolgia five in Dante Alighieri's Inferno. He with his fiends guards the grafters, caught in boiling pitch, torturing with grappling hooks whoever they can reach.
10-Lunch on the Banks of Cocytus  The first cantica of Dante's The Divine Comedy, Cocytus is the ninth and lowest circle of Hell. Cocytus is referred to as a frozen lake, The lake is frozen by the flapping wings of Lucifer, or Satan; his tears replenish the lake, and are then frozen by his attempts to escape via the wings. Dante describes Cocytus as being the home of traitors and those who
committed acts of complex fraud. It is divided into four descending "rounds," or sections:  Caina, after the Biblical Cain; traitors to blood relatives. Antenora, after Antenor from the Iliad; traitors to country. Ptolomea, after Ptolemy, governor of Jericho, who murdered his guests; traitors to guests. Judecca, after Judas Iscariot; traitors to masters and benefactors.

11-Satan's Calliope.  Captain Nemo has his organ, so I wondered what kind of instrument satan would be playing in his den.  A giant calliope came to mind.  Satan playing a gigantic, steam powered calliope, wings flapping as he plays.  The steam rising through the caverns of hell.