Category Archives: Audio

Halleluja by Leonard Cohen – Lucy Thomas

Now I’ve heard there was a secret chord
That David played and it pleased the Lord
But you don’t really care for music, do ya?
It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing “Hallelujah”

[Chorus]
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

[Verse 2]
Your faith was strong, but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty in the moonlight overthrew ya
She tied you to a kitchen chair
She broke your throne and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

[Chorus]
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

[Verse 3]
Maybe there’s a God above
But all I’ve ever learned from love
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you
And it’s not a cry that you hear at night
It’s not somebody who’s seen the light
It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah

[Chorus]
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

[Verse 4]
Baby, I’ve been here before
I know this room, I’ve walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you
And I’ve seen your flag on the marble arch
Love is not a victory march
It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah

[Verse 5]
There was a time you let me know
What’s really going on below
But now you never show it to me, do you?
And remember when I moved in you
The holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah

[Verse 6]
I did my best, it wasn’t much
I couldn’t feel, so I tried to touch
I’ve told the truth, I didn’t come to fool ya
And even though it all went wrong
I’ll stand before the lord of song
With nothing on my tongue but hallelujah

[Chorus]
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

[Outro]
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

[Additional Lyrics]
You say I took the name in vain
I don’t even know the name
But if I did, well, really, what’s it to ya?
There’s a blaze of light in every word
It doesn’t matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah

SciFi Anarchy

Mack&pipe60sFor many years I have been listening to sci-fi stories on Escape Pod. Great way to make your driving time more enjoyable. In the olden day when I drove much more I was always up to date with the latest episode but lately I have fallen seriously behind – not enough commuting (well, not too sad about that, though.)

On my last trip back from LA I listened to a classic, written in the 40s – Expediter by Mack Reynolds. Happy to report that there were anarchist that long ago.

A Hollywood Experience

Rainer SchoeneOne of my early Hollywood-experiences occurred in the late 80s – the place was the Irish pub ‘The Cat & Fiddle‘ on Sunset Blvd.

My buddy and I hung out there pretty regularly, had learned that just a single extra dollar in tips was well worth the investment for much faster and friendlier service and were, that fine summer evening, out in the patio, slurping our Guinness.

The table next to us was occupied by two guys, one of them a very tall, and cool, guy that looked so familiar but I could  not place him. I heard somewhat of a German accent, but that did not help much at that time.

If was a few days later that my buddy dragged me to the gig of a German guy he had met a few days earlier. As yours truly is from that area of the planet as well and ethnic support is a given I was glad to comply.

Even this big Hollywood is a small place and so I was only mildly surprised that this tall guy I had seen at the Cat and Fiddle was there as well. The gig was great and I still have a video document of this band, Bigger than Blue, even though this is not of the gig, which was much wilder and much more hard rock.

Already at that time I perceived the vibes between this tall German guy and the cute, absolutely petite, singer of Bigger Than Blue, Francesca Capasso.

To make a long story short, the tall German guy turned out to be a very well-known German actor, Reiner Schoene (Schöne), whom I had seen in television shows when I was a lot younger. He and Francesca started dating and we (my buddy and I) had a few parties at our house with the whole Bigger than Blue and so Reiner was there, obviously.

Francesca and Reiner did get married and had a little farm in or around Agua Dulce but, despite efforts to do so, we never managed to visit and the contact went away eventually, especially after Reiner moved back to Germany and he and Francesca separated, unfortunately.

So, why would I write all this after more than twenty years? Simple, when going through my old music collection, I found demo tapes of Reiner as well as Francesca and the most amazing piece on that was a song, written and performed by Reiner, telling the beginning of the story…

Faith-based Medicine

The death of Steve Jobs, succumbing to his fight with cancer, made me contemplate the relationship of access to resources (of which he had much more than anybody else might have) and the choices made for the use of those resources.

Even though traditional medicine has helped me and my loved ones tremendously over the years, I have always been a proponent of the more natural way of approaching health and healing. I am sure that Mr. Jobs had all the help in the world when he was diagnosed with cancer a few years back to find all the options to handle this threat to his life.

Why, with all this information at hand, did he not opt for a natural way dealing with this problem, when there is much information available that shows that the non-invasive and non-toxic approach has a bigger chance of success?

I just listened to Dr. Mercola interviewing Dr. Nicolas Gonzales, who is treating patients with alternative methods for two decades. One quote of Dr. Gonzales might shed some light on the decision process:

The reason Linda McCartney went for a bone marrow transplant is not because she read the data and realized it would work for her. It’s because she believed in it – it was a faith issue. She was going to this priesthood kept in a temple in New York City. They had resources, and she could pay for them. So it was religion to her. Patrick Swayze to the best of the best – Stanford is the West Coast mecca. It’s a religious temple. When he went there, it was faith, even though there’s not a single piece of evidence they gave him that chemo would cure him and would lead to substantial results. He did it  because of faith – irrational faith, because it’s the belief that academicians really have these special secrets that none of us have and none of the lay people (we mortals) know. Their special knowledge, wisdom, or rituals would make us better.

The fact that they don’t make us better – Landon died, Patrick Swayze died, Linda McCartney died; I could list 20 celebrities that consulted or called me, never did my program, and are dead because they went to the conventional route.

Why didn’t they do mine?

I don’t have a temple. I don’t even own a white coat. I can wear a white coat – a good one – but I don’t have one on purpose. I’m not part of the academic priesthood, so I don’t wear a white coat. Yes, I have a stethoscope and a medical office like any because I need that, but I’m not part of the academic priesthood.

Michael Landon picked that up right away. In fact, his press agent, Harry Flynn, wanted him to come and see me. Harry and I remained close friends. He was really upset, and one of Landon’s comments about me is that I wasn’t fancy enough. I wasn’t fancy enough, so he went to the priesthood. He went to Cedars-Sinai.

Admittedly, this is just one side’s opinion. We also have to look at the other side. Checking out what Wikipedia tries to tell us about Dr. Gonzales we find a very different picture. Even though the article appears unbiased at first glance, it fails to mention the long term survivors documented on Dr. Gonzales web site and in other publications. This author has personal experiences editing Wikipedia in the area of controversial subjects, showing that objectivity is not something that can be expected from a Wikipedia article on controversial matters – the version of those articles surviving is usually the one supported by the party with the bigger resources.

Back to the subject at hand – would Steve Jobs still amongst us had he taken the more natural approach to healing his cancer? This we will never know, but had he, he surly would not be worse off than he is now. And it might not have worked for him at all as the state of mind is one of the most important in all healing. Undergoing alternative treatment while being afraid that the orthodox treatment would have been the right. will negate all possible benefit.

Fear is, as the old German movie Fear eats soul (Angst essen Seele auf) teaches us, behind all things going wrong.

A Telemarketer entangled in a Murder

It is many years ago now that I heard this piece of Tom Mabe in which he torments a telemarketer by pretending to be a police officer at a murder scene.

But at that time I did not know his name, Tom Mabe, and had no idea how to ever find this jewel again.

Thanks to random browsing and a friend on facebook I finally have been reunited again with this unique way to cause a telemarketer to change his job. In order not to lose sight again I put it here on my blog – it’s not for your benefit, dear reader, because if you know enough about it you can find it everywhere. By adding the right tags to this post I hope to be able to find it again here on my own blog, if I want to show it to a friend.

Maybe you are that friend…

Isn’t it amazing how Tom exactly mimics the authority of a cop and how much compliance this poor schmuck displays – – – just as we all do towards cops we encounter. Maybe we should learn from that – maybe that cop we encounter is the schmuck and we should not bow to him/her?

War of the World with the StarTrek Crew

Found this in the deep crevices of my hard drive and I thought I better bring it into the open instead of it being hidden in cobwebs.

This is probably copy-righted material so I might get a cease and desist message, then it will be gone, but until that happens, take an hour and enjoy.

I actually grew up with radio shows, where your power of imagination was trained instead of dulled as with the later arrival of the TV.

Monty Python’s Chanting Monks

Again, I had to find the chanting monks from Monty Python’s Holy Grail today because I had forgotten the words of that chant.

So, I finally – once and for all – I get it recorded here on my own blog, so that I might find it quick in case of an emergency. Putting more attention and intention on those words, I might actually be able to burn them into my brain as to not forget them any more.

Without further ado…

Pie Jesu Domine – Dona Eis Requiem.

and in case you want to know what that means in English and to save you the time to crack open your Latin books to translate it yourself – it means…

Kind Lord Jesus – Grant Them Rest.

In case you would like to hear the chant I can be of service as well…

And as we are already talking about The Holy Grail, here are the instructions for the use of the Holy Hand Grenade…

First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin,
then shalt thou count to three,
no more, no less.
Three shalt be the number thou shalt count,
and the number of the counting shalt be three.
Four shalt thou not count,
neither count thou two,
excepting that thou then proceed to three.
Five is right out.
Once the number three,
being the third number, be reached,
then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch
towards thou foe,
who being naughty in my sight,
shall snuff it.

Amen!

City Talkers on Escape Pod

Escape Pod Science Fiction PodcastIt’s nearly half a year ago that I told about my progress with Escape Pod and I can again report that I am working my way to the top of the list. The top of the list is obviously the newest story on Escape Pod.

In case you don’t know about this podcast – Steve Eley publishes a science fiction story each and every week and I try to miss none. Thanks to pod-casting and mp3 players I am succeeding. The only problem is that when I don’t have to drive much, the stories accumulate on my mp3-player/cell-phone.

Just the other day I worked on a story from late December – OK – work might not be quite the right word. This story, City Talkers by Mur Lafferty fascinated me because it goes very nicely in the direction I am going. I am not much of a City Talker, which is something like a horse whisperer, but for cities – not the people in the city, but the city him or herself, but I’m a pretty good computer whisperer.

I would definitely recommend to subscribe to the Escape Pod-cast, but if I got a bit of your interest, this one story I liked a lot you can enjoy right here…

Mandatory Listening for all Americans

I am not a native born American – so no worries – I can not be president. At least not before Arnold will change the rules… I wonder how he will pull this off, maybe go back in time and tweak things a bit.

Anyway, here is what I found today and which needs to be listened to – over and over and over again…