We had a full day of shooting, with so many different looks and moods, and the team that worked with us was absolutely superb.

My dearest friend and colleague, Omar Crook , who is one of the most talented people I know, came and shot video of the day (as well as his usual supply of comedic relief), and then produced and directed this beautiful video.

Thank goodness he didn’t include all the moments of me trying really hard not to fall in some of those shoes…that’ll be for the outtakes.

if you strip me

the wonderfully hurting of your eyes stripping me;

just before…with no self pity,

so incessantly; fresh smell of tragedy.

layer by layer by layer

dark spell of my womb

elementary physics

flooding up my heart’s room

I try avoiding this yearning -

sweet ginger peach tea;

it’s no use

no excuse

some long forgotten truce

I’m down to my slip

and you just continue to…

layer by layer by layer

dark spell of my womb

elementary physics

crowding up my heart’s room

I try avoiding this yearning -

sweet ginger peach tea

I’m down to my knee

if you strip me.

Find that little pain and stay there

Stay there

Rummage through vast loneliness and stay there

Stay there

Just before the blossoming of the tip of a twig

Just before - 

Stay there

You’ve received and incomplete

You’ll be stuck on some odd planet

Stay there with me, with me.

Take that little pain and bind it

Pile that dusty loneliness and mind it

Mind it

Quick cold sharpness of an edge

Sweet completeness in the falling

One more push and all the world lies drenched

In some strange light

Stay there with me

With me.

I ate them up voraciously. And it wasn’t just the uniqueness of style in each one, the funkyness and beauty and the effing genius use of synthesizers. It was the poetry. Everything derived from it and it was so damn expressive.

Here’s one of my favorites – ‘Airhead’ from ‘Aliens at my Buick’:

I buy her all the right clothes
and pretty jewels to wear
my friends say she’s a dumb blonde
but they don’t know she dyes her hair
she thinks the fighting in Central America’s easily solved
but what to wear to Bel-Air premieres
is a problem she could never resolve…

she’s an airhead
stungun and mace – Kharmann Ghia plates say ‘Lost in Space’
she’s an airhead
thousands in trust – cusp Aquarius – get serious
she’s an airhead
tinted contacts don’t change the fact that black is black
she’s an airhead
and while I’m impressed with the length of those legs
she’s not an intellectual giant….

she’d like to model or maybe act
or start a magazine
before she signs any contracts
I think she better learn to read
but in her dreams she’s the queen of the fashion regime…
you ask me do I love you…
does the pope live in the woods?
quod erat demonstrandum, baby.
( ooo you speak French)

she’s an airhead
stungun and mace – Kharmann Ghia plates say ‘Lost in Space’
she’s an airhead
thousands in trust – cusp Aquarius – get serious
she’s an airhead
tinted contacts don’t change the fact that black is black
she’s an airhead
and while I’m impressed with the length of those legs
she’s not an intellectual giant….

sweet and low and oh-so
little Ms. Dora Jarre
safe sex and fishnets
and could you walk me to my car
she’s losing faith in a world that is out of control
so she’s gonna nix politics,
she’s taking up volleyball! volleyball! why?

she’s an airhead
stungun and mace – Kharmann Ghia plates say ‘Lost in Space’

she’s an airhead

thousands in trust – cusp Aquarius – get serious
she’s an airhead
and now the time’s come for the end of my song,
don’t get me wrong
if she’s an airhead it has to be said
it was men made her that way
it was us made her that way
it was us made her that way!

And here is a very crude demo I recorded yesterday of my cover of the song with me playing piano and singing:

I know there’s a good reason why I connect so genuinely with this particular song, but I haven’t quite figured it out yet…

I struggle with these questions.

Do I tell everyone that I wrote the song ‘Chicken nibbles’ about my dead cat or do I allow people to decide how they feel about the ‘Chicken nibbles’ song without any knowledge about the situational or emotional reasons that caused me to write it? (Just to clarify, I’m speculating. I don’t have a song called ‘Chicken nibbles’ and I’ve never owned a cat). Does knowing the story make the listener feel more personally involved, and therefore have a more complete experience, or is it a detriment to a purer experience of art?

I find Zefrank’s ‘Pain pack’ to be a fascinating experiment, and one that personally brought all this questioning to mind. Is it the entire string of events that makes it compelling? Does the brilliance lie simply in the fact that he gave the artists a frame in which they could be creative? Does it matter that some of the songs are better than others, or that some could have possibly been written without all the back story and sounded the same?  I found the string of human connection to be extraordinarily moving.

I really don’t know. You decide. Click here.

Just before the blossoming of the tip of a twig;
Just before…
Stay there.

You’ve received an incomplete;
You’ll be stuck on some odd planet.
Stay there with me.
With me.

Take that little pain and bind it;
Pile that dusty loneliness and mind it.

Quick cold sharpness of an edge,
Sweet completeness in the falling;
One more push and all the world lies drenched
in some strange light.

Stay there with me.
With me.

a song I’m working on…the melody and piano part were already written simultaneously – I just need to get on my plump, round tuckes and record it so I can post it here! soon, soon.

h

Here’s a crazy post (as opposed to all those sane ones) of a nearly 22 minute piece I had the pleasure to perform numerous times a few years back called “Dracula” by David Del Tredici. The piece is composed on a poem titled “My Neighbor” by Alfred Corn. This recording below is with the Cleveland Chamber Orchestra.

I just went through some pictures today from a performance of the piece with Marin Alsop conducting and remembered how much fun it was, and how complete, wonderful, bizarre, imaginative and absolutely bonkers is the world of Mr. Del Tredici.

Give it up to Theremins, baby!!!

Unknown to me since before this summer, when my awesome brother Yonatan, returning to Israel from a trip to our family in Mexico via Los Angeles, introduced me to this phenomenal creator (and so generously left me the catalogue from the exhibit he had seen of this fellow’s work).

Here’s a picture off the internet, which, of course, doesn’t really do his painting much justice. If an exhibition comes somewhere nearby to where you are, RUN and see it!!! I most certainly will.

Happiest New Year everyone. May your year be filled with beautiful music and dear friends.

Simply brilliant. Turns out this guy (Oren Lavie) is Israeli, and already a big star, and turns out this unbelievable music video of his has just received a Grammy nomination for “Best Short Form Music Video” (and apparently, as usual, I’m the last person to discover it)…

I just bought a bunch of his wonderful songs on iTunes 

What a crazy time and world we are living in where these bombs of beauty can just randomly fall on our little heads.