Zowie Dealy

(z•ow•ee d•eel•ee) noun. the means by which something is noted as, or deserving of, enthusiastic reaction.

Example: After having drawn a banana from his pocket in the likeness of a gun, Gertrude pretends to shoot at Benson..."Zowie dealy!", Beulah blurts boomingly.

BR80's New English Dictionary for World Citizens - 1st Edition

The Innocence Mission

Typically, I'm not one to advertise bands...yet, I think when you stumble upon a particular sound of music that's truly remarkable…you have no choice but to share it. With The Innocence Mission, I suppose it could be the music itself that attracted me...however, in the end, it's truly the voice of Karen Peris that fills me with admiration. True to the name, she sounds incredibly innocent...and possibly sweet, yet haunting, in way. I don't even hear her words when she sings...just a melodic flow of tones that rise and fall in a lulling, pacifying, rhythm. As a band, It’s clear where their strengths come from...as it’s been said by them many times before...they feel music is a blessing from God...and I don’t doubt that for a second. In particular, "Lakes Of Canada", "Tomorrow On The Runway", and "Where Does The Time Go?", appear to have been touched.

Ear to the ground,
BR80

A New-fangled Sensation

I put some shredded tealeaves on my tongue…and it’s not as awful as one might suppose. I mean, I always figured it to be far more displeasing...but I guess things are never as bad as you think. 20 years of my life, and I never truly tasted tealeaves until tonight...and to think...I was living my life day to day with this gross misconception of shredded tealeaves. These can be the most enlightening and frustrating moments of life…enlightening because you have this revelation...and frustrating, because it’s a revelation so utterly simple, that it was under your nose the entire time. Or...it was just some tealeaves on my tongue.

Empirically,
BR80

Empathy

The nefarious onus,
The most arduous for us,
So entirely snared
That by any sign of its need
We unquestionably care

BR80

H5N1

I thought about the H5 strain the other day...and how its potential for destruction rivals the Spanish Influenza of 1918. And at the same time, I couldn’t help but think (selfishly) what this could mean for my future…for any of our futures…which are so painstakingly planned. How does high school prepare you for a pandemic? I don’t remember taking a course on career development in a post-apocalyptic society. Imagine…investing so much time and effort into achieving a goal through the rigors of society, only to see society collapse beneath you…we plan for the future, expecting that the future holds nothing but success and progress for humanity.

At this point my thoughts aren’t even on the H5 strain itself, but rather on the state of humanity as a whole. And yet, if society destroys itself, it won’t change my purpose…there’s always potential for purpose…because there will always be injustice…and there will always exist a place for those that wish to fight it. I’ve had to face it…we live in a world run by economics. You’ll see a father kill his entire family for some petty insurance money…or a kid throw his life away – rob a bank, ransack a house – for a little cash. And for what? To buy a nice TV or a better car…I mean, when you really think about it, people kill people…hurt people…for needless stuff! It’s insane. But what can you expect from people, when this is all they see from the societies that govern them?

My parents once told me that if a madman planted a bomb in a crowded mall and called in the threat, the mall authorities wouldn’t evacuate the crowds until they could be certain that a bomb was indeed in the mall…the reason? Purely economic. “What if it were a crank call, and we cleared out all of these paying customers from the mall? We’d lose hundreds of thousands of dollars!” Sounds crazy, right? But unfortunately it’s true. Unfortunately, some people die simply because a big-shot didn’t want to lose a buck. It shouldn’t be surprising…this type of logic exists in every facet of society…from wars, to disease, to disasters. H5 is no different, and the threat is imminent…the virus is one mutation away from becoming a full-fledged airborne virus, one capable of transfer from birds to humans to other humans. Vaccines can be created…precautions can be taken…but nothing is truly being done…the reason? Don’t want the malls to clear out too fast…might lose some profit. Purely economic. It kills me.

Sick,
BR80

BR80's Life: The Sequel

A little while back I composed a concept of what life would sound like if it were a movie, and since life is an ever changing sequence of events...and since sequels are all the craze these days...why not reiterate the events of life through music once more?

Click HERE to download the entire soundtrack as one big self-extracting "ZIP" file.

01 - Main theme "Blood On The Motorway" - DJ Shadow

02 - Opening credits "A Break In The Clouds" - James Holden (Ambient Version)

03 - Ordinary morning "Kites Are Fun" - Mellow (Free Design Remix)

04 - Honest day's work "Bittersweet Symphony" - The Verve (UNKLE Remix)

05 - Last day together "Look For Me As You Go By" - The Innocence Mission

06 - Love lost "Flames" - Vast

07 - Fallen "Sing For Absolution" - Muse

08 - The Journey begun "Midnight In A Perfect World" - DJ Shadow

09 - Mysterious stranger's advice "And Still It Sits" - Mice Parade

10 - "Good times" montage "Time After Time" - Cyndi Lauper (DJ Z-Trip Mix)

11 - Lurking danger "Zoo York" - Paul Oakenfold

12 - A New foe "Empire Strikes Back" - John Williams (DJ Z-Trip Mix)

13 - Trippin' out "Exploration" - The Karminsky Experience Inc.

14 - Missing her "What Are You To Me?" - UNKLE

15 - Hitting rock bottom "Dust In The Wind" - Kansas (DJ Z-Trip Mix)

16 - A Heart to heart "Brothers On A Hotel Bed" - Death Cab For Cutie

17 - Unfinished business "In A State" - UNKLE

18 - The Journey home "Red Dust" - Zero 7

19 - Searching for answers "Lost In Thought" - Jon Hopkins

20 - Betrayal "Angel" - Massive Attack

21 - Rooftop chase "Fire Starter" - Prodigy

22 - Final showdown "Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt" - DJ Shadow

23 - Redemption "Soul Meets Body" - Death Cab For Cutie

24 - Closing credits "Ordinary World" - Duran Duran

Orchestrated,
BR80