Gypsyfiddler Ink: music & musings from my corner of the sky...

"The Healer"

This song is based on a short story by Aimee Bender that I used for Serious Prose Speech Competitions in High School. Still a work in progress...

Where I went to high school we had more than our share of freaks.
I mean, sure, we had the goths, the jocks, and that kid who wouldn't shower for weeks
But we also had a girl whose hand was made of fire
and another girl whose hand was made of ice
And that's really freaky Sci-Fi sh*t
and they caught a lot of hell because of it
at first, but then we all got used to it
and nobody looked twice....

And I was the one who sat in the back and watched this come together
the way their hands got normal in each other's grasp.
I saw the fingers, nails, and skin
where once just fire and ice had been
and I heard the ice girl whimper
and the fire girl gasp:
"Don't let go," she said, "Don't let go."
"Don't let go," she cried, "Don't let go.
You don't know the pain I've been through."
But the ice girl pulled her hand away and said,
"Yeah, I do."

posted by amanda @ 11:06 PM 0 comments

Missing posts?

Fear not, gentle audience! If you have noticed that a few former posts are missing from this page, this is because I have decided to consolidate all the work for the upcoming musical (look for it at the University of NE Kearney this summer!) onto one page, leaving this one free for everything else. Check "http://alchemistmusical.blogspot.com" for new works and updates from "As Pure As Gold: The Musical"

posted by amanda @ 9:59 PM 0 comments

Big Yellow Moon

A just-for-fun, bouncy jazzy, torch-y song!


Big yellow moon,
all alone in the sky.
Inky black blanket
keeping both of us dry.
I could scratch on your face like a witch in the night.
I'm all over the place, don't know which way is right.
Am I doomed? (big yellow moon)
Bring my baby home soon!

Big yellow moon,
tell me what can I do?
Somewhere, I wish
that he's wishing on you.
When he left me alone, I was sure I'd be strong,
Now I'm singing the blues-- why don't you sing along?
I'll make room. (big yellow moon)
Bring my baby home soon!

posted by amanda @ 9:59 PM 0 comments

The obligatory love duet...chorus

Ok, here's the chorus of the obligatory love duet between Eleanora and Albert. Stay posted for verses to come....

posted by amanda @ 9:56 PM 0 comments

I Want My Life to Have a Soundtrack!

(total charm song....the verses are kind of patter sing-songy and the chorus is swing!)
.
I'm one of those people who sings in the shower, the car, and the bar, and the street.
It's like there's a choir in my head and a whole flock of goose-stepping guys in my feet.
At times irritating, I'm stuck calmly waiting for baiting the hook and the line
so to reel in the feelin of life so appealin and so inescapably mine....
It's time for an external manifestation of all of the sounds in my skull.
There's only one thing that I need to make life incomparably lovely and full...
.
.
You might think that I'm kind of crazy... to wish for this the way that I do (do do doo!)
It's only a dream that I've had since before I knew dreams only rarely come true.
Now dare I admit that there's one little bit I neglected to mention before.
I long for the street, and the folks, and the feet, but how sweet to get just one thing more!
Someday I'll see someone out there who is marching to beats from his/her on special drum,
And we'll fall in step, and the music will swell, and you'll see all the people are singing and dancing and danceing and singing and laughing and loving as well!
.

posted by amanda @ 9:34 PM 0 comments

The Mountain

The snow melts down like tears along the Mountain's face.
The Ocean feels the waterfalls increase.
Why weep, my friend? said Ocean to the Mountain tall.
When will you find the golden light of peace?
.
You stand among the stars, oh Mountain, straight and true,
and all the waters here below look up to you.
To dwell among the heavens must be truly grand,
and yet you cry. Oh Mountain, I don't understand.
.
Ocean dear, my friend, said Mountain's gentle voice,
as clear as night, as deep as Trident's sea.
You give me hope for dreams I have that might have been,
but still I weep for what I cannot be.
.
For you cannot see what I see beyond the stars' fair light.
I ache beyond my wildest dreams to reach it every night.
A world of beauty, I can see it, yet I find now way
to stretch beyond this rocky ground, so weeping, here I stay.
.
Oh, Mountain, give up foolish talk. There's nothing but the stars.
And you can find true happiness here in this world of ours.
Kind Ocean waved and shook her head: what silly dreamer, this:
so tall, so proud, so full of grief, this Mountian's foolishness.
.
But still each spring, the Mountain weeps for places she alone can see.
Beyond the stars, a heaven lies for dreamers yet to be.

posted by amanda @ 9:33 PM 1 comments

A Christmas Song

I found this lyric on my laptop dated 12-18-03. I guess now I'll have to write a tune for it.....
.
"A Lovely, Lowly Place"
.
She wanders through the night
with the sighing of hte wind
echoing uncertainties.
She wonders where she's going,
forgotten where she's been,
stumbling and struggling for peace.
.
At last in desperation
falling through an open door
she finds herself in warm and quiet light.
A stable where the aging beasts
and tiny baby share
a strange communion on a newborn holy night.
.
(chorus)
There in a lovely, lowly place
where a simple bed is lit by a single lantern
and the warmth of the animals' breath
clouds the evening air.
.
There she folds her hands in grace
and raises her unheard voice in a quiet anthem
in the empty, silent night
ssalvation is there.
.
He walks in quiet honor,
shouldering a heavy heart.
He brings a royal offering.
He lays down all his riches
and as the moonlight fades,
a worldy giant kneels before a tiny king.
.
And he who comes with nothing
and will leave this world the same
asks for only open hands
and a desp'rate sense of wonder
and a childlike faith
and open eyes to see the castle where he stands...
.
is a lovely, lowly place
where a simple bed is lit by a single lantern
and the warmth of hte animals' breath
clouds the evening air.
.
Kings will bow their heads in grace
and raise mighty voices in a quiet anthem.
In the empty, silent night
salvation is there.
.
(Bridge)
For every pair of eyes
that have seen too many reasons
to fill with tears and close in despair,
for all the emtpy arms
and the hands that clench and tremble
to be filled: a savior is there.
.
In a lovely lowly place
where a simple bed is lit by a single lantern
and the warmth of the sinners' breath
clouds the evening air.
.
I will bow my head in grace
and raise a mighty voice in hosannah's anthem.
In the glory of this holy, holy night
salvation is there.
In this place,
salvation there...

posted by amanda @ 8:12 PM 0 comments

Sunday Vespers, 2002

Even more beautiful
than the color-played cathedral columns
awash in watercolor light,
even more breathtaking
than the rainbow pools of colored window glass
in this evening of song and spirit,
even more glorious than all of this,
I find holy majesty
in the absence of the light,
once the sun has set
and only the stains remain:
deep, and mystical in their darkness.
.
And as we stand,
a mass of heavy velvet robes
and white-ringed faces,
we, too, reflect somehow
this tangent twain of dusk and dawn,
of birth and ash-sprung rebirth.
.
We sing of scattering the night
as if it were but black shards of glass.
We sing of watchers proclaiming
light anew.
.
But in truth both are cut of the same,
infinite cloth.
.
For what could be more holy
than this absence,
this expectation,
this advent of dazzling darkness
streaming from every windowpane
before the light dares to arrive?
The circle of Christ-stained glass,
like a portal to heaven,
is now a veil of rich garnets and sapphires,
black and expectant.
.
Soon she will birth the infinite color
and glory of morning.

posted by amanda @ 8:05 PM 0 comments

Jericho

Random song... :-)

(Verse)
You are an ivory tower, scratching the sky,
Daring the clouds to cross you, holding your head high.
You die a little more each day
that you keep the world away
You're beautiful, and dangerous
and too steep to climb.
.
(Chorus)
When will your walls come down.. Jericho?
I will blow my horn, I will sing my song, I will circle you every day.
I wil stay... I will wait...
I will keep my lanterns lit,
and I'll sit beneath your crumbling gate for the love of it.
And I pray one day you'll see me through your fear...
So when you finally find your defenses failing, Jericho,
in the rubble of your walls... find me here....
find me here.
.
(Verse)
I... offer nothing but two eyes open wide to see
all of the things you are you hide so selfishly
I'll be no less or more
than you tell me we're ready for
I'll cover you, discover you,
and get stronger with time...

(Repeat chorus)
So when will your walls come down.......
.
(Bridge)
You've never been one to surrender.
Why expect you to start now?
But still I can't help wishing
I could be the one to show you how!
.
(Chorus)

posted by amanda @ 9:50 PM 0 comments

In Praise of Shallowness

.
.
To skip along like pennies on the surface of the water only once or twice...
To merely dabble lightly, never pausing once to ponder paradox and fate...
To take as creed a mass-produced and shiny manifesto of avowed belief...
To practice moderation in the pleasurable, awful, and the truly strange...
To never feel inferior when up against the vastness of the universe...
To live a day unquestioned and unturned beyond an obvious simplicity...
And so I give my homage to the kind of life as yet uncut enough to bleed...

posted by amanda @ 12:51 PM 0 comments

Quote of the Millennium

This was my favorite quote from the Broadway version of RENT, and is also a gem from the new, fabulous screen version:


THE OPPOSITE OF WAR ISN'T PEACE.......IT'S CREATION!
--jonathan larson

posted by amanda @ 11:54 AM 0 comments