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deepakmead
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Name: Derek
Gender: Male
Interests: Music of all sorts, ambivalent interest in technology, political theory, Central Europe and Ireland, Scotland, Britain and Wales
Expertise: Political theory, music, biblical studies, research.
Occupation: Research and development
Industry: Nonprofit
Message: message meEmail: email me
Member Since:
11/11/2005
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| What Kind of Friend Am I?I've recently had reason to reflect on what kind of friend I am, and am amazed at the honesty that I have with my closest friend(s).
But I also have struggled with keeping up good appearances, only to come clean later; with keeping up facades until they crumble, if only briefly.
So, tonight this song came to mind and I had to cut it. No live vocals on this one, because it asks stark, honest questions of all of us. I direct this at everyone and no-one...
Credits go to the late (and great) Mark Heard for penning this one. I have it on his album "High Noon".
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| One thing found, one missingAs you all know via Facebook, I have found love. Her name is Melanie Ramsay and she and I have been dating since January and official for well nigh three months now. It's been a long time coming but the wait was worth it!
As some of you may not know, I have also lost my job, a contract with an MP, and have been looking for work since the beginning of March. The difference this time around is that, being without work, I have more time to spend with Melanie; I have she and her family praying that I would find work. As she walks with me through this search, I feel much greater joy in being with her than I do sorrow at being unemployed. Not that I like being out of work; I find this new era of e-mailing or uploading your CV into the electronic ether and then hoping for a reply quite frustrating. The days at home are now long and boring; the sense of a "temporary holiday" is long gone, and I may have to swallow hard and look back on the Hill in order to pay my bills. Things could definitely be worse, though. I'm happier now than I've been since I was a kid without a care in the world. | | |
| A Song About Two Lives LivedI came upon this song when it was first released by the Waterboys in 1985 as an almost 13 year old and fell in love with it right then and there. The original (iTunes link)has soaring violin, horns, rythmic piano and twelve string guitar. Mine has just voice. But I think you can still tell the lyrical strength of Mike Scott, who wrote it.
I unwittingly dropped it down a key or two, and don't feel that the open spaces left by the lack of instruments are nearly as effective as the original, but it's a great song nonetheless.
As for how I fit the song: I feel like the person who stayed in his room, wondered, guessed and tried, but still only saw the crescent, and not the whole of the moon, so I can sing of both sides with equal abandon.
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| Where Do I Go Next?As I begin my third job search in three years, wondering what to do and where to go, whether or not to hold out for a job that would allow me to stay ordained or leave that behind, this song came to mind. Mike Scott (of The Waterboys fame) composed the music and wrote the lyrics and plays a wonderfully prayerful version of it on his 1995 solo album Bring 'Em All In. Here's my take, the second of two tries.
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| Longing at ChristmasHere's my take on a Joni Mitchell classic song, River. In it she writes of being in the U.S. south, longing for a river to skate a way from all that is broken around her. I was especially drawn to this song in my darkest days at Christmas, when I felt good to know that someone else felt that not everything was peace on earth and that she had the skill to create a song that expresses the sense of longing for wholeness that Advent and Christmas bring. The piano on the original immediately pulls you in to the longing, and won't let you go. You can listen to a 30 second clip here if you have iTunes installed, and then buy it for 99 cents if you like it.
As for my version, sans piano or any other instrument, and newly not-trying to sound like Joni Mitchell, here it is:
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