DOUBLE CALIFORNIA
I was sitting inside the new IKEA on the far north side of Columbus. We had just walked through the bedroom displays, and we were eating late lunch/early dinner. I was drinking coffee. Here's a photograph of the moment the idea came to me:

I had a dream last night
(What did you dream about?)
California broke away
From the United States

That part wasn't so original. I've been hearing that California was due to fall into the Pacific Ocean any day now since I was a little kid.

While it floated in the sky
Like a cell it divided
Redwoods in the corners
Like a bunkbed, it reunited...




Yes, that part was inspired by educational films on cell reproduction coupled with the IKEA bedroom displays.

I had travelled to California for work a few times early in the year, and it was fresh on my mind. The first time was during the prolonged drought. The second time was after a lot of rain had fallen. Before, the landscape was semi-arid, but still beautiful; after, you could see why California has captured our collective imagination for so long.

People always talk about traffic in Los Angeles. In my limited experience going from LAX to Burbank and back, I can say that it really is not much fun.

Double the California girls,
Double the L.A. traffic,
Double the length of the Golden Gate
The sushi is terrific...



Now there's enough for everyone
Double California
Sun and surf and fun
Double California
Twice the G.D.P.
Double California
Enough for you and me
Double the California...

I have heard that California, if it were its own nation, would be the world's 6th largest economy on earth. So there's a sense that the entire United States is dependent on California, agriculturally and otherwise.

Double the fruits and vegetables
Double the wine and mountains
Double the number of celebrities
Begging for attention...

I've been thinking lately that the relationship between celebrity and fan isn't so much the fan worshiping the the celebrity, but the celebrity seeking out those to validate his/her sense of significance.

Now there's enough for everyone
Double California
Sun and surf and fun
Double California
Twice the G.D.P.
Double California
Enough for you and me

Double the California...

Lonely Robot Boy (Horse Called Tomorrow)

I was getting ready for work the other day when the phrase, "I'm just a lonely robot boy..." popped into my head.

At first I thought it was a stray idea that would soon fade. But other related phrases kept coming on the drive to work. 

"I've admired your hinges and servos for some time now," was another line, which made me imagine the robot boy had somehow discovered a female robot. "I admire the chrome of your brow" was the second part to that couplet, but it didn't fit together like I expected.

Then I looked for a place for the robot boy to live. My first thought was an astroid, like in the original Twilight Zone episode, "The Lonely." I spent some time trying to write lyrics to explain how the robot had been abandoned by humans, and so on. Finally, I decided that the robot could just imply his back story, not spell it out.

I'm just a lonely robot boy
Stuck on this forgotten rock
I'll share my battery pack with you
And my charging dock

I've always liked the line, "We'll be together, with a roof right over our heads / We'll share the shelter, of my single bed" from Bob Marley's "Is This Love?" So I adapted it to my robot's circumstances. Sharing a battery pack and charging dock might be the most generous thing a robot boy could do.

I've made my home
In the wreck of this ship
Picked you up on the radar
A curious little blip

I like your hinges
And I admire how
The sunlight caresses
The chrome of your brow

Years ago, my wife and I were watching a movie with our friends Brad and Julia. I think it was the live TV remake of Fail Safe back in 2000. Wow, that's a weird phrase, "Back in 2000." Anyway, there was a scene where the military is tracking a dot on the radar. Other dots are shown in pursuit of the first dot. "Poor little dot," said Julia. That stuck with me.

So the robot boy sees a blip, maybe after hundreds of years not seeing anything on the radar, and it gives him hope. How would a robot boy compliment a robot girl? I would start by admiring her hinges and chrome accents. That's just me.

These mountains remind me
Of a paperback book I read
About a cowboy
And the horse he called Tomorrow

They wandered through the desert
And no matter where they went
They found empty houses
Ghost towns filled with sorrow

There's more than a little WALL-E influence to the imagery and storytelling in this song, but I also wanted to bring in differences, like my robot boy reading paperbacks instead of watching VHS tapes. The books were presumably left behind by humans when they either died out or left for greener planets. I decided to merge that idea with a passing tribute to America's "Horse with No Name."

I already mentioned Bob Marley. I wanted to borrow a line from one of his songs, but I couldn't find a convincing way to use the line I mentioned above. So I turned to "No Woman, No Cry," another beautiful song.

Maybe this isn't the end
Here, little darling, don't shed no tears
Maybe someday
We'll see other suns
The nights can get so cold
But you've got my hand to hold

I hope you enjoy my song. If so, please pass it along to others.