Windpower

Switch off the mind and let the heart decide

who you were meant to be. 

Flick to remote and let the body glide. 

There is no enemy. 

Etch out a future of your own design

well-tailored to your needs.

Then fan the flame and keep the dream alive. 

Shatter the lens and grind it into sand. 

One measured exposure.

Scatter the seed and furrow in our land. 

The future is roses! Roses! 

-- Thomas Dolby (1982)

Ship of Fools

We're setting sail to the place on the map
from which no one has ever returned.
Drawn by the promise of the joker and the fool,
By the light of the crosses that burned.
Drawn by the promise of the women and the lace
and the gold and the cotton and pearls.
It's the place where they keep all the darkness you need.
You sail away from the light of the world on this trip.

You will pay tomorrow

Avarice and greed are gonna drive you over the endless sea.
They will leave you drifting in the shallows
or drowning in the oceans of history.
Traveling the world, you're in search of no good.
But I'm sure you'll build your Sodom like you knew you would.
Using all the good people for your galley slaves
as your little boat struggles through the warning waves.
But you don't pay...

You will pay tomorrow

Save me from tomorrow
I don't want to sail with this ship of fools

-- Karl Wallinger (World Party) 1986

Tomorrow

Tomorrow never comes.
What kind of fool do they take me for?
Tomorrow, a resting place for bums,
A trap set in the slums.  But I know the score.

Tomorrow, as they say, all work and no play.
What do they take me for?
Tomorrow, an awful price to pay.
I gave up yesterday, but they still want more.

-- Lottie Pendlebury (Goat Girl) 2018

two suns in the sunset

In my rear view mirror, the sun is going down
Sinking behind bridges in the road. 
I think of all the good things that we have left undone,
And I suffer premonitions -- confirmed suspicions -- of the holocaust to come.

The rusty wire that holds the cork that keeps the anger in
Gives way, and suddenly it's day again.
The sun is in the east even though the day is done.
Two suns in the sunset; could be the human race is run.

-- Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) 1983

finite resources

Beyond a critical point within a finite space, freedom diminishes as numbers increase. This is as true of humans in the finite space of a planetary ecosystem as it is of gas molecules in a sealed flask. The human question is not how many can possibly survive within the system, but what kind of existence is possible for those who do survive.

-- Pardot Kynes, First Imperial Planetologist of Arrakis (Dune by Frank Herbert)

The Riddle

I'm the button that's been passed from hand to hand.
I'm the tidal wave in a sea of fear.
I'm the tornado from the fiery holocaust.
I'm the acid rain and the fallout dust....

I'm the supersonic jet with a nuclear payload.
I'm the conscience of the future world.
I'm the mushroom looming in the sky.
I'm the finger on the button, who but I.....

-- Space Ritual (2007)

palo alto

In a city of the future, it is difficult to concentrate
Meet the boss, meet the wife
Everybody's happy, everyone is made for life.

In a city of the future, it is difficult to find a space
I'm too busy to see you; you're too busy to wait

But I'm okay, how are you?
Thanks for asking, thanks for asking
I'm okay, how are you? I hope you're okay too.

Every one of those days when the sky is California blue
With a beautiful bombshell, I throw myself into my work
I'm too lazy, I've been kidding myself for so long

But I’m okay, how are you?
Thanks for asking, thanks for asking
I’m okay, how are you? I hope you’re okay too.

-- Thom Yorke (Radiohead) 1998

life decisions

"There are only three important decisions you need to make in your life. What to do. Whom you do it with. And where you do it. Everything else takes care of itself."
-- Bill Bonner, The Daily Reckoning (2010)

stranger

What is veiled now soon will be shown.
Come walk with me through the unknown.
-- Jeanette Sears (Jefferson Starship) 1981