Bill Roper's Journal

Did I mention that I'm a fan of Adam Strange?

Not the vast majority of the deconstructionist Adam Strange stories that have been written since Alan Moore passed by the character, to be sure. I want Adam to be a hero. And I have come up with a framework that allows him to be one, which I was sharing with my friend, Sam, over the weekend.

My theory is that the civilization on Rann (which is the planet of Alpha Centauri that Adam Strange travels to in best ERB-like fashion) is old. And static. And virtually everyone on the planet is completely lacking in problem solving skills, because the great machines that their ancestors built supply their every need and are self-repairing.

Except after some untold number of generations, the machines are breaking down. Oops. The things that the machines defended the planet from, whether natural disaster or critter from outer space, are breaking through. This is a bad thing for the people of Rann.

The last scientist on the planet (because, really, why would you need scientists in this utopia?) invented the Zeta beam and aimed it at Earth, hoping to establish communications with the more primitive people just one star system away. But he didn't account for the effects of cosmic radiation on the beam, which converted it from a communication beam to a teleportation beam. Surprise!

Enter Adam Strange, archeologist, who is picked up by the beam and taken to Rann. There he meets the lovely daughter of the last scientist. And unlike everyone else on the planet, Adam Strange has actual problem solving skills. (The scientist and the daughter are trainable. Everyone else is hopeless.)

You may not think of problem-solving skills as a super-power. I invite you to think of some of your co-workers and reconsider that.

And this is why Adam Strange becomes the champion of Rann.

At least, that's *my* take on it.

And I am now visualizing this as a movie starring Paul Rudd. Because it would be a *good* movie.

Anyway, given all that, I wrote a song about it.

And I now have an entry in my personal songbook with a title starting with the letter Z.

I hope you like it!
( Lyrics inside... )

It is possible that my subconscious will do anything to help me avoid working on taxes. Or maybe I've just been listening to Mac McAnally a bit more than usual lately.

But this song came pushing its way up the queue past the song on my desk that I've been working on for several days at about five in the morning. I grabbed my phone and wrote down a verse and a half, then wrote the chorus and the remaining bits this morning after I woke up.

After we got back from lunch, Gretchen took Julie out for a drive. I went upstairs and (instead of working on taxes) set chords to the song and beat the tune into shape. And added the coda when I realized that the song would never resolve without it.

So Gretchen hasn't heard this yet.

But she will soon.
( Lyrics inside... )

So maybe it's fair to call this my last Chambanacon song -- not because the song is about Chambanacon in any sense, but because it has rolled out of Jen's songwriting panel at the last Chambanacon. I will say more about that in a subsequent post (a *lot* more about that!), but for now, here are the lyrics to the new song.

I hope you like it!
( Lyrics inside... )

I think this is done now. :)

For those of you keeping score, this is the song that ended up with the chord that I *think* is nicked from The Who, except that they go from Emadd9 back to A7, while I head off to Dm6.

Anyway, I hope you like it.
( Lyrics inside... )

So Gretchen and I set out to write a song that can be performed either as a duet or as a solo piece if she's not around. We're still finishing up the patter (so you'll have to wait to hear that!), but here are the lyrics, because it's a long time until the next convention.
( Lyrics inside... )

My brain seems to be determined to produce some songs lately.

I woke up with the idea for this song in my head one day last week. It wasn't hard to pull together the chorus and the tune for the verse. Then I later produced words for the first verse. So far, so good.

Except that I woke up around four or five in the morning and couldn't get back to sleep, as my brain was stubbornly determined to produce another verse. And it did, but since I wasn't clever enough to write it down, it vanished into the ether the next day.

I didn't have time to get back to the song-in-progress and two mornings later, I woke up between four and five in the morning and couldn't get back to sleep, as my brain was stubbornly determined to produce another verse. And it did, but being a slow learner, I didn't write it down and it vanished into the ether again.

I had, by this point, lost way too much sleep to this particular song. So yesterday, I pulled together a bridge and the remaining two verses and declared victory, taking it to Gretchen to try it out. Done.

Except that I decided I wasn't quite happy with the two new verses, so I rebuilt them today after typing them into the computer.

I think I'm done now.

I had *better* be done now.

Because this is getting silly for a fairly lightweight, retro song.

I hope you like it. :)

( Lyrics inside... )

The tune for this song showed up in my guitar's inbox while I was waiting for a compile last week. I mean, seriously. I was just sitting there noodling and the chords and tune checked right in and set up shop in my office.

The problem was they didn't bring the lyrics along with them. Apparently, they missed the flight. But the chords and tune kept going around on the guitar there and eventually the phrase "Night Flowers" attached itself to the chorus. I *still* had no idea of what the song was about, so I just let it keep rolling around for a couple of days.

Today, the lyrics showed up, apologizing for having missed their flight.

Let me introduce you to them.
( Lyrics inside )

This is encouraging. I've been afflicted by a pretty nasty case of writer's block since COVID showed up. Bits and pieces of this song showed up stalking me the other day when I woke up.

And here are (I believe) all of the bits and pieces.
( Lyrics inside )

I recall having mangled a CSN tune many years ago on the way to Contraption. Like that convention, the particular co-worker whose code I was digging through and sorting out is also gone.

Ah, well.

When the project's months behind,
You're debugging, know what you'll find.
There's some code, not writ by you
And you're wondering just what it will do.
And when that code goes up in flame,
There's a system crash when you type your name,
And you're looking round for someone to blame,
Buddy, blame the guy who's gone.
Blame the guy who's gone.

These things happen in our household.

Gretchen and I were driving home from lunch and listening to Radio Margaritaville when our discussion turned to Italian food. Gretchen mentioned that she was fond of ravioli.

Now, we have frequently discussed the similarity between ravioli, pierogi, and various other ethnic foods. It was thus that I sang the following line to the tune of the Jimmy Buffett song, "Everybody's Got a Cousin In Miami":

"Everybody's got a recipe for dumplings."

Gretchen promptly responded with, "Everybody wants to wrap food up in dough."

I am not sure if this is something we should think about finishing.

Although, if I hadn't just had lunch, I suppose I would be hungry now.