h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

They are wandering around the park so they must be wild. Wooly, covered with bugs, a perch for birds, afraid of nothing, docile, placid grass-chewers...

.............

and the Interval continues ... estimated duration .. five years, 363 days and 25 minutes ... which will include intervals for and ...

intervals within intervals ... spaces between spaces ...



The Winged Messenger slinks in with a letter from Canada ! yay yay ... the Dervish Dancer does some kind of flameswirl athletic whirl which she calls the Firecloud Flip .....

everyone considers the letter .... except for The Buffalo ActorMan.. who heads out into the cafe round the corner ....he's homesick onstage, and pining for the Great Plains ... wondering where his brothers went .. all wooly and covered with bugs ...

what to do ... what to do .... Pastoral attempts to offer him a bunch of primroses, but he only wants grass. ....

Alpha Bull is pawing at the ground .. he finds these long intervals just too weird ... he wants raw drama ......



the one Audience Member seems to be surving The Interval .. she's kind of into the show ...

the Set Designer is in fact at this moment persuading her to come backstage for design consultation ...

...he has had this vision of a flickering movie atmosphere on the stage ...incredible filmic graphics of the Bad Lands where the bones of massive ancient beasts come to life in the moonlight.

he sees a small, emergent mammal watching cautiously from the rim of a still pool .......



OK ....on with the Interval ..

so CrackedPoet is currently wandering around - picking up pieces of and speaking to them in low exaggerated tones ....


stainedglass colours drip through sunray x-ray angel flip .. !!!

DarkStar SparkStar .............!!!!

chaos chases through all the places and spaces of my birdflutter stutter and quizzical physical derangement and rearrangement of ordinary dust ............ !!!

symmetry! order! Muse! where did you go when the moon rose so low and orange and everything seemed to breathe and hover on the verge of a translucent fragility too exquisitely tender ....!!!!

<

quite so quite so CrackedPoet ... quite so ..

the Monkeyman wanders by and flies a Magpie feather in the shafts of smoky light ...

////////////////////////////////////////////// /////////

just another moment in the spaces in between ...

//////////////////////////

Oh give me a home,
Where the buffalo roam.........

Oh, oops, I have one............

sing it chorus ..



Home, home on the range,
Where the deer and the antelope play;
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the skies are not cloudy all day......

pom pom pom


Buffalo ActorMan wanders in ... its taken the entire afternoon to lure him back to the theatre ... he hears the chorus ... and charges out.... homesick all over again ....



WanderingSeeker is about to write a rhyme about Home and the Great Plains of the Mind ...

Dear Journal. Hullo. Help. You got the phone numbers of any Stage Directors ?

Oh, and that part about the skies not being cloudy all day----
well, that's a figment of some deranged buffalo's imagination!

How often at night
When the heavens are bright
With the light of the glimmering stars
Have I stood there amazed
And asked as I gazed
If their glory exceeds that of ours.


Or something like that.

Eta Carinae is not, as you might guess, an Italian opera star.

It is an extremly massive nearby star that probably went supernova about 7,500 years ago. Its distance is 7,500 light years so the news, if any, should be arriving shortly.

The good news is that, unless its poles happen to be pointed at us, life will not be scrubbed from our planet by a burst of gamma rays.

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=22927

... its a rather beautiful lyric, though, I think, despite its unrealistic weather forecast .... it has a starlit sense of wonder ...

I didn't realise till just now that its the Kansas State Song ! Your song, then Lady C ! Its making me feel homesick now .. even though I've never even been to Kansas ..

does every State of America have a State Song ? ....

this is a revelation ..

nice to learn some useful things in the Eternal Interval ..



//////////////////////////

Dear Journal ... herewith an (almost) interesting consideration, and possible marriage, to the Eternal Interval .....

the spaces in between ....the waltz of the 'this' and the 'that' .. the could be, the would be, the almost is and the forget-it-mate ...the why the wherefore the wonder ... the answer in search of the question .. the Eternal Mash-Up with the Muse ....

oh yes ... for better for worse till death do us maybe part but perhaps not ..

not the most satisfactory condition, should one wish to engage in higher forms of art and craftsmanship .... the beauty of the finely finished creation as glorious tribute to the journey of Artist ...

no matter ! no matter ! I offer my gratitude and grace to these esteemed Artist-travellers ..

and accept my own ticket for the carousel ride .. thankyou very much Ticketperson, whoever and wherever you are .. (last seen somewhere between Neuroscience and The PurpleCat Cafe ....)

.. some ride the camel, some ride the unicorn .. some ride the grinning horse .. some ride the pink and yellow elephant ..

I love fairground carousels .. the old fashioned ones that don't spin too fast .. despite the weird music that can tip you slightly askew if you happen to have selected a ride on the Giant Roach ...

objection your honour .... I have never seen a carousel with a Giant Roach as one of the rides ..

objection overruled ..

do you take these spaces to be your lawful wedded Muse ...

I do ...



Mash-Up with the Muse .... Part One

you are pictures unseen
and the spaces between
I am fact on the edge of disaster
you're the carousel ride
and the places to hide
I'm a slowmotion roll getting faster

you are sleazy and queasy
I'm hopeful and easy
you are summertime icecream and fun
I would fly through the haze
of these buttercup days
but I melted my wings in the sun

I'm a magazine saint
you are dizzy and faint
I am halo and wisdom and gain
I am lost in the station
you dance with elation
I left all my lines on the train

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the Monkeyman stares at the raindrops forming tiny rivers along the lines of his hand ...

'........to be always and all-ways continued' he whispers ...

/////////////////////////////////

good heavens ..... Eta Carinae has slunk between my burning pages before I have time to sign my name with sweat and melting ...

even though she still might think she's a doomed Italian opera star offering me her lyrics of tragic glory ... the lyrics to which I am referring in that last journal entry are yet roaming at home on the range ..

unless Eta Carinae has something to do with the State Song of Kansas ...

all things might perhaps be falling into confusion ..

theatre ! Muse ! Director ! where are you now ....



a doomed star

a doomed star

(clutches brow... )

.........................

I feel another mash-up coming over me .... perhaps I should eat mashed potato .. a mash up with the mashed potato muse ..

The Florida State song is The Suwanee River by Stephen C. Foster.

Like Rudyard Kipling, he was a man of his time and the song no longer has the ring of political correctness.

Chorus:

All de world am sad and dreary,
Eb-rywhere I roam;
Oh, darkeys, how my heart grows weary,
Far from de old folks at home!

The Alberta Provincial Song:

I cut down trees, I skip and jump
I like to press wild flowers.
I put on women's clothing and hang around in bars.

Next stop: Dawson Creek....

Missouri state song is the Missouri Waltz.
Harry S. Truman played it on the piano........I can play the first two lines

It also refers to "darkies", if memory serves me. Very politically incorrect.

Missouri entered the Union in 1821 as a "slave state"--Kansas as a "free state", although forty years later--1861. There were some vicious border wars and raids about the time of the Civil War between the two states.

I imagine most of the states have a state song.........we have a tree: cottonwood, flower: sunflower (of course), bird: western meadowlark, animal: buffalo, reptile: box turtle........don't ask.

Missouri's state song is "The Missouri Waltz". It has a rather pleasant melody, but the lyrics are incredibly old fashioned and reflect our Southern roots. Not only that, they were changed to remove a phrase deemed politically incorrect in modern times.

The Missouri Waltz by James Royce Shannon

Hush-a-bye, ma baby, slumber time is comin' soon;
Rest yo' head upon my breast, while mommy hums a tune;
The sandman is callin', where shadows are fallin',
While the soft breezes sigh as in days long gone by.

Way down in Missouri where I heard this melody,
When I was a little child on my mommy's knee;
The old folks were hummin', their banjos were strummin'
So sweet and low.

Strum, strum, strum, strum, strum,
Seems I hear those banjos playin' once again,
Hum, hum, hum, hum, hum,
That same old plaintive strain.
Hum, hum, hum, hum, hum,
That same old plaintive strain.

Hear that mournful melody,
It just haunts you the whole day long,
And you wander in dreams, back to Dixie, it seems,
When you hear that old song.

Hush a-bye, my baby, go to sleep on Mommy's knee,
Journey back to Dixieland in dreams again with me;
It seems like your Mommy is there again,
And the old folks were strummin' that old refrain.

Way down in Missouri where I learned this lullaby,
When the stars were blinkin' and the moon was climbin' high,
Seems I hear voices low, as in days long ago
Singin' hush a-bye.

Right. It originally said:

Way down in Missouri where I heard this melody,
When I was a pickaneny (sp?) on my mommy's knee;
The darkies were hummin', their banjos were strummin'
Sweet Caroline.

I haven't heard the newer version........but then I'm older than Hyp.

We need the chorus to sing everyone's state song.

Actually I believe that was "mammy's" knee. I've hunted around and can't find the original lyrics. Guesss I'm not looking in the right place.

I don't like the Cali state song...it's sappy, dorky.

My buddy, Emperor Norton II of Cali and Whatever Else, has decreed a proper state anthem: 'Estimated Prophet' by Grateful Dead. We can all dance in 7:4 time, just like falling off a log. Right?...right?

Tommy Chong on Paris Hilton [para]: "...naw, the punishment isn't appropriate...I would've put her over my knee, pulled up her little skirt, pulled down her little panties, and given her an essential spanking."

Oh. aren't there some small furry-feathery creatures in dancing shoes over there?

I love you, California, you're the greatest state of all
I love you in the winter, summer, spring, and in the fall.
I love your fertile valleys; your dear mountains I adore,
I love your grand old ocean and I love her rugged shore.

Confession: Except for Xantief, all the Californians I have known have been insufferably self-righteous and mindlessly arrogant.

"We're Big!", they always say... You should do it our way.

This despite the fact that they continually use three times the human resources to accomplish a level of IT that was three to five years behind ours.

And I know when I die I shall breathe my last sigh
For my sunny California.

Fascinating... didn't realize we even had a state song, but I don't like it much. In fact, it's downright stoopid. You'd think with all the aspiring arteests hanging around waiting to be discovered we could do better.

Didn't either realize 'Home on the Range' had that many stanzas.
http://www.50states.com/songs/ plays them all. The Missouri Waltz is - goodness - a waltz. Do people dance to it?