The Siren of Old Shanghai

live recording of the premiere performance by Mary Rowell and the Guidonian Hand, of a piece that explores a location recording of a hand pump found near the headwaters of the Mississippi River. for more information, please visit http://evbvd.com/pumpmusic/

handpump image: detail of saw painting by Earl Simmons, Bovina, MS

Pump Music

Solo ukulele piece written and performed by Christina Green on ANueNue tenor ukulele, © Christina Green 2012.  The title of Line of Flight comes from French philosopher Gilles Deleuze, who uses the term to talk about moving out of the known and into the new and unknown.  Line of Flight has been chosen to accompany Recover, a quilt piece by Flossie and Patience Peitsch (see image), part of the Belonging exhibition 2016.

Some Days/Life I Can Live

Line of Flight

[text by Rhys Nixon, composed && performed by Dan Thorpe].

going wild here on the footpath

a dog looked at me, walked away

going to buy a dog off amazon after getting something to eat

send pictures of dogs to strangers

no one sends any back

windows fogged up 

cant see inside

 

what am i doing between tabs i’m not looking at

another day, another empty mail box

no we don’t want to subscribe to your newsletter

no we are happy with our bandwidth 

no we don’t care about your coupons

no this letter isn’t meant for us


been waiting outside way too long

yes, it’s exactly what it looks like, more than one train approaching

walk down the street in pajamas, will people even look 

they glance and mutter

they really do need to subscribe

looks like their bandwidth is low

probably uses coupons

 

walking on footpaths, broken rubbish bag

empty milk bottles rolling into gutters

think of picking them up

we don’t, look at the bus drive past

everyone waiting

 

i can use this, open a store, sell my ideas

watches don’t tell the time, coffee tastes like water

inbuilt spelling mistake maker

automatic Facebook liker

app that answers the door

service that compares all the dogs in your area

white noise dream catcher

 

if i tackled a police officer would people stop me

or will the police officer step aside

consider this while waiting for a coffee

consider this while you exit the train station

consider that the police officer 

didn’t look at you

 

i walked into traffic and all the cars stopped politely, 

the drivers weren't watching me

if you were waiting for me

i’m sorry about that

it must be the water

can i get a drink

 

i’ll look at a sad picture and not feel the need to cry

until someone says ‘wow that made me cry a lot’

we’ll walk to the bank

take all our money

throw it on the road

watch cars drive over it

pick it up and deposit it again

 

don’t worry about it, honestly, 

i’ll make sure to stand up straighter

and meet up with friends

we’ll be the friendliest people

on the end of our street

in our complex

in our combined bank account

linked to our insurance company

 

bury my face in funny videos

don’t want to know anymore

turn the volume down here so i wont be noticed

give up sleeping

stay up every day

everything feels blue

we won’t be photographed

Considerate

in huts and on journeys

in huts and on journeys (2017)

An inspiring commencement address delivered to the graduating class at San Jose State University. Transcript and discussion: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/05/15/debbie-millman-look-both-ways-fail-safe/

MORE

Debbie Millman: Fail Safe

Composer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist.

Christina Green has been active as a songwriter, composer and performer for over 25 years.  She completed a B. Mus. (Hons.) at the University of Melbourne (including musicology, piano, composition), an M. Mus. (composition) at the same university in 2009, and is a trained music therapist and teacher.  She is active in both the acoustic folk/songwriting and contemporary classical composition areas and is based in Melbourne, Australia.

Line of Flight

Christina Green, composer

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