A play on Taylor Swift's 'Champagne Problems':

I’m asking you for a reason 
So a real pro helps me out
From Colorado to the West Coast
And a checklist in which I could drown 

What band should play while dancing
Which shoes work with the landscape
Casual or a bit fancy
Champagne problems 
You know our mom will cry and
Emotions may run high so 
I need you by my side for
Champagne problems 

Is dad still gonna wear a white tux?
Should we just let that one go?
In the wild there might be black bears 
Their ears point up like so

Dom Perignon, you’ll pour it
Oh I can hardly wait for it
I’ll need all of your support in
Champagne problems
When we pose, make Adam smile
Though it may take a while 
Gotta decorate the aisle
Champagne problems 

So can I count on you from 
Now till 2022, I 
Know you’ll see me through all of my 
Champagne problems 
You know our mom will cry and
Emotions may run high so 
I’m asking if you’ll be my 
Maid of honor

Champagne Problems: A Question for Alex

There's a garden hanging
There's a garden hanging over our youth
And I cut the leaves of the trees and I'm sorry you're not you anymore
(x2)

Moon is still rising
Moon is still rising, it is not full
And the best days are ahead so I dragged you out of bed
To see a crescent, and I meant it

Ah, the river's breathing
And the river's feeling, and the river's turning, and the river's yearning
But you won't swim even a mile to get to me
A mile to get to me

Ah, the sky is graying
Ah, the sky is graying into black
And the best days are ahead so I dragged you out of bed
To see a crescent
To see the garden
To see it ending
To see a crescent
To see the garden
To see it ending
To see it starting.

The Garden

acoustic cover of "soundtrack" and "dat new new"

sound quality is eh

Kid Cudi Medley

Well, we were standing outside my door
We said hello, you had somewhere to go so I went home
And it was summer, I had books to read
And you had time to kill and plans to make and some included me

Who the __ wants to live alone
We both had stories that needed to be told
As everything was happening, our hearts would break, our heads would spin 
When we were home

Think how it started with a plastic coffee cup
Think of our time as just a little bit truer than the truest of loves
Think of my mother in the kitchen saying, “Trust your intuition,” think of how hard it is we fell when we did
Think of laughing in the shower, think of crying at the damns he didn’t give
Think of phone calls lasting hours, think of strikes on heavy matters
And if you do, we are home again

Well, we were standing outside the car
We said goodbye, and I moved two-thousand miles far
And on the airplane, I began to cry
You were not there to say, “Just eat some chocolate, dry your eyes” 
(Spoken: I mean, come on, Deb, really? You got this.)

Who the __ wants to die alone
Sometimes you’ll have no one to hold
And everything will mean nothing, and hearts will break, and heads will spin
When we are gone

Think how it started with a plastic coffee cup
Think of our time as just a little bit truer than the truest of loves
Think of my mother in the kitchen saying, “Trust your intuition,” think of how hard it is we fell when we did
Think of laughing in the shower, think of crying at the damns he didn’t give
Think of phone calls lasting hours, think of strikes on heavy matters
And if you do, we are home again

There were fights and there were glories, we threw mints from many stories up above
There were drunken nights of fountains, there were often nights of failure, there was love
There were strangers at the coffee shop, and summers we learned to make pots just ‘cause
There was bittersweet redemption, there was joy and there was tension, there was us

Who the __ wants to die alone
I swear you’ll always have someone to hold
And everything will mean nothing, and hearts will break, and heads will spin
When we are gone
Think how it started with a plastic coffee cup
Think of our time as just a little bit truer than the truest of love
Think of my mother in the kitchen saying, “Trust your intuition,” think of how hard it is we fell when we did, but you still trusted me
Think of laughing in the shower, think of crying at the damns they never seem to give
Think of phone calls lasting hours, think of strikes on heavy matters
And if you do, we are home again

Home Again (Song For My Best Friend)

as of late i can't decide
is time a brother on my side, or should i be running?
as of late i do not know 
is there a state of mind called home, or is it a place and should i be running back to it?

isn't love like a leaf on the ground
isn't love like a leaf on the ground
isn't love itself wordless, but if you walk slowly, does it not seem to make a sound, oh

as of late, i've gone without
and filled the emptiness with doubt and a sweet kind of sorrow
i've been translucent, i've seen my bones, i've been able to break them all on my own
they'll heal tomorrow, they'll heal tomorrow

isn't love like a leaf on the ground
isn't love like a leaf on the ground
isn't love itself wordless, but if you walk slowly, does it not seem to make a sound, oh

across the river, in the silence
god is near and we are science, i've reconciled it
oh, we learn in silence

we learn in silence
we learn in silence, oh, like a leaf on the ground it is quiet, it is quiet

learn in silence
that we are science
we learn in silence

we learn in... 



Leaf On The Ground

this song is for the Middle East, a musing on whether there will ever be calm. i share it in hopes that peace can one day be more than a hypothetical. the lyrics:

I have been flying over the ocean, over the sand
I have been fighting for the hold of your hand

I don't know when promises started to go wrong
But war is not a lightshow, sirens not a song
I don't know when promises broke before our eyes
But your turn in the darkness is not my turn in the light

I have been flying over the ocean, over the sand
I have been trying to make of the ashes somewhere to stand

I don't know when promises started to go wrong
But war is not a lightshow, sirens not a song
I don't know when promises broke before our eyes
But your turn in the darkness is not my turn in the light

The city's been gleaming, lights have been streaming all night long
But when it is sleeping, the city is dreaming of a love song

I don't know when promises started to go wrong
But war is not a lightshow, sirens not a song
I don't know when promises broke before your eyes
But your turn in the darkness is not my turn in the light.


Promises

A song on Hinduism and the Bhagavad Gita (Rhodes' Intro to Religion class, Fall 2014)

UNKNOWN, Lyrics 
(From “The Fifteenth Teaching: The True Spirit of Man” of the Bhagavad Gita)

Roots in the air, and branches below
He who knows it knows 
The tree of life is unchanging
Its leaves are hymns we find engaging

Roots in the air, and branches above
Budding just like this because
We find ourselves tangled in actions
And all we’re left with is reactions

We are unknown
We are unknown 
At our end, our beginning, our extent
At our end, our beginning, our extent

Sun and moon above the earth
Once they’re there, they don’t return
A fragment of me in the living world
Where what I am is what I’ve heard

I dwell deep
Some of us might fail to see
That we are flaming in the sun
Flaming and it’s only just begun 

We are unknown
We are unknown 
At our end, our beginning, our extent
At our end, our beginning, our extent

We are unknown
We are unknown
We are unknown 
We are unknown

Unknown

A song on the Old Testament (Rhodes' Intro to Religion class, Fall 2014)

THE FIRST DAY, Lyrics
(From Genesis 1 of The Holy Bible)

“In the beginning” (Gen 1:1), it started so nice
I still smiled then; there was fire in your eyes, in your eyes
In the beginning, the air enticed
I was thinking it could be our vice, could be our life

And then the air stirred into perfect shades of red
And then the peaceful brought a thunderstorm instead
And then the voices, coming louder now they said

“Let there be light” (Gen 1:3)
I started to fight
“And then there was evening and then there was morning
And that was the first day” (Gen 1:5) of darkness yearning

When you were gone, the sea it cried
The heavens were gone at the end of the night, no goodbye
I heard the voices sing, “multiply” (Gen 1:28)
And I remembered your lullaby before the time

When the air stirred into perfect shades of red
And then the peaceful brought a thunderstorm instead
And then the voices, coming louder now they said

“Let there be light” (Gen 1:3)
I started to fight
“And then there was evening and then there was morning
And that was the first day” (Gen 1:5) of darkness yearning

“And that was the first day” (Gen 1:5) of darkness yearning


The First Day

Over the Rainbow

river 
(inspired by book xxi of the Iliad, in which Achilles fights the Xanthus)
thank you Jake Noveck for the guitar!!! lyrics below:

you talk about love like you talk about a river
like it's gonna save you miraculously 
you talk about love like you talk about a river
like it's gonna take you back to sea
but it won't x3

you talk about love like you've never seen a river
like when the waters fall, it's a greater call, out of your control
you know something's above you and you can hear a whisper
but when you talk about love, i can sorta see you shiver

there you go, waiting on the tide to turn x2
there you go x3

you talk about martyrs like you talk about tomorrow
dreaming of a new life like it's something you can borrow
and you're writing songs and you're righting wrongs in the coming dawn
you talk about the gray sea like it knows exactly what you've seen

there you go, waiting on the tide to turn x2
there you go x3

when it's all over and the monuments fade
when it's all over, no one even knows your name
when it's all over, they've forgotten you
you'll talk about a river
a river that you once knew

Deborah Malamud's Album

River

stories

i got a love that's wrapped around me in a certain way
it doesn't let me look at your face
cause if i do, i'll think i'll miss you when you're gone
and i'm learning to live alone

i know you're sorry and i should want more than you can give
but in this way you've taught me how to live
that's more than i can say about shadows that have slipped my windowsill
that's more than i can say about those who have forsaken me and have the nerve to say they love me still

our lives are stories and i hope i live to see the end
our lives are stories and i hope you know that you were my friend

i said my greatest fear aloud to my greatest friend
he didn't hold me, he stood by my side, watched me cry
he said this is not the end

i wanna hold that whisper in my head 
but there's a million voices
and i always think they've led me to the promised land
maybe that's the problem with believing in the end

our lives are stories and i hope i live to see the end
our lives are stories and i hope you know that you were my friend

Stories

first foray into e-music; original song here: https://open.spotify.com/track/0ZAhJvqW67Epg4IsLIaSTR?si=Rar6VDFgRp6YDGqjI_rvcQ

Deb Malamud

Popular tracks