A reflection in piano on the moments that come our way.

In Some Unexpected Way

Lucid Dreaming (2024)

Emma McWalter @emmam-7 - Shiny Seaside Backing Vocals
Rick Medlock @rick-4-1 - Salty Drums and Percussion programming 
Phil McWalter @phil-mcwalter - The Other Arcade Stuff

French Fries

I’m standing on the seafront
Holding a cold metal rail
The sea is performing an acrobatic stunt
And rusting my chain mail

I could wipe my eyes
But I’m in disguise
Looking out for spies

The seagulls shine in lung darkness
Above me and below me
They’re pulling something dead apart down on the stones
That’s been dead for a while already

I don’t want no surprise
Just harmonise with
My unshared french fries

You can get a little closer to you
When you’re by yourself
You can get a little closer
If you stood in a book and looked out

I’m running flat out through the arcade
Throwing coins up into the lights
The traveller king spins around
"Kiss-me-quickly" hat on
But he doesn’t see my surprise

Now don’t act all wise
Like you know the franchise
You don’t like the cries
From the rooms where blood dries
You don’t like the cries
From the rooms where blood dries

Things that you said were taken for granted
But I realised they never were
All the bad things happen miles away
So what were you doing ‘round here
Things that you said were taken for granted
But I realised they never were
All the bad things happen miles away
So what were you doing ‘round here,
Today?

© Oct 2019 Phil McWalter

French Fries

Towards Infinity (and beyond)

Kiss Me Goodbye - with Jussi Welin on Guitars

Image created by me.
https://www.deviantart.com/leehon/art/Such-A-Tainted-Lineage-850850290

I Will Never Flourish Here

The Unknown

Sans doute en raison de mon père, né à Alexandrie, mais dont le berceau familial était de Salonique, j'ai toujours profondément aimé, puis déploré la disparition de ces grandes cités cosmopolites, que la haine fasciste ou la sottise nationaliste ( qui reviennent si violemment en force aujourd'hui) ont détruites, tout comme Sarajevo un peu plus tard, ou Beyrouth. Il n'en fallait pas plus pour composer cet hommage à toutes les villes cosmopolites que nous n'avons pas su préserver, elles qui cultivaient la diversité des cultures et l'altérité des visages comme des paysages. ( un petit essai d'atonalité en milieu de morceau pour tenter de rendre figure à cette altérité)
_________________________________________________________________________
No doubt because of my father, who was born in Alexandria, but whose family cradle was in Salonika, I have always deeply loved, and then deplored, the disappearance of these great cosmopolitan cities, which fascist hatred or nationalist stupidity (which are making such a violent comeback today) destroyed, just like Sarajevo a little later, or Beirut. That was all it took to compose this tribute to all the cosmopolitan cities that we have not been able to preserve, they that cultivated the diversity of cultures and the otherness of faces and landscapes.

to the disappeared cosmopolitan Cities

Te quiero mucho

Bitter Envy

Photo de <a href="https://unsplash.com/fr/@getrightmedia?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Kelvin Whitehurst</a> sur <a href="https://unsplash.com/fr/photos/touches-de-piano-marron-et-blanc-PN75q0FGrCU?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a>

Champignons - My Silent Joy

I'm a composer, working from a 3' x 5' studio (some may call it a dinette) in a 5th wheel camper, while traveling the United States. I've been on the road for six years, so most of my recent work will have come from a different state (of mind and location) during my travels.

Music makes me feel better about everything. I don't know that I'm ever happier than when I am creating. I sometimes wonder if creativity isn't one of the primary keys to happiness. Do you ever feel better than when you say, "Look what I did."? This phrase magically conjures the purest sense of childlike joy.

Music works for every part of our lives. We all have music for when we are sad, happy, celebrating, meeting others, when we are alone, and even when we are lonely. Did a song come to mind as you read each of those situations? I remember the first song I ever heard on the radio, on my first bus ride to kindergarten. One of my favorite musical memories is playing in a band for steel beach on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz.

I love telling stories with music. Everybody loves John Coffey in the Green Mile, but Mr. Jingles should have a song commemorating his reaching and joining the circus at Mouseville. If you agree, join me for this and similar journeys. The music here is synthetic, but as real as you would choose to have it.

My music most often lands on Soundcloud first and is inspired by one of my favorite communities, Naviar Haiku:
https://www.naviarrecords.com/about/naviar-haiku
I find writing to a Haiku prompt sufficiently limiting and exquisitely inspiring.

In Some Unexpected Way

Raymond Stull