These songs were all inspired by people I met and things that happened on the intertubes.
All songs written, performed, engineered, and heard in sleep by Kevin Maxfield.

Tome of Visages

(Track 3 of Colorful Sight) "One day my mindless routine at the Academy was broken when I saw someone I didn't know in the staffroom.  The enigmatic newcomer had an unusual vibe which immediately attracted my attention and my curiosity.  Somehow, she kind of reminded me of an old friend...a special person from my past.  Then I recalled that she was a new member of the faculty.  Coworker A.  I paused, as perplexed as I was fascinated, wondering what to do next.  And then she turned and Looked at me.  Not a glimpse, but a level Gaze that went right through me to my very soul.
I felt a strange sense of...familiarity...that terrified me, and yet fired up my curiosity at the same time.
And the world began to change."
(From The Academy Annals)

Sudden Engazement

恋慕隠れん坊
(Track 13 of Colorful Sight) "Coworker A's 'marriage' to her Mentor had apparently fallen apart after only a couple of months.  The society was still keeping me out of the loop, but I overheard a lot.  At any rate, she'd left him, and now she and he were barely on speaking terms, which made working together awkward.  And then her behavior became erratic.  For a time she kept disappearing between classes.  I'd hear the Mentor organizing posses among his inner circle to try to find her.  Tellingly, I kept hearing them talk about my schedule.  They'd go over when and where I had my classes and decide who would walk by to see if she'd show up.  For the record, I never saw her.  But more than once students in my classes did.  And sometimes I'd hear her characteristic footsteps in the hall or stairwell.  And then there was the love poem I found on the blackboard.  This strange 'hide and seek of love' went on for a few weeks, and it made me sad.  I knew that she'd tried very hard to get over her crush on me back when she and her Mentor had first become involved.  Apparently she hadn't been successful.  Poor soul."
(From The Academy Annals)

Renbo Kakurenbo

(Track 12 of Colorful Sight) "Three days after the school festival that year I was suddenly and inexplicably shut out of the staff room society.  I would literally come in the door and conversations would stop or become hushed.  Some would watch me as I went to my desk and then continue in whispers, others would relocate, and still others would obviously change the topic and return to the original when they thought I was far enough away.  After a time, certain teachers would even warn the others when I arrived.  The atmosphere in there was highly charged, but no one would tell me what was up.  At one point there was a party which many if not most of the high school faculty including almost all of my grade team attended, and there was much laughing and joking about it the next morning, but when I asked what was up I was told irritably to mind my own business.  Was I being bullied?  Or was I being punished because I'd been so worried about Coworker A before the festival?  At any rate, being a foreign barbarian, I wasn't going to react with Japanese stoicism; I wanted to know what the hell was going on.  I pretended to be enthralled in my work when actually I was listening intently to every word around me.  I immediately found a common theme.  It seemed that after Coworker A had finally turned down the Psycho for good, she and her Mentor had become not just romantically involved, but engaged.  In fact, the inner circle was talking as if they were already married.  Everyone knew this, obviously, and they were all talking about it, but it seemed that I alone was being kept out.  Discrimination, ostracism, punishment, or an attempt to keep me out of the picture?  As if to add insult to injury, after a while there was a literal announcement that Coworker A would be staying away from the staffroom as much as possible for an extended period in order to avoid seeing me.  (Yes, my name was specifically mentioned.)  She was looking pretty miserable.  I was already battling depression, and all of this just made it worse...and in any case, I figured that the most merciful and compassionate thing for me to do would be to cooperate by staying away myself and minimizing our chances of meeting.  Inevitably, she and I wound up bumping into each other once at the staffroom door, and the look on her face before she hid it behind the books she was carrying will haunt me forever.  After a while she started looking better, and I thought I had finally figured out the world...when suddenly I started bumping into her in all kinds of unexpected places, and she not only regarded me in a warm and friendly manner but openly flirted with me.  That just did not compute.  I asked a teacher in her grade team that I trusted what I should do and was told that I had misunderstood everything.  But then I overheard that teacher relaying everything I'd said to the Mentor.  He did not look pleased.  And things quickly got a whole lot crazier."
(From The Academy Annals)

Staffroom Pariah

On The Page

"Every time it seemed like I'd finally figured out what was going on in my world, how everything was fitting into place, and how to work with it all, somehow someone or something somewhere would throw another wrench into the works.  Confusion seemed to be the only constant...woven with conspiracy and betrayal.  I kept hearing that good days were supposed to be a blessing and bad days a lesson, but what about mad days?"
(From the Academy Annals)

What Is The Lesson

(Colorful Sight track 19) "The next day after I'd sent that emotional message to Coworker A, my grade chief told me that she wanted to have a conference with me, but that he and one other teacher (a member of her babysitter brigade) would be present for reassurance.  I eagerly hoped that that would resolve the current problem.  To my surprise, she didn't talk about it at all.  Rather, she started off by claiming that all of the past episodes involving her that I'd been concerned about, as well as the current relationship I'd thought she was in with the Guard Dog, had never happened, and that it had all been a misunderstanding.  What she said ranged from difficult to flat out impossible to believe, and I explained the reasons for my skepticism.  She just kept asking me softly why I wouldn't believe her.  Meanwhile, the other two teachers kept insisting adamantly that I should just accept that it had all been a mistake, forget it all, and move on without further question.  It was all terribly surreal, and I began to ask what her true message and intentions were.  She looked at me with puzzlement and said there was no reason why we couldn't get along.  Time constraints ended the meeting.  The grade chief seemed satisfied, as did Coworker A, but the other teacher (babysitter) told me angrily that Coworker A wasn't my friend, she didn't need my concern, and I should just leave her alone.  That was strange...because I HAD been leaving her alone."  (From The Academy Annals)

Believe What I Say (The Surreal Meeting)

(Track 10 of Colorful Sight) "The Mentor was a veteran teacher who started at the Academy the same year I did, and for over 20 years he and I got along really well, almost like friends.  (Almost.)  He was a tall guy and athletic, but also a gamer nerd.  Ostensibly neurodivergent, he had a strong sense of responsibility and got irritated if things weren't done the proper way (in his view).  He liked to help people, and was a good man in that respect, but was famously self-centered and not known for empathy or social skills.  He was also a notorious womanizer and was especially fond of chasing the young, new teachers.  When Coworker A arrived, she was put in the new grade team he headed, and since she struggled, he took her under his wing and mentored her like a big brother.  There was a lot of dark muttering about his true intentions, but for the first few years at least his behavior toward her was perfectly innocent.  She came to trust him deeply, and while shy and withdrawn among other teachers, she opened up and became very talkative and animated in his presence.  During that fateful year, it didn't take long for me to notice that, in her bubbly staffroom chats with him, my name got mentioned a lot.  But while he patiently responded to her constant questions and observations about me, I could sense the rising tension.  After a while, his attitude toward me became colder and eventually turned into open resentment...to the point that faculty and administrators alike advised me to stay away from him.  Sadly, that grudge appears to have continued to some extent to this day."  (From The Academy Annals)

The Mentor

(Track 1 of Colorful Sight) "This is the beginning of a story most complex, convoluted, and strange...especially because, for me at least, it is true.  Please listen as I tell my humble tale." (From the Academy Annals)

Reluctant Reminiscing

(Colorful Sight Track 2)  "Ye Olde Academy was a somewhat prestigious Japanese private school, grades 7 to 12, in a somewhat isolated location atop a granite hill in a former Shinto shrine forest not far from the sea.  I had already been teaching there for around 20 years when Coworker A joined the faculty.  Quite a number of teachers had come and gone while I was there, so her appearance went largely unnoticed by me, though I did overhear some talk that she was unusual.  But since she was assigned to the junior high section, while I worked mainly in the senior high section, I all but forgot about her.  That soon changed rather suddenly."  (From the Academy Annals)

The Academy - Intro

The more we know, the less we understand.  In the Information Age, we are awash in knowledge, but true understanding is a rare thing, indeed.  So where do we go if we want to find the truth?

Which Voice Which Light

(Track 5 of Colorful Sight) "By her third year at the Academy, Coworker A was really starting to irritate me.  The positive rush brought by her cheerful greetings failed to make up for her otherwise unfriendly and even rude behavior.  The fact that she reminded me of an old friend made it worse.  I came to the knee-jerk conclusion that she was treating me like scum for reasons of racism.  I figured two could play that game, so I vowed not to have anything to do with her (except polite greetings) even if my job called for it despite protests from other coworkers that she was really a kind and friendly person, just shy.  But her behavior toward me still wasn't making sense.  As certain truths began to dawn on me, I realized that the others were right, and she really was just terribly shy.  Then I started to feel guilty.  (From The Academy Annals)

What Am I To You

Sometimes you meet someone by chance whose power to amaze and impress just never seems to fail...and changes your world forever.

Never Cease To Amaze Me

More than a decade ago an online friend posted a beautiful poem she had written to cheer up a friend who was suffering from depression.  I was moved (especially since I was battling depression myself) and asked if I could use a variation of it as lyrics for a song.  She said by all means, so I came up with this.  She said she loved it, thanked me for it, and then disappeared.  I haven't heard from her since.

Take The Black

A follow up to "Take the Black", this is an emotional reaching out, trying to penetrate the wall of darkness to reach the glowing soul inside.

This One Time

This song was inspired by a friend's envelope painting.

Through The Blinds

Sometimes the healer seems to be the most in need of healing.  That was definitely the case with one of my online Indian friends.

Deep In Your Soul

This song is dedicated to a longtime online friend of mine who has been through more than her share of hardship, and yet still keeps bouncing back ready for more.  The title of the song is the way she often describes herself.  I, for one, concur.

40 Feet Tall And Bulletproof

Because if you say nothing, our story can't begin.

If You Say Nothing

(Track 20 of Colorful Sight)  "And this is how our story concludes...neither concluded nor resolved..."  (From the Academy Annals)

Epilogue - Stranger in a Stranger Land

Suddenly feeling under intense pressure with a whole bunch of new tasks and responsibilities on my shoulders, confidence uncertain, but pressing forward anyway.  This was also some spirit-building fun with soft synths.

Ardent Advance

Human psychology and social interaction can be very confusing.  Sometimes those that seem the most compassionate turn out to be the most resentful.  And in complicated times, simple seems to win.

Simple the Reactions

Some people choose to make their world a better place by simply refusing to acknowledge the existence of unpleasant things.  It doesn't accomplish much...but it does make them happier.

Living In A Happy World

In times of negativity or social upheaval, quite often the worst tragedy is one's own feeling heart.

Bleeding Spirit, Jaded Soul

With so much negativity all around us all the time, once in a while it's nice to take a break from it all and just BREATHE for a bit.

A Moment to Breathe

(Colorful Sight - supplementary track)  During late summer in that fateful year, an unbelievable drama played out.  It turned out to be only one chapter of the overall tale, but it was a disturbing one, and it wound up affecting everything else.

The Ballad of the Psycho and the Princess

The reason why I feel this way is that you DON'T feel this way.

Because You're Not

Spriggans (despite the double "g", the correct pronunciation apparently rhymes with "pigeons") are creatures from Cornish legend that are similar to the trolls of Nordic lore.  They are described as looking like ugly, wizened, old men, small in stature, with large, childlike heads.  Their skin and hair have a tree-like appearance.  They have some shape-changing ability, particularly to increase their size, and they are very strong, leading many to speculate that they are actually the ghosts of giants.  They are vicious and quite hostile, prone to attack humans on sight.  They also have a mischievous streak and are fond of playing pranks or kidnapping pets or children.  On the other hand, it is possible to deal with them, and powerful beings sometimes employ them to guard treasures or sacred places.
I once looked at an oracle deck with a Celtic theme, and when I saw its "Spriggans" card, that riff immediately popped into my head.  Fae magic, perhaps?

Spriggans!

Every once in a while it does one's soul good to get away from the negativity and immerse oneself in something pleasant, like a nice, warm soak.

Ditching the Dark

This is a comment thread warrior's song.  I wanted to make it for a long time.  I needed to make it now.

The Moody Minstrel

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