Syndicate
Created With Quick Blogcast
Tuesday, 24 April 2012: Valkyrie (Testimony of Apocalypse)...
I had a bit of time this evening, so I put it to use writing lyrics to another song for the soundtrack to one of my novels. It turned out to be a tad bit longer than any of the others, but that's why they're called epics, I suppose. Let me know what you think.
Valkyrie (Testimony of Apocalypse)
Echoing, whispered voices repeating
(Beware of false prophets who only desire to steal your soul
Promising salvation, the expiation of sin, in return for only a drop of blood)
I used to live my life so focused and undaunted
But then dreams turned to nightmares I never wanted
And now instead of pleasant memories, I’m haunted
Standing on the edge of heaven
Within arm’s length of an angel’s heart
Standing on the edge of heaven
Now just watch as it all falls apart
It’s a testimony of Apocalypse
With vengeance rising
In a testimony of Apocalypse
The truth is lying
Ruling with a red scepter
Your throne is your sepulcher
Wearing cataclysm as a crown
We feast upon the fighting
And split the sky with lightning
As crimson wisdom is reigning down
And who is this vision before me
Valkyrie
Valkyrie
Welcoming me to eternity
Valkyrie
Valkyrie
My world is peaceful when my eyes close and I’m dreaming
But then dreams turn to nightmares and I’m chased by demons
I break darkness and silence when I awake screaming
Standing on the edge of darkness
Feeling the brush of an angel’s wings
Standing on the edge of darkness
Now just hear the demon as it sings
It’s a testimony of Apocalypse
With vengeance rising
In a testimony of Apocalypse
The truth is lying
Wasting away in defeat
Victory is incomplete
Baptized in a lake of our own tears
Battlefields decorated
Memories desecrated
A holocaust wrought from our own fears
And who is this vision before me
Valkyrie
Valkyrie
Welcoming me to eternity
Valkyrie
Valkyrie
A prophet for profit
Savior or liar
On your knees
I shall be your new Messiah
Abandoned in agony
Until
(Until)
Your soul screams out for mercy
As it lays shattered and naked
Fallen on the battlefield
And still
(And still)
You wait for them to appear
Take no solace in the sacred
A prophet for profit
Do I conspire?
On your knees
I shall be your new Messiah
And who is this vision before me
Valkyrie
Valkyrie
Welcoming me to eternity
Valkyrie
Valkyrie
(crash of thunder into rolling thunder)
From across the barren wasteland
You can hear the thunder roar
The battle is Armageddon
Unleash the machines of war
(sound of wind)
It’s a testimony of Apocalypse
With vengeance rising
In a testimony of Apocalypse
The truth is lying
Valkyrie
Valkyrie
Valkyrie
It’s a testimony of Apocalypse
With vengeance rising
In a testimony of Apocalypse
The truth is lying
Valkyrie
Valkyrie
Valkyrie
Whispering voices echoed
(The paradox awaits
at the bottom of the abyss
The dichotomy controls your fate
A game of damnation and we play for eternity)
©Frank E. Bittinger 2012
Thursday, 19 April 2012...
I've been working. Trying to save money to fix up the back flat roof on my house and to get my kitchen up and running.
I found decorative tile to put here and there on the kitchen floor with the other two colors of tile I chose.
I think it will turn out nicely once the new subfloor is in and the cement board is put down.
And don't forget my birthday benefit. The date for my annual birthday benefit: Saturday 7 July 2012 at Windsor Hall in historic downtown Cumberland. Join me and my cohort/co-host, the lovely Kimberli Rowley, for an evening of entertainment to raise money for my Shadow Organization & the Allegany County Animal Shelter, a no-kill facility. Tickets are $7 and we will have raffles & silent auctions. The doors open at 6:30 pm and the show starts at 7:30 pm. Mark your calendars so you can come & join us.
Nighty-nightmares...
Sunday, 8 April 2012: Your Embrace...
A dark ditty I wrote for the soundtrack to my Angels of the Seventh Dawn: The Second Book of the Scarabae Saga.
Your Embrace
Although my eyes can see, the images fade and disappear
Any courage I possessed has drown in an ocean of fear
For you, I am an altar of flesh and bone
(Force me…force me down on my knees)
A carnal communion, together alone
You are all
Sanctuary
Cathedral
Necropolis
You are my everything
Gather me unto you
Sacred sacrilege
Gather me unto you
Into your embrace
I long for it
I long for you
Gather me unto you
Into your embrace
I lovingly offer my soul for you to torture and rape
Carve into my skin; mortify my flesh into your landscape
It shall be my pleasure to beg, bleed, and please
(Reach deep…reach deep beneath my skin)
Your dark desires so twisted and diseased
You are all
Sanctuary
Cathedral
Necropolis
You are my everything
Gather me unto you
Sacred sacrilege
Gather me unto you
Into your embrace
I long for it
I long for you
Gather me unto you
Into your embrace
As time streams through my broken hands
Like raindrops on the blazing sands
The knowledge I can’t understand
Is lost in the frozen wasteland
But I
I beg you for breath
As I
I dream of what’s next
Yet I
I failed and I wept
And I
I have nothing left
Only you
Only you
Only you
I see lies in your eyes
But I don’t care
No surprise your disguise
Is barely there
You are all
Sanctuary
Cathedral
Necropolis
You are my everything
Gather me unto you
Sacred sacrilege
Gather me unto you
Into your embrace
I long for it
I long for you
Gather me unto you
Into your embrace
Gather me unto you
Sacred sacrilege
Gather me unto you
Into your embrace
I long for it
I long for you
Gather me unto you
Into your embrace
©Frank E. Bittinger 2012
Friday, 6 April 2012...
Tuesday, 20 March 2012: Pandemoniun (The City of Demons)...
Another entry from the soundtrack to my novel Angels of the Seventh Dawn. This song and The Rapture of the Zombie Offering would be the two songs I would like to record first.
Pandemonium (The City of Demons)
(Demon voice & Whispers wrapped around each other:
Welcome to our fine city
Milton wrote about this place, you know
This is the other side of the mirror
This is Paradise Lost
You’re home now
Welcome home)
Strip away the flesh
Reveal what lies beneath
Expose the infection deep within
(Voices of vengeance)
Until my last breath
Heaven’s just out of reach
With the expiation of my sins
Beauty may always come, come with a cost
(The curse of vanity is never lost)
In the city of demons
All roads lead to the throne
(To the throne)
And I welcome you
To the city of demons
The place you now call home
(Now call home)
Welcome home, my friend
Starved for peace of mind
You must feed your passion
I am here to propagate your lust
(Serpents of silence)
Rising from behind
Behold the assassin
Is grinding your sanity to dust
Words ring false even when you speak the truth
(Burning you alive in your solitude)
In the city of demons
All roads lead to the throne
(To the throne)
And I welcome you
To the city of demons
The place you now call home
(Now call home)
Welcome home, my friend
Servants of sorcery
Patrons of prophecy
Embrace, embrace the darkness of eternity
In the city of demons
All roads lead to the throne
(To the throne)
And I welcome you
To the city of demons
The place you now call home
(Now call home)
Welcome home, my friend
Welcome home, my friend
Welcome home, my friend
Welcome home, my friend
©Frank E. Bittinger 2011
Tuesday, 20 March 2012: Inside the Circle of Time...
Another selection from the soundtrack to the First Book of the Scarabae Saga, Into the Mirror Black. I like this one a lot.
Inside the Circle of Time
Time is non-linear
It circles back upon itself
The war between the sorcerers never wavered
As the centuries faded together
Wrapped in curses and incantations
They would fight this war until the end of forever
(The flames of the dragon immolate
any- and everyone in their path)
Inside the circle whenever it ends
you will find that it all begins again
Anything lost you will never find
While wrapped inside the circle of time
(Always beginning and never ending
Lost inside the circle of time)
Many mere mortals dare to march across
The barren wasteland,
The battleground of the gods
Only to stand before their judgment and to stare
Into the face of the overwhelming odds
(The golden phoenix rises again,
reborn from the pile of smoking ash)
Inside the circle whenever it ends
you will find that it all begins again
Anything lost you will never find
While wrapped inside the circle of time
(Always beginning and never ending
Lost inside the circle of time)
Ouroboros
The eternal return
Time entwined upon itself
©Frank E. Bittinger 2011
Tuesday, 20 March 2012: My Own Mausoleum...
A little offering from the soundtrack to the Third Book of the Scarabae Saga, Angels of the Mourning Light.
My Own Mausoleum
Can you tell me the color of night?
Because I can’t see a thing
(Beyond blind)
And the only sound I can hear is
The echo of my screaming
Where is my savior
In my hour of need?
(harp music)
Acts of betrayal aside
A victim of my false pride
The road to nowhere leads to pandemonium
Never to be buried
Cremated
Or entombed alive
(Like in a Poe story)
Still I exist within my own mausoleum
Dare I take comfort from this limbo?
Will I wake up from the dream?
(In my mind)
There is to be no consolation
I shall never be redeemed
No, no salvation
No matter how I plead
(harp music)
Acts of betrayal aside
A victim of my false pride
The road to nowhere leads to pandemonium
Never to be buried
Cremated
Or entombed alive
(Like in a Poe story)
Still I exist within my own mausoleum
Only me
Lonely me
In my own mausoleum
Acts of betrayal aside
A victim of my false pride
The road to nowhere leads to pandemonium
Never to be buried
Cremated
Or entombed alive
(Like in a Poe story)
Still I exist within my own mausoleum
©Frank E. Bittinger 2011
Monday, 19 March 2012: The Rapture of the Zombie Offering...
A little ditty from the soundtrack to my Second Book of the Scarabae
Saga, Angels of the Seventh Dawn. One of these days, I will find someone
to write the music I hear in my head and we will make some of these
songs reality. It would be cool to do this song and a video. I hear the music in my head; now I need someone to help me pull it out and write it. I'm not a singer but I think we can coax a performance out of me to record this song.
The Rapture of the Zombie Offering
Sexy tattooed zombies in tuxedos
Entombed in the back of a white limousine
Tonight on the way to the casinos
This waking nightmare is not a living dream
Is this real? I’m afraid nobody knows
But truth is a lie, if you know what I mean
You cannot ascend to Avalon
When you’re buried deep in Babylon
Lust and lies
Rather hard to swallow
Fears and tears
Pave the road to sorrow
Fallen angels are hard to follow
Not today, there’s always tomorrow
Maybe they are living-dead crystal balls
Apocalyptic warnings etched in their skin
Upon your knees you will beg as you crawl
There’s nothing cryptic when you gamble to win
In accordance with universal law
We have reached the end, now it’s time to begin
You cannot ascend to Avalon
When you’re buried deep in Babylon
Lust and lies
Rather hard to swallow
Fears and tears
Pave the road to sorrow
Fallen angels are hard to follow
Not today, try again tomorrow
Break down the mausoleum doors
Come play in the dark amid the ruins
Beneath the moonlight the cemetery awaits
And there’s room in the tomb
Because we all will rise
Dance in the shadows just like a shadow
Plenty of time before dawn creeps above the horizon
You cannot ascend to Avalon
When you’re buried deep in Babylon
Lust and lies
Rather hard to swallow
Fears and tears
Pave the road to sorrow
Fallen angels are hard to follow
Not today, there’s always tomorrow
Lust and lies
Rather hard to swallow
Fears and tears
Pave the road to sorrow
Fallen angels are hard to follow
Not today, try again tomorrow
©Frank E. Bittinger 2012
Thursday, 15 March 2012...
Tonight is a nice night with a cool breeze blowing. Hopefully it will get below 50 degrees tonight. I enjoy the cold.
I found the cabinets I like for in my kitchen. I like the staggered look: some of the shelves are taller than others. I found a picture of what I want, except I want the corner of my kitchen to be the same on each side, both sides being a mirror image of the other. I like the right-hand side of the picture the best, with the taller corner cabinet and the taller end cabinet with the shorter 3-shelf unit between them.
Very nice. A friend of mine is checking into her source to see if we can find these oak cabinets at a lower cost than Lowes, because they are just too damned expensive for what they really are. I mean, just the 3-shelf unit without the lower spice drawers is pretty close to $300 and that is simply ridiculous. I'll install the crown molding on the tops of the cabinets myself, and even though I'll be using real oak, the cost will be hundreds of dollars less than having the cabinets come with crown molding.
I like the shelves because I just bought a 20-piece, $160 set of Pfaltzgraff dishes for $36 and I would like to display them instead of hiding them in a cabinet. And I do not want glass in my cabinet doors, so the shelves will work best.
The dishes and the cabinets go great with the Venetian tile backsplash and the Mascarello countertop. I an anxious to get start working on the kitchen but first things are first and I need to replace the roof over that section of the house. And then will come replacing 2 walls and the subfloor. Then we will get to the good stuff.
The court case for the "contractor" was continued until 28 May, so we'll see what happens with that. If he has a single working brain cell, he'll take the plea bargain and pay us back. Risking 8 years on 2 felony charges is not a smart thing; those jurors will have sympathy considering one of the plaintiffs is an elderly woman in her 70's. Keep your legs crossed we get our money back; I will be able to get that damned roof replaced easily.
I'm really getting into watching the 14 episodes or however many there were of Point Pleasant. Apparently when they found out the show was getting canceled so soon, they shot a kind of ending so it could be more like a miniseries. I think I've seen about 7 or so of the episodes in order. I'm growing fond of the show. And I love the one grey suit Lucas Boyd wore with the white shirt and grey & white striped tie; I have an Italian suit very similar to it. I may have to buy this show on DVD.
And I found a first edition hardcover of one of my favorite books, and that inspired one of my favorite movies, Rosemary's Baby. Love it.
That's about all for now. If I think of anything else, I'll be sure to let you know.
Nighty-nightmares...
Saturday, 10 March 2012...
This was a good day. I got a great deal on the bar-high swivel chairs I wanted for my kitchen from Kohl's. Originally priced at $240 each, they were on sale for 50% off, $120. I just happened to have a 30% off coupon to use. And then I got $30 in Kohl's cash to use. So, these higher end chairs cost me the huge amount of $140 after all was said and done. I really shouldn't have bought them, but when would I have found another deal just as good for the exact chairs I wanted?
So when my friend helps me make the table for my kitchen, a 24 inch by 36 inch taller table, with Venetian tile to match my backsplash, I will be all set with my new swivel chairs. Nice dark brown metal to match the kitchen nicely. Once the floor tile is in place, I will decide whether or not I want a rug for in the kitchen.
I can't wait to get the roof replaced so I can begin on the inside of the kitchen. It will take time but hopefully I can accomplish it all by the end of June. That is my goal. We shall see. I would like to have the kitchen, sitting room, and the downstairs bathroom completed this year. It's possible if I continue to work my butt off. Keep your legs crossed for me. Money will be tight but I can get it done if I keep working and don't look up.
"I'm a little black woman in a big silver box and at the top it says 'phone.'" That line from Jumpin' Jack Flash cracks me the hell up every single time I hear it.
I've been working a little on my piece of short fiction and poem, both titled The White Raven. Aside from that and an as yet untitled piece of zombie short fiction, I don't have any writing scheduled for this year. This year, my house takes priority so I can get some rooms completed.
We have been continued and rescheduled once again with the fake contractor case, the one with the two felony charges against him. Hopefully, if he or his attorney have an iota of intellect, they will take the plea offer, which is paying us back in full immediately and the charges will be reduced to working as a contractor without a license. A smart deal for the criminal, but it remains to be seen if he will play the game.
Arriving in the post today was my 2-volume hardcover set of The Mahabharata. A condensed version, but the original being just under 2 million Sanskrit words, a 1,500 plus page translation will do for me. And I have a beautiful hardcover of The Ramayana by the same author. I look forward to reading them.
On a side note, since we have discussed my fascination with religious ideologies in previous blogs, I recently came across the 2,000 plus page Urantia Book that so enthralled me last year when I bought it. I'm only 200 pages in on Paper 16, I believe. I truly find it intriguing and I enjoy reading it.
I'm debating what to make for some dinner. I'm thinking of deepfrying some hashbrowns maybe. You know I love potatoes in pretty much any form. They also make a tasty sandwich on some of that toasted Alavarado St Bakery Bread I love so much.
Last night, I had awesome vegan steak from light life fried with sweet onions & sweet pepper with vegan mayo, lettuce, and tomato on toasted Alvarado St Bakery Vegan Bread. Yummy stuff.
And maybe later tonight, I will make some more of those tasty no-bake cookies. I'll have to let you know.
Nighty-nightmares...