Musings from “Life Is a Road” author–Daniel Meyer
music
All Summer long…
Jul 17th
Riding for me…is often a time for reflection.
Notice I didn’t say “quiet reflection”. I sing along to music. I scream at thunderstorms. I taunt the things out in the wild that would have my life…or worse…
Even more dangerous…I taunt those demons I carry within me.
I seem to have accumulated rather a lot of them…despite NOT mis-spending my youth. I wish I’d have known that IN my youth…I expect I’d have mis-spent quite a bit more of it.
clicky–> This song dredges up a lot of that sort of reflection. Give it a listen. Kidd Rock does it pretty well, and I’m riding that part of the country at the moment so it readily comes to mind.
This one is lost youth…that girl…that summer…and oh yeah, I remember. I will remember till I’m dead. No…that’s not true. I will remember far beyond that…I’ll remember until my soul is lost somewhere in the vast universe.
That time...Where the hell did it all go?
My Valkyrie runs on AAA batteries…you know this, yes? I stick a AAA battery in my mp3 music player and take off down the hiighway. If the music stops, often, so does the Valk whilst I search for another battery…another dose of music.
I can define or relive my life by the music I’ve experienced as I’ve made the journey…as I’ve traveled this road. Every album…from every artist…every record I’ve ever bought…every song I’ve ever liked…all of it…fits on my player with room for another 1000 songs (ANOTHER ONE-THOUSAND!). My whole life…in a player no bigger than my thumb. Scary that…but I DO love this technology.
So yeah…it was not 1989 (as it is in the song)…it was a large number of years earlier for me. Scary how many, really. Mostly I remember working…nose to the grindstone.
It. Bought. Me. Nothing.
That one summer though…it earned me my soul.
Food for thought.
Now nothing seems as strange as when the leaves began to change
or how we thought those days would never end
sometimes I hear that song and I’ll start to sing along
and think man I’d love to see that girl again.
Life’s short. Let’s ride.
CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer
Artfest Fun
May 24th
The 2010 Clarksville Fine Arts Festival was a blast!
Lots of food, great music, and pretty good weather made for a fun day. Lots of high-caliber artists with quality wares made for a “target-rich” environment for the discerning collecter.
I sold some books, made some friends, and generally mucked about having a good time.
Krashdragon came all the way out from Cleburne to pick up a book! THANKS for coming out! It was great to meet ya!
I expect to see the rest of ya’ll for next years festival!
CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer
Death. Dragons. The rider’s way.
Apr 26th
Just rambling tonight…indulge me if you will.
Music. Passion. Riding into the night. The shiver when dropping into a cool hollow. The adrenaline flowing when chasing the lightning in the distance…and the uncertainty when you suddenly realize you’ve no idea whether you are chasing it…or it’s chasing you.
Cool. Balmy. The unknown things lurking in the night.
Tasting the wind.
Y’all may know I ride extensively at night…the dayside too…but the night is where the magic grows.
Knowing the danger…and not simply knowing on an intellectual level. I’ve seen it. Felt it. Fought it. Experienced it.
Sacrificed much to it.
And yet still I ride. It heals the soul…or prevents it from breaking…or perhaps…it was broken long ago and the ride keeps it from simply wandering off.
We lift up our prayer against the odds
And fear the silence is the voice of God
I’ve never known for sure.
Music is important to the ride. Sometimes it’s the music in my head, sometimes the music on my player, sometimes it’s the music of the universe…but there is always music. The magic would die without it you see.
I don’t know if Emmylou Harris ever rode a motorcycle…but she understood.
I could write an essay on how this song relates to the rider’s way…and someday I probably will. For now, please, just indulge me and give her a listen. The lyrics are below. Follow along. See how it connects…if it does for you.
And then go fly…
Listen:
The lyrics…follow along.
The Pearl
Oh the dragons are gonna fly tonight
They’re circling low and inside tonight
It’s another round in the losing fight
Out along the great divide tonight
We are aging soldiers in an ancient war
Seeking out some half remembered shore
We drink our fill and still we thirst for more
Asking if there’s no heaven what is this hunger for?
Our path is worn our feet are poorly shod
We lift up our prayer against the odds
And fear the silence is the voice of God
And we cry Alleluia Alleluia
We cry Alleluia
Sorrow is constant and the joys are brief
The seasons come and bring no sweet relief
Time is a brutal but a careless thief
Who takes our lot but leaves behind the grief
It is the heart that kills us in the end
Just one more old broken bone that cannot mend
As it was now and ever shall be amen
Amen. Amen.
And we cry Alleluia Alleluia
We cry Alleluia
So there’ll be no guiding light for you and me
We are not sailors lost out on the sea
We were always headed toward eternity
Hoping for a glimpse of Galilee
Like falling stars from the universe we are hurled
Down through the long loneliness of the world
Until we behold the pain and become the pearl
The pearl. The pearl.
Cryin’ Alleluia Alleluia
We cry Alleluia
And we cry Alleluia Alleluia
We cry Alleluia
Life’s short. Let’s ride.
CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer
The 2010 Clarksville Fine Arts Festival
Feb 25th
Make your plans now!
This year the 2010 Clarksville Fine Arts Festival will be Saturday, May 22, 2010, from 9:AM to 4:PM on the historic square in Clarksville, Texas.
This year’s festival is shaping up to be a great one. There will even be glass blowing demonstrations!
I’ll be there signing books and will also have original art and some prints.
Art. Music. Food. Fun. What else could you need? Come on by and see me!
CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer
Steel and earth and fire and blood…
Jun 22nd
Indulge me if you would…and take a moment to listen…
I heard this song this morning…it popped out of my mp3 player on the way to work…I didn’t even know I had it. A message perhaps. Not the strangest thing that’s happened to me over the years (and miles). Not by a long shot.
I was instantly overwhelmed by intense feelings. A person lost to me and all the feelings we’d experienced together leapt to mind. It’s been a year now since that story…the untold tales…and the unlived chapters closed…unexpectedly and rather harshly.
It shouldn’t have been so hard…that year ago. My part in her story was over long ago…a decade? Two? I was not a part of her story way before her final page was written.
That final page…A year ago.
Really? A year? Perhaps that triggered the strongest feelings of all. Just where do all the days go? How do I not notice? What opportunities have shot by unnoticed as well?
I had to look in my journal to be sure…and that made me feel guilty. Once…I would have known the exact second…but there’s been so many over the years. So many seconds. So many memories. So many lost possibilities. The strength of the memories matters little, when there are so many of this intensity.
Passion as a principle has its cost.
Yes, it had been a year. More actually. That meant it was time to ride.
I left work…pushing hard into the heat. A hundred mile ride just to brush my fingers on the rough stone. The monument was cool depite the blistering heat of the day, but to my surprise there was nothing here for me.
That confused me even more. Surely there would be something special in this place?
Turns out there was only the dead.
It took a moment to realize…no…there was nothing special here because that essence…that presense I expected…as with many more that have touched my life…was with me all the time.
Never far away…
Passion as principle has its benefits too.
The journal:
Friday, February 01, 2008
A restless night.
Tomorrow is a day of steel and fire and blood and earth.
Welding in the morning…the 65mph winds we had over several days this week took down part of one of the barns at the family farm…snapped steel supports. I’ll be jacking it back into position and welding it together in the morning.
The afternoon…yeah. The afternoon. If it was a movie it’d be raining.
Instead it’ll be a glorious day. I’ll be riding to yet another funeral.
Another part of my past has left me alone to try and understand what it was we had…wondering if it ever mattered…and what it might have become had we given it more of a chance.
I’m supposed to speak.
Just what do I say?
“We were lovers once…and we touched the sky.”
Yeah. That was long ago…and our lives had gone different directions.
“We were lovers once…and we touched the sky.”
That would not go over well…
Can’t sleep tonight. The part of me that understands fire and steel howls. The darkside smells the blood and claws its way out. The rational man doesn’t wish to contain it. He wishes…he has always wished…to see it run free…and he has never dared…
The warden said, “Fuck it” and has opened the gate. “Quiet desperation” be dammed.
Passion boils. Mortality looms. Experience cries for sating its ravenous hunger.
Lust. Pure and powerful. Raw and primal, yet surprisingly complicated. Its focus scattered. Its targets unclear. Its drive absolutely relentless.
And this night…I am alone. Even the magical touch of a woman denied me.
Damn the male brain anyway.
The Dragon gleams in the garage…and I think it may be time to ride…to scream into the night and see how much we can take…push ourselves beyond the edge of endurance…substituting one kind of pain for another.
Tomorrow is for steel and fire and blood and earth.
Tonight may be as well.
I’ll see you on the road.
(end journal entry)
Steel and earth and fire and blood.
Never far away…
Yeah…
I’ll see you on the road.
CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer
R-O-C-K-E-D
Jun 3rd
The 2nd annual Clarksville Fine Arts Festival ROCKED! Lots of folks came out to see us, including friendly faces from the Dallas area (Hi Y’all!).
There were dozens of outstanding artists, a Friday night gallery show, some fine Texas wines, beautiful sunny skies, great food, rocking music, and a lot of friendly people.
Thanks for coming out…and we’ll see you again next year!
CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer
“Son,” he said, “Grab your things I’ve come to take you home.”
Feb 12th
In somewhat of a philosophical mood tonight…
The art of the song…
If you’ve been following along you probably realize I am nearly irrationally passionate about music…but not just any music, though it may seem that way at times.
The music that is art…THAT’S my music.
There is of course the music itself…the catchy tune, the harmony…but lyrics matter too…they should tell a story…but not just ANY story…sure they mean something to the author…but the good ones…well they should tell YOUR story…something you can interpret…something that touches you. That’s the way.
That’s the art of the song.
And then there’s the occasion where you wonder…just how the heck…did the writer reach right in and grab something of yours…in a literal sense.
Try this one on for size. It has specific meaning and memories for me…involving a bit of trouble, deep nights in the desert, new friends, and one of the first times I realized the universe was one HELL of a lot bigger (and stranger) than I had thought…I’ve been lost in that ever expanding universe ever since.
How about you?
Climbing up on Solsbury Hill
I could see the city light
Wind was blowing, time stood still
Eagle flew out of the night
He was something to observe
Came in close, I heard a voice
Standing stretching every nerve
Had to listen had no choice
I did not believe the information
(I) just had to trust imagination
My heart going boom boom boom
“Son,” he said “Grab your things,
I’ve come to take you home.”
CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer
Is it?
Feb 5th
I’m in a bit of a funk…a reflective mood at the moment. More about that later I expect.
Music helps me think…I listen to a rather eclectic collection of stuff from all generas.
My selection for today…
Is it a veil or a cross?
Is it the poet’s gift?
Is it the face that has watched over thousands of ships?
Is it making you laugh?
Is it letting you cry?
Is it where we believe that we go if we die?
Is it how you were made?
Is it your mother’s ghost?
Is it the wish that I’m wishing for your life, for your life,
for your life…I wish the most.
Watch the vid…
Man this pair can sing…
CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer
I’m the other kind…
Jul 28th
A scheduled post!
Yeah…riding is what I need. I’m somewhere on the road…and I needed it.
I’m back out on that road again, turn this beast into the wind
There are those that break and bend, I’m the other kind
I’m the other kind
See, it used to be I was really free, didn’t need no gasoline to run
Before you could say Jack Kerouac and turn your back, I’d be gone
Yeah but nowadays I got me two good wheels
And I seek refuge in aluminum and steel
It takes me out there for just a little while
And the years fall away with every mile
Open the throttle and roll!
Feb 18th
A pretty good music video! Love the song!
CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer