Be There
Surrounding myriad delights are waiting out your inattentiveness.
Attentive, attend the attending.
Grab. Inhale. Receive. Give without end.
The end is our permanent paramount illusion, Ill-used, a sick slick trick.
Enjoy now, joyful, full of joy, filled, warm and full.
See it. It’s here, now, all around.
It is not amazing because you did not know it; it is plainly amazing.
Amazingly, nothing is plain.
Plain nothing, characteristically devoid, empty and unfathomable, depthless and infinitely elusive to grasp or conceptualize.
Look at it, it’s nothing.
I don’t see it, see what I mean?
warning, meaning may be invisible.
There seems to be always something, some thing, differentiated from other things by some difference, a thing of difference, in some sense unique.
‘Plain’ betrays us.
Be observant. Be present.
Let your eyes be mine, his, hers, theirs.
Be there.
Demure Shoes
My latest noise.
“Demure Shoes” is the newest album by The Rubenoff Project, that is, me. Here’s the rundown on the tunes thereon:
- Demure Shoes – the title song, is about a guy who falls in love with someone because of their shoes. It takes its time telling the story, but I have to say, it is cute.
- Alien Blues – a strange blues in a strange land. It has the sound of something in an odd time signature, but it is in four, I assure you.
- False Friended – is a rock tune about dumping Facebook, which I did.
- Nothing Further to Discuss – straight ahead blues rock with a little gospel thrown in, tells a story of bad love gone worse.
- Room for Improvement – a country waltz about having a life partner.
- Sales – a funk tune, mostly about working as a phone sales person.
- Together – salsa about monogamous hot lust.
Hope you enjoy the album. I do. 🙂
Dream
I had a dream.
I am in my old neighborhood. I go upstairs into an unfamiliar light blue building in which all the walls in the hall are light blue. I am carrying an empty white cardboard box. The top is open.
I go into one of the apartments and look around. I turn and see a woman in capris pants and a striped sweater, a little overweight, with long blonde hair. She does not see me.
I do not make or hear sounds. I have the feeling that I have trespassed. I leave the apartment and go past a row of washing machines toward tall windows where sunlight is streaming in. I seek an exit.
I turn around and see the woman, kind of far away, running down the hall toward me, but then I see she is being pulled by a toddler who pulls her joyously to the washing machines. Looking out through the window I see a very large pile of dirt and steel i-beams where a building has been demolished.
Google says this about my dream: The dream is positive. A memory from the past leads to personal growth by pointing out the need for change. I carry disappointment, but also accept what is. Indulgent assumptions of the good in others carry the potential for change. I have hope, though I do not feel I am in control and am sometimes anxious for no reason. I am reassured that my attitude toward growth and change is correct.
Fall
“… and another thing…”
Presenting my latest album. You can hear it on Bandcamp:
- Still Life – a funky take on the working man’s life. I try to get away with a little rap. Forgive me.
- No Memory – maybe hillbilly? This song is about the illusion of connection and the vanity of legacy.
- Alive – straight ahead rock tune about simply being alive and what that means, if anything.
- Life is Great – tongue-in-cheek swing take on the wonders of the physical existence.
- Acceptance – blues. Sometimes things just don’t go your way.
- Every Moment – country rock. Listen, I’m really trying to sing this one, okay? Anyway. The theme? Buddhists say two things: “Every moment is precious,” and, “Life is suffering.” Deal with it.
- Never Gonna Leave – very Rubenoff funk-rock tune about one’s stuff continuing to hang around after one’s demise. Brought the bone out for this one. Just had to be.
- Bonus Track: I See What You Do – where I take the Almighty to task for not giving the snotty little kid that I am everything I ever wanted. She hasn’t killed me yet, but there’s still “time.”
All in all a pretty sorry package of noise. I hope it doesn’t break your ears and you maybe get a smile out of it here or there. Maybe this will be available later on Spotify and other places, haven’t decided yet; costs money.
Goodbye Facebook
I enjoyed communicating with family and friends on your platform. I heard rumors about you, but until now I gave you the benefit of the doubt. But your recently revealed actions (and inactions) have hurt people I love, and literally millions of others as well. By your choices you show that you do not care about anyone. You care only for your profits.
I will no longer participate, and I hope others will join me in leaving you. Perhaps punishments await you as these new revelations are examined by governments worldwide. Perhaps not. But as an individual, I can best repay your misdeeds by ignoring you, because attention is your existence.
As of today, you no longer exist in my world.
Silent Crickets
the crickets of dawn
are silent
their evening gig complete
the cool breeze breathes goodbye to its warm love
a signal of colder times to be
I know this change
the long rich turning
color and warmth eventually giving way
to absence
in my mind’s mirror-room
I gaze backward at bygone days
seeing in these infinite reflections
only me
both ends
an hour after dawn
spring smell of trees
birds singing
street innocent of traffic
under the cloudless blue
beautiful moment
day follows
doing
trying
thinking
until spent I go
outdoors
emerging from a tomb
to walk among the flowers once more
bathed in golden rays
in every way
a beloved child
Technique
The Rubenoff Project’s new single with a “B” side on Bandcamp.
Both tunes are mainstream Project pieces – in other words the same caterwalling and growling y’all are used to.
Track one is “Can’t Say,” a song about stuff I don’t know. Needless to say it could be much, much longer than it is.
Track two is “‘S’ All On You” because it is.
Stop by and have a listen.
Me on Spotify
tomrubenoff 