The Longest Journey

Here is another project I'm currently working on, a steampunk style clockwork and gear pocket watch.

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Here is a sneak preview of an art display that I've been working on for a while now, that hopefully shall be ready for exhibition soon.

With all the block buster super hero movies that have been coming out in the last few years, comic books and the whole "costumed crusader" concept have never been more main stream or in the public consciousness.

So I decided to take a look at what it would be like if all those super heroes were real (or at least thought they were) and acted the way they do in the comics in our world.

Each item in the display will be accompanied by a caption similar to the one below, told from the perspective of a "regular" person with a slight penchant for kleptomania...who just might be hallucinating the whole thing.

This project is being done in mind as an affectionate parody and points out just how absurd some of the stories get in context with the real world. Don't get me wrong, I love comics, and the well of creativity the genre has awakened in so many people in all walks of life. Even if a person doesn't particularly like the genre, there is no denying the impact it has had on modern society.

For anyone interested in actual real life superheroes, may I suggest you check out "The Real Life Superhero Project".
The people involved and profiled aren't crazy (well..ok some of them may be a couple cards short of a full deck) but each and every one of them is striving to make a very real difference in the world. All of them were inspired by the heroes of modern lore, and each and every one of them is a hero in their own right. http://www.reallifesuperheroes.com/about/

Greeting folks!

Here is the first in a new series featuring elementals and instruments!

Enjoy!

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A few days ago I was listening to music on my computer, when iTunes surprised me by randomly playing a couple of the songs from an old album project that I recorded a few years ago with some dear friends.

I've had both of these recordings sitting in a folder on my desktop gathering digital dust for a few years now, and I decided it was high time I shared them with the world.

I grabbed a few of my photographs that fit the songs and put together a couple of simple videos featuring them which now reside on my Youtube Channel along with my last fall release of "Tribute to the Bagman"


So it gives me great pleasure to present to you the following two pieces.

The first is an old Irish-Canadian Folk Song called "The Greenfields of Canada" which details the harsh life and voyages of Irish settlers who crossed the Atlantic looking for a better way of life at the end of the 19th and early 20th Centuries. Life was harsh and many died, the Irish were treated as 3rd Class citizens along with the Chinese, Africans, Polish and many other immigrant families.

You can read more about the struggle many of the immigrant families faced here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_immigration
And here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Irish_Famine

Here are the performance credits:




The second recording is near and dear to my heart, as while it sounds a bit rough around the edges, that was because it was recorded in a single take, on a creaky old piano in my basement, and was the first time I really got a chance to perform with a very talented pair of ladies whom I am still good friends with to this day.

The person coaxing the melody out of that creaky old piano is the lovely Sora (http://soramusic.ca)  
who's ethereal voice you heard singing "Greenfields of Canada" above. 

The person singing the haunting melody is Vanessa Cardui (http://www.vanessacardui.ca), whom I have mentioned in the past, and who I consider to be one of the finest musicians I've ever had the pleasure to work with. It was her nimble fingers that played both the guitar and mandolin during the "Greenfields" recording.

The maudlin flute played in the background was done by yours truly on my old silver orchestral flute, and I do consider my contribution to both recordings to be the least. It was Sora and Vanessa that made both come alive, I was really just along for the ride.

Both recordings were mixed by Nick Stoll of Grendel's Left Arm Recording Studio, as excellent a sound engineer as I've ever come across.

I do hope you enjoy both of them.



For those wishing to hear more of Sora and Vanessa, I've included a few links to some of their other works:

For Sora, from the album "Heartwood":

The titular song: "Heartwood"



and a personal favorite mine a live performance of  "Children of Lir"




And from Vanessa's Debut solo album "Thought Experiment" her song "When Poetry Fails",  "Before She Falls Asleep", "It All Winds Up in the Glass" and "Invocation"




As well as from Vanessa and Nick's band HeroIncredible the cult hit Dragonslayer.





I hope you enjoy all of these songs as much as I do, and if you do, be sure to visit Vanessa, Sora and Nick's respective websites and tell them so!

Cheers,

Loclif

Stream of Consciousness

Water hit my face and it was if I was standing in the stream of consciousness.

Threatening to be pulled away as thoughts rushed by me like so many shattered glistening drops of moisture.

To fast for me to understand, to many for me to do nothing but hold on for dear life and watch.

For that one brief instance I glimpsed the threads that bind us, drive us, pull us forward.

I marveled at long forgotten discoveries, for a moment returned to the light, only to slip away again.

The ageless voice of a chant on the wind, the shriek of a preacher perched on a pulpit.

The harmony of universal order hand in hand with the chaos of creativity.

The brush of a long ago lover's lips on my cheek, a hand in my hair, a shuddered breath and a sigh in the darkness.

I laughed on the brink of madness and genius, yet I could grasp at neither, as each slipped through my fingers like so much liquid gold.

Through it all I held my footing and would not be swept away.

I don't recall the wonders I glimpsed, I did see them. I can taste their memory. The very essence of what was, and what will be.

The droplets fall from my body, shed like so many discarded thoughts, each more precious then the last.

I am exhausted, exhilarated and torn.

My mind still floats on the edge of that stream, a single droplet that formed a dream.

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This is why I work nights.

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....or at least The Huffington Post.

A Poem by: Loclif
(I tried to set it as close to the classic theme from the 80's as I could get it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6j8EiWIVZs )

Butterfly in the sky
Twitter flies twice as high
I sent the first tweet, thought it was neat
LeVar had
@ReadingRainbow

Hours passed on by
I saw that I had a reply
"Hi..." was all it said, from LeVar it read
@ReadingRainbow

The Internet can do anything!
By ones and twos, my followers grew
From my tweet
@ReadingRainbow

I wondered why,
Then saw a retweet by
The HuffPost Celeb guy
@ReadingRainbow

-They wrote about
- and singled me out
-As the person who
-Out of the blue
- Gave him (LeVar)
@ReadingRainbow

I'm glad he has
@ReadingRainbow
But I didn't give i--
@ReadingRainbow!
I never ha-
@ReadingRainbow!

~...ok you can stop now...
@ReadingRainbow!

~....Please?
@ReadingRainbow!!

~..LeVar?
@ReadingRainbow!!!

~Anybody?
@ReadingRainbow!!!!

~I'm going to go stand over here...

@ReadingRainbooooooooooow!!!!!!!!


~....*sigh*
------------------------------------------------

But you don't have to take my word for it!

Here is the article in question that started this all:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/01/levar-burton-reading-rainbow-twitter_n_1247129.html?1328117660

 

I know the poem isn't great, but it was really the only way I could think of to try and clear up the situation after my tweets went unheeded/unnoticed.

As much as I would love to be able to claim that I got to give @Readingrainbow back to LeVar, I can't take credit for something I didn't do.

All I did was send a congratulatory tweet....all LeVar said in return was "Hi"...the Internet works in mysterious ways. I'm still wondering how that was translated into "Thank you for giving me this, oh random fan from the blue!" by the Huffington Post Celeb writer...

Either way, anyone who reads this should head over to http://www.rrkidz.com/ and give LeVar their support for the relaunch of Reading Rainbow.

Thanks, for reading.

Loclif.

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While My Guitar Gently Weeps by *loclif on deviantART

Well actually I just got a hardware upgrade...

Huzzah for High Res photos now!

Here is the last piece of art I did on my old phone.

Happy Year of the Dragon!

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A teaser for my next upcoming major project...


Shallot by *loclif on deviantART