News

Another Night of Tears

April 17, 2023

Words and Music by Willi Brown

I’ve been working all day long sometimes I forget
I have not deserved you since long before we met
We’ll make up for lost time someday in our golden years
But first we’ll have to make it through one more night of tears

The radio in the kitchen playing songs we used to know
Like highways moving backward to places we can’t go
We were perfect for each other we eased each others fears
We never minded holding on through one more night of tears

Funny how that trust got started, funny how our love was made
But I stopped laughing once I saw that trust begin to fade

Now each of us has a private life that the other doesn’t know
And generosity moved away from our house long ago
Yes now we have our own lives our dream has disappeared
We cannot help each other through another night of tears

 

Memory is that this was written around 1993, either in Omaha or Nashville, shortly after a divorce. So, yeah, it’s a divorce song but mostly fictional. Probably as close as I could get to the feel of John Prine’s “Angel from Montgomery”.

Evolución (safe after dark)

April 9, 2023
acoustik version

Words and Music by Willi Brown

I introduce myself
in a modernly sensitive way
but I can’t help but feel
hypocritical…
because i want you

(and respect you beautiful) 

But I don't want you to be bugged honey 
 
and a-think i'm just a-hittin' on you 

i think it's a drag that a girl don't feel... 

Safe. After. Dark.

    {Evolution seems like a failure}

    A six pack of pride swallowed tonight
    when i spoke to you / at the slam dance
    it’s always our job to make the first move
    and buy the flowers

    Chorus

    Nah know I’m not your Jesus Christ
    and he ain’t no axe muderer neither
    I ain’t the cream of the wheat / or the cream of the crop

    I’m just confused!

    Memory is that this was written in Seattle around 1994 when I was going to the Crocodile cafe every other night to drink and hit on girls. After reading an article in the Stranger (some feminist propoganda thing *jk*) I wrote these words in a cheap spiral.

    Dub This!

    December 29, 2022

    Clint Eastwood from Gorillaz, is the anthem of this century Putin trump be damned.

    Call me decadence but this multiculti cats out the bag. We are earthlings.

    On n Off icial

    This is the century we monkies transcend this planet and save it. First we must transcend our nations, tribes and solid sense of self.

    Think about it. When you show up to represent your school or town or country (or earth) you are so full. Joy. Identity. Purpose. Autonomy. Mastery. Love.

    Saved by Station 11

    August 1, 2022

    July was the cruelest month in 22. On the day after Independence Day, I was in a café when she finally called me back. It had been two days of silence. Though I assumed that she was coming home to me that day. But instead, her new man left a message on my phone saying tthat she did not like conflict and hey were going to Europe next week to get married and that he was sorry.

    Fast-forward a few weeks and much drama and alcohol later… One night before bed scrolling through arts news in some publication, I caught a brief review of the latest work by Emily St. John Mandel. And knew right away I had possibly, finally, discovered a special writer. Someone to add to that shelf of favorites before I had even read a single line.

    And tonight probably not even 25% of the way through Station 11, I felt so good that I wanted to stop and message her on Instagram immediately. And tell her all about how this was connecting with me in my life. And how brilliant the last couple of pages were, how poetic, thrilling, how much like film, painting, and amazing embrace…

    So there Emily, you’ve touched me in the heart. We have fenced, you might say, touché!

    Earlier this afternoon while working on a three letter spot in a crossword puzzle, I came across an intriguing clue: “The tongue of the mind…”, Cervantes.

    Frankenstein Dances

    Genuine Heart of Sadness

    August 30, 2021

    Elvis Came Home Today Word Jazz Dub Tribute

    a few years ago 2013 to be frank
    in San Francisco fall weather is like summer
    and thinking about the state of things
    culture environment
    and surfing the web late one night
    mashing up things on photoshop
    he emerged…
    thrust hips on his toes
    the abandon of the arms
    his serious face

    So this weekend it felt like time to print and frame. Enjoy!

    Prints are available: $66 for 12×24, $99 for 24×36.

    Double Dub

    December 29, 2020
    Double Dub avec beatz

    Seems everybody is just too stunned to look back
    And the look-ahead holds just a mountain of graveyard black
    Yet my watch tells me I got an appointment in the morning
    I don’t need a needle to tell me – morning may never come

    When this year started I said the ’19 can go to hell
    Something didn’t die but it would’ve been just as well
    I got the penalty box for riding out there into harm’s way
    …pain’s easier to face with an option to look away

    *
    They say it always gets better baby
    but I think I’ll just pass
    You can take double dub (2020) and…
    tattoo my ass

    There was friendship for days and a mountain of golden sunshine
    People coming together singing “Time’s up!“ all down the line
    But then the Suits with the news, they started dumping their shares
    Controlling the story so the people would be unawares

    So we had a paranoid spring and summer confusion kicked in
    And the rich got so richer and casualties kept pouring in
    Yeah the West Coast was burning and cops kept murdering black men
    Yeah the west kept burning and cops kept murdering black women

    *
    They say it always gets better
    but baby I think I’ll just pass
    You can take double dub
    And tattoo my ass

    Tired of surviving dog eat dogging all day?
    Consumer cellular Netflix those thoughts all away
    Comfort is killer, sugar always comes with a price
    It’s time to take two the hard way first let me add us some spice

    *
    They say it always gets better
    but baby I think I’ll just pass
    You can take double dub
    And tattoo my ass

    It can always get worse
    I can’t breathe … the past
    Don’t call it 2020
    I can’t see through all this ash

    They say it always gets better
    but baby I think I’ll just pass
    You can take double dub
    And tattoo my ass … goodbye 👋

    Woman cries for help at body of man shot by National Guard at Kent State
    Double Dub spoke.word

    under ball

    February 7, 2019

    life’s strange now / packing for australya /

    drather head for yosemite / get lost frost bite /

    sigh white privilege packs / startup biz trip /

    like disney / strange acid tools /

    all corporate now / rollerball 3000 /

    suck it and see /

    the bar

    March 31, 2018

    we humans   scurry…
    from commodity to place
    to consume & waste
    & develop             more desire
    then repeat the cycle / then repeat the cycle
    hunting
    hungry
    for the next / for the next
    ice cream bar     whiskey bar
    beyond the bar
    to a place
    of seeing

    the desire arise
    slowing the film
    curious
    seeing
    even deeper
    but not
    “biting the hook”

     

     

    (march 2017 santa rosa)