Mike Marlin – Whale Hill
Beautiful things are always made more interesting by some terrible event that has rendered them useless. Would you rather visit a palace that’s still being haunted by royalty, or one in the desert, near Kabul, that’s had holes planted in it?
And, if you’re still here after that statement, and in agreement with my logic, you’ll also have to back me up on the idea that there’s bound to be a lot of richly decorated, soon-to-be-deserted buildings propping up the tourism industry of currently wealthy nations.
We wait for those wrecks with fainted breath. But what if others are waiting for the wrecks of our own civilisation, for that chance to write a great bestseller telling alien races how it all went wrong for us poor Earthlings? That is, believe it or not, an idea obsessing someone else, namely songwriter Mike Marlin.
The world’s a little frightening when you can look at it from afar, or, at least, ridiculous enough to make you smile. Marlin’s bittersweet “Whale Hill” is a song about great potential lost and hidden away by the merciless waves of time. While most rock n’ roll is about living in the moment, “Whale Hill” is about what it’d be like to cut to the chase and be allowed to see the future.
Orange Doors – Gizmo Gadget
I was never given the opportunity to speak to a career counsellor in my youth, and I blame the powers that be for that omission every day. Still, I can only dream that if asked honestly about what I wanted to do, and encouraged to be truthful, I’d convey one of my dreams. It so happens that I’m sitting on a street corner dressed up as a clown and playing a trumpet through a wah-wah pedal while break dancing.
Can that be a career? Well, that sort of thing happens to depend on how many people you get to agree to the fact that it can. Now, I’ve told this dream to countless friends and strangers, and all seem to agree that they’d be on board for some of that streetcorner Miles Davis action, as well. Why all the enthusiasm for this made-up profession? Because it sounds like you’re cheating both life and death with one wah-wah-powered trumpet solo.
Cheating life, and laughing in the face of death, are also on the minds of Orange Doors, I think. This is a band that sounds like it’s having a good time, especially when it confounds expectations and elicits feverish chin scratching. However, they are not immune to the strain of the real world. “Gizmo Gadget” is a song about expectations and anxiety. “How can you be more? When’s the deadline, and when’s the follow-up going to be ready?” Don’t worry, Orange Doors! Redemption is one trumpet solo on a street corner away!
