'Oumuamua

Several weeks ago a very unusual object was discovered. First thought to be a comet from the outer reaches of the solar system, it was found to not really be either one: it didn't show any cometary activity (and was thus an asteroid), and its orbit was clearly hyperbolic (and this it wasn't from our solar system but from a different solar system).  This spurred a whole lot of interest and excitement from the small bodies community, and a whole lot of people writing up papers about their results and ideas.

I didn't want to be left out of the fun. I had an idea that I thought might make an interesting paper, but I found the idea had already been tackled by some smart folks.  So I thought maybe I'd write a song instead.

With that, here's the song about the object, which has been named 'Oumuamua:
'Oumuamua (solo demo)

Live in Provo!

For the third consecutive year the Division of Planetary Sciences meeting, our professional society, held and Open Mic Night. And for the third consecutive year I performed. I opened the first two shows, this time I was the last act before the finale. I used my smartphone to record my set, and after very light editing I'm including three of the songs below.  Enjoy! :)

When Doves Cry
One Week In Provo
The Waiting 

Hashtag Leave Me Alone

I've had very little time to pick my guitar lately, which is too bad. However, I'm starting to think it may be time to start recording again.

In that spirit, here's a very recent one of mine for you. It's still a work in progress.  It may be way too lyrically gimmicky to be any good, but at least it's fun. :)

Hashtag Leave Me Alone

Asteroid Day 2017!!

So, hey.  It's Asteroid Day.  There's a UN Resolution and everything. I study asteroids for a living, but since this is my music/poetry blog I figure I should point to that here.

Music-wise, The Gedankenband and I have put out a few asteroid-related songs:
Sing A Song Of Ceres (from This Is My Circus, These Are My Monkeys)
Down on Vesta (from Local Technique)
Marco Polo (for a nearly-successful ESA asteroid mission proposal)
The MANTIS Song (for an asteroid mission concept we've been working on)


Since 2012 I've mostly done astropoetry for National Poetry Writing Month. I've done a slew of asteroid-related poems, I'll just pick out a few below to point to, and apologize for any broken image links:

The Keyhole Is Open (2012)
Part of Something Larger (2013)
Unreflective and Blue? (2013)
The Waterless Beach (2013)
Children of the Fire God (2014)
Code Names (2014)
Working Scenarios (2015)
Light Is A Bully (2016)
What Not To Expect (2016)
The Farm-Sized Asteroid (2017)

Enjoy!  :)

When U Were Mine

A year ago today, Prince passed away.  It was the middle of National Poetry Writing Month, and while I marked his passing on Twitter by pointing to a Prince song I recorded in 2011, I didn't do anything here.

This year I seem to be posting poems to Twitter (at least for now), and I figured I should give him a tiny amount of his due here. So, I pounded out this Prince-penned classic, which was probably better known as a Cyndi Lauper song until it appeared on Prince's Hits album set.

RIP.

When U Were Mine

The Annual NaPoWriMo Post, 2017

So!

I'm about to do a bunch of travel--indeed, I'm writing this from an airport lounge.  However, April is about to begin, and that means National Poetry Writing Month. I've been doing this since 2010, and writing an intro post each year. For the last several years I've been doing space poetry specifically. This year, I'm going to do whatever my mood suggests.

For this year's intro post, I'm mostly just going to point to the intro posts from previous years. Have at, and please join me (and my poetry posse) in writing!

2010 NaPoWriMo Post
2011 NaPoWriMo Post
2012 NaPoWriMo Post
2013 NaPoWriMo Post
2014 NaPoWriMo Post
2015 NaPoWriMo Post
2016 NaPoWriMo Post