Three Poster Bed

This song literally came pouring into my head one night and kept me up until I had written the whole thing.   Again, recorded on the fly in my living room.  I have my dad to thank for the inspiration.  He helped me build my three poster bed.  Happy Birthday, Dad!

Click here to download the song
--> THREE POSTER BED <--
© Erik Orton, 2010.  All rights reserved.

Don't miss the thought provoking question-of-the-day at the end of the lyrics.

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Here are the lyrics:

One day a dream popped into my head

How life would be with a three poster bred

So I hummed and hawed.  Ooed and awed.

And out popped a plan that was a bit odd.

In Between

Here's a little song I started writing at work and finished writing at home.  I like how it turned out.  I hope you do too.

In Between  <--click here to get the song

I had to record it fast, because I only had about 20 minutes of peace and quiet while Emily had the kids outside at the park.  Nothing's quite as fun as making music on the run! 

Here are the lyrics:

Got into work

Tossed down my bag

Got a drink 

And I stowed my things

I looked outside 

At the rain

I settled in

Then I looked down

There on the floor

You're little plane

A little scratched

And a little worn

But it had wings

And there's a sky

And made me think

There's so much more

The Currency of Creativity

So I came across this video while doing research for a project I'm working.  Love it!

Creative Heads  <---- Click me, click me!

(scroll down a bit to see "Creative Heads", unless you want to watch the intro video at the top)

Okay, so it's a bit of an add for a competition, but I'm okay with that.  It makes me forget my fears and makes me want to go to work and create something awesome.  My favorite bits: "failure is the currency of creativity" and "good is the enemy of great".  I think it takes a lot of failure to get to good, and then even more to push on through to great.  That's what I think.  Would love to hear what you think.

Which leads me to something I've been moodling about:  you.  Yes, you.  I want to hear from you.  Why? Because you're interesting, talented, fascinating and amazing.  I may be contacting you, but you can contact me too.  (Stop looking over your shoulder.  Yes, I'm talking to you.)  What do you have to say, show, tell, think, share?  We want to learn from you.  Why?  Because we're interested in you...    I'll look forward to the conversation.

Long May You Run

I was struck by Neil Young’s performance at the Olympic closing ceremony last night.  This mega-international-worldwide event, a massive stadium full of people, four criss-crossed obelisks with flames coming out of them as the Olympic torch, and this one guy--an old guy--with a beat up guitar and a harmonica, a creaky voice a song that truly said something, “Long My You Run”.  I’m sure he didn’t have the Olympics in mind when he wrote it, but it is great because it has endured.  It has taken on various meanings throughout the course of its life, and at the Closing Ceremonies, it cut through all the hype, clatter and clutter and went straight to the heart: the bobsledder who passed away, the athletes who won, the athletes who did not win, the history of the games, the future games in Sochi, the encouraging words to keep going in whatever it is that we are pursuing.  To keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Here are the lyrics. 

Why We Got Up Early to Go to the Movies

The alarm went off at 7:30am.  Pretty early for our household.  Showers, clothes, hair brushes, rubber bands (the hair kind), cereal, milk, shoes, socks, house keys, car keys, hats, gloves, bag-o-baby-stuff for Lily, stroller, coats, movie tickets. 

Photo by Corbis

Movie tickets?  Yes.  Movie tickets.  Today our family was waking up early to go to the movies.  Specifically, an opening day screening of Percy Jackson and the Olympians - The Lightening Thief.  This was serious business.  We were not messing around. 

Earlier in the year we were downtown and saw a billboard for said movie.  The kids went bonkers.  We stopped right there and then, took photos with the billboard in the background.  The countdown was on!  “When is President’s Day Weekend?” they asked.  “Sometime in February,” we responded.  We’d tuck that away for later.  For now it was hot, we were hungry and it was time to get back to our air conditioned car and drive home.

Well, summer turned into fall, fall turned into winter, and winter turned into President’s Day weekend.  By this time our children had finished reading the whole Percy Jackson series.  (I’d heard the first 100 pages or so read aloud on a car trip.) They’d seen all the movie trailers.  They knew all the stars.  Our two oldest had started a pod cast comparing the trailer to book.  The only question that remained was, “When can we see it?”  I was ambivalent.

Flying

So here's the song I wrote in the Albuquerque Airport:

Flying

I recorded it in my living room a few nights later after I'd gotten back to NYC. It was late. Traffic was quiet outside, Emily was reading a magazine and the kids were asleep.

3 Things I Learned from Being Kicked Out of the House by My Wife

I wasn't going to go.  My film was being screened at the LDS Film Festival on Thursday night, but I'd vacilated too long.  I didn't want to take more time off from work.  Our daughter's birthday party was that weekend.  Airfare was now fairly expensive.  But my wife, Emily, emailed me at work:  "Just go.  I'll send you pictures of the birthday party.  There's high inflation on regret.  Buy a ticket and I'll see you Sunday or Monday.  I love you."  So I bought a ticket Wednesday night at 8pm.  8am the next morning I was taking off from LaGuardia on my way to Salt Lake City.  (She even got up at 6am to give me a ride to the airport.  That's love!)  Here are some things I learned on my way:

1.  Don't fight it.  Let the magic happen.
2.  Everyone uses the bathroom.
3.  Mellow music makes many things possible.