Through the looking-glass, eh? Trickier than it sounded at first. Here's what I came up with, though. See what you think.
Infinity Bar & Grill
[v1]
Six miles north on the Mobius Strip
to the Infinity Bar & Grill.
Pay the ant at the door with a generous tip
then come in and have your fill.
Get a tankard of time, or a bottle of space,
Let the notion of lime put a smile on your face,
and spin yarns about the moonshine,
'til Achilles wins the race.
[ch]
At the Infinity Bar & Grill,
you can lose all sense of mine,
In a zero-indexed world,
there's a ten within the nine.
So when gravity weighs you down,
like the core of a singularity,
strike north on the mobius strip,
and revel in hilarity.
[v2]
The sounds all look like daisy-chains
at the Infinity Bar & Grill,
And you'll find it's tricky to refrain
from the lightning in the swill.
The air smells blue, the words are red,
And the quirky bar-keep has no head,
but he'll tell you how he lost it,
riding shotgun in the rain.
[v3]
You can't stay there forever, now
at the Infinity Bar & Grill.
You wouldn't want to anyhow,
unless you're standing really still.
The bust of Bach will take you home,
as lemmings frolic in the foam,
In twenty-seven minutes,
you'll put your hand back to the plow.
[ch]
At the Infinity Bar & Grill,
you can lose all sense of mine,
In a zero-indexed world,
there's a ten within the nine.
So when gravity weighs you down,
like the core of a singularity,
strike north on the mobius strip,
and revel in hilarity.
Thanks,
-- Scratch 8)
-- Scratch 8)
"...if heartaches were commercials, we'd all be on TV" -- John Prine
42
This is just bizzare... it reminded me of Douglas Adams... he has a title something like "The Restaurant at the end of the universe". Which Im sure you know aobut and have read.. I ahvent read it and therefore don't know if you were writing on that or just creating this on your own. ither way. Good writing as usual Scratch. Depending on how you perform this one (what style etc.) it might be a mouthful in parts. But if you did it fairly standard folk it'd work.
Andrew Delaney & The Horse You Rode In On ---> http://www.myspace.com/andrewdelaney
You can and should buy my album "Scoundrels!" in mp3 format on amazon.com or iTunes etc...
bizarre was a good word to describe this;) don't know if I understood all of it the right way but I think it's good:)
taking the risk I might sound very foolish, but...what exactly do you mean with "zero-indexed world"? that there's nothing in it?or that the things existing within that world aren't listed, identified(in an index)?
"a ten within a nine"?impossibillities becoming possible?
I love "riding shotgun in the rain"(though again the real meaning of shotgun, for it seems to be used as a verb here, is not that clear to me, does it just want to say he was shot while riding through the rain?or does it mean he had to ride in the rain?shotgun wedding...now that makes no sense at all, sorry :wink: )
the more I read it the more I like your song, it's in fact great:)
best,
bluenightangel
"oh, eventually it will break your heart" - anders wendin
Hi bluenightangel,
I'll explain those two phrases, but fair warning, -- they probably still won't make much sense. In fact, you might enjoy it more by not knowing! Anyways, here you go:
Zero - indexed world.
zero indexing simply means you start counting with zero, instead of one. So:
00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 ...
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 ...
In a zero-index array of integers, the 9th element of the array would contain the integer 10. It's off-by-one. So if the whole world were zero-indexed, everything would be off - by - one. Or, almost, but not quite where you expect it to be.
Riding shotgun in the rain.
Riding shotgun means riding in the front of the vehicle, next to the driver. In modern vehicles, it's the front passengers seat. The term derives from the pioneer days in the U.S. when travelling by stage-coach was very common. There was usually a driver, who drove the horses, and next to him was someone holding a shotgun, who kept an eye out for bad guys. That position became known as "riding shotgun." It was his job to keep the other passeners or cargo safe.
But in the song, I just threw it in for meter and rhyme.
Marv,
I have read that book. (It's a great read, too) After Adams died, his publisher released the whole "Hitchhikers" series in a single volume. I didn't have that restaurant in mind when I wrote this, but no doubt it influenced the writing on some level. Probably. Anyways, glad you liked it.
-- Scratch 8)
-- Scratch 8)
"...if heartaches were commercials, we'd all be on TV" -- John Prine
42
hello scratch.
thank you for your explanations:)
never would have guessed the true meaning of riding shotgun...but it's quite beautiful. I like such 'old' expressions with a history...Ian tought us some of those(splice the mainbrace, swing a led...) when we were in England but only with a dictionary most of this stuff is hard to figure out.
thx
bluenightangel
"oh, eventually it will break your heart" - anders wendin
