Blog

  • Something to remember

    Walking is a kind of dance.
    Dancing is the only way to move.
    (this from my 6-year-old back when she was a 4-or-5-year-old.)

  • x-post: Meet the Brando

    John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and the late-great Marlon Brando all are hanging out over at Monkey Vortex Radio Theater. You know, just kinda…kickin’ it. Shouldn’t you?
    Listen in on their private conversation in the latest MVRT episode, appropriately enough entitled John, Paul, and Brando. Plus: John, Paul, and Brando, “Tangy Brie” Remix!

  • Double Agent of Love, instrumental

    Here’s an instrumental thang that I’ve been noodling around with for the last week or so.
    It goes kinda like this: da da da da, da da da — blinnngggg, da da da. Oh, ya know, it’s a wee thing. Hardly even a meg. Why not just download the tune fer yourself and hear this haunting melody the way it was meant to be heard? — with sounds….
    Press Play to play.
    playtime:1:03
    file specs: just south of 1MB mp3
    Breaking news: Lyrics for Double Agent of Love are currently being developed by a small but well-trained army of underpaid worthsmithies working under the watchful eye and toe-tapping heel of xian. Look for the altogether vocalized version, coming (fairly) soon to a cecilvortex.com near you.

  • Highway Five

    I walk into the restroom
    and there are these two guys in
    there and it already stinks
    and they look at me like
    I did something wrong
    and I’m thinking hey —
    I just got here and then
    one of them leaves and then
    the other one leaves
    so now I’m all alone for
    like two-and-a-half heartbeats
    and then some new guy comes in —
    some third guy, or fourth, really,
    if you count me, and he’s
    walking right in, through that same door
    and he’s looking at me
    like I did something wrong
    and I’m thinking damn.
    I mean damn. I’m spending
    altogether too much time
    in this stinky bathroom.

  • Second Hand Rose

    As a follow up to our smash hit Bye Bye, Blackbird, here’s the second in a continuing series of occasional piano/vocal jazz standards plucked from bygone days. This time, we’re headed all the way back to 1921 for Second Hand Rose,” written by Grant Clarke and James F. “the F stands for foot pedal, sonny, and don’t you forget it” Hanley.
    This track features lead vocals by eb (of Clowney fame) and and lead German-style vocals by Eileen Dahl (of Love fame).
    playtime:1:07
    file specs: roughly 1MB mp3
    Thanks for listening…

  • Bedtime

    She slept in the bed
    while he slept on the couch
    so he could hear their sick daughter
    and her three-day-old cough.
    And in the morning
    while she moved around the kitchen
    and the kids watched too-loud TV
    and coughed a little more,
    he crept back into the bed,
    curled up in the body warmth
    she’d left behind
    and they slept together
    separated
    only by time.

  • x-post: and the bar and the clowney of it all

    A new episode is now available for easy-downloading good times, over at MVRT. Clowney marks a bit of a milestone in two ways:
    It’s our 10th segment, so to all those doubters who said “they’ll never have 10 segments,” I say: hah! look! 10 segments!
    It’s also our shortest piece yet, clocking in at just around one minute/one meg, offering bite-sized audio entertainment, just right for today’s on-the-go monkey. This one’s written by someone claiming to be named “Cecil Vortex” and it stars the redoubtable EB. Belly up to the bar, here.

  • Here’s one from the heart

    Yes.
    Yes I am on a cell phone.
    You’re right about that.
    And I’m driving. Yes I am. I’m driving at the same time.
    I’m on a cell phone right now. And I’m driving. Yes. At the same time. Yes.
    And screw you too.

  • The Web’s Leading Authority on “Exotic Bird Parks” in “Utah”

    Scanning the site’s traffic log tonight I learned two incredible facts:
    (1) Because of a pair of lines in a pair of poems… if you search “exotic bird parks” and “Utah” in Google, not only is cecilvortex.com the first choice you get, cecilvortex.com is the only choice you get.
    Amazing!
    (2) Somebody — some actual human being — appears to have actually searched for “exotic bird parks” and “Utah” on Google and then clicked through to this site.
    And!: Not only is all this true, but it’s a genuine double-true fact that my writing about this whole thing — right now! will only reinforce cecilvortex.com’s dominant position in this space.
    Now I have to say, it’s not like this is anything I ever really aspired to. I mean, it wasn’t part of my master plan when cecilvortex.com started up or anything. But of course, now that I’m here, now that I’ve arrived, I plan to hold on like grim death.
    So for this magical moment and for the foreseeable future, also magical, if you’ve come here in search of information regarding exotic bird parks in Utah, let me just say:
    Welcome home.
    In somewhat related news, and I know pretty soon it’s gonna start to sound like I’m bragging but… it appears that cecilvortex.com is also the number two (and perhaps soon, number one…?) Google result for “he peed in me.” Triple-true that. Check for yourself, if you dare.
    All in all, I feel like I finally have a small feel for what it must be like to be Spider Man. The challenge now, if I can loosely paraphrase Ben Parker, is to find a way to use this awesome power for good.

  • x-post: MVRT – and the marriage and the sketchbook of it all

    New episode up on today’s MVRT Marriage is part of a continuing series from writer, illustrator, publisher, and dimensional contortionist Tony Jonick. Take yourself a two-minute 29 second journey to the icy border between East and West here.