Archive for January, 2012

A Song Called “Lioness”

Tuesday, January 31st, 2012

Ward with The EDs at the Pub I wanted to record The EDs (MiLES FRoM CLEVeR’s acoustic duo) so I purchased an Audiobox USB and the Studio Pro software that comes with it. It’s pretty user friendly and has a lot of features, including a bunch I haven’t tapped into yet. Anyway, I woke up one weekend morning during the holidays and had a riff in my head, sort of a “4+20″ kind of thing. It blossomed into a song that I’m calling “Lioness.” I’m not sure exactly what I was going for with the lyrics, although I love the word combinations, maybe something about strong women flourishing in spite of adversities.

The rough demo can be heard here.

And here are the lyrics:

The wind holds all opinions to itself as it rolls through
The shift in the direction is the only thing that’s true
Let go of tomorrow and it might soon fall behind
The thunder in the distance mirrors echoes of the mind

So breathe in; the heartbeat is the cadence of our sins

Head across the mountain through the darkness down below
The path is laid clear by the steps of those who fell before
The sun and moon don’t judge time; they’re above to show the way
Reach to the horizon and you’ll capture it one day
And just shine on . . .

Fiction won’t become real through desire or force of will
Running faster makes the pain of trying greater still
The pride will judge the jury and just revel in the state
Living’s mostly learning tricks around accepting fate

So breathe in; the heartbeat is the cadence of our sins

Head across the mountain through the darkness down below
The path is laid clear by the steps of those who fell before
The sun and moon don’t judge time; they’re above to show the way
Reach to the horizon and you’ll capture it one day
And just shine on . . .

I plan on debuting the song during The EDs performance in Leonardtown as part of “First Friday” on February 3. (No lead break or bongos, though.)

Ward on C-SPAN

Wednesday, January 11th, 2012

If you missed the C-SPAN Q&A show last Sunday night you can still see it here.

Ward on C-SPAN Sunday, January 8

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012

Ward on C-SPAN

Ward will be on C-SPAN’s “Q&A” program this Sunday (Jan. 8) at 8 and 11 PM talking with host Brian Lamb about the state of today’s military.  See more about the show here.

Resolutions 2012

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012

Obviously I’ve been ignoring this blog for a year and a half . . . ever since I got back from Afghanistan.  I blame the ease and functionality of Facebook for that . . . but that’s a lame excuse.   As a result, this year my resolution is to maintain a more persistent presence here.

2012 should be a year ripe for picking in terms of random thoughts and impressions what with the election, the economy, the shrinking defense budget, and the olympics in the mix.

In the meantime, Happy New Year.