Month: May 2025

New Lyric – The Silent Hour

This is the first song of the Spellbound project that was mainly written by Martin. In fact when we recorded it, it was just him singing and strumming along on guitar with no other instruments. My new version follows that arrangement. The feel is a sad and beautiful folk ballad, although played on an electric guitar. Very stark. The subject is about how winter is a kind of death of the world, maybe even a gateway to another realm, told from the point of view of a guiding spirit offering a choice of returning. This was probably the first song Martin wrote to completion and worked up to perform. His writing was full of deep and surprising imagery from the beginning.

…

The Silent Hour

Hello, I’m glad you made it here tonight
With your creased and folded paper body
And eyes still shining bright
Relax, you’re one of us now
Join us in this inner circle embrace the silent hour

And you see how the wind can blow at night
Opens your eyes to the dreaming silver starry sight
And now you know why the winter comes our way
Giving freedom to the souls too tired from the day

Away, you’re time is rushing by
Like freezing water thru your fingers
Or softness from the sky
I know, the child has gone away
But if your heart can’t bear to follow I will let you stay

And now you know that pain can make you cry
Smiling eyes and sadness in you for all of us must die
And now you see what makes the winter cold
All those payin’ must leave the fold
A goal to make them old

Arise, the leaving time is near
To take it from this fading world
The wish that brought you here
Goodbye, the story now is told
Lay your head upon the snow and let your body fold

And now you see the pains you used to fear
Closes your eyes to the dreaming leaving with the year
And you know you’re one us now
Listen to the world sleeping listen and embrace
Listen to the world sleeping listen and embrace the silent hour

— Martin Szinger, 1990

Summertime Blues

It was a fairly low key long weekend. Traditionally Memorial Day kicks of the summer, but the weather has been mainly cold and rainy again.  Sunday it got up to 65 and cloudy, and Monday was 70 and partly sunny, so at least we had a little barbecue.  Jeannie and I went for a bike ride on the local trail.  This time I did sixteen miles in an hour and ten minutes.  My time does not seem to be improving much.

Mostly we spent the weekend catching up on our rest after all our travels, and doing random tasks. Michelle bought some new furniture, mainly bookshelves, and I help her set them up.  She’s acquired a fairly extensive comic book collection in college, so I’ve been reading some classic X-Men comics such as The Dark Phoenix Saga.  I’d forgotten how much then they are.  Also I put a new battery in the Mustang because it wouldn’t start.  Now it’s happily running again.  And of course trimming the shrubbery and other yardwork.

Most years this time of year I put together a new playlist for summer backyard hanging out.  This year I think the theme will be my Top 40 Favorite Prog Rock Songs.  Fewer songs than usual, but it’ll probably be just as long.

One longstanding task I finally got around to was a video tutorial for an origami event I’ll being doing with CFC this fall.  The model is my Semi-Sunken Icosahedron.  I practiced folding it a couple times and really drilled down on the details to perfect the folding sequence.  I’m pretty happy with the resulting model, and the video.  This also got me back into doing origami, which I haven’t really done much of in the past year.  It’s a good thing too, cuz there’s a convention coming up soon, and I’d like to have something new to teach and exhibit.

Continuing to defrag my studio.  I’m up to the last major task: sifting thru and consolidating my many old boxes of origami.  I’m throwing out alot of stuff, but also finding lots of cool ideas and works-in-progress I’d largely forgotten about.

I don’t have my drum mics plugged into my new DAC yet, but I’ve gotten up to rough mixes for the first batch of four tunes on the Spellbound project.  I’ll be sharing those soon.  Meanwhile, up next is another lyric.

New Lyric – Sandcastle Kingdom

Here’s the lyric for the next song on the forthcoming record Spellbound.  This is another one of “my” songs, with the lyric and arrangement mainly by me, as well as the singing on the original track.  This one is basically a power ballad, which is a style I don’t really write in anymore.  I don’t remember much about writing it, other than not being totally satisfied with either the lyric or the chord progression at the time.  Listening back now, I think both hold up quite well.  Thematically, it’s about longing and yearning for the future, like alot of the songs on the record.  Musically I seem to recall trying to work in some jazz chords but never really finding a place for them. There’s a pretty cool lift from G major to E7 in the middle that made the final cut.

…

Sandcastle Kingdom

Passing time
But somehow I don’t seem to mind
As if I had some time to spare
Never a day left to share
With you but why then don’t I care I’m getting left behind?

Once long ago
Although now you’d never know
I held the flame that burned so bright
It lit the sky up in the night
But then somehow I lost the light I wonder where’d it go?

[guitar solo]

Loose your dreams
It’s not as painful as it seems
Imagination all dried up
Fought the fight and gave it up
Waiting for a change of luck to open some new streams

Well they might have been castles I built inside my head
Seemed real enough when I lay dreaming in their bed
But as a change of the tide will wash old sands away
The time to build new ones comes with a new day

Gone a year
But now I feel the time is here
Don’t wanna put my faith in fate
You know there’s not much more I’ll wait
Because tonight is growing late tomorrow’s drawing near

— John Szinger 1990

Life is a Series of Hellos and Goodbyes

Just got back from a road trip up to Buffalo, for Michelle’s graduation from college.  She got a Bachelor of Civil Engineering, and has a job lined up starting in a couple weeks working on train bridges in the Bronx.  We’re all very proud and she is quite psyched.  Now she’s moving back in with us for the summer and maybe beyond. 

We did a few things on the trip.  Jeannie and I left New York on Wednesday night and drove up to Ithaca, so we we could do some hiking on Thursday.  We picked a hike called Buttermilk Falls, which was quite scenic, and the weather was perfect, sunny and warm, after a long run of cold and rainy days.  We arrived in Buffalo Thursday evening and went out dinner with Lizzy and Josh, and met Josh’s parents Rita and Ryan.  They’re very nice people and we all got on well; it was alot of fun.  It seems like this means Lizzy and Josh are getting pretty serious. He just graduated with a second degree, and tomorrow they’re going on vacation together.  I wonder if he’s gonna propose to her soon. 

Friday we kinda had a day off.  Jeannie and I went to the Buffalo Botanical Gardens, a place I’d heard of but never been before.  It’s a 19th century greenhouse modeled after the famous Crystal Palace of Victorian London, all glass with great domes and galleries.  Lots of tropical jungle and desert plants, palms and cacti, and an impressive array of carnivorous plants.  Afterwards we went up the Michelle’s apartment to help her pack and bring some things back to Orchard Park.  That evening we met up with Larry and Jackie for the Hamburg Music Festival. Larry is a band director at Hamburg High School and some of his students were playing in small woodwind ensembles in a park right downtown.  Afterward we walked around the neighborhood, where various bands were playing in all the bars.  We ended up in a park with a beer tent watching a The Tragically Hip tribute band.  Fun night.

Saturday was the graduation.  There was a bit of last minute drama that Michelle might not be able to walk with her class because of an AP class that she never got credit for.  But it all got straightened out.  Technically she’s not graduation until September because she switched majors and needs to complete the last of the electives this summer.  But she did the ceremony, and it was great and the Engineering and Applied Sciences school is huge, over 800 students graduating.  Beforehand we went out to Board Point and took a bunch of pictures.  The weather was windy and threatening but it didn’t actually rain.  Afterwards we took Michell, Lizzy and Josh to a nice restaurant downtown.

Sunday morning we spent some time talking with my Mum.  She’s been feeling kinda down, knowing she and my Dad are getting older, and wondering how much longer they’re going to be able to keep driving and doing other things, and what that will mean for their ability to get around and all that.  No easy answers, I guess.  Then we went up to Michelle’s apartment and helped her pack and load up all her stuff into her car and my SUV.  It was a long drive and by the time we got home and unloaded it all, it was late and we were all pretty tired.  Luckily we all had today off to relax and unwind and get ready for the next adventure.  Today Michelle is looking to buy furniture.

Spacecats at the Green Growler

Here’s announcing the next upcoming show for my jazz group Spacecats, a triumphant three-peat return engagement to the Green Growler in Croton, NY, on Friday, May 30 at 7pm. The Growler is one of our favorite places to play, with a relaxed and comfortable vibe, and always a good crowd.  The group features John Szinger on saxophone, Josh Deutchman on piano and synthesizer, Ken Matthews on bass and Rick Arecco on drums. We play a blend jazz and funk, originals, standards, and pop songs with our own unique twist.  We’ve been jamming some fun stuff lately and will probable debut two or three new originals, as well as changing up the mix of standards and covers.  Should be a great time, so come on down!

Spacecats – Jazz and Funk
Friday, May 30, 7 to 10 pm
at
The Green Growler
Croton-on-Hudson, NY 10520

New Lyric – Strange to My Mind

Here’s the lyric for a new song for the upcoming record Spellbound.  As previously mentioned, the original Spellbound E.P. was a concept album Martin and I made one winter break way back when we were in college.  Now I’m making a legit album out of those songs, based on our demos from long ago. 

Strange to My Mind is one of the songs I’ve been working on in the first batch.  It has a bit of a different feel than the other songs on the record, more jazzy and groovin’, say like Supertramp rather than Yes or Pink Floyd.  Martin said he always liked this song because it was the beginning of me finding my voice as a songwriter, and it launched a whole style of songs that flowed from the stream this one opened up. 

Indeed, this was the first real rock song with lyrics that I wrote and brought to completion to record or perform.  Looking back now, the lyrics are not really that substantial, just some vague hippy sounding fluff.  But it’s enough to make a tune, and getting from nothing at all to something was a big deal at the time.  I remember really struggling over that third verse! And I must say, having recently learned to play it again, that chords and general feel hold up nicely.

More on the recording and instrumentation when the rough mix is ready.

…

Strange to My Mind

I can feel a change and it’s strange to my mind
And I feel it grow and I know we will find
That you and I will see what will be in our time

Does anybody feel like I do?
Does anybody know what to do?
Does anybody feel like I feel like I feel, oh yeah
Maybe it’s true

I can see a way, a new day to begin
Knowing that our love is not above but within, oh yeah
Now’s the time to start in your heart let it in

Does anybody feel like I do?
Does anybody know what to do?
Does anybody feel like I feel like I feel, oh yeah

Maybe it’s true, she-dooby do
Maybe it’s true for me and you, oh yeah

[sax solo]

I can see a change and it’s strange to my mind
And I feel it grow and I know we will find
That you and I will see what will be in our time

Does anybody feel like I do?
Does anybody know what to do?
Does anybody feel like I feel like I feel oh yeah

You know it’s true, she-dooby do
You know it’s so true baby, oh yeah
Talkin’ talkin’ ’bout, talkin’ ’bout me and you

— John Szinger, 1990