primroseport: The Things They Made

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primroseport) wrote,
@ 2007-03-26 16:00:00

The Things They Made
Things [Draft 2.5]

John Moses Browning ascended to heaven
Gripping in each fist a 1911
Muzzle-flash lightning and gunpowder thunder
John Moses Browning at war with his brethren
Alfred Nobel as a dead jester rises
Clad in singed whiskers and sooty disguises
Fuses of dynamite sparkle in one hand
While from the other he offers us prizes
Winchester's wife is entombed in her labyrinth
Drowning her guilt in a green pond of absinthe
Victims pursue her with slow, shambling vengeance
Down on the ground floor and up on the seventh
Poor Oppenheimer, his hunched apparition
Kneels in the desert, bemoaning ambition
Rips up his notes like a modern Pandora
Shrinks from a dawn that reminds him of fission
The things they made
Now we're left with the things they made
Harold P. Brown now presides over Hades
Slumped in the throne he and Edison made
He's lord of the convicts, his brass eyes electric
Burn through the shackled men, shocking the ladies
Mikhail Kalashnikov weeps in his tower
A metal and wooden carnivorous flower
Craning its neck over ten-million tombstones
Every new death only adds to its power
Poisonous mist clings to Fritz Haber's eyrie
Barren the hills where he hides, grim and wary
Wreathed in chlorine when he sighs like a dragon
Broken and bowed from the shame he must carry
John Moses Browning ascended to heaven
Gripping in each fist a 1911
Muzzleflash lightning and gunpowder thunder
John Moses Browning at war with his brethren
The things they made
Now we're left with the things they made

(Post a new comment)

	thatdamnninja 2007-03-26 11:17 pm UTC (link)
	swoon (Reply to this)(Thread)

	primroseport 2007-03-27 12:14 am UTC (link)
	catch (Reply to this)(Parent)

	(Anonymous) 2007-03-26 11:22 pm UTC (link)
	awesome, i like this one best of the recent pieces i think (and then ragtime, which i see you renamed?) is there music to it yet? the western riff you wrote was to triage right? (Reply to this)(Thread)

	primroseport 2007-03-27 12:16 am UTC (link)
	Yeah--funny story about ragtime; i'll tell you I like triage best of all, so far, but this one is pretty good. No music, but it's pretty clear what cadence this song demands. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	primroseport 2007-03-27 04:31 pm UTC (link)
	wait--the western riff I wrote? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	(Anonymous) 2007-03-27 05:22 pm UTC (link)
	yeah, the dminor one we played on for awhile at the end of the band meet, that josh really liked (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	primroseport 2007-03-27 05:50 pm UTC (link)
	Oh, uh... I wasn't seriously considering it for anything--that was literally me just vamping on a chord for fun (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	(Anonymous) 2007-03-27 08:51 pm UTC (link)
	hahaha i thought it sounded like deadwood. but then i thought you were singing over it? i thought it was new material or part of it. btw im planning to work with tony today on some new stuff (Reply to this)(Parent)

	yinshu 2007-03-26 11:27 pm UTC (link)
	did you write that one? I really really like it. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	primroseport 2007-03-27 12:14 am UTC (link)
	Yes; thanks (Reply to this)(Parent)

	hyades 2007-03-27 01:36 am UTC (link)
	I've often wondered how many people the AK did for. It has to be just piles. Most of them penniless thirdworlders. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	primroseport 2007-03-27 01:39 am UTC (link)
	It's estimated 200,000 a year. Possibly responsible for more deaths than any other small arms (combined?) (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

hyades
2007-03-27 03:56 am UTC (link)

That sounds suspiciously high to me.

I'm sure it's high, all over the world, but that seems just over the top.

On the other hand, basically all gun crime and wars worldwide, except those perpetrated by US people, happen with the AK. Hmmm. With the ten or so brushfire wars and one large flareup that are happening all the time, I guess I could see it. Do you happen to have a source for that number because I'd be very interested.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

primroseport
2007-03-27 04:12 am UTC (link)

I read some blurb from what I believe was this book: http://www.amazon.com/AK-47-Weapon-that-Changed-Face/dp/0471726419/ref=cm_cr-mr-img/002-7877125-1062425

though I could be wrong. That book definitely does claim the AK has killed more people than what we dropped on Hiroshima/Nagasaki. Wiki mentions the several flags and revolutionary coat of arms on which it's proudly displayed, which speaks to the blood it has spilled. Beyond that, I don't know

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	hyades 2007-03-27 01:30 pm UTC (link)
	Yeah, I guess when you consider the things like Darfur, Rwanda, Moga etc which are basically going on 24/7. (Reply to this)(Parent)

trebor1415
2007-03-27 03:47 pm UTC (link)

Hiram Maxim. He invented the first self-loading firearm, that is the first firearm where the energy generated by the cartridge firing was used to automatically reload and ready the gun for the next shot. The specific gun was the Maxim Machine Gun, also known as the "Maxim gun." The Maxim gun was largely responsible for the carnage in the trenches of WWI. He's as "deserving" as any of the other inventers up in your song.

btw, I would buy a recorded version of that song. Do you actually record?

(Reply to this)(Thread)

primroseport
2007-03-27 04:30 pm UTC (link)

I thought about Maxim, but a part of me doesn't want to condemn firearms makers as much as I already have. Then again, carnage is carnage, and it's only a song, anyway. Besides, I threw Browning up there, and I don't even think he has anything worth regretting--I just like humming those lines.

We record--we've got one album (under our current name), and we're due to begin recording a second this season. The past few lyrics are slated for the next (third) album, which seems to all be based on themes of violence and warfare.

If you're interested, our website is http://proxemics.net/blueskytheory , and we've got a few songs up at myspace, last.fm, etc.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	I like it! bill_junior 2007-03-27 06:53 pm UTC (link)
	If you are looking for one other you can try and work in Haber. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Haber Credited with being the father of chemical warfare for developing chlorine gas and other nastiness. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	Re: I like it! primroseport 2007-03-27 07:29 pm UTC (link)
	Oh, thanks! That's perfect! I'm going to work him in after I do some light research. The fact that he's considered "the father" of chemwar, and that his wife may have killed herself because of it, fits right in with some of these other creators (and their wives). Hey, remember when we talked about handguns, way back then? (Reply to this)(Parent)

Re: I like it!

primroseport
2007-03-27 07:31 pm UTC (link)

"Gas warfare in WWI was, in a sense, the war of the chemists, with Haber pitted against French Nobel laureate chemist Victor Grignard. His wife opposed his work on poison gas and committed suicide with his service weapon at a dinner party in tribute to his having personally overseen the first successful use of chlorine at the Second Battle of Ypres. She shot herself in the heart, and died in the morning. That same morning, Haber left for the Eastern Front to oversee gas release against the Russians. Haber was a patriotic German who was proud of his service in World War I, for which he was decorated. "

is it bad that i roffled at this

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: I like it! hyades 2007-03-27 08:44 pm UTC (link)
	Yeah, I was aware of that one. It's bad that you roffled at it. You might also think about Dr. Ishii. I'm not sure if he actually did regret his work for Unit 731, though. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: I like it!

primroseport
2007-03-28 07:48 am UTC (link)

Ishii was more a sadistic doctor/experimenter... I could only include him if I talked about acts he committed, rather than a thing he made.

On a possibly related note, I ruled out Guillotin because he only proposed the use of the guillotine--he did not devise and/or build it. I really want to include people who made things by their own hands (or slept with them that did)

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	Re: I like it! primroseport 2007-03-29 02:19 am UTC (link)
	Holy irony--I just read that his relatives were gassed using Zyklon B, which he originally invented. AFTER he worked so hard to produce chemical weapons for his country Germany. Talk about regret. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: I like it! bill_junior 2007-03-29 12:19 pm UTC (link)
	God, what a sad, sad story. Now you've got me interested in trying to read more about him. Where are you digging this up? (Reply to this)(Parent)

	verlies 2007-04-13 06:58 am UTC (link)
	Yea! i don't mean to be all gushy or anything, or maybe i do, but... thank you for being so understanding~ X. Have you read Vonnegut's Ice-9 story yet? i often encounter strange, considerably irrelative references to it in dreams, for some reason. Cat's Cradle. Here's a cute one. Sleepy, sleepy. Goodnight! (Reply to this)(Thread)

	primroseport 2007-04-13 07:12 am UTC (link)
	don't mention it No I haven't, though I've heard someone talk about that book exceedingly cute cat (Reply to this)(Parent)

	tatonnement 2007-05-18 01:45 am UTC (link)
	your journal is interesting and beautiful. i found you through verlies and i have added you to my friends list. i hope that isn't a bother and it's a pleasure. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	primroseport 2007-05-18 03:11 am UTC (link)
	pleasure's mine (Reply to this)(Parent)

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