Floating Around the Sun

"We're trying to catch our shadows while we float around the sun" is the lyric which provides the visual prompt for the album art right, and for the 100 days painting as well. The song was inspired by Jimmy Carter's "Malaise" speech of 1976 and you can hear audio outtakes of Carter throughout the song. What's fascinating to me is how apropos the sentiment fits into our present day. Calvin wrote this as a reflection on the year 2020 and the collective crisis of confidence we faced (are stillll facing) with our government, our media, and ourselves.

Once again, Calvin's sister Jillian made a music video, gathering stock and family footage, and editing it together in a way that captures both an ugly darkness and a nod toward optimism. Calvin offers a reassuring smile throughout the performance. One of my favorite moments of the film is footage of their friend Emma, who hails from the land-locked midwest. It was New Year's Eve at the Jersey Shore and she is dipping her toes into the ocean for the first time in her life. The viewer remains detached even though it seems like something emotional is happening. Also, it's frigid and windy and gray. The icy water stings. I suppose cold reality trumps romanticism every time.

Here's a link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2rESlF_imA

The art I've made for this song draws inspiration from my love for graphic design and newspapers: The background features the aggressively obliterated media headlines from both 1976 and 2020 such as: "Stop the Insanity", "uncertainty", "pandemic", and "Crisis of Confidence". The sparkly pink/orange sun sits prominently atop. Is it sunrise or sunset? A blood moon? Perhaps it's the more optimistic vision of a "Strawberry Moon" (a penumbral eclipse) that conicidentally coincided with the George Floyd protests in early June of 2020. As always, its in the eye of the beholder...

It's Getting Late So Early These Days

By Calvin Rezen

Mo[u]rning

Awaken mo[u]rning

I've read the stories

I've heard the warnings

It's boring

The drill is boring

The world is burning

It's believably incredible and memorably forgetable

It's getting late so early these days

Something turns inside me as I hear the turn of phrase

The words so sober, my composure fades

In the eyes of the beholder but the beauty floats away in outer space

It's getting late so early these days

Jimmy Carter tried to start a war against malaise

but in the promised land of jaded grace

It's sonic speed dishonesty that keeps us running happily in place

I hate to say that I agree

But sometimes there's just nothing to be done

It's magic, oh it's tragic, oh the irony

Sometimes there's just nothing to be done

It's getting late so early these days

The casual little casualties of nihilistic rage

There's still no telling if it's just a phase

Or children leading children leading children through and adolescent age

Another symptom goes unnoticed

Another synapse burns away

We're trying to catch our shadows while we float around the sun

Sometimes there's just nothing to be done

Sometimes there's just nothing to be done

Sometimes there's just nothing to be done

it's getting late so late so early these days

it's getting late so late so early these days

it's getting late so late so early these days

© Calvin Rezen. All rights reserved.