Maybe you have heard about Governor Schwarzenegger’s (in)famous veto letter to the California State Assembly? You can google it for more information – “Schwarzenegger Veto Letter” will do.
The letter is claimed to contain a hidden message. It becomes quite obvious when you read the words formed by the first letter in each line of the two main paragraphs… yes?
Well, in a strange way this letter inspired the title for my next album. However, my album will spell something altogether more pleasant, of course. With the help of friends I have been working on creating short poems with three lines, in which the first line begins with a “P”, the second line starts with an “O” and the third line with another “P’. As in POP or Pop-Music.
Here are a few of these poems:
Pale moonlight reflected
on the water.
Poetry of the evening.Peonies
Of my Little Garden
Part of HeavenPausing to listen-
Overture in the moonlight
Perfect symphonyPetals from a red rose
On the ground, at dusk
Path to your housePetals float
On the water in the
Pale moonlight
And my current favorite is one that a friend sent to me, cutting down this poem I wrote:
Petals from a red rose
On the ground, at dusk
Path to your house
to a mere four words:
Petals
On the
Path
The advantage of something that short would be that it could actually serve as the title of the album. Any longer and I would have to abreviate the album title to P-O-P and that might get confusing, albeit interesting. If I use a longer poem, the poem would not feature in the title, and would only be found on the cover.
The album cover could be DM-Vision of the stepping stones of a path, with a few red rose petals strewn on the gray stone.
Maybe something like this, but with a few flower petals:
Fun with acrostics! How about:
Petals
On the
Path
Of
Love
I do like that word acrostics – didn’t know it before – but I am afraid you missed the point entirely, Victor, unless POPOL means something in another language I am not aware of. The point, in case I did not make it clear, was to spell P-O-P.
And, if you meant POP-OL, as in Ottmar Liebert, that sounds a bit too much like an order from the Godfather. Hey, Vinny, that guy is talking too much about his new album. I want you to pop OL, is that clear?.
I will go into hiding right away, and am packing as I write this… I will get in touch when things have blown over….
Oh heck, yes I was trying to integrate POP followed by your initials. OL-POP maybe better? At least less threatening.
Opulent
Life –
Petals
On the
Path
That Vinny, always looking for someone to pop… I apologize for that.
Tell you what, Vinny, or, ahem Victor, I’ll see whether I can design a little white box above the title of the album, so that you can write whatever you like in there. And if you write lightly with a pencil, you can erase it and come up with something new every day. Or maybe I can use white-board material and ship each CD with white-board pen and eraser?
See, POP is a temporal cultural experience. It’s when a whole bunch of people decide that they like something, at the same time, or at least within a certain time-frame. A term like OL-POP could be interpreted as my take on POP (((which is what it is)), but it could also be seen as my private POP, which isn’t really POP, see? In POP it can’t matter what I like, it’s what everyone else likes.
The reason I like P-O-P as a subtitle, and only a few people will even recognize this hidden subtitle, is that everyone else will think the title is four words regarding a dead flower… And yet, for me P-O-P means that this album is not about this or that style of music (((Flamenco, or not, New Age, or not, Jazz, or not, Traditional, Non-Traditional, Worldmusic etc…))) – it’s just music I am writing for this fantastic trio. And I hope it will be popular. And if it won’t be, that’s OK too, because I am having lots of fun creating this album.
I’ll end with this:
Petals
On the
Opulent
Path
P-O-P, POPOL, and POOP–well why not Pooh! JJ, couldn’t resist. I like the idea of the white box at the top though.
Oh, that’s funny,Ottmar.. Lovely. it all goes together so nicely.
How I enjoy the anticipation of a new album from you!
Translate into German and you might end up with this:
Blütenblätter
Auf dem
Pfad
with the first letters forming B-A-P, which, as Ottmar certainly knows, is the name of one of the most famous rockbands from Cologne. They sing in German, well, not really, it is the dialect from Cologne, which is a truely specific one …
Everyone’s positive energy is just popping of the page. Y’all are fun the way share your thoughts. Thanks for the giggles and smiles.
Opps! Popping OFF the Page. :)
Poop
On the
Opulent
Path
Your photo’s Ottmar are creative ART. Just finished viewing your December Slideshow! Wonderful.