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Song Fu 2012

by Hello, The Future!

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1.
Firefly 04:58
You light up the neurons in my brain You twist the rods and the cones in my Mind’s eye Upside down and I see your face where it shouldn’t be And I don’t wear my heart on my sleeve But somehow I wonder if you see it Through me Every time I breathe I hope or I don’t hope you notice me I have to be so gorram careful That I don’t cup my hands and scare you away At least not today Because I don’t know quite how to seduce you And I don’t know what I’d do with you If you stayed And you might not want to stay Circuits blink as I write you a note Do I hit send will you see through my Code and Will you mind; I mean I hope you won’t think less of me Fine lines that I won’t cross but it Seems like you could read what I put inbetween them You’re just too bright to not notice my incandescency I have to be so gorram careful That I don’t cup my hands and scare you away At least not today Because I don’t know quite how to seduce you And I don’t know what I’d do with you If you stayed And you might not want to stay I know I’m not a firefly But baby, you’ve inspired bio Luminescence with your presence You’re making my skin turn red And if you think it’s untoward That you are the flame I’m flying towards Just say the word and I’ll turn off my glow You know I just wanted you to know. [scat verse] I know you’re not a firefly But baby, you’ve inspired bio Luminescence with your presence You’re making my skin turn red And if you think it’s untoward That you are the flame I’m flying towards Just say the word and I’ll turn off my glow You know I just wanted you to know. I have to be so gorram careful That I don’t tip my hand and give it away At least not today Because I don’t really want to be the one to seduce you I want to be the one you choose And all I can say Is look my way And I know that you don’t see what I see And you’re probably not thinking of me But maybe your light reflects Off my thoughts and comes back to you With everything I wish you knew I wish you knew I know you’re not a firefly But baby, you’ve inspired bio Luminescence with your presence You’re making my skin turn red And if you think it’s untoward That you are the flame I’m flying towards Just say the word and I’ll turn off my glow You know I just wanted you to know. One more time—it’s everything I’ve got! I know we’re not on Firefly But I’ll be Kaylee, you be Simon Come and find me I know you’re not dumb You know that I’ll be in my bunk And if you think it’s untoward That you are the torch I’m singing for Just say the word and I’ll turn off my glow You know I just wanted you to know.
2.
We claim the internet as a sovereign nation We are not run by Google Google is a corporation We built the internet from the inside of our brains And made it manifest And we will do it again if you tear us down We have a protocol And we live by our codes And if you censor us we will reroute them We take what exists And then we fork it and remix it And if people say that’s wrong, then we will doubt them We operate as a unified whole With one belief Which is that everybody’s voice should have a chance to be heard And everybody’s words should have a chance to be read And everyone’s experience becomes a part of the whole human story The human melody The symphony of consciousness [Modem chorus] We claim the internet as a sovereign nation We are not run by Facebook Facebook is a degradation We built the internet from the whole of human thought And made it manifest And made it manifest And created a space that has no borders and no land And yet it is where we live our lives And so we claim this nation as our own
3.
I was not very pretty that year. But I was out of debt So on that nameless Saturday between when Jesus died and when he was risen I bought my guitar. I was not very busy that year. I took myself to parks And as I learned They Might Be Giants songs I thought how sad it was that no one could sing them with me And now here we are. And I practiced till my fingers cracked And by the time they healed I had a name and an ambition And the whole thing was realer than real It was the person I wished I were And it was the person I wanted to be And it was a way for me to prove That I was worth having someone listen to me And now you do And I’m not Blue anymore. And now when people sing along with me They sing about how Every dream we have, if we all work hard, can become our reality If we put on the role The song they sing along with me Is all about the game And how we all can learn the rules and put on different clothes and become who we think we ought to be As we work towards our goal And we cover over all the cracks And we do our best to play We make a name for our ambition And we practice and practice and practice every day I became the person I wished I were And it was the person I thought I should be And it was a way for me to prove That I was worth having someone listen to me And now you do And I’m not Blue anymore. It came faster than I could have ever imagined And also not fast enough. I booked shows, I played ships, I stood outside singing The Legend of Zelda to people who don’t fight nerds Every day for a hundred weeks. And yet it wasn’t enough It wasn’t enough It wasn’t enough I always played secondstage. Even in this case. I know I seem a bit ambivalent That half-diminished chord Is like a super-secret music joke that I have to explain and now isn’t funny But please understand. For two years I’ve been building this And I know who I am And also know that what I’m doing right now is remarkably making money According to plan. And since this plan’s begun to crack I don’t know what I should do To drop the name but keep the ambition Right at the moment when everything’s coming true? It was the person I wished I were And it was the person I thought I should be And I’m not at all sure I’m enough To write a song and have someone listen to me But now you do And I’m not Blue anymore
4.
Bourbon 01:12
I promise you I won’t pour too much bourbon Because we’ve got to make the bottle last And while I get the glasses you turn off all the switches on the cords of the lamps But I know where your couch is even in the dark And we clink our glasses And then take them off Yes, we always forget And the Mythbusters can wait For a moment And it’s a good thing neither of us takes our bourbon with ice And afterwards I curl up next to you And we watch as duct tape explodes And I say “Aren’t you glad I quit my job And moved out here.”
5.
Inbox Zero 02:38
6.
Burn 02:54
The trouble is With adventuring is You can only take what you can hold And on the way you have to let things go Better to let it burn so that you don't look back So you open your pack And what you learn is There is always something left to burn.
7.
Lemon Cake 03:02
I’m making lemon cake for you I got the super moist version even though it was 35 cents more Because I love you I love you I’m opening up my lemon for you I’m squeezing out every drop and stirring it in by hand Because I love you I love you And yes, I baked you a cake Because I know you’re coming And yes, I baked you a cake Because I know you’re coming… later You bet I’m greasing the pan for you I’ve got the butter in hand and I’m getting in all the corners Because I love you I love you I’ll even preheat the oven for you I know that one’s obvious but I wanted to let you know Because I love you I love you And yes, I baked you a cake Because I know you’re coming And yes, I baked you a cake Because I know you’re coming… later And now I’ll take off my apron for you We’ve got to the point where I don’t need to protect my clothes Because I love you I love you And last, I’ll get out the candles for you And remind you to be careful when you blow them out, it’s not safe you know Because I love you I love you And yes, I baked you a cake Because I know you’re coming And yes, I baked you a cake Because I know you’re coming… later
8.
Martians and rovers and Martians and rovers Martians and rovers and Martians and rovers Martians and rovers and Martians and rovers Martians and rovers and Martians and rovers Martians and rovers and Martians and rovers Martians and rovers and Martians and rovers Martians and rovers and Martians and rovers Martians and rovers and Martians and rovers Martians and rovers and Martians and science Martians and rovers and Martians and science We put a rover on Mars because SCIENCE Martians and rovers and Martians and rovers Martians and rovers and rovers and lasers Martians and rovers and rovers and lasers I don’t think the Martians know the rovers have lasers Martians and rovers and Martians and rovers Martians and rovers and lasers and space rocks Martians and rovers and lasers and space rocks Rovers use lasers to blow up some space rocks Martians and rovers and Martians and rovers One piece of ionized glowing space rock plasma gets observed But when I think about what might happen if we ever found Martian life I have to admit, I get a bit perturbed Does CENTCOM have a plan for this, or is it JPL Who makes the decisions here, are the United Nations involved? Do we kill the Martian life for science, do we try to bring it alive back to Earth I saw a movie about that once, it ended in a really disgusting alien birth I’m pretty sure that won’t happen, but I’m not sure what will, and that makes me feel unsettled And I am on the side of science but sometimes I don’t trust people Martians and rovers and Martians and rovers Martians and rovers and Martians and rovers Spoiler alert, we’re the alien invaders Martians and rovers and Martians and rovers Martians and rovers and Martians and rovers Martians and rovers and Martians and rovers Martians and rovers and Martians and rovers Martians and rovers and Martians and rovers
9.
Dear Beverly Leech As Kate Monday, from Mathnet I first met you when I was six and I thought that If I were smart and I knew math and I was brave And I watched all the faces in the mall, one of them would be yours I didn’t know that TV wasn’t real I didn’t know that Kate Monday wasn’t real Dear Gillian Anderson In your role as Dana Scully (I never made it through House of Mirth, or Tristram Shandy) You were smart, and you were five foot two and you didn’t need a boyfriend To be awesome and I wrote about you in my college applications I changed my hair because of you I became a redhead because of you And of course, Madeline Kahn In just about everything you were on Dear Christina Hendricks Yes we know you were on Firefly But in this case I mean your role as Joan Holloway You brought sheath dresses back, you were both sexy and a pragmatist And you taught me how to pour coffee while still being intimidatingly brilliant You appeared when that was my job too For those four years, that was my job too And now I get to be The best of you, plus best of me And so I wanted to say thank you
10.
I know this is another quickie ukulele song But I wanted to tell you I wanted to tell you When I started this project I made up a secret rule In addition to all of the other rules I told myself that every month I would write about something that was true For me That month In addition to all the other rules Which means that yes, the Firefly song is about someone else Than the song about whom Not Blue Anymore is about And that's kind of probably a character flaw Especially considering what happened with Bourbon and Burn And all I want to say is thank you for this year And even this song is following this rule Because I'm writing a very very very Quickie quickie quickie quickie quickie quickie quickie ukulele song Because I've got a lot to do I've got so much to do Before this end of the year.
11.
2012 was the best year of my life And because of that I’m a little afraid that 13 is going to be unlucky I don’t trust in perpetual motion I know that everything that goes up must come down But I don’t know how 2013 will go down And if you were me You wouldn’t quit But what would we do differently To make sure we don’t burn up all our burn Before this time next year We’ve got to learn to eat less And learn to spend less While we travel more Because the money’s in the traveling And learn to live less Like a person who’s not on the fringe But not so close that we’re unraveling Because we’re going to spend the whole of next year Funded by hope and love Which means we’ve got to keep our balance sheet clear Of anything that we aren’t capable of Giving back to love Giving back to love Giving back to love What do I mean? I mean We’ve got to be ruthless in every decision Maintaining our margins, retaining our profits While showing generosity at every turn And we’ve still got to find the parts of our lives we can burn To make some space and cash and time The artist’s world is a paradox How small of a life we can make for ourselves While still keeping something to give And every day just telling the story of the wonderful way that we live So we’ve got to learn to pack less And learn to take less While we generate more Because success is iteration And learn to live less Like a person who’s life is secure And not dependent on creation Because we’re going to spend the whole of next year Funded by hope and love Which means we’ve got to keep our balance sheet clear Of anything that we aren’t capable of Giving back to love Giving back to love Giving back to love If I think you’ll love me Then I’ll love you back It’s my one folly If I think you’ll love me I’ll give you everything I’ve got It’s my one folly It’s always been my greatest weakness. I wouldn’t give up 2012 for anything. But I don’t know what 2013 will bring. I hope that by this time next year I can still sing I can still sing for you And that you’ll still love my songs.

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Song Fu 2012 is a year-long set of "songwriting challenges" as set forth by various Internet Legends.

More information at www.asitecalledfred.com/songfu2012/

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released January 21, 2012

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Hello, The Future! Seattle, Washington

My name is Nicole.

My band is Hello, The Future!

I am the only person in my band.

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