Writer • Musician
Jude Moonlight ~ The baker wore a mustache and he smiled to me and he said, "Where you been, dear boy? What you been up to?" I said, "I been here, dear man. I been here, I got stuck on a girl and I can't get her off of my mind." And he said that'll …
The afternoon counter he stands behind, The baker awaits the seven days' chimes. He's reminded of beauty, smiling through a long life. And to blue skies he stands to rise, With tears of joy, which stream from his eyes. He's an Englishman, born in the West End, he says. "Like to go back again, but …
Words and Music by Ren Michael As the trains they roll on by Ignorant of that gleam in you eye I thought I heard the whisper of the rain I turn around and the same passerby, gray concrete remains These tracks, these tunnels I might call home Though somewhere another light had once shone In …
Words and Music by Renny Michael Like finding a river after walking through hills of sand, I saw this girl, and reached out to grab her hand. When you stood surrounded by city shadow, how many knew your name? You dancing child, city ghost, staring through the dark like a sacred flame? I'm just …
it was late into the night so you know I thought I'd play on Bruce for a bit and get my punk rock on hahahoho
Words and Music by Ren Michael How do you sing when the rain falls down, And keep me warm when the streets grow cold? And how do you smile when looming thunder pounds, While you lie out your hand for me to hold? 'Neath the candlelight to some evening sky, You exhale your stares and …
A change in style ought to explain the hiatus. But it is New Years Eve. - It was some kind of Christmas. 2012 a hell of a year. I can see the beast majestic in the old desert storm and I look upon my own hands, remembering how I stood on the hilltop awaiting the …
I moved out to Los Angeles to be an actor, but I am quickly discovering that I'm a man of many passions. I'm in one of the greatest and most terrifying sorts of trouble in the world. Hollywood Received word that there is a gig for me up in Portland that has nothing at all to …
Continue reading "Portrait of an Artist with Too Many Gigs and No Clues"
March 10 Sitting in the LAX terminal on my way to Portland with a desire to record things down even though I wonder if now is the time, and then I say 'now is always the time'. Someone looks at me strangely, prolly wondering who this kid is, this kid talking to himself. 'Ya gotta …
On Pioneer Square in downtown Portland is where I met the pirate. He's a traveller of some kind with a long black beard and a rag on his head, a strong Moses-like cane that he doesn't appear to need for walking, a long sheet that he is wearing as a cap, old pinstripe pants …
From the airport I was driven into town on a shuttle service that prides itself on being eco-friendly whatever that means, and the driver's name was Khan, as in Kubla, and he was a Pakinstani man who smiled a lot, who was raised in Malaysia and so who identifies more with Malaysia, though he did …
Flying Elephant Free refills of coffee here, By George! It's great in this city! And how can I leave this comfortable nook when the coffee is bottomless and the afternoon is freezing and rain-soaked. But there is much to see and I've only got a day before work tonight, an operation with the Ford Motor …
All throughout my time in Portland I was trying to get working on 'Saints' but instead found myself drifting onto other matters, so I was only able to get a modest bulk of thoughts down late one night. A lot of it concerned Texas and the hero's view of it as the great canvas upon …
Northwest Tech At the convention hall last night it was nice being amongst journalists again, my ol' blood brethren. I studied journalism at the Unviersity of Florida and so it reminds me of those days, in which I chose a major for its own sake so I could hurry up and move to LA, and …
Morning Star Cafe. Thursday. Portland. Might it be time to leave the Morning Star? Might it be time to leave your sweet beauty? Outside this place, awaits the day; And the rolling thunder, the falling rain Lays grace upon thee, far and away But it is not for me. I have this morning but dawn …
And so the last night brings me back to Pioneer In the fiercest rain, amidst old friends And to the fine people of Portland, Goodnight. Oh, fair city. Not that you need it. ~Quinn Some final notes about Portland as I fly back now to Los Angeles. Last night, though I wasn't hungry and my …
Hope and fear have outlined the political discourse since the beginnings of modern democracy. The actors are compelled to either fight for something or to fight against something, and this leads to campaigns that are either optimistic for what we can obtain, or fearful of that which are trying to avoid. At no time has …
Continue reading "Drop Your Pitchforks and Raise Your Glass. Political Parties are No More."
There was a time that when I'd think of my mother and my father, I would see a great life divide that illustrated perfectly the divide within my own mind; and one afternoon it greeted me in raw earthly form across the expanse of West Texas, that region which begins for me just a few …
Continue reading "Oh Texas, oh great American lands. To the mothers and the moon."
I I lament for the dying cigarette, Breathing its last into the cool morning air and lying in the middle of an empty road; This rolled up burning scrap paper into which the trials of men lie wrapped tight. Another wave of whisper into the sea, into the chorus of the morning saying "this is …
Before all this began, there was December of last year when I wanted to be Arthur Rimbaud and I stood in the corner of a bookshop, where I was becoming a ghostly regular reading a 'Season in Hell' and wondering what it would take as carols played soft on the radio. It was Christmastime. From …
Ren Michael 