Photographic Art – Page 11 – George Blamey-Steeden

SAYING ‘THANK YOU’ TO THE DEVIL

(Me caught on camera making a serious point when talking with The Devil)

I got the notification that read, ‘Chart-Topping Artists – Discover this month’s chart-topping alternative artists now.’ It got better because one of them was me. I’m number 1 on ReverbNation’s UK Chart and have been for a week or so (19th on the Global Chart as well). Maybe I should have been checking the stats daily. Sadly, while I can share on Twitter, there is no way I can embed the ‘Chart-Topping Artists’ playlist on WP – a pain – so here’s the link – REVERBNATION CHART

There’s only six of us on it and the order of play changes all the time, but there’s some great stuff there.

This bit of success is all down to The Devil incarnate himself, through my song, ‘The Devil’s Kiss’ – the one that featured the unique voice of FIFI RONG in a duet – do check her work out when you get a chance. I knew the number got curated not long after it was released and had hoped it would get heard around the world. Odd really because words and melody wise it’s one of my simplest compositions ever. Less is more? Maybe.

Someone told me if I’d released it 20 years ago I’d be rolling in money – which believe me I’m not. These days stats are based on sales + listens + views + etc. What with all the free streaming, indie musicians are having a hard time of it in an industry where 10% of the artists get 90% of the global revenue and that doesn’t leave much in the pot for the rest of us. Even so I’m genuinely pleased about this. It gets the ‘Zoolon’ name/brand out there in front of ReverbNation’s 4 million artists plus any number of listeners worldwide so it’s not all bad.

If you don’t fancy to listening to the whole playlisting then here’s another opportunity to listen to just the Zoolon chart number, ‘The Devil’s Kiss’. I hope you like;

(Me after The Devil had cracked a joke)

To finish off this post a few Devil prompted dark words and a couple of pics of flowers that caught my eye the other day when I should have been working on the new project. I don’t know why. Like the music, I hope you enjoy;

You climbed the steps up to the alter

Where you gave yourself away

That’s why they call you the Devil’s Daughter

You wouldn’t have it any other way

The writing on the wall says you’re blacklisted

You’re full of promises you know you’ll never keep

You swapped the full moon for a plastic crucifix

Laughed aloud when you saw the one-time preacher weep

NB – Where do words come from? I only mention it because of the line, ‘You swapped the full moon for a plastic crucifix’. I’m not saying it’s a great line, more that I never realized I’d written it until I read it back. Odd.

MAGPIES, FRENCH FRANCE & MUSIC

‘Class Graffiti’

Coming home from Canterbury the other day I saw a squished magpie in the road. Dead obviously. Magpies mate for life. The magpies partner was hanging around confused, flying this way and that, sometimes landing nearby, not convinced his or her partner was dead. I’m guessing the squished one was feeding on carrion because that’s what they do, when it got run over. It looks like the partner will have to feed this year’s clutch in their nest somewhere. Tragic.

Anyway, first some music, my song ‘Rainbows End’. As far as I’m concerned France is a place I’ll always be attracted to however this stupid Brexit pans out. To me it’s a rainbows end. The French do art and passion better than most. This world needs more of that.

Here’s some more pics of things that caught my eye the other week when I was over there. I hope you like.

‘House in the Middle of Nowhere’

‘Art for Art’s Sake’

‘Don’t Look Down’

‘An Exhibit in the Holocaust section of the History Centre of La Couple in Wizernes’ –Heart breaking.

Here’s the link to all my published music;

10 DAYS AWAY

‘The End of The Beginning’ by Zoolon

In a few hours’ time my acoustic and me are off to the middle of nowhere for 10 days. No internet access unless I can manage to take my mobile into a town or city. How surreal is that? No social media.

Also, it maybe the last time I get to have free movement across European borders. Soon the nasty UK brigade will ruin everything. Anyway, I’m sorry to be missing your posts for those 10 days.

For now, a few random bits and pieces you might enjoy. First, my most popular song if stats are anything to go by ‘Sunlight & The Dust’

Although I ought to add that ‘Devils Kiss’ featuring a duet with Fifi Rong is catching up at a rate of knots.

Next, a vid from two years back of me mucking about with guitars;

Lastly, a piece of classical music electronic style called ‘Barbed Wire’. It reminds me of ‘borders’;

Keep safe; see you soon ~ Zoolon aka George

If you’re interested in listening or buying any of my work you’ll find it all at BANDCAMP

A WARNING IS NOT A PROMISE

‘Dreaming Colours the Daylight Steals’

Last week: The bloke at the top of the steps up to the library told me that the world would end tomorrow. He pointed out that love and hate will have nowhere to hide anymore and that there will never be another new day.

I told him that I never knew that. There was nothing on the news about it. It was only when I asked him how he got to know all about the end of the world happening tomorrow he just tapped the side of his nose with his forefinger and said, ‘inside info’.

The shirt he was wearing was The Arsenal 2010 away kit. The yellow one with the regular ‘Fly Emirates’ printed on it. XXXL by the look of it. It was only when I said, ‘You support The Arsenal?’ he replied saying, ‘How do you know that?’ I never answered. Stating the obvious is something I try not to do, even though I wanted to say, ‘inside info’.

As I finally walked past him toward the library, he called me back. He told me he was sorry and that, “I should have said, ‘my’ world is ending tomorrow, not ‘the’ world. A slip of the tongue.”

A little later, after I’d got a book out of the library on Greek mythology, I got stopped by a woman standing at the top of the steps in exactly the same place the bloke was stood earlier. The bloke himself was nowhere to be seen. She stopped me and asked if I’d seen a big bloke wearing an Arsenal shirt hanging around, “Only I wanted to let him know that a warning is not a promise and that I didn’t mean it when I told him he’d be better off dead.” After that she said, “Don’t I know you?” then asked if I was the bloke who wrote the song ‘Rexie Believes in Magic’ “The one they play a lot in the café up the road. It’s my favourite.”

I said that that was my song and thanked her for liking it. She said, “Only his name is Rexie; well that’s what I call him. His real name is Rex. If I find him I want to say sorry and that he might feel better about me wishing him dead if he had a listen to the song. Is that OK with you? I just love, love songs.”

“No worries, of course you can. If you’re going to believe in anything it might as well be ‘Magic’. I hope you find him before tomorrow.”

“So do I.”

This week: I checked the ‘Births, Deaths & Marriages’ section of the local newspaper and there was no mention of a big bloke called Rexie – or Rex – reported dead.

The ‘Rexie’ song is from my first album, released in May 2017 called ‘Dream Rescuer’. ‘Rexie’ and the number, ‘Sunlight & The Dust’ are both featured on this album. They were my first curated songs. If you’re interested in this album (or any of my others) the link is below;

‘DEVIL’S KISS’, ZOOLON’S NEW ALBUM

My new album has now been released. No need for too many words today. Here’s the title track, ‘Devil’s Kiss’. This song features the unique, globally acclaimed artist, Fifi Rong who duets with me on this number. Hope you enjoy;

Here’s a pic of vocalist, songwriter and electronic music producer, Fifi. You can check her music portfolio out using the name link per my first paragraph.

If you’re interested in my album download it’s available at BANDCAMP for just £5 or equivalent in other currencies worldwide. Also, my complete discography – all 5 albums -can be purchased at £16 (a 50% saving on individual prices) at Bandcamp

PROPERTY OF PERU

‘The Last Still Frame at The End of Time’ by Zoolon

PROPERTY OF PERU

The last piece of A4 paper ever floated by on the wind. It wasn’t long before it landed in the playground that once had swings, a roundabout and a climbing frame. Since the end of time the playground had become just rusty bent poles on messed up concrete. That didn’t matter as there were no more kids to play there.

An old lady walking her invisible dog found it. She remembered writing paper but not pens and ink or pencils. She had no idea what trees were. Since the end of time the only things that were still upright were streetlights without any lightbulbs. Not having any light wasn’t a major problem as night-time was never dark and the sun never had to hide behind clouds like it did before she was born. She didn’t even know what clouds were.

The old lady had a name once, but not now. The piece of A4 paper fascinated her. Oblong and both sides the same shade of white. She asked her invisible dog if he knew what to do with it. Her invisible dog couldn’t bark let alone speak. He wasn’t much use.

Back home in her bouncy castle that never bounced anymore she laid the piece of A4 paper on the big wooden box she found the day that time officially ended. She had never got around to opening the big wooden box even though it rattled as if it had something inside.

If she hadn’t tripped and stumbled on top of the wooden box forcing the lid to open she’d have never found out what was inside. Even though she hurt her elbow and knees falling that didn’t matter to her. Inside the box the end of time forgot were diamonds, ruby rings, nuggets of gold and an HB grade dark blue coloured pencil with ‘Property of Peru’ written in small print on its side.

The diamonds, ruby rings and nuggets of gold meant nothing to her. The thing was that in the fuss of her falling over the pencil tip had marked the last piece of A4 paper ever. A wiggly line in the top corner. She got to thinking. Deep thinking. It wasn’t long before she’d drawn a picture of her invisible dog. Just a sketch of what she thought he might look like. She showed it to him but he didn’t seem that interested. The old lady didn’t care. Without realizing it at first it soon dawned on her that she’d invented ART. She could hardly wait to tell her invisible cat when he got back home. Maybe living at the end of time wasn’t so bad after all.

Talking of ‘Clouds’ as I just was, here’s 60 second guitar recital I composed. Hope you like it;

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Below links to my albums on Bandcamp;

RELICS OF THE PAST

‘Black Knight, Dark Day’

GET LOST

A strange voice talking at me

Says they know all there is to know

Forgetting I’m not an android

Me? I’m just a one man show

You can walk me to the cliff edge

I might surprise you and take the leap

One thing is for certain

I’ll never go begging at your feet

You say Suzie was once a vampire

Jane she played away

Emma got lost in triumph

Jessie, she had her say

I’m looking out for dinosaurs

And other relics of the past

I could have told you black was white

But you never asked

A piano piece I composed a while back. It’s called ‘Prohibition’. Hope you enjoy;

To brighten the day a pic from the farm cafe where I had breakfast earlier;

‘Sydney the Shetland from the farm up the road’

Best ever Rolling Stones number? I’m not a great fan but I like this one;

BABY MOONBEAM’S MUM

CUSHION4 ‘To the dark side of this mirror’ by Zoolon

The bus broke down halfway up the mountainside. The driver got the bonnet open. Steam came out. Even though he had a box of spanners he told us there was nothing he could do. He didn’t know when help would come because his mobile couldn’t get a signal.

Sat on the back seat of the bus alone was a mother feeding her baby. The big-headed bloke in the suit carrying a briefcase told her doing it in public was disgusting, just before he and his underlings, also in suits carrying briefcases, left the bus to do a bit of motivational team building at the top of the mountain.

After that the bloke with the posh voice in a fluorescent padded waterproof jacket with a hood, told the mum feeding the baby that she looked beautiful. Once he’d said that he and his mates, also in fluorescent padded waterproof jackets with hoods left the bus. I heard one of them say they had to leave as they were chasing avalanches.

That left just me, the bus driver with the box of spanners and a blind bloke who’d lost his walking stick because he couldn’t see where he left it. The three of us decided to stay with the mother feeding her baby because it didn’t seem right leaving her alone. She never told me her name but the baby was called Moonbeam.

After a long wait, a man dressed as a woman, leading a donkey knocked on the bus window to attract my attention. He said I could have the donkey as he was worried about keeping it any longer. I asked him why he was worried about keeping a donkey. He answered that it was because of the full moon tonight. Told me he turned into a werewolf on full moon’s and it was a certainty that if he kept his donkey he’d end up eating it raw come midnight. The donkey was called Ant.

He seemed pleased when I said I’d take Ant off his hands so that the mother still feeding her baby could sit on its back and me, the driver and the blindman could walk her back down the hill to somewhere safe. The werewolf, at the moment just a man dressed as a woman, was good with that.

Just before we said our goodbyes I told him that if he got peckish later on there was a big-headed bloke and his mates somewhere near the top of the mountain. He thanked me.

We got the mother, still feeding her baby, back home safe. She invited us in for a cup of tea. I had tap water as I don’t drink tea.

Moonbeam’s mum, still feeding baby Moonbeam, asked me if she was allowed to tell her own mum, her granddad and the lady who lived next door, that she’d been rescued from halfway up the mountain rather than say she’d just had a donkey ride home. I said if she thought about it she had been rescued. She said, “Cool.” I told her Moonbeam could keep Ant, but she might want to give him a more credible name. She said, “Neat.”

I meant to tell her she was beautiful like the bloke with the posh voice in a fluorescent padded waterproof jacket with a hood had but I forgot.

The next day I wrote her this song.