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The Purgatory Home Companion, Ed. 1

by Rob K/MDA

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Wow! What a journey. A cacophony of sound and theory. This could be described as a 'prog' album. But not the usual 1970's concept album, this is different. It calls upon different musical genres whilst the underlying theme is the voice and music of Rob K.
Any track could have been selected as a favourite, which is why it is best to call it a journey...a journey to enlightenment and finding an inner peace.
A slice of Heaven in Purgatory.
Skeleton Makes Good. Favorite track: Spirit Level.
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1.
KATO 00:28
2.
The New Life 02:59
THE NEW LIFE yeah I gotta go on alone no friend beside I gotta go on alone no Reason for a guide when I left my home I gotta go on alone I gotta go on alone I gotta go on alone tho I don't know the way I gotta go on alone as of today I gave up my jones I gotta go on alone I gotta go on alone I gotta go on alone tho I could use some help I gotta go on alone believe in myself and forget what I owned I gotta go on alone I gotta go on alone
3.
Bardot Hotel 03:54
BARDOT HOTEL when I died on the highway and my ghost wouldn't go I rolled like dice rattled them bones I was living on my looks - not much there to sell I checked in the only place in town Bardot Hotel my lucky stuff couldn't help me even Mom let me down I checked out of Bardot Hotel split town all or nothing left me with nothing at all chump change and a handful of bills a huge tab - the bitterest for my collection of pills whores maul me in the hallway like I had something to give say "don't think about checking out we know where you live you ain't all that to make it to Hell just Room 1313 Bardot Hotel" I'm sitting here in Limbo right between Heaven and Hell I'm living here in Bardot right between Heaven and Hell Room 1313 Bardot Hotel
4.
The Hit 03:55
THE HIT this is the hit that took off my head washed me up more alive than dead committed me to 4 months rest in bed made me forget the things that I said this is the hit that did it but it won't do me this is the hit that tore me to shreds made me cough until my throat bled changed my light to green from red face unafraid the things that I dread this is the hit that did it but it won't do me this is the hit that shot me to fame burned me like propane's blue flame washed me down the drain lured me with false claims - obey this is the hit that did it but it won't do me this is the hit that made me turn green made things seem not what they seem made me scream for more morphine rip back the screen exposing the dream this is the hit that did it but it won't do me this is the hit that that put the lies to rest listen I got something to get off my chest see this life, it's a fuckin mess catch me on Sunday I must confess this is the hit that did it but it won't do me this is the hit that made me come made me dumb, made me a bum made me numb, banged my drum left me with crumbs want some? this is the hit that did it but it won't do me
5.
MT. PURGATORY what is bad? I may never know couldn't figure it out above never learned below now I do nothing but climb all day follow the path of each and every sun ray the path is steep and narrow here more like a ladder - climbed on all fours - littered with the debris of previous journeys gear, excrement, blood bodies frozen in strange attitudes of death ashen skin powdered with dust - like that of collapsed buildings faces quizzical with incredulity the eternal question: Why Me? Why Me? and many with large stones piled on top of them so complete was their entombment that I could barely see them even when I was bent in half it is said that the face of the killer may be seen etched in his victim's eyes so I tilted back the head of one soul and tho I probed his eye sockets I found nothing there but 2 coins and a quantity of dust - fine as the sand of an hour glass - and that was all and so I trudged on, perplexed and diffident (I am waiting to be free of me) Purgatory is waiting contains an element of hope incarceration has that promise: release release slow relenting blood letting Narcissus' pool head swelling forgetting repenting - no more no more more is less gambling is legal restaurants are closed Purgatory is open for business only one way in and one way out a very small youth population but the schools are quite good - plenty of opportunities for education just put one foot in front of the other the higher you climb the farther you can see back you can't see the end until you are nearly there beyond 10,000 ft. conversation ceases as the body becomes weak, so does the mind proximity to the sun burns off old layers of skin breath control is one secret of success
6.
FIRST NIGHT"S DREAM in the midst of my struggle and strife I lost my job and I lost my wife I lost the way - I even lost my life and I'm unexpectedly happy now that my life is through I see it all from a different point of view I know what I gotta do and I'm unexpectedly happy I'm not part of the children's crusade my gratification has been delayed I could be happier if I got paid but I'm unexpectedly happy don't take commands from the telephone I'm much happier on my own than running along the edge of a cone and I'm unexpectedly happy Satan: "Hello, Mr. Kennedy I see you're back for your latest adventure you can say 'Hello' to all your friends I knew you would make it back so I have another mission for you this time you must bring back the rock Mr Kennedy Bring Back The Rock" (body - get back) (suffering is the hardest thing to give up)
7.
Time to Pay 06:16
TIME TO PAY Time is a tool used by humans to measure decay - nothing more it is neither foundation nor window nor door it's the prison nursery in which we all are born it's cold bars trap even our thoughts freedom from time is unimaginable because our bodies die - like cheap junk they fall to pieces but what if we were more like love: always growing, always changing how do we measure that? Time is a lie it's the use of time that helps us die there is no past or future - only now the dumbest animal knows this man spends a lifetime trying to see it meditates for centuries just to get near it - our gift of knowledge - the bequest of Satan: to know that all that lives must die, but not to know why here is Man's burden and fate - to only understand when it's already too late this gift and the fear it generates makes us build spaces ships and bombs monuments to potentates, burn CD Roms sure everyone is King For A Day - we get our 15 minutes - then it's Time To Pay and pay and pay for 15 years centuries, millenniums to get back to yesterday for just one second - a nanosecond for that we devoutly pray with every fleeting moment, every stolen instant of a busy day a very busy day where time flies and time stands still until we can only stare amazed - feel ill the clock's hands spin the hours we've put in yeah, everyone's King For A Day now it's Time To Pay Time To Pay
8.
TERRA COGNITO been here done this going in circles is why I exist Terra Cognito I fell from the roof of Hell my feet yearned to penetrate the Earth plant themselves take root to inform my entire body Terra Cognito instead the cruel laws of physics fooled me once again these laws are the enemy of poetry physics broke me because physics quantifies reality but reality could be more like poetry and less like laws reality must be this moment and nothing but this moment and so here is one law of physics: Pain Brings Wisdom and Wisdom - Pain I fell from the roof of Hell plunged like a falling angel feet thrust into ice frozen, immobile the result of ego and bad judgement vanity and the price of my notoriety visited again by my angry teacher and his uncalled for wisdom a poet told me if I was to remain Earth bound I must learn to pray learn to pray learn to pray learn to pray
9.
HAUNTS OF THE FAMOUS I found myself in a dense overgrown woods that I could not comprehend. Not it's depth nor it's light. The trees had hollow trunks of metal anchored into concrete pads in lieu of roots. The aluminum branches were covered with trompe l'oeil leaves. There was no visual sign of life anywhere, but after a time I began to have audial hallucinations that the trees were speaking to me - perhaps calling my name. And the voices became louder and louder. And the name was not my name, but many names - a cacophony of names. Suddenly I was not alone. Beside me stood a tall, stoop shouldered, dark complected figure - "Please, Shade, identify yourself and help me navigate this precinct of noise and gibberish!" "I was Florentine once but they condemned me to exile and I never returned there. My mortal dust resides in Ravenna. Now, as I predicted long ago, I trudge this ledge by day to purge myself of vanity's taint, awaiting the anonymity that should be every mortal's ultimate goal. This chorus that torments you is the whip of Pride's enlightenment. These multiple sounds that overwhelm you have only one sound and meaning to those of us who dwell here: that is the sound of our own name. That is the only sound that each of us hears - our own name in endless repetition. More than 600 years I have watched the clock spin here and witnessed many humble souls advance towards Bliss while I continued to march to this familiar chorus. But so long as my name is trafficked among the living - that long and longer shall I be here; contemplating the gaudy bauble of Earthly fame and every mistruth in that trifle that I penned. The fame I once craved has become my jailer." "I know you -" "PLEASE. Do not speak my name. Until my name is forgotten on Earth, here I must reside." "I would never speak your name. But I must protest that I've never found a single mistruth in your guide to these realms." "Yet here you are mystified and lost. Still accepting Death as an end, still scrubbing at imaginary stains on your soul. As if God could be bothered with the likes of Man!" "Please Master help me." "This is my second time passing thru this place. The first time I was a wide-eyed corporal tourist like yourself - unenlightened - like one who having spent one rainy summer afternoon in Tucson declares to the world, 'Arizona is a wet place.' Now I realize the universal rule applies here as elsewhere: Change Is Constant. So the boulders and flames of yesteryear have been replaced with other forms of torment. Another poet who resides here once asked 'What's in a name?' Apparently much is because it is our own names that are used to goad us towards Enlightenment. Have you ever been so lost in intoxication that one side of your face seemed glued to the table and not one movement was possible?" I had to admit that I had. "Then perhaps you are also familiar with the experience of being surrounded by voices belaboring your name - some with love, some with indignation; some who truly know you, many who do not. So it is for the pilgrims here. Each suffers in like kind and like proportion to their intoxication by fame, to their former delight in hearing their own name. What you hear as a cacophony of names each of us hears as the sweet beguiling tones of our own name. At first these familiar syllables console us. Our chests swell with that delicious feeling of pride. But eventually we recognize these tones as our punishment - the very source of our imprisonment. And until that time that our names become lost to human memory - until we are forgotten by family, friend and foe - until then our souls may not advance beyond this place. No soul can be reincarnated without cleansing all of the previous life's stains - with fame perhaps the hardest to bleach. "Master is there no guidance you can offer me?" "Just like yourself and everyone else in this place, I was the author of my own fate. What I invented I now live. Because I believed in this fate I am now a cog in my fate's wheel. Because I predicted a long sojourn on this mountain I now suffer that destiny. To be celebrated by Man is to be locked to this earthly plane, unable to find Paradise. Jesus' 3 days on the cross have lasted more than 2000 years. The cross is a metaphor. Jesus is STILL on the cross - remembered, worshipped, misunderstood, misconstrued. By personifying Man's apprehensions and expectations He made the ultimate sacrifice: to never abide in the peace of Heaven's anonymity. Celebrity, fame, acknowledgment - these boosts to the ego that we crave so - they are the very source of our imprisonment. Thus Satan has always dangled success and popularity in front of Man. Fame truly costs your soul. Believe it or not, you'd be vastly better off in an unmarked pauper's grave than honored with statues and speeches - a Hero never to be forgotten. This forest is filled with such souls. I will state it simply: watch what you believe. It all comes true - all of it. "A breath of wind - no more - is earthly fame and now this way it blows and that way now and as it changes quarter, changes name. Ten centuries hence what greater fame hast thou stripping the flesh off late, than if thou'st died ere thou was done with 'goo goo' and 'gaga'. Ten centuries hence - that's a briefer tide matched with eternity than an eye wink to the wheeled course Heaven's tardiest sphere must ride."
10.
SECOND NIGHT'S DREAM Mark Lindsay: About '68 the music began to change I remember driving from the studio to where I lived and driving thru crowds of kids it was like Buffalo Springfield - "there's something happening here" and it was true, they thought - we thought - we could really change things that we could take over the country and stop the war but as the mood of the country changed so the music changed the last album I did for CBS was a thing called Collage which I worked my butt off, man it was my Pet Sounds or my Revolver or whatever not equating it with those records but it was my epic I guess of course the record sold nothing because it didn't sound like Paul Revere and The Raiders and I didn't know enough to go to Clive Davis who was the president ands say, "okay, they didn't get it we're making too big a jump here we have to do another disc to educate the people okay if they don't get that one we'll do one more if they don't get it after 3 fine - here here's my contract I give up"
11.
Spirit Level 04:09
SPIRIT LEVEL you've plumbed the depths nothing left and no measure yields true life seems out of balance a general lack of common sense appalls you you've been at this for 40 years put aside your morbid fears of disfigurement long enough to make a buck straight enough to dig a rut and wonder where your youth went excessive amounts of money spent on nothing measure twice cut the shit. you think the only way out of it is build yourself a pine box hard knocks to your head was it something I said or did? get over it, kid you thought there was no escape put on the brakes and take a breath you gotta figure out what's missing stop - look - listen smell some roses and relax relax
12.
SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET skeletons in the closet still haunting you skeletons . . . Sometimes I just don't know sometimes I'm too afraid to go sometimes it feels like heaven sometimes it feels like hell most times I just can't see past myself what doesn't kill me makes you stronger what doesn't kill you makes me stronger there are only five obstacles five obstacles merely five obstacles five obstacles in this path
13.
Waiting 01:43
WAITING I am waiting… to be free of me
14.
OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS opportunity knocks and it knocks again don't be afraid to answer the door opportunity is your friend it comes in the morning it comes in the night opportunity is the kind of friend that makes a timid soul freeze from fright opportunity favors an open mind but opportunity also visits the deaf and the blind the thing about opportunity is you never know what its gonna be it might direct you straight up to Heaven it might strand you out at sea opportunity beckons like a naked girl she can keep a smile on your face as you give her your world she might be good she might be bad you're never gonna know until you reach the end of opportunities that you have but you should always take the chance when opportunity comes your way it's the chances that you didn't take that you regret at the end of the day opportunity knocks so don't be meek opportunity can call you any day of the week
15.
THIRD NIGHT'S DREAM relax our pursuit of the zenith requires no trail all routes lead to the summit inhale . . . exhale today you will relax, you will heal you will change, you will grow in the first pale light of the morning behold the pinnacle's long shadow breathe/believe perceive/achieve the paths not taken lose their importance sunrise obliterates the last of night as we approach the end, a sense of calm acceptance we move toward the light
16.
LOOK IN THE MIRROR you've made amends to lovers and bid your friends adieu there's just one left to love now last one left to love is you you're justly proud of each change you've made and all that you've been through the sun rises on a brand new day you look in the mirror at you no one to lead or follow no guru in front of you is Heaven what will you do? complete, upright and free to start your journey anew I crown and mitre you King Lord of all you view all your fears are forgotten they've lost their grip on you you've searched for a Path and a Master now you look in the mirror at you no one to lead or follow no guru in front of you is Heaven what will you do? (oh happy day) and so you're forgiven for cutting us in 2 you used to be a stranger now I look in the mirror at you you've reached the top of the mountain one more gate to walk through you look in the mirror at me I look in the mirror at you

about

What you are downloading is a sound collage "cut up" from over 100 contributions. It's an epic poem, a sequel to Workdogs In Hell and an homage to The Divine Comedy. As in Purgatorio, the action takes place over three days and a morning and nominally is the story of climbing Mt. Purgatory.

credits

released December 11, 2010



CONTRIBUTIONS FROM

Adam Fayers
Amie Gagne
Angela Babin
Bidjje Kavanaugh
Bob Bert
Bond Bergland
Brett Bozeman
Brian Bilsky
Britt Conley
Bruce Bennett
Bruce Lenny
Chester Burnett
Chris Leo
Chris Beneke
Dan Harder
Daniel Calagahan
Daniel Mattisse
Danny Dollrod
Danny Shea
Daran Campbell
Darrell Houston
Dave Findley
Dave Kowtko
Dave Lebolt
David Brown
David Fair
David Rubens
Davis Jones
Dennis Callagahan
Dennis Driscoll
DJ Mayhem
Don Howland
Eamon Martin
Edmond Badoux
Elizabeth Miller
Eve Dianiska
Fabulous Go Go Boy
Fran Powers
Francy Vidal
Fritz Fox
Ian Jickling
J Neo Marvin
Jack Owens
Jad Fair
Jay Dee Daugherty
Jerry Williams
Jim Fourniadis
Jim Glennon
Jim Waters
Jimmy Hole
Joe Dolan
Joe Ujj
John Dreyfuss
Jon Spencer
Jon Wahl
Juan Veit
Julia Waters
Kai Wallace
Kaikea Blakemore
Ken Matsutani
Kenneth Bugg
Kip Powell
Leila Haddad
Lisa Mednick
Lucas Lucas
Lupe Stones
Malcolm Riviera
Marcellus Hall
Marcio Tralha
Marco Butcher
Mark C
Mark Elliott
Mark Fairchild
Mark Jickling
Mark Lindsay
Mary Kelley
Michael Iredale
Michael Miller
Michael Stahl
Mike McHugh
Mike Osterhaut
Ned Lindsay
Okand Titel
Pete Shimazaki
Peter Serafin
Rick Dreyfuss
Rob Erickson
Rob Homung
Ron Seivers
Rudi Protrudi
Ryan Skeleton Boy
Sam Kastner
Samoa
Scott Armstrong
Scott Jarvis
See
Serena
Shana Lindsay
Steve Abbate
Stuart Argabright
Ted Rosenthal
Terri Wahl
Tetsuya Hawakawa
Xanthe Smith

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Rob K/MDA San Francisco, California

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