Gravity and Eclipses

 Ok, hello, now back to serious, real, bright issues!!

"Newton wasn't crazy. he was a genius"...
And I don't even start with Albert Einstein, the twentieth century's new mastermind...

Thank you for this NPR!!

How Eclipses Changed History

August 16, 2017

Published on 15 Aug 2017

Newton and Einstein had big ideas, but needed an eclipse to prove them. And scientists are still pursuing secrets of the universe one eclipse at a time.


Credits:
Produced and animated by Adam Cole (@cadamole)
Produced by Ryan Kellman
Senior Editors: Alison Richards and Andrea Kissack
Supervising Editor: Anne Gudenkauf

Music:
"Hungarian Dance No. 5" Brahms
"Water Music Suite in F No. 8 - Bourée" Handel
"Water Music Suite in G No. 19 - Minuet" Handel
"Children of the Sun" Denon/Vallance
"Friends and Family" Hopkins

Additional Footage:
Eclipse leaves by youtube user Patrick Coyle

In July of 1878, Vassar professor Maria Mitchell led a team of astronomers to the new state of Colorado to observe a total solar eclipse. In a field outside of Denver, they watched as the sun went dark and a feathery fan of bright tendrils — the solar corona — faded into view.

But the expedition wasn't just about catching a rare and beautiful display.

Maria Mitchell was one of the earliest campaigners for equal pay. Her entire crew was female. They weren't yet allowed to vote, but they were more than capable of adding to the scientific discourse.

Plus, there was patriotic pride on the line.

Since colonial times, Europeans had derided American contributions to astronomy. Yankee eclipse chasers were out prove they were as keen-eyed and insightful as any Brit or Frenchman.

But this wasn't just about America flexing its mental muscles.

This eclipse, like all eclipses, was a window into the workings of the universe. Eclipses had — and still have — a lot to teach us. Pointing their telescopes at the sky, Mitchell and her colleagues were learning about the laws of physics, the chemistry of the sun's furnace and the size, shape and distance of celestial bodies.

For millennia, those brief minutes in the moon's shadow have brought moments of brilliant discovery. They're still important to scientists today.

Skunk Bear's latest video explores the history of eclipse science, from the earliest astronomers who began to take the measurements of the solar system, to the great thinkers who saw their wildest theories proven, to the modern scientists who still rely on eclipses to probe the sun's secrets.

About "black presence in Britain"

"The refusal to accept that the black presence in Britain has a long and deep history is not just a symptom of racism, it is a form of racism", wrote historian David Olusoga in The Guardian on Sunday.

I'm everyday appalled we are living in a society in which so many people are ignoring history...

This brings so much hatred and racism, it should be permitted in so-called developed and wealthy societies, especially at the information age.

Everything you need to know and read is free everywhere, online, and - because it might need to be reminded - in librairies. Remember these places? My goodness, they changed my life and could change the one of any of your children.

No one needs to spend their days in front of a computer...


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Here is David's article:

Black people have had a presence in our history for centuries. Get over it

David Olusoga
Africans have lived in Britain since the Roman empire. When a leading historian confirmed this, she was vilified

It has been ugly. Two weeks of full-on, culture-wars inspired, anti-intellectualism; a fortnight of alternative-facts, dog-whistle racism and shameless misogyny. Yet this – one of the nastiest Twitter rows to date – was sparked by, of all things, the emergence of a children’s cartoon set in ancient Rome.

Hostilities commenced when Paul Joseph Watson, who goes by the name @PrisonPlanet on Twitter, attacked a BBC cartoon. His issue was that the father of the central family was portrayed as dark skinned. Sensing a politically correct plot to take over British history, one presumably orchestrated by the liberal elite from somewhere deep within their headquarters in the out-of-touch, metropolitan, media bubble, Watson went on the offensive. “I mean, who cares about historical accuracy, right?” he tweeted. Battle lines were drawn when former teacher Mike Stuchbery responded by pointing out that “Roman Britain was ethnically diverse, almost by design”. From there it rumbled on.

Yet even as the online phalanxes crashed into one another, I presumed, naively as it turns out, that when one of the world’s foremost experts on the Roman empire, a professor of classics at the University of Cambridge no less, offered her judgment on the matter all but the most rabid culture warriors would accept that this was a false alarm and stand down the troops. Not a bit of it, because not only had Professor Mary Beard taken away their political football, she’d done so while being openly and inexcusably female.
In space, so they say, no one can hear you scream. Online, many people seem unable to hear facts, even when they carefully laid out by a renowned expert. I am not a classicist. Which is why I defer to the scholarship of academics such as Beard when it comes to Roman history, but everything I have read leads me to conclude that there is a broad consensus of academic opinion that there were people who lived in Roman Britain who would fit the modern definition of “black”. Not that the Romans recognised race in modern terms nor recorded it in the records they left us.

At its height, Rome’s empire stretched right along the coast of north Africa and sub-Saharan Africans passed to and fro across its porous southern border. The archaeological evidence, much of it based on relatively new forensic techniques such as isotope analysis, reinforces the historical record, indicating that Africans from both above and below the Sahara made their homes and built their lives in the British Isles. It has been research such as this that has given us the “ivory bangle lady”, a well-to-do, part-African resident of 3d-century York. More recently, the “Beachy Head lady”, the first black Briton known to us, has been discovered using a similar suite of forensic techniques. None of these remarkable discoveries or any of the other evidence had much purchase on Twitter.  

Were this just another case of the online angry brigade attacking Beard for being knowledgeable and female at the same time, it would have been unpleasant but not new. What was novel here was that the American economist and philosopher Nassim Nicholas Taleb, presumably at something of a loose end, took time out to lead the charge against Beard, accusing her of “talking bullshit”. In a moment of near hysteria, Taleb announced that an online row about the accuracy of a fictional character in a children’s cartoon was definitive proof that “scholarship is dead in the UK”.
To be optimistic for a moment, we need to remember that thousands of people rushed to Beard’s defence and continue to do so. A number of famous voices also leant their support and lamented that, again, a women in the public eye has become the focus for a storm of vile abuse. It is also comforting to remember that beyond Twitter, most people, in my experience at least, regard the fact that Britain under the Roman empire was a more racially diverse society than we once thought as little more than a fascinating historical detail. It’s one of those surprising facts that gets less surprising once you start thinking about it. We know the Roman empire contained people from three continents and we know that the Romans loved to travel, as demonstrated by the thousands of miles of arrow-straight roads they left behind them, all of them famously leading to Rome itself. But the events of the past three weeks should be seen as part of pattern. Similar, although far less aggressive denouncements have been made in the past against those who have sought to portray the presence of black people in eras of British history before the Second World War.

In 2007, Doctor Who, then in the form of David Tennant, took a trip to Shakespeare’s London in an episode set in 1599. The depiction of the Elizabethan capital, replete with its small black population, led to another charge of historical inaccuracy. The programme makers were accused of distorting British history in the name of political correctness. Sound familiar?

The online campaign against historical diversity raised its banners again earlier this year. For a second time, their target was the time lord, who by then had regenerated into the more grizzled figure of Peter Capaldi. This time, the doctor had time-travelled to regency London and again black faces could be seen in the crowd. Walking around the London of 1814 the doctor’s companion, Bill Potts, played by the mixed-race Pearl Mackie, noted that the city was “a bit more black than they show in the movies”. “So was Jesus,” quipped the doctor.

“History’s a whitewash.” On both occasions, the historical evidence upon which the writers based these scenes is uncontested. Yet still accusations of historical inaccuracy were levelled and angry voices raised online.
What we’re seeing is a backlash against any attempt, whether from the world of scholarship or popular culture, to paint non-white people back into the British past. Those of us who write about this history have long been familiar with this. In the 1990s, an assistant in a London bookshop informed the African American historian Gretchen Gerzina that there “were no black people in England before 1945”. Gerzina rather effectively disproved that assertion by going on to write the classic book on black people in Georgian London, Black London.

The deeper, more fundamental question is why? Why are some people so affronted by the very idea that the black presence in Britain stretches back so many centuries? Why, even when historical evidence is presented and the opinions of experts given, are they determined to dismiss the facts and, as we have seen in this case, seek to trash the reputation of respected scholars? The refusal to accept that the black presence in Britain has a long and deep history is not just a symptom of racism, it is a form of racism. It is part of a rearguard and increasingly unsustainable defence of a fantasy monochrome version of British history.

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Link:




https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/12/black-people-presence-in-british-history-for-centuries?CMP=share_btn_tw

Tori Amos' "Sacrifice" ('iieee')

"I know we're dying
And there's no sign of a parachute"...


 I believe only a woman can describe so well the feeling of loss and waste that we are facing in a world "sacrifying" love and oneness every single day over power and domination.

But we mustn't despair.

One day, humans' consciousness will be open enough to perceive what they have been spoiling for centuries: love, creativity, culture, and our capacities to build up "cathedrals".

TORI AMOS - live - "IIEEE"

"iieee"

With your E's
And your ease
And I do one more
Need a lip gloss boost
In your america
Is it God's
Is it your's
Sweet saliva
With your E's
And your ease
And I do one more

I know we're dying
And there's no sign of a parachute
We scream in catherdrals
Why can't it be beautiful
Why does there
Gotta be a sacrifice

Just say yes
You little arsonist
You're so sure you can save
Every hair on my chest
Just say yes
You little arsonist
With your E's
And your ease
And I do one more
Well I know we're dying
And there's no sign of a parachute
In this Chapel
Little chapel of love
Can't we get a little grace
And some elegance
No we scream in cathedrals
Why can't it be beautiful
Why does there
Gotta be a sacrifice

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Tori Amos - 'Iieee' (album version)

Inspirational Ken Loach

Days of rage are coming, can you here the noise?
In an insanely unfair world, the risk of losing equilibrium is looming high.
We can use this energy to build something worthwhile. Or we can watch the structures destroy themselves. That is a conscious choice. There is no 'I'm not involved'. There is only silent consent.

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We live in a time of truth coming to light. We cannot turn our blind eyes anymore!

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Here is one of my inspirations.
I've leant these past few years that filmmakers and writers and artists have a lot of power to tell their truth, subjective, but documented truth. In a time when journalism is highly under threat.

This is why I write here. And why I write at all. Some things have to be said. I'd rather see here than 200 to 400 people daily read some of my posts - that I write for free, than wait for a editor-in-chief to give me the right to report... This is why I keep on writing here.

I used to report abroad. In America from 2008, in the UK then in East Africa from 2010. I travelled to 14 African countries as a journalist, to 40 countries worldwide. I worked for major public media and with tiny private diaspora-based news initiatives.

But today it is harder than ever to get broadcast or published. I'm not surprised in the world we live in, more unequal than I have ever witness since I became a journalist in 2004. But we have to keep on spreading words and inspiration.

Here is one.

Ken Loach: On Directing

“It’s what films you make, and not how you make them, that’s the most important question. Which stories do you tell? Who do you put on screen?”

Director Ken Loach on why understanding history is crucial for storytelling, his most important collaborators + learning the ropes as a young filmmaker.

Video here:

Published on 28 Dec 2016

“It’s what films you make, and not how you make them, that’s the most important question. Which stories do you tell and who do you put on screen?”
Director Ken Loach on why understanding history is so important in storytelling, his most important collaborators, learning the ropes as a young filmmaker and why editing’s a job for the winter!

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On the original website:

http://guru.bafta.org/ken-loach-on-directing

After Charlottesville

"In this country 'American' means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate. " - Toni Morrison

Rescue workers transport a victim who was injured when a car drove through a group of counter protesters at the "Unite the Right" rally Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12, 2017. Joshua Roberts / Reuters

My point of view on this is that the United States is a sick country. But it has been from day one. Just after the so-called "Independence", discrimination started.

'Eventually, slaves become Negroes, who become "colored" and finally Afro or African-Americans. Italian-Americans,' writes American journalist Sophia A. Nelson on NBC's website. 

Sophia A. Nelson is an award-winning author of two non-fiction books and an award-winning journalist for her groundbreaking feature magazine articles. She has appeared on every major network, media outlet, and cable news show platform. Her work and advice have been endorsed by top writers, journalists and business leaders.

'Irish-Americans. Jewish-Americans. Native-Americans. Hispanic-Americans. The rest of us are known not simply as "Americans" but as other people who came after the English settled here in the 1600s,' she continues. 'If you know history, you know that is simply not true. It was not just white people who built this country. And if anyone needs to take their country back, it is the native people who lived here and had their land and sovereignty stolen from them.'

And later in her column:

'Our history continues to haunt us. Call it karma. Call it chickens coming home to roost. The fact is that America started with codified, lawful racism in the form of slavery and then legalized Jim Crow segregation.'

(...)

'Race and racism continue to be this great nation's birth defect: It is our weak link. It is our Achilles' heel. It is our dividing line. And if we are not careful, it will be the landing place for a foreign invader who is united in its goal to exploit our division.'

(...)

'America is at a critical crossroads. These types of incidences will not just be limited to Virginia. They will spread on campuses. They will rear their ugly head in corporations — in fact, a white male Google engineer was just fired for producing a sexist "manifesto.'

(...)

'Charlottesville is our wake-up call, America. It's time to do the work. It starts just like an AA program: The first step is admitting we have a problem.'

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Read the whole column here:

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/opinion-us-charlottesville-ugly-wake-call-america-needed-n792251

Britons and citizenship...

"EU referendum has changed perceptions on second passports", writes The Independent... Really? For the first time since my first visit to the United Kingdom in 1993, I wonder if British people understand anything in politics. 

According to this article:
 "89 per cent of UK citizens would like to have a second citizenship and many of them are prepared to spend a considerable amount for the privilege" (according to a new survey).

But what does it mean? Having a second citizenship is much more committing that just being member of the European Union! And no one can acquire another nationality unless they have lived in the country they want to be a citizen of, at least five years in most case. 

Also, at the moment, the British Government and the Brits who voted for Brexit are willing to send back many European workers to there country. Now they are willing to obtain privileges from countries while they are chasing their won citizens out. 

Can't they hear the ridiculous contradiction in this demand? More than contradiction, it is insulting and a attempt at domination, as if the UK was still the Empire, ruling half of the world and imposing its norms and laws...

Wake up, people of the Kingdom. You make me thing that you are still asleep in your colonial, imperial dream, that was frankly a nightmare for millions of people with wars and deadly consequences. 

This is not a "game of thrones" including only deals on your package holidays. So much arrogance and selfishness, in the dangerous world we live in, is not only appalling and dangerous, it is also completely delusional. 

Your request cannot get met. Other countries have free will and won't obey the demands of England whenever you change your mind...

It is high time you get a serious lesson in world politics.

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The article:

BREXIT: 89% OF BRITONS WANT DUAL CITIZENSHIP AFTER LEAVING EU, FINDS SURVEY

89 per cent of UK citizens would like to have a second citizenship and many of them are prepared to spend a considerable amount for the privilege, according to a new survey.
Some 58 per cent admitted Brexit has been the motivating factor in their decision. According to the "Citizenship Survey", conducted by CS Global Partners, three in four participants believed a second passport would give them the ability to travel and explore the world with greater ease.

The second most popular reason was the belief that a second non-UK citizenship would mean "increased freedom and human rights" - with nearly three in five citing this as their concern. One in six people wanted a second passport for business and career opportunities.

 CS Global Partners - a law firm specialising in citizenship and residence solutions - spoke to 500 people between the ages of 18 and 50 years old within the last month.

Of those that wanted a second passport, 15 per cent said they would be willing to invest half their annual salary to become a citizen of a second country. Over 80 per cent were willing to pay 5 per cent of their annual income for the privilege.

CS Global CEO Micha-Rose Emmett said: “The results indicate that people are looking now more than ever for certainty and security amid a landscape of economic and political change.”
Emmett believes the uncertainty created by the general election result could reinvigorate the conversation around second citizenship: “Brexit has clearly had an influence on the UK’s views on citizenship and I believe the current political context stimulates similar discussion.

It has always been our advice however to act preventively in the face of potential uncertainty: a second citizenship is an insurance policy against socio-political change.”

Australia was the top country of choice for dual citizenship, followed by the US, then Canada and Germany.

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"Artificial" versus "Intelligence": from AI to IA...

I had this conversation one day with a musician I interviewed, who is using technology heavily. I just strongly believe that "artificial intelligence" doesn't exist as such, than the human experience, with all its biases and flaws will always be different, but who am I to tell in the end?

Puzzling but interesting read below. It was a debate already haunting artists in the early and mid-twentieth century, Orwell and Kubrick who left us the reflection of his Space Odyssey...

Enjoy.

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Crack Magazine

• ANDRÉS COLMENARES / 28.07.17

The Futures of Music: Metaphors, Robots and Questioning AI

“Buy it, use it, break it, fix it, trash it, change it, mail – upgrade it”

A scary baby-like robot sits in front of a television screen, alongside two older well-known robots, as these words flash their shiny helmets. The year is 2005. Daft Punk launched Technologic with an iconic video that reflects on our complicated relationship with technology. Meanwhile at the Swiss Institute for Artificial Intelligence, researchers were struggling to create the ultimate IQ test for AI, but as New Scientist reported back then “too often intelligence is identified with human intelligence but, given the wide range of systems in AI, this anthropomorphic approach is not always appropriate”.

Fast forward to 2017. While Daft Punk’s music is now used as a soft power weapon and the robots are getting tired of their helmets, the question about the I in AI remains. The term is constantly repeated in most conversations about the future of everything, including the future of what could arguably be the most universal of human expressions: music.

With clickbait headlines like “This AI-written pop song is almost certainly a dire warning for humanity” and “Spotify Hopes It Can Win the Streaming Wars with New A.I.”, the dominant media narrative is placing AI as a “huge threat” for artists and the “ultimate weapon” for the music industry. But why are we still trapped in the “man vs. machine” tales, why should intelligence be artificial and also why is it trending?

Just as in the Daft Punk video, the repetitiveness of tech-related terms that we don’t fully understand end up feeding hypes based on a misleading use of metaphors. While back then “Plug it, play it, burn it, rip it, drag and drop it, zip – unzip it” stand for useful metaphors that challenged the music industry, today terms as “artificial intelligence” (AI), “cognitive computing” and “deep learning” make us believe that computers can think and learn the same way humans do. However, the truth is computers don’t think. They are just “harder, better, faster, stronger”.

As Nicholas Carr points out in his book, The Glass Cage, “much of the power of artificial intelligence stems from its very mindlessness. Immune to the vagaries and biases that attend conscious thought, computers can perform their lightning-quick calculations without distraction or fatigue, doubt or emotion. The coldness of their thinking complements the heat of our own.”

It is time to acknowledge that the words intelligence, cognitive and learning are just metaphors when used in the context of technology. Machines are mindless. And when it comes to the narratives shaping the futures of music and other creative fields, we need to pick better metaphors and as Public Enemy suggested in the 80s: “don’t believe the hype”.

The deep learning algorithms behind AI have been there for decades, but the advances in GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) mostly fostered by the growth of the video games industry, are allowing them to run along with colossal data sets gaining massive utility value for leading corporations such as Amazon, Google and Apple. With the emergence of voice-controlled assistants amongst many other novelties available in our pockets everyday, the idea of AI is now a big part of what Professor Benjamin H. Bratton labels as “The New Normal”.

The collective intuition of humanity has cultivated for centuries a mechanism that helps us deal with this kind of broad and complex cultural change: the arts. As researchers Roelof Pieters & Samim Winiger point out in their essay CreativeAI On the Democratisation & Escalation of Creativity, already in the 70s Michael Noll, researcher at Bell Labs and pioneer in the use of computers for creativity, called for “a new breed of artist-computer scientist”. One of the artists who listened to the call was Brian Eno, who in 1975 started using algorithmic and generative principles to compose music in his album Discreet Music.

Almost 40 years later, Eno keeps finding alternative applications for AI in albums as The Ship, doing what artists know best: interpreting technologies in different ways than they are originally conceived to push boundaries, reveal new possibilities and most importantly ignite critical thinking. In his words “using the technology that was invented to make replicas to make originals”.

While companies as Jukedeck are using AI to compose music, selling tracks to anyone who needs background music for videos, games or commercials, the big players like Sony, Google or IBM with their Flow Machines, Magenta and Watson Beat initiatives are partnering with artists to explore new ways to create music, where the AI becomes a collaborator, assistant or a sophisticated inspiration manager.

These are early examples of how a shift in the conversations about the role of AI in the futures of music, one that refers to the human potential can allow us to escape from the fear narrative around automation, robots taking our jobs or a man vs. machine paradigm. Taking this idea further as physicists Kailash Awati and Simon Buckingham Shum suggests in the essay Big Data Metaphors We Live By perhaps we should use a different metaphor to better understand AI. One that is inspired by the notion of “augmenting the human body with exoskeletons that add strength, reach and stamina to perform at a completely new physical level — but with human intelligence still firmly at the centre.”

In other words, they suggest a simple shift with a huge potential: from AI to IA. From “Artificial Intelligence” to Intelligence Augmentation. Using these fascinating and complex tools to help composers become more creative and also enabling more people to become composers, because after all, music is an expression of humanity, or in Daft Punk words, we are “humans after all”.

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I'll add, if this could help us see what in our intelligence is really "human", and what is too destructive (killing animals, destroying nature, valuing power and domination, encouraging material growth instead of inner growth, etc), technology would finally be a win.

Tate Modern presents: Soul of a Nation

Soul of a Nation shines a bright light on the vital contribution of Black artists to a dramatic period in American art and history

Did The Bear Sit Under A Tree - By Benny Andrews, 1969

The show opens in 1963 at the height of the Civil Rights movement and its dreams of integration. In its wake emerged more militant calls for Black Power: a rallying cry for African American pride, autonomy and solidarity, drawing inspiration from newly independent African nations. 

Artists responded to these times by provoking, confronting, and confounding expectations. Their momentum makes for an electrifying visual journey. Vibrant paintings, powerful murals, collage, photography, revolutionary clothing designs and sculptures made with Black hair, melted records, and tights – the variety of artworks reflects the many viewpoints of artists and collectives at work during these explosive times.  

Some engage with legendary figures from the period, with paintings in homage to political leaders Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Angela Davis, musician John Coltrane and sporting hero Jack Johnson. Muhammad Ali appears in Andy Warhol’s famous painting.  

This landmark exhibition is a rare opportunity to see era-defining artworks that changed the face of art in America.

Tate Modern
Bankside
London
SE1 9TG
Plan your visit

DATES

12 July – 22 October 2017

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TV report:

Art in the age of black power

Published on 12 Jul 2017

Soul of a Nation, a new exhibition of US civil rights era art, opens at the Tate Modern in London and is set to tour the U.S. next year.

Have a look at:

The Ancestors Came by Cecile Emeke

Published on 24 Jul 2017

Cecile Emeke’s film celebrates the life of artist and writer Faith Ringgold and the influence of her childhood in Harlem on her work.

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A Diamond in A Box – William T Williams by Andy Mundy Castle

Uploaded on 12 Jul 2017

We visit abstract painter William T Williams as he works on a new piece in his Connecticut studio.

Andy Mundy-Castle directs a film profile of abstract painter William T Williams with a sneak-peak into his Manhattan and Connecticut studios.

William T Williams has two canvases on display in the Tate Modern exhibition Soul of A Nation: Art in the Name of Black Power Trane (1969) and Nu Nile (1973).

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More soon.

"Let Me Be Your Friend" + "Cloud Riders"

Maxayn - 'Let Me Be Your Friend'

Can't find the detailed lyrics, but listen carefully, powerful message.

Love = deep friendship + respect + admiration + growth + care for the other's freedom! 

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Adding this wonderful new song by a woman I've been admiring and adoring for more than twenty years, the unique Tori Amos...

"Underneath the stars above
I said, 'No, stop' 

I am not giving up on us"...

(...)

"Darling, we'll be riding out this storm".

Tori Amos - Cloud Riders 

(Lyric Video)

Lyrics - a must read:

"Cloud Riders"

Standing down the edge of the cliff
Didn't think it would come to this
A dead calm before the storm
Not a sound from their engines
From the other side, saw a shooting star at 4:22am

A warning shot from the rhythm demons
Or from the guitar preacher
I've been touched by both
And by the Holy Ghost
From the other side, saw a shooting star at 4:22am

Underneath the stars above
I said, "No, stop"
I am not giving up on us
And I am not going anywhere soon
Annie, crab your bass guitar
Help me bring in the October moon
And you shot, run for cover
I scream, rev the tramp's engine
You say baby we're too late
From the cloud riders, no escape
Darling, what's the blanket for?
Riding out this storm
We'll be riding out this storm

Carved a sain against the grain
At the nine doors to get
The secrets of dreams
The ones I could hear them singing
From the other side

Back then, the thunder gods
They used to cast out lights
But then I lost touch
Close to when her chariot
From the other side

A chariot pulled by cats
Purring will be returning
From the other side
Girl, it's time you take back your light

Underneath the stars above
I said, "No, stop"
I am not giving up on us
And I am not going anywhere soon
Annie, crab your bass guitar
Help me bring in the October moon
And you shot, run for cover
I scream, rev the tramp's engine
You say baby we're too late
From the cloud riders, no escape
Darling, what's the blanket for?
Riding out this storm
We'll be riding out this storm

Leaving here, this storm
Leaving here, this storm
Leaving here, this storm
Leaving here, this storm
Leaving here

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Cloud Riders (Behind The Track)

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Album's presentation:


"Tori Amos’ upcoming album Native Invader draws inspiration from the natural world, finding a redemptive hope in its endless cycles of death and rebirth. Lead single “Cloud Riders” was all about “riding out this storm,” but new song “Up The Creek” is more explicitly political, building a haunting chorus out of her Native American grandfather’s favorite saying: “Good lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise/ We may just survive/ If the militia of the mind/ Arm against those climate blind.” A dark electronic pulse adds a sense of urgency..."