New Stuff!

I recently put some new stuff onto my website (after huh-way too long!), so if you’re looking for a little more Mafoo to get you through your day, check out the MUSIC and VIDEO sections.

Aw hell, I’ll just link here as well:

Here’s my recent Alarm Will Sound piece, about an suburban, in-the-closet, teenage Karen Carpenter impersonator (I play him):

A Song for Wade – 2011

[audio https://mattmarks.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/a-song-for-wade-this-is-not-that-song.mp3]

Here are the wonderful lyrics by Royce Vavrek:

Dad’s office had a salary freeze. Mom’s pissed she has to work part-time. They get home and smoke cartons of cigarettes. Watch the Wednesday night CBS lineup. Cough in unison.  Lost in a cloud of smoke. Someday they’ll asphyxiate.

Mommy hates Daddy. I hate ’em both. Mommy and Daddy, and Sis. My sister loves my Daddy cuz he shells out lots of money. Sometimes the three of them watch QVC and then buy buy buy. Nobody knows where their money goes.

I met a man named Wade. By met, I mean we’ve been chatting online. “I think that I love you,” he emailed to me. He thinks I’m 19.

I told him I’d record him a song. This is not that song.

I think my sister’s boyfriend has a crush on me. He likes to walk around wearing only a towel. Pausing at my bedroom door, saying “Hey Dude!”, showing off his treasure trail. He’s nothing to write home about. But he’s more than my sister deserves.

“I love that you love me,” I emailed back. I think I could love him; but maybe I’ll hate him. Even more than Mommy hates Daddy.

I dream about my sister’s college drop-out, and the internet love of my life, who swears he’s divorcing his wife, I imagine them wrestling, with me as the prize. I gotta record a song for him, Wade… before he doesn’t love me anymore.

Next up is a piece from a recent opera-in-progress of mine, Mata Hari: The Great Imitator:

Mata Hari: The Eye of the Day, from Mata Hari: The Great Imitator – 2011

[audio https://mattmarks.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/mata-hari_-the-eye-of-the-day-11-27-11-mix.mp3]

Jeff Gavett – Voice

Helen Yee – Violin

James Moore – Banjo

Red Wierenga – Keyboards

The lyrics, based on the writings of Captain Pierre Bouchardon, translated by Paul Peers, the director of the upcoming opera:

Mata Hari! “The Eye of the Day” in Javanese, according to the translation she gave me.

When she entered for the first time in my office – That was February 13th, 1917 – I saw a full-lipped woman with coppery skin, somewhat native-like with fake pearls in the ears.

She said her name was Margaret Geertrude Zelle – the ex-wife of the Major Rudolph MacLeod, she said in a haughty tone like a person of importance that had been improperly and unnecessarily disturbed.

Officer Priolet, who an hour earlier apprehended her while she slept in a hotel on the Champs-Elysées.

Then, believing being released from me, she changed her expression and gave me her most gracious smile.

Then she went to the door with swinging of her hips that did not fail to charm.

But she was no longer free, and the stairs leading to the cell were opened before her.

She looked at me, her eyes rolled back, in mute terror.

Also, I have a video of a performance by The Brooklyn Brass, joined by soprano Mellissa Hughes, of my song I Tasted, from my sexy song cycle I [XX]:

I [XX] – 2010

I Tasted:

Lyrics, again by Royce Vavrek:

I tasted another woman in your mouth.

I don’t mind that you have other lovers.

All I ask is that you brush your teeth between engagements.