phew.

SCORPIO [October 23–November 21] As I was driving out in the country, I spied a homemade sign: "I have seen the truth and it doesn't make sense." I'm guessing you might feel that way yourself right now, Scorpio. You have summoned the courage to see the deeper reality beneath the official story, but that has made you more confused than you were. So you're smarter and better informed, but are nonetheless feeling less secure. My advice: Don't flee back into the fake comfort of comfy delusions. If you can maintain your poise in the face of the raging ambiguity, you will ultimately be rewarded with a big dose of cathartic clarity. —Rob Brezsny, Village Voice

Such a handsome little man, my nephew.

Speaking of Lisa Hannigan . . .

First heard of her when she sang with Damien Rice . . .
One of my favorites:



Don't hold yourself like that
You'll hurt your knees
I kissed your mouth and back
But that's all I need
Don't build your world around volcanoes melt you down

What I am to you is not real
What I am to you you do not need
What I am to you is not what you mean to me
You give me miles and miles of mountains
And I'll ask for the sea

Don't throw yourself like that
In front of me
I kissed your mouth your back
Is that all you need?
Don't drag my love around volcanoes melt me down

What I am to you is not real
What I am to you you do not need
What I am to you is not what you mean to me
You give me miles and miles of mountains
And I'll ask for what I give to you
Is just what i'm going through
This is nothing new
No no just another phase of finding what I really need
Is what makes me bleed
And like a new disease she's still too young to treat
Volcanoes melt me down
She's still too young
I kissed your mouth
You do not need me

—Damien Rice & Lisa Hannigan / Volcano

I don't know if you write letters or panic on the phone.

I don't know what you smoke
or what countries you've been to
if you speak any other languages
other than your own
I'd like to meet you

I don't know if you drive
if you love the ground beneath you
I don't know if you write letters
or panic on the phone
I'd like to call you
all the same
I would want to
I am game

I don't know if you can swim
or if the sea has any draw for you
if you're better in the morning
or when the sun goes down
I'd like to call you

I don't know if you can dance
if the thought ever occurred to you
if you eat what you've been given
or push it round your plate
I'd like to cook for you
all the same
if you want to
I am game

If you walk my way
and I could keep my head
We could creep away through the dark
or maybe not
We could shoot it down anyway

I don't know if you read novels
or the magazines
if you love the hand that feeds you
I assume that your heart's been bruised
I'd like to know you
You don't know if I can draw at all
or what records I am into
if I sleep like a spoon
or rarely at all or maybe you would do?
Or maybe you would do

If I walk your way
I will keep my head
We will feel our way through the dark
though I don't know you
I think that I would do
I don't fall easy at all

At all
At all
At all
At all
At all

If I walk your way
I will keep my head
We will feel our way through the dark
though I don't know you
I think that I would do
I don't fall easy at all

—Lisa Hannigan / I Don't Know

But his mama says he'll walk on water

Mary, carry your babe
Bound up tight like lips around a whimper
Your fingers over my face
Blind eyed Samson driven to the temple
And night birds digging until dawn
Freedom hangs like heaven over everyone
Ain't nobody knows what the newborn holds
But his mama says he'll walk on water
And wander back home

Mary, carry your shame
Well past all those eyes across the avenue
Fish heads running from rain
You know I'll do anything you want me to
Lamp oil lovers may say
"freedom hangs like heaven over everyone"
Ain't nobody knows what the newborn holds
But his papa's going to hide shaking gristle
And shaking like bone

Mary, carry my name
Hoof marks hacked up all I had to offer you
Looked all over this place
Lost your portrait lately when the winter blew
In like Herod and them
Freedom hangs like heaven over everyone
Ain't nobody knows what the newborn holds
But a dollar says he'll lick that devil
And do it alone

—Iron & Wine / Freedom Hangs Like Heaven