Month: July 2018

‘Summer Of Rage’ — #Lyrics To Pop-Rock-Folk-Rap Song

This would be a really fast folk-rock-pop song where everything but the chorus was rapped. At least, that’s my vision for it. It would be a little bit like the Run DMC / Aerosmith cross over hit version of “Walk This Way.”

Summer of Rage
lyrics by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
please give credit if you produce or perform

summer of rage is here
‘gunna bring the heat to the pigs
summer of rage is here
cling tight to what you hold dear

summer of rage

[rapped]
you think you got it figured out
everything that makes you shout
but let me tell you without a doubt
lock your doors not your mind
the summer of rage won’t be kind
we’re going to rock for our freedom
break the back of the Man at last
no one will doubt our might
as we rage until dawn breaks
the end won’t happen I’m afraid
until we make it what we want
which is a return to sanity

summer of rage is here
‘gunna bring the heat to the pigs
summer of rage is here
cling tight to what you hold dear

[rapped]
we’re going to rage all summer
till we break back what we love
we risk being cast out of heaven
if we don’t do something fast
we’re a city on the hill
for real for real
laugh all you like is all I can say
the things we love are at risk
they’re in play because of a big baby
who shits all over himself
speaking garbage every chance he can get
screaming at the top of your lungs
is the only way to deal

summer of rage is here
‘gunna bring the heat to the pigs
summer of rage is here
cling tight to what you hold dear

[bridge]
we’re going to win
is all I can say
we may break a few eggs
along the way
but freedom’s not free
just be sure to vote in the fall

summer of rage is here
‘gunna bring the heat to the pigs
summer of rage is here
cling tight to what you hold dear

‘Intuition’ — #Lyrics To A Pop Song

Just enjoying a little lyric writing. Absolutely no one cares and none of these lyrics will ever be produced, but writing lyrics is relaxing and I honestly have nothing better to do other than look for a job. This would be for a female vocalist.

Intuition
lyrics by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
please give credit if you produce or perform

sometimes you never know
but your heart tells you so
we all know which way the wind blows
at least my intuition tells
intuition
intuition
intuition

what my heart tells me is you’re the one
soon enough we’re going to be on the run
people will be gawkin’
the town will be talkin’

knowing what we’re doing when we’re alone
the way I moan when I touch your hand
my intuition tells me
you’ll be the best I ever had

sometimes you never know
but your heart tells you so
we all know which way the wind blows
at least my intuition tells
intuition
intuition
intuition

[bridge]
though my heart tells me so
know I have to keep my eyes open
before my heart breaks
again

sometimes you never know
but your heart tells you so
we all know which way the wind blows
at least my intuition tells
intuition
intuition
intuition

‘Babydaddy Blues’ — #Lyrics To A Pop-Rock Ballad

I just feel like writing lyrics. Absolutely no one cares about any of the lyrics I write, so this is just for my own personal enjoyment.

Babydaddy Blues
lyrics by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
please give credit if you produce or perform

so there was this girl
you know the kind
the type you take a shine to
she told me she’d always be mine
but before it was through
I didn’t know what to do

babydaddy blues
what am I going to do
babydaddy blues
tearing me up you see

it was one of those nights
the type when it rains hard
you think the girl in your arms
is the one who’ll always make you strong

but soon enough it was done
we were no longer on the run
just two people who knew each other
the moment gone

babydaddy blues
what am I going to do
babydaddy blues
tearing me up you see

[bridge]
what am I going to do
how am I going to surive
these babydaddy blues
these babydaddy blues

when all is said and done
I hope we’ll find out the truth
is that baby mine
or some other dude’s?

babydaddy blues
what am I going to do
babydaddy blues
tearing me up you see

A Personal Appeal To Michael Avenatti NOT To Use The Slogan ‘Make America America Again’

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

Please Michael Avenatti, if you really want to run against Trump and win the presidency, please don’t use the dumb slogan Make America America Again. It’s dumb, it’s derivative and it’s redundant. Meanwhile, may I propose two other options in its stead.

I suggest either:

Take Back America
or
Take America Back

Both of these are much better and I would suggest you do a poll to see which one is better. Take Back America is a looking sharper rhetorically while Take America Back has the nice abbreviation of TAB. Either one of these potential slogans gets across the idea that America has been taken by forces outside its national boundaries. Both are pithier and roll of the tongue a lot better than your dumb suggestion.

But no one listens to me.

‘Don’t Care’ — #Lyrics To A Pop-Rap Fusion Song

Just enjoying writing some lyrics. No one cares. It’s just relaxing. Everything but the chorus would be rap-sung.

Don’t Care
lyrics by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
please give credit if you produce or perform

don’t care about Kylie’s lips
or about the size
of her sister’s big olde hips
what you should care about
is leaving your servers a nice tip
’cause every day I see
lady liberty man handled in the press
by our leaders who cry
fake news till they’re blue as the sky

don’t care
not at all
don’t care
don’t care
don’t care
don’t care

don’t care about the latest fued
about what dumb thing the press
wants me to learn
I care about my country
where it’s going
and it’s future
give me some hope about our fate
stop telling me to commensurate
about the latest celebrity wedding
I’m worried about where we’re heading
and you should be too
that’s what I care about

don’t care
not at all
don’t care
don’t care
don’t care
don’t care

[bridge]
one day things will return
back to the way the once were
we’ll be able to ignore the world
just give girls a twirl
but for now I have to care

I care about the truth
care about facts
care about where my nation’s headed
how we can get it back

A Mobilization & Organization App For The Resistance As ‘Twitter Killer’

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

Things are kind of dire, folks. The reason why I suggest we design a mobilization and organization app for The Resistance now is we need it to exist now for one the real fights — the fights we dare not even begin to imagine — are thrust upon us. So maybe someone, somewhere is already working on what I suggest, maybe they aren’t.

All I know is we really need one right now.

In my imagination, the app I want would could be a stepping off point for a Twitter Killer. The alt-Right already has Gab, why shouldn’t The Resistance have it’s own site / app? The thing about Twitter is it’s completely useless and will grow ever more so in the coming days.

So why not someone in The Resistance design an app that not only addresses the existing issues people have with Twitter, but also is designed from the ground up to facilitate people getting involved in democracy on a personal level. It can’t possibly be that difficult to think up a basic feature set. There is growing momentum in The Resistance for direct action and if you had an app that channeled that energy productively, I think you’d have yourself a hit.

The obvious question is why not just use existing apps to organize? Well, they’re too easily manipulated by foreign powers. Bots are a real problem on Twitter just as fake accounts and trolls are a big problem on Facebook. I have a pretty complete vision for an app / site in my head and it wouldn’t be too difficult to repurpose it for the specific vision.

Of course, there is the issue that if the center-Right uses Gab and the center-Left uses the app I suggest that we will finally be completely within our echo chambers to such an extent that there will be zero communication between the two groups. But as I said, things are really dire and we need to worry about stuff like that later.

We really need to design an app to organize and mobilize The Resistance.

Shelton Bumgarner is a writer and photographer livings in Richmond, Va. He may be reached at migukin (at) gmail (dot) com.

A Call To Arms: Someone Design An Organization & Mobilization App For The Resistance

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

Things have grown so dire in just the last few days, that we need to think outside the box. We have to be ready now for the inevitable clash that Trump is going to provoke in his rapacious quest for absolute power. If the recent change in Trump’s zero tolerance immigration policy has show anything, it’s that pretty much the only part of our democracy that is working is the part where public outrage actually has some sort of affect.

Other than that, we’re on our own.

I suggest someone, say Crooked Media, design an app that is specifically invented to facilitate mass organization and mobilization on the part of The Resistance. It could do everything from facilitate people registering to vote, to ride shares to protests to how to get in touch with local Resistance leaders who might be planning a protest in the first place.

It can’t possibly be that difficult. I would do it myself, but I have no money, can’t code and don’t really want to learn. But Crooked Media seems to have the means, motive and opportunity to designed the type of app I crave.

Too bad things are going to have to get a lot worse before anyone takes me up on the idea.

Shelton Bumgarner is a writer and photographer living in Richmond, Va. He may be reached at Migukin (at) gmail (dot) com.

Mulling A Trump Jump To Gab

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I’ve been hearing rumblings that Trump — or at least his social media team — are thinking about working with that insane Right wing echo chamber of bonkers thought known as Gab. It would make a lot of sense. Trump is all about the base and if he simply walked away from Twitter to use Gab full time in would definitely give him what he wanted.

Of course, the enormous rush of liberals to Gab to hate read Trump’s pronouncements on Gab would be something pretty astonishing. But I don’t know. I really hate Twitter, but Trump going to Gab is inevitable but rather tragic. The only answer, of course, is for the center-Left to come up with its own social media platform.

Who would do it and what it would look like is something of a mystery.

The Unbearable Lightness Of Trying To Work For Slate

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

So Slate has an opening I’m qualified for, but, alas, since I don’t, like, have a career in social media I have no paid job I can point to show I’m qualified. So now I think I’m going to wallow in self pity and work on my novel. I may try to think of something to explain why I think I’m good enough to work for Slate, but it’s going to be difficult.

I guess I should have done something with my life the last six years instead of dwell on the past, huh.

But while we’re on the subject of social media, I would like to note that I suspect we’re going to be hearing a lot about Gab between now and 2020. Just imagine if Trump walked away from Twitter altogether and started using Gab exclusively as a way to talk to his base.

That would turn the social media world upside down.

I don’t know how likely it is that that would happen, but it’s definitely something to mull.

‘Open Borders’ — #Lyrics To A Pop Rock Ballad

Given that it’s difficult to write about anything political directly, this brings up the issue of open borders, but in the context of a romance gone bad.

Open Borders
lyrics by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
please give credit if you produce or perform

look at me from across the table
said you’d always call me baby
but those times are over
now I just want open borders

open borders
let them free
open borders
why can’t you see the need
the need for
open borders

when we were young it was so simple
you held my hand in the promised land
we played fools who knew the rules
didn’t think to shut things down
we were such clowns

open borders
let them free
open borders
why can’t you see the need
the need for
open borders

[bridge]
when will others see
what I see
that our love was meant to be
but now we just flee
to our closed borders

open borders
why is this a problem
open borders
let me in
let me in
let me in