Seasonal Attic Lights

Seasonal Attic Lights

I swear you understand

the height of water

nothing more than a needle

the voice is a vessel

To hear the faces in the glass

curious terms to the purchase

I urge you to push through

I will go to the ripple of echos

as sound expands to nothing

Absorb the mention of the moment

with the largest of wealth

Resting on each laugh

Descending from our mouths

Attach us to the track

knowing if we get loose

we will be coming for you

Yield the hands on deck

as to destroy the sorrowful

Think through your continued contradiction

and act.

Walt Whitman is ahead in the fourth quarter.

I hold random acres with cinematic apparatus

while windows reflect a steady breeze

of aprons catching overflow

Resting on each laugh
Descending from our mouths

towards seasonal attic lights

-JP

2010

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart. Wishing you happiness.-- Helen Keller

Radio to Canada

Exclaim Magazine Review of Nesting:By Nereida FernandesWith his fourth release, Birmingham, AL's Jesse Payne is ascending that much closer to the top of the ranks of contemporary bearded folksters. With subtle shifts of rhythm and instrumentation coexisting alongside tufts of modern sounding whirrs, Nesting is the breathtaking result of organic and manufactured nuances melding into a consistent whole. It reveals the work of a dedicated musician who has poured his soul into every detail. Opening track "Manhattan Project" exemplifies the emotional pull of the record. Framed by gentle finger picked notes, softly palpitating drum beats and quiet cymbal taps, haunting "oohs" come in then recede like murky waves breaking over Payne's affecting vocals. The fireside intimacy of "Wes Anderson," the Joseph Arthur-styling of "Ramble We Hang" and Payne's nod to Laurel Canyon on the sprightly "Conversations" are all highlights, while songs like "Scripting Carolina" and "Yards of Paint" will have you humming their choruses for days. Nesting isn't an album you casually visit; it is home to an artist that compels you to stay awhile.
(Capture)

Check out your local radio stations to see if they are spinning Nesting!

JP

"Work is life, you know, and without it, there's nothing but fear and insecurity."
John Lennon

Day 15 of Nesting

Day 15: CLICK TO VISIT THE NEST

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LINK TO PURCHASE NESTING

LINK TO iTunes NESTING

WE'LL SEE YOU AT THE SHOW!

--JP

"The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters is simplicity: nothing is better than simplicity."

--Walt Whitman

Day 14 of Nesting

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Heavy Cotton Hands

(by Jesse Payne)

Cautious wheels

strongbox stove

shallow creek

drown my bones

Yeah we’ll try to keep the lids closed

Yeah we’ll try to keep the lids closed

A crippled roof

leaks the swell

on humble eyes

empty shelf

A glass embrace behind your couch falls

we tell ourselves

Heavy cotton hands hold us

Yeah we’ll try to keep the lids closed

Yeah we’ll try to keep the lids closed

Heavy cotton hands hold us

"Peace is not only better than war, but infinitely more arduous."

--George Bernard Shaw

Day 13 of Nesting

Day 13 CLICK TO VISIT THE NEST

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VOTE FOR NESTING / MAGNET MAGAZINE

"A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life."

--Charles Darwin

Day 12 of Nesting

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My Autumn Chair

(by Jesse Payne)

I know I sold you out

pushed by a watch

all rivers swing

until the harvest drought

under the crest of canvas heights

You were my autumn chair

calm and creakin’

If our hands could heal

would you golden the fall

to shoulder the air

or turn on your brightest wheel

hollowed by truth

your dust needs room

You were my autumn chair

calm and creakin’

You were my autumn chair

calm and creakin’

"He who has a why to live can bear almost any how."

--Friedrich Nietzsche

Day 11 of Nesting

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The Preacher and the Horsehead

The Preacher’s eyes roll back into his head. He raises his hands to the sky. “Heavy cotton hands hold us,” he repeats to the woman in front of him. Maniacal and hungry, he pleads to his devoted audience, “Before the world ends, heavy cotton hands hold us.” The crowd cheers. He then closes his book with his final “Amen” and turns to walk back inside the church.

It’s been a long day in the summer sun and he has been looking forward to some air conditioning. Through the doors and down a long hollow hallway, he rushes to his office. He knows that it will only be a matter of time before the call. After tonight, science and religion will finally find their way towards each other.

At exactly 7:15pm the phone rings. The Preacher allows his anxiety to answer. “Hello,” he demands. “Uh huh... uh huh ... I will meet you there at midnight. Has anything changed with the information?... Yes, I understand, see you then.” He can feel his body start to cool down as he sits at his desk. Nothing can stop the plan now.

His eyes open to the sound of papers rustling. A bit dazed from his nap, he let’s his eyes wonder around the room. “Where is that noise coming from?,” he asks himself. There it is again. He shouts with a trembling voice, “Who’s there?” No one answers. The Preacher rushes to his office door. It is now 11:27pm. The door is jarred.

Frantically, the Preacher attempts to open the door but fails. A strange gas begins to billow in from beneath it. The Preacher feels faint. “You have stolen our money for science,” a strange voice declares from the hallway. “You will not live to steal our hearts.” Footsteps quickly become silence.

The Preacher’s sight begins to blur as he falls to the ground. Still holding on to consciousness, the Preacher grasps for air. The window breaks as a silhouette enters. The Preacher panics but cannot move. The hands of the silhouette grab the Preacher and force a gas mask around his face. Through the goggles the Preacher notices a startling image. A horsehead? A human body? The creature makes eye contact with the Preacher. Then disappears.

--JP

2010

“If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.”

--Henry Ford

Day 10 of Nesting

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Capture Music and Jesse Payne present Nesting's National Release

BOTTLETREE SHOW: DEC. 10, 2010

w/ El Cantador, Johnny Apple Eyes, and special guest Chad Fisher

Ramble We Hang

(by Jesse Payne)

Doorbells faint through the wall

our neighbors...

Undercut the time that we know

Everywhere we go, Ramble we hang

Everywhere we go, Ramble we hang

Voices jump from the fence

Can’t you hear the dog scream the sad, sick truth?

Everywhere we go, Ramble we hang

Everywhere we go, everywhere we go

Engines burn down the road

Bookshelves become our dust, we know

Everywhere we go, Ramble we hang

Everywhere we go, Ramble we hang

"Time has been transformed, and we have changed; it has advanced and set us in motion; it has unveiled its face, inspiring us with bewilderment and exhilaration."

--Kahlil Gibran

Day 9 of Nesting

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Wes Anderson

(by Jesse Payne)

You, I know

Seven letter draw for your double word score

And me here

Sittin’ on a porch with a cat and a smoke

You know it’s easy being low

In someone else’s home

Tennis elbow painting sofas

With our remote in hand we sever the air

CNN, cooking in our bare feet

Listenin’ to talkin’ heads sayin’ that we don’t care

You touch the keys I’ll keep the beat

Like sweeping up cigarettes from the night before

New clothes burning in the backyard

Dryin’ out all our jokes, crouched behind open doors

You, I know

Seven letter draw for your double word score

And me here

Sittin’ on a porch with a cat and a smoke

You know it’s easy being low

In someone else’s home

We love songs in the key on “C”

Hummin’ all the words we know, we sing the ones we don’t

Boxes folded with our laundry

Flippin’ through these satellites, wonderin’ why there’s nothin’ on the wall

Hangin’ faces tied to levels

Our nails hammer, swing, holes in the wall

Fillin’ up closests with our cameras

We’ll recharge batteries we’ll sharpen up our claws

You, I know

Seven letter draw for your double word score

And me here

Sittin’ on a porch with a cat and a smoke

You know it’s easy being low

In someone else’s home

"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on."

--Robert Frost

Day 8 of Nesting

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Conversations

(by Jesse Payne)

The darkside, conversation

every time we talk

Leaves room, celebration

we’re always on call

I’m just sitting here thinking ‘bout what we can do

It seems we might be a bit confused

Armchairs, situated

it feels good to be wrong

Wrecking ball, foundation

the ceiling, the ceiling will fall

I’m just sitting here thinking ‘bout what we can do

It seems we might be a bit confused

The darkside, conversation

every time we talk

Leaves room, celebration

we’re always on call

I’m just sitting here thinking ‘bout what we can do

It seems we might be a bit confused

“Conversation should touch everything, but should concentrate itself on nothing.”

--Oscar Wilde

Day 7 of Nesting

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“Nesting is nature returning to its natural state.”

JP

2010

A nest is a place of refuge to hold an animal's eggs and/or provide a place to live or raise offspring. They are usually made of some organic material such as twigs, grass, and leaves; or may simply be a depression in the ground, or a hole in a tree, rock or building. Human-made materials, such as string, plastic, cloth, hair or paper, may be used.

Generally each species has a distinctive style of nest. Nests can be found in many different habitats. They are built primarily by birds, but also by mammals (e.g. squirrels), fish, insects (e.g. wasps and termites) and reptiles (e.g. snakes and turtles).

The urge to prepare an area for the building of a nest is referred to as the nesting instinct and may occur in both mammals and birds.

--wikipedia

Nesting is the delimitation of voting districts for one elected body in order to define the voting districts for another body. For example, in California, the State Assembly (the lower house) is composed of 80 members, each one representing 1/80th of California's population, and the State Senate (the upper house) is composed of 40 members, each one representing 1/40th of California's population. In this case, the process of nesting could either be first defining the 80 Assembly districts, and then defining the Senate districts as a merge of two Assembly districts, or first defining the 40 Senate districts, and then creating the Assembly districts by splitting each Senate district into two. If the Assembly districts and the Senate districts are created independently of each other, then the process of nesting is not used.

--wikipedia

"How much of human life is lost waiting"

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Day 6 of Nesting

Day 06: CLICK TO VISIT THE NEST

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Yards Of Paint

(by Jesse Payne)

Driveways tear unconscious walls

the fence will sharply sway

unstable yards of paint

my clockwise spring

Was narrowed by the muzzle’s fit

the fractions of a breeze

branches holding leaves

with unswept breath

The doctor said don’t reset the screen

it becomes general you know

Campaigns bear on skinned up knees

these military halls

ration out our thoughts

with retro-film

Like mountains under snow

the pines will come and go

Where the ocean meets the old

The doctor said don’t reset the screen

it becomes general you know

I want you to grow as if your still

the doctor says it becomes general

The doctor said, “ I want you to grow”

“it becomes general, you know”

"I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them."

--Pablo Picasso

Day 5 of Nesting

Day 05: CLICK TO VISIT THE NEST

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The Scientist and the Horsehead

5.... 4... 3... 2... 1.... nothing. The Scientist leans in to study the reaction. Thoughts stirring in the back of his mind race to whether the gas mask will work this time. The air conditioned room hums with silence. To the naked eye it appears that nothing has happened. To the scientist, it will be his greatest discovery.

At 1:30 am he had planned to call it a night. Now at 3:44 am, as he struts into the pressurized chamber, he is planning on what to do next. He wipes the sweat from his palms before stretching the gloves over his hands. He thinks, “Just keep it steady. At least I’m here alone... if anything goes awry.”

Dark matter will be yesterday’s news once Hawking learns of this extraordinary revelation. The Scientist basks in self-gratification. “Could it be?... proof that pentaquarks exist.” The specimen seems to possess much more than he had earlier anticipated.

He stares through the glass of the pressurized chamber at the gauges in the far corner of the lab. He wonders why they are not picking up traces of radiation. Something is wrong. Terribly wrong. Abort... Abort.

It’s too late. The color confinement seems to have failed. The Scientist is frozen in a temporary state of panic. Within seconds the specimen explodes. The Scientist is thrown across the chamber. He is barely conscious. He feels his body going numb as he crawls towards the exit. His eyes are heavy. He feels himself losing consciousness. Mayhem.

The smoke clears as his mind struggles to return. He wonders how he made it out of the chamber alive. Footsteps. Someone is here. His vision is blurry. A startling image appears as he rips the gas mask from his face. A horsehead? A human body? The creature makes eye contact with the Scientist. Then disappears.

JP

2010

Imagination is more important than knowledge. For while knowledge defines all we currently know and understand, imagination points to all we might yet discover and create.

--Albert Einstein